Brett Lee retires, BCCI asks for a rule change

Yesterday, Brett Lee announced his retirement from test cricket, to focus on playing limited overs cricket (ODIs and T20 games). There's nothing novel about such an announcement. He's just following in the footsteps of others like Flintoff, Oram, Styris and Vaas. You could argue though that given Vaas hasn't been picked in any ODI or T20 game by Sri Lanka for over 6 months after he retired from tests, he is unlikely to make it to the 2011 World Cup as a Sri Lankan player.

I had pointed out when Flintoff, Oram, Styris and Vaas retired that cricket boards run a huge risk of many marquee names, especially quick bowlers and all-rounders, quitting test cricket. Will they wake up now and figure out how to optimally schedule tests, ODIs, T20 games, ICC events, bilateral & multi-lateral ODI series and T20 leagues like the IPL, Champions League, KFC Big Bash, Twenty20 Cup, etc.?

Lee's decision to retire was widely expected. He hasn't played a test since the series loss to South Africa at home. He didn't manage to last out the ODIs against India. He hasn't played a T20 game for Australia since August 2009.

Yesterday, Sachin Tendulkar became the first man to score a double-century in a ODI game, with Belinda Clark having been the first to reach the mark in a limited overs international. The logical question is if other cricketers will now start scoring 200s for fun.

It only took one effort of 400+ (Australia, at the Wanderers in 2006) and in the next 4 years, we've had 9 instances. It is quite likely that Sachin Tendulkar's achievement of scoring 200 will also fall in the next 1 year. After all, it wasn't too long ago that Herschelle Gibbs made 175 in 111 balls and Tillakaratne Dilshan made 160 in 124 balls.

In an unexpected development, it is learnt that the BCCI has approached the ICC with a proposal to limit the number of batsmen in an ODI innings to 7. While publicly, the BCCI claims to have done so to protect the ODI game and to reduce the imbalance between bat & ball, sources in the BCCI told this blogger that the main reason was the abject failure of India's bowlers after South Africa recovered from 180/7 (Jaipur) and 134/7 (Jaipur).

A few other occurences in the recent past have convinced the BCCI that getting the likes of Ashish Nehra, Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma to bowl well to tail-enders is really not worth the trouble. The better option is to ensure that they don't even bowl to #8-#11., thereby insuring against last-minute carnage by the batsmen.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, bcci, icc, lee, retire, rules, tendulkar, test cricket

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:27 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Rude Aussies?



Truth? Or a case of sour grapes?

Australia won the event. India didn't make it past the first round.

Updates

The Bladder brilliantly puts it in perspective - no one died. So we shouldn't be making such a huge fuss of it.

Yes, it showed a distinct lack of grace, lack of appreciation of a host's culture and thoughtlessness towards shoving a 65-year old minister. But if Pawar doesn't want to make it an issue, why bother?

What would my reaction have been had an Indian team won a tournament in Australia and gestured to/pushed some Australian minister/Cricket Australia chairman? I'd not have cared if Aussies had called my team a bunch of Philistines. I'd just point them to the trophy we won. End of story.

Damien Martyn has now apologized. "I didn't mean to offend him and I apologise if I did so. There was nothing in it other than me trying to help him out as there was a crush of people."

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, bcci, champions trophy, martyn, sharad pawar

Thus spake Jagadish @ 10:02 am | Sledge/Read 10 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Missed opportunities

Risque as it may sound, the one lesson that each and every team which played against Australia in the ICC Champions Trophy needs to learn is

When you've got Australia by the b@lls, you hold on!

England were 83/0 in 18 overs and I'm fairly sure Ponting was thinking about where a breakthrough was going to pop up from. Then Bell charged Watson and was caught at cover. India, after losing Tendulkar cheaply, were 120/2 in 27-odd overs. They should have got 275 at least. New Zealand had Australia at 4/2 in the 3rd over, and couldn't finish the job.

Yesterday, Ponting was probably on the verge of throwing in the towel when Gayle and Chanderpaul put on nearly 50 in 5 overs. Then, Chanderpaul got out. Sarwan then followed as did Gayle and finally Lara. In a matter of 7-8 overs, the game turned.

Does anyone have a clue about why Shane Watson (2/11 - Samuels & Baugh and 57 chasing 116) got the 'Player of the Match' award and not Nathan Bracken (3/22 - Chanderpaul, Gayle and Sarwan)? I realize Gayle was one of the stars of the tournament, but I think Damien Martyn, much as I dislike him [while Ganesh is an admirer], should have been the 'Player of the Series'. He played a significant, if understated, part in Australia's wins.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, australia by the balls cliche, champions trophy, prediction

Thus spake Jagadish @ 10:38 am | Sledge/Read 4 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

You don't see this often



We have heard Australia losing, but not often do we get to see McGrath giving away 22 runs off his first 2 overs. I am not joking - it has happened and it's been Gayle all the way till now in the Champions Trophy final at Mumbai. I love this - just as I write this here, Gayle is dismissed and West Indies have galloped to 80/3 in 9.4 overs with Bracken accounting for all three.

