Harbhajan's ban is definitely justified and fitting but there was niggling doubt that there was more to the story and Sreesanth the guy who growls and snarls after every ball with or without merit, usually more of the latter, was getting away with something.
Then this article by Anil Dharker caught my eye and it really showed that Sreesanth was no innocent victim that he tried to portray himself as by crying on the field.
In the Mumbai Indians-Punjab match there was clear evidence that the Kerala fast bowler, whose bark is always worse than his bite, had abused the Mumbai team right through its innings, including its captain Harbhajan Singh. We didn’t need secret cameras to see it, everyone could see Sree Santh snarl like a rabid dog again and again hurling four-letter words at Bhajji as well as Musavir Khote, the last Mumbai man out even as he walked back to the pavilion."
Playing for the India A side in the Salve Challenger Trophy, he first sledged Virender Sehwag who had just hit him for four. “You hit like this only in domestic matches. How about some runs in international cricket?” An obvious taunt at a then out-of-form batsman.
A few overs later he had the temerity to go down the pitch and glare even at Sachin Tendulkar after beating him outside the off-stump. The next ball Tendulkar did what he does best: let his bat do the talking by hitting the bowler over his head for a six. But Tendulkar didn’t stop at that. He went up to Sreesanth and said, “Never ever come this close to me again.”
That is why you can believe that no one in the Indian team likes Sree Santh. That is why even the elder statesman of Indian cricket, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble are said to keep him at arm’s length once they are off the field and that is why even the young M S Dhoni, the charismatic limited overs captain had this to say in a column about the recent incident: “Before issuing any punishment, I hope the authorities check the actual sequence of events rather than just what the footage shows. It’s a lot like what happened between Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materazzi. What Zidane did was wrong, but Materazzi also was not completely in the right.”
If Dhoni, Tendu and Dravid have this opinion about Sreesanth then there is no way I want him representing India in cricket. First he is not that good that he goes to rile up players like Hayden and Symonds. Second, even if he was good, his behaviour against local players in IPL just puts me off. It was all fine and well the first time he danced on the pitch after hitting Nel for a six, that was good stuff but now set an example, drop him from the team. We need aggressive players on the Indian team but that of the mindset of Dhoni and not the stupid-aggressive type of Sreesanth.
Full article: A slap for Sree Santh and Engineer too?
Friday, May 02, 2008
Sreesanth's Antics
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
We won't get bullied again... :)
If you saw the India vs Australia match, you'll know what I am trying to say. I have not screamed so much during a cricket match in a long time. The commentator said it right, the big teams like South Africa and the Aussies have tried to bully India off the field but our guys have stood there and took every punch thrown at them. And how we've hurt them back, first sending the hosts SA and now the Aussies packing home with one the most amazing string of victories...
The match against the Aussies was such a hard fought battle. Batting first, India had a slow start but lost two quick wickets. At this point the Indian team of the past with all its so called 'senior' players would have been expected to crumble like a house of cards, but no! Like in the previous matches, the team stood strong. Yuvraj swung back in style and strung two critical partnerships with Uthappa and Dhoni.
Then while India was bowling Australia again tried to intimidate us. Again the young guns of India stood their ground. Time and time again Australia would send one bowler packing for 15 odd runs in an over but instead of losing heart and standing at the boundary, Dhoni made changes and brought the bowlers back with amazing results.
Australia was literally home needing only 30 runs from 3 overs with 6 wickets in hand, that's when we turned the tables on them. We tightened the screws so much that it was Australia, just like South Africa, that crumbled like a house of cards...
Australia has defeated India so many times in world cup matches. They've thrashed us before, but the way this young Indian team gave it back to them, was a sight to see. We gave them back what they deserved...what a victory!!!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
T20
I have been sucked into watching cricket all over again. The way India has been playing in this shorter form of cricket, not ODIs, even shorter, Twenty Twenty, has been really invigorating. Except for the match against New Zealand, we have played 3 awesome matches. The players are playing with purpose, grit and determination. Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly not coming to this tournament was a great idea, these young bunch of kids are really worth watching. Something I have never ever seen before in Indian cricket...
