Arm Ball

It was quite amusing for me to find India being blamed for this concept. He conviniently forgot that he was one of those who began the exodus to the Packer circus in 70s and then was the board member in the ICL which began in 2007 and which gave rise to the “lucrative” options available to modern day cricketers today.

Andrew Flintoff rejected ECB’s central contract to be able to play in T20 tournaments world wide. For all the injuries and form concerns aside, he along with his friend KP remains IPL’s highest paid cricketers. And its ironical that the concerns on the freelance concept getting popular come from this 2 cricketers.

KP was quoted to have said that the English setup needs a change as players may find the county cricket a bit too exuastive.

The bottom line is that the English cricket season coincides with the start of IPL every year.

English cricket writers and admins easily forget that they began the T20 concept in 2003 and now they are the ones who are suddenly bothered about the life of Test cricket. Perhaps their vision is limited to the Ashes and perhaps for them life begins at the Ashes and ends at Ashes.

Its their own players now who have concerns over their own schedule and the domestic setup. Its very easy for them to go blame BCCI for all the ills in the cricket, but they forget one thing no big player from BCCI’s custody has slipped to go play in ICL or has embraced the concept of freelance cricket.

Its very easy for everybody in the world to blame BCCI for the ills in the world. Be it in the sports minister in India who suggests BCCI to accept WADA proposals or the lesser sportsmen in the country who at many times are benefitted by the grant provided by the BCCI for their expenses. Be it the ex-players who jump the gun to ICL and when the shop is closed they come back asking for favors.

Likes of PCB, Arjuna Ranatunga, Tony Greig, WICB blame BCCI for the ills in their own countries respectively. But little do they forget that the ICC is being funded by the star players and the money from India.

Before pointing out a finger to India for every ill, the respective board or individual should review their own position in the context and then point a finger to anybody else. That is take responsibility for your own actions.

BCCI is no saint, but its certainly not the evil its made out to be. After all it has shown the world that in a country like ours where everything is a creamy job for politicians, the game can still rule the headlines 9 out of 10 times for its performance on the field and has given the country some real valued sportsmen who have kept performing despite every road block and stumbling blocks.

But are we ready to accept this achievement of BCCI or is it going to be always eggs and pichkaris thrown at BCCI’s face…

A) Its first cricket international fixture in India after IPL was thrown out by PC earlier this year.

B) Its just the second tournament after the Mumbai seige. Since then its just the England series that was played precisely in Chennai and Mohali.

So security could be an issue with the touring players. For now the whispers and murmurs havent become noise.

Thats the first edition of the Champions League that gets going.

If its successful and a box office hit, would there be a talk on future of ODIs again now that we have had a reasonable successful Champions Trophy?

I predict a India – South Africa final .

Not to forget historically Indians have done too good in ODI tournaments in SA and also their greatest win in T20 came in 2007 in SA itself.

If acclimatising to the conditions go, then nobody better than Indians do it after of course the home team. They just played IPL – 2 here 5 months back

Everybody in the Indian team played the IPL and one of them reached the finals. Didnt they. Sachin, Yuvraj, Dravid, Harbhajan and Nehra would cherish the 2003 memories. Especially Nehra when he rocked England in Durban.

India plays Pakistan in Centurion on 26th Sep, the same ground where they royally thumped Pak in 2003 and sent Waqar, Wasim and Anwar out of the cricket career.

The magical 6s to Shoaib from Sachin and Sehwag. The 6s to Wasim Akram. Who can forget that. So who is this time ? Gul ? Or Aamer ?

Let the CT begin. !!

He doesnt play ODIs. Clark(e) wins 3 out of 3. So is Ponting misfit in the captaincy plans for Australia ?

He has already quit T20s. That means he wont return for IPL. Would he ?

Australia are no more a force in ODIs now. This is a separate story that they are 3-0 up against England, who are anyways crap in ODIs.

So whats the future for Ponting, the batsman and the captain ? He has easy meat in Tests down under this summer — West Indies and Pakistan. Australia would brush this two teams up. Pakistan havent won a test against Australia in 15 years and WI havent won a test in Australia in 13 years.

So this 2 series wont be a true measure of his captaincy. Besides Australia would need to take a call on the likes of Mike Hussey and Ponting himself in the Tests. Ponting besides a 100 wasnt very successful in Tests.

The Ashes is over and till 2010-11 they have no bigger assignment coming up their way. So would Ponting be continued or sacked ?

Sallu bhai’s style is infectious you see.

