Is this the end for one of England's most stylish batsmen.A leader par excellence whoz career has been dogged with injuries. A sad,abrupt and premature to a promising career?
This is sad news
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Shoaib
Happened to read Inthikab Alam's statement of Shoaib Akthar and why they had to make him an example. I think somewhere along the line Alam did mention Akthar's active sex life and the fact that he drinks....Dont know how that is in anyway connected to the issue at hand. Rameez raja did also mention that if it was only Akthar involved he would have pronounced him gulity straight away. Make no mistake fellas Shoaib Akthar despite disciplinary problems and all that jazz in fantastic for the game. Is he being made scapegoat by his own board and its members.Will there be an opportunity for a redemption song?
Also read an article by that man Osman Samiuddin that gave Shoaib the cricketer a lot of praise while rightly lambasting his shortcomings as a sportsman. However what I wonder is why he so readily concludes that this is not merely a 2-year ban but the end of Shoaib's career. After all he will be 33 when his ban ends. Remember Shane Warne was already 34 when he was banned and yet we all know where he stands today.
Is this due to the implicit (and quite likely true) assumption of Shoaib's lack of mental strength ? In any case there is always a possibility that this will give him some time to introspect and return with a fervour for what will be the last 2-3 years of his career. Maybe this will provide him the strength to channelize the energies he lacked and come out and prove to the World his innate unfulfilled potential.
Also read an article by that man Osman Samiuddin that gave Shoaib the cricketer a lot of praise while rightly lambasting his shortcomings as a sportsman. However what I wonder is why he so readily concludes that this is not merely a 2-year ban but the end of Shoaib's career. After all he will be 33 when his ban ends. Remember Shane Warne was already 34 when he was banned and yet we all know where he stands today.
Is this due to the implicit (and quite likely true) assumption of Shoaib's lack of mental strength ? In any case there is always a possibility that this will give him some time to introspect and return with a fervour for what will be the last 2-3 years of his career. Maybe this will provide him the strength to channelize the energies he lacked and come out and prove to the World his innate unfulfilled potential.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Goodbye Cairnsy!
For the vast majority of the crowd at Eden Park, tonight’s Twenty20 game against the West Indies was about just one thing. Saying goodbye to Chris Cairns.
When Cairns walked out to bat a cheer erupted through the crowd that sent a genuine chill up your spine. When he walked off the field only moments later, having spluttered his way to two runs, every man woman and child stood to applaud this iconic cricketer’s exit from the game. Cairns even looked as though he may have shed a tear, and who would blame him?
The crowd begged for a Cairns wicket. When none came they pleaded for a six to sail from Eden Park. When none of those came either, they knew that Cairns would save his fairytale exit for the ‘bowl off’ but alas Cairns missed the stumps by a country mile.
In the end it mattered little. Cairns was given a heroes send off that his contribution to New Zealand cricket fully justified.
The game though was interrupted on several occasions by people invading the pitch. Some clothed, some naked, all I suspect drunk as summer skunks. All bar one were male. The brave lass that stripped off and streaked was dealt a harsh hand by a security guard who was clearly trying out for a place in the All Blacks rugby squad. She was tackled fiercely by the guard who was comfortably three times her size and she crashed to the ground with quite a sickening thump.
Some will say she deserved what she got for streaking. Some will say the guard showed shocking judgement in his tackling of such a slight woman. Whatever the opinion, it made for very disturbing viewing when the poor girls head ricocheted off the hard Eden Park turf. I suspect her streaking days are done.
The Bowl Off was unfortunately the highlight of what was a sub standard Twenty20 game from a batting perspective at least. And even then, it was a highlight only because so many attempts to hit the stumps from both teams went comically wide.
It was a bizarre end to an emotion filled night, that by its sheer oddness ensured that for those who were there, Chris Cairns’s last international game will live long in the memory.
I wish i was there
Thanks to Chris for this post!
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Is Silence golden?
Then shut it away in the locker with priceless jewellery and read on.
"You owe me a beer."-Andrew Symonds to Michael Clarke as he left the field after he had been caught via a deflection off Clarke's boot
Lesson learnt: Playing supersub for the opposition can be doubly expensive.
"If they can get away with it, why can't we try and get away with it too?"-Andre Nel says that South Africa may take a leaf out of the Australian book when it comes to appealing
They are hardly getting away with it these days, Nel. And not all Aussies are backing their homegrown noiseboxes..
"It's exactly how toddlers behave in an effort to hide their shortcomings."-Bob Simpson slams the on-field behaviour of the Aussies
Maybe Bob will have a chat with Nel. But who’s telling his skip? Certainly not Warne…
"You can fry an egg on his (Smith's) face within two minutes."-Shane Warne takes yet another dig at Graeme Smith
Smithy’s ‘frying pan’ must have been worth going miles to see after that Warne ‘insta-chill’. Talking of verbals there’s this spontaneous, religious Aussie basher that does not even need an invitation or an end to get going...a look at the map is generally enough.
