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Well the Australian press has latched on to an unknown
One expects that they, the Australian press, will very soon carry a statement from an unnamed Australian player, that he fears for his life and follow it with another statement from the Players Association that they are closely watching the developments and will await their government's tour advisory and decide on whether to continue the tour.
The report that Cricket Australia has ruled out pushing for a relocation of the third Test has been lost in the midst of this cacophony. This blogger has resigned to the repeat of these reports until the end of the tour.
The BCCI board members are an irritated lot. They have decided that henceforth they will not entertain post-dated fitness certificate.
This new and tough regimen is ostensibly to prevent the selection of 'unfit' players and to prevent the recurrence of the Tendulkar melodrama.
Interestingly, they have threatened to take the physiotherapist and the trainer to task if they certify unfit players.
All in all some tough postures emanating out of the new board, but keen observers know that this is too good to last.
Shane Watson said that he is looking forward to a contest like the Sydney Test minus the scandal.
I disagree with Shane Watson. I want all the Test matches in the series to be like the Sydney Test albeit with a caveat –
Just imagine a series with villainous Australian cricketers - a boob for an umpire – racist allegations - a partisan media and conspiracy theories like the reported suppression of video replays by Channel 9 would just be what the doctor ordered.
I surmise that if the series were able to generate even 50 % of the emotional turmoil of the Sydney Test, it would be a cracker.
Sadly it may not happen as three key ingredients that provided the frisson are missing, i.e., Symonds, Bucknor and Peter Laylor.
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On paper the Australians are an inexperienced lot with most of the players new to Indian conditions. However, their inexperience is now offset by the inclusion of Greg Chappell as the Assistant coach.
Greg Chappell not only has vast experience as an cricketer, but having been the coach as recently as 2007, he has in-depth knowledge about the Indian cricketers and the conditions in India. His current stint with the Jaipur academy will have only enhanced his understanding about the psyche of the Indian cricketers.
This is a worrying development for India. Surely, his knowledge about their strengths and weaknesses gives the Australian's an unfair advantage and may well skew the balance in Australia's favor.
The BCCI should also think on how to stop these instances happening again. A coach role is so invasive that he will not only know a players game but also can delve deep into his psyche. In Chappell's case as he is now an full time employee of CA, there is nothing ethically wrong, but lets say for example John Wright taking up a short term role and helping New Zealand when they either tour India or vice versa. What is to stop Gary Kirsten doing the same for his country?
Our cricketing cousins in
For ICL this must be heartening development as this is sure to garner them a couple of million viewers interested in the progress of the Dhaka Warriors. Irrespective of the merits or the demerits ICL has made a sound business acquisition.
Another self-important statement from an BCCI official.
Batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar will be available for India's upcoming Test series against Australia despite racing against time to be fit, an official said Monday.
Imagine an injured Tendulkar stretching to breast the tape. Or imagine the injury doing an Usman Bolt, mocking Tendulkar 20 yards before the tape.
Damn, I wish the injury wins.
(Image by kdawnfrancis)
Comparing those techniques with that of India, he said, “You can say India is at least 10 years behind when it comes to the bio-mechanics of training. I can’t say about the national team but at the domestic level a lot needs to be done.”
Citing an example, he said, “We use bio-mechanics for avoiding injuries.
“Bowlers use a specially built foot-supporting device to prevent shin injuries during practice. We also study every ball the bowler bowls, every stroke a batsman plays and analyse them.”
(Quoted from Hindustan Times)
In comparison, it is doubtful whether such analysis and training are given to a Ranji Trophy player. However, once he is identified as an prospect,the National Cricket Academy may offer him the same level of training and analysis as and when they conduct camps for the probables.
Surely, these occasional stints are not enough. If we are to surpass Australia or even match them then our cricketers must have the benefit of these scientific training methods right from the district level.
Do you agree?
It is widely rumoured that the English Football League and the American Rules football League inspired Lalit Modi to form IPL.
A close look at the IPL will confirm Modi was not only inspired but he brazenly stole the franchisee model, cheerleaders et al from these two sources.
Inexplicably, Modi left out one important aspect, i.e., the Lingerie Bowl. For the uninitiated the lingerie bowl started of as a fun game played during the half-time 
of the Super Bowl. (Those unconvinced by the explanation can take a look at the accompanying photograph). It became so popular that a lingerie bowl league is in the offing next year.
Judging by the 'looks' of the game and its ahem.. popularity, Modi should think of creating cricket's own version of Lingerie bowl.
Lingerie cricket anyone?
Andre 'Gunther' Nel who had a one-year contract with the Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians has reportedly switched to ICL.
Mark Ramprakash, Darren Gough and even Marcus Trescothick are the others who are expected to make their allegiance to ICL official.
Cricket Australia and their Captain Ricky Ponting appear to be getting ahead of themselves.
Security concerns in the wake of a series of bomb attacks could still scupper the Australian cricket team's upcoming tour of India, captain Ricky Ponting indicated Wednesday.
What security concerns is he talking about. It would be good if they remember that only last week India played host to the Australian Foreign Minister and if the conditions were stable enough for a person holding a high office, then it is good enough for mere cricketers.
BTW, visiting cricket teams are given as much if not more security than say the Prime Minister of India.
The Australian's are hard put to defend their decision to tour India They are unable to come up with anything significant other than repeating that the situation in India and Pakistan are dissimilar.
PCB has also quivered the pitch by accusing the Australian's for exhibiting double standards which is something difficult to digest for a macho Australian.
The result is that the officials as well as the players are being questioned about the logic behind the decision to tour India.
