South Africa are in a coach and board mess. India are in fitness worries.

The 2nd best batsman of the team is injured and the 3rd best  batsman is back in the team after 10 stiches.

Karthik is out but to balance the state equations other one is in. Dabri. He stands a real chance to replace Dravid / Yuvraj in XI....Bet he wont score more than 50 runs combined in the test or even less.

So one easy wicket for Saffers at least.

Mithun gets a look in and thats a reward for hard work and a spectacular debut. He has had an awesome first class debut and though Test debut seems unlikely, he should be good enough to put the likes of Ishant and Sreesanth on toes.

Wriddhiman Saha is other surprise selection and he should debut should Dhoni get unfit again (will he be unfit for IPL?). And a good riddance of DKNY, Dancing baby, DK, Chennai Duck. At least he was looked through.

Cant bat, cant bowl and cant field

Cant bat, cant bowl and cant field.

Dont believe me ?

Have a look at this link:

http://www.cricinfo.com/ausvpak09/engine/current/match/406204.html

ROTFL!!!

Replacements for Dravid, Lacchu and Yuvraj ?

On 28th Jan when team for first Saffa test would be decided, the selectors would be in little trouble chosing the Test team and this would be  cos 3 of the 6 frontline batters are injured on this tour.

Dravid, Laxman and Yuvraj who form the backbone of the Test batting are out injured and do not know if they would recover in time for the first test.

Now the question arises who would come in for the 3.

Murali Vijay would be at 3.  What about other 2 ? Chance to  groom the replacements? Who ? Raina ?Sharma ?

Wont it be a chance to test the bench strength?  Interesting situation. Long time, perhaps first time in 14 years that India would be without Laxman, Dravid and of course retired Saurav.  Ok, that was in England 1996 when Dravid and Ganguly were yet to debut and then later on in the year Laxman debuted in Srinath's Ahmedabad test (6-21, first victory over SA)

This is Saffa's 4th tour of 2000s and 5th in all for Tests and the record doesnt look very good. 2 series losses, a win and a draw. That is, out of 10 tests won 4, lost 4 and draw 2/\.

We are yet to see Indian Test team without the 4 batting legends (Fab Four).  This would be an indication of times to dawn perhaps in couple of years when the big 3 would depart and then the replacements would be on.

Next few days would be indication to the future of Indian test cricket should the big 2 not recover from their injuries.

I hope they do.

Coach captain fiasco in Saffa

One more coach has walked the fire of getting axed with relations being damaged beyond repair with the captain.

Mickey Arthur has supposedly resigned as Saffa coach due to strain with Graeme Smith after the series draw with England.

Another coach crucified due to the ego clash after Peter Moores and Kevin Pieterson.

And Mahek for you : if you dont like any post, why personal mud slinging. Attack the post, not the poster. One saintly advice for  you (not sure you are guy or a gal).  Else the best advice for you is do not drop by. But do not abuse please. 

Happy Republic Day

Let the peace of Lord be on the country on the occasion of 60th Republic Day.

Let the country go strength by strength and withstand the evil eye of the bigotful elements from the region and let the country prevail through the tough times to see a dawn of hope and peace.

Why did Warne and McGrath retire in 2007 ?

Want to know why Warne and Pidge retired in 2007 ?

If you want to believe Javed Miandad, then here is the reason :

Due to the IPL, superstars like Shane Warne [ Images ] and Glenn McGrath [ Images ] retired from the Australian cricket team.

"They could easily play for another couple of years, but rushed to the IPL, as the amount was very attractive; so when the Indian team visited Australia [ Images ], who were without senior players like Warne and McGrath, it was easy for the Indians to control the opposing team."

Now somebody need to explain the jumping jack that IPL was announced in Sep 2007 and both superstars retired in Jan 2007, even ICL was not born then.

Being the "samdhi" of a mafia don himself he calls IPL a mafia :

The Indian Premier League is becoming a big mafia that wants to control world cricket; it is not only endangering the existence of the International Cricket Council [ Images ], but also the rest of the cricketing nations.

If IPL is threat to India, he answers : "Not at all; the IPL will help Indians only, but it will weaken the rest of the teams. India will get the best players of the world and weaken other teams".

He should be told that only Indian citizens can play for India and we've got no system we know of where foreign nationals can play for India.

"Twenty20 cricket is no cricket, but money-cricket; everybody knows that it is commercial cricket; the main cricket is moving towards destruction"

Destruction in Pak for cricket? Yes. Not elsewhere.

Clearly the guy has lost his mind and is suffering from diarohea from mouth rather than back. 

Mishra gets dropped

Sounds weird, Mishra took 5 or 6 wkts in the game including 4 last 2nd innings wkts and today he does not find a place in the team. Pragyan Ojha comes to play for him. Looks weird.

Was Mishra in as Sehwag was the captain and now that MS returns, the Ojha guy is in and Mishra is out ? Choice of preferences ?

Murali is playing for India now in place of Lacchu pehelwan and this time he would play at 6 hopefully or one of the openers would shift. Seems unlikely.

Actually none of the 3 spinners combined post Anil era look as strong as the man himself was when he played.  Neither in skill and neither in toughness.

Yousuf sacked mid series

If all the IPL drama was not enough, then Mr Butt Sahib declares publicly that Yusuf Khan is going to be sacked after the Aus ODI series.

Oops Mohd Yusuf.  And he is still playing.

Publicly a board chairman declares that this captain is not good enough to lead the side in any form of the game. So who comes in ? Younis back again ?

Pakistan cricket itself is in a mess and their dramatic antics is providing enough fodder to the world to peek a laugh at them.

Jerks rule the PCB and even bigger jerks become T20 captains and ODI vice captains.

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.

Move ON

No Englishman was chosen in IPL, yet snooty English media and countrymen are silent and ignorant over the IPL snub.

None from BD and except Thissara Parera SL was chosen, none from WI was chosen and none from mainstream Australia and NZ was chosen in the IPL, yet we dont hear any of this boards or players crying foul like the Butts, Afridis, Dastis, Zakahranis and Abbasses are doing.

Neither of this countries' pride is hurt and neither of the players have said anything weird as Shahid Afridi, who is a master disguise (is technically 30 but looks  34) or even Sohel Tanveer, who is not even part of the team.

One simple word for the suggested reaction to this people : MOVE ON.  Get on with your lives and try winning at least one game on the tour down under. At least one.