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5 of 7
4 of 6
2 of 4... one more wicket down..
Pak Win...
:( neraya neraya catches vittutanga.. Sandeep and Unadkat really bowled well at the begining..
Defending sambians knocked out :|
Saurabh Netravalkar bowled extremely well. Great line, superb spell. We can expect him soon in the Indian team. :yes:
Though Sandeep bowled well, all his 27 balls are inswingers,variety-ey kaatala, paakuradhuku vera Munaf maadhriye irrukaan.
Though Pakistan won this game, to me Indians played more sensibly, couple of bad overs, we lost the track.
In the past five years, in fact, Sri Lanka and India have been involved in over 50 contests - nine Tests, 39 ODIs and three Twenty20s.
:shock: :fatigue:
Another Ind - srl series
Pakistan U-19 into the finals. WI U-19 missed a good chance from 35/3 they could have easily won this match. :x
Ill-conceived underestimations
Virender Sehwag's disparaging remarks about Bangladesh came back to haunt him. A look at this and other instances of statements that went horribly wrong
Sahil Dutta and Liam Brickhill
January 28, 2010
Comments: 7 | Text size: A | A
Virender Sehwag's remarks about Bangladesh will have won him no fans in that country © Associated Press
Related LinksPlayers/Officials: Aamer Sohail | David Gower | Tony Greig | Nasser Hussain | Brian Lara | David Lloyd | Glenn McGrath | Ricky Ponting | Virender Sehwag | Graeme Smith | Graeme Swann | Michael Vaughan
Virender Sehwag - Ordinary side
Virender Sehwag's confidence is unwavering, and he was in typical gung-ho mood in the press conference that preceded the first Test of India's tour to Bangladesh. He declared that his hosts "can surprise other teams in one-dayers but not in Test cricket. They are an ordinary side in Tests." Sehwag's Australian-like pre-match vitriol came back to bite him almost immediately. At the close of day one in Chittagong, India were floundering on 213 for 8, and every pundit in the country was lining up to have a pop. Sehwag had the last laugh though, as India fought back to win the Test.
Tony Greig - Grovel
Perhaps the most infamous case of a pre-series gaffe, Tony Greig's decision to tell BBC's Sportsnight exactly what he thought of the touring West Indians on the eve of their series in England soon backfired spectacularly and publicly. "I'm not really sure they're as good as everyone thinks," Greig said. "These guys, if they get on top they are magnificent cricketers. But if they're down, they grovel, and I intend, with the help of Closey [Brian Close] and a few others, to make them grovel." With West Indies firmly in control after the first four Tests, his comments had galvanised not only the opposition but also the tens of thousands of West Indians in London who flooded The Oval during the fifth Test like a crowd at an execution. As West Indies forced the point home in the heat of the final afternoon, Greig slowly walked towards the open stands on the Harleyford Road side of the ground and sunk to his knees, grovelling to the crowd. "I realise that I made a mistake in using that word at the start of the series and they haven't let me forget it," he told the press that night.
Nasser Hussain - There for the taking
Following a disastrous Ashes campaign in Australia and a premature exit from the World Cup, Nasser Hussain started the 2003 English season under scrutiny. He was soon branded 'selfish' by some quarters of the media after publicly declaring his ambition to play 100 Tests and lead England a record-breaking number of times. This pressure was ramped up by Hussain's successor as one-day captain, Michael Vaughan, steering England to an impressive victory in the one-day triangular tournament that preceded the Test series against South Africa. Then, in an interview before the opening Test, Hussain reckoned South Africa were "there for the taking" and derisively referred to opposite number as "Wottisname". Come the game at Edgbaston, Graeme Smith found a way to remind him, 277 times, as his crushing double-hundred brought the end to Hussain's reign.
Aamer Sohail - Go fetch!
An India v Pakistan contest in the knockout stages of a international tournament was never going to be quiet. The showpiece fixture of the 1996 Wold Cup at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore had crescendoed into a feverish atmosphere. Pakistan's openers, Aamer Sohail and Saeed Anwar, had ambushed the momentum generated by Ajay Jadeja's late-innings charge, by thumping 84 in ten overs of sizzling strokeplay. Having slashed a boundary to bring up his fifty, Sohail charged up to the bowler Venkatesh Prasad and pointed to the fence where the ball had flown, telling him to 'go fetch!' The next ball Prasad uprooted his off stump, the crowd exploded and Pakistan soon collapsed. With the match there for the taking, Sohail's hot-head had got the better of him and cost his team a place in the World Cup semi-final.
