Made in South Africa

Not only do we have South Africans playing for South Africa (Dah….Obviously), we also have these chaps representing a lot of other teams.

England - Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss
Netherlands - Ryan ten Doeschate, Eric Szwarczynski and Billy Stelling
Scotland - Dewald Nel
Ireland - Andre Botha

Time for a Change

It’s time that the Indian team moved and makes some drastic changes. The so called great generation has bid its time and this is the right time to faze them out. Changing captaincy at this stage would not help as a captain should first retain his spot in both version of the games and then only should be appointed the skipper. The only Indian who currently fulfills that is the current guy Rahul Dravid. His is the best guy for the job right now. We do have guys like Yuvraj (needs to find a permanent place in the test squad); Laxman (too old) and Sehwag (no form) but Dravid should be the man at least for the next year or so. These decisions could be one the toughest but when Australia can drop guys like Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh and Michael Bevan, I am sure we can exe Sachin and Ganguly and send them on their retirement cruise. If we do not does it know, we are bound to be doomed for the next world cup and the state of our cricket team could just become like our hockey team.

This should be the squad that India should be building here onwards and apart from the senior guys a lot of other guys has to be dropped till the prove themselves in the first class stage.

The selected XI –
Gambhir (aggressive and solid)
Uthappa (raw talent)
Dravid (the Wall)
Yuvraj Singh (can dig it in)
Kaif (needs one last chance)
Dhoni (Wicketkeeper and late order hitter)
Karthik (only man I see could handle the finisher job)
Powar (till we find another spinner)
VRV Singh (fastest Indian, develop him like Tait)
Zaheer (the spearhead)
Munaf Patel (needs to improve fitness)

What could actually happen in reality is that Chappell will be shown the door and Dravid axed from captaincy and Tendulkar taking over.

Paper Tigers send Home!

It was one o the worst days in the history of Indian cricket when the Men in Blue were knocked out of the world cup. The million dollar players playing for the billion dollar team went down to an inspired Sri Lankan team without even putting a fight. The captain Rahul Dravid waged a lonely battle while others crumbled around him. Sachin and Ganguly with over 25000 ODI runs between them once again failed to play when it matters the most. It was a spineless performance from the team. Cricket was the only sport where we are close on being the best but after the 1983 world cup, we have been on a slow downhill. Its pity that we a nation of more than a billion has to rely on Bermuda, a nation with only 90000 people to get to the next round of the world cup. Even the captain of the team has said it openly that we do not deserve a place in the super 8s. The time has come for the board to make some harsh decisions. Blaming it on the captain and coach alone is bad. Heads should start rolling. Chappell promised a lot but 2 years is a long time and too much experimentation is also not good. I guess he will be axed soon. When David Beckham can be dropped from the English football team, I guess even Sachin can be dropped. It’s time we stop treating these guys as gods and drop all non-performers. No matter how much they have done for the country in the past, we should look at the present scenario and also take the future into consideration. As for replacing Dravid, well I don’t see any one in the current lineup capable of doing it. A captain should first be worthy of a spot on the team for his cricketing skills not for his leading skills, so Dravid is our best option and he should stay.

Just a Game

I am tired of watching all the pre match analysis. One channel had Sania Mirza giving her views on cricket. Seriously when you have two of the greatest all-rounder’s ever (Kapil and Sir Richard), you don’t need her. Well sex sells and these guys are making use of it. Now let’s come back to the game. Well first of all India should never be in this position. If India losses today, I don’t think sacking the coach or the captain makes sense. We have one of the best captains we could get and though the coach may be arrogant at times, no point in blaming these two alone. The Men in Blue should at least take the financial impact of this loss into consideration and play their best. It’s time we start performing where it counts. Even 1000 against Bermuda do not count. Win today and progress to the next round. Also the home team takes on Ireland. Well the last time these two teams met, Ireland pulled out an upset over the West Indies. I guess Lara and his boys won’t take this match lightly and will give their best in a match which could have some impact for the next round.

