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The REAL Test Cricket only in Australia, South Africa and England?

If you check the difference between the ongoing Australia-South Africa test match and the Pakistan-Sri Lanka one (or West Indies-England) you will understand one thing. One is real test cricket where as the other two are comedy cricket choreographed for the respective flat-pitch heroes in those countries.

Quality of pitches

It is really pathetic that countries like Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and now West Indies as well are making one sided pitches that suit only the batsmen. Of course, majority of the fans do like big scores but that doesn’t mean that a 5 day match can accomodate only two innings of 600+ runs per innings. The first two tests in West Indies during the past two weeks were pathetic. Even worse was the Karachi encounter of the Sri Lankans last week where Younis Khan became a greater hero. The batting records of the current leading test batsmen are actually farce compared to the greats like Sunil Gavaskar, Greg Chappel or Garry Sobbers. At the moment mostly people get to play in flatter tracks and hence a realistic comparison based on batting average or records is not really worth that effort.

South Africa – Australia Series

The first test match between the touring kangaroos and proteas is looking really awesome where fortunes changed every day. The commitment of these two countries towards test matches is amazing and the battle between them makes me skip every other stupid match around. Only in England I can see the same level of interest which basically means that only Australia, England and South Africa are really serious about test cricket where as other countries are busy selling Twenty 20 cricket or creating a generation of flat pitch bullies.

I wish they spent 10% of the money saved from IPL etc to create 4 or 5 test quality sporting pitches!

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Controversy over Test Ground, Stanford and the IPL lord…

The past few days’ good cricketing action between Australia & New Zealand and West Indies & England have been offset by some controversies. At first it was with the Antigua test ground, then cases of fraud against the Mr. Allen Stanford – the billionaire behind the Stanford 20-20 – and finally the number of FIRs (First Investigation Report) filed against the IPL master brain, Mr. Lalit Modi.

Antigua Test Ground

Antigua was in news twice this week and both for not-so-good reasons. The second test between West Indies and England was abandoned after just 10 deliveries the reason was a sandpit ground which apparently put bowlers at risk. It was pathetic to see how the sand was being showelled out by bowlers’ run up. Finally the captains and umpired called it quits and an enquiry has been ordered into this controversy putting the WICB in huge embarrassment.

Sir. Vivian Richards was of the opinion that the WICB should do justice to the grounds named after him by at least maintaining reasonable quality there in. I am sure the past heroes of the game should not loose their faces due to the current pathetic conditions of their homegrounds.

Allen Stanford admits errors

Another Antiguan, Mr. Stanford – the brain behind the lucrative Twenty 20 initiative in the West Indies – has been charged with multiple frauds related to his company’s insider and illegal activities while listed in the US markets. Stanford has been charged with the way he manipulated the past and present numbers of his listed entity thereby cheating the investors. God alone knows what’s awaiting him now! Antigua, the beautiful island, into shame once again!

Modi bowled by allegations

A similar rich administrator, Mr. Lalit Modi of Indian Premier League has been charged with misappropriation of funds and illegal ways by which he won the RCA (Rajasthan Cricket Association) president role in 2005. As it looks, the change in state politics has affected Modi’s fortunes as his dissidents (apparently jealous of Modi’s IPL stature) and opponents are trying to corner him. Mr.Modi is alleging foul play and has threatened to take all IPL 2 home matches of Rajasthan Royals out of Jaipur. With the RCA elections around the corner and most importantly with IPL 2 gaining momentum, even those who are opposing Lalit Modi can gain a lot of popularity! Nice plot!!

(PS: I could not write about the wonderful 20-20 match between Australia and New Zealand last week. It was the 20-20 at its best with some exceptional hitting, ground fielding and controlled spin bowling)

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England in Dire Staits, IPL auctions and controversies…

It was not a great week for England where they got trashed by West Indies in the first test match at Sabina Park. The visitors received an innings defeat and more importantly they managed to score a mere 51 in the second innings.