Update 1: Now the McGrath we know...


Update 2: Even better now. McGrath turns red and its definitely dangerous for West Indies (88/4 in 15 overs).

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Ganesh @ 3:30 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Can West Indies beat Australia twice in a row?

Australia seldom loses to the same team twice in a row. If at all that does happen, it doesn't tend to have happened recently too often.

England: 2004 ICC Champions Trophy and 2005 NatWest Series
India: Those two games in the Coca Cola Cup in 1998.
New Zealand: Two games in the VB Series in 2002.
Pakistan: Two games in 2002.
South Africa: Two games earlier this year.
Sri Lanka: 1999 and the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy.
West Indies: Two consolation wins in 2003.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 9:05 am | Sledge/Read 4 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Quite beyond me

I'm quite certain that RP Singh (bowling avg. 40, econ. rate 5.7, strike rate 43 in his last 10 one-dayers) and Suresh Raina (batting avg. 18, highest of 34, 141 runs at a strike rate of 68 from his last 10 one-dayers) are in the team for reasons other than what we're led to believe, i.e. as a bowler and as a batsman respectively.

Raina made 19 today against West Indies in the ICC Champions Trophy while RP Singh has so far bowled 4 overs for 29 runs without looking anywhere like picking up a wicket. I could still hope to be proved wrong though!

I'd pick Powar and Kaif ahead of those two just about anyday, especially Powar since he didn't exactly disgrace himself in West Indies and West Indies have three left-handed top order batsmen. We've been critical of Kaif earlier, but I can't find a good reason why Raina should play ahead of Kaif!

At the risk of becoming hoarse, let me point out that the batting line up did it again, 3 wickets down by around the 15th over with only 69 on the board!

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 8:22 pm | Sledge/Read 3 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

ICC-BCCI partnership

In the light of the carping between the BCCI and the ICC over poor pitches, honouring Azharuddin, playing in the ICC Champions Trophy, hosting the 2011 World Cup, hosting the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, bidding for ICC event rights, etc., Anand Ramachandran reports on a developing symbiotic relationship between the ICC and the BCCI.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, 2011 world cup, bcci, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 6:49 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Life's a pitch

To the best of my knowledge, the ICC only has guidelines some nonsense spouted on what constitutes a good wicket for test cricket. There's nothing mentioned about one-day cricket.

CNN-IBN & CricketNext report that a couple of captains and match referee Madugalle have complained about the pitch at the Brabourne stadium for one of the ICC Champions Trophy games.

I am certainly not complaining. I'm loving these low-scoring games. They're far more fascinating to follow than 'Team A 350/8 in 50 overs lost to Team B 351/5 in 47 overs' type of games.

The ICC insisted that venues which would host games in this tournament should not have any advertising/sponsorships associated with them which would conflict with the ICC's official sponsors. As a result, venues like Eden Gardens, Wankhede stadium, Chinnaswamy stadium and MA Chidambaram stadium were left out and Mohali, Ahmedabad, Brabourne (Bombay) and Jaipur were drafted in and allocated games. Given the volume of games at each venue (5 for the first three venues and 6 for Jaipur), the rainy season having ended in most parts of India a month or so ago and the frequency of games (albeit being played on different pitches), it was but natural that the pitches wouldn't be great for batting. Just as bowlers are resigned to encountering batting wickets in one-dayers, perhaps the batsmen also need to reconcile themselves to the fact that the only time they can get scores of 280 and above is when they're facing a pathetic bowling lineup.

The BCCI really ought to make it clear to the ICC that it doesn't think low-scoring games are bad for one-day cricket and that it was the ICC's intransigence which has ensured that the games are being played in tier-2 cricket grounds (aside from Mohali, which is tier-1 and Brabourne, which is tier-7 and last hosted a one-dayer more than a decade ago).

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy, match referee, pitch

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:10 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

We're waiting ...

We're still waiting for the first real competitive game of the ICC Champions Trophy. With only four venues being used for the tournament, the pitches were bound to deteriorate fairly rapidly. The first few games of the tournament held out the promise of some run-fests in the offing, but a combination of factors, such as pitch over-use, good bowling, a few teams coming in after a longish break etc., has meant that teams have been unable to get big totals.

