One practise day too many

So the BCCI has gone ahead and placed a request with Cricket Australia to reduce the duration of the practise game between the 2nd and the 3rd tests from 3 days to 2. And here we were wondering if India wasn't short of practise matches already. Just in case you are thinking that this wisdom may have been prompted by a concern for sufficient rest between the two test matches, Team India would have got a proper 3 days rest before the next game began at the WACA.

New Year Test: 2nd to 6th Jan, Sydney Cricket Ground

ACT Invitation XI vs India : 10th to 12th Jan, Manuka Oval in Canberra

3rd Test: 16th to 20th Jan, WACA Perth

...and Cricket Australia lost no time in accepting the Indian Board's request.

Pakistan goes to Assam, I come back, ULFA welcomes Pakistan

So here i am back from my annual trip back home to Dibrugarh in Assam, also the home of the dreaded United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). With the Pakistan cricket team slated to play the first ODI in Guwahati, Assam has once again been in the news for the wrong reasons: The PCB, much harassed by foreign cricket boards for security reasons on their own grounds got a suitable chance to raise their own security concerns this time round and there has been much talk on the venues for the two team's match preparations since the players would like to spend as little time as possible in the dangerous environment of Assam. And silly me, i had gone on a self-paid annual holiday to ULFA land !!

The Assam Cricket Association ( like every other cricket board in the world ) has a way of making mockery of itself time and again and this time they resorted to making a ridiculous request to the outlawed ULFA to "help in the smooth conduct of the game". The terrorist outfit didn't miss the opportunity and in a statement released by their chairman Arbind Rajkhowa has welcomed the Indian and Pakistan Cricket teams to Assam and has assured everyone that there would be no security concerns for the two teams. Ironcially the ULFA now appeals to "all sections of the society to ensure that the match passes off peacefully". Rajkhowa reassures everyone saying that there was no need for panic since the outfit respects all games and sports. That's a little believable as the self-styled Commander-in-chief of the ULFA, Paresh Baruah was the goalkeeper and captain of Dibrugarh's football team not too long back in history.

How i wish ULFA had the same respect for all human lives as it has for sports and games.

Why is Gilchrist being allowed to go scot-free?

The 2nd India-Australia ODI is being much talked about for the many verbal duels that rocked the match that day - Sreesanth has been painted as the biggest villain, probably rightly so. Harbhajan Singh's confrontation with the Aussie huddle after his dismissal has been the other talked about issue - with fingers also being pointed at some of the Aussies for instigating the Indian spinner. Michael Clarke and Matthew Hayden are being accused of being 'regular chirpers'. But what about Adam Gilchrist?

During the middle of the India innings, the Indian umpire Suresh Shastri had erred in calling a no-ball, as the TV replays clearly showed that a good part of the bowler's front foot was well behind the front crease. The resultant free hit was duly dispatched for a six by Yuvraj Singh, and Gilchrist who hadn't reacted earlier suddenly erupted. Dashing down the pitch, he gave Shastri quite a dose of words, his non-verbal gestures clearly pointing out what he was talking about. The poor umpire looked intimitated and embarassed.

Now Shastri may not be the brightest umpire around, but he is definitely not the first umpire in the world to have made a wrong no-ball decision. Would Gilchrist have had the guts to do the same if the same mistake had been made by the other umpire in the match, Steve Bucknor? Wasn't that a clear case of dissent?

The ICC Playing Conditions are actually pretty harsh on this - even if the match referee had thought it was a simple case of dissent, it is a Level 1 offence. ( pointed out at 1.3) Gilchrist should have been fined anything upto 50% of his match fee, and more importantly given an official reprimand.

Now running down the pitch (22 yards) and intimidating the umpire verbally and with non-verbal gestures is not a 'simple case of dissent'. According to the ICC rule-book, it is a Level 3 offence - the fine for which is a ban for 4 to 8 one-days. But forget a ban, no one is even accusing Gilchrist of having done any wrong.

To top up the ridiculousness of it all, Mr. Gilchrist even has the balls to now accuse some of the Indians of indulging in wrong behaviour. And in another part of the world, one of Gilchrist's country-mates is accusing the Indian & Pakistan Cricket boards of being racists. Is amnesia a common disease down under?

Cronje stands up for Cronje

In the last week of this month if you happen to be in India, you might see Hansie Cronje in action once again, though this time action will be preceded by 'Lights' and 'Camera'.

The former South African cricket captain's brother, Frans Cronje is producing a film that will focus on 'Hansie's inner journey'. Francois Rautenbach will play the role of Hansie Cronje in the movie to be directed in assistance with Regardt van den Bergh. The film crew will land in India in the last week of October, and amongst other things will capture Hansie's meeting with Mother Teresa. Though some cricket action will be shot, no real life cricketers will be involved in the movie.

The movie is loosely based on the ex-cricketer's biography, "The Hansie Cronje Story: An Authorised Biography".

While Cronje confessed to his involvement in the match fixing scandal, he had the courage to admit to his mistakes, unlike many other cricketers who still try to portray themselves as victims. In his statements, Cronje had pointed out former India captain Mohammad Azharudding as the person who had introduced him to the bookie Mukesh Gupta. Azhar, who was banned for life by the BCCI never confessed. Instead, he alleged that he was being victimised because he belonged to the minority Muslim community - a statement for which he apologised later after coming under scathing attack in the media.

Pakistan vs South Africa: Changes in the air

The 1st Test between Pakistan and South Africa starts tomorrow at the National Stadium, Karachi. While at the helm of the Pakistan team are a new captain, vice-captain and coach, it is the one planned change in the South Africa side that have grabbed the headline. Ex-captain and fast bowler Shaun Pollock may yet play tomorrow, but definitely not as first choice. The official word from the South Africa camp is that Pollock is being saved for greener wickets, where the ageing hero's fading pace will still be a force to reckon with. If he still makes it to the XI tomorrow that will be via an injury to Morni Morkel, who will undergo a fitness test on the morning of the 1st Test.

Shoaib Malik will lead Pakistan for the first time in a Test match, along with a new vice-captain in Salman Butt. Left arm spinner Abdur Rehman is slated to make his debut, and Shahid Afridi who has opted out of the team as he is fasting in the holy month of Ramadan will be sorely missed on the dry Karachi wicket. While Afridi himself may not care much for his own batting now, Malik would know that even a quick fire 40 or 50 from Afridi can often make a crucial difference to the proceedings. ( Afridi averages 37.40 with the bat and has picked up 47 wickets in the 26 tests he has played)

Likely Pakistan Team:

1 Shoaib Malik (captain) Salman Butt (vice-captain) 2 Mohammad Hafeez 3 Younis Khan 4 Mohammad Yousuf 5 Mohammad Hafeez 6 Misbah-ul-Haq 7 Kamran Akmal (wk) 8 Abdur Rehman 9 Umar Gul 10 Danish Kaneria 11 Mohammad Asif

Likely South Africa Team:

1 Graeme Smith (captain 2 Herschelle Gibbs 3 Jacques Kallis 4 Hashim Amla 5 Ashwell Prince 6 AB de Villiers 7 Mark Boucher (wk) 8 Andre Nel 9 Makhaya Ntini 10 Shaun Pollock 11 Paul Harris
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You may also like to read Islamization of Pakistan Cricket"
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India vs Australia: 1st One-day : Bangalore

A seven match ODI series between India and Australia begins today (29th September 2007) at the Chinnaswami Stadium in Bangalore.

India Team for the Bangalore One-Day:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, R P Singh, Ramesh Powar, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Gautam Gambhir

Australia Team:
Adam Gilchrist (captain), Matthew Hayden, Brad Hogg, Brad Hodge, Haddin, Hopes, Andrew Symonds, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Michael Clark, Stuart Clark

(5 surnames in the Australia team start with the letter H. Is that a record?)

Starting with this India-Australia match, the new ICC rules for One-day Internationals come into effect:

- If a bowler bowls a front foot no-ball, the following delivery will be deemed a free hit and the batsman cannot be dismissed by the bowler from that delivery. He can only be run out. ( the T20 free hit rule has been imported into ODI cricket)
- Additional fielder during the 2nd and 3rd powerplays.

