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.
Previous Post
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.
The unimaginable has happened.
For the first time none of the fab four have found a place in the ICC's World Test Team. Until now, one or the other has always been Indian cricket's representative in the World Test XI.
The exclusion of the fab four by a selection panel comprising of Clive Lloyd (Chairman), Greg Chappell, Shaun Pollock, Sidhath Wettimuny and former Bangladesh batsman Athar Ali Khan and the inclusion of Virendar Sehwag as the lone Indian cricketer indicates that the others in the cricketing world have started looking beyond them.
It is also a clear signal to the Indian selectors that it is time Indian cricket looked beyond the fab four.
The question is do they have the guts to do it.
It appears that the 'break' has refreshed his body but has done nothing to clear his mind. Shaun Tait believes,
I would definitely like to touch the 145 kph barrier. It may not happen straightaway but I'm sure it will. I'm a tearaway who likes to be used in short spells, bowl fast, attack and get wickets.
I think he would better serve the Australian cause if he concentrates on bowling a good line and length.
Previous Posts::
India-Australia Tour - The Indian's are the favorites
Why should the BCCI share the IPL pot?
What are the Australians doing in
Irrespective of the fate of the 'fab four', I consider the Indian cricket team to be the favorites.
Consider the following facts:
Adam Gilchrist has retired.
His own colleagues have certified Andrew Symonds as mentally unfit.
Personal problems beset Brett Lee.
Matthew Hayden and Ponting are recovering from an Achilles tendon injury and a wrist injury respectively.
Moreover, in the aftermath of the Sydney Test the Australians have shown a disinclination to engage the Indians in verbal warfare. This is in sharp contrast to the Indian players who view sledging as an important tool to gain ascendancy over their opponents.
Whom do you consider as favorites?
Previous Post:
Why should the BCCI share the IPL pot?
Dutch Cricket – In a world of its own
What are the Australians doing in
If it was an unnamed official earlier, now it is the turn of the Sri Lankan Captain Mahela Jayawardene to demand a share from IPL.
"The BCCI also needs to understand that we can't be playing four Twenty20 tournaments in a year. What happens to other cricket around the world then?" Jayawardene said. "Everyone's being driven by the money but you have to compromise and start sharing the pot."
I find his insistence illogical. The IPL is the only domestic Twenty20 tournament that welcomes overseas cricketers with hitherto unimaginable salaries. The other cricketing nations barring
Letting overseas players reap rich rewards for their sporadic participation in IPL means that IPL is indeed sharing its booty. Why should the BCCI or its creation IPL compensate their boards? If Mahela and his mercenary troops are concerned about the financial health of their cricketing association, let them share a percentage of the colossal sum they make in IPL.
Yesterday he was saying that the Indian batsmen have unraveled his secrets.
Today, he is pleading Don't expect too much from me.
It is obvious that Mendis is worried about the backlash if he fails to justify the hype.
Hence, he is trying to tone down expectations.
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Dutch Cricket – In a world of its own
What are the Australians doing in
Their justification for proposing the two-day format:
The proponents of bringing a two-day component into the top level of the Dutch domestic game have a lot of work to do to persuade the bulk of the cricketing community not only that the move would enhance the sport, but that it is essential for the long-term health of the shorter forms of the game as well.
In all top cricket countries, the skills which the leading players exhibit in the one-day game, and now in Twenty20, have been developed, honed and refined in two-, three- or four-day cricket, of which the shorter forms are basically a concentration. The Associates face a huge handicap because they are trying to reverse that process.
If the argument for multi-day cricket simply has to be won if Dutch cricket is to progress, it's less obvious how it can most effectively be introduced.
The fundamental choice is between adapting the existing league structure to make room for two-day matches alongside the current 50-over format – the option proposed by Top Cricket Nederland – and creating an entirely new, regional competition between the Hoofdklasse and international cricket.
However, it is distressing to see that a two-day tournament have to be justified as a means to develop theTwenty20 skills of the Dutch cricketers.
Previous Post:
An introspective Saurav Ganguly is the reason why the Hoogly is serene
Admitting that the game is up as far as the ODI's are concerned, Ganguly believes he has a couple of more years of cricket left in him. In fact, like a faltering lover he desires to bid adieu to both the Tests and IPL (KKR) at the same time.
However, there is one catch; the former Indian Captain is reluctant to leave the game without enhancing his reputation. It means that Ganguly is determined to play in some more Tests.
While there is nothing wrong in a player of his stature wishing to determine his last hurrah, one wonders whether the selectors will let him do just that.
Previous Posts:
Why pick a bowler with suspect action?
Ganguly is an certainty for the Oz Series
Makarand Waingankar asks in his column in 'THE HINDU'.
It is common knowledge that the
Yet he has represented
Makarand argues it better for all concerned that the bowler undergoes corrective rehabilitation.
I find Makarand's argument valid as it will certainly mar Mohnish Parmar's psyche if he is banned.
Do you agree with me?
The dates of the multi-million dollar event clash with the International Cricket Council's decision to hold the Champions Trophy one-day tournament in October 2009.
The Champions Trophy, the International Cricket Council's (ICC) second biggest tournament after the World Cup, was due to be held this month but was cancelled due to security concerns in Pakistan".
One wonders whether India,Australia and South Africa are making a calculated move to ensure that Pakistan never stages the ICC Champions Trophy.
'There is huge pressure on them to be role models. I do believe that the general public want from their sports stars, the perfect human beings. Supporters expect players must have tunnel vision and be driven to absolute perfection in their specific art, yet be balanced and broad in their worldly views."
Image by Márcio Cabral de Moura via Flickr 
The Board of Control for Cricket (read Niranjan Shah) in India on Thursday took strong exception to coach Gary Kirsten's comments that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is ready for Test captaincy and asked the South African to strictly concentrate on his job. BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah has categorically told Kirsten to avoid airing his views in the media and focus on coaching.
The Australian reports that "GREG Chappell will help plan Australia's defence of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in next month's four-Test tour of India after being appointed coach of Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane yesterday".