Get a Life

India has just scored 413 against Bermuda a team with one professional player. Our team made up of millionaires decided to go on a run spree against these guys. Sehwag scores century. So what? Others make runs too………well its happening all over again. Scoring runs in worthless games and sticking on to team for another few years. Look it’s time we as a public look at reality and stop supporting these morons. No one in team plays for the country. Look at the Irish team. A team made up of two countries is putting up a great show. What the hell is wrong with us? It’s time we ban cricket and start promoting other sports.

Thank You Bob

It was a sad day for cricket after the demise of Bob Woolmer. He was 58. Woolmer first coached Warwickshire to unprecedented successes in the English domestic circuit and later on went to coach South Africa during its most successful period ever. He then became a high performance manager coach for the ICC coaching out the associate nations. He became Pakistan’s first foreign coach and his death was great loss. He was known for his innovative coaching style and is one of the first coaches to use the modern techniques. We will miss you Bob.

St. Patrick to the rescue

A great day for the smaller teams as neighbors India and Pakistan was stunned by Bangladesh and Ireland respectively. It was a great day for the Irishmen as they are most certain to qualify to the Super 8s while Pakistan has just crashed out of the tournament. Bangladesh is closer to qualification and if India loses to Sri Lanka, which is likely to happen the way they are playing, I guess India and Pakistan can share the flight back home. Sachin before the match was thinking about the 2011 WC, the way he played yesterday, I think he should think about his immediate future and plan a dignified exit. Its time Sehwag should be permanently dropped from the Indian team. Also Mr. Chappell should be let go and he has not done anything to the team so far. India should ban cricket and get going with its life. It’s time we stop paying these guys the huge sum of moneys which can be used for the development of other sports.

Ireland Ties Zimbabwe

In the battle of minnows, Zimbabwe who at one stage managed to win the game easily just lost the plot and managed just to tie the game. This is a pathetic performance and I still don’t see the point in ICC not suspending Zimbabwe when they can do the same thing to USA. I guess Namibia or Denmark would have benefited more than Zimbabwe playing this tournament.

WI Wins

West Indies was impressive with a win over the erratic Pakistanis. The good thing was youngsters like Samuels, Bravo and Smith coming good. For the Pakistanis apart from Iftikhar Anjum and Shoaib Malik, none of the others impressed much. I guess Ireland if they play out of their skins, have a good chance of upsetting them and reaching the Super 8s.

So it begins!

Today is the start of the 9th Cricket World Cup in the West Indies. The first match will be between the host and the Pakistanis. I am sure this will decide who will top the group but both teams should not take Ireland lightly and Zimbabwe is there to make up numbers. WI batted first and has made 241/9 with good knocks from Samuels (63), Sarwan (49), Lara (37) and a brilliant cameo from Smith (32 of 15 balls). For the Pak, Iftikhar Anjum (3 Wickets) and Gul (2 Wickets) did the damage.

Rated C

With less than a week to go for the World Cup, I would like to come out with the list of the most over rated and the most under rated performers for the top 8 countries. As for the others, I really don’t see the point in doing this exercise.

The most over rated:

Australia - Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson
South Africa - Andre Nel, Ashwell Prince and Justin Kemp
India - Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Sreesanth and Robin Uthappa
Sri Lanka - Lasith Malinga and Malinga Bandara
England - Sajid Mahmood and Ed Joyce
New Zealand - Ross Taylor and Peter Fulton
Pakistan - Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan
West Indies - Marlon Samuels and Kieron Pollard

Now these guys are the most under rated cricketers:

Australia - Nathan Bracken and Brad Hodge
South Africa - Andrew Hall and Charl Langeveldt
India - Dinesh Karthik and Anil Kumble
Sri Lanka - Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof
England - Liam Plunkett, Jon Lewis, Ian Bell, Paul Nixon and Jamie Dalrymple
New Zealand - Brendon McCullum, Mark Gillespie and Lou Vincent
Pakistan - Azhar Mahmood and Danish Kaneria
West Indies - Ian Bradshaw, Corey Collymore and Devon Smith

