Now, Come On!

The real reason why NZC is preparing the pitches it is (indeed, most boards in the world), is because they make more money if matches last the whole distance. Quite simply, a five day test match yields far more revenues–from gate collections to television rights–than a three day match on a greentop

Overconfident?

Perhaps, India was overconfident though I am not fully convinced: Is it the first time India has collapsed in a matter of overs? In fact, the fact it has actually managed to surprise us is a pointer to how improved this team is compared to its predecessors.
But even if India was overconfident, think of it [...]

Losing my Religion

Sigh. What will we do now?

Now, after close to 20 years, my generation needs to brace itself for this exodus. Some of my friends, crazy as this sounds, have been talking of needing to revaluate their own careers. Others are realising they need to recalibrate their childhood definitions of cricket. “Part of me just died,” [...]

Dear Rahul Dravid

Retire. Enough torture for your fans who really think you have been India’s stand out batsman in this century. But your extended form slump gives us no hope that you can be The Wall again. Sometimes, you just can’t fight anymore.
Thanks
Confused

Good Bye, Kumble

He exited the game the way he played it: With dignity. Considering the muck house Indian cricket is, that is a testimony to the man. And as many have pointed out, he did not overstay his welcome by a single day. It would have been natural for him to want to lead the team in [...]

Shut up Colonel

Dilip Vengarkar opines,
Vengsarkar felt that Kumble did not handle fellow leggie Amit Mishra properly in the third Test match. “Mishra was bowling quite well and was getting good zip but still Jumbo under-bowled him,” Vengsarkar said.[link]
This is just plain stupid. Apart from the fact that Mishra bowled the most overs–even more than Sehwag–he gave away [...]

A Deliberate Tactic

In a press conference after the Bangalore test, Zaheer Khan came out swinging and declared the Australian team as overtly defensive. It sounded a little bit premature because Aussies had the upper hand in the Bangalore test. India continued to called them defensive after the Mohali test–no problems there at all. Clearly, Mohali was a [...]

Watching Two Different Games?

One here,
An appeal for caught behind on the next ball. Dhoni was one of the loudest appealers following his catch. The umpire is unmoved with replays clearly showing the ball bounced before being scooped up in Dhhoni’s gloves.[link]
Second here,
Johnson flashes a drive outside off-stump, Zaheer finds the edge but it sails safely to third man [...]

Dang!

Just for a minute, I thought, may be…
But West Indian resurgence is good for the game. International cricket needs at least one more competitive team. But as Michael Holding likes to remind, West Indian cricket has seen many false dawns. Let’s hope, this isn’t the case this time.
Staying on cricket, George Binoy writes,

The USP of [...]

Test Cricket Can’t Survive on Charity

Writes Mukul Kesavan,

No, doomsayers like me don’t dislike Twenty20 or the IPL: we’re scared that they’ll make our cricketing passions obsolete. As we fret about the future of the four-innings game (Will the Ranji Trophy survive? How will we nurture future Test cricketers if it doesn’t?), it might help if we begin by recognising that [...]

You Get What You Pay For

Writes Ronojoy Sen in The Times of India,
Do we sniff a hint of elitism here? Most certainly. Actually, Kesavan makes no bones about it when he talks about the Indian fan’s appetite for “coarse cricket”. The inference is that while there are only a few who can appreciate the finer points of the game, such [...]

Is T20 Different?

The Overlord has demanded better statistics from IPL arguing essentially that T20 is a completely different form of the game. Ashok Malik has made the same argument in a slightly different context,
In the vintage years of Test cricket, boundaries were occasional. One-day cricket (F50 if you prefer) made fours and sixes common. T20 threatens to [...]

Ready for Cricket, America?

The Los Angeles Times think so,

Violence between players? Scantily clad cheerleaders? Toss in a rant by Charles Barkley and three minutes of commercials for every 45 seconds of actual game time and cricket may finally be ready for a mainstream American audience.

A New Name

They should rename I.P.L as the Australian Premier League.
Where are the Indians?

Ugly Cheerleaders?

Our man in Calcutta comments,
Sidestepping the debate going on here, can I just comment that most of the cheerleaders in the IPL games are just plain ugly and pretty wierdly dressed (not the ‘imported’ Redskins ones – the desi variety). The cheerleading should be banned for plain aesthetic reasons.[link]
Hmm, how in the name of sweet [...]