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

The Racial Overtures ...The World Champions..

It happened finally ...after a lull of what it seems a century ,english team has finally pulled the rabbit from the hat and won a world event in a game that seemingly they taught the world and forgot themselves.What a win for UK...

How often it has happened and how often it comes to light ?...Indian athletes were meted out a horrible treatment in UK.What a loss for UK...

Both the incidents above reflects the sport culture as of today.The first marks the transition of the English cricket team from their famous batting collapses,lack of adventerous(traditional) cricket.The men from the english shores were almost out of the tournament (thanks to rain gods),but the way they came back was exemplary.World cricket needed the genitor of the game to come aboard the ship of change and become a force to reckon with.And how well they have done it.Conquering the might of aussies in the finale might seem to many as a lucky shot,but the impression england gave was of a growing avalanche with more and more snow adding on as it rolled on to its victory,whereas the aussies resembled more like a vicious storm now cooling off,out of steam.And look at the transition in some of the english players.They looked their alien self.Stuart broad can now broadly grin and can have a good laugh about that penultimate over 3 years ago.The performance here would easily overshadow the double evil`s number he had to show for in the stats of his one over then.KP stamped his class over the tournament with some brilliantly crafted knocks one after other.Eoin morgan steered the ship through some tempests and has earned plaudits for the maturity he has shown even from the opposite ranks.

The win not only breaks the hegemony of the asian countries in world t20,but also raptures the aussie dominance in world cricket as well renders them void of the only trophy missing from their stacked glory shelves.Now the english team can bury the hatchet of not winning an international cricketing event after coming so close in the Second world cup of 1979,again in 1987,again in 1992 and then in the champions trophy where two tailenders from west indies made them accept silver.Rising from the ashes english team took the glory in this edition of world t20 ,and they would look forward to conquering the world(read australia)in the Ashes this year to tip the icing on the cake.

When a indian is insulted abroad,we feel bad.And when a indian sportsperson is insulted,is castigated just for his colour,we feel blood rising to our brain.But let us look at this incident in complete isolation from emotions.Indian athletes were supposed to be ferried by a bus to their destination,a right they were denied.Learning from the horse`s mouth,indian players were misbehaved by the caretaker staff as well.This incident is very unfortunate and mars the sporting spirit.Indian athletes, who are more often than not (if you arent playing cricket) are meted out a pathetic treatment by the local sports authorities in the level of amenities(financial and structural) are not guaranteed fair treatment at world/international events,then i think its time that india increases its clout in the international sports arena.As in cricket we have successfully made the rest of the world listen and address our redressals,same should be done here also.Also the recent diktat by the government to fix the serving tenure of the head honchos of the sports authorities is a welcome move.Too long have these old bureaucrates denied the players their rights and have wielded unjust levels of power.They have leeched the best of the talents by infusing corrupt and illogical practices.The athletes should be properly compensated for their troubles and to make sure such incident doesnt repeat itself we ask the indians residing there in other countries to do the hospitality.( they are aplenty everywhere and would be delighted to do so)

And here i would like to take my opportunity to congratulate possibly one of best sportsman india has and will produce,Vishy...

vishwanathan Anand on winning the world title in chess and making all of us proud.Keep moving the pieces...

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.

Bhains Ki Taang, We Won!!!

It was the Great Indian Wet Dream, having an India-Pakistan WorldCup final, and surely proved to be one. Starting with the resolution this tournament has been quite up on its sex quotient. This was twenty twenty is all about, its what Sex and Violence do to frigid cinema, its all about adding that extra much needed masala to a great game going through its worst phase after a uber-boring World Cup and suppa-disappointing Champion's Trophy last year.

It hits back badly on purists, most notably the well known Greg Chappell, last employed on the post of decimator of Indian Cricket Team, the one who thought Tendulkar lacked attitude and skill, Pathan is always low on confidence and I won't mention what he did to my favourite cricketer Dada. According to that guy this is just hitting, I just pity him now that this team which doesn't include his favourite player Suresh Raina (wtf) won the world Cup without the coach.

