Two sides of elbowing at Lords

A lot of blogs around have been sympathetic to the so called young Pakistan team, who according to Pak bloggers can make history tonite. I don’t know if they can or cannot. If they had one of Inzy, Yo and Yo they could have thought of it, but with the current lineup and given their frail nature and assumed supremacy in T20, its huge to expect them to win this Test match. Patience is a virtue that does not ebb in the team from any quarter.  The captain is such a irresponsible jerk who knows just one way to play. He might be a good man manager or a very good motivator, but if he doesnot show richness in his scorecards, he would go out soon.

 

His ugly hoists in the first innings when time and situation needed a strong vigil on the crease, the man went for biggies and while few of them landed out of the boundary, one of them was bad enough to get him back to the pavilion.

 

Aamer has been reprimanded by Chris Broad for running into Ponting and then supposedly elbowed by Ricky Ponting.

 

Ricky Ponting is not the most famous man in India after what he did in Sydney 2008. A lot of blog posts are dedicated advising him better behavior and trashing Chris Broad’s advice to Aamer.  My point is whatever Ponting did was not correct, but was Aamer right in doing what he did ? And he has done in 2^nd consecutive game against Australia. Was it deliberate? Was it instant blood boil reaction after having dismissed one of the modern great? Whatever it was, Aamer’s running close to Ponting was not very welcome.

 

Ponting elbowed Aamer asking him to stay out of his personal space. Tendulkar and Sehwag have pointed a bit meekly to Sreesanth to stay away in wild celebrations from them after taking wickets in different domestic games (Challengers and all).

 

Sreesanth is not the most noble man around when it comes to antics and show-offs. Neither is Harbhajan Singh or any other modern day bowler.

 

Its also true that Ponting is often got away after showing not so desired behavior as a captain and his gestures on the field. Its also true that Pakistani players are no saints either.  They are subdued, comical and evoke pity and laughter (thanks to Butt) is another issue altogether.  

 

Some of the criticism directed at Ponting is a bit too much and other thing baffles me is none of my fellow Indian bloggers have written a word on Aamer’s continued tendency to run into batsmen knowingly. What if he would have run into say a Sehwag or a Gambhir or even Rahul Dravid?   Fabs would have dead played him, but he would have received similar piece of mind as Ponting from other men like Gambhir or Yuvraj or any other young Indian cricketer. 

 

If Ponting was at fault, then so was Aamer. And most of bloggers have seen just one side of picture, not the other one.

Cheeka is disappointed man today

Cheeka is disappointed man today : 

• No TN player is in the Indian team today playing Board Prez XI.
• Dinesh Karthik is unable to be drafted in the team as none of the batsmen is injured. In his training as fast bowler DK was bowling in a way the ball reached the other side of wickets in 3 bounces and every ball was termed as no ball. Srikanth fought hard with the local ump to allow the ball to be legal, but umpire was a Modi supporter. So DK cant be drafted in as fast bowler to replace Appam and Zaheer.
• M Vijay was shooed away by MSD. 
• Fringe players are failing to shine.
• TN does not produce fast bowlers as it produces film stars or DKs, Vijays so no pacer from TN cant play for India.

Cheeka is a disappointed man today. He is planning to talk to TA Sekhar and Dennis Lillie to train Aniruddh Srikanth in gully of his bungalow in Chennai in fast bowling. He reasons that when Pakistani fast bowlers can jump to international cricket straight out of gully cricket, why not his son. 

Cheeka is impatient man today.

Sanga favors UDRS

Kumar Sangakara has been making a lot of noise on UDRS. He is disappointed, disgusted and a heck lot of emotions have come out of his daily dose of rants on the usage of UDRS in the upcoming Test series vs India.  No doubt he is a buoyant supporter of this flawed technology due to the fact that he thinks UDRS won his team 2-1 in 2008 and lost 0-2 in 2009 in India.

Many close decisions went against India and they were the differences in what were 26 wkts to Mendis and 6 wkts to Mendis. 29 decisions went against India and 3 went in their favor, that’s a huge difference.  BCCI and Indians are not big supporters of UDRS. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and MSD have publicly put foot down on the UDRS thingy.

Question is why does Sangakara root too wildly for this technology.  Simple reason : he does not have 20 wicket taking bowlers left in his kitty.  Murali is not a force, they dropped Mendis and Suraj Randiv would probably make his debut(or he has made).  Fast bowlers except Malinga are not a threat to India anymore, unless the batsmen self destruct.

