The only thing which is permanent is change. The wheels of fortune changes so often. Remember the time when Virender Sehwag was the prince in waiting of the Indian cricket. Suddenly he was dropped from the pedestal into the common man’s world. MSD was the new poster boy of Indian cricket-pundits were praising him, his hairstyle, his unadulterated batting .Viru was left to fend for himselves in the dusty domestics circuit until Ian Chappell gave him a lifeline for the Australian tour.
Meanwhile Dhoni continued his upward journey in the Indian cricket which reached its pinnacle at T20 world cup.He could do no wrong –so thought the wisemen. But he had a shift in his policy towards the youth which created an outcry
Sehwag meanwhile took the lifeline and grabbed it with both the hands. Currently he has become more mature and still retails his dashing attitude towards batting.As his confidence is restored, I am sure we should not look beyond Sehwag, after Kumble retires, for the captaincy. He has proved that in the Adelaide.
So the original crown prince has come back to reclaim his kingdom.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
India in Australia, Test Series Round-Up.
What a fantastic series it has been. Except for the Melbourne test where the Indian batting was under cooked, the series has been competitive. The series was compelling to watch and saw some good cricket from both the teams. A fair scoreline should have been 1-1. The Sydney test didn't deserve its result and also the off-field incidents that accompanied it. After this series it is probably right to say that India is the only team which can challenge Australia in Test arena. We have now had 3 good series against Australia from 2001. It was satisfying to see India win at Perth. I think with this win, India have shed the tag of poor travellers. The find of this series is Ishant Sharma. His spell in Perth to Ponting was superb. I have never seen Ponting look so uncomfortable like that after Ashes 2005. The Comeback of Irfan Pathan has been heartening. He has the quality to become a genuine allrounder and I hope he carries on in the same fashion. The batting was ably led by Tendulkar with timely contributions from Laxman, Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag. Even the tail contributed in a good manner with Bhajji and Kumble scoring some good runs. The Bowling was shared by the pacers Ishant, RP Singh, Pathan and by the captain Kumble. Kumble's captaincy was also good and in some cases better than Ponting. The disappointments of the series were Jaffer's form, Yuvraj's inability to adapt to the conditions, bowling form of Bhajji and the constant tinkering with the opening combinations. The experiment with Dravid should stop immediately. The opening combination should be Sehwag and Akash Chopra. The next test series for India is against South Africa in India. I hope to see Akash Chopra and Piyush Chawla in the team. Its time India groomed someone to replace Kumble.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Exit of a True Champ…. Tribute to Adam “Gilly” Gilchrist
Seldom in its history did cricket lovers felt sad over retirement of a wicket-keeper and I believe that’s the greatness about “Gilly”. It’s this aura that he carries with himself on and off the cricket field that makes us gloomy on his departure.
There is no doubt in the fact that he revolutionized the way people looked at Wicket-keeping batsmen. In fact he changed it so much that he has become the standard itself and this is no mean feat. Though an accomplished batsman, he also set high standards for his wicket-keeping and the moment he found his standards slipping off, he called it quits. This genuineness is perhaps one character which we can associate with Gilly throughout his career. He showed that it’s possible to be an honest yet fiercely competitive cricketer at the same time. Probably that’s something we will miss in coming days apart from his explosive batting and agile keeping. He was one of the forces that powered the Australian team to a level of invincibility and it needs to be seen how much it’s going to affect the team’s supremacy coming days.
There might be a Brad Haddin or someone else waiting to take his place but I doubt whether the replacement can achieve the same fear and respect that Gilly achieved. Only time will tell whether there ever will be another Gilly or not, but I am sure the next time when we see Australian scorecard we will ponder “Where are you Gilly? “
Seldom in its history did cricket lovers felt sad over retirement of a wicket-keeper and I believe that’s the greatness about “Gilly”. It’s this aura that he carries with himself on and off the cricket field that makes us gloomy on his departure.
There is no doubt in the fact that he revolutionized the way people looked at Wicket-keeping batsmen. In fact he changed it so much that he has become the standard itself and this is no mean feat. Though an accomplished batsman, he also set high standards for his wicket-keeping and the moment he found his standards slipping off, he called it quits. This genuineness is perhaps one character which we can associate with Gilly throughout his career. He showed that it’s possible to be an honest yet fiercely competitive cricketer at the same time. Probably that’s something we will miss in coming days apart from his explosive batting and agile keeping. He was one of the forces that powered the Australian team to a level of invincibility and it needs to be seen how much it’s going to affect the team’s supremacy coming days.
There might be a Brad Haddin or someone else waiting to take his place but I doubt whether the replacement can achieve the same fear and respect that Gilly achieved. Only time will tell whether there ever will be another Gilly or not, but I am sure the next time when we see Australian scorecard we will ponder “Where are you Gilly? “
D Day for India on Jan 29th - Ignominy of being a Racist
Hi Everyone,
As the nation is waiting with bated breath for the racist case against Bhaaji to be heard,Justice Hansen has tried to pull a rabbit out of the bag by revealing that fresh evidence is to be taken from the Stump Microphone.This has rattled the Indians, and predictably they have protested against such evidence. The fear is that the evidence could be doctored ,as this was not produced before Mike Procter in the earlier hearing.
On the face of this ,it appears to be a harmless one, but the dangers lurking beneath this seemingly harmless one ,has bothered the Indians. First of all, for an argument sake believing the words of Bhaaji,Sachin and Kumble , I should not have any problem in the new evidence.But if the Indian team finds that the evidence contains the " so called racist words"they can and should employ the agencies to verify wheher the tapes are doctored or not.
If the tapes does not contain any racist words- we are the victors straightaway............
First and foremost,Indians should pull out of the tour,if the evidence goes agains them.The fines by the Australian cricket board is peanuts for the BCCI.They should fight tooth and nail to prove this allegation is wrong and brought on them purposely...(Remember the case of Dr Mohammad Haneef in Australia)
I suggest that the country as a whole stand behind our cricketers ......A racism charge to tarnish the reputation of the Inidans is highly unacceptable..........
From B
As the nation is waiting with bated breath for the racist case against Bhaaji to be heard,Justice Hansen has tried to pull a rabbit out of the bag by revealing that fresh evidence is to be taken from the Stump Microphone.This has rattled the Indians, and predictably they have protested against such evidence. The fear is that the evidence could be doctored ,as this was not produced before Mike Procter in the earlier hearing.
On the face of this ,it appears to be a harmless one, but the dangers lurking beneath this seemingly harmless one ,has bothered the Indians. First of all, for an argument sake believing the words of Bhaaji,Sachin and Kumble , I should not have any problem in the new evidence.But if the Indian team finds that the evidence contains the " so called racist words"they can and should employ the agencies to verify wheher the tapes are doctored or not.
If the tapes does not contain any racist words- we are the victors straightaway............
First and foremost,Indians should pull out of the tour,if the evidence goes agains them.The fines by the Australian cricket board is peanuts for the BCCI.They should fight tooth and nail to prove this allegation is wrong and brought on them purposely...(Remember the case of Dr Mohammad Haneef in Australia)
I suggest that the country as a whole stand behind our cricketers ......A racism charge to tarnish the reputation of the Inidans is highly unacceptable..........
From B
Introducing Cricketing Wisdom
There are quite a few cricket blogs already in this websphere. But the passion for the game made us to start this blog today. This Blog will be authored by Prajeesh, Badri and myself and we will discuss everything about cricket here.
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