Cricket- a religion

And the world cup goes to....

2011-04-08T01:07:00.000+05:30

A post after a long time...

Rest the ideas of ODI being a competition of the past and that which is to be forgotten in the near future...
The world cup 2011 in the heart of cricket has given us more than one reason to feel so. The ODI world cup which started with a belief that this well could be the tournament which decides the fate of One-Day cricket in general..

The format which has undergone many changes after the advent of T20 and the cash rich IPL, survived one of the biggest scares that it faced.. People, fans, commentators and "big wigs" of the cricket control , each having their own reason, felt that three forms of cricket cannot stand together; whereas Test cricket being the pinnacle of cricket and no questions of replacing or fine tuning that while T20 presenting a formidable cash flow meant that the tour calendars and FTP accommodated more and more of T20 and less of test matches.. ICC stepped in with regulations on number of T20 matches to be played in a bi-lateral series ensuring the delay of the inevitable - the death of ODI.

Empty stands greets the players. Low TRP for television channels broadcasting cricket.. ODI went through a litmus test of sorts and hasn't it come out victorious at the end of it all..
To summarize what has been, an eventful start in Bangladesh leading to a series of close matches , minnows showing why they indeed deserve a place in the tournament and to top it all India going all the way through ensured that many still tuned into the channel unlike 2007.

The English angle:
As the pioneers of cricket and as a country who invented cricket, it was on their shoulders to ensure that ODI stayed. And thats exactly what they did.. Provided a series of close, nail biting finishes which infused life into the "dying" form of cricket.. Not a single match of England was decided before the final death overs.. Every match provided so much enthusiasm and encouraged people to watch the game more and more. Surely, a master stroke from the English to help their brainchild from dying.

Irish and Dutch:

    Questioning the presence of associates and a never ending debate on their presence in ICC tournaments could (or well atleast should) have been put to rest seeing the way Dutch and Irish performed. Dutch, an one man show riding on ten Doescharter , though less confident than what they should have been put up a brave fight in tough situations. A little bit more of experience in handling pressure situations and definitely much more help from the ICC, could have seen them upset one of the test playing nation's hope of qualifying for the Super8. Irish on the other hand, were a bunch of highly confident players who always believed that they could beat the best.. Probably, fans and critics are a bit more biased in rating them after the Kevin O'Brien blitzkrieg. What stands out in their performance more than their victories/losses in the 6 matches that they played is the confidence in the captain's eyes right from the toss and the way they carry themselves on the field. A team that should be given more and more opportunities to perform at the big stages. (Also poaching to be stopped/restricted/whatever!!!)

The top teams:
    Performances of the top teams/ the teams at the top of the ICC rankings were though convincing not authoritative. Unlike the previous editions of the world cup where we had teams whom we would pick as favorites on any given day and in the particular tournament atleast we would guess with utmost surety that they are going to win, this world cup was different. Though people would have called Aus vs Pak as an easy Aus win or a tough Pak win, nobody would have even thought of Aussies having to face their first loss in world cup history since the super8 of 1999 world cup (Phew!! That itself quite proves my point on lob-sided matches in the past). Who would have predicted India vs England to be a tie!! or England lose to Irish and the same England win against the mighty SouthAfrica..

The hype:
    Quarter Finals was the most talked of across the nation (India).. India vs Australia.... The build up to that was humongous, monstrous.. The media hype around the match and the fan frenzy almost as though it was the world cup finals thats being played.. Calls for 2003 revenge went around... (I never understood revenges dating back to almost a decade, insane...!!!) The victory to India at the end of was hailed and talked across the length and the breadth of the nation that people started believing that nothing could get bigger than this... (On a personal note, it was a great run chase showing the character of the teams involved and worthy of being a finals!) ....

What next!!
The mother of all battles !!! Border lines weakened. Visa frenzy... Name a celebrity and he would be in Mohali kind of frenzy... Govt involved.. People who would not even know cricket came to the stadium (at the cost of few thousands of tickets not being sold to the fans, a sorry tale that was re-told in the finals too).. Govts wanted to use this as an opportunity to hold peace talks... Phew!!

Lanka again..........
India and SriLanka are so used to watching these two countries play, something that calls for earth day akin to earth hour from the cricket fans, who would rather switch of the television sets than to watch these two battle it out for the nth time (n -> infinity)... Got bored of it....
And so to cut short, we shall go to the last ball... MSD whacks the ball in his trademark style and Sanga watches that from behind with his head hung down...

And so the world cup goes to................ India......

IPL Auctions

2011-01-08T21:54:00.000+05:30

Great IPL auctions today.. Was enthralling. Auction was telecast live on set max and was difficult to miss a single minute of the entire process.
The teams as they stand today :

Chennai Super Kings : MSD, Albie Morkel, Raina, Murali Vijay (all retained). Mike Hussey,Saha, Dwayne Bravo, Bollinger, Ashwin, Badrinath.
--- Have tried to retain the same squad by buying Hussey, Bollinger, Badri and Ashwin. Ashwin and Badri came at a very high price compared to their base price. Bravo was a cheap buy. His availability would be question though. They tried hard to retain Murali but couldn't.
---------- Strong squad. Still need Indian players and a couple of more bowlers and all rounders.

Deccan Chargers: Kevin Pieterson , White, Sangakkara, Duminy, Dhawan, Steyn, Ishanth, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra.
--- Duminy, Ojha, Mishra are cheap buys. Ojha could play a big role. Steyn is their costliest and the best pick. Bowling is good. Sangakkara may be the dark horse. White could captain the side (he is Victorian Bushrangers captain too). Ishanth may be the weaker one here. Nice mix of players.

---------- Nice mix but not still balanced. No match winners barring Steyn.

Delhi Daredevils: Viru(retained), Irfan Pathan, Warner, Naman Ojha, Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aron Finch.
--- Viru with Warner opening the innings-most destructive. Ojha the best upcoming wicketkeeper . Irfan still doing rounds as a good all rounder. Aron Finch and Hopes are smart buys.

-----------Well balanced top order. Need to have bowlers though. having 3.5Million still in the kitty they may buy a few bowlers tomorrow.

Kings XI Punjab: Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh , Dinesh Karthik, Broad, Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla and Ryan Harris.
--- The balanced side doesn't quite tell you how their auction went about. Poor bidding cost them quite a few players. Nonetheless, the names make quite a reading and seem strong.

--------------- Balanced , yet something missing...

Kochi : Mahela Jayawardene, VVS Laxman, Brendon McCullum, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Parthiv Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Muralitharan, Steven Smith, Ramesh Powar, Brad Hodge.
--- Smart buys happened in the second half of the day. Dunno if VVS Laxman still fits into the T20 mode. RP, Sreesanth are messy one day, master the next. McCullum is unpredictable. Second half picks in Muralitharan, Jadeja, Steven Smith and Brad Hodge made it a decent outing for them.

---------------- Big names - yes, match winners - yes, but not right mix.

KKR: Kallis, Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan, Eoin Morgan, Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Shakib Al Hasan, Manoj Tiwary.
--- Opened brilliantly with Gambhir, Kallis and Yusuf. Kallis, Morgan, Haddin and Lee could be their foreign players in the starting line up too. Made up for absence of all rounders in the first 3 seasons. A big big name is missing from the mix of things here, Yes. Ganguly. Kolkata = Ganguly, would be difficult to imagine a side without him for both his fans and in in Eden Gardens.

---------------- Opened brilliantly, but missed out on a lot of Indian players. With just over a million to spend would be interesting to see their strategy. Very strong. need to complete the jigsaw though.

Mumbai Indians: Sachin, Malinga, Pollard , Harbhajan (retained). Rohit Sharma, Davy Jacobs, Symonds, James Franklin.
--- Too costly a price for Rohit, more than Sachin now. Dunno what they are trying now. Held back because of a smaller purse after costly buys.

----------------- Indian players needed. need a right mix.

Pune Warriors: Yuvraj, Graeme Smith, Robin Uthappa, Tim Paine, Angelo Mathews, Ashish Nehra, Nathan McCullum, Callum Fergusson.
--- Best Players in the auction. Bought/Snatched Uthappa from RCB. Fanatic bidding for Uthappa, Yuvraj, Angelo. but at the end of the day, Pune emerge the strongest at the end of the first day bidding. Impressive bidding from Sahara team.

----------------- Well Balanced. Go for the kill with still 2million left.

Rajasthan Royals: Warne, Watson(retained). Ross Taylor, Dravid, Botha, Collingwood
--- Reduced auction purse. Ross Taylor is a good buy, but Dravid the surprise pick. Botha and Collinwood good allrounders. Never expected Botha to go for such a great price.

----------------- Far from calling themselves a team. Foundation is ok. Lets see what happens.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (retained), Dilshan , Zaheer, AB DeVilliers, Vettori, Saurabh Tiwary, Dirk Nannes, Pujara.
--- Comfortable, decisive. Knew what they wanted and bid appropriately. Should also be thanking the stars for getting Dilshan, Vettori and Nannes at that rate. Kumble played a great role in picking the team one would presume. Kohli the captain ???

----------------- Very strong on paper. Match winners all the way. Well balanced. Strong.

Lets see what is in store tomorro !!!

Can HE Replace HIM?

2011-01-01T19:55:00.000+05:30

Happy new year Usman Khawaja !!

A special wish as he would make his debut in the new year test as a replacement for Ricky.

News flowing around that Ponting has already played his last, will he make a place for himself in the side ?
Can he replace HIM? Australia's first Asian born Muslim cricketer set to "replace" one of the modern day legends ?? Big shoes to fill in.......

Passing on tricks??

First Asian born cricketer in reckoning for Australia National team. Has represented Australia U-19 National team. Has received rave reviews for his performances. And this season he has mixed patience and calm with aggression and has been among the runs for NSW. Recent being a fine century against South Australia in the Ryobi One-Day Cup.

Since Australian batsmen are struggling with their poor form if he plays well in the fifth Ashes test match, there is no doubt that he is going to be a permanent member of the Australian squad. Let’s wish all the very best for the youngster.

And for Ponting, "read the previous post"

His Trade Mark Pull/Hook, Cover-drive , cut shots, seems a long time since we saw them. Aussies have already lost a quite a lot of classy players in the recent past in Gilchrist, Hayden in the batting, Warne, McGrath in bowling, Ponting the last survivor !! :P

All the best Punter!!!!!!!

Would Ponting re-start his career? OR

Would the qualified pilot Khawaja's international career take off ?

-- Posted By Kiran

The Comeback - Possible ?

2010-12-31T14:39:00.001+05:30

Flashback to the infamous Ganguly-Chappell saga ( 2005-06 ). Form dips, controversy, media and other pressures, "drop dada" campaigns etc......

Dada in a pensive mood

He was dropped from the side but he proved the critics who believed that cricket in him is over. What a comeback it was.
Read "Tribute to Dada" to know more about it...

As they say history repeats itself, now in a similar situation is another cricket great Ricky Ponting. A silent beginning, rise from lower middle order to No.3 in batting. From being a tiny man, he amassed runs and stood tall for Aussies. Hailed as one of the modern greats, second only to Sachin in records. He has an impressive record as captain, most of which now being attributed to the presence of legends in the team. Ponting now a mere mortal.

Crying ?? -- Almost.

Dismal form. Cannot play the rising ball. Age catching up. Team in disarray. Calls for Ponting to quit.
Some are even predicting that he has already played his last, I do not want to imagine so. Cricket is so cruel that it more often than not doesn't let its greats script their departure from the game. The next assignment for Aussies is in next August against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and since the domestic season will come to an end before the world cup gets over, its difficult for him to improve/adjust his batting and become the man of whom he is a mere shadow now...

This brings us to the question - Is he ready for a comeback ? Are we ready to witness another comeback aka Dada ?
Ganguly showed trmendous application and concentration and improved his batting so well and played much better than he ever had in the past. If Ponting were to do anything like that or even a little lesser than that he could quit on a high or to put it - script his exit.

Or as Ian Chappel puts it - Ponting past his use-by-date...

Image of the year

2010-12-31T13:43:00.000+05:30

Jacques Kallis tries to evade a bouncer from Sreesanth

A batsman from a country other than the one whose players cannot handle bouncers hopping to tackle a bouncer bowled by a bowler from a country which doesn't have a history of producing genuine fast bowlers.
Whatever be the result of the series, this image shall reside in the memories of all cricket fans across the globe. Hats off to the photographer who took the shot at the right time.

End of a decade

2010-01-01T19:02:00.000+05:30

Good bye 2009.
Welcome 2010..

2010 is not just starting of a new year, but also the beginning of a new decade..
An eventful decade in cricket it was, the 2000s ..

Decade started badly-
Match fixing scandal.. Hansie Cronje held for the same and later mysteriously died in a copter crash.. But his revelation put many cricketer's life in jeopardy.. Indian bookmakers were the main culprit.. Md.Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja were banned from playing cricket..

At this time, Sachin was offered captaincy once again and he took over as he had no other option.. His absence due to injury, meant Ganguly stepped in.. That initiated a series of changes and India started winning abroad.. Fresh legs were introduced and Ganguly led the way phenomenally in the new decade ..

2000-
Sharjah was a favorite ground.. Every now and then there used to be a triangular series there.. Aussies had a indoor cricket stadium in Melbourne.. SA and AUS played 3 ODIs which had one tied match..
ICC knock out trophy- India had to beat AUS and SA to earn a spot in finals and they did just that.. Youth power, Yuvi, Zak contributing immensely. India lost the finals though to Chris Cairns's brilliant 100..

2001-
A year that Indians wont forget for their life..
Aus landed in India to continue their winning streak (15 tests), this was called final frontier.. They won in Mumbai. India were following on in Kolkata.. Enter Laxman and Dravid, they batted for more than a day.. India declared late on 5th day and a magic from Bhajji led India to a win..

India finally bid good bye to red ball 50 over game.. Sachin scored 10,000th run..

At around 140 for 5 , chasing 320 odd for win, India had its back to the walls. Yet another series final,(Indian team was famous for reaching finals of the tournaments they featured in and not winning the finals), yet another loss we thought.. Md.Kaif's parents went to a theatre to watch cinema, not realising what they were going to miss.. Kaif and Yuvraj steered India to a remarkable win against ENG and dada waved his shirt from the Lord's balcony..

A great West Indian fast bowler, Walsh picked up his 500th wicket as he trapped Kallis in front of the stumps..

2002-
ICC Champions trophy in Srilanka- India joint winners with Lanka..
Sachin scored 29th 100 in tests to equal Sir Don.
India's last tour before world cup, to NZ was a nightmare.. Played on green tops Indians hardly won a game..

2003-
ICC cricket world cup in SA.. India started poorly.. Fans back home pelted stones at the cricketer's homes.. Sachin appealed for calm.. From there on India performed like they had done never before.. Sachin's 98 against Pakistan is memorable, a six of Andy Caddick that went out of the stadium.. Kenya's emergence, reached semis.. Ponting 140 in the finals..

Thrilling run chase from West Indies! after lara departed no one gave Windies a chance but 100s from Chanderpaul and Sarwan (the famous heated exchange between Sarwan and McGrath was in this innings) gave them a chance. Omari Banks and Drakes set up a mammoth 418 run chase to defeat Aussies..

India went to Aus, a 100 from captain dada (141) in Brisbane set things up for the series.. India drew level 1-1 in the series.. Laxman and Dravid once again were the key players..

2004-

Windies won the ICC Champions trophy defeating England in the finals (who have no cups to their credit).. Pics of Bradshaw and Browne still etched in memory..
India resumed ties with Pakistan, and toured Pakistan.. Will be remembered for Viru's 309 in Multan.. India won on Pakistan soil after ages..
India planned a return series hosting Australia.. Biggest ever loss, 342 runs in Nagpur.. Stand in captain Gilchrist celebrated the win in the final frontier..

the year that was

2009-12-28T22:59:00.000+05:30

2009 was an eventful year for many reasons.

ICC Champions trophy held after a long gap.
ICC T20 world cup second edition.
The "death" of ODI or the prediction of it.
Rise of India
Fall of Australia
Windies Fiasco
ASHES

The year started of with back to back SA-AUS series. SA won the edition in Australia and Australia won in SA.. 6 matches stood 3-3 at the end. Rather than saying Australia won in SA, it would not be incorrect if we say Mitchell Johnson won in SA.. He was the lone performer with ball and bat in the series and announced himself as the next all-rounder. Dale Steyn's performance with the bat will also be remembered for a long time..

There was a back to back ENG vs WI series too. Windies winning the home series and England in their home series. Windies showed no interest in the England tour that prompted the greats to withdraw them from the T20 world cup that was to follow their English summer.

