Someone was brave enough, maybe his relative, asked Mr. Bigmoneyford the reason for such extravagance, and the reply was (no matter how much he wanted to say that it was his wife’s wish in bed):

“It breaks my heart to see us at the bottom. I want to take West Indies cricket from the bottom to the top where it belongs.

“The Stanford 20/20 for 20 will be a highly anticipated event, not just because of the prize money, but because of the traditional friendly rivalry that exists between England and the West Indies.”

As Geoffery Boycott would say, “ma grandMUM can hit this with ‘er stick ‘o Rubab”; Mrs. Boycott, could you please wield that massive alchemical stick o’ rubab and smack Stanford’s head with it! PLEASE, for chrissake!

If you have this much of cash leaking out of your safe, then please open thousands of cricket academies all over the Carribean. Maybe he is also doing that. Even then, this much money is not warranted at all, no matter how much Tim May wants to kill me right now.

Post from: EveryJoe

a 10 million pound cricket match – England vs Stanford Superstars

1. Sachin Tendulkar is still not playing
2. Shaun Marsh is a great find, but I think its too early to tell
3. MS Dhoni can lose in T20 (Aussies too would agree)
4. No Team is unbeaten now
5. No team is with zero wins
6. There is a three way tie at the top, with Delhi, Rajasthan and Chennai all on 8 points
7. All the matches are running in Packed Stadia
8. IPL can now be declared a success
9. Some Controversies : Slapgate, Cheatgate
10. Team sixandout supports: still KKR

Later

Post from: EveryJoe

IPL Buzz : Some things I noticed

During the game, there was a moment when Saurav Ganguly (48* then) lofted a ball straight to Greame Smith at deep mid wicket who took a lowly catch. As the Royals celebrated, Ganguly stood his ground and asked, I repeat asked the umpire to refer in upstairs. And ‘upstairs’ said : Not Out. Poetic justice was delivered when he got out three runs later. Huh!

Finally, congratulations to Warnie and the Royals for their fourth successive win. Faith be wit Ganguly and the Night Riders. Or was that Knight. Who Cares? You do? I don’t.

Laters

Photo Credit: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

SRK Gifts, Rajasthan Wins, Ganguly Cheats!

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

I had been bickering for quite some time that I am going to write about it, as it should be written about of course. So, here it is. As the tournament is over, this would obviously act as a review post.

The teams:

1. Cobras
2. Dolphins
3. Eagles
4. Warriors
5. Lions
6. Titans
7. Zimbabwe

The prize:

R500 000-00 (about $65,446.37 right now)

The Winner:

The Nashua Titans

I just saw the Final as the other matches were not telecast in India (see, I told ya so)…. From what I saw, a lot could not be said about the popularity (though the web site claims that it was their most successful league ever. Dale Steyn shone in the final, making sure that his team won. My sincere apologies for not following this league closely, but after joining sixandout, the IPL hit me….or I hit it…whatever… I would make up for it by following it the next season for sure and yeah, proclaim on live web 2.0 that “Polly was the King”.

Till then, let’s focus on the IPL. Just to let everyone know: Gilly has just scored a 43 ball 100….

Later

Photo Credit : Flickr

Post from: EveryJoe

Standard Bank Pro20 : The Titans win it

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

1. Afridi had a go at Warnie, Warnie said something like : “Grow up, mate”
2. Tendulkar’s Birthday had the crowd more excited than their home team Deccan Chargers
3. Deccan Chargers continued their bad form. Having arguably the best team on paper, they have lost 3 out of three now.
4. Warnie won the game for the ROYALS, with the bat!
5. Warnie hit about 15 off the last over, bowled by Roy Symonds

That’s about it. This post was a tribute to one of the most exciting IPL matches I have seen.

Laters

Post from: EveryJoe

Experience is what counts, mate!

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 tells you that this man gets what he wants. Who would like to give away 2o million dollars to the winner of one match? But then, these business people have a knack of defying cricket bloggers.

Laters

Photo Credit: Caribbean 360

Post from: EveryJoe

Texan Billionaire gets spending, wants to run Cricket’s EPL

Runs : 94
Balls : 41
Fours : 10
Sixes : 6

Poor old Andrew Symonds went for 30 in an over. This was certainly SOME innings. I beg your pardon if I am not articulate enough. Its just that….well….I am excited. The IPL has just begun.

Laters

Post from: EveryJoe

Viru You Little Beauty!

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