Cricket Lovers'

Indian Cricket Team Fixtures

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 18:32:00 +0530

Indian Cricket Team Fixtures

So here comes Cricket Lovers' addition to the International fixtures. Below calendar lists Indian Cricket team's future schedules and recent past match total scores. Navigation to this vast data is simplified and consolidated at one place like never before.

What's more, you can subscribe to this calendar with Google and add to your personal Google Calendar. Thus, you can easily keep track of important fixtures from your own device for your favorite Country. Or you can revisit this page, which we are sure is already bookmarked for such clever posts on beautiful game of Cricket and related subjects! Now, that's what we call smart planning!

Tips for exploring Google Calendar better:

Use backward/ forward button below Month - Year text to go to previous/ next month
Use Agenda tab to view details in list format
Click any link to check fixture details like score, timings etc.

Since we have added calendar recently, your suggestions and feedback, especially on usability and accuracy, are very important.

Source & Credits:

This calendar is sourced by Google Calendar, which in turn depends on ICC events' schedule. Cricket Lovers' blog is simply embedding calendar here with all data sourced as it is. There can be deviations from actual data for which Cricket Lovers' blog is not responsible.

How does Cricket ball swing and spin?

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Tue, 5 Mar 2013 16:18:00 +0530

The game of Cricket is as much as a science as it is an art! And the most trending questions about Cricket are how does a Cricket ball swing and spin? Today, each team has to have a few good swing bowlers and a few good spin bowlers to be able to take wickets in home and away matches.

So, how does Cricket ball swing and spin? I found below two videos out of many there on the internet which explain the Science behind this beautiful art.

Science of Swinging ball

Science of Spinning ball

I hope the science is revealed..!

Source: Youtube.com

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2013 IPL Season 6 Schedule, Teams, Tickets

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0530

2013 Indian Premier League (IPL) Season 6

An here comes the 2013 IPL season 6 that probably all of us are waiting (?) for! Last 5 seasons have been exciting yet tiring, spectacular yet controversial, breathtaking at end yet boring in the middle. But the All Indian Cricketing circus is back with a bang. This time, you will see Sunrisers Hyderabad as a new team while Deccan Chargers is a thing of a past.

Here, let us quickly look at the schedule of the mega event and then the team & ticket information.

2013 IPL Season 6 Schedule:

Date and Time	Match
#	Apr 3 to Apr 10
Wed Apr 3	1st match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Thu Apr 4	2nd match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Mumbai Indians
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Fri Apr 5	3rd match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Pune Warriors
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Sat Apr 6	4th match - Delhi Daredevils v Rajasthan Royals
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Sat Apr 6	5th match - Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Sun Apr 7	6th match - Pune Warriors v Kings XI Punjab
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune
Sun Apr 7	7th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Royal Challengers Bangalore
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Mon Apr 8	8th match - Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Tue Apr 9	9th match - Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Wed Apr 10	10th match - Kings XI Punjab v Chennai Super Kings
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
#	Apr 11 to Apr 20
Thu Apr 11	11th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Thu Apr 11	12th match - Pune Warriors v Rajasthan Royals
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune
Fri Apr 12	13th match - Delhi Daredevils v Sunrisers Hyderabad
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Sat Apr 13	14th match - Mumbai Indians v Pune Warriors
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Sat Apr 13	15th match - Chennai Super Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Sun Apr 14	16th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Sun Apr 14	17th match - Rajasthan Royals v Kings XI Punjab
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Mon Apr 15	18th match - Chennai Super Kings v Pune Warriors
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Tue Apr 16	19th match - Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Tue Apr 16	20th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Daredevils
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Wed Apr 17	21st match - Pune Warriors v Sunrisers Hyderabad
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune
Wed Apr 17	22nd match - Rajasthan Royals v Mumbai Indians
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Thu Apr 18	23rd match - Delhi Daredevils v Chennai Super Kings
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Fri Apr 19	24th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kings XI Punjab
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Sat Apr 20	25th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Chennai Super Kings
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Sat Apr 20	26th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
#	Apr 21 to Apr 30
Sun Apr 21	27th match - Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Sun Apr 21	28th match - Kings XI Punjab v Pune Warriors
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Mon Apr 22	29th match - Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Tue Apr 23	30th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Pune Warriors
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Tue Apr 23	31st match - Kings XI Punjab v Delhi Daredevils
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Wed Apr 24	32nd match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Mumbai Indians
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Thu Apr 25	33rd match - Chennai Super Kings v Sunrisers Hyderabad
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Fri Apr 26	34th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Sat Apr 27	35th match - Rajasthan Royals v Sunrisers Hyderabad
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Sat Apr 27	36th match - Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Sun Apr 28	37th match - Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Sun Apr 28	38th match - Delhi Daredevils v Pune Warriors
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Mon Apr 29	39th match - Rajasthan Royals v Royal Challengers Bangalore
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Mon Apr 29	40th match - Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Tue Apr 30	41st match - Pune Warriors v Chennai Super Kings
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune
#	May 1 to May 10
Wed May 1	42nd match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Mumbai Indians
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Wed May 1	43rd match - Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Thu May 2	44th match - Chennai Super Kings v Kings XI Punjab
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Thu May 2	45th match - Pune Warriors v Royal Challengers Bangalore
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune
Fri May 3	46th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Sat May 4	47th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Delhi Daredevils
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Sat May 4	48th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kings XI Punjab
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Sun May 5	49th match - Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Sun May 5	50th match - Rajasthan Royals v Pune Warriors
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Mon May 6	51st match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Sunrisers Hyderabad
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Tue May 7	52nd match - Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Daredevils
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Tue May 7	53rd match - Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Wed May 8	54th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Chennai Super Kings
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Thu May 9	55th match - Kings XI Punjab v Rajasthan Royals
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Thu May 9	56th match - Pune Warriors v Kolkata Knight Riders
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune
Fri May 10	57th match - Delhi Daredevils v Royal Challengers Bangalore
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
#	May 11 to May 20
Sat May 11	58th match - Pune Warriors v Mumbai Indians
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune
Sat May 11	59th match - Kings XI Punjab v Sunrisers Hyderabad
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Sun May 12	60th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	HEC International Cricket Stadium Complex, Ranchi
Sun May 12	61st match - Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Mon May 13	62nd match - Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Mon May 13	63rd match - Mumbai Indians v Sunrisers Hyderabad
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Tue May 14	64th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Pune Warriors
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	HEC International Cricket Stadium Complex, Ranchi
Wed May 15	65th match - Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Daredevils
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Wed May 15	66th match - Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Thu May 16	67th match - Kings XI Punjab v Royal Challengers Bangalore
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharmasala
Fri May 17	68th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Rajasthan Royals
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Sat May 18	69th match - Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharmasala
Sat May 18	70th match - Pune Warriors v Delhi Daredevils
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune
Sun May 19	71st match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Chennai Super Kings
10:30 GMT \| 16:00 local	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Sun May 19	72nd match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
#	May 21 to May 26
#	Qualifier
Tue May 21	Qualifier 1 - TBC v TBC (1st v 2nd)
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
#	Eliminator
Wed May 22	Eliminator - TBC v TBC (3rd v 4th)
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
#	Qualifier
Fri May 24	Qualifier 2 - TBC v TBC (Winner Eliminator v Loser Qualifier 1)
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
#	Finals
Sun May 26	Final - TBC v TBC
14:30 GMT \| 20:00 local	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
	TBC: To Be Confirmed

Images (Click to view on full screen):

3 to 10 April.

11 to 20 April.

21 to 30 April.

1 to 10 May

11 to 20 May

21 to 26 May

Find consolidated folder of images/ excel sheet with schedule at here.

IPL Team Information

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

Owner The India Cements Limited
Coach Stephen Fleming
Captain MS Dhoni
Venue M. A. Chidambaram Stadium
IPL Best 2010, 2011 Winner

Team & Ticket check:
Official Website

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Owner GMR Sports Pvt Ltd
Coach Eric Simons
Venue Feroz Shah Kotla
IPL Best 2012 Playoffs, 2008, 2009 Semi-finalist

Team & Ticket check:
Official Website

KINGS XI PUNJAB

Owner KPH Dream Cricket Private Limited

Coach Adam Gilchrist

Captain Adam Gilchrist

Venue Punjab Cricket Association Stadium

IPL Best 2008 Semi-finalist

Team & Ticket check:
Official Website

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

Owner Knight Riders Sports Private Ltd

Coach Trevor Bayliss

Captain Gautam Gambhir

Venue Eden Gardens

IPL Best 2012 Winner

Team & Ticket check:
Official Website

MUMBAI INDIANS

Owner Indiawin Sports Pvt. Ltd

Coach Robin Singh

Captain Ricky Ponting

Venue Wankhede Stadium

IPL Best 2010 Finalist

Team & Ticket check:
Official Website

PUNE WARRIORS

Owner Sahara Adventure Sports Limited

Coach Praveen Amre

Captain

Venue MCA Stadium

IPL Best 2011, 2012 9th Position

Team & Ticket check:
Official Website

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Owner Jaipur IPL Cricket Private Ltd
Coach Rahul Dravid
Captain Rahul Dravid
Venue Sawai Mansingh Stadium
IPL Best 2008 Winner

Team & Ticket check:
Official Website

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Owner Royal Challengers Sports Private Ltd

Coach Ray Jennings

Captain Virat Kohli

Venue M. Chinnaswamy Stadium

IPL Best 2009, 2011 Finalist

Team & Ticket check:
Official Website

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Owner SUN TV Network

Coach Tom Moody

Captain

Venue Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium

IPL Best IPL debut season

Team & Ticket check:
Official Website

Official IPL Website:

Indian Premier League

Source:
Internet and IPLT20.com

Cricket Rules: New ODI Rules

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:42:00 +0530

Recently, you must have been reading or hearing about captains complaining about the new One Day International (ODI) Cricket rules. So what are these new ODI rules? Let's have a very quick look.

New ODI Rules:

1. Power-play rule change:

Since the inception of the 'Power-play' rule, as explained in Powerplay Rule in Cricket, it has been an added headache for teams and captains. There were 3 power-plays earlier; first between over number 1 and 10. It was termed as mandatory power-play. Then there were P1 and P2 each of 5 overs. Batting and fielding teams had option to choose when to take assigned power-plays after mandatory power-play was over.

Now according to new rule, mandatory power-play (between first 10 overs) will remain as it is. After this power-play, there will be only one power-play of 5 overs, which should be completed before 40th over of innings and that can be called by batting side.

2. Fielding restrictions:

Earlier, in non power-play overs, fielding team was allowed to keep 5 fielders outside 30 yard circle. Now, the changed rule allows only 4 fielders outside the 30 yard circle.

This change is largely debated currently. Impact of this rule is on bowlers. Since only 4 fielders are outside the circle, bowlers have less protection against big shots. And it will be comparatively easier and encouraging for batsmen to play big shots.

But few experts feel that with the introduction of this rules, the non power-play Cricket will be more exciting than what it was, because batsmen will take extra risk of playing big shots, and this will give a window of opportunity for bowlers to take wickets.

3. Two bouncers per over, now allowed

Yes, earlier bowlers could bowl only one bouncer per over and if they bowled second one, it was termed as a No Ball. But now onward, bowler has the luxury to frighten and contain a batsman by bowling 2 bouncers per over.

Will Indian batsmen be able to negotiate this new rule?

This move is a welcome move, especially for teams, other than Indian team, since they have quality fast bowlers who can take advantage of this rule to make havoc in opposition team.

Overall, these are few interesting changes in the rules and we need to wait and analyse its impact on World Cricket. But for Indian team, these changes are nightmare, since bowlers - both spinners and pacers (?) will be impacted by field restrictions, in addition, due to lac of bowling speed, the 2 bouncers per over is out of question for them and Indian batmen are not very comfortable against bouncers either! What do you think about the rules? Will they help India?

Note: The rules have been revised from December 2012 and we saw India vs Pakistan series played with these rules.

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Current and future Cricket schedules in 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sat, 5 Jan 2013 11:43:00 +0530

International Current and Future Cricket Tour Schedules in 2013

So as we roll the calendars over to the year 2013, first thing we tend to look is for dates of holidays in new year! And I am sure, as a Cricket Lover, you must be equally curious to know what are important Cricketing dates.