This i think is the really sensible one:
- Mandatory change of ball after the 35th over. Not a new ball, but a clean used one.

- Proportionate reduction in powerplay overs (of the 2 kinds) if the innings is shortened.

It will also be interesting to see if the T20 kind of cricket has any immediate effects on the original slam-bang cricket. Captains couldn't have ignored the fact that it is quite possible to score 170-200 runs in 20 overs. The traditional 'good average' of 6 at the end of the powerplay overs may be questioned sooner than later. I have a feeling 400s would be far more frequent than they have been in the past!!!

Islamization of Pakistan Cricket

It began a few years ago when Shaheed Anwar's flowing beard made its debut on a cricket ground. Very soon a Pakistani player wearing an unusually long beard stopped surprising the audience. So far, not bad.

Then we heard about the disappearance of one of the long-bearded Pakistani cricketers to the dismay of the ICC - Mohammad Yousuf, the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year was finally found preaching in the northern terrains of Pakistan. He missed the ICC Awards function in South Africa just before the start of the Twenty20 World Cup. So far, not too bad.

Then we heard Shoaib Malik speak at the post-match presentation ceremony after the final of the just concluded T20 Cup. "I want to thank all the Muslims, all over the world", uttered the Pakistani captain. Was Malik the captain of the Pakistan cricket team or a Islamic XI? Surely Irfan Pathan, the man of the match in the final and the son of an Indian muezzin would not have been too amused. What was Shoaib Malik trying to achieve?

And now, Shahid Afridi, who doesn't have too long a beard has made the shocking decision to skip the Test series against South Africa because he instead wants to fast during the holy month of Ramadan. "I asked the Pakistan board to allow me to skip the two Tests against South Africa because it would be difficult to fast and play in Ramadan," says the player of the tournament of the World Twenty20.

Where is Pakistan cricket headed to? Have they forgotten that a perfectly clean-shaven Imran Khan who didn't care to thank either God or the Muslims all over the world after every match had brought them the World Cup and not the oh so pious Inzamam-ul-Haq?

Cricket players pray so that they perform well for their country and their team succeeds... when their prayers start jeopardizing the fortunes of their own team, I don't think even God would approve very much.

India vs Australia: Match Schedule and Timings

The Australian team has already arrived in India and barring for the lone Twenty20 match at the end of the tour, it will be Australia who will be playing as the World Champions in this primarily One-Day Tour. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who will be leading India for the first time in a One-day series will know that 50 overs is a different ball game compared to the fare that was dished out recently in South Africa. Plus he will now need to handle 3 ex-captains in the team. Let's hope that Dhoni will be able to leave as strong a mark on this game as he did in the other.

Here's the full schedule of Australia's tour comprising 7 one-day internationals and 1 Twenty20 encounter.

Match	Date	Time	Venue
India vs Australia 1st ODI	29 September	2:30 pm IST (d/n)	Bangalore
2nd One-Day	2 October	9:00 am	Kochi
3rd ODI	5 October	9:00 am	Hyderabad
4th ODI	9 October	9:00 am	Chandigarh
5th ODI	11 October	9:00 am	Vadodara
6th ODI	14 October	9:00 am	Nagpur
7th One-dayer	17 October	2:30 pm (d/n)	Mumbai
Only Twenty20 India vs Australia	20 October	7:00 pm(d/n)	Mumbai

* The ODI at Mumbai is live from the Wankhede Stadium and the T20 match will be held at the Brabourne Stadium.

INDIA ARE WORLD TWENTY20 CHAMPIONS

Ist Twenty2o World Cup Final

Monday, 24th September : Johannesburg, South Africa

India: 157/5 beat Pakistan: 152 all out

Live Cricket Streaming: Pakistan vs South Africa

The South Africa cricket tour to Pakistan begins with the 1s Test at Karachi starting 1st October 2007. The tour comprises 2 Test matches and 5 one-day internationals. For my blog readers residing in United States, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Kuwait, UAE, Sharjah and other places where live telecast of the cricket matches is not available or if they can see it live on TV, the pay-per-view costs are prohibitive, here is some information on how they can wthe Pakistan-South Africa series live streaming on their computers.

Willow.TV is providing the Pak-SA series - this is a paid series and may not be available in all geographical locations. You can pay through Visa, Masters and Amex credit cards - for more details, check out their website.

I came across this blog called Banglamedia.blogspot - the blog claims to be providing free sopcast/live streaming links. Doesn't look to be a very promising place - but when it's for free, you can always check it out.

Besides this, you can also refer to some other cricket webcasting sites in my previous posts on the same topic.

Live Streaming Cricket for the India-England series

Stories from the Cricket Blogosphere

The prayers of a blue billion and about half a green billion have been answered - an India vs Pakistan final is one of the ultimate fantasies of a cricket fan and it's been delivered, and how!! With Twenty20 having caught the imagination of the world, i thought of surfing the blogosphere and see what fellow cricket bloggers were writing. Here are some random gems

1.

"I will smash your face, you just wait" - The Yuvraj Singh-Flintoff controversy. And Yuvi's "Pay-Back Drama." Karthikeya digs into this story on his blog A Cricketing View - while this is not the best time to criticize Mr. Sixes, but i think Yuvraj had ready sound-bites for the media post his 666666. You must have already heard the "God, this is not justice" crap. I don't know why the press or the electronic media let go off of the 'tendonitis/tennis elbow' nonsense so easily even though Nasser Hussain and Harsh Bhogle had supplied the world with enough fodder for thought.

2.

India v South Africa by the Left Arm ChinaMan

Thus spake the Atheist: So frustrated by their ineptitude, that the Saffer wicket keeper, Mark Boucher, began to slap the faces of surrounding players with his glove, followed by some sound punching and then he tripped them up with a cricket bat which has recently grown from his mid-rift.

Go there, if not for the text, for the image accompanying this post.

3.

"Its l like watching an Angelina Jolie sex scene" - Uncle Rod similizes Yuvi's power hitting

4.

Homer's Eeerie parallels between the autumns of 2000 and 2007

5.

This ain't a pure cricket blog, but she writes the cutest posts on cricket: Dravid Resigns at Pri's World

"I title my post Dravid Resigns and yet every other word in my post ends with a kar, you know like Gavaskar, Vengsarkar etc. "

6.

Visit Brian Carpenter's Different Shades of Green for the best/most elegant header image amongst all the cricket blogs in the world. Like everyone else in England, he too seems to be mch troubled with Mr. Yuvraj Singh and is trying to find succour in county cricket!!

7.

"Brett Lee bowled with speed and aggression, knowing a good performance here could help him push another million Bollywood singles. "- JC's report on the India-Australia semi-final at his Cricket Blog. A tad staid by JC's standards, but the comments make-up for the lack of spice.

8.

Catch Bhajji's Bhangra (India vs Australia) at Six and Out . And if you are there, you may as well read this brief piece titled Yuvraj's Jab in Freddies Jaw

9.

I love cricket, but if it could be combined with a bit of art and a bit of action, it would be perfect. Check out Cricket=Action=Art for some stunning cricket artwork. Here's an example.

Plenty of visual delights on this blog, including an image of the victory huddle that India formed yesterday afternoon at the Kingsmead, Durban.

Twenty20 SemiFinal: What happens in case of rain?

Here are the 'ICC Twenty20 Playing Conditions' which give the rules in case a semi-final of the Twenty20 World Cup is abandoned due to rain.

In case of No result in the Semi Final – the team with the most wins in both the Group stage and Super Eight Series matches shall be placed in the higher position.
If still equal the team with the higher net run rate in all matches (in both Group stage and Super Eight Series matches) shall proceed to the Final.
If following the net run rate calculation above there are teams which are still equal, then the team with the higher number of wickets taken per balls bowled in all matches (in both Group and Super Eight Series matches) in which results are achieved, shall proceed to the Final.
If still equal, the finalist shall be determined by drawing lots.

