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.

A Lost Team

I just looked at the Zimbabwe XI and it just struck me that apart from Brendon Taylor who could have got in as a reserve keeper, none of the others could have even made it to the probable’s list if there was no mass exodus of Zimbabwe players. I guess the team for the 1999 World Cup could have been their best ever and they managed to reach the Super 6 stages. Imagine the current team with guys like the Flower brothers, Streak, Taibu, Ervine, Price and Blignaut. They could still give any team a run for their money. I guess this should be their all time greats ODI XI – Johnson, Campbell, Goodwin, A Flower (WK), G Flower, Houghton, Fletcher (C), Curran, Streak, P Strang and Olonga. I would add in Whittal as the 12th man. Also would have liked to add Hick, but since he never did play an official ODI for them I decided to ignore him.

Will the real Englishman please stand up!

Recently I came across news that Jacques Rudolph, the South African test player has decided to abandon his country and become a Kolpak player for Yorkshire while Saqlain Mushtaq the former Pakistani spinner has joined Sussex. The way things are going I would be surprised to see if England managed to field 5 pure Englishmen for the 2009 Ashes. Pure in a sense that people of Asian origin though are born in England, but I have excluded them for the sake of this post. The people who survived the last ashes and are expected to be included are Flintoff, Bell, Pietersen, Cook, Strauss and Panesar. May be Mahmood, Harmison, Anderson and even Hoggard. But again English fast bowers have a history of injury problems. Look at Simon Jones, no international cricket after the ashes of 2005. Among the lot who are expected to play 2 were born in South Africa (Pietersen and Strauss) and 2 of Asian origin (Panesar and Mahmood). When you look at the next generation of players, well you have guys like Broad, Davies, Jefferson and Onions, but again you have Compton, born in South Africa and Adil Rashid of Asian origin. Add guys like Joyce (Ireland), Amjad Khan (Denmark), Kervezee (Netherlands), Morgan (Ireland), plus you also have guys like Jacques Rudolph and Saqlain Mushtaq. Well this may be the Ashes XI for 2009 – Cook, Rudolph, Bell, Pietersen, Flintoff, Joyce, Davies, Panesar, Amjad Khan, Anderson and Broad. Well they have managed to have 6 pure Englishmen, great going guys; well 2020 will be a different scene all together.

Fast and Brittle!

It during the World Cup time, we get to see all the fast men together, but before that let me clarify on the explanation for the fast men, any guy who runs in and bowls in not part of the discussion. Anyone who can bowl over 90 miles is only considered. One of the fastest (Lee) is out of the tournament due to an injury while the other though not sure if he will play or not but can’t consider him due to the doping scandal! That leaves us with Bond, the fastest with the cleanest action and Tait, who is all set to become the fastest bowler in the world. It should be an interesting battle but I guess Tait will win this one hands down. Others who may hit that speed includes Johnson, Taylor, Malinga (Lankan chap), Nitini, Mahmood (maybe) and Agarkar (seriously not kiddin)

Do We Need Minnows?

Michael Holding recently made a statement that having minnows in the World Cup are a waste of time. Well I would disagree, if cricket ever wants to compete on a global level, it should expand further and the ICC is doing a great job by promoting cricket in countries like Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada and Bermuda. The problem is that all the major test playing nations for the last 30 years failed to develop cricket in their neighboring countries. England had it helped out countries like Scotland, Ireland, Holland and Denmark some 50 years back, now these countries would have become a powerful force and some may have become test nations. Look at Nepal, at Under 19 level they are able to beat South Africa, but a club side from SA could trash their national team. India could possibly help them by making their national side play in Ranji Trophy and other events. One of the main reasons why Zimbabwe was pretty impressive during their early years was that, they used to play in the South African Domestic Tournaments. Now due to various political reasons, their side has become a joke, but just brings back the Flowers, Streak, Goodwin, Johnson and Price; they once again have a side capable of competing against the best of nations. It’s time the test nations start helping other smaller countries to develop their cricket programme otherwise in another 20 years cricket may just be played by the same old 8 nations.