India go 1-0 up

India won the first one dayer in Cuttack after a lot of drama and a batting collapse which should not have happened. 212 was a very easy to achieve target even though 3 of the World Cup winners were not present in the team. 

Parthiv Patel has been very lucky to be getting a lot of chances recently (his 4th consecutive series post world cup), but he hasnt seized a single chance to cement his place in the team. He got a start today and threw it again. He can bat aggressively, we all know that but he needs to convert those starts to substantial scores. 

Gambhir should have batted for longer period and he must be very angry with himself to have let gone a very good chance to bat longer in a ODI. Ditto for Kohli, Raina and the captain himself who continued his trend to hit the very first ball to boundary he faces. 

The move to promote Patel as opener was inexplicable given that the best openers were  around to bat. I think Gambhir and Sehwag should resume opening together from Vizag ODI.

Jadeja, a changed player (till now) supported Rohit Sharma (who is redeeming himself) for a good 83 run partnership before the brain fade returned to haunt Ashvin yet again.  He has got a  ridiculous running. His running in Mumbai Test cost India a golden chance to whitewash West Indies and yet again today he showed he is useless when it comes to running. 

Probably when he bats a burning cracker should be put up his ass to keep him on his toes. Or probably a sight of Mumbaikar makes him nervous enough to complete a 2nd run. 

Rohit Sharma fell just before the victory and in the end it was left to the 2 worst batsmen in the side to complete the job. They played out 15 dot balls amongst themselves and in the end with the help of Darren Sammy, they got India home.

It should have been Kemar Roach to bowl that over instead of Sammy, but then he is captain and the decision to bowl himself backfired. 

India won its 10th game in row in home soil  and are now 1-0 up in the 5 game series.

7/19

7/19.

It isnt a typical Lankan bowling figure against an ODI minnow say a Chaminda Vaas or a Murali or even a Dilhara Fernando or the much hyped Angelo Mathews.

This isnt even a McGrath figures against a top class batting side in his pomp.

Its not even an Indian collapse to their old West Indian nemesis. 

Not even new age Australian collapse to South Africa on a swinging, seaming pitch. 

And fuck its not even a typical Pakistani collapse (until 2010). 

This is a Sri Lankan collapse against a  spirited Pakistani team in the hotbed of Sharjah Cricket stadium. Chasing 201 in 50 overs and when scoreline reads 3/148 and your 2 best batsmen are on crease, the odds are that the batting team shall win this game 10 on 10.

But thats not the case with this Sri Lankan team which is under a superb free fall post World cup final 2011. 

Shahid Afridi's one of the best all round performances in ODI history ensures that SL lose their 7 batsmen for 19 runs and go onto lose the ODI series. 

What is now going to be the excuse from Mahela Jayawardhena in his next syndicated column in Cricinfo remains to be seen. 

The SL captains are known to inflate the praise on their teams even in the darkest defeats and they rarely praise the opposition for outclassing them. Same has been observed in this series too against Pakistan.

Even when the wickets were falling, Sanath Jayasuriya who is pathetic in commentary was quoting "Unfortunately Sri Lanka has lost the series".

Their batsmen aint performing, the much hyped Angelo Mathews isnt performing. He did not score runs in the 3rd ODI when it was a stage well set for him to repeat the Australian heroics of last summer. But he didnt. 

The openers are failing, Dilshan's ideas aint working. 

Whats the road ahead for Lankans ? Their next trip is to South Africa. They are touring the country after 9 years.  What's going to be the fate of the so called good team from subcontinent is anybody's guess when this Lankans, so good in their own home turf(doubt if that is true now) are going to face Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.

Probably the soul of Lankan cricket is dead with the retirement of Muralitharan and Vaas, and they are unable to come to the grips with it.

Vinod Kambli's exaggerated fixing claims

Put your head in shame Kambli

Rewind back to 1996 World Cup Semi final in Eden Gardens. 

India vs Sri Lanka. 

SL unexpectedly in the semi finals riding on the back of  hitting from Jayasuriya and Kaluwith'rna.  India on home pitches making a smooth transition to the semis beating the defending champions in Quarter finals. 