1) Manoj Tiwary — the 1st real youngster post 2007 age to make the mark but injuries got him and barring the yorker game in Gabba in CB series 2008, this lad didnt get much chances to prove his talent. This season he should be back in contention given the injury of Raina and ahem ahem uselessness of Rohit Sharma

2) CP : Much said about him on Indian blogs in 2008. before injury got him ahead of IPL, he was in terrific form and he should get chance to prove his worth in ODIs and as a fringe player in Tests.

And those who support Badrinath to be in contention for the place in ODIs or Tests should go look for his score cards in Emerging player tournaments. He is the boss there and doesnt have to deal with the wicked presence of MS up there. Scoreline of 4, 3, 13 in 3 games as skipper obviously wont help his cause and then vocal cords or noise or support of Kris wont help him get even 3 or 4 voices in his favor.

Cmon Dabri, prove it you have got the substance and the mettle. As of now I m grinning cos I know you are useless. Your performances down under are going to turn off ur remaining supporters too.

“The same could be said about Rahul Dravid. Dravid is a great representative of Indian cricket, a team man, humble, a well-spoken gentleman. But unfortunately he could not score a single run in the early rounds of the IPL, and in my opinion, is not suited to this form of the game. I am certain Dravid’s performances were also affected by the off-field drama created by his franchise owner Vijay Mallya.”

“Yuvraj Singh in a sense tries to be a modern-day Sourav Ganguly, but I don’t think he has the charisma or the dignity with which Ganguly carries himself,” he said.

Tendulkar has been lauded, and rightly so, as one of the very top batsmen in the history of cricket,” he wrote. “But is he an effective T20 player at this stage of his career?

“In the position he plays – as an opener or No. 3 – the T20 game requires not only the finesse and skills he has, but also the power and domination, an ability to take the bowlers on while being creative. You have to be inventive and fearless. And I don’t see those qualities as part of Sachin’s makeup at this stage of his career. Sachin Tendulkar is still a great player but not in this arena of T20

A self righteous individual would take a call now and offer the captain to get himself dropped and fly out the first taxi or cruise back to Borivali(W), contact the local coach and get a few nets in Azad Maidan or even CCI club or for that matter any local Gymkhana in your own surroundings, get a few lads to bowl you underarm, hit a few sixes, smash some windows, get some hits from the fellow society dwellers and then prepare for a long grind in the domestic cricket and pray that in a year or 2, if you regain your never existing silken touch and your spot is still up for grabs by 2010, then you should come back or else we have decided to remove you out of our system.

Its tad unfortunate that you exist in the team even now after long haul of listless performances and its a test of our patience that we have to see your disgusting lovelorn face every time 1 or 3 wkts fall. Dude, the Fashion week is around the corner and then there are lots of hot chics in South Mumbai party circuit or if you cant afford them there are lots of dance bars too open even now in Mumbai suburbs. A lot of them in Dahisar, few minutes walk from your place. You would certainly find few there. After all a cricketer is even a hot property right now. You dont have hunger for runs, albeit other hunger(s) would get satisfied and by chance if you still make it to the Champs Trophy team (you never know DBV could plant you anywhere, even on moon’s cricket team) at least you would look happy and I would be able to curse you openly seeing your face.

Right now you look remorse and sad, so i feel pity on you. Right now you look like a daily waged labourer who travels free of cost in Mumbai locals. Hell no, even he pays. What do you do? Do nothing and still grab those fat pay cheques. IPL, tour fee, ad contracts, fashion show invites and stuff. But did you know kid, all this lasts till the runs from your bat flow. If you dream of Rakhi Sawant when you bat, you are gonna get what Rakhi Sawant gets. Bhai, yeh jo IPL ka contract hai na, yeh bhi tab tak hai jub tak aapke paas runs hai. Runs nahi banaoge to ICL bhi nahi lega tumhe mere dost. Fir kisi bridge ke neeche khade hokar tum apne Mumbai Ranji mate ko nahi kah paoge “mere paas gadi hai bangla hai south mumbai flat hai tumhare paas kya hai”. And he would reply “Rohit tum aur mai isi Borivali national park ke fly over ke neeche se chale the kisi cricket ground ki aur. Fir tum kaha pahuch gaye aur me kaha chal pada. Aaj tumhare pass yeh sab hai mere bhai, lekin mere paas INDIA CAP aur IPL CONTRACT hai”. Tab kya karoge dost? yeah Mahesh Bhatt jaroor koi movie de dega tumhe.

Bhai hume maaf karo aur aapko dekhne ka jo hume majboori hai nee use door karo. Jao bhai kahi aur jao. Wo Kandivali kanda poha club me captain ki vacancy hai, waha kheloge ? Mast captain banke? Gimme a buzz if you want to.