PCB wont take any action on Cheaters

ECB has said its players are reluctant to take on a team which has spot fixer tainted players in the ODIs and T20s.

Mr Sharad Pawar has said ICC wont step in till the investigations are done. That is, the 4 players would continue playing T20s and ODIs leading to more fixing.

The Buffoon at PCB has said

"This is only an allegation. There is still no charge or proof on that account. So at this stage there will be no action taken"

As expected Buffoon turns his eye off on the erring players. There are reports in ToI which suggest that the PCB has a nexus with the bookies responsible for the spot fixing. So its obvious the head of PCB wont act on the beneficiaries of the booking gate.

ICC now signalling that it may suspend 4 players (CNN-IBN).

As of now the fact is the 4 suspended players would continue playing and none of ICC, PCB would act on the players.

Another indication that the spot fixing stuff would be rubbed under carpet.

Spot Fixing would be buried under carpet

The Pak squad has left for Taunton amidst the slogan of thieves. And Majeed Mazhar has been released on bail too. ICC is dysfunctional, PCB is hopeless.

It gives a feeling that this episode is also going to be pushed inside carpet and the named culprits are going to continue in the way previous ones have done over decade and half.

Worst thing is that this episode has come right around the world cup and ideally the ICC should act stern to fix the problem of fixing for good.

Thats a realm of speculation and very unlikely it would happen. The worst thing is the 4 cheats would still be playing the T20s and the ODIs. Best thing could have been suspend the 4 players at least till the allegations are proved / invalidated. 

Srikanth reveals his wisdom on IBN live

Nagpur, Aug 29 (PTI) BCCI selection committee chairman K Shrikant today said the preparations for the forthcoming World Cup were going smoothly and no one should worry about it. "The players are doing well, selectors and the BCCI are also doing their best," he said. "Every series is like a world cup for us, You (media) are talking about future we are talking about the present," Shrikant told reporters on the sidelines of annual awards function of Sports Journalists Association of Nagpur here today. "We are sporting talent and you don''t know who will emerge from behind to make a mark in the world cup," he said.

Citing examples of previous cup, Shrikant said Mohinder Amaranath, Kirti Azad and Madanlal were no where in the picture but emerged from behind the scene and did their best. Selectors are keeping an eye on all important Cricket matches be it under 19, Ranji and Irani trophy matches to pick up the right talent for our future cricket. Talking about injuries hit Indian team, Shrikant said injuries are part of the game and sometime it is difficult for right replacement at the eleventh hour. About yesterday''s match against Sri Lanka where India lost, Shrikant said,"we lost wickets at crucial time."

He however complimented youngsters for doing well.

Wow Mr Srikanth, you were smoking ganja? Youngsters did well ? Are you fucking joking ? You prove your incompetence and impotency dude. You dont know who would make the mark for World cup ? Thats why your step son Dinesh Karthik is still played in the team and he spits on you by making 0s ? What talent are you talking about ? BossaDk ? Rohit Sharma ?

Pakistan cricket needs to be isolated !!

For the first 2 or 3 days of Lord's Test it seemed that Pakistan are back to being a decent Test team until Broad and Trott had the record shattering 332 run partnership for 8th wicket.

And then the hell broke loose.

Spot fixing allegations came out in open after News of the World broke the story how Mazhar  Majeed paid the talents of Pakistan cricket to ball no-balls during the ongoing Lord's Test.

Since then the world of cricket has just been flooded with the shock and awe.

Its nothing new on the Pakistan's part to be coping up with this allegations. They have had a history of such misdeeds and the current cricketers have illustrious seniors to look up for spot fixing and stuff like ball tampering, match fixing. Many of them are coaches now, have gone on to become highest ODI wicket takers and what not.

Salman Butt, Aamer, Drug Peddler Asif and ugly slut Kamran Akamal are the players indicated in this spot fixing stuff.

The English media is overboard with how Test cricket was killed at the home of cricket, the Pakistani media is yet to come to the terms with the reality. Poor they, they have had to cover a lot of such stuff in last 3 years. Mush, 10 %, Buttology, MoYos, Younises, Afridis, Butt again, Akamal muck,  spot fixing, T-e-Ts, floods, war against homegrown terror and what not.

PakPassion.net had glorified the Mazeed brothers having a dedicated section on the website named as "Agents Corner". The Pakistani bloggers are quiet in the shock. Feel for them. Why do they even follow Pakistani cricket ?

