Cricket - 30th December 2008

Current Affairs Sports: 30th December 2008

Want to write something so will now give current affairs for the coming few days. :)

Cricket:

• Australia looses test series at home for the first time in 16 years. If South Africa manages to defeat Australia in the final test the numero uno position will be held by SA than.
  
• 3-0 whitewash will take place for the first time since 1984 against WI
• Roy is dropped for the final test against SA
• Australia has named 3 rookies pacer Doug Bollinger, swing bowler Ben Hilfenhaus and all rounder Andrew McDonald in the 12 men squad for the final test.
• Watson will be out of action for the next six months due to stress fracture to his back
  
• Putting aside all the rumors England have not selected Michael Vaughn for the test series against WI.
• New ICC anti doping code is announced
• Player to watch out for in 2009 - Cheteshwar Pujara. He should be in Indian team for NZ tour.
  

Its Official Now : Tour to Pakistan Off

The news which all of India was expecting is official now, tour to Pakistan in Jan has been called off. Government of India asked the BCCI not to proceed with the tour to Pakistan.

Tour was planned from Jan -13 to Feb - 19 consisting of 3 Tests, 5 one dayers and 1 Twenty20. Pakistan is set to loose 20 million dollars. This is a big loss for near bankrupt PCB.

Our neighbors have not played a single test in the whole of 2008 and they played around 22 odi's only.

It is a good measure from India and we should take more such measures which were earlier known as confidence building measures. India with its foreign policy should try to isolate Pakistan more since the Mumbai Attacks.

Cricket needs Test Matches like India vs England @Chennai

What a test match between England and India has turned out to be. Played in security fears and questions by many people regarding the timing of cricket in India as we are yet to come out of Mumbai Carnage. But cricket won and the match took place among lots of security personals and England came with a desire to win and hunger was easily visible in their players.

They scored decent first innings score of 300+ and were on the front foot after getting India out early. Pieterson was brave in declaring at a challenging score of 311 thus giving India 387 runs target. Had it has been reverse case i.e Indian captain had to declare I doubt if any Indian captain would have declared below 420 target.

Hats off to Kevin he gave India the hope that they can win and big thanks to Sehwag for making this test match a great match. If he had got out early, I feel the match would have been a lame duck draw with Indians playing slowly and slowly and by afternoon agreeing for a draw.

Right now India stands a great chance in winning with only 83 runs required and Sehwag and Yuvi at crease. Yuvi controlled himself a lot after being teased by Flintoff regularly during his spell.

Lets see and enjoy cricket.

Finally Cricket to Resume In India

Its final now England cricketers are coming to India for two match test series. Some people will say it may be due to the financial clout of BCCI that England is coming back so early but I feel life is much bigger than money and I salute to the cricketers that they are coming back in full strength.

ECB managing director said :

"This is a very brave and courageous decision which will be respected around the world,''

I totally agree to what he is saying, Its not easy for them after what they saw and some of them including Vaughan had a narrow escape as they were schedule to stay in Taj hotel from the next day.

Some people were saying this is not the time to play as sports are played for enthusiasm and we should be with those who have suffered, I respect this point but I feel we shouldn't let life come to a standstill and let those terrorists win, they want us to stay indoors always and life a life in which we are afraid every time.
No cricket should resume and other sports should also resume. Cricket as a sport will win in these two matches no matter who wins the series.

Successful and peaceful culmination of this series may lead to Champions League T20 being taking place in Jan.

India and England have played 97 Tests prior to the start of this series. India has won 18, lost 34, with 45 ending in a draw. I believe we may take our victory stats to 20 in the coming series.

Squad Details:
Kevin Pietersen (captain), Tim Ambrose (wkt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison, Amjad Khan, Monty Panesar, Matt Prior (wkt), Owais Shah, Andrew Strauss, Graeme Swann.
First Test: December 11-15, Chennai
Second Test: December 19-23, Mohali

Champions League Cricket Tournament Postponed

The upcoming and much awaited champions league cricket tournament has been postponed with no further dates being announced.
A meeting according to the organizers will take place in december and the tournament may take place next year.

Mumbai is still fighting the terrorists who are sill staying at various rooms of hotel taj and oberio. According to cnn-ibn war in mumbai is still on with gun shots being heard from taj and other hotels. NSG is ready for final assault in Nariman House where Nigerian Tourists are still hostage. This is almost the 20th hour since the event first started last night.

Now coming back to champions league :

Lalit Modi, chairman of the Champions League board said

"We couldn't get a third venue to replace Mumbai at such short notice."

Earlier in the morning middlesex team has already cancelled its flight to mumbai and australian teams were also waiting for further orders from their boards and security agencies of their respective countries. English team has already cancelled its tour in the morning and most of the players who were coming for the upcoming tournament have already stopped midway waiting for further notice.

