BCCI isnt serious about the Test defeats

If you have a look at Mr Srini, the BCCI chief, comments then you’d probably bite your own head or hit it on the wall bang bang. That gives you how much seriously the board has taken the disasters of England and Australia.  Yes, India are not the bad team, as the results show in this 2 tours, but there is something that needs to be fixed. Either that’s the mindset that’s suddenly deteriorated or it’s the quality that’s gone begging.  Or it’s the coach regime that’s plotted the downfall more than anything else.

The media has been equally negative, and so have been the ex-players like Bapu Nadkarni or Kirti Azad or even Kiran More. This players were no good in their playing days, played negative all their careers and today they are echoing the thought that Tendulkar should retire. So much for 22 years of international cricket the man played for India.

The headlines in ToI or NDTV say “Another green pitch awaits India”. Cricinfo reads “dry pitch could help under the pump Indian batting lineup”. Who’s more reliable?  Perhaps cricinfo.  The media hasn’t played less role than the ex-players in forming a negative opinion against the beleaguered cricketers who are being hammered down under.  The next venue is Adelaide, where India hasn’t lost in last 2 series, or rather last 13 years. So much for the historic facts.

The board is busy in arranging logistics  for the IPL-5 and Srikanth’s Tamil Nadu are in Ranji final after hammering Mumbai in the semis. But the defending champions are edging them out of the tournament race by being ultra-slow in their batting. 2/404 in 180 overs is heinous.  But if Tamil Nadu wins the trophy, again the likes of Boss DK, Vijay, Mukund, Dabrinath and L Balaji would find their way to the Indian team on the name of fresh blood and injury replacements. But if Rajasthan win again, then there won’t be any players from Rajasthan finding their way to the Indian team.  Zimply because Srikanth is head of selection committee, which has been unaccountable for the 7 defeats overseas.

Whose heads is going to roll after the test leg of this tour is completed?  The ODIs are expected to be little bit more successful than the tests cos the team is world champion in this format. And it has won the previously held tri-series in that country with exact same combination of teams participating then and now.   MS Dhoni might find his aura back after ODI success (read few wins, if not tournament), the selection committee would then hold its head high “See, we selected this team”. Certainly it wont be the case of “Oh, we also selected the teams that lost 4-0 (or 3-1 or 3-0) in both England or Australia. “ And as Bishen Bedi perhaps for first time said something right in ages “Every test team would be forgotten once IPL starts”. But if there wont be any viewership for IPL, then where would the unaccounted for selection committee head and officials who have hefty share in IPL franchisees find rest in? 

N Srinivasan and Kris Srikanth are the 2 biggest culprits to have landed the Indian cricket in such a pitiful state.   They probably take more solace in the fact that they are part of the team that has won past 2 IPLs and one CLT20. But they fail to understand they also hold the biggest posts in the board that manages the national cricket team. The statements from this 2 buffoons is good enough to reveal the fool hardiness with which this folks have taken the defeats.

Keep all cisms about World cup till the end of it

The World Cup has already got into shambles before it could start for India. The venues are not yet ready, the politics over the venues have already begun. All it seems to be a replica of Commonwealth games Delhi 2010.

The English media is already creating bad omens about the world cup good 3 weeks before it begins. And they are building up the list of excuses should England crash out as usual they do in the world cup. The blame would go to the heat, humidity, food, crowd and what not except the performance.

Sri Lanka, if they lose in the semis stage in Kolkata and if they dont have a default this time, they would blame this conditions too as Sangakara tried to build that hyperbole before 2009 series which they eventually lost.

Few bloggers are already declaring this world cup to be the last ODI world cup. The health of ODI world cup already remains in questions and doubts. There have been very little runathons in the build up to the world cup in last few months. There have been few very closely fought ODI series in England, Middle East and South Africa.  Thats a good sign though, but the cynics and critics would obviously chose not to see it.

I am skeptical of quarter final format and  believe that the super 6 or super 8 was a better format and its strange how ICC pushed in QF format yet again after 16 years.

