Sad demise of Indian Cricket?

We are the Champions?

The World Champions?

Also, one of the best Test Teams in the world?

Is it? Obviously Yes! We are. But is it true only for our soil?

Do we fail anywhere outside? Do we fail miserably in our 'tests' on foreign soil?

It hasn't really been the case to this extreme until the recent past.

I was very disappointed when my team, which made me and every Indian proud by lifting The World Cup last year after 28 yrs, was thrashed and could do nothing but submit in England. There is anyways some not-so-soft-corner somewhere inside me for the English, for they ruled us and did what not (according to the History Books I studied in school). And whatever happened in England last year hurt me deep inside.

I was so eagerly waiting to see my favourtie cricketer, The God of Cricket, The Sachin Tendulkar to score The Special Century right there, at The Mecca of Cricket, The Lord's. Sadly, that didn't happen. I told myself, if not first, then it will be in second innings, and likewise, if not this match, then the next. The wait just continued. In any case, I agree, it is just a number. But I still wanted it in Lord's, his first there, if it would have been.

Nonetheless, it is OK, that it did not happen. But what really bruised me was our dismal batting performance. The Batting performance of The Team with not only a strong batting lineup, but applaudable bench strength as well (possibly for the first time ever since I have started watching cricket). And to rub it in, was the constantly publicised, omnipresent fact, that my team had failed to score more than 300 even once! One man stood tall, The Wall, but all he could see from the other end, was one after the other wicket fall.

All over Facebook, Twitter, News Channels, News Papers, and Real World almost everyone was criticising almost everything about my team but honestly, I still believed that they would do better in the next innings and the next, maybe the next after next but that did not happen. This sad chapter is still lying inside me in a corner that I did not wish to visit anymore.

Sadly, I did today. What made me do that is perhaps a pessimist view of the near future when, hope-not, we fail that bad or even worse, again. Everything now seems to be exactly the same - My expectation of The Master to score The Special Century at the MCG, then if not in first innings then maybe the next, then maybe the next match, and here I stand in the present. Another batting collapse in the first innings at the SCG, where The Cricket God averaged 221 before this match (making me all the more excited in anticipation of witnessing history being written).

You ask me again, and I will again say, it is not the failure to reach that magical figure by The Sachin that is bothering me. I will be brutally honest, it is what is happening, the collapse. OK, I can accept Sehwag doing only what he has managed to do, I can accept Gambhir going through a bad phase perhaps, but it is very very hard for me to hear, see, digest the failure of The Wall and The Very Very Special Man in Australia.

How are we managing a batting collapse yet again? Bad pitch, unfavourable conditions maybe, but then how does one of the weakest Australian side in 15 years pile up runs on the scorecard, that including a century and a maiden test double hundred. It is frustrating, upsetting, disappointing to say the least.

Well of course, there are positives that even I see in this series like our Captain always does. For one, The Master looks in good touch. And then, Ashwin knows how to use the bat.

But isn't it time to seek answers to reasons for failure overseas and do something about it, rather than just keep "looking at positives" and "not being bothered about a loss or two". Of course, I believe my team is already doing that and are perhaps also trying out things but after seeing today's play there are bad visuals haunting me.

Someone like Ponting who was going through, perhaps, the worst phase of his batting career quite recently, is standing strong, playing better and better and better in every knock, while I sit and see The Wall not having reached even 100 in the 3 innings and The Laxman who has a history of giving sleepless nights to all Australians, having played a prank on them thrice, scoring a total of 5 in this series till date.

I hate myself today for even accepting that we are good, perhaps the best, only on our soil and that I accept defeat already. "Hate" because, after all I should support my country, patriotism, etc. But then, of course this is the outcome of what has happened since the England Tour. It is the heart vs. mind game, wherein my heart overruled all that my mind said during the England series. Of course, the outcome of that series has subdued my heart to an extent that it is not even contesting and standing up against what my mind is saying now.

And now for the icing on the cake (read: rubbing salt into wounds), one of my friends who is in Australia gave me an account of what he is going through - being mocked at on the streets. Not only this, he says, at times when he calls up his manager at work to say "application is down" he gets a reply saying "wall is down.. so is tendulkar" (sic).

Sigh, let me try and end this frustration and disappointment initiated chain reaction of blabbering with my Heartadramus prediction - The Heroes will Rise, it will get better, this match ends in a draw and it improves exponentially from there on.

Sorry to break it for your hearts, I am laughing at what I wrote in the last line. We are all set to lose this one.

And yes, maybe I am taking all this too seriously and making a big deal out of this, but well if you don't, I am sorry you wasted your time reading this, it wasn't for you.

Almost the perfect recipe

250-260 pitch
2 spinners
Ashwin in
Raina in
......that was almost the perfect recipe for India. It is our home ground. So, it is not, by any means, illegal or unsporting to make pitches that suit us. Featherbeds donot suit us, neither do green tops. I am not saying we cant win on those pitches. But the Mortera wicket was ideal for us against Australia. It is the ideal wicket for us to play against most teams except for may be SriLanka. Should we meet the islanders in Mumbai, a green top may be the order of the day for us.

Indian bowling is badly exposed on featherbeds and this was brilliant from the Indian thinktank (if indeed they asked the curator to prepare this kind of wicket). Playing 2 spinners, playing Raina for Yusuf(as we were not able to bat 50 overs in previous games) were again good decisions. The only worry now for India is Munaf Patel. Did we really need him? I guess, the answer was no today.

But looking ahead to the Pak game, the Mohali pitch has traditionally has had something in it for the quicks and we will need Munaf there (though there is still some doubt if he qualifies as a 'quick'!!) Quite ironic, if you think that a few years back he was India's fastest bowler!! (http://www.canadiandesi.com/read.php?TID=736)
The reason Munaf is playing is that he is more economical than Sreesanth and Nehra. He was our 4 bowler today, bowled 7 overs for 44 runs without picking up a wicket. In the Windies game he was our fifth bowler, and bowled 5 overs. Now I would assume that the logic behind not playing Sreesanth is that we can't rely on him completing his 10 overs, given his erratic nature (of bowling!). But between these, Sreesanth is definitely more of a wicket taker. He is more likely to produce the 'magic ball' to give us the break through. So, if Munaf is only bowling 5 over spells, why not play Sreesanth?? That is something for Kirsten, Dhoni and co to think about.

Everything else looks good for us. I cannot see Pakistan defeating us. I know the "cricket...game.....glorious.....uncertainities" but Paki batting is too weak.

Kamran Akmal, Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Younis Khan, Misbah, Umar Akmal, Afridi, Razzaq. I really cant see this batting line-up score more than 250 consistently. Umar Gul is their only bowler that will really concern India. I cannot see Afridi picking easy wickets against our batting the way he has against the likes of WIndies, Canada and Kenya.