In the last match Dhoni injured his back so he was fielding at the boundary instead of wicketkeeping. At one point the ball came towards him and it was easily going to beat him to the ropes but he flung himself flat towards the ball, it still was a four but the effort was worth watching. And this has been going all around, they are throwing their bodies everywhere to stop the ball. The catch by Dinesh Karthik to dismiss Graeme Smith was stunning…
Our bowling is weak and strong at the same time. RP Singh and Pathan have been bowling superbly. On the other hand Sreesanth and Agarkar have been horrible. Harbhajan is trying hard, he got hit for 15 runs in the first over but came back real strong in the next two overs, so he doing ok. But that is still leaving us nearly 2 bowlers short and that is a real worry...
We threw the NZ match, with an awesome start chasing 191 to win, we finally lost by 10 runs. In that match I didn't see even 1 wicket earned by NZ, our batsmen gave away all their wickets, terrible performance. But the other three matches, defending 140 against Pakistan, 218 against England and 153 against South Africa have totally worth watching. Maybe defending is the key, should we defend against Australia? Maybe, given that we have won 3 matches defending and lost 1 chasing…
So let's see how we play against Australia today in the semi finals. But for me as long as there is effort on the field like they have been putting in this tournament, cricket is worth watching all over again...
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Cricket: skrood again!
How do you let an opposition team go from 228 in 43 overs to 316 in 50 overs? Well if you have a bowler like Agarkar it is not too difficult. Dravid also helped, he gave the 50th over to Yuvraj instead of Powar who had 1 over remaining and Yuvraj in the process got hit for 5 consecutive sixes in that over. But what happened before that is key...
India played with 3 specialist bowlers and Agarkar as the 4th specialist, if you can call him that. So what does Agarkar that a-hole do? Read this…
At 228 for 5 in 43 overs Agarkar comes in and gives up 14 runs in the 44th over. Zaheer who had just given only 2 runs in the 43rd over, comes again and bowls another beauty of an over giving up only 3 runs. Then that jhakki Agarkar comes in again and merrily gives up another 13 runs in the 46th over. Again Zaheer comes and gives up only 7 runs in the 47th over. That too because off the 2nd ball the batsman played a cheeky shot for a 4 but Zaheer still managed to come back strong to bowl 2 dot balls. Now Dravid had no option to bring in Yuvraj and Tendulkar to bowl overs 48 and 49. They did whatever they could but then Dravid gave the 50th over to Yuvraj again instead of Powar and so 5 consecutive sixes were hit off Yuvraj. And this magical moment can all be attributed to our so called 4th specialist bowler Agarkar (63 runs in 8 overs), f$#$er...
The commentator said “Agarkar looks like a bowler who doesn’t know where to bowl…he is running in with fear…fear of where the next ball will be hit!” Can someone explain how can that a-hole Agarkar, a mediocre bowler even by domestic cricket standards, have such a long career with our team? He keeps making a comeback into the team, on what basis does he get selected again and again???
Monday, May 07, 2007
Hey! Did they just show some cricket?
Steve Waugh watched some of the world cup matches in India and looks like we left an impression on him. Here is what he had to say "[The telecast] is annoying, ridiculous and an insult to the game to see an advertisement being squeezed in just because the bowler has not reached the top of his run-up. The telecast in India is unwatchable."
Luckily he was watching from some bar so he probably didn't catch the commentary by some of the 'greats'.Anyway, I can't agree more with Iceman. I am sure he used his famous 'Iceman' skills to survive the telecast because it was just so hard to watch a match this world cup without flinging the choicest of abuses at everyone involved in the coverage.