So Pakistan will go through to the semi-final in case the semi-final is abandoned. (NZ has a total of 3 wins so far but Pakistan has 4)

Live Streaming Cricket / Highlights: India vs Australia

Chinnaswami Stadium in Bangalore. Action begins at 2:30 pm India Time (8:00 pm GMT). In India you can catch live cricket action on Neo Sports, but there are a number of cricket fans stationed across the world who are hampered by lack of live telecast on TV or due to the huge rates charged by TV Channels on the pay-per-view basis. So here’s a lowdown on places on the nets where you can catch live cricket streaming. I’ve tried to give a summary of the websites, packages and associated features (including live cricket streaming sopcasts).

1. Willow.TV: You can catch the live cricket webcasts here through the Dish Network and Nimbus Sports. Features available: Live Streaming, On Demand Replays and Highlights of the India-Australia matches, Interactive Highlights and Mobile Commentary.

The site is also providing live streaming facility for the Sri Lanka – England Series. Plus English and Lanka fans get to avail of the benefits of on-demand highlights, on-demand replays, interactive highlights and mobile commentary.

South Africa begins its tour to Pakistan on Oct 1 with the first test at Karachi. The South Africa-Pakistan series comprises 2 tests and 5 one-dayers. This series is also available live at Willow.

For more details and package rates, check with their website.

2. Action8Cricket through LiveSportsOnline.Info is claiming :
Environment / Easy user Pannel
1. Best Service

2. 1Tb LAN Card Streaming.

3. Easy to Use member Area.

4. Live Media Player Streaming.

Features available: Live Cricket Scores, Audio Streaming and Live Streaming Video

Now while Willow might be the best option, it is not available in all countries ( available in North America and UK for sure but I am not sure if you can catch live streaming cricket on Willow if you are in Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Kuwait and quite a few other places with large Indian populations who may be keen to watch their team live.)

You can also check out IndianPad ( I couldn’t understand the site one bit but you can check out if you are really desperate), DesiKotha and DaruChini.

Most of the better sites are regular now. So for more details on sites for watching the India-Australia series live or the Pakistan-South Africa one, you can check out the previous 2 posts I had done on the same topic.

Live Cricket Streaming Videos and Highlights for the India - England Series
Live Streaming Cricket Videos, Sopcasts and Highlight package for the Twenty20 Cup

World Twenty20: It's a India vs Pakistan final

It was the expected thing in the 1987 Reliance World Cup, but didn't happen as England and Australia spoiled the fun at the penultimate juncture. Twenty years later in the Twenty20 Cup, with both India and Pakistan fielding young teams and new captains at the helm, no one expected the sub-continent arch-rivals to reach this far. But then cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties, ain't it?

In the first semi-final of the inaugural World Twenty20 championship, New Zealand took on Pakistan at Capetown. Daniel Vettori won the toss and asked Pakistan to make first use of the wicket which promised some movement and early help for the faster bowlers. Shane Bond got into the act in the first over itself scalping opener Imran Nazir ever before the young man had opened his account. But from there on it was Pakistan all the way as they thrased the Kiwi attack all round the park. Even Vettori, who has had a most economical series so far was not spared. The hapless NewZealand captain was taken for 24 runs in his final over as Shahid Afridi just missed breaking Yuvraj Singh's record of T20's fastest fifty. Afridi was finally dismissed for 49 off just 10 balls. (for the video of Afridi's 8 consecutive sixes, click here :)) .

Chasing a mammoth target of 222, NZ got off to a blistering start reaching 75 in just 5.0 overs. It was the brilliant change of attack from the Pakistan captain that changed the tide of the game completely - in the 6th over, Malik brought on himself even though the fielding restrictions were still on and in the 7th over, a double change happened as spin was introduced from the other end as well, in the form of Afridi. Malik and Afridi bowled in tandem right from the 6th to the 13th over - and what a spell it was! Many many years from now, cricket fans would still remember this afternoon in Capetown when two Pakistani spinners mesmerized the Kiwis into abject surrender.

Not a single wicket fell in the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th overs but the Kiwis were in deep tangle as the scorecard read 80/0. Just five runs were scored off the last five overs and the asking rate had climbed to a steep 14.20. Under intense pressure to get going, one after the other NZ batsmen threw away their wickets and by the time the two spinners had finished their quota of overs, the match was for all purposes over. The scorecard read 92/7 at the end of over no.13 . Pakistan finally won the match by 92 runs to reach the final.

In the other semi-final at Durban, Australia who chose to bat first were dismissed for all of 43 runs. Ajit Agarkar who once again managed to find a place in the India XI wreaked havoc on the Aussies as he dismissed Gilchrist, Hayden, Symonds, Hussey, Hodge, Clarke and Watson. He finished with figures of 3.5-0-21-7 . India rattled off the required 44 runs without the loss of any wickets. Speaking at the post-match conference, Adam Gilchrist said, "It was the most humiliating day of my life." (Gilchrist was out hit-wicket as a squash ball fell onto his stumps :) )

Fastest way to check cricket scores on the net

You may have figured this out by now - that CricInfo or whichever other site you had been using earlier to check live cricket scores is no longer the fastest way to check the score. In case you haven't - the thonour for that goes to who else but GOOGLE.

All you need to do is type Cricket in your Google search box and there it is on the very top - live cricket scores. Cricinfo definitely takes more time to upload than Google and even then you don't get it on the home page; you need to click at least once more. A smart Google way to wean away some traffic away from the cricket sites to itself.

India outfield South Africa to reach Twenty20 Semis

In the past, India has out-batted South Africa to win a cricket match. Sometimes they have outbowled them too. But tonight was different - besides beating the Proteas in the batting and bowling departments, India were the better side in the field too. When Dinesh Karthik plucked the flying ball from mid-air(reaction time: 0.76 seconds) to send captain Graeme Smith back, his first ball duck earlier in the evening was immediately forgiven. New-kid-on-the-block Rohit Sharma topped up his match winning fifty with a most athletic pick n throw to run out the in-form Justin Kemp. Besides these two super efforts, the Indians were good in the outfield and barring a couple of minor errors, their fielding effort today was blemishless.

While Dhoni used his bowling resources in the smartest manner, I am not too sure about this bat first policy. The new India captain is in the grips of a chase-phobia - he admitted as much at the toss; the decision to set a target worked out well for him today, but the decision should not be a function of this fear. But for that, I have been most impressed with India's new ODI captain.

What is Tendonitis/Tennis Elbow?

tendonitis
noun meaning: inflammation of a tendon

tennis elbow

Tennis elbow is a painful elbow disorder. This term is misleading because most people who have it did not get it from playing tennis. In fact, tennis elbow seldom has any connection with fun and games. (if you have been following Sachin Tendulkar's career, you may not agree. Now even Yuvraj Singh seems to be suffering from it. )

The technical name for tennis elbow is "lateral epicondylitis". This term indicates an inflammation that occurs near a small point or projection of the upper arm bone (humerus) just above the elbow joint on the outer side of the arm.

cricinfo adds:

It appears to occur more frequently in batsmen who are caught in a "cycle of pressure", either through a personal loss of form, or through the need to fend off a high-class bowling attack. A classic example of an "opener-under-pressure" was the Australian batsman Geoff Marsh, who was noted to wear a tennis-elbow strap regularly

info sources:

dictionary.com and website of Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety

India vs South Africa: What should be India's Team?

An interesting conversation took place between the two commentators (Hindi) on Star Cricket today during the Sri Lanka-Australia world T20 encounter earlier today.

कमेंटेटर १: आज रात के दू ओर दिए मैच में भारत को एक्ष्पेरिएन्सेद् खिलाड़ियों को प्रेफेरेंस देनी चाहिऐ । जोगिन्दर सिंह अभी युवा खिलाडी हैं और पिछले मैच में उनको बहुत ज़्यादा मार पडी थी। धोनी को आज अगरकर को फिर से टीम में शामिल करना चाहिऐ।

कमेंटेटर २(भूतपूर्व भारतीय क्रिकेटर): अगर शिर्फ एक्ष्पेरिएन्स् ही सेलेक्शन का मापदंड है तो मुझे क्यों नहीं खिला लेते? मैं १९८३ की विश्वा कप विजेता टीम में भी था !!

