When the Indian Cricket League emerged as an unsanctioned competition, there was gnashing of teeth, frothing at the mouth, voodoo dolls at the ready and an almighty hue and cry from cricket administrators screaming about the dangerous monster that is cricket that has not been endorsed by the BCCI and the ICC.

At the time, back in August 2007, the ICL was heavily criticised as an agent attacking the fabric of cricket, and its financial lures were derided as blood money only to be taken by international cricket’s player mercenaries.

NZC boss Justin Vaughan was quoted as saying: “Events such as the ICL could have the potential to compete with official international events and erode their value. Added to this, the proposed rebel league is scheduled to directly conflict with the [New Zealand] tour to South Africa as well as the start of our domestic season.”

How ironic, then, that it was never the shambolic ICL that threatened the weave of the game. As NZ Cricket Players’ Association boss Heath Mills predicted at the time, it was always the “official” BCCI-endorsed Indian Premier League behemoth that had the most potential to disrupt the primacy of international cricket.

It is the IPL and its ilk that are now competing with official international events and threatening to erode value. If the reports in the Sunday Star-Times are to be believed, the Indian domestic tournament and its clones, little brothers, and off-shoots are most likely to lure the players away from the black cap - and these players and the international cricket that they play are the geese that lay NZC’s golden eggs.

The NZC chief executive also said at the time: “We depend upon the value of the media rights associated with official international events to provide a majority of our income. It is therefore in the best interests of New Zealand Cricket not to support unofficial events such as the ICL.” But the ICC, and NZC, share of revenue from these domestic events is minuscule. They might be official but they are much smaller money-spinners for NZC than the status quo: a strong NZ side that other teams want to play, complete with highly recognisable players that the Read more…

Administrator New Zealand BCCI, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Heath Mills, ICC, icl, IPL, Justin Vaughan, New Zealand, NZC, South Africa, T20

You can always bet that Pakistan cricket will never be short of controversies. The rumpus created by Younis Khan’s decision to abdicate the reins of leadership for the sake of ‘taking time off from the sport’ is simply too hard to digest at a juncture when the national team is embarking upon an assignment which is going to be a tough test of its character in the coming months.

It’s unfortunate that Younis, who otherwise is one of the most decent sportsmen with no malice towards anyone, has to give in to the player-power politics that has been one of the reasons why Pakistan cricket is notorious for its inconsistency and unpredictability.

Critics, of course for the time being, are going to have a field day until the dust settles over the latest controversy.

Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, in an abrupt statement on Wednesday announced Mohammad Yousuf as the successor to Younis for the New Zealand Tests.

He also remarked that the cricket board had no objection to Younis asking to be rested from the New Zealand tour.

But the PCB chief was unwilling to admit that Pakistan cricket, not for the first time, is facing serious crisis.

The revolt against captaincy has happened on several occasions in the past and the current scenario appears to be no different as like in the past there appears to be no strict team management to curb this disruptiveness.

Javed Miandad had to relinquish the job shortly after the Australian tour in 1981-82 when almost the entire squad, instigated by Majid Khan and vice-captain Zaheer Abbas, went Read more…

Administrator Pakistan Abu Dhabi, Black Caps, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, icl, Majid Khan, Miandad, Misbah-ul Haq, New Zealand, PCB, Twenty20, Wasim Akram, Younus Khan, Yousuf, Zaheer Abbas

AUSTRALIAN cricket is facing its most deflating summer for decades. Following hard upon the feckless nomination of Chris Gayle as leader of the West Indies, the news that Younus Khan had stepped down as Pakistan captain is a hammer blow.

Pakistan and the West Indies are the summer’s main attractions but both will arrive as fractured outfits. Whether the Younus decision or Gayle’s reappointment is the bigger calamity is a matter of opinion. It’s a close-run thing. All the evidence suggests that it’s going to be a long summer and a hard sell.

Nowadays, the West Indies and Pakistan seem to spend an inordinate amount of time backstabbing and striking. And so cricket stumbles from crisis to crisis. The miracle is not that cricket frays at the edges but that it does not disintegrate. All the more reason to recognise the importance of strong and statesmanlike captains. Other sports can talk about coaches and managers. In cricket, the captain sets the tone. Put a turkey in charge and before long all and sundry will be squawking. Put a lion at the helm and soon the pride will be playing with pride. Younus was an impressive leader.

Honourable and intelligent, he tried to hold together a team unable to play matches at home and undermined to no small degree by defections to the Indian Cricket League and by rampant egos. Through it all, his reputation has remained intact. Despite the handicaps, the team continued to play its inimitable version of the game. Along the way, Shoaib Akhtar was dumped and Shahid Afridi turned into a frontline bowler.