Let's look at the most important current and future tours in this year 2013, in tabular and image format. Click on an image to have a full view - download it for your reference, share it with your friends or just print it and pint it to the cubicle:

1. India versus Australia, in India, Feb- Mar 2013


Date and Time	Match
Fri Feb 22 - Tue Feb 26	1st Test - India v Australia
04:00 GMT \| 09:30 local	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Sat Mar 2 - Wed Mar 6	2nd Test - India v Australia
04:00 GMT \| 09:30 local	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Thu Mar 14 - Mon Mar 18	3rd Test - India v Australia
04:00 GMT \| 09:30 local	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Fri Mar 22 - Tue Mar 26	4th Test - India v Australia
04:00 GMT \| 09:30 local	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai

Image:

2. ICC Champion's Trophy 2013, in England, 6- 23 Jun 2013


Date	Match
Thu Jun 6	1st Match, Group B - India v South Africa
	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
Fri Jun 7	2nd Match, Group B - Pakistan v West Indies
	Kennington Oval, London
Sat Jun 8	3rd Match, Group A - England v Australia
	Edgbaston, Birmingham
Sun Jun 9	4th Match, Group A - New Zealand v Sri Lanka
	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
Mon Jun 10	5th Match, Group B - Pakistan v South Africa
	Edgbaston, Birmingham
Tue Jun 11	6th Match, Group B - India v West Indies
	Kennington Oval, London
Wed Jun 12	7th Match, Group A - Australia v New Zealand
	Edgbaston, Birmingham
Thu Jun 13	8th Match, Group A - England v Sri Lanka
	Kennington Oval, London
Fri Jun 14	9th Match, Group B - South Africa v West Indies
	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
Sat Jun 15	10th Match, Group B - India v Pakistan
	Edgbaston, Birmingham
Sun Jun 16	11th Match, Group A - England v New Zealand
	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
Mon Jun 17	12th Match, Group A - Australia v Sri Lanka
	Kennington Oval, London
#	Semi-Finals
Wed Jun 19	1st Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
	Kennington Oval, London
Thu Jun 20	2nd Semi-Final - TBC v TBC
	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
#	Finals
Sun Jun 23	Final - TBC v TBC
	Edgbaston, Birmingham

Image:

3. Tri Series between India, Sri Lanka, West Indies, in West Indies, Jun- July 2013


Date	Match
Fri Jun 28	1st Match - West Indies v India
	Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica
Sun Jun 30	2nd Match - India v Sri Lanka
	Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica
Tue Jul 2	3rd Match - West Indies v Sri Lanka
	Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica
Fri Jul 5	4th Match - West Indies v India
	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad
Sun Jul 7	5th Match - India v Sri Lanka
	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad
Tue Jul 9	6th Match - West Indies v Sri Lanka
	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad
Thu Jul 11	Final - TBC v TBC
	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad

Image:

4. England versus Australia: The Ashes, in England, Jun- Sept 2013


Date	Match
Wed Jul 10 - Sun Jul 14	1st Test - England v Australia
10:00 GMT \| 11:00 local	Trent Bridge, Nottingham
Thu Jul 18 - Mon Jul 22	2nd Test - England v Australia
10:00 GMT \| 11:00 local	Lord's, London
Thu Aug 1 - Mon Aug 5	3rd Test - England v Australia
10:00 GMT \| 11:00 local	Old Trafford, Manchester
Fri Aug 9 - Tue Aug 13	4th Test - England v Australia
10:00 GMT \| 11:00 local	Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street
Wed Aug 21 - Sun Aug 25	5th Test - England v Australia
10:00 GMT \| 11:00 local	Kennington Oval, London
Thu Aug 29	1st T20I - England v Australia
	The Rose Bowl, Southampton
Sat Aug 31	2nd T20I - England v Australia
	Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street
Tue Sep 3	Only ODI - Scotland v Australia
	Grange Cricket Club Ground, Raeburn Place, Edinburgh
Fri Sep 6	1st ODI - England v Australia
	Headingley, Leeds
Sun Sep 8	2nd ODI - England v Australia
	Old Trafford, Manchester
Wed Sep 11	3rd ODI - England v Australia
	Edgbaston, Birmingham
Sat Sep 14	4th ODI - England v Australia
	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
Mon Sep 16	5th ODI - England v Australia
	The Rose Bowl, Southampton
	Kennington Oval, London

Image:

5. Australia versus England: The Ashes, in Australia, Nov 2013 to Jan 2014

Date	Match
Thu Nov 21 - Mon Nov 25	1st Test - Australia v England
	Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane
Thu Dec 5 - Mon Dec 9	2nd Test - Australia v England
	Adelaide Oval
Fri Dec 13 - Tue Dec 17	3rd Test - Australia v England
	Western Australia Cricket Association Ground, Perth
Thu Dec 26 - Mon Dec 30	4th Test - Australia v England
	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Fri Jan 3 - Tue Jan 7	5th Test - Australia v England

Image:

6. Pakistan versus South Africa, in South Africa, Feb- Mar 2013


Date	Match
Fri Feb 1 - Tue Feb 5	1st Test - South Africa v Pakistan
08:30 GMT \| 10:30 local	New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Thu Feb 14 - Mon Feb 18	2nd Test - South Africa v Pakistan
08:30 GMT \| 10:30 local	Newlands, Cape Town
Fri Feb 22 - Tue Feb 26	3rd Test - South Africa v Pakistan
08:30 GMT \| 10:30 local	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Fri Mar 1	1st T20I - South Africa v Pakistan
16:00 GMT \| 18:00 local	Kingsmead, Durban
Sun Mar 3	2nd T20I - South Africa v Pakistan
12:30 GMT \| 14:30 local	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Sun Mar 10	1st ODI - South Africa v Pakistan
08:00 GMT \| 10:00 local	Chevrolet Park, Bloemfontein
Fri Mar 15	2nd ODI - South Africa v Pakistan
12:30 GMT \| 14:30 local	SuperSport Park, Centurion
Sun Mar 17	3rd ODI - South Africa v Pakistan
08:00 GMT \| 10:00 local	New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Thu Mar 21	4th ODI - South Africa v Pakistan
08:00 GMT \| 10:00 local	Kingsmead, Durban
Sun Mar 24	5th ODI - South Africa v Pakistan
08:00 GMT \| 10:00 local	Willowmoore Park, Benoni

Image:

Consolidated schedules of all tours in 2013

Click to view full size image

Notes:

TBC = To Be Confirmed (as of post date)

Though all care has been taken for the correctness of data, no responsibility is taken by Cricket Lovers' for accuracy of data.

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Famous Quotes on Sachin Tendulkar

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 19:30:00 +0530

When Sachin Tendulkar traveled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket; Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to “open” the Nehruvian economy. It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will.

-Time magazine

Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world.
-Allan Donald

To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast you won't regret if he hits you for boundaries.
-Allan Donald

During our team meetings, we often speak about the importance of the first 12 balls to Tendulkar. If you get him then you can thank your stars, otherwise it could mean that tough times lie ahead.
-Allan Donald

I have delayed my shoots many times to watch Sachin bat
-Amitabh Bachchan

'To Sachin, the man we all want to be.'
-Andrew Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin.

There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.
-Andy Flower

I am fortunate that I've to bowl at him only in the nets.
-Anil Kumble

I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play.
-Anjali Tendulkar, Sachin's wife

You get him out and half the battle is won
-Arjun Ranatunga

Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives.

-BBC

You might pitch a ball on the off stump and think you have bowled a good ball and he walks across and hits it for two behind mid wicket. His bat looks so heavy but he just waves it around like it's a toothpick.
-Brett Lee

Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal.
-Brian Lara

You know genius when you see it, and let me tell you, Sachin is pure genius.
-Brian Lara

He has been in form longer than some of our guys have been alive.
-Daniel Vettori

For Sachin the balance is there. He is quick to complete his shot. He covers the crease much better than mere mortals.
-David Gower

If he is not the best then I want to see the best.
-David Shepherd

If I'm to bowl to Sachin, I will bowl with my helmet on. He hits the ball so hard.
-Dennis Lillee

No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do.
-Dennis Lillee to Michael Kasprowicz, when the latter asked if Lillee could see any weaknesses.

I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two... high compactness, technique, stroke production... It all seemed to gel!

-Sir Donald Bradman, widely regarded as the greatest batsman in the history of cricket.

Technically, you can't fault Sachin. Seam or spin, fast or slow nothing is a problem.
-Geoffrey Boycott

The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility - all make for a one-in-a-billion individual.
-Glenn McGrath

Tendulkar is the best in the world at the moment. Why I've always liked him is that batsmen tend to be negative at times and I think batting is not about not getting out - it is to play positively. I think you got to take it to the bowlers and Sachin is one such player. When you do so, you change the game, you change bowlers because they suddenly start bowling badly because they are under pressure.
-Graeme Pollock

I'd like to see him go out one day and bat with a stump. I tell you he'd do OK…. I just get the feeling because of his mental strength that Sachin will be definitely the best player of his era and probably the best 2-3 of all time.
-Greg Chappell

He is a perfectly balanced batsman and knows perfectly well when to attack and when to play defensive cricket.He has developed the ability to treat bowlers all over the world with contempt and can destroy any attack with utmost ease.
-Greg Chappell

For every ball Sachin has two shots in his mind. And he gets out when he plays the third one.
-Harsha Bhogle, cricket commentator and journalist

I had to remind Gary Kristen often that he was in the covers to field against Sachin not to applaud him.
-Hansie Cronje

Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it.
-Hashim Amla as he boards a flight.

Whenever I see Sachin play I am reminded of the Graeme Pollock quote of Cricket being a 'see the ball, hit the ball game.' He hits the ball as if it's there to be hit.
-Ian Chappell

It did dawn on me at the end of the series that he was something special.
-Ian Healy after Tendulkar's tour to Australia in 1991/92.

I know that the new ball is due, but I am saving it for that "Chotu" (Sachin) who is coming next.
-Imran Khan (captain) of Pakistan to Javed Miandad (vice captain) in Sachin's debut test series (1989).
"Chotu" is a subcontinental term for the one who is lean and short.

He loves cricket and with his hard-work, focus and commitment he has truly become a outstanding ambassador for the sport at a time when commercialism is so rampant.
-Former Pakistan captain and coach Javed Miandad

The way he has taken on the role of India's greatest sporting ambassador... He has, among other things, inspired a generation and more to play cricket.
-India's 1983 World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev

He continues to give more than 100 per cent and his schoolboy-like enthusiasm for the game is something I envy and admire. For the team he is the best available coaching manual.
-Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni

We did not lose to a team called India... we lost to a man called Sachin.
-Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1998)

The pressure on me is nothing compared to Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin, like God, must never fail. The crowd always expects him to succeed and it is too much pressure on him. But, he rarely disappoints them.
-Mark Waugh

Sachin was so focused. He never looked like getting out. He was batting with single-minded devotion. It was truly remarkable. It was a lesson.
-Martina Navratilova - Tennis legend joins the Sachin Tendulkar fan club after watching him bat at Sydney.

I have seen God, he bats at no. 4 for India.
-Matthew Hayden

'This little prick's going to get more runs than you, AB.'
-Merv Hughes to Allan Border after an 18-year-old Tendulkar scored a century in Perth. Tendulkar now has scored more runs than Border.

Don't bowl him bad balls, he hits the good ones for fours.
-Michael Kasprowicz

The more I see him, the more I want to see him.
-Mohammad Azharuddin

There will never be another Sachin Tendulkar.
-Muttiah Muralitharan

Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what Gandhiji was to politics. It's clear discrimination.
-NKP Salve, when Sachin was accused of ball tempering

What we (Zimbabwe) need is 10 Tendulkars.
-Paul Strang

On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This genius can stop time in India!

-Peter Roebuck, Aussie journalist

He is one of the rare few who don't boast after scoring a 241, rather comes back to pavilion just to see the replay of his dismissal and rectify it in future.
-Ravi Shastri

Sachin has been sent by God to play cricket and then go back.
-Ravi Shastri

I never get tired during umpiring whenever Sachin is on crease
-Rudy Kortzen

Sachin made 9 centuries in one year but many cricketer did not make 9 centuries in their whole career.
-Saurav Ganguly

There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachhan. Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the genius!

-Shahrukh Khan in an interview when asked who he thought the most important celebrity was.

You have to watch India in India truly to appreciate the pressure that Sachin Tendulkar is under every time he bats. Outside grounds, people wait until he goes in before paying to enter. They seem to want a wicket to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer. This is cricket as Sachin has known it since the age of 16. He grew up under incredible weight of expectation and never buckled once – not under poor umpiring decisions or anything else. I place him very slightly ahead of Lara because I found him slightly tougher mentally.
-Shane Warne

I'll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player.
-Shane Warne

You have to decide for yourself whether you're bowling well or not. He's going to hit you for fours and sixes anyway. Kasprowicz has a superior story. During the Bangalore Test, frustrated, he went to Dennis Lillee and asked, "Mate, do you see any weaknesses?" Lillee replied, "No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do".
-Shane Warne

Sachin Tendulkar. Then daylight.
-Shane Warne when asked who he thought the greatest batsman in the world was.

