17 March in history

A day when Lankans won the world cup out of nowhere in Lahore, Pakistan in 1996

A day when Sunil Gavaskar bowed out of test cricket with a magical 96 in losing cause against Pakistan in Bangalore in 1987.

A day when India was humbled by Bangladesh in WC' 07. Indian cricket's worst day. Cant remember that black saturday again. Oodi baba. No. Media went berserk. Rest is history.

A day when Pakistan were thumped by Ireland in WC'07. Next day the team lost its coach Bob Woolmer to mysterious death. Murder or natural, nobody would ever know.

Bad day bad day. Just for one reason. Indians lost in WC'07. 9 days later they bowed out of the world cup after loss to SL.

CT hosts, IPL trouble and World T20s.

South Africa are yet again to host an ICC event. This time its champions trophy. Alright they are very good hosts and Indians are very lucky there. They won the world T20 there and almost won the WC 2003. Going by the signs of the history and the form, they should back themselves to win the CT 09 too. But my point of contention is why does ICC not have to look beyond South Africa and Sri Lanka for the venues to host the CT ? Why not Australia ? They have the best cricket grounds and the best cricketing commentary. And I presume there would be no intrusion of non-cricketing elements in Australia. The fun and frolic that you get to see in MCG, SCG, Gabba and Waca is unmatched. Add to that the commentary from Bill Lawry, Ian Chappell, Ian Healy and of course Tony Greg.

I mean why it has to be SA every time. Or why a SL ? England is already hosting the World T20 for this year. I also read somewhere that West Indies would be hosting the T20 for next year. Wasn’t it supposed to be a 2 year gap between 2 World T20s. Am I missing something here ?

And it seems that the IPL is not gonna be hosted in India this year thanks to the petty row between the ruling Congress government and the BCCI. What is Mr Sharad Pawar doing ? He is a minister in the same government and the powerful man (?) in BCCI. Plus there is Rajeev SHukla, who is BCCI VP and a Congress MP. What are they doing ? Are the doubts on IPL security being based really on the Parliamentary elections or is it just a fallout of the Lahore attack on SL ? Aint Indian government scaring off the foreign teams and players by making the security row a public affair? Doesn’t the PC (home minister) and his officials understand that they don’t have to do this? This is getting farcical day by day. Time for somebody to back off and pull the plug. Either take IPL to Pakistan or scrap it off totally. By scraping IPL, the govt would also rob the Indians of the only platform to go to defense of their world T20 title.

Munaf

I have been a critic of Munaf Patel since my old cricket blog days (Taking Strike). I just baffle to see him grin when he is being hit for four or a six or when he misfields or throws a wild throw down the boundary. He had pace then, he has none now. He was exciting then, he is ridiculous now. He gets injured at drop of hat. He lacks intent, he lacks positive attitude. He hasn’t performed in ages. He is a medium slow bowler like Mohinder Amarnath or a Dion Nash. Even Jesse Ryder would bowl faster than Patel or for that matter our own Tendulkar and Yuvraj. He hasn’t taken wickets. He hasn’t lasted a full tour. What’s that he has it in him that he finds himself in the playing XI every time ? Ishant Sharma is being milked for runs in ODIs but yet he takes wickets.

What bad has Ajit Agarkar done ? Get him back. He is still 3^rd highest wicket taker for India in ODIs. 12 short of 300. He has attitude, he goes for runs, but is game for bending the back. Or get Balaji. If you need a bowler who bowls at 130 then whats wrong with him ? Or for that matter get Sreesanth back. He should have got his punishment for his activities. Get him. But dump Munaf. I second you SP.

Stop begging guys!!

Is he an idiot or a helper of terrorist groups in Swat area of what they call good Taliban ?

http://cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India-should-come-forward-to-help-Pakistan-cricket/articleshow/4266753.cms

Messrs Kamran Akmal. Yeah right. We help them and they send 10 perpators to Mumbai to ......

SL agree to tour them and their team is attacked.

Chris Broad speaks out against poor security in Pak for 3/3 and he is being filed for a ban by great Ijaz Butt and Javed Miandad whose son has married Dawood Ibrahim daughter, Mumbai's most.........

We have IPL coming up in 25 days time, there is an ugly row in public between Home ministry, state govts and IPL. And bang on time Naseem Ashraf, the fly who was thrown out post General era in Pakistan, speaks that terrorists would target players in India!!

Bloody hell who sends terrorists to India ? GOD sent or Pakistan sent ? Or non-state actors ? Time for Pakistanis to stop begging Indians for help. Indians wont and shouldnt help a country which binges on terror and nourishes terror and goes soft on it.

