Pakistan are the current T20 world champions. Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Mohammed Aamer, Saeed Ajmal and company played some enthralling cricket to claim the trophy last year. Since then, Pakistan have seen another exciting batsman emerge on the horizon: Umar Akmal. Therefore, it defies logic that nobody wanted to buy the 11 Pakistani players in the IPL 3 auction on Tuesday.
 
What's the reason? Let us go through what has been proffered by the men and women involved with IPL. Some team owners have said that the Pakistani players had a problem of availability during the period. That's nonsense. Unlike the top Aussie players, they are available for the entire duration. In fact, West Indian Kemar Roach, a Deccan Chargers buy, will miss the first two games. That's because the Zimbabwe tour of West Indies gets over on March 14 while IPL 3 begins on March 12.  The second Deccan Chargers game will be held on March 14.
 
Another gentleman was heard mouthing that the Pakistanis were not chosen because this was a short auction. There were too few players to be bought, he said. This logic doesn't hold either. The truth is that the owners spent sums as high as $720,000 and $610,000 for the likes of Parnell and Roach, while ignoring Aamer and Gul. Are we saying that the former two are better bowlers than Aamer (who is also emerging as a handy bat) and Gul? Or that the Pakistanis are not even worth $100,000? And have we forgotten that Afridi was the man of the series in the T20 World Cup 2009.
 
One logic being offered is that franchisees were not keen to have Pakistani players because there is an element of uncertainty involving them. Simply put, the relationship between the two countries is already edgy and could always get worse. In that case, the Pakistani players might go back. So why take the trouble?
 
Even this argument is specious. Sure, nobody would want to invest a huge amount in a 'risky' player. But then isn't investing over $750,000 in Keiron Pollard any less risky? What's the guarantee he will succeed? What about investing $750,000-plus in Bond, once a great bowler, now extremely injury prone. Let us not forget he's currently injured too. Besides, he Read more...

Avijit Ghosh IPL, Pakistan Blogs.CMDN.com, Bond, Cricket Blogs, Deccan Chargers, IPL, Keiron Pollard, Kemar Roach, Mohammed Aamer, Pakistan, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, T20, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul

Tuesday’s game was one of those rare occasions in sport when you lose and the dominating emotion isn’t disappointment. At one level you’re just happy to have been part of something that doesn’t happen every day in the game. Oddly enough, I thought we bowled pretty well for the best part. It’s just that the conditions — flat track, fast outfield, small ground — made for perfect hitting conditions and the Indians did very well to capitalise.

Looking back, I wouldn’t say it was a mistake to put India in. After all, the wicket didn’t deteriorate at all, so there was nothing wrong in batting second. The only chance of taking wickets in a heap was early on when there was some moisture in the surface and swing in the air. We were prepared to chase a sizeable total, even something in the range of 350, but India did better and you’re always going to be up against it when chasing something like 414. That said, the Rajkot ODI showed just how quickly the game can change, and how little the margin for error is when chasing a big score. We had a great opening stand with Dilshan and Upul giving us the platform we needed. Just as Dilshan tired after his century, Kumar took over, completely changing the rhythm of the chase.

Ever since he regained form at the Brabourne Stadium Kumar has made it count, using the freedom of batting at No. 3 in the T20 to express himself fully. If we had won he would have probably been the Man of the Match, such was the impact of his knock. What probably happened towards the end, was that we lost too many wickets with about 12 overs remaining. Thanks to the top three we were in a strong position, with wickets in hand. If anything we might have made the mistake of thinking we had too many wickets in hand.

The reason we weren’t disappointed was that the game showed the Indians we won’t Read more…

Administrator IND vs SL Blogs.CMDN.com, Brabourne, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, India, ODI, Rajkot, Sri Lanka, T20

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…

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Paul Collingwood is a quiet-spoken, thoughtful man, not prone to making big claims or overembellishing a situation and he cut straight to the point when asked to reflect on the tour of South Africa so far.

“It’s been a little bit of a rollercoaster ride, in terms of results and performances. It’s been an up-and-down tour.”

That it certainly has. England won the first T20 international - the scorecard says by one run on D/L but if it hadn’t rained they probably would have won more comfortably with SA needing 76 in seven overs at the close - and then were walloped out of sight in the second, with South Africa making 241.

Just as the press pack started preparing stories about the tour going off the rails, England produced one of their most accomplished and clinical displays at Centurion to take a 1-0 lead in the ODI series, then followed it by being pummelled at Newlands on Friday, conceding more than 350 runs and losing with eight overs unbowled.

