Cricket Blog

Some interesting tidbits on sledging in cricket:

1. In a Sheffield Shield game between NSW and SA, a Waugh twin was taking an enternity to take guard, asking the umpire for centre, middle and leg, two legs - the whole lot. Then he steps away towards leg side and has another look around the field, before re checking centre. Jamie Siddons, a prolific run scorer who unluckily never played a test is at slip, and decided enough is enough. “For christ sake, it’s not a ‘f*cken test match.” Waugh replies: “Of course it isn’t … You’re here.”
2. In the 1980’s Ian Botham returned early from a tour of Pakistan, and on radio joked “Pakistan is the sort of country to send your mother in-law to.” Needless to say the Pakistanis did not find this amusing, and when Pakistan defeated England in the 1992 World Cup Final, Aamer Sohail told Ian Botham “Why don’t you send your mother-in-law out to play, she cannot do much worse.”
3. In one of the tour matches in South Africa, Australia played Hansie Cronje’s province. Cronje was at the non strikers end, there was a short chubby batsman on strike. Ian Healy yelled to Warne, “Bowl a Mars Bar half way down…We’ll get him stumped” The Aussies and Cronje were all in hysterics, all this was before a classic reply from the batsman. “Nah, Boonie (David Boon) fielding at short leg will be onto it before I can move.”
4. Tino Best, never short of a word or two when he is bowling, was done up like a kipper by the England all-rounder as West Indies slumped to defeat in the first Test. Flintoff saw his opponent preparing to face Giles’ off-spin and shouted: “Watch the windows, Tino!” The wind-up had the desired effect, causing Best to come charging out of his crease like a man possessed. He took a wild swing at the ball, missed and was promptly stumped by Geraint Jones. Flintoff spent the next five minutes laughing, as Best sat on the balcony rueing his stupidity.

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After the poor starts that India have been getting off late in the ODI matches, one begs to question the selection criteria of the team. With Gautam Gambhir injured, I would have expected Sehwag to be brought back into the team. Instead the selectors have gone ahead and brought in Subramaniam Badrinath from Tamil Nadu.

Of course, there are people who would say that Badrinath’s time was due as he has been batting superbly in the domestic circuit. But there are others, including me, who would say that we are not playing against Zimbabwe or Kenya, but against the World Champions. The team needs a player who has the ability, and more importantly the experience, to face up to the giants of cricket.

Quite honestly, I was very impressed with the team selection for the T20 World Cup. But the team selection for the ODI’s has for a long time been stuck with the melodrama of including seniors as they are the guiding force. The Indian team does not need a guide anymore as that responsibility is for the coach and the captain. Unfortunately for the Big 3, they are neither. With continuous failure in the last 6 months in the shorter format and just hints of brilliance here and there, and that is not good enough anymore.

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Harsh words came out from Dilip Vengsarkar, chairman of selectors, after India’s dismal batting performance in the last two matches. None of the Big 3 have done anything, with Ganguly injuring himself in the first match. Tendulkar was showing signs of coming back, however, the form that he displayed in England is nowhere to be seen.

Dravid, on the other hand, quit the Indian captaincy as he wanted to concentrate more on his batting. At the moment, nothing seems to be going right for him and he does seem a little lost. Which makes me wonder if there was more to his resignation from being India’s captain in both forms of the game.

A lot depends on how these three are going to perform and its unfair to the other youngsters who had performed admirably in the Twenty20 World Cup. Vengsarkar has definitely done the right thing by putting these three on notice as a patience is now running thin. After the humiliation in the first two matches, the Indian fans are wondering if the T20 win was just a fluke. Well I sure hope that wasn’t the case. What India needs is controlled aggression and that can only come from the youngsters. The fielding standard has become dismal again - it was extremely refreshing in the T20 tournament.

Can India come back? More importantly, how will the Holy Trinity of Indian cricket respond to this challenge thrown at them by Vengsarkar and the youngsters. I guess we will just have to wait and watch.

Image Source: Indiatimes Cricket 

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Shane Warne recently released his list of the top 50 players, naming Sachin Tendulkar as the best player. Here is the list:

1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Brian Lara
3. Curtly Ambrose
4. Allan Border
5. Glenn McGrath
6. Wasim Akram
7. Muthiah Muralitharan
8. Ricky Ponting
9. Mark Taylor
10. Ian Healy

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