India v Australia, also on Cricket 24x7!

With the India v Australia test series all set to get underway in a couple of weeks, we (re)present our guest blogger, Stuart. Stuart blogs at STUmpCam, which he recently converted into a test cricket blog.

Stuart has blogged on Cricket 24x7 a couple of times already: during the 2006/07 Ashes in Australia and the 2007 World Cup.

Hope you enjoy our coverage of this iconic series.

Labels: aus v ind 2008, guest blogger

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:01 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Recent posts on AOL

1. Wishlist for the 2011 World Cup.
   
2. In such a rapid set of one-dayers (India in Ireland), what the Indian team needs to do is to get the momentum going by winning the first 2-3 games.
   
3. South Africa wants Australia to give up its monopoly over hosting Boxing Day and New Year's Day tests. This was always going to happen at some point of time or the other. What should the BCCI do?

Labels: 2011, 2011 world cup, aol, australia, bcci, guest blogger, india, scheduling, south africa, world cup

Thus spake Jagadish @ 6:14 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

The BCCI's masterful planning

What do you call a board that ensures its cricketers take on Australia in Australia totally unprepared? Inept? Greedy? Incompetent?

Labels: aol, bcci, guest blogger, india

Thus spake Jagadish @ 8:48 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

BCCI bashing

It is most certainly not a deliberate theme, but 3 out of our last 4 posts on AOL's Cricket Blogs have targetted the BCCI.

1. Opening conundrums for India
   
2. Test cricket again! (no BCCI bashing here)
   
3. After Kumble who?
   
4. Afro-Asia Cup's credibility in serious doubt

Then again, the organization and its administrators have a wonderful propensity to make everyone hate how they run the game!

The post about the Afro-Asia Cup's credibility said

While Sourav Ganguly's last minute inclusion would go a fair distance in ensuring that Sachin Tendulkar's absence isn't felt too much, imagine if Dhoni, Jayawardene, Sehwag, Yuvraj and Jayasuriya too suffered some mysteriously well-timed injuries and pulled out of the tournament. Would Nimbus, the TV rights holders, still go ahead with their plans? Would advertisers put in money into such a tournament, without any star-cast? Even if they did so this year, I'd say next year's tournament would be highly unlikely.

This is almost exactly what has happened. Nimbus has announced that it won't be producing or telecasting the tournament because of so many star players withdrawing for reasons other than injury. Zee TV has also thrust a spanner in the works by scrapping the deal to telecast ODIs featuring India played in neutral venues.

Even though ESPN-Star has apparently been roped in to do the job now, it may not be too soon before we see a cartel being formed by Zee, Nimbus, ESPN-Star, TEN Sports etc. to ensure that they get good value for their money in terms of star players turning up and having to pay less for the rights since they'd need to share the rights with Prasar Bharati anyway.

Would the BCCI be able to guarantee that? Or will it ask them all to go take a hike and instead go back to IS Bindra's pet project - a BCCI TV channel?

Labels: aol, bcci, guest blogger, india

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:58 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Cricket 24x7 on AOL India

AOL India launched a few weeks ago. We're proud to announce that Cricket 24x7 will be contributing to the Cricket blogs section on the site.

A couple of our posts are live: Misplaced priorities, as usual, for the BCCI and Is the Bangladesh tour just a pit stop?

Labels: aol, bangladesh, bcci, guest blogger, india

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:32 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Guest bloggers for the World Cup

The World Cup kicked off yesterday, with West Indies becoming the first host team since England (1999) to win their opening game, against Pakistan.

To provide a well rounded coverage of this tournament, Cricket 24x7 is very proud to present its list of guest bloggers for the World Cup.

Beginning today, we'll have Reenen Laurie, Stuart Helwig, Zainub Razvi, Geoff and Sean providing us, and our readers, their takes on the tournament.

Reenen Laurie ("Reenen's thoughts on things") has commented on these pages quite often and will be providing a South African angle. Sean ("Rain, No Play") runs a very interesting blog on Caribbean cricket and he'll be giving us a West Indian perspective. Stuart ("STUmpCam") blogged here during the Ashes and comes in with Australia having a fairly mixed record - winning two consecutive World Cups and losing five one-day internationals in a row (two to England & three to New Zealand - the last two teams Aussies would prefer losing to, if there was anything such as an Aussie preferring to lose). Zainub ("Sundries"), our first every guest blogger, will provide a Pakistani angle. We're also hoping she'll analyze hairdos and predict the way the tournament will pan out on that basis. Geoff will be providing us insights into the minnows (sic). I'll leave it to him to define that term :)

This doesn't mean our guest bloggers only provide narrow perspectives based on where they are from or the team they support. We'll obviously have posts and discussions which aren't necessarily team-centric. As for me and Ganesh, we will also be posting. Guest bloggers provide us the ability to offer different perspectives to readers and given the timezone difference, it'd be very tough for Ganesh and me to blog at night!