Unless something dramatic happens, India should beat Pakistan pretty comfortably........

World Cups and Champions Trophies

World Cup
England, 1975
In the first edition of the ICC cricket World Cup, the 'Black Cat' and his men were unstoppable. In fact, it was Clive Lloyd, whose counter-attacking 102 off 85 balls set West Indies on the way in the final to 291 in 60 overs. A young Viv Richards scored three run-outs to derail the Australian retort and the West Indies won by seventeen runs to win the first World Cup.

World Cup
England, 1979
It was the West Indies again, who clinched the second edition of World Cup. The unstoppable Vivan Richards hit an unbeaten 138 as the West Indies posted 286. Geoff Boycott and Bearley took almost 40 overs for their opening wicket partnership of 129. Joel 'Big Bird' Garner took five as England folded out for 194.

World Cup
England, 1983
One of the upsets of cricketing history, if not the sporting history. Rank outsiders, India were bowled out for 183 in the final by a West Indian bowling line-up, which consisted of Andy Roberts, Malcom Marshall, Joel Garner and Michael Holding. Looking at the pace quartet, Kapil and India would have taken 183. In a 'nothing to lose' situation, Kapil's Devils bowled the West Indies out for 140 to put India on the cricketing map.

World Cup
India, 1987
For the first time, the World cup moved outside England and the number of overs were reduced from 60 to 50. World champions, World Series champions, hosts and hot favorites, India, went out in the semis to England. Chasing Australia's 253 in the final , Mike Gatting's infamous reverse sweep triggered a collapse as they lost to the Kangaross by seven runs.

World Cup
Australia/New Zealand, 1992
The tournament saw colored clothing and day-night games for the first time. Pakistan would have gone out had rain not intervened in the 13th match of the tournament against England. As history has it, they went on to beat England in the final by 22 runs. Young Wasim Akram came round the wicket to pick two in two to seal England's fate to another defeat in a World Cup Final.

World Cup
India, 1996
Sri Lanka shocked the world, first with their '15-over tactics' and then going on to win the world cup. Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharna set the tone and typified Sri Lanka's apprach in the world cup- fearless, aggresive and nothing-to-lose. Ashanka Gurusinha, Aravinda De Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Hashan Tillakratne and Roshan Mahanama gave the middle order more than just a solid look. If Jayasuriya and Kalu failed, as they did in the semi-final against India, Aravinda would counter-attack and the rest would play around him. Vaas, Wickramasinghe, Murali and Dharmasena, supported by the likes of Jayasuriya and Aravinda formed pretty much the ideal bowling line-up for the sub-continent conditions. They went on to beat Australia in the final by seven wickets, the first time a team batting second won the final of a world cup.

Champions Trophy
Bangladesh, 1998
In the first "non-world-cup" ICC tournament, Jacques Kallis inspired South Africa to a five-wicket win over the West Indies in the final. The young all-rounder from Cape town took five for 30 and then scored 37 to set the Proteas on the way to victory after Philo Wallace had scored a blazing 103 off 102 balls. Earlier, in South Africa's semi-final encounter against Sri Lanka, Kallis smashed 113 (5x4, 5x6) off 100 balls. Murali was hit for 48 runs in six overs.

World Cup
England, 1999
Lance Klusener was unstopabble for South Africa. With three genuine all-rounders (Klusener, Pollock and Kallis), the Proteas were ideally suited to the English conditions. They seemed to be cruising in the tournament, but a Steve Waugh-inspired Australia had other plans. Pakistan, another team with three quality all-rounders (Abdur Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood and Wasim Akram), also had a wily spinner in Saqlain and an express tearaway in Shoaib Akhtar. But Mcgrath, Warne, Waugh and Co. proved to too hot to handle for the men in green. The final turned out to be an anti-climax as Australia steam-rolled Pakistan, winning by eight wickets.

Champions Trophy
Kenya, 2000
A young Indian team, led by a new captain, Saurav Ganguly, comprised of little known, but fearless players like Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan. India was the team to watch with an ideal blend of young and experienced players (Sachin, Saurav and Kumble). They shocked Australia and then humbled South Africa in the semi-final. They were running away with the game in the final before they were hit by this thing called Chris Cairns. The burly, curly-haired all-rounder first bowled a frugal spell of 10-2-40-0 when the Indian openers were running away with the game. He then walked in at the fall of the third wicket and scored a belligerent unbeaten 102 to take the Black Caps to an unlikely victory.

Champions Trophy
Sri Lanka, 2002
Shoaib Malik became the first player to be give out LBW by the third umpire in the inaugural game against Sri Lanka.
By this time, India were on a roll. An aggressive skipper (Ganguly), a stable yet explosive batting line-up (Sachin, Saurav, Sehwag, Dravid) at the top,a young middle-order(Yuvraj, Kaif), quality spinners (Harbhajan, Kumble) and a good attack led by Zaheer. They had most things of what a good team should have. They were on the back of an amazing Natwest series win in England, where they beat the hosts by two wickets chasing 326. They were well and truly on the way to victory in the final after restricting Sri Lanka to under 250. Rain gods smiled on the hosts and saved their day. Ironically, the exact same thing happened the next day in the replay and India had to share the series with Sri Lanka.

World Cup
South Africa, 2003
The World cup moved to the African continent for the first time. Only two teams could have stopped the Aussie juggernaut in the eight edition of the World cup. One was Pakistan (because they are Pakistan!) and the other was India, with its wealthy batting line-up. Pakistan, being Pakistan, were knocked out in the first round! The impressive Indian sprint was halted by the Aussies in the final. Ponting and Martyn made the most of a nervous Indian bowling line-up to post a mammoth 359 after India put Australia in to bat! Even desperate Indian prayers for rain, which was their last hope, were not answered and India was bowled out for 234.

Champions Trophy
England, 2004
When Ian Bradshaw strode out to the center in the final, England had reduced West Indies to 147-8. By the time he came out, he and wicket-keeper Browne had put on 70 runs and West Indies surpassed Englands' 217. An amazing victory, which unfortunately, turned out to be a flash in the pan rather than a West Indies revival.

Champions Trophy
India, 2006
Contrary to expectation, this tournament was marked by low totals (forerunner to this world cup?). Teams defended scores of around 200 successfully. In one of the preliminary games, Jerome Taylor took a hat-trick, when the Aussies were chasing 225 for victory, to bowl West Indies to victory. Unfortunately for them, there was no such drama in the final. Australia bowled West Indies out for 116 and chased it down. The final will also be remembered for Ponting pushing the Indian chief guest off the stage during the presentation ceremony.

