Why are Lankan grounds hosting games when they are not ready?

It seems that the Lankan grounds of Pallekele and Hambanatota are not ready yet. Despite this, the matches would go on those grounds as scheduled.  The training facilities at those grounds are not yet ready and Sangakara himself has voiced the disappointment over that fact


On the same hand, the renovation in Eden Gardens was not complete and it has already been snatched of a marquee clash thus robbing Kevin Pieterson an opportunity of life time. 


Why different yardsticks for 2 different countries for same fact?


Mr Sharad Pawar what are you doing? Punishing your own Eden Gardens while sparing the Lankan grounds?Why ? The Jaggu factor?


Have same yardsticks ICC for all grounds even if they belong to relatively poor Sri Lanka.

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.

IPL’s greatest service to Indian cricket(A wish)

If we could sniff out huge great great huge Pommie Mbangwa and what a good hitman Laxman Sivramkrishna (yawn, what a big name) of the commentary box alongside their sponsors booting jingles — Karbon Kamal Katch, Citi moment of Success, DLF maximums and other fucking words, the IPL would be a good thing to watch.

Also if the producers of the broadcasting channel stopped focussing on dumbasses like Zinta, Shetty and other Bollywood asswols who know nothing about the game yet keep dancing on every 2 runs taken or a 6 being hit, the IPL would glow even more.

But thats foolhardy thinking.

At least what IPL could do good for Indian spectators is improve the basic watching facilities in the top grounds. Almost the same grounds on which the IPL is being played would host world cup games next year (sans Mumbai’s 2 grounds), so if this IPL could lead to improved facilities, that would be the greatest service IPL would do for the Indian cricket. I am not even talking of the moolah the stakeholders would rake in.

What a pity that Eden Gardens with a capacity of 100000 people would not host a World Cup final instead a shoddy stadium situated behind the slums of Marine Lines railway line Wankhede would host the final just cos Sharad Pawar is the BCCI henchman.

Eden Test preview

India play for pride and SA for the series. If India win this Test, they should retain the # 1 ranking. The batting would be stronger than what it was in first Test. With return of Laxman, it would be interesting to see where he bats. # 3 or # 6 ?

Gambhir and Sehwag failed to give the starts in the both innings of the first test and that was evident in the crumbling of the middle order in Nagpur, so Gambhir would need to find his golden touch soon again, not later than tomorrow if India bats first.

And other player to be on watchlist would be HArbhajan Singh, who has continued failing. Unfortunately Amit Mishra and Ojha have not performed well consistently to put the Turbonator under pressure.

It would be interesting to see if Dabrinath finds a place in the Test XI ?  Most prolly he would play, but would he score ?

Selectors do not learn

From their selection fiasco. Still no prominent batsmen to replace RD for the second Test. I am sure Cheeka wants to fill in half of Tamil Nadu players in the national team as replacement for every player. Any player gets injured or is dropped DK is in. Not many  days back he was dropped and he hit 2 tons in a futile game (in sense that did not help his team win) to be back in the team again. Amazing. What an effect he has got over the selectors and MSD. The likes of Pandey, Parthiv Patel and others would be scratching their head in disgust to see DK being back in the team. Have we lost the quality players that the likes of DK or Saha are being played ?

DK is not going to score runs in international games. That’s a well proven point. Why not go beyond him and chose Pujara ? What else he needs to do  ? DK has scored two tons in a game. Pujara has scored eons of them in last 2 years, just that he does not have a Srikanth like figure in the national selection committee, he is not able to break in, else he has done everything he could to get a chance. If Badrinath gets in for so called strong domestic performance, then Pujara is no lesser than him. For that matter even Kohli is more deserving than Karthik to be in the team. His strong performances in the last 3 ODI series as replacements are indicative of his claim.

Yuvraj made a strong name for himself in ODIs and then he came into the Test side, for that matter even Kaifu did the same. He was deserving more than DK. Only if somebody from North Zone was head of the selection committee.

