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Showing posts with label BCCI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BCCI. Show all posts

Sunday, May 16, 2010

India's T20 WC 2010 Debacle - Who is to blame?

Today is the final of T20 world cup between Australia and England. India got out of the cup 4-5 days ago and since then every news channel is discussing the reasons for the loss and making their own predictions regarding who will be out of the team and who will be retained. From late night brawl in West Indies in which Nehra is accused of misbehaving with the others people in the bar to Kirsten one-o-ones with 7 players, everything is being debated day and night in media.

Here are few reasons which I feel are responsible for India’s debacle.

IPL

I don’t think 14 matches are responsible for India’s loss in world cup, not even IPL parties. IPL matches used to end at around 11.30 so what if players came to a party for 1-2 hours to relax and enjoy. Players are expected to be professional and if they feel that they bodies can’t handle the glamour of girls and drinks of IPL Nights they should have controlled themselves. This is at least expected from senior players. IPL nights might have done harm to younger players. Arjun Rampal’s wife the organizer of IPL nights might have said that players were not forced attend the parties but I think their owners might have pushed them to attend these. Sachin could say no to these parties because he is Sachin no player can dare to fight against the BCCI, if you dare to fight you will be kicked out for sure.

Illogical traveling around the country for the matches is the main reason for fatigue and tiring bodies. If a team is playing match in Bangalore schedule should be made such that if plays its following matches in Chennai, Hyderabad so that traveling is less.

Dhoni has given an invalid reason of IPL nights being responsible for the failure.

Team Selection:

I am not lover of BCCI infact all useless sports bodies of India being run by old politicians who I am sure would not clearly know the rules of the sports for whose body they are head.Chief selector is ambassador of Chennai Super Kings, Srinivasan secretary of BCCI is owner of CSK are they working for BCCI of CSK.

Bindra is handling a big Punjab lobby. Arun Jaitely head of Delhi cricket association. n number of politicians are head of their respective sports bodies why because cricket has money and power simple.

Punjab lobby pushed for Chawla as a spinner in Indian team despite the fact that Pragyan Ojha and Mishra. Robin Uthappa is getting huge sympathy votes for not getting selected despite being in from. Sehwag was fit to play matches in IPL but as they were kicked out of IPL he got injured, its clear he wanted to make money playing IPL matches he should have the guts to say that he is injured during the IPL tournament. He clearly put DD over ICC World Cup.

Yuvraj who is now filled with fatty acids and loads of chicken tikka should have been dropped, he is so sad after being kicked out of captaincy of Kings X1 team that he has started eating chicken in breakfast , lunch and dinner.

Shortpitch Delivery

In the last WC we failed against the short pitch balls, this time it also happened. We are vulnerable since time immemorial against the short ball. Its just the last 4-5 years when greats like Sachin, Dravid , Laxman were there in Indian team who could handle short ball easily that opponents stopped using the weapon.

We need to practice for these type of deliveries, point is we don’t have time to practice. BCCI wants to mint as much money as possible by playing use less tournaments against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Srilanka again and again. We have played I think every second month against SriLanka in the past year. Thanks to India being no-1 in test that BCCI now is trying hard to convert 7 ODI series to 2 test 3 odi wherever its possible but to BCCI it’s a loss of huge revenue as ODI gets more ads. Weren’t the BCCI a charitable body who is evading taxes since many years and filling their coffins?

When the player can go to National Cricket Academy to practice?

Poor Fielding and Running between wickets:

Outfield is very slow in west indies and one needs to run fast b/w the wickets but Indians players are adapted to hitting 4s in flat pitches in India. There was no practice match or time to practice in WI so we couldn’t adapt. Who is at fault again here – BCCI.

Player Fatigue:

We play lots of matches round the year. In 90's we were playing 35-40 ODI's are year and now we are playing lot of T20's ODIs round the year. Tours after tours is the routine , we will be playing in Triangular series in Zimbabwe, Asia Cup in Dambulla, Test series again in Sri Lanka , Triangular Series with NZ , SL in August. Australia coming to India and what not.

Ok we can't lesson the tours so lets make a bigger pool of players lets rotate them but that is also not possible till now. Players want to play as much as possible as you never know when you get kicked out, Fear of BCCI. ODI teams are not getting selected on basis of IPL performance which is wrong. Where is our bench strength. How many India A team tours to Australia , England , NZ took place in last 2 years. If same 15-18 players are playing so much cricket they will obviously get tired and fatigued, lets enlarge the pool and try to start rotation policy.


