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Shoaib Malik axed as captain. Well, was he ever one?

Shoaib Malik has been axed as the captain of Pakistan cricket team! For me it did not come as a surprise at all. It was always a big question for me why Younis Khan was not the captain as Younis was the only person on the side who had a lot of experience blended with excellent leadership qualities!

Subcontinent teams always had this mindset of making one of the most experienced or main member of the team as the captain. The wrong examples of previous captains included Salim Malik, Javed Miandad, Dilip Vengsarkar, K.Srikkanth and even Inzamam Ul Haq! The basics of captaincy is leadership qualities and ability to hold the team together under any conditions. People like Imran Khan, Kapil Dev, Arjuna Ranatunga and Saurav Ganguly have been true leaders and even some of those short-lived captains like Ravi Shastri have been excellent strategists.

Shoaib Malik always looked feeble and clueless on the field. The captaincy has not only afffected his batting and bowling but also the confidence and motivation levels. First of all, it is never easy to lead a Pakistan team that has brats like Shoaib Akhtar and several experienced players like Mohammed Yousuf. On top of that if you do not exercise your authority and command respect you are a goner and this is exactly what happened to Shoaib Malik.

I have always been a fan of Younis Khan and actually liked him better than Mohammed Yousuf due to his presence on the field and match winning performances away from flat pitches as well. Moreover a captain has to be somebody who is an automatic choice on the side and I doubt if Shoaib Malik can be one in the future.

I wish Younis Khan all the very best and hope that he doesn’t revert to his old habits of taking emotional decisions like quiting abrubtly! He should be at the least seeing Pakistan through the next World Cup!

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South Africa – All set to become Number One

I just finished watching the third ODI between South Africa and Australia. These South Africans are really up to something and it was a display of pure prowess and power during this series! I can see the way they are turning out to be such a big fighting side having a good blend of experience and youth!

Despite Smith‘s absence Botha is doing an excellent job of leading the side and he’s setting examples every now and then with good catches, fielding, bowling and patient batting when he has to hold the side together. Albie Morkel, is turning out to be a major ODI all-rounder. If Gibbs is there to exploit the opening power-plays, Albie seems to be mastering how to power away to winning positions by leaving the opposition clueless during the batting team’s power play option.

If things continue the way it’s happening now for South Africa, they are sure to be at Number #1 at all forms of the game soon!

As for Australia, they need to really prove that their confidence is not fully lost!

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Kevin Pietersen vs Peter Moores vs ECB – Power Play is on!

So the inevitable has happend! Kevin Pietersen has quit his captaincy role the England side. And Peter Moores, the coach/Team Director has been sacked. Nobody knows if KP was sacked as well but at least it sounded more like it was the captain’s decision.

Now, Andrew Strauss, who had a year-long stint earlier pitches in as the captain. It may be recalled that Andrew Strauss, who is in the middle of regaining his form and confidence, had actually lost his batting form after he took over the captaincy.

The power-struggle between the captain and coach was over another former captain Michael Vaughan who wants to come back to English test side. KP wants him which is quite understandable due to the poor batting stability of the England test team. However, Moores doesn’t want him back! With Ashes coming in, I thought somebody like Vaughan would have been a good inclusion.

It seems the dressing room itself is divided over this issue and that’s what motivated KP to quit. Obviously there are people who were not happy with KP’s privileges as a captain. Now, if Vaughan comes back this England team will have 5 former captains like the Indian test team of 2008 beginning! It’s not going to be a very nice situation for team England going forward.

Captain-Coach-Selectors power games are not new to World cricket (and for any sport for that matter). For most teams in this world, the captain and/or coach has some say in team selection. It’s due to the past rows (and regional selection politics) that the BCCI recently decided that the captains and coaches will not have any say in the selection matters going forward. Remember, Dhoni was not all that satisfied over the ODI selection row when England was in India a couple of months ago.

Anyways, let the god (err…Queen) save the English Cricket! After all the game was arguably invented there and they probably know how to deal with the situation.

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ICC Hall of fame – First list of players released!

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has just inducted a number of cricket legends into their very first hall of fame list. This move is part of the centenary celebrations planned by ICC and was well supported by FICA (Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations). Since, FICA was involved in the picking of players from the respective countries, there should not be much room for complaints.

