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Flintoff for Knight Riders?

Posted by admin
at June 21, 2008

 

You might wonder where is Shah Rukh these days. He is in London scouting (fishing) for English players for the next IPL season. Latest entrant to this league is Andrew Flintoff the English all-rounder. Though nursing an injury right now he might be ready for the next season. Though all of this is still speculation SRK might just spend a fortune on Freddy to get his team going. Kevin Pietersen has been vocal the whole time about IPL and there are rumors about that Mumbai Indians might just pay the price (estimated $4 million) for him. We have to wait and see how much can Flintoff attract.

 

Interesting thing to note is Flintoff will be playing under Ganguly’s captaincy. To refresh our memory there was a famous incident in the Natwest trophy between Flintoff and Ganguly. That’s the famous shirt removing scene. No, we are not talking about Salman Khan here. This shirt removing feat is done by Ganguly in retaliation to what Freddie has done on the Indian tour. Link to Flintoff shirtless celebrations.

Watch the video below :

 

Link to Flintoff shirtless celebrations.

Knight Riders
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Kallis, Prince and Boucher not good enough for T20.

Posted by admin
at June 17, 2008


That’s what the claim is for those 3 players from their previous franchise in South Africa. The trio in question are part of South African domestic T20 circuit for team Cobras. Cobras coach Shukri Conrad has said that all the three are not good enough for the team Cobras and they should not bother to come back. Kallis and Boucher were selected for IPL’s Royal Challengers team and if they were selected for Cobras they would have missed the first matches of IPL. But that did not happen. Kallis and Boucher were willing to go back and play for their franchise which might attract some penalties from Royal Challengers. If they were dropped that should have been fine. But, it is the comment by Conrad which irked the players and are demanding a public apology from the Afrikaanas tabloid Sandog.

Ashwell Prince’s is a different story. He was in the auction but wasn’t picked up by any team to start with and later picked up by Mumbai Indians. He did not play any match and Mumbai Indians did not make it to the semi-final.

On a whole, these players might not like the way they exited from Cobras, but will definetly like the money they got from IPL.

Kallis was the biggest disappointment of IPL, leave alone Royal Challengers. Boucher is not even a shadow of his past.

The question I have is, If we take the Cobras coach seriously and think that Kallis and Boucher are not good enough for Cobras. In that case, Are they good enough for Royal Challengers?

It would be premature to comment of Ashwell Prince.

IPL, Royal Challengers
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Emerging players tournament

Posted by admin
at June 16, 2008

We have heard about emerging economies and emerging stars but not emerging players. Now we will. BCCI has chosen the team for the emerging players tournament to be held in Australia. The tournament will be held from July 14-26. Ironically this would be a one-day tournament and not 20-20. Parthiv Patel will lead the team in the emerging players tournament. Shikar Dhawan and Abhishek Nayar are also part of this squad.

There is one more tournament to be held in Israel. This would be 3-one-day match affair with Israel starting from July 10 to July 16. The team will be lead by Jayadev Shah (son of BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah). Swapnil Asnodkar and Wriddiman Saha are part of this team.

Indian team for Israel : Jaydev Shah (captain), Swapnil Asnodkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravi Teja, M. Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Rajat Bhatia, Yogesh Takawale, Rakesh Dhruv, Mohnish Parmar, Vishal Bhatia, Basant Mohanty, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashok Dinda and Vinay Kumar.

Emerging Indian Players team for Australia : Parthiv Patel (captain), S. Badrinath (vice-captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Manoj Tiwari, Abhishek Nayar, Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Pankaj Singh, Manpreet Gony, Siddharth Trivedi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Iqbal Abdulla, Ravinder Jadeja and Pinal Shah.

Its sure raining tournaments in the cricket world.

Emerging Players, IPL
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The league to top it all : Stanford League

Posted by admin
at June 16, 2008


It was ICL - Indian Cricket League to start the things off. It was dubbed as the rebel cricket league and treated as an outcast by BCCI and forced everybody else to treat it that way. BCCI decided that after all ICL is not that rebel at all and they took a leaf out of ICL’s book and added few toppings and rolled out their own version IPL. Lalit Modi says it was his 13 year dream. IPL - Indian Premier League is an instant hit with the Indian business magnates and bollywood super stars joining the bandwagon and throwing money at will. It culminated with a great success and the least expensive team Rajasthan Royals grabbing the prize of 4.8 crores.

