Aditya Kane, Author at Cric Talks

Tendulkar is the Titan of Cricketing mythology

In Greek mythology a Titan is someone who is a giant. Giant not by size but by deeds who would their rule their domain with absolute power. The two titans Atlas and Hercules are legends of the mythical world. Hercules for beating the odds all alone with just his strength and wit along with Atlas who literally carries the world on his shoulders. Truly if the game of cricket was mythology then Sachin Tendulkar is a Titan.

Sachin Tendulkar’s shoulder carry no less of a burden and he has often single handedly taken on odds we cannot imagine or identify with. But today in his 442nd One Dayer, with his 17,598th run and a good 100 runs after he had scored his 46th century, the little master that Tendulkar is, scored the first double century ever scored in international limited overs cricket.

He now owns the world record for most runs scored ever, most centuries ever and also the highest individual score ever. In both formats of the game Tendulkar his at the top and by miles. No player has dominated both forms in such absolute terms. At 36, Tendulkar is still breaking barriers and showing living up to the adage that ‘Class indeed is permanent’.

At the time of writing this post Indian bowlers have responded well and joined the Tendulkar party by reducing South Africa to 151/7. Most people who love cricket be they Indian or not will agree that if someone deserved to break the 200 barrier in ODI’s it was Sachin Tendulkar. If you want to watch the moment he scored a double hundred click here.

Tendulkar is towards the end of his career and when he retires his myth will live on. I say myth because his achievements are truly unreal and mythical. He is no celebrity but a hero. A mythical hero whose very name is enough to inspire future cricketers to awesomeness.

Why Harbhajan Singh loves Eden Gardens?

I think we saw a great Test match today between India and South Africa. Both teams were playing for the number one spot and rain on the fourth day had made it possible for South Africa to play for a draw, win the series and get the No 1 Ranking for Test cricket. But Indian team had other plans and Harbhajan Singh took 5 wickets to win India the match. India now hold on to their No 1 ranking.

I though it would be nice to look up what Harbhajan Singh does in Eden Gardens Kolkatta. Obviously he seems to relish bowling there as it is also the place where he took a hat trick against Australia way back in 2001. I thought about looking up some distinct statistics to see actually how much does Harbhajan actually love Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

It is incredible to be honest. He has taken 355 wickets in his career in 83 Tests that is a average of 4.27 wickets. Now compare it to 07 Tests and 46 wickets at Eden Garden in Kolkata. He has taken a astounding 6.5 wickets per Test in Kolkata.

On a lighter note India played in Kolkata since November 2007 and since then Harbhajan has had his form be a little on and off. I guess to get him back in the groove India should schedule more matches in Kolkata. What do you say?

Here is a table of comparison of how he has performed in Kolkata and his entire Career statistics.

	Career Stats	Eden Garden’s Stats
Tests	83	07
Overs	3900.1	415.1
Wickets	355	46
5 Wkts	24	6
10 Wkts	5	1
Winning Side	35 Tests out of 83	4 Tests out of 6

Source of data is Cricinfo.com StatsGuru. Statistics were accurate on 18th Feb 2010.

Pune and Ahmedabad possible front runners for new IPL teams!

Indian Premier League fever is catching up. Last time I did write about the new advertisement for IPL season 3. Here is a new and interesting twist. This year there will be eight teams as usual but next year there will be ten teams in the fray. That means two new teams. Here is a list of cities which might host the new teams.
Ahembdabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamshala, Indore, Cuttack, Gwalior, Vishakapatnam, Rajkot, Pune, Baroda and Cochin.

I think the front runners are probably Ahmedabad and Pune. Let me tell you why?

The base price of the new teams to be bid on will be 225 million dollars. That is almost twice the amount spent on the latest highest bid which was for Mumbai Indians. I single out these two cities as likely to be bid on as these are on the only cities which can help the owners recover their millions. Pune being close to Mumbai and has a huge population for sustaining a franchise. Also Ahmedabad is a bustling city at the cusp of being a mega city will be ideal place to set up a IPL franchise.