As long as Pakistan is going to play cricket, this dirt and muck is going to be around. No matter how strong we have units like ICC ACU, Qayyums and stuff, the crooks of Pakistan all round the world are going to lure the poor Pakistani players who when debut do not even have manners (accent) or money to be correct on foreign tours. So its easy for them to be lured to petty temptations and sell their integrity for some pounds or dollars or Pakistani rupees.

When the country itself is deep in immorality of terror, home grown insurgency, floods and anti-world mindset its futile to expect this young cricketers to have any kind of integrity and morality.  And when the Ijaz Butts rule the PCB and act in a weird way to ban, appeal and overturn, its futile or better to not expect the PCB or Mr 10 % to act on the latest dirt from Pakistani cricket closet.

Best way would be to ban Pakistan from playing all forms of cricket till their administration comes clean on the laundering,  cheating and fixing. Worse even do not invite the cheats from Pakistan to play anywhere in the world for they would bring a lot of unwanted publicity and attention where they go. Let their team play within their own country.

Cricket wont die due to a misgiving from a rogue country. T20s wont die, Tests and ODIs wont die. Normal business shall resume. When its a normal of a Pakistani cricket to be corrupt then why pretend to be shocked and write obituaries for cricket when its in a good state though bruised a little bit. Just a bit.

The ODI series and the T20s to follow in England now become irrelevant and we should get our popcorn and coke to watch out the theaterical drama unfold in Pakistani cricket circles with Ijaz Butt being the old hero in centerstage. Just hoping that ICC would act strong this time to kill the virus of fixing forever and come too hard on the erring players, administrators and bookies.

Lights camera Action!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CLT20 : Mumbai Indians Preview

Mumbai Indians are placed top of group B in the CLT20. And they are led by Sachin Tendulkar, so that should make it an interesting watch.
Sachin had an awesome IPL 3 at home and he remodelled his game to suit T20 switching from the ODI mode and excelled in it. He had just made a 200 in the ODI at Gwalior vs SA and he had excelled in IPL too.
The MI squad is:
Shikhar Dhawan, Sachin Tendulkar, Ambati Rayudu, Saurabh Tiwary, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, R Sathish, Ali Murtaza, Dhawal Kulkarni, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, JP Duminy, Lasith Malinga, Ryan McLaren.
The starting squad could be:

1.
Tendulkar
2.
Dhawan
3.
Rayudu
4.
Bravo / Tiwary
5.
Duminy
6.
Tare
7.
Pollard
8.
Zaheer
9.
Harbhajan
10.
Malinga
11.
McLaren / Kulkarni
MI team does not look very strong and if you take out Tendulkar then there is virtually nobody to anchor the innings. The team looks prone to collapses and should Tendulkar not excel this team does not look good to go through the semis.
The fortunes of the team depend a lot on Tendulkar and subsequently on the middle order which looks a bit weak. Tiwary has not had any match practice despite being part of 2 teams in SL.
Zaheer would be back from shoulder injury and he would surely be a little rusty. Harbhajan Singh has not been in great form recently in the Tests or ODis or T20s. He bowled well in IPL but went wicketless in world T20 and was a shadow of himself in the SL test series.
Kulkarni has had a good A tour of England in May - June and Malinga was in top form in the test series with India.
Key players:
Tendulkar, Malinga, Duminy, Bravo and Harbhajan Singh
Prediction : Semis if Tendulkar fires and first round if he does not.

Why England cannot win Ashes

A team suffering with frequent collapses cannot expect to win Ashes. A team that has its skipper without a 100 for 22 innings and its best batsman without a 100 for close to 2 years and 26 innings cannot expect to win Ashes. A team which has a frequent violator of thin line between aggression and arrogance cannot expect to win Ashes.

When a new kid on the horizon skittles out a team proposing itself to be # 1 despite 5th on rankings, that team cannot expect to win Ashes.

Playing in a country when they last lost a series 0-5, they cannot expect to win Ashes.

In short, England cannot win Ashes at this point of time. Or in MoYo style for now.

By the way can we lure Mohd Aamer to play for India rather than play for Pakistan ? In India he would have a calmer dressing room and good IPL money would beckon.

Worth a thought ? Super bowler.

