Day- Night Tests a certainty?

The ICC appears keen to introduce day - night Test matches in order to make Test matches more popular.

 

In fact at the end of a 2 day board meeting at Johannesburg, ICC released a statement that there will be "further research into various proposals for product development and variation of Test cricket, including day-night Test matches".

Though a cricketing 'purist' may look askance, day - night Test matches appear the only way to attract a wider audience for Test cricket.

 

Another idea though this one is unofficial, is to build a 'context' around a Test match. The propagators behind this idea believe, by building a context around a Test match for example a stake at the World Champion Test side title, it will attract more crowd to watch them.

Cricket: Shed a tear for Younus Khan

Nothing is going right for the Pakistan cricket team captain Younus Khan.

 

Not only, has his own batting performance faltered ( Younus has scored only two half-centuries in his last 19 ODIs.) he has also managed to lose two ODI series since the euphoric ICC Twenty20 World Cup.

 

On top of that Shahid Afridi has made some astute moves.

 

He has started batting more responsibly and has also made the right noises, including asking Younus Khan to reconsider his decision to retire from the Twenty20 form of the game.

 

Younus Khan has unwittingly agreed to reconsider it and has set off a furore over his decision.

 

The factions which were already against him have not only lambasted him for the decision but have also been keenly asking for Shahid Afridi to be appointed captain of the Pakistan cricket team.

 

Now that former Pakistani players have also called for his sacking it looks as if Younus has to do something exceptional to not only retain his captaincy but also his place in Pakistan cricket squad.

India vs. Sri Lanka: Indian squad

The Indian selectors sprung a surprise by including S.Sreesanth in the 15 member squad for the 1st 2 Tests against the visiting Sri Lanka cricket team.

While Zaheer Khan's recall was in the offing, Sreesanth's inclusion came straight out of the blue.

Though it is unlikely that Sreesanth may play in these Tests, the selectors may have selected him to evaluate how he gels with the squad.

It is pertinent to remember that this is the first time Sreesanth is sharing a dressing room with Harbhajan Singh after the infamous 'slapping' incident during the inaugural IPL tournament.

The Indian cricket team for the first 2 Tests against Sri Lanka:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Murali Vijay, Subramaniam Badrinath, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, S. Sreesanth.

IPL has reduced nastiness in Cricket

Sunil Gavaskar believes that the Indian Premier League (IPL), by bringing world's leading cricketers and thus helping them understand each other better, has reduced nastiness in cricket.

 

According to a PTI report Gavaskar told reporters at a book launch:

"During our times, there used to be intense rivalry as every player used to play to win. But the IPL has brought players from different countries together creating a good rapport among them."

While the IPL is too new a tournament to base such observations on, the relatively rancour free current 7 match one-day International's between India and Australia makes one believe there is some truth in it.

India Australia 7th ODI Mumbai

An intriguing situation confronts the Indian cricket team.

 

Having been at the receiving end at Mohali, Hyderabad and Guwahati and thus conclusively losing the series, should they use the ODI at the D Y Patil stadium to fine tune themselves for the upcoming series against the Sri Lankans.

 

There are those who argue that with a Test series,ODI's and Twenty20's coming up against the Sri Lankan's in another 4 days, India should try to win the last ODI against the Australians and thus regain some of their badly mauled pride.

 

This blogger believes that the Australian's will use this match to impose themselves on the Indians thus making sure that India realises where exactly they stand as an ODI team.

 

SET MAX Maximises IPL-3 Revenue

The official broadcasters of the Indian Premier League (IPL)cricket tournament, SET Max is estimated to rake in over Rs 650 crore during IPL -3, 30 per cent higher than it got in IPL-2.

The channel has signed on two co-presenting sponsors, Vodafone and Videocon for around Rs 55 crore each, while each associate sponsor is shelling out between Rs 35 to 40 crore, depending on the number of secondages bought.

SET Max this time will have 10 associate sponsors, of which eight have been signed up. Pepsi, Samsung, LG and Hyundai are among the associate sponsors.

From here:

Cricket: Kumara Sangakkara is no slouch

The Sri Lankan cricket team has arrived with Kumara Sangakkara at the helm.

As befitting the successor of Mahela Jayewardene, he appears no slouch at mouthing management gyan.

For example, Sangakkara believes that the Indian team is the team under pressure because the Sri Lankan team has never won a Test match in India in the 27 years.

If that gyan wasn't convincing or threatening enough to cow the Indian cricket team, he is talking about how his team has set daily targets and plans to meet 'challenges'.

Unfortunately, the Sri Lankan cricket team captain may end up talking about this tour to India being 'learning curve' as his team is largely inexperienced and carry the aging veteran Jayasuriya.

Guwahati ODI : India gambles and loses series

Image by R▲▲S via Flickr

The best thing that could have happened to Dhoni would have been losing the toss. Unfortunately he won.This presented him with a Hobsons choice.

For if he elected to bat first, then his batsmen would have to overcome seaming conditions. If he chose to bat second then bad light would have made it a mad scramble to beat the D/L method.

The fact that Dhoni risked batting first shows how much faith he reposed on his bowlers.

As expected the India batsmen failed to counter the swing deployed by the Australian bowlers.

So badly did they bat (27 for five in nine overs) that the 170 they made in 48 overs can be almost called remarkable.

However, the total proved too little for the Australians who had their tails up and they effectively closed the series 4-2 without working up much of a sweat.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Rape Victims' Hobson's Choice (themoderatevoice.com)

Guwahati 6th ODI: Bad Light may prove decisive

India has win back to back matches to win the series. Unfortunately for them, the most decisive ODI of the series is being played at Guwahati.

The Indian cricket team has to pull something extraordinary because at Guwahati there are too many imponderables in the mix.

Firstly an early start and secondly an early close means the toss becomes important.

If Dhoni chooses to bat on winning the toss, then his batsmen will have to confront seaming conditions at least for the first 2 hours of the innings. Knowing the Indian batsmen's penchant for fishing outside the off stump, Dhoni might frown at this option but the Australian bowlers will contemplate the prospect of bowling first with glee.

The alternative, batting second, will provide Dhoni little comfort. Bad light will certainly raise its ugly head and the D/L method may decide the fate of the match.

Under these circumstances, it is imperative that the Indian team should pull together.

If India is to win this crucial ODI, Sehwag has to connect and Nehra has to find the edges.

Guwahati ODI: India's strategy

If India were to lose tomorrows ODI, then they effectively lose the series.
Considering the gravity of the situation, one expected Dhoni to make more than a gratuitous remark about India's strategy:

"The strategy is to get off a good start and then capitalise on it. We have done well in patches. It's important to be consistent especially when it comes to fielding. So we are hoping to field well."

Let us hope Dhoni has a much better strategy than this and his remark was made to keep the Australians in the dark.



[Caption]

We salute Amol Muzumdar

In the Name of Cricket salutes Amol Muzumdar.

Amol Muzumdar became the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy, going past another domestic giant Amarjit Kaypee's mark of 7623 runs.

A man unnaturally ignored by the Indian selectors and one who held more promise and one who had more talent than those who made it to the Indian cricket team.

Amol Muzumdar a true servant of Indian cricket

Can Joel Garner turn it around?

Former West Indies fast bowler Joel Garner, team manager for the West Indies tour to Australia, hopes to instill a sense of the pride with which they dominated world cricket in the past.

But do the current lot of West Indian cricketers have the same commitment?

West Indies Cricket groping in the dark