Reflecting back!!!

4 years back in the runup to the world cup 2007 I had started writing cricket blog and most of those posts were related to the cricket watching experience from 1986 till date (2007). I had covered the world cup till the halfway stage and then India had exited in the first round itself. The days to follow were like being in the state of numbness and shock as none of us expected to lose so early. 

Greg Chappell was the most hated man in the country then and entire cricketing fraternity was shocked on Mar 18, 2007 when world learnt that Bob Woolmer died the night Pakistan lost to Ireland. Perhaps that was the start of decline of the Pakistan cricket which is still ongoing till today.

There was still a hope that India could still qualify to go to the super 6 by virtue of beating Lankans but it did not happen and I hated Dilhara Fernando more than I hate Jaywardhene and Sangakara now for dismissing Tendulkar on 0. Many thought that was the end of the Tendulkar saga in the World Cup.

And then one day writing from Kanbay office for that blog,I accidentally ended up deleting that blog which was more of a innocent blog with no digs at anyone, no hatred, no rants and no criticisicm of anybody. I rued that loss as i had already posted 45 posts by then. 

I got started with the other blog and the most memorable experience of blogging came with that when I blogged about the 2007 World T20 win, England series win and of course the victory over Pakistan in the last series played till date.

And then 2008 Sydney happened. It was heartbreaking, it was disgusting to see India lose to Ricky Ponting’s antics. I was so anguished by teh happenings that I quit blogging and did not blog for another 8 months. Even IPL-1 came and gone, I did not blog. 

And then at the end of SL ODI series, I came back to the world of cricket blog yet again and this blog took the birth. 28 months of blogging and over 1200 posts. Drilling down Lankans, standing by the fab five of the Indian cricket and of course shredding apart the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Sangakara, Jayawardhena, M Vijay and Srikanth have been the features of this blog. 

I dont receive comments any more. I fretted initially about it, I cribbed and wrote about it, but in the end I adjusted to it not letting it affect me and my writing. I might not be the most popular blogger around, neither do I have penchant for laws of the game, neither do I have the ability to draw humorous cartoons, neither do I have ability to praise anything Sri Lankan. But passion for the game and standing by the team I like the best keep me going and I shall keep going for as long as I can. 

India’s main men!!!

India’s chances in the World Cup would depend on following men besides form of Sachin Tendulkar.

1. Virender Sehwag

2. Yuvraj Singh

3. Yusuf Pathan

4. MS Dhoni

Viru and Sach would no doubt the most explosive opening pair in the tournament.  How Yuvraj Singh shapes up and how he plays would also define India’s chances. 

He has not been in his best in last few months, but this is the biggest platform for setting his critics right. It does not get bigger than this. If he plays a pivotal role in the World cup win for India, he would be forgiven for all his antics off the field and of course for his swelling belly..

Yusuf Pathan has come of age after that career turning century against Kiwis and he did an encore of that in the final ODI in Centurion, but how he fares in the premier ODI tournament would depend on how he plays and in what situation he plays. He has shown right temparament all this while in the latest lease of life for him. Its good that he has his priorities and ambitions set out at right place to play for India inspite of IPL money. Only thing he needs to do is to keep patience and let his bat do the rest. If he is at the crease, the runs shall come automatically. 

MSD is other bat who would be crucial to India’s chances. He has not been in best of ODI form off late. He didnt figure in Kiwi series and was off color in SA. But he has been the best finisher for India after Dravid’s decline in 2007.

This 4 together would define how far India goes and we expect them not to lose a single game after QF.

India’s games are on:

19th Feb at Mirpur vs BD

27th Feb at …… vs Eng

6th Mar at  Bangalore vs Ireland

9th Mar at Delhi vs Holland

12th Mar at Nagpur vs SA

20th Mar at Chennai vs WI.

Hopefully by the game on 12th India would have already qualified for the Quarter finals.

World Cup Team Previews –1 : Sri Lanka

Starting a new series from today till the start of the world cup, where in I shall put my 2 or 3 Sri Lankan paise on every team that matters in World Cup campaign. In short, analyse every team and run down their chances in the world cup or run up their chances. 

Starting with the romantics’ favorites and one of the world cup co-hosts Sri Lanka. 

