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April 30, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 04/30/2006 in The Players
No I'm not posing as Nostradamus, nor am I busting some secret tournament fixing by ICC. That is not a take on possible World Cup winning teams from the future. It's just the distribution of future Cup hosting rights as announced by the ICC today.
Hold on mates - look who all are missing out on a home World Cup! Bad luck Punter, Straussie and Fleming but you do not get to play a World Cup at home.
Continue reading "Sub-continent get the World Cup in 2011, Aus-NZ in 2015, Eng 2019"
Comments (2)
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 04/30/2006 in Miscellaneous
Stephen Fleming scores a big Test double in the ongoing Test series. Fleming’s 99 from his last Test tour in SA and that one-day ton against the South Africans in the last World Cup immediately spring to mind. This man loves scoring against South Africa. I run the Cricinfo stats filter to confirm, and am promptly told that I drew a blank there. For someone with an overall career batting average approaching 39, Fleming fared a meagre 30.15 runs (573 aggregate) against South Africans prior to this match and the 262 at Capetown stands out like Table Mountains in the Newlands stadium backdrop.
I turn to his ODI stats in desperation. Fleming averages only a point and a half more than his career average (32.07) against his imagined ‘bunnies’, and that World Cup century remains by far his best score playing South Africa. Just two filtering exercises on Cricinfo’s statsguru and ‘pop’ goes a confidently held notion.
Continue reading "Check up on that notion with stats"
Comments (6)
April 29, 2006
Posted by Chandrahas Choudhury on 04/29/2006 in India
A few days ago I was at morning cricket nets at the Oval Maidan in Bombay, a weekly affair where we exercise our two-bit skills with high seriousness and fidelity to ritual. Not far from where we were playing a bespectacled young man, clad in a tracksuit and a cap, was conducting some summer cricket coaching with a dozen boys in whites.
Caught up in the mechanics of bowling that outswinger that looks so simple but proves so vexing, I soon became oblivious to them. But a little later, while chasing down a hit, I happened to witness a little scene - a standard fielding drill. The man had lined all his wards up, and was hitting balls towards them; they were supposed to run up one by one, field the ball and throw it back, and return to the back of the line.
Continue reading "Some thoughts on playing cricket at the Oval"
Comments (2)
April 27, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 04/27/2006 in Pakistan
“Blink and you’ll miss it,” went Cricinfo’s "All Today’s Yesterdays" column today. For a moment I mistook it for a reference to Shahid Afridi’s 15 day old retirement that got reversed today. It seems only a few hundred left-button clicks since I read Osman Samiuddin’s breaking news about Afridi withdrawing himself from Test matches. The wise man that he is, Osman remembered to add these last moment prophetic words before rounding off his article:
“Given the sudden timing of his announcement, however, and the fierce speculation now surrounding the circumstances of his axing from the last Test, it is unlikely that we have heard the last of this.”
Continue reading "The 15 day retirement"
Comments (3)
April 26, 2006
Posted by Zainub Razvi on 04/26/2006 in Pakistan
Shahid Afridi has had no shortage of people urging him to come back from his “retirement”. Because of the sort of player Afridi is his fan following has traditionally been very large so such a response was always on the cards. Shehrayar Khan, PCB’s top man, has like most other people in Pakistan, been amongst those countless others who have tried to persuade Afridi to change his mind, but the other day he did not let this general good natured "please don't go" mood of the reaction to Afridi's retirement stop him from letting Afridi know in a clear cut way that he ought to be prepared for repercussions if he decided to stick to his plan.
Continue reading "Miandad's at it again"
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April 23, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 04/23/2006 in The Players
…and who better than a South African named Herschelle Gibbs to testify for its quirks? Ask him about his last one-day innings; chances are you will notice the old sparkle come back to his eyes. It was that scarcely believable knock of 175 out of 438, a sublime innings that orchestrated the greatest one-day chase against the topmost ODI team in the world.
The downward spiral of Gibbs' form that followed the innings of his life was once again scarcely believable. In the 4 tests he played since that 5th one-dayer against Australia Gibbs has eked out a dismal 121 runs - less than what he got in that one innings - over 8 completed innings at an average of 15.12. This, on top of a meagre average of 25.70 over his last 10 Tests, has left the selectors with little option but to drop him from South African Test squad after the 1st of 3 Tests that the home team are scheduled to play against New Zealand. Suddenly that innings seems like a thing of the distant past!
The game sure is full of uncertainties, many of them far from glorious to the players.
Comments (1)
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 04/23/2006 in India
I like Mahendra Singh Dhoni much, and wish him the very best in life and career. In fact I am a fan of him. If I were to be sealed off in a remote island for 3 months and then be asked to guess ‘the world’s best ODI batsman now’, Adam Gilchrist and Dhoni must be two of the first names that would occur to me. The ICC ODI world #1 ranking for his batting, as such, is an expected return that no one should grudge him.
