Trivia: Answers

1. How many modes of dismissal are there in cricket? No this is not the question :) I will make it simpler there are 10 modes

* Caught
* Bowled
* Leg before wicket (lbw)
* Run out
* Stumped
* Hit wicket
Name the remaining four

Ans:

• Handled the ball
• Hit the ball twice
• Obstructing the field
• Timed out

2. Who was man of the match in the Final of 1975 World Cup ?
( will give you a sitter hint , he was a West Indian)

Ans: Lloyd scored his century of 82 balls. There was a 149-run 4th wkt partnership between him and RB Kanhai.

3. Another from the first world cup Who was the most economical bowler of the cup?
You should know this .........

Ans: Bedi had 12 overs and 8 maidens vs East Africa.


4. Any guesses what was the lowest score by any batsman in the 1975 cup?
Now don't say duck

Ans : 5
The lowest score on the West Indian scorecard was 5 runs by Viv Richards; the lowest Australian score was 7, which was scored by Rick McCosker and Max Walker.

5. Now this one from the 2003 WC . Which batsman set the highest individual score of the tournament.
Need a hint :)
He was from Africa ...... he he

Ans: Craig Wishart. The Zimbabwean bludgeoned his way to 172 from just 151 balls against the Namibians in Harare.

Desh and kartikeya got 3-4 correct so no one is going to West Indies ....... as a quizmaster I am going to get you more questions :)

Wait for the next

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Federer Loses on way to Dubai Open Semis

Confused?
Federer has dropped sets in two matches in a difference of three days. Isn't it hard to believe ?
Yesterday he dropped a set for the second time in three matches but overcame Serbian teenager Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 on Thursday to reach the semifinals at the Dubai Open. Two days back he also dropped as set to Denmark's Kristian Pless in his first-round match on Monday

He advanced to the semifinals along with Germany's Tommy Haas and Robin Soderling of Sweden. Federer will meet Haas in the semis and has beaten the ninth-ranked German in seven of their nine meetings.

Federer said after the match

“The ball was out, but it’s hard to accept, match point,” Federer said. “It was a bit of a pity it went three and it had a bitter taste at the end with the netcord and Hawkeye.

“Maybe I should have closed it out earlier and not got to that position. I should have closed it out at 6-4 (in the tiebreak). I can only blame myself.”

Nadal was outsded from the tournament by Russian Mikhail Youzhny 7-5 6-3. First set end was a controvertial one with arguments on whether ball has landed on the line or outside. Nadal thought the ball was out but Youzhny challenged the call and Hawkeye showed the ball to be just skimming the line. Both Nadal and the umpire believed the ball was out, but officials have to accept Hawkeye’s ruling.

“The mark of the ball was still on court and it was outside but in the challenge it was in, so that’s unbelievable,” said Nadal. “I say to him (the umpire), ‘look, the ball is out’, and he say ‘I know’.”

Youzhny also agreed the ball to be out

“It looked like it was out,” he said. “I saw the mark, but I just took the challenge because it was a very important point. When it showed it was good I was a little bit shocked. But anyway, you can have the same mistakes from linesmen or the chair umpire.”

Now Federer will meet Hass and Soderling will challenge Youzhny. Winner of the tournament will get a whooping $300,000 and 300ATP points. Federer will look to extend his winning streak to 40 matches.

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Cricket Trivia

This is for all cricket fans out there some sitters and some difficult questions. See if you can answer without using Google

1. How many modes of dismissal are there in cricket? No this is not the question :) I will make it simpler there are 10 modes

• Caught
  
• Bowled
  
• Leg before wicket (lbw)
  
• Run out
  
• Stumped
  
• Hit wicket

Name the remaining four

2. Who was man of the match in the Final of 1975 World Cup ?
( will give you a sitter hint , he was a West Indian)

3. Another from the first world cup Who was the most economical bowler of the cup?
You should know this .........

4. Any guesses what was the lowest score by any batsman in the 1975 cup?
Now don't say duck

5. Now this one from the 2003 WC . Which batsman set the highest individual score of the tournament.
Need a hint :)
He was from Africa ...... he he


Now serious effort . No google please

Answers after few days

Winner will get a trip to West Indies *





* this incident can be purely imaginary

Dope-Tainted Akhtar n Asif failed to make it to WC

As we get near to the time when all the participating cricket nations have started praying for their country to fare well in World Cup as the teams are landing in Carribean, it seems that Pakistan has some more surprises to pull through before they do so. In the latest proceedings, it has been informed that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were ruled out of the World Cup due to knee n elbow injury respectively.