Don't sledge Sachin, rather befriend him.
-Shane Warne

It was one of the greatest innings I have ever seen. There is no shame being beaten by such a great player, Sachin is perhaps only next to the Don.
-Steve Waugh after being defeated in the Coca-Cola Cup finals in Sharjah.

We won with ten, but lost to one.
-Steve Waugh

The last time I watched Sachin was last week when he was on his way to a spectacular 175 and once again I felt that I was watching a player who comes but once in a century. It can be said that he is the Bradman of our times and I do feel privileged to have played a lot of cricket against him,”
-Steve Waugh

I have never seen Bradman but heard people talk about him. But I tell you what, if Bradman could bat like this man does then he was dynamite. Players like Sachin deserve to be preserved in cotton wool.
-Viv Richards

He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also.
-Waqar Younis

Today, he showed the world why he is considered the best batsman around. Some of the shots he played were simply amazing. Earlier, opposing teams used to feel that Sachin's dismissal meant they could win the game. Today, I feel that the Indian players, too, feel this way.
-Wasim Akram after game at Hobart, CUB series, 1999.

I don't know what to bowl at him. I bowled an inswinger and he drove me through covers of the front foot. Then I bowled an outswinger and he again punched through covers of the backfoot. He is the toughest batsmen I've bowled to. He should live long and score lots of runs, but not against Pakistan.
-Wasim Akram

Tujhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?
Do you know whose catch you've dropped?
-Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch in 2003 world cup and later played an unforgettable innings of his life.

Cricketers like Sachin come once in a lifetime, and I am privileged he played in my time.
-Wasim Akram

Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job.
-Yaseer Hameed

I Will See God When I Die But Till Then I Will See Sachin Tendulkar
-A banner in Sharjah

Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching.
-A placard at the Sydney Cricket Ground

Source: en.wikiquote.org

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Sachin Tendulkar's Unforgettable Innings

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 12:16:00 +0530

And then..., there comes a day when Sachin Tendulkar announces his retirement from One Day International (ODI) Cricket. As an ardent Sachin Tendulkar fan, I had mixed emotions, may be, failing to express myself - whether to celebrate his golden career, or to express displeasure about his early retirement (than expected). But as I write this, taking emotions out of of mind and coming to reality with his decision, as a blogger, I thoroughly welcome his decision to retire from ODIs. He has done everything that a human being can do in ODIs.

In our lifetimes, I am sure, we will never ever be able to see another player having 49 ODI centuries, 96 ODI half centuries, 18426 ODI runs and all this with an amazing strike rate of 86.14 and an unbelievable average of 44.83! Ours is the generation, highly blessed I will say, which has seen the jersey number 10 playing one 'divine' innings after the other and we will be telling our children, grandchildren that 'yes, there was this man, I have seen him batting Live!'

Well, for that generation, which will want a glimpse of Sachin's batting, here is a list of must watch Sachin Tendulkar innings. If you have not seen these innings, may be you have not seen the real Sachin Tendulkar. If you have seen them, may be there is no doubt in your mind, why he is called 'the God of Cricket!'

A gentle advice: I recommend you to add this post to your bookmark/ share on your wall. So whenever you want to get inspired, get sheer joy and entertainment, forget your sorrows and worries, just tune in - watch these innings highlights, and get blessed!

Sachin Tendulkar's Must Watch Innings in ODI Cricket

1. 143 vs Australia, Sharjah, 22 Apr 1998.
It was that time, when Indian team was teased for- "Sharjah me harja" (Go Sharjah and come back loosing). Sachin changed that forever. Though India lost the match after Sachin got out, he had done enough for the team to go into the finals of that cup.

2. 134 vs Australia, 24 Apr 1998.
Just 2 days after his 'Sand-storm' innings, he produced another divine innings. This time, he made sure that India wins the match and the Sharjah cup.

3. 140* vs Kenya, Bristol, 23 May 1999
World cup, Sachin's father passed away, team needed Sachin the most. He played, made a century looked in the sky with a tear in the eye. MUST WATCH.

4. 98 vs Pakistan, Centurion, 1 Mar 2003
Termed as the best innings of his life, by Sachin himself, this is the another divine innings. India- Pakistan a world cup match. Sachin fires and fires so fiercely that made very Indian proud!

5. 117* vs Australia, Sydney, 2 May 2008
Till this final, India used to go to final and end up as runner up! Sachin, again changed that forever! First final out of 'best of 3', Ponting had (in)famously said, 'we need not play 3rd final' as mind game strategy. Sachin proved him correct, the only thing was India won both the finals!

6. 91 vs Australia, Brisbane, 4 Mar 2008
Like in Sharjah, Sachin played back to back wonderful innings helping India win the cup! Undoubtedly, this win was the most significant win after 1983 World Cup win, till that date.

7. 175 vs Australia, Hyderabad, 5 Nov 2009
Australia set target of 350 runs. Sachin, again, played another divine innings, India came close to win. And then the anticlimax! Sachin got out and India lost the match by mere 3 runs!

8. 200* vs South Africa, Gwalior, 24 Feb 2010
Sachin made 200*, 'first man on the planet to score double century in an ODI innings', was a feast to watch. This, coming against a formidable side of South Africa having legendary bowlers like Dale Steyn made it value in gold!

Sachin Tendulkar's list of ODI centuries:

49th ODI century is also the 100th international century of the living legend! (Find full coverage: Sachin Tendulkar's list of 100 centuries.)

Words fail to express greatness of this man!

Video source: www.youtube.com

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Negative effects of IPL

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:08:00 +0530

Poor form in Test Cricket- IPL to blame?

In one of the earlier posts related to Indian Premier League (IPL), we had enthusiastically talked about Positive effects of IPL. Before the start of IPL 2012, India had lost Test series to England 0-4 in England, to Australia 0-4 in Australia and India failed to qualify for the CB Series and Asia Cup finals. After that, the exciting IPL 2012 happened and all of a sudden, everyone forgot about the most depressing season of Test Cricket for India. And then, new season of Cricket started with tours of Sri Lanka, New Zealand followed by T20 World Cup. As if this schedule was not hectic for Indian team, players were sent to the Champions League in October, this year. And now, we have seen what has happened with Indian team versus England in home series.

In the same post, I had mentioned that there are positive as well as negative effects of IPL. Let's try to find out what aspects of IPL are NOT good for Indian Cricket, particularly, Indian Test Cricket, since the time is right to raise some hard questions.

Bad scheduling of IPL?

IPL is scheduled in April and May, which are hottest months of Indian summer. Traditionally, these months were reserved for rest to the players before next season of Cricket - domestic and international - begins. If players are made to play 15 high intensity games in 10 different parts of India, the travel and over-Cricket is bound to take a toll on players, physically and mentally. Finally, who wants to work on Holidays, even if one is paid!
It becomes compelling for BCCI to organize this event in these months as Indian Team neither travels nor hosts any international tournament in these months. But, this also means, players are overly exhausted, they do not have recovery time, they do not have time to operate themselves on injuries.
At the same time, no other international team has compulsion to adjust team's schedule according to IPL. International players have limited presence in IPL, that too, after their Cricket Board's approval.

The point is, Indian players are more stressed up than their international counterparts, which definitely reflects in their fitness levels.

Possibility of deterioration of Cricketing skills?

In IPL, if a batsman gets out playing a rash shot, it is NOT considered as 'throwing of a wicket' or 'batsman not putting price on his wicket'. It is accepted in IPL to play brave shots, even if that means wasting your wicket. On the other hand, Test Cricket teaches you to keep your wicket as long as you can.
In IPL, a bowler has maximum of 4 overs. How is it possible to test bowler's fitness, skills in these 4 overs? If a bowler has higher strike rate and higher average, it is not considered a guilt, neither it is associated with the bowler's ability in IPL. Further, since batsmen are always prone to make mistakes while scoring quick runs, many of IPL wickets are not bowlers' wickets but those are just batsmen making mistake and bowler getting wickets.

In Test Cricket, no batsman gets to score runs without hard work, and similarly no bowler gets easy wickets; as they might get in IPL. Lac of 'test' of concentration, fitness, temperament, Cricketing skills and mostly ignored - 'Cricketing intelligence' in IPL makes it tough for players to adapt to Test Cricket as it requires all these skills and their application on field, day after day!

Is motivation to play for country/ Test Cricket reduced?

If the player has played just one or two domestic Cricket seasons, he can play IPL. It offers huge amount of money in just 2 to 3 months. Good for them, but due to this early money, fame and opportunity, will those players be still motivated enough to play Test Cricket or be part of International Indian Cricket Team? If one calculates, an average player will definitely get more money by playing IPL than by playing whole season of Test Cricket.

In the end, no one wants to take harder route to earn same amount of money. This leads to the further point:

Have priorities of Indian players changed?

When the Gavaskars, Dravids, Kumbles speak, all of them say that playing for India, getting a Test Cap was their childhood dream. When Tendulkars, Pontings, Kallis are asked to prioritize Cricket formats, they hold Test Cricket at the peak. But, will the coming generation of Cricketers have the same priority? Will they still be holding Test Cricket above all other formats of Cricket? Or will the easy money- less hard work- quantity over quality in IPL affect their sense of priority?
We need to find answers to following early retirements: Why did Lasith Malinga opted out of Test Cricket of Sri Lanka and instead played IPL? How was Gayle able to play for IPL and not for his national side? What made Sehwag play with an injury in IPL and as soon as his team was out of tournament, did he go for a treatment? How come a certain Rohit Sharma plays exceptionally well in IPL but fails to deliver at international level? Why player like Sachin Tendulkar plays IPL but skips tour of West Indies? What makes Kelvin Petersen to retire from all but T20 format of his national team?

If players are going to opt IPL or the club team over the Test Cricket or National Cricket, then who will play for country? How will the next golden generation of 'Indian' Cricket come into reality?

Are Indian players and conditions getting overexposed to the foreign players?

All, well, yes practically all Indian players play in the IPL where each player plays around 12-15 matches per season. In this way, he gets over exposed, which otherwise he would not have (at least to the foreign coaches/ staff). This can be a reason why foreign teams have a certain strategy against certain player from very beginning. It is like 'an open source knowledge sharing' about Indian players. All secrets of Indian players will be there with foreign coaches and players even before that Indian player makes his international debut.
Since all top foreign players (around 40 in all) participate in IPL, and play so many matches at different parts of India, each year, it is becoming increasingly easy for foreign players to adapt to Indian playing conditions like spinning tracks, reverse swing etc. This ultimately helps foreign players when they tour India Because they know the conditions, they know how to play spin, they know how to tackle and produce reverse swing.

In the nutshell, Indian players' skill-set and knowledge-base is remaining almost stagnant, at the same time, the rival teams gets to know strong and weak points of Indian players, in addition to this, they get to know conditions very well. All this 'paid practice' must be helping the visiting teams in their international tours against Indian team. (Some readers may think this is so cheap, but hey, international sports is war! And it's fair to be cheap in war!)

Rise of too many Captains?

With the advent of IPL, where about 10 teams play, there is 'production' of so many captains for each team. For e.g.: We had seen Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly captaining again after stepping down from National Team Captainship. Then there are players like Sehwag, Gambhir, Kohli, Raina, Harbhajan, Yuvraj who have been made captains of their respective teams for some time or the other.
So, when these players come together to play in National team, it becomes team of captains. Each player is a captain! I am sure, it is very hard to lead the team of captains, as it requires handling too many egos at a time.

Is this hurting Indian Cricket? Is there any truth between stories that Sehwag and MS Dhoni or Gambhir and MS Dhoni are having cold wars. Is Dhoni feeling unsecured because of his captainship is under threat because of the IPL emerged captains?

Conflict of interests between BCCI and IPL?

There are hard questions raised recently, by Mr. Amarnath, member of 1983 World Cup winning team and ex- selection committee member. Dhoni was to be sacked from captainship, after India lost 0-4 to Australia, with majority of selectors were with this decision. But then, BCCI President Mr. Srinivasan (allegedly), intervened using his constitutional rights and saved Dhoni from being sacked as National team's captain.
Interestingly, the BCCI President happens to be owner of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), a franchise of IPL team, who is captained by Dhoni, again. So, if Dhoni were sacked from National team, it would had made impact on CSK's business fortunes too. So, definitely a questions arises, why did Srinivasan intervened in decision of selectors?

IPL is virtually ran by businessmen in India, who have money power and political power. If they are further going to dictate BCCI and National team and even influence highly technical and specialized decisions like team selection or pitches or scheduling of tours, then all I can say is, God help Indian Cricket!

