More than just the series at risk for Ponting

Former England captain, Michael Vaughan, has spoken out at his fears for Ricky Ponting’s international career and captaincy, saying that his fading form and current squad which is weakening around him will lead to his retirement from Test cricket next month, regardless of the result in this year’s Ashes series.

Whilst Vaughan doubts that Cricket Australia would actually sack the influential Ponting, he said that the 150-Test veteran, who turns 36 next week, would walk away from the game with no fears over his reputation:

“From what we have seen so far it is clear this will be Ricky Ponting’s last series – he is the right man to carry on until it finishes but he has to lead by scoring a gallon of runs.”

Ponting has had a number of issues this series over selection, and has stopped only just short of criticizing chairman Andrew Hilditch when discussing the omission of paceman Mitchell Johnson in Adelaide while his decision to go with fellow Tasmanian Xavier Doherty over Nathan Hauritz backfired when the spinner was badly exposed as being as threatening as Pingu when it came to bowling the English batsmen out.

Ponting however has accepted this week that he is failing with the bat, but not as a leader, and has accepted that his return of nine runs in two innings in the second Test is unacceptable.

However, Mike Gatting, the last England captain to taste victory in an Ashes series down under, believes Ponting could prolong his batting career if he gave up the Australia captaincy, saying: “that might re-invent Ricky Ponting for three or four years which would be great for Australian cricket.”

Finn looks to announce himself

England’s exciting young fast bowler Steven Finn, has been named the ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year, after bursting on the international scene this year. The Middlesex pace man beat off competition from 15 other players to win the award in Bangalore, including international team-mates Eoin Morgan and Tim Bresnan.

Since his debut in Chittagong against Bangladesh earlier this year, Finn has proved himself as perhaps England’s most exciting bowling prospect. In his eight Tests so far, Finn has taken 32 wickets at an average of 23.85, including back to back five wicket hauls, at Lords and Old Trafford this summer. His six foot seven frame has made Finn a different option for the England selectors and so far a very successful one.

While Finn has looked dangerous against the relatively modest batting attacks of Pakistan and Bangladesh, it will be a different story when the bowler faces Australia’s finest, if selected for the opening Ashes Test later next month in Brisbane. In his short career so far, the 21 year old won’t have faced many batsmen of the calibre of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey and the pressure will be firmly on the youngster to prove his worth to the team.

So far it looks Finn to edge his way into the starting 11, ahead of bowling rivals Tim Bresnan and Chris Tremlett. While Bresnan has proved his worth to England’s one day side, he has so far failed to consistently perform in the Test arena and will probably be left carrying the drinks tray when the Brisbane Test starts. Tremlett offers similar qualities to Finn and has returned to the Test squad after three years in the wilderness. The fast bowler has had a tough few years struggling with injury and will probably be used as a reserve option.

It looks as though the pace department will be filled by Stuart Broad and James Anderson with Finn making it three. With Monty Panesar back in the squad heading to Australia, England may choose to play two spinners but it would seem for the opening Test, they will stick with just the one spinner along with the three pace men.

Chances of each team for World cup Cricket 2011

The stage is all set for the biggest contest of modern cricket and the countdown has already begun. ICC Cricket World Cup is to begin on the 19^th of February, 2011, hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Earlier, Pakistan was to co-host the tournament; however, thanks to an attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket team in 2009, they lost their rights.

Below are the fourteen teams fighting for the cup, divided into two broad groups. Both the groups are to have their individual league matches, where each team would have to play versus each other. The top four teams based on points awarded or in case tied based on their Net Run Rate, would proceed to the next round i.e. Quarter Finals.

Here on, the knock-out begins and it would drill down to the Last Men standing. 

A prediction in terms of who can win might be a tough job as the teams have evolved over the past four years and quite a few of them have started to make good progress. Let’s take an analytical crack at this.