World Cup
West Indies, 2007
The first World cup in the Carribean will, unfortunately, be remembered for the death of Bob Woolmer. India's exit from the World cup in the first round meant that the viewership reduced drastically. None of this affected the Australians. They went on to hammer Sri Lanka in the final, thanks to a whirlwind 149 off 104 balls from Gilchrist. Ponting, Gilchrist and McGrath completed a hat-trick of World cups.

T20 World Cup
South Africa, 2007
India and Pakistan had a chance to revive themselves after first round exits in the World cup earlier that year. Revive themselves, they certainly did. In the first round encounter between the two teams, India won in a bowl-out after the two teams had tied. The final seemed to be heading to a similar result. Chasing 157 to win, Pakistan needed 12 to win off the last over. When the equation got down to six off four, Misbah attempted a 'Marillier' over short-fine-leg. He forgot that there is a Mallu in every corner of the world. Sreesanth took the catch and India won by five runs to send the nation into delirium.

T20 World Cup
England, 2009
Pakistan was surrounded by all sorts of off-field controversies. Change of captains, players being threatened, match-fixing allegations, terrorist attacks on touring teams. It was typical of them to go on to win the second edition of the T20 World cup in such circumstances. Afridi was the hero for Pakistan, both with bat and the ball. The all-rounder hit an unbeaten half-century in the final to take them to an easy eight-wicket win over Sri Lanka.

Champions Trophy
South Africa, 2009
Ponting and Watson inspired Australia to yet another major trophy. Australia made a mockery of England's 258 in the semi-final, winning by nine wickets. Watson and Ponting scored centuries to take their team home after England recovered through Tim Bresnan's 80 to take them to 258. In the other semi-final, New Zealand beat Pakistan. Watson scored another century in the final to guide them to a six-wicket victory.


T20 World Cup
West Indies, 2009
Mike Hussey reminded everyone of the 'Australianism' to pull off an amazing come-from-behind victory in the semi-final over Pakistan. He hit Saeed Ajmal for 19 in the last over of the match to take the Aussies home. But, it was Collingwood's England who had the last laugh, winning their first major trophy after beating Australia in the final. Man of the Series, Kevin Pieterson was in fine form. His 47 off 31 balls in the final helped England overhaul Australia's 147.


source: cricketweb.net

Arspective: Preview to Arsenal- Fulham, the Ashes 2nd test

Wow!......what a turn arround week for the gunners. We beat Villa away (ok, agreed that our home record this season has been worse than our away record) , Chelsea drop two points and then we win the Carling cup quarters and also get a favorable draw for the semis. Not trying to be cocky, but we should beat Ipswich (despite the Roy Keane factor) over two legs. More good news, as Eboue made a 'miracle' recovery. He was to be out for "four weeks" according to Wenger. While he did struggle against the teenaged left-winger of Wigan, his return is vital as he is one who is willing to play in any position (left-back, right-back, left-wing, right-wing).



.......mircaulous recovery but not quite "he-man"ual against Wigan


17-yr old Brazilian starlet Wellington Da Silva will be joining in January. We had actually signed the youngster some time back, but he has been biding his time in Brazil as he could not get his work permit in Europe until he turned 18!!

Looking ahead to the Fulham game, it is a home game. The good thing is, after our horron performances at home, there is no chance of there being any complancency in our locker room. Fabiansky (I still dont trust him :( )will start. TV is, worryingly, still injured The last time we heard anything about him, Wenger said

"We have to be patient. We know a lot medically nowadays but there are some mysteries that we do not know about. At the moment we have no rational explanation for his pain. That means there is no reason to have surgery and there is no logical explanation for his pain. We have to be patient and just hope it will go. That means rest at the moment."

So, Koscielny and Squilacci along with Clichy and Sagna complete the French back four again. Wilshere and Song in front of them. Nasri should be back after picking up a "knock". The boss went on to say:

“It is a knee problem but he should be alright"

It looks like the Frenchman will play on the left, Rosicky in the "Cesc" role and RVP on the right. The Dutchman had, fingers crosses, a good (more importantly healthy and injury-free) return against the Lactics with the Moroccan up-front.

The 2nd test gets underway at Adelaide today. The Aussies are under the kind of pressure they have never been before and the English fans must be delighted. England do look more and more favorites to retain the 'urn'. Mind you, the original urn is always held in the MCC. From wiki

"The urn is erroneously believed by some to be the trophy of the Ashes series, but it has never been formally adopted as such and Bligh always considered it to be a personal gift.[1] Replicas of the urn are often held aloft by victorious teams as a symbol of their victory in an Ashes series, but the actual urn has never been presented or displayed as a trophy in this way. Whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum at Lord's since being presented to the MCC by Bligh's widow upon his death"

England have pretty much a settled side and there should not be any changes.
Potential Weaknesses?

Complancency in the dressing room. While they are better than the Aussies at the moment, it is because of the fact that they have lost great players and have become weaker rather than England becoming stronger over the years.

Swann?? Is he over-rated?? All the English commentators go gaga over the 31-yr old Northampton man and call him the best-spinner in the world. Well, may be he is the best, but that again is due to lack of quality spinners around and not down to him alone. He enjoyed success against a weak Paki betting.....err batting line-up. He has picked up a wicket in his first over some 21 times. But, I dont think he has been tested against quality batting yet. He dint seem to have too many answers when Michael Hussey counter-attacked him at the Gabba. Lets see.....

Collingwood and Prior's lack of time in the middle. Their middle-order (as Siddle showed) could be brittle due to lack of match-practice.

Strengths are obviously, high-on-confidence, Anderson's form with the ball, Cook's form, Pieterson's form (though he made only 43 in the 1st test, he was looking in ominous touch) and Bell's form.

As for the Aussies, well they would love to win the toss and make first use of the wicket (kind of a cliche I know). Ponting loves the ground and is the highest scorer at Adelaide. Katich and Watson looked reasonably assured in the 1st test. Clarke's form will be a worry for the Aussies. Mitch Johnson is out and looks like Dougie the Bollinger will replace him. Bollinger has been one of the top bowlers in the last 2 years and his exclusion in the 1st test was surprising. So Johnson's bad form could be blessing in disguise for them. Bollinger, Doerthy, Siddle and Hilfenhaus is not going to make the English batsmen lose sleep. Wonder what happened to Jason Krezja, who picked up 8 against India on his debut at Nagpur. Wonder why Shaun Tait does not play? Tait, Bolinger, Siddle and Krejza sounds more potent to me.......

Anyway, the news is that :

Australia won the toss and elected to bat........so there you go

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.

Sharjah revived : Thankyou Sachin

Its a special day for cricket we have gained some and lost some, we as Indians got a victory in odi series in Australia which no one would have given a chance one month ago. Memories of Sharjah were revived by God of cricket 'Sachin' and we lost two special players of cricket Gilly and Brad Hogg.

Big day really indeed !!!