Most of the players were due to stay in hotel Taj for the Mumbai matches. This incident is a big blow to India both socially and financially as cricket, tourists and image of India as a safe and secure nation has dealt a big blog.

The famous quotes like India has arrived on the world stage - is it relevant now? as we are a weak nation who cannot take care of its citizens , terrorists can attack any place of India when they wish.

I am really frustrated now, we need to revamp everything now from police to intelligence agencies and we should keep ourselves alert now as we can't depend on the police always.

Read More - BBC CL T20 Postponed.
img src : CNN

Saurav Ganguly to become Commentator now

Saurav Ganguly is not the type of person who would sit at their homes after retirement, few days back i wrote about his new role as member of technical committee of BCCI and now I have come to know that he is gearing up for new role.

The role is doing commentory for the upcoming champions tropy (I wish it happens on time) . I know we all dada fans will love to hear him now as a commentator. Getting dada in the commentory is sure to boost the TRP ratings of the espn-star sports channel who have already shelled out a billions dollars for ten year contract.

Source : Cricket360

England Tour Cancelled

In the wake of Mumbai attacks the current tour of england cricket team is cancelled
Chances of Champions League Cricket Tournament getting cancelled have increased.

Further details are awaited.

Mumbai Attacks : England Tour and Champions League Under Threat

Used to attack the Indians specially mumbaikars witnessed one of the deadliest attack in the monthly occurring event in India. Yes the attacks are almost monthly or bimonthly in India last being in Assam before that Delhi, Ahmadabad and Bangalore , please see we don't count small attacks in which 1-2 people are killed as they are regular events in India where slowly and gradually the patience of common public is nearing its end. I think the day is not far when we see movie's 'A Wednesday' kind of scenario in real life.

Is the life of common man or our guest that is the tourists in this case so cheap that any body can kill them. In Yesterday's attack hotels in which tourists are staying are attack.

The motive which I see in this case is to make India a unsafe place for visits as Pakistan is right now. Frequent terrorists attacks have made India unsafe for its own citizens leave the foreigners aside.

England current tour and the upcoming champions league cricket tournament is on risk of getting postponed or canceled. I laughed when there were news in media that India is considering canceling the upcoming tour of Pakistan due to security reasons . There is an old saying in Hindi "people whose own houses are made of glass they shouldn't throw stones at other houses ".

Politicians who according to me are part of problem drive in vip security having allotted many guards , black cat commandos assigned to them for their security, and the aam junta is left to loiter around die here and there in bomb attacks.

Middlesex cricket team has cancelled its flight to mumbai and England cricket team will surely not fly to mumbai for the test match. England was to stay in Hotel Taj for the mumbai test match. Cricket Australia decided to suspend all travel to India while it takes security advice.
England is now in urgent talk with BCCI regarding the tour.

An official from the Board of Control for Cricket in India said:

"This has been a terrible day for India but at the moment it's far too early to talk about cancelling England's tour or the Champions League."

Tour may be cancelled or may be not, it all depends whether security is given more weightage or the rewards of earning money in Indian in champions league few days will clear this picture.

Read More -
Guardian
CNN

HT Summit - Rahul Dravid & Michael Vaughan : Control Agents

So here comes the 250th post on this blog.

I was following the summit to some extent and but to my bad luck missed listening to two great stalwarts of test cricket Rahul Dravid and Michale Vaughan. It was different look all suited up with many sportsman in the audience also including gold medalist Rahul Bindra.

They both expressed their concern in the growing commercialization of twenty20 and danger of test cricket loosing its identity. Vaughan was the first to start and he said that there is a need to modify the rules of the test cricket so that its supremacy can be preserved.

"Youngsters these days are more committed to Twenty20, I feel," Vaughan said.

Dravid was not concerned about the present generation regarding the twenty20 cricket as he said we all have grown up watching test matches so deep in our hearts we know this is real cricket but the worry is about the coming generations say 4-5 years down the line.

Dravid said that

There'll be many choices and it'll be interesting to see youngsters' choices and decisions then. That is why the decisions we take now will tell the fate of Test cricket in years to come,"

Dravid also raised the point of growing role of agents or scouts in cricket. He said that though most companies help a player concentrate on his game, but influence of some unscrupulous ones needs to be checked.
He said we need to do something on the patterns of English premier league so that youngsters are not brought into the commercial cricket at very young age and that may divert their area of focus.

In the end dravid praised Bindra for being so level headed in victory which every one should learn.

Dravid quotes-

While everybody was going berserk, when the interviewer asked you why aren't you more excited by your achievement, you merely said, 'what's to get excited about. I was excited when I shot the gold.' That was so right, you made us all proud."

I enjoyed listening to great people from Sanjay dutt to Dravid.

Cartier to Design C L T20 Trophy

Big news for champions league cricket is that renowned french jewelery brand Cartier will be designing the trophy for the upcoming CL T20 tournament.