But incidentally I have been watching cricket for the last three months, and there are two one-day players today who seem to be batting on the 3rd floor while all others, Dhoni included, are fighting it out on the 1st to win a ticket to the 2nd. The Australian skipper and #2 batsman Ricky Ponting is one. The other is Dhoni’s team mate and winner of three consecutive man-of-the-series awards, Yuvraj Singh. He is ranked number 10 though.
Continue reading "How do we judge the number one batsman?"
Comments (7)
Posted by Scott Wickstein on 04/23/2006 in International Cricket Council
I read the other day that ICC CEO Malcolm Speed was vigorously defending his new Future Tours Program against criticism. Like many parents, he’s been most protective of his offspring. He made his remarks in context of recent Australian complaints of exhaustion at the end of their recent heavy schedule.
Since the Australian cricketers are labouring under tours scheduled under the old five-year cycle of the Future Tours Program, (FTP) rather then the new one, Mr Speed completely missed the point; rather, the Australian player complaints merely underlined the unsuitability of the old FTP. There were many critics of the old FTP, for many reasons. I was one of them and I outlined them in this blog back in January.
Continue reading "Thoughts on Malcolm Speed"
Comments (3)
Posted by Zainub Razvi on 04/23/2006 in India-Pakistan
India and Pakistan are playing cricket! Again! But this time it’s not Rahul Dravid's Men in Blue vs. Inzi's Men in Green (thank god!). It's The Indian Veterans vs. The Pakistan Veterans and a three match series will kick start with a match at the NSK today. PTV, I imagine, are giving this live coverage, though I cannot confirm this as I haven’t bothered to tune it. Considerable controversy has been created by this series nevertheless.
Continue reading "Cat and Mouse Games & Growing Up"
Comments (1)
April 21, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 04/21/2006 in Miscellaneous
1st ODI of DLF Cup between India and Pakistan at Abu Dhabi: Pakistan, chasing 198, are 70/2 after 17.3 overs. Irfan Pathan bowls the 4th delivery and Inzamam cuts it to left of point. The diving point fielder Yuvraj Singh denies non-striker Younis Khan a view of the ball as the latter bolts off the blocks expecting it to go past Yuvraj. But Yuvraj recovers from a rubbery full-stretch dive in a flash, ball in hand and flings it at the bowler’s end where Younis is now scampering back from mid-pitch. Throw comes at the wrong side of the stumps.
Continue reading "WG comes to Sheikh Zayed stadium"
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April 20, 2006
Posted by Chris on 04/20/2006 in ICC
In January of this year, Dave Richardson, the ICC’s General Manager, responded to a rising wave of umpire bashing by writing an article for Cricinfo extolling the virtues of the ICC elite panel of umpires.
In his ‘These guys are good’ speech, Richardson claimed that there was no reason to believe there was a problem with umpiring at the highest level, and cited a number of impressive statistics to back up his argument.
Continue reading "Public defender turns prosecutor."
Comments (1)
Posted by Scott Wickstein on 04/20/2006 in Bangladesh
Bangladesh wasted their chance to spring a massive surprise on Australia in the First Test, and it was no surprise to anyone that the roused Australians would react with their customary vehemence to quell Bangladesh’s resistance in the Second Test. So it came to pass, but the agency with which this was inflicted was perhaps an even greater surprise then Bangladesh’s inspiring First Test performance.
In a golden age of batsmanship, we cricket lovers have had a chance to see some delightful innings. Back in the 1980’s it was a rare thing for an Australian summer to be punctuated with a double century, but now it is a rare summer we don’t see one. However, I’ve never seen anything quite so unlikely as Jason Gillespie’s 201 not out at Chittagong.
Continue reading "Bangladesh lose Test but win admirers."
Comments (1)
April 17, 2006
Posted by Krishna Kumar on 04/17/2006 in India
Why am I writing this? My biggest motivation is, there seems to be somewhere along the line, a lack of perspective in judging our cricket.
What are the facts? India has won a lot of one-dayers (mostly at home or at least on the sub-continent) recently, and a majority of them very convincingly. We have been average in tests.
We are looking for reasons for this seeming disparity. Which is fine. Are we to presume however, that the upswing in one-day form is solely or majorly a result of exceedingly good, current cricketing management? This would naturally imply that the former management was somehow vastly different from the present one and was to be blamed for the slump that occurred at the time.
Continue reading "Bringing some perspective"
Comments (17)
April 15, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 04/15/2006 in Australia
Fatullah stadium in Bangladesh was blessed with an amazing 1st Test match. Bangladesh have deserved every praise that came their way for displaying a new-found spirit . Euphoria over, let us now spare a thought for the other 'pathetic' side that participated in a contest few saw coming.
