 |
| "..we executed our plans well" |
(click on cartoon)
England's coach excuses himself.
England coach, Andy Flower is an articulate man. Trouble
with him though, like his pet shot, the reverse sweep, his talk can be far from straight.
After England went down 4-0, Flower let it rip again.
Regarding Ian Bell
After Ian Bell was requested to bat again by MS Dhoni in the second test at Trent Bridge, Bell came under strong criticism from various quarters, in particular from the opinionated Indian media and public.It is in the light of this extreme reaction, and the possibility of more verbal volleys, had Ian Bell taken the field in India, that our hand was forced not to play one of our best batsmen.I can safely assume, had Ian Bell played in the one day series, the result would have been quite different from what it is now.
Regarding the food
While the boys have learnt to accept that the food in India will be unlike what they are accustomed to back home, they did not expect the chicken tikka masala to be such a poor imitation…
Regarding the crowd
Back home in England, our players were buoyed by the extremely vocal support for the Indians. Though I will say, the people of Indian origin here greatly outweighed what we are accustomed to back home – I cannot say that this was not a factor in the outcome of the series.
Now you don't have to take Flower seriously, just excuse him, for he knows too much.
Shahid Afridi's Retirement Nightmare
 |
"What a bad dream! Bad man running Pakistani cricket and screwing with my celebration" |
(click on cartoon)
Shahid? No, Afridi. No, Shahid.
So Shahid Afridi has withdrawn his retirement call.
Typical flip flop. No wonder critics say Afridi doesn't know whether he's coming or going. The last time Afridi heard that he was quick to counter : "Oye, I'm going".
Before adding : " No, I'm coming"
 |
| An old Afridi favourite, the one on top no, the one below.. |
After the India England Revenge series:
Neo cricket has pimped the India-England ODIs as a Revenge series.
But what if there is no revenge, and England beat India, what will they call the next series?
An India Sri Lanka 7 one-dayers series.
But what if there is no revenge, and England beat India, what will they call the next series?
An India Sri Lanka 7 one-dayers series.
What is wrong with cricinfo?
At the outset, I would like to declare that I have not
worked for cricinfo or any of the other cricket broadcasting companies. I am
what the management consultants will refer to ESPN-cricinfo bosses as their
end-user. Nothing more than that.
In a day and age when the traditional media are given a run
for their money by the transparency of the internet and the strength of
crowdsourcing, cricket coverage has been sadly left behind. Office with
dedicated internet lines, access to twitter and FB on mobiles, it is way easier
to know the live score today compared to smuggling an old transistor radio into
class in the olden days. The success of internet has been widely accepted. When
ESPN runs a #CLT20 to show on their live coverage, you can be sure, opinions
and popularity of them on the internet is not taken lightly.
This brings me to my question. Do we have good cricket
coverage in India? The television channels have become experts in showing 5
ball overs, footer tracker ads, intrusive ads and insipid commentary. So, that
means from purely a business perspective, there is a chance for the internet to
stand up and provide a good viewing experience of a cricket match. Has anyone
succeeded in doing this ?
This bring me to cricinfo, easily the ‘home of cricket' on
the web. Today, it is ESPN cricinfo. A bunch of us frequently rant on twitter about
the double standards practised by CI. Even a cursory glance at some of the
articles on CI will tell you that IPL is the root cause of the great bubonic
plague and the great economic depression. I am not here to defend the IPL. But
a logical extension of this attitude should lead to the same treatment for the
‘Nokia CL T20’, but that isn’t the case. Also, remember IPL is never the DLF
IPL, but CL T20 is Nokia CL T20. If you are searching for answers, well, ESPN-star
has coverage rights for one of them. I will let you decide which one. It is
neither a DLF maximum nor a Toshiba power hit, it is a bloody six. That’s all. My
issue is picking on one and leaving the other.
I remember Sambit Bal talking on one of Harsha's podcasts
about Advertisement on TV and how it was irritating him, apparently pop-up Ads
on CI home page are not considered cringe worthy. There was a post some months
back By Sharda Urga that suggested Dhoni was an illiterate village boy, hence
doesn’t understand DRS. The tone in all these dishonest editorial pieces is one
of projecting the site as the holy saint and saviour of cricket. I have no problem
with biased coverage but at least don't take the moral high ground that you are
here to save cricket. Cricket will evolve and save itself. It doesn’t need your
help. Thank you.