Translated:

Commentator 1: Ajit Agarkar should be brought back into the team for the evening's do-or-die encounter against South Africa in place of rookie Joginder Singh. Singh is new to international cricket whereas Agarkar has the experience that may be required in the crucial match tonight.

Commentator 2 (former India cricketer): If performance has stopped being a criteria and experience is all that matters, why don't you play me in the evening's match? Afterall, I too am very experienced, and unlike Agarkar, I have been a member of a World Cup winning squad !!!

While i have myself been quite supportive of Mr. Agarkar in the past, i think it's now high time to drop him permanently - he has been given enough chances at the international level now, and his great batting in domestic matches should not be allowed to become a reason for his re-selection. As for his bowling - I don't think any other Indian bowler has killed as many one-dayers with '1 bad over' as Agarkar has. Yes, he was a key bowler on the memorable trip to Australia and has put in splending performances every now and then. But his inconsistency with the ball and consistency(sic) with the bat can no longer be hidden under the garb of experience. India needs to move on.

My team for today's World Twenty20 match against South Africa:

1. Gautam Gambhir

2. Virender Sewhag

3. Robin Uthappa

4. Yuvraj Singh

5. Mahendra Singh Dhoni

6. Rohit Sharma ( He has played 9 Twenty20 matches, and has a century to his credit. Sharma has taken 8 wickets at an economy rate of sub 7)

7. Irfan Pathan

8. Yusuf Pathan ( He has played 4 Twenty20 matches till date. Batting Strike Rate is 195+ and has picked up 9 wickets at an economy rate of 7.7, the only thing going against him may be his style of bowling - Yusuf is a leg-spinner)

9. Harbhajan Singh

10. Sreesanth

11. R P Singh

Twenty20 Points Table: Who will make it to the semis?

Group E current standings:

Team	Matches Played	Won	Lost	Points	Net Run Rate
South Africa	2	2	0	0	0.766
New Zealand	3	2	1	0	0.050
India	2	1	1	0	0.200

Remaining Match:India Vs South Africa

Yesterday's 18 runs victory over England, powered by Yuvi's 6-6-6-6-6-6 has made India's task much simpler now. To ensure a spot in the Twenty20 World Cup semi-final, Dhoni and his men need not bother about the net run rate now - a simple win over South Africa will do.

Let's look at the various possible scenarios in this group.

1. If South Africa wins, India will be knocked out. NZ & SA go through to the semis.
2. If India wins, India go through to the semi, for sure. But New Zealand and South Africa's fortunes will be a function of the margin of India's victory.

- If South Africa lose by about 30 runs, they will be out.
- If India chases, they will need to win with about 3 overs to spare to give New Zealand a spot in the semis.

(approx calculations: please allow a small margin for error, i am no mathematician :) )

For now, it's time to start gazing at the TV screen as i hope Sri Lanka will knock Australia out of the Twenty20 World Cup.

Collingwood goes Bang-Bang

Antonia (second from left) hails from Romania. She is 23 yrs old and her bust size is 34 c. Louisa is from Ukraine and so is Yara. Jasmine is..........

Aren't they all pretty and ooh-so-attractive? The Maverick Revue Bar in Capetown has 90 such stunning beauties and the England cricket captain is a man after all. Surely this is a better place to drown your sorrows than the Caribbean Sea that Freddy had chosen for himself earlier this year. And poor dear Paul Collingwood had gone there for just a beer and not for something that rhymes with his score the next afternoon (in case you are getting any ideas) !! A 1000 £ fine is too much for such minor transgressions!

What's making me feel worse is that i can't even sincerely wish him good luck for his next match - England take on India tomorrow. The match is happening in Durban, more than a thousand miles away from the temptations of Maverick Reveue and Bang-Bang Bars of Capetown. English fans can only hope that with Jasmine, Yara and gang too far away from the Kingsmead, their captain will concentrate on the job at hand. So what if his shots are greeted by the Indian fans with shouts of "Yara, kya hai mara"!!!

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is India's new ODI Captain

The news channels are abuzz with news of Twenty20 captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's selection as the new India cricket captain - for the time being, for one-dayers only. Apparently, Sachin Tendulkar declined the captaincy offer which was first made to him. On the recent England tour Sachin had remarked on the increasing time his body was taking to recover from the ravages of a one-day match and it's therefore hardly any surprise that the maestro didn't take up the challenge thrown to him in the late evening of his career.

While this news is not official - the BCCI is yet to make a formal announcement, it is most unlikely to be a rumour. Dhoni's elevation to ODI captaincy was widely expected, while Sachin may take up the role for the challenging test series against Australia and Pakistan. For Dhoni, who had described his ascension to the T2o skipper's postion as a fairy-tale come true, this one will surely be a dream come true. ( assuming Dream > Fairy-Tale !!! )

However, the lack of discussion or buzz around Saurav Ganguly's name is mysterious, considering that unlike Sachin, he was a big success as captain of India. What's more - Sachin has already been given 2 chances in the past and a 3rd run as captain would have very few precedents across the world, if there are any.

T20: Lee-thal Blow to Cricket?

" Sometimes you look up at the scoreboard and you see you have gone for just 15 off two overs, it's just a matter of knowing you've hit the spot. And I've been pretty happy. "

- Bret Lee, after the Australia-Bangladesh match yesterday.

" The trouble is, Twenty20 doesn't seem like cricket to me. It appears to be not so much a speeded-up, watered down version of cricket, a sort of cricket-lite for dummies who are incapable of comprehending the complexities and subtleties of the greatest game in the world, but an utter impostor. It has whittled away at cricket's essence; it has snuffed out its soul; it is unrecognisable as the game i adore. "

- Soumya Bhattacharya in the Hindustan Times

Twenty20 World Cup:Super Eight Schedule

Here's the full schedule of the Twenty20 World Cup Super 8 Matches.

Date	Group	Match	Venue	Time
16 Sep	E	India vs New Zealand	Johannesburg	0800
16 Sep	F	Australia vs Bangladesh	Capetown	1200
16 Sep	E	South Africa vs England	Capetown	1600
17 Sep	F	Pakistan vs Sri Lanka	Johannesburg	1600
18 Sep	E	England vs New Zealand	Durban	0800
18 Sep	F	Australia vs Pakistan	Johannesburg	1200
18 Sep	F	Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka	Johannesburg	1600
19 Sep	E	South Africa vs New Zealand	Durban	1200
19 Sep	E	India vs England	Durban	1600
20 Sep	F	Australia vs Sri Lanka	Capetown	0800
20 Sep	F	Bangladesh vs Pakistan	Capetown	1200
20 Sep	E	India vs South Africa	Durban	1600

For Indian viewers: The morning match (0800 GMT as in chart above) starts about 1:30 pm IST in the afternoon, the 1200 match starts about 5:30 pm in the evening and the day's last match at 9:30 pm Indian Standard Time.

India defeat Pakistan 3 - 0 !!!!!!

A wonderful game of cricket ended in a bit of a farce, though I didn't mind the extended fun one bit. In a see-saw battle between arch-rivals India and Pakistan, the plank finally came to a rest parallel with the cricket field as Misbah-ul-haq failed to get the final single that would have sealed the match for his team. But that was only after Misbah-ul-haq got Pakistan back into the game from a hopeless situation with some brilliant power hitting in the 48th and 49th overs.

The match would have ended with both teams tied at 141, but for the introduction of the new 'Bowl-Out' system to determine who gets the 2 points for the match. While the bowl-out did look a kind of a joke, Mahendra Singh Dhoni needs to be complimented for getting the choice of bowlers right. Two of the three bowlers who hit the stumps were not regular bowlers, in fact they hadn't bowled a single ball in the match earlier. No wonder both Sehwag and Uthappa were thrilled with their efforts.

