Get well soon Jesse Ryder

My thoughts, prayers and best wishes go to Jesse Ryder to get well ASAP. 

Amen.

Pepsi Indian Premier League Season 6 is around the corner.

And the times for 

Pepsi Indian Premier League

are back.  Version 6 this year, probably last time in India for at least 2 years. 

Next year general elections are due this time. So most probably it will be a repeat of 2009 drama.  Except the fact that there is no Lalit Modi this time who can take IPL to South Africa in a quick matter of few days.

This are the times when we will see again the likes of :

Shahrukh Khan

Shilpa Shetty

Preity Zinta 

in the stands dancing and singing.  And a few Telugu stars suppporting new Hyderabad SunRisers(or SunSetters, given their past 2 season performers) could be seen like Nag, Venkatesh, RamCharan, Chiru, Pavan Teja, Rana Daggubati and Siddharth...

Also the times are back when the Lankan cricketers are not welcome this time around owing to the war crime thing which is bone of contention between India and SL governments and also a muscle flexing opportunity for TN parties -- DMKs and AIADMKs.

Already there are talks of poor Akila Dhananjaya (he is a male player with a female name as is Mahila Jayawardhena) and Nuwan Kulasekara being dropped (source : Times of India) from Chennai Super Kinks...That as a last resort for India Cements to save its Chennai games and of course continue flex unholy muscles through BCCI president..

Also the times are back when a Vice President of a company owning a IPL franchisee will lead its team. Non cricketing captain ? 

Think again. Back to Lucky again, the 0-4, 0-4 loser and 4-0 winner, 2 times IPL champion, 1 time CLT20 time winner and 2 World Cup winner captain MS Dhoni shall lead the CSK again, which will definitely reach yet another final this time.

Also when the sponsor prefixes or suffixes shall be appended in front of every catch, 4 or 6.  We will come to know who are competitors to the iPhone and cheap plastic (Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 etc) in India -- Lava, MicroMax, Karbon etc.....

Also the times are back when ECB shall rant about how bad IPL is for health of Test Cricket and how holy English County Cricket is. 

Michael Clarke shall shun IPL for Ashes (which no matter what he plays or not in IPL shall be kept in England. 

Ricky Ponting shall lead Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Sachin Tendulkar Next (Rohit Sharma) in Mumbai.

Sir Shri Ravindra Jadeja shall ride high on his new found Test success and it is possible he might negotiate with another franchisee for a slight higher paycheck (he might think he deserves a 3 million USD contract) and in the process might get banned yet again.

Probably we will see Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar last time playing together (for opposite teams) and in any form of cricket game.

We will see yet again that our dear old game of cricket is hijacked once more for month and half on the name of "Cricketainment". Who knows this year we might see new faces with the bodies of Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell. (I so much hope that M Vijay and R Jadeja are caught doping and banned forever).

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Indian Premier League is back.

SL are reborn despite a mediocre Test record

A series win against much improved BD and the SL authors are back to declaring emphatic statements "SL are reborn". "Young SL does nation proud" and similar rantings.  If not for some reckless batting by the Deshi kids in the 2nd test, BD would have gone and scared SL in 2nd test as well after setting lot of national records in the first test. 

A lot of new faces were injected in the team, a new leadership team was established and a lot of old faces were missing. The impact was visible on the performance. 

While I won't go in the details of who played well and who was bad, let me highlight the inflated figures of SL cricket in Tests. 

It has been 31 years SL is playing Test cricket.  By the end of this series they have played 222 games, won 66 and lost 80. On the onset the record looks impressive. If you take the older teams and compare this results with them SL's record would look superior. 

But in the old days there were no cheap results, there were no cheap victories and of course no cheap runs and wickets.  There were no Bangladesh and Zimbabwe then. 

Here are some hard hitting facts of SL's test record :

• 23 of those 66 wins have come against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

• They have not won a single test in India and Australia in 17 and 13 tests respectively.

• Their record against Australia (dominant  team in modern era) is pathetic with 1 win and 17 losses.

• They have won 1 test each in West Indies and South Africa. 2 each in England and New Zealand. In all of this countries, they have lost more than they have won.

• They rarely tour West Indies who are no longer strong as in 1980s. In last 16 years, they have played just 6 tests in Carribean islands, won 1 and lost 3. 

• The best overseas country for victories for them is Bangladesh where they have won 4 tests (vs BD) and lost 1 (to Pak). Next comes Zimbabwe where they have won 3 and lost none. In Pakistan they lost 8 but won 6. 

• They have won more against WI than they have lost. 5 of their 6 wins have come at home and when WI were even more weakened due to player strikes and similar issues (2005)

• All 6 wins against India have come in SL on low, slow pitches when Murali used to play. After Murali retired (last test they won against India), they lost 1 and drew 1 against India in SL. Without Murali they are yet to tour India.

