Silly Points

Death of Fine finishers in World Cricket

2011-03-12T08:03:00.003-05:00

For quite some time I feel that no team in the world cricket today has good finishers like Bevans and Aravinda de Silvas . There were some sparks like the Misbahs and Dunimys but then all of them have really disappointed the fans .

Look at some of the mathches this world cup where teh teams have collapsed like a pack of cards . Refer to todays match between India SAF and also some matches of very good teams where we they almost lost or lost .

My take is that the cricketing giants look for the first 30 overs , if the batsmen from 6 to 10 click they build a good score else there is no effort to build a good score . It is more of a fluke

Really disappointed at todays match where no one bothered to capitalise the good beginning and could not get 300 on board where at one time they were looking to rach 400.

Amen .

Top 5 Reasons why India may not win the WC

2011-02-19T07:56:00.005-05:00

Well begun is half done. Sehwag blasting away to a century aspiring to a Tendulkar but in vain . Kohli proving why he should be chosen before Raina is now being accepted by many . But then how long is this going to be ..

Here are my points of contention why India are the favorites but then there are some points which make me feel that they may not be the ones to have the last laugh !

1. IPL has taken away the home ground advantage from the Indians and the sub continenet pitches are no more a mystery for the migratory birds who have been playing mandatory 50 days of IPL each year with vairous teams
2. No Host Country till date has been able to keep the Cup back home . Let alone the Australian ACERS or the SAF CHOKERS .
3. Dhoni might write off the home ground pressures but then he knows what goes inside the cool hat .
4. Our Not so strong bowling attack Sreesanth and Nehra are not the ones who will take battle from the opposition
5. Internal issues like less time for team building , most of the top players have returned from injuries, only handful of quality fielders , inconsistency can creep in any time

Though my heart says India should win , the grey cells rule it out

Great Expectations

2011-01-08T06:40:00.003-05:00

In the quest for bread butter and at times beer , man has been doing lot of things acting funny and also at times giving up things that are close to the heart . Same happened to me when teh job bug stuck me and I joined an ecommerce company where time never seems to be sufficient . So I though that the IPL 4 would be an opportune time for me to share my comments (often silly ones) to all of you.
IPL players went down teh hammer and all cricket lovers were up to see what would be the 9 million dollar question that each franchisee would seek to solve

But before that , Welcome Kochi , Welcome Pune . Welcome to the the Times Square of Crciket with all its glitz and glamour .

Now coming to teh 9 million dollar question , different franchisees have different objectives to spend their kitty why not. Let them sped the way they want to .

The auction process allows every franchise to spend a maximum of USD 9 million. However teams forsake USD 1.8 million if they retain one player --- and USD 1.3 million, USD 0.9 million and USD 0.5 million, respectively, if they retain a second, a third or a fourth player. Mumbai Indians, for example, can only spend USD 4.5 million at the auction because they are retaining Tendulkar (USD 1.8 million), Pollard (USD 1.3 million), Harbhajan (USD 0.9 million) and Malinga (USD 0.5 million) --- and thereby forsaking USD 4.5 million.

If I want to lure beer guzzlers and walk players on the ramp let me choose what I want to .

If I want to pull more crowd to the stadia , and have the frenzied mass standing tstill to the national anthem then why would I not go for domestic players .

But then the dilemma is that each franchsiee has to field 7 desi players whereas there are only 25 - 30 quality indian players in the fray . So in a way , teh Indian players "ke bhaav badh jayenge" . Isnt it ?

Also the new franchisees will learn new things the hard way . Pom poms / Sivamani local bands and all that will be the ones to be looked forward to .

LAstly , teams will do well without superstars if they play together for some time. Else big names may prove damp squibs . Watch out for this . Sorry for Dada and Lara but until them enjoy !!

Cricket Ka MahaKumbh!!

2010-03-12T05:43:00.003-05:00

Just imagine this combo deal from Club Lounge . By coughing just Rs 22 lakh, one can get tickets for all 60 IPL games , 5-star stay, post-game party . My question is , Can cricket get any bigger than this ?

The cricket calender takes a sigh to the great indian cricket festival where cricket lovers from around the globe pour in to bow at this . I am sure it will be sheer thrill watching the games as teh tournament culminates and but I am sure the bulk of the interest would be the fake IPL player who has graduated to a proper site www.fakeiplplayer.com and also

I got a chance to chat online with him at cricket next where he reveals that it would be another fun filled not so sober name calling again .

Whatever it may be we wish it doesnt run into controversies and I will be following closely and will be there with my takes on them

Ciao . see you again here

Singh is King !!!

2010-02-18T06:08:00.001-05:00

Thanks Paaji !!!

Sorry Rameez Bhai .. dont like pushovers

2009-09-29T23:47:00.004-04:00

May the best team win .I would not pray for Pak that they win and so India can go to the semis . Nope, I don't want the Indian team to be mere pushovers .. They did not play good cricket so let them pay for it . But I do appreciate Rameez Bhai for a fact that he is seeing this tie PAK vs AUS as an opportunity for the resumtion of criketing ties between the two nations .

Indians have played bad cricket . Bowling , fielding, tactics and batting is what the team has messed up in the one and half outings that they have had . Some say lack of choice , others say team selection and using the bowlers .. but I would say application and wrong shot selection . At times some of the players showed that the they were too complacent abuot the fact they were from the Indian camp, reconditioning , a dive and a push here and there lacking . Some of the strike bowlers (spinners and seamers alike) thought that they were white elephants .

No body is spared in cricket for mediocrity . Not even Murlidharan and he was rightly dropped. When the youngsters are given a chance they should make use of it and not try to hush up things to let the basics go for a toss India should take a cue .. lot of take-homes from this CT . But again I would say that between PAK vs AUS today .. may the best team win . What say friends ?

Break Over

2009-09-11T04:58:00.002-04:00

Hi all , Here I am .. back from slumber for the first match between India and NZ with the hope that India plays good cricket in the absense of their openers Gauti and Viru . Lot has been happening here and there . First the Ashes to England and then their reversal for fortunes . seems like a hindi movie .. Same is the case with SL and NZ . So lets cross fingers and see India win .

I was away for quite a while cos I was in process of shifting from US to India for good . So you know and some can appreciate how difficult it can be sinking in .. the swine flu scare .. the traffic here .. and lots more ..

Will be regular from here on . All the best India

KYC # 14

2009-08-17T09:59:00.002-04:00

There is something which is common to these seven men, apart from the fact that they all are / were international cricketers

ML Jaisimha
Geoff Boycott
Kim Hughes
Allan Lamb
Ravi Shastri
Adrian Griffith
Andrew Flintoff

What is the feat / record that binds them together ?

KYC 13 was cracked only by Pankaj Sharma . Welcome aboard Pankaj . your name now figures in the KYC leaderboard .

Well the answer to
KYC 13 is as follows :

It is a ball story , one bowled by Jahangir Khan for Cambridge at Lord’s in 1936. It struck and killed a sparrow on its way to dislodging Tom Pearce’s bails (the ball, that is, not the errant bird).

Both ball and bird have become popular exhibits at the Lord’s museum. Only recently , Majid Khan, the former Pakistan captain, came to pay homage to his father’s infamous missile.

The bird and ball are soon to leave Lord’s, briefly, to take part in an exhibition of dead sparrows at a natural history museum in the Netherlands.

Thanks to all of you for helping silly point reach some small milestone of 300 hits . God bless all

7 stages of a cricket fan

2009-08-17T08:52:00.006-04:00

I read a wonderful article in DAWN, The seven stages of a cricket fan by Saad Shafqat and thought of sharing with you . It shares the highs and lows of the fans and how they react to the various peformances of a cricket teams and individual players alike . A lot of it has been echoed by Q and other blogger friends but the way the author has read the minds is awesome . So couldn't stop myself from sharing with you

Pakistan’s famously volatile cricket team repeatedly tests the resolve of even the most committed fans. The euphoria of a world Twenty20 title sandwiched between terrorism in Lahore and embarrassment in Sri Lanka has left supporters spent and exhausted.

It has been a rollercoaster ride that started out with a terrifying fall, shot up into a delightful crescendo full of giddy excitement and butterflies in the stomach, and then plunged into a dark and dismal pit which, although uncomfortable, is nevertheless familiar.

The bulk of its support comes from fair-weather fans, but our beloved team has also always enjoyed steadfast devotion from a diehard segment. It is easy to spot diehards. Inspired by unquestioned love, they refuse to be disappointed. Even in the face of utter cricketing disaster; such as 17 for four after follow on, or the opposition’s 228 without loss after being put in to bat -- the diehard is able to extract some positive note, an inspiring take-home message with which to console (and often delude) oneself. People often mistake diehards for optimists, but they are not the same. The optimist merely hopes for good times; the diehard believes it.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the sceptics and malcontents. Both groups seemingly have the same defining characteristic -- a pessimistic view of any cricket performance by Pakistan. But there is an important difference. While the sceptic is difficult to please, the malcontent is impossible to please. Hanif Mohammad’s legendary batting?

He lacked an attacking game. Fazal Mahmood’s bowling prowess? He was only good on matting. Imran Khan’s 12 wickets at Sydney? It took a long time coming. Javed Miandad’s immortal six at Sharjah? It wasn’t technically correct. World Cup 1992? The best team didn’t win. Throw even the most flawless feat in the face of the malcontent, he or she will be able to find fault with it. Despite this intransigence, malcontents still follow Pakistan cricket avidly and wish it well. They just have impossible standards. Scattered between the diehards and the malcontents are a range of other fan types. My personal favourite is the theorist, typically an emotionally detached analyst with a deep understanding of the game. The theorist has a solid grasp of cricket’s laws, traditions, tactics, and statistics. When he or she opines, it is in a flat and unemotional manner. There is no sense of advocating a particular point of view. You get the feeling the opinion has been offered without expectation, and you are welcome to either take it or leave it. Theorists have a healthy regard for the element of chance in cricket, and refuse to engage in predictions. Their source of pleasure lies in the fabric of the game, not its outcome.

A category closely related to the theorist is the obsessive, whose signature trait is an insatiable appetite for anything to do with the game. Like the theorist, the obsessive too has mastery over the details of cricket. But unlike the theorist, who maintains a healthy interest in the game, the obsessive overdoes it, becoming consumed with cricket to the exclusion of everything else. You know you’re an obsessive when your preoccupation with cricket starts interfering with the course of daily life. A moment eventually comes when you run into trouble, and the excuses you can come up with are all somehow cricket-related.

Courtesy : DAWN

KYC # 13

2009-08-09T19:46:00.004-04:00

Monday Monologues. Lets try something different today on KYC . The past week has been week of role reversals . The Aussies nailing the Poms and the Pakis ending the tour on a high with two B2B comprehensive wins . A week of wonderful display of batting and bowling in the Tests and One dayers .

Recollect the incident and complete the story .

......................................... ................................... . The bird and the ball have been preserved in the Lords Museum .

Answer to KYC # 12 : Kepler Wessels who also coached Chennai Superkings blacked in the photo .

Cracked by Prafs , great going RAF . Request you all to send questions to feature in KYC Thank you and God bless .

The New Man Friday ?

2009-08-07T11:49:00.010-04:00

Is the new kid on the block Umar Akmal the new Man Friday for the never ending sorrow saga of Pakistan cricket ?
Or is it too early to say that , but the 72 ball 102* makes me think that some fellow bloggers were correct who pointed out that youth is the way to go for Pakistan cricket.

Q , I guessed it even before you wrote , that you must have been in high air. And why not ? There was not one thing which went wrong for the Pak team in the fourth ODI . But then seeing MOYO and MISBAH in the mid ranks gave me jitters . At one stage I thought that this ODI will again the the same story but wonderful Younis and sparkly Umar and 321 made my night .

Even when I was watching it live on some lousy site .. the fun was doubled with the clean hits over the fence .. the boy in his third innings with such grit . Man makes me say that he might be the new Man Friday for the woes of Pak cricket .

But why not Fawad ?

Why MOYO and MISBAH of all the people ?

Can someone answer please . Is this some kind of a contract with the Pak players that they will be given some X number of matches per tour for seniors so that their earnings can be balanced ? Do they have some kind of targets for earning ? god Know .. errr.. Butt knows .

KYC # 12

2009-08-06T12:08:00.008-04:00

Gutentag / Gutenabend,
Wie geht es ihnen ? Mir geht es gut and Ich hoffe dass es ihr gut geht. Tut mir leid aber Ich habe mein Englisch vergessen .. LOL
Just joking guys . I just wanted to wake pull a fast one on you .. weekend time .. in less than 24 hours and I was in a mood for some beer and bratwurst . Was just trying to polish some German learnt during my first job ..Just remembered I have couple of friends who after a couple of drinks would start in their lately acquired Brooklyn accent with indianised English .. Well good that they don't forget their roots isn't it ?

However back to KYC .

If you form a club of cricketers who have played at least 50 innings or more , I have played 105 ODI innings without a duck. My career spanned more than 11 years .
Figure me out in the picture below .

Identify

KYC # 11 was tricky for some and a sitter for others .However it generated enough responses . Baring few , all have started mailing the responses to sillypointblog@gmail.com . I know it is at times painstaking to open a mail and copy the address and send response .
However , the correct answer is Ewen Chatfield . SP from Straight Points pointed that during the last series between India vs NZ it came to light that he has been driving a Taxi these days . Here is a complete story if you are interested .

Thanks Prafs , NC , Sam , Q , Tejoe and each one of you who responded . Missing Omkars responses . Where are you sir ? All the best for today question.
Heil Cricket !!

KYC # 11

2009-08-05T11:58:00.006-04:00

Hi all . Hope you are doing well . We already are in the middle of the week and weekend is not too far .

The question -

“I’ve been courier guy. As a salesman with a company making chips, I drove a delivery truck to stores around the city. Later, I moved to lawn-mowing. But as I grew older it became tiring — the lawns would be too wet to cut in the winter and I would go broke. I always liked driving, so being a __(his current profession)__________ is good for me.”

He is in touch with cricket, playing in weekend club games, but not with his colleagues from International cricket playing days. “I play with the amateurs. It’s frustrating to see dropped catches and misfields, but I have set a deadline for my final retirement. The day I score a ton I won’t play cricket again.” He came close last month, scoring 70 — 49 more than the highest he ever got in a Test.

Who is he and what is his current profession ?

KYC # 10 received overwhelming responses .. as high as 23 responses .. not all of them correct though

Well the correct and the most accurate and detailed insight was sent by Q which goes as follows :

There are actually 3 players who have achieved this feat.

I think the answer that Silly Point was are looking for is Jason Gillespie who got his maiden hundred and maiden double hundred in his last test.

The other 2 are the Australian, William Ponsford, who got his maiden double hundred in his last test and the Englishman Andrew Sandham who also got his maiden double hundred, in fact it turned out to be a triple hundred in his last test.

Thank you Q for making KYC richer with your inputs .

Request ; Pls send your responses to sillypointblog@gmail.com

KYC # 10

2009-08-04T08:54:00.004-04:00

Oh what a start it has been to this wonderful week . KYC # 9 has received wonderful response with all fellow bloggers firing all cylinders . I though that KYC # 9 was not to easy question but quiz maniacs have proved me wrong . And I love that .

