What ails Murali Karthick?

He is one player who I genuinely wish would succeed. Unfortunately, he is seems to be one of those players,to fall back on a cliché, who flatters to deceive.

Just take a look at his latest comeback, having started very strongly and helping India win against Australia during the ODI’s, he seem to be tapering off.

In fact, he was left out of the team for a couple of ODI’s against Pakistan and then was given a couple of games. Regretfully, he mucked it up and looks certain to spend his time as a substitute during the Tests.

If it happens, then he is just a step away from being ignored for the series down under.

A close examination of his career will reveal that this is his pattern, a recall, then a couple of stirring performances, then slowly inertia creeps into his game and to no ones surprise, he is dropped.

What ails him?

Another Craig Macmillan?

Former Australia batsman Darren Lehmann
announces his retirement from the game after a struggle with
injuries.

Is he one more ICL recruit?

Sour grapes – again

Australia’s preoccupation with India’s Twenty20 win continues.

FORMER Australia captain Kim Hughes says:

"That's why they like to play Twenty20 cricket because it reduces the game to a
slogathon.

"It helps hide their inadequacies, which are cruelly
exposed by Australia at Test level."

Why are they hell bent on diminishing India’s Twenty20 World Cup win?

Or are they indirectly acknowledging that India is snapping at their heels?

Malcolm Marshall and David Boon

Is this one true? I have never heard it before.

Malcolm Marshall was bowling to David Boon who had played and missed a couple of times. Marshall “Now, David, are you going to get out now or am I going to have to bowl around the wicket and kill you?”

A pink ball would have helped.

This guy completely misjudges the catch. Result a broken nose.

In the nether regions

Ball tampering

The English are obsessed

With winning the Ashes:

There are two objectives: 1) To regain the Ashes. 2) To win an ICC global event. We have won the Ashes once in 18 years. Never in 32 years have we won an ICC global event.




Sad. Will navel gazing do?

Would this game never end?

An American discovers cricket.

Anyway, as I ran the TV remote through the 300 or so channels, I paused on a
British sports channel with an image of men wearing overstuffed white pants,
strange helmets, oven mitts on their hands and holding fraternity paddles.

I put down the remote and decided to watch a game of cricket. The next
morning as I was brushing my teeth, the same game was in progress.

And here is his conclusion.

This game could use a “fast forward” button.

My conclusion:



What is your conclusion?

All-rounders are a over rated lot

Cullinan while comparing the SA team during his time with the present SA outfit says

"Ours was a very good team; we had some really good players. But the current
team is even better. I say this because this team has more all-rounders," he
said.

I don’t subscribe to the view that all-rounders make a team great. It is the specialists who make a good team great. All-rounders are handy when fighting a rear-guard action. Sometimes they stave off defeat; sometimes they give the final push to victory.

Barring Kapil Dev and Ian Botham, rarely have they fashioned victory on their own, but when they do, it is spectacular.

Collingwood on Captaincy

"I'd be lying if I said I haven't lay awake thinking
about the decisions I have to make as captain, it's a mentally tiring position
to hold. You have to look after every player when you're out on that field and
it can be difficult at times. The cricket match becomes a chess match. Being a
captain is hard but you get a great level of satisfaction from doing it
well.

Chess! Did he say chess?

So there is more to cricket than running after a leather ball.

Reminds me of a gent who talked about ‘x’ number of fools playing and ‘y’ number of fools watching.

This man needs to play on

I have long felt that Sachin was past his best and he was more often than not playing from memory. I have also been very vocal about it.

However, the way in which he was toying with the bowling yesterday was an eye opener.

This man needs to play on.

A wicket keeping cheerleader

Modern cricket is evolving at a furious pace. If you thought scantily clad cheerleaders during the Twenty20 radical – here is something unthought-of, a cheerleader as a wicketkeeper.

Prior is the epitome of the modern keeper as cheerleader and has perhaps been
more warmly welcomed in the England dressing room than by those outside it who
yearn for the more traditional talents of a Bob Taylor, Alan Knott or Jack
Russell. Or even a Chris Read.

And I always thought a wicket keeper was there to keep wickets.

Allan Donald and the white mans burden

At times you feel surreal. The inability of the English to see beyond their nose is well known and now the affliction seems to have spread to South Africa.

SOUTH African legend Allan Donald has warned Australia its domination of cricket
will not last as other national teams undergo change and plot retribution.

I have no issues with this statement. However the one which follows makes my stomach churn.

