SS Das : Debuted in Dhaka; Career Matches played : 23 Tests; Status : Career almost over

Saba Karim : Debuted in Dhaka; Career Matches Played : 1 Test; Status : Unhappily Retired and is now seen on TV as a wannabe presenter

Hemang Badani : ODI Debut in Dhaka; Matches Played : 40 ODIs; Status : ICL

Aavishkar Salvi : ODI Debut in Dhaka; Matches Played : 4 ODIs; Status : Aavishkar Salvi Who?

Amit Bhandari : ODI Debut in Dhaka; Matches Played : 2 ODIs; Status : Delhi Ranji Player, career almost done and dusted

Gautam Gambhir : Debut in Dhaka; 5 years on the circuit and has just played 47 ODIs

Strange indeed.

All I can say is : Best of Luck Pragyan Ojha, Yusuf Pathan and MS Goni…..hope the jinx doesn’t catch up on you.

Image : Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Unlucky Indian Cricketers making their debut in Bangladesh

Though it seems that his career is finally over, you never know with the Pakistan Cricket Board, given the past incidents, and more

What I wanted to talk about is the dramatic way in which the incidents have panned out. Though being nothing new, it sure is surprising. It all started with Shoaib being bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for a huge sum of money. Then he being banned for 5 years for reasons where we are not going right now (he hit a teammate). Then he goes in the press saying that Mr Naseem Ashraf, the Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board vindicated him because he refused to pay him a share of his IPL moolah. Then there is talk of Mr Ashraf suing Akhtar on grounds of defamation.

Meanwhile, the IPL says that it won’t play a banned player. Too Bad. PCB reverts, the ban is on hold for one month. Now, suddenly, the lawsuit has also been taken back. Strange. Maybe Mr Akhtar has realised that paying a part of the earnings is the only way out. Or so it seems.

This is just an opinion. There are many. What do you think?

Photo: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

The latest on Shoaib Akhtar! Something Fishy!

We start with Mr. Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders. Apart from owning the IPL Team, SRK is arguably the biggest star of the Indian Film Industry.

In India, he is referred to as King Khan, and for reasons which are not fallacious at all. This guy has got this charisma, this ‘People’ thing. He knows how to catch the pulse of the audience. Be it coming to the Knight Rider matches and hugging each player to dancing and jumping in joy when they do well. Compare that to the other owners of the IPL teams, and they are closer to stationary blots. With his team doing reasonably well in the inaugural IPL, he has reasons to cheer. He once said that he has spent a lot of his money for this venture, and is at a point of no return. Though not the richest of all IPL owners, he is undoubtedly the most popular and stylish.

Some Stats:

Age : 44
Team : Kolkata Knight Riders
Net Worth : $1.2 Million (approximate) (pays a lot of taxes, though!)
Bought Team for : $950,000
Alternate Occupation : Actor (Superstar)
Co-Owners : Juhi Chawla, Jay Mehta

(All figures are in USD)

Next Team : Kings XI Punjab (owned by Preity Zinta)

Laters

Photo Credit: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Owners of IPL : Shah Rukh Khan

Having guest blogged here before, the look and the feel of this blog was not new to me. It always inspired me. It was popular! I used to say to myself: “See, This is where you have to end up. Something similar at least!.” Now that I am here, its time to redefine the goals. By the way, the heading for this post is not about me. Its about the Indian Premier League (IPL).

I always wanted to start with something I feel very strongly about. Being an Indian, knowing a bit about Premier level cricket and loving the concept of a new League, it wasn’t too tough to get involved. The concept of Inter-City Cricket which has basic minimum level of rivalry or intensity could only be dreamt about here till recently. No one gave a fig to any sort of cricket unless it was International.

Suddenly, a cricket board realised that it was getting richer. That it could still get richer. Hence, they came up with the IPL idea. Have billionaires buy teams for millions and then let them run it. And still get a cut of the revenues. Nice idea indeed. The Inaugural IPL begins from the 18th of April. That’s about 2 days from now. I can feel the hype surrounding it. Hope the matches don’t let me down. Sometimes I feel me in b5 and IPL in Cricket are similar. Firm Beginnings, High Hopes. Laters.

