Women's cricket is progressing...

Was watching the highlights of the final yesterday.

There was an England spinner called Holly Colvin (who I remember was a 16 year old when playing in the Ashes in 2005) who was giving the ball a helluva lot of flight on the ball, it seemed so irresistible to hit. I admire her courage in doing that, and perhaps a number of men spinners should learn something from that.

In addition, with the risk of sounding sexist, it was quite strange (and funny!) to hear the women sorta screeching when appealing! :P

It was nice to hear some top commentators like Danny Morrison and Wasim Akram also commentating. It really does raise the profile of the game as these 2 would, no doubt, be eager to tell fellow commentators and other people about the women's game, which would, no doubt, help a lot in raising its profile.

England were the clear champions due to one major factor. They were the first set of women cricketers to go professional by getting central contracts from the ECB, which meant that they could give their full focus 24/7 to cricket rather than trying to hang on to some job while playing cricket as a part time job.

Basically, what the administrators of the game should realise is that professional contracts is the most requisite step towards increasing the profile of the game.

IPL becomes....SAPL!

Well well, isn't this quite farficial?

Indian domestic tournament is going to be held in South Africa...

WTF?

Would FA ever think of having the English Premier League in Germany?

This is quite stupid.

Alright, there are so many financial considerations at stake..

Sponsors are leaving, TV rights have become more expensive..

But it doesn't mean that you stage an Indian tournament in another country. It does look very stupid (more like egg thrown on Lalit Modi's face).

Reading some Indian newspapers online, they reckon that this was supposed to be a political stunt aimed at putting the Congress government in an uncomfortable situation on the eve of elections. They expected it to be fodder for the opposition rival, BJP.

Alas, Modi has been forced into actually doing it!

Fuck Modi, all hail P.Chidambaram (Home minister)! I bow down to you, sir!

They tried to get it in England so that they could give the players some practice before the World Cup, but it was always a stupid idea.

For one, even if the weather was going to be really bright and shiny, the domestic season is supposed to start next month, and all the major grounds would be occupied by the counties for practices and matches, leaving the IPL with some 'minor counties' grounds, which would've been quite farficial.

Other than that, there was the TV rights issue. BSkyB has rights to broadcast all matches played in England, but Setanta has rights to broadcast the IPL in Engalnd. It would've made for an akward situation.

Anyhowz, it's going to take place in SA, the only feasible place, costwise, stadium availability-wise (it's off-season in SA), and TV rights-wise (SS has sole rights to broadcast locally played matches as well as the IPL).

All this is very stupid, to be honest.

I'm all for what Alan Tyers of Cricket365 has written.

...As for actual attendances, will the cricketing public be flocking to Trent Bridge to watch the Kolkata Jamsandwiches against the Chennai Carpetbaggers? I strongly suspect not, and unfortunately - unlike India - Nottingham cannot bus in a wildly enthusiastic, dollar-a-day rent-a-crowd to bolster the atmosphere. Telly viewers, presumably even Indian ones, must notice such indifference...

...If the tournament were to be a total wash-out in terms of weather, attendance, or credibility, then maybe that would help sharpen the minds of the people who run the game to the fact that a lot of cricket fans worldwide have little or no interest in the IPL, and that maybe this isn't the future of the sport.

I am not saying that the IPL is necessarily a worthless event in its own right. Who doesn't enjoy cheerleaders and six-hitting? Just that it is clearly dominating and bullying the real sport of Test cricket. Already the Test match calendar is being massaged to suit the whim of the IPL, and a strong IPL means that this is only going to get worse.

If your idea of cricket is watching Mitchell Johnson tearing into Jacques Kallis at 92 miles per hour or Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards hang on for 60 balls with 10 men around the bat, or a 19-year-old Ishant Sharma attacking Ricky Ponting again and again with the inswinger before getting him caught at slip with the one that went away then... well, you like real cricket. Test cricket. And the IPL, really, is only going to mess with that more and more, so a few body-blows here and there probably aren't anything to shed many tears over...

McGain losing..

Another pun over there! Looks like its a day for puns!

Poor McGain...gets a debut just a week before his 37th birthday and gets launched into the stands by none other than Kallis!

He's already conceded 93 off his 10 overs. But I generally hear that leggies do give away quite some runs early in their career and that captains have to persist with them.

However, from what I have seen, Ricky doesn't always seem too keen on taking a specialist spinner into the side ever since Warney retired, so there is a possibility that McGain might not play in the Ashes if he continues like this.

Just hopes that Punter punts on him and it works!

Prince makes a princely ton!

Couldn't really resist the pun!