The exquisitely hand-sculpted trophy will be unveiled in December prior to the beginning of the tournament.

Trophy details :

• Height - 41 cms
• Diameter - 31 cms
• Weight - 7Kg

Chairman of the Champions League Twenty20 Lalit Modi said:

“Cartier has created some truly exquisite and stunning works of art, be it in jewellery design, watches and accessories, that have adorned Hollywood beauties and Royalty alike.

Bernard Fornas, President & CEO Cartier International said:

“C for Cartier, C for Cricket are two simple seven-letter words that encapsulate passion and a union between elegance and style.

Lets see how the trophy will look when it is unveiled. And I have no doubt that in years to come the trophy will become as coveted as the world cup and as yearning as the UEFA Champions League trophy for the footballers around the world is.

Read About Cartier.

New Role for Saurav Ganguly

Ganguly has been given a new role. He is set to join the technical committee of BCCI. Technical committee is a powerful body which takes decision on cricketing matters and rule changes.

The BCCI's technical committee is headed by former captain Sunil Gavaskar and also has former Test batsman Chetan Chauhan, national selector Kris Srikkanth among other members.

I am happy about thie achievement but i will happy on the day when he becomes the president of BCCI and i think that is possible. May be I am dreaming but I want him to be there.

Further details can be read at expressindia.com.

Latest Test and ODI's Rankings

ICC Test Rankings
Rank Teams Matches Points Rating

1 Australia 31 3992 129

2 India 40 4659 116

3 South Africa 34 3953 116

4 Sri Lanka 28 3032 108
5 England 38 3965 104
6 Pakistan 19 1895 100
7 New Zealand 24 1967 82
8 West Indies 22 1791 81
9 Bangladesh 17 20 1

ICC ODI Rankings

Teams Matches Points Rating

1 Australia 28 3658 131

2 South Africa 29 3451 119

3 India 38 4381 115

4 Pakistan 28 3182 114

5 New Zealand 24 2714 113

6 England 29 3269 113

7 Sri Lanka 27 2838 105

8 West Indies 24 2178 91

9Bangladesh 32 1494 47

10Ireland 10 190 19

11Zimbabwe 17 259 15

12 Kenya 7 75 11

High Definition CL T20 by Espn Star Sports

As we know ESPN-Star has paid a whooping 1 billions USD for 10 year contract for broadcasting champions league t20 cricket. It is spending a lot on promotion of the event also.

Another first for Indian sporting event is for the first time the telecast of the event will be in High Definition (HD). According to IndiaTelevision news ESS will be using 34 cameras to cover the event which are maximum ever used to cover any cricket match.

There will be new range of graphics for stats for enhancing the viewing experiences and above all mozart of east A R Rahman is composing different types of anthems for events.

Here are the few promos. I tried a lot to find them on you tube but was unable to

Champions League T20 Revolution
Champions League T20 Logomation
Champions League T20

Lot more are on air now a days.

ICL Power Rankings

On the pattern of power rankings for twenty20 clubs, rankings for ICL clubs is out. I have taken the rankings from here.


1.Chennai Superstars
2.Lahore Badshahs
3.Dhaka Warriors
4.Hyderabad Heroes
5.Royal Bengal Tigers
6.Chandigarh Lions
7.Delhi Giants
8.Ahmedabad Rockets
9.Mumbai Champs


Power Rankings for international clubs can be see at here in my previous post.

Champions League Cricket Teams - Squads & Sponsors

Rambal Warriors :
Marcus North (Captain), Adam Voges (Vice Captain), David Bandy, Arron Crawford, Liam Davis, Brett Dorey, Theo Doropoulos, Ben Edmondson, Aaron Heal, Matt Johnston, Trent Kelly, Steve Magoffin, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, Luke Ronchi.

Sponsor - Retravision , VB

Nashua Titans:

Pierre Joubert(Captain),Farhaan Behardien ,Ethy Mbhalati ,Gulam Bodi ,Brendon Reddy ,Jaco Booysen ,Blake Snijman ,Francois du Plessis ,Imran Tahir ,Roelof van der Merwe ,Heino Kuhn ,Martin van Jaarsveld ,Pieter Malan ,Basheer Walters ,Matthew Arnold ,Rushdie Jappie ,AB de Villiers ,Morné Morkel(playing for Chennai) ,Paul Harris ,Dale Steyn ,Albie Morkel .

Sponsor- Nashua, jacaranda(FM), easyinfo.co.za.

Victoria Bushrangers:
Cameron White (Captain), Aiden Blizzard, Adam Crosthwaite, Aaron Finch, Shane Harwood, John Hastings, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Andrew McDonald, Clinton McKay, Dirk Nannes, Darren Pattinson, Robert Quiney, Peter Siddle and Matthew Wade.

Sponsor- VB, Commonwealth Bank , Jonnie Walker.