The initial list (in the order of last name) of 55 players include the following:

Sydney Barnes
Bishan Bedi
Alec Bedser
Richie Benaud
Allan Border
Ian Botham
Geoffrey Boycott
Donald Bradman
Greg Chappell
Ian Chappell
Denis Compton
Colin Cowdrey
Kapil Dev
Sunil Gavaskar
Lance Gibbs
Graham Gooch
David Gower
WG Grace
Tom Graveney
Gordon Greenidge
Richard Hadlee
Walter Hammond
Neil Harvey
George Headley
Jack Hobbs
Michael Holding
Leonard Hutton
Rohan Kanhai
Imran Khan
Alan Knott
Jim Laker
Harold Larwood
Dennis Lillee
Ray Lindwall
Clive Lloyd
Hanif Mohammad
Rodney Marsh
Malcolm Marshall
Peter May
Javed Miandad
Keith Miller
Bill O’Reilly
Graeme Pollock
Wilfred Rhodes
Barry Richards
Viv Richards
Andy Roberts
Garfield Sobers
Brian Statham
Fred Trueman
Derek Underwood
Clyde Walcott
Everton Weekes
Frank Woolley
Frank Worrell

Rodney Marsh, the legendary Australian wicket keeper, was the first one to receive the commemorative cap that’s being given to the hall of fame legends or their relatives.

ICC will keep updating this list from time to time. Definitely, a number of players who are playing right now or retired hardly a few years ago should figure in there. Examples being Steve Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Mutthiah Muralidharan, Anil Kumble, Glen McGrawth, Wasim Akram (I could pick another 50 easily) etc…

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A Historic Series Win for South Africa in Australia

It was just amazing to see the way the South African bowlers ran through the deep down under Australia to win the boxing day match at Melbourne and hence the series. With just one test remaining in Sydney next week, I would not be surprised if the South Africans go for the kill and win the series 3-0. This would also mean that South Africa can be the #1 team on the ICC rank table soon.

Everything is right about S.Africa

The only missing factor in this South African test side was Shaun Pollock who was magnificently replaced by Dale Steyn. The aggressive Smith lead from the front even in fourth innings’ and youngsters Duminy and De Villiers came in too good both with bat and exceptional fielding. And the rejuvenated team even inspired Jack Kallis as he was an unnaturally aggressive player through out this series. So bowling, batting (despite missing Prince) and fielding was exceptional and the team spirit (just like the current Indian test side) without too many old faces out there outplayed the oldies like Hayden, Symonds and an injured Lee.

What is going wrong with Australia?

Right from the top order, with Hayden failing, Australia is having troubles. Michael Clark played a couple of good knocks but the ever-reliable Mike Hussey was not in good form and that was the main difference. To make things worse, Australia recalled Symonds who looked overweight and out of touch. Looks like the Australians have not fixed their main problem for the Sydney test team selection as well except for sitting out Lee and Symonds. They really need to get rid of Hayden who is no teenager anymore!

Difference between India’s & South Africa’s outings down under

India could not win the series down under earlier this year. The main difference was captaincy. Anil Kumble may have been a match winner for years for India but he was not aggressive enough in Australia this year. This is the era of aggressive test captains (Ponting, Smith, Pietersen, Dhoni etc) and hence, if not for Kumble as the captain, I thought India could have won the series despite the controversies

Going forward, I strongly believe that Australia’s dominance is over and the top four test teams Australia, South Africa, India and England may now compete each other for the top spot.

Once again Kudos to Proteas!

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Guardian’s World Test XI of the year!

Guardian has published its World Test XI. The Viv Marks‘ list this time does not contain a single Australian player!

Guardian’s World Test XI team


Graeme Smith
Virender Sehwag
Kevin Pietersen
Sachin Tendulkar
A B De Villiers
Andrew Flintoff
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma
Dale Steyn

While the XI looks more or less error free, I doubt whether Andrew Flintoff has done good enough for the year to figure in that list. Also, I would not include Harbhajan Singh there for he has not showcased any exceptional show this year. Probably the upcoming spinner from Sri Lanka, Ajantha Mendis would have been a better option? If not, why not include Mitchel Johnson to fill the bowlers slot? I mean, if no spinner qualifies, take the best four pace bowlers!

If not for the above minor issues, the World Test XI looks amazing! All of those great players in the modified list have been great performers! It’s really sad to see that not a single Australian is figuring in this list. Earlier, last week Peter Roebuck had picked his Test XI as well which figured only one Australian!

Read the related article here…