Continue reading "The 'pathetic' number one"
Comments (3)
April 14, 2006
Posted by Scott Wickstein on 04/14/2006 in Bangladesh
Before the First Test started, the Australian journalist Will Swanton smugly stated that beating Bangladesh would be a 'doddle':
The doddles against Bangladesh will last about two days each and probably involve only one hit each for the Australians. Runs will flow freely. Taking the new ball for Bangladesh will be some bloke who goes by the name of Shahadat Hossain. It may as well be the Blue Wiggle ... any batsman who doesn’t average 100 against that mob shouldn’t be let back in the country.
The quote wasn't online, but located by blogger Tim Blair. Needless to say, Mr Swantan is wiping some egg off his face now.
Continue reading "Close but no cigar"
Comments (4)
April 13, 2006
Posted by Krishna Kumar on 04/13/2006 in Bangladesh
This is what makes cricket so addictive. This absolute, ravishing unpredictability.
Let me do some sort of live commentary, as I can't think of typing up anything more substantial now, and perhaps sometimes the essence is lost in being too verbose.
Gilchrist and Warne have already gone, unsure of their feet, on a turning pitch. Similar to sub-continental batsmen on bouncier, seaming tracks. For some reason, the latter seems to be more celebrated, and somehow more widely recognized as a sign of failure of batting technique.
Continue reading "A touch of the surreal"
Comments (1)
April 11, 2006
Posted by Chris on 04/11/2006 in Miscellaneous
A distant aunt of mine is a psychic. Well, actually, let me explain further. Up until fairly recently Aunt Doris (stage name “Doris Decker-Spirit Queen”) was viewed by everyone in our family as an affable albeit slightly scary fruitcake.
Imagine my surprise then, when last night during a routine family get together, Doris whips out her Ouija board and proclaims to be communicating with Coverdrivicus the Greek God of cricket. Our entire family (being the cricket nuts we are), put down our chopsticks and paid attention to what is transpiring to be some scarily accurate insights into the future;
Continue reading "My Aunt Doris"
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April 9, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 04/09/2006 in Bangladesh
The Fatullah Cricket Stadium in Narayangunj District near Dhaka is about a quarter of the globe away from Sophia Gardens cricket stadium in the British Isles. But the events of this 1st day of the Test series between Australia and Bangladesh have reminded cricket followers of a particular match played between the same sides at the Welsh ground. Bangladesh supporters will hope that today’s proceedings at the Fatullah has the same impact on Test cricket in Bangladesh that that Natwest league match of 18th June 2005 had on their one-day outfit.
Continue reading "Remembering Sophia Gardens"
Comments (3)
April 6, 2006
Posted by Chandrahas Choudhury on 04/06/2006 in India
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Suresh Raina: the magic is in the feet
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A great many batting artists of our age - Virender Sehwag, Damien Martyn, VVS Laxman - bat in a way that makes us admire the work of their hands rather than their feet. Batting was traditionally was thought to begin with, and indeed rest upon, a batsman's footwork. But the thickness and striking force of modern-day bats sometimes makes precise footwork redundant. Where ten years ago a batsman would push a good-length ball on the front foot to cover, he now stays put and flays the ball through point; even tail-enders now routinely manage this. It has been a pleasure, then, to watch the two splendid half-centuries made over the last week at Faridabad and at Goa by young Suresh Raina, and to observe how much his batting owes to his supremely light feet.
Unusually, the swiftness of Raina's footwork is visible less in his play to his spinners - although he is good here - than in two or three of his strokes to the quicker bowlers.
Continue reading "The supremely light feet of Suresh Raina"
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April 4, 2006
Posted by Zainub Razvi on 04/04/2006 in Pakistan
Two days ago Osman Samiuddin asked "Heart or head?". A bit of both perhaps I thought. Because at heart, I'm a big fan of Inzamam. I can't perceive how any one cannot be. I adore the man, his batting, his understated, often cheeky sense of humor and laid back personality, I absolutely adore him for all this. But that kept aside, I do have some reservations, pretty serious ones at that, about his leadership style.
Continue reading "Inzi or Younis?"
Comments (10)
April 3, 2006
Posted by Chris on 04/03/2006 in New Zealand
Domestic cricket is splattered with players that have flirted with an international career having never managed to turn the romance into a marriage.
Matthew Sinclair, the Central Districts batsmen, is one of those players and he is currently contemplating an offer from Eastern Province in South Africa. If Sinclair accepts, he stands a reasonable chance of ending his sporadic one night stands with international cricket, at least while John Bracewell remains in charge.
Continue reading "New Zealand's Mr Nearly"
Comments (3)
April 2, 2006
Posted by Zainub Razvi on 04/02/2006 in Umpires
Just finished watching a news briefing on Geo, a local news channel, about tomorrow's second test at Kandy. Darrell Hair was originally in line to stand in this test. He, as many of you might know, is famous or infamous rather, for his aversion to spinners. He no-balled Murali in a test in Melbourne. And given Kandy is Murali's home ground, him standing in this test with Murali in line to play was always going to create an interesting situation. But his unilaterall withdrawl from the test right on the eve of its start has prompted speculation on him having received death threats.
Continue reading "Darrell Hair receives death threats?"
Comments (1)
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