Other examples of this dishonesty in coverage and editorial
pieces can be seen in how news item related to RCB/KSCA are dealt with. Mazhar
Majeed and the whole fixing saga, Conflict of Interest of administrators and
ex-players, selection issues. CI never tries to give the news as it is and
present all sides of the stories and its interpretations in a balanced way. Do
we need one such cricket website ?
For the lack of an alternative, it is still the biggest
cricket site. There are numerous other cricket service website/blogs around, pitchinv,
holdingwilley, thecricketcouch, boredcricket, twitter feeds of a whole lot of
folks and many, many more. Not all of them are error free and perfect, but the
readership that they enjoy and the ‘market demand ' says something about the
biggest player. We are as a nation used to such products. Everyone has an
agenda - the media, politicians, sports administrators, selectors, board –everyone.
Maybe I am wrong to expect honesty from a cricket website. Maybe.
by Girsubra
you can follow him @girsubra on twitter
A Bored Meeting, in a long time...
I was thoroughly domesticated when the phone rang. So domesticated that it had to take a missed call and a friendly fire before I could call back.
It was a number I didn’t know, it could be another wealth manager who thought I’m one of those wealthy expats who could take care of his wealthy aspirations or it could be one of those Pathan sounding prophets who was going to deliver the message that would change my life, these Pathan’s are our friendly neighbourhood Nigerian attorney would who call us to say that we have won and how we claim !!
As another hungry executive who is after new business I decided to take a risk, call the number back.
Hey, Raja it is Gaurav… NC
That was how the other end sounded, familiar finally.
So where do we meet ? Krossroads in Bur Dubai, said the voice.
I’ve always been a pampered kid, I have been fortunate enough not to have seen crossroads till date. So, where is it, I asked ?
The answer puzzled me, this hotel was a well known pick-up place in town. It is match fixing I thought, this guy NC is trying to fix a match, either a Chinese or a Russian. I felt like I had just pressed the "I'm feeling lucky" button on google.
This dream and expectation was squashed with his next word, my wife, my cousin & his wife are joining us.
So I landed up in Krossroads, crossroads of a Chinese & Russian abundance. And I met Gaurav Sethi, his lovely & lively wife Vandana and his cousins. It wasn’t a purely cricket meeting, but for the Champions League semifinals there wouldn’t have been a common cricket thread.
But still, even before I knew Gaurav and his inner circle we managed to speak about the recently concluded Irani Trophy, the 2010 Ranji season (TN vs Delhi), the fast bowlers in India and their mind set, injuries to the players and the boards reaction to that, Gayle’s batting, draft beer, Stella’s, Kalyani's and much more.
It got better when I got to speak to the family. Crazy they are as our community is named. The wife is someone who was awake and watched full matches in ’83, the Prudential times. The cousin is a guy who finds fault with the way Gayle cocks-up and delivers his deadly blows and his wife, someone who grew-up loving Gavaskar.
Man, that is too Naked a Cricket family his is… And to top it all off, this ladies sister is a Kapil Dev fan and they had friendly fires in the family as to who’s great !!
Man, I got to know how Naked Cricket love or craziness can get… I never knew I can get so close to the flesh of cricket.
God Bless Naked Cricket and his lovely wife Vandu !!
It was a pleasure meeting them in home conditions. Now I await a return series !!
Bhajji don't go.
The biggest non-SRT cricket news going is that his chela, Bhajj’s been dropped for the first 2 ODI's against England. He will be missed. In his time away, he will undergo spa treatment, action-change, flight enhancement, tweaking of spinning finger and I-will-not-pitch-the-ball-outside-off-and-see-it-jump-up-short-enough-to-be-played-behind-square-by-Kallis rehab. He will return with a Chautha – an ode to the erstwhile non-spinner he once was – it will be the ball that will return to hand after leaving hand.
He will in all probability also return for the 3rd ODI. It’ll take one bad over from Rahul Sharma or Ashwin or Kohli, and Bhajji will be back to change-the-game. It’s happened often enough with Ojha, Mishra, and every other spinner whose name you can’t remember. I just hope Bhajji remembers to thank Sachin’s new house for watching over him from the sidelines.
He will in all probability also return for the 3rd ODI. It’ll take one bad over from Rahul Sharma or Ashwin or Kohli, and Bhajji will be back to change-the-game. It’s happened often enough with Ojha, Mishra, and every other spinner whose name you can’t remember. I just hope Bhajji remembers to thank Sachin’s new house for watching over him from the sidelines.
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