CB series - 2nd Final

Will we win? Can we seal the series? Will SRT recreate "Desert Storm"?

Update: Yes, yes, and yes.

Update: India created history by beating Australia to win the tri series. SRT and Praveen Kumar helped India close out the series. Check scorecard here. Also, check out the tour statitics for ODIs and Tests.

CB series - 1st Final

Here we are at the SCG for the first final of the CB series – which seems to be longer than the world cup. So far, India has done pretty well with Dhoni making all the right moves. Bhajji bowled magnificently to trap Symonds and Hayden. With all the drama surrounding the trio, Bhajji will be a happy man.

As of now, the Aussies have managed 173/6.

Adding to all the fun has been the commentary. I’ve been alternating between star sports and sky sports, and it’s like watching two different games. The Aussie media is like an extension of the Aussie team. They are part of the support staff. It’s stupid to expect fair commentary; in fact I am sure pretty soon, the commentators will start sledging the opponents.

Let’s hope we can keep the Aussies down to 225 and more importantly, chase it down successfully. Squeeze in a Tendulkar century and it will round off a perfect Satuday.

Update 1: Aus 239/8 in 50 overs thanks mainly to Irfan Pathan who probably forgot to put his bowling shoes on (How irritating is that? Kinda like "Forgot to put your thinking cap on?" I hear that at work and feel like smacking them in the face and saying "At least I have my boxing gloves on."). India need 240 to win and someone at the top (read SRT) needs to play a big innings.

Update 2: It's past 3 am and SRT just completed his half century. He looks set for a big one. There is nothing I like better than watching SRT bat like this. And now that Yuvraj has proved again that he can't play spin to save his life, lets hope Rohit Sharma plays a little sensibly. Very impressive - Rohit Sharma, he is definitely a future superstar.

Update 3: This was a day for predictions. SRT scored a brilliant, unbeaten century (117* in about as many balls) taking India to victory. Rohit Sharma played an awesome knock of 66 and earned praise from the little master himself. Dhoni smiled. Ponting scowled. I stayed up all night to watch this match and for once it was justified. Now that I have watched the presentation ceremony, seen every interview and all the post match shows on every channel , and read every match report on the www, I can finally go to sleep.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) – Apna Sapna Money Money

The IPL auctions are underway and it’s not just Preity Zinta’s dimples that are making the news. Emotions are running high and while some think this is cricketing history being created, others feel this is the cheapening of cricket for money. And there is a ton of money involved. Almost enough for Sharad Pawar to retire to the Himalayas. And that would take a lot of money.

A comprehensive coverage of the IPL auction is posted here. So who were the players that the franchises bid fiercely for? Mahendra Dhoni and Andrew Symonds, obviously, as their signing amounts of US$1.5m and US$1.35m respectively suggest. Any bizarre purchases? Sure. McGrath and Mike Hussey were bought for $350,000 each while Ponting fetched $400,000. Meanwhile, Ishant Sharma (flavor of the day – but certainly no McGrath) was sold for $950,000, Manoj Tiwary (?) and Mohd Kaif (remember him?) for $675,000 each. Ponting is surprised. So is the rest of the sane world.

Check out how the teams stack up here. Bangalore’s Mallya was probably high on Kingfisher when he bid for players. Although if they change the IPL format from T20 to test matches, Bangalore will be the team to beat. Don’t see that happening. Meanwhile Laxman gave up his icon status to lead Hyderabad – which is really looking the best team on paper so far. With a rush now to get the backroom staff and high profile coaches in place, the IPL promises entertainment even before the tournament starts. And if the IPL is run anything like the European football league or the NFL, this can only help cricket.

PS: In case you are wondering who the franchise owners are, apart from Mallya and Ambani – check this out.

13/10

Bermuda were all out for 13 and then lost the game in 4 balls.

South Africa 15 for 0 beat Bermuda 13 (Loubser 6-3) by ten wickets. Here's the scorecard.

Wonder if the specatators got their money back.

Eat up, Its Superbowl!

