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February 28, 2006
Posted by Chris on 02/28/2006 in Miscellaneous
The last time Australia and New Zealand attempted to co-host a sporting tournament of any significance, the result was nothing short of farcical.
The competition was the Rugby World Cup of 2003 and the outcome was that New Zealand failed to provide some critical logistic and commercial assurances and consequently forfeited their half of the hosting deal.
Continue reading "Second chance for Kiwis and Aussies to harmonise"
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February 22, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 02/22/2006 in ICC
July 7, 2005 was the day when Vikram Solanki was appointed the first supersub under the new laws for one-day cricket. Since then a number of matches have been played with this rule in place. Skippers have spontaneously voiced their opinions about the supersub rule and many cricket writers and buffs followed suit. Most of those voices reserved some harsh words for arguably the most radical experiment tried till date in the one-day format. Now the ICC have published their verdict against the rule. 'Supersub' will ironically be subbed out of the game with immediate effect.
Continue reading "'Supersub' not to have any further role in the game?"
Comments (8)
February 16, 2006
Posted by Zainub Razvi on 02/16/2006 in Pakistan
A good cricket team, very generally speaking, is a team that plays the basics of the game well, wins well in conditions that suits it, and doesn’t disgrace it self when faced with different ones. Under Bob Woolmer and Inzamam collectively, Pakistan have showed, at least at times and in bits and parts that it can fulfill this definition of a good team.
Continue reading "Season Review: The plague of self doubt"
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Posted by Chris on 02/16/2006 in Miscellaneous
For the vast majority of the crowd at Eden Park, tonight’s Twenty20 game against the West Indies was about just one thing. Saying goodbye to Chris Cairns.
When Cairns walked out to bat a cheer erupted through the crowd that sent a genuine chill up your spine. When he walked off the field only moments later, having spluttered his way to two runs, every man woman and child stood to applaud this iconic cricketer’s exit from the game. Cairns even looked as though he may have shed a tear, and who would blame him?
Continue reading "Bowl off’s, bashed babes and bye byes."
Comments (4)
February 14, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 02/14/2006 in India-Pakistan
What better advertisement for Indo-Pak cricket than a thrilling one-day match at a major venue? The Lahore one-dayer on 13th Feb presented exactly that. Here are a few highlights of the thriller.
Continue reading "A bird's eye view of the Lahore ODI"
Comments (11)
February 11, 2006
Posted by Chandrahas Choudhury on 02/11/2006 in India-Pakistan
A striking feature of India's cricket this season is the difference between the look of the team in one-day cricket and that in Tests. The one-day side is bursting at the seams with energy and talent, but in Test cricket the side has often appeared jaded and a little low on passion. The two areas in which the Test team has been especially woeful are in the seam bowling (Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh covered for this deficiency in the series against Sri Lanka, as they often tend to do at home), and in the ground fielding. India are not at present a very watchable Test side overall, for even some of the batsmen are beginning to look a little long in the tooth. But in the shorter game they have frequently made the pulse race.
Of the younger set of players who have made it to the one-day side two have been especially good to watch: S Sreesanth of Kerala and Suresh Raina of Uttar Pradesh.
Continue reading "On S Sreesanth and Suresh Raina"
Comments (10)
Posted by Scott Wickstein on 02/11/2006 in 2007 World Cup
Given Australia’s increasingly patchy form in one-day internationals, there has been much navel gazing about the composition of the side moving forward towards the 2007 World Cup. A little more then twelve months out from the tournament, Australia seems to have no clear idea who is going to make up the bowling attack. Lee will take the new ball, and Brad Hogg will probably be the main spinner. Andrew Symonds is likely to play an all-rounder’s role. After that, well… your guess is as good as mine. McGrath is no certainty, given his increased age and the declining health of his wife.
And it is interesting to watch not just the selectors, but also the critics, miss a crucial point about selecting with this tournament in mind. The nature of the pitches in the West Indies will have a big impact, and yet so far as I can see, no one is paying it any attention at all.