Pakistan played back to back series against Lankans.. The home series in Pakistan saw the worst ever terrorist attack on the visiting Lankan team that injured many players. A torrid time to go through for those involved.. The return tour after the attacks, went Lanka's way..

New Zealand showcased an one-man show- Daniel Vettori.. He scored a test 100 in Sri Lankan soil and showed great determination. They came close to winning but never won a single match in the series.

A year of back to back series- Bangladesh and Zimbabwe competed fiercely in 5 ODI series.. The series saw Hamilton Mazakadza score heavily and create a record for highest aggregate in a 5 match series. Charles Coventry almost broke the record for the highest individual score in ODIs. 194* is rated higher than 194 out, so officially Coventry is the highest run scorer.

India won a series in Newzealand after ages.. 1-0 was the result and India completed the tour with some amazing play in the ODIs as well...

Windies lost to Bangladesh handing the latter their first ever test series win.. Windies lost a majority of their players to a ongoing contract crisis.. A 2nd string Windies side was captained by a hopeless player and they dint even look like posing a threat to Bangladesh who gleefully went away with a win..

ICC T20 was a bitter experience for India, who were bounced out.. Windies showed remarkable enthusiasm and courage and went all the way to semis.. They lost the semis- a total team effort... Lanka went to finals on the back of Dilshan's amazing knocks and good bowling.. Pakistan was immensely impressive, a dynamic leader in Younus Khan stepped up and Pak lifted the T20 world cup much deservedly..

ICC Champions trophy revived the concept of ODIs.. High TV ratings proved that if the quality of cricket is good then people do tune into ODI cricket.. Quite a lot of matches went to the wire.. The catch Younus Khan dropped made a big news and the dirty match fixing came into picture again.. Pakistan in the wrong side of things once again, unfortunately.. An exhibition of reverse swing from Rana Naved saw Aussie struggle to win and that made India exit from the Champions trophy too..

ASHES was the next big highlight this year, England won it.. Monty Panesar and James Anderson dug it out in Cardiff, the 1st match. ENG never looked back.. Johnson was not in good form and that hurt them a lot. Though, statistically Aussies were far better yet bizarre thing was they never capitulated on the big moments and Ponting had lost the Ashes twice on England soil..

40 odd tests and 250 ODIs and quite a few T20s made up this year..

Wait !! something is missing..

IPL and CL T20 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Modi never makes anything without creating sufficient noise. (sufficient??!!) General elections in India meant that IPL had to be rescheduled and revised but the govt did not seem to agree with Modi. And what does Modi do? Shift INDIAN premier league to SA.. "SA have embraced the concept of IPL and its a huge success", this was a signature statement that either prefixed or was a post fix to any answer that Modi gave to a question that did not even require him to say that. A dull IPL..

CL T20 opened avenues. Many fringe players get noticed but the response wasn't encouraging enough.. The people being unaware of the players and teams was a major reason. It meant that they couldn't associate themselves with a team apart from the IPL ones.. Trinidad and Tobago showed that cricket is still alive in Windies and it needs a professional management to improve standards..

boring draw

2009-11-22T00:17:00.000+05:30

Draw.............. Dreaded word in test matches..

Dead Pitch, slow poison to test matches.. Why bother supporting the idea of a Test championship when you're doing your best to kill off the oldest form of the game?

DRAW is a special feature of the tests.. A team must lose all wickets to give an outright win to the opposition.. 99-9 chasing 400 for win is also a draw..

Some of the most remembered test matches have been great drawn games.. The most recent being the nail biting finish at Cardiff in Ashes.. Panesar and Anderson had batted out almost an hour to ensure a draw in the 1st test match against Aussies which was considered equal to a win with the crowd roaring when the umpires called off play at the end of the stipulated time..

As far as I can remember, in Australia India has drawn a game in Gabba 2003, Sydney 2004, Sydney 2008.. I think those are the only 3 drawn games, or SAF may have drawn a game sometime.. Such is the result oriented pitches they have been producing over the past 5-6 years..

In England and New Zealand, the draws are mostly decided by wet conditions and rains..

Astonishingly, England since Jan 01,2004 has played in 42 tests and in the same time the busiest country India has featured in 27 home tests only.. 11 of the 42 tests have been a draw in England.. 7 of those have been due to time wasted by bad light or rain or wet out field.. 2 instances of close calls, when India had lost 9 wickets and MS Dhoni helped India save the Lord's test match, the famous Ashes match where Lee and McGrath saw off the final few overs..

Ironically, majority of the draws have been in the tour opener at Lord's, London - 6 ..

West Indies also have 12 draws in their home..

one due to Lara's mammoth 400*..

double centuries from chanderpaul and Hinds and rain stoppage ended a match in draw..

Gayle storm of 317, 3 more from WI; 4 centuries from SA and they still had time to play 30 overs in 2nd innings.. Ironically, for SA all 11 players bowled in the match..

last wicket was not dislodged on 2 occasions.. rain on 3 occasions.

Largely, West Indies has been a batting paradise.. Scores of 580s, 600s, 750s have been the culprits in draws.. 5 of the draws has been against England..

12 draws in INDIA too, adding the draw in Ahmedabad test against Lanka 2 days back..

7 of those have been on dead pitches.. Centuries galore.. No holding back..
2 no play possible on 2-3days due to rains in Chennai.. Dead wickets assisted by bad light in the remaining 3 cases..
These 12 draws have been among the worst games ever played, mindless batting exhibitions on surfaces where the bowlers were neutered the moment the new ball lost its shine.
The pitch looked good enough to last another week- was a common comment.. Ganguly in his article has written that another test match could be played on the Motera wicket ,Ahmedabad after Murali could do no damage on the 5th day too..

There's nothing wrong with a surface being batsman-friendly initially, as long as it deteriorates over the course of a game.. There's nothing wrong in a pitch being spinner friendly either, but the match referees take it the other way that the pitch is a minefield.. What if all wickets were taken by the faster bowlers, is the pitch to bouncy ?? Why not call off then!!

This is a series where the No. 1 ranking is at stake. You'd think that results mattered. India are content with being world leaders: at signing TV deals and producing sub-standard pitches..

shane Warne come back

2009-11-21T22:10:00.000+05:30

ALL stars XI take on Australian XI tomorrow in an exhibition match..

Warne will join up with his old team-mates Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden when they appear in an Australian Cricketers' Association XI captained by Warne at the Gabba on Sunday.

Australian Cricketers' Association XI Shane Warne (capt), Travis Birt, Lee Carseldine, Adam Gilchrist, Daniel Harris, Matthew Hayden, Jason Krejza, Rhett Lockyear, Graham Manou (wk), Glenn McGrath, Nathan Reardon, Nathan Rimmington.

Australian XI Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White, George Bailey, Brad Haddin (wk), David Hussey, Andrew McDonald, Clint McKay, Peter Siddle, Steven Smith, Shaun Tait, Adam Voges, David Warner.

LIVE on Star Cricket, 1400 hrs IST..

"HOME" series

2009-11-21T22:00:00.000+05:30

Pakistan played their "HOME" ODI and T20 series in Abu Dabi and Dubai.. They play "HOME" test series in New Zealand..

Nov 24 - Nov 28 23:00 GMT	1st Test - New Zealand v Pakistan University Oval, Dunedin

Dec 3 - Dec 7 23:00 GMT	2nd Test - New Zealand v Pakistan Basin Reserve, Wellington

Dec 11 - Dec 15 23:00 GMT	3rd Test - New Zealand v Pakistan McLean Park, Napier

Pakistan are without their regular test captain, Younis Khan. The side would be led by Mohammad Yousuf, mostly because he is a permanent feature in the side.. Will have to wait and watch if he has the skills or is just a name sake captain..

Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) will be used in the upcoming home Test series against Pakistan. The review system would also be implemented by Australia during the home Test series against West Indies and Pakistan.. Since ICC said that the cost for running this should be borne by the home team or the broadcasters, it is not used in the India-SriLanka series and the SouthAfrica England series..

The tour game has ended in a draw.. Not a great game, a 3 day game.. Fawad Alam continues to impress. Abdur Rauf bowled well and it was good to have a game for Asif.. Tim McIntosh notched up another 100 in the first class circuit..

Teams:

Pakistan:

In Younis' absence, Yousuf will lead.. He will be tested, Younis' return will also depend on the captain and the team's performance.. Aamer would be the bowler to watch out for, he swings the ball and has good pace..

The future of Misbah-ul-Haq as a Test batsman will be decided after the first Test in New Zealand as Pakistan's selectors decided to observe the team's performance.Yousuf had asked for Misbah to fill in Younis' boots, but since already a lot of players are there in NZ the management is not keen to send another one..

Mostly, Gul Aamir and Rauf will be the fast bowlers.. Asif may be considered.. Ajmal or Kaneria will be the spinner.. Kamran, keeper.. Manzoor/Farhat/Butt as openers.. Yousuf, Umar Akmal, Malik middle order.. Faisal Iqbal is making a come back of sorts.. Fawad Alam will be pushing for a slot too..

Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Salman Butt, Khurram Manzoor, Fawad Alam, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Abdur Rauf, Faisal Iqbal, Danish Kaneria, Imran Farhat, Mohammed Aamir, Mohammed Asif, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat, Shoaib Malik..

New Zealand:
Vettori, Shane Bond, Grant Elliot, Daniel Flynn, Peter Fulton, Martin Guptill, Tim McIntosh, Brendon Mc Cullum, Chris Martin, Ian o' Brien, Ross Taylor, Darryl Tuffey, Jeetan Patel..

Jeetan will most likely be the no.12 unless Vettori is not fit to play..
Vettori is cleared to play the 1st test.. Notable absence is Kyle Mills who is heading for a shoulder surgery and will e off for 4 months..
Grant Elliot may also sit out.. 4 quickies and Vettori would be enough, no need for another bowling option.. But if he is thought of as a replacement for Jesse Ryder, then he plays and Flynn/Fulton miss out..

New Zealand are tough side to beat at home, Pakistan will do well to win a match.. They certainly have match winners, but will they be able to play well for 5 days is a big question.. Aamir will be the player to watch out for.. Be weary of him..

windies back in action

2009-11-21T20:44:00.000+05:30

West Indies are back in action. They have fielded a full strength side..

Windies are touring Australia, it forms the 1st half of the Aussie summer who host Pakistan as the 2nd team later this year..

Date and Time in IST	Game	Venue
NOV 18-21 26 Nov – 30 Nov 05:30 AM	Tour match vs Queensland 1^st Test – Australia v West Indies	Brisbane Gabba, Brisbane
4 Dec – 8 Dec 05:30 AM	2^nd Test – Australia v West Indies	Adelaide Oval
16 Dec –20 Dec 08:00 AM Feb 4 04:30 IST	3^rd Test – Australia v West Indies Prime Minister's XI v West Indians	WACA, Perth Manuka Oval, Canberra
Sun 7 Feb (D/N) 08:45 AM	1^st ODI – Australia v West Indies	MCG
Tue 9 Feb (D/N) 08:45 AM	2^nd ODI – Australia v West Indies	SCG
Fri 12 Feb (D/N) 08:15 AM	3^rd ODI – Australia v West Indies	Adelaide Oval
Sun 14 Feb (D/N) 08:45 AM	4^th ODI – Australia v West Indies	Gabba
Fri 19 Feb (D/N) 08:45 AM	5^th ODI – Australia v West Indies	MCG
Sun 21 Feb 11:30 AM	1^st T20I – Australia v West Indies	Bellerive Oval, Hobart
Tue 23 Feb (D/N) 14:05 PM	2^nd T20I – Australia v West Indies	SCG

The West Indians ended a difficult tour game on a high when they fought to secure a draw with a committed batting display against Queensland..

Windies were bowled out cheaply for 271. Many were playing their first match in Australia and it can be tough.. The bowling was below par, missing the likes of Jerome Taylor and Darren Powell.. Conceded 617,.. 2nd innings was better though..

With Chris Gayle a major doubt due to his mother's illness in Jamaica, Sarwan and Chanderpaul are likely to have more responsibility and it was the experienced pair who guided the side for much of the day during a 131-run stand..

Sarwan and Chanderpaul scored well in both the innings.. The one who came good was the teen aged Adrian
Barath.. He impressed all with his exploits in the Champions League recently concluded in India where his team Trinidad n Tobago had a dream run.. In the absence of the captain,Gayle, Travis Dowlin was Barath's partner against Queensland. It is an unfamiliar position for him. He went in No.3 in his two Tests against Bangladesh but his usual slot for Guyana is No.5.

In the 2nd innings, Narsingh Deonaraine was tried out at no.3.. Travis Dowlin played well for his 50..

The real test would be how well the bowlers cope up.. In the past, recent past, they had the likes of Walsh who was economical.. If these bowlers who have no experience at the international level keep leaking runs, then there would be no pressure on the world no.4..

Even though Australia are at no.4 in ICC test rankings, they are sure to dominate the proceedings throughout the series..

Windies will do well to at-least draw a match, that would be the biggest upset..

TEAM :
Australia: Watson, Katich, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, North, Haddin, Johnson, Siddle, Bollinger, Hauritz, Hilfenhaus ..
Clarke is back and so is Haddin.. The toss would be in having a 4th seamer or a spinner.. Watson can be the 4th seamer so having Hauritz would be a good option.. Hilfenhaus may make way for Bollinger who had a great tour of India..

West Indies: Gayle, Dowlin, Barath, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Deonaraine, Dwyane Bravo, Dinesh Ramdin, Brendon Nash, Sulieman Benn, Ravi Rampual, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Darren Sammy, Gavin Tonge..

Gayle has gone back home to be with his ill mother.. Sarwan and Chanderpaul are the only batting hopes.. Barath and Dowlin have to perform well and so should Nash.. Bravo will be useful with his bowling and experience, he has to be cautious in batting and not throw his wicket away.. He will be vulnerable in playing off the front foot..
Bowling is thin, Taylor is sore.. He is the lone bowler with considerable international experience.. Rampaul, Roach will probably form the back up.. Not expecting great performances from them.. Benn is a fast slow bowler, if that makes any sense.. I have never seen his turn the ball.. Sammy is too military medium to find a place in the side with bowling as criteria..
Leather hunt if windies bowl and quick wickets if they bat..

If they show the same fighting spirits as they did in the 2nd innings of the tour match, it would do the test matches a world of good.. Otherwise, test match's future and two tier system for tests will again crop up..

Biggest upset would be if a test is drawn, with no stoppage from weather..

low scoring games

2009-11-17T20:26:00.001+05:30

VENUE : SHARJAH
YEAR: 1999

MATCH : SRI LANKA vs PAKISTAN

It was Coca Cola Champions Trophy played among Pakistan, West Indies and Sri Lanka..

West Indies were captained by Lara, Pakistan by Wasim Akram and Sri Lanka by Jayasuriya..

Each team played every other team twice and the top 2 teams went into the finals. Played in the month of October.

The match under consideration is the 3rd match between SriLanka and Pakistan..

Sri Lanka - Atapattu, Kaluwitharana+,Jayasuriya* , Aravinda de Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Chamara Silva, Suresh Perera, Vaas, Muralitharan, Zoysa

Pakistan - Saeed Anwar, Amir Sohail ,Inzamam, Yousuf Youhana, Hasan Raja, Moin Khan+, Azhar Mahmood, Razzaq, Akram*, Shoaib Malik, Arshad Khan

Pak won the toss, chose to bat.. Amir Sohail was very slow, both the openers fell after a stand of 37.. From 38 for 2, the repair work was done by Youhana and Inzy; 48 and 42 runs respectively..
They were too slow in scoring these runs, when Inzy was out the scored read 131 for 3 in 35 overs..
From there on it was a batting collapse for Pakistanis..
Arnold ,Vaas and Murali took 2 wickets each.
Murali was miserly giving just 22 in 10 overs.. Arnold bowled well.. SRL never allowed Pakistan to dominate..

Sri Lanka came out to bat chasing just 197 from 50 overs.. The batting order was changed. Kalu opened with Atapattu.. Kalu in his typical form and style notched up a brilliant 50. The pitch seemed to behave differently when he was out there.. Arnold was sent up the order after Atapattu got out..

A match winning partnership from of 115 between them was ended by Razzaq.. De Silva walked in.. When Arnold got out, the score read 173 for 3 in 40 overs..

Kalu scored 75 and Arnold 61..

they needed just 24 from ten overs with eight wickets remaining before Arnold got out..

Sultan of swing returned, bowled the 42nd over to dismiss Jayasuriya for 1.. 174 for 4..

