What will get you the Team India Cap?

Less than a month is left for India’s tour of the Caribbean. It’s going to be a lot of Cricket for the Indian team in months to come. Right after the IPL Indian team flies to West Indies for 1 T-20 I, 5 ODIs and 3 Test matches and from there the flight takes off to England for 4 Tests, 2 T-20Is and 5 ODIs. This is surely going to get hectic for the Men in Blue. But BCCI should be given credit for their correct and systematic planning for the tours. Where India after long IPL start WI tour with T-20 match followed by 5 ODI’s and then 3 Test matches and then England tour starts with Test Matches and then followed by T-20s and ODIs. So there is complete planning which would benefit Team India on their tours. The selection committee led by Kris Srikkanth is scheduled to meet on Friday along with captain MS and coach Fletcher to decide on the team that will play T-20 and ODIs in WI.

There are stories going around that many Indian players have asked for rest after a long World Cup and a longer IPL. Players like MS Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Virendar Sehwag are surely not getting into that plane to WI for initial part of the tour. Whereas Gautam Gambhir is looked upon to lead the side having World Cup winning members like Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh. So this actually gives chance to many young players to make a mark at International level. This would be the ideal chance for youngsters to get into the Team as it’s going to be difficult to break into the full strength Indian team after the WC win.

So this starts the biggest ever debate of whom should be selected and who should be dropped. Everyone as always have their own view on this. A lot of debate is happening and has happened on this topic. So let me fuel this debate a little further by giving my side of the debate. Rather than on who should be selected I would like to discuss what should be the criteria for selection in Team India.

Should only IPL be the criteria for the selection or only Ranji cricket should be the criteria.

I am of an opinion that the neither should be the sole criteria for Team India cap. IPL is part of Indian domestic circuit just like other tournaments like Ranji Super League, Ranji Trophy Plate, Deodhar Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Challenger Trophy, Irani Cup, Syed Musthaq Ali Trophy, BCCI Corporate Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy. The performance over the entire season should be made the bench mark for Team India cap rather than just the performance in one tournament. Our domestic tournament has good mix of four day matches, One Day matches and T-20 Matches, so it gives an ample opportunity for a player to prove his worth and helps him to prove his case for the prestigious Team India Cap. If IPL is considered a yardstick for Team India Cap  then consistency over the entire IPL should be considered rather than one, two or four good performances in IPL.

Someone like Rahul Sharma has been performing very well for his IPL side PWI but if you see his performance over the entire season it isn’t much inspiring. Players like Subramanium Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary and Ambati Rayadu who have performed well in the entire season and have performed well in all the domestic tournaments for their respective teams should be considered the front runners.

A player should be consistent over a period of time rather than just for one tournament. Even International Cricket works on consistency rather than one tournament success For E.g.: A team winning one tournament does not make them the number one team in international cricket, to be number one, a team needs to consistently play well like Team India won the World Cup 2011 does not make them the number one team because may be some other team has been more consistent than them and similarly like Team India is number one in tests it’s not  that they have been ranked number one after one series they have consistently won matches around the globe to deserve that place of number one team in tests. Even the individual rankings work the same way. Playing well in one tournament gives you points but overall performance along the year is of much more importance. I somehow feel BCCI should start with local rankings, ranking players according to their performance over the period that will help to have a better view of the performance of local talent. I haven’t used much statistics to put forth my point because it would have made it long, and longer the post it’s considered to be boring.

IPL has also proved one thing or rather has proved many people wrong. People feel , shorter the version of the game more exciting it is, but the number of one sided matches in IPL proves even the shortest version of the game can be boring. I have observed 2 reasons for the one sided matches in IPL, may be I will use my next post to give my views on why we are having so many one sided matches in IPL 2011.

Ricky Singh for DieHard Cricket Fans

Pieces of Meat, a TIPLIST and LIPLOCKS : The IPL Rocks as always

IPL qualifiers reaching towards climax. Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru look like the teams to go further. But Cricket isn’t the only thing about IPL and IPL isn’t all about Cricket. We know it is GLICKET ! So here is a random look at who, what, when and how !

Pieces of meat, a Tiplist

Gabriella Pasqualotto was another unknown cheer girl till she spilled the beans about the virility of the naughty Cricketers. In a world of Glamor and Cricket that is GLICKET, I am least surprised. If at all, it shows the Indians like Dhoni and Rohit Sharma in poor light. Because she said, “They prefer to spend time by themselves in the dark corners”.

