Cricket Thread III

[Guest]

Shoaib Akhtar, Asif banned- tested positive last month for banned steroid nandrolone in an internal dope test conducted by the PCB in the lead up to the Champions Trophy in India.

[Naresh]

[center]<img src='http://www.dawn.com/2006/11/04/images/cartoon.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />[/center] [center]<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>CROOKS OF A HEATHER PLAY TOGEATHER</span></b>[/center]

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Former Indian captain Polly Umrigar passes away </b>
Pioneer News Service | Mumbai
Former Indian captain Polly Umrigar passed away at his residence here today at 8:30 pm of cancer at the age of 80. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Umrigar played 59 Tests for India at an average of 42 with 12 hundreds. He made several records of playing the highest number of test matches, highest amount of runs and the highest number of centuries during the period of 1962 to 1978 which was broken by none other than Sunil Gavaskar. As a bowler also he proved his calibre. He was an accurate off-spinner and could even open the bowling, sending down outswingers.
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great player.

[utepian]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->highest number of centuries during the period of 1962 to 1978<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Umrigar retired in 1962!

[Guest]

I was very happy yesterday. You started hearing sounds through the media to bring back Sourav Ganguly, not just as a player, but as a captain. Now people have started understanding what a captain, what a leader of men means. Its not anybody who can be a captain. Somebody who is a great batsman or a great bowler need not be a great captain, somebody who has shown repeated instances of commitment of the highest order need not make a great captain. Tendulkar was all of these, yet he did not make a great captain. In the phase where Azhar started waning and then during Tendulkar's captaincy we saw acute problem of leadership in Indian cricket. Then Sourav Ganguly came and despite grave constraints built up a team with the sheer force of his personality and delivered numerous successes with the team. Then as is wont of us Indians, when something is available we start to take it for granted. Did not realise how much of everything would have gone in shaping up such a unit. We think a captain should lead from the front by scoring most runs or taking wickets. But what matters is whether the team wins under you and its collective win by the entire team in all departments. That determines your true value as a captain. What's the point of you scoring a 100, but your team losing. If you are a player its okay, but if you are a captain, your job's not done by just scoring runs. The first performance criteria for a captain is leading his team to victories. Scoring runs, getting wickets, making personal milestones comes next.

Also I think Ganguly took his eye of the task towards the later part. Maybe he became very comfortable, maybe he took his captaincy and hence a place in the Indian team for granted. Or maybe with loss of form, he focussed on his batting and forgot what was his greatness as a captain, that of his skills in leading a team. Maybe he required a jolt, a shake up but not the one that was given to him. Also selectors felt their stand was vindicated because of the early successes of Dravid. But thats where people dont realise, it was still Ganguly's team that was performing. Dravid's captaincy skills are being tested now, not in the first few games where he won. Now it is Dravid's team. Lets give him chance and see whether he can give his team a strong character that Ganguly gave and bounce back. But I still reckon Ganguly's captaincy skills far higher than those of Dravid for he lead his men on the field and off it. He tried to gain control on each and every element, be it selection or coaching to ensure success of the team. I beleive captaincy is only 20% on the field, the rest 80% is off it and Ganguly is the best man for that job. Maybe this desire to get control on each and every thing was what brought Ganguly down, when politics turned against him, but because he took the risk, because he tried he was able to build a strong team and lead India to victories. Anyway I'm just happy that support for Sourav is building up. Who knows he may as well lead us into the coming World Cup and succeed where he failed last time i.e. winning in the finals and beating the Aussies. Hoo Haa India, Aaya India

[Guest]

Kartik,

England's Mike Bearley (Capt in late 70s and early 80s) wouldn't have found a place in 'B' grade UK county cricket for his batting; but was retained solely for his captaincy. And team fared pretty well under him. Is Indian selectors/management going that way?

[Guest]

Perhaps we are over-analyzing this. No matter who we are playing under, when it comes to playing on bouncy phoren wkts we run into this problem always. Only after playing a few games our players are able to adjust to the conditions. This has been going on for as long as i can remember and this isnt anything new. The only simple solution is that when we are to embark on tours to Aus/SA/NZ and to a certain extent WI we need to be there and play 3-4 matches on real bouncy tracks. BCCI should threaten, bribe, do whatever it takes to make this happen. Going straight into one-days/tests without a few practice games is a recipe for disaster.