Indian crowd also need to understand that these are players not super humans. Saying that they keep on doing ads, party a lot and not play at all is wrong. Its good they lost now they will focus on test cricket which is the best.

Its very sad that we are having very less test matches when we have players like Sachin, Dravid , Laxman. Australia plays 8-10 tests a year and we should have used given these great players lot more chance to play test cricket in these years.

Its time to celebrate Vishy victory again, its a very big achievement to beat Topalov in his home. Indian hockey team is also performing well reaching the finals of Azlan Shat Tournament , today is the final.







Monday, March 30, 2009

IPL in South Africa: Match Schedule

Here is post number 280 we are nearing the triple century mark.

Below is the schedule for IPL-2 in SouthAfrica

April 18: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) Cape Town
April 18 MUMBAI INDIANS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (8 pm) Cape Town

April 19: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v DECCAN CHARGERS (4 pm) at Cape Town
April 19: DELHI DAREDEVILS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (8 pm) at Cape Town.

April 20: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE V CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Port Elizabeth.

April 21: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v MUMBAI INDIANS (4 pm) at Durban
April 21: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (8 pm) at Durban

April 22: DELHI DAREDEVILS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Durban
April 22: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v DECCAN CHARGERS (8 pm) at Cape Town

April 23: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (4 pm) at Port Elizabeth

April 24: KINGS XI PUNJAB v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) at Johannesburg

April 25: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Cape Town
April 25: DECCAN CHARGERS v MUMBAI INDIANS (8 pm) at Durban.

April 26: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at Cape Town
April 26: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v DELHI DAREDEVILS (8 pm) Port Elizabeth

April 27: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v MUMBAI INDIANS (4 pm) at Cape Town
April 27: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v DECCAN CHARGERS (8 pm) at Durban.

April 28: DELHI DAREDEVILS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (4 pm) at Pretoria

April 29: MUMBAI INDIANS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at Durban
April 29: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (8 pm) at Durban

April 30: DELHI DAREDEVILS v DECCAN CHARGERS (4 pm) at Pretoria
April 30: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (8 pm) at Pretoria.

May 1: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at East London
May 1: MUMBAI INDIANS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (8 pm) at Durban

May 2: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v DECCAN CHARGERS (4 pm) at Johannesburg
May 2: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (8 pm) at Port Elizabeth

May 3: MUMBAI INDIANS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) at Durban
May 3: KINGS XI PUNJAB v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (8 pm) at East London

May 4: DECCAN CHARGERS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Port Elizabeth

May 5: DELHI DAREDEVILS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (4 pm) at Durban
May 5: KINGS XI PUNJAB v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (8 pm) at Durban

May 6: MUMBAI INDIANS v DECCAN CHARGERS (4 pm) at Pretoria

May 7: KINGS XI PUNJAB v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Pretoria
May 7: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (8 pm) at Pretoria

May 8: DELHI DAREDEVILS v MUMBAI INDIANS (4 pm) at East London

May 9: DECCAN CHARGERS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at Bloemfontein
May 9: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (8 pm) at Port Elizabeth

May 10: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (4 pm) at East London
May 10: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v MUMBAI INDIANS (8 pm) at Johannesburg

May 11: DECCAN CHARGERS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (4 pm) at Bloemfontein

May 12: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (4 pm) at Pretoria
May 12: KINGS XI PUNJAB v MUMBAI INDIANS (8 pm) at Pretoria.

May 13: DECCAN CHARGERS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (4 pm) at Durban

May 14: MUMBAI INDIANS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (4 pm) at Durban
May 14: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (8 pm) at Durban.

May 15: KINGS XI PUNJAB v DELHI DAREDEVILS (4 pm) at Kimberley

May 16: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v MUMBAI INDIANS (4 pm) at Johannesburg
May 16: DECCAN CHARGERS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (8 pm) at Port Elizabeth

May 17: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (4 pm) at Kimberley
May 17: KINGS XI PUNJAB v DECCAN CHARGERS (8 pm) at Johannesburg

May 18: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (4 pm) at Pretoria

May 19: DELHI DAREDEVILS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) at Johannesburg

May 20: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at Durban
May 20: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (8 pm) at Durban

May 21: DECCAN CHARGERS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) at Pretoria
May 21: MUMBAI INDIANS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (8 pm) at Pretoria

May 22: Semi Final 1 at Pretoria

May 23: Semi Final 2 at Johannesburg

May 24: Final at Johannesburg.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Indian Premier League in England/SA gains and losses

So finally we saw yesterday what we all were expecting since long. IPL governing body decided that there is no way the tournament can be organized in India. It was decided that tournament will be shifted to England or SA with England having upper edge.