The telecast was laughable, if something happened on the last ball of the over like a four or an lbw appeal then kiss goodbye to the replay. Before you could say "howzzat!" or "wow!" the ads would have started and you would be left wondering "wha? how? huh?" And suppose if the telecast got back from the ads and the bowler was still in the process, with his captain, in setting the field then bang! You were back to watching some of same ads all over again. Also I just hated the ads that occupied the bottom portion of the screen destroying the scale/aspect ratio of the cricket portion of the screen. The coverage was very disrespectful towards cricket and the people watching it. I hope Set Max never ever gets to telecast any more cricket and am just waiting for ESPN/Star Sports to telecast some matches...
I really like the way how ads with cricketers have disappeared off the TV these days. Only poor Irfan Pathan's that Indian Oil ad keeps coming.
BTW the Appy fizz ad where the Parsi family is watching cricket with Appy Fizz is pretty hilarious. The Parsi lady shouts "money grows on trees or what", a really stinging poke at the other sponsors and companies that spent bundles of money on the Indian team and on this world cup. Watch it here: Appy Fizz Ad
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Aaila! Tendulkar!
Tendulkar should consider quitting - Ian Chappell
I don't agree with the conclusion of this article but some of the points being brought up are correct. First off, I don't believe Tendu is playing for the sake of statistics.
One of the biggest problems is that Tendu does not have a role in the team. Give him a role and ask him to perform in that role and I believe he will get it done. Anyway here is the article...
ps: Navjot Singh Sidhu is the biggest ass on all of cricket TV today. This guy never talks logically and only uses clichés that make no sense. He doesn’t give other people a chance to talk at all, cutting them with some dumb lines that only he thinks are smart. He is so irritating that given a choice I would pick to even watch Mandira Bedi over him.
(via CricInfo)
Ian Chappell
In the fallout from India's early demise at the World Cup one of the major decisions will concern the future of Sachin Tendulkar.
Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar the player himself has to have a good long look in the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game. At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately.
When you think that for a decade Brian Lara and Tendulkar went head to head in a wonderful battle of stroke play to establish who was the best batsman in the world, they are now worlds apart in effectiveness.
Lara's quick-footed tip toe through a terrific innings against a good Australian bowling attack when the rest of the West Indies top order succumbed easily was in direct contrast to Tendulkar's stumbling effort in the crucial Sri Lanka match. The amazing thing about Lara's brilliant career is the fact that he hasn't changed his style at all over seventeen years. This is a credit to his technique and mental strength, as the aging process generally makes a player more progressively conservative.
Tendulkar hasn't worn as well; his last three or four years have been a shadow of his former self. His double century at the SCG in January 2004 was a classic case of a great player really struggling. He came to the crease out of form and despite amassing all those runs and batting for in excess of ten hours he was no closer to recapturing his best touch than he was when he started out. It was a tribute to his determination but it was a sad sight to see; there are enough average players around that you don't won't to see a class one reduced to that level.
Tendulkar hasn't been as lucky as Lara; the Indian batsman has suffered a lot of injuries in this period where his play has deteriorated and there is nothing that melts your mental approach quicker than physical handicaps. Lara has been relatively free from injury and he certainly doesn't have the weight of numbers riding on his shoulders that Tendulkar does.
However, the population of the Caribbean might be small but they are extremely demanding. Despite all the fuss and the odd controversy that has surrounded Lara's career he has remained himself; this is my game and that is how I play. For whatever reason Tendulkar hasn't been able to maintain his extremely high standards for the last few years and unless he can find a way to recapture this mental approach he's not doing his team or himself any favours.
If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question; "Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the best batsman of all?" It would've answered; "Brian Charles Lara." If he asked that same mirror right now; "Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?" The answer would be; "Yes."
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Lyrics of that Goan song in the Nike ad...
'Wait, partner, wait
First let me play
If you don't play, I'll keep chasing you all day
Our game is like this only
Where we have no time to think
It is the game of cat and mouse
That I have begun to love
And in the falling running breaking
My destiny is entwined'
I could make out bits and pieces beforehand, stuff like 'khelche amche osle' which means our game is like this only, then the last word is 'phasle' which is entwined and some more words here and there like that.