A little understatement of the journey of Lanka to the semi final was the fact that they had won most of their games chasing in that tournament. In the quarters they had demolished England on the back of 44 ball 82 from Sanath J.

In Delhi's league game, they had chased down 271 in 48.4 overs thanks to some nasty hitting from the 2 openers and other Lankans. 

So the common sense suggested that the Lankans should be put into bat cos they had a decent bowling lineup, nothing great about it. 

Azharuddin, the Indian captain did the same and invited Lanka to bat first. A dream start followed. Lanka lost both of its openers in first over from Srinath, thanks to some intelligent field placing from Azhar. Lanka then recovered to 251 for 8. India were cruising to a win when Tendulkar was batting tremendously as he had done entire world cup. 

Once he was out, the team lost composure and the scoreline read 8/120 in 35th over.  Manjrekar, Azharuddin, Jadeja, Tendulkar, Siddhu, Mongia were back in the hut and our hero Mr Vinod Kambli was on crease. Crowd trouble began and later on Clive Lloyd awarded the game to Lanka and they made it to their first final and later won it. 

So no signs of match fixing. Not a suspicion even.  Common sense from Azhar made him put Lanka to bat first and that was a correct decision given the way Lankans had chased the targets earlier.  4 quick wickets before 100 on the board vindicated his decision. While chasing Tendulkar made the target look even small. But then the disaster ensued. 

Now after Sir Condon opened his mouth over the tall claims of fixing being rampant in the international cricket in 90s and 2000s, Mr Vinod Kambli, after 15 years of quietness opens his mouth and doubts that the semi final game was fixed. 

Just cos Azharuddin had his name dragged in match fixing episode in 2000, Mr Kambli tries to put the blame again to Azhar for losing that game. And an ugly debate follows. Mr Kambli, the self styled victim, who had earlier blamed Tendulkar for not helping him much in his chequered career, now goes after Azharuddin. He talks of how his career was ruined after that game. 

He says that everyone was stunned by the decision to bowl first rather than bat first. He also said Wadekar, then coach, knew everything. None of his team mates and coach have confirmed his gibberish. 

His Test career was well over before the world cup 1996 started. He last played test against touring Kiwis in the winter of 1995. Perhaps he might want to puke some shit about Courteny Walsh and Winston Benjamin too as those lads sorted him out in 1994 series and since then he never was the batsman who shone after a Bradmanesque average in 1993. He ended up with an average of 54 in 17 tests. After that world cup game he played 35 more games for India in different broken phases. He never could cement his place in the team permanently. He got chances under Azhar, Tendulkar and even Ganguly gave him one final chance in that 2000 series in Sharjah. And post that series, he never made it to the Indian team again. 

He came out of a poor family, to be precise, a scheduled cast family, rose to limelight on the back of that 664 partnership with Sachin in school cricket in Mumbai and the cricket pundits said he was more talented than Tendulkar. In 1992 - 94 his ODI average was more than Tendulkar. He got his first ODI hundred very soon in first few ODIs only. Tendulkar had to wait for 78 games and 6 years. He made 2 double hundreds in space of 2-3 months in few tests, Tendulkar had to wait 10 years for his first double hundred (against NZ in 1999). 

Success got in the head of Kambli and he couldnt handle it. Boozing, clubbing, breaking team curfew, going behind girls (he has had 2 hot wives and thats a big achievement for him given his bald looks) was his strength instead of being in runs on the field. Tendulkar managed success with maturity, never let his priorities  wander besides cricket field and thats why Tendulkar is at the stage where he is and today Kambli has to puke some shit to remain in headlines. 

He keeps saying some Ijaz Butt style statements, good enough to laugh at and  then forget. He has no moral standing of his own, he has no character, he has had a decent cricket career. He stopped playing first class cricket in 2003 or 2004 and then announced his retirement in 2010 or 2011. Who did bother if he is playing or not playing or what the hell he is doing. His image in the cricketing folklore is going to be of a spoilt brat who got his chances (much more than he deserved) but couldnt cash in on any of those. 