This is a wonderful thing. Like we've maintained all along, low-scoring one-day games are good for cricket, since they really address the constant imbalance of the game in favour of batsmen. Top-ranked teams have had hiccups chasing 126, messed up chasing 196, like South Africa did against New Zealand yesterday.

New Zealand would feel fairly aggrieved. Yesterday, I tried to catch some highlights from the game in the news, but the only cricket news on all channels was about Shoaib and Asif's "Be positive" campaign.

If you're reading this post on the site, you can vote in the poll on the right-hand side of this page. If you're reading this through your feed reader, get to this post on the site and vote!

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:38 pm | Sledge/Read 4 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Pakistan significantly enhances chances of victory

Pakistan are now officially on track to win the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time. The team thrives under situations where there're controversies and infighting.

A little more than a week after Younis Khan re-accepted the captaincy, the Pakistan Cricket Board revealed that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have tested positive for drugs in an internal test.

Are they out to prove Tim May right? Given they've hardly played any international cricket in the last couple of months, over-work can surely not be the excuse?!

What is it about high profile ICC tournaments and drug intake revelations? Shane Warne before the 2003 World Cup, and now these two!

Given Pakistan's coach Bob Woolmer fervently argued for Law 42.3 to be scrapped after his team was accused of altering the condition of the ball, it may perhaps come as no surprise if he now argues that drug testing in sport needs to be scrapped as well.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, akhtar, asif, champions trophy, drugs, mohammad, pakistan, shoaib, shoaib akhtar

Thus spake Jagadish @ 4:05 pm | Sledge/Read 5 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

A lovely sight

It was lovely seeing Sachin Tendulkar in the slip cordon yesterday in India's opening game of the ICC Champions Trophy against England at Jaipur. He's always been a pretty safe slip fielder, but I can't remember him doing duties there for nearly the last half-decade, perhaps after his back started playing up in 1998/99.

The huge worry remains the brittle batting order, a theme I've touched up on last season as well. Once again, three down before the 15th over, even if the target was only 126.

If someone's figured out what on earth Michael Yardy was doing batting for England at #4 with Pietersen and Collingwood cooling their heels in the pavillion, please leave a comment here!

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 2:12 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Lee to make India debut next week

More than six years after he burst on the international scene, Brett Lee has not played a single Test or ODI in India. Australia's first game of the ICC Champions Trophy, at Brabourne Stadium, will probably be the first time he does so!

Given the amount of cricket that's played around the world, and the fact that Australia've played two test and two one-day series in India after his debut, it is very surprising.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:34 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

A waste of time

Anyone else who thinks that six games, pitting Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies & Zimbabwe to find out who the best two are, is pretty pointless?

If the ICC had a cut-off of eight teams for the ICC Champions Trophy, why didn't they just pick the first eight teams in the list and get the competition moving, rather than an extra stage?

At no point of time in the history of the ICC's rankings have Bangladesh or Zimbabwe come anywhere close to the top 8.

Aside from the once-a-year superlative performance resulting in wins against Pakistan, India, Australia & Sri Lanka, Bangladesh has been pathetic. Zimbabwe has been equally bad, and the fact that it beat Bangladesh in a one-day series does nothing to indicate any sort of ability to play with the other higher-ranked teams.

The ICC Champions Trophy really ought to be called the ICC Champions Atrophy!

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:25 am | Sledge/Read 4 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Shane Bond fit

Shane Bond seems set to play only one-day cricket this season and skip the two-test series against Sri Lanka at home.

This obviously is contrary to my view expressed here earlier this year that he'd be better off quitting one-day cricket. Maybe he'll do that after the 2007 World Cup.

Bond was included in New Zealand's ICC Champions Trophy squad and declared himself fully fit and ready to make yet another comeback. Him being fit is a situation at 00:45 on 7 Oct 2006. Things could be different in fifteen minutes time!

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, bond, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:45 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Pakistan sideline Inzamam

As a result of the pitiful ban he copped after his team's "protest" at The Oval in August following an accusation of tampering with the ball, the Pakistan Cricket Board decided to replace Inzamam-ul-Haq with Faisal Iqbal for the ICC Champions Trophy.

But, this means Inzamam will not be able to play if Pakistan reaches the final, even though he'd have served out a four match ban. Inzamam's ban would only be done and dusted with after the semi-final stage. My guess is that even if Pakistan ensures shows that one of the players got injured during the tournament, they still can't get a replacement. I think replacements are only allowed if an injury was sustained to a member of the 14-man squad before the tournament.