• They have lost more than wins against England, Kiwis and SA. Most of the wins against this countries have come in bad pitches of SL, away conditions the team has struggled including their greats Sanga and Mahela Jayawardhene.

Surprisingly Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardhene have been their most successful Test captains with identical number of wins, losses and draws (38 tests, 18 wins, 12 losses). Again the numbers are inflated due to the fact that they play more at home than abroad. And they play BD and Zim frequently than any other team.

While all other teams have played max 10 or less tests against BD, SL has played 14 tests against them.  India and Australia are the teams that have played least against BD ( 7 and 4 tests respectively).

And with all of this mediocre record above and postponed home series, the Lankans are targetting to be one of the top 3 teams in Test cricket. Yeah well they can certainly be. Dreaming does not cost anything and why only top 3, they can certainly rule the Test cricket for next 50 years in their dreams.

Another selectorial gem from Sandip Patil and company

Another gem from Indian selectors : 

Shikhar Dhawan ruled out of the Delhi test, Gautam Gambhir picked. Fine till now. Then left out as he is diagnosed with jaundice. Unfortunate.

But there comes the blunder.

In comes Raina. For Dhawan, in comes Raina. 

A middle order batsman for an opener ? Seriously ? Will he play the final test ? If so at what place ? Will he open alongside Vijay, another CSK player ?

Oh wait, Raina is another CSK player. CSK players come in handy as replacements (no offense against Raina, he is a good player and I back him). 

So if Raina won't open then will he play ? And if he won't play then why have him in the team ? Will he bat at 7 and push Jadeja to 8 replacing Ojha ? Not quite. 

In 2nd innings when Dhawan did not bat, Pujara opened the innings with Vijay. Just like Dravid did when one of the openers used to get injured.  Some habits of Indian cricket don't change. Bad habits of course. 

So in all probability, it is going to be either Rahane who comes in the team and opens with Vijay or if they continue with Pujara - Vijay pair then Rahane shall play in the middle order. And if Raina trumps him in the middle order, then it shall be very unfortunate for Rahane after having being walked over again.....

Sandip Patil is proving to be another Kris Srikanth. Very sad to see the victorious team members of 1983 World cup proving to be disastrous selectors. Vengsarkar first, Srikanth next and now Sandip Patil.

India's 3-0 victory good on paper, not so good in foreign tours context

So India won in Mohali even MS tried hard not to in the final hour of the game. Thanks to the lusty boundaries by Sir Sri Sri Jaddu maharaj, the shackles were broken and the captain got inspired and he hit the winning runs off Starc's over. 

It was a heavy weather made of a modest target and no credit snatched from Michael Clarke who continued to believe they can win, he kept the pressure on. And by Dhoni's own admission, India felt the pressure. And that pressure saw Tendulkar and Kohli loose their wickets. 

India are now 3-0 up, 3rd time they have won 3 tests in row.  They have a good chance to win the 4th one in Delhi, Sehwag and Gambhir's hometown...

Jadeja is now established test player, a spinner though. Calling him an all-rounder would be an insult to the great all-rounders who have graced the game. But he does not solve the overall selection conundrum.  What happens when India travels abroad is a headache question. 

Also the picture on openers is not very clear. Who would be the openers in South Africa ? Logical inputs point to Shikhar Dhawan and the beard master Murali Vijay. That their temperament is questionable on foreign conditions, is another issue altogether. 

Ashvin, Ojha / Harbhajan and Jadeja might win India the 4th test as well, but this combination would not work in South Africa. They will need more of a seaming alrounder, more in terms of Henriques of Australia or Broad of England (allrounders on paper) batting at 7 position, if this combination is what India will look to play in South Africa. 

But we will worry about that later. 

For now its munching time on Aussies. One more win and the revenge will be complete. Even though this 3 victories don't sound as sweet as they often did in the past when legends swamped both teams. Kumble, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman in India. Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer and of course Ponting in Australia. Not to forget Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh. 

But a win is a win. And this win will go a long way in establishing Dhoni's captaincy for another year at least. And so when India tour next in alien conditions, questions will be raised how much India has learnt from those 0-8 scoreline ? And not many fans will remember the possible 4-0 result at home, but most of them shall remember 0-4 in England and 0-4 in Australia.

For record now Australia have lost 7 consecutive test matches in India and if you include draws then they have lost 8 of their last 10 test matches in India. The last win coming under Gilchrist in that infamous Nagpur test match.

Uncle Srini gives an extension to Fletcher uncle

0-4 in England

0-4 in Australia

If that was an away scoreline, then here is a look at home record:

2-0 vs Kiwis

2-0 vs WI

Fine, home victories but against lower opposition. 