For me the best format is every one plays every one like it happened in 1992 world cup and that gave us a fair idea of the best team to win the cup in the end  2015 would be on that lines.

BCCI has been too lax in the end to ensure that the venues are complete and they meet the necesary standards for the world cup. Only if they had diverted their attention from screwing Lalit Modi's ass, the Kolkata's pride would have been still holding the 4 games it was supposed to. No doubt that game would now either go to Chennai or Nagpur or even Mumbai. Chennai cos Srini is from Chennai, Nagpur cos Manohar is from that place and Mumbai is Sharad Sugar Pawar's baston.

The win-win situation for every one this point ownwards is to hold the skepticism, cynicism, criticism and all other cisms till the end of the world cup and I am sure that barring minnow games, every game in the world cup is going to be full house and eagerly watched till the end, cos a hopeful nation would want that title to be captured after 28 years because nothing gets bigger than this.

ODI world cup title is what we want and that is what we want to win desparately.

Eden Gardens loses one game

Such a pity that Eden Gardens looks set to host none of the world cup games as of now. The ground has been India's best and has been bet to some World Cup classics including the shameful Sri Lankan semi final win in 1996.

The ICC found that the stadium wont be ready in time to host the first game on Feb 27 between India and England. 

Who is to blame for this delay and who is accountable are absurd questions. India has never got any public accountability in sports, so its futile to expect a responsible action on this shameful act. The purpose of the renovation of the Eden Gardens is not helping the very root cause, so what is the use of spending millions in it. 

And this shall soon become a political hotball between BCCI and CAB since the latter is headed by Jaggu Dalmiya.

Chuck the rotation policy

The ODI series between India and Australia ended in a farce with 2 games being washed out due to rains. That meant India won a ODI series against Australia in India after 1996.  14 years back India had beaten Australia 2 out of 3 times and 3rd one was a washout. South Africa had beaten Australia 3 times too. Titan cup.

The result of 1-0 means waste of 2 games to try out few names to close the problematic # 7 spot in the final XI for the world cup.

Questions need to be asked of the scheduling committee of BCCI who awarded the games to Kochi and Goa at this point of time when the monsoon retreats from India. The games were a waste of time and also money for the hopefuls who thought to watch the game in this 2 cities.

Goa and Kochi are unusual choice of venues for any form of cricket. For one they are not pure cricket stadias. At least that stands for Kochi. The usual Nehru stadium (pathetic to see every 2nd stadium being named on Nehru  Gandhi family when they did not have to do anything with the game of cricket) is a football stadia which converts to cricket stadium when the game is scheduled once in few years when the rotation policy shouts Kochi.

There have been voices raised on the validity of rotation policy this days when more often than not the venue results either in a wash out or a mockery of the game. Mohali Test was witnessed by few 1000s in 5 days and it has hosted 2 tests in 2 years.

Kolkata and Bangalore including Chennai have been awesome venues for Tests but they do not host the tests that often.

Kolkata hosted one test in 2007 and then in 2010. Before that the test was hosted in 2005 against Pakistan, 2002 against Windies and of course the epic of 2001.  5 tests in 10 years. Pity the best stadium of the country and the oldest one hosts just 5 in a decade.  Thanks to the political equations within the BCCI.

Mohali on the other hand hosted one in 2010, one in 2008, one in 2008 (two in 2008 thanks to Mumbai), 2005,  2001,2004 vs England. More than 6 tests to spectators apathy. Given the fact that Mohali is another one of the best venues in the country but the spectators lack apathy to it for Tests.

Wankhede stadium is one of the poor maintained venues with no regards for spectator comfort, yet it hosted almost regularly Test matches. Now its racing against time to schedule the World Cup games including final.  I have always thought Kolkata was a better choice than Mumbai to witness a World Cup final. Imagine the atmosphere if India wins the final. Mumbai would be no less but in terms of headcount Kolkata would be a demoralizer for the opposition. And if Sri Lanka is the opponent in the final, some sledging from the crowd would be good enough to drive Sangakara mad and gift the game to India.