SL is set to play 5 of its 6 games in its home ground and none of them at SSC. And they would have to play all 6 games to have a chance to go to the next round this time. Unlike 1996 when they qualified to QF on back of the 2 forfeited games and that helped them reach out as champions in the end. 

No volatile war situation and security concerns now for them. 

They are grouped in group A with Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand and minnows Canada, Kenya.  They shall murder Canada and Kenya ruthlessly. So they have to beat just 2 of the rest 3 teams to go ahead to the Quarters. Pakistan and NZ would be the ones to lose out to the spin quartets of  SL. If Sangakara would have his way he would pack his team with all spinners and just one fast bowler in Malinga if he is fit.

Their first game is vs Canada, which they hope would score 450+ runs and bowl the Canadians out by 70 odd and win by 380 runs. Quite possible. 

They next play Pakistan and they would fancy chances against a team who has yet to have a captain named for the world cup. Although its going to be Shahid Afridi, but Butt thinks he is not in the news for long time now, so he has to create some drama and he is doing just that. 

SL team:

Sanga, Jayawardhena, Dilshan, Kapugedara, Angelo, Muralitharan, Malinga, Fernando, Herath, Mendis, Kulasekara, Perreira, Silva, Samaraweera and Tharanga.

Opening pair

Dilshan and Tharanga would open the batting in most games unless Sangakara has a brain freeze and he promotes his chaddi buddy Mahila to the top. 

Middle Order

Sangakara, Jayawardhena, Kapugedara, Silva / Samarweera would form the middle order. 

Fast bowlers:

Malinga, Perreira would be sureshot starters.  Mathews, if fit  could be the 3rd seamer.

Spin:

King of spin Murali would be sure starter in all games lest he is injured and he would be partnered by one of Bow Wow Mendis or Colored Herath.

Chances:

They would maul Canada, Kenya. They might succumb to unpredictable Pakistanis and might get past the Kiwis too given they have been pathetic in the subcontinental ODIs.  It would be tough to beat Australia, though they would be looking forth to avenge 1-2 defeat in the home series. 

The only game they play outside SL is the league game against Kiwis in India.  3 of their games are at R Premdasa stadium, 1 in Hambanatotatata and 1 in Wankhede, Mumbai. Yes Wankhede is in Mumbai.

They can go to QF, but with the form they have been in 2008, 2009 and 2010 they look impossible to go beyond that stage. 

And if they dont do that, this would be the end of Kumar Sangakara as the captain of Sri Lanka. And a respite for us of his character rants. 

Lets see how much character stock Sangakara has gathered in 2 months when he was quiet and didnt play any cricket. Oh no he was playing with his balls, only in the bed room.

Keep all cisms about World cup till the end of it

The World Cup has already got into shambles before it could start for India. The venues are not yet ready, the politics over the venues have already begun. All it seems to be a replica of Commonwealth games Delhi 2010.

The English media is already creating bad omens about the world cup good 3 weeks before it begins. And they are building up the list of excuses should England crash out as usual they do in the world cup. The blame would go to the heat, humidity, food, crowd and what not except the performance.

Sri Lanka, if they lose in the semis stage in Kolkata and if they dont have a default this time, they would blame this conditions too as Sangakara tried to build that hyperbole before 2009 series which they eventually lost.

Few bloggers are already declaring this world cup to be the last ODI world cup. The health of ODI world cup already remains in questions and doubts. There have been very little runathons in the build up to the world cup in last few months. There have been few very closely fought ODI series in England, Middle East and South Africa.  Thats a good sign though, but the cynics and critics would obviously chose not to see it.

I am skeptical of quarter final format and  believe that the super 6 or super 8 was a better format and its strange how ICC pushed in QF format yet again after 16 years.

For me the best format is every one plays every one like it happened in 1992 world cup and that gave us a fair idea of the best team to win the cup in the end  2015 would be on that lines.

BCCI has been too lax in the end to ensure that the venues are complete and they meet the necesary standards for the world cup. Only if they had diverted their attention from screwing Lalit Modi’s ass, the Kolkata’s pride would have been still holding the 4 games it was supposed to. No doubt that game would now either go to Chennai or Nagpur or even Mumbai. Chennai cos Srini is from Chennai, Nagpur cos Manohar is from that place and Mumbai is Sharad Sugar Pawar’s baston.