In summary, all we can say is, IPL is over-stressing our players, it is creating confusion over the format which they want to concentrate on. Further, it is reducing the hunger to play for India and increasing their egos. And as if this isn't enough for downfall, it is overexposing Indian players and Indian conditions to others, that makes playing against India easier than it used to. In addition, influence of corporate firms in decision making is definitely NOT going to serve Indian Cricket. Probably, BCCI needs to rethink, reinvent its glamorous baby so that Indian Test Cricket remains safe and successful!

If you think there are more ill effects of IPL, you may please share them here.

Image source: images.google.com

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Sachin Tendulkar announces retirement

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sat, 8 Dec 2012 18:16:00 +0530

Oh My God..! Did I just miss 'if' at the start of the post title? Relax guys, Sachin has not announced his retirement, YET. But there are number of experts, bloggers and at random anyone who knows Cricket, is talking about the 'un-talkable' subject of Sachin Tendulkar's retirement.

Let's just imagine (again- the unimaginable), that Sachin Tendulkar has called it a day and has taken the decision to retire from Cricket. What an impact it will have all over Cricketing and non Cricketing world! How media will react to the news? What news-stories will trend all over the media? Let's look it from funny and 'LOL'ing manner.

Presenting, 'the Retirement that wasn't declared': The news spoofs about Sachin's retirement! Read the effects of this biggest retirement of century and start LOLing..!

Cricketing Effects:

Hmm... Let's start news, what Sachin's colleagues say:

Kohli, Dhoni WELCOME Sachin's retirement, stating this would give youngsters a chance.

On condition of anonymity a source in the team said that the real reason to welcome retirement is because many of Tendulkar ad brands are going to come their (Kohli/ Dhoni's) way.
See... How concerned our team icons are about new comer lads ;-)

Moving on,

Shane Warne- finally able to quit daily dose of sleeping pills

We heard he was prescribed the pills after Sachin started to appear in his dreams- hitting him all over ground nonstop for last 16 years- making it a nightmare!

Indian Test Cricket team to keep number 4 spot vacant as a mark of respect for Sachin Tendulkar!

Our well-placed sources confirmed the real reason being-- NO ONE ELSE TO REPLACE HIM..!!! Vacancy..!! Urgently Required..!!! Apply Now..!!!!

Steve Buckner to restart his umpiring career.

Says, now his umpiring can be impartial! Hmm.. True... No Tendulkar, no need to be partial with opponent team!

Further on,

Sachin to become selector, coach, remote-controlling-captain, mentor and motivator of Indian Cricket Team- OFFICIALLY

Asking how? Yes, he was in these roles 'unofficially' till now, hereon, it will be official role!! No big deal... is it??

Further in spoofs,

Ganguly is made the captain of retired Indian Cricket players (age above 37), the team beats Dhoni's team 3-0 in a "T20" domestic series.

Sachin gets man of the series award for his 3 consecutive centuries. Dhoni blames 'the turning pitches' for the defeat!!!
T20- pitches, Mr Dhoni, are you all right???

13 Cricketers on ground refuse to play Cricket, as crowd INSULTED them.

Crowd stars shouting: 'Sachinnn... Sachin... dhann dhann dhann... Sachinnn... Sachin... dhann dhann dhann... Sachinnn... Sachin... dhann dhann dhann...' when they saw Sachin coming as a commentator in commentary box! Players hurt with this insult, as no one to cheer them.

(News in year 2020) Sachin's unbreakable record of 34000+ international runs and 100 centuries is finally broken, by---

combined efforts of all international batsmen after 7 years of performance in all formats of the game! ICC to facilitate all involved in the effort..!!!

Social Effects:

You can no more commit all your 'sins' as God will no more be busy watching Sachin play!

So... be a good guy/ girl that you are.. and don't commit any sins that you used to :-P

Mumbai and entire Maharashtra along with Sydney to remain shut for entire week to mourn retirement of Sachin Tendulkar.

Extended Christmas Holidays, you know!

Bloggers, newspaper columnist, statisticians loose their jobs due to slow-down in 'market'

Yes! The most iconic, the most written about, the most talked about Cricketer is no more in action! On whom to write, talk!!! No job, sit idle :-)

Sachin's critics desperately in search of another bread and butter

Ohh.. How can you forget them! They had a very secured job for last 23 years...

Moving on,

A crazy Sachin fan names his twins as:- 1. Sachin, 2. Tendulkar.

We learned both of them are-- baby GIRLS!
Crazy fan perhaps mad too..!!!

Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary changes his appearance first time.

After... about.. many years. Yes, for the first time! You know him... He paints his body in tricolor, writes Tendulkar-10 on his back!

Further in the news,

Arjun Tendulkar files application for changing his name to:- BharatRatna

making his full name read:-- Bharatratna Sachin Tendulkar
Hmmm... Now that's a very smart kid...

Suddenly, half of grounds in India are to be named after Sachin Tendulkar, and we heard those are football and hockey grounds.. not cricket..!

How strange..!
In fact, terrible... because Cricket in India is run by full time politicians.. how can they give anything to anyone except between themselves, even names!

As soon as Sachin's retirement news broke, 5 people reportedly died out of heart attack, 13 tried to set ablaze themselves

RIP Sachin fans!

News and Media Effects:

News channel continuously ran for 96 hours to telecast, then retelecast, then again reretelecaste, then further, rerere...(347 times)...rerererererererereretelecast Sachin's retirement press conference!!

(huh...!) while newspaper were so busy editing the special edition on Sachin that they forgot to print the next day's newspaper.

I am going to cut the day's bill for cable and paper! ;-)

Arvind Kejriwal demands Sachin Tendulkar's resignation...

(from?? amm...) as Rajya Sabha MP.. (yes.. that's it). Yes... but resignation.. Why???

That is for grabbing news headlines that only meant for him...!!
Ohh hoo!! Got it??

Most interestingly, we heard

RajyaSabha TV channel breaks all TRP records.

As-- Sachin starts attending RajyaSabha. Other channels struggle to maintain minimum spectator base.

Thanks to Sachin,

RajyaSabha records 100% attendance for the first time in last few decades

Everyone wanted a picture with the newly joined MP Sachin Tendulkar, to put it on flex hoarding in their constituency!

Political Effects:

In an interesting move,

A regional political party demands place for young Marathi players in Indian Cricket Team

Makes Rohit Sharma party's sports wing head and immediately replaces him with Ajinkya Rahane. Party blames Rohit's lazy and casual approach..!!!
Come on Rohit, you got to be kidding us!!

Moving on,

BJP demands Bharat-Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar.

SP, BSP to oppose, as they feel echoing BJP's demand will be seen as COMMUNAL!
Sachin- BharatRatna- Communal?? Great 'logicians'- these parties!

No news spoof can be complete without his man's comments--

Digvijay blames RSS for Sachin's 'early' retirement.

(Now this is a "Diggi" logic, no one can explain it)

This, probable is the most important news as of now--

China secretly manages to make a super-robot, matching Sachin's skills

This, after a research of about 15 years. And immediately ~~sells~~ 'donates' the technology to Pakistan. Pak, names the robot as Chin-10, to use Chin-10 versus India in next series.
Hmmm.... That brings to my creative mind a question--- Sa-Chin 10-dulkar? Any relation???

Financial Effects:

Yes, Sachin's retirement has impacted the world economics, in a good way. Let's find out:

Obama honors Sachin for increasing USA's efficiency by 50% for the first time in last 2 decades.

Asking why? Half of productive people working in USA are Indians, you idiot! They never worked when Sachin used to play!

And here in our home country,

India's GDP surprisingly doubles up, Congress takes all the credit, claims economic reforms successful.

BJP rubbishes the claim, stating it is only because Sachin stopped playing Cricket, resulting in increased efficiency of whole country. Gives USA's example.

Meanwhile, we have just received an input from our London correspondent, where Sachin is currently enjoying his holidays. Let's run the breaking news:

BREAKING NEWS: BREAKING NEWS: BREAKING NEWS:

We just heard that after seeing the love of his fans, empty stands, and pressure from IPL team-owners, SACHIN TENDULKAR has decided to call off his retirement and pad up all over again...!

Let's go straight to the Live press conference!

With that, let's end the program, 'the Retirement that wasn't declared' thanks for watching. Thanks Sachin for destroying our program :-)

Image source: images.google.com

(Disclaimer: Places, personalities, institutes, events mentioned here are imaginary and only meant for entertaining purpose. Any resemblance with real life places, personalities, institutes, events is completely a coincidence. These are news spoofs, I hope you take it that way, with sportive spirit. Thanks! Enjoy!)

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Why Cricket is not part of the Olympics?

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 01:29:00 +0530

But at first place, what makes the Olympic Games different than other sports events?

Why Cricket is not part of the Olympics?

The Olympic Games are one of the biggest sporting events of our time. Athletes from the entire world take part in this traditional event. Their achievements are watched from both near and far by hundreds of millions of spectators and the Olympic medals become Country’s status symbols and athletes’ pride. The Games are held every four years. They are the largest sporting celebration in terms of the number of sports on the program.

The Games are also part of a broader framework which is that of the Olympic Movement. The purpose of the Olympic Movement is to:

- Link sport with culture and education

- Promote the practice of sport and the joy found in effort

- Help to build a better world through sport practiced in a spirit of peace, excellence, friendship and respect.

The obvious question comes to a Cricket Lover’s mind is why Cricket is not a part of the historical Olympics?

And that brings us to the basic question as to what are the criteria for a sport to be part of the Olympic game? After thorough search, I found official explanation from none other than the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Explanation offered:

...The IOC sets the program and decides which sports will be included. The IOC also has the right to accept or refuse any proposed new sport, discipline or event.

Sport - For a sport to be made an Olympic sport it has to be governed by an International Federation recognized by the IOC.

e.g.: Swimming at the Games is governed by the International Swimming Federation (FINA)

In case of Cricket, it is International Cricket Council (ICC)

Discipline - an Olympic sport comprises one or several disciplines.

e.g.: Water polo and diving are disciplines of swimming.

In case of Cricket, Twently20 makes the optimal choice

Event - a discipline includes one or more events or competitions. An event gives rise to a result for which medals are awarded.

e.g.: The 10m platform for women is a diving event; the men’s 500m is a speed skating event.

A football style or Cricket World-cup Cricket format can bring a winner to whom medal can be presented

Above basic notions are to be followed by IOC for selecting a sport. In addition, below criteria should be met by the sport itself to push its case forward to IOC:

Criteria for being an Olympic sport

In order to be included on the Olympic program, a sport must fulfill, amongst others, the following conditions:

- It must be widely practiced (by men, in 75 countries on four continents; by women, in 40 countries and on three continents);

- The World Anti-Doping Code must be applied;

- It must not rely on mechanical propulsion (such as a motor).

ICC needs to push Twenty20

Since the first criterion cited here cannot to be fulfilled by Cricket, ICC may be holding back in pushing Twently20 Cricket into the Olympics. It is indeed unfortunate for those playing, following Cricket. Besides the technical shortcomings for Cricket, there are few other reason why Cricket is difficult to be included in the Olympics in immediate future. But that we will discuss in the next post! Till then, Enjoy this.

I hope the question is answered to the satisfaction. But hey, here is one Did you know fact - check out. Let’s all wish good luck to our respective athletes and London Olympics!

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World Cup T20 2012 and other tour schedules

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:15:00 +0530

Which is the the next (exciting) Cricket series?

After the glamorous, noisy, controversial and thrilling IPL season 5 got over, cricketing fields are empty, stands are uncrowded, TV channels are running soccer news in otherwise "only cricket" news hours, facebook cricket pages, groups, blogs are not finding anything substantial to comment on, offices are no longer following cricinfos and all the Cricket Lovers are getting bored without any magnificent battle on cricket ground. And then one colleague asks me, 'hey when is the next match?'

Thus, comes this post. Following images are the schedules of important international series that would take place in coming months. Following list of schedules contain the important series like Aus vs Eng, Ind vs SL, NZ vs Ind, Eng vs Ind and perhaps the most awaited event - T20 World Cup schedule. Let's check in chronological order.

(P.S.: Please click on the image to view them to the original size, and yes, you can download them to your device and share with your friends)

1. Australia's Tour of England : June - July 2012

Australia's Tour of England : June - July 2012

2. India's Tour of Sri Lanka : July - August 2012

3. New Zealand's Tour of India : August - September 2012

New Zealand's Tour of India : August - September 2012

4. T20 World Cup 2012, Sri Lanka Schedule:

4.1 T20 World Cup Group Stage Schedule : September 2012

T20 World Cup Group Stage Schedule : September 2012

4.2 T20 World Cup Super Eights Schedule : September - October 2012

T20 World Cup Super Eights Schedule : September - October 2012

4.3 T20 World Cup Semis and Final Schedule : October 2012

T20 World Cup Semis and Final Schedule : October 2012

5. England's Tour of India : October 2012 - January 2013

England's Tour of India : October 2012 - January 2013

Check the schedule of next year in one view and make your planning!!!

