IPL Cricket Forum’s Probables

1.   MS Dhoni (Captain and Wicket Keeper)
2.   Virender Sehwag (Vice Captain)
3.   Yuvraj Singh
4.   Gautam Gambhir
5.   Suresh Raina
6.   Rohit Sharma
7.   Yusuf Pathan
8.   Zaheer Khan
9.   Harbhajan Singh
10.  Pragyan Ojha
11.  Ishant Sharma
12.  Munaf Patel
13.  Irfan Pathan
14.  Robin Uthappa/ Dinesh Karthik/ Ravindra Jadeja
15.  Praveen Kumar/ RP Singh

The first thirteen players select themselves. Irfan Pathan was the one with the sword hanging over him before the start of the IPL, but he has shown sufficient promise with the bat as well as the ball to be in the squad. The only thing left to be seen in the first thirteen is that how serious is the injury that Zaheer picked up yesterday in the match against Bangalore.

If Dhoni isn’t a hundred percent, Dinesh Karthik will get a nod for one of the remaining two spots. If the selectors are looking for another all-rounder, Ravindra Jadeja may get a spot. But Jadeja’s spinning exploits won’t be of much use as conditions in England will aid swing and Viru, Yuvraj, Yusuf and Raina can all bowl spin. And Uthappa’s better technique may have an advantage keeping in mind the conditions. Still, if selectors really push for an all-rounder, Abhishek Nayar with his slow-medium may fit in the frame.

Munaf’s consistency and ability to pitch in yorkers at the death make him a certainty. Praveen has been more reliable than RP lately but RP’s performance on the last England tour might force the selectors to think twice. The one to be left out is going to be on back up for Zaheer.

Dr.Mohit Goyal

http://.goyalmohit.blogspot.com

He entered with style, made a comeback in style and left in style, leaving people asking for more. There are a bagful of achievements to his credit but what Sourav Chandidas Ganguly will be remembered most for is the revolutionary change in mindset he brought to Indian cricket and Indian cricketers.

Previously when Indian teams walked on to the turf outside the sub-continent, everyone thought that a draw would be a more than satisfactory result. It was Sourav who inspired his men into playing fearless cricket and it is his legacy that Mahendra Singh Dhoni carries forward.

Tears barely escaped surfacing as an emotional “Maharaja” crossed the rope one last time in the India jersey at Nagpur. It was a befitting gesture from Dhoni to let Sourav lead the side for the last few overs. As a fan of cricket in general and Indian team in particular it was nice to see the younger lot acknowledge the contribution and achievements of the seniors.

Some news channel reported that the team will be throwing a big party for Dada at the team hotel and that Dhoni had also exchanged his Captain’s suite at the team hotel with Ganguly’s. It is a small but sweet gesture but one that would seldom cross minds of most people in the world.

He deserves every bit of it. After all he is the man who has the biggest hand in the state of happy affairs that Indian cricket finds itself today in. We have always had the talent but players have lacked the tenacity and the aggressive attitude required to tumble tough opponents. Ganguly instilled this tenacity and the self belief that, “Yes we can”.

While his famous T-shirt furling act at the Lords’ balcony demonstrated the tit for tat aggression he stood for, his persistence to include Harbhajan in the 2001 test series against Australia accounted for the belief he had in himself and his men. He provided impetus with attacking shots at the head as India were about to rewrite history with their successful chase of England’s 325 at Lords in the Natwest final.

People may remember him as the “Leader par excellence” and the “God of the off side” but equal charisma lay in his effortless clearing of the fence especially the demolition with disdain of left arm bowlers.

He may have retired and might not be a part of the Indian dressing room but for us Dada is not a cricketer but a phenomenon which will run with the Indian team till they are ready to play aggressive and ready to take the bull by the horns and whenever they say, “Yes we can”.

Mohit Goyal
http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

Former Australian star Adam Gilchrist has called for the inclusion of cricket’s Twenty20 format at the 2020 Olympics, saying it will help secure the global future of the game – reports AFP.
The wicketkeeper-batsman, who after retiring from international cricket  played in the Indian Premier League (IPL), said the International Cricket Council (ICC) must push for Twenty20 to become an Olympic sport.