Akram bowled the 44th over and this time bowled de Silva for 9.. 177 for 5..

Reverse swing is something that Pakistan always are proud exponents of.. From the likes of Imran to Wasim to Waqar to Aqib Javed to Rana Naved etc...

This time the king of reverse swing was Razzaq.. Razzaq in 1999 was at the peak of his bowling career, bowled with a lot of pace and swung the ball.. He edged past Azhar Mahmood to retain his place over Azhar in the days to come..

7 overs, 1 wicket for 28 were his figures when he bowled 46th over..
45.5 Jyawardene was caught by Moin off Razzaq for 1.. 186 for 6
45.6 Perera bowled. 186 for 7

Chamara scored of the 47th over..
On the last ball of 48th over, Sri Lanka had scored 194 for 7.. Razzaq struck again getting rid of Vaas..
194 for 8..

Only batsman left was Chamara with only Murali and Zoysa left.. 3 runs to win, 2 overs..

SRL scored 2 runs of this over.. Murali was run out in the last ball of the 49th over.. 196 for 9...

Last over, 1 run needed.. 1 wicket in hand..

1st ball of the 50th over, Chamara was bowled by Razzaq..

Match ended in a tie..

In an astonishing nine-ball spell, Abdur Razzaq took four for nought to snatch a tie from what seemed a certain Sri Lankan victory.But when Razzaq returned to bowl three of the last five overs, the Sri Lankan collapse had already started. Even so, with 14 required from 30 balls and five wickets left, they still looked safe. he sliced through the lower order with unplayable reverse swing, hitting the stumps three times to complete a career-best five for 31.

sachin at 20

2009-11-15T14:48:00.000+05:30

Today, Sachin finishes 20 years in the International circuit..

ST holds all records at stake from batting perspective.. Be it the highest run getter in tests, ODIs, maximum number of 100s in ODI and tests, highest individual score for India in ODIs etc.....................................

20-20.. Lets try listing 20 best memories of ST in these 20 years..

Sachin Tendulkar has been playing top-class cricket for 20 years and he's still producing blistering innings, still looking hungry, still demolishing attacks, still a prized wicket, still a proud competitor. He has not merely been around for two decades. From his first outing to his most recent effort, a stunning 175 in Hyderabad, he has been a great batsman. Longevity counts amongst his strengths. Twenty years! It's a heck of a long time, and it's gone in the blink of an eye.From an attacking batsman in the 90s to a class player in the 2000s, the transformation has been brilliant. The one batsman who knows his body, he changed his style of batting to suit the needs very quickly.. The 100s of late, barring the 175, has been classy.. At no point we would feel that he is scoring, yet so nonchalantly he notches up that elusive 3 figure mark..

1. FIRST SIGHT
      Sachin's 600+ stand with Vinod Kambli in the school level competition.. Playing for Sharadashram VidyaMandir, ST and Kambli each scored triple hundred.. It was apparently broken 15 years later..

2. FIRST TEST
           This day, that year.. Exactly 20yrs ago at Karachi ST making his debut had to face the likes of Akram, Waqar, Imran Khan in his first test match, getting hit on the head. Yet, that kid was ready to come onto the front foot.. He scored a 50 in his 2nd test match itself..

3.FIRST 100 IN OZ
           Everybody talks of this as his best 100.. Setting: Perth,'92 .. Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes, Mike Whitney and Paul Reiffel formed the attack on the bouncy Perth wicket.. Sachin scored 114..

4. LAST OVER- HERO CUP 1993
          I remember this, South Africa needed 6 runs of the last over and ST was handed the ball.. The game was in Calcutta, Eden Gardens.. ST tied them down to just 3 runs and India advanced to the finals.. Finals was against Windies where Kumble took 6-12 to ensure an Indian win..

5. FIRST TIME OPENING THE INNINGS
           Sachin in a recent interview spoke about this. Sidhu was injured and couldn't play.. ST was till then batting at 6. He asked the captain and coach to give him one chance to bat up the order and that he was confident of doing well. If he were to fail, he would never come back again.. He was confident of hitting over the in field in the initial field restriction overs.. Sachin scored 82 of 49 balls against New Zealand.. Opening slot was his ever since..

6. TITAN CUP BANGALORE and MUMBAI- 1996
           Sachin played amazingly for his 88 but got out at the wrong time, India needed 52 runs with 2 wickets in hand.. Srinath and Kumble, local lads set up the win.. The match went almost to midnight, ST won the man of the match award.. In Mumbai, Ind vs SA finals.. Sachin held aloft a round shield..

7. WORLD CUP -1996
           India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka hosted the 96 Wills cricket world cup.. India reached the semi finals purely on Sachin's brilliance.. With 523 runs at 87.16, is the highest scorer in the World Cup..

8. WARNE'S NIGHTMARE
           Shane Warne had nightmares bowling to Sachin.. India vs Australia test series in 1998.. India won that series 2-1.. He employed slog sweeps and deposited Warne over mid wicket for six time and again..

9. SHARJAH 1997/98
           The one knock that no one will forget.. Two centuries back to back, 143 to ensure India is through to the finals of the Coca Cola cup.. 134 in the finals to ensure India wins it.. It was the first time a cricket tournament in Sharjah did not feature Pakistan. Both the 100s came against Australia and he single handedly won the matches for India.

10. HAILED AS/BY THE DON
            Don Bradman's 90th birthday, Sachin and Warne were invited.. Don said Sachin's batting reminded him of his own batting.. The visuals of Don and Sachin playing a straight drive were shown over and over again in all TV channels..

11. BACK STRAIN and a HEARTBREAK

            Indo-Pak series after a long time, India needed 271 to win in the Chennai test.. Sachin was battling a severe back ache but batted superbly to score 136.. The famous lap sweep came during this test match.. Chennai was witnessing yet another classic from ST.. But a heartbreak was waiting for him, India slumped to defeat.. He was awarded man of the match but did not come to receive it as he was crying in the dressing room..

12. 1999 WORLD CUP
            India were in England to play the 1999 world cup and as usual the hopes rested on Sachin's shoulders.. There was a sad news, his father passed away.. He flew back to India to do the last rites.. Surprisingly, Sachin came back to wear India colours and played for India.. That was amazing spirit.. He scored 140 against Kenya on his return..

13. 2001 SOUTH AFRICA SERIES
             It was the series where ST started playing a new shot.. Upper cut over the slips to negotiate the bouncers.. The series where the match referee was Mike Dennes.. ( Remember!) Sachin and others were called for ball tampering and faced one test ban.. The 3rd test match was an unofficial one, and the star played..

14. STUMPED FOR THE FIRST TIME
             England and Ashley Giles adopted negative strategy bowling down the leg side to tie Sachin down.. It was their only way to get him out they thought, as they had no faith in themselves to get the master out by fair means..

15. 2003 WORLD CUP, 98 vs PAKISTAN
            2003 world cup began badly with a loss to Australia and scrapped to a win over Holland.. Indian fans were fuming, burnt effigies of the players, pelted stones at their homes in India, painted them black.. Sachin came out and addressed the media asking fans to maintain calm and giving a hope that India would do well.. Under Ganguly, India had a great time in the world cup.. Scores 673 runs at 61.18 in the World Cup, taking India to within a win of the world crown. His 98 against Pakistan in an exceptionally anticipated match is one of the best knocks by an Indian in a World Cup. Attacked the Pakistan bowlers from the 1st ball.. Hoisted Akhtar for a six over 3rd man.. Australia are champions, but he is named Man of the Series.

16. ROBBED OF 200
            Dravid declared when Sachin was on 194. ST for the 1st time expressed his displeasure in the public.. India went on to win the series, 309 from Viru in Multan.. Ganguly axed. The series saw everything, also India's first series win in Pakistan soil..

17. CENTURIES TO REMEMBER
             A patient 241 in Sydney 2004, minimal off side shots, leading to a draw in the test match and the series..No. 35 against Sri Lanka in Delhi took him past Gavaskar.. His first century in more than two years and 19 Tests, against opposition other than Bangladesh, SCG 2008.. Coveted 100s in the finals..
CB series final, India reached finals thanks to brilliant captaincy from MSD. Ponting wrongly talked of not needing a 3rd final and Sachin obliged.. 114 in Sydney in a 240 run chase, a 91 in the 2nd final ensured India win without having to play the 3rd finals as per Ponting's desire.

18: TWIN RECORDS
            Drives Shane Warne down the ground to score a significant single signaling an entry in the 10000 club.. Celebrates it by scoring 139.. From there on every 1000 run mark, he is the first. Latest one being first one to score 17000 runs..
            Steers Peter Siddle down to third man to become the highest run getter in tests going past Lara.. Hails this as his best record as it took him 19 years to get there.. Scored 12000 in tests..

19. 100 IN CHASING
            Mumbai carnage 26/11.. England's tour was cut short and India couldn't complete a 7-0 whitewash.. It was great of England to come back to play the tests.. Chennai again.. Chennai crowd are blessed indeed.. Yet another class act from Sachin. This time it wasn't a smashing innings.. India's 387 run chase was set up by Viru's brilliance overnight and on the 5th day after quick wickets Sachin and Yuvraj's partnership saw India through.. A paddle sweep that took India to victory and Sachin to his 100..

20. 175 vs AUSTRALIA, HYDERABAD
             May be he has a record in this too.. Maximum heartbreaks after an amazing knock.. Chasing 350 runs to win isn't easy by any standards.. Sachin had not scored big for sometime and a 100 was beckoning.. He chose this stage.. Scored half of the target himself.. Scintillating performance, words will do no good to describe this knock.. Salute the master..

Sri Lanka's first

2009-11-14T21:18:00.000+05:30

On Wednesday, February 17, 1982, Sri Lanka became cricket's eighth Test-playing country when Bob Willis bowled to Bandula Warnapura..

Warnapura won the toss and elected to bat first.. He was the first SriLankan wicket to fall too, when he got out for 2 runs giving a catch to Gower off Bob Willis..

England finished their tour of India and landed in Sri Lanka who were then granted a full member status.. 6 months after the status had been awarded to Lanka , this match was played to commemorate the entry of a new nation to the test match field..

The last team to join ICC full member status was Pakistan in 1952 ; so Lanka's entry was something special as it happened 30 years later and there were doubts of the next team getting test status any time soon was far fledged..

Warnapura was handed an un balanced side with just de Mel as a medium pace option and the rest spinners.. The test match also the debut of a young batting star in Ranatunga.. Ranatunga went on to be one of the toughest and strongest captain of the sub continent, lifted 1996 50 over world cup Sri Lanka's first ever major win..

After early loss of wickets, Ranatunga and Ranjan Madugalle notched up 50s.. The 1st day saw many firsts- first toss won, first to be hit on chest, first to get out, first catch to be dropped in an Anglo-lankan match, first boundary, first six, first 50 by a Lankan etc..

Slow left arm spin of Underwood ended Lankan first outing with the bat at 218. The English who followed batted uncharacteristically losing quick wickets to the spinners and the lone medium pacer de Mel. With the exception of Gower who made a sparkling 89, no other batsman played well and England lead Lanka by just 5 runs..

In the 2nd innings , Botham and Willis bowled very few overs and the captain handed the ball to the spinners.. Sri Lanka batted brilliantly and were on 167 for 3..

They however lost 7 wickets for 8 runs.. The pitch was a spinner's dream.. At last, the match became one of professionals v amateurs..

Target of 171 seemed gettable .. Tavare and Gower steadied the ship after an early loss of Cook for 0.. England cruised past the target with 7 wickets in the kitty..

The newcomers had held their own -- more -- for three days, but let it slip on the fourth.

This marked the entry of a new nation into test cricket.. They won the world over with some unique and special talent.. Each player who stepped into the fold was unique and was the talking point of the world then.. May it be Warnapura, Roy Dias, Wettimuny, Ranatunga, De Silva, Kaluwitharana, Jayasuriya, Muralitharan to the present day Malinga, Mendis each were unique..

Within no time they surprised us with a win in the 1996 world cup..

world cup 2011 fixtures

2009-11-10T13:57:00.001+05:30

Group A - Group B -

Australia, India,

Pakistan, South Africa,

New Zealand, England,

Sri Lanka, West Indies,

Zimbabwe, Bangladesh,

Canada, Ireland,

Kenya. Netherlands.

FIXTURES -

INDIA

Feb 19 1st match - India v Bangladesh Mirpur

Feb 27 11th match - India v England Kolkata

Mar 6 21st match - India v Ireland Bangalore

Mar 9 25th match - India v Netherlands Delhi

Mar 12 29th match - India v South Africa Nagpur

Mar 20 42nd match -India v West Indies Chennai

SRI LANKA

Feb 20 3rd match - Sri Lanka v Canada (Hambantota)

Feb 26 10th match - Pakistan v Sri Lanka (Colombo)

Mar 1 14th match - Kenya v Sri Lanka (Colombo)

Mar 5 20th match - Australia v Sri Lanka (Colombo)

Mar 10 26th match - Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe (Pallekele)

Mar 18 37th match - New Zealand v Sri Lanka Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

NEW ZEALAND

Feb 20 2nd match - Kenya v New Zealand ,Chennai

Feb 25 8th match - Australia v New Zealand ,Nagpur

Mar 4 18th match - New Zealand v Zimbabwe ,Ahmedabad

Mar 8 24th match - New Zealand v Pakistan (Pallekele)

Mar 13 30th match - Canada v New Zealand ,Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Mar 18 37th match - New Zealand v Sri Lanka ,Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

AUSTRALIA

Feb 21 4th match - Australia v Zimbabwe Ahmedabad

Feb 25 8th match - Australia v New Zealand Nagpur

Mar 5 20th match - Australia v Sri Lanka Colombo
Mar 13 31st match - Australia v Kenya Bangalore

Mar 16 35th match - Australia v Canada Bangalore

Mar 19 39th match - Australia v Pakistan Colombo

ENGLAND

Feb 22 5th match - England v Netherlands Nagpur

Feb 27 11th match - India v England Kolkata

Mar 2 15th match - England v Ireland Bangalore

Mar 6 22nd match -England v South Africa Chennai

Mar 11 28th match - Bangladesh v England Chittagong

Mar 17 36th match - England v West Indies Chennai

PAKISTAN

Feb 23    6th match -   Kenya v Pakistan                (Hambantota)
Feb 26 10th match - Pakistan v Sri Lanka       (Colombo)
Mar 3    17th match - Canada v Pakistan             (Colombo)
Mar 8    24th match - New Zealand v Pakistan    (Pallekele)
Mar 14 32nd match - Pakistan v Zimbabwe       (Pallekele)
Mar 19 39th match - Australia v Pakistan (Colombo)

WEST INDIES

Feb 24 7th match - South Africa v West Indies Delhi

Feb 28 12th match - Netherlands v West Indies Delhi

Mar 4 19th match - Bangladesh v West Indies Mirpur

Mar 11 27th match - Ireland v West Indies, Chandigarh

Mar 17 36th match - England v West Indies Chennai

Mar 20 42nd match - India v West Indies Chennai

SOUTH AFRICA

Feb 24 7th match - South Africa v West Indies , Delhi

Mar 3 16th match - Netherlands v South Africa Chandigarh

Mar 6 22nd match - England v South Africa Chennai

Mar 12 29th match - India v South Africa , Nagpur

Mar 15 34th match - Ireland v South Africa, Kolkata

Mar 19 40th match - Bangladesh v South Africa, Mirpur

BANGLADESH

Feb 19 1st match - Bangladesh v India Mirpur

Feb 25 9th match - Bangladesh v Ireland Mirpur

Mar 4 19th match - Bangladesh v West Indies Mirpur

Mar 11 28th match - Bangladesh v England Chittagong

Mar 14 33rd match - Bangladesh v Netherlands Chittagong

Mar 19 40th match - Bangladesh v South Africa, Mirpur

Feb 28 13th match - Canada v Zimbabwe, Nagpur

Mar 7 23rd match - Canada v Kenya, Delhi

Mar 18 38th match - Ireland v Netherlands, Kolkata

Mar 20 41st match - Kenya v Zimbabwe, Kolkata

Mar 23	Quarter Final - TBC v TBC, Mirpur
Mar 24	Quarter Final - TBC v TBC (Colombo)
Mar 25	Quarter Final - TBC v TBC, Mirpur
Mar 26	Quarter Final - TBC v TBC, Ahmedabad

Tue Mar 29	Semi Final - TBC v TBC (Colombo)
Wed Mar 30	Semi Final - TBC v TBC Chandigarh

Apr 2

Final - TBC v TBC
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

When GOD plays

2009-11-06T14:29:00.000+05:30

The bowlers bowl where they want to and Sachin hits them to boundary where and when he pleases to.. A cricketer who got the status of a family member in every cricket loving home in India with his cricket, humility & honesty. Words will never describe the legend Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Nov 5th, 2009 shall remain in our minds forever.. But what about Nov 5, 1989 ???
That was the first time Sachin got selected into the Indian team that toured Pakistan...