However I am back with Tuesday Twisters.

My first maiden double ton in test was in my last test . Who am I ?

Answer to KYC # 9 is that the four batsmen listed were dismissed by the first legitimate ball they faced on their ODI debut. Not a very welcome record I should say . Isn't it ?

KYC # 9 was cracked by Prafs , Omkar , Q and Tejoe among others . If you think that you have some questions that you may want to put forward I would be more than happy to do that with due credit to you .
Please send all your questions / answers to KYC to sillypointblog@gmail.com
. Thanks a lot .

5 steps to save Pak cricket

2009-08-03T15:54:00.009-04:00

Yet another series loss .. yet another rounds to reshuffle .. some sackings ... some new appointments .. some change of roles .. and the same story continues again . But my dear friends this is just not any other series loss. They have been defeated . i can say one or two matches but then last one month .. not a single victory . Who knows the same can be repeated in the sole T20 match .

This exactly has been the story board for the Pakistan Cricket for quite some time with a few exceptions like 1992 .Seems like a well plotted movie to me with decided frames . I am no expert on this , but it is sad to say that to comment on this apathy of Pak cricket needs no expert voice .

Straight to the point . Almost all of my fellow bloggers have written about what going wrong with Pak cricket and that they feel sorry for the state of current affairs . almost all of then share the same concern I am just trying to assimilate the various bits .

If one of the articles in the DAWN is to be believed , then Younis Khan is up for sacking . another deja vu in Pak cricket .. and then they would follow the old framed formula to vest the captaincy of some Tom Dick and Harry and ask him to start winning matches . If I am not mistaken in the late nineties after the world cup , there was a stage where as many as 7 captains were playing in the same team in one of the ODI series .. which means the board is dead convinced for a long time that the change of guard is all it takes to revive ..

Mr Butt , you are wrong . I think you should be the one to be sacked first . I don't know but it will take a Mr Zardari to do that I believe and my blogger friends would let me know better on this .

How long can the captain take positives from a defeat and applaud the team for a positive approach. How long can the captain say that their domestic structure is flawed .

Well I have just tried to put forward 5 points which I think can do a world of good to Pak cricket and I would request my friends and readers to add/ modify more to it . I am open to even if I need to revist all the points /be totally wrong . I write below but this is what I strongly believe should happen .

1. As Sam puts it very amply in Armball Mr Butt needs to step down . I know this will not be easy but then to kill the flu virus it is required to kill the source , it is required .

2. Don't change the captain for Gods sake . every series should not see a new face talking in the dressing room as a camp . Don't make it seem like a kho kho race for captains . Younis captain and Afridi VC at lest for the ODIs

3. All ICL comebacks,selfish record makers , super stars (larger than the game players who pose as if Pak cricket cannot run without them ) and the drug tainted players should be shown the door , if they are even thinking about 2011 let alone Champions trophy .

4. Non performers should be replaced and the bench strength should be tested . some of the players still feel that they are in the scheme for 2011 . but players like Misbah and Mo Yo should be told point blank that they should stop dreaming . Players like umar akmal shoudl get 35 - 40 matches before they can even think of playing him in 2011 . The real window of opportunity for these young players could be the CT , ANZ tour and the england tour. any new comers if he is not exposed to some 30 - 40 matches before the WC should not expected to play at that level .

5. After havig done all that is mentioned from 1 to 4 , i think they need to regroup like they did for T20 WC . Well Younis rubbished the media "over his inability to gel the team together and that the captain currently stands isolated." but I believe that there is no smoke without fire .

I know, baring the few blogger friends who care for the love of the game , nobody will read this post but even if one cricket fan more reads this , i will think that my voice is heard . Amen.

KYC # 9

2009-08-02T17:23:00.005-04:00

So Its Monday folks and I am back with a not so easy question to rack your cricketing brains .

MS Dhoni , S Raina , Fawad Alam , HAPW Jayawardene and many more .. share a dubious distinction in their cricketing careers .

What is it ?

Answer to KYC # 8
Brian Lara and Marvan Attapatu

Thanks Prafs , Omkar and Tejoe for the responses .

PS : Pls send the responses to sillypointblog@gmail.com rather than posting it in comments . I have often heard from fellow bloggers that they did not get an opportunity to take a hit and missed it due to various time zones across the globe ..

KYC # 8

2009-08-01T18:18:00.005-04:00

Identify the two protagonists in the write up below.

My performance in the 2001 tour to Sri Lanka was staggering. Once more back to my best , I dominated the Sri Lankan attack which was, in turn, dominating the rest of the West Indies order. I made three centuries, (178, 221 and 130) scoring almost half of the team's runs. A collision with ______Player A______________ ended my tour. I had broken my elbow, and missed the next tour with Pakistan.

Who am I ?

Who is Player A ? (obviously from Sri Lanka )

Pls send the responses to sillypointblog@gmail.com rather than posting it in comments . I have often heard from fellow bloggers that they did not get an opportunity to take a hit and missed it due to various time zones across the globe ..

Answer to KYC# 6

Phil Hughes on twitter after being dropped from the third test. The fun part is that he announced this update to followers hours ahead of the team being announced ...

Thanks Prafs and Q and NC who took a dig on this .. this was a question which I call a "baby sitter " LOL

Quit playing games Pak

2009-08-01T02:38:00.002-04:00

No Point wasting time on such matches .Now I do not have any doubts that the bookies may have tipped them in SL ...

Pakistan cannot come out of their woes . High time they dump the extra flab Sho Ma and others and look for more "talent"

Lost sleep over such a wasted innings . Wonder whats wrong with teh 20 champs .. or have they thought that the whole team goes only the t20 way ... not even 50 over .. right now only 28 overs are bowled . I wonder if they can bat all 50 overs ..

KYC # 7

2009-07-30T14:54:00.005-04:00

Below is a Twitter update from a cricketer very recently . Identify who is it and what is the reference ?

Answer to KYC # 6 is Matthew James Hoggard

I have lost the count ...

2009-07-30T08:27:00.006-04:00

.. the number of times Pak has been brought down like a pack of cards
.. the number of times Mo Yo has done nothing in a series besides selfish centuries.
.. the number of times frontline bowlers have top scored in the match .
.. the number of times Sho Ma has been given chances despite pathetic shows.
.. the number of times young Aamer will outshine others with his brilliance
.. the number of times Indian bookies will blamed for Pak defeats.
.. the number of times the T20 champs will bite the dust in other formats .
.. the number of times my fellow bloggers will pardon them and entrust faith for the next match .

I have my doubts if they can be considered one of the best teams as done by some of my fellow bloggers after this match .

England On Song

2009-07-20T18:48:00.003-04:00

England win T2 . To my surprise, England has won only a single ashes match at Lord's out of 24 matches in the entire 20th century. I thought that it must be the favorite ground for England and called Mecca of cricket.

They lost 10 matches here. However , enjoy a wonderful song ..

KYC # 6

2009-07-20T18:15:00.004-04:00

Identify the Cricketer :

Welcome to My World
Name: 19 Letters
Born: L__s Y_______e
Country: __g____
Wickets: Tests 248, ODI 32
Right Arm Fast Bowler And Right Hand Bat
Height: 6.2
In My Debut Test DG Cork Was On Fire And I Didn't Bowl Much

Who Am I ___________________

Hi all , Hope you all had a good weekend . I was not available over the weekend as I was attending a college reunion. it was great to meet old mates after almost 10 years ..

However , The last KYC#5 was answered correctly by Prafs .

Answer to KYC#5 : Andrew Flintoff.

congrats to him on his MOM performance . My prediction came true . England won .

Congrats Straussy !

2009-07-17T13:10:00.004-04:00

Congrats Straussy on 5000 Test runs . What a way to get that , a brilliant 161 in an Ashes test ..

Take a couple of large Patiala's today . Way to go 'Levi'

If my predictions are correct , England will win this Test

KYC # 5

2009-07-16T15:45:00.007-04:00

Thursday Thunders

My first test wicket was of Jacques Kallis

My second test wicket was of Jonty Rhodes.

Who am I ? Cheatsheet : I am a curent player in all forms of teh game .. and not from the history ..

Thanks for the responses to KYC # 4 . Q was spot on with the answer the first time and KYC # 4 also earned teh appreciation for being very engrossing and interesting .

The correct answer for KYC # 4 is as follows :

The following four share the dubious record for the slowest ever centuries in test cricket.

Mudassar for the slowest hundred.
Kuruppu for the slowest double hundred.
Hanif for the slowest triple hundred.
Lara for the slowest quadruple hundred.

And Lara may not be considered part of that list because he is the only man ever to hit a 400 in tests.

Pak vs SL : Match Fixing ??

2009-07-15T15:31:00.005-04:00

Better late than never but I see some strange coincidences

1. Three collapses in a row after a fabulous T20 world cup win ?

2. How often do you see a 2/294 to 320 knowing that 6 of the last 7 wickets were lbw ?

3. Is it some kind of a give back from the board to regain some good will after the SL team was attacked in Pak last ?

4. Or is Srilanka up to some kickbacks to the umpires for all the lBW decisions .. But no this cant be as I watched the matched and all of them except Misbahs wicket were plumb ?

Was just going thru some random thoughts and felt I should throw this up for some "cud- chewing ".

Should PCB set not up a committee under Javed Miandad to investigate the possible fixings ? i dont say they have been bt then Miandad has some insights to such possibilities as he was all for IPL matches being fixed this season .

KYC # 4

2009-07-15T12:24:00.009-04:00

KYC # 4 : Connect : The Gentlemen in the first three pictures share a dubious distinction in the history of cricket . Clue : Picture 4 may or may not be considered part of this list .
Identify the gentlemen and spell out the connect .
Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Thanks you so much for the responses to KYC # 3 . Q cracked it first , followed by Tejoe and Prafs . Looks like things at KYC are getting serious isnt it ? Thanks everyone for the responses . though some of them were interesting and Prafs even went on to teh extent that this time if he doesnt get right , he is going to Himalayas .. No Prafs , pls dont do this .. We need you right here on the forum . Thank you .

Here's the full picture solution to KYC # 3 : Steve Bucknor , who retired from International cricket after the 4th ODI b/w England and West Indies (on 29th March). The pic is that of the 3rd Austalia-South Africa test match, his last test as umpire.

KYC # 3

2009-07-14T14:20:00.006-04:00

Thanks SP , Bamble and Prafs for showing interest in the second KYC question . today will be the third in the series . I have added a tally of responses in my sidebar and called it KYC Superkings . Lets do this till 25 KYC posts and in due course lets see how it shapes up . Would need your suggestions on this . so here I am with the third question

KYC#3 : Somebody (blackened in the pic above )is being given a Guard of Honour on the cricket field for some milestone . Identify the person and the milestone / occasion .

Answers in the comments please

KYC # 2 Answer : Duckworth & Lewis . Recently there was news that D/L are planning to tweak the calculator to better suit to T20 format. For those of you who missed it .

SP from Straight Points , Prafs from Right Arm Fast and Bamble from Arm Ball all got is correct . Thanks a ton for your interest and encouragement .

Thanks Prafs for Blogrolling me .

No Excuses Pls .

2009-07-14T08:35:00.011-04:00

"6363021011" Seems like some girly mobile number up for grabs for late night calls Isn't it ? I wish that was true !

Check this scorecard from the second SL vs PAK test concludedtoday . These are the the individual scores for Pak batsmen from number 4 to 11 and 11 extras the highest contributor .

6 from the No 1 ICC test batsman Mo Yo who is hailed to be one of the greatest batsman ever in Pak Cricket . But would I be wrong to say that he has been selfish rather than selfless and he knows that one century scored on comeback is enough for a test spot and I am sure he will score at least 70 - 80 in the next test cos he know that he has to play for himself and not his team In a test when pak will "play for pride ", he will play for rankings

Misbah was most disappointing . I had pinned high hopes and he seems to be losing his sheen with each passing day in one of my previous comments to Q (yesterday at 6. 12 PM ) I had wished that he scored some 70 - 80 at least . But that didn't happen .

For Malik , only bhagwan is malik and the lesser said the better it is for the peace of mind .

Kamran was wasted down the order and as SP puts it perfectly , it is better to be an opening batsmen in Pak then the never formidable middle order.

Little did I knwo , Pakistan was so fragile . I am a cricket fan and have my own biases . But end of teh day it is cricket that I stand for . Seeing the subcontinent cricket and specially the Pak team going into perils makes my heart cry out of despair . I started understandng cricket post the Pak win of 1992 .

I am sure this is going to haunt pakistan for a long time . Isnt it Q , SP , Prafs , am I wrong ?

KYC #2

2009-07-13T17:48:00.006-04:00

KYC # 2: They have been behind many a defeats in world cricket.Name this celebrated pair (or rather notorious) who are behind some of the controversial results .

In cricket , they brought the objective idea to be ahead of the game

Answers in the comments pls .
KYC # 1 : Sir Vivian Richards

SP from Straight Points was the only one to have shown interest with a correct response . Thanks a ton for your encouragement .

Factions and Friction in Team Pak ?

2009-07-13T09:45:00.003-04:00

Former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said groupings within the team could be the reason behind Pakistan's dismal show in the ongoing. Here are some Qs .

Can somebody help me understand what he means by this ? A team which gets bundled out for 117 and 90 in 2 successive innings would be the last team to have factionalism within the team .

Is YK not in control of the scheme of things in the Dressing room ?

Who do you think would be the culprits ?

Or is Inzamam's comments was just in thin air to hide ....?

KYC # 1

2009-07-13T00:19:00.004-04:00

Hi all , I am starting a series of KYC (Know Your Cricketer ). I would look forward to your responses in the comments . Thanks SM

KYC # 1: He never wore a helmet while batting in international cricket history. He was the first "Master Blaster" long before Tendulkar was called .

He has an Indian connection and here is the picture of her daughter . Who is he ?

Who says Buchanan is not wrong ?

2009-07-10T11:53:00.010-04:00

TO Rajab from BCC! who says Buchanan is not wrong

I happened to stumble across this post in BCC! and I am of the opinion that Buchanan is wrong.

1. He points out that Yuvraj Singh and KP have high egos and carry an attitude with them . I say I love their attitude problem cos I am of the opinion that all the good players will come with a bit of attitude and it is up to the management and the captain how they manage their attitude . Pointing at the logistics manager for Indian team , well they need to do they job well or be used 'properly' as done by Yuvi . If a player like Sanjay Bangar comes with an attitude they Buchanan could have been correct . Well YS / KP probably know that he is one of the better shoulders of the team and imagine what a burden they might be carrying around them . So can we compare the attitude of sanjay Bangar with Yuvraj Singh ?

On KP issue , why did the sane board not chuck KP after the debacle and just asked the coach to leave .. cos they knew what KP was capable of . I don't profess that attitude is good , don't misunderstand me .. ALL I POINT OUT IS , YOUR GOOD PLAYERS WILL COME WITH AN ATTITUDE AND YOU NEED TO MANAGE IT WELL BY HAVING EFFECTIVE CHECKS . You can have innumerous examples when the management overlooks some of the nondisciplinary acts of good players for the cause of the team . Roy , Jesse , Flintoff , and at times Akhtar cos they can turn matches on their own .

