proteas

India versus South Africa: Series ends tied one all

Image via Wikipedia

I must admit that I am relieved that the twin Test series in South Africa and Australia have ended. The cricket has been exhilarating, the battle has seesawed between the sides and there has been no respite from the all-encompassing media hype.

I hope to catch a break from all forms of cricket until the World Cup. I have seriously overdosed.

India finish tied 1-1 on the Last Frontier in the Rainbow Nation. This will be a result they will cherish , but they will also regret that they could not make it a more memorable tour.

Continue reading →

Poms dispatch the Ashes post-haste to England: Aussies go down 1-3

Image via Wikipedia

It has been an exhilarating month-and-a-half for cricket aficionados. The two Test series in the antipodes, Australia and South Africa, witnessed enchanting, entertaining cricket from four sides.

The Ashes, whose history goes back over a hundred years, and the Sumo tie between the Goliaths of modern day cricket, India and South Africa, were a treat for the eyes. The Ashes more so for the excellent Hot Spot camera views. No complaints about umpiring decisions there.

Continue reading →

Bolshoi The Boxer flies to South Africa (Satire)

My dog, Bolshoi The Boxer, wants me to buy him a plane ticket to South Africa.

Bolshoi is a huge cricket fan and the performance of the Indian cricket team in the first Test at the Centurion has him worried.

“How can the No. 1 Test team in the world stutter to 136-9? And none of the batsmen could score a fifty?”

“That’s easy to answer. They were Morkeled and Steyned.” I reply.

Continue reading →

Cricketing Bits: MFN UK, Ranji , Hyderabad Test and Gary Kirsten

Image via Wikipedia

The UK has acquired most favoured nation status among asylum seekers —at least among cricketing ones. Pakistani cricketer and wicket-keeper Pakistan wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider has sought safety there following threats from match-fixers. The 24 year old hit the winning run in the fourth one-dayer against the Proteas in the five match series in Dubai.

Haider alleged that he was approached to fix the fourth and fifth ODIs. Pakistani cricket continues to shrivel under the shadow of the recent spot-fixing scandal.

Continue reading →

Cricket Bytes: UDRS, Hot Spot,‘To The Point’ and Chahar, the new kid on the block

The mystery behind the non-adoption of the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) by the BCCI has been resolved.

It is the skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni who  is sceptical of the system’s merits. Dhoni believes that the system has had mixed results. Sehwag, in a recent interview, strongly supported adoption of UDRS. Rahul Dravid too has thrown his weight behind the review arrangement.

But the man whose word carries the most weight Sachin Tendulkar has not backed off from his opposition to the technology. Tendulkar prefers the competing technology —Hot Spot— that uses infra-red cameras to decide whether the ball has struck bat, pad or the batsman.

The basic UDRS system, currently in use, uses only the Hawk-Eye technology besides super slow-motion cameras and an audio feed from the stump microphone.

The Hawk-Eye is the same technology used in tennis to decide if the ball has struck the line.

Hot Spot is an improvement that is seldom used.

The ICC hope to make the UDRS mandatory for all Test series in the near future.

The Proteas  wish to use the system during the upcoming tour by India but are being pressurised  by the BCCI to stick to the tried-and-tested arbitration via manual umpiring.

When the top two cricketing heroes in the team put their foot down, the BCCI is bound to follow their lead.

Herschelle Gibbs has crawled out of the woodwork and into the limelight — albeit a controversial and notorious one with the release of his autobiography ‘To The Point’.

The opener has made some stunning revelations about his tenure with the South African team , rambled on about sex orgies, his relationship with his former captain Hansie Cronje, and threats from the Delhi police when cross-questioned by them about the match-fixing scandal. Though the sex-laced chapter has hit the headlines more often than not, Gibbs has been hugely critical of the cliquish South African team and current captain Graeme Smith in the remainder of the book.

Continue reading →