Donald has moved to ease fears from fans and rival players that Ricky Ponting's
team will never be caught by declaring South Africa and England are going
through a renewal period and will be two nations that will seriously challenge
for supremacy.

England has been resoundingly beaten by Australia and South Africa’s record against Australia is laughable.

There is no basis to his assumptions; nevertheless, Donald feels these are the two teams which can pose a challenge to Australia.

Poor Donald, he is laboring under a mistaken notion that only a ‘white team’ can beat Australia.

Is that the case? Isn’t he carrying the ‘white mans burden’?

Sreesanth wanted for his antics

If it happens it could be a first. A player selected for his antics.

"I am disappointed with the lack of intensity in this series. More needle is
required in the series. I think we need to play Sreesanth," Rameez said.

Can we say that Sreesanth is finally being accepted for what he is?

An MBA for Indian cricket coach's post

This is possible only in India.

An MBA graduate with no experience in playing
cricket has applied to be the coach of the Indian team, a board official said on
Tuesday.

"One of the applications we have received is
from an MBA graduate, despite the fact that he has not played any cricket. In
the column where applicants have to state their cricketing experience, he has
written that he has never played cricket," the official told IANS on condition
of anonymity.

"Further, he has written that he did not think
it was essential to play cricket to coach a team. He said that it required a
different kind of skill to manage the team," the official said. He declined to
name the individual.
Currently, the Indian team has an ad hoc coach, former
Test player Lalchand Rajput.

Need we say more?

More news on balls – the pink ones

The colour of balls used in the English one-day game could change from white to pink if trials by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), guardians of the laws of cricket, prove successful.

Why are they trying out pink balls?

Mike Gatting, the ECB's managing director of cricket partnerships, said: "We must always push the game forward and ensure we have the right equipment.

"We have tried white and orange balls and perhaps pink ones will last longer.
This is a very interesting and very wise development and a colour may have been
found that is easier on the eye."

The pink balls may be easy on the eye, but will it swing?

Don’t blame the Kookaburra

Australia captain Ricky Ponting is concerned about the lack of swing for bowlers this season.

Like any other manufacturer when doubts are expressed about the quality of their product, Kookaburra managing director Rob Elliot lays the blame on the users (players).

In his defense Elliot said “the mystery of the disappearing swing had nothing to do with the ball, which has remained unchanged since the last tinkering was made after the 1977 Centenary Test.”

He also added that “all balls were the same but given they are made of natural materials, there is always going to be some variation. The perception of players, he said, was the most common reason for discrepancies in reports on degrees of movement.”

To what do you attribute the lack of swing? Is it only the players perception or has it got to do with the quality of the balls?

BCCI to parcel picture rights?

The stage is being set for demanding payments for the right to distribute photographs of cricket matches conducted under their aegis of the BCCI.

The Indian cricket board backs Cricket Australia (CA) over a picture rights
dispute that has prompted international news agencies to boycott coverage of
matches in Australia, a senior official said on Monday.

Indian board
secretary Niranjan Shah said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
could adopt the same stance as CA for future domestic test series.

For those of you, who look at this as joke, here is a chilling reminder;

"Humor is also a way of saying something serious."

~ T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965)

Uthappa and the punch down the ground.

Uthappa recounts how he developed his ‘punch down the ground’.

"The punch down the ground came about because of where I grew up. There's a
house in front of the apartment where I stay, and in front of that house was an
empty plot where we played. There were roads on either side, so if I had to
score it would have to be straight. If I hit over the house and into the gutter,
it was six. So I always tried to punch straight."

My experience is also something similar.

During my formative days, I played cricket in a ground hemmed in by houses on three sides. The big scoring shots have to as a default come from either driving straight or picking the ball of a length and lofting it either over mid-off or mid-on. Needless to add some of my better shots were the ones played with a straight bat.

Which is your best stroke and how did it develop?

Chappell on the lasting impact of ICL

It sounds pretty ominous.

Chappell said he was particularly concerned about the standard of first-class
cricket in India now that the rebel Twenty20 Indian Cricket League has ripped up
to 44 players out of the domestic competition.

"There would be some
club sides in Melbourne which would now probably be better than some of the
first-class teams in India," he said.

He fears India's success in
the Twenty20 World Cup, prompting millions to mob the returning heroes, will
ease the pressure for structural reform in the country.

Surely, his concern for the structural reform is misplaced.

Did we ever have one?