2. There were couple of matches in the IPL 2 where I did WOW for SRT . Well SRT can alone not win an IPL for them . There were 10 other players in the team . also I believe that there were some uncalled captaincy calls due to which MI did not reach the semis .

3. SMG is selfish and packed his son to play for Bengal . EOD SMG too is made of flesh and blood and you cannot expect a god out of him . That he can safely be called the first ICON player from India who rose to heights can not be atleast questioned by you and me alike . There is something called tactics apart from the bigger game plan in cricket which is also applied to life at times

Bhookha Nan takes a dig at superstars

2009-07-09T12:48:00.007-04:00

John Buchanan's coaching did not sell in India . so he came with a very noble idea to write a dig on Indian second religion and make fast money He has written a book called The Future Of Cricket The Rise Of Twenty

The book deals with IPL and T20. Yet the attention is focused on its criticism of some of cricket's biggest stars. Take a quick look at what he makes of some of the stars

On Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar is not fit for Twenty20 cricket since he is neither inventive nor fearless, according to former Australia coach John Buchanan. Buchanan does not doubt the Mumbaikar's greatness in Test and ODI formats but the former Kolkata Knight Riders coach insists Twenty20 is just not Tendulkar's cup of tea.

"Tendulkar has been lauded, and rightly so, as one of the very top batsmen in the history of cricket...But is he an effective T20 player at this stage of his career?"
"In the position he plays -- as an opener of No. 3 - the T20 game requires not only the finesse and skills he has, but also the power and domination, an ability to take the bowlers on while being creative.

"You have to be inventive and fearless. And I don't see those qualities as part of Sachin's make-up at this stage of his career. Sachin Tendulkar is still a great player but not in this arena of T20," Buchanan said in the book published by Orient Paperbacks.

On Yuvraj

"Yuvraj Singh in a sense tries to be a modern-day Ganguly, but I don't think he has the charisma or the dignity with which Ganguly carries himself".
He is quick to clarify that he is not saying Yuvraj has no charisma or dignity, but the damage already done is compounded by adding that the Mohali team coach Tom Moody had told him "Yuvraj would just walk off after training, leaving all his gear and rubbish because he was used to someone else picking up after him".

On Ganguly Dada

He is "the model for the new breed of confident and combative Indian cricketers" akin to Ian Chappell for the Aussies.

On Bhajji

He is .."good at dishing out treatment, lighting the fire, and then finding an appropriate means to camouflage his action".

Talking of the Bhajji-Andrew Symonds showdown during the Test series in Australia in 2007-08, Buchanan says of Harbhajan, "in that instance he dished it out, but when it came to his turn he was not able to receive it back so well".

On King Khan
Among others , there is an entire chapter on how wonderful and humble person Shah Rukh is and how he was always around to buck up and motivate the Knight Riders.

May god give the bruised soul some solace from this book because anyways he is not poaching (read killing) KKR any more.

End of the road for Badri and Rohit ??

2009-07-08T15:48:00.005-04:00

I believe it is end of the road for Badrinath and Rohit Sharma but the amazing thing is the reasons for both of them are poles apart .

One highly promised and never tried properly , the other highly entrusted and failed each time

One highly underplayed , the other over played

Wonder what middle order combination will India go in the Champions trophy when they have tried as high as 7 combination with batsmen number 5 , 6 , 7 in the last 10 ODI matches involving Dhoni , R Sharma , Jadeja , Y Pathan ..

Wonder what will happend to Badris fate if Sachin , Sehwag and Dravid return to the fold.

T20 champs had a great fall .... again!

2009-07-07T12:12:00.004-04:00

Pakistan as we know are capable of doing anything, converting sure shot wins in defeats . Yes they can collapse from 70/2 to 117 all out in less than a session . Not discounting the fact that Sanga's team did a good job of showing character.

Some highlights .

1. Yousufs century on his comeback to official cricket of no use .
2. Debutants galore in the test showed good nerves specially Md Aamer .
3. Even tests can be nail biting and can give a thrill or too to the fans of the format .
4. MOM Herath shines given the opportunity in absense of Murali but sad for him that he may have to sit back in the next test when Murali returns
5. Misbah continues to invent new ways of getting himself out . this time run out at non striker . Carry on .
6. Congrats Sanga . win in the first test as captain

Dravid for Champions Trophy

2009-07-06T17:58:00.008-04:00

Already a lot is being talked about the following story .
Old is gold: Dravid recalled for Champions Trophy

I am happy to see at last there is some sanity which prevailed among the Indian selectors to give some sort of a backbone to the otherwise fragile looking batting line up .

He was always in my scheme of things and don't you think that it is the IPL performances which has put him back in the reckoning? Or is it the Youngistan wily nily performance of the batsman in the WI tour ?

Whatever be the reason , all the fake walls , fake one down players will find some grey cells in the dressing room too.

I welcome it .

"IPL is the focus , not India cap"

2009-07-02T20:55:00.010-04:00

Dilip Sardesai, a former player for Mumbai and India, had passed away on July 2, 2007. On his memorial lecture Sunil Gavaskar had something serious to say -

"A lot of players miss out on domestic cricket before the IPL to avoid injuries. That is what we have to be very careful about, IPL being seen as the be all and end all, not the India cap"

Well when this comes from Gavaskar , needs to be taken heed of . If you might have notices there are lot of private cricket coacing centeres which have spruced up kudos to IPL . Not that they are not doing a good job of imparting cricketing lessons but think what might happen if the 40 days of league might become more important than the India cap .
The full Interview is in Telegraph and you can read it here
Seems like the T20 has taken roots in teh thinking minds fo parents whoa re sending out kids to these coacing centers so that even being in teh team of any franchisee can earn fast bucks . This makes perfect business sense for them cos a 40 day affair can certainly fast bucks . Mr Modi, Well done !.

Now 4-Day Stupidity . Thank you T20

2009-06-30T11:55:00.006-04:00

The 50 over game as it is feels a lot boring these days once you realize that there are still 30 overs to be bowled after the initial 20 overs. Seems like some of us like me have started feeling that the one dayers now seem too dragged. Isn't it ? Now look at this article in Cricinfo.

ICC chief suggests four-day Tests

David Morgan, the ICC president, has hinted that Test cricket may be reduced to four days to protect and enrich the game's oldest format in the face of lucrative Twenty20 leagues like the IPL. The suggestion comes in the wake of a few other changes that are being mooted, including a two-tier format and day-night Tests to attract more crowds.....

Cricket is going through a metamorphosis and in the times to some we will surely start taking about the days when there used to be 5 days tests be talked about cantankerous gentlemen playing 50 overs game and still ending up around 275 odds.

Thanks to the Bonsai cricket (T20 and 7 over a side cricket )and the cricket administrators wagging their tails to money minting machines for quick bucks , Test cricket would be merely reduced to 4 days . Seems that the administrators are only persisting for the Tests as some bloggers would age war if totally written off. After having followed cricket for almost 15 years now I have started feeling that that I am fit to be in the Archives .

Sachin and Sehwag missed.

2009-06-28T17:41:00.005-04:00

Post today's performance , looks like the Indian team misses Sachin and Sehwag . Seems as the eleven players in the current team put bat to ball whereas the Sachin and Sehwag make cricket.
Also the way Kartik and Mr Useless and three four others gave catch practice to the wicket keeper , seemed that they are too complacent of their positions and somewhere in their minds they have a feeling that they are irreplaceable. Well for not too long though .
Mr Rohit Sharma cannot fool the people with his offies and some wickets here and there . There are lots of spinners there in the waiting .
Also the way Mr Karthik was walking back to the pavilion shaking his head seemed as if he had plans to do something big .
Well Dhoni for all the criticism that he has gone thru in past couple of months showed some kind of resolute batting . His 95 has answered a lot of answers his critics had and also RP playing about 75 balls indicated that even our Gambhirs and Jadejas and Pathans can learn from bowlers batting

However . 1 all now . series is wide open . Since this was a filler series I still predict 2-2

Royal Insult

2009-06-25T17:10:00.004-04:00

Lillee bowls to a nine-man slip cordon during a 1977 Test match in New Zealand

Steve Waugh once did the same againt the Zimbabweans

Dont take a sigh . 2010 T20 World cup in 10 months again

2009-06-22T17:20:00.004-04:00

Congratulations Pakistan , you made all my predictions go wrong except my good friend Venkatesh who was always clear that Pak would win . Anyways thank god , the Modi festival and the World T20 is over but there is one thing that pinches me hard and does not seems fair for Pakistan that they will have t defend the title in less than 10 months again . Yes I repeat the next ICC t20 world cup in 10 months time starting 10th april .

Well thats not all . the stpidity is not yet over . The cancelling of the Champions Trophy and organising another Wotld T20 Cup . Now would you believe this . Shahid Afridi was called for a dope test after the brillaint performace on last Sunday night . The called it a regular 'routine' check and any player could be called for the test .

Not wrongly so , some people call ICC as Idiots Cricket Council . Lookig forward to the Indian playing the resurgant WI and the T20 Champs PAK trudging the Tests in SL .

T20 World Cup : a joy for ever

2009-06-20T17:29:00.007-04:00

It cannot get any better than this . Two best teams are there in the finals and who would have predicted this .

The Pakis were almost written off from the competition after their initial hiccup from the Dutch and the Lankans were the least talked about teams initially , certainly not the favorites to win for many of us . But I am sure all would agree that these teams are deservedly in the finals and it would be a litmus test for the nerves tomorrow . Isn't it ?

Both the teams are playing as one unit backing up players . All pumped up on the field and giving 100 % . The two teams have matching player to player and have their own styles of playing . While Pakistan have solid all rounders like Razzaq and Afridi who can decide matches at their will , the Lankans have clinical performers like Dilshan and Sangakarra who can defy any plans against them . You have stunners like Matthews and Umar Gul in both teams . And there is always a Misbah and a Jayasuriya who are show sealers .

The bowling and the batting departments looks competitive . But I would still give an edge to fielding to the lankans . Who ever wins , I will be happy because it is the better team which will take the trophy home . I just realized what a cracking reply it would be to the terrorists who tried to dislodge sports in the war torn countries like Pakistan and Srilanka .

Throughout the tournament there were moments to save as favorites for both teams be it an Angleo catch or the triple or an Afridi hurricane and Guls barrage of wickets . These were not just moments to enjoy but to celebrate in their lives and cricket events for many more decades to come . Future generations will do case studies and will discuss about them and learn to better them . Which ever team wins the cup tomorrow , it will be cricket who wins , Humanity who scores and makes world a better place to live .

Buffet for Thought

2009-06-15T16:51:00.001-04:00

1. It appeared 'planned' to me, how would you explain

Z Khan 3 0 26 1 8.66 (2w)
RP Singh 3 0 13 1 4.33
I Sharma 4 0 36 0 9.00

Singh and Khan did not get to bowl 4 whereas Sharma get all 4

2. Harbhajan giving away 10 extra runs in last 2 over, ofcourse with the help of our finest fielders

3. Jadeja unfortunately did good bowling (not per the plan) so he compensated with bat (planned)

4. Yusuf tried really hard to HOLD back and succeeded

5. Dhoni made it looked like realistic a bit (as per the plan)

6. Irfan was left out of the game (he could contribute with either bat or ball and that cud mean a victory )

7. Jadeja coming before Yuvi and the explanation was "We expected Jadeja to play a few overs and stabilise the innings and then we could go after their bowling,"
-- Isn't this an insult to other player (Yuvi, Yusuf) - are they not capable of stabilizing an inning, are they only going after every ball no matter what the situation is?

8. Training session was optional even before the so called do-or-die match heard enough about the game-plan but haven't seen it in action ;-)

Cricket fans all over the world are being taken for ride by the machinary running this BUSINESS of cricket

Reaching the T20 WC Semifinals: 'If's and 'But's

2009-06-12T01:28:00.001-04:00

What do you need to do in the Super Eight groups to qualify? Here is a quick rundown:

Only winning all three matches guarantees your place in the semifinals.

You can win two matches and still not qualify for the semifinals.

You can lose two matches and still reach the semifinals.

Losing three matches ends it all.

The first and last points are simple. If you win all three matches, you top the group on points. If you lose all three, you are at the bottom.

Take the second point (winning two matches and not qualifying). Consider an example. In Group E, West Indies lose all their matches. They have 0 points and are out. South Africa have beaten England. Let’s say England beats India and India beats South Africa. In this case, India, England and South Africa are tied on points and it will come down to Net Run Rate.

In the 2007 World Cup, South Africa faced the same problem. They had won all their matches in the 1st round and all the matches in the 2nd round until they faced off against India. They had to either beat India and qualify on points, or pass a smaller target and qualify on NRR. They did neither, losing by 37 runs. It was their first defeat in the tournament and they were out just like that.

So, how can you lose two matches and still qualify? Consider Group F. Pakistan win all their matches, topping the group and qualifying. New Zealand have already beaten Ireland. Let’s say that the Kiwis lose to the Sri Lankans who in turn are overthrown in a stunning upset by the Irish. So NZ, SL and Ireland all are at 2 points with 1 win and 2 losses. The team with the better NRR will qualify.

This scenario fails when two teams in the same group win two matches. In our example, Ireland would prefer that New Zealand win all its matches, probably inflicting even worse defeats on Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Ireland should then try to beat the winner of the match between SL and Pakistan. Then all it has to do is win against the other team or play against the NRR. This is not easy. Netherlands had to do the same thing against Pakistan in Group B and it didn’t work.

It is early days in each group. Once the 3rd match of each group ends, we will suddenly start getting into all the qualification possibilities. Hope to bring you some interesting graphs then!

To choose or not to choose : Karthik

2009-06-09T16:17:00.001-04:00

Virender Sehwag is taking the next flight home to the extremely hot conditions in Delhi . And another Delhi IPL player from Chennai Dinesh Karthik is joining the team in England . Whether this development is likely to affect India's chances of retaining the Trophy or not , remains to be seen but I never thought that of all the players DK could be chosen.

His T20Is record is as follows.
Mat - 6 , Inns 5, NO 1, Runs 67, HS 31* , Ave 16.75

Shocking isnt it ?

1. Seems like the quota system is also being followed in teh team selection . Since there was noone from Chennai in the initial XV , this is the fulfilment.

2. Also a pure batsman with whom a part time spin option was available is being replaced with a keeper who can also bowl a bit .

3. Or there can be a third option where Dhoni wants a backup for him to enjoy more of UK and less of work at office behind the stumps .

I may be wrong but I still strongly feel that there was ready made stuff back home who could have been names repplacements . I thought one of the IPL stars , Naman Ojha or the dude Pandey could have been better options if IPL performance was in any way a yeardstick to find talent then one of these two blokes should have been on the flight to UK . isnt it ?

If they wanted a backup to the keeper then Naman Ojha should have been the choice and if they wanted a hard hitting batsman then Pandey should have been chosen.

What do you feel folks ? Awaiting your feedback .

T20 Super Eights line up

2009-06-09T14:17:00.001-04:00

With todays Pak win , the schedule for the Super Eights line up (second round) is as follows. There will 2 matches every day, the second being a day-night game.