Continue reading "Selectors missing the point."
Comments (10)
February 10, 2006
Posted by Anantha on 02/10/2006 in India-Pakistan
To me, it appears that the Indian team was desperate to win the game by hook or by crook, no matter even it came at the expense of the norms of this sport known as the gentleman's game.
Those are sane words - heard normally from one of the game's mostly misinformed greats. Which is why it is surprising when one reads the byline accompanying these words. Even though I believe that the circumstances leading to this quote could have been avoided (from both sides), let me take you back in time to the year 1999 to demonstrate why this particular comment riles me up.
Continue reading "An Argumentum Ad Hominem"
Comments (6)
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 02/10/2006 in The Players
A toddler wobbles his way into the large room with big, soft settees. Papa is perched on one of them with a crunchy pack of edibles, gaze lost in that peculiar rectangle of radiance. Moving images keep leaping out of it. Our Tom Thumb ambles up unnoticed to a chin-high centre table and forgets the need of his unaccustomed limbs to be rested after every little exertion. Holding on to the prop he looks on intently, trying to figure out that ball game played by little men inside the box.
This might well have been the introduction to this addictive game for some of the present stars of international cricket. They would live up to a dream and achieve the glory of representing their nations at the highest level. A new chapter is inserted in their budding career book as they walk into the field of play, first international caps clutched firmly.
Continue reading "Irfan, Kevin and Clarke: The Rising Stars"
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February 7, 2006
Posted by Scott Wickstein on 02/07/2006 in Miscellaneous
Thanks to today’s result, we now know that Sri Lanka will play Australia in the finals of the VB series. This is good for the series, because in my opinion, Sri Lanka are better equipped then South Africa are to cause an upset win in at least one of the fixtures and push the series into a third final. Which is something that has not happened for twelve seasons. The trend strongly is that the team that wins the first final goes onto win.
So for Sri Lanka, to win the first final is very important indeed. If they can somehow conjure up a win in Adelaide on Friday night, they will have a great fillip and the second final is on their favourite Australian ground, Sydney. Between now and Friday, Sri Lanka’s coach Tom Moody will be working on a game plan to surprise the Australians, and he’ll probably use Cricinfo’s Statsguru program. Let’s see what Statsguru says.
Continue reading "What Statsguru can tell us about the first final between Australia and Sri Lanka"
Comments (4)
February 4, 2006
Posted by Zainub Razvi on 02/04/2006 in India-Pakistan
This man is lucky, not everyone was able to get a ticket for Monday’s upcoming first one-day international between Pakistan and India. Instead, as Ashfaq Yusufzai pointed out in Dawn yesterday, some people ended up on the receiving end of a lathi charge by the local police. This is nothing unusual or new of course. Close followers of the game in the sub-continent can associate such incidents with ticket sales for most international games.
Continue reading "The perils of procrastination"
Comments (9)
Posted by Scott Wickstein on 02/04/2006 in Australia
As the interminable VB series finally comes to a conclusion, one has to say that this tired old format is starting to wear off on the Australian public. In the bigger cities of Melbourne and Sydney, which get to see plenty of international cricket each year, the attraction of paying to see Australia take on South Africa or Sri Lanka in a series that leads to a best of three finals is limited.
Friday’s fixture between Australia and South Africa only drew 26,000 to the indoor stadium; for most cities this is a fair turnout, but there was a time when at the MCG over 60,000 would regularly turn out to see the Australians mete it out to whoever the opposition was. And while I was watching Friday’s play on television I noticed that Channel Nine said that tickets were still available for Sunday’s return fixture. These tidings should be of concern to Cricket Australia.
Continue reading "This goose looks sickly"
Comments (5)
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 02/04/2006 in Miscellaneous
Then shut it away in the locker with priceless jewellery and read on.
Continue reading "Is Silence golden?"
Comments (1)
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