He was from Mumbai, the powerhouse of Indian cricket, yet he let that chance go to earn a big name for himself through cricketing records. Instead he chose the wrong way to be in the limelight. By making the fixing claims on that painful game of 1996 world cup, he has let his credibility down and it wont be wrong to label him as Ijaz Butt of Indian cricket.

Ricky Ponting : time to retire now

Ricky Ponting fell for a duck in the first innings of the ongoing 2nd Test vs South Africa. When he should have scoring a 100 to save his career, instead he has fallen for a duck.

And that should be it for his career. The curtain should fall on his illustrious, controversial and colorful career. Ponting the man who led Australia to its decline from the top, the man who led them to a world cup loss earlier this year, the man who lost 3 Ashes, none of the Aussie captains before him lost even one, the man who hasnt scored a 100 in 2 years, a 50 in one year, now should walk in retirement. 

The man who led Australia to all glories when he had a great team to his disposal, something which he got as legacy of Steve Waugh, failed to win a single game when those great players retired.  He lost in England twice, lost Ashes in Australia becoming first Australian captain to lose a series to England in 24 years, he lost to South Africa in 2008, lost to India twice 0-2. Actually he never won a test in India as captain. 

He had a very ugly role to play in the drama of Sydney test in 2008.  He never walked when he had nicked one to the keeper, but was prominent in appealing the catches which were not clean.  He believes he has been good in nets and he deserves chances to get that elusive big innings soon that shall redeem his career. But he is no Tendulkar or Dravid or even Lara.

The runs aint coming to him, his decline which seemed to be a small patch is now a terminal decline. And if he has to be remembered as a great Australian batsman, then he should retire on his own. Else the bloody Indians await and this time they certainly would want to win the elusive series in Australia, which they have failed to do so courtesy Steve Bucknor in 2008 and 2004.  And India would ensure that his career average shall drop even further.

Eden Gardens Test : Day 2

India have scored the highest score in last 11 games for themselves. And also crossed 300 first time after 10 innings. Something that reflects the torrid times the team had in England quite unexpectedly.  The 2nd day at Eden Gardens saw quite a lot of milestones:

1. Dhoni scored a hundred after 32 innings and 21 months on the same ground. Last one being against SA in that hard fought victory.

2. Laxman scored # 17, 5th in Edens and first in 15 months. He also became highest scorer in any ground in India.

And with a mammonth 631 on board, the bowlers did a good job in sending back 2 West Indian openers to hut for only 34 runs. And then bad light came to WI's help. Else few more wickets would have tumbled.

The biggest thorn in Indian flesh is going to be Shiv Chanderpaul and if he is accounted for soon, then India would have a very strong chance to win sooner than the case when Chanderpaul gets going with his irritating (though effective for West Indies) batting style.

There are few questions going to be asked after this Test is over for Yuvraj Singh -- how many more chances he is going to get to prove he belongs at the Test level. He is  the most talked about player right now in terms of players who are insecure or whose position in thet eam is not secure. There are too many incumbents around to take his place and Yuvraj isnt helping his own case with low scores like he has had in 3 innings so far. He might not be coming out to bat again in 2nd innings, but I feel he should be given a free run of 4-5 tests and then a judgement call be made if he belongs to the test level or not. He has rarely got more than 5-6 Tests at stretch to prove himself. Most of the chances have came after Sourav retired in 2008.

And since then Kohli, Raina and Pujara have been tried for # 6, none being successful to make that place his own for different reasons (form or injury whatsoever). Yuvraj should make it to the touring party to Australia where his left arm spin would be handy to break partnerships. India is not going to play 2 spinners in Australia and most probably its going to be a toss up between Harbhajan(experience), Ojha and Ashvin to occupy that slot of lone spinner. Sehwag has a dodgy shoulder and he doesnt bowl that much now as he used to say a couple of years back. So Yuvraj would be one handy person to turn to roll his arm over to break a partnership. Having said that, the primary responsibility of Yuvraj would still be to score runs and score big. And if fails over course of next 2-3 Tests then may be it would be apt to ignore for the future.

