Sunday, August 21st, 2011
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Indian crickrt
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
As the much-anticipated series inches towards its conclusion, the most-celebrated side in world cricket is battling to maintain the second position in ICC Test rankings. If the visitors also lose the fourth Test at The Oval starting Thursday, they will drop to third place.
If England win the fourth Test, they will finish on 125 ratings points while India will drop to third on 117 ratings points. However, if India win or draw the Test, they will stay ahead of South Africa in second position. While a win will allow India to finish on 120 ratings points, a drawn Test will mean they finish on 119.
But perhaps the larger picture, or say a practical outlook, has been drawn by former England captain Geoffrey Boycott – courtesy India’s financial might in cricket.
The former England opener said that the game’s future and India’s performance are inter-linked and India’s hammering in the ongoing Test series will leave the spectators disillusioned and deepen the problems of Test cricket.
According to him, “India’s financial might is the biggest thing cricket has going for it, from a business point of view, and everyone will suffer if their spectators become disillusioned.”
Thus, according to Boycott, it becomes imperative for India to show a better will to fight in the last Test against England as their decline may affect the overall status of the Test cricket.
So India will shoulder a twin responsibility at The Oval. Not only do they have to get themselves out of this rut, but also keep Test cricket alive. And nothing less than a win can achieve both the objectives.
Another loss for Team India may cause a ripple effect as the spectators may lose interest in the longest form of the game, which is already fighting for its survival.
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
The England vs India third Test at Edgbaston is not under threat according to the West Midlands police. There had been fears that the England vs India third Test would be postponed due to the rioting that has taken place in Birmingham this week, but as far as the police and the England and Wales Cricket Board are concerned, it’s business as usual.
“Everything is as normal at this stage. We will continue on that basis unless we are told anything different,” said a spokesman for the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Both the England and India cricket teams were told to stay holed up in their Birmingham City centre hotels on Monday night as rioting and looting took place nearby, prompting England’s Kevin Pietersen Tweeted to his followers: “they have just locked our hotel in Birmingham mate… Riots just started here.. Insane!!”
Bothteams for the England vs India third Test have been announced, and they are:
England (from): AJ Strauss (captain), AN Cook, IR Bell, KP Pietersen, EJG Morgan, RS Bopara, MJ Prior (wkt), TT Bresnan, SCJ Broad, GP Swann, JM Anderson, ST Finn
India (from): MS Dhoni (captain, wkt), V Sehwag, G Gambhir, R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, SK Raina, A Mishra, P Kumar, S Sreesanth, I Sharma, P Ojha, M Patel
Umpires: S Taufel (Aus) and S Davis (Aus). Third umpire: R Tucker (Aus). Match Referee: R Madugalle (Sri)
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Saturday, August 13th, 2011
Being put into bat, India’s luck was mixed at the start. Gautam Gambhir followed up a streaky four fine off James Anderson, before playing a more confident glance for the same result. But India was in for a huge shock first ball next over, when Staurt Broad had Virender Sehwag caught behind for a duck, with a bouncy off-cutter.
The score was 8/1 when Rahul Dravid walked to the middle. Unwilling to back down, Gambhir clobbered Anderson for two fours in the third over. Then in the sixth over, Dravid joined in the counter-offensive, smacking Broad for two boundaries as well, as the score moved to 32/1. Then the batting duo slackened their run-scoring and reached 51/1 in 14.4 overs, courtesy a Dravid cover-drive off Broad for a boundary.
But just 8 runs later, Tim Bresnan bowled Gambhir off an inner-edge for 36, leaving the score at 59/2 in exactly 20 overs. But the biggest shock of the day occurred in the 23rd over when Broad got Tendulkar to fatally poke at an away-swinger and be caught at slip. The Little Master was on his way back for 1 and India were 60/3.
VVS Laxman and Dravid tried to set right the ruins, but in the process, the latter was castled by Bresnan for 22. The score now read a desperate 75/4 in 26.2 overs when lunch was called.