Photo Courtesy: iplinfo

Post from: EveryJoe

Firm Beginnings, High Hopes

Of course, I am not bringing fundamentally new insights to your notice, but the thing is: things like this get me thinking. (In fact, these thought patterns have altruistic origins. And for modesty’s sake, I am not disclosing them.) I have lots and lots of questions. And it will take a hundred posts to deal with the whole thing, but rather than make one long post, I am going to deal with this in installments. So let’s first consider the impact of personal life on form, since this is something which is most often blamed to ruin a player’s performance.

I have asked a few guys out who swear to play regularly, and play serious cricket.

Q # 1. When you lose your form (batting or bowling), do you think it has anything to do with your personal life? Like, I tend to be distracted from studying when under negative stress generated by a personal problem. Put another way, does the emotional state of affairs in your life affect your performance?

Ankit aka Behind the Wicket says:

Yes, but not to an extent that it hampers your ability. When you play a game, you may be bogged down by a lot of external factors, and you may be thinking about them when you bat, but your judgment of which ball to hit and how to play is not affected…so batting form can only be mildly affected by external factors. Mind you, when it is not your day, these things can spell doomsday, you may get out due to the ‘mild’ change in your technique…

While keeping, it does affect you more as you have to concentrate a lot more and minor changes in your psyche can affect your skills...

Ravi says: From a bowler’s point of view: Nothing really affects the performance except the weather, i.e., wet outfield!

And here’s Ravi’s reasoning on why he has a point-sharp focus:

Whatever happens off-field doesn’t affect at all! I guess the reason for that might be because we’re meant to have fun in the weekend cricket while trying the best for the team to top the district chart!! So, we put everything aside and concentrate on the game, i.e., play without worrying about anything else!

Alex’s take:

I played for 5 years (indoor cricket) and never found personal life to affect my performance. Maybe as the intensity is so high and as you are constantly involved in the game it makes it hard for external factors to affect you. However it may affect you just before the start of the game but by the time you are warming up that’s the last thing on your mind. So I guess the answer is yes you can bring external factors with you to the game but its forgotten pretty quickly.

A-It might have a role to play at the highest professional level,since there s so much media scrutiny in the lives of international players that can exaggerate a normal problem thousandfolds.But at an amateure level or for a common man,the stress,even if there is any, is nowhere near what the professionals ave to cope up with.

Personally speaking,for me,the game has always been a genuine stressbuster.On the arre occasion that I’v entered the ground in a not so jolly mood,I’v used the game as my personal punching bag.Cricket has been one thing in which I’v been able to lose myself completely.Once on the field,I am ‘there’..ABSOLUTELY 100%.The game’s charm renders me incapable of thinking about anything other than the game at hand.

Thinking on this topic from a non personal point of view, I feel that ‘IT’ is a very ‘relative’ concept.It varies from one individual to another.Some might get bogged down by the stress from personal life while others use the situation as a kinda punching bag to come up with even better performances than their average ones, while under pressure.

(Hi Jodie! *waves hand* Sorry, if it’s all going over your head.) [snarky smirk]

A big thanks to all who shared their insights.

Alex came close, I think. I have, however, got a scienterriffic (sp?) explanation for why most men don’t get distracted. (This won’t solve the “form” enigma, but I thought it deserves mention.)

Here’s the deal:

Corpus callosum is a thick rod-like structure in the brain that connects the left-brain and the right brain hemispheres. It’s function essentially is to ensure proper co-ordination between the two sides. For bio buffs: We would call it “maintaining equilibrium between the two hemispheres.” Not goint too deep into the neurobio, personal life is mostly right-brain and cricket intelligence pretty much resides in the left brain. Of course, everything requires at least some part of both the sides, but you get what I mean. It’s thinner in men, the callosum. And that’s that. The male brain is more compartmentalized and that’s why personal life doesn’t create probs. Elaboring on that: women mess things up big time. We know that.

{A male friend at Michigan State Univesity said in response to this explanation: “Wow, then I must be a woman in disguise.”} This is only a generalization, and behavior varies from person to person (like Alex said).

To explore male-female brain differences, please refer to: The Female Brain by LouAnn Brizendine and Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps by Allan and Barbara Pease [Alert: At least one fact in each of these books has been refuted by recent clinical trials. Mehl et. al. found that men don't usually speak less than women (Brizendine's claim). ]

So, there goes out my question to you all.

I welcome (read: beg) your opinions, insights, theories on this. The more pros I hear back from, the better. Wow, I might even get a Ph. D. on this.

Photo Courtesy: Nottingham Cricket Council

Post from: EveryJoe

Take -Off: Brain- Science of Cricket: Why do cricketers lose form?