Long story short: give up the rotation policy and have a select few venues host the Tests and ODIs.

Few options:

Tests : Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kanpur, Delhi

ODIs:  Mohali, Jaipur, Indore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Dharmsala, Cuttack, Vizag, Nagpur

Leave out Rajkot, Vadodara, Gwalior, Kochi, Guwahati, Pune, Jamshedpur etc as this are not only the ones which win the rights due to political connections, but this are also poor in terms of facilities and comfort for spectators. Esp Pune.  For 12 months of the year the stadium witnesses the political rallies, local plays and other non cricketing events. MCA has been saying that they are building a new stadium in Mahalunge (for IPL 4) but that is 20 km outside city and given the state of public transport (lack of it and pathetic auto rickshaw system and no connectivity with the exteriors) there would be very few who would go all the way down to Mahalunge or the spot where the stadia is being built.

Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab are out of IPL for now.  Equal amount of outrage and welcome. Journos writing for Yahoo, ToI would cry foul and tears.  Few twitterers would mock and joke along. Test Cricket and ODI lovers would give a damn. I belong to the same category. 

I believe even though being indifferent to ouster of this teams, this could clean up the IPL image a bit. Given the misdeeds of Lalit Modi spoilt the image and landed the IPL in mess, this cleanup act should act as a stern warning to the other franchisees to get their act right. I am no expert on legal stuff, so i wont say a word on what's right and what's wrong. 

So here is what would happen:

1. Shilpa Shetty would cry in public. Earn sympathy on twitter and news channels. Curse the media, would get sympathetic tweets from few players of her team. Even more she would get some hugs from SRK, her sister, Karan Johar and other fashion designers who made money out of IPL but didnot know a name of player of the RR and laws of the game. 
2. IPL franchisee owners would cry foul over BCCI. Already there are slavery talks. Get out this franchisee owners. 
3. Preity ZInta would stop hugging and kissing her players. 
4. We would get rid of Sangakara for good.
5. Shilpa Shetty would cry on tv.
6. Raj Kundra would sue BCCI.
7. Shilpa Shetty's name would now be extinct from cricketing circles.

BCCI would be unfazed and carry on with the IPL4. Modi or no Modi, the real stars are the players who have been the part of teams. And until they do not perform the IPL would not die. Cut out this set of people and bring in. Show would go on.

Geidon Low

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/479042.html

Unfortunately in this article most of the aliens who destroyed cricket cometh out of Indian supremacy of the world Cricket.

The author fails to keep aside his India bias while trying to set forth the conflicts of interests he talks about to keep the game clean. And thats where we fail to take him seriously. And thats where he fails to come out as convincing bias free author.

Desparate IOA

IOA is getting desperate to have the India – Australia Test series rescheduled as it overlaps with totally incoherent and needless Commonwealth games in October.  Well this 2 events are totally parallel to each other and bear no resemblance.  India is not playing in the CW T20 tourney and so it does not matter if the Australia test series overlaps with the games or not.

The tests are going to be played in Mohali and Bangalore, far away centers from capital. So it would not matter to IOA for loss of any viewership (who would watch CW games anyway).

Asking sports minister to intervene on this issue is just another issue for IOA to get evens with the BCCI as it failed to convince later to send full strength Indian T20 team to play in CW games at the expense of Test cricket.

IPL Cleanup begins

Lalit Modi being disbanded out of IPL is just a first step to clean the alleged mess thats gripped IPL.  Another step probably could be to terminate the telecast rights which has a set of rumors of felicitation fees being paid to WSG from MSM (or vice versa).  80 million dollars of bribe or commission. How much pie was distributed to the middlemen including Mr Modi himself needs to be find out.

Whats more the IPL parties could be terminated too alongside kicking out the Bollywood and glamour quotient including the likes of Mandira Bedi.  Its being said that MTv forced players to participate in IPL Nights to ensure high glam quotient. So if thats shown the door too, the  game of cricket would be in focus rather than the sundry models and useless DJs making fun of player fitness.

