Archive for ‘March, 2008’

17 results.
Mar18

ICC Guidelines for IPL

by wasim on March 18th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket India

The ICC executive board has formalised its stand on the Indian Premier League (IPL), saying international cricket was its top priority and laying out guidelines to ensure it stayed that way. It also emerged from the meeting, in Dubai, that the ICC’s Future Tours Programme will not be altered to suit the IPL as neither the league nor the Indian board, which runs it, made such a request.

“The ICC board and BCCI agreed that the BCCI, as the owner of IPL, would sign a standard-form contract with all ICC Members,” David Morgan, the president-elect of the ICC, said. The ICC board said the agreement was made to ensure the concept of ‘nation-versus-nation cricket’ was given the highest priority.

Among the principles mentioned in the agreement were that every ICC member had the right to object to a player from its country taking part in the IPL, and that such an objection can be made up to two years after that player’s retirement. If such an objection is made, the various franchises of the IPL will not be able to select the player in question. It was also agreed that bilateral commitments between the boards will take precedence over IPL fixtures and that the IPL would introduce its own code of conduct regulations, draft an anti-corruption code and have an anti-doping policy in compliance with ICC regulations.

The above media release was made after the conclusion of ICC Executive Board meeting which was held in Dubai. although the guidelines have been issued but still a lot of questions were left unanswered.

The ICC Future tours program still remains unaltered and no separate window has been carved for IPL, and it’s yet to be seen if Gayle, ChanderPaul ans Sarwan will be released by IPL for the upcoming series against SriLanka. The stakes are high for the players as in the event of not playing these players will lose their share on Prorata basis. The combined worth of the contracts of these three players is $800,000, its yet to be seen in the event of these players pulling out of the test series will they still play in IPL or not as the WI board has already released the NOC’s for these players, the West Indian Board is facing a huge crisis as Pedro Collins, Wavell Hinds and Jermaine Lawson have joined Kolpak. Gayle Sarwan and Chanderpaul have signed up with IPL, and Tino Best has signed up with ICL as a result WICB is struggling to form a team of 11 players who could compete with the Srilankans, this is not the only major crisis they face their is a move to limit the first tier of test playing nation to seven which will leave West Indies to play with only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

It will be interesting to see how IPL handles the case of West Indian players in the next few days, if IPL will strictly enforce these rules that will put a new life in ICL as players hungry for cash might not like these conditions and we might see more early retirements.

 

5 Comments
Mar21

IPL- Cricket ka karamyudh

by wasim on March 21st, 2008 at 6:06 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket India

IPL Explained

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyFBBI1723A]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGr79rRIfb0]

Kolkata knights

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izPohphhXYg]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jscjy0_DMhY]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfYTVRkUIpo]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZCPNXhcVB8]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxAMYyAu6p0]

1 Comment
Mar21

by wasim on March 21st, 2008 at 6:38 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

daryl-hair-tcwj.jpg

Controversial umpire Darrell Hair has been reinstated by ICC after a six months rehabilitation program, whatever!

I am not aware of any rehabilitation program in the world which would cure somebody suffering from racism and bigotry, Hair has announced that he will be more communicative with teams or players unfamiliar with the English language, this is something which will never get tested as he will not officiate any matches involving Pakistan, India and Srilanka.

Did ICC reinstated him to avoid an expensive legal battle? or Malcolm Speed wanted to restore the dignity and integrity of his fellow countryman?

8 Comments
Mar25

ICC Bans sledging

by wasim on March 25th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

THE ICC has banned sledging following India’s tumultuous tour of Australia.
The ICC has sent a letter to international match officials, captains and chief executives calling for support in their decision to outlaw personal attacks which are “obscene, offensive or insulting”.

There may still be room for occasional banter but the use of swear words and potentially hurtful personal barbs are now all but prohibited.

The move will put umpires under extreme pressure as they must now interpret the context of a sledge and whether it is offensive to a rival nation.

The letter has asked all concerned to learn from India’s acrimonious tour of Australia where India’s Harbhajan Singh was accused of racially abusing Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds and Australia’s Matthew Hayden was reprimanded by his national federation for calling the Indian spinner an “obnoxious weed”.”This is specifically directed at preventing offensive language directed at another person be it a fellow player, official or spectator,” said the letter, signed by ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed and the cricket operations manager David Richardson.

