We need to ban Karthik, Vijay, Yusuf Pathan and Jadeja

Following lads need a ban for indefinete period.

1. Murali Vijay
2. Yusuf Pathan
3. Ravinder Jadeja
4. Dinesh Karthik

We need an Ijaz Butt who'd ban them for indefinete period. And then we need somebody who would not revoke the ban from this players.

They have done the country shame with their inept and pathetic display in the international games post IPL where they glittered and blasted to fame on doctored pitches giving out a picture that they are future stars. Actually they are worse than the players who played solitary games for India in their history.

Nothing can justify the kind of start the Tamil Nadu duo gave against Zinbabwe. The opposition didn't even have a specialist new ball bowlers.  21 runs off 56 balls and 33 off 71 balls are good enough to nail this duo and kick them outta team.

They must be partying around and watching out a Rajni flick. And even thinking of dancing along some pretty actress. Their erstwhile Tamil Nadu colleague Sadgopan Ramesh did so. Mr Karthik has already debuted in TV reality show. So the next destination for this IPL stars and India duds is TV / Kollywood cinema.

Spare us the torture guys.  I have vowed never to watch a game in which either of this 4 players would play for India. They are shame, they are black spots on what we call the pride for playing in Indian team. They are curse to the national anthem being played before every ICC tourney game.

Curse to the tricolor. Let this bigots play from Chennai against Coiambatore.   Ban them from playing for India.

Aftermath

India’s fourth or fifth string team lost to the enthusiastic and committed Zimbabwe second time in a week. How pathetic it is. Who owns up this defeat ? Skipper Raina, coach Kirsten or selector head clown Srikanth?  It was pathetic to see that there was no intent or will to score runs from the openers. What was Murali Vijay thinking ? He is a star ? IPL is long time over kid. If you cant play against Zimbabwe, there is a little chance you could play against anybody else.  56 ball 21 in PowerPlay overs with no boundaries whatsoever. Ditto for his Tamil Nadu skipper Dinesh Karthik, who by far should have been dumped in the dustbin of Marina Beach or Golden Beach in Chennai for his hyped talent, zero on delivery.

What happened to Amit Mishra who got a 5-for on his Test debut substituting for Anil Kumble and fast tracking his retirement?  Why do our spinners fail to take wickets in ODIs and T20s whereas little known spinners of lesser countries are rich in wickets. Pragyan Ojha, another big IPL name, purple cap holder of IPL-3. He ended up with one wicket. Why ? Did he forget spinning the ball ? Or did he think playing a game or 2 for India is good enough ?

Ashok Dinda, poor fiery chap from Bengal, wrote highly by Sourav was other failure. His off cutters and Yorkers were safely negotiated, half volleys were spanked to boundaries by young Zimbabwe kids.  Umesh Yadav bowled only 4 overs.  Yusuf Pathan was never in sight bowling with his fire in his eyes.  He had chance to score runs on a flat track, which he always does in IPL, he gave away the chance.  Rohit, Raina fell to sharp fielding from Zimbabwean kids.  Jadeja was selfish enough to complete a 50 and fall.

Did not he think to accelerate or at least try for it? He was contend taking singles and rotating strike in 45-50 overs when India scored just 18 runs.

This team is pathetic. If they are called future stars, then lets stop watching cricket for good. Once the greats are retired from Tests and this lesser souls take over, we would be soon languishing in the lower bottom half of the Test rankings. But wait are they even good to play for India again ?

Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay,  Yusuf Pathan, Ravinder Jadeja should never play for India again unless they prove hard in the domestic cricket that they belong and not just IPL.  

The flat track bullies of Chepauk, Mr Vijay forgot that he is playing ODI and not a first class game.  He plays  faster than this in 4 tests that he has played for India and he had given impression that he is gutsy enough to play for India long time in Tests. Now that impression stands dusted. Not so long ago he was thought of future # 3 in Tests, a big spot held for 14 years by Rahul Dravid.

Unfortunately this kids don’t have work ethic, their seniors have.  Easy money from IPL, fast tracked selection by ex cricketers from their zone makes them believe that they have arrived on the international scene and hence they fail to do whatever it takes to succeed on the highest level.

Just need to illustrate the case of 3 Best ODI players India ever produced.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.

Success did not come to this lads instantly. Sachin took 78 games and 6 years for his first ODI 100 and thereafter no looking back. 45 hundreds more he scored in 16 years.  He had the promise, he showed it, he delivered it in his younger days. Remember the tour of 1991 to Australia, when bigger Test players (then) than him flopped, the guy scored 2 sublime 100s in Perth and Sydney.