So UDRS would only be the tool Sangakara would rely on getting half hearted appeals in his team’s favor and try to win a series or prevent a loss.

IMO Sri Lanka are going to go to the 1990s when they batted and batted and batted for 3 days in row to rewrite batting and partnership records and save the series. As a result they are yet to win a test series in India, Australia and South Africa.

They are the most negative Test playing nation in the world and this series wont be any different.

Those who would rip me apart for this statement, just have a look at the score card of the infamous Test match when SL scored 6/952 when Blabba Queen debuted and Vaas made 61.

No UDRS and MM means SL cant win

When UDRS is on SL wins....

When UDRS is off SL gives away 499 + runs and loses the series. 

Murali is now thing of past and Mendis is dropped. Who are those bowlers who are gonna take 20 Indian wickets ? 

Mind you this 20 do not include Raina, Jadeja or Sharma -- the self destructors. But this contain the troika of ST, RD and VVS added by VS and GG adding to 42999 test runs and 125 test hundreds.

You've got to fix UDRS before seeing it used more frequently and across wider audience. 29 to 3 was the score when 2008 series was played and the difference b/w score of 1-2 to India and 2-1 to India. 

This time SL dont look good to win even a single Test. Expect some 1997 like draws where Mahela, Sanga and Samyweera will try to go for runathons. SImple. They dont have bowlers to take 20.

End of road for Murali

So its all over. Career of much debated bowler Murali is all set to end in few days time. At least in Tests.  He would be eyeing 800 wikats against India, that is US.  Murali was the lone SL bowler who bowled endlessly from one end all over the years and seemed to be non stop. But he is a human after all and in 2009 he started to diminish in his aura and wickets stopped coming.   If SL had their way, they would have had Murali bowl all 90 overs in a day in the test matches in their own backyard. Not to forget that he has bowled most deliveries in Test cricket. A debate would always continue on the topic how many of those deliveries which took 792 wikats were legal ones or how many of them were illegal ones which still got him wikats and a place at the top of bowling charts to end up as most prolific wikat taker.

He has left behind the likes of Shane Warne, Anil Kumble, Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Richard Hadlee and West Indian greats Marshall, Walsh, Ambrose, Holding and Garner in wikats tally.  He had his share of cheap wickets against hapless Zimbabweans and Bangladeshis.

176 wikats in 25 against this 2 teams. Warne had 17 in 3 against this 2.

Exclude 176 and his record comes down to 616 from 107.  As good as 5.7 wikats a Test match.  Most of those wikats came on super boring pitches of SL aided by run machines Sanga, Mahela, Attapattu and Samarweera who kept on going and going and going for days together.  And then Murali would come and bamboozle the visiting teams. England, SA, West Indies, NZ, BD and Zim sank without a fight. Aussies and Indians did put some fight and Pakistan surprisingly until 2009 won.

Murali when toured SA or Ind or Aus was not among wikats.  He has a poor record in this countries. He did not tour SA since 2002. And in the meantime he travelled Zim 2 times (2005) and BD 3 times.  He took 9 wikats 2 times and almost had perfect 10 once.

He won SL test matches with 5 wikat hauls as good as Sehwag sixes or Ijaz Butt u-turns.  How many of those victories were memorable or hard earned ? Very few. Did he win in India or Australia or South Africa ? No. How many times did he dismiss Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar in his career ? Don’t forget Brian Lara whom he got many times but was hammered mercilessly every time he faced the legend.

Who were his victims ? The poor players of spin in Lankan conditions when the batsmen would bat long for 3 days and then unleash Murali’s illegal deliveries on them.  SL won 44 Tests when Murali played.  Drew a lot more and lost a little less.

He had an illegal action, he bowled illegal deliveries, he had Jaggu Dalmiya installed at ICC to have the rule changed to accommodate his illegal bowling, had a strong character (the only one with real character) captain in Arjuna who fought for him.  All this ensured Murali would continue to bowl his illegal deliveries at batsmen at behest of an optical illusion of bent arm.

Whats his legacy ? Chuckers are now assured that sooner or later they would be allowed to play, thanks to a faulty 15 degree rule made by ICC to benefit and accommodate illegal bowlers like Murali, Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed and Lasith Malinga.

For me like many others he would forever remain a Chucker and an illegal bowler who by means of strong headed captains and administrators found a way out to bowl despite having illegal action.