“It doesn’t matter where the 2020 Olympic Games are held,” he wrote in a column for Indian daily the Deccan Chronicle on Monday.

“But many of us who’ve experienced international Twenty20 cricket and the IPL are convinced that cricket should bid to become an Olympic sport in time for the Games,” he wrote.

Gilchrist, 36, said re-introducing cricket as an Olympic sport would help the sport grow internationally and also boost the Olympic movement in the subcontinent.

“We have a responsibility to grow our game in new territories and amongst the women of the world.

“I believe the Olympic Games is the vehicle the sport should use to aggressively sell the message of our sport to all 202 competing Olympic nations.

“So that our sport is strong and robust in countries where it is currently played, and exciting and ground-breaking in countries who haven’t yet caught the ‘cricket-bug’,” he said.

Cricket was part of the Olympics just once, in 1900, but last year it was recognised as an Olympic sport — the first step towards full admission to the Games.

“With Twenty20 cricket here to stay, now is the time for the 10 full-member nations of the ICC to plan for the development of the sport over the next 100 years,” Gilchrist said.

Gilchrist said winning an Olympic medal would be the ultimate for any cricketer.

“Take it from someone who has won almost everything cricket has to offer — the Olympics is the absolute pinnacle in sport.

“Cricketers won’t care about the money. The chance to stand on top of the Olympic podium, to wear an Olympic gold medal and the pride of belting out your national anthem would be a life-changing money-can’t-buy experience,” he said.

The newest innovation on trial in international cricket is the “Umpire decision review system”. It would be foolish to make the final call so early but whatever has happened thus far has received big thumbs up from all cricketing corners. Anil Kumble became the first cricketer to officially hold his two hands in a “T” manner to ask for a review. It was on the fourth ball of the forty sixth over of the test match on day two when Malinda Warnapura was struck on the pad of a Harbhajan Singh delivery. The bowler and the fielders appealed but to no avail. Captain Kumble then in consultation with the bowler and wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik decided to ask for a review. The on field umpires after consultation with Rudi Koertzen – the third umpire, ruled it in the favor of the batsman.

After that in a Zaheer Khan over when Dilshan was given out caught behind, he decided to ask for a review and when the replays were found inconclusive, umpire Mark Benson reversed his decision. Anil Kumble exhausted his team’s quota when he made two more unsuccessful appeals, one against Dilshan on a Harbhajan ball and another against Vaas on a Zaheer Khan delivery. Sri Lankan captain too had one of his appeals exhausted soon when he asked for a review against Ganguly of an Ajantha Mendis delivery.

Of whatever we have seen, this seems to be a very practical solution to the obvious bad decisions. There have been matches that have been lost due to a couple of bad decisions and this system could definitely make the crucial difference in such situations. The three unsuccessful reviews limit seems to be a “not too much, not too less”. The limit also keeps a check on the number of times a team goes upstairs and prevents uncalled for time wastage. If the decision is reversed is a team’s favor, the review is not exhausted and the limit of three also gives teams to use the rule with fair liberty.

This system could go far in preventing situations such as one which transpired last winter at Sydney between India and Australia. The bowlers who had earlier felt hard done by the umpires will have the chance to appeal and the frustration levels will come down considerably. There is long time still before we have a final say over it but it seems to be a move along the right direction.

Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

With the contest between the bat and the ball getting increasingly lop sided by the day in the favor of the former, its time that administrators look at all possible measures to give the latter some teeth. Pitches world over have got flatter by the day. The Western Australia Cricket Association Ground at Perth which has the reputation of having the fastest and most bouncier pitch in Australia has seen run feasts in the last decade or so. This ground saw 10 wickets or more in a match by a bowler eight times in the first 19 tests till February 1992 but hasn’t seen any in the 16 tests played after that.

One of the things that could help bowlers on dead and docile tracks is a pronounced seam on the cricket balls. The Duke balls used in England and the SG balls in India have a pronounced seam. Everywhere else Kookaburra balls have been used which initially swing more than the two mentioned earlier but absolutely die down after 20 or so overs. The seam on these balls is a lot flatter and its almost spherical shape makes it very difficult for the bowlers to grip it.