**

India vs Pakistan, Durban, September 14th 2007

Scores: India - 141/9 and Pakistan 141/7

Rahul Dravid resigns from captaincy

In a surprise development, Rahul Dravid resigned as the captain of the Indian cricket team. ( Unconfirmed yet. Watch this space for more)

Ashes and War

Two pairs of arch rivals will fight T20 battles tomorrow in the much drenched cricket-fields of Capetown and Durban. Tommorow's afternoon fight promises to be one exciting one with the most fiercesome of the four warriors back against the walls having suffered a gory loss to an unfancied outsider in the 1st Battle-of-Capetown. Will the giant be able to brush apart its bruises and scars and finish victorious in the do-or-die clash tomorrow? In yesterday's encounter Ponting's soldiers started off with the intetion of blitzkrieging the men from Zimbabwe. The strategy backfired with heavy early casualties, a position of weakness from which the Australians never could recover. What will be their game plan for the morrow? Afterall the English castle is only stronger than the Zimbabwean one, and unfocussed heavy shelling may not be a prudent idea. However a planned artillery attack to weaken the enemy before the final hand-combat might just do the trick.

Translated: Gilchrist and Hayden will need to avoid the tempation to go firing on all cylinders all the time. Give Freddie the respect if he bowls like the way he did today againt Zimb. It is possible to reach a 190-200 score even if one bowler ends up with figures of 4-1-29-2. T20 is slam-bang but not as slam-bang as Ponting thought/thinks it was/is!!

When the sun sets tomorrow in Durban, the stars will rise - to shine, and fight. A new general is in charge of the Hindoostan army and unlike the previous incumbent he is no Wall. To the contrary, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a 'Wall-Demolisher'. He dislikes minor skirmishes prefering instead to wage mounted battles or launching missiles. In an earlier avatar as an ordinary soldier, he had once brought the same enemy to its knees in a battle on the eastern coast of India. In that magnificient battle, Dhoni single-handedly shot down 148 men of the Pakistan navy - most remarkable were those four sensational shots when he drowned naval ships carrying 6 men with a single fire. 15 other times he shot down ships carrying 4 men apiece. But that clash is now history and tomorrow is a new day. The Pakistani army is also under a new dynamic and multi-talented leader - Shoaib Malik. For General Malik the primary task will be to marshall his own unruly troops. He knows that he has a bunch of great individual fighters, but can they stop the in-fighting to focus their energies on wiping out the opposition?

Will Dhoni's men be able to put it across Pakistan then? I suspect the key may lie in INS Sehwag, that old warship which has seen much battle but rusty now for lack of use. INS Pathan faces a similar predicament. If these two old war-horses can kick off that rust and manage to shimmer, the Blue stars can definitely outshine the Green ones tomorrow night.

*******

Twenty20 World Cup: 14 September 2007

Afternoon, 1200 GMT : Australia vs England, Capetown

Evening, 1600 GMT : India vs Pakistan, Durban

Twenty20 Twist to Rain Rule

It's raining on the Kingsmead, Durban and the start of the India-Scotland match has been delayed. India would not want to miss out on the points and more importantly the batting and bowling practise that the match would provide. Tonight ICC may actually come to the rescue of the Indian team.

The Playing Conditions of the T20 World Cup have seen an important (and sensible) change to rules regarding the resumption of the game if the match gets disrupted by rain.

Law 3.9 - Suspension of play for adverse conditions of ground, weather or light
Laws 3.8 and 3.9 shall apply subject to the following:

3.5.1 If conditions during a rain stoppage improve and the rain is reduced to drizzle, the umpires must consider if they would have suspended play in the first place under similar conditions. If both on-field umpires agree that the current drizzle would not have caused a stoppage, then play shall resume immediately. In these circumstances the provisions of Laws 3.9 (b) (i) and 3.9 (c) (i) shall not apply.

The previous rule was that 'once play was stopped due to rain, resumption could only happen when the rain came to a complete stop'. That stringency has now been relaxed, thankfully as India may realize later tonight.

Bangladesh put West Indies out of Twenty20 World Cup

Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful recorded the fastest 5o in the history of Twenty20 Cricket to send West Indies tumbling out of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup. Only a little earlier Ashraful must have been a disheartened man as he gave away 24 runs off the 19th over of the Windies innings - West Indies had put up a most lackadaisical batting display and it was only a late flurry of runs that allowed them to reach a respectable score.

Sarwan may have been thinking that 164 should be enough for the West Indies to stop Bangladesh and as they lost early wickets things looked bright and hopeful for him. At 28/2 Ashraful walked in to bat and by the time he walked out, after having played just 27 balls, the match was as good as over for West Indies. It was a most delightful innings studded with 2 of the cutest 6's ever hit on a cricket field. Dougie Marillier would have definitely been proud of Ashraful today!!

Ian Chappell had conjectured yesterday about the possibility of Bangladesh upsetting one of the two teams in its pool and was proved right in less than a day. Two big upsets in two days and the Twenty20 World Cup is generating some serious excitement and crowd interest already - unlike the other World Cup which happened earlier this year. More interestingly a bigger upset may be on the cards - if England beat Australia, which i would think is at least a 50:50 possibility, that will send the favourites Aussies packing back home. Now that will be some good fun!!!!

Zimbabwe upset Australia

Well not yet...but not far off. Zimbabwe needs 26 runs off 21 balls and are firm favourites now to win the match. Watch this space for more....!!!!

Updated:
Zimbabwe have done it indeed - they have just pulled off the most sensational upset beating Australia in their first match of the Twenty20 world cup 2007.

Austrlia may be in a real tight spot now - the other team in the pool is England and it won't be a big surprise if Australia are sent back home early!!

Gayle Super-Hundred not enough: SA beat WI

So this is what Twenty20 is all about then. A team which is chasing an improbable asking run rate of 10.26 does it with 14 balls remaining!!

6's and 4's rained at the Wanderers tonight as host South Africa became the first team to chase a 200+ total in a Twenty20 international. Earlier in the evening, Chris Gayle became the first batsman to compile a hundred in the shortest version of cricket. Gayle scored 117 runs at a stupendous strike rate of 205, hitting 10 sixes and 7 boundaries.

(Amazing) Match Statistics:

Total no. of 6's : 18

Total no. of 4's : 36

Total no. of runs scored: 413 in 37.4 overs

Pollock's bowling analysis: 4-0-52-1

Most economical bowler - Fidel Edwards : 3-0-21-1

South Africa's average run rate: 11.78

...and the party has just begun!!

Twenty20 World Cup: Format Explained

The 12 participating teams have been divided into 4 pools, wherein each team will play once against the other 2 teams in its pool to decide who goes into the Super Eight. Let's look at the pools:

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D	Group Seeding
S.Africa	Australia	NewZealand	Pakistan	1
West Indies	England	Sri Lanka	India	2
Bangladesh	Zimbabwe	Kenya	Scotland	3

( The last column only indicates the seedings within the group)

Whether South Africa finish 1st or 2nd in the group, they will be called A1 for the purpose of Super Eight. West Indies will similary be called A2 irrespective of their group standing at the end of the first round. However if there is an upset and Bangladesh qualifies instead of South Africa, Bangladesh will be A1. Similary if Bangladesh qualifies instead of West Indies they will be called A2.

Super Eights

(Unlike the ODI World Cup, the points from the first round will not be carried forward to the Super Eight stage)

This round will comprise 2 groups, E & F. Group E will comprise A1, B2, C1 & D2. Group F will comprise A2, B1, C2 & D1.

Each team will play against the other teams in its group only. ( 3 matches each) In the semi-finals, the team which finishes first in Group E will play the runner-up of the Group F and vice-versa.

*******

Other interesting posts:

Duckworth Lewis for Dummies

Net Run Rate Calculation Method for World Cup 2007 (ODI)

Jhulan Goswami is ICC Women Cricketer of the Year

The year gone by hasn't been the best for the Men-in-Blue and unsurprisingly none of the Indian male cricketers made bagged top honours at the ICC Awards 2007. Forget top honours, of the 22 players chosen to make up the Test and ODI Teams of the Year, only one Indian made it to the list - Sachin Tendulkar. If it's any consolation, Zaheer Khan was chosen as the 12th man for the test squad.