If you thought Superbowl was all about Football, think again. According to Super Bowl consumption by the numbers,

Macro-economically speaking, national government statistics of three years ago reckoned that just under $55 million was expected to be expended on Super Bowl food alone. After spending an estimated 10 million man-hours (give or take a couple of seconds) preparing all that grub, Americans are expected to consume the lot within approximately 15 minutes, well before the first touchdown (on average) is scored.
How much do we eat as a nation? Almost 15,000 tons of chips and 4,000 tons of popcorn. In terms of sheer weight, about 12 million pounds' worth of potato chips were torn through during the 2002 game.

And you guessed right, there is an increase in antacid sales the day after: 20% per 7-Eleven.

CB tri series and the T20 that wasn't

Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is. - Vince Lombardi

The first ODI between India and Australia in the CB tri series (which Sangakkara feels is a virtual world championship) was thankfully washed out. Considering we don’t have the in-form Ganguly, the indispensable (the selection committee begs to differ) Dravid and The-man-with-the-bloated-head a.k.a Yuvraj Padukone, India needed a big innings from SRT or the wild card Sehwag to show a semblance of a fight. That wasn’t meant to be and the Indians were facing another humiliating defeat before bad weather bailed them out.

Manoj Tiwari (who was brought in instead of Raina or Karthik) looked out of place but Rohit Sharma, Pathan and Ishant were impressive. To be fair to Tiwari, a debut at Brisbane against Lee and co. is not the dream debut you pray for.

Watching the ODI still beats getting up at 2:30 am on a work day to witness the Aus-Ind T-20 massacre. Less said the better, but I think we lost this match the minute Dhoni claimed “We will take the Twenty20 as one of the practice games.” Call me a cynic, but to me that translates to “We expect to get our asses kicked – in which case, I have my excuse ready: we weren’t taking this seriously. However, if we do manage to freakishly win because Lady Luck had nowhere else to go, we can always say we won even though we were treating it like a practice game.” I like Dhoni, and I think he is a decent captain, but what’s with the negativity?

Aakash Chopra

I like Aakash Chopra, as much for his temperament and technique as for his writing. I find his writing frank and honest. I wish he had a bigger role to play in this India tour than writing columns.

In 'Imagination, patience, luck' he talks about opening in tests and the challenges involved. And here he reminds the Indians to mind the famous Lord’s slope. After the first test he talks about the two lbws and analyzes them.

Learn from the best..

...is Ian Bell's mantra I would think. Read How I learned the craft.

The Warwickshire age-group coaches used to show us videos of great innings, and a fair number of them contained one Sachin masterclass after another. It was Steve Waugh for the mental stuff, Sachin for the technique. I especially remember an innings he played against Allan Donald, and we would be encouraged to do our best to absorb his genius and then go into the nets against the bowling machines and see what happened.

Rafael Nadal

Read Nadal’s Blog. Interesting to say the least. One thing is for sure – like McEnroe said, Nadal definitely earned a lot of respect and fans for his performance.

I am not going to go into details, into what I felt, into my thoughts, into the whole thing. I am just going to say I have great memories of these 2 weeks. I think I improved, I learned things, I played good matches, difficult ones, and I got to the final again. What happened in the final has been already written a lot, analyzed and said. The only thing I am going to say is that I was sad, very sad to lose the final since I thought I could have won it. Roger is the best, we know that, but I had my chances yesterday. It's over now and it's better for me not to think about it anymore (but it is difficult!).

The Wimbledon Final and the small matter of a shaving cream

We are fortunate enough to witness a terrific rivalry between Federer-Nadal which can only get more interesting in the days to come. Federer looked relieved after the match which could have gone either way. But then champions have this uncanny knack of stepping it up when it matters the most – which was exemplified by the way Federer fought back twice when down 15-40 on his own serve in the 5th set to elope with the trophy. But all was well as Bjon Borg pretended to be happy for Federer just like the Duke pretended to be genuinely interested in the private lives of the ball boys and girls.