CLT20 : RCB Preview

AirTel CLT20 kicks off on Sep 10th in South Africa in their earlier summer and 10 teams play in the 2nd edition of the premier tournament. No England and Pakistan teams here due to clashes with the domestic season and political reasons respectively. For England's absence blame it on the lack of the FTP window for IPL and CLT20.

There are 3 teams from India, 2 each from SA and Aus, 1 each from WI, NZ and SL.

Its MI, CSK and RCB for India. Only RCB made it to the first edition in 2009 where they failed to make it to the semis.

Let me start a series of preview for the teams I know of -- 3 IPL teams.

Starting with the team I shall support : Royal Challengers Bangalore. Just bcos its led by legendary Anil Kumble.

The squad of 15 is :

Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, R Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Dillon du Preez, B Akhil, Abhimanyu Mithun, Nayan Doshi.

There are foreign players in Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Kallis, Preez. No Boucher. Kallis, Taylor, White were eligible for playing their home teams too, but RCB has eased out its wallet to retain this key players.

I presume CLT20 also allows IPL teams to play 4 foreign players and in that case the RCB has 5 foreign players to chose from. Not sure about du Preez who he is and what his credentials are. This could be the starting XI for RCB in their first game:

*
Kallis
*
Pandey
*
Uthappa
*
Taylor
*
Kohli
*
Dravid
*
White
*
Praveen
*
Steyn
*
Kumble
*
Vinay Kumar / Mithun

White and Kumble would be the spinners. Kallis, Steyn, Praveen and one of Vinay and Mithun would be the pacers. Having Steyn and Kallis in the team and playing in the home conditions actually helps RCB.

Prediction : I'd assume RCB would make it to the semis given the golden run they had in SA conditions in 2009 IPL.

They are in group B ranked 4th with Mumbai Indians as top rank team.

The other teams are Guyana (WI), MI (India), South Australia (Australia), Lions (SA).

CSK fixing

There have been news reports on CNN-IBN that 2009 auctions for IPL were fixed. Now foes, then friends N Srinivasan and Lalit Modi fixed Flintoff for CSK. The news reports also suggest that Srini actually tried convincing MI this season not to go for Keiron Pollard but unfortunately Ambanis did not heed to him when the tiebreak was broken (MI tied with CSK for Pollard).

It seems that Srinivasan is a true manipulator besides the screen and no wonder this reports lend some credibility to the earlier report of sacking of Pravin Amre as coach of India A. Now this two things are unrelated to each other, but this for sure indicates how strong CSK owner is.

More dirt comes out of the IPL closet and this also indicates how the corporate relationships are fragile. There have been some email leaks from IBN which indicate Srini saying "you are sweet" to Modi. What does that indicate.

Lalit Modi is tweeting videos exposing Srinivasan in this scenario but is not saying a tweet on his role in fixing Freddie for CSK. He was all powerful man in 2009 edition of IPL and if this fixing happened, it sure had (must have) Modi's blessings.

India make it to the final.

So India lump into the final, actually they limp to the final. Riding on the back of a superb Sehwag ton and seamers performance, the Indians would fancy to take on Lankans and avenge the 209 ball defeat to them in the 2nd league game.

It was story as usual for Indians -- the batting collapsed except the skipper and the Sehwag factor. He was on a different pitch altogether. While wickets crumbled around him, he played his natural game and was the sole factor behind 223 on the board that gave something to bowl to the 4 prone Indian seam attack. Never in recent history I remember 4 pacers playing together and none of them was named Zaheer Khan and one of them was named Munaf Patel.

He took 3 wickets and got himself to into a slight contention for the world cup berth. Too early for to say anything for Munafa as he always deceives. Ishant Sharma bowled awesome and touched 140 mark consistently. He should get the confidence back which would be very vital for India's campaign to the World Cup.

There was no spinner on the squad. Specialist one though. There was JadduKha, but he leaked runs as he always does. So he met the expectations. He made 17 with the bat and gave 21 off the ball including 3 sixes. So is he worth calling an allrounder ?

Its like "Kasam BCCI ki khate hain, allrounder Jaddu ko hi banayenge".

His India career lives up to one more day. Nehra took 2, Ishant and Jaddu Kha 1 alongside Munaf and Praveen's 3. Praveen has been the bowler of the tournament. Forget all others, this man from Meerut has got quick breakthroughs in almost every game he has played. 2nd ball today, 1st ball in two games. Wish he could play Tests too though he's got a superb first class record. Only if Srikanth would go up north a little bit over Karnataka.

