Its great news that Srikkanth has been recommended to be the chairman of the senior selection panel. Srikkanth's playing days were just dynamic and sparkling with all the slam bang stuff on and off the field. One stroke that still stays fresh in almost all the cricket lovers eyes is the square drive he hit in the 1983 worldcup finals which stunned the world with such class.
Fondly called as Cheeka in the cricketing circles and a player who re-defined the way cricket was played in the early 80s with his slam bang hitting in the early overs. He was instrumental in transforming the ODI games into high scoring contests with big hitting in first 15 overs.
Srikkanth was instrumental in shaping up the greatest player the world has ever sean in Sachin, Sachin made his debut under srikkath captaincy and the captain shared his dressing room with the youngest player on the tour and made the youngster comfortable in the tour against pakistan in pakistan. He was also the first captain to rebal against the BCCI for better treatment and payment for the cricketers and he never captained the side again inspit of the test series was the first drawn series in pakistan.
We cricket lovers will miss the comments from the true cricketer who has never worried about coming out with the facts and pointing fingers on failures even if it was the top bross of the BCCI or the top cricketers. Since he is a paid selector of the BCCI, i am sure he will not be allowed to talk much but i am sure he will do justice to the great expectations of the people of India in grouming a top class Indian Cricket Team. Srikkanth has never encouraged half backed cricketers here in tamilnadu and i am sure he will not encourage that in the senior selection too.
Srikkanth has been very much in touch with cricket with his involment with the junior teams and the IPL (CSK) and he knows who is who and who performs in the domestic cricket and has the quality of picking the right talent.
Golden chance for the TN cricketers, if some one performs well, here is the chairman of selctors in your home city to take note of that and take your case to the selection panel. If our state cricketers continue to perform well in domestic tournament but fail to perform against quality visiting teams there is no way he can push their case with the selection panel. We have had lot of selectors from TN in the past but have never helped in the selction process as they have been too diplomatic and wanted to stick to the job but i am sure cheeka is different and i know he will fight to bring in good talent and even go to the extent of quiting if injustice is done for good performers. Great time for TN cricketers, please amke use of the rare chance that comes your way.
Lets hope Srikkanth brings back the great team combination that works as a team to acheive great heights. Good Luck Cheeka.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Pakistan blames Cricket Australia of Double Standards
Australian team will reach India on September-21st after lot of speculation that they might cancel the tour due to the recent bomb blasts in the capital city. All the news channels carried news related to Australian tour of India in the wake of the bomb blasts and suggested that Australia may cancel the tour sighting security reasons but BCCI took the initiative to put a stop to this speculation and briefed Cricket Australia about the security and assured that the team will be given the best possible security cover, even though one of the venue of the series is Delhi. Australia has agreed to this and will be reaching India this sunday.
Pakistan Cricket Board is not too happy with this development blaming Australia of double standards. Australian cricketers were the first to voice their concerns on security in Pakistan which paved way for cancellation of the Test Series and postponement of the Champions Trophy but Cricket Australia going ahead with the tour to India even after the recent bomb blasts has irked the PCB officials.
Back to cricket, Australia has included many new names and hope to surprise the Indian team including them in the playing XI. After the retirement of the greats McGrath,Warne and performer in McGill and Gillespie the Australian side is lacking in bowling and it was very much evident in the test series in the West Indies. They have included two new spinners and one of them is a 36 year old leg spinner and hopes to make his debut in India. Australia will also be missing Langer,Gilli from the last tour to India and the in form Symonds. Australia will be banking more on the top guns in Ponting,Hayden,Hussey and Clark to come good in all the games and will also be looking for some solid starts from Simon katich. Lee and Clark to spear head the bowling attack with some support from part timers in clark and the new commers.