The ongoing tax probe is not much optimistic as its being used by the government settle terms with the opposition and NCP. (Sharad Pawar is NCP chief, most influential in cricket in the country). Modi is alleged to be linked with Vasundhra Raje, ex Rajasthan CM (from BJP). So if taxmen find something in the probe, Cong managers wont leave any stone unturned to malign or unsettle the cricket in the country.

Later on Twiteroor would be restored, thats also a possibility.

Manohar has questioned if Shilpa Shetty and her mister are real stakeholders of RR. If he is true then its even more good. We would be spared her fake smile and her presence on the dugouts.

The IPL on field action might have ended but the off field action is far from being over. Political vendettas from madam and Pranab babu aided by quiet support from MMS,  ICC president elect being cornered and murkier details being leaked out are going to be order of the day.

What IPL scandal means to the end user

The IPL has taken a huge blow in its credibility and the trustworthiness.  There are some murkier details coming out every hour in the media, many of which could be true or many of them just could be the word in the mouth in the media.  This is a huge story for the publicity hungry media and they are leaving no stone unturned in the coverage of the IPL scandal.   The scandal claimed Shashi Tharoor and now it threatens to claim Lalit Modi too. There have been reports of betting and match fixing in the Times of India where in its being said that Modi is the face behind it. It also mentions that Modi has few of his friends and family members invested in the 3 franchisees and the company that hosts the mobile rights for the tournament.

The government is also behind the BCCI and IPL for the so called tax evasion and there have been noises from the political leaders to overtake the cricket administration and ban the IPL.   

There have been already some noises made in the Australian, English and Kiwi player associations over the blasts in Bangalore and there are many who dislike Modi. This controversy is a god gift to those entities who allege that BCCI is the root of all evils in the subcontinent.

What beckons for the end user who watches cricket in any form and format ? Will he be turned off from the iPL as it did from cricket in 2000 match fixing scandal ? Or would it wait for the dirt to settle out and then come back to the IPL with zeal same as last 3 seasons. A lot of it depends on how things turn up in next few days. The build up to the World T20, more significant than the IPL , is not very ideal for Indian team.  Its not playing any warmup game in the carribean. The same place where it lost 2007 world cup.

I would not bother much about the iPL right now since this version is almost at the end and anyways I am not a big fan of intrusion of Bollywood and other irritating factors in the good ol game of cricket. If the ongoing investigation gets to the root of the evil and cleanses the entire system thus shunting out the objectionable stakeholders, then the IPL-4 could be a new beginning for the BCCI and it could go well in the history of the board that would mark the start of much needed transparency and accountability in the system.

The answer  to this well could be the ouster of Lalit Modi and Shashank Manohar taking over his place. 

Snub show must go on

And latest in the drama now is that Butt saheb would complain the IPL snub to ICC in Feb10 personally and prepare to get another snub.

But before that he would prepare to get one more snub from Jamshed Dasti, the swayambhu guardian of Pakistan cricket, who not so long ago had claimed match fixing in the semi final loss to NZ in CT and had seen the hand of India in it.

Poor Butt, he is trying to soothe his players, but deep within he knows he is alienating BCCI. When the things wud be normal and IPL snub would be forgotten, he would get another royal snub from BCCI when he would come with a beggar's bowl to have a series between the 2 teams so that his board gets some money and then that money could go to LeT or ISI for another attack planning on a visiting team in Pakistan.

So you see the dynamics of the snub. Pakistan are getting them aplenty.  All for their own doing.  This soap opera is too intriguing. Show must go on, in terms of Mr Raj Kapoor.

Pak's IPL Snub : Politics

Pakistan cricketers and PCB bosses are not helping themselves by issuing some  temparamental and nasty comments over IPL snub.

India or BCCI did not ban Pak players from IPL-2 last year, it was their own government which banned them from playing in a cheap act of retaliation (cancellation of Test tour by Indian govt).

PCB wants ties to resume asap to arrest its financial loss. Pak players want India to support them to ensure cricket returns to their land.

Unfortunately this is a complex situation. Pakistan are a volatile nation and perceived to be the disturbers of the peace and harmony in the world. 11/26 has not been forgotten and that will play a key role in deciding the matters on cricket for a long time to come, like it or not.

