Tag: Cricket

Cricket is not war

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Sport is not war. Cricket is a game and should be treated as such. In football and hockey many times players get physical. Sometimes football players play karate or kick boxing for which they deserve red card. In cricket scope for getting physical is limited. Some people talk of cricket as of war. They talk of India-Pakistan match as mother of all battles or the biggest battle. That should be avoided.

In a tournament there is one final. There is no final before the final. Some people first talked of India-Australia quarter-final match as final before the final. After that they talked of India-Pakistan semi-final match as final before the final.

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Cricketers and walking

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

There are people who praise cricketers who walk without the umpire having given them out and criticize cricketers who do not walk without the umpire having given them out. A batsman has to do his job and the umpire has to do his job. If a batsman is not out but the umpire gives him out he has to go. Umpire’s decision has to be followed.

Cricket is a team game and when a player represents his country he has to think of the consequences for his team and country. Sachin Tendulkar in the match against West Indies walked even though the umpire ruled him not out. Ricky Ponting in the match against Pakistan did not walk. He was given out by the third umpire after watching TV replay. Ricky Ponting was right when he did not walk.

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Bangalore tie

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Looking forward to the game between India and England today should be a cracker. My prediction a tie.
That was Shane Warne’s prediction about India versus England match on 27/2/2011 which came true.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat. That was a good decision.
India scored 338 runs and were all out in 49.5 overs. They did not bat 50 overs. Two batsmen were run out at the end. The score looked good enough for India to win the match. Vivian Richards said if they can not win this match they can not win the world cup.
The match swung between England and India. When Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell were batting I hoped India would win by one run as Australia had done against India twice. Then wickets began to fall and when England had to score 42 runs off 24 balls to win the match India’s victory seemed assured.
In the 49th over Tim Bresnan reduced the margin before being bowled by Piyush Chawla.
When the last over began England needed 14 runs to win the match. India needed to restrict England to 12 runs to win the match. There was hope for India.

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Boring tournament

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Cricket World Cup 2011 is proving to be a boring tournament. It has 14 teams and spread over 43 days. Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games are of 14-16 days. Football World Cup with 32 teams is about 32 days.

When Cricket Word Cup began in 1975 there were eight teams and four matches per day. The gap between matches was not long. In 1987 there were three matches per day. In 2011 it is one match or two matches per day with long gaps for teams in between. India played Bangladesh on 19/2/2011 and its next match against England is on 27/2/2011. In an ODI tournament a team having to wait for 5-8 days to play its next match is strange.

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India and Cricket Word Cup 2011

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

India hosts Cricket Word Cup 2011. If India wins it will make history. No host country has won Cricket Word Cup. Sri Lanka was a co-host country that played semi-final and final outside Sri Lanka in 1996. India hosted Cricket Word Cup in 1987 and 1996. Both times it lost in semi-finals. Some say Indian…

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Journalists and exaggerations

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Journalists are expected to report facts without exaggerations. They do not have the liberty to exaggerate. Poets and writers of fiction have the liberty to exaggerate. “De Villiers was quick to get to the ball, running Dravid out at the striker’s end by a mile.” (Aditya Iyer — Gambhir, Tendulkar keep India in hunt —…

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Sunil Gavaskar and BCCI

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Sunil Gavaskar claims BCCI owes him money. BCCI disputes the claim. Sunil Gavaskar says he has not demanded dues from BCCI but has sent gentle reminders. If someone says I will pay you X and I say no and he says I will pay you X + Y and I say yes it is not a demand. The payment regards to membership of IPL Governing Council. How much was X and how much was Y? It seems X was one crore rupees per year and Y was four crore rupees per year. X was in writing. Y was promised orally by Sharad Pawar, then BCCI president. How to deliver Y was not decided because of logistics.

M. A. K. Pataudi and Ravi Shastri were also members of IPL Governing Council. When BCCI decided not to make payments to cricketer members M. A. K. Pataudi and Sunil Gavaskar chose to quit and Ravi Shastri chose to continue. How much M. A. K. Pataudi and Ravi Shastri were paid?

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Fall of Lalit Modi

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Lalit Modi is wanted. He built up IPL and got lot of money for BCCI. All was well till he tweeted about Kochi IPL franchise and put Shashi Tharoor in trouble. BJP wanted Shashi Tharoor out from cabinet. Shashi Tharoor being a Congress member had to resign. If he had been a member of DMK or NCP it could have been different.
Congress would have its revenge. There was pressure on BCCI. BCCI suspended Lalit Modi. Lalit Modi was defiant. He did not quit. Court cases followed. BCCI reconstituted IPL Governing Council and Lalit Modi was out of IPL and BCCI.
Continue Reading: http://go4quiz.com/vincent/2010/india/fall-of-lalit-modi/ ?

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ICC and Pakistan

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

ICC suspended Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir on 3/10/2010. Pakistan’s High Commissioner in London Wajid Shamsul Hasan said Indian bookies had framed Pakistani cricketers and blamed Sharad Pawar for suspension. Mohammad Asif’s former girlfriend Veena Malik had blamed Indian photographer Dheeraj Dixit for involvement in match-fixing.

Some Pakistanis see conspiracy in the sting operation by News of the World. They should see Pakistan’s record of inexplicable losses over the years. There have been inquires, sometimes action taken against players for sometime, but most of the times players were back in the team. In 1999 Pakistan lost to Bangladesh in World Cup and Wasim Akram said “We are happy to lose to our brothers.”

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Match fixing and spot fixing

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Pakistani cricketers are in news for match-fixing and spot-fixing. That should not surprise. The way Pakistan had lost some matches was an indication that something was wrong.

Pakistanis have been caught but it is foolish to say only Pakistanis were involved in match-fixing and spot-fixing. Many matches involving different countries raise questions and sometimes the role of umpires needs to be probed. What is passed off as umpiring error could be match-fixing. It could have been going on since the last millennium.

When Sachin Tendulkar was to lead the Indian team to Australia one BCCI official predicted that India would lose the Test series 0-3 and that series witnessed many umpiring errors and India lost the series 0-3.

When Anil Kumble was captain and India toured Sri Lanka there was decision review system. The decisions went in favour of Sri Lankans though TV replays showed that Sri Lankan batsmen who were correctly ruled out by field umpires were ruled not out by the umpire on decision review system. After that series India did not want decision review system. Recently in an ODI Dharmasena’s three decisions were against India. Some felt India should have opted for decision review system. They were naive. All three decisions after review would have been against India.

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