On a serious note, Prince has finally found a path through which he can keep a place in the team.

He did score a double-ton in a trial run in domestic cricket.

Good for him.

However, I do fear for Imraan Khan.

He might not get to play another test because of Prince's re-emergence as an opener.

He would perhaps have to re-invent himself as a middle order batsman.

Let's see....

IPL locking horns with the Indian Government and the FICA?

Lalit Modi really is testing the limits of his powers.

He, along with that other idiot, IS Bindra, are trying their best not to postpone the IPL, but I suppose when the Government of the country tells you not to hold a tournament at a particular time, I suppose you have to respect it, but that's not what Modi seems to think. He wants to keep the tournament as it is, despite there being a huge chance that we'll be seeing sleeping security personnel at the grounds and accompanying the teams.

He also refused to allow the FICA into the discussions about security, which is mightily stupid. The trump cards of the IPL, the players from SA, England and Australia will only follow the advice of the FICA before proceeding to India. Therefore, doing this will just ensure that they don't have many of the star attractions of the IPL, which, in turn, means less sponsors....

BCCI - Board of Control for Cricket Intimidation

All due credit to Paul Ford of the Cricinfo blog 'Different Strokes' for the title, which aptly reflects what the BCCI have become.

Here's another absolute classic from Dylan Cleaver of the New Zealand Herald..

It's a truly absurd thing [for the BCCI] to flex their muscles in the commentary box for fear that Ravi Shastri (IPL) and Craig McMillan (ICL) might accidentally exchange bodily fluids that could eventually infect all the right-thinking people of the cricketing world.

The BCCI sure is stretching the limits of stupidity by ordering the NZC to withdraw Craig 'Macca' McMillian from the commentary box for the 1st test. Their biggest problem seems to be the fact that Ravi 'Shaz' Shastri is the gem of Sony Max (the broadcasters of the tour and of the IPL), and they don't want an ICL player sitting beside him! I really think that someone has brainwashed all the officials of the BCCI into thinking that ICL players have some incurable disease (perhaps AIDS, with all due respect to people suffering from it) and that they might, by some chance, make someone else contract the disease just by standing beside them (which any right thinking person knows is not true).

I can vaguely understand the reasons for banning the ICL players from domestic cricket and the chance to represent India, but I think it is stretching the limits of absurdity to actually expect the world to do it.

Even before this stupid episode, the BCCI had asked Darryl Tuffey and Hamish Marshall to withdraw from the Auckland and Northern Districts teams respectively so that some of their test players could get some practice ahead of the test series. They did well by telling them to fuck off. However, the fact that the Indian board let the test players to play in the other teams contradicts their position because, since Tuffey and Marshall are still playing in the tournament, the NZ domestic competition should have been officially 'ICL infected'!

Sachin Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik were also withdrawn from the curtain-raiser for the second T20i, which was supposed to be an exhibition match between 2 teams composed by the NZC because Karthik was set to play alongside Marshall. How stupid!

The stupidity of administrators...

There are days when I wake up, lie in bed and think "What a waste my life has been so far...I've done nothing that is worth bragging, just reading cricket news all the time and doing a lame job"...

There are other days when I wake up, lie in the bed and think "How much the cricket world wastes talent and money...."

The second thought comes about due to 2 reasons.

1. I recently learned that the Aussie Cricket Board employed the help of the Boston Consultancy Group (a fairly big company), who then came up with the idea of the World Test Championship, whereby the teams play each other during a course of 3-4 years.

What utter stupidity! I'm not sure whether's its in this blog or in some forums, but I've always advocated the idea of the Test Championship for nearly 2 years since it will ensure that there will be an interest in matches played between, say New Zealand vs England for a South African, since the result might affect his team.

They could've just got the idea from me. All I would've asked is to give me credit, and wouldn't have charged a cent!

2. I was quite shocked by some of the stupid things Mike Proctor has done. Keeping JP in the side was a big big mistake! By doing this, they're effectively sending a message that "we don't care if you lost your place because you got injured, that's your fault". It might even lead to a possible situation where players might fake full fitness in the fear of losing their place.

Secondly, which stupid decides to give the captaincy to a guy whose coming back into the team and who is going to bat in an unfamiliar position? They could've just given it to Boucher or Kallis at the first instance rather than giving it to Prince and then to Kallis. It really does smack of utter stupidity!

Really, I just wish administrators would grow up. Heck, I though that my future path would be to work in the financial industry and blogging about cricket, but, looking at how pathetic administrators are, I suppose that I could fancy becoming one myself (subject to whether I have the right contacts!).

Murali as VC??

