If you don’t have a clue what I am talking about, read this

The IPL jurisdiction committee sat and decided that Harbhajan should get a 11 match ban from IPL and 100% Match Fees fine. Mind you, this is just the punishment from the IPL committee. The BCCI is planning for more stick as it has appointed an independent (LOL) committee.

Some journalists feel that BCCI is trying to make an example out of him, trying to make him the RIO FERDINAND of cricket.

Sreesanth too has got a reprimand for being a crybaby. Mr Lalchand Rajput, the manager of MUMBAI INDIANS (Harbhajan’s Team) has got a 50% Match fees fine for aiding a culprit or whatever. Seems like the plot of a John Grisham Original.

Later

Post from: EveryJoe

Harbhajan Slaps Sreesanth : An Update

There are a lot of incidents in life which one feels should not have happened. Being slapped by a senior in your cricket team is one of the worst. Having played (and still playing) some sort of cricket myself, I can at least try to understand the agony that Shantakumaran Sreesanth must have felt when he was slapped by Harbhajan Singh. According to most sources, after the match (which the Kings finally won), Sree (Kings) went over to Harbhajan (Indians) and said, and I quote: “Hard Luck, mate.” The next moment, Sreesanth was in tears. LITERALLY, and that too in front of a few billion international viewers. He looked totally inconsolable.

Sreesanth Inconsolable

Let’s tone down the melodrama and focus a bit on the psychology here. Dinnie, I know it’s your territory but I can’t help but dwell on it now. Harbhajan has always had his run-ins with the law. Right from his dislike for the National Cricket Academy food in his teens, to his possession of stinking shoes in New Zealand, to his ‘polite’ altercations with Hayden and Symonds, he has always been the talking point when it comes to the rule stretchers of Indian Cricket. What I feel about human psychology is that it follows the cause-effect principle. Everything has a reason. Digging into Harbhajan, you would find that he alone supports nine people in his family. His dad passed away when his place in the Indian Team was not even certain. He has been through a lot, and a bit of impatience usually comes with it.

Coming back to Sreesanth, he too has been the eye-candy for match referees throughout his young career. His actions mostly smell of aggression, stinking on the side of immaturity most of the times. The romantics in India certainly appreciate that, but then, what is immature is IMMATURE. When a known aggressor is the captain of a team which has just lost the third match in a row, only an immature personality can go up to him and say things Sree said. Harbhajan retort was acceptable, maybe not the manner in which he dished it out. A smart word should have sufficed. Sometimes it feels that we as cricket observers should try to find out who was right and who was wrong in every on and off field incident. We do this, knowing pretty well than nothing is RIGHT or WRONG, it just happens. You can analyze it as much as you may; the truth is that there is no truth. Everything is just an interpretation. Best of Luck, Harbhajan and HARD LUCK, Sreesanth

Video Credit : Youtube

Post from: EveryJoe

Harbhajan Slaps Sreesanth

Brett Lee says the two teams get on well. Do they, now?

They won’t, after this.

Matty Hayden has called Harbhajan Singh an obnoxious little weed. We’re no Harbhajan supporters, but then we don’t like obnoxious gardening metaphors much, too.

So what’s Matty Hayden like? I think he’s like the obnoxious parasitic Venus Fly Trap.

Bring it on.

Post from: EveryJoe

Quirky Quip: Harbhajan is an obnoxious weed, says Matty Hayden

I don’t mind when people boo me. The more they do it, the more I’m going to play hard. Actually, it gives me pleasure that everyone knows me at the ground. It inspires me to do well.

                                                                                           – Harbhajan Singh
Source

That’s very brave of you, Haar-bhajan. Booing inspires you to do well. Does it inspire you to do well against Australia only? Doesn’t it inspire you to play well against other countries, say, Sri Lanka?

Anyway, are these men your friends, Bhajji? They’re quite brave, too.

Watch Harbhajan Singh dance.

Post from: EveryJoe

Harbhajan Singh is (Not Quite) Brave.

So the Australian Open finished off with the results I had predicted in this post. Masha, aka, Maria Sharapova sailed through to the trophy. As I said, nobody in the tournament weiled the kind of power she did, and on the men’s side, Djoker, aka, Novak Djokovic, got the better of suprise finalist Tsonga. We had been pretty much hooked to the tournament, so much so that we missed out on a lot of cricket. With the Commenwealth Bank Series on, we’re back to bats and balls.

Anyway, lots of things happened during the Border-Gavaskar Series, and some of it wasn’t pleasant. And it lead me to compare a few aspects of our favorite game to tennis. There are quite a few things ICC, the various local cricket authorities, and the players can learn from racquets and balls.

