The much maligned umpire referral system appears to have hit a road block.
The TV referral system has been approved by the ICC for use in all Tests, including the current India vs. Sri Lanka Test series.
However, a stand- off on who will fund the expensive equipments appears to have derailed its implementation.
The fact that it gave the likes of Tendulkar and Dravid nightmares when it was experimented in the last Sri Lankan series may have made BCCI a reluctant user.
Similarly, the England cricket team and media were equally dismayed when it was trialled during the English cricket tour of West Indies.
Since BCCI holds the money and the English media controls the opinion on cricket, it is unlikely that ICC will do anything further and let the referral system die a natural death.
A week into his 33 rd birthday, Australian paceman Brett Lee is forced to consider his future in cricket.
Brett Lee has been hampered by injuries since 2000. Stress fractures of the back, abdominal strains, elbow surgery, an ankle surgery - you name it he has had it all.
He, however, over came these injuries, to take 310 wickets in 76 Test matches and 324 wickets at 23 in 186 limited-overs internationals.
This year Brett Lee has been plagued by recurring elbow injury, that not only kept him away from Test series against South Africa and England, but also kept him away from a domestic match last weekend.
Adding to his discomfiture has been statements from selectors and Ricky Pointing, that made it plainly obvious that he has lost ground to Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus in the Australian fast bowling pecking order.
Since the disintegration of his marriage there is also a seed of doubt about Brett Lee's hunger for the game.
As he himself remarked in an interview yesterday, the recurring injuries have forced him to think about his future in cricket.
Will he continue to harbour Test cricket ambitions or will he restrict himself to ODI's and Twenty20 matches?
IPL's franchisee owners have not taken kindly to IPL's decision to allow reauction of all players for IPL 4,
Basically, the reauction means that the IPL franchisees will have to bid for their players again. The franchisee owners believe that this could lead to bidding flare up for players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Gilchrist.
Outwardly IPL's move to reauction is apparently to help the 2 new franchisees who will become a part of IPL 4 from 2011. However, IPL's primary motive appears to be to cut the current franchisee owners to seize.
The decision by IPL to end the services of IMG last August, did not go well with the franchisee owners. Some of the more influential of them demanded IPL to reconsider the decision and also expressed anguish over the unilateral decision taken by IPL.
Similarly, it is rumoured that there is move to form a IPL franchisee owners association, tentatively named Franchisees United, to play a larger role in BCCI’s decision-making and explore opportunities.
IPL and its owner BCCI have not taken kindly to this association and also to the earlier instance of being questioned about the IMG contract.Historically, BCCI has guarded its insularity religiously and have always turned its might on any attempts to dominate it.
This time however, they may meet stiffer resistance if the franchisee owners band together. So it is in BCCI's interest to see that these franchisee owners are cut to size and the reauction is the first move by them to get the franchisee owners realise who is the boss.
A 157-year-old cricket club in the Black Country could be forced to close its historic pavilion amid safety fears.
Stourbridge Cricket Club, founded in 1842, based at the Memorial Ground, High Street, Amblecote, needs £10,237 to update its 40-year-old wiring system to meet national heath and safety guidelines.
The club's 366 members have applied to Dudley Council's Stourbridge Area Committee for £8,000 and plan to match the amount themselves through fundraising events.
At 32 for 4, it appeared a repeat of the 1st Day of the India vs..South Africa Test played at the same ground. However, to state the obvious, the Sri Lanka cricket team is nowhere in the same class as the South African's and squandered a dream start.
Let us not get ahead of ourselves and start at the beginning, Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and unhesitatingly elected to bat.
Expectedly, the Indian top order, barring the maverick Virender Sehwag who played another cameo, succumbed to the swing of the Sri Lanka bowlers and was quickly on its knees.
That's when Rahul Dravid walked in and went on to bat the whole day and in the process completely turned the match on its head.
The most striking element of Dravid's innings was his rapid scoring rate. His strike rate was so good that at 385 for 6 India closed the day at its highest ever score on the 1st day of a Test match.
In his quest to regain the advantage of winning the toss, Dravid was ably supported by Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Though 385 is a good score, Rahul Dravid should ensure that India goes on to post a score in excess of 450 and take the match completely away from the Sri Lanka cricket team.
Brief scores:
India 1st Innings: 385 for 6 in 90 overs (Rahul Dravid 177 not out, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 110, Yuvraj Singh 68, Chanaka Welegedara 3/75, Dhammika Prasad 2/90).
The ICC announced yesterday that the tickets for next year's ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies are now on sale around the world.
The International Cricket Council also announced the ticket prices and emphasised their desire to make the ICC World Twenty20 affordable.
Ticket prices for the single group stage matches will cost US $ 3 and for the double headers the ground entry cost will be US $5. The tickets for the Super Eight will cost US $8 and semi-finals will fluctuate between US $ 10 - 20.
General tickets for the finals on 16 th May will cost US $ 20 with the premium stand ticket costing US $ 40.