“You will appreciate this is not an easy issue. International cricket is played and followed by people from a wide range of cultures.

“What is offensive to some may not be considered so by others.

“It is impossible to define which words or combination of words will be regarded as offensive and there will always be a need to take into account the context in which the words are used and for the umpire to apply a degree of individual interpretation and judgement. We are, however, asking you as players to raise the bar and to set and respect new standards.

“Players are asked to show a greater level of respect to their opponents, umpires and referees and to recognise that swearing is regarded by the majority of people as obscene, offensive or insulting.

“We acknowledge that every incident is highlighted in the media, often with very little objectivity, but . . . there have been several controversial incidents on the field which originated from the use by players of language or gestures which are considered obscene, offensive or insulting.

“The ICC acknowledges verbal exchanges cannot be eliminated entirely, so umpires have to decide what they feel are acceptable levels.

“The umpire seeking to lay a charge shall be required to take into account the context of the particular situation and whether the words or gesture are likely to be regarded as obscene, or give offence, or insult another person.”

 Comment 
Mar26

South Africa V India at Chennai

by wasim on March 26th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket India

85057.jpg ScoreCard

Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to bat, after 20 overs SA are 77/0. The pitch in chennai  is dead but it might help the spinners, as a result India dropped Pathan and selected Harbhajan for this game, Wasim Jaffer has again been given the vote of confidence despite his six failures in Australia, he will open with Virender Sehwag. 

RP Singh and S Sreesanth also made a come back in the team.

Indian team has already been declared the favorites for this three match series but I beg to differ from this assertion. India did performed well In Australia and their morale is high and the South Africans may not appear to be as strong as the Australians on paper but they do have a much more balanced team then the Aussies, they have beaten West Indies, Pakistan and Bangladesh recently and have won four out of their last five tests as opposed to India who have managed to win only one out of five.

South Africa’s Pace attack is one of the best in the world, Dale steyn might prove to be the X factor in this series he recently broke Alan Donald’s record by taking 100 wickets in 20 matches he is genuinely fast and does not have to rely on conditions unlike his Indian counterparts.

Paul Harris is another key weapon for the South Africans he is not just another left arm spinner he is quite accurate and he is quite capable of drying out the runs, he took 12 wickets against Pakistan last year against the likes of Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf who have thumped Kumble & co at will in the recent past. Indians are generally good against the spinners but they do have a weakness against the good leftarm spinners. It will be an interesting battle to watch, the Indian batsmen will have to attack Harris to take him out of the equation.

SA will miss the services of Nel, Lengeveldt and Pollock the Indians must be relieved. South African batsmen do have a weakness against spinners and at times their batting line up collapses due to poor shot selection and impatience, their bowlers have a tendency to bowl short which on dead pitches against top batting line up can become a weakness. Indian Batsmen will need a lot of courage and patience as South African bowlers are very  aggressive and are always in the face of their opposition.

India on the other hand are missing the services of Zahir Khan and Ishaant Sharma both have not recovered from injuries they sustained in Australia as a result India might struggle in the pace department, in bowling Kumble will have to do the bulk of the work. Their batting line looks good on paper  but Dravid has not played a lot of cricket recently so it will be difficult for him to strike form in the first match, Jaffer and Sehwag didnt score much in Australia, I think India should have persisted with Gautam Gambhir, its difficult to touch India’s middle order but soon enough we will know the form of Ganguly and Dravid. Sachin and VVS will be the key players for India.

Both teams are fighting for the #2 ranking, most of the matches will be high scoring, it is supposed to rain in Chennai so I am not too sure if we will get a result in this match.


 

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Mar28

Sehwag blazed to another triple century

by wasim on March 28th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

Virender Sehwag has smashed the fastest triple century in test cricket, at the end of 3rd days play he was still playing at 309 along with Rahul Dravid  61. Sehwag became the third man to score a triple century more than once, his eyes are now all set on Brian Lara’s 400 although he said that he is not eyeing on Laras record his only focus is to bat till the end of 4th day.