I consider myself lucky to born in era when Sachin is playing because there are only two Gods of cricket Bradman and Sachin , Bradman was long ago in era of my grandfather, Sachin is present and reality.
Sachin produced another classy of his innings , I had a intuition 2-3 days ago regarding Sachin hitting two centuries in the final. His critics who criticize him just to gain publicity were going over the head and saying hell lot of things about him.

And one cannot keep rain gods quiet in the season of moonson, rain is bound to come in the season and it flooded in form of classy shots from Sachin in past three matches.

Though the innings were not as fast as those in Sharjah when he hit back to back centuries and won the cup for India single handily. Today we watched some awesome straight drives which I missed in the last innings , drives were as elegant as always. He inspired this young side without these two special innings we could never have won, not denying the efforts of whole of the team.

All watched how the team faltered when he fell scoring only 51 runs in the last 10 overs but main work was already and we were able to defend the score not easily but somehow.

Another memorable moment of the match was the over of Bhajji in which two of his best friends Symonds and Hayden got out and the match turned from here just like in the last match. You cannot miss Bhajji in a match he is such a guy who will make his presence felt automatically.
The way he danced and enjoyed after India won the match showed all his anger and frustration, hats of to Bhajji who channelized his anger and emotional outbursts in a right direction i.e. towards winning the CB series for India and he did that wonderfully.



This match became the last match of Gilly and Hogg. We are so used to Gilly standing behind the stumps, I dont know how the replacement Brad Haddin will be able to fill the big boots of expectations. I also dont know who is another spinner in after Hogg as Mcgill is also in his late 30's.

Thankyou Gilly for innovating the way of quick fast batting in ODI's. You carried forward the trend started by the SriLankan legend . You will be remembered by the Indians specially as a player who stood out for his sportsman spirit and honesty. You were playing with some players who reputation as honest players is always at doubt, you were the initiators of trend of leaving the crease when out even before umpire raising his finger, which is very difficult for any one to do so.
As my friend desi has said you and Lee are the only players who are respected by most of the Indians.

We will miss you Gilly.

Kudos to the young Indian team, now the time is right to make a pool of 25-30 players and use them judiciously and groom them under the mentorship of 5 stalwarts of Indian cricket Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble and Laxman.

And do you guys notice some thing strange in India cricket .. a competition for a bowling place, we now have Zaheer, Ishant, Praveen, Pathan , Sreesant, RP Singh , Munaf , Agarkar. Superb!!!!




Sachin Tendulkar CBSeries Ponting Gilly Gilchrist Hogg

Gutsy Jumbo

Happiness keeps you Sweet,

Trials keep you Strong,

Sorrow keeps you Human,

Failure keeps you humble and

Success keeps you glowing,

but only Faith & Attitude Keeps you going..

Keep kumble in the above words and you will understand the whole scenario I am trying to tell you. I have seen few guys as determined , gritty as jumbo in my life who with their gutsy efforts have lead from the front by setting examples. No other bowler has won India more matches than him but still he has not got the adulation from the BCCI and even from Indians because we are always captivated by batsmen.

I don't believe in having a single idol for a person as every person has good qualities which one can imbibe and take inspiration from it. Anil's determination always inspires me in believing that nothing is impossible you just need to have faith and attitude. Continuing on the idols reading about Maradona in his autobiography I came to know a lot about him, how he challenged the money savvy FIFA for welfare of football players and his straightforward attitude is what one can learn from i.e if you are true from your heart others will believe you , there may be hard times but eventually victory will be yours. I have never seen a calmer player than Roger Federer , have you ever seen a tensed Federer ? I have not , this tells us how down to earth he is and what can be achieved by remaining calm in difficult times, not be being excessively arrogant like the cry babies aussies. Federer lost today in the semis after very long time we will not see him in any grand slam final.

I am big fan of arsenal manager Wenger his ability in investing less money in buying big shot players and spotting the talented players early when they are kids , its all awesome. There are many more in the line like Lance Armstrong he is in same class as jumbo determined , it was his sheer self belief that took him to winning Tour De France many times.

Coming back to kumble one can never forget the Antigua test where jumbo bowled with a fractured jaw and if i am not wrong took Lara's wicket. This was the day when cricket as game won and whole world became fan of the jumbo.

Kumble Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	124	223	38682	17319	603	10/74	14/149	28.72	2.68	64.1	31	35	8
ODIs	271	265	14496	10412	337	6/12	6/12	30.89	4.30	43.0	8	2	0
First-class	235		64631	28258	1115	10/74		25.34	2.62	57.9		72	19
List A	380		20247	14178	514	6/12	6/12	27.58	4.20	39.3	14	3	0
Twenty20	2	2	47	46	4	2/20	2/20	11.50	5.87	11.7	0	0	0

I hope the Adelaide pitch will turn tomorrow and kumble and bhajji will stear India to another great victory down under. We all are saying a great change in the way Indian tail is batting nowadays, with sachin gone at 360 odd runs nobody would have expected the score to cross 500 but kudos to bhajji, kumble and Ishant for fine display of batting. Dhoni learn something from them please you cannot do chappu type batting everywhere.

I feel that with this golden generation of India slowly fading this great Indian Australian rivalry may also end as I don't see any player of such high quality to match these 5 wise men ( sachin, ganguly, dravid, laxman and kumble).


Lets hope India win this match.

Kumble Adelaide Sachin Bhajji Jumbo

Cheaters now questioning our sports-man spirit

After I read the jubilating decision of India canceling the tour I was browsing the Australian News sites for their reactions. As expected they are biased praising the great cheater called punter. But now being afraid of the money losses the cheaters have proposed peace talks ......... oho so now you are afraid of the losses :)

I was very happy reading the news . I feel this is a great moment for Sharad Powar as whole of India is emotional now, a aggressive move will catapult Powar to great heights portraying him as the caretaker of great Indian sentiments. Had dalmiya been here the decision would have been taken long ago , but still powar has a chance to show the cheaters clout of Indian cricket.

I have been thinking since morning how could the cheat leader - punter sleep in the night after winning in such a way. May be they are morons , inspirited and above all they are cry babies ( read by wasim akram )

I have been getting lots of forwards since morning a funny one I would like to share

Procter:Did you call Symonds as Monkey?
Bhajji: No,I called a monkey as Symonds.
Procter:So you did
Bhajji : (Silence)
Procter : How dare,you insulted a monkey.You are banned for 3 matches.
Bhajji : Sad
Ponting& Co : !!???
Ponting : hey,Symonds.What he said?
Symonds : What ever,he is banned.You can bat well next game.
Ponting : No,Anil is also there,ask him whether he can ban him also.
Symonds : We’ll see in next match,if he takes your wicket,we’ll complain.
Ponting: Then ok. Come


I request to all of you
Vote for Indian Team on Australian site: (select NO)
Got to the link - news.com.au/poll/1,,5007133-5032443,00.html

Another poll in Sydney Morning Herald i would like to tell you the results

What do you think of the monkey sledging controversy?
It's not a racist insult - 11%
He should not have said it, but then again he should not have been suspended - 8%
Australia has long used sledging. They can dish it out, but can't take it - 40%
It is a racist slur and it's right that he has been suspended - 13%
It was wrong, but Ponting should have just let it stay on the field - 13%
Any player who resorts to racist insults should cop a very severe penalty - 12%
Sledging is part of cricket, especially at the Test level - 3%

Total Votes: 18855

Here is India media roundup in Australian media - Read

My cubicles white board in office are filled with hate words now for the cheaters and the man whom i dont want to name as he will sue me for calling him a monkey. Cry Baby . Read what the monkey noises dreamer is saying now.