But as far as I am concerned, Wimbledon 2007 will not be remembered for the high quality of tennis on display. It will be remembered for the Gillette ad featuring Tiger Woods, Thierry Henry and Roger Federer. Is it just me or was this commercial a little gay? (Not that there is anything wrong with it – Seinfeld). I think the media is getting carried away with this Woods-Federer friendship. I mean, here are two champions, dominating their sports like nobody’s business and instead of understanding and appreciating their friendship and respect towards each other, we have some interviewer asking Federer after the semifinals whether he bought Tiger a gift! WTF! It’s like they are lovers or something. Maybe in the next commercial we can have Federer shaving Tiger's head.

Shaving creams apart, I consider myself extremely lucky to have watched Sachin Tendulkar play cricket, Pete Sampras play tennis, Maradona play soccer, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan play basketball, and Tiger Woods play golf. I think Roger Federer is well into this group now and I sincerely think he could be the best tennis player ever. Unless of course he decides to promote Gillette Venus.

Dilip Sardesai

Former India Test batsman Dilip Sardesai died in Mumbai after suffering a multiple organ failure. He was 66. For a warm tribute to this great player read: Playing with head and heart

Dilip Sardesai's peers paid glowing tributes

Incidentally read Faroukh Engineer’s "tribute"

He was a very defensive batsman, though technically correct than me. But he would always ask me how I could manage to hit boundaries and sixes. I would get sometimes frustrated at his inability to rotate the strike as he couldn't drop the bat and take the single which I did. He would sort of plead, "I'm trying". But he was a lovely opening partner, and just like my other opening partner Sunil Gavaskar, he had tremendous confidence and patience.

Correct me if I am wrong, but Faroukh’s verbal diarrhea doesn’t exactly sound like a tribute to Dilip Sardesai. Is it that difficult to say a couple of nice things about a guy who has passed on? Is it that difficult to focus on somebody else for a minute? Maybe Faroukh was excited on getting a call from a reporter.

Rest in peace Dilip Sardesai.

99, 93

SRT scored 99 and 93 in his last two innings vs South Africa in Ireland. His 99 was a fighting knock in bowler friendly conditions while his 93 was an attacking thoroughly enjoyable knock where he used the pull shot with great effect against the quicks Ntini and Nel. And while his critics either have their feet stuck firmly in their mouth, or are busy writing sunny reports about the ‘return’ of the master batsman, the fact remains that we was never ‘gone.’ He has always been a consistent performer, an unselfish team player, a thorough gentleman on and off the field, playing with the same enthusiasm that he played with 17 years ago. Nothing pleases me more than the sight of SRT raising his bat towards the pavilion.

For the statistically inclined, check this post in cricinfo: 15000 and counting. Some excerpts and my take:
When Sachin Tendulkar reached his fifty in the second ODI against South Africa, he went past another milestone in a career chequered with record-breaking moments. Tendulkar became the first batsman to accumulate 15,000 runs in ODIs - he was the first to 10,000 runs as well. In the 189 ODI innings he has played when India has won, Tendulkar has scored 9061 runs at an average of 56.98, with a strike-rate of 89.72, all figures higher than his overall average. Which means his contribution has been vital for India wins. Conversely, India wins if SRT performs well.
He averages 47.96 in 36 finals (of tournaments involving three teams or more). Which means the weak argument that some critics present that he is not a big match player is horse shit. He averages 89.10 at a strike-rate of nearly 100 when the team has won in a final. Which could mean, the only time that we have probably won a tournament final is thanks to SRT.

Ireland ODIs

The general opinion about the ODIs in Ireland has been that it’s a waste of time in an already jammed Indian cricket calendar. But one man’s poison is another man’s candy. Ireland captain Trent Johnston says this weekend's one-day internationals against India and South Africa are of "vital importance to Irish cricket". I agree. It will definitely help promote the game in Ireland and generate some interest in the next generation cricketers.
Andrew White's only quibble? "I think the unions have got it wrong on this occasion. It should be a closed Saturday throughout Ireland because it will probably be the only time cricketers here will get the chance to see Tendulkar batting against Ireland."

Bedi's Doosra

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something.

