The Buzz
Sehwag cheers at prison game
Virender Sehwag and his opening partner for the forthcoming Australia series, Shikhar Dhawan, took some time off to encourage cricketers on a different playing field
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
Virender Sehwag and his opening partner for the forthcoming Australia series, Shikhar Dhawan, took some time off to encourage cricketers on a different playing field. The duo visited Tihar Jail, the largest prison complex in South Asia, to cheer on inmates at a cricket match. The match was organised as a part of sporting competition organised for inmates.
Full postAstle turns into speed 'bogan'
Former New Zealand cricketer Nathan Astle has stepped up a few gears after giving up cricket, reveling in a love for speedway racing
Rachna Shetty
25-Feb-2013
A quiet post-retirement life isn't everyone's cup of tea. Former New Zealand cricketer Nathan Astle, for one, has stepped up a few gears after giving up cricket, reveling in a love for speedway racing. "I couldn't do it when I was playing cricket. So when I gave up [in 2007] I started thinking about it. [Former team-mates] have me on a little bit because none of them knew I was a closet speedway freak - or bogan. They were quite surprised,"Astle said. The fastest double-centurion in Test cricket has already had some success in his third racing season, claiming the third spot at the South Island championship.
Full postStorm in a tea break
A whiz move by the ECB's marketing department to liven up the innocuous Test-match tea break could set off a fresh round of sniping across the Pennines
Devashish Fuloria
25-Feb-2013
A whiz move by the ECB's marketing department to liven up the innocuous Test-match tea break could set off a fresh round of sniping across the Pennines. For the next three seasons, the time between 3:40 and 4pm during Tests in England will be called the Yorkshire Tea Break. Every tea break would now be made "fun and engaging for the many fans of the game", a Yorkshire Tea representative said. Not, perhaps, the fans in traditional rivals Lancashire. On hearing the news, the Manchester Evening News' cricket writers, true Lancashire loyalists, snapped back on Twitter: Yorkshire Tea have just signed deal with ECB to be the "Official Brew of England Cricket"! Not at Old Trafford it isn't!" Old Trafford stages the 3rd Ashes Test in August and a Lancs CCC's spokesman said politely of the new development, "Of course we will be selling Yorkshire tea, but we would expect sales of coffee to go through the roof as a consequence."
Full postAttend a charity concert to please your mom
Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara are finding a musical way of supporting their charitable causes
Andrew Fernando
25-Feb-2013
For many people, there are few things that matter more in life than brownie points with one's mother, and with the help of Sri Lankan comedian Jehan Ranatunga, Mahela Jayawardene has marketed a charity concert he is supporting as the ultimate way to earn Amma (mother) points. The youtube clip posted on January 31 has Jayawardene providing 10 tips on how to butter up mumsy, including comparing your mother's cooking favourably with other mothers' fare, fixing computers for your mother's friends, and dancing with your mother at weddings. Proceeds from the Ignite charity concert in Colombo on February 2 will go to the Maharagama Cancer Hospital.
Unsurprisingly, the other half of cricket's greatest bromance is doing pretty much the same thing around the same time. Kumar Sangakkara is teaming up with classical crooners The De Lanerolle brothers for a show supporting Sangakkara's Bikes for Life campaign - which provides bicycles to children in rural areas so they can attend school - as well as the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind. Rumour is that sadly, Sangakkara won't be singing, but if a healthy donation is on the line, you never know.
Full post'Longest beer snake' spotted at SCG
The abandonment of Sunday's ODI between Australia and Sri Lanka in Sydney left many dissatisfied but some in the crowd channelled their frustration in a productive way, creating the longest beer snake
Alan Gardner
25-Feb-2013
The abandonment of Sunday's ODI between Australia and Sri Lanka in Sydney due to rain left many dissatisfied but some in the crowd, it seems, channelled their frustration in a productive way. Well, at least if you consider setting a new world record for the longest 'beer snake' productive.
Several Australian outlets, including the Sydney Morning Herald and Big Pond Sport, reported on the feat, which was apparently assisted by a public-spirited security guard. The snake - made of empty beer cups stacked in a long, winding line - was said to have stretched the length of the Victor Trumper stand and cheers went up around the SCG when a notice flashed up on the big screen declaring it a new world record.