I also feel once the holy trinity of Tests is gone, Yuvraj would be one of the replacements, but again depending on how good he comes through this set of opportunities.

And as of Sachin's most awaited 100th 100, the only folks continue to be worried are the mediamen and those impatient fans. The man himself, as Rahul Dravid mentioned, isnt bothered about the impending milestone. The 100 would come when it has to. The media is continuing to create some needless pressure on the man who today completed 22 years in international cricket.

And Rahul Dravid continues to be in golden run of form when he has almost 1000 test runs and 5 hundreds, most by any batsman in 2011. He is all set to finish up with 1000+ runs and 13000 runs by the year end (2 more tests India plays before year end). He is just 21 runs away from the 13000 run mark -- 2nd Indian and 2nd in the world to do so when he reaches there.

More on Peter Roebuck

This is not right time to talk anything on slain Peter Roebuck, but I feel the issue behind his suicide was his own creation. Why does in the world he needs to be so desperate to have pleasure with a Facebook friend of his. When he returned back to the hotel after the dinner with the Australian team on Saturday night, he found SA police (who doesnt choke unlike its cricket team) detectives to question him on an alleged assault.  And the fear of detention (as pointed out by Jim Maxwell, fellow commentator) led him to jump out of the window to end his own life. 

The biggest question is was this desire needed for him to be fulfilled which led him in the trap of police and ultimately costed him his own life? Was it so important? Was it so worth that a life was lost for it? Was the cause so moral to have sought so much importance to end his own life? A life lost for such a futile issue which at best is attributed to inner instincts.  If you can control your instincts, then you can avoid pitfalls like what Peter Roebuck had. Its been an enormous loss. Loss of life, loss of a prodigy in cricket journalism, loss of a complicated soul who was so well respected among the followers of the game and those who play it and those who govern it. 

Was it essential for him to go and invite that Facebook friend for make up?  And that too in a foreign country when he doesnt (in the past context) have a phone number good enough to contact a lawyer or contacts whom he helped and coached in times of despair. 

From what has emerged out in the media, it seems his jump out of the window was out of despair and a strong desire to escape police detention. Perhaps if he had controlled himself, he would have been alive and a life would not have lost for a stupid reason what is being highlighted in the print and electronic media.

Stupid step by Peter Roebuck

In the end it turns out to be that Peter Roebuck committed a suicide in a fit of anger and rage on being quizzed by detectives on a sexual assault charge. What a vague loss of life? And for what ? A suspended sentence handed over good 10 years back? What he if he was not angry and in rage? What if he thought over the situation and let it pass before his emotions got better of him? He would be alive today, may be little bit depressed. But then that state would have passed right with the time and he had been still writing columns bashing BCCI and praising everything Australian even though crap.

This to me looks like a sheer waste of life. Peter, you made a stupid mistake in jumping over the hotel only to end up your life.

Fallen Australian heroes

9/21 for a team that not so long ago was world beater and perhaps the greatest Test team of the modern era. The scoreline of 47 might have saved them from holding the pitiful record of lowest Test score, but it has certainly raised a lot of uncomfortable questions over the ability and composure of Australian team. They have now been bowled over under 100 for 3 times in last 15 months or so in different countries. 98 in MCG, 47 in NewLands and 88 in Headingley.

When ball moves, Australiam batsman shievers. Perhaps Shahid Afridi should have quipped on a moving leg of Aussie batsman on facing Shoaib Akhtar.

There have been demands for axing of 3 players who havent been performing at all. Mitch Johnson, Phil Hughes and the once great Ricky Ponting. 

Johnson has really struggled over past few Tests and hasnt got the wickets a spearhead is expected to. 33 wickets at 43 in 12 tests over 18 months dont do the justice to a bowler who has to step in the shoes of likes of Bret Lee and even Glenn McGrath.

Shane Watson is overworked, he is the best Australian bowler over last 18 months with 3 5-fors but he also opens the batting and that makes him prone to batting failures. 

