chris cairns

This tag is associated with 4 posts

Chris Cairns: What he said, really meant and definitely did not

Posted by LINUS FERNANDES ⋅ December 1, 2011

Chris Cairns Is Elephantine In His Pronouncements

What he said (via Sydney Morning Herald):

“And there’s an elephant in the room at the moment in Ricky Ponting that nobody is really addressing.”

Chris Cairns begins the mind games prior to Australia’s tour of New Zealand.

The Kiwi all-rounder believes that Ricky Ponting’s shelf life has neared its expiry date and called for his retirement.

Cairns said:

I don’t think you can have two years averaging 27 as a No.3. I think it’s his time. And when you look at the likes of Mark Taylor, [Ian] Healy, Mark Waugh – they were told it was their time. And there’s an elephant in the room at the moment in Ricky Ponting that nobody is really addressing.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got the utmost respect for Ricky Ponting but there’s a time and a place. And for me, his time and place is Hobart in the second Test against New Zealand. That’s to say, ‘Thanks very much’.

Australian selectors have been kind to Ricky Ponting in comparison to his predecessors, none of whom were retained.

Cairns said:

And whilst [the Ponting saga] continues on, the media circus will go with it and the guys will just be surrounded by that talk instead of just getting on and playing cricket.

Absolutely [Cricket Australia are avoiding the tough decisions]. They’ve allowed Ricky to keep going because of his stature in the game and who he is. But why should he have to make the call? At the end of the day, for me, Australia has always been about the team and what’s best. He is behind Bradman, Australia’s greatest batsman, so they’re managing it. But I just think it’s an elephant in the room. I really do. Australia has got rebuilding to do.

What he really meant:

“Australia have one captain too many in the dressing room—a non-performing one to boot. They all know what needs to be done. The question is ‘who’s going to bell the cat?’”

What he definitely didn’t:

“Ricky Ponting has to be nursed along much like Sachin Tendulkar. Treat him with kid gloves.”

Could Murali Kartik have made a difference to India’s World Cup campaign?

Posted by LINUS FERNANDES ⋅ March 23, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

For Indian cricket fans who prefer to catch World Cup updates on the telly rather than on the internet, there exists one show that differentiates itself from the rest.

It is CNN-IBN’s Kings Of Cricket—featuring Sir Vivian Richards, Imran Khan, Allan Border, Chris Cairns, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Abbas, Murali Kartik, Kirti Azad and Harsha Bhogle.

The term ‘Kings Of Cricket’ is apt when applied to Richards,the original Khan,Allan Border and maybe even Anil Kumble. The former three are legends of the game and have played in and/or captained World Cup winning sides.

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Jacques Kallis, South Africa’s gentle giant: finest cricketer of the modern generation

Posted by LINUS FERNANDES ⋅ January 9, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Jacques Kallis is the finest all-rounder and best cricketer of the modern generation.

Yet, he has failed to capture the imagination;he is not spoken of in the same breath as SachinTendulkar, Virender Sehwag, or Ricky Ponting.

Why is that? Is it because he is unpretentious? Is it because he is unflashy? Is it because that he is not a dasher?

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Cricketing Bytes: Tendulkar, racism, UDRS and Modi again

Posted by LINUS FERNANDES ⋅ November 12, 2010

Just when you thought that there were no more honours that could be bestowed on Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, the ICC goes ahead and names him the official event ambassador for the 2011 World Cup.

The master batsman will support and promote a variety of ICC initiatives for the World Cup.This will also be Tendulkar’s sixth World Cup, thus joining Javed Miandad at the top of the heap.

Another South African , former coach Mickey Arthur has joined Herschelles Gibbs in opening up the can of worms that is South African cricket. In his book “Taking The Mickey”, Arthur has revealed that Hashim Amla’s elevation to the SA ODI team was delayed as he was forced to play Loots Bosman instead succumbing to race politics.

Hashim Amla currently tops the ICC ODI rankings. Arthur resigned as coach early this year.

After expressing his unwillingness to use the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), India captain MS Dhoni has done a volte face and now come out in support of the system.

Dhoni on Thursday:

"The standard of umpiring has gone down and we need to have strong measures to improve that,"

"But, as I have said earlier, I am not going to buy a life jacket that doesn’t come with a warranty,"

"At times you tend to make mistakes. The umpires are also most of the time thinking about over rates and player behaviour,"

Dhoni also came out in support of struggling Gautam Gambhir ahead of the second Test against New Zealand at Hyderabad on Friday.

Gautam was ICC Test cricketer of the year in 2009.

Meanwhile, Chris Cairns is suing ex-IPL commissioner Lalit Modi for posting a Twitter accusing him of match-fixing .Cairns was withdrawn from the IPL auction this year. The tweet was later retracted but Cairns has taken Modi to court alleging the damage had already been done. Cairns claims that he left the Chandigarh Lions , an ICL team, because of fitness issues after damaging his knees.