It was an innings of rare quality and character, Sehwag played almost every shot in the book, and battled the South African bowling with utmost focus in exteremely hot and humid conditions, his 309 came off 292 balls with 41 boundaries and 5 sixes, after hitting every boundary he took a single to rotate the strike and controlled his urge to go for another boundary, in a statement he said that being dropped from the test team for almost a year prompted him to concentrate more and this innings although was not planned but he just wanted to do something to cement his place in the team.

His extra ordinary feat has cracked open the match in India’s favor, India should bat till one hour after tea and let the South African bowlers toil in exteremely humid conditions, it might break them for the rest of the series.

Although the Pitch was dead and had nothing in it for the bowlers but still it was an extra ordinary innings from Sehwag, he negotiated Harris intelligently and never allowed him to settle down, Harris kept on bowling a negative line, but Sehwag swept him with utmost ease and never allowed the runrate to fall.

This innings must have damaged the confidence of South African bowlers for the rest of the series. India still trail by 72 runs, a result for this match is highly unlikely it will all depend on how the pitch behaves on the last day.

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Mar29

Out of the frying Pan into the fire

by wasim on March 29th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

PCB cleared Rana Naveed and Mushtaq to play county cricket, both the players have been playing in the rogue Indian league ICL, under a previous mutual understanding between the boards and ICC it was decided that players playing in ICL will not be able to play any domestic cricket, although PCB has not allowed its players who opted for ICL to play domestic cricket neither they were given central contracts, but these two players have been given NOC to play county cricket, a move which has irked BCCI and might start a cold war between BCCI and PCB.

To ban players from playing domestic cricket or play overseas in other leagues cannot be morally or legally justified, these players have every right to earn their livelihood, and they should also have a right to play for their country. BCCI very cleverly manipulated all the other boards and ICC by declaring ICL as a big threat to International cricket and the monopoly of these respective organizations, and created a rival league of its own (IPL) with an initial objective of countering the threats posed by ICL and therefore got the blessings and unanimous support of all the other boards and ICC.

 Now when IPL has been created and about to start its first season most of the cricket boards are beginning to realize that they are out of the frying pan and into the fire. IPL is causing the same problems which were initially anticipated from ICL only on a larger scale, almost two months of International Cricket has been eaten up by this league, PCB is struggling to fill up the gaps created by the cancellation of Australian tour,Newzealand is struggling to get its players on board for the English tour, none of the boards is willing to commit its team to a tour which clashes with IPL dates as they know they will not be able to send their A team as all the major players have been cannibalized by these two leagues.

Domestic Cricket in different countries will also get affected as major players will not be available. All the premium players have been pouched by IPL and all the second string players are playing for ICL, this will have serious financial repercussions for the various boards, between the two leagues 3.5 month of International and domestic cricket and the revenues from it will get dried up. If a board will try not to give an NOC to its players for IPL those player will always have the option to join ICL as a result all the boards will be helpless. Its a win win situation for BCCI and Indian cricket and a total loss situation for the rest of the world.

BCCI is the sole beneficiary of all the financial gains from IPL, whereas the rest of the boards are net losers, both IPL and ICL will capture a major chunk of sponsorship and media rights market, these markets in dollar terms have a certain size and their growth is also limited once they are captured by a particular brand or organization it will be hard for other boards to make inroads. A series of miscalculations have been done by the administrators of ICC and different boards.

  1. If the purpose of IPL was to kill ICL then why its dates do not coincide with ICL?
  2. Why a separate Slot was not carved for IPL in the ICC FTP?
  3. Why ICC or other board members do not have a financial and administrative share in IPL? They are sharing their assets i.e players, and sacrificing their revenue from International and domestic cricket during these 44 days they should have been monetarily compensated.
  4. Why isn’t their a clause where ICC is given control to ban players from a particular country to play for IPL if a particular International series is just cancelled because the players of that particular country want to play in IPL?

Its a fact that no International match or series has been delayed, cancelled or postponed due to ICL, all the dangers which were associated with ICL are becoming reality because of IPL, this league has created so many problems for different boards in just two months who knows how many more problems will be created in the years to come.This straining of relations between PCB and BCCI is just the beginning, if this league is not internationally governed and properly regulated ICC will get disintegrated.

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