Australia captain Rickey Ponting was named the ICC Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, while his colleague Matthew Hayden bagged the ODI Player of the Year award. Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan was chosen as the Test Player of the Year. Interestingly, Yousuf was absent from the glittering awards ceremony in South Africa as he is busy preaching in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. This may also be Yousuf's last recognition as a Pakistan cricketer as he has joined the rebel Indian Cricket League.

Shaun Tait, the Australian quickie picked up the award for the Emerging Player of the Year while Thomas Odoyo of Kenya was selected as the Associate Player of the Year. For the fourth year running, Simon Taufel picked up the award for the Umpire of the Year.

While the men-in-blue disappointed, an Indian woman cricketer bagged top honours - Jhulan Goswami was chosen the ICC Women Cricketer of the Year. Jhulan who hails from Bengal has had an excellent year with the ball - her overall career econonmy records are astounding: 3.17 in ODIs and 2.10 in Tests. She was the first Indian woman to bag 10 wickets in a Test. Jhulan is also more than handy with the bat, averaging over 20 in ODIs and has a top score of 69 in Tests. The glitterning trophy given away to Jhulan, crafted by Swarovski, featured a crystal cricket ball studded with over 4,200 Swarovski crystal chantons!

Twenty20: No stumpings on wide balls

Here are a few of the more interesting among the 'Playing Conditions' framed by the venerable ICC for the inaugural Twenty20 Championship.

Law 8.2 - Size of stumps

The following shall apply in addition to Law 8.2
For televised matches the Home Board may provide a slightly larger cylindrical stump to accommodate the stump camera. When the larger stump is used, all three stumps must be exactly the same size.

Comments: Why can't they simply write: Size of stumps in case stump-camera is used shall be X.

More interestingly, i am waiting for the 'bowl-out'(which will happen in case of a tie, to decide the winner). I am waiting to see what kinds of stumps are used then - the one with the smaller radius or the larger one with the stump-cam. For a list of 'laws' where they have gone to ridiculous lengths to be comprehensive, it's surprising they missed out on this point. Can Ponting or any other captain raise an issue that they had practised 'bowl-outs' with the regular ICC authorised size?!!

Law 19.3 - Scoring a boundary
The following shall apply in addition to Law 19.3.
If an unauthorized person enters the playing arena and handles the ball, the umpire at the bowler’s end shall be the sole judge of whether the boundary allowance should be scored or the ball be treated as still in play or called dead ball if a batsman is liable to be out as a result of the unauthorized person handling the ball.

Law 24.2

For any free hit, the striker can be dismissed only under the circumstances that apply for a no ball, even if the delivery for the free hit is called wide ball.

Comment: Watch out for more discussions and debates on the definitions of a 'run-out' vs 'stumping'!

Law 41.2.5

If an innings is interrupted during an over and if on the resumption of play, due to the reduced number of overs of the batting team, the required number of Fielding Restriction Overs have already been bowled, the remaining deliveries in the over to be completed shall not be subject to the fielding restrictions.

Law 3.2.2 d.

When reviewing the TV replay(s), if the third umpire finds the batsman has been bowled rather than hit wicket or stumped, he shall indicate that the batsman was dismissed.

Getting lawyers to frame laws is one thing. Explaining and making the umpires and referees understand it is quite another - as we saw during the World Cup Final. Thankfully, both Aleem Dar and Steve Bucknor are not on the Twenty 20 Umpires Panel.

Twenty20 World Cup Schedule with Predictions (HTML Improved Version!!)

Hi! I always a felt little envious of other bloggers who knew and understood HTML more than me - always wondering how they so easily cross out things and just have a little more fun than I had. Further Blogger.com always troubled me with the formatting part, often driving me nuts over small little things. So i decided to take the plunge and here i am - all improved!!

Now I've learnt to make tables and little cells and to celebrate this latest acquisition of knowledge here's my plan to show it off. I'm going to do another post on the "Twenty20 World Cup Schedule" and to add a bit of twist, this comes with my set of predictions. This format should be easier for readers to grasp; am doing it for the First Round now and will add the second round later. So here i go...

First Round

Match	Venue	Date	Match Start Time (GMT)	My Result Prediction
West Indies vs South Africa	Johannesburg	September 11	1600	West Indies
Kenya vs NewZealand	Durban	September 12	0800	NewZealand
Pakistan vs Scotland	Durban	September 12	1200	Pakistan
Australia vs Zimbabwe	Capetown	September 12	1600	Australia
Bangladesh vs West Indies	Johannesburg	September 13	0800	West Indies
England vs Zimbabwe	Capetown	September 13	1200	England
India vs Scotland	Durban	September 13	1600	India
Kenya vs Sri Lanka	Johannesburg	September 14	0800	Sri Lanka
Australia vs England	Capetown	September 14	1200	England
India vs Pakistan	Durban	September 14	1600	India
NewZealand vs Sri Lanka	Johannesburg	September 15	1200	Sri Lanka
South Africa vs Bangladesh	Capetown	September 15	1600	South Africa

Uthappa puts India at 3-3

Ultimately two Uthappa boudaries proved to be more powerful than Mascarenha's five sixes, Boy! the young lad kept his cool even as wickets kept falling on the other side - and when he finally added some chutzpah to the cool, he got too hot for the English bowlers to control. Absolutely brilliant!

316 runs is a lot of runs; only a few days back Ravi Shastri had commented how the 15-20 runs scored beyond the 300 often become the most important in the final analysis. They almost did today until Uthappa joined the party at about the perfect time for Team India.

Of course, things would have never got that close without the strong foundation provided by the opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar-Saurav Ganguly. Today's was their 20th hundred run partnership - the 150 runs put up by the duo insured India against the quick loss of wickets which happened once Sachin fell. Both the veterans were batting at their best with Tendulkar especially being in sublime touch. The little master's suprising recent run of failures to get into the triple figure mark has only meant him touching another record - Sachin is now tied with Inzamam at 84 fifties, the highest in ODI cricket.

This victory will spark remarks about the usefulness of the 7th batsmen. Ganguly supporters will remind all and sundry how the 7-batsmen theory had been so succesfully employed by the former captain, and how he was proved right again today. While i'm not against 7 batsmen, it cannot be at the expense of a 5th bowler. Supporters of the 7-4 theory only need to look at the carnage that happened in the final over of the England innings. Had a regular 5th bowler been around, Uthappa's wonderful efforts may not have been required in the first place.

Giant Screen's First Victim : Collingwood

It was a case of on-field umpiring at its very worst. In the 6th India-England currently in progress at the Brit Oval, the local English umpire, P.J. Hartley made an absolute fool of himself when he decided to not call for the TV umpire on a close run-out call.

In the 18th over of the England innings, Kevin Pietersen drove Ganguly to cover and decided to go for a single that wasn't really there. It wasn't the best of throws from cover but wicket-keeper Dhoni managed to remove the bails just before Collingwood made it to the crease - much to the chagrin of Hartley who was watching the replay live on the giant screen with thousands others. Hastily he called for the 3rd umpire but the damage had been done by then.

Expectedly the decision wait against the batsman, and Collingwood was definitely not amused. I agree with Collingwood - on many other grounds not fitted with Live Screeens, he could have got away because of Hartley's stupidity! Instead Paul Collingwood became the first batsman to be given out by the 'Giant Screen.'

Twenty20 World Cup: Full Schedule with Times

This is the complete schedule of the 1st Twenty20 Cricket World Cup that begins in South Africa on September 11th.