Beauty and the Tiplist

The Season of GLICKET Liplocks

They are together, they are not. She was with someone else and he was caught red-handed with another girl. What all rumors ! Sid Mallya and Deepika Padukone answered all rumors with the only way they could and people still complain.

LIPLOCK-1 of the Season !

LIPLOCK-2 of the Season !

Shane Warne: “They Hurled stones at me. I converted them into Hurley and then she locked lips”

The Latest on Fixing

* This paragraph of the story is fixed by, oops sponsored by Fevicol *

Coming again to Warne. After Match-fixing and Spot-fixing, Warne alleged the CSK Boss did ‘Pitch Fixing’ favoring his team at Jaipur. Later he twitracted his statement. Earlier he was unhappy with Tendulkar’s comments on Jaipoor pitch ! Shane’s swan song is turning out to be a blare and that is unfortunate.

Royal Challenge Re-Gayled

RCB Challenge in this IPL was going nowhere till Mallya hit the jackpot thanks to West Indies Cricket Board. As West Indies Cricket Ails, Royal Challenge Re-Gayles ! Some people have even suggested a possibility of the King of Good times bribing the Caribbean establishment to drop Gayle.

Drop till you Flop

You drop Sehwag once and you pay for it. You drop him twice and you will be thrice Sehwagged ! The Chargers ran out of charge as Viru went on the rampage !

Shane Warne tweeted:

warne888 Shane Warne

me dropping gayle cost us big time-then dropping kholi as well = horror for us. Thanks for the last 4 yrs of support guys,will miss u all !!

It still wasn’t as costly as it is turning out to be for the WICB after they dropped Gayle !
I believe I must stop here. Else I might end up like Shikar Dhawan, the man who always takes his own time to settle down before getting out soon after !

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans

West Indies vs Pakistan – The Series That Wasn’t

It was almost as if it never happened. The Pakistani’s quietly took away a 3-2 victory over the West Indies, and with a minimum of fuss and exposure, we will move on to the test series soon. Blink and you’d have missed it, particularly since cricket headlines have been surrounded with “Gayle Smashes Unbelievable Ton!” and the like.

But lets wonder for a minute, what if both the West Indies and Pakistan had picked the absolute best teams available to them? What if the cricket world was free of injuries, the IPL, spot fixing, and dodgy selections?

And the odd spontaneous trip to London. © Associated Press

The Real Pakistan

1. Salman Butt (c)
2. Mohammad Hafeez
3. Ahmed Shahzad
4. Mohammad Yousuf
5. Misbah Ul-Haq
6. Shahid Afridi
7. Abdul Razzaq
8. Zulqarnain Haider (w)
9. Mohammad Aamir
10. Umar Gul
11. Mohammad Asif

Unlucky: Saeed Ajmal, very good backup at least.
Unwanted: The trigger happy Akmals and Younis Khan, who looks more and more weary all the time.

Look at that bowling line-up, easily the best in the world in fact if they fielded that squad. Afridi is a little over animated (if there is such a thing) as captain, and would prefer Butt to take the reins.

The Real West Indies

1. Chris Gayle (c)
2. Adrian Barath
3. Darren Bravo
4. Ramnaresh Sarwan
5. Shiv Chanderpaul
6. Kieron Pollard
7. Dwayne Bravo
8. Devon Thomas (w)
9. Kemar Roach
10. Jerome Taylor
11. Devendra Bishoo

Unlucky: Darren Sammy. I like the guy, but he just doesn’t quite contribute enough, more like a poor man’s Vettori at this stage. Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul and Andre Russell wait in the wings as adequate backup. I like Dwayne Smith, he could slot in as a backup Pollard, who I don’t like but admit has talent.

Unwanted: Suliemann Benn, full marks for attitude, but not much for impact.

No extra points for tossing players around either. © Getty

Who would win that series? It doesn’t matter! Look at those line-ups, and even if Pakistan came away 3-2 just like it transpired, the matches would have been infinitely more interesting than what looked like a Pakistan A tour of West Indies A. We would have the dream bowling attack versus the most colorful and explosive batting line-up.

Of the teams listed, only four from either side were in the current teams. In a perfect world the players would be free of politics, greed and corruption, and we would be treated to cricket at its highest quality.