Rajasthan Royals:

Graema Smith, Md Kaif, Younis Khan, Niraj Patel, Justin Langer,Anoop Revandkar, Aditya Angle, Kamran Akmal, Yusuf Pathan , Mahesh Rawat, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shane Watson, Sohail Tanvir, Ravindra Jadeja, Siddharth Trivedi, Swapnis Asnodkar, Sumit Khatri, Dinesh Salunke, Shane Warne, Munaf Patel, Morne Morkel.

Sponsor- Tata AIG, Reebok, Boost, Kingfisher.

Chennai Superkings:

Matthew Hayden , Stephen Fleming , Suresh Raina , Michael Hussey, Anirudha Srikkanth, Subramaniam Badrinath, Arun Karthik, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain) , Parthiv Patel, Jacob Oram, Albie Morkel, Shadab Jakati, Abhinav Mukund, Viraj Kadbe, Napoleon Einstein, Selvam Suresh Kumar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Joginder Sharma, Makhaya Ntini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Manpreet Gony, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Palani Amarnath.

Sponsors- Aircel, Peter England, Jet Airways, Big FM, Royal Challenge, Radio One, Coromandel King.

Nashua Dolphins:

Ahmed Amla (Captain), Imraan Khan, Hashim Amla, Jon Kent, Grant Rowley, Martin Bekker, Pierre de Bruyn, Daryn Smit, Johann Louw, Morne van Vuuren, Quinton Friend, Alfonso Thomas, Saidi Mlongo, Yusuf Abdullah and David Miller.

Sponsor- Standard Bank, Nashua, Kwazulu Natal Sports & Recreation.

MiddlesexCrusadors:

Ed Smith,Nick Compton,Neil Dexter,Andrew Strauss,Eoin Morgan,Shaun Udal (Captain),Steve Finn,David Nash,Chris Peploe,Shaun Levy, Chris Silverwood ,Robbie Williams,Kabir Toor,Alan Richardson ,Ben Scott,Danny Evans,Murali Kartik,Billy Godleman,Neil Carter,Dawid Malan,Dirk Nannes,Dan Housego,Tim Murtagh,Tyron Henderson ,Gareth Berg,Owais Shah

Sponsors- Northern Rock,

Sailkot Stallions:

Abdur Rehman,Adeel Malik ,Ali Khan ,Bilal Hussain ,Faisal Naved ,Kamran Younis ,Kashif Raza,Mansoor Amjad,Mohammad Ali ,Mohammad Ayub ,Naeemuddin ,Qaiser Abbas ,Sarfraz Ahmed ,Shakeel Ansar ,Shoaib Malik

Sponsor- RBS.

Twenty20 Champions League Cricket Promo

Promos are on air for the coming champions league . This is the main promo which is running on every channel.

Promo is quite innovative one with every player aka champion is being portrayed like an LOTR style warrior urging the consumers to imagine the scenario of cricket when the bowler, batsman , wicketkeeper and fielder all will be champion.

The promo is trying to place champions league cricket differently from the other normal cricket , being played by the champions who are shown having more powers compared to normal cricketers.

Champions takaraye toh game hi badal jaye -- i hope this happens

Hats off to the promo.

Watch it:







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Twenty Twenty Cricket Power Rankings

Here are the power rankings of the top twenty clubs in the twenty twenty cricket. All rankings can be seen here .

The ratings are based on a number of important factors including runs scored, totals chased, the loss of wickets and margins of victory. A teams rating is then worked out by dividing the points scored in each game by the number of matches played, the totals are then given to the nearest whole number.




1 Victorian Bushrangers AUS
2 Rajasthan Royals IND
3 Sialkot Stallions PAK
4 Kings XI Punjab IND
5 Chennai Super Kings IND
6 Lahore Lions PAK
7 Chennai Superstars IND
8 Karachi Dolphins PAK
9 Kent Spitfires ENG
10 Middlesex Crusaders ENG
11 Lancashire Lightning ENG
12 Faisalabad Wolves PAK
13 Rawalpindi Rams PAK
14 Lahore Eagles PAK
15 Northamptonshire Steelbacks ENG
16 Lahore Badshahs IND
17 Somerset Sabres ENG
18 Mumbai Indians IND
19 Dhaka Warriors IND
20 Delhi DareDevils IND
21 Hyderabad Heroes IND

Top 21 clubs contains 9 indian teams from icl and ipl, 6 teams from pakistan , 1 from australia, 5 english counties.

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Victoria Bushrangers - Australia

Another great australian club probable title contendor for the champions league cricket tournament. The club is based in Melbourne and represent the state of victoria. Team is the winner of the KFC twenty twenty tournament in Australia.