Anyways we will know about it soon. March 8th, 2010 will be the day when the new two teams will be announced for the next year. Who do you root for? Which city do you want the newest IPL teams to be from?

Drop in your comments.

New IPL advertisement lays out the red carpet [Video]

IPL when it was held in 2008 was a massive success and shook the cricketing world. In all probably it has also shifted the power base of Cricket to India very significantly.
In 2009 when IPL was was shifted out of India and in South Africa. IPL is back in India this year and Sony has put out a advertisement titled “Saare Jahan se Accha”.
It obviously is in reference that there is no place like India have the IPL taking place.
Do watch the video below and let me know your thoughts on the advertisement.

Indian cricket team on a high as administrators reach new lows

cricket_highs_lows First let me start by wishing all our readers a Happy New Year! 2009 is the year when CricTalks was born and we plan to make it grow to become a significantly popular cricket blog. For that we need to write a lot of posts and updates along with implementing ideas. I promise this year you will see a marked increase in frequency in posts. More of that later in some other post. Now I want to review how was 2009 for Indian cricket.

This was a interesting year considering the Indian team reached heights that it had never reached before but unfortunately the game’s administrators also reached lows they had not reached before. Lets start with the lows first so that I can end this post on the highs. 😉

Lows…

The administrators have consistently goofed up on scheduling and bad planning. They have done it with such an alarming rate that it is more or less expected. Here are some lows that stand out.

Only two test matches were scheduled for 2010. That too against Bangladesh. They are now hastily discussing a Test series with South Africa for later in the year. This is happening only because India tops the ICC Test Rankings. If India does not play Test matches chances are that they won’t be able to maintain the ranking.
Lack of interests in Test cricket has been shown but turning out bland and placid pitches where teams are regularly scoring 600+ scores with numerous draws.
Another nail in the coffin was the ODI in Delhi which was canceled because of a unfit pitch. Later on interesting facts have come out that associations are spending more money on meetings and discussions rather than purchasing cricket kits. All said an done the administrators have all shifted blamed from one person to another and some have even blamed Sri Lanka as being reluctant. Strangely none of these men who run the sport has still taken responsibility for the fiasco.

Highs

Okay enough of the lows, lets talk about the highs in Indian cricket. Last year ended with India winning home test series against the Australians and England. This year they started with a visit to New Zealand.

India won a test series in New Zealand after 41 long years. India was playing as favourites but often they have not been very good travelers. India won the series 1-0.
Then came the IPL and the T20 world cup disaster. India toured West Indies after that and won the ODI series there. They followed it up by wining Compaq Cup. They did a few bumps with losses in Champions trophy and losing the ODI series against Australia.
India finally came into their own against Sri Lanka. They beat them 2-0 in the Test series. They also beat Sri Lanka in the ODI series 3-1. India has thus gained a Test ranking of #1 which is the highest ever it has gone.

Feel free to tell me what do you think about Indian cricket administration and the team through your super comments. 😉

Some funny moments in Cricket

No one can forget the great moments like when MS Dhoni and his boys lifted the T20 World Cup or more importantly the famous image of a beaming Kapil Dev lifting the Prudential World Cup from the Lords balcony. But sometimes in Cricket we have these odd funny moments which does make cricket become cricket. Below are different moments in cricket which might tickle your funny bone.

Javed Miandad and Dennis Lillee

funny_cric_moments1

This happened many years ago. In a Test match between Australia and Pakistan, Lillee and Miandad were exchanging a lot of words. In one such exchange, Lillee mockingly kicked Miandad which led to Miandad waving his bat wildly, looking to have a go at Lillee. Thankfully as you can see the umpire decided to step in.

Attack of the bees

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On the pitch a swarm of bees attacked the players. Umpire Billy Bowden I guess was wondering why everyone was lying on the ground. I guess within moments he realized his folly and hit the ground (see image below).

funny_cric_moments3

Politics in Cricket

funny_cric_moments4

I know that there is big debate in the Indian cricket if politicians should be allowed to run the game as administrators but looking at Lalu Yadav’s unorthodox batting technique in the picture, all I can say is that he probably wont make it to the Indian team. 😛

Offside Field

funny_cric_moments5

Having 3 or 4 slip fielders is not entirely a unknown sight but here in the picture above all the nine fielders are standing in the slips cordon. The bowler dare not send one down the leg side as it would be the easiest runs scored in cricket ever.