Group A League Matches: 
Undoubtedly, Australia would be the hot favorites but might end up taking the second and third slot considering the fact that they don’t play as well on the sub-continental pitches as they do outside. However, Sri Lanka should come out victorious in the league table, definitely because they have five home matches out of the six that they are supposed to play.

Pakistan should either trail Sri Lanka or Australia with some of the key players back to their squad. They have a nice blend of youth and experience on their side which might come in handy on the sub continental turfs.  The Kiwis however can be very unpredictable and on a given day can beat any team in the world. They should end up third or fourth on the chart.

Kenya has been a developing team for quite a while and have shown occasional sparks but their performance have not yet established a strong belief in the mind of cricket followers. The same can be stated about Zimbabwe. However, to infer, both the teams don’t have enough fuel to outclass teams like Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand. Canada is still an amateur in this sport. They should be happy to win a match or two on a good day.

Group B League Matches: 
This is the Group of Death. Other than Netherlands and Ireland, all other teams are capable of making it through to the Quarters.

India has quite a few players capable of single-handedly butchering the opposition. Home advantage alone can play a big role in their success story.  Also, unarguably, the best batsman in the world, Sachin Tendulkar would be creating history playing the sixth World Cup. His inclusion in itself is a massive confidence boost.

The South African side has been phenomenal in terms of adapting to various playing conditions. They seem to have what it takes to win the cup, leave aside their chance of making it through to the Quarter Finals. A lot of their players have been playing in the Indian Premier League giving them a lot of comfort.

Bangladesh and West Indies are highly unpredictable in terms of their approach but I would like to keep Bangladesh ahead of West Indies due to their home advantage. They have a lot to play for and history suggests that they are capable of making huge upsets.

The English team is quite unstable and is capable of losing matches from winning situations. However, it’s hard to rule them out as well. They have quite a few match winners in Kevin Peterson, Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood. However, their strong swing attack might find it tough to adjust.

Possibilities and probabilities might be endless but, what all should be looking at is a competitive series and not something like the previous one.

England lifts their first ever ICC trophy

I've never expected England to reach this far. I agree that they are a good team. They are the pioneers of cricket. But they've never managed to win a major ICC trophy. Even if they reached the final of this year's Twenty20 World cup, I still had some doubt if they can do it this time. They were against Australia and that made me feel that England might have to wait more. But......they made history by defeating Australia in ICC world Twenty 2010 final. This is a moment to cherish for england fans.

I still wonder if it was Australia against which England played this final. Australia never looked dominant right from the start of the match except for one over in which they got 21 runs. Full credit goes to England for their superb fielding and collective performances with bat and bowl. It's very rare to see Australia loosing a final. They came into the final unbeaten. They came out of nowhere in the semifinal against Pakistan to register an excellent win to reach the final thanks to an exceptional knock of 60 from 24 balls from Mr Cricket.

After loosing a final against England, Austrlia would definitely want to comeback hard at them in the Ashes. It'll be a good contest to enjoy.

PS: I congratulate one of my friends(An ardent fan of England) on England's victory.

IPL – An international competition?

I don’t think anyone was too surprised when boss Lalit Modi opted for South Africa as the hosts of this year’s Indian Premier League.

As I look outside now from my Yorkshire home, all I can see is grey murky skies, while a fierce wind is bringing huge across raindrops, which are smattering all over my window. It is hard to imagine that in just a few weeks the English cricket season will begin.

The chances are that much of the opening rounds of games will be lost to the weather. Conversely they could be played under glorious early spring sunshine. But that’s the problem with the English weather, you just never know!

With an already crowded domestic and International fixture list, there is no room for manoeuvre should IPL games be lost to the weather. Therefore I think, on this occasion, they made the right choice in picking South Africa.

But what for the future of the IPL?

The switch outside of India, albeit for security reasons, has now made it a truly global game (if it wasn’t already).

After getting a taste for the IPL won’t South Africa fans want too see them again? Similarly English cricket supporters, who only just missed out this time, may feel they should have the chance to stage the tournament?