What a long wait it was though to witness this 100 from his bat !! For many it was a reminiscent of Sharjah 1997-98 Coca Cola cup against the Aussies..

He was 27 then, and India had 2 targets in the match - 1 for victory and 1 to ensure that India are through to the finals.. 285 for a win and 254 for reaching finals, it was revised to 276 and 237 after a dust storm.. Considering the then playing conditions, 280 was on par with the current 330s.. At 4-138 the hopes sunk, but this man thought otherwise.. He plundered the Aussie attack and scored a mammoth 143 at more than run a ball to secure India's place in the finals.. He walked after edging a delivery down the leg side..

In the finals, chasing 272 for a win, all hopes wrested on Sachin as he scored 134 off 131 balls to ensure a win.. The point is getting to 272 was considered a winning total, and to chase it down happened not so often those days..Warne had gone for 61-0 in his 10 overs..

Yesterday, we got to see Sachin at his attacking best after 1998 Sharjah cup.. Ironically, this was against the Aussies too.. A magnificent innings, a description of which by mere adjectives and superlatives do not do justice to the knock..

How great was the knock and how big was the heart break !!

He cannot cry now at the defeat, he is old enough.. But cry he did, when he scored a 100 against Pakistan in Chennai only in vain.. Chasing 271 for a win, Sachin who had got out for a duck in the 1st innings played with a sore back.. On reaching 254-6, Sachin went down to a floater from Saqlain and gave a catch to mid on.. India, you wouldn't believe, got out for 258..

" I think Joshi told me he[Sachin] went down the wicket and told him its gone too long now,let me finish this match.
So it was flotter from Saqlain,He came down the track and wanted to hit over the top of long on.
I came down the dressing room,I think its fair for me to say,he[Sachin] was weaping like a school boy,I kept on telling him why are you taking the whole blame yourself,by then we lost the match.You made impossible possible by playing this great inning.He[Sachin] said no sir,I have lost this match.
We were in the podium,I think very few time you gets man of the match on the loosing side,he got the man of the match on the loosing side.From the podium I signal to Anshuman Gaekwad the coach of the Indian team and asked him where is he[Sachin], because I knew he was Man of the match. Gaekwad said he not coming because he is crying.
I think thats what commitment is all about." -- Late, Mr. Raj Singh Dungarpur..

This would have been a bigger heartbreak for him, chasing 350 isn't easy.. India had posted 354 in Nagpur, and we all know how the Aussies crumbled under pressure and there was no significant partnerships handing India a 99 run victory which could have been worse had we taken the last wicket cheaply..

The 2nd story that unveiled itself was in Hyderabad, this time Aussies had scored 350.. Belter of a wicket, Sachin was edgy at the start.. His feet weren't moving.. He slowly got to 17000 runs.. 6(14) balls.. A four and a no-ball to follow.. A free hit that was sliced for 4 behind point.. From there on, it was as if saying I want to hit this through cover and I hit it.. Sublime innings..

Years since we saw him coming down the wicket to a spinner and hoisting him straight for a six.. He hit 3 like that..

A flick coming down the wicket to Voges that went for 4 through mid wicket.. An inside out shot through cover, a flick of McKay's slower ball, stand and deliver- cover drive that went whistling past the fielders, a short arm jab that split short third man and backward point of Hussey, a shot through where 2nd slip would have been came right of the middle of the bat...

Highlights of the innings

Do we remember that Ian Chappel had called for his retirement in 2008 as Sachin was according to him playing only for records ? He had in his article to cric-info had claimed that Sachin is NOT THE BEST ODI batsman, Ponting has easily overtaken him and that Ponting has played better in many pressure situations and the finals too which Sachin apparently did not do off late and that since he was well past his prime he must retire gracefully..

Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar the player himself has to have a good long look into the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game. At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/287961.html

Now, shouldn't we ask him to look into a mirror and answer the question 'If he is writing such blogs to get more user comments and thus say he is popular and eke out a career in blogging as an expert analyst' . If so, he must retire immediately..

What do u say ??

inaugural test match - Pakistan

2009-11-05T14:31:00.000+05:30

The inaugural test match posts will feature match reports of inaugural test matches of the test playing nations..

First up - Pakistan

year - 1952

Till the year 1947, India and Pakistan were a single big nation under the British rule.. On August 15th, 1947 the British rule came to an end and the nation was split into two - India and Pakistan..

Post Independence, India became a republic in the year 1950.. India were already playing cricket.. Now, Pakistan was a new nation and had to start playing cricket.. A few players who had earlier played for India shifted to Pakistan..

In the year 1952, the team from across the border came to India to play their inaugural test series..

Date and Time

Match

Oct 16 - 18

1st Test - India v Pakistan
Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi

Oct 23 - 26

2nd Test - India v Pakistan
University Ground, Lucknow

Nov 13 - 16

3rd Test - India v Pakistan
Brabourne Stadium, Bombay

Nov 28 -Dec 1

4th Test - India v Pakistan
Madras Cricket Club Ground, Chepauk, Madras

Dec 12 - 15

5th Test - India v Pakistan
Eden Gardens, Calcutta

A.H.Kardar and Amir Elahi had earlier played for India, the other 9 made their debut at the Kotla, Delhi.. AH.Kardar was Pakistan captain and Lala Amarnath was India's..

1st test : KOTLA, Delhi India won the toss and batted first.
Vijay Hazare scored 74.. India were, however, reduced to 5-110 and then 8-229 , but Hemu Adhikari and the no.11 Ghulam Ahmed in a record last-wicket stand of 109 put the score past 300 -- 372 all out.. Pakistan were bowled out twice after following on in their 2nd innings .. 150 and 152 were the scores, thanks largely to an impressive left arm spin by Vinoo Mankad- 13/131 was his match figures.

2nd test : Lucknow
Pakistan bounces back to win their first ever test match.. Vijay Hazare, Hemu Adhikari and Mankad missed out on the match..Fazal Mohammed's medium pace fetched him 12 wickets in the match and Pakistan won by an innings and 43 runs.. Nazar Mohammad batted 515minutes for his 124..

3rd test : Brabourne, Bombay
Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first.. Batting first has always been tricky especially when it is an early start and the overnight dew is still there.. Pakistan lost the plot there, only a late resistance from Waqar Hassan enabled a 3 figure score for the team.. On the back of fine centuries from Poly Umrigar and Hazare, India posted a lead of 200.. Pakistan were shot out for 242 and India won by 10 wickets

4th test : Chepauk, Madras
AH. Kardar and yet another lower order performance enabled Pakistan to notch up 344.. India were trailing at 175-6 when rain interrupted the play.. No further play was possible in the entire match..

5th test : Eden Gardens, Calcutta
Phadkar's 5 wicket haul and Shodan's 100 coming at no.8 paved way for a 140 lead for India .. Waqar Hassan's 97 from 315 mins enabled a draw..

Great series for Pakistan.. In their inaugural series itself they won a match.. Never would they have known at that time that this bilateral series would be the most fiercely contested and most anticipated tournaments in the future.. The crowd following and the passion with which the 2 sides play against each other have been the same for more than 5 decades now..

another injury

2009-11-03T20:45:00.000+05:30

Yet another player has left the Australian squad on illness or injury.. WHAT is happening to Aussies ? A side that boasts of extreme fitness and talent is now losing them all of a sudden..

Michael Clarke was the first casualty who withdrew from the Champions Trophy, which Aussies eventually won, with a lower back pain.. The work load was blamed..

Brad Haddin injured his finger in the ASHES series and missed a test, giving Graham Manou the back up keeper his maiden game.. Haddin went on to miss ODI series against England and then the Champions trophy with a broken finger..

Callum Fergusson, not a big name but has been vital in Australia winning many matches and has been very consistent at no.6 averaging 46.07 in 25 ODIs that he has played.. Ferguson tripped in the field and injured his right knee in the Champions Trophy finals.. It was later decided through tests that he needs a re-construction of right knee after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament.. (he suffered similar injury in the u-19 wc that he played)..

Soon after the champions trophy, the inaugural Champions League T20 took place where 2 Australian teams in Victoria and NSW took part.. Victoria reached semi-final while NSW went on to beat Trinidad in the finals.. Led by Katich, the side had Hughes and Warner at the top with Lee, Clark and Hauritz forming the core of bowling.. Victoria was captained by Cameron White and Siddle was the other member who also featured in the national side..

NSW members landed in the team hotel barely 24hrs before 1st ODI..

Brett Lee, who was instrumental in NSW winning the CL T20, suffered an elbow strain and was forced out of 2nd ODI but eventually was sent back home as they felt he could not have recovered in time. Lee has had ankle and side problems before the latest setback.. Lee was out of the ASHES too for injury woes..

James hopes also suffered a hamstring injury in the 1st ODI and was ruled out of the next 2 ODIs and eventually out of the entire series..Hopes bowled just two overs in the first ODI in Vadodara before leaving the field after pulling his right hamstring.

The next to go was Tim Paine, wicket keeper who injured his finger while keeping wickets in the Nagpur ODI.. He injured his finger while attempting to take a bouncer of Siddle..

The latest addition to that is Peter Siddle.. Siddle will return home after suffering stiffness in his left side during Monday's win in Mohali..

So, the replacements Manou, Henriques and Clint McKay are already here and now the selectors are scouting for another replacement..

Already, the pace attack is without Lee.. Now, the next best player Siddle too is going to miss.. Johnson hasn't been in good form either..

Where's Stuart Clark ? Military medium , McGrath like with line and length... Very much needed in the middle overs with Johnson leaking hell a lot of runs he may just be the right replacement..

Dirk Nannes, who played for Netherlands is available to play for Australia.. He is one pace bowler who can be a definite replacement for Lee.. He bowls at 150+ kph..

Brad Hodge, technically may not be so sound but is certainly a good replacement.. I would seen him as the 1st replacement to Clarke.. Donno why he is not favored..

Dont the Aussies boast of a great training facility and highly strong players who play injury free for a long long time !! This just shows that whatever be the facility provided, over kill or continuous cricket will take a toll on players..

The only solution would be if each of the high profile teams have enough bench strength who can come to the International arena and perform from the word go.. A pool of 20-25 players are needed and the final squad of 14-15 must be picked from the pool on a rotation basis so that no player plays too much cricket and also to ensure that the others are match fit and ready to go.. That just takes care of stress related injuries..

hong kong sixes

2009-11-01T13:44:00.000+05:30

HONG KONG cricket sixes is a six-a-side cricket , fun-filled version of the glorious old game – a feast of world class players, thrilling matches, huge hits and small boundaries.

It offers two days of fast and furious action in a festival atmosphere – 8 international teams, 45-minute clashes, global TV coverage and thousands of dollars in prize money up for grabs.

First played in 1992, the tournament is fully sanctioned by the International Cricket Council and backed by the boards of the test-playing nations.

Stars who have taken part include Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Steve and Mark Waugh, Viv Richards, Andrew Flintoff, Adam Gilchrist and Wasim Akram. (I have not seen Sachin play though)

venue: Kowloon Cricket Club, situated in the heart of Hong Kong with the teeming city’s skyscrapers providing a breathtaking backdrop.

England, Pakistan, West Indies, Sri Lanka, India and South Africa – all have triumphed at the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes.

And it is all for a worthy cause – profits from the tournament are ploughed directly back into cricket development in Hong Kong through the Hong Kong Cricket Association.

The rules :
Each team has 6 players, 1 wicket keeper and 5 bowlers..
Each bowler bowls one over - 5 over match
Plate finals and finals are 8 ball overs..
Single man standing is there. i.e. If the team loses 5 wickets, the last man plays alone and there's a dUmmy runner at the non-striker's end..
Batsmen retire after scoring 31 runs and can come back if all other wickets fall.
Extras cost 2 runs.
Spectators who catch the ball are awarded 500HK dollars.

Year	Winner	Runners Up
2008	England	Australia
2007	Sri Lanka	All Stars
2006	South Africa	Pakistan
2005	India	West Indies
2004	England	Sri Lanka
2003	England	Pakistan
2002	Pakistan	England
2001	Pakistan	South Africa
1997	Pakistan	England
1996	West Indies	India
1995	South Africa	England
1994	England	Australia
1993	England	Sri Lanka
1992	Pakistan	India

India have never taken it seriously with the players being those who have retired from international cricket and sometimes from domestic cricket too..

David Johnson, Vivek Razdan playing in 2008 representing India is the heights of negligence.. Robin Singh has represented India for long in this format..

This year they named a decent squad but only to lose in the 1st round itself.. Almost an all karnataka side with Manish Pandey, Kumble, Arunkumar, Stuart Binny.. Reetinder Sodhi has been a permanent fixture in the side..

Top cricketers

2009-10-26T22:16:00.002+05:30

List of top cricketers in my point of view... Numbers do NOT indicate ranks.. I am not going back to the old era, staying with the 90s and 2000s

GREATEST CRICKETERS:( nos. do not indicate ranking but when you ask yourself the question, the order in which you remember the names are the below. That is how I made this list )

01) Sachin Tendulkar
02) Brian Lara
03) Shane Warne
04) Muttiah Muralitharan
05) Wasim Akram
06) Glenn McGrath
07) Ricky Ponting
08) Jacques Kallis
09) Curtly Ambrose
10) Waqar Younis
11) Adam Gilchrist
12) Courtney Walsh
13) Steve Waugh
14) Inzamam-ul-Haq
15) Rahul Dravid
16) Sourav Ganguly
17) Mohammad Yousuf
18) Allan Donald
19) Andy Flower
20) Shaun Pollock
21) Matthew Hayden
22) Aravinda de Silva
23) Anil Kumble
24) Sanath Jayasuriya
25) Michael Bevan
26)Arjuna Ranatunga
27)Hansie Cronje
28)Saqlain Mushtaq
29)Mark Taylor
30)Gary Kirsten
31)Kevin Pieterson

Few other impact players who miss out on making it to the greatest list

01) Chaminda Vaas
02) Chris Cairns
03) Alec Stewart
04) Mohammed Azharuddin
05) Saeed Anwar
06) Stephen Fleming
07) Nathan Astle
08) Jonty Rhodes
09) Imran Khan
10) Marvan Atapattu
11) Mark Waugh
12)Nick Knight
13)Navjot Sidhu
14)Nasser Hussain
15)Michael Vaughan

GREATEST CRICKETERS (individually):

Greatest Batsman: Sachin Tendulkar
Greatest ODI Batsman: Sachin Tendulkar
Greatest Test Batsman: Brian Lara
Greatest Bowler: Muttiah Muralitharan
Greatest ODI Bowler: Wasim Akram
Greatest Test Bowler: Ambrose and/or Kumble
Greatest Fielder: Jonty Rhodes
Greatest All-Rounder: Jacques Kallis
Greatest ODI Captain: MSD and/or Ganguly
Greatest Test Captain: Steve Waugh and/or Mark Taylor
Greatest ODI Batting Pair: Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly
Greatest Test Batting Pair:Dravid-Laxman, Steve Waugh with tail enders, one single innings of Ranatunga with tail enders
Greatest ODI Bowling Pair: Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis
Greatest Test Bowling Pair: Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh/Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne

Individuals who have played well for their team:

Australia: Shane Warne
Bangladesh: Mohammed Rafique
England: KP, Nasser Hussain
India: Sachin Tendulkar
New Zealand: Chris Cairns
Pakistan: Wasim Akram
South Africa: Jacques Kallis
Sri Lanka: Muttiah Muralidaran
West Indies: Brian Lara
Zimbabwe: Andy Flower

This is my view, if you have any other name in mind please do leave a comment..

Technologies-Bowling machine

2009-10-26T21:19:00.001+05:30

What is a bowling machine, and how does it work?
A bowling machine is a device that functions as a nets bowler, firing balls at batsmen, providing them with practice. The machine can simulate various types of pace, swing, and spin bowling accurately.

The main mechanism in a mechanical bowling machine (the most common kind) consists of two spinning wheels, each driven by its own motor, between which the balls are fed via a chute. The device is mounted on a tripod or similar, at such a height as to
simulate the delivery of a bowler of average height. The machine runs
on rechargeable batteries; each charge provides between two and six
hours of running time.

swing and spin--

Swing is produced by varying the speeds of the wheels independently using
a manual controller - i.e., speeding one wheel up and slowing the other
one down, which produces an effect similar to that caused when a football
is kicked with the outer part of the foot. The ball swerves away from the
faster wheel.

