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Tendulkar
Insuring World Cup events and IPL players , at a price (Humour)
Almost all top guns in the IPL have been insured by their respective teams, ranging from Sachin Tendulkar (Rs. 44.97 crores) to Gautam Gambhir (Rs. 11.64 crores).
Wouldn’t it have been a great idea for the ICC to secure insurance cover against original trophies locked down by bureaucratic Customs officials? The eventualities covered could include embarrassment caused by disclosures that ‘hugged-and-kissed’ trophy is a replica, free World Cup tickets demanded by said officials and sundry miscellaneous damages including loss-of-face.
Cricket World Cup 2011: What they said and what they definitely didn’t (Humour)
What he said:
Ireland’s Trent Johnston tweets to Graeme Smith, on hearing about the South African captain’s engagement
Congrats on the good news @GraemeSmith49. We r looking for an opener here in Dublin – Unfortunately we can’t offer you any 50 over cricket! 
What he definitely didn’t :
“We have our own version of the IPL here”
Cricket World Cup 2011:Team India are champions of the world
“We are the champions – my friends
And we’ll keep on fighting
Till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
‘Cause we are the champions of the World”
Freddie Mercury’s lyrics may seem trite and overused. Yet they never fail to send out the right message.
Team India are champions of the world.
Nothing and no one can take that away from Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his boys.
ICC World Cup 2011: Why wait? Take the power-play and sustain the momentum
The batting power-play—is it a boon or a bane?
Teams have benefited and teams have suffered in this crucial period of the innings.
There are two schools of thought as to when the batting power-play should be taken.
Cricket Bytes: Really Random Shots on Team India’s World Cup
Image via Wikipedia
The ICC ODI World Cup is almost upon us.
Practice matches—prior to the hurly-burly of the tournament—are in full swing. Teams are trying out combinations and players are trying out shots and deliveries—making sure that they are set for the real thing.
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.
IPL and Ranji:Of re-slotting and Mumbai’s early exit
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If you don’t like the bracket you’re in, you can re-slot yourself in a higher one. That’s the message Saurav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble have sent out. The four were initially categorised into the 200,000 USD fold. IPL rules allow players to increase their base price and the members of the Fab Five (Tendulkar is the fifth) have chosen to do so.
None of the four were retained by their teams. Speculation as to why the four were not in the initial top bracket is useless. The IPL has done little to enhance reputations. VVS Laxman has struggled, Ganguly shone amidst his team’s inconsistency and Dravid is just coming to terms with T20 cricket.
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.
Indian cricket: Same old story of batting collapse against Black Caps
Image via Wikipedia
The second innings collapse of the famed Indian batting line-up in the first Test against a weak New Zealand side supports my theory that Indians are notoriously poor starters. The first Test against the Australians in the recent home series too could have easily gone the other way but a fantabulous fight-back by a bravura Laxman snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
India finished at 82-6 at the end of the fourth day at Motera. Chris Martin’s five wicket haul was the highlight of the day. Sehwag was run out.
With Harbhajan and Laxman —the last of the recognised batsmen at the crease — it will be only be about survival on the final day.
India piled up 487 in its first innings essay powered by Sehwag’s bellicose 173 and Dravid’s sedate 104. New Zealand replied strongly with 459 ; debutant Kane Williamson registered his maiden century and talented Jesse Ryder hit a ton as well.
Can India save the match? Will Laxman ride to the rescue once more?
The fifth day will be engrossing.
Full marks to the Black Caps. Few gave them a semblance of a chance following their 4-0 whitewash at the hands of the Bangladeshis.
Pride and over-confidence lulled the No.1 team into a false sense of security. The New Zealanders’ ego had been hurt. No way would they roll over, not even for an Indian side boasting a rampant Sehwag and a resurgent Tendulkar.
Wins have to be earned!
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.
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Make Time For Sports. 