Now this one for the highly biased commentator, brother of the man who ruined Indian cricket last year i.e Ian Chappel . Sir you said that this wrong decision is evened out during a particular phase say 10-20 years , you said when you were playing great WI team used to get lot of favours , i dont know about this but i know one thing the WI were always popular winners they never won by cheating as you Australians do.

Now the biggest sledger Glen Mcrath aka Pigeon has come and supported the integrity of Ponting , ohh common who are you to say that the whole world know how u sledged, have you forgotten the sarvan incident , you saying nice words to jayasurya. Dont go off the limits .. you are coming to India very excitedly to earn a hoopla of money, you dont know what Indian public can do.

Lot of stuff I want to write , feeling helpless like never before , lets hope the cheaters are taught a solid lesson this time.


Now I am feeling happy , after pouring some words :)


Go India Go
Go Bcci Go
Teach the Cheaters a Lesson
Benson be thrown to benson & hedges factory ( as raja said)
Bucknow be thrown back the WI
Punter bhajji will get you out again next time

We are proud of our Team and Australians have portrayed their culture and ethos , their habit of bein cry babies , being pathetic loosers ......... but you better learn this now because the Indians will now be defeating you and the whole world because we are coming in billions not in millions with our youth and energy . Hail the new young agressive India.

Kudos to the great Australians Cheaters

Yes this is what -' cheaters ' from now now onwards the Australians will be know as at least by me, I don't care about what others think of this. Cricketers, politicians or other big personalities representating their country, actually portray the ethos and culture of a nation and the kangaroos cricket team portrayed the great cheating culture the continent called Australia.

We all know what the kangaroos and the white coats sleeping duffers did at the 5th day of the test match at Sydney. I have always been saying that Australians are not popular champions and they will never ever be, when they start loosing they start to behave like mad psychotic mens... how can we loose..... we have to win by hook or by crook ....... we are the champions .......... we will win by cheating if we cannot win on merit.

That's what goes in their minds , they are out of their minds and now who comes to help them in this dire straits ... no one but the white coat suited men ............ the match referee ............. the ICC which has now become like United Nations ( UN is kid of US and ICC is kid of Australia). What should i write about the umpiring bloopers, i have no words to write because if a mistake is done 1-2 times then we can think it as a human error but Bucknor is not human being now, he is a biased man and what about the other great umpire who did another wonder today.
That fella asked the player if he had taken the catch cleanly of Saurav Ganguly who was playing like good old days and the great inspirited Punter raised his finger saying that he is out , and the day dreamer umpire gave out. What the hell ........... how can a umpire ask a player and that too an Australian who the whole world knows are cheaters in cricket atleast. Another questions is why should another Clarke (future captain follower of punter in cheating) be trusted to tell if he had taken the catch when he stayed at the crease on day four after edging a ball to first slip?

Ohh now I understood the point when Australians are batting they want the umpires to decide if the catch has been taken or if there is edge or not but when some other team is batting they so called truthfulness be trusted :)

Watch the bloopers and cheating of Australians




Hats off to the comment by Kumble

"Only one team was playing with the spirit of the game"

We are proud of you kumble but let me say in hindi

"संस्कारों के बोझ तले दबने का वक्त गया , कंगारोऊ को उन्ही की भाषा में समझाना पड़ेगा "
sanskaro ke bojh tale dabne ka waqt gaya, kangaroos ko unhi ki bhasha mein sambhjhana padega

Time has come to spit fire with fire if they show us their nice little english vocabulary, show them the vast hindi , punjabi , telegu or any in other language vocabulary. I am sure ours vocab is very stronger then theirs.



Now lets talk about the man who even in his dreams for the past few months like himself being called "Monkey" , while sleeping or playing or talking to any Indian player he thinks he is being called "Monkey". Bhaji is charged with saying racial comments on the man I don't want to name, he is not worth mentioning. The hearing went on today for 6 hours and the conclusion which was expected will be against us .... bhaji is fined for 3 test match.

Now why this saga started because bhaji is troubling the cheaters the most, the Punter the person with least integrity in the australian team whose wicket has been taken 3 out of 4 times in the ongoing test series was facing trouble a lot, so they planned the bowler be charged with some abuse and be kept out to prevent more of his trouble.... This time who came to help them the great Proctor because umpires have denied that they heard anything racial like stuff but proctor and ICC came to help them here and fined the bhaji.
Now what is our BCCI doing............ they have sent a letter to the ICC complaining against the decision. Would you believe this a letter not even a mail ............ very fast BCCI great going
What we did in the hearing was we complained about the kiddy spinner hogg .... where we you earlier Indian team .... sleeping ..... no but perhaps again our great culture forbade you to complaint against him.

What can we do now

BCCI can show their clout but I have no faith in them because the decision making body is of some politicians who cant do their work properly what will they do about cricket.
Tour be cancelled- my angered emotions are saying for it , but its a rare possibility

4-0 whitewash we can expect now with match at Perth coming and team must be morally down because they lost due to cheating not by their own mistake. But dont worry guys we did last time alsto their 16 match winning streak we can do this time also, team be changed Jaffer be dropped and Yuvraj be given some more time to romance with Deepika as he is not able to concentrate nowadays. Sresanth I am missing you in Australia, had you been there the monkey abuse must have been charged against you, I am sure.
BCCI do something they come to india and kept on complaining this and that and now in their home they are again cheating........... what the hell are you for.



Now for you Australians what ever you do what ever you say ... you are earning because of us Indians are watching cricket, our companies are sponsors , we have the richest mismanaged board, you are all eager to join the IPL ... .. request to the franchise bidders please dont bid for players like Punter and Clarke and the man who dreams himself being called monkey monkey again because this time it would be reality.

I have written in no order just written my angered emotions here. :(

Now for the other writers on this blog who are very busy making softwares for multinationals companies, is your passion for cricket or sports dead that you cant write something?