1-2 vs England in India. 

Whoops.  A series loss at home after 8 years.  Shameful record.

Few more records:

Failure to make it to the finals of Asia cup and CB series in Australia.

0-3 loss in England ODIs.

1-2 loss to Pakistan in India.

That was the ODI part.

Failure to reach the World T20 semis. But that happened twice under Gary Kirsten.

Above is the record of Duncan Fletcher in the 2 years of Indian coach and the old man has  got an extension of one year owing to the continuity (as per Uncle Srini).  Not worthy of a day's extension as a coach after above pathetic record. 

He did not develop the game of a single young player abroad or improve the defects of senior players in his tenure. Fine there is a logic that the likes of Sachin, Dravid and Laxman (in Australia and England) do not require any batting advice, but then again somebody needed to go and tell them what was wrong with them. 

Another example is of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. Under this guy, their game just went on a downward slide and the guy kept quiet. No inputs, no improvement.  No sight of improvement of form for this duo.

No out of the box strategy to startle the opposition. During England loss in India and in England, the guy did not have an answer to the spin and seam tactics of England. No way to stop Alistair Cook or KP or Ian Bell or Monty Panesar when they were on a roll in India.

So the only reason he must have had behind this extension is some good ties with Dhoni who is said to have recommended for extension to his step father N Srinivasan. And Srini who can't ignore Dhoni provided an extension to the disastrous coach of India after Greg Chappell.

So now it remains to be seen how deep India plummets in the coming year in all 3 formats of game.  Not to stress hard that the planning to retain the World Cup title in Australia shall need to begin sometime this year and again it will be interesting to find out what strategy and plan Fletcher has.

Congratulations Shikhar Dhawan, but the road ahead is tough.

Congrats Shikhar Dhawan for blistering 185* in the debut test and for breaking all sorts of records during this mad innings. After all, you paid off the confidence and trust the selectors, captain had in you. A lot of  your under-19 pals have congratulated you on your blistering knock. 

185* and probably few more runs today on 4th morning will make you a glorious example to emulate for future Test debutants. And there will be a very good chance that a Sri Lankan sometime in future will break the record (how many more runs will you add) playing against Maldives or some hapless African nation when it shall gain test status.

You have managed to become Sehwag - Gambhir v 2.0 with M Vijay. Perfect. And also managed to keep likes of Abhinav Mukund out for some more time. Not to mention Gambhir and Sehwag, the Delhi dashers. 

Hyderabad Sunrisers will be happy franchisee today, only if you could repeat the same innings with them.

Don;t know if your innings today will result in a Indian win as today is day 4. Chance is you might fall in first over itself or continue to bat on and on.  

Forgive my ignorance or lack of praise to your blistering and fantastic debut. I have grown up watching the golden generation of Test cricket in 2000s and have also seen the dark ages of 1990s when many openers busted on international level and faded away later. 

Shiv Sundar Das, Deep Dasgupta, Sadgopan Ramesh and many more. All of this folks excelled in Indian conditions, but when they went abroad, they were found wanting. I hope you don't fall in that league. I hope you keep making runs in future chances also. Next test assignment is against South Africa followed by NZ and then the vengeance in England.  Not sure if you will be around in the test team after the SA tour ends, but next few games shall decide your course, if you can India cement a permanent place in Indian test team or be a 2 innings wonder, like in ODIs and then fade out. 

Remember the # 1 and # 2 spot is legacy of Sunny Gavaskar, Gautam Gambhir and illustrious Virender Sehwag.  If you make runs and perform in all conditions, fine. If you don't then soon the original Delhi dashers shall be back and I hope they are back soon.   So dude, go perform. The fight is too close to be relaxed and the margin of error is very thin. 3 innings of low scores and Sandip uncle shall kick you out of the team.

Missed out on homework, Gang of 4 miss out on Mohali Test

Micky Arthur is no longer a Mickey Mouse. He has come out as a roaring lion in a foreign country, playing everything to the media, in front of media with the blessings of Cricket Australia and backing of Michael Pup Clarke, who himself has graduated to a big black greyhound after the homeworkgate or presentation gate. 

In my career, I was always asked to prepare presentations for the yearly appraisals and I obliged a few times, skipped most of the times. But I was never axed or I never walked out of the job, for it was the only thing that kept my lifestyle going. But then I never play international or state or national cricket. 

Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Khwaja and Mitch Johnson do. They play some serious cricket. Leaving out the Pakistani born Australian player, the other 3 were some serious Aussie cricketers. And as Micky Arthur says they violated the discipline, team ethics and Clarke says the suspension was not based out of one isolated event, but many off the field events. 