Srikanth and DBV were part of the team that changed the fortunes of the Indian cricket 80s ownwards and they were expected to be level headed players or somebody with sane mind who would give more weightage to the form than the region of the player. Unfortunately that did not happen. If likes of Jaffer got umpteen opportunities in place of Sehwag in 2006-07, then the likes of DK, Dabri and Vijay (though he has proved his worth and would be too early to call his axe) have prospered under Srikanth.  DBV was openly critical of Sehwag in 2006-07 when the batsman went through the slump and thus lost the race of captaincy to Dhoni.

It would be very unfortunate to see Laxman and Dravid not play in the Eden Gardens – the same ground which saw them do greatest rear guard action of Indian cricket in 2001.  Its pretty unfortunate that Srikanth and his 4 other men are not ready to learn from the selection blunder they made for the first test and the result is out for everybody to see.

Eden 1996

Just a reminder to the Lankans who have been talking hugely about how their batsmen showed character in abandoned Delhi ODI , that 13 years back in a World Cup Semi final which the entire country wanted to win, Indians continued to play on horrific pitch and in the process lost out to whims of WI referee Lloyd who gifted the game to Lanka who then went on to win the WC (3 abandoned games vs Aus, WI and India).

Back then no Indian player moaned or groaned or howled about the dreadful pitch which saw Jayasuriya take 3/12 and the other lesser Lankan spinners turn the ball square.

No captain from Indian side rushed to the middle to stop the play or no ex captain gave an interview to Cricinfo that how ridiculous it was to see players who play spin well get stumped :(.

Little doubt that the pitch was treacherous and a blot on Delhi, but the way Lankans approached the game abandonment was horrendous. Why didnt Kandamby approach umpire right when he came to the middle ? Why did Jayasuriya and Dilshan not talk to umpires after Dilly was injured ?

No one would know the thinking process behind Sangakara’s surge to the field in 24th over. That saves him one more defeat, but its that “bakre ki maa kab tak khair manayegi”. Questions would be asked of him for failure to win anything significant on the tour to a country where they  havent won anything so far and wont win anything in long time to come.

Grab the series in Edens

Cricket returns to Eden Gardens in 3 years. Well ODIs return to Eden in 3 years. And cricket in 2 years. Oh international cricket. Last time a team played in Eden was Pakistan which almost managed to save the game.

Sachin and Jayasurya are the lone survivors of the 1996 World Cup semi final traumatic game in Eden Gardens and it would be apt for India tomorrow to win the series 3-1 to sooth the balm of that painful day.

Though this 2 things are irrelevant, yet India should beat the team which defeated us (actually no) back then.

Its been said that half of Eden would be closed for renovation, yet 50 k spectators would freak out the Sri Lankans who are used to band baja music back home in their stadia.

Grab the win guys.

Mumbai not fit for hosting World Cup final

Which is better venue to host a World Cup final ? 40000 capacity Wankhede in Mumbai or 1 lac seated Eden Garden in Kolkata ?

Just cos Sharad Pawar is from Mumbai, the world cup final is in Mumbai. Be real, Mumbai has rich cricket tradition, but its facilities in Cricket stadiums are ass.

Host World cup final in Eden Gardens

Now that India is going to host the major chunk of WC’11 games the finals should be played in the best and oldest ground country has, not where the head of BCCI (one whose word runs the show) comes from. That city might have the tradition of cricket unparalleled in the country, but the renovated Wankhede and CCI aint good enough to match the intensity and mahol of Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Let the final be played there. But for BCCI politics…………

Elite Eden!!

What an average Pakistani blogger thinks about India as a country and its religion, its cricket and its people including Muslims is evident right here —>http://legslip.com/2008/11/29/ind-pak-cricket-zindabad/

Move aside Wankhede, Chepauk, PCA, Chinnaswamy….When it comes to the tradition and history of cricket in India none other than EDEN GARDENS in Kolkata deserves the limelight. That for you, is the BEST cricket stadium in the country and one of the best in the world in line of MCG and Lord’s.

Thanks to the tussle between Jaggu and BCCI regime, the premier ground is yet again barred of the international cricket. Why should Mohali host a 2nd Test in a season ? It would have been a good idea to keep the Nagpur test in Kolkata to bid farewell to its most prodigal son and country s best left handed batsman in his home town. But thats BCCI for you……

Eden garden shud ASAP return back to the international cricket scenario. Jaggu or no Jaggu!!