The English Cricket fan has an infinite capacity for punishment.
This is borne out by the fact that the “Cricket fans snapped up tickets for next year's Ashes series yesterday, with the first three days of the third Test at Edgbaston sold out within hours."
I doubt whether Indian cricket fans would have shown similar enthusiasm to watch another 5-0 drubbing.
Yesterday the cricket blogosphere was agog with the news that the Pakistan Cricket Board was planning to sue Cricket Australia.
After letting those reports fester for a day, the PCB has denied making legal threats. These flip-flops only serve to undermine Pakistan Cricket. If the legal threats were just unsubstantiated rumours the PCB should have denied it at once.
Caught unaware by the mass exodus to ICL, The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) resorts to the time honoured bureaucratic tactics of delaying the inevitable.
According to recent reports, they have rejected the retirement letters of the ICL bound cricketers claiming that the players have not given prior notice.
In the same breath a BCB officials says that the players have used the loop-holes in their contract. The point to note is these contracts were formulated by the previous set of BCB officials.
Thus the present incumbents have blithely transferred the blame and are simultaneously taking recourse to the law.
With just a few days left before the Australian team embarks on its tour to India, the Australian press would have been awash with motivated articles. However, what we see is the unlikely scenario of the Australian press portraying the Indians as the favourites.
Similarly, there is a singular lack of fighting talk from the Australian players. Other than Michael Clark’s reaction to Kirsten’s comment on Andrew Symond, there has been no other belligerent comment. Yes, Pointing did try to sow a seed of dissension among the Indian ranks by saying that dropping Ganguly was inexplicable, but then it was a weak attempt.
Surprisingly, even those who should know better, the punters seem to have accepted the status quo. Lasseters Sports, leading head bookie Gerard Daffy says, ''There are a lot of question marks over several of the Australia team for this series and it appears punters do not want a bar of them''. For the record, Australian bookmakers have plumped for a drawn series.
However, from an Indian point of view, this low-key start is quiet unlike the Australians. The Australian strategy appears to be to lull the Indians into complacency and then deliver the sucker punch. Nonetheless, there is a fear that after their high-octane encounter in Australia, this muted build-up may fail to enthuse Indian spectators. The rush for the tickets will reveal how they see this series.
This is the first time I am hearing it. Gilchrist says that the Indian tour prior to the 2005 Ashes tour was the reason behind Australia losing the Ashes.
"It had become very important to us prior to 2004, and I guess that's why we lost our focus a bit in the 2005 Ashes series. We were unable to realign our focus to the Ashes and were exposed badly."
Has anyone heard this earlier?
Andrew Symonds has reiterated his intention to fight his way back into the team and has vowed to become a better person as a bonus.
“I’m going through the process of trying to improve and become not only a better cricketer but a better person.” thecae.com.au quoted Synods as saying.
Opposing teams that were rejoicing his banishment are now ruing the day. 
An English bowler under the condition of anonymity said he was having nightmares at the thought of bowling to a lip-gloss wearing Symonds. Another unnamed Indian player said that he was cringing at the very thought of receiving a pat on the butt from him.
However, readers of this blog have uniformly expressed their disappointment at Symonds turning over a new leaf. In fact, they made bold to say that he has turned ‘precious’.
I admit that I was all a twitter over the impending retirement of Niranjan Shah. As my regular readers know, he was a dear friend and in his own way made my and in turn your lives palatable.
If it was cricket wise a slow day, I had to just turn to him and he unfailingly obliged me with some scintillating quotes. Needless to add the very thought he will very shortly demit office was disheartening.
Providentially, with the emergence of the CA spokesperson Peter Young, my despondency was short-lived. He first caught my attention with the 'otherwise persuade' quote. Here, I thought, is a man good enough to be Niranjan Shah's understudy and quietly congratulated myself on my discovery.
In fact, I spent the whole of yesterday calling up my friends and telling them about him. We all agreed he had the potential to exceed Niranjan Shah.
Needless to add he did not disappoint us. Today he followed up his 'otherwise persuade ' quote with this zinger.
"It's very simple. You go to the experts and if they say don't go, you don't go. If they say go, you go."
Here is one more:
"The advice we have received in recent times for
I tell you; even Niranjan Shah would have struggled to come up with anything similar.
Peter Young, you are genius and hence In the Name of Cricket appoints you as its court jester.
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If like me, you believe that cricket administrators have their finger on the pulse of the game, then the admission by the Chairman of the Cricket Operations Committee,
Referring to the sudden resignation of top Bangladeshi cricketers a perceptibly flabbergasted Hossain says:
"We are astonished at the sudden decision of the players. It was totally unexpected. We called them over the phone, sent text messages, but no one responded."
It is incredible that a Chairman of the Cricket Operations Committee is ignorant of the ground realities of
In all probability, the Right Honorable Chairman was busy elsewhere.
How do we 'otherwise persuade' someone?
"Our position is that the tour is going ahead unless we are otherwise persuaded," Peter Young, Cricket
In this case, a couple of bombs should do the trick.
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It emerges that ever since Dravid relinquished Test captaincy in 2007, his average has dipped to 34.
| Mts | Inns | NO | Runs | Avg | HS | 100s | 50s | 0s | |
| Before becoming full-time captain | 91 | 153 | 18 | 7871 | 58.30 | 270 | 20 | 38 | 5 |
| During full-time captaincy stint | 20 | 36 | 5 | 1598 | 51.55 | 146 | 4 | 10 | 0 |
| Since relinquishing captaincy | 13 | 25 | 3 | 754 | 34.27 | 111 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
Fab Four find no place in the ICC’s World Test Team.
