Cricketpedia

Facts

Dhoni refused to acknowledge that Ashwin is being rested for the IPL.

Sachin’s score should not be read as 85 for 5.

Hawkeye was not programmed with a special clause on checking who the batsman is.

Sachin did not say “You just dropped the world cup, saale” a la Steve Waugh.

Ashish Nehra and Kamran Akmal did not join hands to promote  Orthodontist Smily Singh’s  clinic.

Shahid Afridi did not check with the umpire if during power plays one of the fielders outside the circle can be the wicket keeper.

Piyush Chawla, the only KXP player in the squad, did not get a hug from Preity Zinta.

Manmohan Singh was not sleeping with his eyes open.

Aamir Khan did not get moustache tips from Graham Gooch or Merv Hughes.

International Cricket Council president and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar did not influence the pitch preparation.

Shashi Tharoor and wife Sunanda Pushkar did not create a fund for ticket sales at Mohali

Mukesh Ambani did not request Z level security protection from Harbhajan Singh for his wife Nita .

“Fast bowlers and good hair – two things India will never have” – was not something a disgruntled Gilani told a gruntled Manmohan Singh.

The US (Hillary Aunty) did not receive up to the minute tweets on the match progress from Rahul Gandhi

Shoaib Akhthar was not dropped, he has retired and no, he was not felicitated.

“First racists, then terrorists, now for the Rakshasas” is not a slogan being promoted for the finals.

Figures

Unknown starlet with sunglass on her head

Girl with blue t-shirt

Nita Ambani

Preity Zinta

Mrs. Amir Khan – still being debated

Girl who winked at camera man

Sidharth Malya

Sonia Gandhi

Aunty with shock expression

The 2011 world cup has been a mixed game so far. We are at a surreal phase where the ‘paisa vasool’ matches involve the England team – tying with India, sponsoring O’Brien’s blitz and defeating a well set South Africa. All teams have played at least three matches – like a calculated pause to burp in the middle of South Indian thaali meals- now is as good a time to analyze the progress of the teams.

This is how the points table looks today

Group A

Group B

(Source: Cricinfo)

Let me strip the minnows from this list. They are clearly here to fill in the numbers and have already been denied invitations to the next party. They are now playing for the same pride that the ICC has systematically squashed. So, the table with just the top four teams looks like this.

Group A

Group B

These points include wins over minnows. I was debating of stripping points obtained from beating winnows in its entirety. Case in point – New Zealand – 10 wicket victories in the games with the lesser teams but succumbed easily to Australia. In group B, the matches involving Ireland have really stretched India and England – well, England stretched long enough to break. To find middle ground, I’ve revised the table by awarding one point for wins over the bottom three in each group and retained the two points for a win against one of the top four.

The new points table then looks something like

* England and Sri Lanka have played four games, one more than the other teams in the revised table. The fourth game has been against non-minnows and has been included in the calculation.

In Group A, Australia (did they have a reprieve in the abandoned Sri Lanka match?) are leading Pakistan through a better run rate. Pakistan, despite being the only team to have won all their games, had a batting wobble against Canada. Sri Lanka haven’t stamped their presence in this world cup in the way they were expected to and ended up losing their only serious match. They were on a good course against Australia before the weather played foul. New Zealand continue to have the best looking uniforms in the cricket world.

In Group B, England is on top thanks solely to the win against South Africa who are now No.2. India is yet to win a real game and their run rate is lesser than that of South Africa’s. West Indies pelted Bangladesh out of contention (for now) in a battle for the fourth spot.

Australia – will be praying that there are no more injuries to their potent 3 men pace attack. Michael Hussey is here. Have to get past Pakistan.

Pakistan – quite the opposite of India – bowlers protecting the batsmen. Have to get past Australia and New Zealand.

Sri Lanka – underwhelming in all aspects – need to step up. Only have NZ to deal with.

N Zealand – please be a banana peel. The game against Pakistan is their best chance yet.

England – Morgan’s arrival could be the turning point. Seemingly easy games against WI and Bdesh remaining.

South Africa – what will they do with their long tail? India match gains even more importance.