Howzzat?

funny_cric_moments6

Shaun Pollock here seems to be celebrating something while the batsman looks like instead of getting out he passed out on the pitch.

Is T20 really the future for Cricket?

India T20 Champions

T20 matches are back on after a very exciting Test series between India and Srilanka. The T20 match in Nagpur was sold out long before the match day.

This points to the phenomenal interest in T20 cricket. Make not mistake about this, I might find Test cricket as the ultimate in Cricket but I am a huge fan of the T20 format.

Why T20 is easier to sell?

The obvious answer to this is T20 is played in 3 hours compared to 7 hours it takes to play a ODI match. Test matches last for 5 days so the advantage of playing a 3 -hour match is quite apparent.

Also most sports marketing experts believe that T20 is an ideal vehicle for getting the sport accepted in US and European markets. The unavoidable 20 second break between every over is a dream come true for most advertisers.

T20 also have got people involved in Cricket who previously did not watch or follow the game much. A huge section of viewers (mainly women) who were not following Cricket previously were addicted to the game during IPL.

The pitfalls of T20…

I don’t want to talk about the pitfalls of T20 cricket from a cricketing point of view but more or less from a administrative point of view.

For instance the theory that T20 is ideal to spread the game in US and Europe sounds a little incredible to me. The game has lost popularity in South Africa, England and the West Indies. Instead of improving the numbers there, would it be sensible to build newer markets?

The United States has never really accepted a game other than soccer to some extent. Baseball, Basketball, American Football are essentially American sports with very little following outside America.

Finally there are many who followed the IPL but were not traditionally cricket fans. The question here is will they return in the next few years. IPL has also had tremendous coverage to their owners who either are movie stars themselves or hire movie stars as brand ambassadors. This works great for a while but is that going to be a model for long term success.

A good case of point is England where T20 cricket started. It brought in huge crowds initially and the interest in Cricket went up. 5 years down the line, England is still struggling to get crowds into stadiums. This points to the fact the T20 might provide entertainment but can it sustain an audience’s interest beyond a few years? Only time will tell.

Fascinating Test cricket battles in the week ahead

cricket_ball_test

The week that lies ahead will see some fascinating Test cricket action. It is quite a unique time as all Test playing nations except Bangladesh are involved in a test series. England is touring South Africa, West Indies are touring Austrialia, Pakistan are playing in New Zealand and closer home Sri Lanka will play the final Test of the three match series tomorrow against India.

India play Srilanka at the historic Brabourne…

India takes of Sri Lanka tomorrow at the Brabourne Stadium. It is a stadium that has been known to be the bastion of culture and legacy when it comes to cricket in India. The association which runs the stadium (CCI) had a falling out with the Mumbai Cricket Association back in the early 70s. This led MCA to construct a new stadium called the Wankhede. The two associations have gotten closer now a days and with the Wankhede stadium undergoing a major re-building exercise Brabourne gets its chance to host one more Test match after 36 long years. Last time Test cricket was played at the Brabourne, Sachin Tendulkar was not even born!

India will be keen to win this Test match as it will haul it upwards to being the No 1 ranked Test team in the ICC rankings. This will be quite an achievement for the Indian team who are not particularly hailed for their ability in Test cricket.

New Zealand host Pakistan…

Not sure if New Zealand will have their confidence high after last weeks win over Pakistan. The Pakistan team came very close to an unlikely win over the Kiwis. But I still feel Pakistan have some inherent technically challenged opening batsmen along with some sparkling yet not reliable batting lineup. They have a great bowling line up too but I still feel it would not be able to match up to New Zealand’s usual dose of resoluteness and professionalism. The Test match between New Zealand and Pakistan begins on 3rd December 2009. If you are in India you should be able to catch the action on Ten Sports in early morning around 430 am.

