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May 30, 2006
Posted by Lahar Appaiah on 05/30/2006 in India
I've been having serious misgivings about The Strongest Batting Line Up In The World™ for some time now. Yes, we've been doing fairly well in One-Dayers (present month excluded), yes, we have some of the best batting brands in the world, but the present Indian team has got me rather worried, what with the Windies Tests due to start in less than a week...
So, here's how I predict each player will fare. Let's see, in one month, how right I was.
Continue reading "Cute Little Prediction"
Comments (5)
May 26, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 05/26/2006 in India
As Ajit Agarkar sent down a thrilling fast yorker to an ominous looking Imran Farhat during the 1st DLF Cup match to shatter his stumps, an unusual vision presented itself. Unusual mainly in that such instances of glory for an Indian quickie, besides being rare, have never featured this nippy underachiever in eight long years since those phenomenal first few months following his international debut.
Continue reading "The Fall Guy"
Comments (4)
May 22, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 05/22/2006 in The Players
Peter Roebuck muses here on ageing greats Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar as each batting icon runs his own steeple chase against time. Sentiments left aside, every leading cricketer needs to take a few ahead-of-the-game decisions about his playing future just around this "early to mid thirties" phase of his career, when every little stretch of 'poor form' starts getting viewed suspiciously without exception.
The game splitting up into two formats spiritually different from one another did nothing to aid such complex decisions. Jai Arjun Singh once wondered about the astonishing brevity of the graph of a cricketer's life in this blog. The archetypal modern player has a lot more incentives than his earlier counterparts for playing on. Personal milestones, dedication to the team's cause and love of the game are all there and are now joined by the crack of mass adulation of a growing global audience and thoughts of maximising financial returns in order to insure the very long post retirement life ahead. "Let me try one more season," he would probably tell himself at a corner of the dressing room while the youthful raise the decibels oblivious of his turmoil.
The trick is to tell playing on from staying on. A player who comes thus far in his career must walk this emotional tightrope to a longer career over the trap of carrying on beyond his "sell-by date" (to quote Jai) and time his departure from the great stage while the halo is still intact. He needs to do it sensing that gentle tap on the shoulder from Father Time, else he leaves himself at the mercy of earthlings named selectors. Going by the trends, this particular sense of timing is a rare gift even amongst players of sublime virtues.
Comments (4)
May 21, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 05/21/2006 in Miscellaneous
Marlon Samuels exhibited fine fitness in the first two ODI's versus India at Jamaica. That takes care of his 'knee-gling' fitness woes of late. He contributed to a stabilising partnership with Sarwan, and that must give him batting hope for the coming matches. And as always his off-spin bowling was a handy plus for his team. Samuels bowled exceptionally well during each of his spells in the 2nd match that culminated in a classic final over, reminding viewers of the tied Australia - South Africa semi-final of 1999 World Cup. His constrictive bowling was pivotal to a stunning West Indian effort that broke India's 17 match streak of consecutive successful chases by a solitary run.
But what on earth was an 82 mph delivery doing in his armoury?? Yeah, that is EIGHTY TWO Miles an hour!
Continue reading "Marlon's 82 mph Hurl-in"
Comments (2)
May 17, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 05/17/2006 in Miscellaneous
There's a strange cheat lurking around the world's cricket grounds these days. He loves to hijack some specifically chosen international cricketer on the eve of a Test match. Then he painstakingly dons an impeccable physical makeover, Hollywood style, in order to resemble this missing player, all for the sake of a scarcely believable kick. And what's his kick?
Continue reading "Beware of the Imposter!"
Comments (0)
Posted by Zainub Razvi on 05/17/2006 in Umpires
While I was away the International Cricket Circus Council Executive Clown Officer Malcolm Speed announced that they'd be toying with the sanctity of umpiring experimenting with technology in umpiring, again. The ICC Cricket Committee voted 6-4 in favor of an appeals system that will allow each team three appeals to the third umpire per innings. If an appeal is successful the team will retain the right to three appeals but if not, then it is lost.
Continue reading "ICC proposes appeals against umpire"
Comments (9)
May 11, 2006
Posted by Chris on 05/11/2006 in Umpires
Dickie Bird, the Denny Krane of umpiring, I love him to bits. Some years ago, my wife bought me his autobiography at one of his book-signing events and the kindly old fella wrote some nice words inside (although exactly what I can’t remember, in fact I must confess to never having finished the book!), but still, for cricket fans of my era, Dickie will always be a special character and remembered as a top class umpire, albeit more than a little odd.
Dickie has though, been a long time dissenting voice against the calls for more technology in umpiring decisions, and it seems that the recent decision to allow players to appeal against a set number of umpiring calls has him again beating the drums for the umpiring status quo.
Continue reading "Bird flies south on players appealing"
Comments (0)
May 10, 2006
Posted by Gaurav Sabnis on 05/10/2006 in Socio-Cricket Issues
The optimistic buzz surrounding Abid Nabi, the young paceman from Jammu & Kashmir set me thinking about a topic not many are comfortable discussing - Indian Muslims and Indian cricket.
A few weeks back, when demands were made from certain quarters that a survey be carried out to ascertain the percentage of Muslims in the Indian Army, there was a lot of dust kicked up. Some said any such survey would be tantamount to colouring the Army communally. Others said such a survey would be very important in showing how well or poorly represented Muslims are in one of India's most respected institutions.
Continue reading "Abid Nabi and Muslims in Indian Cricket"
Comments (6)
May 5, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 05/05/2006 in Miscellaneous
"We are not going to play names anymore."
"We are going to play to a plan. We are going to have positions. We going to have requirements to those positions, and it doesn't matter who it is..."
"If these positions are being fulfilled in the way that we like these players are going to have the opportunity to continue within the team."
"Right now, we are unsettled in terms of the order, but in our minds we have settled on what the exact positions they need to be, and we are working our way to find the right players in the right position."
The Chappell way catches on and good ole West Indian skipper Brian Lara jumps on the bandwagon with plans to ambush none other than the mastermind himself.
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