So, next time you wonder what is the next tour or schedule of the T20 world cup or your boss asks it, just ping him (why not her :) ) this link saved in your favorites and shared on Facebook..!!!

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Cricket Rules - No Ball

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sat, 2 Jun 2012 12:17:00 +0530

Know, if you know the No Ball!

Do you remember the second last over of KKR vs CSK IPL 2012 final, when Bisla –after scoring blitzkrieg and Kallis – were back to the dugout. CSK had a real hope to win the title clash. Ben Hilfenhaus was bowling the crucial last ball of 19^th over – 7 balls remaining, 16 still runs required. Tik tik – tik tik and he bowls a ball which Shakib ul Hasan plays in the air – gets caught – and meanwhile umpire calls it a NO BALL for ball above waist height. Between all these commotions, batsmen completed 2 runs. Then, equation became 7 balls remaining, 13 runs to get (1 run of no ball + 2 runs that batsmen ran). The extra ball that required to be bowled fetched another 4 runs for KKR thanks to Shakib for that leg glance, simplifying the equation to 9 runs from 6 balls. Rest is history now!

No Ball Signal

The NO BALL was, in effect – 1 delivery bowled and 7 runs scored! This was, for me, the one of the costliest errors made by CSK bowlers. The No Ball can be this much harsh. What are the different scenarios in which an umpire can call a ball- No Ball? What do the rules say? It is simple, is it? Are you sure about the simplicity? Let’s check it out!

The 7 laws of a NO BALL

1. Right hand – over the wicket!

A. Oh Yes, the umpire shall make sure whether the bowler intends to bowl right handed or left handed, over or round the wicket, and shall so inform the striker. It is unfair if the bowler fails to notify the umpire of a change in his mode of delivery. In this case the umpire shall call and signal No ball.

B. Underarm bowling shall not be permitted except by special agreement before the match.

2. Don’t throw it baby…

For a delivery to be fair in respect of the arm the ball must not be thrown (elbow should not be bent above permissible limit). If, in the opinion of either umpire, the ball has been thrown, he shall call and signal No ball.

3. Don’t throw it baby, again…!

If the bowler throws the ball towards the striker’s end before entering his delivery stride, either umpire shall call and signal No ball.

4. The feet and the crease – this is perhaps the most common form of a NO BALL.

For a delivery to be fair in respect of the feet, in the delivery stride

The foot no ball

A. The bowler’s back foot must land within and not touching the return crease appertaining to his stated mode of delivery.

B. The bowler’s front foot must land with some part of the foot, whether grounded or raised

a. on the same side of the imaginary line joining the two middle stumps as the return crease described in A. above and

b. behind the popping crease.

If the bowler’s end umpire is not satisfied that all of these three conditions have been met, he shall call and signal No ball.

5. O, you dangerous bowler!

A. Bowling of fast short pitched balls

a. If the bowler’s end umpire considers that by taking into account their length, height and direction they are likely to inflict physical injury. The relative skill of the striker shall be taken into consideration.

Jack Kallis negotiating a dangerous bouncer.

b. Any delivery which, after pitching, passes or would have passed over head height of the striker standing upright at the popping crease shall be included with bowling under above (a) and the umpire shall call and signal No ball for each such delivery.

B. Bowling of high full pitched balls

a. Any delivery, which passes or would have passed on the full above waist height of the striker standing upright at the popping crease is to be deemed dangerous and unfair, whether or not it is likely to inflict physical injury on the striker

A batsmen facing dangerous beamer

6. In addition to above basic laws of fairness of delivery, following are further laws with respect to position of fielders

A. The wicket-keeper shall remain wholly behind the wicket at the striker’s end from the moment the ball comes into play until

a. a ball delivered by the bowler either

i. touches the bat or person of the striker or

ii. passes the wicket at the striker’s end or

b. the striker attempts a run.

In the event of the wicket-keeper contravening this Law, the striker’s end umpire shall call and signal No ball as soon as possible after the delivery of the ball.

B. Until the moment the ball comes into play, there can be 7 players maximum on one side of wicket and minimum of 2 on the other, excluding bowler and wicketkeeper

C. At no point while delivering the ball, fielders should not encroach on pitch

7. NO BALL, what’s your scorecard? Yes, a no ball affects the scorecard in many ways:

A. A penalty of one run shall be awarded instantly on the call of No ball. It shall be in addition to any other runs scored, any boundary allowance and any other runs awarded for penalties.

B. All runs resulting from a No ball, whether as No ball extras or credited to the striker, shall be debited against the bowler

C. A No ball shall not count as one of the over. (In effect, one extra legal ball needs to be bowled by bowler.)

D. When No ball has been called, neither batsman shall be out under any of the Laws except Handled the ball, Hit the ball twice, Obstructing the field or Run out (and poor me thought it’s only Run Out!)

Free hit:

Free hit is relevant in ODIs and T20 matches. When a bowler bowls a foot-fault no ball (front foot or back foot), in the immediate next ball, the batsman cannot be ruled out in any dismissal modes other than; run out, handled the ball, hit the ball twice and obstructing the field. This freedom enables the batsman to play a powerful shot without the fear of getting out caught, bowled, stumped or leg before. For this reason, the delivery immediately after a foot-fault no ball is called a free hit. Free hit is signaled by Umpire by raising his hand and circulating it in air. No change in fielding positions is allowed if same batsmen who faced the no ball is on strike.

And still there are few more but minor laws under which a ball can be called a No Ball. There are provisions under which an Umpire can warn a bowler for bowling unfair, dangerous balls. The provision can be potentially so harsh as to ban a bowler from bowling in that match. Umpiring - a tough job, isn't it? But after this post, I hope you know the No ball! Now, this one is for you, know, if you know the no ball:

Which of the above is/ are no ball?

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Positive effects of IPL

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:38:00 +0530

Why IPL is such a mega hit event - for all of us?

DLF IPL Logo

Indian Premier League (IPL), the glamorous baby of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has now entered in its 5th year. For any newly organised event this is sufficient period to make a mark - and so did IPL, in style. At the beginning of first season in 2008, nobody knew what shape IPL will take. The only know thing was that it may have inspired from English Premier League - ace football league - as far as concept of format was concerned and it was to be played in India - where Cricket is religion.

While taking its shape, IPL has already impacted Cricket, Business and Entertainment. The effects of IPL, there are several - positive and negative. Let's talk the positive effects of IPL.

Cricketing Effects

Youngsters get experience, money:

In country like India, sports is not generally something parents ask their children to persue. Because, if you reach to the top, only then, you get money, fame and can secure your life. Else you are just another unknown face. And you cannot earn a safe bread butter, because you are not a Doctor or an Engineer! But IPL has provided chance for all those 'middle level Cricketers' from India and abroad, who were unknown faces but IPL provided them stage to put their performance and get instant recognition, money and fame. Ravindra Jadeja, prime example from India or Shaun Marsh from Australia.

Talking about experience, how amazing and invaluable would it be for these upcoming young Cricketers to share dressing rooms with the legends of Cricket! What a learning it would be to bat under guidance of Sachin Tendulkar or being trained leg spin by Share Warne. Generally, the international players do not play domestic Cricket. So, these players never have chance to have interaction with the greats of game. But with IPL, it is a 2 month long journey that these youngsters can travel with the big daddys of Cricket. Indeed, the most positive effect IPL.

International icons playing alongside:

Now how did it feel when Sachin Tendulkar came along with Sanath Jayasurya for opening the innings for Mumbai Indians in first IPL edition? May be the most explosive opening pair one can imagine. What a different site it is when Dale Steyn clean bowled Jack Kallis - his national teammate - and celebrated it wildly. This is another biggest effect of IPL. The iconic players rub shoulders together, forgetting their country monetarily, and bring out the best for their clubs. This is not just interesting to watch but also great professional lesson to everyone of us as to how to value team more than an individual.

IPL also gives rare chance for the ageing and fading icons to play Cricket. This not only extends their innings in Cricket but also gives chance to their fans to see them play again. It is always better to see players like Sourav Ganguly, Adam Gilchrist in Cricketing jersey rather than 3 piece suit, isn't it?

IPL 2012 Theme

BCCI becomes mighty:

With mighty board like BCCI to control Cricket in India, it brings good stability in administration of the game. This also helps the other boards like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh in that region to have big brother with them, representing the region strongly at international council.

With this huge money-power, BCCI now has fantastic opportunity to invest the money back in the game. This can massively improve the stadia, infrastructure, support facilities, coaching institutes and what not!

This money, invested back in Cricket, will only improve the domestic Cricket. And Indian Cricket will roll into wonderful circle of strong Cricket generating money and that money generating strong Cricket for country.

2. Non Cricketing Effects:

Business Effects:

IPL, at the end of the day, is business boss! This is true for BCCI, for franchisies, for sponcerors and somewhat for players too. IPL has created enormous opportunities in India. To name a few industries which have been impacted positively due to IPL - Sports, Advertisement, Aviation, Journalism, Internet & Communication, Tourism, Hotels & Hospitality, Transportation, Entertainment/ Film industry, Cricketing industry (Umpires, TV experts, anchors etc.) at national level, then at local venues, it has impacted Music Industry, Transport, Fashion & Clothing industry, Media, Support staff for venues, Security staff, electronic and digital industry. You name an industry and it is directly or indirectly connected with IPL. Almost evey industry and brand, may it be mobile or car, soft drink or vodka, IT industry or Cement industry- wants to get associated with IPL or the franchise. This wide spread of IPL and it's viwership is pretty good for business and Indian economy. This will help generating, though a very tiny, employment at local & at national level, which is again, absolutely nice effect of IPL.

Political Effects:

IPL, being high profile tournament, the Governments need to provide high security and special facilities. The uncertainty to provide the same in 2009, resulted in shifting of IPL to South Africa. On the other side, the administration, big money, glamour and power that IPL brings to Cricket has attracted politicians to administer these Cricketing associations. This is true for MCA or BCCI or ICC or even IPL. India has seen many of its favorite politicians turning into Cricket Administrators - all rounder that they are!

Family Bonding:

Yes, traditionally Cricket is male dominated, even while watching it on television! But with IPL it is not just Cricket that comes but Bollywood, fashion, parties, gossips, entertainment and of course all this in just 3 hours. That's why more and more females are attracted to this mega event on TV. It is a family programme with everyday new drama, more excitement. IPL brings family together at least at the dinner, which is precious!

At length, these positive effects of IPL, it is a win- win situation for everyone associated with this mega-event- players, franchise, BCCI, sponsors, spectetors and not the least - Cricket.

IPL Extra Innings Anchors

On the funny side, IPL gives chance to make an excuse to leave offices early to enjoy Cricket ;-) . It gives electronic media a reason to run cricket plus entertainment shows for hours :-D . It gives students an opportunity to break from studies :-) , it gives bloggers much needed food, to keep writing, in the down season of Cricket \m/ and it gives readers option to read all that stuff! :-P . And this is our win- win situation, isn't it?

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IPL Matches Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:46:00 +0530

The Must Watch Video Highlights of IPL 2012 (Updated after every Must Watch Action on Field)

Hey, did you see Chris Gayle's 5 sixers? Did you see Ajinkya Rahane's 6 fours in an over? Checked yesterday's match highlights? Watched that extraordinary catch in today's match, buddy? Are you able to watch IPL matches - Live? If your answer to all above questions is a big NO... amm... or let's say, a big YES, even then, watching IPL matches' highlights is a very exciting stuff!

But where do you get the videos that YOU want to watch? Well, who wants to visit a site having 2000+, and counting, IPL 2012 highlights videos, not sorted accordingly our liking, find out which video to watch and then start buffering... time consuming, isn't it? Hmm... not anymore! Bringing specially for YOU, the selective videos which are the must watch! A brilliant catch or a brilliant over bowled, or a superb nail-biting finish or a batting power packed performance happened in IPL till now, you will get all over here.

Best Player Bowling: IPL 2012 - MI vs DC - Dale Steyn, Match 40

Watch this for the best spell in this IPL. Steyn - the master of swing, pace, accuracy!

2nd Inning Highlights: IPL 2012 - DD vs RR, Match 39

Watch this for
(a) Ajinkya Rahane's performance (b) How one good over can change result of match- 19th over

1st Inning Highlights: IPL 2012 - KKR vs RCB, Match 38:

Watch this for Gambhi's fireworks:

27 April- MI vs DC: Delhi's Power Packed Batting - 207 from 20 overs

Watch out for explosive batting performance from Sehwag, Petersen, Jayawardhane and Taylor:

1st Inning Sixes: IPL 2012 - DD vs MI, Match 36:

Virender Sehwag's sensational innings against Mumbai Indians, Match 36:

Yuvraj on Cricket Field after recovery: Watch out for Yuvi!