Match Day

Superstitions, a Mallu Star, a Mazdur and a back in Form Pathan

Venue- Quark's Den
Edibles- Veg Puffs, thums Up, Some Desi Namkeen, Some Haldiram stuff and those cheesy chips by Lays (which give me a nauseating hit)

Match started on a poor note, our Match routine which involved,

• a can of Kingfisher for the quark.
• a bottle of Knock Out again for quark.
• a bottle of Fosters/Budweiser for Daisy. ( no Fosters in Australian Match)
• Mast Mirchi Bhajji worth Rs.15.00

was missing. As if this was not enough our sitting arrangements were much more varied then the previous ones and I think that lead ton India's debacle.

Although the Pakistani Bowling was superb. Main mast moments were the opening sequence(run out appeal against Yusuf Pathan), six hit again by him and Rohit Sharma's mast knock. I like this guy because his favourite dish is Kanda Poha which his family was telling the recipe on AajTak. I love Poha(also called Pouva someweher). Just one of many reasons why I simply adore Shara-Pova ;-)...

The second one was the real thing, RP was up right from the word go, it just took an innovative profanity(read Mayawati ka Bhai) to generate that spark and make him pick up the first wicket.

Sreesanth according to me was the real match winner for us, offlate we have compared him to a dangai (rowdy or something, the one involved actively in riots) who can't even throw stones properly. They are all over the place. The Mallu Star is as unpredictable as one could get. Ok he is a match winner if can bowl well, but that rarely happens as it happened against Australia. But I don't really see him out of the team too. surely we have next Ajit Agarkar ready.

Anyway in case these kinds of bowlers are more popularly known as Rhythm bowlers, who bowl when they are Rhythm, utter crap, even I can bowl 6 yorkers an over if I am in Rhythm. Also I think Agression is OK as long as you have stuff within, a samosa without aloo can't even become a papdi.

So such a bowler didn't even hear to all the profanities flying all around the room like charms were in Howgarts (refer final few chapters The Deathly Hallows). In came a new idea to call on Sankatmochan and a round of Hanauman Chalisa brought calm and produced a maiden and another good over.

Similar chants were fixed for each and every bowler,

• Irfan- Jai Dada, with dashes of Jai Dona-Dada
• Sreesanth- Hanuman Chalisa
• Bhajji- Nothing really worked, we tried everything from Jai Siddhu to Jai Monty Panessar to Jai Bhajji himself.
• Joginder- Main Mazdur mujhe devo ki basti se kya- "Ramdhari Singh Dinkar". Refer Bal Bharti NCERT, Class VII. It seems people identified him as a Mazdur from that poem.
  

We were damn superstitious with sitting arrangements fixed, a particular person locked inside a room and me diving at every lofted bowl to the foot of TV stand.

Anyway all this crap somehow worked till the deadly bhajji over and then it were the Indians who won the game. Although I should Pakistanis were an awesome side. Misab is surely the new age Miandad (he almost did a name change from Joginder to Chetan...)

The end would have been surely a disastrous one, all the mantras failed in final four overs, so our brave Sreesanth didn't find his Rhythm and jerked of few forgettable ones. He took a wicket later with a sensible one. RP's next over was again a mast one.

Then came the final one, I have backed Joginder throughout this tournament, according to me belongs to the league of Gavin Larsen/Chris Harris kinda bowlers who can suck of the runs in the middle overs for opposition by their slow line length bowling. Although when his first wide happened, I thought its over, and then a six and it WAS over.

The End couldn't have been this bigger, bigger than the Jim Morrison the end or a Hindi Cinema The End. Or much ironical as Sreesanth held on to an awesome catch (whatever it be it was still awesome for me). In the words of one of my friends company mate,

Misbah thought he was sending the ball to a place where there was no one. He did not know that there is a Malayali in every corner of the world!!!

Anyhow no qualms against Sreesanth as of now, he is the part of the best cricketing moment we ever witnessed. Pathan's comeback has been the most delightful thing which happened, amazing comeback to prove his strength as a bowler and fowl all attempts made by Chappel to destroy his career. Also RP has been awesome throughout the tournament. all in all our bowling looked nice and quite non-scrappy.

