Arm Ball

Everyone had forgotten about Dravid, the ODI player for 2 years. And suddenly you find him in the probables for CT. He did a fair job in scoring 180 runs in 5 games. And then he is dropped. Why? What are the benchmarks ? What are the reasons ? When the likes of Yousuf Pathan and Rohit Sharma can be given a long run for being young, the likes of Dravid and Ganguly are dropped albeit just for being old. Dravid didnt do a wrong thing in this 5 ODIs he played. 5 ODis is not enough to judge a player.

And that too with a man of Dravid’s stature. Even a fake player like Jayawardhene plays on long in ODIs when he scores 3 ducks back to back. This isnt a way to deal a senior player like Dravid. If this was to be done, then he should not have been included in the ODi scheme as well. Called on the ground of so called weakness of short pitched stuff where the IPL beauties cant play Dravid laid the fears of short ball to rest. Not a single batsman went out to a short ball in the Lankan tri series.

Selectors have shown that they are jokers just like Mohinder Amarnath had famously said 20 years back. That still holds true to this date. Its a sick irony that the likes of Srikanth and Vengsarkar have proved to be same category selectors as the wise fool men as in their times. Who is next ? Tendulkar ? Likes of Hirwani and Raju would decide on the likes of Tendulkar and Dravid ? Cheap way to handle complex affairs. The selectors lack maturity.

Thanks to the quality of players we have (most of the XI) we are way above the mess of Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Else the Srikanths and Dilips are no different than Qasims , Sohails and the Baris of Pakistan and those unpronounciable names from Sri Lanka. Unfortunately the likes of Srikanth and his touts would stay on for long for now. And thats a disgrace to the Indian cricket.

Now with the ongoing youth wave in everywhere here are few who could be tried on the basis of the showing in Challengers given the fact the next 12 ODIs India play are at home :

“Just in terms of his desire, and if he has got any ambitions of playing for India for a long, long time, he should his change his habits,” Donald told Cricinfo. Donald arrived in India on Thursday and will shuttle between Delhi and Hyderabad as part of the commentary team for the Champions League Twenty20.

Perhaps no more honest and blunt feedback could have come from than any other but the White Lightning for the derailed Kerala Express.

This is a time when Sreesanth can either decide to play to the gallery and get involved in the realities shows and the dance shows, the movies with Mohanlal or Preity Zinta kicking up villians. Or else he decides to mellow down and let his bowling do the talking in terms of the figures and wickets than the emotions and the frill abuses to the opposition batsmen or a scoff at his own team mates, who unfortunately would have a big role in deciding if he returns to the team or not.

Remember sending off MS in the IPL-2 or approaching Tendulkar in the Challengers in 2005 which led him earn a place in India team or blasting off Dravid and Sehwag in domestic games. I am not even mentioning the slap gate.

He has last played for India good a year and half back. With a threat of the pace attack falling apart, this could be a remarkable time for Freesanth to make a comeback, albeit with a changed attitude.

What will Santh do ?

“Karachi: A senior Sindh minister Tuesday accused India of influencing umpires to get Pakistan ousted from the Champions Trophy semifinal in South Africa.

Muhammad Ali Shah, the minister for Sports and a member of the Pakistan Cricket Board governing council, suspected India’s role in the sub-standard umpiring, leading to Pakistan’s defeat against New Zealand.

Champions Trophy 2009

“Definitely, it is clear that India were miffed at not qualifying for the semi-finals after Pakistan lost to Australia and they took their revenge in their own way. They influenced the umpires to favour New Zealand,” Shah told reporters.

Australian umpire Simon Taufel had wrongly adjudged Umar Akmal leg-before-wicket at a crucial stage of the match and even admitted to the mistake and apologised later.

Shah said he would not refrain from pressing the PCB to see that the International Cricket Council impose at least a one-year ban on Taufel.”

Butt pressed for ban on Broad, now this lad wants Taufel banned. There should be some sanity at least. If you guys lost, accept it with grace.

Laugh it out. It made my day. Had a horrible day in the office.

Alright.

Thats the cost of the defeat to former Indians and now Pakistanis.

Exit out of the champions trophy.

Pakistan showed a lot of Sangakara’s character to take the battle in the end and spared Ponting not chewing his all nails else he would have got an upset stomach– julaab.

Lol.

Match was a bit amusing. Australia 4/171 to 8/206. Hajmola khai lekin baat hajam nahi hui.

One game they score 302, next they score 205. Ummmmm. Iqbal Kasim and Sarfaraz Nawaz could be thinking to open their mouth here. I wont be surprised if there are some murmurs in next few days over return of something Lahore Badshahs did.

And Indian channels were bemused over Pakistan’s gaddari. Lol. Gaddari ? Kyu bhai ? Why would Pakistan lose for India ? Never in million years. Younis Khan ke against there would have been a fatwa for losing it for “mohajirs” and…….