Why BCCI had to take this decisions:

1. Petty politics between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress and congress trying to diminish the clout of Mr Pawar after he offered himself as PM candidate
2. Government of India thought that the returns of organizing the event will be less at the time of elections.
3. Why take the risk of any unexpected terrorist attack which may raise questions on the running government. Lets get it scrapped or push for delay
4. Fear among the politicans that they may be sidelined duing the IPL season, i.e cricketers will be the heroes not the great nation servers politicans.

What is lost with IPL going out:

1. Big opportunity to the political parties to advertise duing the IPL season. 
2. Revenue for reeling Hotel industry, and other tourism related industry. If the even had gone peacefully lot many foreigners would have stared coming back to India who have stopped after Mumbai  attacks.
3. Image of India as a powerful country has taken a hit. Elections elections are the biggest festival but that doesn't mean that no other event can take place during this time. This is not what superpowers are made up of. We cant even have 3000-4000 police force for the match day where as we can have big 60,000 police force to protect any big small medium politicans in New Delhi.
4. Feeling of city-city rivalry which was the base of IPL will not be the same. IPL-1 was hit due the big city fan following TV viewing being the other reason.
5. This decision has put India together with Pakistan and Bangladesh which are not save for cricket.

What's good for having IPL outside India:

1. Eventhough the sport may go the England or SA, still we can expect a upliftment in the level of game in that region and also increase in fan following. EPL organizers are trying to have 1-2 matches added in the season which can be played outside England so as to cater to fans in Asia, in the same way with whole of IPL going out of India we may see an increase in fan following. It may make IPL fully global in a way and may lead to cricket being played by more then 8-9 serious countries
2. Logistics industry will get a boost in the organizing country.
3. Easy money for organizing country as BCCI will pay hefty amount to SA/England
4. We are seeing globalization in cricket now, there are no boundary walls now as a local tournament of one country will take place in other country.



Some people will say they will not watch the matches, it will not be the same as last year. But i feel this was the only way out considering the options left to the organizers. 

Enjoy the game at same timings atleast and i will be glued to the TV that is for sure.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Kapil Dev :: Straight From the Heart



On telling someone in an interview that I loved reading autobiographies, the interviewer asked me have I read anything about Kapil Dev. I replied a no !! making a sad face. I ordered his autobiography "Straight From the Heart" the same day.

Kapil Dev is Dhoni of Old era or that would be injustice to great legend, I would say Dhoni is Kapil of new era. Both have few similarities being brought up in non cricketers producing states of India and both lifted the world cup in earlier stages of their captaincy.

Book start with memories of Kapil's childhood days. Kuckoo as he was known in his family was into sports and atheletics since his childhood and was as away from his studies as is Jammu is away from Kanyakumari. Playing whole day not cricket but football, coming back home and pretending to sleep in front of his father so that he is not scolded for studying. But as we know father is father how much we say child is father of his father. He got trapped when his father used to say this football is torn and it should be thrown away. In a flash Kuckoo was awake and his father used to say "Hmm t rajkumar jaag rahe hain. Ab jaag hi rahe hain, to inse kahye ki thode der baithkar padhaai kar leing... Nautanki kahi ka...."

Just like any other Indian family where children are pushed to only study and study same was the case in Kuckoo's family. Kapil loved challenges and he writes one incident of trying to get on the back of police horses who were not used to clumsy boys. He was successful after few attempts and he takes the police horses away and is caught by his father.

Kapil was as ignorant about cricket as most of the Indians are about Ice Hockey. He used to ask his brother about players when his big brother used to read a cricket magazine.

Kapil used to get irritated when his bother disturbed his sleep listening to cricket commentary in the night. He is introduced to playing cricket by his brother Bushan when one of their team member is absent and Kapil is used in place of 11th player. He showed his fielding skills and impressed everyone. His natural talent is again seen by eveyone when in other match his 4 hits in 5 balls are out of boundary and during bowling he also took 3 wickets. On being encouraged by his brother Kuckoo decides that cricket is his future.