Cheaters Australians Sydney Punter Bucknor Benson Ganguly Kumble Bhajji Clarke


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Integral Punter

Idiots in White Coats

Yes I am talking about the highly biased Steve Bucknor who has a beautiful past against the Indians giving wrong decisions regularly. There can be only one reason why all the 3 men Mark Benson and Bruce Oxenford and the great growing old Steve Bucknor could give wrong reason , perhaps the 31st night hangover is still there.

How can a third umpire give a wrong decision, what the hell was he sleeping or dreaming. Frankly speaking this is not the time for gentleman cricket everybody plays to win when there is so much at stake and such idiotic decisions costs a lot.

Yuvraj showed some disrespect and he was fined, to hell with ICC flawed rules , for giving such wrong decisions the umpire should be fined for his match fee and suspended for next few matches just like it happens in football .

Human makes a mistake once or twice but bucknor is not human now he intentionally gives wrong decisions against the Indians.

And again today morning Jaffer was given out on a no-ball, how can you be sleeping early morning.

Just one suggestion to you umpires think twice before coming to India, because cricket is a religion in India and when you try to play with religious sentiments of the cricket crazy nation you can understand what happens.

One more point which keep on coming in my mind is why in Australia maximum wrong decisions happens perhaps the umpires are afraid of Aussies , you guys might be world champions but you are cheaters that is for sure , how without shame Symonds accepted - ya I was out .
2-3 months back umpire gave sangakara out for 192 and Australia won the match , had he not been given out may be Sri Lanka could have romped home.

Now BCCI is saying it will protest what will happen through protest... nothing... what a shame for us a cricket crazy nation and no umpire in elite panel and BCCI talks of player welfare and its academies its a associations of politicians just working on filling their coffers.

Suggestion:
Give three-four appealing rights against an umpire decision to a team per innings , otherwise one simple solution throw the 2 gentlemen in the third umpire box and give decision from there but that is not possible and sounds bad also :)




Cricket Umpires Steve SteveBucknor Australia Symonds

Australia Tour : What should be the playing eleven

Sachin is batting like his good old days, dada is scoring centuries , laxman there can be no doubt ever at his abilities the wall dravid can never be out of form for long , yuvraj has joined the party even pathan has scored century with such form who would say that we can loose.

But this is all true in subcontinent what will happen in Australia a month will tell and i am waiting anxiously for Aussies series this time I am not saying words like this is the last chance like the media hyped during the world cup 2007 but we stand a decent chance not good though.

Let's analyze

Openers: who will open karthik is struggling in scoring runs jaffer is certainty, yuvraj is banging for place in the playing 11 so who will open with Jaffer, perhaps the selectors will ask dravid to open giving reason that he normally bats at number 3 so one position will not affect, but you cannot expose the best player of the team so early to the opposition like Australia remember the last tour it was only because of the start given by akash chopra and sehwag that we were able to score above 400 runs in good number of innings.

But most probable opening stand looking so far
Jaffer
Dravid

now whom to send one down sending sachin one down is not good ploy he is a shaky started all knows that and when the pitch is having moisture in the early one hour you are exposing another top class player too early.

Best bet can be Laxman

So

Jaffer
Dravid
Laxman
Sachin
Ganguly
Yuvraj
Dhoni

Now coming to bowlers

Zaheer , sreesanth , rp singh is injured, i wish they recover early and are ready for the tour. From Sreesanth I am expecting exploits downunder they will go after him and will surely give them wickets and first of all he is a good pace bowler in SA he showed that and in Australia he can be evil a mix of agression and pace will do the work.

Zaheer
RP Singh
Kumble
Sreesanth

But pathan is also bowling good so if one of the bowler is not fit Pathan should be taken but in first test sreesanth should be given chance.

It all depends on start in Australia if we get a good start we will get to their never, their bowling attack is not that lethal now and the way indian team is scoring runs though in India but it must have given the players confidence for the australian tour.

Lets get used to the habit of waking up early in the morning nowadays if we want to watch the series of the year.

What say you guys is this the best playing eleven available and what about the order also ?


Cricket Australia India Downunder

Hat-Trick for Aussies

3 and still no one to stop (img soure: ndtv.com)

It’s finally over, after a two month old, not so fascinating exercise, the cup ended in hands of deserving winners. Aussies have now 3 consecutive World Cup victories along with a 29 match winning streak, which for sure wouldn't be surpassed by any team, atleast in this century. That day I thought Jayasuriya and Sangakara almost started on a road that was quite impossible, in the end it turned out that way only.

Awesome Cricket from the Sri-Lankans too, as I certainly wouldn’t have hoped any better from any team against the Australians. Aussies are too much to reckon with. The day belonged to three people- Gilchrist, McGrath and Jayasuriya. Gillu with his awesome effort with the Bat, Glenn McGrath for an awesome career which had the best possible ending with a victory in World cup and a Man of the Series award and Jayasuriya for a knock which still highlights his fighting spirit, probably his last in an World Cup. Ponting equaled Lloyd but personally I quite dislike him for reasons quite not so in my recognition.

People like Gavsakar should now realize that even if they are arrogant or whatever he thinks to label them they are certainly the BEST and the BEST that there has ever been anyone!!!

Technorati Tags: Cricket, World Cup 2007, Adam Gilchrist, Australia, SriLanka, McGrath, Jayasuriya, World Cup Final

Punter and Sunny Verbal Volleys

Australian captain has accused Sunil gavaskar of hyprocracy in reply to sunny's comment on aussies in which he said that they are not popular winners.

Gavaskar said the lack of warmth towards Australia was a result of what he called their "awful" behaviour.

"Australia's comeuppance at the hands of England and New Zealand has gladdened the hearts of not just other aspirants for the World Cup but also the followers of the game," Gavaskar said last week.

"There is not the slightest doubt that in the last decade or so the Aussies have been awesome in batting, bowling and fielding, which has taken them to the top of the cricketing ladder.

"But they have also been awful in the way they have sometimes behaved on the field much to the chagrin of the traditional fans of the game. Unlike the West Indian teams of the 1970s and 1980s, which dominated world cricket in much the same way as the Australians are doing now, the Australians are not popular."

Ponting shouted back

"I don't know if there are too many popular winners," Ponting said.

"If you are really dominating teams for a long period of time, I don't think you end up having too many supporters around the place.

"We all know the way he played his cricket, don't we? If he is talking about us, what about the way India have played their cricket over the last few years."

Ricky have you forgotton Federer, Woods , Anand, Brazilian Football team . Why is federer respected so much by his rivals ??

Ricky also talked about performance by India in the last few years in test matches and commented

I know who I would rather be going to watch. Have a look at how many Test matches they have won," he said.

"He (Gavaskar) has been a big part of that, he has been a selector and he has been on the coaching committee. They might want to start to look at the way they play their own cricket rather than looking at us."