Graeme Swann - Pink Ferraris
"If I get £300,000 after tax then I'd buy a bright pink Ferrari with it," quipped Graeme Swann. But with the worldwide recession in the headlines, captain Kevin Pietersen cautioned: "I respect everything that's happening in the world at the moment. I've got friends who are struggling, people who have lost their jobs and stuff, and there's no way I want anyone to carry on like a clown." Yet his statesman-like call for sensitivity was a waste of breath as England turned up for the 'Stanford Twenty20 for $20m' dreaming of riches before leaving with nothing. The batsmen were in generous mood, playing like millionaires and giving their wickets away with carefree abandon. England met a disciplined, talented and hugely motivated Stanford Superstars XI and were duly thumped by ten wickets. Chris Gayle is rarely one to reveal much emotion but after the match he admitted: "I've been really, really stressed out [and that the win] is better than anything in the world."
David Gower - When a gloat is not a gloat
David Gower's languid elegance with the bat and eloquence with his words often came back to haunt him. On occasions, such as his leg-side waft on the stroke of lunch of the 1991 Adelaide Ashes Test, he was fully to blame. Yet there were times when he wasn't. After leading England to an Ashes triumph in 1985, he responded to a journalist's question about the forthcoming tour of the West Indies, the undisputed heavyweights of the world game. Gower, with tongue firmly in cheek, declared "I'm sure they'll be quaking in their boots". Predictably England were mauled 5-0 for their second successive 'blackwash' series, and Gower was roundly lampooned for the remark.
Michael Vaughan - Massive Pads
You would have thought England captains would have learnt better than to sledge Graeme Smith. But tucked away safely in the commentary box during England's tour of South Africa in 2009-10, Michael Vaughan couldn't resist a little pop at the South African leader who'd seen the back of Vaughan one year before. He reckoned England had "nothing to fear from the South Africans" and that captain Graeme Smith had "massive pads" - ie, he was ripe for a lbw dismissal. Smith didn't respond directly but finished the series the highest scorer on either side, with 427 runs at 61.00. In his seven dismissals in the series he was out lbw just once.
Tony Greig was the only one left grovelling after the Test © The Sun
Glenn McGrath - Five-nil
Glenn McGrath was never one to stand down from a pre-series verbal jousting match, and his prediction before the 2005 Ashes series of a 5-0 whitewash for Australia surprised very few. McGrath even went so far as to claim he would return to Australia by boat if England managed to somehow win their first Ashes series in 18 years. After his match-winning performance in the first Test at Lord's, things seemed to be going just the way he had predicted. But his ankle injury before the second Test at Edgbaston, and subsequent elbow trouble, reduced McGrath's potency and, despite Shane Warne's superhuman efforts, England took the edge in a thrilling series to prevail 2-1. However, this did not dissuade him from making a similar 5-0 prediction for the next Ashes series, in Australia in 2006-07 which, in the event, turned out to be true.
David Lloyd - We flippin' murdered 'em
England were the only country to vote against Zimbabwe's bid to gain full Test status and this perceived slight, as well as the colonial history between the two countries, meant that the Zimbabweans needed little to motivate themselves on England's first senior tour of the country. After a see-sawing first four days in the first Test at Bulawayo, England were set 205 to win in 37 overs on the final afternoon. Desperate bowling tactics by the Zimbabweans set up an extremely tight finish and, with Nick Knight run out attempting to scamper through for the winning runs, for the first time ever a drawn Test had finished with the scores level. David Lloyd, England's coach, was incensed by Zimbabwe's tactics and made his feelings known at the end of the match, famously claiming "we flippin' murdered 'em". It was not long before the remark came back to haunt him as, backed up by baying crowds, Zimbabwe demolished England in the one-day series which followed. "People have made comparisons between my 'murdered 'em' comment and Tony Greig's 'grovel'," Lloyd later admitted. "Sometimes you say things you regret and you just have to live with the consequences."