It’s really bad to see that the typical problems of teams like India or Pakistan now has gripped England as well. Basically, the team now has several former captains, no proper coach and with Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores getting axed the on and off the field tension is affecting their game.

IPL affecting teams

Another important thing is the greed that IPL has created. I guess with KP and Flintoff getting offers of the tunes of more than 1.5 millions they must be wondering what’s there in playing for the country. This can happen to any other country and as I maintained in the past Twenty 20 cricket and Indian Premier League will spoil all international teams. To make things worse, Lalit Modi even commented that he wouldn’t mind if Cricket Australia sacks Andrew Symonds from their national side because in that case he gets to play IPL second edition throughout the event.

Pakistan Cricket Board in the meantime has not allowed their key players to participate in IPL. Sri Lankan Cricket Board’s ex-chief Arjuna Ranatunga is trying to amend his stand by telling that he’s not against IPL or BCCI.

Basically, the Indian Premier League has created a lot of headache for the international cricket boards and their national teams. I don’t think, it can continue like this forever.

Other highlights of the week

India won the ODI series in Sri Lanka 4-1. Though, India put together great all round performance, they were lucky to get the toss in their favour four out of five times. New Zealand had a great start to their 5 match ODI series against Australia and are now leading 2-1.

The week was otherwise pretty boring as most of the matches this week were pretty one-sided.

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Weekly Tidbits: Australia, Pakistan in more trouble, IPL auctions…

It was quite an interesting week of cricket – ODI cricket for a change, though I would have preferred to talk more about Test cricket.

South Africa mows down the clueless Australians

South Africa won the ODI series 4-1 thereby going on top of the ICC ODI rankings. The last match that was played last week had a new fast bowling hero – Tsotsobe – who ran through the Australian top and middle order after Hashim Amla‘s matured innings gave them a big total. Tsotsobe’s left arm seam bowling is a good asset to their attack which is otherwise dominated by right-armers.

Australia deep down under further

Soon after the South Africa’s successful visit, the Kiwis started their campain in Austraila on a winning note as well. In fact, the New Zealand’s batting lineup is not anything great but the Kangaroos were tamed by the Kiwis in the low scoring first ODI in Perth, mainly due to the lack of confidence with the Aussies.

The Australians managed to create controversy as well with their Wicket Keeper Haddin calling it all wrong and cheating the spirit of the game. With Symonds‘ radio outburst not settling yet, clearly Cricket Australia is not heading anywhere in particular. Moreover, Australia’s decision to rest Ponting came as a huge surprise as this could be the indication that the dashing Australian captain could be soon axed – from his captaincy responsibilities – ahead of the Ashes series in England during June-September this year.

Pakistan cricket in dolldrums

Though with the axing of Shoib Malik the Pakistan team as a whole may benefit, the governance of the PCB and its future took a beating when ICC decided that Pakistan will not get to host Champions Trophy due to the perennial security issues there. On top of that Miandad, the ever controversial Pakistan cricketer, has resigned from his role of the PCB Director. In another setback to PCB, a court has now suspended PCB’s ban on ICL players. With the injury scares, dope scandals still on and no team visiting Pakistan, it’s not going to be a good year for Pakistan Cricket.

India is doing good

The Indian cricket team touring Sri Lanka right now had a couple of good outings whereby they took a 2-0 lead. The Indians, despite lack of match practices, did not look rusty and the batting, bowling and some exceptional fielding of the younger side overpowered the Lankans. It looks like Mahendra Singh Dhoni hardly misses a toss.

The week ahead

England is taking on West Indies in their first test match on 4th Feb where as Australia will play New Zealand in Melbourne and Sydney this week. India’s remaining one dayers in Sri Lanka will also be completed this week.

The high-profile IPL Season 2 auctions will be kicked off this week as well. The main focus will be the English players who are first-timers at IPL.

On a low profile there’s also a Kenya-Zimbabwe match this week.

Looking forward to the exciting week of cricket, in particular the England – West Indies test match and Australia – New Zealand one-dayers.

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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!