Rahul Dravid, considered by many a misfit ODI batsman (even today) got off to a disastrous start to his ODI career in Singapore and Sharjah tournaments just after 1996 world cup, till 1999 world cup when he emerged as top run getter, his place was never fixed.

When Yuvraj Singh and Mohd Kaif along side Virender Sehwag arrived in early 2000s, Dravid was once again questioned if he belonged to the ODI arena. He remodeled his game from a # 3 to a # 5 or # 6 player as finisher and scored countless innings to win games for India. His partnerships with Yuvraj and Kaif are epitome to the fact.

Ganguly had a disastrous ODI debut in 1991 down under and for 5 years he did not play another game until one day he was selected in Test team to England post 1996 World Cup. The success story thereafter is known to everybody, how he evolved from a “quota selection” to become India’s best captain ever in the formats that matter.

Story of Virender Sehwag could be inspirational too. Dropped after disastrous ODI debut in 1999 and back in the team for Tests in 2001 and then dropped again in 2006-07 and bouncing back in 2008 Adelaide Test could be benchmark for this so called young kids of the Indian cricket team.  They ought to remember that T20s and IPL is not the only thing they need to play well in. Who remembers Swapnil Asnodkar and Kamran Khan now who shone in 2008 and 2009 editions? Do they even play first class cricket and get noticed? Nope, not at all.

Anil Kumble was mocked by Kapil Dev in 1990 England tour when he debuted. For next 2 years he did not play a Test until 1992 when he made a comeback to grab 6/59 in Wanderers Test in SA. And post 1993 he changed the story of Indian spin.

Can Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra, known for aggressive send-offs and fire in the bellies learn from the senior pro on how to take wickets and then show the aggression? Take wickets and then do whatever, all is forgiven and forgotten.

Heads would need to roll for this pathetic show.  Its not a show, the team just did not turn up. They just ran through the motions. They pretended that they are playing. The hearts were just not there, that were somewhere else.

Pitiful and shameful performance this.  That’s the least 2 cussing words I can use right now.

Disecting KKD

Dinesh Karthik is a hot topic of discussion on this blog at least.  I presume he is being given chances more than what he deserved.  I had presented his stats a while back in ODIs, T20Is and Tests..

I am going  a step ahead now and presenting stats for the dancing baby of the team as specialist batsman, keeper and a keeper batsman.   His career can be divided to 3 phases:

·         When he debuted as a keeper in 2004 after Parthiv Patel continuously fumbled in keeping.  Then Mongia, Ajay Ratra, Deep Dasgupta, Parthiv Patel had been tried since 2001.  Karthik debuted in Australia series in 2004.

·         Post Dhoni’s debut when he was no longer needed as a keeper, but he played as a specialist opener.

·         Replacement to Dhoni when he was injured / rested.

The time frames are as follows for each of this phases:

·         Oct 2004 – Dec 2005 when Dhoni debuted vs SL in India series.

·         SL 2008, NZ 2009, SL 2009 series when Dhoni was injured / rested

·         BD 2007, England 2007, Pakistan 2007 when he was opener. Amazing to find the fact during this time frame he was Sehwag ’s replacement.

In all he played 23 Tests and has scored exactly 1000 runs with a solitary 100 against BD in 2007 series just after the WC debacle. 

As opener

So when he did not play as keeper he has made 509 runs in 7 Tests @ 39.  4 50s, 1 against BD and 3 against England (his most successful series).  He flopped badly against Pakistan in India when he could score 39 runs in 3 Tests. Poor effort after the best series you have in your career. People get buoyant after a successful series. Mr. Karthik flopped.  

As Keeper Before Dhoni

As a keeper before Dhoni debuted in 2005 December, Karthik played 10 Test matches and made just 245 runs with an highest of 93 vs Pakistan @ Eden Gardens.  During this time he played against Australia (1), SA (2), Pakistan (3), BD (2) and Zim (2). 

As Keeper when Dhoni was injured / rested

He played 2 against SL in 2008,  1 against NZ, 1 against BD when Dhoni was injured / rested.

In this 4 tests he has made 79 runs with 27 as his highest vs BD. During this time he made 2 ducks (1 against BD and SL) and 3 single digit scores. One 20.