Ricky Ponting - Ankle-biters' revenge
The regularity with which the major cricketing nations bash the minnows into submission belies the fact that these games do, once in a while, serve up a surprise result with slip-ups on the big stage of an international tournament being all the more embarrassing. Such was the case in Australia's first game of the World Twenty20 in South Africa in 2007. Appearing distinctly under-cooked, Australia scrapped their way to 138 for 9 against Zimbabwe's medium-pacers. Amid scenes of jubilation from his team-mates, Brendan Taylor's perfectly-paced unbeaten 60 saw Zimbabwe home in the final over while the Australians seemed scarcely able to believe what had befallen them. But there was a feeling that Australia had this coming as their attitude towards Twenty20 had verged on the indifferent from the format's very inception, and at the end Ricky Ponting tellingly said "we've got to start respecting the game a bit more". He admitted he was embarrassed by the result adding that there "would be many Australians back home feeling the same way".
Brian Lara - West Indies World Cup disarray
Sometimes, actions speak louder than words. Brian Lara's conduct at the crease during West Indies' World Cup game against Kenya in Pune gave a good idea both of the legendary batsman's attitude towards Kenya's bowlers and the extent to which the once great West Indian team had disintegrated. After bundling Kenya out for 166, West Indies lost two early wickets but were still in a strong position. Sensible batting was all that was needed to complete the expected win, but Lara proceeded to throw his bat around as if he were in the nets, swishing at everything and almost being run out before he had faced ten balls. He gave his 11th, an innocuous looking delivery from Rajab Ali, the same treatment but succeeded only in edging it through to 'keeper Tariq Iqbal. Short, stout and bespectacled, Iqbal was not a natural behind the stumps but he managed to cling, somehow, onto the chance offered by Lara. The Kenyans, delirious with excitement, ran through the rest of the West Indian batting order to complete one of the biggest upsets in cricket history.
Sahil Dutta and Liam Brickhill are assistant editors of Cricinfo
Feeds: Sahil Dutta
http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/con...ry/446008.html
u19 world cup
aussie defeat pak :clap:
Hussey topples Dhoni from ODI batsman top spot
Dubai, Feb 1 (PTI) Australian middle-order batsman Michael Hussey dethroned Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni from the top spot in the ICC ODI batsmen chart updated today.
Hussey, whose 46-ball 40 was instrumental in Australia's win in the fifth ODI against Pakistan yesterday in Perth, has 825 rating points, three more than Dhoni who also had a good show in the recent tri-series in Bangladesh.
Sachin Tendulkar (at seventh), who skipped the Bangladesh tri-series, and Virender Sehwag (at ninth) are the other Indian batsmen in the top 10 with 723 and 702 points respectively.
Yuvraj Singh (12th), Gautam Gambhir (19th) and Suresh Raina (20th) make it to the top 20. Bangladesh tri-series top-scorer Virat Kohli is at 21st.
Among the bowlers, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is the only Indian in the top 10 at sixth. Pacer Zaheer Khan is the next highest ranked Indian at 21st.
//
Dhoni... 1 yr-ku mela no-1-la irunthanlla? great...
Interview Link (both video & transcript) with Hyderabadi stylist - VVS! 8-)
Being in the twilight of his career, hope the graceful batsman scores a big one against the visiting South Africans. That would be a real treat for the eyes, I say. 8-)
http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/con...ry/446525.html
Pete sampras maari athigam week irruka record pannuvaanu pathaen just miss ... intha series mudiyatum 2 century will bring him back at top :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Sourav
Bangladesh tour of New Zealand, 1st ODI at Napier
New Zealand 336/9 (50 overs) Oram 83 (40 balls)
Bangladesh 82/1 (13.4 overs)
[url=http://www.cricinfo.com/2010iccwt20/engine/current/match/439495.html]Pakistan thEigiradhu, Afghanistan vaLargiradu[/quote]
Afghan beat Ireland,which is probably a comment on the level of Cricket just below top level. But credit to the Afghanis for reaching this level so quickly
Afghanistan secure second win
Plum FYI They beat the ODI playing nation Scott this time
England v Pakistan.. 1st T20 in Dubai today..
Pakistan batting first scored 129 runs.. and our own Mr. Aamir Sohail is complaining about how bad they played and giving us LKG lecture on what has happened..
129, is what Pakistan had scored, their second lowest score in T20 as far as Pakistan is concerned, their batting was made hard by some good bowling from England - epadi thaan full stop illaama Thiru Aamir pesugiraaro
Pak fights back ENG 18/3
Andy Zaltzman :lol:
Quote:
if Amit Mishra had bowled Amla a ravenous man-eating crocodile, he would have covered his off stump and gently knocked the slavering reptile safely into the leg-side before staring his stoical stare back at the bowler, as if to say, "Is that all you've got? Go on, try a boa constrictor next, or a tank of piranhas, I am in form."