( Green: Day, Date
Teams : Time : Venue )

---

Tuesday, September 11th 2007
South Africa v West Indies : 1800 : Johannesburg

Wednesday, September 12th 2007
New Zealand v Kenya : 1000 : Durban
Pakistan v Scotland: 1400 : Durban
Australia v Zimbabwe: 1800 : Cape Town

Thursday, September 13th 2007
West Indies v Bangladesh : 1000 : Johannesburg
Zimbabwe v England : 1400 : Cape Town
India v Scotland : 1800 : Durban

Friday, September 14th 2007
Sri Lanka v Kenya : 1000 : Johannesburg
Australia v England : 1400 : Cape Town
India v Pakistan : 1800 : Durban

Saturday, September 15th 2007
Sri Lanka v New Zealand : 1400 : Johannesburg
South Africa v Bangladesh : 1800 : Cape Town

Sunday, September 16th 2007
Winner Group C v Runner Up Group D : 1000 : Johannesburg
Winner Group B v Runner Up Group A : 1400 : Cape Town
Winner Group A v Runner Up Group B : 1800 : Cape Town

Monday, September 17th 2007
Winner Group D v Runner Up Group C : 1800 : Johannesburg

Tuesday, September 18th 2007
Winner Group C v Runner Up Group B : 1000 : Durban
Winner Group B v Winner Group D : 1400 : Johannesburg
Runner Up Group A v Runner Up Group C : 1800 : Johannesburg

Wednesday, September 19th 2007
Winner Group A v Winner Group C : 1400 : Durban
Runner Up Group B v Runner Up Group D : 1800 : Durban

Thursday, September 20th 2007
Winner Group B v Runner Up Group C : 1000 : Cape Town
Runner Up Group A v Winner Group D : 1400 : Cape Town
Winner Group A v Runner Up Group D : 1800 : Durban

Saturday, September 22nd 2007
E2 v F1 : 1400 : Cape Town
E1 v F2 : 1800 : Durban

Monday, September 24th 2007
Final : TBA : Johannesburg

Watch Live Streaming Cricket - Twenty20 World Cup

While you can also use the previous post on Live Streaming Cricket which I had put up during the previous India-England ODI series, here is an update on sites where you can watch live streaming videos of the Twenty20 World Cup which starts with the South-Africa West Indies match at Johannesburg on September 11th 2007.

Before we go into the discussion on sites where you can watch live cricket, let me give you the caution:

With the ICC not sanctioning any official sites for live webcasting of cricket matches, this is largely an unorganized sector. Some of them may be ‘illegal’ and please be careful while paying for the sites. Do some cross-checking if possible. Also please see if you won’t get into legal trouble depending on your country of residence.

The Desikotha Network: This appears to be a Bangladesh site with the byline “Voice of the Bangladesh People”. So those of you who understand Hindi please don’t get ideas because of the word ‘kotha’ in the name. Kotha in Bangla simply means a ‘tale’ or ‘story’.

This guys claim to have beamed the ODI World Cup action live here and are planning to repeat it for the Twenty20 World Cup. The plan here is to have 2 sopcast channels for the cricket action – one sopcast for the low bandwith users and the other a high quality sopcast.

Is it paid? Yes and no. If you want it for free you will have to actively participate in their forums, else you can pay and watch.

Package Charges: 12 $ / 24 $ for the entire duration (26 games)

Willow.TV : They are currently obsessed with the India-England series and there is absolutely no mention of the Twenty20 Cup. But this is one place you should check out before anything else. Of all the places I checked this one is the one which looked ‘non-shoddy’. WillowTV also provides features on-demand cricket highlights and on-demand replays.

Daru Chini: Another place where I could see words like ‘cricket sopcast’ and ‘live cricket’. Nothing concrete but you could check it out. Especially if you are in an area where you don’t get WillowTV

Action8Cricket: Figure it out for yourself, but as you can see it is a dedicated cricket site.

For highlights of Twenty20 World Cup matches (and video recordings) please check with the same sites listed here and on the main live streaming cricket post.

Disclaimer:
This blog is in no way connected with any of the above mentioned sites. This article is just meant to be a guide to cricket fans who live in US, Canada or other places where they are not able to watch cricket live on their TV. We shall in no way be responsible for any monetary or non-monetary losses that may result out of your choosing to use the services of this sites.

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Live Streaming Cricket and Highlights of the India-Australia Series
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Click here for the complete schedule with match timings of the Twenty20 World Cup

More ICL News

1. Damien Martyn joins the Indian Cricket League, becoming the first Australian cricketer to join the breakaway Indian League. The reported sum being offered for a 3 year contract is Rs. 1.2 crores. Dean Jones, who is already on the board of ICL did the mediation and bagged this trophy for the ICL in the same week that the Australia captain (ICC!!) Rickey Ponting berated the ICL. However, another of Ponting's colleague, Adam Gilchrist has spoken laudingly of the ICL: it's to be noted that Gilchrist is not exactly young and would be an ultimate prize-catch for the Zee League.

2. An American company has pledged 10 million $ of sponsorship amount to the ICL 'to involve

the non-resident Indian population' in the game.

3. Rohan, sof the head of the BCCI-Cricket League, Sunil Gavaskar is negotiating/bargaining with the ICL. (reported source: Kiran More)

4. Andrew Hall has quit International Cricket.

5. Shane Bond is contemplating whether to purchase finanical security for his young family for life by signing the 1,800,000 $ 3 year contract offered by the ICL.

Here's some Twenty20 Trivia

T20#1. Four countries will enter the Twenty20 World Cup with an unblemished record: India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Scotland. India and Bangladesh have played one T20 match each and won it, while the other two are yet to play any!

T20#2. England, widely seen as the masters of Twenty20 have lost 4 of the 6 matches they have played so far. They actually won the first 2, so they have lost 4 in a row now.

T20#3. The largest defeat yet has been suffered by Australia - it's no mean feat losing a 20 over match by 100 runs.

T20#4. On two occasions, the teams have averaged 10 runs per over for the entire match. West Indies and England amassed a total of 401 runs in a Twenty20 match on 28th June this year. 12 batsmen finished with a strike rate of over 100. Two half-centuries were scored at a strike rate of almost 200. In the other match, Australia lost the match by just 2 runs chasing South Africa's 201.

T2o#5. In a completed innings, the highest average has been Australia's. They scored 221 runs against England at Sydney in January this year. In its alloted 120 balls, Australia scored 14 boundaries and 14 sixes.

T20#6. The world's leading scorer in Twenty20 Cricket is Graeme Smith. 259 runs at an average of 86.33 and more importantly at a career strike rate of 137.76. Rickey Ponting is next but his average is way below into the 40's.

T20#7. Marlon Samuels has a career strike rate of 200+ and Andrew Symond's is just below 200.

T20#8. Even with that stupendous average of 86.33, the South Africa captain is not on the top of the career averages list. Sitting pretty on the top is none other than Sanath Jayasuriya, averaging 92. ( India has lost its top guy here forever, to ICL - Dinesh Mongia)

T20#9. If you are still not convinced about the entertainment quotient of the Twenty20 version of cricket check this out: Just 16 T20 matches have been played so far and we have already seen 15 fifties scored in less than 40 balls. Six of them were scored in under 30 balls.

T20#10. Later this month we will in all likelihood see the first Twenty20 centurion. That's a feat yet not reached, though Rickey Ponting came very close. His 98 may be eclipsed soon, but it may stay on longer as the higest score on Twenty20 debut!!

ps: my apologies for the rampant misuse of the word 'career'.

Searching for a nice funny quote on career to wind up this post with, I didn't get any real gem, but here's one from Michael Vaughan.

"I'm probably going to have to work hard on my knees for the rest of my career."

99 and more

The man with an average in excess of 99 would have been 99 today.

Generally acknowledged as the greatest batsman ever in the game of cricket, Don Bradman was born on 27th August 1908 at Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia. His records are legendary: 117 first-class hundreds, 12 Test double centuries, two Test triple hundreds, 6996 runs at the famous average of 99.94.

Bradman practised batting incessantly during his youth. He invented his own solo cricket game, using a stump and a golf ball. A water tank stood on a curved brick stand behind the Bradman home on paved area and when hit into this stand, the ball would rebound at high speed and varying angles. This form of practice helped him to develop his timing and reactions. At the age of 12, he hit his first century, playing for the Bowral Public School against Mittagong High School.

In 1996 the Bradman Museum located on Glebe Park adjacent to the Bradman Oval, Bowral was opened by John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, on the Don's 88th birthday. A commerartive gateway was built to honour Sir Donal Bradman on his 90th birthday just near the gateway that the original clubhouse for the Bowral Cricket Club stood. Honouring Sir Bradman, the Prime Minister called him the "greatest living Australian".