That’s the performance of Dinesh Karthik as batsman when he was keeper and a pure batsman.  If he is being played as a front line batsman, he is expected to score at least at 40 runs per innings. However he fails on that count. If you exclude England 2007 series then he fails as a pure batsman too. This for a batsman who claims he has worked on batting.

Wicketkeeping

He has had 45 catches and 5 stumpings as keeper and 6 catches as a fielder.

Despite this inconsistencies he has been the keeper #1 choice whenever MSD has been injured (4 Tests).  After he flopped in 2 Tests vs SL in 2008 Parthiv Patel was tried, but he did not do anything better than what Karthik did.

Compared with Patel, he has played 20 games (most of them during 2002- 2004).  He has had better records against Australia,  Pakistan and West Indies. Has played match saving innings which something Karthik has not done yet.

Karthik has had chances to play against much weaker attacks than what Patel had to play during his tenure as wicket keeper in 20 games.   He played 5 Tests against BD, barring a 100 and 50 he has not encashed the opportunity.   He grassed a lot of chances against Kumble in SL in 2008 and before.

Verdict : Useless player in Tests

Try Irfan over Jadeja

Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni;s fascination on Ravinder Jadeja being used as regular spinner bowling 10 or 4 overs in ODIs and T20s is dangerous. I believe MS and SR dont take Jadeja to be Gary Sobers who can bat and bowl with equal talent and skill.

I dont know what Jadeja brings in the table on both counts (bat and ball) in ODIs and T20s. He is not a big hitter, he is no more than a stock bowler in ODIs and he often slips the balls through his hands.

Irfan Pathan is more of a batting allrounder whose bowling might be doubtful, but he is certainly better batsman than his brother and Ravinder Jadeja.

So why not bring him in the side and have him bat at 7 or 8. He could do the same role as Mathews does for Sri Lanka.  But will MSD and Srikanth listen.

Bangladesh show some resolve

England, as expectedly won against Bangladesh with session and half to spare on final day of Lord's test, but the credit must go to Bangladesh for the spirited fightback in the second innings. They set up the score of 160 to win for England, had they batted sensibly on the end of day 4 and a bit today morning, who knows they could have inserted some pressure in England camp.

Credit must go to Junaid Siddiquie and Tamim Iqbal for the way they batted. Only if the other batsmen could have shown some resolve, the result would have been a draw and that would have done a world of good to BD cricket.

Pakistan test team must learn something from BD. They are as good as minnows of Test cricket. Have not won a Test since JAn 2007.

Only if the shaky middle order of BD could have some patience, learn to build partnerships and buy time even though runs did not come for a while, the BD could actually justify their Test status. Lest they dont do this, the question marks would always be put on the Test status, whether it was provided a bit too soon.

Rohit Sharma delivers a bit on his promise shown earlier

Rohit Sharma has shown some sync up with the promise he shown in the CB series with 2 back to back hundreds in Zimbabwe. Cant say though if he has arrived on the scene totally, but for sure he is a better batsman than the times when he used to score 20s and 30s.

There are still some question marks over his choice of format to score runs -- India or IPL.

If he plays consistently for India in next 9 months  he would earn a berth in the World Cup.  But will he do it, that remains to be seen.

Indian Pakistani jokers

Who is a big joker ?

Krishnamachari Srikanth from India

Or

Ijaz Butt from Pakistan

One of them selects unfit, unqualified players to the Indian squad as if his anna owns the Indian team (as in Hindi its said kya team uske baap ki hai)

The other puts ban and revokes it. Dumps a player, then picks him up, cleans his shit and calls him patriot.

Due to KS of India, the team is in retro mode since Feb 2010 when he decided to rest seniors and draft in MV to join Dines as he complained that he needed somebody whom he could rant how good Simbu is. So Srikanth asked Dines to have MV and sing how good Sri anna is.

A CSK'er is India's stand in captain just weeks after he led CSK in 3 games , 1 won amd 2 lost.  The CSK'er does not even captain UP. He could have actually made Dines captain of this team, but then that would have been two much. 

So Srikanth qualifies good enough to be best joker. As good as Ijaz Butt

India displays no will to win yet again

After 8 years India loses to Zimbabwe and we must feel good for Zimbios. But what for the so called bench strength or the team of future.

Who are exactly the future stars ?

Besides Srikanth transplants who are there ? Raina, Rohit : they are anyways part of ODI squad, so they aint. Who else ? Jadeja and Pathan ? We have had enough of this 2 lads in recent times and if they continue to be tipped future stars then we are kidding ourselves. How many of this barring Raina and to an extent Sharma are going to play 200 ODIs or 30 Tests for India ?