Bedi – a great left arm orthodox spinner in his time – certainly talks… a lot. So here he is making his trademark controversial statement of the month. Gavaskar a 'destructive' influence - Bishan Bedi.

This is the same Bedi, who in 1990, had a brief stint as coach of the Indian national team. He was the first person to be appointed to this job in a full-time capacity. Following one cricket tour where India had played poorly, he famously threatened to dump the entire team in the sea on the return journey.

His past verbal diarrheas include: Muralitharan looks like a good javelin thrower and ‘Chucking is a bigger threat than bribing or betting.'

I know being a celebrity is not easy – especially with the millions most of them make, but I would expect them to stick to their core competency. If you are a sportsman, play your sport and leave the media to your spokesperson.

Want more? Read: The malaise of bitterness

Invited on stage at the Wisden International Awards to present a special achievement award for the Australian team to their coach John Buchanan, Bedi started by asking Buchanan provocatively whether he considered Wisden really to be the Bible of cricket. He then repeated a statement by Ian Chappell questioning the role of the coach in cricket, before lobbing down this arm-ball: "Tell us, John, have you made this Australian team great, or have they made you?" Buchanan had the grace to deal with the situation, and the hostess had the wit to intervene and ask Bedi to get on with the job.

See what I mean?

Fredalo, Shredalo.

But looks like Indian cricket is not the only laughing stock of the world. Read this sequence of events.

Fredalo wrecked World Cup - Vaughan (June 5)

"I didn't captain as well as I should've done because of the pressure I put myself under. I'd admit that. But I couldn't switch off because away from the field there was so much going on - with Bob Woolmer and 'Fredalo'."

So basically, Vaughan is blaming England’s poor performance, his wretched form, and poor captaincy on Woolmer and Flintoff.

Cumbes (Chief Executive of Lancashire) says Vaughan's comments 'despicable' (June 5)

"I think it is completely out of order, I think it's despicable, I think it stinks against a guy (Flintoff) who has given blood for England these past three or four years," Cumbes said. "He was the talisman in the Ashes series in 2005...this fella has given blood for England and I think it is appalling he's been treated in this fashion."

Note that Flintoff has “given blood” for England. Use the same words (like blood, sweat, service etc) with Indian players and we talk about the fat paychecks they receive.


Vaughan claims he was misquoted over Flintoff (June 6)

"I never used the word 'Fredalo'," said Vaughan. "As soon as you mention that, you are pinpointing one person. I'll be having dinner with him in an hour's time. It [the article] has been blown out of all proportion. One word changed the whole context of the article, a word which I didn't say."

This I didn’t expect. Especially when the reporter was sitting in front of him with a recorder the size of his brain. Or maybe that’s the reason he didn’t see it.


And here is the clincher.
Paper defends itself over Vaughan 'misquotes' (June 7)

But the paper's recording of the interview between Vaughan and the journalist Donald McRae shows Vaughan did use the word "Fredalo" to describe Flintoff's capsizing of a pedalo after a night of drinking in St Lucia. After Vaughan said that incidents affected the morale of the team, McRae said: "Was it ... ?" Vaughan replied: "Fredalo. It's bound to affect team spirit." He is also heard to use the term a second time later in the conversation.

Surprisingly, the English media mentioned Vaughan’s suspect memory of his choice of words and moved on with their lives. No sting operations, no headlines, no chaos, no talk about factions within the team, no issues with seniors, no dressing room gossip, no mud slinging, no destroying reputations. What a bore.

The Witch Hunt continues...

This is too funny to comment on...

Graham Ford to be India's next coach Jun 9, 2007
Ford turns down India job June 11, 2007
Another day, another crisis June 11, 2007
Emburey rules himself out of India's search for a coach June 12, 2007
Borde appointed manager for England tour June 12, 2007
BCCI surprised by Ford snub: Shah June 14, 2007

Why Emburey?

Mukul Kesavan couldn’t have done a better job of summing it up for all the perplexed individuals like me.

It's your way of saying to the team: "You're so slavishly fixated on the idea of a foreign coach that you'd pick a lamp post over over an Indian. So here's your lamp post."