Quote:
Until then, may cricket guide you well, listeners. And I'll play you out with some more lies about cricketers.
Moustache-wielding Australian ex-captain Allan Border won't leave his house in the morning until he has correctly guessed the outcome of five consecutive coin tosses. During a run of bad luck, he spent the whole of 1998 stuck in his front porch, calling heads.
On nights out, New Zealand stalwart Kenny Rutherford sometimes pretends he is in fact nuclear-physics whizz Ernest Rutherford, and goes round bars offering to split atoms for cash.
Brett Lee
Lee set to quit Tests to prolong career
Cricinfo staff
February 22, 2010
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Brett Lee could be about to follow the example of Andrew Flintoff, and retire from Test cricket © Getty Images
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Players/Officials: Brett Lee
Teams: Australia
Brett Lee could be set to follow in the footsteps of Andrew Flintoff, Jacob Oram and a number of other high-profile cricketers by retiring from Test cricket in a bid to prolong his one-day and Twenty20 career.
According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, Lee is expected to confirm his decision at a press conference on Friday. At the age of 33, he currently lies fourth on the list of Australia's all-time Test wicket-takers, with 310 victims in 76 Tests dating back to his debut in 1999.
However, he has not played a Test since suffering a stress fracture of the foot during Australia's home series defeat against South Africa at Melbourne in December 2008. He was forced to sit out of the subsequent 2-1 victory in South Africa, before a side strain ruled him out of the entire Ashes campaign. An elbow injury then sidelined him for Australia's 2009-10 home series wins against West Indies and Pakistan.
In between whiles, however, he has featured prominently in Australia's one-day campaigns, including a 6-1 post-Ashes trouncing of England and a successful defence of their Champions Trophy title in South Africa. He was also Man of the Match as New South Wales beat Trinidad & Tobago to claim the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 title in Hyderabad.
According to the SMH, Lee's decision to retire from Tests was influenced by a discussion with Flintoff, leading to speculation that he too could seek to pursue a freelance career to maximise his earnings in the final years of his career.
On announcing his own Test retirement back in August, Flintoff stated that his ambition was to become the best one-day and Twenty20 player in the world. His manager Chubby Chandler added that he would have received lucrative offers from at least four Twenty20 teams across the world this year, had he not been recuperating from knee surgery.
Like Flintoff, Lee has a wide global appeal, with Bollywood connections adding to his marketability in India, and Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, recently stated on Twitter that Lee had committed to his 2010 contract with King's XI Punjab.
http://www.cricinfo.com/australia/co...ry/449615.html
Brilliant Article in Cricinfo on Commentators:
Where did opinion go?
All too few men stand between us and the mind-numbing drivel that commentators and players spew these days
Sriram Dayanand
February 22, 2010
As 2009 drew to a close, an atypical cricket-related comment emanating from unusual quarters startled and delighted us, and provided a much-needed giggle. A phlegmatic observation by Phil Stoyanoff, the curator of the McLean Park cricket ground in Napier, illustrated a quality cricket has lost in recent times. Questioned about his insistence that the pitch he had prepared for the deciding Test against Pakistan would produce a result, he said, "Yes, because both sides have such bad batsmen. That's my honest opinion - they're useless."
Even before the drum roll had subsided, the damage controllers had been flown in. The PR manager for the New Zealand cricket board practically implored anyone he spotted to "use [Stoyanoff's] comments in context and with restraint". While the well-oiled spin machine had been concentrating on monitoring and orchestrating Daniel Vettori's utterances in front of the press corps, an errant microphone stuck under the nose of an unsuspecting member of the supporting cast had breached the façade.
"Opinions are like a**holes. Everybody has one." So observed a glint-eyed Dirty Harry. Those were the seventies and Harry's wisdom would have been out of place in cricket in the new millennium. The 2000s were cricket's first global television decade. A decade when every cricket utterance reached us bleached, filtered, sanitised, and sans any semblance of opinion. Insight and introspection gave way to inanities of such mind-numbingly repetitive nature that players and commentators blurred into each other - like they had all been sent to finishing school, drilled by Professor Henry Higgins. "Your lips move, but I can't hear what you are saying" sang we, the comfortably numb, as yet another captain released a stream of nothingness into a microphone far away.