Curtains for Kamran Akmal

Kamran Akmal’s recent wicket keeping form has left a lot to be desired. His batting too has failed to keep to its initial promise and now he is injured and is being replaced by Sarfraz Ahmed.

This is an excellent opportunity for Sarfraz Ahmed to make the wicket keepers slot his own and if he does it could mean ‘curtains’ for Kamran Akmal.

"Aussie-fied"

"Aussie-fied"- The art of swearing like a sailor at your opponents and then acting 'precious' when you get an earful in return. Also known as sledging and mental disintegration.


Hat tip: ArthurVandelay

Muppets - A new breed of selectors.

‘Muppet’s make their debut.

"If three guys are controlled by a joker you can do the wrong thing once, twice
but not the third time. You can be called muppets then."

Atapattu introduces a new variation to an old joke and popularizes ‘Muppet's’ among the cricket aficionados.

Trust an Englishman to find a silver lining.

Oliver Brett – BBC Sport

Sri Lanka's tepid performance so far in Brisbane against a transitional
Australian side convinces me that England could prosper in the December Tests in
Sri Lanka.

Will be interesting to hear what he has to say at the end of the Test series in Sri Lanka.

Pollock prefers pyjama cricket

This is surprising

On his future, Pollock said he preferred the shorter version than Test cricket,
if given a choice.

Most International cricketers pontificate on the virtues of Test cricket, so it is surprising to hear Pollock say he preferred the shorter version of the game.

Would have loved to hear him elaborate.

Return of the ‘thayir satham’ days

Kumble’s appointment may very well kill all the overt aggression shown by our players in the last season.


The danger is real, the ‘thayir satham’ days may make a comeback.

Duncan Fletcher- Flintoff was disloyal too

As for the charge of disloyalty that has been levelled at Fletcher, he meets it, with some justification, by effectively saying: "What about Flintoff's disloyalty to me? Doesn't that count?"




Now, now, this seems more like a husband and wife tiff than anything else.

Indian selectors accused of being unsure of what they are doing

"They should have named him (Kumble) until the
Australia tour at least. This move suggests they are not sure of what they are
doing," Anshuman Gaekwad.

Did they ever…….

However, I leave the floor to Niranjan Shah to give a suitable counter.

Kumble’s second wind

Even as I was harboring the hope that VVS Laxman would become the Captain, I knew that it was a toss up between Kumble and Dhoni.

What with the Fab 3 faltering and the ‘young blood’ showing signs of taking up the slack, I thought the selectors would be bold and daring and chart a new course by appointing Dhoni.

However, it was not to be. The selectors have timidly followed conventional wisdom and appointed Kumble. (He would have been an excellent choice, in other circumstances)

What can you say about his appointment? At best it is not a retrograde step nor is it a step forward, it is a step designed to maintain the status –quo, which in essence is neither here nor there.


(I have to admit that Kumble’s jaw line looks much more pugnacious.)

Second- most- important- job.

My preoccupations about the Indian cricket team has largely been confined to the composition of the team, individual talent, petty politicking and anything else that goes around in India (sometimes around the world) in the name of cricket.

However, it has never made me lose my sense of appropriateness, for I am a strong believer that whatever I do or rant, Niranjan Shah will effortlessly eclipse me with the size and scope of his blathering.

With this healthy dose of pragmatism, I consider cricket as just a game whose best players can be found among the officials of the BCCI, yet this had me gasping.

Tendulkar's refusal to take over the high-profile job, often regarded in this cricket-mad nation as the second-most important after the Prime Minister's.

I doubt whether any Indian will consider it so. We are passionate about our cricket. Winning or losing drives us into feeding frenzy. But we have our priorities right. To consider captaining India as the second most important job is a bit too much.

Damn it. It is the most important job in India.

What do you say?

Murali surrenders to the Australians

Murali, a renowned ‘chucker’ had avoided touring Australia all these years for the fear of being no-balled and banned.

Wary of being targeted by the Australian public, who know a genuine spinner when they see one, he tries to deflect the Australian public’s ire towards the Indians, who are to visit Australia next.

By alluding to the Indian cricket team’s aggressive tactics during the just concluded series, Murali hopes that the Australian public will leave him alone.

Be a man, Murali, fight your own battles.

Appointing a coach, Ravi Shastri and the selection charade

This coach appointment muddle is getting curious by the day.

Selection committee meetings are postponed, Ravi Shastri goes around proclaiming that there is no need to appoint a coach in a hurry.