Combined Team

Ireland giving South Africa a run for their money is one of the biggest news so far with regard to the warm up games for the World Cup. This shows that minnows if they are given the right assistance could be capable of taking on the best in the world. The ICC instead of giving them a handful of ODIs for the four year period that they have the status after the ICC Trophy can actually draw a well structured plan where they should be playing a minimum of 30 matches not only among themselves, but they should atleast get 7 to 10 games against test nations. Only this would make them better. Another thing is like how the West Indies is made up of many small island nations, they can have a European XI (excluding England), an African XI (excluding South Africa) and an Americas XI (Canada, Bermuda and USA). Though logistics could be tough but in reality this would be the most logical way for these nations to not only improve but also play as a competitive side. The European side can have players from Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark and some other highly talented players from other Associate teams. Imagine an African side with the best players from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Namibia and Uganda. They will be highly competitive and could beat half the test sides’ atleast in ODIs. This would reduce the number of teams playing in the World Cup and it would also improve the game in these nations as the places will be limited and competition for them will increase. This would be an amazing European XI; I decided to include Ed Joyce though he plays for England now. The final XI - Ed Joyce (C), William Porterfield, Bas Zuiderent, Eoin Morgan, Ryan Watson, Gavin Hamilton, Ryan ten Doeschate, Niall O'Brien (WK), Amjad Khan, Dougie Brown and John Blain.

The Passengers

Every World Cup in recent times has seen the passenger class of cricketers on the rise and this time around I would like to name all the passengers from all the teams. Yes everyone has one including the defending champions.

Australia - Brad Hogg

South Africa - Loots Bosman, Roger Telemachus and Robin Peterson

India - Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth

Sri Lanka - Nuwan Kulasekara and Russel Arnold

England - Michael Vaughan and Ravi Bopara

New Zealand - Daryl Tuffey

Pakistan - Azhar Mahmood, Iftikhar Anjum, Imran Nazir, Yasir Arafat and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan

West Indies - Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard and Daren Powell

For the other team, I would like to name only the non-passengers:

Bangladesh - Shahriar Nafees, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Rafique and Mashrafe Mortaza

Zimbabwe - Anthony Ireland

Netherlands - Ryan ten Doeschate, Bas Zuiderent and Daan van Bunge

Scotland - Gavin Hamilton, Dougie Brown and Ryan Watson

Bermuda – No one, their fitness level is pathetic for international sports

Canada - John Davison

Kenya - Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo

Ireland - Eoin Morgan and William Porterfield

Will they choke again?

Though this World Cup could have just been the one where South Africa finally win the big one rightfully claim to be the World Champions of ODI but as we all know a team selected with quota system could never compete on equal pedestal. Guys like Bosman, Peterson and Telemachus, just do not deserve to be here. And the worst part is South Africa has better players yet they do not pick them. Kevin Pietersen started the trend and the next could be Jacques Rudolph, who could be playing for England in a few years time. There are around 20 Kolpak players in county cricket and this number just increases every year. I still do not know why guys like Boje (now retired after shabby treatment), Jacques Rudolph (could be playing for England soon) and Dale Steyn is not picked. Well may be their skin just was not good enough. South Africa again just does not have players will killer instinct to win the cup. Kallis knows to play only one sort of game, Smith is too bullheaded, AB just cannot play a controlled innings and you never know when Gibbs will fire and not fire! Add guys like Boucher, Prince and Kemp to this list. The bowling is just the same. Pollock is slowing on his way to retirement, Ntini bowls his heart out but lacks much variation, Nel and Langeveldt are at best support bowlers. Yes the squad looks good but I don’t think they have it in them to beat inspired Englishmen or a New Zealand team.

India and Glory

On paper India has always had a brilliant lineup, but again how many times has India won overseas? We even used to falter against Zimbabwe when they had some quality players. Realistically speaking India should do well to reach the Semi-Finals, but again one inspired innings from John Davison could just knock India out of the tournament. If that happens I guess it’s time we just ban cricket. India has never been a brilliant fielding team, but with aging stars like Dravid, Ganguly, Tendulkar and Kumble, well I guess u can also add in guys like Sehwag, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh to this list. India effectively has very few good fielders. Some things that India should do to reach the Semi-Finals is that they never play the 2 passengers of the team, Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan. They should open with Sachin and Ganguly and its weird not to see one of the best opening combinations in ODI history not opening together. Also the ideal no. 3 would be Robin Uthappa. He is young and he is an aggressive batsman. He could effectively utilize the power plays. Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni should complete the middle order. The no. 7 is a very interesting position as he is the link between the top order and the tail. Dinesh Karthik would ideally suit in there as he can graft as well as play some good strokes. I guess India would go with 3 fast men and one spinner but I think if the pitches were similar to the ones when india visited a few years back, I guess they can play both Kumble and Harbhajan. Among the seamers, Zaheer looks the most convincing and though Agarkar has been there for ages, he still goes for too many runs and he can’t be trusted. Example would be the 1999 World Cup against both South Africa and Zimbabwe. The others will just be belted all over the ground on the flat tracks. As for Viru is considered, I guess he is lucky to be on an all expense paid trip to the West Indies.