Even the seam on the Duke balls has changed with time. Earlier they used the thick Malaysian thread which gave the balls a more pronounced and also importantly a wider seam. The Irish threads used now are thinner and the seam hasn’t remained that wide. The MCC are trying to workout a solution to this problem by either trying to get in the Malaysian kind of thread or stitching an extra row of the thinner thread on both sides.

While the seam of a Duke or SG ball holds up for about 50 overs it only does for 20 overs on a Kookaburra. So if the batsmen can see off the first hour the bowlers have no chance till they get the new ball again. This means that they are unlikely to get the batting team out in 80 overs, which doesn’t make for healthy competition between bat and ball. A Kookaburra is a ball that’s been made for the faster bowlers but as the pitches get flatter the faster bowlers too need to extract movement off the seam and Kookaburra doesn’t aid that.

Fast bowlers haven’t ever found the sub-continent a happy destination but spinners too haven’t found it easy recently in Pakistan and Sri Lanka who have switched to the Kookaburra balls. India still uses the SG balls and England is still on Dukes. Instead of following the pack, the sub-continental countries must use the SG or Duke balls to give a fairer chance to the bowlers. Kookaburra may be used world over in One day and Twenty20 formats where spectators like to see big runs scored but certainly for tests there must be rethink on the issue otherwise draws will draw off spectator interest.

© IPL Cricket Forum

Although Lalit Modi might have got an inspiration or two from the ICL but now copying the IPL seems to have become a fashion. Australia has been the latest to announce their plans and the experts will come up with a detailed report of the format and the logistics by the next month. England announced an EPL and a Twenty20 league a few days back. While Cricket Australia seems a bit more realistic ECB is chasing bucks without any substantial plans.

After ECB revealed its plans the situation as it stands means that after the IPL in April and May, there will be an EPL in June and then England will have its domestic Twenty20 league matches on Friday and Saturday nights of July and August. While the Twenty20 league will involve the 18 counties, the EPL will involve a Stanford XI and the IPL winner besides the counties. Another interesting announcement is that the ECB will field the two teams in Champions T20 through the Twenty20 league and not through EPL. This move is begging for logic. The counties already have two overseas players playing for each of them and the only difference for the EPL is that they will be able to field three overseas players, so how are they different in the two tournaments? They could have easily fielded the top two counties from the EPL into the Champions Twenty20. Instead they decided in favor of an overdose of the shortest format.

There seem to be too many unreasonable things and many questions unanswered about the ECB’s proposal. Even if they go for just two semi-finals and a final after the league phase, the EPL will have more than 90 matches to be played. And even if they stretch it to whole of June, it will mean more than three matches per day. If they are modeling IPL and are looking for huge profits they must be insane to think that three matches per day will generate much more money than one match per day. And, even if they are able to sort this problem out by reducing the number of matches or more likely increasing the duration of the league, a hard fought IPL could make EPL fall on its face.

ECB will struggle finding the same amount of sponsorship money. When it comes to fans, they don’t have the same numbers as IPL does. The cricket fans from India won’t find much fun as the match timings won’t suit them. In IPL the team owners had to bear the expenses of hosting matches but in EPL will the counties bear for five star accommodations of international cricketers?

ECB has also announced a $12 million cap for each team. Only time will tell how it will work out. In IPL such cap was for all the international players but in EPL will it be only for the three overseas players? And if it is for all the players, will Kevin Pietersen be on sale as well? So, if some other county bids for him, will Kevin play say for Sussex in the EPL and Nottinghamshire in other matches? And if an English player has to remain with the same county, why the hell would that county pay him a buck more if they know that the player has no other options? And if the players don’t get the big bucks how the ECB satisfies those who wanted to have the big bucks of IPL?

After the announcement of EPL, Nasser Hussain flaunted his doubts over the proposal and said that, “the players weren’t asking for an IPL, they wanted a slice of the IPL money”.