Really folks ? Are you that serious ? Are you serious to claw back into the series and try to level it ? And look beyond this series to the biggest test series coming home and away ? Ashes ? You just got rid of your best bowler of the tour who would have enjoyed on the supposedly fast Mohali pitch. You got rid of the only  player other than Michael Clarke to have scored a 100 on Indian soil -- Shane Watson. He is so miffed now that he might leave test cricket and commit himself to T20 cricket altogether. What a loss. 

Arthur has scored a self goal or in cricketing terminology a hit wicket. Whatever be the reasons for the indiscipline or not coming up with the 3 points for self improvement, you don't kick out your players on the eve of the crucial Test match coming up which could be played in typical Australian conditions.  

Look at Indians or Pakistanis or Sri Lankans. They often violate discipline, but they are never thrown out. Look at Pakistani players, they dont talk to each other, but no coach has the power to throw a single Pakistani out of a tour. Heard anytime ?

Micky Arthur joins the list of whacko Australian coaches -- John Buchanan before him who need some wind, some fresh air, some sanity need to be injected in their minds. They don't know a word on player management.  If there was an issue within the team, why throw it open in the media and in a foreign country ? Just because some players did not make a presentation.

Sure there was a breach of coach's orders, but in a situation where you need your best players to stand up to the alien conditions, you need to find alternate ways to crack the whip. Not deselect 4 players, one of which is the vice-captain. And if you ask the players to come up with 3 points to improve, then what the hell are you for ? Are you doing your job Mr Nutcase ? No you are not ? 

As a SA coach, you had the knowledge of Indian conditions, yet when you bring your latest team here, your team folds up without a fight and what the hell do you do ? Suspend 4 players on not doing a homework. Bad ass Mr Arthur. You sound like a sicko principal of school who would not accept anything less than 100 marks out of 100 marks in every subject.

Expectedly the ex-cricketers ripped apart the Mr Bad Ass of Australian cricket, but he got some support from the media.  

In the end the question arises, what if this action was for nothing. What was the cost involved in the axeing of 4 players ?  A series loss in India, a chance to boost Ashes preparations lost ? The next series you play is Ashes in England where the team has lost twice in 2 tours. What would be the result if Pattinson and Johnson were both available to play in Mohali test ? 

You just made a selection harakiri in the 2nd test, lost badly and to cover up your tracks Mr Bad Ass, you axe 4 players on not doing the homework.  Poor call......You ought to lose your job dude.

Ranchi will not host Dhoni's IPL games but his ex-captaincy rival's IPL games

Ranchi too will host IPL games.. But it will not be homeboy's franchisee games. But for the captaincy rival, now ousted, Gambhir's KKR.

It would have been just apt to move a couple of Chennai Super Kings games from Chennai to Ranchi to honor Dhoni's iron fist loyalty to his boss N Srinivasan....But I bet Chennai is CSK's ticket to the finals of IPL every time. That is where Srinivasan can flex some of his power to make some adjustments in the points table when results don't go right for CSK....

Adjustments as in some muscle twisting, pitch doctoring, threats to the other IPL teams (ahead of CSK) to get them banned from next edition of IPL, if they don't comply in letting CSK route them.

Just saying a doubt that millions of Indian cricket fans have in their minds when they see constant inroads of CSK players in the national team.

Sangakara rises from the rubble like "The Dark Knight"

Sangakara quote : 

Gavaskar was a fantastic batsman, and I'm very privileged to have had a career where I am able to go past him. Still I am three centuries behind him, but hopefully I can go beyond him on that count too. I'd still like more runs and more wins. I think that's what motivates all the guys who play."

Yes sir, Sunny Gavaskar was a tremendous batsman in all conditions. Against pace, against spin. In home conditions, away conditions. Excelling against the topmost team of his era -- West Indies without a helmet and scoring 13 hundreds against them. No cheap runs, no cheap hundreds. Grinding hundreds, match saving hundreds.

Sangakara, on the other hand has a lot of cheap runs, cheap hundreds against BD, Zimbabwe. When SL dont find a test opposition, they either invite BD to maul or visit poor Zimbabwe, who are happy to host any team for their lack of cricket and opportunities to budding cricketers. 

He has set a target of "35 to 40 hundreds" to the younger SL batsmen like Thirimanne, Mathews and Chandimal. Hopefully they are not cheap hundreds, if those guys get there when they finish.  Unfortunately the SLC has postponed all home Test series till 2015 in the greed for more money. They do not play more Test cricket after this test series until October and again after that not much tests again (except for a series against Pak). 

A lot has been said on this blog about this 2 SL batsmen (him and Mahela) on how they blabber and make cheap runs.  Only if this folks could have had an appetite for positive cricket, the SLC would not have been deemed as a Test cricket killer board.