The batting was worrisome and the Rainas, Kohlis and Yuvis did themselves no favor. They need runs, they may either wait till the home series against Australia or try getting some runs in the final against Cheaters. Raina, UV would be part of the XI playing in World Cup and it would be only good for themselves and team if they are in runs. May be the seaming pitch of Dambulla has not helped them, but they would need to correct their run making spree soon.

Karthik made a duck, Jaddukha made a 17. Period. They wont be needed further this tournament end.

Few words for Sehwag. Actually i have no words for him. He is peerless, awesome and add up all adjectives you can, they'd still fall short of what Sehwag actually means to India. He has not been playing in the World T20s now and India has been crashing out too early than they should.

He has been peerless in Tests and doing the same in ODIs. Given the form Tendulkar is in this year, he and Sehwag should make an explosive opening pair in the world cup.

A pity that DBV kept him out of the team for full 2007-08 until he made a comeback in the Adelaide test in Australia. Since then he has been a different player altogether. In the same league of 4 Indian modern greats in batting.

Whaddaplaya.

So tis going to be another India SL final and the emotions would be high. I would love to see India roll back SL inside 100 and then have a look at Sangakara's reaction.

Pakistan's rare vision and India's lack of it

Pakistan have what India dont right now. A vision for world cup. They have been comical, losers and butt of all jokes. One point of time they did not appear to win anything.  Out of nowhere they now have a strong bowling lineup in Asif, Aamer, Gul, Wahab and Ajmal. Not to forget that Sohel Tanveer is out since long.  They bat pathetic, but at least the selectors while chosing the ODI squad showed some sense and welcome at that given the selection blunders they have been do ing at Butt senior's behest.

The selectors in Pakistan dance to Butt's tune. Thats why Younis Khan is still out and MoYo is in.

In India the selectors themselves are dancers and charmers. Thats why the dancers are in the team.  I dont see a point in trying out a dancer opening the batting with Viru when we have 3 openers playing at top 3. Sachin, Sehwag and Gambhir should form top 3 provided none of them is injured.

Yuvraj comfortably occupies 4 and one of Raina and Dhoni go at 5 and 6.  Concern is for 7. Who goes at 7? An allrounder? Or a specialist batsman who can be a floater like Kaif and Uthappa in the past.  A look at the allrounders and we have 3 names:

Jadeja : Nothing player

Y Pathan : Given enough chances did not cement his place. Continued losing his wicket to mindless slogs.

I Pathan : Not played for India since Feb 2009. He is an ideal # 7 even with the way he bowls right now. Even if he bowls 6 or 7 overs and makes 40 odd runs he would be more than handy for India in home conditions. Not to forget that he had a lot of success as # 3 in ODIs in Chappell era.

If we look for a floater kinda batsman then we have 2 options for now:

• Virat Kohli : He is too good a player to be left off. He has to play in the XI and if he is willing to flex his bowling arm and bowl good 4-5 overs then he could be a good floater.
• Robin Uthappa : Bat and keep. Was effective at 7 in England tour.

Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Sreesanth would be the bowlers to pick from.

Harbhajan Singh, IPL Ojha and Amit Mishra along side R Ashvin would be the slow bowlers.

I wish India loses the game against NZ and goes home to get some rest. From Sep 10 7 players who would be around in WC would play T20 cricket in SA.

Tendulkar, Zaheer, Harbhajan for Mumbai Indians

MSD, Raina for Chennai Super Kinks

Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar for RCB

And then immediately we have the Australia Test series coming up where 6 of the participating players would take part (5 + Rahul Dravid).

So the coming fortnight is of crucial importance for India as it would provide the jaded and tired players an opportunity to rest. Likes of Viru, Gambhir, Yuvraj would have close to a month off. Good for them. When they return for Australia Test series, they would know they would rest next only after World Cup, the best chance for India to win after 1983. Does Srikanth want so ? Dont know. But if he does not then may be some spank off his ass from BCCI would make him want to and we would see likes of Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik and Jadeja confined to just playing IPL and MPL.

Tri series lessons!!

There have been 2 massive defeats in the ongoing tri-series in cheater land for India and that puts up serious question marks on the backup batsmen.

India is without 2 of its first choice batsmen in this series and their replacements have not fired any imagination at all.

Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma have failed spectacularly in this series. And this should be their final series thus putting a closure on their aims to play the world cup. They simply have not shown any fire or attitude to grind in the middle and make runs. They dont have a plan B once they are cornered by lesser pacers of cheaterland.

Ravinder Jadeja should be seen for final time in the Indian blue for he is neither a bowler neither a batsman. Actually he is a nothing player. He should soon be replaced by Irfan Pathan, who even at his skewed pace of 120 kmph should be a better bat than RJ. Why selectors ignore IP and continue to have DK in the team is baffling. I doubt if Srikanth has got any vision for the team in the world cup. And if he has not then his head must be rolled soon than later.

Dhoni needs rest for he has appeared jaded and tired. His captaincy has appeared wanted most of the times. It seems the media trial has taken its toll on him.

Next series to follow is the CLT20 and this would be a good opportunity to try out Robin Uthappa and few others.

My line up for World Cup would be:

1.
Sehwag
2.
Tendulkar
3.
Gambhir
4.
Yuvraj
5.
Raina
6.
Dhoni
7.
Pathan I
8.
Zaheer
9.
Harbhajan
10.
Praveen
11.
Ishant Sharma
12.
Ashish Nehra
13.
Pragyan Ojha
14.
Virat Kohli
15.
Uthappa / Any new player discovered in next 2 months

No Jadeja, Karthik and Sharma.

Will bunch of jokers listen or will they continue to push regional players to the squad now that the world cup is just 6 months away and India do not play a ODI series until late October.

Cheating returns

Best way to win when you cant win on basis of fair play and within the spirits of cricket is to have the umpire on your side and give wrong decisions against the whistle blower of cheating...Virender Sehwag.

I thought Viru was tough to get out so get Dharmsena  on your side and give a ball outside off stump out.

Perennial cheaters. 

Who cares even if India crashes out before final. No point in playing against cheaters led by worst captain ever in the history of the game.

Sanga's character in videos

http://www.islandcricket.lk/videos/sangakkara_nathan_mccullum_collision_controversy_video_sri_lanka_new_zealand_2010_cricket

A look at the video clearly suggests Sangakara pushed Nathan McCullum while taking the 2nd run and it was his mistake rather than being McCullum's. 

Other one : 

He goes behind Younis Khan now. 

And just when he was shown the way by Saeed Ajamal, Ashoka DeSilva intervenes. Where is he when Sangakara appeals for non existent catches and lbws.

3 videos good enough to expose Sangakara's character.

Sangakara's character exposed

Kumar Sangakara wants to be in thick of action. He wants to be seen everywhere. In match conferences, match referees rooms, sledging with fellow captains, appealing for catches and lbws that aint existing, saying huge moral stuff and constantly showing character by appearing casual in official team functions.

Question arises is he insecure ? Is he fearing that SL would be back to minnows stature after departure of Jayasuriya, Vaas and Murali? What is his motive? He openly encourages his bowlers to ball negative lengths, enforces fair FTPs and questions India's motives in open, blasts Virender Sehwag and of course cannot complete any sentence without uttering character. 

Ditto with Mahela. I guess Mahela and Nanga are building character factory for Sri Lankan cricketers. So much so that they often display lack of character. One of them validates boring SSC kinda pitches citing challenge to bat long as long as they can. The other sets negative fields. 

He questioned India's stature in world cricket when his board wants as much as cricket with BCCI to fill its empty coffers. He questioned Viru's character after Randigate. Guess the pasting he got from Sehwag in past 2 years is not good enough for him to question Viru's "character".

we don't hide behind the Board and we don't hide behind the media" when it came to being hauled up for creating unpleasantness. He added: "If we make a mistake we take the responsibility. If it's serious, we take it on the chin. We take it like men and move on." 

Really ? Who called up Indian manager to apologize for Randigate ? SLC. 

Who's pressing for more fixtures with India ? Who's pressing for aid to build SL stadiums for World Cup ? SLC.

He (Hurst) did ask me whether McCullum did it intentionally," said Sanga, "I said I don't want to comment on any other player. Sometimes players are ruled LBW, they show the bat and no action is taken. Yesterday's incident, it was without seeing whose fault it was and without seeing the footage (that I was summoned),

Clearly he is agitated on being summoned by Alan Hurst over colliding with Nathan McCullum. This after he was cleared of any wrong doing. Hasnt SLC intervened here as well ? It got Murali playing after coaxing ICC to bend 15 degrees rule. And now in accommodating an useless keeper skipper. 

