CRicket World Cup 2011 and India

Well, the India-South Africa match a classic for a neutral, but for an Indian fan it was a horrible memory which needs to be erased with a good performance against WI.

One of the best things about the match from the Indian perspective was the message from the skipper to his team at the post-match conference. He said it twice.

We should play for the country and not for the crowds

Which is why Dhoni's 12 off 21 balls may have received a lot of flak from a lot of crowd, but that was what was required at the time. To not bat 50 overs was criminal. And had India won the game from there, it would have put paper on lot of cracks. So, even though there is a slight chance of India being knocked out before the qrtrs, I think this is a good kick on the backside of this Indian team and I am hopeful they will revive their performance against the West Indies.

1) One HUGE question is when the batting powerplay needs to be taken? and more importantly how we approach it?
a) Take it from overs 16-20, especially in the situation that we were in the SA match. Sehwag and Sachin were butchering the SA attack. So why not
b) Second option is take it from overs 46-50. So even if we commit hara-kiri like the SA match it would not ahve as drastic as effect as it did when we took at around the 38 over mark.

But most importantly, its not when you take it, but how you bat in the PP.
It does not matter when you take it, 5 overs 29 for 4 is not something we can afford in any 5-over period of a 50 over game.

2) 2nd seamer and 3rd bowler
India would be better off preparing spin-friendly pitches and going in with 2 seamer + 2 spinner combo. (Nehra + Munaf) is a very weak combination. We cannot play both in the same match. Both are decent bowlers, who have performed reasonably well over the last few months. But both are ordinary fielders a can barely hold the bat. We do not have the bowling attack which can restrict batsmen on featherbeds like the one in Nagpur. So why dont we take the home advantage? Lets prepare 250-260 wickets and get our spinners into action.

The WIndies are loaded with lefties (Gayle, Devon Smith, Chanderpaul and the "Lara-clone" Dwayne Bravo). I am almost certain that Aswhin will play this game, which would mean either Nehra or Munaf will make way.


While India are top of the pool and almost assured of a place in the qrters, there is still a chance that they can go out.

These are the games that remain in our pool:

1) West Indies vs England
2) Ire VS SA
3) Ban vs SA
4) India vs West Indies

Ind are on 7 points from 5 games (1 to play)
WI are on 6 points from 4 games (2 to play)
SA are on 6 points from 4 games (2 to play)
Ban are on 6 points from 5 games(1 to play)
Eng are on 5 points from 54 games(1 to play)

For India to go out, the following has to happen

WI loses to Eng
SA beats Ireland (which is a given)
Ban beats SA
India loses to WI

Point to note is that when SA plays Ban they would have already qualified (assuming they would have beaten Ireland by then). So there is a good chance they will give the likes of Kallis and Steyn a break. That gives Ban all the more opportunity to cause an upset with the crowd behind them.

By the time, India plays WI, all the other matches would have been played.
Either way, they must have all bases covered, "Be Men" and "Do the right things"!!

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

Champions League cricket

So, Chennai romped home, beating the Warriors in the Champions League T20 final game. Indeed, they have been the team to beat ever. They have been the most consistent team since the dawn the T20/IPL/CL era. The reached the final of IPL 2008, semi final on IPL 2009. winners of IPL 2010 and now CL 2010 winners. I don’t care if people call Dhoni lucky, over-optimistic, talks-too-much captain. To me, he has delivered, he has won matches, as captain of the India and as the captain of CSK. So, congrats to MSD and congrats to CSK.

Coming to the popularity of the CL T20, or the lack of it, I think it would be unfair and makes no sense to compare it with Champions League Football. The CL football has a long, rich history (started in 1955). The Champions League Final, football, is the most watched annual event, drawing more than 100 million viewers. To compare an event more than 50 years old with one that is hardly two or three years old is, as I said, wasteful.

So, what can be done to increase its popularity and make it more meaningful?