Over to you, folks.

Labels: 2007 world cup, guest blogger, world cup

Thus spake Jagadish @ 2:06 pm | Sledge/Read 8 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Thanks, Geoff and Stuart

When Stuart and Geoff joined us in our coverage of the Ashes (which got extended into the tri-series), a test series score of 5-0 for Australia and a one-day series win for England were perhaps very far on the horizon, the latter being quite unthinkable. Perhaps only Lillee and Marsh would have bet on those kind of odds!

We now head into the World Cup, with several questions asked about Australia's invincibility and England's resurgence.

We'd like to thank Geoff and Stuart for their wonderful and passionate posts during the last three months. Of course, this doesn't mean that Geoff and Stuart stop contributing! They'll continue to comment, and who knows, even guest blog again!

- Ganesh & Jagadish

Labels: ashes, ashes 2006, Commonwealth Bank Series, guest blogger

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:24 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Thanks Cricket 24x7

Well, Jagadish invited me over here to comment on the Ashes Matches - it's been fun, thanks very much for that.

I hope I've managed to give a different perspective on things and not gloat too much in what has been a very enjoyable "cleansing of the dissapointment of 2005" for me and most of us downunder.

Normally, we do like to see a closer competition and in the past, the public here has bored fairly early on in the summer, of Australia's domination.

Things were different this time. The public's hunger for a complete smashing of the poms was palpable and I think reflected in Australia's ability to shake that dead rubber syndrome they've suffered from in past series.

This too was motivated by the retirements of Warne, Langer, McGrath and to a lesser extent Martyn. Of course these guys will be sorely missed. It remains to be seen just how far the side slips as a result. Of course a slip is unavoidable - we're losing probably the greatest bowling combination ever - the odds of seeing better in my lifetime are slim - the odds of seeing that, for Australia even slimmer I guess - so we have indeed been lucky to witness it haven't we.

From here, it's on to the World Cup and plenty of ODI's in the coming months, and I look forward to a big competition against India next summer.

Keep in touch and by all means, add STUmpcam to your favourties and keep the comments (favourable or not) flowing in...cheers.

Stu.

Labels: ashes, ashes 2006, australia, england, guest blogger

Thus spake Stuart Helwig @ 6:25 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

To try to even out an uneven situation

After Stuart joined us for our Ashes coverage last week, we now have Geoff, who's a frequent visitor and comments contributor here!

Geoff, in his own words:

Well I don't have Sky, so I'll only be following the series mostly by radio on TMS. I was always an Athers man, not a Stewart man; never could choose between Knott and Taylor. Ashes series in Australia haven't gone well for England for a long time, so before this tour I am trying to find hope.

I'm hoping that England's first bowler-captain since John Emburey doesn't have a similar record against the leading team of the day (played 2, lost 2), and that England field more left-handed batsmen than Australia (by playing Monty). But mostly I'm hoping that I can bring some positive news about England to this blog, even though my hosts and Stu will be cheering on the Aussies.

Welcome, Geoff. May the best team win!

Labels: guest blogger

Thus spake Jagadish @ 4:07 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

STUmpcam on Cricket 24x7

Thanks for the invite Jagadish. It's great to be contributing to a site like this, with so much passion for the best game in the world.

It is exciting times here, "down-under". We're only a couple of weeks away from the most anticipated Ashes series in my life time. 18 months ago, it was late nights and weary days for us in Aus, sitting up most of the night glued to the TV sets - and for most of us, our employers suffered as we turned up to work. Bleary eyed and hopped into more than our fair share of the coffee.

This year, productivity will probably suffer again, but this time, it will be the CricInfo feeds and the radio blaring during the day that will be the culprit.

From early on this year, I've felt the England would start favourites in this series and that their apparent slump in form would prove to be somethig of a "red herring". When push comes to shove, in the big time, I have felt that the likes of Trescothick, Vaughan, Pietersen and Flintoff will post some scores big enough to make Australia's task of winning this series, too difficult. Last time around I thought the English batting was too brittle to beat the Aussie's and how wrong I was. This time around, I think it could just be the English bowling that will struggle. The injury to Jones and a recovering Flintoff may just take it's toll over the summer.