Thursday, June 11
New Zealand v Ireland
England v South Africa
Friday, June 12
Pakistan v Sri Lanka
India v West Indies
Saturday, June 13
West Indies v South Africa
New Zealand v Pakistan
Sunday, June 14
Ireland v Sri Lanka
India v England
Monday, June 15
England v West Indies
Pakistan v Ireland
Tuesday, June 16
New Zealand v Sri Lanka
South Africa v India

It is a fresh start for all the teams. They do not carry points from the first group. So even if you just sneaked in, you can win the tournament from there.

Go Fishing, Mr Ponting .

2009-06-08T19:30:00.001-04:00

My take on my australian mates

Seeing Aussies lose does gives me satisfaction because we need competition and it adds a true spice to this great game of cricket.I never thought that I would say 'Australia' in the same breath as 'Scotland and Bangladesh', but after todays match I am compelled to do it. But then I am often puzzled by the question Why do people hate to see Aussies win or love to see them lose ? Is it out of hate for their antics on the field as one of the means to win ?

The most common reason that I know of is that they don't like watching the same team win over and over again one of the reason most likely to be. But Ponting has got a bit of rudeness in his ways of playing. Dont like it . However they will have an extended stay in England and an opportunity to practice well for the Ashes ahead .
May be the the top five :Watson , Punter , Haddin, Puppy and Hussey sr. did nto take batting lessons for Johnson .

The road ahead for the T20 W Cup

However 7 of the 8 spots for the World T20 Super 8s stage have been decided, and this is what Groups E and F look like:

Group E: India, South Africa, West Indies, England

Group F: New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland, X

The 'X' will be filled in by either Pakistan or the Netherlands, depending on the outcome of their match tomorrow.

Pakistan have to win by atleast 25 runs or chase down their target with 3 overs to spare in order to qualify.

If they don't do that or the Dutch beat them, then it will more or less garantee semi final spots for New Zealand and Sri Lanka!

Leaving Group E with intense battles towards the race to the other 2 semi final spots.

This ICC World Twenty20 has surely turned the cricket world upside down, and I think there are even more surprises in store. Its all about winning at any costs these days and I can understand the pressures a national captain goes through to make a winning combination.Lets wait till tomorrow, Pakistan may join them, but for now Australia face this embarassment alone.

Group Standings Till 7th june :

2009-06-07T16:24:00.000-04:00

Thank you Eng for letting us play in your country : Pak

2009-06-07T15:50:00.000-04:00

Pathetic, lacklustre, abysmal, atrocious are not too harsh for the kind of performance Pakistan put in today . It seemed this was their way to saying to the English, "Thank you for letting us play in your country, we can't let you get dumped from the cup".

Talking about the match . I did not expect England to come hard at Pakistan, and they did as predicted by the our top expert commentators Venkatesh Kumar and Tejoe . While Wright, KP, Shah took the game away from Pakistan within the first 10 overs, Pakistan helped them with abysmal bowling with the new ball (Yasir Arafat), sloppy fielding, and dropped catches.

Now the situation is such that Pakistan not only have to beat Netherlands, they have to make sure that they do so with a margin to get their net run rate above Netherlands' in order to qualify for the Super 8s.

England have nothing to worry about anymore. They have the best NRR in the Group. Even if Pakistan beat Netherlands, England's NRR will remain above that of the Dutch.

Hence, England are through!

Its going to be a fight between the Dutch and Pakistan.

And its Pakistan, the team I called the favorites, that are facing an exit from the ICC World Twenty20!

Strange are the ways of T20 which turns everything upside down. We saw that this IPL and now this T20 WC. Also NZ and SAF become the first teams to qualify in the Super eights . We need to wait till Tuesday to know who else will join them .

Five Points : India vs Bangladesh

2009-06-07T00:34:00.001-04:00

Can you ask for a more action packed Saturday than today ?

From the moment Ryan Watson smashed O'brien for a boundary, till the very end when Naeem Islam smashed Ishant for 2 sixes before Yuvraj took an awesome catch, his second of the day, I was hooked to the action.

However my fives are as follows.
1. Dhoni continues to bemuse by walking out at number 3 - did the warm ups not make him understand anything?

2. Had Yuvi not fired, India would have lost. Dhoni must be thanking him in every possible way you can think of right now.

3. Raina is being wasted at # 5. does hsi captain want to agree to this ?

4. Shakib continues to impress. He had Rohit twice in two deliveries, but for the damn Deshi keeper.

5. Pragyan Ojha picked up a wicket with his very first delivery in T20 internationals. I'm not sure if thats a first but the commentators for some reason missed the feat. His 4-21 was also the 4th best effort by a bowler on debut in T20Is.
Any doubts then who the best spinner in India is? I hope paaji is paying heed . But wont be surprised if Ojha will be dropped next match to accomodate for any top premier injured dicey slam bang batsman . That is how even Mishra was treated when he had taken a 5 for in teh Delhi test and dropped next match
It was quite an exciting day today for cricket fans - not one boring moment since the rains went away.

Tomorrow's a day when the hosts could be kicked out of the competition. Or they could get one of Pakistan's legs in a plane back home.

I can't wait.

And why are the Scottish playing 2 games in 2 days? Were they in England only for the Weekend? Back to work on Monday?

Adios . Ciao. Tschuss bis morgan . au demain !

Whats next for England?

2009-06-05T17:51:00.001-04:00

And did I say that there were lot of Unknowns store for us ..in my last post ? Ah what an incredible match to launch the ICC Twenty20 World Cup! And Dirk Nannes did not even take a single wicket. Half-way through the England innings, I thought we were in one of those terribly lop-sided matches with England looking good for a 200+ score.

Netherlands pulled them back and then in an amazing chase, never gave up despite losing wickets at regular intervals. An offspinner and compact middle-order batsmen, Tom de Grooth fired a 30 ball 49 for them. And it was the experienced English team that lost the plot completely in the final overs instead of the Dutch.

What next for England? The good news is that their NRR isn’t bad at all because of losing off the last ball. What they have to do now is beat Pakistan on Sunday and by a large margin. Defeat is not an option as that would mean instant departure from the World Cup. If England do beat Pakistan handily, the result of the final game does not matter for England. Let me explain the combinations:

England lose to Pakistan: Pakistan and Netherlands qualify for the semifinals.

England beat Pakistan and Netherlands beat Pakistan: England and Netherlands qualify.

England beat Pakistan by a big margin and Pakistan beat Netherlands: England will qualify, but NRR will determine who among Pakistan or Netherlands will qualify for the semis. In simple terms, Pakistan should defeat Netherlands by a bigger margin than it lost to England.

England beat Pakistan by a close margin and Pakistan beat Netherlands: NRR will determine the fate of all three teams. If Pakistan thrash Netherlands, then they will go through with England. Otherwise it is touch-and-go for everyone.

T20 World Cup : Unknowns Galore

2009-06-04T22:56:00.001-04:00

The world's cricketing fraternity would agree that the second ICC Twenty20 World Cup, which starts when England play the Netherlands at Lord’s tomorrow , will have a more profound impact than the first, played two years ago in South Africa.
India’s victory over Pakistan in an excruciatingly exciting final instantaneously converted cricket’s economic powerhouse — previously indifferent at best to Twenty20 — to the gaudy charms of the game’s new short format.

What followed was the creation of the lucrative Indian Premier League, paying unprecedented salaries to leading players. It seemed to be the most significant challenge yet to the primacy of international five-day test cricket.

What makes this edition intriguing is that this time, we know very little about the 12 competing teams.Twenty20 has proliferated below the international level. But matches between test national teams remain a rarity. Only 89 have been played in five years. New Zealand has played the most by a single country, 21.That means there is almost no form to go on. While most players are known quantities as individuals, we cannot be sure about team chemistry or how captains will deploy the talents available to them when matches are on the line.

A string of warm-up matches this week may offer some clues. These games have introduced English fans to the superb wicket-keeping of Jeroen Smits, the Dutch captain, and the tantalizing slow spin bowling of Majid Haq of Scotland. The games have also offered a reminder of the formidable pace bowling of Mitchell Johnson of Australia and Ishant Sharma of India and the hitting power of Chris Gayle, the West Indian captain.

The match between India and Pakistan had the atmosphere of a proper international, with a roaring sell-out crowd at London’s Oval ground for India’s resounding nine wicket victory.

Scotland had an internal falling-out that led to one player quitting, then briefly worried England, threatening a result that — warm-up match or not — would never have been forgotten.

Of the 12 teams, 9 are established test nations. The others — Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands, are qualifiers.

The teams are divided initially into four groups of three, each team playing the others once. The top two progress. The assumption is that the qualifiers will go no further. Yet the format means one bad day can eliminate a big name — as happened to India and Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup. One of the test nations must go since Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies have been drawn together.

The survivors divide into two groups of four, with the top two from each qualifying for the semi-finals. The final is at Lord’s on Sunday, June 21.

The bookies have made India the favorite. It has won the tournament before, and the IPL is assumed to have raised standards. India looked terrific against Pakistan, though the players could be tired after four months of non-stop cricket

Australia has won everything else in world cricket and has in hard-hitting rookie batsman David Warner one of the tournament’s most intriguing players.

In a version of the game in which bowlers must take batsmen by surprise Sri Lanka has two masters of spin and deception, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis.

South Africa has a busload of all-rounders who contribute with both bat and ball. New Zealand always maximizes its talent and Pakistan’s lack of recent action mean that its players will be both fresh and hungry. Or might they just be rusty?

If there has been one consistent element in Twenty20 competitions it has been unexpected winners. And this competition will have to deal with the notoriously unpredictable English weather. England itself has never won a trophy in any of cricket’s short forms and has five rookies in its 15-man squad. Perhaps that means it has every chance of success.

To me it seems that there are lots of unknown zones and it wouldnt be surprising if there is a new champion this time.

India vs Pak : an ideal warm up

2009-06-04T01:23:00.001-04:00

It was touted as the most important match of the Twenty20 World Cup, albeit a warmup match that was not part of the World Cup. Because of the seedings problem we talked about, the only way Pakistan and India can play against each other in this year’s edition of the World Cup is if both of them reach the finals. Possible, but perhaps unlikely.

In the end, it didn’t even turn out to be close. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat, but were soon reeling at 63/5. Thankfully they had kept their run rate up while all the wickets were tumbling, and Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Yasir Arafat took them to a respectable 158/6. Under the circumstances, it was very commendable and India perhaps missed a trick by failing to keep the pressure on.

But that was all soon forgotten when the Indian openers slowly, but surely made their march towards the target. A 10-wicket thrashing was in the works when Rohit Sharma fell to a top edge with 19 required. Dhoni once again came in at No. 3 and finished the match off with a couple of quick blows. Pakistan will be pretty disappointed with this outing.

A few quick comments:

1. Pakistan’s batting was better than that in their previous outing when they were all out for 127 against South Africa. They were 65/5 then too, but today they managed to score a few more. Since Sri Lanka only scored 109 against South Africa today, Pakistan’s grade is somewhere like “B-” instead of an “F”. But they have to step up. Thankfully with England and Netherlands in their group, they have time to recover.
2. Bowling is a different issue altogether. Conceding 186 yesterday and 159 in 17 overs is a failing grade. And Pakistan was supposed to have the better bowlers.
3. India too has some bowling problems, especially in the death overs. That is why they lost the New Zealand match. And today, they gave the Pakistani bowlers something to defend. They need to keep the pressure on.
4. Is Dhoni going to be the official No. 3? If so, great. If not and he has been using these warm-up matches for experiments the results of which he is not going to use, then India are going to risk facing some unpleasant surprises.
In summary, good comeback for India after the fiasco against the Kiwis. Some more thinking for the Pakistanis before their first match against England on Sunday.

Is Dhoni failing in his tactics ?

2009-06-02T23:09:00.001-04:00

There are 2 points that I want to make in this article .

London and Las Vegas seldom match . In Cricket , as in any other sport , gameplan and tactics are inherent but there should be a master plan to any tactics. Otherwise it is not risk-taking, but gambling.

Its a fashion in Indian cricket following, we have to have somebody to criticise and hang to the sword. In ODIs till this day it were Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Dravid, Ganguly in past. Kumble, Fab Four in Tests adding Kumble. So in T20s it has to be the captain.
During the IPL and today in the warmup match against New Zealand, we saw M S Dhoni promote himself up the order to No. 3. His record has been inconsistent. Sometimes it has worked and at other times, like today, it hasn’t. This has happened quite a few times that I get a feeling that Dhoni is being too clever instead of thinking strategically and long-term. A loss in inconsequential warm up game to T20 world cup ended the honeymoon for MS. A man who before IPL could do nothing wrong, now stands in a witness box to answer the critics why he promoted himself to # 3. Man to man basis, he is a better batsman than the regular # 3 in T20s -- Raina boy. So what if he had been failure yesterday? All this talk wouldnt have arose if he had scored runs and hadnt got out to the awkward stumping to Vettori boy and McCullum uncle.

Basically, the problem with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s tactics on a given day is not whether it succeeds or fails on that given day. Every tactic is a risk. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes, winning can be “in spite of” something rather than “because of” something.
Here are the questions that we should ask about Dhoni’s promoting himself to #3:

1. What was Dhoni’s intention for promoting himself? He came in at 42/1 after 5 overs with India chasing 170. India was not in any particular difficulty as they were up with the required run rate. Did Dhoni come as a pinch-hitter or did he come to shepherd the team to victory?
2. If he did come to play an anchor role, why could that role not be performed by Raina, Jadeja, or Yuvraj? Shouldn’t Dhoni’s role as captain be to empower his teammates instead of trying to spoon-feed them and corner all the glory?
3. The way Dhoni played (6 off 4, a boundary off the second ball) meant that he came in to attack the bowling (although that may seem redundant in Twenty20). If so, why do so with India well-placed? Secondly, why not send someone expendable like Harbhajan Singh who can hit a few?
4. Is Dhoni always going to come in at #3? Or is he going to keep everyone guessing when he is going to come in?

I am not against Dhoni batting at any position permanently. I am not even against him for changing the batting order as needed. What I am against is changing it in an ad-hoc fashion with no rhyme or reason.

This is what the random shuffling does to the Indian team. It sends a message to the team members that they cannot adjust to the different conditions on the field as needed. It lowers their confidence and destroys their sense of responsibility because why should they worry about leading the team to victory if Captain Dhoni can step in? When the match situation is ambiguous, the batsmen may be confused what to do. The next time India is 40/1, should they slog or milk the bowling? If Dhoni doesn’t promote himself then and the team loses, would that be a mistake?

The real time for tinkering with convention is when the status quo is risky. Remember the World Cup T20 semifinal match against Australia two years ago. Dhoni decided to bowl out his more experienced bowlers and let Joginder Sharma bowl the last over. Hayden was blazing away and had to be stopped. To stick to the bowling order would have been crazy and Dhoni rightly shuffled his bowlers to perfection. In contrast, what he is doing now with the batting order is silly and superfluous.
Lets look up to the match with Pakistan tomorrow and see how these points are taken care

"Pak may win T20 World Cup" says top analyst Venkatesh

2009-05-30T17:58:00.001-04:00

The other day I happened to meet some of the top observers of cricket at a informal drink and dine evening . Among other topics , the T20 world cup was also discussed . The observers who were present on the occasion to express their views included a former batsman Tejoe , cricket observer and a key think tank to the Indian cricket strategies Venkatesh Kumar and S Saini from COTN .

