Today's Stories

Andy Flower – Batsman/Keeper – England ?
After yet another disappointing and listless performance by Geraint Jones with the bat and despite his improved keeping, the calls are getting louder by the day for his ouster. So who will replace him? Well Chris Read is the local favorite, there are a couple of new names that I haven’t even heard of – but one name I have heard of is Andy Flower. Now he has almost qualified to play for England hasn’t he? Surely, if merit be the sole criterion, once he qualifies he should be a serious contender even at this age given the class of the man.

471 runs – Sangakarra Jayawardene
The old firm is at it again. A record 3rd wicket unbeaten partnership. One shudders to think where they will end up. With 3 whole days left, the World Record is definitely not an impossibility.

Today's Stories

Prem Panicker talks about the foolishness of rushing back Sachin. I tend to agree, then again, we did have problems with our batting in the ODI series in the West Indies and any match from now on till the World Cup is important from the point of view of maintaining the momentum so …

To Improve Your Average ... PRAY !

Since converting from Christianity to Islam, Yousouf Youhana has increased his average from an impressive 47 to a very impressive 52. And his average in that period is a whopping 83. He puts it all down to praying 5 times a day.

Courtesy this Steven Lynch Column on Cricinfo.

And The Predictable Follows ...

Dalmiya now says that he does not expect any loyalty from Ganguly and that the email does not concern him nor did he leak it … Fountainhead anyone ?

RUBARU .... Roshni !!

Finally ...

By the way how many of you who have read The Fountainhead agree with me that the characters in this saga have a bit of a matching with those in the book:

Sourav Ganguly = Peter Keating
Jagmohan Dalmiya = Ellsworth Toohey
Rahul Dravid = Howard Roark
Greg Chappell = Gail Wynand

More Injury Worries For England

Here we go again.

Are We ...

... seeing an abrupt, premature, unfulfilled end to one of the more promising careers in recent times ?? This is pretty sad news.

Four Out Of Four

The Sri Lankan juggernaut keeps rolling. They have now taken a 4-0 lead with victory at Old Trafford. Most notably it is a second consecutive hundred for skipper Mahela Jayawardene, one of the most stylish and one of my favorite batsmen in World Cricket at the moment, not least because I believe he is grossly underrated and to be fair a huge underachiever, particularly overseas.

England meanwhile won't learn their lessons, 20 wides and a few no balls in a 33 run loss once again with Harmisson being responsible for 9 of those wides. Phew !

Interesting Questions

How many times has a batsman hit a bowler for 6 consecutive fours in an over?

Off the top of my head I can remember 3. Sandeep Patil off Bob Willis, Chris Gayle off Matthew Hoggard and recently Ramnaresh Sarwan off Munaf Patel. Interestingly, Willis was a really accomplished bowler and Hoggard as of now seems to be well on his way there. Munaf too has shown a lot of promise in his young career. Clearly being thrashed about once is not such a big deal, it seems.

Talking of Munaf, he seems to be taking a lot of his wickets either bowled or lbw. Who are the other bowlers in history to do this? Off the top of my head I can definitely remember Waqar Younis and to a lesser extent Shoaib Akhtar. To an even lesser extent, Wasim Akram. The key factor here? Reverse swing, a liking for Yorkers.

Staying with Munaf he definitely seems to be a long term prospect for India. Oh hang on. Haven’t we been down this path before? How many bowlers have in the recent past promised so much only to let us down? Off the top of my head and leading the list definitely Zaheer Khan closely followed by Ajit Agarkar and Ashish Nehra. One who seems to be going that way (I hope he doesn’t) is Irfan Pathan.

How many times recently have Sri Lanka beaten England convincingly? 4. The Trentbridge test and the 3 ODIs were as comprehensive thrashings as you can imagine. Throw in a close win in the 20-20 game in there as well. Sri Lanka are clearly a team on a high finally delivering the promise they have held and converting potential into performance in a foreign setting. England meanwhile have serious problems. The Ashes is now only a distant memory. Since then they haven’t managed to win a single test series and have lost ODIs faster than you can say … well ODI.

Munaf 3 out of 3

Munaf Patel was thrashed for 24 runs in 1 over including 6 boundaries in a row by Ramnaresh Sarwan yet he has been the most impressive Indian bowler in this Test judging by the fact that he has picked up all 3 wickets to fall. Interestingly, all 3 have been bowled or lbw. Munaf is a bit of an enigma for me. At times he looks to have it all, pace, bounce, length, seam and looks like a World beater. At other times he just seems disinterested which makes it kind of difficult to assert whether he is indeed the next big thing in Indian fast bowling. After all haven't we been flattered to be deceived so many times in the past ? Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar are the names that come to mind immediately.

Test Cricket Is Alive ...

... and kicking.