To impart spin, in addition to having the wheels move at different speeds,
the machine head is tilted and then swing rotation is put on the ball. The
ball turns because the rotation is at an angle when it hits the ground.

The length of deliveries can be adjusted by tilting the head of the
machine as required.

The speed can be varied from 20mph to 95mph.

The bowling machine is most accurate with a round object, and cricket
balls are not perfectly round. Moreover, cricket balls are made of leather,
which is prone to tearing when squeezed between the spinning wheels.
This is why hard polyurethane balls - dimpled for swing - are used.

An advance over the mechanical version is the programmable bowling
machine, which can be configured to bowl different types of deliveries
in sequence. A programmable bowling machine called Merlyn, which
it was claimed could bowl any ball known to man, including
Shane Warne's legbreaks, was in the news when it was used by
England in the run-up to their successful 2005 Ashes campaign.

More common are pneumatic bowling machines, which use a
pump to provide a flow of air that propels the ball through a
tube at varying speeds.

CL T20 FIXTURES

2009-10-15T17:04:00.001+05:30

Thu Oct 15 (D/N) 20:00 IST	League B – Royal Challengers Bangalore v Victoria BUSHRANGERS	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Fri Oct 16 16:00 IST	League A - Somerset CCC v Diamond Eagles	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad
Fri Oct 16 (D/N) 20:00 IST	League A – Trinidad & Tobago v NSW BLUES	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad
Sat Oct 17 16:00 IST	League B – Cape Cobras v Victoria BUSHRANGERS	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Sat Oct 17 (D/N) 20:00 IST	League B – Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Daredevils	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Sun Oct 18 16:00 IST	League A - Somerset CCCv NSW BLUES	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Sun Oct 18 (D/N) 20:00 IST	League A – Trinidad & Tobago v Diamond Eagles	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Mon Oct 19 (D/N) 20:00 IST	League B – Cape Cobras v Delhi Daredevils	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Wed Oct 21 (D/N) 20:00 IST	1st semi-final – B1 v A2	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Thu Oct 22 (D/N) 20:00 IST	2nd semi-final – A1 v B2	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Fri Oct 23 (D/N) 20:00 IST	Final – Winner of Semifinals face off	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad

Champions league CLT20 stage round recap

2009-10-15T16:11:00.001+05:30

What happened thus far, a look back..

Great inauguration, amazing choreography by Shaolin Monks and others.
Boring speech which was booed by the audience; started clapping before he could finish. (Mr.Modi)

MATCH1 - JP's great innings of 99, deserved a century.. An innings punctuated by traditional drives and pulls, no slogging.. A 105m hit for SIX that landed above the big screen.. RCB went down to this brilliant knock..

AUSSIE might - Victoria and NSW impress with big wins that could put them in the next stage.. Thumping win against Delhi and Eagles respectively.. Showed their class and the strong domestic set up at display..

IPL teams go down - 3 losses in as many matches.. RCB lost to JP's knock, Delhi to pitch and Deccan to Alfonso Thomas. A last ball thriller, from being 99 for 7 to chase down 153 speaks of Deccan's bowling strength...

Empty stands await matches involving non-IPL teams.. Provokes Gavaskar to question the future of CL T20 in the absence of IPL teams in the 2nd round..

Cape Cobras and NSW through.. Cobras went past Otago to become the 1st team to enter league stage.. NSW showed their might over Sussex Sharks a day later to qualify to the next round.. 2 champions are through..

Amidst all questions and speculations, Delhi put up 170 on board, on a pitch where 120 is a par score thanks to Viru and Karthik.. Qualify for the league stage by gaining an unassailable Net Run Rate..

RCB follow suit.. 2 IPL teams get through..

The lesser teams bow out, Otago from Newzealand and Wayamba from SriLanka bid good bye to CLT20 earning USD200,000 each..

Trinidad and Tobago surprise the world with back to back wins.. Deccan had to listen to their team music/ theme music - 'GO chargers GO chargers'.. The IPL champions GO out of the tournament..

A super 'SUPER' over, 9/1 from Eagles and 0/2 from Sussex.. Cj De Villiers picks up 2 in 2.. Reason given from sussex- we are new to super over and have never played in it before.. ( do we give them practice matches for this too? Ridiculous)..

But what has left an impact,

JP Duminy's brilliant 99 will be talked for sometime to come.. Unforgettable innings.. No slogging.. This gives the message that players need not change their stroke play but only change their mindsets in T20..

Laxman's knock of 40 odd has left not only Harsha Bhogle dumbfounded but also many of the cricket fans.. Laxman stepping down the wicket or playing a cross bat shot/slog was definitely not a treat to watch but leads us to say please save them from T20 gimmicks.. We would rather watch him score 20 in a test match than to see him slog his way to 50s in T20..

Where's the hype ? Where are the sponsors ? We never heard a ***** Maximum, or ******* 4s... 6s were plain sixes and 4s were plain fours.. Refreshing.. (Yes, Modi is still the man behind the tournament, no changes there)

Empty stadiums for matches not involving IPL teams.. That is a worrying sign for the future of CL.. We can just brush away the thought saying this is the first year and people would take time to understand and identify with the teams involved..

STAR.. An anthem 'yeh cup kahin nahi jayega' (this cup will not go anywhere) and India bounced out of T20 World cup.. 'All the best India' campaign and India crash out of Champions trophy.. 'Diwali hogi cup wali' campaign, Rangoli (colours) to depict trophy from RCB, sweets stacked one above other for Delhi and a rocket firecracker turning into a cup for Deccan.. The most unrealistic campaign that of DC has ended.. As RCB and DD don't carry points they need to win all their matches to get into semis.. So, will STAR make it 3 out of 3..

Focusing on League stage, A1, A2, B1, B2 form League A and C1,C2,D1,D2 form League B..

              LEAGUE A       LEAGUE B
   Trinidad and Tobago RCB
Somerset CCC    Cape Cobras
NSW blues                                  Delhi Daredevils
Diamond Eagles                 Victoria Bushrangers

match fixing

2009-10-13T18:44:00.000+05:30

Why did each of the IPL teams lose their 1st match ??
What do the empty stands indicate ??
Do the less famous sides have to lose out ??
Who is watching them play ??

Ray Jennings had made a comment that IPL teams will find it tough in the tournament.. True..

The other domestic sides that compete in the tournament are well established sides who play cricket right throughout the year.. Take Victoria Bushrangers or NSW blues for example.. Pura cup which is Sheffield Shield cup now is a tough 4 day competition that 6 teams compete in.. Then there is an ODI tournament that they take part in.. KFC big bash is just an addition to that.. So, these teams play the 4day competition, the one-day and T20..

IPL teams on the other hand meet a week or two before the tournament begins and stay together for 1.5 months in playing a minimum of 14 matches and maximum of 16 matches in the tournament.. So it is seriously difficult for them to compete against the other domestic teams.. But what makes the tournament alive is that it is a T20 competition and reputation counts for little..

So, we can argue that the IPL teams took a little bit of time to group and come together as a unit than blame the quality of cricket or the lack of it..

The tournament matches of non-IPL teams were played against empty stands.. The question that was asked immediately was, what if the IPL teams do not go into the league stage ? Will there be viewership on tv sets India, forget the stadiums ?

If the IPL teams were to be left behind, there wouldn't have been any advertisers for the tournament.. With poor viewership, it would have been a tough ask for the organizers to call the CL T20 to be a success..

There was a question asked in the IPL-2 not only by the cricket fans but also by the ICC as to whether the matches are stage managed, to say that 'we had to wait till the last day to decide the semifinalists' and stuffs that would speak of the success and quality of the tournament and how the teams are so evenly matched..

Do we have to ask that question here too that deliberate efforts are made to push IPL teams through?

Ah, common..
The Deccan match went to the wires, a thrilling last ball finish..
The Bangalore match was punctuated by one classy knock from Duminy, whose individual brilliance enabled SA to win against AUS in Australia..
The Delhi match can be attributed to the slow low nature of the pitch..
Thats it, we have the answers.. No FIXING !!!

If a drop catch by Younis Khan in the CT2009 semi finals can be debated for fixing, a catch where the reaction time wouldn't be more than half a second, then these matches can surely be..

Fixing or no fixing, the tournament isn't a success yet.. The general public need to know the teams, the players, how they qualified and develop loyalties.. May be by the second edition, which may or may not be held in India, the viewers would have learnt about the teams and the tournament would have a larger reach..

trp goes down in champions league clt20

2009-10-13T18:03:00.001+05:30

Ratings point is a measure of viewership of a particular television program.

One single television ratings point (Rtg or TVR) represents 1% of viewers in the surveyed area in a given minute.

As an example, say, there are an estimated 100 million television households in the surveyed country. Thus, a single national household ratings point represents 1%, or 1 million households.. When used for the broadcast of a program, the average rating across the duration of the show is typically given. Ratings points are often used for specific demographics rather than just households. For example a ratings point among the key 18-49 year olds demographic is equivalent to 1% of all 18-49 year olds in the country.

In India, television ratings are collected by two main organizations - TAM India and Audience Measurement Analytics Limited (aMap). aMap entered the market in 2005, with more coverage and latest technology from Telecontrol-Switzerland. aMap polls the meters (6000 households) using GSM network and provides ratings overnight. TAM India collects data manually (physical visits) and releases data weekly. aMap also has a stand-alone digital panel (aMapDigital) to measure TV viewing in DTH homes.

The TRP ratings show that T20 is starting to get boring and unknown teams playing only adds to the woes.. The empty stands are also an indication that CL T20 hasn't yet caught the viewers.. If this is the situation in a cricket crazy country, the situation will only be grim when CL goes around the world..

A comparison of important matches in ICC T20 WC 2009, IPL ,CT 2009 and CL T20 is done below..

For IPL 2009, the reach had increased.. More viewers but they stayed for a lesser time on the channel.. The ratings were 4.3 for RCB vs KKR in 2008 and was 3.6 in 2009 for CSK vs MI...
The 2nd semi final CSK vs RCB had a rating of 6.5 against 5.5 rating for semi-2 in IPL-1..
But 8.8 rating of IPL-1 was far too higher than 8.3 of IPL-2 ..

Having said that, and IPL being too loud being the reason for its reach and talks that IPL and T20 are going to take the world by storm spelling an end to test matches and the ODIs were proved wrong in the ICC world cup, may we say that the timings of the match were a dent to the viewership..

In ICC WC 2009, IND-WI match had highest rating points of 5.4 followed by Ind-Eng game 4.8 ..
The finals had a rating of 3.7 in star cricket and DD had a rating of 3.8 ....

Still we find that an Ind-Pak match garners the same rating as that of T20 finals.. So, a great game of cricket is still appreciated irrespective of whether its a T20 or ODI.. Over 30 million viewed Ind-Pak match.. The knock out stages did not do that well because of the absence of Indian team..

The Champions League has fared even worse with an average of 0.74 so far, according to TV monitoring agency, aMap.. Empty stands also adds to the woes.. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore was full even for the Ind-Aus test match while in the other 3 matches we got to see empty stands.. But now, the same stadium in Bangalore was empty for Trinidad match..

This takes us to the next question.. Will the matches be fixed to let the IPL teams into the league stage ?

the castrol index

2009-10-12T16:40:00.000+05:30

The Castrol Index looks at a batsman or bowler’s performance in his core skill area.For a Batsman, its the batting that counts and bowling adds on and vice-versa for the bowlers.. For the all rounders though, the indices are added..

For a batsman it’s his Batting Momentum, the combination of runs scored and the rate at which those runs are scored..

For a bowler it’s his Bowling Efficiency, the combination of wickets taken and the economy rate.

The Castrol Index also factors in each player’s non core skills, such as the Bowling Efficiency for a batsman or the Batting Momentum for a bowler. This is crucial, because in the shorter formats of the game every ball matters.

The Castrol Index also factors in each player’s fielding performance, such as runs saved or conceded, which further adds to the bonus or penalty earned. It’s by looking at all three aspects of the game for every player and not just the runs scored or wickets taken, that the Castrol Index is able to tell you the true impact of every player’s contribution in the shorter versions of the game.

With a match centre, that previews and reviews every match with the help of the Castrol Index.. It is claimed that this index predicts the outcomes and deduces the player performances in a much more comprehensive way than what a simple statistic of runs scored and wickets taken would do..

The expert fan view would run throughout the Champions League T20 where fans can post questions or answer the ones posted by their peers.. The best post and answer of each day would be picked up by Harsha Bhogle, the famous commentator of the ESPNSTAR group.. And what more there are cash rewards for doing the same..

visit http://www.castrolcricket.com/ for details..

IPL teams in CL T20

2009-10-08T00:52:00.000+05:30

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB had a dismal inaugural season in IPL being termed as a test side and the entire team make up was shuffled for the 2nd edition.. Few T20 specialists were selected from the auction but the campaign still did not seem to be on track with KP as captain.. Once KP left, it was decided that Anil would lead the side and he led the side from the front.. RCB, under him, entered the knock out stages.. Upsetting CSK's chances in the semis, they faced Deccan in the finals who like RCB had a dismal outing in IPL-1.. In a final, that could have gone either way, Deccan prevailed.. RCB are looking for revenge., (that was Kumble's statement).

Placed in Group C, they face Cape Cobras on the first day and Otago Volts later..

TEAM : Anil Kumble (capt), Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, Bhuvanesh Kumar, Roelof van der Merwe, Mark Boucher, Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Akhil Balachandra, Rajesh Bishoni.

Delhi Daredevils

Delhi Daredevils are like their former captain Sehwag.. Unpredictable.. Twice have they come to the semifinals after being confident in the league only to lose the semis badly.. With Sehwag stepping down from captaincy and 3 of the international stars missing it will be upto the local Delhi lads to put up an impressive show.. I don't think they can even field 4 foreign players.. Glenn McGrath's exploits are sought after..

In group D, they find themselves in the same group as Wayamba and Victoria.. Both are tough opponents..

TEAM : Gautam Gambhir(capt), Virender Sehwag, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dirk Nannes, Dinesh Karthik, Manoj Tiwary , Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra, Owais Shah, Pradeep Sangwan, Aavishkar Salvi, Rajat Bhatia, Mithun Manhas.

Deccan Chargers

Deccan too like the RCB had a dismal IPL-1 but unlike RCB they stuck with the same team with Gilchrist as a full time captain and the winning coach Darren Lehmann (was with Rajasthan ROYALS during IPL-1).. Rohit Sharma played well for them and the purple cap (leading wicket taker) holder RP Singh, Gilchrist came good at right times to ensure a place in the semifinals.. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, a true Aussie style demolition from Gichrist ensured a place in the finals where a drop catch and quick wickets from the RCB side and some excellent cricket from the team led them to lift the DLF IPL-2..

Deccan with the firepower of Gilchrist, freelancer Symonds and the likes of Styris and Fidel Edwards should be menacing.. Placed in Group A with Trinidad and Somerset.. Not a tough group.. Will RP and Rohit come back to form again for this tournament is a question.. (would be remarkable if they do so, they would earn the reputation of being in form for the Chargers always and be poor for the nation).. Will VVS sit and watch the entire tournament from the dug out yet again?

TEAM : Adam Gilchrist (capt), VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds, Fidel Edwards, Scott Styris, Chaminda Vaas, RP Singh, Ryan Harris, Pragyan Ojha, Y Venugopal Rao, T Suman, Azhar Bilakhia, Harmeet Singh, SM Shoaib.

South African teams in CL T20

2009-10-07T22:21:00.000+05:30

The Standard Bank Pro20 was used to launch the franchise system at the end of the 2003/04 season and has been a domestic highlight ever since. Like its format of 20 overs per side, it has a short, sharp format of five league matches followed by a semi-final and final.

The No. 1 side after the round robin stages plays No. 4 in the one semi-final and No. 2 plays No. 3 in the second semi-final with the winners going through to the final. In all cases the team with the higher log position has home ground advantage. There is also a reserve day allowed for all knock-out matches in the case of inclement weather conditions.

NASHUA CAPE COBRAS is the brand name for the Western Cape franchise of Cricket South Africa. Its constituent components are the Western Province Cricket Association and the Boland Cricket Board. They play their home matches at Boland Park, Paarl, and at Sahara Park Newlands.

Current nationally contracted players are Smith, Gibbs, JP Duminy and Monde Zondeki.. Ashwell Prince also hails from this place..

