Cricket Blog

It has so far been a scintillating contest between the turning ball and the flashing blade and with the final hurdle in front of both teams imminent; the whole series still hangs in perfect balance.
The battle for Cricketing supremacy in Asia reaches its grand climax as the two strongest Asian Test sides take on one another. Obviously the Sri Lankan side has the home advantage, but Team India has once again shown the resolve that has earned it immense respect in the last few years as a touring side. So what does the final turn of a captivating series hold?

by Shreyas Bhide

Former Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist on Monday called for the Twenty20 format to be included in the Olympics. Even as the countdown for Beijing Olympics begins, Gilchrist has called for cricket to be re-introduced as an Olympic sport (Cricket was a part of 1900 Olympics, where England had beaten France to win a Gold).

Funny are the ways when the people that should have been rested much earlier are being rested rather late and those that perhaps still have the legs are being told to put their feet up on the couch. In yet another indication that Mahendra Singh Dhoni would like to reduce the average age of his one day team, Virat Kohli has been selected for the one day series against Sri Lanka. Does this mean the end of the road for the above thirty-fives?

There was perhaps only one real funny moment for South Africa and that was when Morne Morkel briefly forgot his way to the dressing room. It had Kevin Pietersen pointing it out to his bowlers and had the South Africans balcony pealing with laughter. The award though had to go to David Lloyd who surprisingly did not miss a thing as he reiterated the course of events for the benefits of the viewers.

This is the kind of shake up that can, at best, be called dramatic. This has been a dramatic week for cricket in England and there is much sorrow and all the joy has been put on caution.
England have unveiled a new captain, though not by design. Some may argue, it could not have been much longer anyway, almost like Roger Federer conceding the number one tag to Rafael Nadal. But given England’s policy towards cricket and a romance, even a wilting one, with Michael Vaughan would have perhaps ensured the status quo in spite of the decline.

By Shreyas Bhide

Amongst the many news stories such as India beating Sri Lanka, South Africa scoring a Test serieswin, Gilchrist calling for cricket’s inclusion in 2020 Olympics, Vaughan and Collingwood’s resignation, Kevin Pieterson’s appointment as England skipper and amidst heroics of Sehwag, Pieterson, Graeme Smith, Harbhajan and so on, one small piece of news that everyone failed to notice was Ireland winning the World Cup T20 spot in England next year.

It was not that long ago that India almost called off a tour in Australia and the spirit of men like Michael Clark and Ricky Ponting was questioned in one of the most heated and exhilarating tour played Down Under. When the dust settled and the series was etched in the footnotes of cricketing folklore one statement created tremors that had the world taking notice of the serious issue at hand. When Indian Test Captain Anil Kumble, a man who is considered one of the finest ambassadors of the sports said, “Only one team played the game in right spirit” after the Sydney Test, the world knew that change was soon to arrive.

It was a very unlikely that the high bureaucrats and the always aloof Union Sports Ministry of India were going to let an opportunity to associate themselves with the hottest sports commodity in India right now pass and so when the name of M S Dhoni was proposed for the highest award for sportsperson in India, they duly grabbed the chance. This would mean a gala function, plenty of publicity and of course a little side note at the bottom which assures that all the men who have no clue about sports yet tinker with it constantly are assured of good press for once. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has managed to achieve what Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh failed to do in two successive years and that is safely glove a prestigious award for the cricketing fraternity. So what is its significance?

by Kartik Kannan

These are good times to bask in the victory of the Galle Test match. Going into the next Test, India would well want to past history when India have failed to deliver when it came to winning a series abroad.

It’s official. Kevin Pietersen takes over the reins of the England captaincy. Not quite as dramatic as the manner in which both skippers stepped down on a single day after the South Africans made history and drew another nail into the heart of England.

Back in the Fray
This must come as a blow to the administration at the helm of the BCCI. The man they fought ruthlessly again is back at the helm of affairs and this could be a knock out clash.
Conflicts over differing opinions are one thing. But the Sharad Pawar lobby to remove the presence of a stronghold that is the Dalmiya camp suffered a blow when Jagmohan Dalmiya was re elected to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) as president. The move was seen significantly as an attempt for Bengal to establish its own administrative set up irrespective of the centre’s interests in destabilizing the popular man for the job.

The buzz is in the air and it would seem Twenty20 is cricket’s ticket to everything it could never achieve.
The Twenty20 version of the cricket game really catapulted the viewership in South Africa for cricket to new heights. In most countries around the world, cricket does not even feature in a football dominated world. The transformation has been as impacting as Twenty20 itself. Twenty20 went form being the cheese to lure fans to the game to becoming the vehicle traveling with which cricket hopes to achieve its ultimate dream, conquering the world.

It had to come yet again when Graeme Smith had made a valuable century for his team against England. Nasser Hussain handed the captaincy to Michael Vaughan overnight and now England have both captains, Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood, quitting cold turkey after last night’s phenomenal knock from Smith that gave South Africa its first series victory in England since 1965. Is the crown becoming too heavy to wear?

Even India would have not expected it to come this easy. Sri Lanka had lost four crucial wickets before tea. But it appeared that they would still stretch it to the fifth day even though the result seemed inevitable. But the end came all too soon and Sri Lanka wilted almost without a fight in their final innings in Galle.

When South Africa won the heroic Lord’s Test in 1994, a popular sports magazine in India ran a cover story calling Kepler Wessels ‘captain courageous’ for his invaluable century that made victory possible for the touring visitors and helped South Africa to make their mark, having only entered the international fold.

Graeme Smith managed to take it one step further for South Africa at Edgbaston fourteen years on. His century will now be counted amongst the special ones that actually won South Africa the series in England since readmission.