Meanwhile in ODI cricket, SL is on a rampage ... having been on a roll since the test at Nottingham, they now look well set to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

Three In A Row

First in the test match, then in the 20-20 game and now in the ODI. From Nottingham to the Rosebowl to the Home of Cricket Sri Lanka have defeated England and seem to be on a roll.

Good job Lankans. Nice slap on the face for those critics who used to ridicule this team for being pushovers abroad. Let us not forget they also reached the finals in Australia earlier this year and gave the Aussies a scare.

Also an eye-opener for those who ridiculed our own series victories over Sri Lanka at home.

Cricket Was The Winner

It was bound to happen. A draw was probably the right result for this fantastic see-sawing game of Test cricket. Neither team really deserved to lose, nor win.

India, for one, had definitely gone in with a less than optimal combination. While the decision to play 6 batsmen (and hence to omit Harbhajan Singh) was understandable if not agreeable to all, the decision to omit Irfan Pathan was baffling to say the least. Agreed, he was off colour and looked out of form, but with him there is always a chance that he can return to form any time and when he does he change matches with a couple of wickets at any crucial time; something that for all promise shown VRV Singh cannot do as of now.

Then India capitulated for 241 on the first day. While the fightback was commendable indeed remarkable, it was not quite enough to seal victory. Nevetherless India can proudly claim the honors in the draw. Unfortunately honors do not count as far as series results go and India will have to put in strong performances up front in the next few games as opposed to come from behind efforts if they are to make sure they do not rue this very close miss.

For the West Indies too surely holding out for the draw was an achievement. When Sehwag nailed Ramdin there were a good 20 overs to go and with only 3 wickets in hand India were red hot favourites. But the efforts of Bradshaw, Mohammed, Edwards and Collymore deserve handsome praise. Havind said that it was pretty ordinary cricket that got the West Indies in a situation where they had to fight hard to save the match. Having taken a lead of 130 their bowlers failed to create any sort of impression in the second innings although it must be said Jaffer rode his luck well.

Even as one might argue that the few overs lost due to the Dhoni incident cost India valuable balls it cannot be forgotten that the West Indies got a couple of awful umpiring decisions on the last day - the wickets of Chanderpaul and Bradshaw. Then again the ball that got Dravid in the first innings was a no ball.

All in all, not the best of games as far as umpiring goes but a good example of how despite human errors cricket can still come out the winner. Indeed a great manifestation of the greatness of test match cricket. Is it conceivable to find such drama in an ODI ? Oh Long live test cricket.

Who Is Going To Be England Captain ?

For the first test against Sri Lanka ?

Will it be Marcus Trescothick who is back after a mystery illness that took him out of the tour of India and who has been the deputy to Michael Vaughan all these years ?

Or will it be that great warrior Andrew Flintoff who led the team with distinction in the toughest of circumstances in India, who forgoed a trip back home for the birth of his child on account of his country's desperate call and came out with flying colours ?

Update: Latest reports indicate it is likely to be Freddie Flintoff. Good move I should say - Trescothick should pay some sort of price for running away with a "mystery illness"

What An Utterly Boring Affair

Well sorry that I have been rather loathe to update my blog these days; well not putting in any long posts at least; but hell when South Africa are playing New Zealand and Zimbabwe are playing West Indies what can one really do ??

South Africa and New Zealand are according to me 2 of the most boring unattractive dull drab and clinical prosaic sides in World Cricket.

And Zimbabwe the less said the better.

I Am Utterly Disappointed

... that Asia has won the bid to host the 2011 World Cup.

This just removes all doubts that fairness and cricketing sense still exists in the ICC and is further confirmation is that all that matters is money power and clout. There is no doubt that an increased vote is why Bangladesh was pushed for test status by the Asian bloc and now I won't be surprised if teams like Fiji (Australasia), Namibia (Africa) and Holland (Europe) are pushed by their respective test-playing neighbors for test status for this purpose as well.

Must Take A Look ...

Here

Confidence - Great to have but shouldn't it be realistic ?

Within the last few days 2 players have made statements regarding confidence and I find both a bit optimisitc.

1. VVS - I am confident of making it to the WC Squad.

2. BC Lara - I am confident of receiving support from all (players officials etc)


Your thoughts ?

Udti Udti Khabar Suni ...

That the great man Sir Brian Charles Lara is back at the helm of affairs of West Indies cricket.

That is great news. Congratulations !

More later ....

Akram Defends Tendulkar

Or at least so says Prithviraj here.

Ironical, for a man who had attacked Tendulkar, the batsman with ball in hand made such a breathtaking spectacle, him defending Sachin with the pen looks rather pathetic.

Did Sachin appoint him as a lawyer ?? Did Sachin ask for a defense ? Defense against what ??