And then the gripes began as older hands sought a leader more to their taste. All too soon Younus faced all sorts of allegations. There were suggestions Pakistan threw away the Champions League match against Australia because defeat meant eliminating India. Younus dropped a sitter and stuttered at the crease. Cricketers are not machines. His form has been poor. Not for the first time Pakistan’s batting lacked logic. It was an oddly subdued performance. But Younus’ team fought to the last and was only denied by tailenders. No one else Read more…

Administrator Pakistan Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Champions League, Chris Gayle, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, icl, Javed Miandad, Kiwis, Mohammed Yousuf, Pakistan, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, West Indies, Younus Khan

If Lalit Modi and Dean Kino had added the word “International” to the Champions League T20, the tournament that is currently taking place in India could have replaced the now defunct ICL. Players from the now dead-and-buried ICL have scattered to different teams. Some ICLers, like Shane Bond, are back playing for club and country.

Meanwhile, the tournament that has been christened CLT20 is up and running. After the first edition was scrapped in the wake of 26/11, the CLT20-2009 has been in progress for almost a week now. While the cricket has been ok, CLT20 has certainly been providing air time to Lalit Modi and Bollywood!

Never mind the absence of Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta, whose teams — respectively Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings — were not good enough to be featured in CLT20. This despite the largesse — out of the goodness of Lalit Modi’s heart — to accommodate a 3rd team from the Indian IPL in CLT20 (as opposed to only two teams from Australia and South Africa, the trinity of countries that co-started the CLT20 concept).

But no worries! This edition of CLT20 continues its links with Bollywood, thank you very much! I wouldn’t have known that this was a deliberate ploy till I watched an interview with Bipasha Basu who was at one of the early games; I forget which one! Was this yet another Bollywood Super Bod trying to buy a team, I wondered? Alas no! This was just another one of Lalit Modi’s plans to continue the link between Bollywood and masala cricket. What do they call it now? Co-branding?

T20 and Bollywood are made for each other. Each idiom features a lot of dancing, some colour, some great bodies, lots of song, a booty shake or two, celebreties coming out of your ears and nostrils, a few tears, skimpy-glitzy clothes, some acting, loads of emotion (throw in a slap or two!), plenty of rah-rah, LOADS of money and some talent on view — that is, if you can be bothered enough to pay close attention amidst the chaos, the din, the fake drama and the Read more…

Administrator Champions League T20 Australia, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Bollywood, Cape Cobras, Champions League T20, CLT20, Dean Kino, icl, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lalit Modi, Preity Zinta, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty, South Africa

It was an old boys’ reunion even the most ardent New Zealand cricket follower would have struggled to envisage.

Shane Bond, Ian Butler and Daryl Tuffey probably had doubts as well over the intervening seasons, but in Tuesday night’s Tri-Series one-dayer against Sri Lanka they formed New Zealand’s three-pronged pace attack for the first time in more than seven years.

The trio last hunted as a pack at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados, in June 2002 – and it was a successful expedition as the West Indies were humbled by 202 runs in the first test to tee up a historic series win in the Caribbean.

Injuries then became a byword of their respective careers, particularly for Bond and Butler.

While Bond’s list of ailments resemble a medical almanac, Butler’s inoperable back problems were the root cause of his frustrations.

New Zealand had just beaten Australia in the inaugural Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match at Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium in December 2004 when Butler realised his pain was more than irritating.

He gritted through a couple of domestic games for Northern Districts while ‘drugged up’ before scans revealed a disc compression or in Butler’s words: “Everything that could have gone with my back did go wrong.”

Butler was warned his cricketing career was over, he disagreed and spent a couple of Read more…

Administrator New Zealand, SL vs NZ Barbados, Blogs.CMDN.com, Bridgetown, Champions Trophy, Chris Martin, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Daryl Tuffey, Docklands, Iain O'Brien, Ian Butler, icl, James Marshall, Kensington Oval, Kyle Mills, New Zealand, Premadasa, Shane Bond, Sri Lanka, Tim Southee

Rahul Dravid, M.S. Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and alike have possibly never entered or seen a corporate board room. They have probably never had to make any decision regarding cement sales, Air India flight schedules, or oil pipelines. For all you know, they may never have stepped into one of the corporate offices that they supposedly represent but they all gathered in four different cities to play a bizarre tournament called the BCCI Corporate Trophy. As though there is a shortage of tournaments in India, this is an add on an already packed schedule. I failed to see the motivation behind this tournament, I would have rather preferred the India A, B, C, D teams play.

Having said that some of the games have certainly been entertaining. It is certainly refreshing to see Rahul Dravid back in the thick of things captaining a side and not losing much of his competitiveness. His attack on Suresh Raina’s short pitch stuff weakness has certainly been a highlight so far. Badrinath has been very consistent. I would wished to see Abhinav Mukund get a few more runs for India Cements. MS Dhoni is back at hitting big sixes again and Joginder Singh has been a surprise package. Some of the ICL folks are back in business with Rohan Gavaskar brightening his chances of representing West Bengal again in the Ranji season.

