The Buzz
Federer apologises for #BleedBlue marketing stunt
Roger Federer has made a public apology to cricket fans annoyed by his #BleedBlue marketing stunt
ESPNcricinfo staff
23-Feb-2015
Roger Federer has issued a public apology - doesn't everyone these days? - after ill-advisedly agreeing to a Facebook marketing stunt showing him drooling over India's World Cup shirt.
Federer's display of loyalty was to his sponsor, Nike, rather than any affinity with the Indian cricket team, but his comment "Dressing up for a gentleman's game today #BleedBlue" brought such a hostile reaction from some fans that as a non-cricket lover he could never have imagined.
Federer, a 17-times Grand Slam winner, explained: "It was more of a Nike thing to be quite honest. I met some of the Indian players and I had just spent some time in India so they presented the shirt to me. I support South Africa, and everybody knows that. The idea wasn't to spark any fire and I'm sorry if it did that."
Full postUS Embassy mistakenly hails great Afghan victory
Afghanistan's debut in the World Cup briefly brought confusion at the US Embassy in Kabul as they tweeted congratulations on a victory that did not exist with the match still in its first innings
ESPNcricinfo staff
18-Feb-2015
Cricket history will forever relate that Afghanistan's World Cup bow ended with defeat against Bangladesh, but there was a point in the match when at least one observer saw it rather differently.
An Afghanistan victory was prematurely pronounced by the United States embassy in Kabul which seemed under the illusion that they had won the match even though at that stage it was midway through the first innings.
Congratulations to #Afghanistan for their win over #Bangladesh in the Cricket World Cup #CWC15 #AFGvsBAN
— U.S. Embassy Kabul (@USEmbassyKabul) February 18, 2015Watson has 3.6m reasons to smile
Shane Watson's annual earnings are barely 10% of those accredited to MS Dhoni, but he has been named as Australia's top-earning cricketer in a new survey
ESPNcricinfo staff
17-Feb-2015
Shane Watson may have one of the saddest faces in cricket, latterly on show when he made a duck against England in the opening match of the World Cup, but at last he is smiling all the way to the bank according to the latest Rich List for Australian sports stars.
Watson's 2014 earnings are estimated at USD $3.6m, leaving him eighth among Australian sports stars and the top cricketer on the list, ahead of Mitchell Johnson (10th), Michael Clarke (11th) and David Warner (12th).
Australian sportsmen and women rely heavily on overseas earnings in the United States and India to achieve such wealth. Salaries for Watson, Johnson and Warner all topped $1m in 2014. Australia's women do not fare well in the latest survey with only two named in the top 50.
Full postHarmison switches sports to take charge of Ashington
He made his name as a fearsome fast bowler but now Steve Harmison hopes to build his reputation in a different sport - as manager of Ashington football club.
ESPNcricinfo staff
09-Feb-2015
He made his name as a fearsome fast bowler but now Steve Harmison hopes to build his reputation in a different sport - as manager of Ashington football club.
Harmison, who rose to become the No.1-ranked bowler in the world and was part of the England attack that won the 2005 Ashes, will now hope to steer his hometown football club to success.
Ashington play in the Northern League Division One - the ninth tier of English football - and have a history with the Harmison family. Steve played for them briefly as a teenager, his older brother James is a former club captain and their father Jimmy was once assistant manager.
Full postBangladesh schoolboy scores 325 in 50-over match
Mostafizur Rahman Lipu has gone past all school records and scored the first triple-hundred in the Young Tigers national schools cricket tournament
Mohammad Isam
06-Feb-2015
There have been the odd double-hundreds in Bangladesh's school cricket, one of which was scored by current Bangladesh batsman Soumya Sarkar. Now Mostafizur Rahman Lipu has gone past all and scored the first triple-hundred in the Young Tigers national schools cricket tournament.
A student of Lalmonirhat Government High School, Lipu scored 325 in a 50-over match on Friday against Giasuddin High School. He struck 35 fours and 19 sixes at the Sheikh Kamal Stadium, situated in the northwestern town which is about 354kms from Dhaka.
Giasuddin High School were later bowled out for 117 runs, losing the game by 398 runs.
With the World Cup looming and the Bangladeshi batsmen still finding their feet in Australia, wouldn't Mashrafe Mortaza want Lipu in his side?
Full postSohail spooked by hotel 'ghost'
Harris Sohail has had a frightful experience in New Zealand. The Pakistan allrounder was spooked in his Christchurch hotel room, convinced he had felt a "supernatural" presence
ESPNcricinfo staff
27-Jan-2015
Haris Sohail has had a frightful experience in New Zealand. The Pakistan allrounder was spooked in his Christchurch hotel room, convinced he had felt a "supernatural" presence.