Cricket matches of all ilk sprouted year-round and worldwide, like weeds in a time-lapse National Geographic video. As blanket television coverage of events was beamed out incessantly, we had to endure the ubiquitous ritual of the post-match ceremony, the epilogue to every encounter, providing the perfect embodiment of the vacuous nature of the spoken word in cricket over the last decade. Breathless presenters, who appeared to have watched an entirely different match than the one beamed out to us, orchestrated these affairs from logo-laden platforms bearing rows of dignitaries, a la police-identification line-ups. Captains and men of the match dished out homilies, platitudes and pockets of wind.
Dhoni? Ponting? Smith? Strauss? Did it matter? No, for "we were 30 runs short on the day" anyway. Thirty runs short? You were just one run short, but let us not mention the atrocious bowling by your frontliners.
"I just wanted to play every ball on its merit"? Not quite. You spent the first 10 overs fanning your off stump.
"We needed our bowlers to take early wickets". Oh yeah? No shit, Sherlock.
As Ravi Shastri breathed hard like Darth Vader in pregnant pauses mid-question, and as Ramiz Raja entangled himself irretrievably in the web of grammar, players retaliated with, "The team cause was more important for me."
The prized place in the pantheon of inane verbiage that the decade begat has to go to "the right areas", which brooks no competition as the poster child of the malaise afflicting cricket interviews and press conferences. And in the latter half of the decade it came with the perfect accompanying visual - one of a doleful Monty Panesar.
As blanket television coverage of events was beamed out incessantly, we had to endure the ubiquitous ritual of the post-match ceremony, the epilogue to every encounter, providing the perfect embodiment of the vacuous nature of the spoken word in cricket
Making a much-ballyhooed delayed entrance in the third Ashes Test match of the 5-0 whitewash England were handed out in 2006-07, Monty immediately nailed Justin Langer, bowled by a drifting and dipping beauty. When asked later on the sidelines by Mark Taylor about that perfect delivery, Monty, looking like he was about to burst into tears, mumbled, "I just tried to get the ball into the right areas." It evoked images of coaches scheming and plotting with their bowlers, hovering over low-lit tables, moving pins around the "areas" of a pitch map, like General Patton in his bunker pondering the Normandy landing.
Live commentary, a well-established source for opinion and analysis, was scrubbed clean too. Erstwhile opinionated voices were now contracted by ratings- and revenue-obsessed cricket boards, and matches were accompanied by the voices of cheerleaders. Too wary of saying anything substantial, they concentrated on honing their clichés and giggling away with their co-hosts. Even the once edgy and opinionated-by-nature Sunil Gavaskar had begun to sound like a chirpy choirboy as the decade ended.
The scalpel was wielded now and then, but all too rarely. Like when Geoffrey Boycott spluttered, "In my day we didn't indulge in any of that nancy-boy stuff" as the ritual of batsmen coyly touching gloves mid-pitch unfolded between overs.
Ian Healy, Tony Greig, L Sivaramakrishnan, Arun Lal, Michael Slater, Ranjit Fernando, Ian Bishop, Danny Morrison, Kepler Wessels, Robin Jackman, Waqar Younis, Aamer Sohail blended seamlessly into the commercials and background noise of the crowd. Exceptions in the form of the thoughtfulness of Mike Atherton, the loquacious openness of Harsha Bhogle, or the schoolboyish enthusiasm masking a keen insight of a Mark Taylor did exist, but by and large white noise was what we got.
However, nestled amid "right areas", "tracer bullet", "if you are going to flash, flash hard", "not enough dot balls", "it's all happening out here today", "looks like a good pitch for batting" and "the boys gave it their best", there is hope. Flowers can and will burst through the weeds occasionally. Mr Stoyanoff aside, as the new decade dawns on us, the hopes and expectations of the cricketing world were gamely and boldly being borne by two individuals at least: Virender Sehwag and Graeme Swann.
Sehwag single-handedly has done enough to warrant being appointed spokesperson for every match India plays. Picture this: as the winning captain of the Delhi Daredevils in an inconsequential game in the second IPL (his team had already qualified for the semi-finals), Sehwag was asked by a hyperventilating Ravi Shastri how his team motivated itself for the match.
"There is always an incentive to play hard. The team management has promised $50,000 for each win. So there is an incentive," said a poker-faced Viru.