All in a all, the loyal employees of some of the big corporate giants seem to have earned their daily wages by putting in their 8 hr day on the field and are ready to go on a vacation to Sri Lanka and later on to South Africa. I personally am keenly looking forward to the start of another India season (even if a big chunk of it may be domestic in nature). Cricket, in general, gets to Read more…

Administrator Indian Cricket Abhinav Mukund, Badrinath, BCCI, Blogs.CMDN.com, Corporate trophy, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, icl, Joginder Singh, MS Dhoni, Rahul Dravid, Ranji, Rohan Gavaskar, Suresh Raina, West Bengal, Yuvraj Singh

NEWS from England over night that two Australian players had been approached on behalf of bookmakers will confirm widely held suspcions that match-fixing is again on the rise.

In the rebel Indian Cricket League there was reportedly substantial transactions taking places and there are ever loudening whispers about the Indian Premier League.

The word is that a lot of the deals are more subtle than they used to be.

It’s not about throwing games any more or getting out under a certain score but bowling a wide in an over or predicting the next bowling change.

All these things are easy to fix if you have the right men on side and are very hard to detect.
It’s a worry.

The ICC’s anti-corruption unit had a lot of fresh leads when they came into existance nine years ago. Yet they basically unearthed nothing.

The ICC anti-corruption man I saw most often on tour travelled with a set of golf clubs.

India’s police know a lot more than they let us know about and are reluctant to take Read more…

Administrator Australia Australia, England, ICC, icl, IPL

Kapil Dev, without any struggle, has got complete independence from the rules of the English language

Early in his career, after the young Sachin Tendulkar became aware of his own deification, just one thing changed in him. When asked to make a public address, he started spacing out his words. He would speak slowly, measuring what was coming out of his mouth, word by word, concentrating hard. His voice was almost girly but what was worse was that he was so completely aware of this blemish. Kapil Dev never had that problem.

Here’s Kapil Dev at Lord’s in a dark blue blazer and with a gleam in his eyes immediately after picking up the 1983 World Cup: I am happy, what my team done here today…A target wasn’t good enough to fight…

And here is Kapil in 2008, 25 years later, talking about that victory, during a BCCI function to felicitate the players: We like acknowledge how proud how happy today we are. His grammar has undergone little change in over a quarter century. It might even have deteriorated, if you consider that in the latter instance he was reading from what looked like a prepared speech. In the line, you can pick out five grammatical mistakes. You could even correct it (‘We’d like to acknowledge how proud and happy we are today’). But then comes his next line: You are inviting us and giving us such a reception which we never ever expected. This is when you suspect there is more at work here. He is not speaking in English. He is speaking a unique language that has its own rules. Observe the lines that follow: What we achieved 25 years I think in our own mind we were very young people. Perhaps some of the people understood what happened. As a captain I didn’t understand what really happen and how it happen…People loved us and that Read more…

Administrator Indian Cricket BCCI, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, ICC, icl, Kapil Dev, Kaplish, Lord’s, Sachin Tendulkar

So the rehabilitation of the ICL players is complete and now only acceptance remains; that and the removal of the tag which time should easily accomplish. My fear is that within the state bodies, some of them at any rate, acceptance may take longer. Other players may have fitted into slots but administrators who had ranged against each other might present the greater hurdle. It is the IPL, run by private enterprise and where baggage counts for little, that might be more forthcoming. We now know that it is largely the strength of the Indian players that gives a team its depth and there is a pretty decent crop that has become available. In the market place, and I do not use the term in a derogatory manner, fresh fruit has become available and it will find buyers.

For those players this represents the opportunity of a lifetime—not just the IPL but all of Indian cricket. A lot of those players will be hungry, eager to cast off the tag of little league players and they would have grown substantially in two years. When doors are shutting on you and when darkness beckons even a sliver of light brings hope. These players have known what it is to contemplate life without cricket and with their lifeline within reach they will swim harder to get there. At any rate they should because you squander life’s lessons at your own peril.

And therefore the ICL might still end up doing good to Indian cricket. They had always tried to position it as a league that provided opportunity though that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Nobody promotes philanthropy with an aggressive and competitive edge. But Read more…

Administrator Indian Cricket AIFF, BCCI, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Gaganjeet Bhullar, icl, IPL, Sania Mirza, Vijender Singh

A month ago these cricketers were sitting at home with nothing to do and wondering when they would return to playing competitive sport.

For 13 Tamil Nadu cricketers who returned from the Indian Cricket League, the highly competitive first-division league in Chennai has been a huge blessing. What’s more, almost all ICL returnees are performing with a vengeance. “I had mixed feelings about how I would be welcomed back,” India cricketer Hemang Badani said.

“But I knew that the only thing to do was to score runs. In the last year I have hardly played the longer version, so to bat six hours after being on the field for one-and-a-half days was tiring.” Badani has unbeaten scores of 74 and 150 from three matches for Grand Slam, a team owned by India Cements.

S Sriram, another cricketer who has worn India colours, has done even better, racking up scores of 191, 208 and 46 in three innings for Globetrotters, a team owned by MRF. The left-handed batsman has kept busy playing in the leagues in England and leading a club side in Auckland in the off season. “It’s like coming back home,” said Sriram of the return from the Indian Cricket League. Read more…

Administrator Indian Cricket Blogs.CMDN.com, Chennai, Chennai league, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Hemang Badani, icl, MRF, Ranji Trophy, WV Raman