When Gambhir was banned for elbowing Shane Watson in 2008, BCCI did not throw his weight around Gambhir, as a result Srikanth got an opening and he got Murali Vijay in the test squad.  Since then he hasnt left the Indian squad.

When monkeygate happened in Australia in 2008, Harbhajan Singh was let off after Sachin Tendulkar deposed before ICC. And if Bhajji says typical Indian stuff (Boss DK, MaaKey and Dunga, what Yusuf Pathan said to Umar Gul) to Sangakara, I am sure this bugger would cry more. 

He questions BCCI, its clout, its intentions and then goes on to play IPL for KXIP. Ends up as wooden spoon holder and gets a peck from Zinta babes. Hypocrisy ? 

He is not happy with the schedule for the tri-series, he is not happy with the FTP. He is not happy with anything but his wife most prolly. Unfortunately there is Ijaz Butt who takes all the mud and eggs for being diabolical, else that stuff could very well can be served to Sangakara, the perennial loser.

Act on Dilshan Sanga...Will you? I believe no

To those who quote that there was an over reaction to the Randigate, my simple answer is  that this team harps a lot on the character (every player has rich loads of character so much so that it leaks out in every statement, press confrence and syndicated articles), so this act of delibrate no bowling was a bolt on their character.

A player signalling Randi to bowl a deliberate no ball is in line of the under arm ball bowled by Trevor Chappell on behest of his brother Greg Chappell.

Many have reacted that other teams also follow the tactics to debarr other player of making a hundred. Fine. But that does not get caught on camera as it did for Randi Kallumullah.  Thats same as all teams do some bit of ball tampering, but except Pakistanis none of them get caught on the camera.

There are differences in every dressing room, but not all of them come in open as it does in Pakistan.

I would be very keen to read Sangakara to make a statement on his wish that he would take the action on fact if somebody had deliberately asked Randi to ball a no ball. Now that Dilshan is out in open as the culprit it would be interesting to see what action Sangakara takes on Dilshan and whether Dilshan gets to play in Delhi Daredevils anymore? DD is inevitable without Virender Sehwag, but Dilshan  ? Well he is not the player anymore he was in 2009.

Sangakara is a cheap loser.

So the idiot rat did it. Kumar Sangakara in a cheap act of directing Randiv to bowl a negative line to deprive Sehwag of a well deserved 100 showed his null character. 

He is characterless. Spineless. He has proved it that he can take the spirits of the game to every possible low. And he has the audacity to talk high as he always does whereas the fact is he is a man deep in muck and mud thus showing to the world he is a real ass.

Get off Sanga. Cricket world is better off without you. SL are sore losers. Point proved.

Praveen Amre fired for not playing a regional bowler

It has been reported in ToI that Praveen Amre was sacked in the middle of India A tour to England in May and June this year and was replaced by B Arun. This move was initiated by the man in fire : N Srinivasan, the powerful BCCI sec who is also the owner of Chennai Super Kings franchise and perhaps head of TNCA.  He is also at loggerheads with Lalit Modi and is seen as the man behind downfall of Modi from the top position he occupied in the board ranks.

That apart, the reason why Praveen Amre was sacked?  Very much the same which I have thought is behind the sudden influx of Tamil Nadu players in the Indian team as replacements for everything – keepers, batsmen, spinners, bowlers, fielders and waterboys.

Its been said that bunch of Southie players complained to Srini that coach is not playing Ganapathy in the final XI and instead giving chance to Mumbai bowler Dhawal Kulkarni. Dhawal was selected for Indian tour to New Zealand and perhaps he did not play (I don’t remember he did).  Praveen Amre hails from Mumbai too and is one of the famed disciples of Ramakant Achrekar (Sachin being the other).  Pravin Amre had a decent career which began superbly with a debut hundred vs SA in SA. He has had successful coaching stints too with different teams at domestic level.

So if the reports of Amre being sacked on not playing Ganapathy are true, then they reflect to a very serious and a wrong trend in Indian cricket – regional bias and quota system. I have constantly believed that the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay,  R Ashvin, Dabrinath have been in and out of the teams with an alarmed frequency. A look at their performances does not paint a rosy picture though, but they still keep coming in.