This matter, the politics would continue to dictate the terms on sports and thats not bad either.  So for now Pak players and PCB need to wait and prolly not watch. India has turned their back on the troubled volatile global sponsors of terror neigbhours.

MS Dhoni gets banned

In another absurd decision MSD got banned for supposed slow over rate in the Jamtha ODI.  The match refree is Jeff Crowe from Kiwi land. What he did not see was the disruption in the game brought by cheater Angelo Angelo, you saw that? Cheap stuff. And he was even allowed a runner.

Why is the bowling captain fined when the batsman who gets injured or fakes injury also disrupts the game ?

And why the fuck even  an Indian is banned, even if West one.

Why was not Mathews banned for the so called quadriceps being done ? Was he even real ?

Why only Indians are banned ? And will this create a furore as it happened in 2001 when Dennis Lindsey banned Sourav, Sachin, Rahul and 3 other players ?

Cmon BCCI, a crooked or crowed referee bans an Indian captain in the hometown of the BCCI president under its own nose. Show us your might and get this ban repealed. And if possible get Angeloooooooooooo and Sangakara banned.

And MS : stop being generous. Disallow runners. Be like Andrew Strauss.

Sreesanth

........finally is warned and rightly so. Its time his antics are clipped and for his benefit it has come at right time.

When you scoff at a batsman who has taken a single off an ordinary ball, then there is some trouble on the top floor.

And its just getting frenzier and crazier.

Even then he doesnt understand and doesnt mend, then kiss him goodbye.

India and Pakistan cricket are same except............

Indian borad have had crap administrators.

They have it too.

Sharad Pawar's group is no saint.

Ijaz Butt hardly speaks sense.

Ex players make noise here too.

Ex players have license to rant shit there too.

Indian media makes a mole out of a mosquito like for T20 or CT exit.

Pak media does the same too.

Indian bloggers reel their team too. With Tendulkar too being no exception.

Their bloggers reel their own team too. Some keep hope, most question the integrity of few playyers they dont wanna disclose.

Indian umpires are no more worthy enough to be in ICC elite.

They have 2. One of them won the umpire of the year.

Indians were knocked out in the Super 8 of WT20 and in first round of CT.

They won WT20 n knocked out in the semis.

Indians wished that Pakistan win their game against Australia.

They thought that Indians could influence umpires to give wrong decisions. How ridiculous. Can that be plotted before and stage managed ?

One difference negates all the bullcrap this side of the border has. The Indians never take up the topic of match fixing when their team loses. 2 losses in ICC tournaments and even India TV or Aaj Tak or Bishen Singh Bedi didnt speak that.

They did and they became the matter of laughters and Butt jokes. My question is that doesnt their players and true fans get pissed on non stop crap of match fixing allegations?

BCCI scheduling

Ahmedabad would host one of the 3 tests against SL and Rajkot would host one of the ODIs against SL.

Vadodara is hosting one ODI against Australia.

Mumbai is hosting a test. :O

Which ground ? Under renovation Wankhede or DY or old Brabourne ?

Why cant BCCI go beyond 3 venues of Gujrat to host ODIs / Tests ? Every tour this cities have to host a ODI or a tour game.

Ahmedabad got a Test in 2008. It gets a test again in 2009.

Calcutta last hosts an ODI in 2007, last Test in 2007.

Niranjan Shah is from Gujrat and Dalmiya is from Kolkata.

Get the whiff ? Politics. Mr Sharad Pawar. Thank God, no ODI in pathetic Pune's Nehru stadium or Jodhpur (Mr Modi).

I believe Jaipur and Nagpur must be hosting ODIs vs Australia. Guwahati is hosting one ODI too. Sorry no Jaipur. May be one ODI during Saffa series.

No game in Gwalior in 10 years. Till Mr Scindia was alive (as chief of MPCA) Gwalior got the games and Indore didnt. Indore had pathetic stadium then, but now it has got one very good stadium which can beat the likes of Wankhede in ambience, facilities and the capacity. Now his son Mr J Scindia, who is also a minister heads the MPCA.