What does this signify?

I suspect that they have already decided on a coach and the coach is going to be Ravi Shastri.

Something tells me that this charade is to give him sufficient time to complete his media engagements.

Could that be it?

All is not lost

Worried that the stand-off between the print media and Cricket Australia is going to deprive you the latest cricketing news from Australia.

Worry no further.

In the Name Of Cricket recommends getting your daily fix here.

It is sex,cricket and press agency, all rolled into one.

Sachin turns down captaincy

After dithering for long, Sachin finally decided to turn down Captaincy.

Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday turned down the offer to become the captain of India's Test cricket team just two days before his appointment was to be formally announced in Chandigarh.

However, it is too early to plump for Dhoni. There is still an element of doubt about his capabilities.

Kumble or VVS Laxman could be the compromise candidates.

I would go for VVS, because his career seems to follow the pattern of Venkatraghavan, who was Captain in one Test and the 12 th Man in the next.

'Punter' hates taking a chance

When it comes to his batting, Ponting is reluctant to take a chance.

Ponting insists that his wife watches every ball he faces when at the crease and that she sits in a seat with the No 14 on the back. Otherwise he reckons he won't score many at all.

Mrs Ponting has obviously been adhering to her husband's rules at Brisbane's Gabba ground. Ponting has left many bowlers wishing they didn't have to watch and wondering whether their wives had placed themselves in seat No 13.

A strange obsession for a man nicknamed 'Punter'.

MacGill - it is.

To an observer sitting here in India, it is difficult to understand why the Australian selectors are dithering in selecting MacGill.

If not for the accident of birth, MacGill would have given Warne and Muralitharan a run for their money.

Obviously, Hogg’s recent success and MacGill’s quirkiness caused the selectors take a close look at their merits.

However, they have finally decided to release Brad Hogg from Australia's squad for the first Test, leaving Stuart MacGill free to take the position of the No.1.spinner.

Now the onus is on MacGill to cement his place in the team.

First Test boycott?

Meanwhile, there is brinkmanship at its best in Australia.

Cricket Australia and the media have come into conflict over
CA's new policy which includes charging news organisations to take news photos
at games.

Major news organisations may resort to a print news
blackout of this week's first Test between Australia and Sri Lanka in
Brisbane.

If someone has to back off, it is going to be Cricket Australia.

Pakistan-India series will be Malik’s last as captain

The Knives are already out.

Pakistan’s former Test batsman Basit Ali has said the
Pakistan-India series, starting on Monday (today), will be Shoaib Malik’s last
series as the captain of the Pakistan team. Talking to Daily Times here on
Sunday, Basit said there would be lot of pressure on young Malik as Pakistan had
a ‘very poor’ home series against South Africa while India had a ‘reasonably
good’ series against the Australians.

Malik faces a fate reserved for the Captains of Pakistan and India.

If they loose a series against their traditional rivals, they are sure to be sacked.

May we field our best XI please?

Siddhartha Mishra, makes an attempt at being objective and falls short.
Granted, that no one should be considered good or bad on the basis of their date of birth, but then everyone even prodigies like Sachin have their ‘sale by date’.

Which brings us to the question uppermost on our mind, who is good enough to replace them? In addition to this thought is our fear that if you wait until the ‘seniors’ give up their places are n’t we slicing it thin?

This is the best time to identify their successors and groom them.

Let us field our best XI, but let us also actively look for the next best, now.

Luckily, Asif did not have a gun

Otherwise, Akthar's fate could have been similar to this man's.

He told investigators a cricket match got heated
Saturday, and that the other man charged at him with a cricket bat,so he shot
him in the stomach.

Me thinks, a shoot- out is much more exciting than a bowl- out.

Sreesanth may not change his behaviour.

Why should he?

talkative Sreesanth's on-field antics have only helped
him get better deals in the brand circuit. The Kerala pacer's endorsement value
has zoomed up from Rs 25 lakhs to Rs 40 lakhs after his fiery display in
Twenty20 tournament.

His antics may not help him in the field, but it will surely land him some fat endorsement contracts.

To speculate, Boost could sign him up for their ‘secret of my energy’ campaign or even Pepsi as a representative of GenX.

The Pakistan Team sets the Agenda.

Pakistan is certainly making a play at being the nice guys who have come over to play a friendly.

By projecting themselves as ‘inexperienced’, with just a ‘couple of seniors’ and implying that they are the underdogs, they are attempting to give a different feel to this series.