Talks for an English Premier League were started, stalled and then stopped altogether last year, so why not make the IPL a truly global competition, with different host countries each year? It would make more sense than to have a different 20/20 Premier League for each country, when would they fit the games in for starters?

Teams like Kevin Pietersen’s Royal Challengers Bangalore could be become a truly global brand, with fans across the world adopting them as their favorite team. This could pacify the money men who would fear a drop in TV revenue if the game continued to be played away from cricket-mad India.

I personally can’t wait for the IPL to start, but it will also be interesting to see whether the South African fans take it to their hearts. If it is played out in front of packed stadiums with millions tuning in at home, it may not be the last time the IPL is played abroad.

Guest Post by Tam Mallow

Last few days

1. Yuvraj Singh climbing up the ODI rankings list....can he reach No.1 spot?
2. Lol at the pilot who halted the play at domestic cricket game in India by landing the helicopter on the cricket pitch thinking it is a landing pad...
3. Team India unveiled a new jersey...btw it sucks..
4. Afridi not in the test squad against Sri Lanka... the end of Afridi?...not a good year for him..
5. Jayawardena scored a double century against 'Pakistan'....back to form?
6. England humiliated once again by West Indies....what a shame..
7. Ponting decided not to play in IPL this season...Are you feeling happy KKR?
8. Steve Bucknor announced his retirement :)
9. Azharuddin starts his second innings as a politician....all the best Azhu Bhai
   
10. Take a bow Adam Vogues ...
    

PS: Congrats A R Rehman and the "Slumdog Millionaire" team

A great year for cricket

The year 2008 will be remembered in cricket history forever... 2008 is the beginning of the end of an era of Australia's domination in the world cricket. 2008 brought a new life to test cricket. India and South Africa are the stars in 2008. Both these teams are the strong contenders for the top spot in test cricket.

IPL was a great success... "We don't even watch one day cricket...then how can we watch test cricket....the future is Twenty20 cricket's"....This is what we have been hearing recently...All the cricket fans, former players, cricket analysts.....everyone who is attached to cricket have been saying just one thing..."Test cricket is in danger"...

But the two test match results, at the end of 2008, in a span of a week gave a new life to test cricket....one is the first test between India and England Chennai in December, and the second one is the first test between Australia and South Africa at Perth in December...And also out of 46 test matches that took place in 2008, 35 matches got the results which shows that test cricket has gained some speed.

And the year ended on Australia losing a test series to South Africa, at home, after 16 years..

The performances of teams in 2008.

India: No doubt 2008 will remain as a wonderful year in India cricket. Dhoni took on the test captaincy and now he is the captain of team India in all formats of the game. There are so many unforgettable moments like test series win against Australia in India, CB series win, test and ODI series win against England, IPL etc.. Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Zaheer, Ishant, Harbhajan and Dhoni's captaincy took India to great heights.. Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar and Laxman crossed 1000 runs in tests in a calender year..The year marked the end of an era with Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble bidding adieu to international cricket.

South Africa: South Africa is on a roll under Smith's captaincy. SA won 11 of their 15 test matches played in 2008. SA has been very consistent in all the formats of the game. Smith is the leading run scorer in tests in 2008 with 1656 runs in 15 test matches. Amla also crossed 100 runs in tests in 2008. Steyn is the leading wicket taker in tests in 2008. SA has got a new talent in the form of Duminy. De Villiers has been in good touch..If they continue this form, they will surely be No.1 in all formats..

Australia: 2008 is the year Australia don't want to remember. 2008 marked the end of an era of Australia's dominance. Australia's great wicket-keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist retired in 2008 after CB series. The effect of the retirement of McGrath and Warne was completely visible on the team's performance. Australia lost to India and SA in successive test series at the end of the year. The form of their top order batsmen like Hayden, Ponting and Hussey has been their main concern. Bowling department is also looking weak with no one, except Johnson, performing well. Retaining Ashes is their main focus in 2009.