Dinesh Karthik is out one series for non performance, he is back next one without doing any substantial. Right now he is playing in SL riding on 66 he made in Asia cup final.  On 10^th, he misfielded, failed with the bat and blah. He would still open with Sehwag on 16^th replacing Virat Kohli. Tough for Delhi lad cos he has had an awesome ODI year in 2010. He has been consistent in batting and is a wonderful fielder. He floats around, makes runs whenever he is in the team. Way better than Dinesh Karthik, who is forever young. He has been around now for 6 years and is just 24. Unbelievable. Where is Ajay Ratra?  Deep Dasgupta? Parthiv Patel? This lads have been redundant now in Indian cricket as the keeper right now is the captain of team in all 3 formats and does not seem to be failing in near future. 

Saurabh Tiwary is travelling since 2 series now and has not played a single game despite hailing from Dhoni’s own state. What does that mean? Is there a diktat to the tour selection committee to play one or 2 Tamil Nadu players every game? Murali was automatic replacement for Gambhir in Tests, Karthik is replacement for Gambhir in ODIs.  Awesome man!!

Cheekanth is into a deep running mission to Tamil Naduise Indian cricket and that would end in a disaster. No offence for anybody from TN, but are the players selected from TN right now worthy of playing? If there are 3 glittering TN players who are playing awesome domestic and A cricket, get them in the team. But don’t get in the failing stars who are just in cos they have Cheekas and Srini backing them up owing to the clout they enjoy in BCCI.

Wishing Karthik and Jadeja fail

The test series is over and the ODIs at Dambulla are back.  A relief that this is going to be the last leg of the series with Sri Lanka in last few years. Its been an unending spree of ODIs and Tests with the Island nation and that’s gone under skin of the normal sane cricket fans.

The Dravids, Laxmans and Tendulakrs are back in the rest mode. In come the usual culprits like Jadeja, Karthik and Ashvin amongst Nehra and Praveen Kumar.  For a change the team on the opposite side is going to be New Zealand without Bazz, Dan and Jesse.

The boring Lankans would be back to play the Dhoni warriors on 16^th, a day after Independence Day.

I don’t have any zeal to blog more on how useless Jadeja, Karthik are. I’d rather wish they fail and India lose so that selectors open their eyes and ground this folks for good. But that’s wishful thinking. I cant imagine the sorry plight of Karthik opening with Sehwag and thus keeping Virat Kohli who’s had a super ODI year 2010 out.

Tail Wagging

The tail enders are Indian baits. They have frustrated us over the years.  Malinga and Herath did in the Galle Test, Kamran Akamal and Spinach Razzaq did in Mohali along side Jason Gillespie in Chennai and Sydney.  For a sweet change of fortunes its been Indian tail that has been frustrating Sri Lankans, much to their own medicine in this series. And who are culprits? Mishraji here, Mithun, Ojha and Ishant in the other innings.

Thanks to the glaring partnerships yesterday India managed to sneak ahead by 11 runs and then the best “offspinner in the country” who is also “greatest flat track bully” which would be cherished by Robert / Gill / The abusive commenter (Achettup, you did this) spinned out Dilshan and Paragraph to ensure India have a realistic chance to win provided they get out boring duo of Mahelangakara asap.

A lot would depend on Mishraji who now has a supportive pitch and that would go a long way to decide on his future. If he is among wickets, he would be in contention else he would be eked out.  Ditto for IPL Ojha. He gotta remember that he is playing for India and not Deccan Chargers. Though sight of VVS Laxman could still remind him of Deccan Chargers……

Waterboy

Yuvraj is now termed as WaterBoy in Sri Lanka after he was dropped from the 3^rd Test for Raina.  The group of rowdy spectators in Sri Lanka were detained and now stand released.  At best this is a pathetic crowd behavior at par with the Mumbai crowd in 2007 when they chanted Monkey for Symonds and 2006 when they booed Sachin Tendulkar when India lost to England in final Test.

I am being at the receiving end from the SL bloggers namely Gill / Robert and some anonymous commenters whose IP suggests they hail from Murali and Sanga land. This bunch of people cannot stand the fact their team is not the best Team in the world and to put across their point, they resort to abusive comments mostly unprintable and not acceptable to publish. That’s the reason most of the times I have had to disable comments on the posts on my blog which most dislike.