Team Facts

One-day Name: Victorian Bushrangers
Coach: Greg Shipperd
Captain: Cameron White
Founded: 1851
Home Ground: Melbourne Cricket Ground
Pura Cup Wins: 26
Ford Ranger Cup Wins: 4
Twenty20 Cup Wins: 3

Squad

Cameron White (Captain), Aiden Blizzard, Adam Crosthwaite, Aaron Finch, Shane Harwood, John Hastings, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Andrew McDonald, Clinton McKay, Dirk Nannes, Darren Pattinson, Robert Quiney, Peter Siddle and Matthew Wade.

Prominent players are brad hodge and david hussey who have experience of playing in indian ipl.

Victoria Bushrangers is the top team in the twenty twenty power rankings which i will cover in the next post.

Probable semi finalist according to me.

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Middlesex County Cricket Club - England

The oldest club to participate in the champions league cricket. It is one of the 18 other county teams. It won the domestic champions in 2007 and qualified for both the champions league cricket and standford super series.

Team Facts

One-day Name: Middlesex Crusaders
Coach: Toby Radford
Captain: Shaun Udal
Overseas Player(s): Murali Kartik
Founded: 1864
Home Ground: Lord's
Capacity: 30,000
Kit : Pink Color (support for cancer)

Famous Star players are

• Shaun Udal


• Andrew Strauss


• Owais Shah


• Murali Kartik

The team was out of form in recently happened Standford super series loosing all its three matches.

1. Lost to England by 12 runs


2. Lost by 5 wickets to Trinidad and Tobago
   


3. Lost by 58 runs to Standford Superstars

Only time will tell how the team will perform. ....

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Nashua Dolphins - South Africa

Nashua Dolphins is the second South African team which will take part in the coming champions league cricket tournament, other being the Titans.

The team has got a big boost for the upcoming tournament as swashbuckling Sanath jayasurya is set to play for the dolphins.

Team facts:

One-day Name: Dolphins
Coach: Y Ebrahim
Captain: Ahmed Amla
Founded: 2003
Home Ground: Kingsmead, Durban
Capacity: 25,000
Dolphins Website: dolphins

Team captain Ahmed Amla is the brother of SA cricketer Hashim Amla and team's vice captain is Imraan Khan who is in full form nowadays as is the player of the month.

There are not many known stars in the team of dolphins as compared to other teams. They might not be the favorites but they definitely are the dark horses.

More about the team in coming weeks.....

cricket twenty20 championsleaguecricket bcci champions ipl

Fab 5 of Indian Cricket

I started watching cricket during the 92 world cup and right now i have very hazy memories of those years. Those were the days of Jim Courier, Agassi and Sampras was also rising fast. I grew with watching Sidhu hitting sixes and watching Venkatpati raju and kumble bowling in tandem. Just like any other Indian sachin became my favorite and when the 96 world cup came in our subcontinent I was 12 years old and I keenly followed the cup which gave many famous moments ranging from jadeja firing on all cylinders and kambli and raju crying in the semi finals at eden gardens. Those were the days of agression of Venkatesh Prasad and Abhey Kuruvilla if you guys remember.

India was opening up as in liberalizing it self after the debacle in the 91 and confidence was coming in the Indians also. But on cricket field the aggression was not much aggression was only
visible when a team player was scolded by another member for misfield.

Then one day at lords the mecca of cricket rose two stars Ganguly and Dada. One very aggressive and other composed. They joined my list of fav players gradually which already contained Kumble and Sachin and Sidhu also.

I have grown up watching Sachin, Saurav , Dravid , Kumble and Laxman and they all are my heroes. I relate to these players more compared to Kapil Dev to whom our fathers relate as a fighter who won us the cup in 83.


To be very frank from the fab 5 my favorite is dada for various reasons. Sachin is sachin he is so perfect making mistakes seldomly , he is god gifted but saurav is like common people, life is full of ups and downs.

He is my idol he inspires me that one can achieve what he dreams of, and even when you are hit it you have confidence in you your time will came and he came back after being kicked out . I remember many arguments I had with non dada supporters regarding his form. My moron friends said that dada only hit centuries against weaker nations like bangladesh and kenya , we defended it by saying that many players take these teams casually and give away their wickets so its an art to hit century agianst weaker cricketing nations also :) .


All of these fab five have given a one memorable moment which we all will remember througout our lives :

Laxman the historic 281 in the famour follow on test. The test which gave us the Indians the
confidence that any thing is possible if you dream.

Kumble bowling with plaster on his head a spirit of a fighter man which inspires many Indians like me is saying never say die.

Ganguly two events shirt waving in lords signalling to the world that we have come and we are not even afraid of our collonial rulers and we are ready to give a fitting reply to any one be it
Australia or England. Another was famous century in Adelaide which gave india the confidence that we can win in Australia. We went on to draw the series 1-1.

Dravid the wall has given us famous double century in Australia in Adelaide where he made 233
highest oversees score by an Indian and gave india a famous win. 270 in Pakistan and many more double centuries. The Wall saved India many times and is truly mr dependable.