Sri Lanka: Mendis is SL's new weapon. Asia cup win was their biggest win in 2008. The team was not up to the mark in a series with Zimbabwe. With Mendis and Murlai in the bowling department, and Jayawardena, Sangakkara, Dilshan in batting department, SL looks ahead for a great future.

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming retired after the test match against England in Napier. Except Vettori and McCullum no other player performed well for New Zealand. New Zealand has many new players. It will take a little time before they all adjust. NZ got mixed results in 2008.

England: After England lost the four match series against South Africa, captain Michael Vaughan stepped down from the captaincy. England appointed Kevin Pietersen as their new captain. England's whole concentration has been on Ashes. England won the hearts of many people by coming to India and play the test series after Mumbai blasts. Pietersen was their star in 2008 with Flintoff, Strauss, Collingwood performing consistently. Stuart Broad is a rising talent. England's bowling department is also good with Sidebottom, Anderson and Harmison.

West Indies: The form of West Indies was very bad. They won only one test match in 2008. The team depends a lot on Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul.

Pakistan: 2008 is a worst year in Pakistan's cricket. Pak did not played even a single test. They played some ODIs and won many matches but all of them came against weak teams. Pak is pleading other teams to come and play in Pak. Neutral venues seems to be the only option for Pakistan. Pakistan's great player Mohammad Yousuf joined ICL. It was a big shock to Pak. Aisf was accused of using drugs in IPL and banned from all formats of cricket.

Bangladesh: Bangladesh cricket was under shock when 14 of their cricketers joined ICL. But with many other youngsters like Shakib-ul-Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mortaza, the team performed well under the captaincy of Ashraful. But the results were not satisfying. On a whole, their performance improved a little bit.

Smith, Sehwag, Gambhir, Steyn and Mendis were the stars of 2008.

Hoping for a much more exciting cricket in 2009...

What went wrong for England? Plan or Effort ?

I was very thrilled to watch the first test match between India and England.This is one of the test matches in the recent times that I enjoyed to the full extent. Thanks to Sehwag who changed the complexion of the game with his awesome innings.

Englang dominated the test till 2nd session on day-4. They set a seemingly unchasable target. But Sehwag's brilliant innings moved the game into India's hands. Sachin and Yuvi completed the formalities. Sachin was simply awesome with his match winning century.

Pietersen and his men might have been really happy after they set a target of 387 to India. But their happiness did not last long. England dominated about 70% of the game but ended up on losing side becuase of firing Sehwag, cautios Sachin and coolheaded Yuvraj. England missed a golden opportunity to win the test match. They would have gained a lot of confidence before the Ashes had they won the game.

England coach Peter Moores said that it was because of the poor team effort England lost the game after being in the driver's seat for 11 sessions. Except Strauss, Cook and Collingwood, the rest of the English batsmen were not up to the mark. In bowling department, except Flintoff, all the other bowlers failed. Panesar was a huge disappointment.

England scored less than 3 runs per over in both the innings where as India scored more than 3 runs per over(close to 4 runs per over) in both the innings. Englang should have been a bit more aggressive like India. Had they scored a bit quicker, they could have set a much more tougher target and made sure that India had no chance to win the game.

I think it was a combination of poor game plan and team effort that cost England the match.

But again it was the complete team effort from India which won them the test match. India has been the best in every form of cricket in recent times and continues to be the best...

Thanks to England for coming to India after mumbai terror and for a brilliant game.

looking forward to another thrilling match in Mohali...

Whatelse are the selectors expecting from him?

I was shocked to know that Pujara is not included in India's 15-member Test squad for the two match series against England.

Many current and former cricketers and the critics have praised Pujara as next Dravid.

He is a new wall in the making....

He is India's new run machine...

Scoring runs is a routine for him...

He scored 3 triple centuries for Saurashtra in a span of 24 days - one in the Ranji Trophy and two in an Under-22 tournament -- this season.