[Guest]

Chappell under fresh attack from MPs
Rajesh: Nothing to with cricket, the commie cabal of Somnath, Brinda, Basudeb etc are all upset with Chappell. Even Lallu has a opinon!!!

[Guest]

Dravid rules out of next two one day games! RECALL for Laxman!

Dravid out of ODI series following injury

[Guest]

Altho Dravids departure aint good, Laxman's arrival is welcome. He has the backfoot game as well as a very wristy play, quick eye, ability to play late and straight - well suited for Auz/NZ/SA pitches. Even from him I wouldnt expect a miracle, the bouncy tracks need some adjustment but if anybody is capable of tackling these pitches then VVSL is da man !!

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-rajesh_g+Nov 28 2006, 01:07 AM-->QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Nov 28 2006, 01:07 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Perhaps we are over-analyzing this. No matter who we are playing under, when it comes to playing on bouncy phoren wkts we run into this problem always. Only after playing a few games our players are able to adjust to the conditions. This has been going on for as long as i can remember and this isnt anything new. The only simple solution is that when we are to embark on tours to Aus/SA/NZ and to a certain extent WI we need to be there and play 3-4 matches on real bouncy tracks. BCCI should threaten, bribe, do whatever it takes to make this happen. Going straight into one-days/tests without a few practice games is a recipe for disaster.
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The debacle at South Africa is not just about wickets. Yes, firstly it is about adjusting to foreign conditions. A few practice matches would have helped. But it also about the team selection and fighting spirit of the team. What happened to the team after we had got them down for 76/6. Why do we have such odd selections, we play Jaffer for a match, then drop him. We get Pathan for the first match, then drop him for the next, then pick him again. And he never does perform. Agarkar was bowling beautifully in West Indies ODI series, as well as I have ever seen him bowl, then we drop him for the tests there. Afterwards when he returns we don't find him the same guy. Ditto for Sreesanth.

If Dravid is the man in charge why doesn't he assert himself. I dont see Dravid really has any clue about these things, nor can he explain them. I'm sure if it was the old Ganguly, then he would have wrangled to get his side in, then he would stand by it and die by it, he would have fought to get a few practice matches in, who knows he would have influenced the pitch makers in South Africa to be kind to the Indians (you know during the series in Pakistan and Australia, you heard the incredulous voices of the Paki and Aussie commentators as to why pitches suiting the Indians were made), in short everything that is required to win. You can always complain of biased selection policies, lack of good pitches at home, messed up domestic set up, and that in the long term all these needs to change and improve, <b>but in the short term you got to win</b>. And how to get that done is mainly the captain's job. H has to figure it out how to do it. Tomorrow Dravid cannot say that I selected a particular team because Chappel wanted it so. We don't want to wait for another two years, when Dravid+Chappel get India to win matches, their experiments start working, we want them to win now, for we watch each and every match of India, expecting them to win.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-kartiksri+Nov 28 2006, 10:28 AM-->QUOTE(kartiksri @ Nov 28 2006, 10:28 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->If Dravid is the man in charge why doesn't he assert himself. I dont see Dravid really has any clue about these things, nor can he explain them. I'm sure if it was the old Ganguly, then he would have wrangled to get his side in, then he would stand by it and die by it, he would have fought to get a few practice matches in, who knows he would have influenced the pitch makers in South Africa to be kind to the Indians (you know during the series in Pakistan and Australia, you heard the incredulous voices of the Paki and Aussie commentators as to why pitches suiting the Indians were made), in short everything that is required to win. You can always complain of biased selection policies, lack of good pitches at home, messed up domestic set up, and that in the long term all these needs to change and improve, <b>but in the short term you got to win</b>. And how to get that done is mainly the captain's job. H has to figure it out how to do it. Tomorrow Dravid cannot say that I selected a particular team because Chappel wanted it so. We don't want to wait for another two years, when Dravid+Chappel get India to win matches, their experiments start working, we want them to win now, for we watch each and every match of India, expecting them to win.
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Look, maybe I sound unkind towards Dravid, but it only regards his role as a captain. I don't think we want him off captaincy immediately, but it all depend on whether he is learning. The track record of him as a captain is poor, but if he shows signs of learning these things then it is okay, he can be given time. But he has to realise that he has to start using his mind. Captaincy is not about patting your players back, giving some tips to succeed and stand by and think that he will succeed. The best thing about Ganguly is that he took to captaincy as duck to water, he realised the different complexities with which to contend with. My boss tells me that a leader has to find order in the midst of chaos. Chaos is given, no use complaining about it, you got to have a strategy, a way of operation to contend it. Right now Dravid has none, but if he realises that what is lacking and starts to seek, then it is okay. Of course we will not know about it now, but only over the next few months.