Sachin the legend from Perth to Sharjah to thrashing of Shoaib Akhtar list is endless and words are less to define such a genius player.


Perhaps with these players the era of long careers in cricket will end also as 18-20 years long careers in cricket will be hard to imagine now.

The Lord of off will be missed by all of us. 2 stalwarts have gone and now 3 are left and its hard to imagine of a day when we 20-30 years fans will watch the game without these icons who changed the way cricket is being loved in India.








But the big questions is will we be able to watch cricket?. Ya life moves on and great people come and go.

How strange is it that without touching us how much they affect our lives and leave a big mark on our hearts.

Rambal Warriors aka Western Australia Warriors

Next up is western warriors aka rambal warriors aka retravision warriors, runners up of Australia's KFC Twenty20 tournament. As Australia have few local teams which means that team will be studded with national players.

Team has given many legends to the cricketing world from Dennis Lillee, Justin Langer to Tom Moody.

Team Facts

One-day Name: Western Warriors
Coach: Tom Moody
Captain: Marcus North
Founded: 1851
Home Ground: WACA Ground
Capacity: 20,000
Pura Cup Wins: 15
Ford Ranger Cup Wins: 11

The team is preparing hard for the upcoming tournament and they have also announced the team for the champions league. Main stars whom we are aware about are Shaun Marsh (Kings XI Punjab), Luke Pomersbach (Kings XI Punjab) and Luke Ronchi (Mumbai Indians) .

The team has many players who have experience in playing in Indian conditions and they are raring to go and represent their team on global stage. They will be missing the services of hussey as he has decided to represent chennai superkings in the upcoming tournament .

The Full Squad :

Marcus North (Captain), Adam Voges (Vice Captain), David Bandy, Arron Crawford, Liam Davis, Brett Dorey, Theo Doropoulos, Ben Edmondson, Aaron Heal, Matt Johnston, Trent Kelly, Steve Magoffin, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, Luke Ronchi.

The WACA - where legends are made. This is their slogan and they truly will be out here in india to lift the first cup.

Team to look out for in the tournament according to me.

Sialkot Stallions

Today we move on to our neighboring country Pakistan which is sending lone team Sialkot Stallions in the coming champions league.

Team is the winner of lot of tournaments in Pakistan domestic circuit.

• National champion in 2005-2006
• Won Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Championship (Golden League) .
• Runnerup in 2006-2007.
• Won ABN-AMRO Twenty-20 Cup in 2005-2006, 2006-2007
• RBS Twenty-20 Cup in 2007-2008

Team Facts are

One-day Name: Sialkot Stallions
Coach: Shahid Anwar
Captain: Shoaib Malik
Founded: 2002
Home Ground: Jinnah Stadium (Sialkot)
Capacity: 20,000
Kit: Silver and Red

Team lost few players to the ICL , but still has many players of international repute

Players who went to ICL

Imran Nazir
Naved-ul-Hasan
Shahid Yousuf
Tahir Mughal
Khalid Mahmood

Md Asif is also the part of team though he is now facing doping charges. I will try to dig more into the team in coming weeks.

Noshua Titans - South Africa

As promised i now start about the participating teams in the first ever champions league cricket tournament.

Noshua Titans is the winner of Standard Bank Pro20 Series 2007-08 and dolphins were the runners up of the tournament.

From their website
Nashua Titans - the name used by the combined Easterns Cricket Union and Northerns Cricket Union first class cricket teams. The franchise which was formed in 2004 is also known as the Northern Gauteng franchise. The home venues of the Nashua Titans are at SuperSport Park, Centurion and Willowmoore Park, Benoni.

• CEO: Elise Lombard
• Coach: Richard Pybus
• Captain: Pierre Joubert
  Home ground – SuperSport Park and Willowmoore Park Capacity – 17 500
  

Team has few players who are part of South African national cricket team namely

AB Devilliers
Dale Steyn
Albie Morkel
Paul Harris
Morne Morkel

The stadium has hosted many matches famous one for the indians is the india-pakistan match in the 2003 world cup.

Magic Moments can be seen at their website.

next up is dolphins.....

Champions League Cricket - Matches Schedule

8 teams are divided into 2 groups of 4 teams each.