The Lost Enigma

Graeme Hick is one of the strangest cases in world cricket. Instead of being the savior for the Zimbabwean cricket team, he decided to ply his trade for England and had to wait for ages and finally after 57 first class centuries, he finally made a debut for them against West Indies, a match which also saw another flawed genius Mark Ramprakash making his debut. Both dints make much of an impact but the seeds were sown for what turned to be a career of unfulfilled promise which was originally said to be that was supposed to be compared to the Don himself. If not for his test career, he would have still been considered the greatest ODI player for England in the 90s. Only 3 Englishmen who have played more than 100 games averages more than him. Had he decided to play the waiting game like Andy Flower, well it could have been a different story altogether and with no fear of being dropped; Hick could have always been the partner at the other end that Flower always longed for. Though he may be 40+ now, he stills destroys county line-ups at will and could dismantle any bowling line-up on his day. He still could be of some use to England. He could be the ideal No. 7 as he can still belt the ball as good as any other cricketer and his off spin is as good as Dalrymple. Yes he got lot of chances but again, he was always under the threat of being dropped and this got into his head badly. Zimbabwe loss was England’s gain but never once did they utilize him properly. His greatest movement would have been the Carlton & United Series in Australia during the 1998/99 season. He smashed 3 centuries and amasses over 500 runs in only 12 games.

Give me a Break!

Pakistan pulls out of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif from the World Cup citing injury as a reason. Well give me a break guys! Why the hell can’t you accept the truth at least once? Look at the Australians, Shane Warne was banned from cricket for one whole year. But Pakistan first banned these two and then all of a sudden Akthar was playing cricket in South Africa. Now after the ICC announced that its going test a few marked players, both pulled out due to injuries and later Pakistan Cricket Board takes a strong objection to the recent remarks of Malcolm Speed. Well everyone knows what is happening and instead of making a fool out themselves, its time Pakistan accepts the facts or maybe they should just remain quiet.

Ways to beat the OZ

 Don’t get intimated by them, try to hit at them like what England and New Zealand did, not like what India did during the 2003 World Cup
 Dad’s army tag is finally getting to them, all the top 4 big chases has been against them
 Their once strong bowing lineup is at its weakest, Warne has retired and Lee is injured. Even the great McGrath is too old and guys like Tait, Johnson, Bracken, Watson, Clarke and Hogg can be smashed across the ground
 Make sure you get their top 3 out quickly and then bring in the spinners and the slow medium guys, see the effect of Karim during the last World Cup
 They do not have a Steve Waugh to bring them victories from the jaws of defeat and Hussey may be Mr. Cricket, but he is no Michael Bevan
 Their ego is too big and it’s easy to inflate it
 Do the unconventional thing and just don’t be bothered about their sledging as they cannot do anything as their have lost their fire

All Time Indian XI

With the Indian team of to the Caribbean and also with every other team coming will an all time great XI, its time someone came up with an all time Indian ODI XI. One thing is certain, the current Indian side is much better than the one which won the World Cup. That one game proved that how an inferior team could win a one day match. Anyway coming up with an all time ODI team for India is not an easy job and I was forced to leave out some legends as though they may have a great test record, I don’t think they have a good enough record to qualify for this team. The team - Tendulkar , Ganguly , Dravid , Azharuddin, Jadeja, Robin Singh, Dhoni (WK), Kapil Dev (C), Prabhakar , Kumble , Srinath and Yuvraj Singh (12th Man). Some members were picked despite some controversy like Azar and Prabhakar, but their records justify their inclusion. On the keeper front, no other Indian keeper has managed to score a century in ODI cricket.