ENGLAND legend
Geoff Boycott has urged administrators to consider the radical move to four-day
and day-night Tests to revitalize a format he feels has gone stale.
I have watched quiet a few batsmen struggling to weave away from a bouncer. Obviously, Gavaskar and Boycott comes to my mind for their copy book style of leaving a bouncer alone. Bat thrust down, eyes on the ball and letting the ball pass in front of their face.
At the other extreme I have seen both Azhar and now Ganguly negotiating a bouncer like a cat on a hot tin roof. Even Tendulkar has an ungainly technique, he just squats. But this I think this is the worst one can ever imagine.
He has dismissed 10 batsmen seven or more times in his 704-wicket haul and a close scrutiny will show that there are no Indian, Australian or New Zealand batsmen.
Mark Boucher SA 12
Grant Flower Zim 10
Khaled Mashud Bang 9
Mohammad Yousuf Pak 9
Waqar Younis Pak 9
Marcus Trescothick Eng 8
Daryll Cullinan SA 7
Mohammad Rafique Bang 7
Shahriar Nafees Bang 7
Graham Thorpe Eng 7
Cricket Australia's selection chairman, Andrew
Hilditch, said he did not rule out the possibility of playing four specialist
pacemen with part-spin coming in from Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke.I say,bring them on. Is that all you have?
The team should learn to take the toss, pitch and
weather out of the equation, writes Anil Kumble and goes on to add that we have to remember the importance of
planning, setting goals and working towards them.
However there is a real danger of being seduced by small victories and setting too small a goal. As Edward Everett Hale says, “If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.”
Which leads me to ask,Mr.Kumble, what are your plans for taming Australia?Photograph of the Sydney high-rise buildings at Circular Quay courtesy Photographer: Roy Tennant
Ponting said he did not
know whether it was an issue of player safety or a desire to increase the number
of boundaries for crowd entertainment in a one-day contest that had triggered
the decision to reduce ground dimensions.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) may consider
offering compensation to Chief Selector, Dilip Vengsarkar, for agreeing to stop
writing newspaper columns.
Shoaib Akhtar, seems hell bent on pleasing everyone. His masters have given him a glowing report and going by his antics today, it looks as if he is aiming for the most 'sportive' person award of this series. However one cannot but feel that all his good behaviour is a pretence. If it is a pretence, what is he aiming at? An IPL contract? If I am not mistaken, he is yet to be approached by both factions, even though earlier there were reports of him joining ICL Update:
Q says,
ICL offered him ( a contract) and he (had) refused. In fact he was offered one of the highest paying contracts.
IPL has offered him (a contract) and he has accepted (it).
Thanks Q, I stand corrected.
Karthik and Jaffer never inspired confidence. Karthik has to remember that knives are out and if he fails again, he can be sure of a huge public outcry.
Jaffer seems capable of getting out for no reason. I can't really understand his mental make-up. But as long as he was there his stroke play was as effortless as Laxmans.
Off- late Dravid has been getting out, playing down the wrong line. If the bowler was a right hander, he would have nicked it to the slips. Today Tanvir had him bowled trying to flick, without stretching fully forward.
Ganguly is still playing from memory with no real awareness of what the bowler was bowling. He exposed a huge gap between his bat and pad and got castled. High time he woke up and played the ball on its merit.
Sachin carried his confidence from the ODI. Since he is "GOD" you can't call it over-confidence, so let's say he got run-out by being casual.
Dhoni did his bit. A lot of his shots seem to be coming from the bottom or toe of his bat. Wonder why? Is the pitch keeping low or is it how he gets the elevation for his lofted shots. Have to observe him some more to know for sure. Unfortunately he was done in by his urge to smash the ball down the ground.
Laxman- sublime as usual.
The idea that appeals the most to me is, at some time in the future, to convert
50 overs cricket into two innings of 25 overs each.
Conditions
will be more even for both teams (the dew in a day-night game will affect both
teams since each will get 25 overs in the evening), the toss will give the
captain more to think about and the commercial side will be well taken care of.
It is an idea that has emerged from Australia and I first read of it in an
article by John Buchanan.
His greatest weaknesses as a batsman were his nerves at the start of an innings,
his often appalling running between the wickets, and the traditional
subcontinental frailty outside the off stump, especially on bouncy pitches.
Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan believes Stuart MacGill is "not theWay to go Murali!
bowler he used to be" and Australian selectors should look to the future when
choosing a test cricket spinner.
Cricket Australia is worried about the dwindling attendances during the recent Sri Lanka series. Plus, they see no reason to hope for a revival in their fortunes.“the position won’t improve in the coming weeks. Before Christmas, Australia
will meet New Zealand in three one day matches and a Twenty20 match. New Zealand
is currently ranked fifth on the One Day International ratings table so another
lopsided series looms.
Then Australia and India will
player three Tests, the first starting on Boxing Day in Melbourne. While India
ranks third on the Test ratings table, England ranks second! If Australia scored
an easy clean sweep against the Poms last summer, what will it do to India this
summer?”
Our expatriates will be at the stadium in full force so that is the least of their worries.
However about what Australia will do to India, anyone willing to hazard a guess?
Expletives welcomed. :)
News emanating out of Sri Lanka is that Muthiah Muralitharans bunnies are getting ready to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
Somehow it is an Englishman’s fate to be a part of a world record.
In this regard, fans of Lara will gratefully recollect how the English team as a whole contributed their mite in Lara establishing a world record.
Doubtless, the present lot will fall over like nine pins and help Murali establish a world record without a fight.
Jolly good fellows aren’t they?
News has just come in that Sreesanth and RP Singh have been ruled out of the first Test against Pakistan due to injuries. Munaf has been drafted as a cover.
This could be a very good opportunity for Munaf to re - establish himself in the team. Along with Sreesanth and RP Singh, I consider him to be the future of the Indian bowling attack.
By the way, I have to let you know that whenever I back a pacer, he invariably disappears. To name two, Yograj Singh was one and then in the recent past I was all for Ashish Nehra. Yograj Singh has resurfaced albeit as the father of Yuvraj.
Have to wait for some more time to know, how or when Ashish Nehra reappears.
Former Australia batsman Darren Lehmann
announces his retirement from the game after a struggle with
injuries.
Is he one more ICL recruit?
"That's why they like to play Twenty20 cricket because it reduces the game to a
slogathon.
"It helps hide their inadequacies, which are cruelly
exposed by Australia at Test level."
With winning the Ashes:
There are two objectives: 1) To regain the Ashes. 2) To win an ICC global event. We have won the Ashes once in 18 years. Never in 32 years have we won an ICC global event.
Sad. Will navel gazing do?
An American discovers cricket.Anyway, as I ran the TV remote through the 300 or so channels, I paused on a
British sports channel with an image of men wearing overstuffed white pants,
strange helmets, oven mitts on their hands and holding fraternity paddles.
I put down the remote and decided to watch a game of cricket. The next
morning as I was brushing my teeth, the same game was in progress.
And here is his conclusion.This game could use a “fast forward” button.
My conclusion:
What is your conclusion?
"Ours was a very good team; we had some really good players. But the current
team is even better. I say this because this team has more all-rounders," he
said.
"I'd be lying if I said I haven't lay awake thinkingChess! Did he say chess?
about the decisions I have to make as captain, it's a mentally tiring position
to hold. You have to look after every player when you're out on that field and
it can be difficult at times. The cricket match becomes a chess match. Being a
captain is hard but you get a great level of satisfaction from doing it
well.
Modern cricket is evolving at a furious pace. If you thought scantily clad cheerleaders during the Twenty20 radical – here is something unthought-of, a cheerleader as a wicketkeeper.
Prior is the epitome of the modern keeper as cheerleader and has perhaps been
more warmly welcomed in the England dressing room than by those outside it who
yearn for the more traditional talents of a Bob Taylor, Alan Knott or Jack
Russell. Or even a Chris Read.
SOUTH African legend Allan Donald has warned Australia its domination of cricket
will not last as other national teams undergo change and plot retribution.
Donald has moved to ease fears from fans and rival players that Ricky Ponting's
team will never be caught by declaring South Africa and England are going
through a renewal period and will be two nations that will seriously challenge
for supremacy.
"I am disappointed with the lack of intensity in this series. More needle is
required in the series. I think we need to play Sreesanth," Rameez said.