The ICC World Twenty20 kicks off in 6 days with amazingly lop-sided looking groups. Considering this mega event and the different it has made to the world cricket order and to the careers of some of the cricketers like Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. The top probables which was unanimously reached to were 4 teams India , Pakistan , South Africa and Black Caps New Zealand.

First up Venkatesh said that the two teams he could put his money were New Zealand and Pakistan . He discounted India echoing his opinion as par with Vengsarkar. He said that India and South Africa have played too much of Cricket last 6 months and are fatigued.
He said

I think Pak are one of the favorites definitely.. not only do they have a very good 20-20 record (better win-loss ration than all international teams) but they also boast of the 2 top wicket takers in all T20 internationals - Gul and Afridi.Plus they are also the runners up.

His arguments against S Africa were that very pinpointed . He said " Have they ever won a World Cup? Knowing their luck, rain, a silly run out, or a blazing West Indian bat will keep them away from the title. In the recent past Johan Botha has captained South Africa in T20s. Smith is going to have a hard time taking over.

The final punch that he gave was "South Africa usually start every championship as one of the favorites, and we all know where they end up.I don't see why this time will be any different."

We he had a point well made that 12 of South Africa's world t20 squad members appearing in 7 different IPL teams, its going to be one hell of a confusion-galore dressing room with tons of strategies that neither Arthur nor Smith will know how to comprehend.

Ace batsman Tejoe on the other hand said that it has always been in the T20 form that the underdogs have taken the limelight and eventually win the crown . Eventually it will boil down to which of the unpredictable performers make their day and change the course of the game .

He says

I honestly believe any of the top8 can win, except for England who I just can't see winning 2 games in a row . India and SA are probably strongest on paper but it is being played in English conditions so I'd hesitate in backing India, Zaheer Khan will be key . I'd put my early money on SA but then again I'd never bet on 2020 as it's a bit of a lottery sometimes . My money is on the Black Caps NZ ... looks like a bunch of great guys who are very talented and unpredictable ... should be the series that makes Ross Taylor and Ryder into superstars in my opinion

.

Tejoe was harsh in his evaluation of Australia . He said that it will be interesting to see the Australian squad when it comes out. There has been no assemblance of a settled T20 squad for Australia since it's inception. Seems anyone who can hold a bat or roll the arm over has had a game in the last few years.

Another top Ranji star from North Zone S Saini had the final wrap up comments on India's chances

He said

I think its a good squad, the only change I might have made would've been to have Abhishek Nayar in the side instead of Jadeja, as the squad already has plenty of spin options, another medium-pace all-rounder would have been handy (especially in English conditions).

Who ever wins , seems like another fest for the Cricket fans across the globe . COTN will be closely following the tournament and will bring all the views and analysis.

To comment on the views expressed by the expert panel, send your feedback to cricketonthenet@gmail.com

Candid Confessions: I am not good at T20 cricket - KP

2009-05-29T09:40:00.000-04:00

Kevin Pietersen is on a serious mission after making his most shocking admission to date: "I'm not very good at Twenty20 cricket, am I?"

On the eve of the World Twenty20 in England, Pietersen made the searingly honest appraisal of his short form career so far, but has vowed to make amends next month.

Despite being one of the world's finest batsmen in Test and one-day cricket, Pietersen's Twenty20 career lags too far behind for his liking and he is determined to do something about it.

In fact, Twenty20 cricket hasn't been particularly kind to him at all on the field and for a player of Pietersen's talents and mindset, serial failure simply won't do.

He has made just one Twenty20 50 for England, averaging just 26, and even though he became the most expensive player in the Indian Premier League his record there wasn't much better.

Bangalore Royal Challengers paid $1.55million for him to be their inspirational batsman and captain, but he could only muster two wins from the six games he played, and when he returned home to resume England duties the team reached the final without him.

"I made a great captain didn't I" chuckled Pietersen. "We won two out of six when I was there and then Anil Kumble took over and they got to the final.

"People are going to take pot shots at me over the IPL and the money I earned in two weeks, but it was such a great experience. I loved it.

"To captain the side four days after arriving and not knowing what some of the guys did and not knowing most of their names made it a huge task for me. I wasn't as focused on my batting as I was on trying to learn guys names and what they did.

"The more you play T20 cricket the better you become and I haven't played a lot of it, and I'm not very good at it.

"The more I play it though the more I'll catch up with my records in Test and one-day cricket definitely. I just know that I will get much better at it. I've worked out some new theories about how to go about my batting in T20 and that will make a difference, hopefully starting next week!"

Thankfully for England fans it is rare for Pietersen to consistently fail and the World Twenty20 that begins a week today against Holland is the perfect time to put things right.

Usually when Pietersen puts his mind to something he succeeds, in fact he is probably guilty of switching off when the pressure and intensity is not great enough. He is a big match player and he knows this World Twenty20 will be as big as it gets.

It was less than two years ago that Pietersen called Twenty20 a 'silly game with silly shots' but he admits his attitude to the game has since changed.

If he can start firing and the rest of the side can make their home advantage count, not even the missing Andrew Flintoff should dampen England's chances of glory.

He added: "The way T20 has now turned into a huge, huge business and the way that it has grown into having World Cup T20 tournaments, playing for your country means that my opinion of it has changed hugely.

"You have to be serious about it. You're playing for England in a World Cup at home, that is serious. It is no longer a silly game with silly shots, I want to win it full stop.

"The standard of cricket in the first tournament probably wasn't as good, whereas now the seriousness with which the guys are putting their heads to it means that the standard is going to be really high.

"I'm so excited about this tournament, it is going to be huge. It is a massive event, and since we have never won one of these global tournaments, it is about time we did and that is why it is such a big thing for me.

"It is a shame that Fred is not available, but we can definitely win the T20 World Cup if we play good positive cricket consistently."

PIETERSEN RECORD

Tests: 52 RUNS: 4494 AVE: 50.49 100s: 16 50s: 14

Odi: 92 RUNS: 3127 AVE: 46.67 100s: 7 50s: 20

T20: 15 RUNS: 379 AVE: 26.78 100s: 0 50s: 1

10 Famous Cricket Sledges

2009-05-27T22:33:00.001-04:00

1. Rod Marsh & Ian Botham : When Botham took guard in an Ashes match,Marsh welcomed him to the wicket with the immortal words: "So how's your wife & my kids?" Botham replied: Wife's good but your kids are retarted."

2. Robin Smith & Merv Hughes: During a 1989 Lords Test Hughes said to Smith after he played & missed: "You can't *****ing bat". Smith replied to Hughes after he smacked him to the boundary: "Hey Merv, we make a fine pair. I can't *****ing bat & you can't *****ing bowl."

3. Merv Hughes & Javed Miandad: During the 1991 Adelaide Test, Javed called Merv a fat bus conductor. A few balls latter Merv dismissed Javed. "Tickets please", Merv called out as he ran past the departing batsman.

4. Merv Hughes & Viv Richards: During a test match in the West Indies, Hughes didn't say a word to Viv, but continued to stare at him after deliveries. Eventually Viv said, "This is my island, my culture. Don't you be staring at me. In my culture we just bowl." Merv didn't reply, but after he dismissed him he announced to the batsman: "In my culture we just say ***** off."

5. Ian Healy & Arjuna Ranatunga: Healy's legendary comment which was picked up by the Channel Nine microphones when Ranatunga called for a runner on a particularly hot night during a one dayer in Sydney... "You don't get a runner for being an overweight, unfit, fat c*nt!!!"

6. Shane Warne & Daryll Cullinan: As Cullinan was on his way to the wicket, Warne told him he had been waiting two years for another chance to humiliate him. "Looks like you spent it eating," Cullinan retorted.

7. Glenn McGrath & Eddo Brandes: After Brandes played & missed at a McGrath delivery, the Aussie bowler politely enquired: "Oi, Brandes, why are you so fat?" Brandes retorted, "Cos every time I ***** your wife she gives me a biscuit".

8. Ricky Ponting & Shaun Pollock: After going past the outside edge with a couple of deliveries, Pollock told Ponting: "It's red, round & weighs about 5 ounces." Unfortunately for Pollock, the next ball was hammered out of the ground. Ponting yelled to Pollock: "you know what it looks like, now go find it."

9. Steve Waugh and Parthiv Patel : Amidst all the hype surrounding his farewell match, Steve Waugh had to contend with an unexpected dose of his own medicine from a player half his age. As Waugh fought a grim battle to stave off defeat in the series-deciding fourth Test in Sydney, 19 year-old Indian wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel tried to unsettle the veteran batsman through some banter.

The baby-faced Patel egged on the 38 year-old stalwart to play one of his sweep shots one last time. The India 'keeper was saying, 'Come on, just one more of the famous slog-sweeps before you finish' Waugh replied: 'Look, show a bit of respect. You were in nappies when I debuted 18 years ago' .

10. Special Mentions:

Inzamam-ul-Haq once told Brett Lee to " stop bowling off spinners".

In the recent Karachi Test when Irfan Pathan came to bat in 2nd Innings Afridi shouted two times " O mera Shehzada aaya ! " (Oh! my prince has come) .

Mathew Hoggard pens his biography

2009-05-27T21:14:00.001-04:00

Hoggy: Welcome to My World: The Peculiar World of Matthew Hoggard (Hardcover)
by Matthew Hoggard (Author)
I can’t pursuade you enough. Having a Memorial Day long week gave me a chance to read some books, and Matthew Hoggard’s is one that I’m making my way through. It is like no sporting biography I’ve encountered before, which is just as well: most are tedious and premature. Hoggy, on the other hand, has written his with an England career behind him.

Like the man himself, it is unashamedly bonkers and refreshingly obscure. There are scribbles and cartoons (of his wife, Sarah, though they look as though his toddler son Ernie drew them), and whole paragraphs dedicated to his dogs. He attributes his run-up to a quirk in the layout of his garden when he was young. And he is surely the first cricketer, nay sportsman, to mention masturbation as a key aspect of surviving long tours overseas.
I can’t urge you enough to read a paragraph << CLICK TO READ of it . It’ll surely bring a smile to your face

Ashes 2009 Cricket Series - Ashes Cricket 2009 Schedule, Team Info

2009-05-27T17:07:00.001-04:00

Ashes 2009 is drawing close and the itinerary for Ashes 2009 is announced for the good news of Ashes followers.

The England and Wales Cricket Board, Chief Executive David Collier and Cricket Australia James Sutherland announced the Ashes 2009 schedule.

David Collier says in a statement, “already there is great expectations surrounding the nPower Test series (Ashes) which will follow the twenty20 World Championship in an exciting summer of cricket.”

Now that’s true! The 5 test Ashes series begins from July 8 2009 at the Sofia Gardens in Cardiff, the new stadium, and the second test will be at the Lords (this has been that way; very much conventional), the next at Edgbaston, the fourth at Headingley and the 5th at Oval will complete the Ashes series.

One cannot forget the Ashes 2005 as it still ticks my memories to be one of the fiercest cricketing battles I ever witnessed and England regained the Ashes with a 2-1 after 18 years. Remember Andrew Flintoff’s form in the series? The interest generated for Ashes from then on has been multiplying every year in England.

This year; however, Australia will be missing 3 biggies including Shane Warne (one cannot think of separating Ashes from this amazing spinner. Can you?), Glen McGrath and Adam Gilchrist (I am a big fan of this wonderful ambassador of the game).

Intentionally, the bad boy fame Andrew Symonds is not picked for the Ashes 2009.

With 3 all time greats and attacking all rounder Andrew Symonds not featuring in the Australian team, what can you expect?

Well, the new Australian line up will be showing fresh, young blood raring to go; that’s the spirit Ashes generates between the 2 teams if not anything less.

While England also is in the transitional phase. Ashes might not see the 4-man pace package of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff playing together for England.

Instead, there will be Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad continuing the pace proceedings and we can only hope to see Andrew Flintoff coming after his surgery.

2009 Ashes Series Schedule
1st Test (8 July - 12 July) England vs Australia (SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff)

2nd Test (16 July - 20 July) England vs Australia (Lord’s, London)

3rd Test (30 July - 3 August) England vs Australia (Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham)

4th Test (7 August - 11 August) England vs Australia (Headingley Stadium, Leeds)

5th Test (20 August - 24 August) England vs Australia (The Oval, London)

IPL 2 : Money for all Franchiseees.

2009-05-26T16:50:00.001-04:00

The month long twenty-20 extravaganza has come to end and it is now clear that the shifting of venue could not affect IPL Season 2. Starting from the franchisers to the broadcasters and every single stake holder, IPL Season 2 ended in a happy note. Everybody including the champs and the finalist and also those who could not quite make it to the top layer - all of them seemed to manage higher revenues, thanks to a re-worked deal between BCCI and Multi Screen Media (MSM) that owns Sony channels.

Since the very beginning it was marred in controversies. Finally the tournament had to be relocated for security concerns. Those who predicted that Indian Premier League outside India will die like fish outside water are now left with eggs on their faces. For not only every stake holder has made a profit this year, they also managed to increase their revenues despite the increased logistic costs.

And not only the Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers that have made profits on the merit of their performance - every single team has been reported to have made a profit out of this year’s tournament. Knight Riders, the team that finished off at the bottom of the league table, has managed to make the third-highest profit of Rs 25.8 crore in IPL Season 2. The highest profit maker of the season however, is Team Jaipur which has made a cool profit of Rs 35.1 crore at the second season of Indian Premier League.

The prize money for the winner is Rs 4.8 crore, Rs 2.4 crore for the runners-up and 1.2 crore each for the losing semifinalists; Rs 80 lakh for the team that finished fifth (Kings XI Punjab), Rs 70 lakh for the sixth placed (Jaipur), Rs 50 lakh for the seventh (Mumbai Indians) and Rs 40 lakh for the lowest one. However, what has really helped the franchises accumulate such huge revenues is the sharing of the common pool of the broadcasting rights.

According to the renegotiated contract with WSG, BCCI got about Rs 335 crore, which is straight 90% jump from the figure in the original contract that was signed for ten years.

BCCI’ s profit from last year’s IPL was Rs 350 crore, while Sony’s profits from ad-sales alone stood at Rs 270-280 crore for the last season. But this year, both the entities decline to divulge the exact figures. “We are yet to calculate the profits,” said a BCCI official from South Africa. This year Sony has doubled its air-time rates to sell the 10 second spots for anything between Rs 3.75 lakh and Rs 4 lakh. While the MSM officials confirm the rise in the revenues, they too refuse to disclose the actual figure. “We have increased our revenues significantly over the last year, but can’t disclose figures,” MSM president (network sales) Rohit Gupta said.