Their batting isnt the same as it was even in 2008, let alone 2007.  The likes of Ponting are in terminal decline, what it seemed a slump, is now a prolonged decline. Perhaps selectors would need to take a call on his future sooner than later. 

The media back home in Australia is impatient and is gunning for the heads of the fallen heroes of NewLands.

And it would be great that this slump continues till the end of their summer at least India is then able to win its first series in Australia, which they were denied in 2004 and 2008.

RIP Peter Roebuck

RIP  Peter Roebuck.

Staunch Australian commentator, had strong views on the cricketing matters, not very India centric, shocking news about his sudden departure.

Will ICC look into Capetown pitch?

Australia are just past the lowest Test score ever of 26 and are in tatters at 9 down for 30 odd. This has been a spectacular test match in terms of runs scored and wickets fallen. 21 wickets on day 2 for 190 odd runs. Its still a possibility that the lead of 220 odd is a matchwinning one and Australia might still go and win this test. 

But the bigger and relevant question here is will ICC look into the pitch and call for investigation of  Capetown pitch and ban it? They have already banned Kotla, had a look in Galle and Green Park when this 2 nations were involved in a result. 

And its again SA and Aus, so are they going to take some action over this?

Rockstar Ravinder Jadeja

The fake RockStar

The real rockstar -- Sir Shri Ravinder Jadeja Maharaj, the future # 6 batsman in Indian Test team, a worthy replacement of "worst panicker of Indian cricket" -- SC Ganguly.

India vs West Indies : First Test at an interesting stage

India are 124 runs away from a win in Delhi Test.  This has been an attritional Test match, albeit an old school classic. One team ending up dominating a day's play followed up by comeback by the other next day. Something I hope wont be the case on day 4 and in almost session and half India shall be home with a comfortable win in the end. 

The pitch has been slow, low and having variable bounce. Not that it has impacted a lot of stroke playing or resulted in dismissals of a lot of batsmen. If one is ready to grind on this wicket and have patience, the runs scoring would be lot easier. Chanderpaul showed it in both innings, Dravid has shown in both innings aided by Tendulkar in 2nd innings. Sehwag too had said that the collapse in the first innings had to do with the soft dismissals rather than the demon in the pitch.  

India were typical of them in the first innings when they batted, collapsed. Worrisome part is they havent got to 300 more often than they would have liked to in past 8 Tests (starting WI tour, disastrous England tour). 209 is not a  score that reflects the batting might of the line up India has, but it does say of the sorry state of mind India had on day 2.  They self destructed, which they so very often have done in the 2nd part of this year in longest format of the game. It seemed that India were still stuck in the ODI mode. The likes of Tendulkar, Laxman and Yuvraj fell to soft dismissals. Sehwag and Gambhir fell to freak ones.  And Dravid in first innings was setup off a short ball by Rampaul which invoked wild celebrations by WI captain Sammy.

Can you believe 3 wickets in first innings fell to Sammy and he further had a hand in 2 more wickets.  Barring openers and Dravid, none reached 25 and India conceeded 95 run lead. The highlight of the first innings was the approach from Sehwag that showed that he is almost back to full fitness.  Dravid continued his good form and barring that nothing much to write about. Chanderpaul continued to torment Indian bowlers for 10th year in row now which began in 2002. 3 hundreds then followed by 2 this year in back to back tests.  His stance has grown weirder than ever before and he has been dour and ugly to watch. But he continues to make runs, valuable to the team which boasts of youngsters and has inexperienced batsmen.  

Ojha got 6-for and Ashvin got 3. 

2nd innings, West Indies had a chance to extend the lead to 350 plus and shut the door on Indians but they collapsed in the end and except Chanders and Sammy, none of the batters contributed. Ashvin got a dream debut with a 9 wicket haul, 2nd best to Hirwani, current selector.  Ojha got 7 wickets in the match, Ashvin got 9, Yadav got 2 and Ishant Sharma got 2. 

