Prominent bloggers (check our blog roll) also got a mention. Uncle J too! Still trying to figure out the meaning of “thems the rules, Uncle!”

here is a screenshot  for my keepsake:

Anyways, has been a long weekend. The IPL seems to be entering the business zone (not the money). Shoaib Akhtar is still not playing, but so is Kamran Akmal. But no one seems to care. Do you?

Post from: EveryJoe

Six and Out on the list of top 53 cricket blogs

Eat Cricket, Drink Cricket, Sleep Cricket

It’s official. Michael Clarke has become an issue of national importance for the Australian media. The players just don’t want to stop debating over him.

The best way to do this would be to elevate him to the vice-captaincy in all forms of the game.

–Shane Warne

I don’t necessarily agree with [Warne],” Ponting said in Adelaide. “I don’t think that needs to be the case right now. Gilly’s not going to play forever, we’re all not going to play forever, but Michael’s opportunity is going to come.”

It might not be right now, it might not be six months’ time, but that opportunity will come and he will step into the vice-captain’s role. Hopefully I can stay around for another few years and keep him out of my position for a bit longer.

– Ricky Ponting

Post from: EveryJoe

More Conflicting Tongue-Wagging on Clarke

India called in the reserve bench on ocassion of the last trivial ODI, and as was expected, they took it easy. A friendly Indo-Pak match. Here’s to world peace.

In retrospect, although India-Pakistan fixtures mean good business for all — advertisers, BCCI, players, Bollywood (how they flocked in to garner free publicity for their movies?), this one lacked spice; everyone complained of Pak’s seemingly lack of zest.

From India’s side, we’ve got few questions:

* What are we going to do about Sehwag?

Barring a few flashes in the pan at England, Sehwag hasn’t has much to offer all this while. He’s been India’s trump card for a long time, so the team went over lengths to give him cover. He failed to live up to their expectations, nevertheless. Considering how rare is his type of class and talent, what are we going to do about him now? Move him up to the opening slot again? Everyone’s not a Dravid, and some players work best at certain spots. Or “rest” him, to use BCCI’s terminology. He’s a player you don’t want to lose easily.

* What’s Robin Singh being paid for?

Rameez Raja, remarked candidly (and for the first time in his life, rightly), “India and Pakistan are two of the world’s worst fielding sides,” India’s fielding wasn’t awful, to be honest, and they certainly dropped fewer catches than Pakistan, but the gliding, sliding characteristic of white men (call me racist, will ya?) was missing. Their throws could be smoother, and their direct hits on the stumps didn’t produce as many run-outs. Robing Singh is on board as their fielding coach. Either his North American accent is unintelligible, or well, let’s just say, he isn’t doing the job as well, which is queer, since the man does have international coaching experience.

* Ganguly: Gone with the wind?

If India had lost the series, Ganguly’s form would have spurred debates like dal sprouts. No one’s complaining since it’s a series win. But just because it’s a series win, Ganguly’s form doesn’t become above reproach. He was “rested” for the last couple of matches, I assume. This is the right time to cull him. The kind of morbid look he has on his face these days doesn’t do anyone any good. A respectable man would “quit”.

*Should we let Sreesanth have his way?

No discussion is complete at SixandOut without the angry young man of Indian cricket. He and RP are Indian bowling’s future. Despite his antics, you can’t downplay his prodigious talent. Though his frantic reactions at out calls still freak me out, I think we can accommodate him. People like Freddie Flintoff, Shane Warne, and Sreesanth do their best when you let them have their way.

New kids on the block

This was definitely a great opportunity to test the waters with the newbies. Pravin Kumar, although couldn’t snap any wickets, impressed with this economy and composed bowling in the death overs.

Robin Sharma’s half century might have gone unnoticed, but we can see there’s good raw material. We need to exploit him.

Fawad Alam kid looked great. Something tells me he’s not just another probot.

Individual Records and Achievments

• Sachin Tendulkar, with his 403rd ODI, equalled Sanath Jayasuriya’s record most ODI caps. Plus,with his 393rd innings, he also transcended Jayasuriya’s record of 392 innings.
• Zaheer Khan, who’s another one on the brink of culling, claimed his 200th wicket in his 144th ODI, his 200th victim being Shoaib Malik. He is now the fifth Indian bowler to have bagged 200 wickets or more in ODIs, joining Anil Kumble (337), Javagal Srinath (315), Ajit Agarkar (288) and Kapil Dev (253).
• With Shahid Afridi’s dismissal, Sourav Ganguly completed his 100 wickets and completed the triple of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODIs. He is only the third all-rounder in ODI history to have completed the triple, joining India’s Sachin Tendulkar and Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya.

