Will Jacques Kallis sign up for the ICL?

Jacques Kallis quit as South Africa's vice-captain a couple of days ago after he was omitted from South Africa's squad for the Twenty20 World Cup.

Clearly miffed at his exclusion, he talked about having a re-think on his future.

Is there a possibility he will be joining the Indian Cricket League? There's news that Yousuf, Razzaq and Farhat have signed up for the ICL.

It could get pretty serious soon. The boards have thus far been happy with threatening to ban/deny benefits for those who join the ICL. But what happens if marquee names, especially ones who haven't retired, join the ICL? The boards will probably need to get into an agreement with the ICL. The ICL clearly indicates that it is willing to use money power to attract top players.

Labels: indian cricket league, kallis, south africa, twenty20, twenty20 world cup

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:52 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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SA beats Ireland

There isn't much to report...

SA beats Ireland convincingly, but it does not make up for the 83 run defeat yet, because SA's nett run rate is still -0.3. SA really would've liked to see that run rate at 0 after that game, but credit to the Irish for really bowling well.

When the batsmen went after the bowling, they got out. (See De Villiers, Gibbs and even smith to some regard).

Kallis was clinical, and I was glad to see him unbeaten in the end (which moves him to the batsman with the highest average in this world cup). Prince's 47 was really impressive, and he looks good back in the side. Peterson didn't perform badly against Sri Lanka, and can be somewhat unlucky, but since the test series even Prince has looked an in form man. And he still looks to be one.

Kemp has not impressed so far, and maybe next time they'll leave him out for Peterson, who does add some variety on a pitch that doesn't assist the seamers.

I still say that SA's attack is pretty good on the right wicket, if all goes well on the given day, SA can beat any team (even if they score 434)...

Labels: ireland, kallis, south africa

Thus spake Reenen @ 12:41 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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Wrong award choice - part 3

It is the time for yet another post on a wrong choice of awards by administrators. In 2005, Jacques Kallis was overlooked for the man of the match award for his brilliantly relevant batting display in game five of the one-day series in India. In 2006, Kevin Pietersen's inability to play his role as his side's best one-day batsman was not rewarded either with a man of the series award.

Yesterday, as West Indies chased 339 against India at Nagpur, Marlon Samuels played the kind of innings Jacques Kallis would have been proud of. He came in with the score reading 102/1 in the 17th over, after Gayle and Chanderpaul had waded into some extremely ridiculous bowling on a superb batting track. West Indies had to get 7 an over over nearly 34 overs, certainly a tough ask. Samuels made it even tougher for his side. He did have his moments, especially with a couple of blows against Harbhajan, but West Indies were really handicapped by the fact that Samuels monopolized the strike during his partnership with Chanderpaul. When Samuels came in (102 in 16.2 overs), Chanderpaul had scored 40 in 38 balls. When Samuels left (175 in 33 overs), Chanderpaul had scored a further 27 runs in 44 balls while Samuels made 40 in 60 balls. They scored at 4.4 runs an over in those 16-odd overs. Obviously credit must be given to the bowlers (Agarkar and Harbhajan especially) when they bowled some tight overs early on in the partnership.

India maybe made a mistake by dismissing Samuels, because it allowed Lara to come in and express himself and gave West Indies a real chance of a win, which would have been a record in most other circumstances, except for the fact that they'd still have fallen short of the record by nearly 100 runs!

Ok, now lets set the snide remarks aside. But why was Chanderpaul given the man of the match award? Yes, a score of nearly 150 with his side chasing a huge total was a brilliant effort. But this was, all said and done, a great wicket for batting. In contrast, the bowlers might as well not even have turned up. Well, except for Zaheer Khan. He bowled brilliantly, except for a couple of overs early on. He finished with 2/48 in 10 overs, streets ahead of every other bowler in terms of economy rate. When West Indies needed 8.5 an over, he bowled 3 overs for 13 runs (and dismissed Samuels). The moment he finished his spell, the impact of his parsimony was felt as Chanderpaul and Lara cut loose against Sreesanth, Tendulkar and Harbhajan. When Zaheer came back for his final spell, West Indies needed 11.5 an over in 7 overs. He conceded 15 in 2 overs, and dismissed Bravo.

Why should a batsman be named man of the match when both sides scored over 325 runs? Why wasn't a bowler recognized?

Meanwhile, in other news, there's an absorbing finish in store at Port Elizabeth as Pakistan chase 191 for victory against South Africa. I'm tempted to put money on South Africa though.

Update: I really need answers in the form of comments here. What was Sourav Ganguly on when he told BBC Sport that England would fare well at the 2007 World Cup? Was he clearly inebriated by his brilliant 98 in his first one-day international for India since a triangular series final in Zimbabwe, after which Chappell's leaked email took the spotlight and Dravid was named skipper?

Labels: awards, ganguly, kallis, lara, pietersen, samuels, zaheer khan

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:54 am | Sledge/Read 9 sledge(s)
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Deja vu all over again? - part V

Your team's main bowler injures his ankle in a freak accident a few minutes before the toss of the second test of the series. Even then, you opt to bowl first.

Replace the word 'bowler' with 'batsman', 'ankle in a freak accident' with 'back' and 'bowl' with 'bat'. Graeme Smith has just opted to do exactly that.

I suppose we'll only know when the fat lady sings if his decision was right, especially given that the pitch and conditions would be assisting the bowlers for a while.

Zaheer Khan also gave us a deja vu moment, with a Steve Harmison-like wide way outside off-stump. It didn't go as far as second slip though. Perhaps thats an indictment of England's wicket-keeper and first slip!

Deja vu all over again history.

Labels: deja vu, graeme smith, india, kallis, south africa, zaheer khan

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:36 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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