This ad is awesome therapy if you are having a slow day and want things to pick up or need a jump start :)
Monday, March 05, 2007
Nike Cricket Ad
Nike is showing this awesome cricket ad these days. World cup fever I guess. Anyway it's quite brilliant and captivating...The pause near the end when the guy is just about to bowl the last ball is just perfect...
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Cricket: Greg Chappell Selcted as India's New Coach
From indiatimes.com
Gone To Chappell[ FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2005 12:00:00 AM ]
The new coach is taking over at a time when cricket, particularly the one-day version, is in transition. The International Cricket Council's 13-member panel has suggested radical innovations in the one-day format. The most important change is introduction of football-style substitutes where a player could be replaced at any stage of a match. This means that the twelfth man is not restricted to just fielding as a substitute but can chip in with bowling or batting when required. The other innovation suggested by the panel is breaking up fielding restrictions, which are currently in place for the first 15 overs, into three blocks. Restrictions will be in place for the first 10 overs and the fielding captain can use two blocks of five overs each at any stage of the game. These new rules would mean a bigger role for a coach to chalk out strategies even as the game is on. Who better than Chappell to have on board as Team India prepares for the 2007 World Cup?
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Cricket: Hunt for the new coach. Chappell, Moody lead the race
From Rediff...
The contenders for the job of India cricket coach has been reduced, it seems, to a two-horse race, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India's six-member committee narrowing down its preference to the two foreigners -- Greg Chappell and Tom Moody.
"Finally, it will be a toss-up between Chappell and Moody," a BCCI source said on Thursday.
The coach's post became vacant after New Zealand's John Wright stepped down after a four-year tenure at the end of the series against Pakistan.
The BCCI formed a committee, comprising president Ranbir Singh Mahendra, former president Jagmohan Dalmiya, secretary S K Nair and former captains S Venkataraghavan, Sunil
Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, to find a successor to Wright.
Former India Test players Mohinder Amarnath and Sandeep Patil, who was national coach earlier, are the other two names shortlisted by the committee.
Board sources said that while skipper Sourav Ganguly favours Chappell, two other senior members of the team, vice-captain Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, prefer Moody.
They also pointed out that the Board may not be able pay the same huge amount as salary to the coach if an Indian were to be picked.
As per the contract between the BCCI and Wright, the former New Zealand captain was paid US $175,000 (approximately Rs.78,77,000) per year. He was also given business class air fare from New Zealand to India thrice a year.
Besides this, Wright was paid Rs 2,000 per day during his stay in India and boarding and lodging were met by the BCCI. The TDS for payment of all these, at 33 per cent, was also met by the Board.
Also, according to the Internal Auditor of the BCCI, the Board will necessarily spend money in foreign exchange because the legal battle going on in a Kolkata court against the Income Tax department's ruling that only 20 per cent of its revenue could be exempted from tax.
Since 1996, the Board's tax has not been assessed by the Department. In 2002, the Board applied to the Apellate Tribunal.
Another source said that during the committee's first meeting in Kolkata on Sunday, each of the five members were asked to give their opinion on the applications received.
It was decided to call the four shortlisted candidates (two foreigners and two Indians) with the final decision to be taken -- only after the interview and the candidate's presentation -- through voting by the five. Nair, being the convenor of the meeting, has no vote.
It was also revealed that Gavaskar had insisted that the Board should invite former Indian players also for the job.
Thus, the Board received the applications from Amarnath and Patil.
The meeting also took note of Amarnath's outburst in 1989-90 after he was dropped from the team. Amarnath had then termed the selectors and the Board secretary (Mahendra) as a "bunch of jokers".
The members also discussed the issue of Patil, who could not pacify Navjot Singh Sidhu during the 1996 tour of England.
Sidhu returned midway through the tour following a row with captain Mohammad Azharuddin.