In the IPL the teams have been sold by a bidding process and they have nothing to do with the domestic cricket teams. So a Rajasthan Royals player isn’t actually playing for Rajasthan but for Emerging Media and thus there is no such situation as of conflict when he plays for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy. While in the EPL as we hear, all counties will take part. So a Kevin Pietersen or an Andrew Flintoff or a Paul Collingwood playing for one county in the EPL and for some other in other tournaments will not go down well one bit with the fans. If they have play for the same counties without option then they won’t get the huge sums of money. If they have provision of salary for England internationals in the way IPL did for icon players, what will some counties with four English internationals do? They won’t have much money left for overseas players.

If this whole article itself has got messy, how messy the whole reality would be?

Dr Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

Indian batsmen had a torrid time trying to figure out what the Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis was up to in the Asia Cup final in Pakistan. They completely failed to read him and faltered big time. Although the batsmen in the test team to Sri Lanka are far more experienced but the unconventional style of Mendis’ bowling warrants caution.

The bowler has more than six types of deliveries up his armory. He bowls an off spinning ball just like any other off spinner and has the Doosra up his sleeve. He bowls finger leg breaks and the googly and the flipper from the back of the hand. The other two balls he bowls is either a flick of his index finger or a flick by his middle finger. The last two balls are the ones that have created furore in the cricketing circles. People are still trying to find out how and where these balls turn.

Indian team’s coach Garry Kirsten has come up with a unique idea to train his batters for facing the carom ball challenge. Reports say that Gary has asked for mud granules to be splattered on one pitch in a camp in Chennai on 13^th and 14^th of this month and he will make the batsmen bat on that pitch.

Time will tell whether this helps or not. But this incident brings to the fore the difference in the mentality of the sub-continental and other players when it comes to playing spin. While the players from the sub-continent like to read out of the bowlers hand or sometimes off the pitch, players from Australia and South Africa mostly read it off the pitch or just wait and watch and remain prepared to take it on pads. The ability of reading spin well has what has made sub-continental batsmen great players of spin but Gary’s tactic might just benefit till the batsmen work out how to read Mendis.

Dr. Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum
http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

Indian Test Team for Sri Lanka – Swot Analysis

Selectors declared the sixteen men squad for the three tests against Lankan Lions in their den. While Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted out of the test series to have some rest, Yuvraj Singh has too been rested if we were to take BCCI’s word. Wasim Jaffer and Irfan Pathan miss the cut while Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha are the new faces in the test format and Gautam Gambhir catches the flight too. Absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni sees Sehwag step into the shoes of the Vice Captain.

India has a very strong batting line up with Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman at numbers three, four, five and six and now Gambhir joining Sehwag at the top. Gambhir’s entry into the test side has been overdue and he wouldn’t want to let go this chance. Jaffer might be a technically more correct batsman but its Gambhir’s positive intent and attitude that will never let him be dominated and fail for long. Dinesh Karthik will probably get a nod ahead of Parthiv Patel on the back of his wicket keeping credentials which will to be at their best keeping to Kumble and Harbhajan.

Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma will be the other two bowlers in the playing eleven. Pacers are unlikely to get much assistance from the Ceylon pitches. They will at the most look to exploit some early morning freshness or reverse swing the older cherry. Sri Lankans have played spin pretty well but the class of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan is sure to have a say at some stage. Still Indian bowlers will find it tough to bowl Sri Lanka out twice in all matches. Sanath Jayasuriya’s retirement from the longer version will however lessen the number of mysteries for the Indians.

The outcome of the series will depend a lot on how Indian batsmen play Murali and Mendis and how much penetrative the Indian bowling can be.

Probable Eleven: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag (VC), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Anil Kumble (C) Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma.

© IPL Cricket Forum

Why cricket needs Twenty20…

Just the other day I was on the sofa watching Roger Fedex Federer play Rafael Rafa Nadal in the Wimbledon final. It was such an intriguing battle. Every point won had as much a sense of glory as was the feeling of agony in every point lost. When Nadal was handed the winner’s trophy, it spurred an endless array of flashes. I just lay on the sofa imagining a similar scene involving an Indian cricketer. But the truth is that cricket doesn’t have the global viewership, the extensive media coverage and hype that sports like Tennis, Soccer and a few others command. There were similar scenes when Spaniard Iker Cassilas lifted the Euro 2008 trophy a week back. I was watching the game and it was so absorbing that I couldn’t even get up for a minute and go grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. The game had been such action packed that even at half time I had to wait for a commercial break in the half time show.