[Guest]

All that is well and good but the plain fact is that you have to know the conditions and simple fact is that we dont know the conditions. I am sure there would have been some study done somewhere that looks at the Indian team performance in NZ/SA/Aus, how long it takes for us to get acclimatised to the conditions, what are the advantages of having more first class matches in the beginning of the tour.

For a long time i have seen this trend -> Auz/SA/NZ tours are preceded by hardly any preparation and even in the case there is some preparation its pathetic. Cant remember the tour but the practise games were on a flat track and the first test, first innings pitch was a minefield. BCCI has huge clout over other boards, we should demand minefields for practice games and coerce the other fellows (esp Oz/NZ/SA) to provide us with ample practice games and a month of stay in these countries before the actual tour starts.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-rajesh_g+Nov 29 2006, 02:03 AM-->QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Nov 29 2006, 02:03 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->All that is well and good but the plain fact is that you have to know the conditions and simple fact is that we dont know the conditions. I am sure there would have been some study done somewhere that looks at the Indian team performance in NZ/SA/Aus, how long it takes for us to get acclimatised to the conditions, what are the advantages of having more first class matches in the beginning of the tour.

For a long time i have seen this trend -> Auz/SA/NZ tours are preceded by hardly any preparation and even in the case there is some preparation its pathetic. Cant remember the tour but the practise games were on a flat track and the first test, first innings pitch was a minefield. BCCI has huge clout over other boards, we should demand minefields for practice games and coerce the other fellows (esp Oz/NZ/SA) to provide us with ample practice games and a month of stay in these countries before the actual tour starts.
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The main problem is that BCCI themselves are apathetic about the necessity of practice games. The other day I heard Niranjan Shah, BCCI Secy. speak on TV. He says with so many matches the team is playing nowadays, they don't require to have more than one or two practice matches. As per Shah, since they have just played in Champions Trophy, that is adequate preparation for the South Africa tour. I think these guys are zombies. It's sad that such administrators are at the helm of Indian cricket, who don't understand cricket at all. They are more focussed on getting more matches in a calendar. Choice of matches is based upon revenue, plus they get every space on players and his accessories sponsored. While I understand the need for profits, all these seems to be mindless, without any larger vision for Indian cricket. What do they expect: that Indian cricket team will keep on losing and our interest will be at the same level. I rem'ber after the match fixing scandal, lot of people's interest in cricket went away. The same kind of attitude can creep in now, if BCCI doesn't remove its focus from money spinning to building Indian cricket.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Former Indian Cricketer Hanumant Singh dies of dengue</b>
United News of India
Mumbai, November 29, 2006
Former Test player Hanumant Singh passed away on Wednesday morning in Mumbai, after battling with dengue for over a month.

He was 67 and is survived by his wife and son.

He had scored a century on debut for India and had represented the country in 14 Test matches. After retirement Singh was the National Selector as well as a Coach at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore
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[Guest]

Sourav Ganguly has been selected for the Test team to SA tour. Dada aala re aala !!!

And wonder of wonders VVS Laxman returns to Test side not just as a batsman but as the vice captain.

In Indian cricket tum hero se zero aur zero se hero pal bhar mein ban sakte ho !! <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-kartiksri+Nov 30 2006, 03:11 PM-->QUOTE(kartiksri @ Nov 30 2006, 03:11 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->In Indian cricket tum hero se zero aur zero se hero pal bhar mein ban sakte ho !!  <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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I think S Venkataraghavan holds this record. He was Capt, then Vice-Capt, then player, then 12th man and then out of team - all in one series (Windies 70s?)

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sidhu blamed for death, sentence on Dec 6 
By IANS
Friday December 1, 01:19 PM
Chandigarh, Dec 1 (IANS) Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was Friday convicted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for causing the death of a Patiala resident during a street scuffle in 1988.

Sidhu, 43, was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder over the death of Gurnam Singh.