What we witnessed was the Best Blue Film ever with 11 Men in Blue completely You-Know-What the pakistanis...

Post Match

It was surreal, completely unbelievable, we were dancing, hugging each other, the neighbours and their kids came out to the balconies, everyone was dancing running around, firecrakcers all around, millions of SMS's being sent around. And when Dhoni lifted the Cup, it was just so GREAT.

Shoaib Malik's post match comments etc...hmm, they were extremely disappointingly. I won't reiterate the same but with so much ire back home it must have been something to avoid it. Pakistan has always been my favourite team when it comes to any tournament (obviously after India) and the only thing I sometimes not so like about them is the importance religion takes in the proceedings. Cricket is the last thing we want to be hampered by such differences. Also I think that it would be better if players are allowed to speak in language of their own choice, it avoids confusion and players can speak out what they feel properly. With Ravi Shastri up their a normal conversation could have been struck and maybe what Shoaib actually wanted to say would have been much more clearer. Even French, Russians, Chinese etc. do it in every game, I think Cricket should get past its colonial hangover of English usage.

Aur Main Ban Gaya Dhoni!!!

Dhoni is here to stay, after Dada he looks the only guy who suits the job. Dravid's captaincy should be forgotten as a pathetic phase in Indian Cricket(though I don't have anything against Dravid the batsman). Dhoni is calm on field, he TALKS, shows less of emotional jhol jhaal, has loads of ads under his tummy (he too has one) and quite unlike most of the Captain brigade he is much more fit.

He has lead India to its greatest victory after 83 world Cup, the first big Indian victory in my life span and many others. Add to that the batting by Yuvraj and comeback of Pathan and you egt the best three things to India this World Cup.

What Next???

Nothing let us roll our Aussies in India, about Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar I won't comment much, but for people already starting to shout in favour me not so much in agreement with them.

All in all a great victory and a moment to cherish throughout our lifetime. But all this makes the next year for me and few of my friends so much difficult following celibacy as fallout of the victory.

Never mind anything for the country...:)


Pics from WorldTwentyTwenty

Technorati Tags: Cricket, TwentyTwentyWorldCup, Final, India, Pakistan, Dhoni

Awards Now

Awards are being announced each hour since the team won the World Cup. Apart from the hefty cash prize by the ICC prizes are pouring in from all the corners of India.

• My state government (Haryana) has been the most generous announcing 21 Lakhs for Joginder Sharma
• Delhi lads Gambhir and Sehwag will be given 5 Lakhs each by Delhi Government
• RP Singh 10 Lakhs UP Government
• Sreesant 5 Lakhs
• Agarkar and Rohit Sharma 10 Lakhs each
• Uthappa 5 Lakhs
• Dhoni has been awarded Jharkhand Ratna by his state government

Gujarat CM has not offered any congratulations and not announced any awards because the Pathan brothers are Muslims and his hindu vote bank might be affected in the coming elections.
Tamil Nadu government is also quite because they are busy in launching their channel and agitating against the sethu issue.

Now BCCI has also opened its coffers 2 million dollars for the team and One crore for Yuvraj and a sports car promised by vice president Lalit Modi.

You deserve all this but be generous and give some to Misbah who gave you the cup in the last moment :)

img: cricketNext

India comes to PARTY!!!

ChakDe took another toll on Indian junta as India lifted Inaugural Tournament of World T20 championship.


The contest couldn't be more even...no match would have witnessed more turning points, lesser to mention there couldn't be a final more closer than this. Nobody can single-out an individual effort, as it was an altogether India's party who held their nerve in this there-couldn't-be-more-surprises encounter, and came out victorious & worthy of the occasion.