Too bad then that we don’t live in a perfect world.

Contributed by Varun Prasad
Original Post : The Cricket Musings

Time to test the Bench – 2 : Realignment of Stars !

A lot of DLF maximums, Karbonn Kamaal Catches and Citi Bank moments of Success after the “Time to test the bench” post, have forced me to make changes in my Team for the ODI Series in the Caribbean.

So here is my ODI Team for the West Indies Tour ! This is open for further updating till 13 May, the D-Day for the selection.

Who is out and why ?

Ravindra Jadeja will have to wait. Though he isn’t bad, someone better has come up.
Robin Uthappa remains the flash in the pan man. He has disappointed.
R. P. Singh has flattered to deceive. Will need a little more effort to make the cut.

1] Gautam Gambhir [Captain - He remains firmly there in spite of patchy form]
2] Paul Valthaty [In spite of indifferent form, he is in for the X-Factor]
3] Ambati Rayudu [He has proved his credentials. Needs support]
4] Virat Kohli [We know there isn't a better No. 3 right now]
5] Yuvraj Singh [Yuvi in India Colors is different player and we love him]
6] Suresh Raina [We don't have a better floater. A certainty]
7] Rohit Sharma [Done better since the last post and can't deny his talent]
8] Yusuf Pathan [IPL batting form getting better. He deserves a place in the 11]
9] Parthiv Patel [The Wicket Keeper. Continues to show utility]
10] Ishant Sharma [He has been good and improved. No doubt he is Future !]
11] Munaf Patel [I don't like his fielding. But the truth is he is bowling well]
12] Rahul Sharma [Most economical Bowler in this IPL deserves a look]
13] R. Ashwin [Though not great, he has been good. A better 50 overs bowler]
14] Vinay Kumar [Continues to work hard. Deserves to be support bowler]
15] Praveen Kumar [Needed for the street-smart experience]

The 11 for the First ODI

1] Gambhir
2] Valthaty
3] Virat
4] Yuvi
5] Raina
6] Yusuf
7] Parthiv
8] Ashwin
9] Rahul Sharma
10] Ishant
11] Munaf

There is a flimsy possibility of any more changes coming up in my team. But as the saying goes, Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties.

On Saturday, May 7, a youngster gave a professional verdict, “Sir, Isn’t Prasanth Parameswaran a great prospect ? Isn’t heMUCH BETTER than Sreesanth ? I think we should drop Sreesanth and bring in this boy. He is too good.”

I told him, “I think it is too early. He was lucky with a no-ball that got Sehwag. You can’t judge one bowler after 8 overs and say he is better than a bowler who has 70 Test wickets from 21 tests. Let us wait for Prasanth to perform consistently”.

Prasanth Parameswaran broke Stuart Broad’s record for maximum runs in an over on Sunday, May 8.

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans

Glance at Latest in the Cricketing World

It’s been 34 days since India were crowned the world champions. But I somehow don’t remember M.S.Dhoni lifting the trophy and on the contrary I can easily recollect Kapil Dev lifting the trophy in 1983 on that historic Lords ground. One reason for this I feel is too much off cricket. Even the cricketers along with the fans would agree that there was not enough time to enjoy the World Cup Triumph. The gap between the World Cup Final and 1st match of IPL was 5 days, which I feel was a little too less for the Victory to sink in completely.
IPL IV had a fairytale start, first few matches were very exciting and almost all the initial games went down to the wire. But as the time has gone by, the popularity and the TRP of IPL IV has fallen down considerably. May it would increase when IPL reaches the business end of the tournament. It’s very surprising people who voiced their opinion and were against about the length of the World Cup and believed number of meaningless matches are very high, but they have not said anything about the lengthy IPL. The main reason for the lack of interest in IPL is because it’s been a lengthy tournament and also the confusing format of IPL IV. It’s already been 47 matches and still we have another 23 matches in league stage and then 4 matches in qualifying stage that makes another 27 matches to go. One thing which has benefited IPL IV unlike previous editions in this IPL no one team has dominated the matches; it’s been the most open IPL out of the 3 previous editions. One of the reactions of a lengthy and little boring IPL is, many people have started to surf the internet to know when and where is India playing next. But I guess for Cricket Lovers there is never over dose of it.
One news which has taken the Cricket World by surprise. Duncan Fletcher’s appointment as Team India Coach. Much has already been about his appointment. So I don’t feel it requires any more discussion and we all should back the decision which is been taken now and hope for the best. You can vote in your opinion though through the poll in the sidebar.
Next in is England’s 3 way vote of confidence. ECB has appointed 3 different captains for 3 different versions of the game. Where the two time Ashes winning captain Andrew Strauss continues to captain the English Test team. Alastair Cook who’s not considered to be a One Day player by the selectors is given the job of captaining the One Day side and the 24 year old Stuart Broad will lead the England Lions in Twenty-20 matches. Two things which has taken me by surprise here is 1st being why was A. Cook dropped from One Day team in the first place and 2nd being since he is not part of one day team what has he done to be made captain of the side. Baffling to say the least. Twenty-20 Captain Broad is a good choice, this man has been hit for 6 Sixes in an over so he knows it can’t get worse that this on the field if things don’t go in his favour. He has come a long way since then and is certainly a player to look out for in future.
The problem between WICB and West Indian players continues, it’s a never ending war. I wish they can show such never dying spirit on the field. Pakistan has beaten WI 3-2 in 5 match One Day series. It was a completely lopsided series.
Australian tour of South Africa later in the year is been shortened because of the Champions League in India. There is plan to fit in 2 tests, 2 Twenty-20 matches and 3 ODI’s. So the cash rich league is taking its toll on the number of tests played across the world.
The biggest news of all and heart breaking news for me personally is retirement of Shane Warne from IPL after the end of IVth season. This news has certainly come as a shock to many cricket lovers as Warne was playing pretty well and was fit enough to play for some more time to come. But it’s his personal decision as the decision of retiring completely depends on the player as he is the best judge of his body and fitness levels. I hope Warne continues to be part of the RR in some way or the other as he has been guiding light for many of the Indian Local Players. Warne was the person who brought the art of leg spin back to the world cricket and he made it a fashion among many aspiring cricketers. If you recount his performance in his debut test against India at Sydney he was slaughtered by Ravi Shastri, where Warne’s figure read 1/150 off 45 overs, where Ravi made 206, but eventually Ravi was dismissed by Warne caught by Dean Jones. So if you think of his debut test and today if you consider what all he has achieved he certainly has come a long long way. A true champion and who has the ability to make a hero out of nothing. Long Live the Legend.

Ricky Singh for DieHard Cricket Fans

  

To Gayle Or Not To Gayle

What to do with this man.
Clearly the best West Indian batsman, we find him plundering IPL bowlers around instead of coming to the aid of his miserable national side, currently being bossed around by Pakistan at home. Pakistani youngsters bullying the West Indies in their back yard? A truly sad state, rock bottom has been their only dwelling for ten years, and they don’t look like moving house.

This latest soap opera epitomizes the state of West Indies cricket in the past decade. Confusions, accusations, dodgy selections, sour sponsorship deals, IPL lust, Allan Stanford. What a mess. As long as these moments of lunacy continue to hover, this is a team that will never get out of its slumber.

In the middle of it all is this is Chris Gayle. The talismanic figure always stands out and becomes the forefront of compliments or criticism, perhaps unfairly too. Unlike the obviously selfish Pollard, Gayle claims to had written off the IPL for international commitments, saying he should be playing for the West Indies. The board claims they tried to ‘reach out‘ to him, blaming Gayle. Just what the heck is going on?

Does he even merit selection? Lets have a look at his ODI stats in the past two years against the other top eight teams:

Career averages (ODI)

	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100
unfiltered	228	8087	153*	39.06	19
filtered	22	438	64	20.85	0

Yuck. Maybe the selectors had a point. Maybe he too is selfish? Only seeming to find form in the money hungry format of the game. But then again, lets look at the so called ‘purest’ form of the game:

Career averages (Test)

	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Av	100
unfiltered	91	6373	333	41.65	13
filtered	11	972	333	54.00	3

So the man has been firing in T20 cricket and Test cricket, but has been a complete failure in the 50 over format of the game. I give up.

Some things just cannot be explained.

The man is an enigma. He is a symbol, a reflection of the chaotic nature of West Indian cricket. A last minute SOS call for Gayle might result in a momentum seizing century or a golden duck.

He is just that kind of player.

Contributed by Varun Prasad
Original Post : The Cricket Musings