He has consistently displayed the quality of playing long innings.

The levels of concentration and determination, he shows at this age, are awesome.

It looks to me that he is completely addicted to scoring hundreds.....

If selectors consider the form, Pujara should not have been left out.

I think this is the right time to give a chance to Pujara.

"Pujara's shown his ability to stay at the wicket for long and that's the most important ingredient to a Test prospect.", says Srikkanth.

Then why didn't they select him ?

Whatelse are the selectors expecting from Pujara?

Money power should save

No team has toured Pakistan for the last one year showing security concerns. India has also witnessed terrosit attacks in main cities in the last few months. But I think the teams will tour India because of BCCI's money power. Other boards will lose financially if they don't tour India. Cricket is adored in India and in international cricket, it is India that generates 70% of crickets income.

Coming to England's test tour, BCCI may use IPL as the weapon in bringing them back. If England refuses to tour India, the chances of the England players playing in IPL will be nil. Already many England cricketers are worrying for not playing in IPL. The relationship between ECB and BCCI has not been so good. There has been many disputes over ICL players, ECB deciding to unveil new league, ECB not allowing their cricketers not to play in IPL etc.. If England refuses to tour India now, the relations between ECB and BCCI may slide down furthur. If England team comes to India, India can prove that playing in India is safe.

Australia and South Africa who are the partners of Champions League will want cricket to be played in India. Both these boards will get US $3 millions if CL is played. The amount may increase in future. I don't think the boards want to lose this amount.

After England's tour in India, there won't be any other matches in India untill IPL, except Chamiopns League. Everything will be normal by that time. India is trying to host the 2 test matches against England by providing a tight security and trying to prove that everything will be fine and there won't be any problem to host 2011 world cup.

An attempt to make India unsafe for visitors?

After a terrorist attack in Mumbai, cricket all over India is affected. England's ongoing ODI tour is cancelled. Champions League is postponed as Middlesex is not willing to participate and Australia suspended all travel to India. ICL called off its ongoing world series. Indian domestic tournament, Ranji Trophy, has also been affected.

Many countries will now surely show reluctance to play in India due to security reasons.

Is this attack an attempt to make India an unsafe place, like Pakistan right now, for visitors ?

Where is the common sense?

India have won the 3rd ODI by D/L method. It's very sad that we did not have the full match. England was very unfortunate. They set a chaseable target for India and got wickets at regular intervals. They were set back by bad light.

The toss was delayed because of the haze and overcast conditions. And we lost 45 mins before the start of the play. Finally the match was reduced to 49 overs per team. When we have lost 45 mins and you expect bad light at the end of the day, 2-3 more overs should have been deducted per innings.

And adding to this the lunch break was not shortened. A 10-15 min lunch break would have been fine in this situtaion.

In a ODI match played between England and New Zealand at Edgbaston on 18th June 2008, England's time wasting tactics cost New Zealand the match. ICC changed the rule after this match to prevent such instances.

As per the rule, the 10 minute's break will be taken only if we lose more than an hour of play. We lost 45 minutes here and the bad light was expected at the end of the day. So, why wouldn't they implement this rule and reduce the lunch break to 10 minutes?

And why didn't they make use of the flood lights?

I strongly feel that D/L method should come into play only when any further play is not possible because of rain. In situations like bad light or anything other than rain, they must make use of the flood lights.

Suresh Menon at cricinfo says 'Have a full game at any cost'.

Singh is king

It was an awesome performance by Yuvraj. His effort, both with the bat and the ball, powered India to gain 2-0 lead in 7 match ODI series.

He hit 2nd consecutive century followed by a 4-wicket haul. This century was special and important than the one in the first ODI as he got this one when the team needed. It was definitely one of his memorable innings. He is more confident now and needs to make sure he continues his good form.