Questions galore

This performance wasn’t something which would tag this team as the best ever. Especially when it came to giving away the momentum before the real cricket begins March 18^th. Anyways its curtains for the so called youth brigade and time for MEN to take the center stage and show the Kiwis and the so called young brigade what it is to represent the country all about. Move away Raina and Sharma, here cometh Rahul and VVS. Yes this sounds intimidating. Veeru and Gambhir to open, Dravid and Tendulkar to follow. VVS and Yuvraj to consolidate, Dhoni to interface between the middle order and the tail enders. Zaheer and Bhajji are decent bats too. Ishant can swipe the bat and he is good damn with the ball. That for me is the team to be.

Falling prey to a dibbly dobbly bowler in Jesse Ryder isn’t the performance of best ever. Woops no. No no no. Once Sachin was out to injury and the Sehwag storm was calmed down, nobody bothered to stay back and play the long innings. Perhaps dead rubber is seeming to be a problem now. It happened in SL in 08, 09 and now here in NZ. Something gotta be seen from the messrs Kirsten and MSD.

Why a public show of security ?

The politics over IPL schedule is ridiculous. Attacks in Pakistan has made us a bit jittery and cautious. But then why is it being discussed openly in public ? Doesn’t that give the perpetors of the 11/26 another chance to plot something fishy ? Our government is a jackasss, its well known. It just doesn’t know how to do all this internally without much fuss. It sends a very wrong signal to the world that we are an unsafe country, we are not.

John Wright

John Wright is being humble in saying that Gary Kirsten is better India coach than himself. The rankings perhaps would be decided later when Kirsten leaves. But the hard work on the core group of today’s Indian team was done over by John and Saurav with inputs from Rahul, Sachin and Anil. And for that John’s contribution would never be forgotten.

Havin missed 2 of the most explosive innings.

It’s a pity that I missed two of the year’s most explosive innings played by my 2 of the most favorite batsmen in the present Indian squad for ODIs. Sachin Tendulkar ‘s 163 and Virender Sehwag ‘s 125*. And blame all of this to the crazy schedule I have been going through in the office. Perhaps my project seems more like Pakistan cricket. More I try to fix it, more worse it gets. So I can be called Ijaz Butt. Could be but one without loose tongue or penchant for verbal and literal diarrhea. I can very well relate the project issues to the issues baffling Pakistan cricket, but I would do that when I get home. With a possible 4-0 or 3-1 drubbing in ODIs for NZ, a 2-0 or 3-0 win for India in Tests seem all the way a very strong possibility. Add Dravid and Laxman in place of Raina and Pathan. Boy!!!

Aussies prevail.

Australia had it. The ranking was preserved. Not that it mattered to its fans. But it did to its critics. And yes critics were floored again as were the Saffers. Saffers just don’t have in it them to maintain a consistent run to beat the top notch teams. Win against Aussies in 2 games and then falling flat 3 times in row. That just sparked Aussies. And perhaps that means the end of road for the likes of Roy and Shane Watson for now. The likes of Hughes, North, Siddle and McDonald have provided a spark to the team which was lacking in India and the home season. They are the future stars of the Australian cricket and would have a long Test careers ahead of them. The stars of the Aussie triumph – JPD, Steyn, Amla, Morkel and Smith, all faded out. Kallis was never a match winner. He never had that fear imbibing quality in opposition team in him.

Australia had rookies, Saffers had so called best attack in the world, which just chickened out in its own home yard. Johannesburg is now the Perth for Saffers. 2 consecutive Test losses for them on the ground. There is one more test to go and doesn’t matter if Australia lose. They showed it to the world that they rule the world and it was also displayed huge words the only team that can take them on is India. India and South Africa won series against them this season. But then Saffers have lost 3 tests, winning 2. India has won 2 and lost none. They have now won 3 in last 5 tests and drew 2. That proves once more the worthy contenders for Test top spot is India. And there is no qualms in that. Rankings doesn’t matter here. Win or lose, India would always remain the best bet to beat Aussies now.

Ponting ’s real test would start now in his ability to lead the team through the transition. It won’t be possible for them to win every Test they play as they did before, but if they could even achieve 60% of their earlier success, they would be happy to enter the transition phase.

Bryan Coverdale puts this perspective very gently here

3rd pacer and best Indian lineup

If Ishant Sharma is not fit then 3rd pacer is a problem for India. So its better to go pick better batsman out of the 2 lesser bowlers. And thats where Irfan Pathan scores over inept sedate Munaf Patel. He is a bit of mole who doesnt get in his mind that he is got to bowl some pace or some variation and not just off stump line with 120 kmph which would be whacked to the boundary.

And guess what Rohit Sharma would make a comeback. Bloody ridiculous. And Sachin felt this was the best batting line up he ever had ? Did he forget Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid ? Replace Raina with Saurav and Pathan with Rahul, there you go the best batting line up India ever had. 2003 World cup. Yes Saurav gets it right. Mentioning fact is one thing and motivating the team is other thing.

Good opportunity for India to win the series tomorrow. But thats possible when the replacement for 163 works.