DIAMOND EAGLES is the brand name for the central franchise of Cricket South Africa and has been the most successful franchise in terms of winning trophies. The constituent members are the Free State and Griqualand West Cricket Boards. Their home grounds are the OUTsurance Oval in Bloemfontein and the De Beers Diamond Oval in Kimberley.

They are one of only two franchises - the Nashua Titans are the other - to have won all three domestic trophies in the course of the past four seasons and have altogether had five trophy successes.

IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Diamond Eagles don't have it easier, grouped with winners of AUS and ENG T20 winners namely, NSW and Sussex.. The South African Pro20 runners up the Diamond Eagles have had some fantastic seasons on the domestic circuit but with no current South African internationals some have suggested the side may struggle against their more fancied opponents. But having said that, no team is to be taken lightly..

Dippenaar is a seasoned campaigner, van Wyk's exploits in IPL2 have gone largely unnoticed as he was a part of KKR, Dillon du Preez had an excellent spell of fast bowling in one game and was never picked again for the RCB, Ryan McLaren would be an asset to the side,

Boeta Dippenaar (capt),

Dillon du Preez,

Morne van Wyk,

Mthandeki Tshabalala,

Adrian McLaren,

Ryan McLaren,

Victor Mpitsang,

Ryan Bailey,

Jandre Coetzee,

Cornelis de Villiers,

Dean Elgar,

Reeza Hendricks,

Alan Kruger,

Rilee Rossouw,

Shadley van Schalkwyk.

Cape Cobras along with RCB and Otago Volts make up Group C .. The Nashua Cape Cobras have a particularly tough programme, playing the tournament opening match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bangalore on October 8, with their remaining pool game against New Zealand’s Otago Volts in Hyderabad just two days later.

Cape Cobras will be led by Andrew Puttick, in the absence of Graeme Smith, who was initially left out of the 15 man squad.. Wow !! How quickly can Life change!!

Cape Cobras

Andrew Puttick (capt) - capt / opener/ keeper

Herschelle Gibbs,

JP Duminy,

Justin Ontong,

Charl Langeveldt- leads the pace bowling

Claude Henderson,

Monde Zondeki,

Vernon Philander -all rounder

Henry Davids,

Ryan Canning- lower order batsman and keeper

Rory Kleinveldt all rounder

Richard Levi

Sybrand Engelbrecht,

Derek Brand,

Francois Plaatjies.

Beware !!!!!!!!!

2009-10-07T00:05:00.000+05:30

Somerset County cricket club have qualified for the inaugural Champions League to be held in India from the 8th of October..

Champions League T20 is also in short CL T20..

To add the title sponsors in the name, it is now widely called as AIRTEL Champions League or ACL-T20..

Somerset website has gone a step higher and has christened another name to it..

Guess what !!!!!!!!!

As it is gonna be held in India, it is called Indian Champions League T20..

And what is its short form ???????

ICL T20.............

Now, thats inviting trouble.. That is one dreaded short form that BCCI fought against with all its might and wealth.. Yes, ICL or Indian Cricket League which was started by the Zee group was under the scanner right from its inaugural season 3 years back.. BCCI have played all tricks to get rid of ICL, and have almost succeeded..

The last thing Mr.Modi would like to see is his league being called ICL T20..

Beware of some action taken against those who have published that name..

English teams at CL T20

2009-10-07T00:01:00.000+05:30

Kent's 145 was not enough to stop Somerset from reaching the finals..
Northants 136 almost proved to be enough to gain access to CL T20 but Murray Goodwin's steady and calm innings took Sussex past 136 with 2 balls to spare..

Sussex Sharks and Somerset Sabres entered the Final of Twenty-20 cup thereby earning a place in the Champions League T20..

A $6million jackpot is up for grabs - read the news.. The focus from the finals was slowly shifting to CL T20..
2 semis and a final on the same day was some treat to the fans.. But all three matches on the same day robs us of the fun too.. If its played on 2 days or even 3 days, it keeps the excitement and thrill that much longer and makes it a great weekend..

After play started at 11.30 in the morning with the 1st semi final, the action shifted to the final at 7.30pm..

No show from Goodwin this time around, but a late flurry of boundaries from Yasir Arafat and explosive knock from Dwyane Smith ensured a total of 172 for 7.. Chasing 172 itself is a big task, added to it is the pressure of finals.. So, 172, could look like 190.. Somerset saw 2 contrasting innings Marcus Trescothick 33 from 15 deliveries and de Bruyn 22 of 32 deliveries and eventually slumped to 109 all out, losing their last six wickets for just five runs.

IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE :

Somerset Sabres

Placed in group A with Deccan Chargers and Trinidad..

The first game is on Saturday 10th October when the Sabres will take on Deccan Chargers in Hyderbad and the Sabres second game is against Trinidad and Tobago which will be played at Bangalore on Monday October 12th..

Langer would captain the side, Trescothick whose mental and physical condition forced him out of international tours and has kept him out of the England squad despite being a prolific run getter in the domestic tournaments is lured by the ????? (money or whatever) to tour India, de Bruyn except for the dismal finals is in good form..Batsman Jos Buttler, who also keeps wicket and who at just 19 is the youngest member of the party. Arul Suppaiah, Malaysian born has been impressive..

TEAM :::

Justin Langer (capt),

Marcus Trescothick,

Zander de Bruyn,

Omari Banks,

James Hildreth,

Craig Kieswetter,

Pete Trego,

Arul Suppiah,

Alfonso Thomas,

Max Waller,

Charl Willoughby,

Wes Durston,

Mark Turner,

Jos Buttler,

Ben Phillips.

Sussex Sharks
Placed in a non-IPL group, Group B, with Diamond Eagles and NSW Blues..

Led by Michael Yardy, the team has a lot of all rounders and players with experience at the international level too.. This might well be the group to look out for as all the teams are evenly matched..

Dwyane Smith has opted to play for Sussex ahead of the Chargers.. Luke Wright, Martin-Jenkins, Yasir Arafat are excellent all round talents.. Chawla has been impressive in both the IPLs, Ed Joyce needs to introduction.. James Kirtley will be remembered for both his swing bowling and for his one handed catch of Ganguly in Natwest ODIs 2001.. A young side, with many players in their early 20s..

Michael Yardy (capt),
Dwayne Smith,
Luke Wright,
James Kirtley,
Piyush Chawla,
Ed Joyce,
Joe Gatting,
Robin Martin-Jenkins,
William Beer,
Andrew Hodd,
Christopher Nash,
Ben Brown,
Rory Hamilton-Brown,
Yasir Arafat,
Chad Keegan.

Trinidad and Tobago

2009-10-05T18:15:00.001+05:30

The name reminds us of only one, the master Lara...... Home to Queen's Park Oval which has witnessed marvellous knocks from the master Lara.

Trinidad and Tobago is the only side from the West Indies to have qualified for the Airtel Champions League Twenty20.

Notable players from T & T

Brian Lara
Ian Bishop
Learie Constantine
Wes Hall
Larry Gomes
Gus Logie
Merv Dillon
Deryck Murray

Players still Playing- Darren Ganga, Dwayne Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Dinesh Ramdin

Domestic series is played among
Guyana, Barbados, T&T, Leeward islands, Windward Islands, Jamaica, Combined Colleges and Campuses,

4 day tournament, Carib Beer series, Limited over competitions and Stanford 20-20 league form the domestic set up of the Windies cricket..

19 teams took part in the inaugural Stanford T20 competition, 16 were shortlisted for the actual tournament with 3 being eliminated after a playoff.. The 2nd edition was bigger with 20 teams in the fray..Stanford Twenty20 Cup is a knock-out competition featuring national sides from several Caribbean territories vying for the million-dollar grand prize. The competition was created two years ago and is solely financed by Antigua-based, Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford. This tournament is played on the ground built by Sir Allen Stanford, Stanford cricket ground..

Trinidad won against Barbados by 5 runs to enter the finals while Jamaica beat Guyana in a 1 run thriller to play in the finals.

The finals was a one sided affair though.. The two-island republic, lifted by clever left-arm chinaman bowling from Dave Mohammed, were crowned winners in the Final which promised much, but delivered a no-contest on Sunday at the Stanford Cricket Ground.

Jamaica had 10 of the 11 players having played in the national side- to name a few Xavier Marshall, Wavell Hinds, Gayle, Darren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Nikita Miller, Dave Bernard, Carlton Baugh, Marlon Samuels..

Jamaica were bowled out for 91 in 16.4 overs with chinaman bowler Dave Mohammed taking 4 for 21..

T&T boasts of Dinesh Ramdin, Dwyane Bravo, Darren Ganga, Darren Bravo, Dave Mohammed and Lendl Simmons.. Chasing such a modest target was never going to be a serious challenge for T&T, and they hit the jackpot with 64 balls to spare..

IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CLT20 :

T&T are grouped with Deccan Chargers and Somerset in the Group A..

T&T will play two warm-up matches before playing their first tournament match against Somerset in Bangalore on October 12. They play Deccan on October 14 in Hyderabad.

T&T squad:

Daren Ganga (capt) - veteran. needs no intro

Dwayne Bravo - Mumbai Indians player, excellent all rounder

Lendl Simmons - showed his class in the T20 world cup in England

William Perkins,

Kieron Pollard - good all rounder

Sherwin Ganga,
Navin Stewart,
Samuel Badree,
Darren Bravo - Lara look alike in a few shots, very promising

Ravi Rampaul - tormented Sachin when he came into the side first

Denesh Ramdin (wk)- Can be very useful with the bat
Sunil Narine

Adrian Barath

Rayad Emrit - has all round capabilities- medium pace and handy bat, plays county cricket.
Dave Mohammed - left arm chinaman, RPO less than 5..

Australian teams in Champions League -CL T20

2009-10-05T14:55:00.098+05:30

Lets travel DOWN UNDER to meet the teams qualifying for the Champions league T20 -

New South Wales Blues and Victoria Bushrangers..

Aussie domestic set up is pretty much familiar with most cricket fans.. For starters, though, Aussie domestic cups are simple.. 6 teams, 3 competitions..

New South Wales - based in Sydney
Victoria - MCG, Melbourne
South Australia- Adelaide
Queensland- Gabba, Brisbane
Tasmania - Hobart
Western Australia - WACA,Perth

Pura cup which is now Sheffield Shield cup 4 day matches, Ford Ranger cup - limited overs and KFC big bash T20..

In KFC big bash, each team plays against the other once.. The 2nd and 3rd placed teams play in a semi final, and the winner plays the team which had topped the points table in the round robin stage..

2009 KFC Big Bash T20 Points table

	Played	Won	Lost	Pts
RTA SpeedBlitz Blues	6	4	2	8.00
XXXX Gold Queensland Bulls	6	3	3	6.00
West End Redbacks	5	2	3	4.00
PKF Tasmanian Tigers	5	2	3	4.00
VB Victorian Bushrangers	7	4	3	8.00
Retravision Warriors	5	2	3	4.00

Series Highlights

Record	Detail
Highest Total	5/203	VB Victorian Bushrangers, 2nd Twenty20 - TAS v VIC, Bellerive Oval
Lowest Total	10/105	Retravision Warriors, 10th Twenty20 - VIC v WA, Melbourne Cricket Ground
Biggest winning margin	78	VB Victorian Bushrangers, 10th Twenty20 - VIC v WA, Melbourne Cricket Ground
Lowest winning margin	2	RTA SpeedBlitz Blues, 15th Twenty20 - NSW v VIC, Stadium Australia

NSW qualified for the decider in top spot after a thrilling win over Victoria ..The preliminary finals was played between Queensland and Victoria, Victoria won the match with 2 overs to spare chasing 113..

In the finals, Victoria won the toss and elected to bat first. They made a strong total of 4/166 from their 20 overs, mainly due to a brilliant knock of 91 from 56 balls from opener Rob Quiney.Aaron Bird continued his outstanding form for the RTA SpeedBlitz Blues in limited overs cricket, taking 3/21 from four overs. Doug Bollinger was the other wicket-taker.

Brendon Mc Cullum was drafted into the NSW squad to enable him to be a part of the CL T20 campaign with the blues, after a good start he nicked a ball to the keeper, Katich and Hughes played well.. But after losing those two and Mosis Henriques in quick succession the match was evenly poised.. Dominic Thornely and Ben Rohrer who came to bat together put on 73 runs in five overs.With 10 runs needed of the last over, Thornely scored a boundary and was out the next ball leaving 2 runs to be scored of 2 balls.. The batsmen scampered through for a bye of the last ball and had to wait for the 3rd umpire's decision before celebrating the win..

This 5 wicket win ended Victoria's dominance in the T20 format and gave the blues their first KFC T20 trophy..

IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE T20 :

NSW are placed with the Eagles and Sussex in group B..

Australia’s icons and international cricketing royalty, Sir Donald Bradman, Richie Benaud, Steve Waugh and Glenn McGrath, have played first-class cricket for New South Wales. The Speed Blitz Blues have won the first-class competition 44 times and the one-day domestic cup nine times.

To name a few more, Brett Lee, Mark Waugh, Katich, Warner, Henriques, Hughes, Jaques, Michael Clarke, Bracken, Stuart Clark, Haddin , Shane Watson..

They start their campaign on the 9th against Diamond Eagles at the Kotla, Delhi..

Team :

Aaron Bird
David Warner
Dominic Thornely- played for Mumbai Indians sparingly used..
Steven Smith
Daniel Smith
Ben Rohrer
Steve O'Keefe - miserly left arm orthodox bowler
Brett Lee
Simon Katich (C)
Doug Bollinger
Simon Keen
Stuart Clark
Nathan Hauritz
Moises Henriques - played for the controversial KKR
Phillip Hughes

Victoria are placed with Delhi Daredevils and Wayamba elevens in group D.

Victoria have won 3 editions of KFC big bash and was the runner up in the 4th edition.. Victoria in the current squad boast of the likes of Hodge, David Hussey, Cameron White..

Aiden Blizzard - excellent T20 player
Peter Siddle
C White (C) - powerful striker, RCB player
Matthew Wade
Robert Quiney- hand picked by Warne for the Rajasthan Royals
Clinton McKay
Bryce McGain - an old leg spinner
Andrew McDonald- Daredevil, who is good with both bat and ball
David Hussey - one of the best T20 players
Aaron Finch
Shane Harwood
John Hastings
Brad Hodge- we all know who he was with in the IPL-2 don't we ?
Jon Holland
James Pattinson

ICC awards

2009-10-02T13:58:00.000+05:30

As part of the ICC's celebration of the game's heroes and role models, it stages the annual LG ICC Awards ceremony to recognize the major individual and team achievements in world cricket.

The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its sixth year and in 2009 the Awards took place in Johannesburg. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007) and Dubai (2008).

The LG ICC Awards in 2009 included eight individual prizes, including the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Cricketer of the Year. The winners of seven of these individual awards were voted upon by a 25-person panel from around the world, made up of renowned former players, respected members of the media, and an elite umpire and elite match referee. Meanwhile, the nominations for the Women's Cricketer of the Year Award were voted on by a separate 16-person voting academy featuring former players and other experts on the women's game.

The other three awards were the ICC Test Team of the Year, the ICC ODI Team of the Year and the Spirit of Cricket Award.

Based on the 12 months between August 2008 and August 2009, the LG ICC Awards 2009 - presented in association with FICA - took into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game.

Lists of nominees- Individual Awards

Cricketer of the Year
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind)
Gautam Gambhir (Ind)
Mitchell Johnson (Aus)
Andrew Strauss (Eng)

Test Player of the Year
Gautam Gambhir (Ind)
Mitchell Johnson (Aus)
Thilan Samaraweera (SL)
Andrew Strauss (Eng)

ODI Player of the Year
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind)
Virender Sehwag (Ind)
Yuvraj Singh (Ind)

Emerging Player
Ben Hilfenhaus (Aus)
Graham Onions (Eng)
Jesse Ryder (NZ)
Peter Siddle (Aus)

Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year
Rizwan Cheema (Can)
Ryan ten Doeschate (Ned)
William Porterfield (Ire)
Edgar Schiferli (Ned)

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year
Shahid Afridi (Pak) for scoring 51 off 34 balls and taking 2-16 against South Africa during the ICC WT20 semi-final in Nottingham on 18 June
Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL) for scoring 96 not out off 57 balls against the West Indies in the semi-final of the ICC WT20 at The Oval on 19 June
Chris Gayle (WI) - for hitting 88 off 50 balls against Australia during the ICC WT20 at The Oval on 6 June
Umar Gul (Pak) for taking 5-6 against New Zealand during the ICC WT20 at The Oval on 13 June

Women's Cricketer of the Year
Charlotte Edwards (Eng)
Shelley Nitschke (Aus)
Claire Taylor (Eng)

Umpire of the Year
Aleem Dar
Tony Hill
Asad Rauf
Simon Taufel

Spirit of Cricket
Australia
England
New Zealand
Sri Lanka

This list was arrived at after a long list of nominees was announced earlier.. Surprisingly, South Africans were missing from the short list of nominees.. CSA chairman Gerald Majola was surprised and shocked at the absence of South Africans from the final list especially after having a great year in both the test and the ODI formats and being No.1 in the ICC rankings too..