However, it was the unlikely rise of the Royal Challengers to the prominence that sent the punters on tenterhook, while leaving the bookies all smiling. One bookie described the tournament as worse than race betting with no pre-tournament favorites having made it to the finals. In all, over Rs 5,000 crore were exchanged during the championship, informs a bookie on condition of anonymity. With hardly any pre-tournament tips working in their favor, punters could make little money, while it was really the day for the bookies when Deccan Chargers beat the Royal Challengers in the final.

In a nutshell, it was Deccan Chargers that won the title, but each team tasted success-that is on the cash side.

** With Inputs from Cricket360

Some take homes from IPL2

2009-05-25T09:38:00.001-04:00

Results are Unpredictable: Sometimes bottoms up
I think 20-20 is such a game that we can't predict the result.It can be the team's day when that day is any player's day of the team.I do agree that sticking to the basics would do better and the reason why the Deccan chargers have made it is the same reason.RP and Rohit came in touch with bowl and bat respectively and later also made it with bowl at some instances and Symmo will always contribute in team's performance.But the jackpot for the DC is the Gilly's form.It has been a consistent performance from Adam, and has impressed a lot with gloves.In fact all of the team members has contributed a lot when required.

Muti dimensional players are a farce
One of the reasons why DC lost last years was that they selected too many multi dimensional players, Afridi, Symonds,Styris, Rao. These days there is hardly a true all rounder in the world who can take care of both batting and bowling consistently, Afridi everybody knows he can’t bat anymore, Symonds failed with the ball bigtime,Styris I don’t know why he was hired in the first place, Rao batted well but his bowling was not that good.Bits and pieces players failed to execute their roles and in the absence of quality bowlers they failed to defend even decent totals.Laxmans personal form also didn’t help much.But I have always maintained that the Chargers always had 4 foreigners,RP Singh, Rohit Sharma and Laxman as the players in the side. Rest were making up the numbers.

Wham Bham licence does not work always
I think DC management must have now realized the difference between a slogger and a quality batsman,the definition of a T20 specialist batsman has been changed.Anybody can bat like Afridi, give them a Wham Bham licence and a little net practice even your tail enders will loft the ball for a few boundaries. The risk associated with such batting is always high and only those players who have wide range of shots will be more successful as it has been proved by Gambhir, Marsh, Sehwag, and Sharma.I think DC will trade a few of their players this year.
This season of IPL 2 was very exciting. Deccan chargers, who was at the last place in the year 2008, has finally proved its vigor by clinching the title of this season. Certainly, the captaincy of Gilchrist proved to be a boon for DC. No doubt, the Banglore Royal Challengers have given a good fight to DC, but at the end of the day "jo jeeta wahi sikander."

Soccerisation of cricket in process
What I dd not like was the owners Rami Reddy , Dr Mallya, SRK and Preity Zinta sharing the dugout with players . It puts them in even more pressure than there actually is, it doesn't make one bit of a difference in the matter of inspiring them to even bigger heights.They are way better off minding their own business and sit tight and let the players do their job. This is in a way soccerization of cricket what Roman Abramovich trying to do to Chelsea's .

Captaincy matters
Talk about change of guard like DC and KKR and BRC , all have changed their captains in due course . One of the reasons why DC won was the fact that the change of captaincy was done with least fuss unlike the multi episode dramatic transition in Knightriders and the marginally less so change of guard in the Royal Challengers. Both Shahrukh Khan and Vijay Mallya should take lessons from DC . Shahrukh in particular should understand that showmanship may win superstar status but does not win cricket matches. Neither do abrasive blogs and potshots at living legends.

KISS (Keep It simple stupid )

RR were amongst the highest runs as well as lowest totals but what DC did was to stick to the winning formula was of sheer simplicity and back-to-basics attitude. The good old cricketing wisdom of runs, catches and wickets winning matches holds good for any form of cricket let alone bonsai cricket. Laptop analyses do not take you to beyond the KKR heights is now proved.

League maturing up
4 of the 8 captains in the league were foreigners and the conversion to win the cup for the foreign captains has been 100% . Also on the tactics front the DD captains faltered midway goes on to say that the players and captains alike are still learning their basics on the job . some imported talent has worked for some franchisees but wont continue for long . Eventually the next generation has to take on the rains and relieve the icons from the game . Bonsai will remain bonsai till the next line to guard does not mature up and demystify the fact that this form is for the retired players . The likes of Pathan , Jadeja , Rohit and also Kohli need to come forward and prove the fact that IPL is a league and not a retirees den to make gold in 30 days for 3 years .

What say folks ??

IPL 2009 winner is .............

2009-05-21T16:30:00.001-04:00

Battle lines are drawn to take the star studded trophy and Lalit Modi si all set to preside over the second edition of IPL on Sunday . Lets take a peek at the four finalist . Go thru this and predit who will be the IPL2 winner . Remember the Poll here closes on Saturday 2400hrs Pacific Time .

Delhi Daredevils: This is Viru or Virender Sehwag’s team with some very good combination of experience and young talent. Although this time it missed the aggression of Pakistan players it there are seasoned campaigners in Daniel Vettori, Gautam Gambhir, and Ashish Nehra and lately Dinesh Karthik coming back to form is a big plus. They play with attitude and true cricketing spirit. Although there have been some losses, the team is a strong contender for winning IPL 2009 title. VIRU and GAUTI both looked dangerous in todays clash . Good for them and the game.

Chennai Super Kings: The team looks one of the very impressive ones with handful of talent as well as star power. It has experienced players like Hayden who is playing well in every match and with a captain like MS Dhoni any franchise can rest assured to have great show. His current form although is not amazing, he can still prove most valuable on his day. Muralitharan, Jacob ram, Michael Hussey and Makhaya Ntini (didn’t play yet) add strength and solidity to this team. It has all qualities to clinch the title

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Vijay Mallya surely tried to impress bringing in captaincy change. The team now doesn’t look like a test squad even though it has veterans like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis playing. In fact, Kevin Pieterson left IPL 2009 half way around and it is Anil Kumble who is reviving the team with superb bowling performance. Ross Taylor is playing very well and so Jesse Ryder. Praveen Kumar adds strength to bowling If you think that this is batsmen rich, you are wrong they won some on batting and some games by bowling. It will be interesting to watch how the team of experienced lot will invent ways to win the IPL 2009 title. Wasn’t suprising about the RCB to try Manish at the top and take a risk . Kumble is a hppy man after the first Indian to hit a ton in T20.

Deccan Chargers: One of the no-hopers of IPL 2008 surprised everyone this DLF IPL 2009 season. Change in captaincy changed the way it played and they are now a team with electrifying charge and spirit under Adam Gilchrist Symonds joining late still proved that he can add immense value to the team. There are again West Indies’ Dwayne Smith and Fidel Edwards. Pragyan Ojha is a new found and is performing very well.

Teams with nerves of steel will win from here on and I take a stand that it will be a close finish between the predicted finalists Delhi and Chennai. But I will put my money on Chennai guys. What say folks . If you consider yoruself a cric buff and that you have invested enough time from home and office over the last one month, put in a one liner comment to predict the winners.

It's not all over now ..

2009-05-19T15:42:00.001-04:00

Dhoni says “…. we witnessed some of the worst bowling in the IPL..”as the Super Kings lost to the Knight Riders. Infact Kolkata actually won! McCullum fired 12 games too late, he certainly salvaged some pride for his team. Dhoni’s outburst was probably targeted at Balaji and to some extent at Morkel. They actually did bowl leaving their brains in warmer conditions, bowled and fielded with cold hearts and hands, no desire to win. I still wouldn’t panic though, CSK is more than likely through to the semi-finals. This game, however, showed the sharp contrasts in talent and intelligence that captures this side. Dhoni’s presence of mind in standing ground to ensure he retained strike after Raina was caught, his moving to the outfield to lend some speed to the fielding unit, Murali’s brilliant spell and Raina amazing batting were examples of sheer brilliance. Badrinath’s poor fielding, Balaji’s stroll in the park (Morrison’s calls this village cricket), Jacob Oram’s clueless presence on the field were the contrasts.
Dhoni calls his a safe side without any exceptional talent. He is probably true. They are batting heavy and miss a strike bowler to support Murali. They should seriously consider looking out for some pacemen for IPL 3 and onward. I also feel that they still do not have the right team on the field. They should consider playing Ntini instead of Oram in the next game, bring in Gony for Balaji and bring Vijay back for Parthiv Patel. It will take a herculean effort for Chennai to outplay the Daredevils to contemplate winning IPL 2.
Lost favorites , Mumbai Indians, were quite disappointing towards then end. They blew several opportunities to move to the next stage of the tournament, thanks to inexperience, some strange captaincy, and constant changes to the team. They did miss Zaheer Khan sorely in the final games and Jayasurya hasn’t fired at all in the tournament. They should consider trying to acquire Rohit Sharma, somehow, and strengthen their middle order. This would allow Tendulkar to go back to the top of the order, reduce the dependence on Duminy and Nayar, and bring an added spinning option.
At the end of it all, three of 4 teams from IPL-1 should make it through to this year’s semi-finals also. Deccan Chargers seem most likely to replace the Royals as the 4th team. It should be an interesting finale to the IPL-2.

Fake Player Real Issues

2009-05-16T22:15:00.001-04:00

The Fake IPL Player’s blog is great fun. Each post gets tonnes of (deserving) comments. Whoever is behind this blog has hit upon a brilliant idea
Take this .. About John Buchanan, he writes: "I think he wants to send his laptop in to bat the next time, given the amount of time he spends with it. Maybe if he spent half that time with us players, we may win a match or two"
He reserves the most acerbic comments for Appam Sreesanth: "Appam has this uncanny ability to piss off anyone who’s unfortunate enough to come within 2 kms of him."
How popular is the FIP ?
So far, 41,502 people have voted on the fake IPL player blog(Fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com), to determine whether the anonymous blogger, purportedly a member of Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team, should disclose his identity. Needless to say, 64% of the voters feel he should stand by his word and disclose his identity at the end of the popular Twenty20 cricket tournament.
The blog, which has been offering visitors dressing room gossip, occasionally peppered with interesting accounts of life in the KKR team, has taken the online world by storm since it was launched on 18 April. The blogger’s inclusiveness and pointed irreverence certainly are selling points among cricket buffs who rarely have the insider’s view on what is considered a gentleman’s game.Firms are now paying attention to blogs, using them as an informal network to get the opinion of customers

Why is he a runaway sellout ?
Let’s face it, we as a society love our reality shows and love gossip…we’ve never had access to gossip on cricket and the blog is catering to that need. While much of the content on the blog could be classified as fiction, it was something that readers could relate to, much like the book The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan, which tells the story of an advertising executive who is regarded as a good luck charm by the Indian cricket team. Even Times of India tried to encash teh popularity by runnng a column saying “Here you get to hear from the ‘Real IPL players’,” it read.

The Fake IPL player blog had at its peak, on 26 April, 150,000 visitors, who each spent 15 minutes on the site—which adds up to about 37,000 hours spent on the blog in one day. Putting it up there with popular individual led blogs such as Aamir Khan’s blog at its peak with about 170,000 visitors. Much of the interest in the fake IPL blog has stemmed from cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore, even though the blogger apparently belongs to the Kolkata team.

Why is he spitting venom ?
Well the whole idea of a negative blog is to say: you have a right to your own opinion. The last time it happened in India involved Barkha Dutt of NDTV . The media company took a blogger to court for criticizing Barkha Dutt on her coverage of the terror attacks in Mumbai, and won. Internationally, Domino’s Pizza Inc. faced a lot of flak after a video on YouTube showed an employee preparing a food order with cheese he had put up his nose. The company failed to act in time, losing a crucial opportunity to contain the crisis.

While both the management of IPL as well as KKR have tried to maintain a silence on the fake IPL player blog, its growing popularity is likely to a definite impact on the brand KKR and their sponsors. In this tough competetive times all publicity is good publicity; specially these economically challenging days, when notoriety is also aspired for however, at times, when negative publicity is relentlessly targeted at a certain individual or a brand; that too by a nameless, faceless Internet entity, then it can have very serious implications. In this case, it generates mistrust among teammates thereby causing a rift in the team and to continue to be happy with the association despite the fact that the team hasn’t fared too well would definitely be tough .

My two cents...
My bet is on this concept being the brain child of some media manager or PR expert from the team. Good to see non-traditional media being used to create excitement around the event. What say friends ?

Why would you remember IPL 2009 .

2009-05-15T17:06:00.000-04:00

Think about it .. there has been so much in so little a time that the mind at times takes a sigh . Multi captain theory ,Dada – no dada , Fake IPL player , security concerns moving making IPL Internatinal Premier League,Strategic breaks , Million dollar english sand babies flopping . first ball goldern ducks , beer sipping fielders and McGrath sitting out . Fixing scandals and Miandad’s “joke” All this and more makes me think if it is a “league”

The Indian Premier League 2009 was in troubled waters even before its start, when the Government of India had refused to provide security to the extravagant tournament due to its clash of dates with the General Elections.

There was anger all over with rumours about the second edition being scrapped due to security issues. But before something unfortunate happened, Cricket South Africa came to the rescue of the tournament and its fans. Political parties making hay terming it as a “national shame ”. However the first edition was a winner hands down! It had the perfect start with a mammoth 158 flowing out of Brendon McCullum’s bat in the very first match. And there was a dream ending too – a mighty close encounter between eventual champions Rajasthan Royals and MS Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings. No one, in their wildest dreams would have thought that the de-glam squad of Rajasthan would lay their hands on the gorgeous trophy.

Things haven’t changed much even now in the sense that there still prevails uncertainty in the extravagantly lucrative tournament. The 2009 edition has been full of surprises so far and there have been incidents that have left a bitter taste in the mouth of fans forcing them to draw comparisons with IPL 2008. Let us have a look at a few mis-hits of the second edition.

Kolkata Flight Riders

No one expected Kolkata Knight Riders to take the exit route even before half the number of games in the competition was played. No ‘build up’ to the series, no PR activities, no advertisements and no star power worked. No one Korbo-ed anything, so the lorbo and jeetbo part remained out of the question, completely. And yes, the over hyped ‘Multiple Captains Theory’ did not work, or better, was a blunder.

Depriving Ganguly of captaincy, calling in Sanjay Bangar and keeping the expensive Mashrafe bin Mortaza to warm the benches in the cool Kingsmead were only a couple of the innumerable mistakes that the SRK owned team committed. Keeping one of the most successful captains of international cricket away from the helm of all action is something that no management in proper mental sanity would do. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan had once said on national television that Sourav Ganguly would remain the captain till the time he owns KKR. Talk about a change of heart…Bollywood style!!

Strategic Time-Out

This one is a complete torture, honestly. Seven and a half minutes of stoppage time after 10 overs in every innings takes away the seriousness and the set mood of the viewers. Such a long break in a micro format is absolutely not required. It is not good for the spectators and not even for the players. It has already received flak from all corners of the cricketing fraternity and the irritation is spreading big time amongst its audience.

The strategy break might work in favour of either team in the match. The break gives both the teams to analyze their progress in the match and change their approach if required. The gap breaks the concentration of the batsman and as we have seen, in almost every match, there has been a wicket or two falling in the 11th over of the game. The strategic time out might work for the team that has been on the backfoot as they get the time to resurrect their plans while it might put brakes on the team going all guns blazing.

