The next cricket calender is going to be the toughest year for true cricket .. Test Match Cricket. The ICC move to make modifications to the current format makes me worried that the best format of the game will have to undergo changes.
The proposed 4 days for tests can make the game more spectator friendly but not the true test of character of the game. I know people will argue that the format was changed even in the past like having a rest day after the 3rd day and so on but for purists the 5 day format of Test Cricket is true cricket even though there are few phases where the game can get boring.If test cricket is restricted to 4 days initially there will be few no result matches. Over a period of time things will settle down and we will see results but we will see the end of players who painstakingly spend hours and hours in the middle to fight to save the match and show character and technique (Just imagine Artherton's match saving 5th day innings against SouthAfrica and many such innings from Dravid).
I would blame the various cricket boards to have dragged the best format of cricket to this stage with poor planning and unmindful push to the slam bang version to fill their coffers. It was a pity to see empty stand in WI when Aussies toured and the same was seen even in cricket crazy country like Srilanka and India. Many factors like pricing of tickets,lack of initiative to market the format has brought down the most important format of the game down to this stage.
Finally it will be sad if the format is changed in any way and the talk of playing with color dress & day-night just hits the last nail in the coffin.I can not even think of seeing the players in color dress in the true cricket "TEST CRICKET".
On Indian Tour to West Indies
Rohit,R.Jadeja & Y.Pathan all wasted the god sent chances they got to play in this series. I am disappointed with this pathetic display purticullarly by Rohit. Rohit was so promising when he entered the international scene and some how he is yet to cement his place in the team.Good to see D.Karthick get some runs but this is not good enough for him to assure himself of a place when the big guys come back. Dhoni is back among runs and after a long time his batting has won a game for India. Not much to write about our bowling it just suffers and need a lot of discipline to put up some decent performance.
On Selection Matters
I know Cheeka as a selector is doing his bit to make sure that TN players are part of the team and Dhoni does his bit to keep them out of the playing XI. Unfortunately for Dhoni this time the youngsters he backs has failed more often than perform. I expected Badri to get a chance after dismal show from R.Sharma & Y.Pathan but yet to get his chance. On all merits M.Vijay should have got the openers slot at the first place but some how dhoni preferred karthick for reasons best known to him. Saving grace is karthick has performed well. I think at least now the people who back dhoni for all his decisions will agree with me on his prejudice against TN cricketers.
I would also feel that I.Sharma needs to be handled carefully, we have lost some good young talent in the past due to some poor handling of players. I see that I.Sharma is shot of confidence and needs a lot of hand holding so that he gets back to his prime.
Overall i would say this tour to WI is played just because of some obligation between the two boards and there is no real interest or intensity. The cricket administrators should put an end to these sort of meaningless series in the future, more so because the players are already overworked.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Early Exit for Team India
Team India's campaign to retain the T20 world cup came to an end with the second consecutive loss in the Super 8 stage. There has been lot of expectation from the Indian fans and the stadium looked grim at times even though the match is played in England and the host nation is progressing to win. Indian fans out numbered the English fans on Sunday and the match moving from one side to the other like our sensex, the cricket mad Indian fans were backing Team India like anything but in the end it was the team which held their nerves and the experience won the match for England. The Semi-final line up is already done, so the remaining matches in the Super 8 is just for the sake of playing.
I pity Dhoni.
I have mentioned quite a few times in my previous posts during the IPL that Dhoni is a bit confused with his batting position and desperately wants to prove as a batsmen. This confused state of mind has reflected in the not so aggressive moves that he took in the 2 super 8 games. To me dhoni is kind of likes to dominate the proceedings and likes to be in the thick of action all the time but once his batting style changed he was not able to do this with big success and this was very much apparent in the IPL & WorldCup.
I feel it has become a habit now for the general public and the media to take a player to the cloud on success and dump him to the ground from there on failure. This is very much evident in Dhoni's case, what ever he did made news and every other move was talked as a strategy and so on and when he and the team failed its the opposite. I feel pity for dhoni, he could have done a lot of things much better but i strongly feel that holding one person for the team's debacle is crap talk. I just do not understand how the past Indian cricketers sitting in the news channel's just talk what ever they feel like and get so personnel on their comments, its very disgusting and disturbing trend.
I would say Team India was a bit off color in this tournament. Bowling was very ordinary, Zaheer did not deliver what was expected from him (early breakthrough) Ishant Sharma was listless and Harbhajan was not able to produce a maginc spell in the middle overs which normally puts india well positioned on chasing or defending. On batting it was even more disappointing that other than Yuvraj & Y.Pathan none of the other guys looked comfortable, Gambhir is the key player for the team's success and when he was not getting the runs the top order failed badly. Rohit & Raina were shot of experience to handle some fine swing and seam bowling and failed miserably. I dont have to write on the fielding, we fielded below par through out the tournament and gifted 10-15 runs in all the matches.
Overall i would say that a combination of too-much pressure to retain the trophy, over-worked body and fatigue factors contributed to the early exit of Team India.
I pity Dhoni.
I have mentioned quite a few times in my previous posts during the IPL that Dhoni is a bit confused with his batting position and desperately wants to prove as a batsmen. This confused state of mind has reflected in the not so aggressive moves that he took in the 2 super 8 games. To me dhoni is kind of likes to dominate the proceedings and likes to be in the thick of action all the time but once his batting style changed he was not able to do this with big success and this was very much apparent in the IPL & WorldCup.