"You can see the way they crumble under pressure. When there is no pressure, they look really good and are tough to beat. But they panic under pressure and they looked awful and vulnerable the other night."-Arjuna Ranatunga has yet another pot-shot at Australia
How we wish Arjuna that you had visited rival dressing rooms with this invaluable pearl when Australia were notching up those 16 consecutive facile and thoroughly deplorable test wins.
While on exhanging pleasantries, trust a beautiful mind to locate another of its kind...
"I don't know about his background, but I found him a decent person, unlike normal cricketers."-Pakistan's head of selection Wasim Bari on Rahul Dravid.
Decency be damned, there's this new theory propounded on this same man correlating ‘straightness’ to using bats instead of pads!
"He is so straight and negotiates almost every delivery with his bat, why does he need pads at all?"-Danish Kaneria indirectly rules out Rahul Dravid as a likely candidate for LBW
Hurrah - at long last we are entering interesting territory…Crash! The topic gets derailed and we are into the lean phase of WI cricket:
"If the flour is poor quality and the salt is poor quality, the bread will taste bad."-Jimmy Adams
The unstated connotation of the Danish theory probably left that bad taste in 'P'ADams’ mouth. Quite unlike the most famously unrepented kiss of the season:
The air, so filled with love of all kinds by now, also evoked a near-perfect declaration of romance reverberating from the rival camp amid the trilling of bugles...
"I just love the Pakistani bowling."-Virender Sehwag puts his 48 boundaries in the first Test at Lahore in words.
...and from across the boundary fence:
"My grandma has a crush on Richie Benaud"-A banner at the Gabba
[It prompted Mark Nicholas to ask "Is that necessarily a good thing?" of his fellow commentator. "Depends on the grandma," replied Benaud, quick as a flash]
Benaud’s verbal googlies are still about him while he completes his 7th 10-year haul. Wish we could say the same about the fortunes of another skipper from another land and era who isn’t even half his age.
"I've played well for the last five to six months."-Sourav Ganguly wonders what all the fuss is about
That’s the spirit, Sourav. Our fingers remain crossed. You only have to play more well. Surely the least you can do is consult St. Carlisle regarding your future. He is the new prophet from Africa.
"I think the cold weather conditions played a big role in the groundsmen failing to get their task done properly."-Pakistan chairman Shaharyar Khan lays the blame for the turgid Lahore pitch on the weather
They better make that appointment next time, for swashbuckling openers treat bad meterology the same as bad bowling:
"It is the prerogative of the home side to prepare the pitch. We are ready to play on any wicket but such wickets are not good for cricket."-Despite filling his boots, Virender Sehwag has some home truths aboutPakistan's preparations
But then, what of their bad history?
"No. I don't know anything about them. I haven't heard about them."-Virender Sehwag,when asked about the record held by Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad for the highest opening stand
Mind correcting your tone of voice Mr. Najafgarh? [Absolved myself from bad geography there, in case you missed] ‘They' were ex-openers and no way related to ‘MK’. A Great Batsman and a Great Bowler are out to get you for this, led by a Great Skipper.
The topic being history, let’s end this with a couple of guys who created and erased some of it in the past year. In fact, the two even gratefully exchanged 16 years of history in 2 miniscule series-defining runs. A penny for their thoughts?
"I must admit that when I put my arm around him the exact words I used were 'It's 1-1 you Aussie bastard'."-Andrew Flintoff jokes about what he really said to Brett Lee at the end of the Edgbaston Test.
“There's not too much that'd do differently - obviously I'd have liked to change a couple of results, or just add a couple of runs to our total at Edgbaston!”-Ponting, looking back on the 2005 Ashes series.
Thanks to Anshuman Hazra
"You owe me a beer."-Andrew Symonds to Michael Clarke as he left the field after he had been caught via a deflection off Clarke's boot
Lesson learnt: Playing supersub for the opposition can be doubly expensive.
"If they can get away with it, why can't we try and get away with it too?"-Andre Nel says that South Africa may take a leaf out of the Australian book when it comes to appealing
They are hardly getting away with it these days, Nel. And not all Aussies are backing their homegrown noiseboxes..
"It's exactly how toddlers behave in an effort to hide their shortcomings."-Bob Simpson slams the on-field behaviour of the Aussies
Maybe Bob will have a chat with Nel. But who’s telling his skip? Certainly not Warne…
"You can fry an egg on his (Smith's) face within two minutes."-Shane Warne takes yet another dig at Graeme Smith
Smithy’s ‘frying pan’ must have been worth going miles to see after that Warne ‘insta-chill’. Talking of verbals there’s this spontaneous, religious Aussie basher that does not even need an invitation or an end to get going...a look at the map is generally enough.