Ishant Sharma impressed with his rythm and pace. He almost got 3 wkts on 3rd morning but for crooked ignorance of Dharmsena to a plumb lbw and a drop catch (tough) from Ashvin, he could just show for 1.  Umesh Yadav showed pace, but leaked runs at critical juncture on 3rd morning just before lunch to ease off pressure on the Windies. Still early days for him in Tests and he would (should) learn in the future.  Both spinners earning wickets mean more bench time for Harbhajan Singh. He going wicketless in Ranji game didnt help his case either.  Except for injuries and dramatic collapse on day 4, the team for 2nd Test shouldnt change.

India's 2 most experienced batsmen are on crease and they would want to ensure on day 4 that they do the job for India rather than leave it to the next 3.  They survived the day 3 with some resolute batting and gritty determination. 

IPL Ashvin has evolved a great deal and I have to eat my own humble pie when I said previously I wasnt a big fan of Ashvin.  He would need to continue to be in the wickets for the remaining 2 Tests to be able to remain in contention for Australian tour later this year. 

Gambhir and Sehwag need to bat longer than just 12 and 9 overs in this game and convert 50-100 to a 100-150 as they did in the past.   Laxman and Dhoni would need to get some runs under their belt too. 

All and all a good Test match with a classic finish in sight.

Ranji form of incumbent Indians

Tracking Test contenders:

Suresh Raina :

Hit a double ton against Punjab. Good show of form, but would depend on how Yuvraj and Kohli fare in the Tests. A comeback seems far off for now. 

Harbhajan Singh

No favors done playing in the Ranji game on a lifeless track. Went wicketless and only delaying the possible comeback for the Tests.

Rohit Sharma

A century against Railways shows good recovery from injury. Could comeback in the ODI team.

Manoj Tiwary

A hundred in the game vs Gujarat would mean he can retain his place in the ODI series should some seniors chose to rest before Australia tour.

100th Ton

Let the 100th ton come in the first inning Tendulkar plays against West Indies in Kotla. A worried media would sigh a big relief.

Jadeja, Spot fixing verdict and the Butts

Ravinder Jadeja has scored a triple century in the Ranji opener against Orrisa at a Sehwagasque strike rate of 83. And that has thrown rumor mills rife at the fact that he would be taken along to  Australia as # 6 batsman and also a part time spinner.  I doubt the wisdom and brains of cricketing selectors in India that they might be tempted to think that Jadeja has now turned completely into an allrounder mode and can contribute in Tests too. Times Of India shamelessly rooted for this chap to be included in tests. The only opening for now in the tests slot seems to be for # 6 with 3 contenders in the team for it and 4th one actually getting fitter.  Jadeja, in selectors' view can become the 5th one.

 

He also took 10 wickets in the recently concluded England ODi series and now has 15 wickets in 8 games since his return. I wonder if he would be still considered to play when the likes of Yuvraj, Sehwag return to the ODI team. 

 

The 3 tainted jailed stani cricketers are now asking for mercy or even considering to file for an appeal against the guilt and sentence. Its been reported in English media that they were even left to tears on hearing the sentences handed out to them. Strange. For 15 months on, from executing the no-balls, they dint show any remorse or accept the guilt. They continued to claim they are framed and are innocent, but now when they are in jail, suddenly they are now religious and their families are talking about GOD n all. Its weird to see that in Pakistan, the evil doers dont hesitate to commit the crime, but when it comes to receive the punishment for it, they suddenly start talking GOD. 

 

The conviction of 3 cricketers has just been a start and this process must go on to find all the crooks and eradicate them. Across all countries including safe havens like middle east which are now home grounds to the Pakistanis.

 

Thats just the tip of the iceberg and whats concerning is the statement from Mazhar Mazeed "65000 pounds paid to Asif to keep him loyal and prevent him from wanderring to the "rival fixing factions in the Pakistan team" ". What does it mean? Are there more cheats and crooks involved from Pakistan?  There are rumors about involvement of Akamals, Riaz and Farhat. Are they true? None of this players are now playing for Pakistan, so are they dropped cos PCB knows in positive about their involvement and have been proactive to drop them or is it just a coincidence that now Wahab Riaz is not even part of touring team to middle east for Lanka ODIs?

