Who's to blame?

Tendulkar was given out LBW 3 times in a row...which all of them should not have been given out...He was declared LBW in the first ODI when the ball was clearly pitched outside the leg stump, he fell LBW again in the second ODI when the ball was missing the leg stump and was again ruled leg-before by Sri Lankan umpire Gamini Silva on Tuesday when the ball was going down the leg side by an even wider margin.

The umpiring was terrible...Wrong umpiring decisions are common but three times in a row that too the same batsman..this is un-reasonable..

It's very disappointing to see Sachin given out by these very poor umpiring decisions...

But Sachin was moving way across the stumps which gave umpires a bit of doubt...But the decisions should be in favour of the batsman when the umpires have a doubt in their mind...

Who should be blamed now?? Sachin for his movement across the stumps? or umpires for their wrong decisions?

By the way why can't ICC implement that referral system in ODIs too??

Tight Schedule

Australians are still here playing test cricket. England have already reached India for 7 ODIs and 2 Tests. And they have already started their preparations. ODI series between India and England begins on 14th November, just 3 days after the test series with Australia concludes.
The players(Indian) have no time to rest. It's not this time, it is going to be the case for the next 9 months.

Indian players are going to play non-stop cricket for the next 9 months, which starts with the ODI series against Egland. The ODI series will be followed by Champions Twenty20 Leauge in India and then the 2-test series with England. Soon after India will facing Pakistan in Pakistan for a three-match Test series, 5 match ODI series and a Twenty20 match. Then India will play 2 tests, 5 ODIs and a Twenty20 against New Zealand in New Zealand. Soon after this series finishes, they will take part in the 2nd season of Indian Premium League. They have to fly all across the country during the IPL. Within a week, India have to go to Egland to play in ICC Twenty20 World Cup, followed by 4 ODIs with West Indies in West Indies.

The schedule for India in next 9 months is as follows.

India Vs England : 7 ODIs and 2 Tests, 14th Nov'08 - 23rd Dec'08
Champions Twenty20 Leauge : 3rd Dec'08 - 10th Dec'08
India Vs Pakistan : 5 ODIs, 1 Twenty20 and 3 Tests, 6th Jan'09 - 19 Feb'09
India Vs New Zealand : 5 ODIs, 1 Twenty20 and 2 Tests, 6th Mar'09 - 7th Apr'09
IPL 2nd season 10th Apr'09 - 29th May'09
ICC World Twenty20 : 5th June'09 - 21st June'09
India Vs West Indies : 4 ODIs 26th Jun'09 - 5th July'09

There has been a lot of debate over too much cricket in India. This schedule causes a lot of problems to the players' fitness. Many players are prone to injuries because of this kind of schedule.

Many people were surprised over Sachin's decision to opt out of the first 3 ODIs. He wanted rest and so he opted out for first 3 ODIs. Many players would follow Sachin if such is the case with this tight schedule. Dhoni pulled himself out of test series against Sri Lanka this year because of the tight schedule at that time.

The cricket fans will enjoy this, but not the players...a tough time ahead for the players...
I am afraid some of Indian players may pull out themselves during these 9 months. BCCI need to implement rotation policy.

Who wants to be Stanford's millionaire?

A Match can change their life.....Yes I'm talking about Stanford T20. After a lot of publicity and practice matches, the final showdown is here. The US $20 million match between England and Stanford Superstars is all set to begin on Saturday, 1st November.

The winner of the match takes all the money. The losing team gets nothing. The player who takes his team to victory will be a hero. If a player commits a mistake and if his team loses the match, everyone in the team has to suffer. And all of them see that player as villian who cost them $20 million.

This match is going to be an interesting one. But it won't at all do good for the game of cricket. There is a famous saying "Money is the root of all evil". And that's the case with these Twenty20's.

If Stanford really wants to help West Indies cricket why doesn't he directly involve with the board and give the money directly to the West Indies board.

Twenty-20 is for money, fun and excitement. Twenty-20 surely destroys the Test cricket. Test
cricket is the best form of the game and ICC must fo something to protect test cricket.

Everyone thinks Twenty-20 is always exciting, but unless you get a close match, games can be as uninteresting as in any other forms of cricket.

When will Yuvraj learn?

India Blue won the the recent NKP Challenger Trophy. But Yuvraj Singh's contribution to the team's victory was almost nil. He was out for some poor shots in this series. He doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes. He was trying to play too many shots too early in the innings.
His place in the team is going to be in danger. A lot of talented youngsters are there waiting for the place in the national team. Yuvraj must be aware of this and he has to perform to keep his place safe.
Yuvraj was in the form of his life one year ago. He was named as the man of the series in three consecutive series against South Africa (joint with Graeme Smith), against Pakistan and England. He scored three centuries and four half-centuries in fifteen matches in those 3 series. It helped him to make it into the top ten of the ICC ODI batting rankings.
Though he is there in the international cricket for around 8 years, he is yet to make his mark in the test cricket. Though he got many opportunities in tests, he did not utilize them. He already lost his place in the test team. And if you consider his recent ODIs, he scored 72 runs with an average of 14.40 in 5 matches against SriLanka. He struggled a lot against the spinners. And it's still the main concern for Yuvi.
In the last 12 months, he has not played a big innings. He scored 840 in 27 matches with an average of 35.00. After his successful performance in the T20 world cup last year, Yuvraj has been playing that kind of shots in all formats of the game. He was trying to hit every ball out of the ground. It's going to be difficult for Yuvraj to keep his place safe in the team(atleast ODIs) unless he changes his attitude.
C'mon Yuvi...you are a match winner...make a strong come back...

ICC introduces rankings for women's ODI cricket

ICC lanuched the ICC ODI Women's Rankings today in Mumbai.
Claire Taylor of England is the No. 1 batswoman. Indian batswoman Mithali Raj and Australian all rounder Lisa Sthalekar stands at No.2 and No.3 respectively. Lisa Sthalekar has been ranked the No. 1 all rounder. Jhulan Goswami , the Indian pace bowler who recently replaced Mithali Raj as Indian captain, is the No. 1 bowler.
This initiative towards the Womens's cricket rankings will increase the popularity of women's cricket. We have ICC Women's World Cup which is to be played in Australia in March 2009. This is the first world cup after ICC merged with International Women's Cricket Council in 2005.