Australia host West Indies in Adelaide…

In the first Test Match Australia declared their innings at 480/8 and bowled out West Indies twice in less than 2 days. The match was over on the 3rd day itself and was one sided more of less from the first day’s first session. This sort of a defeat does not speak very highly of West Indies’ chances in the second Test at Adelaide. This match starts on Friday morning at 5.30 in the morning. Indian viewers should be able to catch the game on Star Cricket.

India destroys Sri Lanka in Kanpur Test

Last time a Test match was played at Green Park in Kanpur, India won the test against South Africa but because the match was over in 3 days the Kanpur pitch came up for a lot of flak. This match which was being played against Sri Lanka got over in 4 days but no one can really complained about a bad pitch. Not after India amassed a massive 642 runs with their top 6 batsmen scoring 3 centuries and 2 fifties amongst them. The surprise was not really the Indian batting coming good but the changes made to the bowling. These changes did go along way to get India its 100th test victory.

Changes that work for India…

India dropped Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma and included controversy’s favourite child S. Sreesanth along with Pragyan Ojha. Ojha picked up 4 wickets in the whole match which was decent and S.Sreesanth ripped across the Sri Lankan batting line up in the first innings to pick up a five wicket haul. It was a welcome sight to see an Indian fast bowler take five wickets in India condition which is a rarity.

Sri Lanka had one too many spinners…

Kanpur might have had a spinning wicket but Srilanka lost the plot with picking 3 spinners and only one seamer. Two spinners are more than enough. You only pick three spinners at the cost of a seamer if the pitch has been recently ploughed by a tractor. India won the toss and with no real seam attack to trouble the openers it was not a surprise that India amassed 642.

Brabourne awaits Test Match cricket…

brabourne_1 The Brabourne Stadium will be hosting the final Test match in the series and Srilanka will be looking to win in India a test match for the first time ever and level the series. The Brabourne will be hosting a Test match after 36 years. The last match played there was India v England and it ended in a draw.

So who do you think will take win in Brabourne? Let me know through your comments.

Image Credits: Cricinfo

Who is killing Test cricket? T20 or the curators

With the rise of IPL and T20 cricket in general a lot of voices have showed concern that Test cricket might die out because the entertainment of T20 simply cannot be replicated by Test cricket. Some people are taking the middle path that Test cricket, ODIs and T20 all have their place. A lot of people watching cricket are younger people and hence they choose T20 over Test cricket.

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Is T20 really hurting Test Cricket?

Some might argue T20 cricket is making Test matches look boring and might even finish of the game. But I do not think Test cricket is losing it’s charm in India because of T20. I think it is because of the pitches Test matches are being played on.

Over the last 2 years India hosted 13 Test matches. 7 were drawn, 5 won by India and 1 lost. This includes 4 test series out of which India has won two and tied one. The 4th series is still continuing against Sri Lanka and guess what the first match is was drawn.

Now compare Test matches being played in Australia in the last two years. There were 9 Test matches held, 5 won by Australia while they lost 3. One match ended in a draw.

The stark comparison is there for everyone to see. When you play on sporting pitches of Australia there is a result 8 out of 9 times, where as in India there is a result 6 out of 13 times. Take for instance the Test match that just got over against Sri Lanka. 1598 runs were scored and only 21 wickets fell over 5 days. The worlds highest wicket-taker was bowling on a fifth day pitch leave alone taking wickets, he could hardly even trouble the batsmen. T20 is not the villain here, the pitch curator is the villain for making such feather beds.

Importance of Test Cricket

If you kill Test Cricket, you kill cricket. This will happen because the art of bowling is really polished and unrestricted only in Test matches. If a bowler picked up 2 wickets in 4 overs for 40 runs in a Test match, the bowler has bowled well. The scenario in T20 becomes different as 40 runs are too many. The focus is on runs rather than wickets for a bowler.

Test cricket is pure cricket. The batsman have to score runs, the bowlers have to take wickets. The simplicity of this concept brings about the skills in a cricketer out in its purest form. What do you think? Let me know with your comments.