Group A

• Chennai Super Kings
• Titans
• Victorian Bushrangers
• Middlesex Crusaders

Group B

• Rajasthan Royals
• Dolphins
• Western Warriors
• Sialkot Stallions

3 December 2008 Middlesex Crusaders Victoria Bushrangers Mumbai
3 December 2008 Rajasthan Royals Natal Dolphins Mumbai

4 December 2008 Sialkot Stallions Western Warriors Bangalore
4 December 2008 Chennai Super Kings Victoria Mumbai

5 December 2008 Middlesex Pretoria Titans Chennai
5 December 2008 Sialkot Rajasthan Mumbai

6 December 2008 Western Australia Natal Bangalore
6 December 2008 Victoria Pretoria Chennai
6 December 2008 Chennai Middlesex Chennai

7 December 2008 Natal Sialkot Bangalore
7 December 2008 Rajasthan Western Australia Bangalore
7 December 2008 Chennai Pretoria Chennai

8 December 2008 Group B winners Group A runners-up Bangalore
9 December 2008 Group A winners Group B runners-up Chennai

10 December 2008 Final, Mumbai

next up teams , sponsors etc


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Champions League Twenty20 Cricket

I am back after 3-4 months lay off and will start writing on the champions league twenty twenty scheduled to start from december 3. Those of you who dont know about the team, there will be 8 teams participating in this year tournament and the number will be increased to 12 from 2009.


Teams as taken from wikipedia are

Team	Country	Winner/Runner-up in Domestic Tournament	Domestic Tournament
Victoria Bushrangers	Australia	Winner	KFC Twenty20 Big Bash
Western Warriors	Australia	Runner-up	KFC Twenty20 Big Bash
Rajasthan Royals	India	Winner	Indian Premier League
Chennai Super Kings	India	Runner-up	Indian Premier League
Titans	South Africa	Winner	Standard Bank Pro 20 Series
Dolphins	South Africa	Runner-up	Standard Bank Pro 20 Series
Middlesex Crusaders	England	Winner	Twenty20 Cup
Sialkot Stallions	Pakistan	Winner	RBS Twenty-20 Cup

These teams are winners of their respective twenty twenty tournaments in their countries. From england their is only one team as kent is not allowed to take part as their team consists of players of indian cricket league.

Lots of posts coming soon....

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McDonald's Fantasy Football

After playing IPL Fantasy League, lets now play the Euro Fantasy League. This one is simpler no need to substitute daily, one need to make team for stages. Team making is as easy as A.B.C .

I have made my team for Stage 1

Group Stage 1
Switzerland	Czech Republic	7 Jun 18:00
Portugal	Turkey	7 Jun 20:45
Austria	Croatia	8 Jun 18:00
Germany	Poland	8 Jun 20:45
Romania	France	9 Jun 18:00
Netherlands	Italy	9 Jun 20:45
Spain	Russia	10 Jun 18:00
Greece	Sweden	10 Jun 20:45

My Captain is Torres and favorite team is Spain :)

Following are the most selected players from the website

Player		Team	Sel
Cristiano Ronaldo		Portugal	87,085
Torres		Spain	75,569
Čech		Czech Republic	64,260
Ballack		Germany	49,155
Lahm		Germany	48,036
Carvalho		Portugal	45,937
Klose		Germany	41,865
Evra		France	40,707
Fàbregas		Spain	37,406
Puyol		Spain	34,607

Vivek Goyal aka Chakku has created the Daiict League on the website password is 121041-26198

So Lets fight it out :)


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Chelsea-o-Chelsea , where's is my Manager




Lot has happened and is happening since the UEFA champions league finals. Chelsea billionaire owner Abramovich fired the successful Avam Grant even though he took Chelsea to the champions league finals which Jose couldn't. Chelsea have been successful in the past few years but still there is something missing in them which will make me like them. I am a gunners fan and i like ManU and Livepool also but that liking is not there for Chelsea even though they have great players and had a great manager as Mourinho.

Perhaps they need to market themselves and place themselves in the hearts of fans. Sacking of Jose and now Avam grant has lowered the
image of Chelsea. It seems to me that if the manager doesn't agrees to the owner he is fired. Or other case can be he is getting obsessed with the big silver cup which could have been there's in Moscow but not this time. Abramovich should realize that money can buy you everything but not respect and stature as other clubs command.

Now many managers are in fray for the top post at Chelsea. AC Milan's Ancelotti has said he is not interested, Sven-Goran Eriksson is off to Mexico, Scholari , Mancini , Rijkard are left in the fray or there may be any surprise. Guys at chelseablog are suggesting the name of Thomas Schaaf who is currently managing Werder Bremen in Germany.

I don't know who will be the manager but it should be one like Jose aggressive and attacking who can take this club to heights where the club become lovable by all. Wait for few days

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IPL Splash !!

IPL is over and I am back surfing the net, reading blogs, watching videos and here is what. I found an interesting video along with a story related to it. So, all of you must have seen the DLF IPL - Cricket ka Karmayudh video
So, while looking for some more updates on plagiarised music pieces on itwofs.com I came across this interesting piece regarding the Karmayudh video. Before I continue have a look at this video



So, need I say more ? It first appeared on CNBC where ad film maker Prasoon Pandey defended the plagiarism charge of lifting the DLF IPL Karmayudh ad campaigna 5 year old US TV promo. He admitted that there are striking similarities indeed but insisted that he had not seen the baseball ad before.