I feel it has become a habit now for the general public and the media to take a player to the cloud on success and dump him to the ground from there on failure. This is very much evident in Dhoni's case, what ever he did made news and every other move was talked as a strategy and so on and when he and the team failed its the opposite. I feel pity for dhoni, he could have done a lot of things much better but i strongly feel that holding one person for the team's debacle is crap talk. I just do not understand how the past Indian cricketers sitting in the news channel's just talk what ever they feel like and get so personnel on their comments, its very disgusting and disturbing trend.
I would say Team India was a bit off color in this tournament. Bowling was very ordinary, Zaheer did not deliver what was expected from him (early breakthrough) Ishant Sharma was listless and Harbhajan was not able to produce a maginc spell in the middle overs which normally puts india well positioned on chasing or defending. On batting it was even more disappointing that other than Yuvraj & Y.Pathan none of the other guys looked comfortable, Gambhir is the key player for the team's success and when he was not getting the runs the top order failed badly. Rohit & Raina were shot of experience to handle some fine swing and seam bowling and failed miserably. I dont have to write on the fielding, we fielded below par through out the tournament and gifted 10-15 runs in all the matches.
Overall i would say that a combination of too-much pressure to retain the trophy, over-worked body and fatigue factors contributed to the early exit of Team India.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Team India starts with a Win
Team India started their campaign to retain the T20 WorldCup in style with a reasonable victory over the talented Bangladesh.
Yuvi played a gem of an innings to save the day for India with power packed 41 of just 18 balls to pep up the score and India finally finished with a reasonable score of 180. Rohit and Gambhir started the innings in typical style with some well timed hits to the fence.Gambhir back to form is good sign for India and Rohit performing well in the openers slot gives us the flexibility of including an extra bowler. I feel Rohit is bit too ambitious in his strokes, he seems to be going after the bowling all the time.
We are a bit slow in the middle overs between 7 & 14 overs where we struggled to score runs but Yuvi was in great touch that he clobbered the bangladesh bowlers all over the park with towering sixes. Yuvi ensured India gets to a respectable total and I.pathan finishing off with a 6 & 4 in the final few deliveries. Sadly Raina did not get enough overs to set his eye in and explode and it was the same for Y.Pathan. We should also give credit to the bangladeshi spinners, they bowled brilliantly in the middle overs to restrict the explosive Dhonia and Gowtham.
Bangladesh started their chase in good stead with some hard hitting from both the openers and exposed our new ball bowlers. Zaheer was not spared and as usual I.Pathan gave away his quota of runs with the new ball (god know how he is picked time and again and given the new ball) Dhoni brought in Y.Pathan and he responded well to remove the inexperienced Tamim. After this point it was all the way Ohja show with some great seam bowling from I.sharma from the other end, Ohja picked wickets in all the overs and gave very few runs and sealed the victory for India. Harbajan played the role of restricting the run flow to perfection. I feel we gave away too many runs in the initial overs and need to find some way to restrict the run flow to 6 an over in the first 6 overs.
Over all it was a good day and may not be a great opener for India but this should have provided the team management to think through the combination for the future matches.
Sad to see that Aussies are struggling to make it to the knock out stage from the group of death. Aussies need to win against Srilanka by a big margin and WestIndies should also win Srilanka for Australia to make it to the knock out stage. On the other group its a battle between England and Pakistan to make it to the knock out stage. Netherland seems to be determined to make it to the next stage.
Yuvi played a gem of an innings to save the day for India with power packed 41 of just 18 balls to pep up the score and India finally finished with a reasonable score of 180. Rohit and Gambhir started the innings in typical style with some well timed hits to the fence.Gambhir back to form is good sign for India and Rohit performing well in the openers slot gives us the flexibility of including an extra bowler. I feel Rohit is bit too ambitious in his strokes, he seems to be going after the bowling all the time.
We are a bit slow in the middle overs between 7 & 14 overs where we struggled to score runs but Yuvi was in great touch that he clobbered the bangladesh bowlers all over the park with towering sixes. Yuvi ensured India gets to a respectable total and I.pathan finishing off with a 6 & 4 in the final few deliveries. Sadly Raina did not get enough overs to set his eye in and explode and it was the same for Y.Pathan. We should also give credit to the bangladeshi spinners, they bowled brilliantly in the middle overs to restrict the explosive Dhonia and Gowtham.
Bangladesh started their chase in good stead with some hard hitting from both the openers and exposed our new ball bowlers. Zaheer was not spared and as usual I.Pathan gave away his quota of runs with the new ball (god know how he is picked time and again and given the new ball) Dhoni brought in Y.Pathan and he responded well to remove the inexperienced Tamim. After this point it was all the way Ohja show with some great seam bowling from I.sharma from the other end, Ohja picked wickets in all the overs and gave very few runs and sealed the victory for India. Harbajan played the role of restricting the run flow to perfection. I feel we gave away too many runs in the initial overs and need to find some way to restrict the run flow to 6 an over in the first 6 overs.
Over all it was a good day and may not be a great opener for India but this should have provided the team management to think through the combination for the future matches.
Sad to see that Aussies are struggling to make it to the knock out stage from the group of death. Aussies need to win against Srilanka by a big margin and WestIndies should also win Srilanka for Australia to make it to the knock out stage. On the other group its a battle between England and Pakistan to make it to the knock out stage. Netherland seems to be determined to make it to the next stage.
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