The reason for the high intensity in these sports seems to be the shorter duration of the course of play. A day’s play in one day and test cricket spans over seven to eight hours and its impossible for players to have the intensity of soccer and tennis for such a long duration. An ardent fan of cricket like me would still sit and enjoy watching Murali at his fiercest, bowling maidens and a stern Dravid sweating out to see him off and pounce on others. But this is not what will attract new fans and new loyalties. With time people will only find it more and more difficult to go to the venues for a whole day to watch a one day match or a day of test cricket. Television broadcasts might still have good viewership but definitely not for the whole duration of the game.

The best route of entry for new countries and new fans into cricket is probably the Twenty20 format. Once they start liking this format then automatically they will like the other forms like the fifty over and test cricket. Every cricketer understands that test cricket is the toughest test of a cricketer’s abilities but their need to be followers to acknowledge and praise their accomplishments.

Another interesting fact I came across in a television talk show was that in England, even the test matches have packed houses which was attributed to the higher percentage of middle aged and old aged population who had more leisure time. India on the other hand is a young country and as it moves the demography will change and at some point of time it would in the same phase as the developed countries are in now. Probably that phase will see people having more leisure time and a day out watching cricket would be what they would opt to do. But till then to attract the countries like China, Japan, USA etc to cricket and globalize the sport what cricket needs is probably Twenty20.

Editorial : Dr Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

Suresh Raina

Full name – Suresh Kumar Raina

Date of Birth – 27^th November 1986

Place of birth – Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Teams – India, India Under-19s, Indian Board President’s XI, Uttar Pradesh, Chennai Super Kings

Batting style – Left-handed

Bowling style – Right-arm off break

Under-19 debut – 27^th July 2002 versus England U19s at Cardiff

Domestic debut – 1^st February 2003 versus Assam in Ranji Trophy at Guwahati

International debut – 30^th July 2005 versus Sri Lanka in Indian Oil Cup at Dambulla

Born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh Suresh Raina was the blue eyed boy of Greg Chappell’s dream Indian team. He is a thorough bred cricketer coming through the Under-19 system of the BCCI. Despite the slump in form which was stated as the reason for his exclusion from the Indian team earlier, he still averages more than 35 in all forms and all levels of cricket.

He averages about 46 at the first class level and about 36 in the ODIs he has played. He also averaged over 44 in the tests he played with the Under-19 team. But he still has to prove a lot before he cements his place in Team India. The real test will come when he faces the bounce in South Africa and the swing in New Zealand. Aussies anyway are hot to handle anywhere, anytime.

He makes it to the player of the week scoring 301 runs in three matches at an average of 150.50 at a strike rate of 123.36, hitting two centuries and an 84 and bagging the Man of the Match award in all three matches. He has also been the silver lining in India’s pathetic dark clouded fielding display at the tournament.

Raina lost his place in the Indian side just before the 2007 World Cup. He hit back hard scoring 203 of 217 balls for Uttar Pradesh against Orissa in the first Ranji match of the 2007-08 season. He went 683 runs in the season with two hundreds and three fifties at an average of 48.78. He had a good stint at the Indian Premier League scoring 421 runs at 38.27.

But the things that really did him huge favor in selection for Team India were his excellent fielding and strike rates of 105 and 142.7 in the last Challenger Trophy and the IPL.

He hasn’t made drastic changes to his technique but looks more composed and sure of his off stump. He used to fish at balls outside the off stump a lot but now he either doesn’t go or more often goes with full conviction. He also looks to have more strength in his arms now and big hits are looking effortless.

He would be looking to cash in on the rich vein of form he has run in and with the series against Sri Lanka, the ICC Champions’ Trophy and the Champions League, all in India he will have a good chance to make a foothold before he has to travel to testing territories.

Just looking forward to a many more big hits from him over the mid wicket fence.

Dr. Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum
http://www.goyalmohit.blogspot.com/