* Off-season: We’re a big fan of this one. There was next to no tennis in November and December. This time of the year is off-season for the game. After the US Open, the number of tournaments declines sharply and by the time it’s November, the tennis world is alreading on vocation. The tennis season, after this temporary halt, unofficially kicks off in January with the tournaments building up to the Australian Open. The players and viewers get back to the game with revived enthusiasm. Cricket is played all the year round with no break in between. There are obvious downsides to this, but they deserve a post of their own.

*Mutual Respect: Respect for opponents is something that has been missing in the game recently. Everyone saw what happened between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds, how Ricky Ponting and other players on the Australian side took to swords. That was the on-field story, but the trend of psychological war of words off the field is worth a mention, too. There is nothing seriously wrong with trying to bring down the morale of the opponent, but look at the tennis players. At pre-match conferences, they’re not telling us why their opponents suck or why they have an edge over them, but why that opponent will be difficult to win over. There’s a sense of respect for the opponents, both on and off the court.

* Women are powerful: Tennis’s popularity today is largely due to the women’s tennis. What if women’s cricket was given equal importance as the men’s cricket? First off, it would encourage women to take it up as a career, and second, it would help the game get female readership. You can’t match the glamour of miniskirts and spaghetti tops with trousers and half-sleeved tee-shirts, but women’s cricket is worth giving a try. The most popular and rich sports have all progressive women’s circuits as well– golf and football being two examples.

* Integrative training: Cricket is both physically and mentally exhausting. Shaun Tait proves that. Besides the usual training, there should be some yoga, pilates, etc. Ingtegrative training is big in tennis. Maria Sharapova spends two hours after every match with her trainer who does acupressure and allied stuff.

Obviously, there are lots of things tennis can learn from cricket, but that’s outside the scope of this talk.

Fan Question: What other sports do you think cricket can learn from?

Post from: EveryJoe

What Cricket Can Learn From Tennis?

Not much happened in the Commonwealth Bank Series start-up match, but surprisingly, we’ve quite a few things to chirp about it.

Three Moments of the Match (in ascending order):

* Sachin’s dismissal: Hit wicket is a rare form of dismissal, and it was Sachin’s first, so that makes it quite special. The bowler didn’t knew he was out until a few seconds after the stumps were hit.

* Adam Gilchrist’s intuition: Gilly could have waited on to get the umpire’s benefit of doubt but chose to walk away instead. Sreesanth was never sure, and neither was anyone else on the fielding side, but Gilly was. Cool. We’ve got say Adam Gilchrist is one of the most intuitive cricketers out there. He’s walked away once before during the 2003 World Cup.

* Harbhajan Singh and the crowd exchange: Now, Bhajji, as we lovingly call him, is becoming a showman of sorts of Indian cricket. He pretended he couldn’t hear what the audience said, and it was quite well acted out.

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Manoj Tiwary: It’s a very awkward way to spell that surname. We hope, being the evolutionists we are, that spelling wasn’t screwed at the suggestion of an astrologer. Anyway, lots of people inquired of Dhoni’s intention behind giving him preference over Suresh Raina and Dinesh Kaarthik. Dhoni’s reply: “My inner voice prompted me to call him in.” You mean intuition, right? No problem at all. Manoj is a promising young cricketer who had a splendid run in the domestic circuit. We really appreciate Dhoni’s risk-taking ability.

Personally for me, Sreesanth’s two wickets were quite important. That’s good omen for the Indian bowling. Moreover, if he keeps clicking, he could validate his aggression on field. That’s not to say he’ll be allowed to mouth profanity or racial slur of any nature.

–

So, does the title of this post make you hate us? Don’t shy away. Tell us what you really think!

Post from: EveryJoe

The Real Cricket Begins Now…

News is that umpire Steve Bucknor won’t officiate at Perth, which means Billy Bowden will be replacing him. And there’s another news that Harbhajan Singh’s ban has been suspended following BCCI’s appeal against the same, which means he can play the rest of the matches. Of course, the team management will decide if he’ll play or not.

Huh, well.

Coins: Actually, this move by the ICC just goes on to show that bucks matter a lot, even if they’ve sworn to the contrary:

the decision was made in the interests of giving the series a fresh start following instances of ill-feeling between the teams and some on-field umpiring errors that have been made in the series so far. It is also designed to create an environment whereby the match can be played without undue attention and added pressure being heaped on the match officials.

Conspiracy: This is the first time ICC has decided to sack an umpire on a team’s request. This shouldn’t have happened. Would FIFA remove a referee if one of the teams complained about them? It only shows ICC doesn’t know how to be in control of things.

(Indians: Consider this from a non-Indian’s perspective. You’ll get my point.)

Cricket: Thanks heaven, we’ll have some actual whacking bats around a cricket pitch. I wonder what BCCI would have done if Harbhajan hadn’t been provincially acquitted. Perth is a bouncy wicket, and it makes sense to play Yuvraj Singh. He deserves a few more chances. Sehwag, anyone? Why not allow Dhoni to let his locks down and enjoy the view from the pavilion instead for a while?