Most of us haven’t recoverd from the IPL hangover, people are talking about a new league. about. The Champions League. It will contain 2 teams each from England, South Africa, Australia and India. They will play for a winner take call cash prize of $5 million. While the rules are still being formulated by Cricket Australia, Sir Allen Stanford has other plans.

Sir Allen Stanford who was the first american to be knighted has sponsored a Stanford 20/20 tournament in the West Indies. He built his own ground in Angtigua for this tournament. Stanford has spent $100 million so far for the carribean tournmanet. He is billionaire # 239 in the world according to Forbes with a networth of $2 billion dollars.

Stanford declared and finalized a tournament worth $20 million dollars. Yes, you read that right. Its $20 million dollars. This would be held in carribean islands with players from west Indies and England fighting for the cash prize. Unlike IPL, the prize money will be split with the winning team players. Here is how the money($20 million) will be split :

  1. $3.5 Million to West-Indies cricket Board
  2. $3.5 million to the England Cricket Board
  3. $11 million to the winning team with each player in the winning squad getting a million each.
  4. $1 million to the reserve players
  5. $1 million to the support staff

There are really no rules for this tournament. I am not sure if we can call it as a tournament. There is nothing tournament like in this except the prize money. It is just one match and winner takes it all. Yes one match. Tournament starts on November 1, to mark the independence of Antigua and Barbuda’s independence from Great Britain. The team losing this would be the biggest loser of all times. Not to forget the players who would have made a million dollar by playing a 3 hour game. They don’t necessarily have to perform. They just have to be lucky to be in the team.

Sir Allen Stanford who was the first american to be knighted has sponsored a Stanford 20/20 tournament in the West Indies. He built his own ground in Angtigua for this tournament. Stanford has spent $100 million so far for the carribean tournmanet. He is billionaire # 239 in the world according to Forbes with a networth of $2 billion dollars.

Unlike ICL matches, these matches will be ICC acredited. The status of these matches is unofficial. I am really not sure what the acredition means without an official status. I guess the records won’t count.

Sir Allen Stanford with a net worth of $2 billion dollars can revolutionalize cricket, what happens if someone with a better net worth takes a liking to the sport. That would make the ultimate dream of every cricket fan a reality. Making cricket the new global sport or as they call Emerging global sport only next to football, oops Soccer (for them Americans who think football is rugby). Its only a matter of time for the Chinese and Americans to jump in.

Read what others has to say about this new league :
Telegraph
Sunil Gavascar
AFP News

Champions League, Stanford League
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Ray Jennings to coach Royal Challengers?

Posted by admin
at June 15, 2008

This cricinfo article reports that Ray Jennings was approached by Royal Challengers. Jennings who never played a single test for South Africa has coached the South African national team for a brief while. South Africa lost a test series against and England when he was the coach. Later they went on to win the one-day series against England had a successful West Indies tour. He was never appointed as permanant coach. He is now coaching the Under-19 South African side.

After firing CEO Charu Sharma this is the second such change to the team which desperately needs some major shake up. It would be interesting to see which players they are willing to trade. It is time Dr. Mallya gets into the act and gets his wishlist, now that Charu Sharma is gone. My guess would be to ditch Jacques Kallis. I am not sure who would take him but Kallis has been a major disappointment for Bangalore and IPL as a whole.

If appointed Jennings will replace Venkatesh Prasad as the coach of Royal Challengers. Jennings is a wicket-keeper for South Africa during the apartheid era.

Venkatesh Prasad has to look for a new job while he is not coaching team India.

Royal Challengers
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Jeff Crowe is the match referee for Bangladesh series

Posted by admin
at June 3, 2008

Bangladesh tri-series will be starting on 8th June. It is a round robin league format with each team playing the other team once.