TUI has been appointed the official tour operator for India.
The Sri Lanka Cricket team have never won a Test match in the Indian soil in the last 2 decades.
Under their new captain, Kumara Sangakkara, they are working hard to wipe away this blemish. To further their ambition, they have a highly potent bowling attack.
The Sri Lanka team are also a much better than the Indian cricket team when it comes to fielding.
Added to this is the fact that the Sri Lanka cricket team is the second ranked team, behind the Australian in ICC Test rankings.
Undoubtedly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team mates will have to play very hard to stave off this challenge.
However, to achieve their objective the Sri Lanka team have to bat to their potential.
For it is their batting that invariably falls short in comparison. The Sri Lanka batsmen have always promised much, but failed to deliver on overseas tours. Barring, Sangakkara, the other batsmen have woeful records in away matches.
The Indian cricket team have their own woes to overcome.
For starters, this Test series is the first they are playing since last April. The Indian cricketers have to settle quickly into the Test cricket mode and also overcome the ODI series defeat against the Australians.
The batting has an unsettled look with an over dependence on the explosiveness of Virender Sehwag.
Similarly, the Indian bowling attack has all the makings of revolving door. The pace attack have a couple of bowlers who are making their way back from injuries.
The thinking that Harbhajan Singh is waning and his worth to the team appears to be his ability to rile the opposition has gained credence.
In short, both teams have the capability but the series win depends on whom will play well in the 1st Test match.
The 3 test series is too short to recover lost ground for both the teams. Hence the 1st Test that starts at the Motera on Monday could well decide the series.
Tickets for the 2010-11 Ashes series in Australia are on sale - but only in England. The intriguing part of it is the fact this is being done with the blessings of Cricket Australia.
Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young explains why Ashes tickets are being sold to English fans ahead of the Australian cricket fan?
"Travellers from overseas need time to get their arrangements in place.
"It's standard practice for major events. We're keen to encourage overseas fans, and the English seem to be the strongest travellers. There are a lot of pluses ... the 2006-07 Ashes created $315 million of incremental economic activity for Australia. As far as the Australian economy goes, it's fabulous.
"A lot of money goes into Australian cricket because they buy tickets and they enjoy themselves while they're here and add a great deal to the economy."
It sounds practicable but one has to wait and watch how the disgruntled Australian fan for whom seeing an Ashes Test match is like a pilgrimage reacts to this partiality to the Poms.
Ajantha Mendis was effective when the Indian cricket team toured Sri Lanka last year. So effective was he with his ‘carom ball’ that he ran rings around accomplished batsman like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.
In fact he proved to be the game changer and helped Sri Lanka win the series. Rahul Dravid, who have seen off threats from the great Shane Warne , was completely befuddled by Ajantha Mendis.
The trial run of the ‘referral system’ helped Mendis no end. The Indian cricketer, a reluctant adapter, was at the receiving end of a few borderline decisions. So Mendis with his exotic ‘delivery’ proved lethal and was hailed too quickly if one might add as successor: to the maverick bowling legend, Muthiah Muralitharan.
However, his effectiveness diminished against the Indian ODI team, which had some young Turks. So much so, a relative new comer to International cricket, Virat Kohli, was pulling his ‘carom ball’ to the boundary with impunity.
Sadly, for Mendis, his potency went southwards after the historic debut Test series against India.
This brings us back to the question we were exploring: will Ajantha Mendis prove as effective in India as he was in Sri Lanka?
The answer for that is a resounding no. But with a caveat, he may prove lethal in ODI’s and Twenty20 matches where batsmen have to play more instinctively than in the Tests.
Sunil Gavaskar believes Sachin Tendulkar is ahead of other batting greats because he has played International cricket for 20 years.
To quote:
Sachin Tendulkar is slightly ahead of batting greats Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting , former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN on Wednesday.
"I think apart from Sir Garfield Sobers, nobody has played 20 years of international cricket," Gavaskar said. "And 20 years of playing at the highest level and playing at the highest standards - that is an achievement beyond compare."
While there is no debating Sachin Tendulkar's greatness, Gavaskar, by calling attention to Sachin Tendulkar's longevity, has reduced it to the level of flattery.
Surely, everyone will agree that mere longevity is not greatness.
IPL franchises agreed to use pink balls in warm-up matches and practice sessions.
IPL is an excellent launch pad for pink balls as top cricketers will get an opportunity to get assimilated. Not only that the scruffy grounds in India will provide an excellent work out for the pink balls and help decide on their durability.
In other IPL related news, IPL franchisees have abandoned the 12th man and in turn agreed to use 4 fielding substitutes instead.
Questions surround the West Indies team that set out yesterday for Australia, where they will engage what is still, arguably, the most formidable cricket team in the world. The most crucial of these is how the players will bind together, given that the squad is made up of players who took part in the prolonged strike caused by the dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Players Association (WIPA) and those who, by breaking the strike, came into such prominence that they are now part of this all-inclusive line-up.