The main objective, however, is to generate revenue. Seven and a half minutes of break gives the IPL generate ample revenue from its advertisers, twice in a match. Lalit Modi, the chairman and commissioner of the IPL, has said that it will definitely be a part of the ongoing season. As of next year, it will be decided after the tournament.

Competitive Pitches, Dropped Catches

First ball ducks and wickets in the 11th over (thanks to the strategic break) have become a common sight in the latest edition of the IPL. There are bets being laid on first ball ducks and inning scores of less than 150. Being a T20 game, the spectators expect a cracker of a match with runs flowing out of the blade like water from a broken dam. They do not want to see wickets at regular intervals and scores of 120-140 being chased for victory.

The 20 over format has, more often than not, been a high scoring format and that is what is expected out of it. We want to see the bowlers being thrashed and bashed out of the park. Ironically, this IPL has seen only one score of over 200 in all.

Catches are dropped more than they are taken. Run-out opportunities missed in a fashion that can be related to gully cricket, or even worse. Till the 33rd match of the IPL (Rajasthan v Bangalore), 55 catches had been dropped, with Kolkata (ahem, ahem) leading the table.

Flop Shows
Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff…whew…! Big names, small show. The above are only a few to name. The English duo of KP and Freddie were the most expensive catches at 7.5 crores each, but neither could do much for their respective teams, and now, have returned with their hefty pay packets to their homeland to play West Indies.

Delhi Daredevils captain Sehwag and his deputy, Gambhir, are known to be tailor-made for the 20 over format. Fearless hitting is their characteristic, bludgeoning the opposition, their charisma. But both have failed to give their team a rock solid quick start. Thanks to the middle order suspension, they have sustained the top order shocks and scares comfortably. Gambhir, however, looked like getting back to his best when he won the Man of the Match award for his 71 off 57 balls versus KKR (31st match).

Brendon McCullum’s stint in IPL can only be remembered by his 158 n.o in the very first match of the IPL in 2008 - a perfect start that a tournament like the Indian Premier League could get. Nothing could have been better. Chris Gayle set the stage ablaze with a scintillating century in the first match of the T20 World Cup in 2007, but it seems like someone has poured a bucket of water on his fiery blade in the IPL.

With the bigwigs (in context to both names and age) like Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Matt Hayden, Dravid, Adam Gilchrist and Gibbs performing well, it would be great if the rulers of the format come to the fore and take the series to a different altitude altogether.

DLF Maximum or CITI Moment of Success?

Is it all about money honey? Yes it is. IPL is all about money, money and more money. Millions of dollars to buy players, hefty advertising costs, security budget etc. It’s raining cash in IPL.

The latest addition is the renaming of a SIX. It is now known as the ‘DLF Maximum’. A crucial wicket is called a ‘Citi Moment of Success’. Gone are the days when commentators spoke just for the love of the game. Sadly, it is just about the commercial proliferation and we get capitalist fabricated emotions to hear when an exciting moment comes in a game. Needless to say, it takes away the beauty of the effort and leaves us with an incomplete feeling. But as they say, ‘In Rome, do as the Romans do’, we must also take a cue and leave the poor commentators do their ‘job’ of making their sponsors happy and keep the money flowing.

Australian Rajasthani for Beer

Hopefully, you readers know what is being talked about here. Yes, it is the ‘sip of beer’ on the boundary lines by none other than the very cool and mischievous, the Australian Rajasthani, Shane Warne in the match against the Royal challengers Bangalore.

The spin legend was captured on camera gulping a mouthful of beer from a mug that was supposedly offered to him by a spectator. Now if that is something to be angry over, be amused or just enjoy the video, is up to the viewers to decide.

Match Fixing in the IPL

2009-05-14T19:38:00.001-04:00

Did the Kolkata Knight Riders deliberately lose their IPL match against the Bangalore Royal Challengers?

The Knight Riders scored 173. Till the 15th over of the Bangalore innings, Kolkata looked set to win. Then, it all fell apart.

Someone has brought to Modi's attention that the match might have been fixed, while the BCC! has brought to my attention that the match might have been fixed.

The amusing thing is that the reason explained in this article, for the match being potentially fixed, is that Brad Hodge was not playing and was sitting in one of the hospitality boxes.

What connection exactly does sitting in a hospitality box and match fixing have?

And while they're at it, i.e. investigating match fixing in the IPL, maybe they should pay some attention to last night's match as well - the one that Deccan Chargers lost to the Delhi Daredevils.

Well if scoring 52 runs of the final 4 overs to win a match cannot be achieved without some match fixing, then how can 7 wickets for 12 runs be?

And why stop there?

Investigate today's match as well.

Because it looked like some players of the Royal Challengers Bangalore had fixed the match and wanted to lose it.

While some of them pulled a Rashid Latif and snatched a victory from the Chennai Super Kings.

Go on, give the ACU, or whoever the anti-corruption lot are at the IPL, something to do.

Match Fixing in the IPL

2009-05-14T19:38:00.000-04:00

What the IPL T20 taught me about investing?

2009-05-14T07:42:00.001-04:00

Cricket is often a great metaphor for life. And we like this newest format of the game, T20, because it can teach us a lot about how to manage our investments. Here are 10 things we have learned from the IPL about investing.
Start early: T20 does not reward late starters - teams must start putting runs early in their innings. Otherwise, it can get to late and the batsmen are always playing catch up. Similarly, we must also start investing and saving early. This allows us to benefit from compounding of capital, as well as allows us to "keep the scoreboard ticking" in order to move closer to our goals. Additionally, we have seen how batting sides take advantage of fielding restrictions early in the innings. Similarly, early in our innings during our youth we must also take advantage of the freedom to do things that we might not be able to later in life. One of these freedoms is to start building our financial resources when we have very few other financial obligations
Risk and Reward tradeoff: T20 is all about taking high risks and ensuring that the team gets rewarded for it - whether its aggressive opening batsmen, or field placing or taking risks in trying out new bowlers. Similarly, finance is all about risk and reward. One must understand that one cannot get very high returns without taking on risk, just like a batsman faces the risk of being caught at the boundary if he is trying to hit a six. We should not be surprised if we get out trying to reach for extraordinarily high returns on our investments because these are of the most risky kind. Also, just like not every ball can be hit for a boundary, not every investment will turn out to be a goldmine. Sometimes singles are equally important
Be ready for the unexpected: In case of rain or weather related delays, the Duckworth-Lewis method gets used and can lead to unexpected outcomes that might be highly unfavourable to one of the teams. The only way out is to have already got enough runs on the scoresheet. Similarly, our investments must also always be ready to deal with unexpected situations that life might throw at us. We must have enough of a margin of safety to be able to protect ourselves against the proverbial rainy days
Strategic break: Teams take a strategic break to review their progress and plan for the remaining overs. Similarly, as individuals we too must do the same. Unless we regularly review how well our finances our doing and how we must tackle the challenges that the future will throw our way, we might not end up meeting our targets
Balance: Just like a T20 teams needs the right balance of big hitters, anchors and effective bowlers, our investment portfolio also needs the right balance of investments. Too much of growth or aggressive funds, without adequate support or backup, might end up with too much imbalance that can hurt us. We must recognize that our investments should be diversified across sectors and different assets, and not be concentrated in any one area
One bad over: One bad over can change the direction of a game and can often make it difficult to recover if a team does not have enough runs on the board (if you are batting) or enough wickets already (if you are bowling). Sometimes in life one also goes through a "bad over" which could take the form of a job loss, or serious injury or illness. If we do not have an adequate safety net then our personal financial situation can be beyond repair
Consistency gets rewarded: The Purple cap or Orange cap are given to the best performing bowler or batsman respectively. To win these awards, a player needs to consistently be a good performer. We too must strive to get this Purple or Orange cap when it comes to our personal finances. What matters most is that we have consistent performance over a long period of time. There is no point in investing in a fund that is really hot in one year, but a poor performer at all other times
Coaching helps: Whether its a team coach or a specialist bowling or fielding coach, T20 has shown us that some guidance and direction, especially an objective view from the outside, can help in improving a team's performance and meetings a team's goals. Similarly, our investments can also benefit from some guidance and expertise, especially to get a check on whether we are doing the right things and not making careless mistakes that might hurt us later on in life
Distractions can be entertaining but ultimately the score matters: T20 is highly entertaining not only on the pitch but also because of all the music and dancing. But, ultimately a team wins or loses on the back of the score that it has made. Similarly, in investing distractions like the hottest investments or the flavours of the month will come and go, but what matters the most is that our "investment scorecard" shows a healthy average. We must focus on what matters and ignore the distractions
Winning attitude: The IPL has shown that even young players with lesser talent or resources than the great cricketers can do well if they bring the right attitude to the pitch. Similarly, investing is not just about being rich or already having lots of money. We can start with few resources and little experience but over time make a fortune for ourselves through a positive attitude and willingness to learn from our mistakes. We should not get disheartened if one of our investments has lost money. Just like a young cricketer who believes in himself, we should believe in what we have invested in and stick it out. If we have put in the right kind of preparation, we will also come out the winner over the long run

What the IPL T20 taught me about investing?

2009-05-14T07:42:00.000-04:00

Twinkle Twinkle Little stars in IPL 2

2009-05-10T18:58:00.001-04:00

As they say in cricket, or in any other game, you need more players with character than with just talent. Talent may ‘deceive’ you in tricky situations, but players with character will raise the bar in difficult times and win you more matches under pressure.

Before the inaugural edition of IPL, no one knew Yusuf Pathan or Ravindra Jadeja. They were, at that time, raw materials which needed complete support from seniors, so that they could believe in their abilities and play their natural game.

Here are some of the lesser known stars who have shone in the limelight making me believe that league churn out the best talent available in a vast country like India .
Left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati was the unlikely hero for Chennai Super Kings in their crucial Indian Premier League game against Delhi Daredevils at the Wanderers Stadium on Saturday. He claimed four wickets to help Super Kings register an 18-run win.

The 28-year-old Goa player struck two vital blows to tilt the match in his team's favour as Daredevils' David Warner and Dinesh Karthik threatened to take the game away from Super Kings. Jakati broke the rollicking 74-run partnership by having Warner stumped for 51 on the fifth ball of the 15th over. Thereafter, he removed the hard-hitting Karthik to reduce Daredevils to 132 for six.

Jakati took four wickets for 24 runs, which also included wickets of T Dilshan and Pradeep Sangwan to walk away with the Man of the Match award.

Abhishek Nayar is a Mumbai Indian player , a left-handed batsman known for his long-standing and hard-hitting capabilities, and he is also a medium-paced bowler. Abhishek Nayar has a unique batting style and his ability to bat at any position of the batting has helped his team enormously. The anonymous, inexpensive Abhishek Nayar can smite Andrew Flintoff, the most expensive IPL player, for three sixers in one over.

That character was shown by another young man from lowly Madhya Pradesh, Naman Ojha. Though he has scored aplenty in the domestic circuit, IPL has proved to be a completely new arena for him.
He failed in his debut match against Delhi Daredevils, scoring a golden duck. Any other captain might have dropped the rookie after that match. But Warne saw in him a champion match-winner, and the seeds of his wisdom germinated in the very next match, when coming as an opener Ojha surprised one and all by smashing 68 against Kings XI Punjab and forging a 135-run opening stand with Graeme Smith. He provided an encore with another fifty in the next match to steer his team to victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers.

The name list could be endless . some are taking their chances while some are not that lucky this time but all I can say that they are all headed in the right direction . However strong might be the halo of the foreign players but their representation cannot be effective without the support of local talent . had it not been for Raina , CSK would not be topping the charts just due to Hayden . AB De Villiers continues to impress .. some day it is the local SA knowledge of conditions but that wouldn't have been possible without the bowlers Mishra and some local talent support . Hail IPL .. churn out hard and good .

Sreesanth "Overrated" : Hayden

2009-05-10T12:37:00.001-04:00

"I think he is an overrated bowler and so I think he was a great target for us to go at. He always loses his cool under pressure and I think tonight was a good example of that,"

In yet another cricket controversy for the DLF IPL 2009, we now have Australian Matthew Hayden calling Sreesanth an overrated bowler. Sreesanth went for a lot of runs when he was bowling to Hayden. When he finally got the big Aussie out by getting him caught at the personal score of 89, Hayden did not take kindly to the words that Sreesanth addressed to him as he walked back to the pavilion.

Matthew Hayden specializes in using choice epithets for some of the hapless bowlers that have the misfortune of bowling and he reserves the choicest ones for Indian bowlers: about a year ago Hayden’s comments about Harbhajan Singh were much in the cricket news, when India was touring Australia. Readers will recall it was a particularly acrimonious tour with allegations of racial slurs and counter allegations of name calling.

At that time, Hayden had very famously called Harbhajan an obnoxious little weed. “It’s been a bit of a long battle with Harbhajan, the first time I ever met him he was the same little obnoxious weed that he is now”, Hayden had said on Brisbane radio. Then there was also the allegation that he called Bhajji a ‘mad boy’ which he countered by saying that he said ‘bad’ not ‘mad’ which Bhajji should be “flattered” by since it was a clothing range.

Hayden had also famously referred to Ishant Sharma as a “stringbean paceman” and had expressed the desire to meet him in the boxing ring. “At the end of the day you are 19, why don’t you just worry about your bowling for a while,” Hayden was reported in the cricket news as having told Sharma

This latest cricket controversy also is caused by the wonderful compliments that Hayden seems to reserve for Indian bowlers who seem to get under his hide with shocking regularity. So when Hayden was in full flow and was stopped in his tracks at 89 by Sreesanth, the bowler seemed rather overwhelmed and as he often does, he overreacted. He hurled some abuse or harsh words at Hayden, and Hayden then responded with his withering scorn, the contempt that he keeps especially for Indian bowlers.

As for Sreesanth, this is far from his first run in with cricket controversy. Readers will remember last year’s IPL which saw Sree in floods of tears because Harbhajan Singh allegedly slapped him. This is just the sort of thing that Indian players need to avoid, such a display of childish immaturity. When our chaps behave like this, can you really blame Hayden for taking pot shots at them!

Fake IPL Player finally revealing identity ?

2009-05-08T19:23:00.001-04:00

At a time when cricket-lovers across the world are excited about the Indian Premier League matches held at South Africa, a blogger has been giving a headache to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team.

www.fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com, where inside stories of the Knight Riders team and the tussle between players and the coach are aired on a daily basis, has been one of the major hits online these days.

The blogs have been appearing for two weeks now under the name IPL Anonymous and are believed to be posted by a player of the Riders team. The blog has become so popular that in this short span of time it has earned 5644 followers! The blog has mentions about almost everyone in the KKR team and players from other IPL teams. While Knight Riders team owner Shah Rukh Khan is called Winnie Dildo, former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly is Lord Almighty, David Hussey is 'Chikna Pussy' and coach John Buchanan is ‘Bhookha Naan.’ Even local boy Sreesanth has found a prominent place in the satirical writing.

Irritated by the blog posts where the inside stories of the team are aired openly, the team management blocked laptops inside the dressing rooms. Interestingly, fakeiplplayer has been reporting the events even after the team management took all precautionary measures.