India – They should replace the inconsistent Chawla with Ashwin or Sreesanth or go for an extra part time bowler in Raina. That’s about all they can do. SA and WI seem more formidable now.

West Indies – Batting is yet to click but bowling is peaking already. Will need at least one win against England or India.

A bunch of videos set to popular kodambaakkam numbers – the Madurai veeran video is particularly well edited.

and your token ‘motivational song’

Everyone did well, other than Sreesanth.

Virender Sehwag’s honesty at the presentation was as brutal as his century in the World Cup opener

Feb 19, 2011

I told him that he should not cross a few boundaries. If you want to irritate someone that should be the opposition and not your side.

MS Dhoni thinks Sreesanth’s on-field antics can sometimes distract the wrong set of players

Feb 18, 2011

Those are quotes from his captain and vice-captain. I would love to know what his Grandmother thinks of him. It might not be flattering if we go by his track record. To me, Sreesanth is a fond reminder of a childhood friend who threw tantrums in the competitive fields of street cricket and got away with it because he owned the bat. So, he had the license. What is Sreesanth’s motivator? How does he hope to get away with it? Is it because his name rhymes with that of the chief selector or is he under the assumption that he owns the Indian team’s cricket gear?

All said and done, he could yet be the answer to India’s bowling woes. He can be a match winner with good seam grip and what not. He always has one good game when he returns from some serious admonishing. If India play him in the right order – misbehave in Ireland game, made to sit out Netherlands game, comes back to destroy South Africa, can afford to misbehave in the Windies game, stern warning given for quarterfinals, made to sit out semi-finals which India tie with whoever it is and proceed on to finals where Sreesanth is man of the match.

Wikipedia’s page for Sreesanth mentions his eccentricity in the very first paragraph. The second paragraph starts with a sentence that hits you like Ponting’s bat on a television set. “Outside cricket, Sreesanth is a psychology student.” WTF!

There is a certain relief when India is not playing. By the time Australia and South Africa met for the second time in the 1999 edition of the ICC world cup, the sorrow of a lost Indian campaign was partially dealt with. The focus was on the semifinal that turned out to be the mother of all world cup matches. It was a tie that ended in one team, Australia, treating it as a victory. The rest of the tournament, including the final, was a damp squib.

Steve Waugh

“We are not here to win friends, mate”

Imagine Ricky Ponting saying something like that today – he will never get away with it. Yet, when Waugh says it, you can but only be in awe of the ruthlessness and the focus. The quote itself was in response to the media’s attempted grilling of Waugh and Bevan’s slo-mo run chase designed to order the super six to Australia’s advantage. After being uncharacteristically unfocused at the start of the campaign, losing matches to Pakistan and New Zealand, Waugh set his team a simple task of winning all of the remaining matches and the world cup. They responded brilliantly.

Shane Warne

Waugh’s deputy got motivated at the right time in the tournament. Legend talks about an early morning walk that the two took together, midway through the world cup, discussing Warne’s future. I think we will know about it at some time in one of their memoirs but for now it remains as one of those fantastic myths that adds to the aura of this particular game. When Warne is motivated, you better be on his side. It makes one wonder how Ponting and co. failed to capitalize on his focused approach in the 2005 ashes. He was contributing full steam with the bat and ball but Australia still managed to lose the ashes. Back in the ‘99 cup, when he got motivated, Waugh’s team won in an impressive fashion.

Herschelle Gibbs

Herschelle Gibbs, the batsman, and his doppelganger, Gibbs, the fielder were an integral part of the drama. The origins of Australia’s upper hand actually emerged in the previous game. Gibbs set the tone in the super six game with a royal century only to be upstaged by Waugh’s counter attacking century. That Waugh even completed his century was thanks in part to the famous Gibbs gaffe – celebrating a catch offered by Waugh prematurely only to drop it. I sincerely wish Waugh had really retorted “You just dropped the cup, mate!”. Apparently, he never said it. Again, in the semi-final, when South Africa were seemingly coasting, it was Gibbs’ dismissal that pumped up Warne to feed into South Africa’s anxiety.