Kanpur hosts a Test too. The last time a Test was played there, the game ended in 3 days with a face saving Indian win. Kanpur, lol. Guess it would be the last test there, as the CM would then destroy the ground to host a memorial of hers and her mentor. Such a pity that the ground which has some glorious history and has seen some rare Indian wins in 50s and 60s is in such a pathetic Test.

We all know how good the pitch was.

So why not (raising again) fix few good grounds (they are plenty) and host matches up there ?

Just noticed that Chennai missed out. Perhaps it would get a test for SA.

BCCI would hardly rise over its rotation policy cum politics. Vote politics.

Freelancing and BCCI

Few days back in the Tony Greig show on cricinfo I read that he had blamed India for the freelance concept in cricket.

It was quite amusing for me to find India being blamed for this concept. He conviniently forgot that he was one of those who began the exodus to the Packer circus in 70s and then was the board member in the ICL which began in 2007 and which gave rise to the "lucrative" options available to modern day cricketers today.

Andrew Flintoff rejected ECB's central contract to be able to play in T20 tournaments world wide. For all the injuries and form concerns aside, he along with his friend KP remains IPL's highest paid cricketers. And its ironical that the concerns on the freelance concept getting popular come from this 2 cricketers.

KP was quoted to have said that the English setup needs a change as players may find the county cricket a bit too exuastive.

The bottom line is that the English cricket season coincides with the start of IPL every year.

English cricket writers and admins easily forget that they began the T20 concept in 2003 and now they are the ones who are suddenly bothered about the life of Test cricket. Perhaps their vision is limited to the Ashes and perhaps for them life begins at the Ashes and ends at Ashes.

Its their own players now who have concerns over their own schedule and the domestic setup. Its very easy for them to go blame BCCI for all the ills in the cricket, but they forget one thing no big player from BCCI's custody has slipped to go play in ICL or has embraced the concept of freelance cricket.

Its very easy for everybody in the world to blame BCCI for the ills in the world. Be it in the sports minister in India who suggests BCCI to accept WADA proposals or the lesser sportsmen in the country who at many times are benefitted by the grant provided by the BCCI for their expenses. Be it the ex-players who jump the gun to ICL and when the shop is closed they come back asking for favors.

Likes of PCB, Arjuna Ranatunga, Tony Greig, WICB blame BCCI for the ills in their own countries respectively. But little do they forget that the ICC is being funded by the star players and the money from India.

Before pointing out a finger to India for every ill, the respective board or individual should review their own position in the context and then point a finger to anybody else. That is take responsibility for your own actions.

BCCI is no saint, but its certainly not the evil its made out to be. After all it has shown the world that in a country like ours where everything is a creamy job for politicians, the game can still rule the headlines 9 out of 10 times for its performance on the field and has given the country some real valued sportsmen who have kept performing despite every road block and stumbling blocks.

But are we ready to accept this achievement of BCCI or is it going to be always eggs and pichkaris thrown at BCCI's face...

Champions League : 5 days to go

The soon to start Champions League in India is going to be a landmark event.

A) Its first cricket international fixture in India after IPL was thrown out by PC earlier this year.

B) Its just the second tournament after the Mumbai seige. Since then its just the England series that was played precisely in Chennai and Mohali.

So security could be an issue with the touring players. For now the whispers and murmurs havent become noise.

Thats the first edition of the Champions League that gets going.

If its successful and a box office hit, would there be a talk on future of ODIs again now that we have had a reasonable successful Champions Trophy?

WADA

According to an article on cricinfo on the ongoing fuss on WADA, one of the 11 on the list of Indian players to be tested randomly is Sachin Tendulkar. The list is called IRTP. There are 2 ladies, there are few lesser mortals like Munaf, Irfan on the list. Barring this 4 the other ones in the list are high profile cricketers. Sehwag, Dhoni, Harbhajan, Yuvraj, Gambhir and Zaheer Khan – the only cricketers in India who play all 3 formats consistently and form the backbone of this highly successful Indian team. Imagine a situation that one of this cricketers is busy spending some quality time with their families or say dining in a restaurant or watching movie in a multiplex. They come out and WADA intercepts them and asks for a Test. What would be the reaction ? The situation would be very embarrassing and downgrading for the cricketers.