Kapil starts his coaching under coach Azad and is asked to increase his stamina by drinking more and more milk. His dad gets two buffaloes in few days and so he became a milk guzzler as was teased by his sister as Nikhanj Milk Diary. He coaches with other cricketers Yograj Singh, Ashok Malhotra. Kuckoo was assertive and fought for his writes, he writes about an incident where he fought with BCCI officials over food quantity in under-19 camp.

Finally his efforts pay off and he makes his debut under Bishen Singh bedi in Pakistan. He has never watched test match before and here is making his debut against arch rivals Pakistan. He feels the bad side of international cricket when he is teased while batting, but his moment infact moment for India came when bowling Pakistani batsman halts the play and ask for a helmet. So here is a fast bowler who has arrived to prove to the world that India can also produce fast bowlers.

He writes about how less money players got and they couldn't afford to get their clothes washed and they used to wash it themselves. He also writes about the divide in the team among seniors and juniors and how the divide wanished when young crickters came and stopped following orders from seniors and asked for equal rights in decision making. He writes about his and gavaskar spat , various tours and World Cup in details. He also writes about BCCI's nature of changing captain every now and then and how little say the players had in BCCI working.

I enjoyed reading about his 175 run knock against Zimbabwe and world cup final. Its exhilariting to read how a team who is at 66-1 odds from beginning of the cup and also the final lifts the world cup. Its an era when BCCI doesn't give lakhs to a team winning world cup but it has to organize a Lata Mangeshkar show to earn money to give to the world cup winning team.

Book is different from other autobiographies in a way that it has not covered only Kapil cricket but also separate chapters are given to his marriage , matchfixing scandal. He talks in detail about his business, he first started a publishing company but has to close that down with the coming up of satellite telivision in India. Later on he started a ground lighting company which has lighted many stadiums across the country.

Till 200 pages there is no talk of marriage, but in chapter "Love Makes you go round" he talks at length about his marriage and love life. I liked the chapter in which he talks about BCCI, honorary presidentship , biased zonal selection. All this is all relevant today and has been going on for ages, one can easily see the biased selection on seeing Balaji in the team as we know Balaji shares state with one of the selectors.

Finally he talks about the Match Fixing saga, cricket fan will surely hate outlook editor Vinod Mehta who without doing proper enquiry kept on publishing what Manoj Prabhakar said about Kapil's involvement. Other one is noted women writer Shobha De who has written in some article like "She never invites cricketers to her party’’. ’’How can She deduce that all cricketers are involved?’’ is what Kapil wants to know. And what to say about another great Mr Bindra Punjab Cricket Board chief who has seen kapil playing and growing in front of him naming Kapil on cnn. You feel sorry for Kapil when you read things like this. You feel like this is not the way to treat people who have brought laurels to nation.

You will enjoy reading about 83 world cup, 175 against zimbabwe, azar and kapil relationship, wisden Indian cricketer of century award, sunil gavaskar and kapil dev saga , romi his wife and her wierd behavior during the 83 final.

Must read for any one who says he is Indian cricket fan

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

public class IndianCricket :: Method shouldSachinRetire

For Sachin Fans :-)

public class IndianCricket {

// constructor
public IndianCricket() {
System.out.println("Welcome to IndianCricket. This class give output of should sachin retire or not");
}

public void shouldSachinRetireOrNot() {
// if will be decided by 3 categories of people media, fans and sachin himself.
mediaJudgement();
fansJudgement();
sachinJudgement();
}

private void mediaJudgement() {
// get sachin last 5 scored and calculate average and then analyse.
int sachinLastFiveScores = ICC_Data(Sachin);
int average = sachinLastFiveScores/5;

if(average < 30)
System.out.println("Sachin has gone old, he should retire and let youngsters be allowed to show their potential");
System.out.println("Is this the same Sachin we used to love !! No his time has gone now.");
}
else {
System.out.println("Sachin is a great player, he should carry on...");
}