******

The BCCI, much criticized for its inability to find a coach for the Indian cricket team may find comfort in Sir Don's words.

" I was never coached; I was never told how to hold a bat. "

If you liked this article, you may like this too - Today in Cricket History

Reinventing the Power Plays

Rahul Dravid seems to be a nice sort of bloke - the kind of guy who won't trouble you or demand much. Now India's gentleman captain is very happy with the peanut of a modification to the powerplay fielding rules. The ICC has made an amendment to the rule allowing an extra fielder outside the 30 yard circle beyond the first 10 overs. Dravid rightly thinks that it will allow him and other captains to bring in a spinner within the powerplay overs and has welcomed the change - but it begs a question which my captain didn't ask. Is that all that can be done?

Even the ICC would agree, albeit grudgingly that the move to increase the powerplay duration from 15 to 20 overs has been a complete failure. The bowling captains have been very risk-averse, mostly choosing to go for the 2nd and 3rd powerplays in succession after the 1st and one can hardly blame them for it. In the few cases where an enterprising captain has taken the risk of postponing the decision, he has mostly ended up ruing the adventure. You might have seen Brian Lara who having deferred the final powerplay in the World Cup match against South Africa never got an apt opportunity to take it and ended up looking really silly when he was forced to take it in the 44th over. Fleming, arguably the best ODI captain of recent year did try experimenting but never really with much success. The fact is that the dice was loaded against any experimentation by the fielding captain.

But the batting captain? Did anyone think of that? Pass the buck to him and the situation changes dramatically. Imagine the batting captain's predicament! Should he let his rampaging openers continue unabated or wait for a cracker of an end? If he waits, he may lose the momentum. If he doesn't wait, he is letting the fielding captain - he is not hanging in suspense anymore and can rotate his bowlers freely. Noticed that? Suddenly the fielding captain is now forced to take decisions, to experiment. More decisions and more drama. Isn't that what the ICC wanted in the first place?

Down the memory lane

Those were the days.
( A Cricket Match at the MCG, 1864)

Source: Wikipedia

End of bad hair days

Guess what's common between Harsha Bhogle and Virender Sehwag?

'A Balding Pate'!

I don't know if either of them have heard of Dr. Shapiro, but if you are facing a problem of a 'regular bad hair day' and if you happen to leave in Florida or closeby then Dr. Shapiro's Hair Institute might just be the perfect solution you were looking for, for the problems on the top! Dr Shapiro has been in practise since 1989 and has performed in excesss of 1,00,00 micro mini-graft procedures. He specialized in hair-transplant surgery and for hair transplants in florida that's the place you should be headed for - he has developed a state-of-the-art method while others are still using outdated methods.

There's another unique advantage over there: they will arrange for you to talk to one of his ex-patients, so that you get to know exactly what you are getting into and expecting - talk to someone who was in the same predicament as you are right now.

Harsha, are you listening?!

Herrr Warne

"I don't know if he would even come here, but we will try and get him over....It might be something amusing for him to do, to come over and see cricket in Germany.....I have heard he is pretty generous with his time and it would be a massive boost for us even if he just came to have a look around....He might want to trace his ancestry over here, help us with some publicity or just come and have a beer...Of course, it would be incredible if he played for us, that is clearly a long way off...But I think there is more chance of him playing for Germany than England!"

- Utterances of the excited coach of the German national Cricket Team, Keith Thompson.

( Warnie, whose mother is a German was looking to acquire a German passport to help Hampshire free the slot of an overseas player)

Tendulkar's Magic Bails

In a most bizarre incident today during the 1st ODI between India and England, Tendulkar survived after the ball hit his off-stump on the full. The ball passed Tendulkar's pads, hit the top of the off stump ( no, no brushing but a proper hit - a clear sound on the stump mike), yet the bails didn't dislodge! Sunil Gavaskar, commenting for ESPN/Star Cricket remarked he had never seen such a thing before - yes, he said, the ball has in the past rolled onto the stumps harmlessly, but an impact of this force - it was a fast bowler bowling - not being able to disturb the bails was most surprising. Watch this video: ( not the best i'm afraid but it will give you a fair idea )

Yes, Yes, Yes to Indian Cricket League

Lara had said YES a while back, now Dinesh Mongia and Inzamam-ul-Haq have amongst many other currently active cricketers, LG & Videocon have expressed interest, Railway Minister Laloo Yadav has pledged support, and the NewZealand Cricket Players' Association have requested ICC to recognise ICL. The Indian Cricket League has well and truly taken off, and with the announcements by the Chairman of the ICL Executive Board, Kapil Dev in a press conference today, the world of cricket seems to be headed for a controversial yet exciting phase in the near future. Hopefully it should be good for cricket and cricketers - for now I am just happy to see the BCCI in some pain!

Let's look at the ICL's kitty till date:

Overseas Cricketers signed up by ICL:

Brian Lara, Lance Klusener, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdur Razzaq, Mohammad Yousuf, Nicky Boje

Indian Cricketers who have signed up for the League:

Deep Dasgupta, Dinesh Mongia, JP Yadav, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Ambati Rayudu, Avishek Jhuhjhunwala, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, T Kumaran, S. ShriRam, Dheeraj Yadav, Shalabh Srivastav, Shreyas Khanolkar, Abbas Ali, Hemanth Kumar, Avinash Yadav, Inder Shekar Reddy, Ishan Malhotra, Kaushik Reddy, Manish Sharma, Ibrahim Khaleel, Monish Mishra, Robin Morris, Alfred Absolem, Ali Murtaza, Shashank Nag, Shibsagar Singh, Abhijit Shetye, Devendran, Sumit Kalia, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, Taduri Prakash Sudhindra, Sarabjit Singh, Ganapathi Vignesh, Devishetty Vinay Kumar, Yashpal Singh, J Hariesh, R Satish, Rajesh Sharma, Ranjit Khirid, Sachin Dholpure, Subhojit Paul, Sumit Kalia, Subhomoy Das, Raviraj Patil

While the overseas player like Inzamam don't face an immediate threat from their boards, BCCI has made it clear that players who join the Indian Cricket League risk being banned by the Indian Board and in that light, the decision of someone like Dinesh Mongia, who was in the India Team this May is pretty surprising and would be a big jolt for the BCCI. There are quite a few other cricketers amongs the signatories to the ICL, who still had a chance of making it to the India XI. The ICL plans to have six teams of atleast 12 players for its inaugural Twenty20 tournament, and of its requirement of 72 cricketers, the ICL now has over 50 already.

Big advertisers on cricket like electronic majors Videocon and LG have a shrewd commercial reason to back ICL. While a 10-second commercial during a cricket match involving India would have cost upwards of Rs.1 lakh, they have every reason to believe that media planners will now be able to reach out to the cricket audience for half that cost. Every penny that comes to the Zee-Sports ICL ad kitty is more than a penny lost for the BCCI. (explained: If Star Cricket pays BCCI Rs.100 for TV rights, it would expect to at least make a little more than Rs.100 from the ads)

What will ultimately hurt BCCI is when the ICL starts luring away budding cricketers early - if that begins to happen on a larger scale, and there is every indication it will, the BCCI may be in trouble in as soon as 4 to 5 years from now. Even without the ICL in picture, chief selector Dileep Vengsarkar bemoaned the lack of talent in the country - what now, with whatever there is, being shared.

If you have been following cricket in England, you would have noticed that the English cricket fan who were never the biggest supporters of the One-Day format took to the domestic Twenty20 tournaments, filling up the county stadiums. In the Caribbean, Texan Millionaire Allen Stanford's Twenty20 tournament was a huge success, in spite of being a localized affair. India, home to more cricket fan than the rest of the world put together, would therefore be a very attractive proposition for Subhash Chandra and Zee, and if the England and the West Indies experiments are anything to go by, the Indian Cricket League promises to be a huge success - and to my great satisfaction, a huge pain-in-the-you know where for the BCCI. Kudos Zee!