His views on an upcoming tour of New Zealand and the kind of pitches he expected: "If they give us bouncy and seaming tracks, they will struggle against our attack, because their batsmen are not technically sound."
He has also demonstrated that he is equally proficient with foot-in-mouth as he is with tongue-in-cheek, as when he branded the Bangladesh bowling attack "ordinary" the day before India went down like ninepins in Chittagong this year. But get past his arsenal of clichés - the "of course", the "obviously", and the "see the ball, hit the ball" - and Sehwag never fails to elicit a chuckle or raise an eyebrow with a straight-faced gem.
Swann packs some serious insights into his seemingly cheeky and flippant remarks every time he spots a microphone.
"I want my MBE now," he retorted after England clinched the 2009 Ashes, those five words speaking volumes about the aftermath of the previous edition in England.
Asked about his immediate feelings on taking the wicket that sealed the series, he responded with, "I am not really sure. I think I was too busy sliding around midwicket on my knees, looking like a cheap Italian footballer".
Man of the Match at the tense draw in Centurion in December: "We [England] are single-handedly saving Test cricket right now."
Bless them. And may they win many a Man of the Match award in the coming year, thereby redeeming their anodyne brethren and providing solace to our numbed ears.
"In a world full of audio and visual marvels, may words matter to you and be full of magic," wrote English journalist Godfrey Smith. Alas, amid the sensory overload of those marvels, words have ended up victims, trampled in the stampede. Players and commentators, prodded and pressured for soundbites relentlessly, have eschewed wit, humour, incisiveness and openness for mumbling. Exceptions arrive like a bolt from the blue now and again, the element of surprise having more to do with rarity than relevance. Anil Kumble's impeccable impersonation of Bill Woodfull after the ugliness of the Test match in Sydney early in 2008 stood out - not only for its nod to an epochal event but for the power of the words, and for Kumble's intent to express an opinion. Reminding us that in this world of audio and visual marvels, words can be magical too.
http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/con...ry/449322.html
Hearing something from "King" Richards after quite sometime now 8-)
http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/con...ry/449498.html
Dickie Bird
'Nobody in the world objected to Dickie Bird'
The former English umpire on his relationship with lbws, the best players he saw, the use of technology and more
February 26, 2010
Dickie Bird on the final day of his last County Championship match, Yorkshire v Warwickshire, Headingley, September 12, 1998
"I always told myself if I was physically fit I would be mentally fit. I tried to make myself concentrate every ball, every hour for seven hours" © PA Photos
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Players/Officials: Dickie Bird | Dennis Lillee | Barry Richards | Frank Tyson
Teams: England
Mr Bird, I am a big fan of you and miss you a lot. What was the reason for your vendetta against lbws? I remember Mike Atherton being shell-shocked when you gave one against him in your final Test. asked Keshav Athreya from India
He wasn't shell-shocked at all. He said he was out and the replay showed he was out. It was the first over of the match, and England were playing India at Lord's. I had no doubt in my mind about it being plumb and he agreed. Lbws are a matter of opinion.
Who would you rate as the best batsman you have seen? asked Matt from New Zealand
Sunil Gavaskar, Barry Richards, Viv Richards, Martin Crowe, Greg Chappell, to name a few, were all great. If I had to pick one, Barry Richards was the best. But the allrounder, in any era, would be Garfield Sobers - we will never see his like again. He was three cricketers rolled into one.
The admiration was mutual. In his books and articles he always said I was the best umpire, and that was a tremendous compliment, coming from the greatest player ever.
How do you concentrate throughout the day? asked Karthick Santhanam from the USA
Honestly, I never had any problem with any professional cricketer throughout my career. As for concentration, I always maintained my fitness. I always told myself, if I was physically fit I would be mentally fit. I tried to make myself concentrate every ball, every hour for seven hours. I kept telling myself, "Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate".
When the West Indian bowlers were at their peak, in the 70s and 80s, did they sledge or abuse the batsmen, or was it only plain banter? Also, how did you tackle them bowling at the bodies of tailenders? asked Dhiren Shah from India
It was only plain banter. I umpired for different generations: in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and I did one in the 2000s when I came out of retirement to do a match between the Rest of the World against the World XI. So that is a long time, nearly 25 years as Test umpire.
If the situation got out of hand I would go up to the bowler, to the captain, and the game used to carry on normally. If there was even a little bit intimidating bowling I would nip it in the bud. I would never allow any bowler to bowl at a tailender, since he cannot defend himself.