// Get Result of India last five matches played and then analyse.
int indiaLastFiveMatchesResults = ICC_Data(India);

if(indiaLastFiveMatchesResults == Loss) {
System.out.println("Sachin has not won much for India!! He plays for himself");
System.out.println("Sachin always fails in big matches");
// they show some matches' details in which sachin has failed.
System.out.println("Here you can see the data how he has failed in big matches");
}
else {
System.out.println("Sachin is legend he has won India many matches !! India and we are proud of him");
}

if((average <>indiaLastFiveMatchesResults == Loss) ) {
String NDTV;
String CNN_IBN;
String India_TV;
String OtherNews;

NDTV= startWalkTheTalk("Should Sachin Retire Gracefully now? Discuss !! Barkha Dutt");
CNN_IBN = startFaceTheNation("Should Sachin Retire Gracefully now? Discuss !! Sagarika Ghosh");
India_TV = startDiscussion-with-Facts("yeh dekhiye sachin kaise pehle run banate the ab pata nahi kya ho gaya hai inko!! Kya yeh wahi sachin hai !! ");
OtherNews = start("Should he retire now!! Should BCCI selectors give some one younger a chance? ");
}
}

public int ICC_Data(String PlayerName_CountryName) {
return data;
}

public void fansJudgement() {
// fans will be divided into two categories true cricket lovers and evangelists and others just game watchers.
cricketEvangelists();
justGameWatchers();
}

public void cricketEvangelists() {
boolean anything;
if(Anything) {
// for cricket Evangelists
System.out.println("Sachin is a legend and he has done what no other player has done to India.");
System.out.println("He will retire by himself when he will feel his interests level is not the same");
System.out.println("We bow to sachin he is God");
}
}

public void justGameWatchers() {
if(India_Loosing) {
System.out.println("These players dont do anything! They dont practice hard");
System.out.println("They always do ads and roam around with celebrities");
System.out.println("Some fanatics will burn effigies of players");
}

if(Sachin_Not_Scoring) {
System.out.println("Sachin is old now he should retire");
System.out.println("Selectors should bring some new face");
} else {
System.out.println("Sachin is our hope and true hero");
System.out.println("We never miss him playing");
}
}

public void sachinJudgement() {
System.out.println("I will retire when my time will come! I am loving the game and enjoying it");
}

public static void main(String args[]) {
IndianCricket obj = new IndianCricket();
obj.shouldSachinRetireOrNot();
}
}

Some compilation errors may creep in :-)


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Lt Col Kapil Dev


There are very few cricketers who have admirers across all the age group.  Kapil Dev and Sachin I know only. I was born after India had lifted their world cup at Lords in 1983,  sadly I was not born at the auspicious time when Kapil Dev lifted the cup, I am not that lucky as Zoya (Zoya Factor) . I have hazy memories of Kapil playing, he was more of a hard hitting batsman and loved the back side of the wicket in scoring runs.  He has brought laurels to the country and still some morons in BCCI who I think will not be even aware of all the rules of cricket have stopped his pension and tried to malign his image in the world.

Kapil is one cricketer who goes on his own path and sticks to it. He doesn't follow the easy path which other retired cricketers have followed. He choose ICL and he has got decent success in just two years taking into point the opposition ICL has received.  BCCI stopped pensions of Kapil Dev and other cricketers who joined the ICL which is very shameful as they have given much more then what they received back. These cricketers (organisers) who have joined ICL are not from the rich states of India like Mumbai , Delhi etc, most are from small cities who have struggled and faced hardships.  India is a big country if England have 2-3 football leagues with huge fan following why can't one billions plus india have 2 cricket leagues. 

Other cricketers should be thankful to ICL as its because of Kapil Dev and company they are getting higher salaries now , ranji and national level both. Pioneers always have to struggle but they make the path for coming generations easy. This is what Kapil Dev and Zee has done for other cricketers.


Kapil has taken another bold step in October last year when he joined territorial army. There couldn't be any better person to join the army, he has inspired and motivated others always through his work. Last week he was involved in the training camp of the army.
When you see 50 year old training, trying to do something for the country you really feel motivated. 




During training he said :
I am feeling a complete Indian now. It is emotional to wear this uniform. I like to serve my country and that`s the focus point.

In 1983 after lifting the cricket world cup Kapil inspired millions towards cricket and now at the age of 50 he is inspiring millions to join army which is already facing shortage. I feel he should do one more thankless job by joining the politics. Such credentials of a political leader would be envy of all. He is  a true leader and India needs leaders like Kapil.

Paaji tussi great ho :)

 I have ordered his autobiography: Straight from the Heart.  Will read it and write about it.