The bunch of youngsters had their high-time learning moment in South Africa, as the whole world witnessed them coming out of shell under the inspired leadership of Mahinder Singh Dhoni who has helped India reignite that fire that we once saw in Dada's men. Regarded as one of the weakest combination in the tournament, supposedly these boys had nothing to loose. Not only they have defied their critics, the whole nation couldn't be more proud of them as they retained their supremacy over Pakistan twice in the tournament. Shoaib Malik's side who looked like another good team into making after their dismal show in 2007 WC (ala India), showed a better character and were a deserving second-best in the tournament.

Even a 1000 words or 1000 pictures would be less to define this nail-biting encounter between the teams who eliminated (South Africa, Australia) & (New Zealand, Sri Lanka) apiece on their way to the finals. And what a match---where Asif started with his normal routine of taking wickets (Point-to-Mention, Yousuf Pathan got off the mark after hitting him for SIX)---Gambhir composure helped him anchor the innings in the middle order using some lightening footwork---Hafeez restricting Yuvraj (who went without hitting a six today [plus] strike rate < 100)---Gul taking out late scalps with his consistent yorkers---Rohit Sharma again providing a cameo burst of late.

But Dhoni's men meant only business today. Not wanting to be left behind, Pakistan innings witnessed many if-else moments. Rudra was at his nominal best as he got rid of Hafeez n Akmal early---But this doesn't stop Nazir who carried an injury from semis agains NZ and was denied the runner two balls before he was run-out---followed by dollies from Joginder Sharma being left away by Younus before himself giving one to Yousuf Pathan---then some decent shuffling of pace n spin from Irfan Pathan to get rid of Afridi especially (in the same over in which Shoaib Malik also departed)---then came one defining moment when Misbah-Ul-Haq hit Bhajji for 3 sixes in an over followed by Tanvir hitting another 2 off Sreesanth in next over. Dhoni played his trump card with RP Singh bowling penultimate over to reduce Pakistan to 9 wickets followed by Joginder Sharma with only 13 needed off last over. He was hit for a six off full toss and then came that scoop which could have been a four off even Bhajji but with that over pitch delivery from Joginder Sharma sans pace rise high in the air and even cameraman expected it to reach the boundary as he kept his camera high but it landed safely in the hands of Sreesanth who started (rather restarted) the joy among Indian camp as they all celebrated this occasion by doing a lap of honour around the ground carrying Indian flags high.

There couldn't be a better turning point.

The tournament also proved to be fruitful for the comeback trio of Sehwag-Bhajji-Pathan. Now is the time to let go off the fireworks, champagne all around, big hit slogans before it gets down convincingly among Indian camp as they are deservingly crowned as Champions today against a really good show being put up by their neighbours. Hope this win helps India secure a better future of Indian Cricket, as we treasure this one for the rest of our lives (ala Dhoni).

Images: cricinfo
Videos: dipvid
Technorati Tags: India, Pakistan, Twenty20, T20 World Cup

Pen The Game's Resolution

Cricket is back and whatever have been the debates going around this blog all of us want Indian team to go and win the the Twenty-Twenty World Cup. For Indian team to win it has to play, and play better than it has done anytime in the past year. But all we can do is pray.

So all of us at Pen The Game take the resolution that if India wins the Twenty Twenty World Cup, all the members of this blog would follow Celibacy for the next one year. For those who don't understand what this means Celibacy refers to the act of Sexual Abstinence and we are surely doing it if Indian team win the tournament. Ronaldo did it for Football World Cup, and it worked, we are doing it for Cricket and our Country.

Let us all pray for the Indian team in whatever way possible, the evil of Chappell is gone, the days of hope are here.

Go India Go...

Cricket has Reborn

Alok really nice post

But I don't totally agree with you. Cricket can never me murdered though this Twenty20 is driven mostly by commercialization and to spread this game to hugely profitable markets like USA.

But you should understand that with time we need to evolve continuously i.e. we need to modify and change the rules to suit the game for the interests of crowd/audience, see how the off side rule in hockey was scrapped even football has seen major changes to make it more fast and attacking. If we don't accept change the game in this case or in general case the interest will die.

Take for example the case of Sanskrit language, the language didn't excepted the change i.e. if you pick Sanskrit of today and compare it with that of 100 years ago you will find very less change and this has lead to its downfall, how many people do you know who speak the oldest language.