And can we imagine this players taking drugs? I mean is this insane ? Declare your whereabouts and be ready for Test. Sachin Tendulkar is tested for drugs. How disgusting this would look in the news. It would be a humiliation to the great man. Or imagine somebody saying drugs being the reason behind success of Sehwag in Tests. How disgusting would that be? 3 breaches for failing the test and the player would be banned. What the hell. Imagine this situation, if a player like MS fails to go for the test and gets banned. And when the known and proven drugaddicts like Asif and Shoaib can play international cricket without even getting banned for what they did, how shameful would it look for the players with clean image. Banned for failing to appear the drugs test.

Sorry but WADA is not needed in CRICKET. Since 130 years the game has gone on with an exception of few peddlers and addicts, but mostly it has been drugs free and I see no reason why doping tests should be a part of cricket NOW. Inspect the cricketers who are having a past with the drugs who are making a return to the cricket on behest of some mad cricket admins. Why target people who wont even bother to go drugs way when they can perform miraculously without getting into drugs trap. Why doesn’t WADA force PCB to impose a ban on Mohd Asif who has been caught with drugs 2 times in 2 years. Or for that matter why is Shoaib Akhtar even playing cricket in any form? When Warne was banned for one year and Australia didn’t give two hoots to him returning to ODIs, then who are Asifs and Akhtars? What would WADA do on them? Why didn’t they make a strong case against this players? Can you imagine a Tendulkar or a Sehwag or a Dhoni going for performance enhancing medicines or drugs? The one who imagines so or thinks it could be a reality need to go have a brain check.

WADA hume maaf karo, aage badho. Chutte paise nahi hai.

RIP BCCI

....over the WADA dispute with ICC.. I m amused to see people quiet over this issue. Only losers like Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang, whom nobody in the country even remembers beside one night stars, have spoken on this issue against the cricketers. But then this sportsmen always need some issue to go against cricket. Inferiority complex or may be frustration.....

What did Abhinav Bindra do? Won a gold in the olympics. Fine. What after that and what before that ? Who bothers about olympics in the country ? Who the fuck even cares what this lad is upto ?

Do we bother about the cricketers? Hell lot. Why WADA wants to poke its nose in cricket ? Indians dont dope. At least not the cricketers. Go inspect the country which has its two cricketers caught in known drugs case. Why bother taking heads on the BCCI ? Whatever be the case, its gonna be BCCI who is going to be winners. And can any world tournament happen without the Indians ? The answer is well known to all of us. So WADA, try going after BCCI and then have a look at how this body is bundled and thrown out of ICC......

Killing the golden goose

BCCI is planning to get the top stars in the corporate T20 in September. Thats right before the CT. After CT its Australia ODI series and then the grudge series against SL followed by BD tour , SA series, IPL and the T20WC.

Not to add the uncalled for SL tri-series. So the 2 month break now reduces to close to 1 and fourth of a month break for the 4 or 5 cricketers who play all 3 formats of the game for country -- MS, Yuvraj, Gambhir and Harbhajan along with Zaheer. Not to forget that Viru is injured.

If top stars are to play for corporate T20, then what does it leave for the corporate teams and what different does it make from IPL ?

Unfortunately we get the feeling BCCI is slowly killing Tests where as it has huge power to save Tests by increasing the revenue for Test players and asking the other boards to follow the suit. India is supposed to play 8 Tests this summer which isnt as bad. Just that except SA, the opposition isnt as formidable as it was last summer. Okay SL are good team, but they are cuckoos when it comes to playing Test cricket in India...

So why not rest the top stars totally in the cotton wool quilt and use them sparingly. May be likes of Dabri or fringe players can be given the opportunity to prove their worth as this is almost the season opener for the country?