 

Who is gonna bring the clown farts sitting in PCB and ICC to justice?  What was ACSU, the "toothless paper tiger" doing all this while since its inception to eradicate the corruption from the game ?

 

What happens to Sir Shri Ijaz Butt? Would he be a party to the crime of spot fixing ? Would he be let off?

 

And with this note, there is to say that Arm Ball is back.

A welcome verdict in Spot fixing saga

The spot fixers are going to jail. And nothing can be better than this. The folks who got the game to disrepute and introduced the term "spot fixing" to the cricketing world and fans are now punished. Deterrent to the future fixers? Not quite? May be the fixing might not happen in England any more. But it certainly can happen in other parts like Pakistan or Dubai or South Africa or even India. 

Given how lax judicial process in India is, any such episode unearthed in India would mean a long judicial trial and a bail subsequently. But thats not the point here. The orchestration of spot fixing saga has ensured the main stars are in the jail. Salman Butt and Mazhar Majeed, the composers and Amir, Asif -- stupid executors are now behind the bars. 

English judicial system ensured the trial was fast track and the defendants were punished promptly. Perhaps we would have expected more stern punishments and something like life bans for all 3 players.  The judge did take into consideration, the bans handed out by the ICC to the 3 folks and that probably reduced the quantum of the punishment to the 3 bastards. 

Amir, being the youngest was laid astray by his captain then and bowled into the plot. Its more of his loss than anybody else's. If he is not mature enough or if he cannot hold onto his temptations for easy money and is lured easily into unethical greed, then he is better off the game of cricket. 1 yr would be gone soon and he would be out of the offenders institute. What would he do next ? He might have been gifted bowler, had exemplary skills as a bowlers, which typically every Pakistani bowler does, but that holds no good if he is sans self control. He is right to say that cricket wont need him when he has served his ban and punishment. Perhaps by that time Pakistan cricket would have unearthed few more Amirs and who knows all of them better than this lad.  He has been able to garner sympathy for his case owing to the poverty stricken background and age, but he was not too young not to judge right or wrong. So he is right to have been punished. 

Mohd Asif is perennial idiot and a top class bastard. Having served ban for drugs, out of the team, lucky enough to be back playing for the team again, he simply didnt value his talent and his superb bowling skills, good enough to trouble any batsman on any track. He almost got into prison in doping scandal, drugs episode in middle east and now he finally ended up in prison in England where he has bowled the BEST.

In the end we can say he is rightly punished. 

Salman Butt is the biggest fucktard and biggest culprit. No amount of sympathy is good for him even on name of Allah or Khuda or anybody else. He should have been by his wife's side celebrating birth of his 2nd child, but instead he was standing in dock to be imprisoned. He as  captain of the team had every control in the world and by misusing his powers he deserved every bit of punishment he has got. He has been lucky to have just got 32 months in prison. It should have been much longer than that. He lured a kid in the corruption, he got the game into disrepute and he just deserved every brickbat and abuse, hatred he is getting. 

There are lot many Mazhar Majeeds roaming around in the cricketing world and nabbing one of them is not going to cleanse the game. All of them have to be cracked down and ensured that they are not able to excersise their influence on the next set of Butts, Asifs and Amirs so that the paying spectator and TV watcher would believe that there was nothing fishy behind a no ball bowled and it was natural rather than spot fixed. 

ICC has to act now sternly than ever before in its existence to ensure the game of cricket which we love is back to its purest form.

Selection anomalies

The first test vs West Indies at home after 9 years is 4 days away and the Test team for it is declared. The usual suspects in batting have returned, the injured players have returned and the selectors have chosen to revamp the bowling attack altogether. They have committed as usual blunders and thats going to cost heavily to the team.