Butt does another Buffongiri

http://www.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/current/story/466320.html

Another Buffongiri from biggest Buffoon of World Cricket.

What about Butt ? Who bans this dickheaded oldie ? What about his inappropriate statements and actions ? No accountability ? Mr 10 % defends this buffoon and thats why he stays on.

Pakistan middle order fails again sans Umar Akamal

Pakistan play to lose. When they are off the field they fight and plot each other's downfall. They secretly meet at former captain's place and take oath on name of GOD to dislodge Younis Khan. On the field they have a brain freeze.

No matter Shahid Afridi is captain or no captain, he is bufoon just like Ijaz Butt. A duck.  Responsibility is never a strong point or atttribute for this forever 17 lad.

Mindless batting followed by some sensible batting by junior bugger is good enough for Pakistan to hand the game to their nemesis, the yellow fugly Ausssies.

Shahazib made 0, Afridi made golden duck, Kamran Akamal made 21, Shoania made 21 and Umar Akamal fought a lone battle to keep Pakistan in game.

I pity Pakistan fans who must be feeling disgusted for every inept performance the seniors and juniors dish out on every outing in the middle.

PS : Mohd Yousuf is planning a comeback to international cricket after Wasim Akram brainwashed the disgraced former captain.

MSD snubbed Srikanth in his wedding

MSD must surely not have invited Kris Srikanth to his wedding in DehraDun.....Srikanth must have said if he came to the wedding he would be accompanied by his croonies -- BossaDK, Dabri and Vijay.

MSD is not comfortable with BossaDK as later is always a replacement for him in the team. So he would not like to have taken any chances to invite Bossa just to avoid any further embarrasment in the wedding.

Srikanth is fumed over this snub and he is planning to dislodge MSD from skipper hood next series and looking forth to make one of Chennai Fooper Kinker captain.

PS : Post meant for fun. Srikanth fans from Japan (somebody posts comments in Chinese/ Japanese/Korean stuff on every post), please do not get offended.

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.

Power and Howards

Sharad Pawar is now ICC president after accumulating experience of 3 years as BCCI chief and 2 years as ICC vice president. And that qualifies him to be the ICC president. If that means an able candidate is not a sure shot conclusion.

That’s the grounds on which BCCI shot down John Howard’s candidature for ICC vice president post.  Addition to India, 5 other boards shot down Howard’s candidature. SL had its own reasons (just cos Howard had termed Murali a chuck, which is true) to block him and so did Zimbabwe (he refused to send Aussie team to Zim and as a result no Aussie team has travelled to Zim for a test series since 1999 and Zim team to Aus since 2003).

Sharad Pawar’s credibility is well known to everybody in India.  Failing crops, farmers suicide in his native state, mismanaged food economy and higher inflation rates for food items besides alleged stakes in failed Pune IPL bid and other IPL entities are some of the blots on his CV.

So Sharad Pawar being an ICC president is not a very enthusiastic piece of news for India, albeit a shameful one.

Malcolm Speed has following insights to offer on how Pawar attended ICC meetings:

“The man who is to be the next ICC president, Sharad Pawar, is the Minister for Agriculture in the Indian government - a serious full-time job, feeding 1.2 billion people. He is a good and fair man but he will be working part-time as ICC president and, take it from me, he knows little about cricket administration. I was present at several ICC board meetings he attended. ICC meetings generally last two days. Pawar attended for one hour and was then replaced by one of the Board of Control for Cricket in India apparatchiks. They were concerned that he was too busy and would be too reasonable.”

Not sure if that’s true or out of malice. But the flip flop of Pawar  clan over the IPL stake issues have put him in a very bad light.  He is confused so as which job to approach full time and part time. Whether serving as federal minister or going as ICC president or serving his own and his family’s vested interests in ventures like IPL.  He is a man chosen to do the job just out of vote bank politics and John Howard was rejected just cos BCCI did not want to upset Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka for its future vote bank politics.  Nobody cares about Pakistan and if the man is quizzed why he opposed Howard, the man would make up a lame issue and then do a u-turn over it.

So if Howard was rejected for ICC post for some reasons, then same reasons and additional ones apply for rejecting Sharad Pawar as ICC president, but that wont happen. For next 2 years the ICC members would need to engage translators and language therapists to understand what Pawar is mumbling in the meetings.

Who knows even his daughter Supriya Sule could attend ICC meetings as his proxy!!!