On October 1, in Johannesburg, the awards were given away..

Cricketer of the Year-     Mitchell Johnson
Test Player of the Year- Gautam Gambhir

ODI Player of the Year- Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Emerging Player-             Peter Siddle

Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year -            William Potterfield

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year - Tilakaratne Dilshan

Women's Cricketer of the Year - Claire Taylor

Umpire of the Year -                     Aleem Daar

Spirit of Cricket-                           New Zealand

ICC ODI and Test team captain - MS Dhoni

Johnson - Impressive performances against SA in both home and away series.. Played a hand with both bat and ball, integral part of the Aussie team which is rebuilding after the loss of its stalwarts..

Gambhir- Scored more than 1000 runs, dream run for him. 5 centuries including a double century against the visiting Australia..

Dhoni- Retained his ODI player award, highly consistent.. Averages above 50 and his average increases by 7 when India chase more than 275.. (remarkable to note that in the same period of consideration Sachin's average dips by 7 when India chase high totals)

Dishan- Has a shot named after him, Dilscoop which he used effectively in the T20s.. Scored 96 of 57 balls in the T20 WC semi final against Windies.. Afiridi's performance was more effective and it lifted the entire team against the Proteas.. Gayle's 88 against Aussies deserved an award too..

Siddle- Emerging player of the year award, he had to fill in the gap left by McGrath and an injured Lee. Truly a better choice from the nominees..Never easy to make your debut in the absence of Lee and having to lead the bowling attack and perform so superbly..

Claire Taylor- England woman's team captain, only in the woman's cricket have they won a major ICC tournament.. This year they won the 50 over championship and the 20-20 championship in which Taylor played a great role with the bat..

Aleem Daar- First time I have seen Simon Taufel being pipped for the award.. Aleem Daar, Asad Rauf, Taufel have been the better umpires..

William Potterfield- First seen in Ireland's T20 campaign, made it to the super 8s.. They have also won 9 of the 11 ODIs they played..

Spirit of Cricket- Switched hands from Sri Lanka to New Zealand this year, Vettori was pretty startled as to what this award was for..

Panel:Clive Lloyd, Anil Kumble, Mudassar Nazar, Stephen Fleming and Bob Taylor
ICC ODI Team of the year-
Virender Sehwag (Ind),
Chris Gayle (WI),
Kevin Pietersen (Eng),
Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL),
Yuvraj Singh (Ind),
Martin Guptill (NZ),
MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK),
Andrew Flintoff (Eng),
Nuwan Kulasekara (SL),
Ajantha Mendis (SL),
Umar Gul (Pak),
12th man: Thilan Thushara (SL)

The team has one batsman too many.. The line up cannot be determined.. Martin Guptill may be a misfit and the balance is missing..

World Test Team of the Year:

Gautam Gambhir (India),

Andrew Strauss (England),

AB de Villiers (South Africa),

Sachin Tendulkar (India),

Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka),

Michael Clarke (Australia),

MS Dhoni (India, capt & wk),

Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh),

Mitchell Johnson (Australia),

Stuart Broad (England),

Dale Steyn (South Africa),

Harbhajan Singh (India, 12th man)

This team is very strong.. No.10 can bat too.. But lacks the 5th bowler..

India out of CT, not mathematically

2009-09-29T14:01:00.001+05:30

After rains washed away the match between India and Australia, the chances of India making it to the semi finals was even more bleak.. India now have just 1 point from their 2 matches now and just have a game against West Indies..

India lost their opening match to Pakistan by 54 runs.. Throughout the match, India just did not look like taking wickets; the scorecard may not give that view (302 for 9).. Yousuf and Malik added 206 runs in their partnership and India never seemed to attack or look to take wickets.. MSD later in the post match presentation came up with an interesting quote that he had never seen that many runs scored of the cut and that he felt he was 2-3 bowlers short.. Not so difficult to fathom the reason though,the absence of Yuvraj has hurt the team a lot.. Yuvraj has been an integral part of the team for almost a decade now and off late India have depended a lot on his heroics in both ODI and T20s. The ease with which he tackles the bowlers and the elegant drives and hoicks over mid wicket are a treat to watch any day and in a span of 5 overs he has the potential to take the game away from the opposition which not many posses in the world cricket now leave alone India.. Its also his bowling that has developed lately, much of the success owed to MSD who used him more often and at trying situations than his counterparts earlier..

Virender Sehwag is another dashing opening bat whom India have missed in T20 world cup and now in the CT.. Viru may not be as elegant as Yuvi but certainly instills fear in the bowlers.. His mere presence at the crease makes the bowlers panic.. He is shrewd and a good bowler in the turning tracks..

The bowling attack lacks depth and is off color at the moment now.. Ashish Nehra who made a comeback after a great performance in the domestic circuit and in the IPL-2 held in South Africa.. He, after returning to the team, has performed well in the West Indies and in CT too he was the one who looked attacking and also the only bowler who looked like taking wickets..

Ishanth is very poor, hopelessly bad.. The riches from the IPL may have driven him crazy or may be the KKR effect that he simply doesn't look the same bowler who tormented the Aussie great Ponting.. He is way below par and just runs in and drops the ball from his hands.. Pace has dropped, nothing in his bowling now would keep the batsmen on their toes.. Rather, yesterday, the Aussies saw him as a scoring opportunity and got out of the blocks after he was introduced in the 9th over..

RP and Bhajji are in an another world.. No clue as to why they perform well in one tournament and do not perform in the tournament only to come back and perform brilliantly in the IPL..

MSD is true, he is 2-3 bowlers short and is also missing Yuvraj badly..

If Australia beat Pakistan on Wednesday, they'll obviously go through as toppers in their group, while Pakistan will take the second slot. It'll get more complicated, though, if Australia lose to Pakistan and India beat West Indies. Then, the margins of the wins will decide which team joins Pakistan in the last four.

The vital question is the margins of victories. Currently, the difference between the net run-rates of Australia and India appear vast: +1.00 for Australia, -1.08 for India. The good thing from India's point of view, though, is that those numbers have come about on the basis of one match only - the stats from no-result matches are excluded in the calculation of net run rates.

AUS won by 50runs; IND lost by 54 runs..

So, SIMPLE !!!

IND win by 54 runs and AUS lose by 50 runs.. Or IND win by a margin greater than 54 runs and the Aussies lose by a margin greater than 50 runs will ensure that India are through undeserving.. That is to say, if we win by 20 runs, Aus need to lose by 85 runs and more..

Yes, with a bowling attack that is as paltry as India's and a batting that once again is heavily dependent on Sachin's innings and also on Rahul to be the wall anchoring the entire innings.. Its not that they perform once and thats enough, they have to perform in every match for India to do well..

The only positive may be that, India's game is a D/N.. So, the earlier match would be completed by the time the 2nd team comes out to bat..

'If we don't do well, we can pack our bags and leave' - MSD

Champions League CL T20 - Otago Volts

2009-09-28T17:26:00.002+05:30

Otago Volts are a New Zealand side..

6 associations that take part in NZ domestic cricket are -
Auckland,
Northern Districts,
Central Districts,
Otago
Wellington and
Canterbury..

2006 T20 tournament was a KKR type in DLF IPL 2 with the volts not winning a single match, 2007 the format of 2 groups was done away with and a round robin was followed and the change worked for the Volts as they ended as runner-up to Auckland Aces.. In 2008, the team did not make it to the finals..

The 2009 T20 competition was held in the month of February and the final on the 1st of March.. The schedule of the series is something that cannot be understood.. Each team at the end of the tournament play 8 matches.. The top 2 in the round robin round qualify for the finals..

Played Won	Lost	Abandoned	Points NRR
Otago Volts 8 6	1	1	26 1.740
Canterbury Wizards 8 5	2	1	22 -0.021
Auckland Aces 8 5	2	1	22 -0.062
Wellington Firebirds 8 4	3	1	18 -0.369
Central Stags 8 1	6	1	6 -0.721
Northern Knights 8 0	7	1	2 -0.738

So, Otago and Canterbury advanced through to the finals which was abandoned due to rain..

Heavy rain and a sodden outfield has gave the umpires no choice but to abandon play without a ball being bowled in the State Twenty20 final between the State Otago Volts and State Canterbury Wizards at University Oval in Dunedin.

Otago was crowned 2008/09 champions after finishing top of the table after the preliminary rounds.
The State Otago Volts were rewarded with the home final after winning six of the seven matches completed in round robin play with the State Canterbury Wizards winning five from seven and sneaking past Auckland on run-rate.

Champions League Twenty20 Team Named

Craig Cumming (Captain) - opened the innings for NZ, 13 tests and 11 ODIs not so impressive record.
Neil Broom - RHB, middle order batsman, still new to international arena..

Nick Beard - 20 year old, a slow left-arm spinner and lower-order batsman

Derek de Boorder - second wicket keeper

Ian Butler - handy bowler

Mathew Harvie

Dimitri Mascarenhas -all rounder from England, also played for Rajasthan Royals

Brendon McCullum - probably the only batting star

Nathan McCullum - Brendon's brother who is good lower down the order and bowls useful off-spinners

James McMillan

Warren McSkimming

Aaron Redmond -not a star, but certainly capable of scoring quick runs, high T20 average

Hamish Rutherford

Greg Todd

Neil Wagner

The support staff with the team will be: George Morris (manager), Mike Hesson (coach), Vaughn Johnson (asst coach), Greg Usherwood (physiotherapist), Chris Donaldson (strength & conditioing), Anthony Bullick (video analyst).

Otago Volts Coach Mike Hesson said “players have made it difficult with the depth in the squad and some difficult decision have had to be made. I am however very pleased with the quality of the squad of 15 we have been able to select. The squad covers all skill groups required and is well suited to Indian conditions.

With seven players having international experience and promising youngsters like Nick Beard, Hamish Rutherford (both New Zealand Under 19) and Neil Wagner who has been very impressive since moving to New Zealand we feel the squad has an exciting mix”

The video below is that of Brendon McCullum scoring 170 in the State Shield finals, 7 sixes and 19 fours..

Champions League CL t20 - Wayamba

2009-09-26T23:23:00.002+05:30

Wayamba cricket team is a Sri Lankan first class cricket team based in Kurunegala, that represents North Western Province..

Wayamba means 'North West' in Sinhalese language..

Sri Lankan domestic cricket comprises of Coca Cola Premier Tier A and Tier B limited overs tournament, a Sara tournament and a Donovan Andree tournament for the different sports clubs.. Inter-Provincial tournament is played among the provinces and the Inter Provincial T20 determines the champions.. (the participant in the champions league)..

The teams that take part and the points table of the 2008-2009 play off is pasted below..

.

Teams	M	W	L	BP	POINTS
LEXMARK BASNAHIRA SOUTH	5	5	0	1	21
LANKA BELL WAYAMBA	5	4	1	2	18
MAS KANDURATA	5	3	2	1	13
HIRDARAMANI RUHUNA	5	2	3	2	10
E-WIS BASNAHIRA NORTH	5	1	4	0	4
SCHOOLS XI	5	0	5	0	0

The semi-final play off was

Lexmark Basnahira South vs Mas Kandurata- Basnahira South Won By 15 Runs..

Toss was won by Kandurata and elected to field first.. Basnahira South boasts of players like Dilshan, Rupasinge, Chamara Silva, R.Perera and Bandara.. Wickets kept tumbling and meaningful innings came only from Chamara and the only six was scored by Bandara.. 137 for 9, was a below par score.. Ruchira Perera's 4 wickets rocked the run chase of a team that had Sangakkara, Paranivatana, Weeraratne, Muralitharan and Thushara..

Lanka Bell Wayamba vs Hirdaramani Ruhuna- Wayamba won in a bowl out 3-2

Ruhuna captained by Jayasuriya won the toss and elected to bat in a 15 over match.. Tharanga, Indika De Saram and Malinga were the players to have played for the national side. Bizarre innings that ended at 88 for 7.. Guess what !! The match was even more bizarre.. Wayamba did not even get to bat because of rain at the SSC grounds.. They happened to win the bowl out 3-2.. BIZARRRREEEEE !!!

Finals - Wayamba vs Basnahira South
Capt Dilshan provided an excellent start 66 of 49 balls and Chamara Silva's 41 of 27 balls was more than handy but hey the team was bowled out for 144.. 4 wickets to Isuru Udana, the bowler who bowls 5 slow balls and the change up ball is a quick one.. Strange but true !! Udawatte, Mubarak, M.Jayawardene, Maharoof, Koushal Lokuarachi were enough to see things off..

Isuru Udana was awarded man of the match and man of the series..

In Champions League T20,

Placed in group D along with Delhi Daredevils and Victorian Bushrangers..

The side will be a major challenger in the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 as its line-up includes some of the best Sri Lankan players. Mahela Jayawardene, Ajantha Mendis, Maharoof, Jehan Mubarak, Rangana Herath and Isuru Udana are among the players to watch out for in the side.

Sun Oct 11 (D/N) 20:00 IST	Group D - Delhi Daredevils v Wayamba	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Tue Oct 13 16:00 IST	Group D - Victoria v Wayamba	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi

TEAM.. (national players highlighted)

Sameera de Zoysa
I Amerasinghe
C Welegedara - new
Mahela Udawatte - used sparingly as opener
Isuru Udana - top ball is the fast ball
Thissara Perera
J Mubarak (C) - came lower down the order in T20 WC, good hitter
Ajantha Mendis - mystery man
Farveez Maharoof - good all rounder, chose wayamba over daredevils
Michael Vandort - decent
Rangana Herath - ultra slow left arm
M Jayawardene - the class act
S Karunanayake
J Kulatunga
K Lokuarachchi - hard hitting batsman, handy bowler

Champions League - CL T20

2009-09-25T23:25:00.003+05:30

Champions League is yet another brain child of IPL boss Lalit Modi.. This T20 venture is true to its name, that it features the champions of domestic T20 tournaments in 7 countries and 3 founder countries also have their runner-up in place for the tournament.. So, indeed, it is a league of the champions..

Champions trophy was conceived a year ago by BCCI, CA and CSA.. The BCCI is a founding partner of the tournament, along with Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA), with all three countries enjoying joint decision-making control over the multi-nation, multi-club event.. The first edition which was to take place in December, 2008 in India was postponed following terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November as a mark of solidarity with the victims. It was later canceled. The revised dates that were announced was October 8 - 23, 2009.

The inaugural edition of the CL T20 will be held across 3 venues in India- Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi.. The prize money for the event is a staggering 6million USD with the winners taking USD 2.5 million...

The teams that will compete in the inaugural contest are:

Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils (India);
New South Wales Blues and VB Victorian Bushrangers (Australia);
Cape Cobras and Diamond Eagles (South Africa);
Sussex and Somerset County Cricket Club (England)
Otago Volts (New Zealand);
Wayamba (Sri Lanka);
Trinidad & Tobago (West Indies) ..

Two hundred and thirty four players have been named by the dozen participating teams, out of which as many as 110 have played international cricket for their respective nations.Players who represent two teams in CL T20 competitions got to choose which team they will want to play for.. As many as nine cricketers came under this category and the ‘away’ team had to pay a whooping USD200,000 to a player’s home team to actually retain the player’s services.

The format......

The 12 teams have been divided into 4 groups of 3 each.. The top 2 teams from each group move into 2 groups.. the top 4 of these groups play the semi finals..

