finally something happened during 'the asses'... not necessarily on-field... that caught yours truly eye...
calls for shane warne comeback...
some fans have started a campaign to call him back to save ashes...
now the obvious and natural reaction is to dismiss it as stupid over-reaction without caring a glance... but if you scratch beneath this 'stupid move' you might find something concerning...
for once this is fans, the most important yet often overlooked insignificant something, way of telling the board running cricket that they have lost faith in the way they are managing team and to be precise... talent...
of late cricket australia is like a house on fire where every incident or failure on field requires nothing short of maniac moves and reactions... and it is not a surprise that australian team has seen numerous chops and changes that would make even bangladesh proud...
its a statement on the functioning of so called 'world class system'... that forces an injured opener, in katich, to play in first place... thereby admitting they don't have any alternative in their supposedly best domestic structure in the world...
so why not call warne instead then...?
it seems cricket australia are just not sure what they want to do or who their next best men for the job are... so with each failure there must be a scape goat to be found and necessarily sacrificed just to show something is done...
best examples are the dropping of hilfenhaus after just one below par test... when he was the most impressive oz bowler in india...
dropping hauritz after series in india where even the spinner of the caliber of shane warne has found it difficult to either contain or take wickets...
this 'chop and change' at the drop of hat policy has obviously led to so much insecurity in the team that players are not sure whether they will be playing next test or not... how their performances will be evaluated... instead on focusing on the job at hand...
and yet... at the same time they expect the fans to just observe the show like mute spectators sitting on the sidelines...
so rather than dismissing shane warne comeback campaign without caring a glance... cricket australia or for that matter any cricket board must look at why and what prompted fans, their biggest stake holders, to 'stupidly' demand such thing in first place...
why calls for shane warne comeback should be taken seriously...
shared by straight point on Thursday, December 09, 2010
there are many jonathan trotts in every country...
shared by straight point on Sunday, August 23, 2009
but the need is to find them... need is for the system that can find them...
in this age when many youngsters are playing cricket dreaming ipl... when many youngsters are limiting their cricket thinking ipl... there are still some youngsters who wants to represent their nation at highest level... test cricket that is...
jonathan trott is one of them...
it took england the injury to kp... not so great form of some key players and lots of deliberations to discover a player like him who illustrated yet again to many that more than talent its the temperament that will take you far in international cricket...
he may be found out in due course but so will be others... he has talent and more importantly the unflappable temperament that he seems to posses will keep him going and that's where i feel england has found a gutsy player who doesn't need to manufacture all those poses to convey that he means business...
as i said earlier... there are youngsters in every country who have talent as well as temperament to succeed... who relish the challenge of representing nation at highest level... but endlessly waiting for their turn... england found one in the form jonathan trott... owing to injuries and bad form of some established players...
but what will take india and indian selectors to find one...?
where are you CHEteshwar pujara...?!!
andrew flintoff...
shared by straight point on Wednesday, July 22, 2009
what burns more than ashes...fire...
shared by straight point on Friday, July 17, 2009
few days back i talked about that how someone at bcci needs to see ashes for the sake of test cricket health in india...this is what i noted then...
...that given the right media hype...right venues...and promise of a competitive cricket...test cricket's days are far from over...
one aspect which deserves better packaging in india is the branding of india-australia test series...despite having all the necessary ingredients of cricket's fiercest rivalry...somehow the cricket boards of india and australia are oblivious to the potential waiting to be exploited...
BCC! has initiated a campaign that invites all indian cricket fans to feel fu@king deep...reignite that killer instinct...and spell it out...what all you can lose to win the series...
for test cricket sake... hope someone at bcci see ashes...
shared by straight point on Thursday, July 09, 2009
apart from the tight first day at cardiff...what was overwhelming to see that spectators turning in in quite numbers...to re-assure that given the right media hype...right venues...and promise of a competitive cricket...test cricket's days are far from over...
but then there exists boards like bcci too...who is killing the test cricket softly in india...by choosing the wrong venues to play test cricket on...
its not that spectators don't turn up for test matches in india...its also a myth that indian fans are not large hearted cricket fans and can't cheer good cricket by opposition team...
for example...who can forget the standing ovation pak team received in packed chennai stadium after beating india...
its that bcci playing test cricket at wrong venues owing to crappy venue rotation policy...rather than on ones which has tradition of sport loving fans...turning up for a good day of test match...
how i wish them implement this rotation policy, they follow religiously for venues, on some overworked and jaded players specially bowlers...but that's another matter...
they are happy projecting sachin tendulkar raising his bat to empty stadium on achieving never before 12000 runs in test cricket...
they are happy airing empty stadiums while india thrashing world champions at home...as if they don't care about crowd coming in once the tv rights are sold for huge sum of money...
otherwise what can explain that they don't even understand the psyche of their own cricket loving fans...cricketing tradition of their own venues...?
what worse it will impact their inner politics if they fix test venues to say kolkotta, chennai, mumbai and delhi (if its four test series...very little chance they would agree to) and implement the venue rotation policy on odis, t20s, ipls which they play throughout the years...?
this way they will have to compromise the 'vote bank' for only two or three test matches per series and some times not even that...against minimum 7 odis and at least two t20 per series which has become norm of late...and countless ipl games...to compensate for this great 'compromise' they will have to make for saving test cricket in india...
so bcci...is it deal...or am i asking too much...?
ashes: why australia won't win...will win...
shared by straight point on Monday, July 06, 2009
australia will win: coz every player in the team is fighting for his place...apart from ponting (being captain), michael clarke and johnson...
australia will lose: coz too many players in the team are fighting for their place...
hat tip:
som's finger-licking food for thought for ashes...
symonds can still play next ashes...
shared by straight point on Friday, June 05, 2009
all he needed was friends in dressing room who can help him out to the path of rehabilitation...what he got was turncoat colleagues waiting for slightest opportunity to make an issue out of it...
the dickhead he was...he too gave them the what they were waiting for...gleefully...
next we know he is heading back to his 'home' and promised us he won't keep mum...next few days are gonna be interesting...very interesting...
so is this the end of road for him...?
i don’t think so...
he should sign himself as kolpak player for england and target playing next ashes series...and kick the ass out of his 'friends'...
no i am serious...
they know how to handle players like symonds...right kp...flintoff...?
turning ipl into ashes...
shared by straight point on Tuesday, April 21, 2009
i think delhi dare devils and mumbai indians has every ingredient in them...to make for a great ipl rivalry to the tune of ashes...
the tradition...
the players...
the platform...
the fans...
and finally the bloggers...
infact during off season...the franchisee of both can arrange 'home' and 'away' series of say 3 matches to cultivate this ipl ashes...which i am sure gonna be far more intense...
what say...?
ps:
i might have given modi another idea to milk money from...but who cares...