MI vs KXIP : 2nd Innings Highlights: Watch for dramatic finish and amazing win for MI

2nd Inning Highlights: IPL 2012 - KXIP vs MI, Match 33:

Kelvin Petersen (103* from 64 balls, 6 x 4s & 9 x 6s): Watch for Petersen's dominance!

Open a new tab and paste
http://ipl.indiatimes.com/ipl-videos/2nd-inning-sixes-match-23/
in address bar to check this video. (Please note, clicking on hyperlink may not work)

Chris Gayle: 5 sixes in an over - RCB vs PW:

Ajinkya Rahane's 6 fours in an over - RR vs RCB:

RR vs RCB Match Highlights: A must watch for Rahane's and Shah's batting performance and RR bowling performance:

RCB vs PWI Highlights: A must watch for brilliant batting from Gayle and then AB:

Keep visiting this place for tasteful videos that YOU want to watch. We will add videos as and when any must watch incident happens on field! What's more, if you want, you can contribute to this selective video collection by sending us such exciting videos or simply placing video-link in Comments section. Would like to see your active participation!

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2012 IPL Season 5 Schedule, Teams, Tickets

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:00:00 +0530

IPL Trophy

(For 2013 IPL Season 6 click here! For 2012 IPL Season 5, continue reading!)

Do you remember the days of ‘circus’ in your town? It had that huge tent built on a big ground near to the town. The preparations for that tent and sets would start a couple of weeks prior to the first mega show of circus. Then the local newspapers, radio, cable channels would have advertisement citing the specialty, uniqueness of the circus - African elephants, Bengali tigers, cyclist monkeys, speaking parrots, Russian athletes and comic jokers! All that was so much exciting. The thing why I remembered all those memories is the ads currently aired on TV for 2012 IPL season 5. They have chosen very unique Circus theme this time. Yes, the great IPL circus is here, all over again! More glamorous, more star studded, more exciting and of course more rich!

IPL Season 5 that is IPL 2012 will be played between 4^th April 2012 and 27^th May 2012. Following is the schedule of entire IPL Season 5, followed by teams, tickets. Cheer up your favorite team!

2012 IPL Season 5 Schedule

(About tickets: If you want to capture the live action of IPL Season 5 in the cricket stadium then hurry to buy or book the tickets for IPL available through the websites given below. The cost of IPL tickets varies from Rs 300 to Rs 2000. The price differs depending on the team, seating position and venue. You can buy the IPL tickets online but, there is no common website through which IPL tickets for all teams can be bought together. The link against each team has been specified below for your easy reference. You can book your IPL tickets online through these links and enjoy watching all your favorite players playing the match with their best efforts. Be there to cheer them.)

Now, the squads of IPL teams who will perform circus in town.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

Indian Players:

MS Dhoni (c), Abhinav Mukund, G Vignesh, Joginder Sharma, Kuthethur Vasudevadas, Murali Vijay, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Srikkanth Anirudha, Subramaniam Badrinath, Sudeep Tyagi, Suresh Raina, Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh, Wriddhiman Saha’

International Players:

Albie Morkel, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, Francois Du Plessis, George Bailey, Michael Hussey, Nuwan Kulasekara, Scott Styris, Suraj Randiv

Official Website - Tickets

DECCAN CHARGERS

Indian Players:

Ahmed Quadri, Akash Bhandari, Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Arjun Yadav, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, Biplab Samantray, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Ishank Jaggi, Ishant Sharma, Kedar Devdhar, Manpreet Gony,Parthiv Patel,Shikhar Dhawan,Sunny Sohal,Tanmay Mishra,Tanmay Srivastav,TP Sudhindra

International Players:

Kumar Sangakkara (c), Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian, JP Duminy, Juan Theron, Daniel Harris

Official Website - Tickets

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Indian Players:

Virender Sehwag (c), Aavishkar Salvi, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Kuldeep Rawal, Manpreet Juneja, Naman Ojha, Pawan Negi, Prashant Naik, Puneet Bisht, Robin Bist, Shahbaz Nadeem, Tejashwi Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Venugopal Rao, Vikas Mishra, Yogesh Nagar, Zafir Patel

International Players:

Aaron Finch, Andre Russell, David Warner, Doug Bracewell, Kevin Pietersen, Morne Morkel, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Travis Birt, Mahela Jayawardene, Ross Taylor

Official Website - Tickets

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

Indian Players:

Gautam Gambhir (c), Iqbal Abdulla, Chirag Jani, Debabrata Das, Iresh Saxena, Jaidev Unadkat, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Sanju Vishwanadh, Sarabjit Singh Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan

International Players:

Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Jacques Kallis, James Pattinson, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hassan, Brendon McCullum, Sunil Narine, Marchant de Lange

Official Website - Tickets

KINGS XI PUNJAB

Indian Players:

Abhishek Nayar, Amit Yadav, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Parvinder Awana, Paul Valthaty, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, R Sathish, Shalabh Srivastava, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Ramesh Powar.

International Players:

Adam Gilchrist (c), David Hussey, David Miller, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Nathan Rimmington, Ryan Harris, Shaun Marsh, Stuart Broad, James Faulkner, Azhar Mahmood

Official Website - Tickets

MUMBAI INDIANS

Indian Players:

Sachin Tendulkar (c), Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Apporv Wankhede, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, Jaydev Shah, Kuldeep Yadav, Munaf Patel, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Rahul Shukla, Rohit Sharma, Sujit Nayak, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Tirumalasetti Suman, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal, Rudra Pratap Singh

International Players:

Aiden Blizzard, Richard Levi, Clint McKay, David Johan Jacobs, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Herschelle Gibbs, Mitchell Johnson, Robin John Peterson, Thisara Perera

Official Website - Tickets

PUNE WARRIORS INDIA

Indian Players:

Sourav Ganguly, Ali Murtaza, Anustup Majumdar, Ashish Nehra, Ashoke Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Harpreet Singh, Harshad Khadiwale, Kamran Khan, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Manish Pandey, Mithun Manhas, Mohnish Mishra, Murali Kartik, Raiphi Gomez, Rahul Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Sachin Rana, Shrikant Wagh, Yuvraj Singh

International Players:

Alfonso Thomas, Angelo Mathews, Callum Ferguson, Graeme Smith, James Hopes, Jesse Ryder, Marlon Samuels, Nathan McCullum, Wayne Parnell

Official Website - Tickets

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Indian Players:

Abhimanyu Mithun, Abrar Anjum Kazi, Arun Karthik, Asad Khan Pathan, CM Gautam, Cheteshwar Pujara, Harshal Patel, KP Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Mohammad Kaif, Raju Bhatkal, Ryan Ninan, Sreenath Aravind, S Thiyagrajan, Saurabh Tiwary, Virat Kohli, Vijay Zol, Zaheer Khan, R Vinay Kumar, Syed Mohammed

International Players:

Daniel Vettori (c), AB de Villiers, Andrew McDonald, Charl Langeveldt, Chris Gayle, Dirk Nannes, Luke Pomersbach Rilee Rossouw, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Muttiah Muralitharan

Official Website - Tickets

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Indian Players:

Rahul Dravid (c), Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Amit Singh, Ankeet Chavan, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Pankaj Singh, Pinal Shah, S. Sreesanth, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Sumit Narwal, Shreevats Goswami

International Players:

Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Bradley Hodge, Dinesh Chandimal, Brad Hogg, Kevon Cooper

Official Website - Ticket

IPL Official Website

So, whom are you supporting this time?

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Powerplay Rule in Cricket

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:11:00 +0530

Nowadays, when you check the scoreline for an ODI match, shown mostly at the bottom of TV screen, you see characters such as 'P1', 'P2' or 'P3'. Or when we listen to the commentators, we hear phrases such as 'mandatory Powerplay', 'batting/ bowling Powerplay'. Now all these rules come under the category of 'the field restrictions'. ODI innings is divided into parts where there are certain rules, restrictions for the field placement such as number of fielders on a particular side, distance of fielders from batsman in certain overs etc. This field restriction rules are a little complex to understand. But when to get the idea, it becomes easier to understand the strategy of captains as to why they place certain fielders at certain place only. Or why Powerplay are taken instantly or delayed. Let's looks at what rules say:

In any Powerplay/ non Powerplay over, there cannot be more than 5 fieldsmen on the leg side.
In non Powerplay overs, there cannot be more than 5 fielders outside the field restriction area.
Once a side nominates a Powerplay, the decision cannot be reversed.

The 30 Yard Circle

How is the field restriction area is marked? Two semi-circles, with 30 yard radius, are drawn on the field of play with center of the middle stump at either end of the pitch as their center. And they are connected by two parallel lines. (Many a times you must have heard ‘the 30 yard circle’- this is the area commentators refer to!) This - the field restriction area - is shown in blue color in adjacent picture.

During the first block of Powerplay Overs, only two fieldsmen are permitted outside this fielding restriction area. Two fieldsmen should be within the 15 yard from the batsman on strike (15 yard aread marked by the dotted circles, mostly seen as white discs on ground). However, this 15 yard restriction is not observed if fielders are standing in slip, leg slip or gully position. This is the ‘mandatory Powerplay’, as in, no team has any choice about its selection, always taken between over number 1 to 10 i.e., at commencement of an innings , marked as ‘P1’.

During the second (P2) and third (P3) Powerplay blocks, only three fieldsmen are permitted outside the fielding restriction area. And there is no other restriction on other fielders.

Now, out of the two blocks, one is termed as ‘batting Powerplay’. The batting side has the choice to select the 5 overs’ block. Any of the batsmen on field can chose to select the batting Powerplay.

Other is termed as ‘bowling Powerplay’. In this, the bowling team can select the 5 overs’ slot. The bowling side has the choice to select the 5 overs’ block. This Powerplay can be opted at wish of bowling team’s captain. There is no rule as to which Powerplay must be taken first and second.

Now, the rule says these two Powerplays must be opted and ended between over number 15 to 40. If both the sides do not opt their own Powerplays upto 30^th over, then automatically, overs 31 to 40 become the two blocks of Powerplays. A little variation of this rule is, suppose one of the two blocks is yet to be commenced till 35^th over, then the remaining Powerplay will commence at 36^th over.

In the event of an infringement of any of the above fielding restrictions, the square leg umpire should call and signal ‘No Ball’.
Umpire signals the ‘Powerplays’ by rolling his arms thrice.
In case where an innings of an ODI is interrupted, then the Powerplay overs are rearranged as below:

Well, this is how the field restrictions and Powerplay rules are implemented. And this is why the captains need to constantly maneuver the fieldsmen. This is why Powerplays are considered as scoring opportunities. And thas is how batting side few times looses wickets while accelerating score! I hope, you must have now realized Powerplay Rule in Cricket works and its Hows, Whys!

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Tendulkar's List of 100 Centuries

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:27:00 +0530

Sachin Tendulkar in Traditional 'Pheta'

Sachin Tendulkar! Well, the name speaks for the man himself. As described one of Sachin's online profiles, he is "Perhaps the most complete batsman and the most worshiped cricketer in the world, Tendulkar holds just about every batting record worth owning in the game, including those for most runs and hundreds in Tests and ODIs, and most international runs." Arguably, he is the best batsman, the world has ever seen! Non- arguably he is the highest test run scorer (15470), the highest ODI run getter (18260) AND, most centuries in both the formats (51 Test + 48 ODIs = 99 International Centuries).

As I write this, there is a huge talk in media about this year in which Sachin Tendulkar is unable to score a century. And rightly so, it's been more than a year that Sachin has failed to cross 100 figure mark in an international innings. After Dravid, few people, including legendary Kapil Dev, are asking Sachin to retire. But in all the commotion, what matters is how Sachin feels about himself. And if he thinks, he is fit enough - mentally and physically, to play, then he should, rather he must. It's privilege to watch Sachin Tendulkar bat.

Now, coming to the topic, Tendulkar's List of Centuries! Today morning, when I woke up, I suddenly felt that today is the day when Sachin will reach the 100th Ton milestone. Let's see if my hunch turns out to be correct or not. But in the meantime, let's all cherish the other 99 internaltional hundreds Sachin Tendulkar has scored so far. There is another myth which I would like to rubbish- but that is at after this list.

1. Sachin Tendulkar's List of Test Centuries:

Sachin Tendulkar's List of Centuries in Test Cricket

2. Sachin Tendulkar's List of ODI Centuries:

Sachin Tendulkar's List of Centuries in ODI Cricket

Now, there is no shortage of cynics in this world. They keep saying, whenever Sachin scores a century, India loses the game. This myth always pops up whenever Sachin scores a century and India loses the match. But for all those cynics, here is the another list:

Sachin Tendulkar's Centuries for winning, losing cause

Take that! Whopping 75% of Sachin Tendulkar's (75, to be precise) centuries are for winning or match saving cause. And only about 25% (24 centuries) for a losing cause.