Naveed Akram Cheeva, the Pakistan team manager, said Sohail phoned a member of the coaching team to say he had been woken by his bed at the Rydges Latimer hotel being rattled.
Sohail was found shaken and feverish and would not accept the suggestion that it was the fever that had caused the experience. A quick examination by team doctor found nothing to be concerned about. He then moved to the coach's room.
Full postTiger Shoaib appeals to the Prime Minister
Mohammad Isam
17-Jan-2015
Shoaib Ali Bukhari is the Bangladesh fan who paints his body like a tiger, attends most home matches and screams all day from the grandstand at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. He has traveled to India, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe over the last nine years following the Bangladesh team.
Usually he is financially supported by corporate houses, current and former players, board officials and a supporters group for his travels. But this time he has struggled to find sufficient funds in his quest to travel to Australia and New Zealand for the World Cup.
As a result, he has appealed to the country's Prime Minister to help him. In a press conference arranged by a supporters group called BCSA, Shoaib said that he is itching to watch the World Cup in person, and knows that his support is what the team requires. The BCB has assured that he will get match tickets.
Full postKevin's world
Kevin Pietersen has always been a man of the world. And now he has had his own version inked on to his body
ESPNcricinfo staff
15-Jan-2015
Born in South Africa, England's leading international run-scorer, a star in the IPL and Big Bash: Kevin Pietersen has always been a man of the world. And now he has had his own version inked on to his body. KP's world is, perhaps not surpisingly, KP-centric, with a star denoting all the locations where he has scored international hundreds.
Pietersen tweeted a photo of his new body artwork, helpfully pointing out: "It isn't the wrong way around. It's just the reflection!" Eagle-eyed readers will note that while Pietersen has 32 Test and ODI hundreds, there are only 14 stars on show - possibly due to a lack of space meaning he could only fit one on England. But then, KP was always too big for one country to contain.
During the Big Bash, he has restated his intentions to play for England again. But, for now, the likelihood is that Pietersen won't have to update his tattoo in the near future.
Full postPunjab's English-speaking Sundays
10-Dec-2014
Like a lot of Indian cricketers, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh improved dramatically as English speakers over the course of their careers. Halting and diffident when they first started playing for India, they were well on their way to mastering the nuances of "process" and "right areas" when they became established internationals.
Naturally, whenever they found time to play domestic cricket, Yuvraj and Harbhajan tried to pass on their English-speaking prowess to their juniors in the Punjab dressing room, where they instituted 'English-speaking Sundays'.
"Hardcore Punjabis that we are, the first few Sundays were hilarious, as the players would run into the dressing rooms or washrooms or reply with sign language just to avoid the agony of speaking in English," Yuvraj said, during a recent promotional event. "At times, we would end up having marathon runs on the field just to chase the shy players to hear the much-awaited one-liner reply in English.
"We even imposed a fine for every line of Hindi uttered. Some players would give us the fine amount right at the beginning of the day."
Full postThe #putoutyourbats man
It was the hashtag that captured the cricketing world. But where did the #putoutyourbats idea originate? The answer: with Paul Taylor, a Sydney man with just a few hundred Twitter followers
ESPNcricinfo staff
04-Dec-2014
It was the hashtag that captured the cricketing world. But where did the #putoutyourbats idea originate? The answer: with Paul Taylor, a Sydney man with just a few hundred Twitter followers. When he heard the news of Phillip Hughes' death, Taylor walked through his lounge room, picked up his cricket bat and cap and placed them at the front door.
"[I was] overcome with sadness, knowing that there were a whole lot of cricketers feeling the same way," Taylor said on ETFM radio. "How do we convey our emotions? So I took a photo and placed it on Twitter with the hashtag. It was just a simple thing to say, this is a sad day, this is how I'm feeling."
Taylor shared his image on the ABC 702 radio Facebook page and tweeted it to media outlets, and the rest is history. From Sachin Tendulkar to Adam Gilchrist, from the New Zealand and Pakistan teams in the UAE to the Indian men's hockey team, Taylor's gesture was repeated around the world. Even the Google doodle in Australia was turned into a "put out your bats" icon.
"At no point did I ever think that this would happen," Taylor said. "I just took a photo in sadness and used a hashtag -- much the same as many others have done on a daily basis. It wasn't until bed time that I saw the numerous Facebook and Twitters alerts. I said to my partner, I think something is happening with what I did.
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