Cue doom and gloom again, but two days later the same England bowling attack have just dismissed South Africa for 119 at Port Elizabeth, two runs fewer as a team than AB De Villiers made on his own on Friday. As I type, Trott and Strauss have taken England a quarter of the way to winning this game and going 2-1 up.

As journalists we like to deal in black and white. It is a justified criticism of the British press that England are painted as either the worst side in the world in the history of the game ever - or they are triumphant and magnificent and let’s have them round to the palace for OBEs and Read more…

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In a dressing room resplendent with batting superstars, Gautam Gambhir might have often felt like a bit player: his peers had, of course, already conquered cricket’s box-office; they could ring the cash counter at will with their sheer strokeplay, if not personality or charisma.
 
During those initial days, in 2003-04, he even looked like a struggling actor: like in reel life, nothing was easy; every time the Indian team produced a flop, he was the convenient fall guy. Worse, he didn’t have the ‘screen presence’ to attract a second opportunity quickly enough.
 
In the event, maybe not too surprisingly, he emerged as the anti-hero. No, it’s not because he had shades of black; or because he seemed more suited for negative characters. On the contrary, he was always quiet, shy and without malice despite life’s ham-handed ways.
 
Yet, in his rebellious stubble and steely eyes, you could see the anger; there was always an overt aggression in his strokes, and he turned to them whenever he was pushed into a corner. Expectedly, it was a double-edged sword, hurting him more than bailing him out of trouble.
 
After almost four years of heartbreak and darkness, light dawned from an unexpected quarter: the T20 format. As India went to the World Cup in South Africa, reluctantly, and without their superstars, he had the stage to himself: he promptly came up with a string of eye-catching cameos.
 
Throwing his already loose technique to the wind, he took on the pacers like he was out for a walk in the park. Literally. It looked ugly and angered the bowlers even more; but eventually it proved effective too. The runs started flowing. Soon, he became an integral part Read more...

Bobilli Vijay Kumar India Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Gautam Gambhir, New Zealand, South Africa, T20, World Cup

CRICKET supporters in Australia and England can easily get the wrong idea about the health of Test series. Demand for tickets for Ashes games is so high that the idea of staging the Sydney Test in a vast amphitheatre in the western suburbs has been mooted. Lord’s Tests are routinely played to full houses. Selections are hotly debated. Phillip Hughes or Shane Watson? Four speedsters or a slowie? People care.

Test series are followed on television, radio and the internet. Reports dominate the back pages. No one doubts that it is the most significant form of the game. The Ashes were paramount, the one-day internationals a consolation. Five-day encounters with India are often spellbinding.

Elsewhere, another story is told. In some countries, a Test match is staged and no one turns up. The Kiwis play on oddly shaped grounds before a smattering of spectators. Stands in Sri Lanka and Pakistan echo as a five-day match unfolds. South Africa offers free tickets to busloads of schoolchildren. Bear in mind that only nine supposedly cricket-mad nations play Test matches. Their teams contain all the dynamic and glamorous performers around and still the matches are played to almost empty houses. If they cannot hold an audience, what price the rising nations?

Concerned that Test cricket is dying a slow and painful death, and aware of its duty as a guardian of the game, the Marylebone Cricket Club asked a subcommittee of the great and good (mostly) to put on its thinking cap and recommend changes calculated to breathe fresh life into the format. Determined to rely on fact as opposed to supposition, the elders commissioned a report on the public’s view of Test cricket. Already they feared the worst but wanted to add weight to their argument. Otherwise they’d sound like a bunch of old fogeys.

Although the samples were small, the pollster’s conclusions ought to ring alarm bells. Alas, the situation is even worse than had been feared. Connoisseurs have long been convinced Read more…

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Since the Indian team last played a Test match in April this year, they’ve been involved in 16 one-dayers and five T20 internationals. Add to that tally the 59-match Indian Premier League and the inaugural Champions League, and it’s been quite a hectic six months of the game’s shorter versions.

The change of pace at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad is noticeable as it is welcome. In the nets, the batsmen are looking to leave the ball rather than swing at it, the fast bowlers are bending their backs instead of concentrating on ‘bowling in the right areas’, while the three spinners are creating mesmerising arcs in the air, not pinging them in flat and straight. Inevitably though, to cap a week-long celebration of a party that’s lasted two decades, all the focus on the eve of the match is on one man.

Watching Sachin

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir go into bat first, one punching crisply, the other dead-batting deliveries on to his toes. Then it’s Rahul Dravid’s turn, eyes scrunched up to keep the glare of the Ahmedabad sun out (and partly, one suspects, out of habit). VVS Laxman ambles into the adjoining net, languid to the point of lethargy unless of course you’re watching his wrists, working overtime as always. Yuvraj Singh brings out the booming drives, both along the ground and in the air and, as usual, sparks intermittent roars of ‘watchit’. Each of India’s batting top six demand attention, but on this day, everything they do seems incidental.

