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Google the most used search engine has caught Cricket fever. In its recent Google Doodle it celebrates the beginning of the World Cup, with a sketch of a batsman in its logo.
Interesting thing about this Google Doodle is that it is not India specific but is there on the main portal.
During IPL, children stay indoors even during summer vacations and adults suddenly have a sick stomachs and skip going to work so they can catch a game in their city. Nothing like that is happening with T20 Champions League cricket. I thought I will write down 10 reasons why this tournament is a flop show!
So these are the reasons Champions League cricket is a flop show. I am waiting for India vs Australia Test matches next month. Now that is truly a competition between champions.
This year we had a tough cricket; even Indian team had hard luck in the ICC T20. There is nothing to be blamed with neither the selectors nor the commission. The Tri series leaves nothing to be described about our team young legs. The ICC WC 2011 is around the corner, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh going to host it. At this point of view, Indian team should concentrate on their game i.e. bowling, fielding & should consider few players to play their natural game.
Hopefully the lord of the venue, Sachin Tendulkar will be playing. The opening pair will be very strong such that Sachin & Shewag will start the innings. Even the top order batsman will be filled out with Gambir, Raina & Yuvraj.
The middle order will be taken care by our captain Dhoni. The lower middle order is the biggest question, no real guesses at all. The top lower order batsman will be Harbahjan. When it comes to seamer’s, Zaheer will be in the playing eleven. These eight players will be confirmed; only in case of any injuries there might be few changes.
The areas to be focused by our team will be specially bowling & fielding. There are really big hitters in the squad, so no problem with that. When it comes to bowling, the economy of Indian team bowler is almost above Five & half. If this continues then the runs we concede in one match by our bowlers will be surely above 280+. The target becomes tough, in case of early wickets of our batsman. We lost the game. Next is fielding, there was few many misfield by our young legs in the Tri-series. This should be avoided in the ICC WC.
Thus Players should be focused in fielding. When it comes to the playing 11, I left 3 players, in that one will surely be an all rounder, then the other two will be a seamer.
My guess will be, Praveen Kumar, though he can swing the ball in both directions & other possibility will be either Sreesanth or R.P. Singh. The all rounder will be Yusuf. I personally feel that, playing eleven with 3 regular seamers will be a correct choice.
What are your views and thoughts on India’s chances and tactics for World Cup in 2011? Drop in your comments
The ICC T20 World Cup in the West Indies has unraveled two new players. No they do not play for any team and don’t bat or bowl or field for that matter. They are not even controversial umpires. They are mathematicians who came up with the Duckworth-Lewis method of calculating target scores in case of rain shortened matches.
Image Link: Rediff
Duckworth-Lewis method is a statistical method which involved calculating progressive scores based of past scores in One Day Internationals along with using wickets in hand as a resource to score more runs later on in the innings.
Take for instance the match between England vs West Indies. England scored a fantastic score of 191/5 in 20 overs. In the second innings it rained and West Indies had to scored 60 runs of 6 overs. So instead of scoring almost over 9.5 runs an over for over 20 overs it left West Indies to score 10 runs an over for only 6 overs.
I think West Indies can count themselves lucky. I think the problem here is that in a T20 match giving wickets a lot of importance as a resource could be counter-productive unlike in ODIs.
For instance even if a team has lost 6 wickets in 15 overs and has scored 120 runs they can still put up 160-170 runs with the last 4 wickets. The last 4 wickets can be more effective in 5 overs of a T20 innings than a 12 overs of a 50 over match.
So do you think T20 cricket need a different way to calculate scores and chuck the Duckworth-Lewis method atleast in this format of the game. Do let me know through your comments.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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. 😛
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.
Shaun Pollock here seems to be celebrating something while the batsman looks like instead of getting out he passed out on the pitch.
A match between the Caribbean Kings and India (in the old times when the Windies were really kings)
India is batting and every Indian batsman is wearing heavy helmets and pads, Which could weigh more than themselves. It’s all for a shield of protection, from 
That’s the Sunil Gavaskar, commonly called as ‘Sunny’. He was the Bravest and Best player of that time. His bravery – started a new era in the history of Indian cricket. It was a new experience to everyone and with his defensive style of interminable batting, he sometimes even bored his own teammates. But he had been really enjoying it. Due to his this approach, discipline and his own classic style, he managed to become a man whom the cricket will never forget. He successfully managed to score about 30 centuries which was a record at that time- and became the first man to score 10,00 runs in test series.
After his retirement too, he had been actively taking part in the cricket matches, not as a player but as a Commentator. There too he has his own ‘interminable’ style. He has been a dearest friend of scandals, and many of them has affected him seriously. Yet ‘Sunny’ is cool‘
Anyway, players like him are really a boon to the cricket.
[Editor’s Note: This post is submitted by our guest blogger Rajeelkp, alias Reji. He is a teen blogger who blogs at labofweb. He loves web, blogging and social sites.
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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.
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.
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.
It was just in the 8th over after the game resumed on Sunday that Team India went to the top in the ICC Test rankings.
As continuation to Aditya’s post, India won the match and the series at the historic Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai against Sri Lanka making India top the ICC Test Ranking in history! The play resumed on Sunday being candy in India’s pocket, India just required 4 wickets without allowing Sri Lanka 59 runs to mark the win. Just allowing 35 runs, India bagged 4 wickets and made their day, rather year!
A confident Dhoni and his men kept tact from the first test match itself at Ahmedabad, which was drawn. In the second test match at Kanpur, India had a big win marking Gambhir, Sehwag and Dravid’s ton, making the series 1-0. Now with Sunday’s win, India won the series 2-0 marking Sehwag’s double ton. He missed a triple ton (and a record) just by 7 runs. Nevertheless, he is the man-of-the-match and the man-of-the-series.
Even with Jayawardene’s double ton in the Ahmedabad Test, Indians managed a draw.
India had managed to stay on top in ODI ranking for less than 24 hours with a win in Compaq Cup. South Africa won a match against England which made India slip to No.2. Event this position melted and India slipped back to No.3 when India lost the series to Australia, who took over the top position fron No.3.
But the case of Test Matches is different. For India to lead the board, they need to keep the aim in their mind to play good. A forthcoming series India in Bangladesh is coming up in January 2010. India needs to show to the world that they can be No.1 for a long time.
Dhoni has been marked India’s most succesful skipper now. He is yet to lose a match as skipper in Tests. India overall played 10 matches with Dhoni as skipper and won seven with three draws.
Links: Series home (cricinfo) | 3rd test, Mumbai (cricinfo)
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.
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.
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.