Dileep Premchandran calls this a no-contest.

On the surface, it's as unequal a contest as Mike Tyson against Carl "The Truth" Williams. One man with 16 Test wins and eight losses (five of them to that team under the Southern Cross) pitted against another who failed to hack it as county coach. Saturday's meeting should be a formality then? Not quite. This is India, and the team could still end up saddled with a coach who's the cricketing equivalent or worse of Steve McClaren.

You can’t handle the truth!

A lie told often enough becomes the truth. – Lenin.

Former ICC president Ehsan Mani would sure be hoping so. I am a big proponent of keeping your stupidity to yourself, but Mani recently announced – publicly – that the 2007 World Cup was the best. I waited a week – in vain – for another press release from Mani apologizing for insulting our intelligence

In case you missed the World Cup fiasco:

1. Awesome Australia but awful organising

2. Barbados taxpayers foot bill for finale - Closing ceremony cost US$750,000.

3. Speed apologises for light chaos

4. Pure ignorance

Organisation ...or lack of
The quotes speak for themselves
"Malcolm has been living in Dubai for too long. As I've said before, they've got a hotel under the sea there and a ski resort in the desert. It's too far away from reality."Ian Chappell lashes out at Malcolm Speed for turning a blind eye on some obvious issues about hosting the World Cup in the West Indies

"We had to rely on the advice of the local organising committee to establish the prices of the tickets. It is, in retrospect, a little too rich for the local palate." Malcolm Speed washes the ICC's hands of responsibility for empty stands throughout the World Cup. Others weren't so convinced.

"This has been a World Cup for the organisers, the visitors and the players but certainly not for the people. That's why the stadiums are empty and that in itself is a con job. It's the biggest con job ever passed off in this region." Jack Warner, the head of the Caribbean's footballing fraternity, takes a swipe at the World Cup

"I thought Aleem was having a bit of a joke with us when he said it looks like we'd have to come back tomorrow and play three overs. I said: 'Mate, we've played the 20 overs, we've actually finished the game.'" Ricky Ponting on the final's farcical finish that just about summed up the tournament.

The Indian Which Hunt

Which candidate to go with is the multi-million dollar question facing the BCCI. Whatmore – with all his obvious interest for this job, which he made amply clear through the media, public, players, and post-it notes – was surprisingly left out of the race. Lets face it, the man has the necessary credentials. Anyway, that googly aside, now it’s down to two candidates, John Emburey and Graham Ford. Obviously “The One” will find the perfect opening combination, smack Sehwag on his balding head every time he has a fling (outside the off stump), fix Irfan’s bowling (just how the heck can you “forget” how to swing the ball beats me), fix the “senior” problems, teach Ganguly how to play the short stuff or get him – and the entire city of Calcutta – a nice retirement package, give Dravid a spine and some imagination, explain Yuvraj twice a day that he is not a super star yet, keep Bhajji out of the team till he looks like he might get a wicket, beat Australia in Australia, make the Indian team unbeatable, win the next three world cups, and live happily ever after.

Read this article on Cricinfo: Emburey – a surprise choice.

His lack of success at two counties, and the rather similar manner in which both roles ended, suggested that his future contribution will be away from direct day-to-day first-team coaching. All that makes India's interest surprising, unless all they were merely seeking to add substance to a one-horse race.

I have a queasy feeling about this whole selection process… What I would give to be a fly on the wall when the committee interviews the candidates!

Change is good.

Or bad. But mostly, change is just change. Anyway, there are some proposed changes to the game. The ICC will decide whether to implement these measures. More and more rules favoring the batsmen. Personally I like the idea of placing 3 fielders outside the circle in 2 powerplays. Also, the batting captain choosing a powerplay sounds exciting. I would think most of the captains would want to block the 45-50 over slot so they have their sloggers in with only 3 fielders outside the ring. With players like Dhoni, Afridi and Symonds on the international scene, we will need some lively bowlers to bowl in the ‘death’ overs.

Also read: ‘Spare a thought for the bowlers.’