For Sachin Tendulkar is out there as well; stretching, jogging, laughing, driving, generally working his charm without ever trying. There are more eyes on him than usual, including wife Anjali’s, who makes an appearance that has the television cameras panning uncertainly from left to right and back — to catch a smile from the first lady of Indian cricket or a straight drive off the Read more…

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WAS it really only two months ago that people wanted to sack Ricky Ponting as Australia’s cricket captain? That talk seems far ago now.

Australia’s tour of India has showcased in several different ways Ponting’s maturity as a captain and the fact he is the powerful voice the game needs to try to preserve its fading traditions.

First his on-field deeds. It’s one thing winning when you have Glenn McGrath bowling from one end and Shane Warne from the other.

It’s quite another when you have five players sent home from a tour and have to wheel out not simply all of your reserves, but the Clint McKays as well.

Spinner Nathan Hauritz seemed like a rookie two months ago. Now he is a senior player.

But it has been Ponting’s fight to preserve the lustre of playing for Australia that has been even more impressive than his effort at the helm of a vessel with more holes than the Titanic.

I love the quotes from Ponting (see article Page 63) where he stridently criticised the attitude of young players who have been seduced by Twenty20 riches and are not as obsessed about representing his country as he is.

“I’ve made no secret that I’m a bit worried about some of the attitudes of younger players with the amount of money that’s around in Champions League and IPL,” he said.

If you privately gave some young players the right of reply they would say “it’s OK for Punter . . . he makes $5 million a year. We have to look at how we can get by if we don’t Read more…

Administrator West Indies Blogs.CMDN.com, Chris Gayle, Clint McKays, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Glenn McGrath, IPL, Nathan Hauritz, Punter, Ricky Ponting, T20, West Indies

The Champions League may not have matched the buzz of the IPL, especially when the Indian teams exited early, but the IPL’s stamp on Indian cricket was very much evident in the tournament.

Cricket, now, is much more than a simple contest between bat and ball — it is an event of mauj and masti packaged, promoted and presented aggressively.

For devoted fans, cricket matches of the T20 kind deliver unadulterated excitement. The crowd loves bowlers being massacred and runs smashed, whether by Pollard or Pathan.

In Bangalore, the only occasion when two Indian teams clashed in the tournament, the atmosphere at the ground was amazing, and all the changes triggered by the IPL were clearly visible. The match started at 8:45 p.m., which caused a bemused Anil Kumble to comment that had someone suggested this five years ago, others would have thought him crazy. Dinnertime start for a cricket game is one of the changes introduced by the IPL.

And when Kumble came on to bowl around 10 p.m. he was presented to his adoring fans as though he was a WWF warrior about to vanquish his opponents.

Which, in a way, he did soon enough — Kumble promptly took two main batsmen out. Proof once again that class prevails irrespective of the format, whether it is a 10-day Test or a Read more…

Administrator CMDN.com Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, IPL, Kumble, T20

Phew. Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting couldn’t have found a better expression to sum up the mood ahead of the seven One-dayers, starting tomorrow at Vadodara. Actually, make it double phew.

Just 24 hours have stood between the last tournament and the new series. True, the Champions League was an unexpected stop, a commitment that the three boards involved had to fulfil; but a one-day gap is clearly too painful even for the staunchest cricket-lover, or the most vela person.

Till not too long ago, we used to look at India’s players with raised brows when they grumbled about excessive cricket; now, the fans are doing the same, and more loudly too. This is surely the last warning, if at all the BCCI bosses are keeping a close watch on the health of the golden goose.

The Indian team, however, won’t have the luxury of complaining: it has done well in bilateral and tri-series but the big ones have truly been unkind to it. It failed to go far in, both, the T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy, leaving its supporters in borrowed tears.

Fatigue is, of course, closely linked to success: you don’t feel it as long as you are doing well in life, or winning on the field; but a string of failures, on both fronts, sap all your energy and spirit.

It would not be wise to write the obituary of the golden goose, though, just because the unlucky Champions League didn’t ignite the country, like the IPL had done; it is a new format and will take some time to catch on. It, of course, didn’t help that the three Indian teams totally lacked lustre too.

MS Dhoni now has an unenviable task on his plate: he has to not only counter the charge of the best team in the world but also breathe life into the tiring fans, if not a dying game. A couple of sterling performances and some fine victories will surely bring the stands alive Read more...

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