Breaking/Brief news
February 05, 2009
Breaking news: Andrew Symonds pulls out from IPL
In a stunning development, Andrew Symonds has exclusively revealed to this blog that he is pulling out from the Indian Premier League. The news comes a couple of days after Cricket Australia announced that he would not be considered for national selection until he completed his counselling & rehabilitation. He said that his decision was not related to any on-field related issue with Deccan Chargers.
Readers will recall that he was sent off during the Bangladesh one-dayers. Subsequently, he was recalled to the side. However, as part of his rehabilitation programme, Symonds was barred by Cricket Australia from going fishing anywhere.
Having looked at the various teams in the Indian Premier League, Symonds came to the conclusion that it would be impossible for him to resist the temptation to go fishing in the cities where the IPL games were played in. Delhi & Kolkota have rivers, Chennai & Mumbai have beaches while all the others (Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur & Mohali) had lakes (artificial & natural).
Symonds is the latest among prominent cricketers who've decided to give the IPL a miss - Michael Clarke, Stuart Broad and Mitchell Johnson. Michael Vaughan really doesn't count. With a ODI batting avg 27, sr 68 from 83 innings, there's a high chance that he gracefully stepped aside lest the IPL team owners ask him to pay up to go anywhere near one of the teams in the league.
Labels: breaking news, exclusive, indian premier league, ipl 2009, symonds, twenty20
Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:59 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed -
| 
January 09, 2009
Exclusive: ICC to appoint Ricky Ponting to umpires panel
In a dramatic revelation exclusive to Cricket 24x7, an ICC source who preferred not to be named has announced that the ICC is considering appointing Ricky Ponting, Australia's captain, as an umpire in their panel. An agreement has been struck with Cricket Australia which will allow Ricky Ponting to be the first player to umpire even though he has not retired from the game. Although Ponting has never publicly expressed interest in the role, his comments last January about umpires being stressed out and the need to expand the panel do offer a hint.
There are apparently multiple reasons for this move by the ICC:
- The ICC umpires panel has taken a hit in the recent past, with the exits of Darrell Hair, Ian Robinson and Peter Parker. In addition, Simon Taufel had spoken about the possibility of quitting and Steve Bucknor didn't have a great start to the year.
- The ICC, and the other cricket boards, are encouraging former players to take up umpiring and Paul Reiffel has moved up the Australian umpiring ranks to now become an ODI umpire. Ricky Ponting is part of the natural progression. His appointment isn't expected to impact his media commitments. As for impacting the captaincy, Cricket Australia sources revealed that it couldn't possibly get worse anyway.
- The ICC is embarking on a cost-cutting measure. So we could potentially see some of the bad umpires replaced over a period of time by players and the individual cricket boards would pay the bills.
- The most important criterion, and the clincher, is that Ponting has already displayed, twice within a year, his ability to be pro-active and one step ahead of the umpires. The ICC has been extremely impressed by Ponting's eagerness & willingness to declare out Sourav Ganguly in early 2008 and Jacques Kallis a couple of days ago, both at Sydney in controversial circumstances, when the on-field umpires, unsure about whether the ball had carried (to Clarke & McDonald respectively), had referred it to the TV umpire who was still taking a look at the replay for the 23rd time from the 7th possible angle.
Labels: exclusive, icc, ponting, umpires
Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:33 am | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed -
|
August 02, 2006
Glenn McGrath: I'd have named Courtney Walsh as my target
In a shocking revelation, Glenn McGrath revealed that had he picked up the habit of naming a target a decade ago, he'd have named Courtney Walsh (batting average 7.5) as a target during series against the West Indies if Walsh was the skipper.
The context was his declaration that Andrew Strauss, England's stand-in to the stand-in to the stand-in skipper and Alastair Cook were his targets for the forthcoming Ashes.
In an exclusive interview with this site, McGrath justified himself by saying
You always name the captain.The interesting aspect is that unlike Wisden's list, you can be named in McGrath's list twice, as Strauss, who was in last year's list has found out.
Clearly, he's doing a lot of risk diversification. Previously he used to only name the captain or the team's best batsman - Atherton, Ganguly & Lara, to name a few.
Thus spake Jagadish @ 10:31 am | Sledge/Read 3 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed -
|
Links within entries open in a new window. Some of the links may now be broken/not take you to the expected report since the original content providers may have archived/removed the contents. Some of the sites linked may require registration/subscription.
All opinions expressed are those of the authors alone. The authors' respective employers (past, present or future) are in no way connected to the opinions expressed here.
All pictures, photographs used are copyrights of the original owners. We do not intend to infringe on any copyright. Pictures and photographs are used here to merely accentuate and enhance the content value to our readers.
|
|
|
|