Group Stage

Group A: Deccan Chargers, Somerset, Trinidad & Tobago

Group B: New South Wales, Eagles , Sussex Sharks

Group C: Royal Challengers Bangalore, Cape Cobras and Otago

Group D: Delhi Daredevils, Victoria and Wayamba

Round Robin League Stage

League A: A1, A2, B1, B2

League B: C1, C2, D1, D2

TIME	MATCH	Venue
Thu Oct 8 (D/N) 20:00 IST	Group C - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Cape Cobras	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Fri Oct 9 16:00 IST	Group B - Eagles v New South Wales	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Fri Oct 9 (D/N) 20:00 IST	Group D - Delhi Daredevils v Victoria	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Sat Oct 10 16:00 IST	Group C - Cape Cobras v Otago	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Sat Oct 10 (D/N) 20:00 IST	Group A - Deccan Chargers v Somerset Sabres	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Sun Oct 11 16:00 IST	Group B - New South Wales v Sussex Sharks	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Sun Oct 11 (D/N) 20:00 IST	Group D - Delhi Daredevils v Wayamba	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Mon Oct 12 16:00 IST	Group A - Somerset Sabres v Trinidad & Tobago	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Mon Oct 12 (D/N) 20:00 IST	Group C - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Otago	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Tue Oct 13 16:00 IST	Group D - Victoria v Wayamba	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Tue Oct 13 (D/N) 20:00 IST	Group B - Eagles v Sussex Sharks	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Wed Oct 14 (D/N) 20:00 IST	Group A - Deccan Chargers v Trinidad & Tobago	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad

The teams and their road to CL T20 in the subsequent posts..

Warm up to the Champions trophy

2009-09-21T14:23:00.000+05:30

ODIs are dying, T20s are emerging to be best entertainers and the tv channels with broadcasting rights for the tournaments are partly responsible for that..

We all remember that the warm up games leading into the T20 world cup was telecast and an Indo-Pak match was organized just to pull the crowds to the stadium and it was well received..

Here we are, at the mini World cup a 50 over tournament of 8 test playing nations, 15matches and is regarded as a tool to gauge the relevance of the 50 over format and the warm up matches are not being aired.. Not even a live scorecard or news ticker on star cricket, who hold the rights to broadcast ICC events.. And wats making the headlines- 'save ODI'..

New Zealand vs Warriors- NZ never got going, except for a partnership of 95 between Taylor and Guptill. From being at 210 for 3, they were bowled out for 237.. The Warriors chase also suffered from the lack of substantial partnerships but all their batsmen chipped in with useful contributions. Warriors eventually won in the penultimate over by 2 wickets..

South Africa vs West Indies - Long time since such a one sided affair was seen.. If in the previous game, many got into double figures, in this game, SA top order batsmen all got into 80s..Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and JP Duminy all reached the 80s.. Duminy was the stand-out batsman with 80 off 49 deliveries and Mark Boucher also gave a reminder of his big-hitting skills by smashing 55 off 27 balls; Posted a mammoth 388 that showed how weak Windies are who later were bowled out for 200..

Pakistan vs Srilanka- As if 2 back to back series weren't enough, these 2 teams locked horns once again.. Pakistan were outplayed in the Lankan islands earlier losing both tests and ODIs had a point to prove and they came with a bang, scored 306 after a jittery start, Akmal, Misbah and Umar Akmal scored 50s, and Naved-ul-Hassan picked up 5wickets to bundle the Lankans out for 198..

ALL ON SEPT 18.

Srilanka vs West Indies- Dale Richards and Devon Smith notched up 50s but the M&M of Lanka spun a web around Windies and all they could manage was a paltry 201.. Sri-lanka were steered to victory by a good knock from Jyawardene..

Pakistan vs Warriors- Pakistan, Sri lanka and West Indies had 2 practice matches a piece.. Pakistan came up with another convincing performance.. An unbeaten 130 from Shoaib Malik guided Pakistan to a six-wicket victory against Warriors.. Chasing 262 for victory, Pakis got there with 19 balls to spare.

India vs New Zealand- Neil Broom, Jesse Ryder and Martin Guptill scored 50s and NZ scored 301.. Pacers were torn apart and it was the spinners who put on the brakes. 3 wickets to Yusuf Pathan somewhat restricted NZ to just 301.. India had rested Sachin and Harbhajan, so it was upto the make shift opening pair of Karthik and Dravid to start the innings, Dravid was on fire scoring a quick fire 37 of 34 balls but soon the openers were back in the hut.. MSD was (un)characteristically slow, Yuvraj tried to smash the bowling apart but all in vain.. bhishek Nayar provided some fight, scoring a quick 41, which included six fours. New Zealand shared the wickets around with Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond taking two apiece, as India were bowled out in the 41st over..

8 teams, 15 matches, 1 cup.. Let the games begin.. For schedule,see previous post ..

Champions Trophy- 2009 schedule

2009-09-16T22:50:00.002+05:30

ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Warm-up Games

Timing	Teams	Venue
Fri 18 Sep 13:00 IST	Warm-up Games – New Zealand v Warriors	LC de Villiers Oval, Pretoria
Fri 18 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Warm-up Games – Pakistan v Sri Lanka	Willowmoore Park, Benoni
Fri 18 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Warm-up Games – South Africa v West Indies	Senwes Park, Potchefstroom
Sun 20 Sep 13:00 IST	Warm-up Games – Sri Lanka v West Indies	LC de Villiers Oval, Pretoria
Sun 20 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Warm-up Games – India v New Zealand	Senwes Park, Potchefstroom
Sun 20 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Warm-up Games – Pakistan v Warriors	Willowmoore Park, Benoni

ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Fixtures

Timing	Teams	Venue
Tue 22 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Group B – Sri Lanka v South Africa	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Wed 23 Sep (D/N) 18:00IST	Group A – Pakistan v West Indies	New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Thu 24 Sep 13:00 IST	Group B – South Africa v New Zealand	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Fri 25 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Group B – England v Sri Lanka	New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Sat 26 Sep 13:00 IST	Group A – Australia v West Indies	New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Sat 26 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Group A – India v Pakistan	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Sun 27 Sep 13:00 IST	Group B – New Zealand v Sri Lanka	New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Sun 27 Sep (S/N) 18:00 IST	Group B – England v South Africa	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Mon 28 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Group A – India v Australia	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Tue 29 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Group B – England v New Zealand	New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Wed 30 Sep 13:00 IST	Group A – Pakistan v Australia	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Wed 30 Sep (D/N) 18:00 IST	Group A – India v West Indies	New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Fri 2 Oct (D/N) 18:00 IST	1^st Semi Final – A1 v B2	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Sat Oct 3 (D/N) 18:00 IST	2^nd Semi Final – A2 v B1	New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Mon 5 Oct (D/N) 18:00 IST	Final – 1^st Semi Final winner v 2^nd Semi Final inner	SuperSport Park, Centurion

Champions trophy - 2009

2009-09-16T22:40:00.001+05:30

India Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Abhishek Nayar, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, R.P.Singh, Ishant Sharma, Amith Mishra, Dinesh Karthik.

Hoping that Gambhir is back, Virat Kohli may be a replacement if Gambhir doesnt make it..

Sachin is at his ever best, classic century at the emerald isle is a good example to show the elegance and the ease with which Sachin plays these days..

Rahul's inclusion is great for the side. MSD and Yuvi have been more than consistent.. The only cause of worry could be the inexperience in the lower middle order and the fast-bowling is a bit weak.. Though Nehra is back to form, the fast bowling doesn't have enough experience to handle an onslaught..

South Africa Squad: Graeme Smith (Captain), Johan Botha, Hashim Amla, Mark Boucher (WK), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Albie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Wayne Parnell, Robbie Peterson, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Great line up on paper yet again.. On numerous occasions SA gone into a major tournament with a match-winning combination but have fallen short of everyone's expectations and have earned the title "CHOKERS".. 50 over cricket on their backyard, hope they perform a little better this time around.. Amla is back, mostly as opener or may have to sit out with 11players picking themselves.. The spin duo of Botha and Roelof may prove more than handy against NZ and England while the Lankans may play it easily..

Pakistan Squad: Younis Khan (Captain), Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Imran Nazir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal (WK), Mohammad Yousuf, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Aamer, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Mohammad Asif.

With the ex-ICL players back in the fray, Pakistan look more potent now.. Imran Nazir, Yousuf, Rana Naved are back.. Yousuf and Younis lend solidity while Nazir, Afridi, Akmal providing the fire power at the top and Umar Akmal lower down the order should be enough.. Aamer will be tested in SA.. As usual, the dual side of Pak is always there, no team can lose as badly as Pak and come back winning.. Overcoming India and Australia may be tough though..

Sri Lanka Squad: Kumar Sangakkara (Captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Mathews, Thilina Kandamby, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dammika Prasad, Lasith Malinga.

40 year old Sanath is still fit and raring to go.. Murali is back after resting himself for a couple of weeks.. Lower middle order is a bit fragile.. Samaraweera has had a tremendous year in test matches that has prompted the selectors to give him a go in the ODIs and should we say he has grabbed it with both his hands.. Kandamby is proving to be an Asian Bevan, though it is too early to confer him with such a title but looking at his performances one is prompted to see the glimpses of Bevan in him.. Bowling is alright, Kulasekara and Thushara and later Mathews and Malinga would prove potent at the swinging conditions and bouncier wickets..

Australia Squad: Ricky Ponting (Captain), Michael Clarke, Callum Ferguson, Tim Paine, Michael Hussey, James Hopes, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Cameron White, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nathan Bracken, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz.

A changing Aussies, no more invincible and they do not seem to have the aura around them but do not discount them off too soon.. Brett Lee is in great form + a few wides and no balls ; Watson at the top is useful; Fergusson has been in good form ever since he made his debut.. The main 3- Ponting, Clarke and Hussey are not in great form.. Ponting's century against England in the 5th ODI is a welcome sign.. Will face a tough competetion from India..

New Zealand Squad: Daniel Vettori (Captain), Neil Broom, Brendon Diamanti ,Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Daryl Tuffey, Shane Bond, Ian Butler.

The workman like team.. Extremely poor series in Sri-Lanka, have to leave that behind and move ahead or else they will be the first team to exit.. Batting lacks depth and experience.. Bowling is ordinary., will face serious tests against Lankans, Africans..

England Squad: Andrew Strauss (Captain), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Joe Denly, Andrew Flintoff, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (WK), Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, James Anderson,.

Looking at the way they have played against the Aussies so timidly, one would be encouraged to call them a weaker side.. ICC rankings don't come to their support either, they are just above Windies and Bangladeshis.. The batsmen do not want to take risk and score runs and if this continues they will be in for a shock.. Their selection policy also needs to be questioned.. Their group is not that easy either, SA, SL and NZ will offer tough fight..

Luke Wright has been removed from the squad due to injury.. Replacement yet to be announced..

West Indies Squad: Floyd Reifer (capt), Darren Sammy, David Bernard, Tino Best, Royston Crandon, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Nikita Miller, Kevin McClean, Chadwick Walton (WK), Kieran Powell, Dale Richards, Kemar Roach, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge.

A 'B' side from Windies.. The other sides will have it easy against them. Having said that if a team is too complacent, then an upset is on cards.. Sammy, Bernard, Richards hold the key.. They have lost to Cape Cobras failing to defend 327 and later won against North West by 103 runs..

A late news from the ICC that they are willing to accept a "revised" line-up in the event the industrial relations dispute between the board and the players is resolved.

KPL

2009-09-10T20:24:00.000+05:30

Yet another cricket tournament in India and another one in the same format as that of IPL..

ICL was the first to roll out city based teams all owned by the Zee group, IPL took it to unimaginable heights based on city loyalties and teams being owned by franchises..

The latest addition to that is Mantri KPL, 8 teams, 8 owners, 8 districts in Karnataka.

The league shall have 8 teams from 8 locations that will compete in the KPL

Each team shall be represented by a Franchisee and shall be a consortium of 3-5 districts allocated geographically, referred to as the catchment area.
16 day tournament with 2 matches every day from 16:00 to 19:00 hrs & 19:30 to 22:30 hrs (Day/ Night)
Each team shall play the other once, with the top 4 teams qualifying for the Semis and thereafter a final . Total - 31 Matches (28 League matches, 2 Semis and 1 final)
The tickets are priced as Rs.49 and Rs.25, which is done in order to lure even the reluctant fans to the stadium.

The inaugural ceremony which ironically took place after a match was played comprised of laser show, "fusion" dance and the usual opening ceremony talks from the sponsors and organizers..

As has become customary, fusion dance supposedly a blend of traditional and modern dance hit the floors but the latter was inconspicuous in its presence ..

It was no surprise that the eight participating teams lined up on the park for a ringside view of the cultural performances that were full of energy, if nothing else.

With fellow State Ministers Goolihatti Shekar and Katta Subrahmanya Naidu, as well as KSCA president Srikanta Datta Narasimha Raja Wadiyar and secretary Brijesh Patel in attendance, Transport Minister R Ashok declared the KPL open.. (after a match was completed)..

Laser show was organized which was the highlight of the ceremony as that was the only part that was visible from all parts of the stadium..

This is the layout of the stadium, the white line in the ground indicates the place where the stage shown in a picture above with "yakshagana" artistes performing was put up.. ( the pic has a Mantri banner )

Clearly, 3/4 the of the stadium was cut off from the action and moreover the stands in front of the stage was more or less vacant with only the dignitaries occupying the pavilion stand, (yellow in color in the layout)..

Poorly organized function.. KSCA and KPL have tried to emulate IPL in every aspect and have failed to do so.. The event lacked brilliance and was not well organized.. The controversial and debatable strategic time out is also a feature of this tournament.. "COPYING" couldn't get worse !! IPL had specifically put the time out in place to cater to the increasing demand from the sponsors for ad space, cricketing perspective of the time out was debated across all sections and many prominent international stars did not find any positives in it.. KPL is not of the stature of IPL and neither does it have a crowded ad space, the only "ad" that is played in between overs is KPL anthem..

KPL which is looking at

An opportunity to encourage cricket talent from the districts of Karnataka.
A competitive platform for young, aspiring cricketers at the grass root level. ;

did not feature any of the stalwarts of Indian cricket who were from the native Karnataka.. Fair enough, Rahul Dravid was away with national duty but Kumble, Srinath, Prasanna, Chandrashekar, Syed Kirmani could have launched the event but were not to be found.. GR.Viswanath though was at the event because he happened to be the match referee..

Pakistan in the news

2009-09-08T12:40:00.000+05:30

Pakistan is in the news.. Now wait a minute, they aren't playing any international cricket then what takes them to the cricket headlines..

Wasim Bari is appointed as the new COO of PCB, barely a week after the former COO was unceremoniously ousted.. Bari was the PCB director of HR, formerly an interim selector in national selection committee headed by Abdul Qadir that was recently sacked by PCB chairman..

Javed Miandad, Abdul Qadir and Aamer Sohail had resigned following problems with Butt, while the chairman sacked chief operating officer Saleem Altaf earlier this year.

The post of PCB chairman is an honorary post, no salary.. But he is entitled to get a lot of benefits-

Rs. 100,000 as HRA per month, 4 servants, a security guard and cars
Entitled to a land-line number and an international mobile phone connection with unlimited billing.
The board pays for his electricity, gas and water bills, or Rs 40,000 monthly and also reimburses him for any medical expense on his own treatment or that of his spouse.
Entitled to first-class international travel with his wife and business class domestically.
Traveling allowance of USD 300 per day and USD 600 dollars for accommodation on international trips.

Aamir Sohail who quit as the director of National Cricket Academy recently after he differed with the chairman Ejaz Butt, has launched an attack on Butt stating that he is misfit to head PCB and that he was solely responsible for the WC2011 fiasco..

Sohail also accused the current Pakistan national team coach Intikhab Alam that he was fanning groupism and was responsible for the internal politics that has plagued the team.. He also called for the appointment of a younger man as coach of the national team which he felt had the potential to move ahead and become a top team..

Intikhab Alam on the other hand has said that there are a few former players in the PCB who do not want him to continue as the coach and are conspiring to oust him..

ICL has put Pak players dues on hold after learning that former test players were involved in match fixing and betting in the finals which saw Lahore Badshahs lose the 2nd finals against Hyderabad Heroes to ensure that the 3rd finals was played..

Qasim Umar has accused 2 senior players of match fixing and drug trafficking and has said that he would name those involved at a latter stage as the persons involved were highly influential and that he feared for his life if he were to name them.. He said while one was involved in match fixing the other had used drugs.. He also said that Viv Richards used to take drugs for relaxation and stamina enhancement..

Qasim Umar was banned for life by PCB in the 80s after accusing Imran Khan of smuggling drugs in the kit, which ended his career. He said that PCB destroyed his career to appease Imran..

The cricketing news from Pak is that they are going to play "home series" in NZ and are planning to schedule ODIs in Abu Dabi and Dubai..

Pakistan in New Zealand
November 18-20 - Warm-up match
November 24-28 - 1st Test at University Oval, Dunedin
December 3-7 - 2nd Test at Basin Reserve, Wellington
December 11-15 - 3rd Test at McLean Park, Napier