The win-win situation for every one this point ownwards is to hold the skepticism, cynicism, criticism and all other cisms till the end of the world cup and I am sure that barring minnow games, every game in the world cup is going to be full house and eagerly watched till the end, cos a hopeful nation would want that title to be captured after 28 years because nothing gets bigger than this.

ODI world cup title is what we want and that is what we want to win desparately.

Eden Gardens loses one game

Such a pity that Eden Gardens looks set to host none of the world cup games as of now. The ground has been India’s best and has been bet to some World Cup classics including the shameful Sri Lankan semi final win in 1996.

The ICC found that the stadium wont be ready in time to host the first game on Feb 27 between India and England. 

Who is to blame for this delay and who is accountable are absurd questions. India has never got any public accountability in sports, so its futile to expect a responsible action on this shameful act. The purpose of the renovation of the Eden Gardens is not helping the very root cause, so what is the use of spending millions in it. 

And this shall soon become a political hotball between BCCI and CAB since the latter is headed by Jaggu Dalmiya.

A thing about Sharma and Vijay

There are 2 reserve players who are sure shot replacements for every injury or dip of form of the first choice players. They are Mural Vijay from TN and Rohit Sharma from Mumbai. These lads are pretty rich fellows after their exploits in the IPL seasons and they are having hefty bank balances.

The last innings of substance Rohit Sharma played was way back in 2007-08 CB series final when he made 66* against Australia in partnership with Sachin Tendulkar. 

The last innings of any importance M Vijay played was in 2010 October when he made his first Test 100 against Australia at home.

Since 2008 he has been repalcing Sehwag or Gambhir at the top whenever these lads get injured. And off late in ODIs too since he had reasonable IPL3 in 2010.

Have a look at their performances in the ongoing ODI series in SA. None of them have the desire or firepower or the ambition to play for India and to play well. They are getting most of the chances on every replacement. We have the likes of Rahane, Pujara, Pandey, Uthappa and others who play well in domestic cricket. They are reasonable in IPL as well, but the fact is this lads do not have selectorial backing from their region. Sharma had backing of DIlip Vengsarkar, Vijay has Srikanth’s backing and Srikanth, DBV were team mates for years in 1980s.

My point is how long this 2 players would get their chances? Isnt it time to show them the door for the time they sort out their temparament, attitude and most importantly find an answer to the question: “do they really want to play for India?”

Its good that they wont play the world cup, else they would have been easy walking wickets.

Last note, on current form Virat Kohli should easily replace Raina in the starting XI.

Raina has had 20 odd innings without a half century and even if we take the fact he is batting mostly at 6, he has not showed the temparament to bat responsibly. He had every thing going his way. He was retained by CSK, he was chosen to play Tests in SL ahead of Yuvraj Singh, he got a debut 100 and then he lost it. He hasnot showed the willpower to claw back to the reckoning by some responsible batting.

Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Kohli, Pathan, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Praveen, Nehra would be my starting XI for Mirpur.

We would feel sorry for Sangakara after this world cup is over

I just digged out the archives of 2007 world cup and was pained to see 2 defeats to BD and SL that knocked the steam out of the Indian campaign and that ended the world cup campaign of Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble. 17 March and 23 March were painful days in India’s world cup history. 

13 March 1996 is one such painful day in the history where SL rolled through final at India’s expense in Eden Gardens.

And then there was this article from ever fucktard Kumar Sangakara

“India at home and India overseas are two different teams.

To be honest, though, I feel sorry for India’s cricketers. They’ll now face a torrent of criticism and abuse in the coming weeks. Fanatical fans will no doubt be burning effigies as I write. The huge expectation places their players under enormous pressure. And when that expectation is raised a degree or two, it can easily have a crippling effect.”