Thursday, November 20, 2008

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.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

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.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

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



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.



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.



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.



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.



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,



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.


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.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

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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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

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.....

Monday, November 10, 2008

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.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

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.....











Friday, November 7, 2008

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 BushrangersFlag of Australia AustraliaWinnerKFC Twenty20 Big Bash
Western WarriorsFlag of Australia AustraliaRunner-upKFC Twenty20 Big Bash
Rajasthan RoyalsFlag of India IndiaWinnerIndian Premier League
Chennai Super KingsFlag of India IndiaRunner-upIndian Premier League
TitansFlag of South Africa South AfricaWinnerStandard Bank Pro 20 Series
DolphinsFlag of South Africa South AfricaRunner-upStandard Bank Pro 20 Series
Middlesex CrusadersFlag of England EnglandWinnerTwenty20 Cup
Sialkot StallionsFlag of Pakistan PakistanWinnerRBS 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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Friday, April 11, 2008

IPL : Cricket Ka KarmYudh

IPL the league format of twenty20 is going to start from 18th April. In the series of posts I will be covering about first IPL facts more or less related to marketing and advertising, after this I will cover each of the 8 teams.

So starting with IPL


Sponsors for the first 5 years
  • DLF (Main Sponsor) $50 million
  • Hero Honda(Associate Sponsor) $22.5 million
  • Pepsi (Beverage) $12.5 million
  • Kingfisher Airlines (Umpire Partner) $26.5 million
Official Website

It has finally come up and its http://ipltwenty20.com/.
There is another website http://www.indianpremierleague.com/ but it doesn't contain much information.



Official Song : "Cricket ka Karmyudh"
The song has been on air for quite a long time now and I have started to love it as its music is somewhat different type



Lyrics goes as

Aankhen uunchi kar dekh sikhar
Hathiyar utha tu dikha hunar

Mutthi mein hai teri hai taqat
Dushman ki ayee hai aafat

Tu laga dao, tu laga pench
Tu dekha jigar,tu dikha tez

Lakhon dhadkan ki jaan hai tu
Lakhon ke dil ki shan hai tu

Tu laga zor, tu macha sor
Ek mahaveer santan hai tu

Na deshyudh, na dharmayudh
Yeh hai dharti par karmayudh


Full Schedule Season-1




This is the new ad air and its worth watching

"kab aayega inka baap"



I agree with what adoholik says , since all the stars are associated with one team or the other the 100 crore earmarked for advertising is being used affectively and creativity is not compromised.

This was all about IPL publicity, sponsors, schedule and website details etc.
Teams coming soon :)

Thursday, November 29, 2007

ICL : Beginning of a new ERA


Tomorrow a new chapter will be written in the history of cricket in India, when the monopoly of the most mismanaged highly bureaucratic and run by the same politicians who have ruined this nation in short BCCI will be challenged with the opening game of the ICL between Chandigarh Lions and Delhi Jets . Lot of people are saying that the launch of BCCI's IPL have taken away the craze or hype or motive from the ICL but in my opinion in a big country like India there is a scope for 2-3 cricket leagues.

Lots of sponsors have gone away at the last moment but these initial glitches are bound to take place whenever a new thing is started. The league will be a learning platform for the youngsters who have decided to leave the tent of monopolistic BCCI and join the ICL. All the 6 teams have got players of awesome reputation as the coach also.

jerseys of the teams

These is a lot of scope for the ICL, it can be expanded to the subcontinent. There will be lot of players in the pakistan who will be game for ICL same is the case in lanka and bangladesh. I see the number of teams like Lahore Warriors, Karachi Champs , Dhaka Tigers and Colombo Rambos coming in few years and even more teams because there are lot of cricket players in the subcontinent who deserve more then what they are getting now. One would say that without stars nobody would watch them play, in my opinion there are lot of fans of the game in the world who would watch the young players become stars, many of us watch the county twenty20 cricket and we enjoy the matches.

With great Kapil Dev at the helm there is no doubt that the ICL's 3D strategy of Discovery, Diligence and Display succeeds will succeed.

Now coming to the launch, its expected to be a gala event. Business tycoons like Anil Ambani filmstars Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan are expected to grace the ocassion and with Zee deciding the telecast 30 minutes of game in every zee channel I would be able to watch the game :)

img: from ICL website