You said temperament will not be tested mind games will not be played if you had watched yesterday's first game you must have seen how Smith was mobilizing his fielders when gayle was on a rampage, Twenty20 game will bring more alertness agility and will demand more from the captains, there is no doubt in my mind that Twenty20 will overtake the 50 over format soon.

But alok cricket will never die, if a player is a good test player he will be a good player in ODI and even Twenty20. Test cricket will always be there for the die hard cricket fans but I agree will you that the coming generation will not like the test cricket this is similar to kids liking King Khan more then the Big B.

Alok said
I used to love the game. Not sure anymore.

Wait till the whole tournament gets over.

But I am sure you will agree that 50over was getting boring, this format will bring in more countries and expand the cricket. In this flat world you cannot ignore the globalization and cricket has to be globalized and Twenty20 is the way which can do that.
Otherwise it will remain the favorite of only those people who have 8-10 hours free to watch the game and in future nobody will have that time even now we don't have enough time



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Obituary of Cricket

Sorry Luthra. I dont agree with you.


Its a sad occassion and the world seems to be celebrating. Driven by the large potential for money minting and provinding entertainment to masses, a beautiful (gentleman's) game called cricket has been murdered brutally by so called harbingers of the sport that to some was more than a religion. Sport that in its subtleties is much more than just hitting the ball has been reduced precisely to that.

No more mind games, no more temperament being tested, and no more application of the 'real' technique. I pity those who used the statement "what a leave !". Sadly we wont hear that ever again. You better return back to the pavillion. We cannot afford a dot ball. Its no more a game of setting yourself in and reading the situation. There is no situation. Its only about how well you can take the shine off that spherical leather object. Keep hitting or get lost. We also used to hear a statement " What a great batsman, really puts a heavy price tag on his wicket ". Haha ! no more. Its sheer stupidity. There's no concept of 'throwing' your wicket away anymore. Its just the rule of the game. Batsmen can live happily. No more blames for playing a rash shot. Its all they have to play. "Get your body behind the ball" wont be appreciated anymore. I guess, all the coaching manuals have to be re-written now. Spinners might well be an extint species in the world of cricket. The next generation wouldn't even know what a flighted delivery is, nobody would tech them. Never leave a delivery. Forget the sound of willow of that solid forward/backfoot defence. Who the hell tries to play straight!! "Elbow straight and body behind the line" stop kidding !! .. and so on.

Cricket will die soon. Transition from test to one-dayers and now 20 20. I love the play on the wearing down 4th day pitch. I love the 1st session with batsmen showcasing an art of leaving the ball. Get through the initial spell of pacers moving the ball. How each day of a test match was a battle in iteslf. A battle of techniques, mind and application.
Alas! coming generations might not even know that a cricket match lasted for 5 days! How experts used to comment "see through the spell of new ball". Now that is what all is left. No more specialist openers, no more specific players at specific positions. No more spinners, no more flight. A highly reduced commentator's lexicon "Thats a biggie and here's another one". That's all what's left.

I used to love the game. Not sure anymore.







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Sports Updates

I would define the later half of the july as dull period for sports, one big event was the awesome European F1. I saw for the first time race being red flagged all due to the rain gods which are angry on whole of the world of sports it seems specially in Europe, England is reeling under floods first it was Wimbledon now its India-England Test Series.

But off the fields there is lot of happenings going on.

Talking about Football : Pre season tours of EPL teams are in the last stages ManU , Liverpool all came down to South East Asia and China for expanding the EPL and may be money for pre season team builds up. All thanks to the professionalism of EPL organizers who have expanded the popularity of EPL to almost whole of Asia and now its have become profitable to be compared to American NBA and NHL leagues, EPL is far ahead in terms of viewership.

Transfers is in full flow with last 2-3 days left. Tevez saga has not yet been cleared if he stays in WestHam he will be joined by another Arsenal great Freddie Ljungberg who has left Arsenal another big exit after Henry. Mourinho is trying to avoid Robben from going to Real Madrid, Kaka has made it clear that he will remain in AC Milan.