After winning the toss and elected to bat, India got off to a poor start. Sehwag(1), Raina(4) and Rohit Sharma(3) were dismissed early by Stuart Broad.

After their departure, Yuvraj and Gambhir(70) added 134 runs in 22.3 overs for the 4th wicket to take India to a comfortable position before Pietersen dismissed Gambhir. Yuvraj Singh took India out of trouble with his wonderful batting. Gambhir did excellent for his 70, but failed again to reach 100 after getting it to 50.

Dhoni made just 15 before Paul Collingwood dismissed him. Broad returned in the 3rd powerplay , for his second spell, and removed Yuvraj. Harbhajan and Zaheer were run out trying to get the runs quickly. Harmison dismissed RP Singh the last over. Yusuf Pathan took the responsibility after Yuvraj and scored an unbeaten 50 from 29 deliveries to take India to 292/9 in 50 overs. It was his maiden half century in ODIs.

England managed only 238 from 47 overs in reply. England began their innings on a disatrous note when Suresh Raina run out Ian Bell(1) with brilliant fielding, in the first over of England's innings. Owais Shah(58) and Prior(38) took the responsibility of building up the innings and scored 96 runs in 22.1 overs before Yuvraj struck. He dismissed Shah and Prior in two overs.

Ashes heroes, Pietersen(33) and Flintoff(43), found it difficult to score runs as Yuvraj and Harbhajan quickly chipped in with economical overs, and the required-rate crept up towards 9 an over. England skipper took a smart move by opting for the 3rd powerplay at that time and England scored 59 in that 5 overs which brought the visitors a ray of hope.

But Yuvraj's two wicket over, just after power play, turned the match completely towards India. He dismissed Flintoff and Pietersen in that over to make it 4-28, his scond best in ODIs. Harbhajan Singh took a return catch to dismiss Paul Collingwood (2). Yusuf Pathan dismissed Ravinder Bopara (3) in his first over. Virender Sehwag then took the next three England wickets dismissing Samit Patel (20), Steve Harmison (6) and Stuart Broad (22) to all out England for 238.

Interestingly, all the England wickets(except Bell's run out) were taken by the spinners. But England spinners have managed to take only 1 Indian wicket.

One thing, I don't understand with England is why they sent Bopara after Samit Patel. When you take Bopara as a batsman you have to use him. England need to send him before Patel and Collingwood.

The two teams will now travel to Kanpur for the third match to be played on Thursday.

Advantage India

Just 3 days after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India is ready to take on England.

India has the destructive opening pair of Sehwag and Gambhir (M Vijay as back up opener) compared to England's Ian Bell and Matt Prior (A Cook as back p opener).

Both teams have a good pace attack. England has no quality/experienced spinner while India has got Bhajji.

Both teams have strong middle-order. England's middle order has players like Pietersen, Flintoff, Collingwood, Bopara and Owais Shah while India has Rohit Sharma, Raina, Dhoni, Kohli and Yuvraj.

The teams are almost equal in terms of their batting, bowling and fielding.

But India is mentally strong after winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-0 while England goes into the series after thet were humiliated by Mumbai Cricket Association XI in the 2nd practice match and Stanford Super Stars in the Stanford Twenty 20 match.

India has clearly an edge over England.

It will be interesting to see how the new powerplay rules are going to effect the game.

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.

Probable Indian Squad for ODI series against England

The selectors will meet today in Nagpur to pick the 14-member Indian team for the ODI series against England starting on Nov 14. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, who missed the last ODI series in Sri Lanka, are set to return to the Indian squad. The squad may consists of 8 batsmen, including wicket-keeper, 4 pace bowlers and 2 spinners.

Batting:
There is no doubt about the selcetion of Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Dhoni, Yuvra, Raina. So the remaining two slots may be filled by Rohit Sharma, Badrinath, Uthappa and Virat Kohli. There is a tough competetion among these four. But I think the selectors will stick to Rohit and Badrinath considering their recent performances. Uthappa may have to wait for some more time before he gets a call up. Yusuf Pathan, a big disappointment with bat in the Challenger Trophy, is likely to be left out.