What is your opinion on the UDRS? Does it not undermine the authority of the on-field umpire? asked Ananth Swaminathan from India
It does undermine the umpire. We made our own decisions, but now the umpire makes only about two to three decisions. I wouldn't walk out if I were to umpire today. It has become a lot easier for umpires.
Sometimes a team says it doesn't want to play under the supervision of a certain umpire. What do you think the umpire should do in such a situation? asked Shahzad from Pakistan
It is up to the ICC to decide. No country has a say in the matter, but they used to do in my day. Though nobody in the world objected to Dickie Bird.
Are you surprised that football has still not adopted video technology? asked Ashwin Raghu from India
I admire Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, for not adopting technology in football. Football is only 90 minutes, but in cricket you can't keep holding the game up for referral decisions. People pay a lot of money to watch Tests, so you have to keep it flowing.
Do you agree it is important for cricket to do its utmost to retain its heritage: whites, red ball, five-day games, cable-knit sweaters etc? asked James Totty from the UK
I am a traditionalist. But the game has changed so much and the crowds enjoy the coloured gear, the razzmatazz, all the music, so we have got to go along with that now.
Who was the fastest bowler you watched during your career? And what do you think the future holds for English cricket? asked Siddhant Pradhan from India
The fastest bowler ever is Frank Tyson. The best fast bowler has to be Dennis Lillee - the greatest fast bowler.
As for English cricket, there are some fine young players who are coming through and the future looks very good indeed.
You were known for not giving lbws until you were 100% sure. How do you think the new referral system would have affected your lbw calls? asked Karthikeyan from India
There are so many things that need to be taken into consideration while making an lbw decision. So you cannot go by Hawk-Eye, because it cannot tell the state of the pitch, how much the ball bounced, how much it seamed, how much it swung in the air. Everybody will tell you Hawk-Eye is not perfect. The only man who can give lbws is the on-field umpire.
"You cannot go by Hawk-Eye because it cannot tell the state of the pitch, how much the ball bounced, how much it seamed, how much it swung in the air. Everybody will tell you Hawk-Eye is not perfect. The only man who can give lbws is the on-field umpire"
Who do you think is the best umpire currently in world cricket, and why? asked Varun from Australia
It is difficult to say who is the best umpire in the world now, because all the decisions are made by electronic aids. All the authority has been by taken away from the umpire.
What has been your funniest moment on a cricket field? asked Harish from India
Once, Allan Lamb brought a walkie-talkie along in his pocket. He asked me if I could keep it. I wouldn't have it because it was in the middle of a Test. But he gave it to me and it buzzed - it was Ian Botham calling me.
Which batsman was most sporting when it came to accepting your decisions, and which one least? asked Jitesh Sinha from the USA
Throughout my career I never had a batsman dispute my decision.
Dickie Bird, a retired umpire now, is busy with the Dickie Bird Foundation, which works with underprivileged children across England to help them with all sports. It is run by five trustees who give out grants to give youngsters a start in life.
http://www.cricinfo.com/page2/content/story/449972.html
Zimbabwe tour of WI's
Only T20I, Port of Spain, Trinidad
Zimbabwe won by 26 runs
Zim - 105 All out.
WI - 79/7 - 20 Overs.
P.S : No Gayle in this match.
Schedule
1st ODI: West Indies v Zimbabwe at Providence
Mar 4 (09:30 local, 13:30 GMT)
2nd ODI: West Indies v Zimbabwe at Providence
Mar 6 (09:30 local, 13:30 GMT)
3rd ODI: West Indies v Zimbabwe at Kingstown
Mar 10 (09:30 local, 13:30 GMT)
4th ODI: West Indies v Zimbabwe at Kingstown
Mar 12 (09:30 local, 13:30 GMT)
5th ODI: West Indies v Zimbabwe at Kingstown
Mar 14 (09:30 local, 13:30 GMT)
Should be a good opportunity for Zimbabwe to bounce back. :)
Another interesting series:
2nd ODI: Bangladesh v England at Dhaka
Mar 2 (14:00 local, 08:00 GMT)
3rd ODI: Bangladesh v England at Chittagong
Mar 5 (09:00 local, 03:00 GMT)
Bangladesh A v England XI at Chittagong
Mar 7-9 (09:30 local, 03:30 GMT)
1st Test: Bangladesh v England at Chittagong
Mar 12-16 (09:30 local, 03:30 GMT)
2nd Test: Bangladesh v England at Dhaka
Mar 20-24 (09:30 local, 03:30 GMT)
Bangladesh 260/6 (50 ov)
England 261/8 (48.5 ov)
England won by 2 wickets (with 7 balls remaining)
Match details
Toss England, who chose to field
Series England led the 3-match series 2-0
ODI debuts Suhrawadi Shuvo (Bangladesh); JC Tredwell (England)
Player of the match EJG Morgan (England)
http://www.cricinfo.com/bdeshveng201...ch/426421.html
http://www.ptinews.com/news/544964_M...ater-this-year
Murali to retire from tests
என்னதான் எனக்கு கருத்து வேறுபாடு இருந்தாலும் (ஆமா இவர் பெரிய Richie Benaud !) I must say he deserves most of his applause. No other bowler has dictated terms to the opposition so many times as far as I have seen.