Looking ahead

Test series comes next. I am curious if, and how, they are going to accommodate Singh, and whether Sreesanth and RP make it (chances are slim, but you never know). With Kaneria being roped in, it’s going to be interesting. Asif isn’t coming. And that’s bad.

All eyes, undoubtedly, will be on Dravid and Kumble, the two best friends.

India are definitely the clear favorites. 1-0. Whadya think, cricks?

Now the secret stuff

Gee, not so much of a secret, but it’s a really cool link I found today. This is what the Indian and Paki cricks were doing after the Green Park ODI. I’ve never seen Sachin so animated. And Ganguly is having his last laugh, for sure.

Post from: EveryJoe

Why care about the Indian Oil Cup? (and some secret stuff…)

I have no idea what Vengasarkar has been writing. What do you make of BCCI’s move to curb selectors from writing columns? As for SRK, no one would mind his cricket-watching if he stops carrying dolls with him. Does his son play with dolls or what?

Flame away.

Post from: EveryJoe

The BCCI cracks down on Six and Out. Net

Malik’s learning, but as I stated on Ottayan’s blog, this series is from being his last. (Okay, some shameless self-promotion there, but I couldn’t help it.)

And ta-dah– Malik’s captaincy has been extended. For a full one year, no less.

In my town, where we’ve just had an exciting match, when someone makes fool of themselves in this manner, we call it a googly. Indian slang for you. Anyone know the Hindi version?

Post from: EveryJoe

I don’t like blabbermouths…

Some may not be ready to hail Brett Lee as Australia’s new “spearhead” yet, but he’s cut through the Sri Lankan innings like a torpedo, ripping apart 4 wickets, putting SL on the backfoot completely.

Off the field, he’s signed a deal to compose the World Cup 2011 theme song. Don’t forget: he’s the leading guitarist for Six and Out, a music band run by him and his cricketing friends from New South Wales. His duet with Asha Bhonsle hit the second spot on the Indian music charts last year.

He also believes that, with his kind of external features, he could easily get roles in Bollywood (think the British types in Lagaan). So, he’s actually counting on that as a career option after retirement from cricket.

He’s a lucky chap, Liz Kemp and all. What a life.

Oh, and I don’t have a problem with his singing the theme song — as long as it’s not in Hindi!

Post from: EveryJoe

Lee is in the Air

Let’s dig up some stats.

How has Tendulkar fared as India Test captain in comparison to Dravid and Ganguly, the other two recent skippers?

So there. Point taken.

However, unlike Ganguly and Dravid, his batting never suffered during captaincy.

As you can see, his batting average suffered a decline of about 4 points. Not negligible, but not bothersome either.

Stats aside, you may like to note that Tendulkar has quit captaincy in the past. It was silly on BCCI’s part to expect him to lead again. I was unsure if he would agree to the offer. And it comes as no surprise to me that he has turned it down.

Captaining India is no child’s play. It definitely sucks up a lot of one’s time and energy fielding media inquiries, attending conferences, etc. Add to that, one has to put up with the politics that is always doing the rounds of BCCI’s headquarters.

So that leaves BCCI with the following options:
Dhoni, Ganguly, Kumble, Laxman

Kumble and Laxman don’t fit the bill. Not only are they too low-profile, timid, but they haven’t really been with the team much lately. And to be honest, they are not going to be around for a long time either.

Now that leaves us with Ganguly and Dhoni. Ganguly, of course, is India’s most successful captain. But after the Chappell scandal, BCCI would be reluctant to appoint him. And with the current state of affairs in the team, that might not be a very wise thing to do indeed.

Dhoni, as some are opining, is way too young for that spot. Ugh. He’s older than Nawab Pataudi (who took over as captain at age 21), at least, gentlemen. Dhoni’s already handled seniors in the Future Cup, and he did fine. Besides, it’s clear that sooner or later he would have to take up Test captaincy too. So why not give him a chance now? And given that Pakistan’s current team comprises mainly of rookies and not much of a threat, this is the best time to test waters. IMHO, of course.

Kumble has been reported as saying that he’s ready for any “duty” that the board assigns him. Wow, that’s going to make the BCCI jump with joy. They can do anything in this state of desperation!

What’s your take?

Post from: EveryJoe

Tendulkar says “nah”; the captaincy drama continues

To be honest, I don’t know. I am not one to fan rumors, but some say this has to do with a certain Bollywood damsel Deepika Padukone, who Dhoni is believed to have a huge crush on. If that’s so, well and good, but I think this is an SRK*-cooked publicity stunt for her latest Bollywood movie. Dhoni beware. Padukone is 5′ 9” — same height as Dhoni. Odds are stacked against the Indian skipper. I seriously don’t see much of a love-story-in-the-making here.