Now, this is the list of 99 centuries, where is the 100th one? I am very optimistic about the list, especially the ODI list. I may soon need to edit this post to add another century - the 100th one - in that list. I wish and pray, it happens today itself. But, Cricket is a funny game, you never know what will happen! Let us all hope and wish the Master Blaster the good luck. He is in fine touch and I think he is just around the corner to make that list a little bigger and more glamorous!
__________ _ __________

Well, well, well..!!! And my hunch has turned out to be a correct one! In the morning, before the start of the day, I had said, I may get a chance to edit this post to add the glamorous 100th 100 to the list. And here it is:

Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international Century:

Sachin Tendulkar looking at the heavens after completing his historic 100th century

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Rahul Dravid

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Thu, 8 Mar 2012 16:02:00 +0530

'Rahul Dravid announced his retirement today from Test Cricket.' This can be the headline in tomorrow's news. Yes, Rahul Dravid is likely to announce his retirement, says the reports. Rahul Dravid- the Wall, well, words fail to describe the greatness of this man. First, I feel very sad to post about his retirement. But then, I am glad that 'Rahul Dravid' happened in Cricket, happened in India.

Rahul Dravid- What a batting profile!

Dravid, started his career with brilliant performances in Test Cricket. Then, he was stamped as the 'only' Test Cricket batsman, later proved himself in ODI Cricket. He adapted to the situation like nobody could have. Later, he took wicket - keeping responsibility so that his team could afford to play an extra batsman! Who can make such big sacrifices for team? Navjot Singh Sidhu, once said that 'if captain asks Dravid to walk on the path full of broken glasses, for the team, he will walk that path!' Such is the greatness of the man!

Rahul Dravid was first included in team as lower middle order Test Cricket batsman. Then, he improvised himself to became one of the greatest one down batsmen, in history of batsmanship in both Test and ODI Cricket. In ODIs, he improvised and became the wicket keeper, while in Tests, he changed his position from silly point and shifted to first slip fielder and boy, how, he holds the record for the most catches in Tests Cricket.

The Champion!

In the beginning of his career, he was overshadowed by the other golden boys of Indian Cricket- Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar. He always had that little curse of being in the shadow of someone else. But through pure dedication, hard work and of course ability, he became Cricketer of higher and higher stature. His captainship was a mixed pack. In first half of his career as captain, he was immensely successful. India made records of winning consecutive ODIs. But later in this tenure as captain, India failed miserably in World Cup 2007 held at West Indies. That was turning point to Dravid's ODI career. Later, he stepped down as Indian Captain. And after that, he was mostly 'rested' (dropped) for ODIs - only to be called back for tough tours of South Africa, England where player of his technique, ability can manage to play confidently. He was still going strong and was pillar of batting line up in Tests. If one has to highlight his best quality as batsman, it was his ability to form partnerships at crucial times. Who can forget Kolkatta, Adelaide, Lahore where he formed match winning or match saving partnerships?

Dravid's Partnerships in Tests for Winning Cause (150+ only)

Dravid's Partnerships in Tests for Saving a match (200+)

Dravid's Partnerships in ODI for winning cause (120+)

He was and I should say he is the only batsman in today's generation with perfect copy book style technique. Though in the recently concluded series against Australia, he failed with bat and got bowled out most of the times. That raised questions over his reflexes and technique. I guess, the person, who always gave 110% to his team, might have realized that he cannot offer more than 100% to team and may have reached to this decision. We must respect his decision. There are lots and lots points to write about the man Rahul Dravid, but as of now, lets cherish Dravid. He is just the sweet dream that Indian Cricket has passed through! Thank you Dravid for all the entertainment, pride and stability that you provided to Indian Cricket!

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Asia Cup 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Thu, 1 Mar 2012 18:27:00 +0530

While excitement for CB Series 2012, as to who will be playing finals against Australia, is still on, there comes buzz about the Asia Cup 2012 with the controversies surrounding the Team India selection. While Sehwag (and selectors) claim that he has been rested, nobody can buy this statement considering Sehwag's poor run with bat Down Under. Second, Gambhir is still in the team, why suddenly Virat Kohli was made Vice Captain? Anyway, any team selection cannot satisfy 100% of people and there will always be debates going on about what is correct and what is not- till the team wins!

Coming to the facts, following is Indian Squad selected for Asia Cup 2012:

MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virat Kohli (vice-capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ashok Dinda.

Changes from CB Series Squad:

Out: Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Parthiv Patel
In: Yusuf Pathan, Ashok Dinda

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Schedule of Asia Cup 2012:

1st Match - Bangladesh v Pakistan
Sunday March 11th, 08:00 GMT | 14:00 local | 13:30 IST
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

2nd Match - India v Sri Lanka
Tuesday March 13th, 08:00 GMT | 14:00 local | 13:30 IST
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

3rd Match - Pakistan v Sri Lanka
Thurday March 15th 08:00 GMT | 14:00 local | 13:30 IST
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

4th Match - Bangladesh v India
Friday March 16th 08:00 GMT | 14:00 local | 13:30 IST
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

5th Match - India v Pakistan
Sunday March 18th 08:00 GMT | 14:00 local | 13:30 IST
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

6th Match - Bangladesh v Sri Lanka
Tuesday March 20th 08:00 GMT | 14:00 local | 13:30 IST
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

Final - Finalist 1 v Finalist 2
Thursday March 22th 08:00 GMT | 14:00 local | 13:30 IST
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

This series, played between giants of Asia- India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and giant killer Bangladesh, promises to be exciting Cricket tournament. Currently, India and Sri Lanka are fighting neck to neck and India vs Pakistan will just add spices to the already delicious series. (Find out last Asia Cups highlights: India vs Sri Lanka, India vs Pakistan)

By the way, why is Sachin Tendulkar playing this series? Generally, in the last two years, he has not played in subcontinent except for the World Cup 2011 which Indians won. There is one popular theory- he has been given a chance (!) to complete his much awaited 100th ton. Or- wait for this- this is my guess- can this be his last ODI series and he might announce a big news after this series? Nobody knows, do you?

CB Series 2012 Points Table

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:46:00 +0530

After India's historic win over Sri Lanka, where they chased 321 runs in 36.4 overs at the loss of 3 wickets and claimed the bonus point, the race for finals in CB Series 2012, is still wide open. If Australia beats Sri Lanka in last league match, India will qualify for finals. Find out how:

Following stats are updated after the 11th CB Series Match played today.

CB Series Points Table:

Points by match:

Win, with bonus point - 5Preliminary Matches

Win, without bonus point - 4
Tie or No Result - 2
Loss - 0

In the event of teams finishing on equal points, the right to play in the final match or series will be determined as follows:

The team with the most number of wins
If still equal, the team with the most number of wins over the other team(s) who are equal on points and have the same number of wins
If still equal, the team with the highest number of bonus points
If still equal, the team with the highest net run rate

In a match declared as no result, run rate is not applicable.

Net Run Rate

A team's net run rate is calculated by deducting from the average runs per over scored by that team throughout the competition, the average runs per over scored against that team throughout the competition. In the event of a team being all out in less than its full quota of overs, the calculation of its net run rate shall be based on the full quota of overs to which it would have been entitled and not on the number of overs in which the team was dismissed.

Only those matches where results are achieved will count for the purpose of net run rate calculations. Where a match is abandoned, but a result is achieved under Duckworth/Lewis, for net run rate purposes Team 1 will be accredited with Team 2's Par Score on abandonment off the same number of overs faced by Team 2. Where a match is concluded but with Duckworth/Lewis having been applied at an earlier point in the match, Team 1 will be accredited with 1 run less than the final Target Score for Team 2 off the total number of overs allocated to Team 2 to reach the target.

Bonus Points

The team that achieves a run rate of 1.25 times that of the opposition shall be awarded one bonus point. A team's run rate will be calculated by reference to the runs scored in an innings divided by the number of overs faced.

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[Reference: espncricinfo]

Obstructing the Field

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:48:00 +0530

India versus Australia, the 10th ODI of CB series being played on the bright Sunday Morning at beautiful Sydney. And there comes the 6th ball of 23rd over. The situation is- Wade plays ball to short covers and calls for a single run. David Hussey responds and takes off to the other end. Meanwhile- the lightning in field, Suresh Raina, picks up the ball single handed and throws to the end of wicket-keeper where David Hussey is running. While throw is in the air- travelling towards Dhoni, Hussey, who meanwhile reaches between the line of throw to the stumps, and stops it with his right hand- and completes the run. No sooner did Dhoni see Hussey stopping the ball, than he appealed to the square leg umpire with reference to the "Obstructing the Field" law of Cricket.

The umpires on field, very experienced, Simon Toufel and Billy Bowden went up stares for the Decision Review System and called 3rd umpire to make the final decision. Indian camp was together- making a huddle- almost pretty sure of decision. But after watching several camera angles and almost 3 to 4 minutes of reviews, the 3rd umpire- S.D. Fry came with decision that Hussey is Not Out! There was huge uproar from the Indian supporters in the ground and also a few words exchanged between Hussey and his best mates in Indian team ;-) . So, it was definite that Hussy had stopped ball using his hand, and still was not given out. What does the law say?

Meanwhile, Warner made an attacking half century.

Here it goes-

Law 37 - Obstructing the Field

Law 37 shall apply.

For the avoidance of doubt, if an umpire feels that a batsman, in running between the wickets, has significantly changed his direction without probable cause and thereby obstructed a fielder’s attempt to effect a run out, the batsman should, on appeal, be given out, obstructing the field. It shall not be relevant whether a run out would have occurred or not.

a) Following an appeal from the fielding side, the on-field umpire shall be entitled to consult with the third umpire if he feels that the batsman, in running between the wickets, may have significantly changed his direction.

b) Such consultation shall be initiated by the on-field umpire and will be done to help him decide the extent of any change in direction and whether the obstruction was willful or not.

c) Following such consultation with the third umpire, the final decision shall be indicated in the normal fashion by the relevant on-field umpire.

[Reference: ICC's Standard ONE-day international match playing conditions]

The important factors of this law and underlined. In today's case, why Hussey was declared not out can be:

Indian team appealed, so the umpires needed to make decision
Hussey did not change his direction significantly
There was a probable cause that ball might have hit him, had it not been stopped
Hence, umpire thought that change of direction/ obstruction was NOT willful.
And India's appeal turned down- Hussey survives!

In the end, I guess fair decision was made. But batmen, in general, need to be careful while stopping the ball. Remember Inzamam- Ul- Haq (click here to view- fielder Raina, Umpire Simon Toufel- quite same characters!) was ruled out when he stopped the ball using his bat versus India in Pakistan in 2006! Because, the factors like 'significant change in direction', 'willful or no' are very hard to figure out and are relative terms from the person to person. So, who knows on the other day, other ground, Hussey might have declared Out!

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(Check out few other rules here.)

Poor Indian Batting Performance Continues

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:10:00 +0530

It is said that when calamities strike, they strike from all directions. Indian team, trapped deep inside tornado, must have realized by now that this is the darkest hour of their cricketing life. If they have not realized, well, God help them! Perth debacle takes the tally to the straight 7th Test Match loss for India away from home. While the only match they won at home was against very weak West Indies side. And in that series too, India could have easily lost the last game, thanks to R Ashwin for the last over sensible batting, which saved the Test and series!

Batting: The real culprit

Last 7 Away Test Matches Batting 'non'- Performance

Above is the statistics of India batting for both England and Current Australia series after the end of Perth Test match. Though Dravid has top scored in these 7 matches, he hardly seems to be the best student of the class (who else, I wonder!). If England series was a career saving tour for him, Australia series has again raised questions over his technique, attitude. Dravid seems to be very tentative and full of doubt as he has been bowled out 8 times in last 10 innings. The in-cutters have created enough cracks in the Wall that balls can pass through easily. Though selectors cannot force Dravid to retire, if Dravid wants to contribute, he should to play with positive attitude. He is at his best when he plays with positive frame of mind. Dravid, fit enough to play for another year or so, must therefore shut up his critics by scoring loads of runs. And, should also choose right moment to retire!

Sachin Tendulkar, looked like the person without any sort of trouble in Australian tour, is in great touch. Fitness-wise also, he seems perfectly Ok. But somewhere in his back of mind, the monkey of 100th ton seems to have burdened him. Also the fact that team winds up after he gets out - even after 20 years - must have added the pressure on him. Moment when Sachin was judged LBW in Perth 2nd innings, he showed emotions against the decisions which is very rare. The little master was Out, even if DRS was in place. I think, that was Sachin's frustration coming out more than anything else!