In my opinion Ponting was trying to prove that decade long victories has made the Aussies rude, over aggressive. To me after reading his comments this can be the conclusion.

What's yours!!!

BackTrack

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• Sunny- Content Answers
  
• Ricky-smh.com

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Memoria - II

Titan Cup
9th Match: India vs Australia
PCA Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh.

I've always credited this match as my first blood of interest in Cricket. It was during October I heard my father talking something about procuring tickets. I wasn't aware he was talking about a Cricket Match. It was only two days before the match I get to know I am gonna watch a match live for the first time in my life. And the timing couldn't be less perfect. Tell you what, if a writer of fiction had dreamt this one up, he would have been accused of the grossest exaggeration. A full house. Two international teams, battling each other for a place in the final. Spectacular batting performances. Brilliant fielding. Suspense till the very end. And a result in the very last over...

The teams
India had one change in its lineup - Robin Singh replaced Aashish Kapoor to strengthen the batting. Australia for its part brought back Mark Waugh n Ian Healy who recovered from their respective injuries. Jason Gillespie replaced Damien Fleming.

Even being aware of India's propensity to panic when chasing, Taylor fresh from miraculous last ditch win pulled off by Kumble n Srinath and taking in the consideration the dew while bowling second, invited India to bat, and the match was on..

I must confess, initially I was not satisfied with the view I had before my eyes. We got our seats just below commentator box. But it didn't took me long to realize that I wasn't there to follow the score after every ball. As I stood in PCA stadium with thousands of other fans and we witnessed the finest moment of India flourishing under pressure.

Indian Innings
It was an era, where Indian Cricket was in the hands of Tendulkar who was the mainstay of Indian batting. Every match was a battle for him with himself to dash out any pressure on his teammates. If and when Tendulkar fires, and he did that today again, the only task left for rest of the batsmen was to keep up with the momentum. Sidhu was his usual self. After he got out at 54, the next surprise was Srinath walking in fresh from his recent cracking hitting. The move results in a no-show and in came Azhar. The day belonged to him. Or I should say till the time India's batting got over. After Tendulkar's wicket, his blazing start was followed by a steady middle ensured by Azhar and the classy Dravid who emphasized on deft placing and quick running. And at the very end, the perfect timed acceleration from the typical hustler Ajay Jadeja and surprisingly Mongia. All combining to give India an eminently defensible score of 289 for six in 50 overs.

Australian innings
I was too young to think of the fact that every chase got itself a plan already discussed during the slot in which I was more concerned about my Cold Drink. I remember the day more for the junk food I could see around me. Not once it came to my mind that in Cricket, tracks got their roles too. I already awarded the win to India. But the guys in my favorite color Yellow had some other plans that day. The openers struck right on money with Mark Waugh looking dangerous and fortunate Taylor riding on his luck. The first breakthrough came from Robin Singh who came into bowl after seven years and took surprise wicket of Waugh. For skipper Tendulkar, he was worth his place for that wicket alone. But Robin Singh provided icing as the next man to go was Stuart Law in the very next ball. Steve Waugh survived the hatrick n settles very quickly. What a strong lineup they had, that even the wicket of Steve n Taylor later on didn't provided any threat to the next in line Bevan n Slater, who almost batted India out of the game. But it was for this moment, I have always had a soft corner for Prasad, as he got rid of Bevan with his dream slower delivery. With Ian Healy departed in the same minute he arrived, Australia's two quick wickets provoked the third one of Slater. Yesssssssss....finally Srinath got a wicket in this series, he ended a long drought and what more he could have asked for after getting rid of aggressive Slater. The tailenders chipped and nudged the runs, and it all came to the last over.

The nerve game
This one scene alone suffices to encapsulate the game. It is the first ball of the very last over. Australia needs six for a win, with one wicket in hand and six balls remaining. The Indian captain, who has surprisingly not bowled a single over till then, decides to put himself on the firing line and bowl the last over himself.

The field is set. There's a kind of hush all over the ground...

The ball is bowled - an attempted swipe to the boundary, an LBW appeal, two batsmen frantically scrambling a single, the keeper, partially unsighted, reacting with lightning speed at the very end of a long, hard day, throwing a dew-drenched ball with unerring accuracy to run the non-striker out.

Sachin Tendulkar goes up in the air - a picture of sheer ecstasy.

While at the other end, the tall, loose-limbed Glenn McGrath stands perfectly still. Head down. The very personification of misery...

Oh well!

The essence of sport, frozen in that one tableau. India had won, by holding its nerve; Australia had lost, by losing its...

Image Source: Rediff

Tech Tags: Cricket, Titan+Cup, India, Australia, Memoria

World Cup -2007 Semifinalists

Would you believe it aussies are on a four match loss streak.

Aussies have now got used to scoring 300+ runs and losing the match. This happened at the wanderers when SA chased the mammoth 434 and yesterday it was black cats who made record of the second successful chase , scoring 337 with 8 balls remaining. Kiwis thereby won the Chappell-Hadlee trophy with two successive victories, last one was 10 wicket thrashing of world champions.
Aussies are really missing the services of ponting, gilchrist , injured symonds and lee. Aussies have a huge chance of avoiding the 3-0 whitewash as NZ's strike bowlers Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori will be unavialable tomorrow as they have sustained minor injuries.

These defeats have really opened the world cup wide. England is on a revival string after winning the CE trophy. India is back roaring though at home. West Indies will be a potent contender for the cup. We can't forget the lankans though they lost the series in india but they were without Vass and Murli. As usual kiwis will be the dark horses. South Africa are at all time high rankings of 1. We cannot forget the pace attack of Pakistan

Its very difficult to guess the semifinalists. But still i would take a wild guess

• South Africa
• England
  
• WestIndies
• India

Readers also give there guesses , lets see who is the closest at the end.




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England revival in full flow

I think it all started after Buchanan asked for his team to be tested during the CB Series. And the aftermath is what we won't forgot in many years to come. It took us back to exactly 20 years, when England edged past Australia in 2nd final of Benson & Hedges World Series Cup. The current tour hasn't been anything as successful after loosing 5-0 in the Ashes, but to take some silverware home is never a less thrill which is the result of beating Australia 3 times in a row (twice in the finals).

Dreadfully humiliated after being whitewashed for the first time in Ashes since 1920-21, there were no signs of progress until first 9 matches of the CB series, after which England could only reach the final statistically by winning all its remaining matches , but that was also considered as a distant possibility looking at the magnitude of the defeats they recently suffered from the hands of Aussies n Kiwis. The injury to Kevin Pietersen, Vaughan, John Lewis further took the odds away from them. But a run of four consecutive wins saw them not only reach the finals but go on to claim the trophy with Flintoff tasting his maiden success as a Captain.