ROI vs Delhi game should bring back the old legs in shape and give them the much needed confidence to come good against the Aussies. IMHO India starts favorites in the series with bowling looking very good after the Srilanka series with Harbajan,Ishant,Zaheer in good form and kumble is expected to come good in spinner friendly wickets. The big worry for India is the batting, the top 3 (Sachin,Dravid,Laxman) has not scored many runs and Dhoni has not played a test match for almost 6 months now, Kumble must be banking on Sehwag,Gambhir for good starts and hoping the top 3 to come good.
Looking forward to some exciting matches in the Aussies tour to India.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
ICC Awards
It should be morale booster for Youraj to have been chosen the T20 player of the year when he is struggling to get runs in the ODI. Dhoni has been fantastic with all aspects of the game in the ODI format and no surprise that he got away with the ODI player of the year. It has become a habit of taking the best umpire award for Simon Taufel, its the 5th consecutive time he has won the award. He has been brilliant in the middle with near perfect decisions even the pressure on umpires is getting too much with all the technology and the harsh comments from the former cricketers sitting in the comforts. Having said that it also raises questions on the ability of the umpires in the elite panel.Chanderpaul won the all important ICC cricketer of the year award.
If you guys remember, there was a english cricketer with 40 thousand runs with over 100 hundreds and 250 fifty's in the first class cricket Greame Hick , he is calling it a day this week after such monumental contribution to his county team. Sadly for Hick and the cricket lovers all over the world he was not able to produce the magic of scoring big runs in the International Arena.
Ganguly back in Bengal Ranji Squad.
Ganguly the fighter is back to basics and is in the Bengal team for the Ranji trophy, he has also made it clear that he has 2 more years left in the international stage. As we all know he is a fighter and could make a come back but IMHO this is time for him to retire with some respect and dignity, rather than announce his retirement when people would have forgotten him at the international level. I also feel the same way for Kumble, even though he has couple of years more as a player in the test cricket but its better for him to call it quits as captain now and make the transition for Dhoni smoother. I feel its the same for Dravid and Laxman to announce them self not available for ODI, it will be better for them and the selectors to not feel bad for leaving them out of the team even though they have already been side lined.
Some how it has not been the case with the Indian cricketers calling it a day when they are in their prime. Australians,NewZeland and England cricketers do that to an extend, take the case of Border, Marsh, Taylor, SteveWaugh, Gilli, NasserHussain, Gower, Bothem,Flemming and so many other examples. Its time our cricketers follow the same and bow out of international cricket when they are performing.
If you guys remember, there was a english cricketer with 40 thousand runs with over 100 hundreds and 250 fifty's in the first class cricket Greame Hick , he is calling it a day this week after such monumental contribution to his county team. Sadly for Hick and the cricket lovers all over the world he was not able to produce the magic of scoring big runs in the International Arena.
Ganguly back in Bengal Ranji Squad.
Ganguly the fighter is back to basics and is in the Bengal team for the Ranji trophy, he has also made it clear that he has 2 more years left in the international stage. As we all know he is a fighter and could make a come back but IMHO this is time for him to retire with some respect and dignity, rather than announce his retirement when people would have forgotten him at the international level. I also feel the same way for Kumble, even though he has couple of years more as a player in the test cricket but its better for him to call it quits as captain now and make the transition for Dhoni smoother. I feel its the same for Dravid and Laxman to announce them self not available for ODI, it will be better for them and the selectors to not feel bad for leaving them out of the team even though they have already been side lined.
Some how it has not been the case with the Indian cricketers calling it a day when they are in their prime. Australians,NewZeland and England cricketers do that to an extend, take the case of Border, Marsh, Taylor, SteveWaugh, Gilli, NasserHussain, Gower, Bothem,Flemming and so many other examples. Its time our cricketers follow the same and bow out of international cricket when they are performing.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
My Test Squad For Australia Series
Indian team has the luxury of a full month to prepare for the forth coming series against Australia here in India. Its been long time since the team has had this long break before a test series and should do lot of good for the team and especially for the tired old legs of Sachin,Kumble,Dravid and Laxman.
The below are my players for the test series and this is the team for the whole series as i have never believed in selecting a team for the first 2 tests and leave doubts in the minds of the players.