"You can see the way they crumble under pressure. When there is no pressure, they look really good and are tough to beat. But they panic under pressure and they looked awful and vulnerable the other night."-Arjuna Ranatunga has yet another pot-shot at Australia
How we wish Arjuna that you had visited rival dressing rooms with this invaluable pearl when Australia were notching up those 16 consecutive facile and thoroughly deplorable test wins.
While on exhanging pleasantries, trust a beautiful mind to locate another of its kind...
"I don't know about his background, but I found him a decent person, unlike normal cricketers."-Pakistan's head of selection Wasim Bari on Rahul Dravid.
Decency be damned, there's this new theory propounded on this same man correlating ‘straightness’ to using bats instead of pads!
"He is so straight and negotiates almost every delivery with his bat, why does he need pads at all?"-Danish Kaneria indirectly rules out Rahul Dravid as a likely candidate for LBW
Hurrah - at long last we are entering interesting territory…Crash! The topic gets derailed and we are into the lean phase of WI cricket:
"If the flour is poor quality and the salt is poor quality, the bread will taste bad."-Jimmy Adams
The unstated connotation of the Danish theory probably left that bad taste in 'P'ADams’ mouth. Quite unlike the most famously unrepented kiss of the season:
The air, so filled with love of all kinds by now, also evoked a near-perfect declaration of romance reverberating from the rival camp amid the trilling of bugles...
"I just love the Pakistani bowling."-Virender Sehwag puts his 48 boundaries in the first Test at Lahore in words.
...and from across the boundary fence:
"My grandma has a crush on Richie Benaud"-A banner at the Gabba
[It prompted Mark Nicholas to ask "Is that necessarily a good thing?" of his fellow commentator. "Depends on the grandma," replied Benaud, quick as a flash]
Benaud’s verbal googlies are still about him while he completes his 7th 10-year haul. Wish we could say the same about the fortunes of another skipper from another land and era who isn’t even half his age.
"I've played well for the last five to six months."-Sourav Ganguly wonders what all the fuss is about
That’s the spirit, Sourav. Our fingers remain crossed. You only have to play more well. Surely the least you can do is consult St. Carlisle regarding your future. He is the new prophet from Africa.
"I think the cold weather conditions played a big role in the groundsmen failing to get their task done properly."-Pakistan chairman Shaharyar Khan lays the blame for the turgid Lahore pitch on the weather
They better make that appointment next time, for swashbuckling openers treat bad meterology the same as bad bowling:
"It is the prerogative of the home side to prepare the pitch. We are ready to play on any wicket but such wickets are not good for cricket."-Despite filling his boots, Virender Sehwag has some home truths aboutPakistan's preparations
But then, what of their bad history?
"No. I don't know anything about them. I haven't heard about them."-Virender Sehwag,when asked about the record held by Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad for the highest opening stand
Mind correcting your tone of voice Mr. Najafgarh? [Absolved myself from bad geography there, in case you missed] ‘They' were ex-openers and no way related to ‘MK’. A Great Batsman and a Great Bowler are out to get you for this, led by a Great Skipper.
The topic being history, let’s end this with a couple of guys who created and erased some of it in the past year. In fact, the two even gratefully exchanged 16 years of history in 2 miniscule series-defining runs. A penny for their thoughts?
"I must admit that when I put my arm around him the exact words I used were 'It's 1-1 you Aussie bastard'."-Andrew Flintoff jokes about what he really said to Brett Lee at the end of the Edgbaston Test.
“There's not too much that'd do differently - obviously I'd have liked to change a couple of results, or just add a couple of runs to our total at Edgbaston!”-Ponting, looking back on the 2005 Ashes series.
Thanks to Anshuman Hazra
Words of Waugh
An excerpt from Steve Waughs "Out of my comfort zone"
Marlon Samuels took a shine to yours truly and was always asking questions and looking for insights. Before the Test in Barbados I don't think I'd ever walked out to bat to be greeted by the opposing 12th man with a comment like this one: 'Good luck today, I want to see you get a hundred!' From just about the first time I played against Marlon, in the 2000-01 series in Australia, he'd say, 'Hey man, give me some of your red rag, I need some luck.' Eventually I gave in and cut him a sliver of the tattered cloth, which he now carries out to bat each innings. I had to laugh when he scored a quickfire hundred against India and, instead of raising his bat, held aloft the red rag between his thumb and index finger, to the bemusement of all those watching, who had no idea what he was doing.
Kato and Gilly
Simon Katich and Adam Gilchrist were all a blur as they made a record limited-overs opening partnership for Australia in the VB Series decider against Sri Lanka.
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