He said actual footage was given to the animators to paint on top, they having painted on top also put a splash on a shot and showed it to him. He liked the idea and gave a green signal to the animators. He went on to say that he had also confirmed with the animator E. Suresh of Famous Studios that even he had not seen the ad before.

The only valid point I think he managed to put forward was that "the splash can neither be any body's property." And that it is not the idea of the IPL commercial which according to him is in the Veer Ras audio track.

What do you think ?

[Credits : itwofs.com]

Conversation that Wasn't !!

Surely they aren't discussing this :

Person on the Right : Will you tell me what is going on? You said players who play Test Matches can play any format of the game. Then why don't I see any results ? Did you mean they can only 'play' any format of the game or you meant play well, perform and win ? No, you tell me how the hell does Wasim Jaffer fit into the side. Why didn't you pick Rohit Sharma or Robin Utthapa ? Was it because it was they who probably stole your place in the national team ? No, you HAVE TO tell me how the hell does Wasim Jaffer fit into the side. Could have bought many bottles of bear for that money ! At least it would have signified its existence. Ain't I right ? Everyone thinks we are probably the best Test side in the tournament. But this is Twenty20. You still haven't told me that how the hell does Wasim Jaffer fit into the side. You and Charu made the worst choices possible first and then to cover up you chose Misbah and Boucher. How can you expect these two to do the job of eleven players. WILL YOU TELL ME WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE WASIM JAFFER ?

Person on the left (Monologue) : God ! Keep it this way. Please make sure that by no chance the name 'Sunil Joshi' pops up into his head. What will I say ? But seriously, why Joshi ? Was it Charu's choice.
I guess he is right how can we expect a win with the side we have ? But now what can I do before the next season ? Oh my God ! he will put me up for sale. Mr. Modi can 'Icons' be kicked out and put up on sale ?
Why wasn't Kumble made an Icon for BRC ? Then like Dhoni even I would have been bought, perhaps by Rajasthan and it would have been great.

[PS : Please feel free to tell me something else that you think they AREN'T discussing]

Life after Indian Premier League

59 matches big soap opera ended on a high on Sunday with Warne's Royals winning the inaugural IPL championship. I just thank god it was not like Ekta Kapoor Serials running for decades, it was short and sweet and created a thunder all around the world. Yes it showed to the world that the commercial form of cricket has arrived and now it can think of matching the fan following and craze of football all around the world.

There were new viewers in form of kids and women who would never have watched the 50-50 and test version saying it as boring, but they enjoyed this short form in ground and in homes. Earlier families would have dinner at 8 and they would have either gone for a evening walk if they were not staying in concrete jungles of modern cities otherwise they would have watched some serials on television and slept. But IPL changed the whole schedule now dinner before 8 or during the 10 minute break and it became a habit in the past 45 days.

Now I am feeling empty empty after 45 days of fun. I always believed that this will not degrade the level of cricket but it will increase the skill level as bowlers will think of innovative ways to get batsman out and they will take care of no balls , batsman will invent new shots and improvise a lot and fielding standard will rise. It all happened , those who termed it as a hit and run cricket with no skills required are now quiet.

Actually they were the people who are with natural tendency of human beings of being susceptible to change, they roared when one day cricket came and so did they shouted against it now. Even I am a test cricket fan but this twenty20 also requires a lot of skills.

BCCI made a lot of hoopla even they wouldn't have thought of before the starting of the tournament. Who would have thought of teams becoming profitable in the first year itself ? KKR followed the first law of branding by being first in advertising and publicizing itself their by creating a brand has helped it earn profit in first year itself.

Details of profit and loss the franchises as in todays economic times are

KKR + 8 crores
Raj Royals + 5 crores
Kings X1 - 3.5 crores
Chennai - 4 crores
Delhi - 8 crores
Deccan - 20 crores
Mumbai - 21 crores
Banglore - 45 crores

+ is profit and - is loss

Now we will see the after effects of IPL, brand value of Dhoni will rise further and shane warne will be selling goods on Indian television. Footfalls on malls and multiplexes will come back to normal and I feel from next year onwards the IPL season will be fought by malls by turning the 45 days into sale and discount period. News channel will start beaming gossip news like "commissioner's dog found" etc etc.

We may also see the franchises playing matches outside India to keep the brand value alive like football clubs. Lot will happen before the next season but lets not change gear and move to Euro-08.

Poll Result

	Delhi Daredevils	11	24%
	Chennai Super Kings	8	18%
	Rajasthan Royals	8	18%
	Kolkata Knight Riders	6	13%
	Deccan Chargers	5	11%
	Kings XI Punjab	4	9%
	Mumbai Indians	2	4%
	Royal Challengers Banglore	1	2%

Out of 45 polls only 8 guessed the winner correctly :)

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