Blabbermouth Sreesanth, distracted Dhoni, everything isn’t smelling right. Or am I just being cynical?

And as to what effect his changed look has had on the people? At least, I give a damn. I am more into evaluating Micheal Clarke’s leadership skills and examining Stuart Law’s domestic cricketing career.

*SRK– Shahrukh Khan

Post from: EveryJoe

Dhoni and his new hair cut–what’s the inside dish?

I was going to review Warney’s autobiography and boy, was I glad to present my recent epiphanies about the leggie, but what the heck, something spoiled my mood. And here you have a rant.

————————————————————————————————————

For starters, Shashi Tharoor is a former under secretary general of the United Nations. He ran for the post of general secretary, but lost. He’s also a prolific writer, and some 50-60 year olds (women, obviously) I know have found him very “dashing” and “handsome”.

Prior to the start of the World Cup this year, he had an op-ed published in the New York Times.

With all due respect to him, he’s a respectable person for his achievements, but in all honesty, his NYT stint has hurt many Americans’ integrity. (Indians don’t read NYT, so they are probably unaware.) I couldn’t understand what the underlying message of that essay is. It came off as ridicule rather than raillery. He sounds confused. He’s insulting both Americans and Indians.

Here’s one instance he is hurling insult at the Americans:

As legions of missionaries have discovered before me, you can’t bring enlightenment to people who don’t realize they’re living in the dark.

Another one:

In any event, nothing about cricket seems suited to the American national character: its rich complexity, the infinite possibilities that could occur with each delivery of the ball, the dozen different ways of getting out, are all patterned for a society of endless forms and varieties, not of a homogenized McWorld. They are rather like Indian classical music, in which the basic laws are laid down but the performer then improvises gloriously, unshackled by anything so mundane as a written score.

I am confused again. Mockery and praise coupled together, eh? Are you trying to demonstrate your linguistic prowess with paradoxes here, Mr. Tharoor?

India’s turn to be poked fun at:

Cricket is better suited to a country like India, where a majority of the population still consults astrologers and believes in the capricious influence of the planets — so they can well appreciate a sport in which, even more than in baseball, an ill-timed cloudburst, a badly prepared pitch, a lost toss of the coin at the start of a match or the sun in the eyes of a fielder can transform the outcome of a game. Even the possibility that five tense, hotly contested, occasionally meandering days of cricketing could still end in a draw seems derived from ancient Indian philosophy, which accepts profoundly that in life the journey is as important as the destination.

Someone who seriously follows the game (and I am sure this author doesn’t) knows that toss and pitch conditions do play a role in a match’s outcome. To my knowledge, most Indians usually blame their team’s loss in the players. And in all honesty, the general population gives a damn to edaphic factors. Pitch conditions and stuff is Greek to most of them.

Anti-climax to the essay:

So here’s the message, America: don’t pay any attention to us, and we won’t pay any to you. If you wonder, over the coming weeks, why your Indian co-worker is stealing distracted glances at his computer screen every few minutes or why the South African in the next cubicle is taking frequent and furtive bathroom breaks during the working day, don’t even try to understand. You probably wouldn’t get it. You may as well learn to accept that there are some things too special for the rest of us to want to waste them on you.

So Americans won’t get it. And in a previous paragraph, he went as far as insinuating that Americans have a short attention span. (I agree. Haha)

Cricket and baseball are analogous in many ways and perhaps have the same origin, but there’s a whole story behind their divergent evolution and spread to entirely different regions. Indians won’t stop loving cricket, and Americans aren’t giving up on baseball any time soon. Let that be. Why all this pseudo-attempt at boasting your love for the game? You’ve failed miserably at humor, Mr. Tharoor. And Six had so much respect for you, which has all come tumbling down following your smart alec remarks.

Photo Credit: Shashi Tharoor Official Site

Post from: EveryJoe

We are fine with both cricket and baseball. Any probs, Mr. Tharoor?

So here’s a shout-out to all the great cricket stuff being poured into the unobliging oblivion of the blog-universe.

* The force behind Cricket and All That is surely left-brained. Who wants a really analytical, scrupulous explanation on why India lost in Hyderabad? That pretty much also answers why they lost the series.

* There was some doubt that Uncle J. Rod is right-brained– this post scoured all my doubts away.

* Sledging as a topic is hotter than ever. Everyone’s got a take, and so has Amit.

* Need a sports channel? Cricketing View is such a conscientious reporter. Doesn’t miss a thing.

* Bad guys in the Gentleman’s Game

* The humble homer (he calls his brilliant piece of commentary two cents) is talking about the Challengers.

And I can’t live without Gossip, ya know.

Post from: EveryJoe

Round-up From the Blogosphere