India Cricket
Saturday, August 13th, 2011
ChasingWillow makes her AC dayboo with a poetic homage to ‘the bad guy’…
PRE-LORD’S and post-Dominica, precipitating what must have been in the air for a while, the Indian Express and others, have plunged a collective feeler into the vibrating bowels of Indian Cricket Machine and concluded that the batting apparatus works, and with Zaheer and Ishant firing, that the bowling attachment is functioning; but with a fear that output levels are nowhere near adequate.
Fear within the machine ” lack of lubricating chutzpah in the cylinders ” dismays those aboard, and befuddles those alongside and underfoot. It’s like realising that Bogeyman walks with a limp, or that Darth Vader has cottage-cheese thighs and love handles.
Imperfections in your chosen villain do not comfort. There’s no mumsy reassurance of “aww, they’re human, too!”. One feels a toothless anger of betrayal, disappointment of being shortchanged by an imagination that screws up the small stuff. Because Bogeyman will still cook you into pot roast the moment you emerge from the covers, Darth Vader’s lumpy arse still holds The Force, and India will still make you watch, melty-faced, as they put on 720 for 5 and declare.
You are no better off, just somewhat miffed with yourself for not concocting better villains.So what if the Death Star of Gambhir and Dravid is also home to putrid shag carpet and a sick-coloured sofa ” the death rays still work.True to themselves, the old-timers will grumble that we once had Real Villains.We did, you know ” back when men were real men, women were real women, and you could really read Braille through Sir Beefy’s trousers.
For now, we writhe in callow anger for a subconscious that couldn’t beget fitter, braver, healthier bogeymen with better tails and bigger balls.
If the vintage Australia were a man-eating Sasquatch, and the golden-age Windies a freight train piloted by a schizo; the current rendition of India is something akin to a brain-eating amoeba ” a soft-bodied, amorphous, phlegmatic menace, more likely to surround, engulf and digest in silence, than to tear anything to pieces.
If the climate debacle has taught us anything at all, it’s that humans on the whole don’t respond well to slow-moving threats ” no matter how dire, how obvious, or how imminent.
Therefore, there was plenty of time, space, and people for healthy development.
India built on their progress, evolved enzymes against its prey’s best defences, rolled its wickets and polished Sehwag’s golden arm.
While its rivals lived in the glamour of overturned pedalos, hollowed-out mango tins and lager on its way up; India was carefully tending the IPL farm, expelling cheerleaders, and doing other things vital to super stardom.
Thus, here we are now ” at a foggy green-top somewhere in the Midlands,waiting for a Ravi Shastri clich to start the day on the right foot.
Published with permission from Alternative Cricket…cricket for grown-ups .
Saturday, August 13th, 2011
New Delhi, Aug 8 : India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy skills will soon be a part of business management curriculum.
The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ranchi, is now planning to map the local boy’s brain to understand the ‘making of the leader.’
IIM-R is planning to foray into neuro-management and is in talks with the Central Institute of Psychiatry in Ranchi.
“People want to know what is the secret behind a successful personality. Companies also want to know what diff people think about their various products. Through brain-mapping we can have clues to both these questions,” said IIM-R director MJ Xavier.
Xavier said that two specialists will be looking into the research.
The premier B-school has sent an invitation to the India captain, who is currently in England on national duty.
–IBNS
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Saturday, August 13th, 2011
Sehwag’s inclusion is a risk following his recent arrival, following a shoulder operation. His minimal preparation is a gamble worth taking though for he is such a destructive player that he could spark a revival. When England returned to play in India, following the Mumbai slayings, they looked favourites to win the Test in Chennai, or they did until Sehwag embarked on a savage assault that knocked the stuffing out of Kevin Pietersen’s bowlers as India easily chased the 387 needed for victory.
India have not put together a coherent performance yet. Dhoni admitted that it had been among the toughest tours he had known but India have let themselves down despite the injuries.
Dhoni has been playing non-stop for 12 months and while he made light of his workload, it has begun to affect his judgment. Why else would he allow, as has been reported, Sachin Tendulkar to talk him into reinstating Ian Bell, after the England’s batsman’s curious run-out at Trent Bridge? The Laws of cricket backed him and the spirit of cricket was not being bent, even if Dhoni’s ear later was.