Surprises, surprises! The high officials in SL never disappoint us and decided to spring a surprise and appoint Murali as Sanga's deputy!

Of course, it does bring the question, what happened to Dilshan?

Clearly, most of the players wouldn't have been happy, and not a lot of us locals over here liked the way he captained the team during the T20 against India. It was utterly disgraceful and a complete contrast to the way Dhoni captains.

This idiot was screaming at the bowlers for bowling bad balls and staring at his own mates!

Now, one thing I like about MSD's captaincy is that he always runs to the bowler to have a chat with him if he feels that something is not right. He conducts himself in an extremely mature manner that really belies his age.

On the other hand, this idiot acts like a monkey on the field, it's no wonder that he wasn't appointed as VC.

The second reason, the most likely one, was that there is no other person who can command a place in the side. Most of the youngsters are either very new or permenantly out of form.

Perhaps it's a decent decision. Murali did indicate that he'd retire after the 2011 WC, so perhaps SLC figured that they would've got a proper successor by then. Let's hope SL does! :)

Amazing....truly amazing!

Regular readers of my blog would've noticed that I tended to have a hardline stance against Australia. All that was for a reason.

Now, I can do nothing but sit back and admire the Aussies!

I mean, this is the same team that we thought was disintegrating, and would have an extensive rebuilding period.

But, the rebuilding seems to be over!

Siddle sizzled, Johnson rocked, and McD and Hilfy supported the two extremely well.

Kato comes in with his lollipops and snares the lower order completely.

Truly amazing, I have to say. Kudos to Punter for a good job done. Looks like he's enjoying having some youngsters out with him rather than a dad's army, which he had for most of his captaincy career.

Let's not forget Hughes, who first became the youngest Aussie test centurion in 43 years and then the youngest man to make twin hundreds in a match. The lad looks good, and he might be a long - term fixture. Perhaps it would be a good idea to slot him in the limited overs side with Haddin.

Meanwhile, the Saffers have rung in some changes with McKenzie and Morkel being given the boot. This could possibly be the end of McKenzie's career @ 33, but not so for Morne, who's just about 23. I feel it's a bit too harsh on him considering that he had just 2 bad test. Anyhowz, that's life.

In his place, the explosive centurion in the tour game, Imraan Khan, comes in, while Prince makes a return as captain in place of Smith. Wayne Parnell has also been brought in, so it will be a tussle between Albie Morkel and Parnell for Morne's spot.

Quite funny for Prince, isn't it? Couldn't get a spot in the side, and now he's the skipper!

Amjad Khan...

...continues to really capture my imagination.

Apparently, his parents immigrated to Denmark from Pakistan, where Amjad was born. He was mainly interested in soccer till he was about 9 years when he saw a game of cricket being played while going to a soccer match. He asked if he could play, and there started a career!

He then becomes the youngest player, at 17, to play for Denmark, and has now become the first Dane to play test cricket when debuting for England at the age of 28.

However, what really fascinates me is his stark resemblance to the popular Indian actor Hrithik Roshan. He's just a more fair version of Hrithik.

Could they possibly be long-lost brothers? Are you currently thinking I'm going crazy? Then have a look at the images below. The first one is of Amjad, and the second is that of Hrithik. You decide..

And WTF is this?

How ignorant could the Sydney Morning Herald be to actually put Tendulkar's picture instead of Chaminda Vaas?

I mean, that's just totally fucked up. It'll just encourage a whole load of wrath against them from the Indians and make them think that the SMH is run by a bunch of Pakistanis...:(

WTF is wrong with these dudes?

Man, now this is totally fucked up! Terrorists come and shoot down the SL players. .....WTF? It's just so sad..I feel really bad for the Pakistani people because they would've been quite happy to see a proper international team playing in their own lawn after a long time and, now, a bunch of psychopaths, whose main objective is to disrupt anything which is done peacefully in the country, destroy everything. I suppose the Pakistanis will just have to flush down the dream of watching the wordl cup in another 2 years, down the toilet!

This also shows that there hasn't been enough security measures on the part of the Pakistanis. I just get the feeling that perhaps the SL board should have been more insistent on a proper security report. It's quite clear that SL was sent to tour Pakistan because the SL board is near to bankrupt, and they desperately need the money. So they just got a stupid security report just for the sake of it and sent the boys there. I feel that Lokuge (Sports Minister) and Liyanagama (SLC 'competent' authority) should be shot between the eyes for not having insisted on a proper report by an independent security consultant. Perhaps they would've got the bugger running the 'Perera & sons' adjoining the SSC to do a 'security report' so that they could show it to any concerned players...so sad...