Who is another 100 Test material in Indian lineup besides incumbents ? Who are other most likely to get to 200 wickets mark in ODIs or 300 mark in Tests ? Neither of this batsmen or bowlers inspire an iota of confidence.

They are stars. IPL stars. Cash rich for big bang cricket. Then what did stop them to have big bang theory in ODIs ? The team that is not even half good as Jharkhand or Kerala Ranji squad (apologies to Tharoor n Freesanth) convincingly beats India -- a team that 5 regular members of regular Indian ODI squad -- Karthik, Raina, Sharma, Mishra and Kohli.

Did they lack intent or were they tired ? What about the pace attack ? Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav and R Vinay Kumar. Hardly an attack that sets firebells.   They dont have pace, they cant bowl short stuff. When they do try they get pulled or hooked by kids who dont even to get to play IPL or top class cricket.  Umesh Yadav ? WHo's he ? Never heard of him. Son of a poor farmer or a mill worker, got rich by IPL playing few games for DareDevils. He played for his country and had a horrendous debut.

Ashok Dinda has got fire in his eyes, he's got no temparament for wickets or bowling that would stop runs or take wickets. He swears the batsmen when hit for a 4 or  6, but who the fuck stops him from bowling them over or uprooting the timber ? Do they have the guts ? Bloody No.

Do this guys have the temparament of Biggies of Indian cricket who got them so easy to be playing for country. This useless lads just throw it all.

To be continued..............

Ijaz Butt's serious Afridi joke

If I played for Pakistan (not possible ideologically) and I retired prematurely from Tests at my whims or whenever the fat man nearby pissed in his pants, I would have fancied returning every time as captain of the team. I would have bitten the ball, had done back biting, nail biting and all possible bitings and yet would have had a dickhead say "i regard the rules of the game" who would have been less respectable than Lalit Modi and more stupid than Lalu.

Unfortunately I am not that lucky. I am an Indian and not good enough to play even in MPL.

So lets forget about me. Lets have Afridi in the picture.  He retired from Tests in 2006.  Besides playing on featherbeds he never was a quality Test batsman, but barring 2Ys and Inzy then Pak always had lacklusture Test batsmen, so Afridi always made the way.

And now 3 days back for the "respect of the country" he returned to tests and as a captain.  Not sure how long he would have this change of mind. That would be fatal if he has a brain freeze in the mid of all important Australia / England Tests and he retires abruptly.

His choice of Test captain indicates the bare cupboards Pakistan cricket has and the foolhardiness of a man called Ijaz Butt who is leaving no stone unturned to be judged as worst cricket admin ever with no brains.

Even worse is the return of Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik in probables list. Did i read somewhere that they are serving bans ? Wait. Their bans are under arbitaration process and most likely the bans would go. Not long ago Malik was called a termite in the team. Without any corrective action he would return to the team and boy the infightings would continue.

Awesome.

6-0 drubbing for Pakistan in all 6 Tests they play.  If Bangladesh had a series today with Pak then the honest triers like Shakib, Mahamudullah and Tamim would ensure they win the Test series against their former countrymen.  And if India had a Test series against Pakistan today anywhere (even on bouncy tracks worldwide) India would have white washed Pakistan first time.

Meanwhile drama in Pak cricket never ceases to stop. Enjoy the funny statements of the admins, Kamrans and Afridis.

Retirement policy and Kamran wish to sue

Shahid Afridi "retired" from Tests in 2006.

Mohd Younis Youhana retired in 2007 and then again in 2010.

Shahid Afridi a day before (IBNlive) said his retirement is final as his attacking game suits T20s and ODIs.  A day later he says he is considering to come back and play Tests.

Kamran Akamal taking a moral high is threating to sue over the allegations.  Sue who ? Alam and Aaqib Javed. Why ? For the allegations they have put on him. He says he is mentally disturbed. If he is mentally distrubed, then he is not good enough to play for Pakistan. He is still playing.

He then says he would speak to board chairman regarding apology from this people. Another mental retard. Lol.

PCB says chapter is closed. Kamran Akamal wanna sue. ICC is hell bent to find wrong doings if any behind the game. Shahid Afridi and others are suspecting fishy behind Kamran Akamal's failure to run Watson out. Akamal is taking a moral high and playing an injured martyr.

More drama would follow as the team to the test tour is going to be selected and the captain to be named as well.