It seem unthinkable that he will not go into the match with specialist spinner Amit Mishra, but if he does play four seamers there is the risk he could be banned for a game or two, as he has already been warned for slow over-rates. One of the reasons Munaf Patel has yet to feature in the series is that he takes too long to bowl an over. If they opt for an all-pace quartet, Munaf will have to play, unless they risk whisking RP Singh, due in from India this morning, into his whites.
Whatever team they face, England are on the brink of a great achievement. It is only 12 years since they propped up the rankings after losing at home to New Zealand. But while that saw captain Nasser Hussain roundly booed, a win here will see Strauss cheered from the new rafters by England’s most patriotic home crowd.
Friday, August 12th, 2011
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India 2011 Cricket World cup victory celebrations, rally on Pioneer Blvd, Artesia, CA
Friday, August 12th, 2011
“No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”
That’s what the Good Book states.
An article in Outlook India highlighted the inherent conflict of interest in the job profiles of Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri.
While they are supposed to provide unbiased, expert comments on games involving India, they are also contracted directly to the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI).
The story was picked up by all the major news publications in the country.
Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri categorically denied that the commitment to the BCCI weighs on their minds when they air their opinions for various broadcasting bodies.
The controversy comes at a time when the BCCI has been roundly castigated for its reluctance to endorse the Hawkeye technology in the Decision Review System (DRS).
It is seen as no coincidence that Shastri and Gavaskar echo the BCCI’s point of view in their public posturing on the issue.
It could well be, as the duo argue, that their viewpoint (also Sachin Tendulkar’s) and the BCCI’s coincide on the matter. But when it comes to conflicts of interest, it is perception that plays the crucial part.
For most cricket fans, the information that the duo are employed with the national administrative body to the tune of Rs 3.6 crore each per annum was unwelcome news.
Certainly, every statement the pair make will now be taken with a grain of salt.
Sunny Gavaskar was characteristically nonchalant about the affair, claiming that every sphere of life has some conflict or the other.
He said : “But they (people) have got to remember that achievers, like them, also have two eyes, two hands-and a stomach (to feed)!”
Ravi Shastri brazened it out, saying that his “conscience is clear and clean.”
The interested reader can draw his or her own conclusions.
Either there exists a conflict of interest (not acknowledged by the parties concerned), or there is none and the BCCI-on matters cricketing-are Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar.
Quote of the day:
The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can’t help it. – Leo Rosten
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
England’s cricketers are looking to become the world’s best Test team at Edgbaston this week.
They’re playing the third of four matches against India and already lead the series 2-0.
Following more rioting in Birmingham overnight, there were fears the match may have been affected, but play started when it was supposed to this morning.
England won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Victory for Andrew Strauss’ side will see them top the world rankings and win the series with a match to spare.
For India it’s a chance to bounce back after struggling on tour so far.
Newsbeat has been talking to fans at Edgbaston.
Dave is at his first ever test match, and is hoping for a quick England win.
“I think we can put India in to bat and bowl them out cheaply, aiming to win by an innings, with two days to spare.
“We are that good at the minute. India are missing key players so they’re struggling. It’s our conditions too so they’re not used to it.
“Stuart Broad has been fantastic for us in the first two tests.
“As for batting, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell have helped us on our way.
“They’re all trying really hard though.”
Will was just on his way to buy a pre-game pint.
“I’m looking forward to England putting in another good performance – like they did in the last two tests.
“Hopefully they’ll win convincingly – like they have done before – and go and win and become the best test team in the world.
“I wouldn’t say it’s been too easy, you can never say knocking the number one team off their perch is easy.
“We have just managed to keep their key players quiet.
“Stuart Broad and James Anderson have been key players for us and I’m hoping they’ll take wickets today.”
Anil is wearing an Indian scarf, but says it would be nice if India could win.
“It would be great if India could win – it would be nice if they could pull at least one back.
“I think they will be trying harder than ever because they’re 2-0 down.
“We have to cope with the injuries we have had and get on with it.
“England have played great, but India need to pick it up.”
Vik spent the morning painting his face before arriving at the ground.
“I think the past two performances by India have been poor – we have lost both of them, so they have to be classed as that.
“England have played better so far in the series, so India will need to play much better in the coming days.
“The main thing is it’s just a fun match and hopefully it doesn’t rain.”