In the end its India who go out n Australia go in semis.

Dont worry, its very soon for India to take a revenge of that rain curtailed game.

4-2 for India.

For a change, now I would root for England.

There have been suggestions on Dhoni to be sacked. People are furious on his decision to bowl himself or blame bowlers. Yup. An Indian captain is an easy object to be fixed. If he wins he is lucky, if he loses sack him. And make whom the captain ?

A man who is yet to lose a bilateral ODI series or a single Test match yet should be sacked.

Dancing baby made other 30s in 80 balls. He thought he is back to the Tests opener role. Lol.

I now hope this was the last tournament he plays for India and stops jumping for the ball like a dog like he did today morning when the ball seemed to go to the best slipper in the world…..

Niki ben, now Dancing baby is all for you.

Its a 12 ODI home season now. First time in 2009, first time since PC made shambolic announcement on not to provide security for IPL. I wont write the obvious issue here for security reasons here.

December comes and lot of character descends on Indian soil. When the tour would end the character rich men would be bare losing Tests 0-2 and ODIs 1-4 or 0-5.

For now its a month long break for the team to go back to the nets and work out the glitches…..One tournament exit wont make India a bad team.

And for those who are now asking what Gary would now suggest India on “sex”, let me say he didnt say that except that some idiot journo in the media twisted what he said.

Dancing baby put me to sleep with his batting, so much so that even 8 or 9 hours after he got out I am yawning.

Juggling of numbers.

I have no hopes. I have assumed India is out.

Less hurt. Less frustration. Less agony.

If Australia go through they are my favorites, if they dont then its India.

But the onus of the early exit would lie on 3 individuals and they would be RP, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh.

Not many Indian fans support Pakistan except if you live in those pockets in India where…..but tomorrow would be an exception.

And there are signs that Younis wants to play India in final. Of course, thank you. But dont expect Manmohan Singh to ask his team to lose it to your team again.

30th Sep is never so complex.

Get over it ASAP….

I thought this 2 lads would have their egos killing each other and another wicket was around the corner. Damn that was too much to ask for. The greens didnt press self destruct button. I believe MS and his team had got a dossier from Manmohan Singh and his supremo to lose the game for goodwill and enable his government to go for “peace talks” with the mischieveaous country again after…………

I had got the defeat in my stride. Goddamn, yes. It was all good. Till I read Megha’s post. That kicked me again. Manmohan Singh is to be blamed for this defeat. He wanted the world to show we can lose it to them in every single occasion.

Losing to Pakistan and Sri Lanka is a shame for India. India almost set the Sri Lankan agony alright by thumping them in 9 of the 12 games. But this lads from Pakistan, many of which even hadnt played India made mockery of players in Blues.

What is RP Singh doing in here ? IPL – 2 and WCT2007 are gone. Reputations are afresh. England 2007 is gone too 2 years back. RP Singh of 2007 and 08 is no more existing. Let Dhoni figure out what he has to do with Amit Mishra. He is not being played by many teams around and he excelled in the only game he played in Lanka series. Plus he has had a needle over Aussies as his maiden 5-for came against them.

And somebody please pray that India meets this Pakistan once again in the finals and someone out of the team assumably Gautam takes out the fire and agony out of that womenizer Pathan Shahid Afridi.

To start with congratulations to Younis Khan for a memorable win.

And as of now the game we lost, the blame goes to the bowlers — RP Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma.

Sachin failed, Kohli failed and Yusuf Pathan now has reached the stage where somebodys gotta go to him and say “Dude thanks a ton. Your T20 skills are too good, unfortunately they dont work in ODIs. Out you go. “

Lad hasnt performed since ages and now he is hurting one place in the team. Not sure how good Nayar kid would be, but still that should be the end of Pathan for now.

Harbhajan Singh now has pathetic record of 10 wkts in 15 games. Horrendous.

In the touring party the other fast bowlers are Praveen Kumar. Who is no different than Ishant Sharma in non swinging pitches.

The fast bowling looks like a worry.

And for the critics of Dravid, here is why he is important to the side even now when the IPL stars have loomed large : hhe has patience and persistence. 76 in 102 balls were the difference why India lost by 54 runs and why not by 85 runs.

Still all is not yet lost for the team. Beat Aussies tomorrow which is a possible task if the team gets its combination right.

And why did Kohli come on 4 instead of 5 or 6 ? This are some of the problems which need an urgent fix. Throw the fast bowlers who are just on the reputation of IPL or tests. We need bowlers who could take wickets on any pitch. Something like Srinath and Zaheer do / did.

All is still not lost.

And yes this post would be a disappointment for flamed readers from the neibhourhood who….