When I began cricket blogging in 2007 March just around the time Australia beat SL in that final, the SL fans had gone berserk and in their cricket forums had called Gilly as a cheat as he had squash ball in his gloves.  For quite long the rants continued when they failed to accept that their team was second best in the World Cup final.

There has been another blog called voice of Colombo or something which has been provocative in his comments on my blog and his blog.

For the SL fans it appears Sangakara is the best captain in the world who led KXIP to the bottom place in IPL – 3.  Not to mention this post would be received with equal venom and hatred.

Flat Pitches and Mahelanagakara Rants

Mahela Jaywardhena feels that the SSC pitch was good to bat on and due to the weaker bowling attacks on both sides, the run glutton continued on SSC.

He feels batting on such tracks is challenging and its not boring.

Well he is right. He has got 11 of his 28 hundreds on this ground which is more than Sir Don had on MCG.  No modern day greats of last 50 years have had such an “awesome” record on a single ground. The question is that most of the batting and bowling records on a single grounds are on the name of Sri Lankans. In bowling it would be Sir Muttiah Muralitharan and in batting it would be either rat Sangakara or Sir Mahela Jayawardhene.

The same stuff does not translate in that many victories as expected for the Sri Lankans in the recent years. Of course they have 61 wins to 69 losses, but 23 of them are against Zim and BD, so they have 38 wins in 28 years of their Test Cricket.

Ok enough rants about them.

The point is they don’t feel embarrassed on lifeless pitches like in SSC. Mahela is famous for batting big on lifeless pitches. He made 275 in another rubbish pitch at Motera last year, the only Test SL did not lose in that series.

Most of the bloggers feel that its not just SL who make lifeless pitches. Pakistan made them too when they used to have cricket played in their country. India have a couple of them in Ahmedabad and Bangalore.  SL have them everywhere. WI have it in Antigua, England have it at Lord’s and Cardiff.  But none of the batsmen from the countries except SL enjoy or justify the boring pitches which are full of runs and nothing for bowlers. We don’t see curators defending their creation every where blaming the bowling attacks.

Mahela has an expert view on everything. Yesterday there was a column in cricinfo where he said that India is not playing like a # 1 team. Sangakara is repeatedly ranting on need for “Fair FTP”. Murali feels Randiv and Mendis bowled well on SSC track (each of them went over 150 runs). I mean cmon have the guts to call spade a spade. Say that the SL pitches are killing the Test cricket. You don’t have to say that batting on such pitches is fun or challenging.  And as SP pointed out, the exhilaration showed by Mahelangakara at SSC was as if they have hit 200s on a pitch like 2006 series when none except Rahul Dravid crossed 50s in Wset Indies.

And in India no spinner is half as good as Anil Kumble even if we combine the prowess of Bhajji, IPL Ojha and Amit Mishra. Mishra got a chance and he has made a 100 in 150 balls.  Ojha is 2/78, his best figures in the series. Whats more Sehwag is more economical than this 2 supposed new gen spinners. 

What would Pakistan chose to do today ?

I am in a dilemma over what score would Pakistan finally end up today scoring another world record target. of the last 2 tests, they have won 1 and lost 1 chasing targets as good as 180 and 440 odd. Today's target is 435, so whats that score going to be when the Pakistan batsmen would think they have enough of meddling in the middle and its time to go infighting against Butt and inviting I Butt with his staple diet of bans, u-turns, cancelled fine pay cheques and of course some comic verbal volleys for all of us to laugh and have fun at.

Shame on you SSC

SSC has just proved that the Sri Lankans are out there to kill Test cricket.  Nothing more, nothing less. And even stubborn was the curator who shamelessly defended the pancake pata pitch which saw 1400 runs scored over 5 days for just 17 wikats.

Good this team did not become # 1 team in the Tests, else it would have been a black spot on the glorious history of test cricket of past 130 years....

Sachin, Gambhir -- one of the 2 ODI openers for India are rested and Srikanth's one of the step cricketing sons Dinesh Karthik is back. And he is going to open with Virender Sehwag. Enough said. 

The pace attack looks shoddy even more and if this is the pace attack Srikanth plans to field in the ODIs leading to the world cup, GOD bless billions of India  fans. 

Like Suresh Kalmadi being ugly face of Indian sports, Kris Srikanth is ugly face of Indian cricket. 

And some anonymous dickheads fucking readers might say I am ugly face to Cricket blogging.  Sore cunts!!!