Match officials :
Match referee : Jeff Crowe (New Zealand)
Neutral on-field official : Asoka De Silva (Sri Lanka)
Other Umpires : Enamul Hoque Moni and Nadir Shah (Bangladesh)

Schedule
Jun 8 Bangladesh v Pakistan, Mirpur
Jun 10 India v Pakistan, Mirpur
Jun 12 Bangladesh v India, Mirpur
Jun 14 Final, Mirpur

IPL
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Mohd Asif detained for drug posession

Posted by admin
at June 3, 2008

Mohammad Asif, the pakistani cricketer who is part of Delhi Daredevils team is arrested by Dubai airport officials for drug posession. Asif is going back to Pakistan after completing the IPL sojourn. Pakistani cricket officials are trying to get bail for him.

Asif was tested postive along with Shoiab Akthar for banned anabolic steroids back in 2006.

Asif played his last match with Daredevils against Rajasthan Royals. Daredevils lost that match by a big margin.

Asif was also picked for Bangladesh series.

Daredevils, Pakistan
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Semi-final dilemma

Posted by admin
at May 27, 2008


Scenario 1 : If Chennai win today, They will be through to semi-finals irrespective of other outcomes. They will be playing Rajastan Royals in the semi-finals.

Scenario 2 : If Chennai lose today and Mumbai win tomorrow, they will end up 14 points each and it will come down to net run rate. Mumbai sneaks through on better run rate.

Scenario 3 : If Chennai lose today and Mumbai lose tomorrow, Chennai is through to the semi-final and will be playing Rajasthan Royals.

Irrespective of the results of the upcoming matches Daredevils are in the semi-finals and are waiting for their opponents. It could either be Kings XI Punjab or Rajasthan Royals.



IPL
2

Knight Riders finish on a winning note

Posted by admin
at May 26, 2008


Amazing night for the knights. Saurav Ganguly lead the team from the front in all departments. He has made sure that he is there till the end and took his team home. Ganguly’s innings of 86 from 53 balls is one of the best innings we have witnessed in IPL. He was well supported by Umar Gul in the end. Gul hit some lusty blows and swung the momentum in Kolkata’s favor. Ganguly’s sixers as always are a treat to watch. This inning is no different with six sixers. He has placed his innings beautifully. For the most part it is a chanceless innings. When he was hinting the national selectors in the earlier matches about his performance I thought he was joking. But, he is serious. He dived in the field, he bowled, looked fit and most importantly scored runs in a pressure cooker situation. It would be tough for the selectors to ignore Ganguly.

Kings XI Punjab for the first time found themselves in a losing postion in a close match. Probably close match is an understatment. It cannot get any closer than this. Their last 2 matches, they have won from the last and penultimate ball. This match went into the last over with 15 runs needed off 6 balls. They would have won this match if it is any other batsman. But, it was Saurav Ganguly with steel nerves. I am really not sure how Ganguly held his nerves. First ball was hit for six over deep square leg. Followed it up with a 2 runs and then sealed the match with another 6. With the scores leveled Ganguly took a sensible single to win the match. What this loss would mean is Punjab will end up second in the points table and might face Mumbai, Delhi or Chennai. Given a chance, Punjab wouldn’t have done anything different except for their fielding.

Umar Gul is declared man of the match for his 4 wickets and his explosive innings of 24 of 11 balls.

This weekend has witnessed some very close matches and IPL is not losing its interest. Of course, this time it is not yet another controversy but cricket. Yes, T20 is cricket. As lot of purists have acknowledged for the sheer adrenaline rush it brings to these close matches.

In another inconsequential match, Royal Challengers made sure that they will not end at the bottom of the pile and defeated Deccan Chargers. They have good momentum going into their game against Mumbai. Mumbai Indians have to fire all guns if they have to make the cut for the semi-finals. Intersting 2 days lie ahead of us for the final 2 spots.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot. Sreesanth regained the purple cap.


Kings XI Punjab, Knight Riders
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Mascernhas will not return to IPL

Posted by admin
at May 25, 2008



Dimitri Mascernhas, did not get his county (Hampshire) nod to join Rajasthan Royals team for semi-finals. Hampshire team is in a difficult position. Mascernhas is the captain of Hampshire.

This might not come as a big disappointment for Rajasthan Royals. They are already brimming with players who are in fine form and there is a 4 player cap on the foreign players. Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Greame Smith and Sohail Tanvir. It would be difficult to field Dimitri in the match.

Read the news from telegraph UK

IPL, Rajastan Royals
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