Pace Bowling:
Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma lead the pace bowling attack. The other options for the remaining two places are Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar. The selectors may stick to Munaf and Praveen Kumar. Irfan Pathan's recent performance, except in the Challenger's trophy, is not upto the mark. But if one of Zaher and Ishant is rested, Pathan might get a chance.

Spin Bowling:
Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha and Piyush Chawla are the other options for the second spinner besides Harbhajan. Amit Mishra is a better option for the selectors considering his form in the on-going test series against Australia. There are also a few chances for Pragyan Ojha to be selected.

Probable India Squad: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, MS Dhoni(captain & wicket-keeper), Suresh Raina, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra.

My Favourite Playing XI (in that oder):
Sachin Tendulkar
Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir
Rohit Sharma
Yuvraj Singh
Suresh Raina
MS Dhoni
Zaheer Khan
Praveen Kumar
Harbhajan Singh
Ishant Sharma

All the 11 players in the team bowls

Yesterday, when I was looking at the scorecard for the test match between India and West Indies at Antigua in 2002 where Kumble bowled with a broken jaw, I found an interesting stat. All the 11 indian players bowled in an innings in that match. It happened twice before this match.

Here are the other two matches.

All 11 England players bowlers bowled during Australia's score of 551 at the Oval, London on August 12, 1884. In fact in this Test match Australia became the first team in Test cricket to score over 500 runs. Interestingly WG Grace kept wickets for some time thus allowing regular keeper Alfred Lyttelton to bowl during Australia's innings. He went on to claim four wickets - his figures being 12-5-19-4 - which still remains the best bowling performance by a wicket-keeper in Test cricket.

Then nearly 95 years later, on March 11, 1980 all 11 Australians bowled in Pakistan's innings of 382-2 at Faisalabad. Australia batting upto the fourth afternoon while scoring 617 runs, hardly left any time for Pakistan to bat more than once. So on the last day the Australians made all their 11 players to bowl, including their keeper Rodney Marsh (skipper Greg Chappell kept wickets after tea on the final day). Not surprisingly both the above Tests were boring drawn matches.

Source: http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2001/apr/28answer.htm

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...

Cricket-Past, Present and Future

Cricket is one of the greatest games ever played. It is a mind game than body. Going back to the past, it was a game played by a minimum number of nations, but as time passed on, the game raised interest in the hearts of millions. The number of cricket playing nations have increased over time.

Cricket was discovered in England and the only countries which played it initially were England and Australia. Then the countries South Africa, West Indies, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Srilanka and Bangladesh have joined the list. Now cricket is played in more than 100 countries. It all started with test matches which do not have a limit on time. Then the time was limited to 5 days and later the limited overs game was established which are the one-dayer. The one-day matches were initially 60 overs but were later reduced to 50 overs. Now the new format of the game is established which are the 20-20's. This was introduced in England to provide the tired workers with some evening entertainment and it proved prosperous. Thus the unlimited time matches has reduced to a very much limited time. And what might be the future. It might even reduce to 10 overs.

In the past cricket was even seen with pride ,but now its been a business with a lot of sponserships, telecasting rights and even high amount of betting. The players are giving top priority to money than game. Now by introducing different leagues like IPL,ICL and the Champions league which are drawing more crowds, the number of one-days and tests played will get down. Even the players are giving priority to the leagues than playing to their country. Many players already said that Test matches are no more interesting. The interest in test cricket has gone down. The stadium in India which are always seen filled up are now seen empty during the test matches between India and Australia. Even the 50-50 format is slowly loosing its grip. ICC is taking care to limit the number of 20-20 played every year. But this cannot avoid the fact that other formats of the game are dipping. The future might well give way to short time matches like the 20-20 where the importance of class-play is minimum. The test matches might not be eradicated but might loose their importance.