Here are the anomalies:

1. Harbhajan Singh has been dropped from Test squad on the basis of his England Test form and previous ODI form of 2011. He hasnt had that bad tests altogether as selectors think so. He bowled fairly decent in SA and in West Indies before failing in England. The problem with him has been he has had quieter periods with the ball followed by a 3 or 4 wicket haul in Test. The consistency he used to have in 2002 - 2006 days is no longer around. And that probably takes selectors and his critics to think that he is woeful in Tests too.

A look at his 12 month record doesnt paint a very sorry picture that deserved him to be dropped.

Over last 12 months he has played 11 Tests and accounted for 38 wickets at not so decent average of 38. This figures involve a poor return of 2/287 in England. And fairly decent returns of 15 in 3 in SA and 11 in 3 in West Indies.

SA and WI are countries where he hasnt had much of success in the past. Whats worrying though is in last 12 months he's got just 1 5-for. And that was against SA in SA.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/29264.html?class=1;home_or_away=1;home_or_away=2;spanmax1=02+Nov+2011;spanmin1=02+Nov+2010;spanval1=span;template=results;type=bowling

I think he should have been given one more series to prove his mettle and if another failure, then perhaps he should have been then dropped. Alternatively, the second aspect of this drop can be that he would get to play 3-4 Ranji games and if he gets some form in it, that would be handy in Australia as he would be the only spinner to have some experience in there.

Replacements

The replacement for Harbhajan is R Ashvin who showed up decent figures in ODIs vs England. 11 in 5 with most of them holing out to the middle. Not sure if that should count in judging him to be a very good spinner. His carrom balls and doosras were easily negotiated. And basis of this and some decent success in IPL Ashvin has got in the team. Also dont forget that the selection head has pushed out TN openers out of the team and so to keep N Srinivasan happy, he's got Ashvin in the team. Thats for the conspiracy mongers to be happy.

Pragyan Ojha is back after some good performances in domestic circuit and Rahul Sharma is also finding a place in the Test team after ODI team. Worse, he has even got a contract in Grade C with IPL success. Superb!! His domestic record for Punjab is patchy. 18 wickets off 10 games. Average of 45 and best figures of 6/92. Last outing in whites got him 2 wickets in the entire game. Betetr thing would have been he should have playing in Ranji games.

Exclusions

Whats baffling is the ouster of Praveen Kumar. Dunno whats the basis of his ouster. He was the one of the very few performers on that ill fated England tour. 15 wickets in 3 games @ 29 is not a bad performance inviting an axe. 27 wickets in 6 tests with a strike rate of 59 and average of 25 is very good figure for a bowler once touted to be only ODI specialist. What forms the reasons for his ouster are beyond comprehension. Worse, the selectors didnt even offer an explanation if he was injured or has some other constraint. Performance is certainly not the reason why he is dropped. And if it is, then selectors are real jokers.

Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav are supposedly pacy bowlers in the nation and they found a place too soon in the test squad. They havent really been in wickets in the games they played and except for few pace deliveries, they havent shown real hope that they would be knocking the timber off the batsmen.

In absence of Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth, a half fit Ishant Sharms shall be leading the pace attack before the Australian tour.

Ajinkya Rahane shall be confined to the benches unless somebody (2 at least) get injured in the first choice XI.

Yuvraj Singh should find a spot in the starting Xi given he made a 50 in his last test innings before he got injured.

Probable XI :

1. Sehwag

2. Gambhir

3. Dravid

4. Tendulkar

5. Laxman

6. Yuvraj

7. Dhoni

8. Ashvin

9. Ishant

10. Ojha

11. Yadav / Aaron

The other sad aspect is the rushing of the injured players in the team. Sehwag, Tendulkar, Sharma and Yuvraj return from the injury. Except for Sehwag who has played some form of cricket to gain fitness, the others havent played much cricket to prove they are ready for internation cricket once again. Specially Tendulkar who has been busy with waving chequered flag to the Indian GP F1 race and moving to new house. And the mad hype for his 100th 100 would be on once again.

It would be a pity that he would be playing his first test against West Indies in 9 years time. The last time he played was in 2002, the last series WI played in India. He missed the 2006 and 2011 tours to West Indies on the pretext of injuries and rest.