What’s more? He keeps posting even about the tactics of the officials in their efforts to trace him! It goes like this.

“Since the posts have been coming out, guys are making their own small groups and going out to places without informing others. No one wants Fake IPL Player to land up there and broadcast their nefarious activities to the whole world. In fact, the blog has affected the nocturnal lives of IPLers in more ways than one would have expected. Teams are now trying to find out beforehand where our team is headed after the match to ensure that they don’t land up at the same place”. The tremendous response to the blog is visible with the number of comments it receives for each post.

While the first one itself has about 150 comments, the last post ‘Bye Calypso. Thanks for entertaining us’ has received 458 comments so far. The blog posts generate a feeling that the author could be one of the Indian players in the team or someone closely associated with an Indian player.

However fakeiplplayer has decided to make his identity known after the South Africa IPL.

He has given a couple of footnotes at the end of his last post on April 30. Here go those footnotes.

“P.S. I think some website’s been advertising that I am appearing for a live chat. That’s not true. Under the circumstances I can’t live chat at all and nobody knows who I am.”

“P.P.S. Some people are replying to comments posing as IPL Anonymous. It’s not me.

I haven’t participated in the comments section.

Pls don’t believe the guy posing as me.”

“P.P.P.S. I have heard that Dildo’s PR team has decided to degrade this blog by posting malicious and critical comments and also by spamming in the comments section. If only this energy was seen in building the team.”

“P.P.P.P.S. The focus has shifted to the Support Staff. The management is now convinced that the Fake IPL Player is not a player but a support staff member. Let’s see where this trail takes them.”

“P.P.P.P.P.S. I have decided to retire from all forms of cricket after IPL. I will disclose my identity on our last match day.” Anyway, as fakeiplplayer himself points out in his post ‘Battle of the losers,’ it’s going to be a highly memorable trip for team Knight Riders.

“It was a short and sweet trip to Port Elizabeth.

We went in, we got ******, and we came out. Pretty simple and a highly memorable trip indeed.”

Krazzy Kiya Re..cricket wipes out recession

2009-05-06T23:21:00.001-04:00

With 250 days of cricket in the year, and soaring ratings, this has become the surest way to draw in advertisers.

Cricket may be the game of glorious uncertainties, but as far as the advertising industry is concerned, it seems to be the game of glorious certainties. With crowds continuing to flock in to watch the second season of IPL, to their TV sets if not to the stadiums in far-away South Africa, advertising for cricket continues to pick up in sharp contrast to other advertising which is falling. Believe it or not, the stage is even set for a hike in ad-rates for cricket-related shows, again something unheard of at a time when all media are discounting ad-rates for even the best of their shows. And yes, saas-bahu serials are passé, as are talent contests. For the last 18 days and the another 232 days during the year, the only thing you’re going to hear advertisers talk of is cricket shows/properties: Last ball ka captain, Kaun dega prize, Connect with your stars, Meal khao South Africa jaao, and so on.

According to media-planners, with 250 days of cricket on television this year, the share of cricket-related advertising is likely to double. After the IPL, there’s the Twenty-20 World Cup in London and then the Champions Trophy — all told, these big tournaments will ensure cricket grabs around a fifth or more of the television advertising pie of Rs 8,000-odd crore. That’s virtually double the proportion from last year when, of the Rs 7,200-crore advertisements, around Rs 700 crore were cricket-related. In 2007, when IPL wasn’t around, the figure was around 7 per cent of a total advertising of around Rs 6,500 crore on television.

Apart from the huge reach cricket has — viewership for the 21st to the 24th matches in South Africa exceeded 155 million as compared to 129 million in the same season last year. No other programme has anywhere near the same reach. And, given the time taken for each match, and the total inventory of prime-time space that cricket offers, it’s not surprising cricket is a natural winner — the 59-match IPL-2, for instance, has 100-120 prime-time slots of 30 seconds each on a daily basis as compared to around 70-80 in the top five or six general entertainment channels. That is, cricket accounts for around 60 per cent of the daily prime-time spots available during the season.

As for the length of the season, it’s gone up from around 150-175 days in a year, three years ago, to around 250 days now. Two years ago there was no IPL or 36 days of cricket in a year, three years ago there was no Twenty-20 World Cup. And since the Champions Trophy was postponed in 2008, this has added to the overall inventory in 2009.

Which is why telecom giants Airtel and Vodafone, consumer electronics’ majors Samsung and LG, and beverage rivals CocaCola and Pepsi are jostling for IPL-space on TV. How hard the jostling is can be seen from the fact that about 80 per cent of the IPL TV-inventory was booked by the big boys of the business before the tournament began. Indeed, even companies that were not into cricket advertising — electric switch manufacturing firm Havells, for instance, has just started advertising on cricket and plans to spend Rs 25 crore this year on IPL TV-advertising.

According to the TAM ratings for the week ending April 25, six of the top 10 shows were all IPL matches, with ratings ranging from 3.96 to 4.91 — the closest the general entertainment programmes got was 3.94. During this period, the channel with the highest TV Viewership Ratings (TVRs) across all TV-homes was SET Max which airs the IPL matches. According to aMap, another TV-rating, the total number of viewers watching IPL-2 is up by 21 per cent as compared to IPL-1. Not surprisingly, SET Max has already made Rs 400 crore from IPL advertising; and though the tournament will be a lot shorter, ESPN Star Sports hopes to make around Rs 250 crore from the Twenty20 World Cup in June.

The big question is where does cricket-advertising go from here? It seems difficult to see how more than 250 days of cricket can be achieved, especially since monopolists like the BCCI are squeezing rivals like the Indian Cricket League out of existence. The fact that IPL’s organizers chose to take the tournament abroad when the government said the security needs of the elections would not allow it to provide similar cover for IPL is a sign of just how full the cricket calendar is — had the organizers kept IPL in India, the earliest it could have had the tournament was in the next season thanks to the conflicting calendars of top cricketers.

By Surajeet Das Gupta: 20:20 ways to beat the slowdown

Zoo Zoos -- A must watch

2009-05-05T13:22:00.001-04:00

Check it out!

Some might be wondering what does teh areticle on advertising to do with Cricket. Well dear friends , it has a remote connection .I love the simplicity and creative appeal these ads have. Its a great idea to use humans as animated characters.
There are a series of commercial ads rangind from 25 to 35 seconds which I would archive shortly for you to injoy .

ZooZoos are the most entertaining and intelligent things on TV. Or so we thought until we learnt they’re not things at all but thin, young people transformed into TV commercials for Vodafone. Well, they could and have fooled us. Anyone who thinks those flat, white, elastic creatures without a bone or curve in their bodies are human, hasn’t seen the male or female form, lately.

Not that it matters. We love ‘em. So much so, we wish they would replace IPL (where the ads appear most often) as the main attraction. Zoozoos are inventive, unexpected; most IPL matches are predictable. We don’t know what zoozoos will do next; we’ve seen what’s happening most often in IPL. The team batting first has struggled but manfully put up a woefully low score so we switch channels only to be lured back by the sight of half of the team batting second being out halfway through and the last over deciding the match when, as commentators say, “We have a match on our hands”.
Vodafone international roaming ad uses words which are basically Kerala dishes - 1. Parota (Similar to Chapatis made from Maida) 2. Puttu Kadala (Rice cakes with chana) 3. Kappa meen (Fish and tapioca)

ENG Vs WI Series

2009-05-04T15:01:00.001-04:00

So we are just one day away from the first test between England, and the team from Caribbean at Lords. To start with it will be interesting to see how the windies will adapt to the conditions in England and I have to say that till now they have not come out with good performances in the warm up games.

Windies have been further hampered by Gayle joining the team late as he wanted to play one more IPL game! well being the captain of your national team it does not look good.

As far as selection issues are concerned they are probably still debating on who will be the third seamer and in the race are Richardson, Baker, and Sammy and for the all rounder slot Bernard will likely fit in.

For England as we know that it will be the first game for Flower as a permanent coach and he would like to start on a good note. As far as the team is concerned it looks straightforward what with Panesar likely to miss out and Bresnan as well as Onions getting their first chance in tests. I am actually impressed by Onions as he can generate good pace from a short run up and gets late swing also he is reasonably accurate.

I do think that England are the favourites as the Windies team do not look well prepared. For England I expect Anderson to be the key as if there any swing he will trouble the top order. Strauss is in good form and of course KP is also there. It would be interesting to see how Bopara will play at 3 which has become the problem area for England.

For them their openers namely Gayle, and Simmons have to fire but Simmons's habit of closing his face off the bat and Gayle being struck in the crease early on may mean that if there is some movement bowlers like Anderson can trouble them but if they do get a good start then the strong middle order can come into play, of course both Edwards, and Taylor have to fire with the ball too.

Dance pe chance .. if no chance with KKR

2009-05-01T18:01:00.001-04:00

Shahrukh Khan has found an alternative way to earn money. After his team’s dismal performance at the IPL, SRK is back home not only for voting but another reason which brings him back to India is the wedding of builder Kanti Govani’s nephew. Shahrukh Khan has been paid a whopping amount of 3 crores to perform at the wedding.

As Shahrukh failed to earn profit through IPL, to compensate the loss he went to shake his legs. SRK never denied that he loves his fame, popularity and of course money and if not though acting, he went ahead to earn some big bucks through his dancing skill.

Along with him, Rani Mukherjee, Emraan Hashmi, and Bipasha Basu will also be performing at the wedding ceremony. Neil Nitin Mukesh, Celina Jaitley and Neha Dhupia will all be part of the Sangeet ceremony. The wedding cards have been printed and names of the performers are mentioned. The actors will dance and also perform some stunts to entertain the guests.

'Korbo Lorbo Haarbo '

2009-04-22T15:34:00.001-04:00

"I get a lot of hate mail which blame me for all the decisions taken within Kolkata Knight Riders. I've saved them and I want to go around to all the houses and say 'Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo' ... suck on this."

Dreams unlimited for Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, for season two of the IPL

True Lies

2009-04-22T13:20:00.001-04:00

FAKE IPL PLAYER The big one, the story that has been rocking the already fragile KKR boat - the Fake IPL Player's blog. Most informed opinion has it that this guy is either

a) part of the KKR team/backroom staff

b) a journalist who's traveled/is traveling, covering international cricket

c) a well-informed fan who has used his observation and native wit to good effect.

However, here at the 'Not-Quite-Cricket-Corner' we have some 'Not-Quite-Believable' options for you to consider -

1.) Sourav Ganguly - the deposed skipper has the knowledge, the language and the correct amount of disregard for people he doesn't care about, to pull off this stunt. Could be him, or a proxy writing for him.

2.) Shah Rukh Khan - This is another marketing gimmick thought up by SRK's razor sharp business brain. He knows that with the team he has, it is nigh impossible to actually win the IPL or even reach the semi-finals, hence he has to create interest in the team in some other way. If we find 'I'm the Real Fake IPL Player' t-shirts, mugs and key-chains then this theory would gain more credence.

3.) John Buchanan - he knows he's stuffed up big time. His reputation as the 'super coach' is being taken to the cleaners. The solution is to drag the reputations of the players down with him. If this is true, then the man who claims to 'think out of the box' would do well to stay out of the box too - the players' box that is. Permanently.

4.)Jai Mehta - do I hear you say Jai who? Well, he is Juhi Chawla's husband, co-owner of the Knight Riders. Resentful of the way Shah Rukh and to a lesser extent Juhi are hogging the spotlight as owners of the team, this is his way of getting back at them. No doubt he hopes that the Jai Who questions will turn into chants of Jai Ho.

Who is the "Fake IPL Player" afterall ?

2009-04-21T22:18:00.001-04:00

For SRK’s Kolkata Knight Rider’s, things seem to be going from bad to worse. Since the talk began about IPL season 2, KKR was the one which was the most talked about team, partly because of SRK and hugely because of its Controversies, the multiple captaincy strategy. Finally the multiple captaincy idea was put aside making Brendon McCullum as the single captain of the team. Just when things were seemed to be settled in KKR and time has come to prove their popularity on the field, enter’s the so claimed Fake IPL Player.

He claims to be from the Kolkata Knight rider’s team and makes some witty remarks on Sourav Ganguly. Writing a post on April 19 after the team meeting, he described Ganguly as ‘Lord Almighty’ and said that his [edited] experience would be used in the middle order.

He says

“Just out of the team meeting held in the Coach’s suite. Skipper did most of the talking. He is opening with the Calypso King. Lord Almighty is at No. 3. Some [edited] about using his experience to guide the middle order, similar to what the other 2 of the troika did yesterday. Lord sat there straight faced. Didn’t say much. Didn’t smile at all. I was standing at one corner straight across the Lord. And given my height and stature I can go quite unnoticed. I was observing the Lord carefully, each twitch of his eyes, every movement of his thumb, his gaze. He is very unhappy and uncomfortable. Being treated like this in front of his bachchas“.

Though the authenticity of him being a player in KKR is questionable, the facts which he posts in his blog seems to be true.

People suspect that it might be Akash Chopra but in yesterdays blog post, he said that his name was not in the playing XI against Kings XI Punjab to be played on Tuesday.

Is this a publicity stunt by an anonymous ambitious blogger?

All in all, who is the man behind the blog remains a mystery. Probably, SRK, the DON should enter the scene now and say some dialogues.

When Obama met Lara

2009-04-21T15:46:00.001-04:00

It was a meeting of the titans.

And those who witnessed it were fortunate as it is unlikely to happen again.

West Indies [Images] legend Brian Lara [Images] was seen giving Barack Obama [Images] a free batting lesson at the newly re-named Obama Terrace, Hilton Trinidad, St Ann's, on Sunday.

The world record holder also presented the United States President an autographed cricket bat, which read: "To the President of the United States, Barack Obama, in appreciation of your visit to T&T �Best Wishes" .

Obama was in Trinidad for the Fifth Summit of the Americas and happened to meet Lara and share a few laughs besides posing for the shutterbugs.

Obama seemed keen to know more about cricket and the West Indies legend showed him the proper batting stance and gave a few tips regarding the forward defensive stroke as well as the classic cover drive.

Later, Lara revealed it was on the invitation of the White House that he met with Obama and that it was a great honour.

The latter on his part described Lara as the Michael Jordan of cricket.

"I always wanted to meet the Michael Jordan of cricket," is how president Obama apparently greeted Lara.

The batting great was also impressed with Obama's personality.

Candid Camera

2009-04-19T22:57:00.001-04:00

South Africa is full of wild animals. I saw this particular creature while I was on a South African safari. For some strange reason it was holding a mic and saying ‘extraaaaaaaa innings’. It looked like it was in heat.

Wives of Delhi Daredevils players Sehwag, Mendes and Nehra cheer up during the IPL T20 match in Durban.

Sachin Tendulkar lifts candles off a cake at a surprise birthday party in Durban. Tendulkar celebrated his 36th birthday with friends and teammates in South Africa during the Indian Premier League. (AFP Photo)

When Harry met Sally ?

Amazing Videos

2009-04-16T13:21:00.001-04:00

Amazing Save by Angelo Matthews from SL

IPL Cheerleaders

2009-04-12T02:50:00.000-04:00