The Tie

Klusener’s dream run came to the saddest of ends. Nine needed off the final over from Fleming. Last wicket stand but the in-(the finest of)-form Klusener on strike. Klusener smacked two boundaries and checked with the umpire or maybe his partner that only one was needed of four balls. He miscued a third attempt but saw the ball go past the bowler and started running. His partner, the white lightning forgot the basics of running between the wickets at the most unfortunate moment for South Africa. He froze with his eyes on the ball instead of on his partner. I remember getting goose bumps and also feeling awful at the same time. I wanted Australia to win the match and I wanted Klusener to win the match. Technically, neither of these wishes got granted. I know its a cliché but to the best of my knowledge, cricket won that day. That it resulted in Australia proceeding to the final was just coincidence.

Not all ties are great. In some, like the oxymoronish ‘flawed epic’ between England and India, was great only in exposing both teams’ frailties. I go by the adage ‘Cricket is fun only when India has won’ but on 17 June 1999, I was proved wrong. This is the match to beat. Can the 2011 world cup produce one such match?

Inspection Committee Hosting Dos and Donts

Dos

Surround sound

Pack as many bureaucrats into the tour as possible.

Invite your brother-in-law and his friends as well.

Constantly narrate stories of how you’ve known Tendulkar since he was this tall. Note: He is still of the same height.

Have back up distraction ready with pretty lady in pink salwar.

Have Ganpath Vada paav on call.

Form Chakravyukam preventing committee from seeing anything beyond the group.

Photography not allowed

Donts

Do not wear funny looking waist coats.

Do not forget to invite your brother-in-law and his friends.

Do not take the inspection committee to a vantage point from which they can take photographs.

Do not accompany them carrying your tiffin bag.

Do not reveal your total disinterest in the proceedings.

Do not wear funny looking waist coats.

Pics courtesy: cricinfo

Will they gain some sense in time for the world cup? Harsha Bhogle, Sambit Bal and some Peter (Really. That’s his name) discuss the cricket telecast issue in Indian television.

http://www.kyte.tv/f/

The Indian squad for the previous ICC world cup had an average age of 27+ years.

Out of the fifteen players from that squad, seven have retained their places. Six of them are the usual suspects – Sachin Tendulkar (every run is a record), MS Dhoni (every toss is a record), Virender Sehwag (might be asked to play in whites), Zaheer Khan (an Indian who can york the batsman) , Harbhajan Singh (Yuvraj Singh) and Yuvraj Singh (Harbajhan Singh). Yuvraj and Harbhajan have swapped roles as if they were portfolios in a coalition government. It is difficult to say which one is the slow bowling specialist and which one is the match winning batsman. The seventh is the rather surprising presence of Munaf Patel whose fielding position is a tactical nightmare but his bowling has a level of reliability and economy associated with it.  Expect him to stand behind the wicket keeper when not bowling.

These seven can expect their names to be there in the first choice eleven. The remaining four have to be chosen from the pool of eight world cup debutants (with their predecessors in paranthesis) – Gautam Gambhir (Rahul Dravid), Virat Kohli (Dinesh Karthik), Yusuf Pathan (Robin Uthappa), Suresh Raina (Saurav Ganguly), Ashish Nehra (Ajith Agarkar), Piyush Chawla (Anil Kumble), R Ashwin (Sreesanth) and Praveen Kumar (Irfan Pathan). Gambhir and Pathan will find places in the batting order as they can now essentially buy their seats if it comes down to that. Raina and Kohli are expected to battle it out for the remaining batting spot. This is rather unfortunate from a fielding perspective as these two are among the younger, fitter and better fielders. Maybe one of them will don the gloves should Dhoni develop an injury. I expect there to be a rotation policy for the remaining two bowling spots. I am sure the selectors were tempted to give one more chance to Agarkar and no one would have been surprised. It is hard to imagine a spot for Chawla in any case. He is the  new Sunil Joshi – expected to provide strength to the tail. Given that there is no big surprise inclusion or exclusion in this squad, this is the best we have and we expect the best from them.

The average age of the current squad is 28+ suggesting a slow but experienced team.