1000 wicket edutha apoorva sigAmaNi aayittu retire aavaarnu pArthEn. Virumandi en kanavula maNNai aLLi pOttuttAn!
With most of the 90s stars gone, cricket post 2011 WC its going to be impossible to watch cricket post 2011.
Vara vara kiricut-la youth flayers oda kOvAlty "tonty tonty" kalAchArathal seerazhindhu vittadhOnu yossika thonudhu... :(
England 284/5 (50 ov)
Bangladesh 239/9 (50.0 ov)
Match details
Toss Bangladesh, who chose to field
Series England won the 3-match series 3-0
ODI debut A Shahzad (England)
Player of the match C Kieswetter
Done and dusted... England whitewashes (not being racist) Bangladesh.. 2 tests to goo..
Well, England is the only team to not have lost to Bangladesh in ODIs.
One of those weird things that makes Cricket the fascinating enigma that is.
And Zimbabwe won by 2 runs in the first ODI against WI.
my siggy.. I love this guy :
I too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aalavanthan
Rana, Malik get one-year bans, Younis and Yousuf axed from international cricket
http://www.cricinfo.com/pakistan/con...ry/451392.html
The PCB has struck against its players with a venom unseen in recent memory, carrying out the deepest cull of a senior cricket team in many years, banning and fining seven of its top players after the side's disastrous, winless tour of Australia. The board effectively banned Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf from playing for Pakistan in any format, while handing out one-year bans to Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. Shahid Afridi and the Akmal brothers were fined Rs2-3 million for various misdemeanours and put on six-month probations.
Action had been expected once details of the inquiry committee's report recommendations were leaked in the press on Monday and Ijaz Butt, chairman PCB, had followed it up by saying "more than significant action" would be taken against players. While the punishments for Malik, Rana, Afridi and the Akmal brothers were expected, the action against Yousuf and Younis has caught most people off-guard.
"Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, keeping in view their infighting which resulted in bringing down the whole team, their attitude has a trickledown effect which is a bad influence for the whole team, should not be part of national team in any format," said a board statement.
The PCB has stopped short of calling the punishment a life ban. "They will not be part of any Pakistan team in any format from here on," Taffazul Rizvi, the board's legal advisor told Cricinfo. "A life ban means they cannot play domestic cricket or any other similar cricket, but we are not stopping them from that. They can play domestic cricket or county cricket here and abroad."
Kamran and Umar Akmal were fined Rs 3 and 2 million respectively [$35,000 and $24,000] presumably for their part in the run-up to the final Test in Hobart, when Kamran repeatedly and publicly insisted he would be picked despite a PCB release stating the opposite, and Umar allegedly feigned an injury and threatened to not play.
Afridi was fined Rs 3 million and put on six months' probation for his ball-biting incident while captaining the side in the last ODI in Perth, for which he has already been punished by the ICC. The PCB release called it a "shameful act" that "has brought the game and country into disrepute".
The six-man committee completed its report last week and sent it to Ijaz Butt. The chairman held a meeting with the selection committee on Monday in which he briefed them on the contents of the inquiry committee's report. He warned the selectors - now headed by Mohsin Khan - that he had "shocking news" for them and proceeded to inform them of the details of the report.
More news to follow...
kizhinjudhu!
Yaen Pakistan cricketla mattum adikkadi ipdi nadakkudhu? Oruthan ball saapidaran, oruthan drugs use panraan. Oru disciplineae illai!!!
suththam :lol:
Well done PCB :clap: very bold decision! :thumbsup: