Forgotten XI... Or Maybe Not

The following is an eleven comprising of Indian cricketers whose names are likely to be remembered only by either their own families or the most diehard of cricket followers. Like any "fantasy XI" I have picked the ones which I recall from my cricket watching career. There can be quite a few alternative XIs.

1. Iqbal Siddique - In his debut Test for India, opened the bowling and batting. Also hit the the winning runs. And never played for India again. 
2. Sujith Somasundar - Opened for India in 2 ODIs with a lineup comprising of Tendulkar, Dravid, Azhar, Ganguly and Ajay Jadeja following up. His failures lead to India experimenting with Ganguly as Tendulkar's opening partner and the rest as they is history.
3. Gagan Khoda - Scored 89 in his 2nd ODI earning him the Man of the Match award. And never played for India again. Just plain bad luck. 
4. Amay Khurasiya - In contrast to Khoda, An attacking 50 on his ODI debut earned Khurasiya place in the 1999 World Cup squad. The innings warded off competition from the likes of VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag. A few games later he was dropped for good.

The West Indies - The End is Nigh

Its been just over a week since last week's dramatic and abrupt end of the West Indies tour to India. In the mean time thousands of articles have probably appeared on the web talking about the decline in everything related to West Indies cricket. Here is one more on the same.

In my opinion, the time has come for the West Indies as a cricketing team to close down.

This abandonment could be the straw that broke the camel's back. The player-board standoff has been running for years which not surprisingly has coincided with the general decline in West Indies cricket. From being the top ranked country and a widely admired opponent, they have now been sitting close to the bottom in terms of rankings. Threats of strikes, withdrawals, dubious droppings, stand-offs between individual players and the board do not augur well for the making of a team. But walking out in the middle of a tour against the most powerful cricket board is taking matters too far. The abandonment will have far-reaching repercussions. BCCI has already suspended future bilateral tours and other national boards and sponsors are extremely wary. There are even doubts on their participation in the coming World Cup.

My IPL Diary# Marilize

The IPL team you were cheering for?

I was cheering for the RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore)

What kind of preparations did you do before coming over for the IPL?

Everything happened so quick. When I found out that I was chosen to be a cheerleader, I instantly hit the gym 2 times a day to become more fit. We needed to attend dance classes everyday for 2 weeks to learn new routines so that we can perform as a group on the podiums without making any mistakes.

How was it when you performed during a match for the first time?

My first match was in Dubai - Sharjah. It was a night game that started 6pm UAE time so it was not that hot anymore. The temp in Dubai can get very high. I was nervous to go on the podium for the

first time as there was so many people and everyone was cheering for us. It was amazing, once my feet touched the podium everything just became instinctive. We made a lot of mistakes in the first games with our routines but we just laughed it off and worked on it. The people loved us and everyone was just taking photos and wanted photos with us. I would say my first performance was scary but the best experience of my life.

Kevin Pietersen ruined my childhood

Ok, that’s maybe a little extreme, but still the years of England dominance are very important to me personally. This period makes up the majority of my cricketing education. The 2009 Ashes series sparked my passion for the game. Aged 13 I was inspired by players that I thought were invincible. However, with Pietersen releasing stories about the inner workings of the ECB and the England dressing room, I have started to doubt my unassailable heroes.

Tete-a-Tete with the Bharat Army

When and how did Bharat Army come into being? What was the thought behind forming the Bharat Army?

The Bharat Army was founded in 1999 during the World Cup in England where 4 passionate followers of Indian Cricket met for the first time while following the Team during the World Cup. Since then we have been supporting and following Team India around the world for the past 15 years!

We felt with the passion Indians around the world have for the game we needed a common voice in support of Indian Cricket so the First Official Team India Supporters Group was Born.

How much planning goes into preparing for a match/tour? What are your preparations for tours ? And how do you guys manage work and finances ? What has been the largest contingent of Bharat Army at a venue/tour till date?

The Bharat Army is now a non-profit making organisation, in the past we worked with a Travel Company that was recommend to us by the Barmy Army to sell Tours to the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. We ended up taking 900 Supporters to the World Cup but unfortunately it turned out to be a disaster as we got knocked out early!

As we are now recognized around the world for being Team India's No.1 Supporters Group we manage to get block bookings for tickets in the stadiums around the world, you would have seen a strong presence this summer in England but also during the World Cup in 2011 in India going back to South Africa in 2007.

We raise funds to run the Bharat army by selling Merchandise and use the profits for the running of our Website and Social Media activities but also contribute to Indian Charities.  This year during the summer in England we supported Yuvraj Singh's YouWeCan Foundation and also a Charity in India called The Aware Foundation which supports the Education of Underprivileged children on India.

GIF of the day: McFielding