In Sri Lanka, the general public seem to have a more easy-going perspective. Yes, most Sri Lankans are passionate about sport, especially cricket, but we also seem to understand that sport is sport. I am not sure whether that more balanced attitude is the product of two decades of civil war, or merely reflects the more happy-go-lucky style of an island nation. The attitude of our fans makes it easier for us. Yes, we still get our fair share of criticism. There can be mud-slinging in the media too. But our houses are not stoned when we lose and we can still walk down the street without fearing for our safety. I am grateful for this and really don’t envy the situation of India and Pakistan’s top cricketers.

This is right time to ensure Sangakara and his men are steamrolled in this world cup ruthlessly and also to ensure he is never able to speak such a crap again. We would then need to feel pity for Sri Lankan cricketers. Yeah they are easy going people who killed their own countrymen who spoke Tamil for 20+ years and were subjected to inhuman war crimes in the war zone over past few years. Something that never happened in India or even in Pakistan.

Its time India or some other team beat SL huge so that none of their overrated players are able to write articles full of venom like this. Once they lose, the normal fans of SL who are no more than waterboys in the world cricket would come out and stone the houses of idiots like Sangakara. Fucker!!!!

Dubious 15th member selection

The Indian world cup squad is announced and there are a few eye brows being raised over selection of few guys who have not played ODIs in 2 years time and none in home conditions. 

The most of the team chose itself and as expected there was a tussle for 2-3 spots only. 

The selection of Chawla and Ashvin would raise eyebrows. Pragyan Ojha played most of the ODIs before he was dumped for no good reason. He was not expected to play in SA where only one spinner plays and that luxury lies with Harbhajan Singh. But Ojha did a decent job in the run up to the SA tour and now he suddenly finds himself out of the favor from the selectors and the team management. 

Piyush Chawla’s selection is equally baffling. He has not played an ODI in 2 years and is not expected to play in remaining 3 games before World Cup, so he is looking  to go to the World Cup with no match fitness and match practice.

There are just 7 batsmen and most of them will play in all games. There is no reserve keeper who also could have doubled up as a batsman.

What if injury happens to one of the 7 main batsmen? Who is the backup then? Rohit Sharma ? M Vijay? I am sure Srikanth has some plans for M Vijay, he must have told him something in Tamil that dude I shall get you in the team, let one of the batsmen get injured. 

What if MSD gets injured? Sehwag would be the captain in that case, but who would keep? Again Srikanth has a replacement ready. Dinesh BossDK Karthik.

Srikanth’s croonies are well placed to be replacements for any one of the batsmen / keeper getting injured. 

Ashvin’s case is debatable. It seems he might be benefited on the cost of Ojha. He has played 7 ODIs for India in 2010 and taken 14 wkts.  How much would he add up to the tally in the world cup remains to be seen.

Chawla has 28 from 21 games. There are plenty of part timers in the spin department namely Sehwag, Yuvraj, Raina and perhaps even Tendulkar. Not to forget Yusuf Pathan too. So why 3 spinners? Ideally Parthiv Patel should have been the part of the lineup in place of Chawla, so that he could have been a reserve batsman too and would double up as a backup to MS as well. 

But if Srikanth had mind and logic. He is roaming around all TV channels and cricket  websites saying this is the best Indian team and balanced to win a world cup in 28 years. Only time would tell.

Vijay is a quota selection

Murali Vijay is needlessly playing ODIs when he is not fit for it. Fit in the sense in the terms of temparament and attitude. Its disgusting to see this guy play quick form of cricket in IPL and flop in ODIs. 

He is a quota selection in the team. He is in the team cos first choice 3 openers are back home due to injury and the selection head is a headless chicken. And the next BCCI president is the boring pan eating Srinivasan from Chennai.

Now that Tendulkar has also returned home, he would play remaining 3 games and most probably Kohli or Sharma would open with him and Pathan would play at 7.

It could still be a back door entry for Vijay in the world cup. Who knows. One quick 40 and he would be fit in the team.

Vijay is one real lucky guy. The next Dinesh Karthik of course.

Indian XV

World cup selection is around the corner and here is my final 15.


1. Tendulkar
2. Sehwag
3. Gambhir
4. Yuvraj
5. Raina
6. Dhoni
7. Kohli
8. HArbhajan
9. Zaheer
10. Ashvin
11. Nehra
12. Yusuf Pathan
13. Praveen Kumar
14. Munaf Patel
15. Rohit Sharma