A high court bench of Justices Mehtab Singh Gill and Baldev Singh here announced the conviction, reversing a decision of a lower court in Patiala acquitting Sidhu in 1999.

The court would announce the sentence Dec 6. Lawyers said Sidhu could be sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.

Sidhu was accused of causing the death of Gurnam Singh in Patiala, 90 km from here, in 1988. Sidhu was born in Patiala Oct 20, 1963.

The former cricketer and a friend had picked up a fight with Gurnam over the parking of a vehicle at a Patiala market. This led to a scuffle in which Gurjit was given blows by Sidhu and his friend.

He received injuries after he fell to the ground. He died of shock following the incident.

While Sidhu's lawyers claimed that the scuffle was unintentional and that the victim died a 'natural death' due to heart attack, doctors who conducted the postmortem had said the victim had head injuries.

A lower court in Patiala acquitted Sidhu. The Punjab government and the victim's family went to the high court against that judgment.

Sidhu is a Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MP from the Sikh holy city of Amritsar. He has established himself as a cricket commentator.

Sidhu played for India from 1983 to 1999. He made his Test debut against the West Indies in Ahmedabad in November 1983 and his last match was against New Zealand at Hamilton in January 1999.

Sidhu's conviction by the high court will be a jolt to the Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab, with state assembly elections just three months away.

<b>Sidhu had been pleading since 1988 that he had no intention to kill Gurnam Singh and the whole incident was unintentional.</b>
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[Guest]

<b><!--QuoteBegin-kartiksri+Nov 28 2006, 10:28 AM-->QUOTE(kartiksri @ Nov 28 2006, 10:28 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->
If Dravid is the man in charge why doesn't he assert himself. I dont see Dravid really has any clue about these things, nor can he explain them. I'm sure if it was the old Ganguly, then he would have wrangled to get his side in, then he would stand by it and die by it, he would have fought to get a few practice matches in, who knows he would have influenced the pitch makers in South Africa to be kind to the Indians (you know during the series in Pakistan and Australia, you heard the incredulous voices of the Paki and Aussie commentators as to why pitches suiting the Indians were made), in short everything that is required to win. You can always complain of biased selection policies, lack of good pitches at home, messed up domestic set up, and that in the long term all these needs to change and improve, [b]but in the short term you got to win</b>. And how to get that done is mainly the captain's job. H has to figure it out how to do it. Tomorrow Dravid cannot say that I selected a particular team because Chappel wanted it so. We don't want to wait for another two years, when Dravid+Chappel get India to win matches, their experiments start working, we want them to win now, for we watch each and every match of India, expecting them to win.
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Perhaps the following taken from an article succinctly explains in the best manner the point I was trying to make thru my long winded sentences

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/Oldies_retur...show/660346.cms

"Frankly, the team seems obsessed with theory and assumption. <b>Instead of working with the best material available, it outlined the contours of a good and successful team, and went out looking for players who could fulfil those roles.</b> In a land of excesses but very little talent, it wasn't the right approach. Some time in the future, most probably, the same players may well return stronger, abler and ready to take on any opposition, on any wicket. <b>But in a less than ideal world, you have to prepare for the immediate present, and plot instant victories first."</b>


In short they said we want nothing less than Maryada Purushottam Ram and went about the world looking for such a person.

This is the sort of problem that happens when for e.g. somebody educated in the best B Schools struggle with the realities of business. They realise that their theories doesn't meet with the realities. That coping up with the realities means making so much ever subtly smart adjustments which you are not taught in your academic course. But Chappel has been a great cricketer and captain, Dravid has been a successful and consistently performing player for 10 years. He has been an able vice captain in the resurgence of Indian cricket post match fixing scenario. We expected both of them to do far better than this. Where have they lost their thinking hats ???

[Guest]

I see the current moves as even more theorizing - infact in the current predicament no matter what these folks do, they will be seen as theorizing. Simple thing to remember, its the pitch and the only thing thats going to do good is time on these pitches.

As far as Ganguly goes, unless something has drastically changed over the last year I dont remember him having the technique to play on these pitches.

Its sad to see VVSL being treated like dirt again. For the past decade or so this man is the only one who has shown the technique to take on just about every wicket. They always drop the poor fellow on home ground and recall him while playing dangerous surfaces. I will bet that will happen again after this tour. Sometimes I am surprised how this man keeps himself motivated.