The spirit rises again

With this game of cricket reaching to the point where every member of the team can be called as talented. What is left now is showcasing it and making it count to their team's success with some monumental application. This England team consists of a bunch of youngsters viz-a-viz Joyce, Loye, Nixon, Plunkett, Mahmood, Monty who all make most of the opportunities that came their way. The plan was simple, at least one batsman should stay for long and play an anchor role. England's improved luck was reflected in a couple of dropped catches when they were batting. Ed Joyce, who was the replacement of Trescothick was crucially dropped on six before scoring his maiden hundred in 10th match that England won by huge margin. Wildcard Nixon also played a big factor in creating a more positive mood in the camp. Clicked when needed the most, England's recent success is highly indebted to some fierce knocks from Collingwood that includes two 100s in last three matches. Shifted up the order due to the absence of Vaughan, Trescothick, Pietersen; he proved yet again what a great one-day player he is.

Not a slump, but a rare inconsistency

Australians who dominated most of the series with their outright performance in all the sections of this game were beaten convincingly in first final. They must be crying at their luck when a modest target of 241 in second final proved like an avalanche for them. After they loose 4 quick wickets in their top order, weather makes her role count by taking the match from them as D/L comes in picture.

Critics all the way

Hitting back at his critics, Duncan Fletcher has made a point for his earlier calls to have faith in his 'young side'. He is now more concerned about over-confidence but he believes that after their plunge to rock-bottom, the only realistic way is up. John Buchanan with no regrets over his comments, still insists the loss will have a long term benefits for the Australians.

With this, after a winter in which nothing, it seemed, was ever going to fall into place, England's stunning performance means that they will enter the race for World Cup high on confidence and, in the eyes of some bookmakers, second only to the Australian as outright favorites.

Technorati Tags: Australia, CBSeries, England

Aao Dikhaye Tumhe Hair ka Funda

Shilpa Shetty's success in Big Brother and in particular after the racial saga has given some hope to the beleagured Darrell Hair. Ex elite panel umpire is planning to sue the ICC and Pakistan Cricket Board for racial discrimination, according to the BBC. In a incongruous way hair has said that he's being persecuted because he's white.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Nasim Ashraf replied to this :

"I am just flabbergasted. This is the most preposterous thing I've heard, when our lawyer told me we had received a letter from his solicitors accusing the ICC of racial discrimination and naming the Pakistan Cricket Board as a party to this issue. Mr Hair was removed from the ICC panel of umpires because of his bad umpiring and poor judgement. I think this is probably another manifestation of Mr Hair's mental status. I daresay it sounds almost as if he's not only just very impetuous or stubborn, if he made a mistake a man should have stood up and said 'I made a mistake'. For him earlier to have also asked for a half a million dollars during the incident and saying 'look, give me this money and I will simply walk away', and now suing the ICC and naming the PCB as a party for racial discrimination, smacks to me of another bit of, perhaps, opportunism.''

Hair is arguing that he got sacked while fellow umpire and West Indian Billy Doctrove got off scott free proves that he was fired for being white. Ashraf's response to this:

"That is even worse. I read that and just laughed out aloud because it is crass for him to say a black West Indian umpire was let off when he was a white man therefore he was charged. This (race) has nothing to do with it. Mr Hair was the senior umpire and he actually took over that Oval cricket match. I was present there. We have brought to the ICC even before many instances in which Mr Hair had almost brought Test cricket into disrepute by making decisions that were impetuous, hasty, ill-considered and without any basis of fact. And that is why ultimately he had it coming from his umpiring standpoint.''

Stop being boorish Hair. There are no takers for these allegations. You will not be getting the hoola like Shilpa and also sorry no companies are interested in you for advertising their products. Sorry Hair this funda will fail.

Maybe worth a glance,

• (quotes) cricket-blog
• FoxSports

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After a long time a series win and that too against WI from whose backyard our downfall started. Thanks to veterans Sachin and Ganguly for coming to our rescue. I guess now the publicity hungry ex-players who now and then are looking for sachin's head saying is he the same sachin ? is his time gone? will shut their sour mouths now for some time. I don't understand a player whose 9000 runs are for victory cause ( read from yesterday's TOI) can blame on sachin saying he bats for himself.

Now coming to main point will cricket hungry india hook back to their TV sets to watch the matches. Thanks to an undemocratic ordinance by the union cabinet making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share live feed, without advertisements, of sporting events of national importance with public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan and All India Radio. I guess there is only one event of national importance that is cricket presently.

Who has given the right to the Indian government to disrespect a contract between two parties , does is indicates goodness on part of the cabinet. Which MNC or any other company will keep faith in India in which any contracts are made null and void saying they are event of national importance. Does it gives a good indication to the FII's eyeing India. And I don't understand why prasar bharti care taker of mass channel DD-1 which has never tried to improve itself to eat 25% of the profits. Nimbus pays BCCI 500-600 million dollars and prasar bharti says we will keep the 25% profit and give you only 75% because it is an event of national importance.

Is anybody watching hockey our national game??. PHL is shown on espn-star why does prasar bharti now asking for feed of hockey. Parliament our moral police who bans AXN giving unjustifiable reasons like it was showing world's sexiest adds. I think now the Indian Govt. should ban entry of people below 18 to ajanta elora caves.

Govt should try to make more events of national importance by allocating some money to other sports. A mere 500 crores will do nothing . It will only lead to discussions after every four years prior to the olympics where we are ashamed each time.

In my opinion days of 50 overs cricket are numbered. Coming generation , kids below 16 are slowly moving away from boring 50 overs cricket and they are inclining more towards the EPL's and tennis. Even my interest has declined in the past 2-3 years. Gone are the days when in college we used to enjoy the nerve biting indo-pak match shouting Hindustan Jindabad. Seriously think how many rivalries are left in cricket.

England- Australia !! Are you nuts?. India - Pakistan !! to some extent is is still there, if we start playing series every year this will even fade away. There is only one serious contender Bangladesh-Zimbabwe!! . Domination of Australia in the last decade has left other nations blighted by the curse of the likes of Warne's Mcgraths and now Lees and Husseys.

Has anybody thought why lesser players are coming from meccas of cricket in India. I am talking about mumbai, delhi , banglore. The reason is the interest is detiorating and slowly it will come to small towns. As we indians are elusive to change , same reasone was there when BCCI honchos accepted the new Twenty20 format after 2-3 years. We did same while accepting the 50-50 format and played a classic match in which the blaster Sunil Gavaskar made a record which i bet will ever be broken 36 runs in 60 overs.

In just 2-3 years when sachin, dravid, ganguly and kumble the golden era of indian cricket will be gone. Kids have started liking Henrys , Ronaldos, Rooneys , Federers .The game is fast not wasting 9 hours watchin the boring game.

Hope Twenty20 come to rescue and we see USA winning the Twenty20 WC in 4-5 years , then there will be cricket expansion.





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