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 …read more

eat Cricket, drink Cricket, sleep Cricket
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.

eat Cricket, drink Cricket, sleep Cricket
We had some fun here amidst the umpiring row. I had a hunch this would be rather controversial so kept mum on it, but now I feel there’s nothing wrong or particularly racist about it, as some had suggested.
That is a lookalike of, hold your breath, Shantakumaran Sreesanth. Now, how many had got it right?

Murali’s 709th wicket

Yuvraj six straight sixes

A tribute to Bob Woolmer

Sourav’s comeback

Sreesanth-Roy head-to-head

Eat Cricket, Drink Cricket, Sleep Cricket
There were loads of good performances that we could applaud here, but when it comes to “making waves” these are the five events that I think qualify best.
The Return of Dada: After the World Cup debacle and the youngsters’ winning performance in T20, everyone was talking about culling the three Indian seniors. Ganguly was on the edge of everyone’s sword and we believed, even hoped, that he’d get the pink slip first. But that was just too much for the man who is worth 17000 runs in world cricket. “Don’t provoke the tiger,” he …read more

Pakistan skipper Malik feels that their win in the 5th ODI has “balanced” both the teams and raised his team’s confidence big time. We’ll know soon that he’s highly mistaken.
India called in the reserve bench on ocassion of the last trivial

Latest mouthing from Sreesanth:
I don’t care who the hell is batting against me. The only thing that matters is to run at him, bowl as fast as I can and to try and get him out.
I don’t care whether it is (Andrew) Symonds, (Matthew) Hayden or (Adam) Gilchirst or anybody else, I do not respect them on the field. I only respect my teammates.
I have always played cricket aggressively. This is my style.
All that’s pretty usual stuff. But the real shocker is that the guy has a degree in sports psychology!
Studying psychology has had its toll on him. Sorry for …read more

Following some of Sreesanth’s antics in the first two one-dayers, Warney was quoted as saying:
I don’t think anything was over the top, so I think it’s going to add a bit of spice to the summer.
and
Everyone’s going to be looking for Sreesanth to do his stuff and it shows with a bit of passion. I think it’s going to be good for the summer.
I thought ditto at first. It *is* fun. And verbal skirmishes are OK, but just have a look at how he flared up on getting Symonds out, and how he looked Clarke in the eye, and …read more

This space is meant for honoring the players who do well and bring good to the sport, but I am in no mood for honoring today, that’s fer sure.
Hero Turned Loser # 1 Andrew Symonds aka Roy:
The guy with the brown (or is it golden, or golden+brown, you better judge) streaks is one of the most active players on the field despite his size. He’s ran out more batsmen than I have seen any other player do. And I share Shakespeare’s philosophy:
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights:
Yond Cassius has a …read more

Mike Atherton has a piece today about how Sreesanth should be issued a ban for bowling a beamer at KP in the 2nd Test. His feeling is that the beamer was intentional.
Watch the video, and decide for yourself:

What do you think? I still believe, as I concluded at the time, that it genuinely slipped out. Unless Sree is a phenomenal actor, his apology seems real. KP is stunned, rightly, but it’s also clear that Vaughan wasn’t so sure it was an accident.
Compare the reactions of the commentators, though: Nasser Hussein (above), versus Mark Nicholas and Geoffrey Boycott (below), both …read more