Manchester city has been brought by ex Thailand Premier Shinowatra and has pumped in 100 million dollars to Sven Erricson new manager for transfer. Big money spending is done by almost all the teams in the EPL.

Beckham made his lackluster debut in LA-Galaxy against Chelsea, he is injured and will miss the initial 2-3 matches of LA, Giri can give more updates on the Beckham from US.

In the AFC whole of Iraq has been united by its splendid performance in the competition , it has reached the finals and will face Saudi Arabia. Big teams of Asia Japan, Korea have been kicked out, even Australia has not felt that its not easy playing football in Asia as the team studded will players who play in EPL also couldn't do anything.

Indian football is also trying to improve its game, team is touring Portugal and is playing matches against League 3/2, thanks to fine display by bhutia it has won 2 matches also.


Moving over to India's religion Cricket:

Star Cricket, they are saying they have reached 75% of ESPN-Star Sports coverage, i don't know how, my cable wala is not showing it. Its not in half of haryana and many parts of UP. Cable guy said they are demanding 8 Lakhs, he said its not worth spending for test matches only as the ODI's will come on DD1 itself. Great :)

India's famed line failed again in Lords, dk has already written about that. In second test bowlers have performed well despite of rain England is on backfoot at 167/7 .

Off the field ICL is slowly bulding up. Lara is coming Warne and McGrath are also expected to join. Sportscenter rumors say Fleming has also been offered a lucrative deal to join. With the league being run by ex-players and professionals not by unknowledgable politicians in case of BCCI we can expect it to promote cricket and provide good players for Indian cricket. Some of the lashings players are also expected to join. If planned properly i feel the T20 T20 format can become very popular and we can expect like county and even like WI, T20 leagues.

T20 world cup has been launched in SA. The 13-day event will have 12 nations compete in 27 matches for one trophy. It starts from September 11 with matches being played in Johannesburg, Capetown and Durban. I am looking forward to the cup as my interest in 50 overs format is at all time low. Music, cheer boys and girls it will be all exciting. To the top of the excitement India has been placed with Pakistan in group D, other team being Scotland. Australia are in Group B along with England and Zimbabe, while hosts South Africa have been teamed up with West Indies and Bangladesh in Group A. New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Kenya constitute Group C. India play Pakistan on September 14.

F1

Mclarean is cleared of all the charges of stealing Ferrari's documents, there will be no punishment and points deductions.

18 race calender for 2008 has been announced by FIA with two new entrants Singapore and Valencia and there will be no race in USA.

Last race was awesome though i couldn't watch the whole race, Hamilton was without points for the first time, ups and downs do happen to all. Alonso showed why he is still the best when he overcame Massa with only few laps remaining.

Kartikeyan chances of driving again for spyker were dealt a blow when Sakon Yamamoto was signed by spyker, money is the only reason seems to me as he has given around 33 crores rupees to driver the Spyker car and spyker needs money badly.

In other sports Tour De France has become Dope De France, doping has again affected the event, I reckon the event to be the toughest in the world, cycling association should take some stringent measures to stop the doping saga affecting the event every year. If Armstrong can do it 7 times without doping (though charges were also raised against him but not proved) why can't others do it.

In tennis hard court season has begun Sania is participating in tier 3/4 events and performing well. Great ..... Do you see any chances of here getting into top 10 in coming year ????

In other sports political news IOA is fighting with sports ministry over some sports policy which the ministry is framing to encourage the sports. IOA is complaining that ignoring it is unethical. Well to me the policy will not do anything IOA supremo Kalmadi who has been at the helm for the past 2 decades has done nothing and with meagre 500 crores sports budget the ministry expect to win golds!!!!! hahahhahhaha. We hire cheap coaches and many are not upto the marks , we compare ourselves to china LOL china spends millions and millions in sports and you will see China pipping USA handsomely in 2008 Olympics.

Comments expected!!!!

I have written about 4-5 sports so a small check of interest of readers




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