Don’t forget to check out Baseer’s post.

Post from: EveryJoe

Coins, Cricket, and Conspiracy

This is the first thing I read on logging in.

BCCI has asked the Indian team to stay in Sydney until the Harbhajan hearing, rather than travel to Perth for the the third test.

Under ICC rules, member countries are obliged to fulfil their tour contracts except when the security of the players is at risk or the touring team’s government orders that the tour should not proceed.

India could also be liable to reimburse Cricket Australia for any losses incurred.
Cricket Australia faced the possibility of a similar fine if it boycotted the tour of Zimbabwe last year.

However, there was another report this morning from Sydney Morning Herald confirming that India won’t pull out of the tour.

The Indian cricket team has confirmed it will not make the contentious move of pulling out of the Australian tour after their spinner Harbhajan Singh was slapped with a three-Test ban.

What the heck? You are confused again, Ozzies.

Post from: EveryJoe

Breaking News: BG Trophy in Danger

Journalists are quite fond of finding new angles to old, beaten-to-death topics. These so-called slants come in handy when you’ve few important things to report, or to be very, very concise, your team is slipping off the pedestal.

Andrew Stevenson, Sydney Morning Herald correspondent, alleges, based on his research from secondary (as opposed to primary and authorized) sources, that Indian cricket team’s selection is caste-based.

By chance or fate, he chose to visit the baby twice in Dr Purandare hospital noticing, to the horror of all on the second trip, that it wasn’t the same boy.

The tiny hole in the boy’s left ear – still visible today – was gone. A panicked search confirmed his judgement: the boy had been swapped with the son of a fisherwoman.

Gavaskar, from a proud, wealthy Brahmin family, the highest caste in the Hindu social order, had an uncle, Madhav Mantri, who played for India. It’s one of the great imponderables, a classic recasting of the nature-nurture divide to speculate whether Gavaskar, raised by a fisherwoman, could have played the game.

He might have had the eye and the dexterity to star in backstreet games, but would a fisherwoman’s son have played 125 Tests and scored 34 centuries? The chances may not have been great. The Brahmin caste, which forms only a tiny fraction of India’s population, has always dominated the national cricket side.

Don’t get me started on neuroscience. It’s my major. This is nature vs. nurture. Let’s leave it to the experts, Andrew.

“Why do their fielders not chase the ball to the boundary? Why do Indian batsmen rarely run for singles, apparently preferring to hit the ball to the fence or amble through for two runs in no obvious haste?” Anand wrote. “Having too many Brahmans means that you play the game a little too softly, and mostly for yourself.”

That sounds like some sort of conspiracy theory!

Despite his talents, Kambli was always booed and mocked at his home ground, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Observers believed it was because of the dark colour of his skin. Not so, says Kambli. “I think it’s because of my caste.”

“I think” signifies you are opining. Facts please?

SECOND TEST SIDE

Castes among the Indian team’s Hindus:
Brahmin
Anil Kumble
Rahul Dravid
VVS Laxman
Sachin Tendulkar
Sourav Ganguly
R.P. Singh
Ishant Sharma
Jat
Yuvraj Singh
Rajput
Mahendra Dhoni

Of the team’s non-Hindus, Wasim Jaffer is a Muslim and Harbhajan Singh a Sikh.

Ow. I never knew about players’ castes, really, except for Harbhajan and Zaheer’s, obviously.

This is just very, very disappointing reporting from Sydney Morning Herald. Does anyone here actually believe this baloney?

Photo Credit: SMH

Post from: EveryJoe

Caste Apart: Australian Media’s Soft Journalism

Daniel Vettori called Shaun Tait a chucker, and this gave everyone something to talk about. I find it funny how everyone devoted so much space to it. Why it’s everybody’s waste of time:

* Basically, what Vettori is trying to do is cut iron with iron. When a team is up against Oz, they want to get all macho and show them what stuff they’re made of.

* Vetorri just has no proof. Period. Funny again, how easy it is for people to sling mud at anyone else.

If you haven’t forgotten, Bishen Singh Bedi alleged that Harbhajan Singh is a chucker too. Someone said in rebuttal: for that, Bedi was something of a chucker too (it was John or Sam, I guess. Forgive me if not. I maybe dreaming)

You can’t call someone a chucker purely on the basis of naked eye observation. You need, ahem, a 3-D analysis of their deliveries. Not just that, you’ll need to be a biomechanic to be able to evaluate that 3-D analysis.

Another consideration: Lots of bowlers appear to have tainted actions, but it could be due to hypermobility or hyperextention in their joints.

Post from: EveryJoe

Before you call someone a chucker…