The idea seems to be to pose as a lesser team and lessen the intensity of the battle. The motive is debatable. Do they genuinely feel that their team is less of a threat or is it an attempt to lull the Indians into over-confidence?

In turn, the Indians have gone silent. There are neither ‘no meeting fire with fire’ jingoistic statements coming out of the Indian camp and nor any touchy-feel statements.

One hopes that the Indians are not taken in by the bhai-bhai statements emanating out of the Pakistan camp.

A Decade of Duckworth-Lewis system

This law is an ass.

ON January 1 1997, Zimbabwe beat England by six runs, in a one day international
match at Harare Sports Club after the target had been revised under the
Duckworth-Lewis method.

Anyone has anything polite to say about it?

Flintoff’s betrayal

Leaving aside contemplating Fletcher’s motives in revealing Flintoff’s drinking problem, the other thing which came to my mind was how could a man and one who is the Captain of a Team do something as silly as turning up drunk for practice.

In fact, I couldn't’t help but marvel at Flintoff’s stupidity and dismissed the episode as one other idol’s fall from grace.

However when James Lawton accuses Flintoff for dereliction of duty and for stabbing sports fans in the back, I could not help but agree.

Don’t you think Flintoff and other such flawed sporting heroes have betrayed their fans trust?

Any ‘English’ cricketers left?

This definitely reflects badly on England.

An astonishing 33 South African cricketers - enough to
fill three teams - played county cricket in England this year as
England-qualified or "Kolpak" players, an article in the 2007 Mutual &
Federal South African Cricket Annual reveals.

A shortage of homegrown talent.

Let the Fittest Survive

Richard Bevan, Chief executive, Professional Cricketers' Association, complains that

“The amount of cricket being played by our top stars is unprecedented in the
history of our game.”

He goes on to add:

Some thrive, some collapse. Some breeze through and others seethe inside. By its
nature, this is an affliction that arises from a large number of causes and
every case will be different, but it is undeniably at its heart a "volume of
cricket" issue.

How do people or organisations make such inappropriate statements and expect to convince their listeners or readers about the legitimacy of their complaints?

Firstly, everyone has job related stress, but unlike these selected few, others are not rewarded as handsomely.

Secondly, no one forced these ‘elitists’ to choose cricket as their profession. They did so by themselves. A lot many of us never had the choice of working in a profession we love.

Thirdly, not many jobs permit you to travel with your wife in tow. A telling perk denied to most CEO’s around the world.

Finally, a question for the Professional Cricketers Association, is there any law which states that only a few should represent their country?

Chuck out these wimps, bring in the bold, the new and the strong. Let the fittest survive.

Why has Fletcher ignored India?

As an Indian, I am angered at Fletcher for ignoring India.

If you carefully follow the pattern in his revelations, he has targeted a legend from each cricketing nation for his mudslinging and indications are that SA and then WI maybe the next.

However, my intuition tells me Indian worthies have been ignored, which is a gross insult to Indians and its cricket loving people.

I assume that Fletcher ignored India for the following reasons.

1.He does not know about India.
2.He knows about India and he also knows Indians don’t care a damn about him and his book.
3.His publishers don’t have an Indian subsidiary.
4.His publishers have a subsidiary in India and hence they know that no one will buy the book.

I challenge Fletcher to come and sling innuendos on any Indian Legend, after all they need their notoriety too, don't they?

Pakistan takes the moral high ground

Pakistan’s coach has taken the moral high ground by saying that his team is looking for an incident free series.

"We just played a series against South Africa -- very hard, tough,
non-compromising cricket," he said. "But there was not one bad word said between
the teams.

"The series was played in a very fine spirit, as cricket
should be. I hope this series is played in exactly the same
style.

"We've got a captain who likes his players to behave
properly on the field," he said. "I'm pretty sure MS Dhoni likes his players to
do the same."

Good suggestion Lawson. Let us have cricket and not politics played out in the field.

Pakistan’s cricketing greats unsure about their team

The game of second guessing the selectors seem to have caught on in Pakistan.

Right from poor selection, to inexperience and to lack of planning are factors which casts doubts on their teams chances in India.

The beauty is that these aspirations are cast not by the uninformed, but by men who have occupied the same chairs in different capacities.

Either, they are questioning the wisdom of their selectors or they are preparing grounds to excuse their team’s performance.

Wonder, whether it will affect their teams morale.