Sehwag, who entered Australia with record 219 in an ODI innings, should have been the usual confidant, ruthless Sehwag. But instead, after throwing his wickets to rash shots in first few innings, he decided to go against his natural game in Perth and failed to deliver. His poor average of ~ 16 in last 5 Tests is a very huge concern for Indian batting lineup. So is the case with Gambhir. In 2009, he performed so well, that it looked India has got the next Wall. But in last 2 years, his performance was very dull. Average of ~ 20 in last 7 Tests is shameful for opener of any team. As a result of failure of both the openers, Indian "strong" top middle order gets exposed to the new ball and testing batting conditions within first 10 overs. This has an impact on performances of Dravids, Tendulkars. Therefore, as they say well beginning is half done, similarly, well opening is also half done. The reason why India performed so well in 2008- 2009 is that both Sehwag and Gambhir were in prime form which took pressure off from Dravid, Tendulkar. Hence, overall performance of batting line was lifted up. It is very important for Indian team that the openers perform well. For that matter, giving a chance to other openers is also an option if Gambhir- Sehwag continue their short stay at crease.

I am Very Very Sorry, but Sir, your time is up. Laxman lived constantly under the fear of loosing his Test spot to Yuvraj when Ganguly was playing Tests. Since Ganguly called it a day 3 years ago, India have tried Yuvraj, Pujara, Raina and now Kohli for the 6th batting spot. And no one of them could cement his place. Though each of them gave few brilliant knocks, they were inconsistent. I must say, Pujara is unlucky, as he did not get as many chances as a Raina or a Kohli got. As a result of all these "trials and errors", Laxman was spared for these 3 years. He played some Special VVS signature innings in between as well. But Indian Team management, which will look into the future once last Test gets over, will ask Laxman to get retired and take pride OR get dropped and take humiliation in the end. I wish and hope Laxman chooses the path with respect for himself.

Picture summarizing Indian batting's poor show!

And finally, MS Dhoni. Well, the man who said to have Midas touch and magic wand, the man who won all the three formats for India and gave Indian Cricket the glory which no one has given before, seems to have lost his charm. It seems Dhoni had those special powers whose expiry date was 2nd April 2011. Since India have won the world cup, they have failed to win on any significant tour. Dhoni's poor batting form in Tests is now reflecting in his captaincy and post match chats. He is not the old aggressive yet cool captain anymore. His jokes in post match chat do not bring LOLs but are more of a pity on himself and his team. Even color of his hair is rapidly turning grey! Adding insult to the injury, Dhoni is banned for slow over rate! (Surprising, Dhoni would say, my team finished match in 2.5 days, why punish for slow over rate!!) Dhoni, as hinted by him, may opt out of Tests by end of 2013. He must make sure that the transition of captaincy, wicket-keeper will be smooth. And there are no last minute adjustments team has to suffer. But till 2013, he must improve his batting in Tests. He is best when he plays aggressively.

The 3rd row in above table stating record of R Ashwin is very nice if we consider it as a number 8 batman's stats only. But when we go down the list, we see our openers and top ranked batters have poor averages and number of runs than a 8 numbered batsman. It's pride for Ashwin and shame for names below him!

Bowling: Surprising Performance

As mentioned in my earlier post, at start of series, Indian bowling department was considered weaker to the batting. But on field, except for Sydney test, bowlers have performed reasonably well. They were able to take wickets, at least. Zaheer and Umesh Yadav bowled very well. But to put pressure on opponent, a team must have 3 performing bowlers. India lacked that 3rd performing seam bowler. Indian fans must be hoping Ishant gets back into form very soon.

Australia:
Sometimes your opponent plays so well and outshine you that you are left with no option but to acknowledge their superiority. Australians gave India chances at times, by collapsing a few times, but their bowling and fielding counter balanced relatively under-performance of their batting unit. At the start of series, it was dubbed as India's best chance to win in Australia, but half way down the series, it seems, it is Australia's best chance to get back on track on path to the glory! Congrats Aussie Team for the Victory. You deserve it!

While Indian team is ending 5 days test matches in 4 days or 3 days, i wonder if this culture is implemented in corporate world. Instead of '5 working days a week' they should have 4 or even 2.5 working days a week! ;) Sarcastic, you know!

India vs Australia Boxing Day test match

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sun, 1 Jan 2012 16:37:00 +0530

When India and Australia meet down under, one can rest assured that it's gonna be mouth-watering cricket. The boxing day test match between India and Australia was a perfect showpiece of how interesting test matches can get. The balance of pendulum kept swinging in the direction of both teams - almost every day. On first day, both teams looked balanced, on second day, India looked on top with firm grip on match. At the stumps of very next day, again Australia had slight edge with respectable lead but India also in well within game. On stumps of 3rd day, Indian media almost declared that Indian team will give a good news on 4th day. But on contrary, 4th day ended with result in favor of Australia. The series which has been named as 'Agneepath' series (road filled with fire) in sensational promotional videos, is indeed Agneepath for both the teams.

Indian team has now lost 5th consecutive abroad test match. Has failed to cross 300 runs mark in last 9 innings. Though there were some brilliant individual performances, big guns have failed to perform when it mattered the most. And, Sachin again 'failed' to fulfill dreams of over a billion people by not scoring 100th 100.

Sometimes while appearing for exam, one feels that he is weak in certain area and when exam actually begins, he performs exceptionally well in that area and he fails to deliver in area where he was supposed to perform the best. The same thing happened with Indian team.

Bowling looked weak at start of series. But bowling department, especially Zaheer and Umesh performed really well. Umesh impressed with his pace and maturity while Zaheer took wickets each time when MS Dhoni handed the ball to him. Bowlers, as a department, performed very nice. But it was the batting department which performed miserably. They let down Indian show overall. It is sad to see Gambhir, Virat, MS Dhoni failing consistently in tests. While big 3 of Indian middle order- Sachin, Rahul, VVS are on the sunsets of their career, the young batmen have to perform so that they can make the transition possible and smooth. Rohit Sharma is on bench is a good thing for Indian selectors as he will put pressure on Virat in a good way.

Indian team has to understand that they need to perform well as a unit. Only then, they can think of winning in overseas conditions. Young batsman have to take responsibility, bowlers have to deliver consistently so that batsman are not under constant pressure. And MS Dhoni must become a little aggressive while on field and his strategies. Experienced Sachin, Rahul, Zaheer need to guide Dhoni and need to give inputs whenever Dhoni seems under pressure.

In the end, though Australian team looks young and under rebuilding phase, they have proved that they have enough force to stop the star- studded Indian team. So as a Cricket Lover, we can expect that this series will be a close contest between two great rivals and also the best example of intensified test cricket - to shut the mouth of test cricket critics. There are still some spicy subjects like Ponting's form, Clarke's captainship, but that, we will talk in next post. By the way, what's you prediction? Australia 2 - 1?

Cricket Rules - dimensions of ground

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 16:35:00 +0530

Highest individual scores in ODIs

Above list of 13 highest top scorers in ODI format is quite interesting one. It has great batsmen, tremendous strike rates, involvement of test playing nations (well, almost). And now, gradually, shift your attention to the right most column-‘Ground’. What do you see? 9 out of 13 scores are in Indian subcontinent - 5 out of those 9 are in India itself! Now, what does that mean? What triggers batsmen so much that they love to score such big scores in Indian subcontinent?

Few reasons:-

Subcontinent pitches are flat – batsman friendly
No much movement either through seam or swing for fast bowlers
List includes majority of players playing in known home conditions
Batsmen are just too great – it’s obvious they scored these big scorers

All the above points can be arguably agreed upon. Thought, there is one more point which I want to discuss is size of ‘Grounds’. As you know, most of subcontinent grounds are smaller as compared to the grounds in England, South Africa. Grounds in Australia, I believe, are largest. Now this certainly brings one question in my mind. Why there is difference in dimensions of cricket grounds across the world? And what guideline has ICC/ MCC set for dimensions of cricket ground?

Here it goes:

“Law 19.1 - The boundaries of the field of play

The following shall apply in addition to law 19.1:

The playing area shall be a minimum of 150 yards (137.16 metres) from boundary to boundary square of the pitch, with the shorter of the two square boundaries being a minimum 65 yards (59.43 metres). The straight boundary at both ends of the pitch shall be a minimum of 70 yards (64.00 metres). Distances shall be measured from the centre of the pitch to be used. In all cases the aim shall be to provide the largest playing area, subject to no boundary exceeding 90 yards (82.29 meters) from the centre of the pitch to be used....”

This means, grounds can have square sides starting from 65 yards to 90 yards. Straight boundaries can be anything between 70 yards to 90 yards.

Why is this non uniformity? I understand in today’s schedules, number of international/ domestic matches are being played on the same ground. Hence we need different pitches on the same ground to play different matches. Hence, there is no fixed centre point of pitch. And therefore, we need to give enough room on both sides (65-85 yards/ 70-90 yards). Which ultimately makes ground dimensions non uniform - with one of the edges of boundary remaining closer than the diametrically opposite one, from center of pitch.

But, frankly, is it such a big task to keep playing pitch exactly at center? While constructing/ reconstructing the ground, it can be predetermined how many main playing pitches will be there. Accordingly, on all sides, required space can be left, so that whichever pitch is used, the ground outer dimensions will be same by adjusting outer boundaries.

The current rule allows difference in boundary dimensions of same ground and also difference in two separate grounds. This affects the totals scored by countries, individual scores, number of boundaries, sixes; even number of 2s and 3s. So, a shot played in India which fetches 4 for a batman can fetch just 3 in Australia- that too by running hard. An over the top six in Pakistan can be an easy catch in the hands of a boundary line fielder in South Africa. Smaller ground are in many ways, batsman friendly and nightmare for bowlers, while bigger grounds are tougher for batsmen, fielders but not so for bowlers. Making dimensions universal will standardize the game.

Cricket is now established game. It should have universal dimensions for grounds across the globe. One can argue, Sehwag’s 219 in India could just have been 190 in Australia. Or 350 in Australia could be 400 in India. For comparing scores and stats of different venues, we must have same set of parameters, measurement tools; otherwise those comparisons become a little unrealistic! Finally, have you ever heard that goalposts in Brazil are bigger in size than goalposts in Germany or the corner point of right side is closer to goalpost than that of left?

Virender Sehwag Double Century

noreply@blogger.com (Cricket Lovers') — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:46:00 +0530

Ever since Sehwag stared opening the innings in ODI matches, we looked at him as potentially the only Indian to score double ton in ODI for India. He did it. But it wasn't as much a surprise for me that Sehwag did it, the only surprise was that he was the second Indian (and in World too) to do it! In a way this was a much expected record from him.

Though I was lucky enough to view 'the shot' that made Sehwag's score read 201*, I was not fortunate enough to see the entire innings. Hence followed the score on the internet. There were few instances when I did not look the score for 8- 12 minutes and suddenly, Sehwag had added 15- 20 runs to his account. Such was the pace and strike rate of his innings that it was just impossible to stop him.

Below is the interesting stats of the highest individual score in an ODI innings broken and held so far.

Player	Runs	Mins	Balls	4s	6s	Team	Opposition	Ground	Match Date	ODI #
JH Edrich	82	150	119	4	0	England	v Australia	Melbourne	5 Jan 1971	ODI # 1
DL Amiss	103	161	134	9	0	England	v Australia	Manchester	24 Aug 1972	ODI # 2
RC Fredericks	105	-	122	10	1	West Indies	v England	The Oval	7 Sep 1973	ODI # 9
D Lloyd	116*	-	159	8	1	England	v Pakistan	Nottingham	31 Aug 1974	ODI # 14
GM Turner	171*	190	201	16	2	New Zealand	v East Africa	Birmingham	7 Jun 1975	ODI # 20
N Kapil Dev	175*	-	138	16	6	India	v Zimbabwe	Tunbridge Wells	18 Jun 1983	ODI # 216
IVA Richards	189*	-	170	21	5	West Indies	v England	Manchester	31 May 1984	ODI # 264
Saeed Anwar	194	206	146	22	5	Pakistan	v India	Chennai	21 May 1997	ODI # 1209
CK Coventry	194*	191	156	16	7	Zimbabwe	v Bangladesh	Bulawayo	16 Aug 2009	ODI # 2873
SR Tendulkar	200*	226	147	25	3	India	v South Africa	Gwalior	24 Feb 2010	ODI # 2962
V Sehwag	219	-	149	25	7	India	v West Indies	Indore	8 Dec 2011	ODI # 3223

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The biggest threat to the record of Sehwag is from Sehwag, himself!

This post also marks Cricket Lovers' come back to the blogging. As of now, enjoy Sehwag's innings, and wait for the boxing day, down under!

Stats Source: Cricinfo.com