Who said golf was hard?  Well, pretty much everyone who has ever played the game, that’s who.  And undoubtedly the greatest single achievement for the casual golfer has to be the hole-in-one.  Most players go their entire golfing life without scoring an ace, and those that are lucky enough to attain that most difficult of scores can remember every minute detail of the shot (I made mine in a tournament, on the sixth hole, 9-iron, landed right of the green, kicked left, rolled in the side of the hole).  So, if one ace in a round is tough, the odds …read more

Cricinfo Said:

The BCCI is unlikely to support any stringent action against Zimbabwe at the ICC’s annual meeting in Dubai next week, a top Indian board official has indicated.

This is regarding expulsion of the Zimbabwe cricket team. The Indian Cricket Setup has been known for ages as the perennial peer-helpers. The Indian Cricket Team toured Sri Lanka, South Africa and Bangladesh when they started or restarted their test journey.
So now, when the entire world (read England and South Africa) wants Zimbabwe to be kicked out of the ICC because they have a dictator who means no good (according to England and …read more

Being a cricket blogger, you HAVE to give precedence to International Cricket. Which is becoming quite a cumbersome process as the IPL can’t have enough of me. But as Mr Adams would say:
Ain’t no use in ComplainingWhen You Got a Job to do!

So let me shoot away. I did see a lot of the first day’s play between England and New Zealand at Lords. Sidebottom looked sharp. I sometimes get the feeling England look a much better team when they are not playing India these days. Anyway’s, the new ball attack which the whiter shirts (England) dished out almost buried …read more

Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire who has proposed a US$20 million winner-takes-all contest between England and a West Indies XI, could be prepared to bankroll an English version of the Indian Premier League, but only if the England & Wales Cricket Board can guarantee him a return on his investment.
Sounds good. Would be great if there is stiff competition between the EPL and the IPL and ahem, the ICL about which player goes where. By the way, a little birdie tells me that Mr Stanford has plans to go against the IPL big time. The smile in his face …read more

Day 2, 3rd Test, India vs England, The Oval
England got pounded in to the ground by a rampaging Indian batting attack, that kept going all the way down to number 11. The highlight of the day was the maiden test century, after 118 matches, for Anil Kumble, scoring a delightful 110* to give India a massive 664. Any hopes that England might have had of levelling the series with a win here have been totally dashed and sadly it’s now a case of doing their best to avoid 2-0. That means England must bat for 3 days, a feat that …read more

This is typical of the way the British mentality – and specifically the British media mentality – works. On the 1st day of the final test between England and India, India geared themselves up to give England a proper trouncing and in so-doing hand them their first series loss on home soil in some record-breaking amount of time. But read the news and watch the coverage of the day and you can’t go anywhere without hearing someone sticking it directly in Matt Prior’s neck.
Matt Prior dropped Sachin Tendulkar on 20, missing a catch away to his right. Tendulkar is …read more

Ashley Giles has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket with immediate effect, citing the recurrent hip injury as the principle reason. The highpoint of Giles’ career was being a member of the England squad to regain the Ashes in 2005, playing a crucial role in a stand with Kevin Pietersen in the final, series-sealing, match at the Oval.
Giles was an oft-lambasted cricketer, especially in the follow-up Ashes series, where Fletcher preferred him over Monty Panesar in the opening couple of games of the series, which sealed England’s 5-nil Ashes-losing whitewash. Criticism of “Gilo” was arguably unfair, considering that …read more

Tempers flared and players from both sides lost control in the 2nd test between India and England at Trent Bridge. Sree Santh has already been fined half his match fee for shoulder barging Michael Vaughan and has also accused of deliberately bowling beamers and no-balls during his spell.
Elsewhere, some serious argy-bargy occurred between Kevien Pietersen and Zaheer Khan, after Khan noticed jelly beans appearing on the pitch whilst he was batting. Having cleared one off the pitch, more turned up, convincing him it wasn’t an accident. He then gestured toward KP, raising his bat in protest. KP didn’t back down …read more

2nd Test match, India vs England, Trent Bridge
Fickle weather in England looks set to completely disrupt the 2nd test between England and India. Day 1 didn’t get underway until 1500 and by close of play, England had managed to lose 7 wickets for a mere 170 rus. The Indian bowling was of a reasonable standard with a handful of unplayable deliveries, but really, the day was characterised by most batsmen getting a start but lacking the concentration and application needed to go and get a big score. Day 2 is likely to be disrupted similarly, with more rain forecast (not …read more

Marcus Trescothick announced today that he won’t take part in any England duty for the timebeing, ruling himself out of the Twenty20 World Cup and the Winter tours to New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Despite being in good form for Somerset, he expressed his concerns at playing for England and wanted to be sure that he was completely over his stress-related illness before playing again.
Quite right too. There’s been so much fuss over the team recently and we’re finally getting some stability. Peter Moores is doing a good job at the top. Micheal Vaughan seems to be over the …read more