Rumor has it that both the players who were tested positive later last year for having found substantial amount of Nandrolone in their blood samples, are being restrained by higher officials to skip the second dope test fearing that the traces of nandrolone may still persist in their blood samples. If found tested positive again they may suffer Life Ban. Both the players are very much lucky for having their earlier ban quashed in no matter of time. Being protected by PCB from all four sides, both the players made themselves unavailable for the compulsory dope tests ordered for every World Cup bound Pakistani player.

The official reasons have only defied the claims made last week that said that neither of the injuries were serious enough and if the pair didn't go, it would only be "over concerns with the doping issue". So nonetheless everything may have fallen in place for both of them from one perspective, we can't deny the serious impact on Pakistan's chances of faring well in the World Cup with Abdul Razzaq also joining the ousted players club. The pressure will be there on Inzy as he took his depleted side to WC with his dope-test results still awaited.

Image Source: cricketnext
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Budget'07: It came, It went and Sports Stays the same...

Nitesh quite aptly summed up his expectations from the Budget with respect to Sports, with Vivekananda's quote outlining what to look forward too. You may read that one,

Budget 2007 : What's in for Sports

By the way, it came yesterday and as every year sports still lurks among one of the disinterested areas of Government interest. Here were few of the highlights of the Union Budget'07 for Sports,

• The ministry of youth affairs and sports has been allocated Rs 780 crore for 2007-08, an increase of Rs 111 crore from the previous year. Although Rs 669 crore was the budget allocation in 2006-07, it was later revised to Rs 573.77 crore. A major chunk — Rs 700 crore — has been earmarked for plan expenditure, while Rs 80 crore has been kept for non-plan expenditure.
  Now compare this to something like BCCI, which earned around 2500 crore just from the Neo Sports deal itself, leave other things apart. Nothing more to say but I think this is less. Anyway being a part of this blog I even don't know who runs the Sports ministry. A pity but I don't care that much maybe.
• To give the Capital a facelift ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games — the first major international sports event after the 1982 Asian Games — the Centre has sanctioned Rs 500 crore in Budget 2007-08.
  Commonwealth looks in bigtime mess. I mean rather than doing makeup to cities and bolstering about things which don't really exist, we should concentrate of community level improvemnet for sports. why to show the world that we are great organisers when we are actually not. There goes hell lot of taxpayers money too.
• The budget has also earmarked Rs 62 crore for training and scouting sports talent in the country.
  62 Crore for training the Junta which tries to encompass training by foreign coaches and health care facilities for athletes. Absolute peanuts. I mean this is the area to which most of the money should have gone.

I came across this reaction by Suresh Kalmadi on Budget,

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is not satisfied with the budget. You expect our athletes to win medals, but don’t release enough money for their training. The budget is no better that what it was last year. It’s very difficult to manage so many things like giving athletes foreign exposure, proper training and looking after their diet with so little money. I am going to talk to the finance minister and the Prime Minister over the issue.
As far as the Commonwealth Games are concerned, the infrastructure aspect will be taken care of. But with only Rs 150 crore given to Sports Ministry for CWG, it’s going to be difficult. The best thing is the government’s proposal of giving a five-year tax holiday for construction of new two, three or four-star hotels in Delhi and adjacent districts till March 2010.

Now this guy has been running Indian Olympic Association for ages now and I don’t think we have made progress by leaps and bounds in his reign. Political stupidity paves the way for Sporting doomness. Why do you want more money Sir, for roaming around with your Family to Greece or Beijing next time. Crap!!!

It’s said that the government offers just pennies for Indian Sports, and I don't see them offering anything more in the days to come. It's only when administration improves and becomes decoupled from political intevention when sports starts achieving what it deserves.

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Source of Budget Info and quote: The Times of India