The Australians, just in the past few weeks, have gathered a bit of momentum and started talking like a tight knit team, rather than a group of individuals. It will be that attitude that will need to be at it's strongest, if they are to regain the Ashes, come January.

Anyway, I, as does everyone, look forward to another cracking Test Series and most of all, look forward to sharing the experience with everyone here on Cricket 24x7 and of course, "STUmpcam".

Thanks again Jagadish, it's great to be aboard...

Labels: ashes, ashes 2006, guest blogger

Thus spake Stuart Helwig @ 10:20 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Guest blogger: Ashes coverage

In exactly two weeks time, England and Australia will take the field for the first test at Brisbane in the 2006/7 Ashes series. Lest we forget, England currently holds the urn, and will retain the trophy if the series is drawn.

To help us with our coverage of the Ashes, and to provide a different perspective, we introduce our fourth guest blogger, Stuart. Stuart's been blogging on cricket for a while now at STUmpcam.

Welcome, Stuart!

Our guest bloggers so far have been Zainub, Manish and Alex.

Labels: ashes, ashes 2006, guest blogger

Thus spake Jagadish @ 10:11 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Introducing one new and one old guest blogger

After our first couple of experiments with guest blogging, first by Zainub and then by Manish, we're pleased to announce that Zainub will in fact be re-joining us for coverage of Pakistan's tour of England.

Our new guest blogger goes by the monicker 'Blue and Brown'. He writes pithy posts at King Cricket, wittily, most of the time. Our hope is that he'll even out the bias here.

One of his most favourite days of cricket was watching Pakistan polish off Australia in the group stages of the 1999 World Cup at Headingley. Given he likes several Pakistani players (Waqar, Wasim, Inzamam, Afridi etc.), he'll probably have it tough when it comes to this series. In any case, being a huge fan of His Majesty Robert Key, he's definitely going to keep an eye on the various squad announcements during the series.

Labels: guest blogger

Thus spake Jagadish @ 3:02 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

A new guest blogger

After our fairly successful, in our opinion, attempt at having Zainub Razvi guest blog during India's tour of Pakistan, we're pleased to introduce a new guest blogger for India's tour of West Indies starting in a few days from now. Due to a massive timezone difference between where we are (India) and where the games will be played (Caribbean), we reckoned that we'd be better off inviting some other blogger to contribute while we were asleep, getting a life etc.

So here's the identity of our new guest blogger. Manish Varma (aka 'worma') has been blogging about cricket for a while. He lives in Helsinki, Finland and is an ardent [almost fanatic] supporter of the Indian team even during the phase when the side hardly won anything outside home. He actively blogs at his blog - Mainly Cricket and SightScreen.

We'd be interested in some alternate points of view as well. If you're from the West Indies, or if you're a fan of the West Indies cricket side, or if you blog about West Indies cricket, leave a comment here in case you're interested in contributing to our coverage of the series.

Ganesh & Jagadish

Labels: guest blogger

Thus spake Jagadish @ 4:39 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Welcome, Zainub

Since it is now a belief that many heads are better than one two and I had to put into practice some concepts I learnt from my Strategic Alliances course last term, I wondered about how we could add value to our readers and ourselves, specifically keeping in mind the next few series on the international calendar. India's tour to Pakistan, beginning next month, is certainly one of the tours that interests us and, more importantly, a lot of our readers.

So keeping that in mind, Ganesh and I wondered about getting in a different perspective on this forum, a Pakistani perspective. We're pleased to announce that Zainub Razvi has agreed to join us on Cricket 24x7 in order to enhance our coverage of India's tour of Pakistan. Given that the series is happening in Pakistan, Zainub is best placed to provide us tidbits, reports, analyses of the various happenings during the game as well as entertain us with her rants on players' hairstyles, batting styles etc. After all, as you must have realized by now, a lot of our posts border on irreverence and have a liberal dosage of PJs, puns, sarcasm etc.

Zainub is an ardent fan of the Pakistan cricket team. She writes passionately on Pakistan cricket on her blog "Sundries", which is pink and black in colour, and also contributes on Cricinfo's "Different Strokes" blog. She is also very finicky about hairstyles, especially among cricketers and runs the TAFHCA!

I wonder though, if she will watch the test and/or one-dayer at Karachi, given there are still reservations about the Indian team playing in Karachi. In May this year, the PCB had proposed that a test be played at Karachi.

Labels: guest blogger

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:40 pm | Sledge/Read 3 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]