Well, for starters, we cannot have new auctions every 3 or 4 years. I am talking about IPL here. There is, as you might know, going to be a new auction window before the next IPL, which would see all the teams being re-shuffled. While, Sachin and Dhoni have stated that they want to hold on to as many players as possible, only time will tell how successful they can be. Even so, the idea of having fresh auctions every 3 years is not a great idea. One of the things that makes Champions League football and club football in general so special is the traditions of the clubs, the rivalries between clubs, the “animosity” between the fans. A player has to think a million times before he makes a switch from Real Madrid to Barcelona. Athletic Bilbao, for example, is a team that recruits only home-grown players. As I said, we do need to give it some time to create rivalries between teams. But random re-shuffling of players every other year is not going to help the cause in anyway.

Then, you have the case of one player playing for different clubs and choosing the “bigger” club in the Champions League for obvious reasons. E.g: Jacques Kallis plays for the Warriors and also for the RCB (Bangalore). In the CL he chose to play for Bangalore. (It is a different matter that he was injured and dint play in the CL) Now, that is something for organizers to look at. Surely, a player must give preference to the local team/ team of his nationality. I would not like to see a situation where Kallis is taking 3-fors and scoring fifties against his own Warriors, or Ross Taylor taking apart the Central Districts. They should only be allowed to chose the “bigger” team if their local team did not make it to the CL.

The idea of “home and away” games also seems tasty. While the Sri Lankan (Wayamba), New Zealand (Central Districts) and West Indian (Guyana) teams were outplayed by the the CSKs and the RCBs, it would be interesting to see how, e.g South Australia would would play Wayamba on a slow-low turner at Galle. Can Suresh Raina play his pick-ups and hoicks against Central Districts on a green top at Napier? I know, it will be difficult to have teams travel all over in such a short period of time. But, this is just an idea that the organizers could keep in mind and try to implement.

Saurav Ganguly to become Commentator now

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

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

Source : Cricket360

England Tour Cancelled

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

Further details are awaited.

Mumbai Attacks : England Tour and Champions League Under Threat

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read More -
Guardian
CNN

Cartier to Design C L T20 Trophy

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


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

Trophy details :

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

Chairman of the Champions League Twenty20 Lalit Modi said:

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

Bernard Fornas, President & CEO Cartier International said:

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

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

Read About Cartier.

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.

Champions League Cricket Teams - Squads & Sponsors

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

Sponsor - Retravision , VB

Nashua Titans:

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

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

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

Sponsor- VB, Commonwealth Bank , Jonnie Walker.

Rajasthan Royals:

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

Sponsor- Tata AIG, Reebok, Boost, Kingfisher.

Chennai Superkings:

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

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

Nashua Dolphins:

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

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

MiddlesexCrusadors:

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

Sponsors- Northern Rock,

Sailkot Stallions:

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

Sponsor- RBS.

Twenty20 Champions League Cricket Promo

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

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

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

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

Hats off to the promo.

Watch it:







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Twenty Twenty Cricket Power Rankings

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

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




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

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

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Victoria Bushrangers - Australia

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

Team Facts

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

Squad

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

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

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

Probable semi finalist according to me.

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Middlesex County Cricket Club - England

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

Team Facts

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

Famous Star players are

• Shaun Udal


• Andrew Strauss


• Owais Shah


• Murali Kartik

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

1. Lost to England by 12 runs


2. Lost by 5 wickets to Trinidad and Tobago
   


3. Lost by 58 runs to Standford Superstars

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

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Nashua Dolphins - South Africa

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

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

Team facts:

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

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

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

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

cricket twenty20 championsleaguecricket bcci champions ipl

Rambal Warriors aka Western Australia Warriors

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

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

Team Facts

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

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

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

The Full Squad :

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

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

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

Sialkot Stallions

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

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

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

Team Facts are

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

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

Players who went to ICL

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

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

Noshua Titans - South Africa

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

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

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

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

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

AB Devilliers
Dale Steyn
Albie Morkel
Paul Harris
Morne Morkel

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

Magic Moments can be seen at their website.

next up is dolphins.....

Champions League Cricket - Matches Schedule

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

Group A

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

Group B

• Rajasthan Royals
• Dolphins
• Western Warriors
• Sialkot Stallions

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 December 2008 Final, Mumbai

next up teams , sponsors etc


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Champions League Twenty20 Cricket

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


Teams as taken from wikipedia are

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

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

Lots of posts coming soon....

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