I think this will be his last series as captain and may be he will lead against England before Dhoni takes over or may be the selectors may surprise by naming Dhoni as captain. In my view Kumble should continue to be the captain for the Australia series and Dhoni can take over the captaincy against England. I have a feeling that Ganguly may get the axe from the team and Raina will take his place and get a chance to play in the XI depending on whether india wants to play 5 bowlers. I feel it will not be fair to select Ganguly and keep him out of the playing XI. As almost 10 of the 13 virtually take their place, its going to be either Kholi or Sharma to play the 12 man and the other bowler in ohja/R.P.Singh/Sreesanth to be the other reserves in the squad. As the series progress we will have choices in making changes depending on the performance. As we are playing in Mohali and Delhi where the ball seams and swings a bit we may even play 3 fast bowlers.
If Dhoni and the top order (Gambhir,Sehwag,Sachin,Dravid & Laxmaan) comes up with good scores, we can even go with the 5th bowler dropping the 6th specialist batsman.
Badrinath Fails Again
Its sad that Badri has failed yet again and i am sure this failure is not going to do him any good when the test squad is selected. Kholi has come with a fine unbeaten half century and in all probability will feature in the test squad with shear performance. Badri reminds me of Sharath who scored tons and tons of runs in the domestic cricket but when ever there was a chance against the visiting team he failed and never got a chance to play for India. I wish Badri does not repeat the same mistake again and feel pity for himself, its not going to do any good for his future.
The below are my players for the test series and this is the team for the whole series as i have never believed in selecting a team for the first 2 tests and leave doubts in the minds of the players.
- Kumble (Captain)
- Sachin
- Dravid
- Sehwag
- Laxmaan
- Gambhir
- Raina / Ganguly
- Dhoni
- Harbhajan
- I.Sharma
- Z.Khan
- Kholi / R.G.Sharma
- Ohja /Sreesanth/R.P.Singh/
I think this will be his last series as captain and may be he will lead against England before Dhoni takes over or may be the selectors may surprise by naming Dhoni as captain. In my view Kumble should continue to be the captain for the Australia series and Dhoni can take over the captaincy against England. I have a feeling that Ganguly may get the axe from the team and Raina will take his place and get a chance to play in the XI depending on whether india wants to play 5 bowlers. I feel it will not be fair to select Ganguly and keep him out of the playing XI. As almost 10 of the 13 virtually take their place, its going to be either Kholi or Sharma to play the 12 man and the other bowler in ohja/R.P.Singh/Sreesanth to be the other reserves in the squad. As the series progress we will have choices in making changes depending on the performance. As we are playing in Mohali and Delhi where the ball seams and swings a bit we may even play 3 fast bowlers.
If Dhoni and the top order (Gambhir,Sehwag,Sachin,Dravid & Laxmaan) comes up with good scores, we can even go with the 5th bowler dropping the 6th specialist batsman.
| OCT -Thu 9 - Mon 13 09:30 local, 04:00 GMT | 1st Test - India v Australia M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore |
| OCT- Fri 17 - Tue 21 09:30 local, 04:00 GMT | 2nd Test - India v Australia Punjab Cricket Association Stadium,Mohali, Chandigarh |
| OCT-Wed 29 - Sun 2 09:30 local, 04:00 GMT | 3rd Test - India v Australia Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi |
| November 2008 | |
| Thu 6 - Mon 10 09:30 local, 04:00 GMT | 4th Test - India v Australia Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur |
Badrinath Fails Again
Its sad that Badri has failed yet again and i am sure this failure is not going to do him any good when the test squad is selected. Kholi has come with a fine unbeaten half century and in all probability will feature in the test squad with shear performance. Badri reminds me of Sharath who scored tons and tons of runs in the domestic cricket but when ever there was a chance against the visiting team he failed and never got a chance to play for India. I wish Badri does not repeat the same mistake again and feel pity for himself, its not going to do any good for his future.
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