Pakistan may have actually been better off letting Inzamam be part of the squad, hoping that they reached the final (which isn't entirely unlikely!), by when he'd be eligible to grace the occasion. I can't see Faisal Iqbal actually make it to the playing 11, given that the middle order would be pretty formidable as it is (Younis Khan, Mohd. Yousuf, Afridi & Razzaq).

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, ball tampering, champions trophy, oval 2006

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:51 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Flintoff to lead England

Andrew Flintoff will be back after his ankle surgery to captain England in the ICC Champions Trophy in India and the Ashes in Australia.

The ECB had earlier managed to get a couple of extra days to announce the ICCCT squad.

There're no real surprises in either of the squads, except perhaps for the fact that England will, in all possibility, be carrying along half the NHS to Australia as well to retain the Ashes, since nearly 40% of the squad still hasn't recovered from injuries or "acquired gastrointestinal infection and stress-related illness".

Other ICC Champions Trophy squads: South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Australia & Pakistan.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 4:44 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Boje omitted from South Africa's squad

Despite Nicky Boje expressing his keenness to play in India, and backtracking on his earlier defiant stand, the South African cricket board selectors omitted him from the squad for the ICC Champions Trophy in India.

The interesting thing is that so far, there's been no indication that Boje was injured. So he's either been dropped, not entirely unlikely since he has averaged 48 per wicket and taken a wicket every 63 balls against teams other than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in his last 20 games, or he's been conveniently ignored, thereby corroborating Herschelle Gibbs' revelation last month.

Ja, you see, Nicky's situation is slightly different, because I don't think he's going to be playing in India again; he's not going to be in the squad. So he doesn't really have much. for him it's more a case of clearing his name than anything else.

Other ICC Champions Trophy squads: Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Australia and Pakistan.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:32 am | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

More Champions Trophy squad announcements

A few days ago Sri Lanka, which will take on Bangladesh in the opening game of the ICC Champions Trophy, announced that Mahela Jayawardene would continue as captain in the tournament despite the presence of Marvan Atapattu.

New Zealand announced the Black Caps squad of 14 and it includes a name I've never heard before: Mark Gillespie. Dyan Cleaver dissects the selections.

Bangladesh also announced their squad for the tournament. Habibul Bashar stays as captain but Javed Omar has been dropped.

Other squads: India, Australia & Pakistan.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 2:33 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Australia and England Champions Trophy squad news

Australia announced the squad for the ICC Champions Trophy on Monday. It includes the undisputed heavyweight cricketer of the world and excludes the Guinness record holder in the verbal diarrhea category.

As for England, they've successfully bargained for three extra days to decide on their team. What we do know right now is that Trescothick, who had a mysterious flu in India, will miss the tournament due to an "acquired gastrointestinal infection and stress-related illness". There's still doubt on which of Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Darren Gough and Ashley Giles will bother to turn up.

Update: Pakistan have announced their squad of 14 for the tournament as well. Given that Inzamam's case has still not yet been sorted out, it'll be interesting to see what happens if the ICC's hearing determines that Inzamam was guilty, of his team's ball tampering and/or bringing the game into disrepute. The rules don't allow boards to change their squads unless a player has sustained an injury after being named in the final 14.

Other squad announcements: India.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy, trescothick

Thus spake Jagadish @ 8:40 pm | Sledge/Read 5 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Sreesanth dropped from ICC Champions Trophy final squad

Sreesanth's omission from the Indian squad for the ICC Champions Trophy, and RP Singh's inclusion in his place, was the only surprising aspect of the announcement by the BCCI selectors a while ago.

It was always going to be tough for Sourav Ganguly to make it to the final list of 14 from the initial list of 30. Anil Kumble was unlucky stupid enough to hurt himself while playing for Surrey. Kumble had a great chance of returning to one-dayers. Exactly what was he doing playing first-class and limited overs cricket for Surrey, when his place in the test side is never going to be challenged until he retires? What he ought to have done was to play only the limited overs game for Surrey. This was an open invitation for some mishap to occur!

Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan must be wondering what he needs to do to get back into the national side.

Returning to Sreesanth v/s RP Singh, there is actually little to choose between the two. Not much of a difference in terms of potential and ability. In terms of numbers, RP Singh fares much better than Sreesanth (avg. 29.5, econ rate 4.9, strike rate 36 against 36, 5.7 and 38 respectively). While RP Singh was outstanding in Pakistan and against Sri Lanka, Sreesanth bowled excellently against England.

Maybe Sreesanth's lack of wickets in West Indies (2/158 in 29 overs from 3 games) was what tipped the balance in RP Singh's favour.

Oh, and for what it's worth, Sreesanth will play in the tri-series in Malaysia, also featuring Australia and West Indies.

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, champions trophy

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:52 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]