The beer snake was estimated at being up to 175m long in some reports and apparently exceeded the mark set at the WACA in 2007. While it isn't possible to accurately measure such constructions, there have already been dark whispers that the Sydney snake would quite easily have been swallowed up by some of the bigger beasts to be occasionally found lurking on Headingley's notorious Western Terrace...
Full postA sub-zero World Cup
Come Sunday, six teams will compete for the sixth unofficial Snow Cricket 'World Cup', in Montreal, Canada organised by the Pirates of the St. Lawrence Cricket Club
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
Come Sunday, six teams will compete for the sixth unofficial Snow Cricket 'World Cup', in Montreal, Canada. Organised by the Pirates of the St. Lawrence Cricket Club, the tournament will see more than 60 members of different nationalities take the field in sub-zero conditions.
"The challenge is as much about not losing fingers as it is about maintaining line and length," says Angus Bell, the founder of the Pirates club. Bell is no stranger to odd cricket pitches. He first played on cricket on ice in 2005, inside a former Soviet missile factory in Estonia while researching his book, Batting on the Bosphorus: A Skoda-Powered Cricket Tour Through Eastern Europe.
The six teams in this year's tournament - Canada, England, Australia-NZ, African Alliance, Asian Bloc and the Celts - will play each other in a Super Six group. A Kyrgyz lady and an Andorran cricketer are expected to take the field on Sunday, giving the tournament a global feel. Bell is backing Canada to win this year's edition. "All the men have been growing beards to protect their faces from the cold, so I know they're taking it seriously," he says.
Full postAbsenteeism at the toss
Sourav Ganguly made Steve Waugh wait for the toss during that famous series in India in 2001; Younis Khan went a step further in the President's Cup final by remaining absent
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
Sourav Ganguly made Steve Waugh wait for the toss during that famous series in India in 2001; Younis Khan went a step further in the President's Cup final between Habib Bank Limited and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines limited, by remaining absent. Instead, it was his deputy Imran Farhat who walked out for the toss with Misbah-ul-Haq. These weren't mindgames, however. Younis was stuck in traffic in Karachi for hours due to a protest march following a terrorist attack in Quetta on January 11; it didn't help that Younis' cell-phone network was not working. He only made it to the ground after lunch, and fortunately for him his team, HBL, chose to field.
Full postICC latch on to Volunteering-fever
Inspired by the London 2012 Olympics, the ICC is enlisting volunteers to recreate a 'fantastic atmosphere' at the Champions Trophy later this year
Alex Winter
25-Feb-2013
The volunteers at London 2012 were lauded as the special factor that made the Olympics as memorable as they were. Thousands of Britons gladly worked in very meaningless roles just to be part of history.
The ICC obviously caught wind of this phenomenon as they are trying to "recreate the fantastic atmosphere and customer service" at the Champions Trophy this June. 600 recruits are being sought to cover the games at The Oval, Edgbaston and Cardiff.
Volunteers will again be clad in team uniform and will be helping deliver entertainment at the grounds, produce and distribute accreditation passes and help dish out tickets, along with the obligatory standing with a where-to-go foam hand. You may even get the chance to play music from your iphone through a loudspeaker to entertain the queuing masses.
Whether the lure of the ICC's No. 3 tournament is enough to rally the kind, generous folk of Great Britain once more remains to be seen but if you're over 18, available for at least four shifts in June and are comfortable with a background security check, click here to help make the Champions Trophy run as seamlessly as London 2012.
Full postWarne in the doghouse, again
Shane Warne’s in trouble, again
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Shane Warne’s in trouble, again. Not long after being fined and banned for one Big Bash League game for an altercation with Marlon Samuels, Warne is £500 out of pocket for a speeding charge in Scotland. He also had five penalty points put on his licence.
Warne escaped a driving ban, though, after he admitted to driving at more than 100 mph on a motorway where the maximum speed is 70 mph. Graham Walker, the lawyer who represented Warne, said the offence was an “error of judgement”.
Full postFrom fours to fore! IPL about to infiltrate golf
Indian golf takes inspiration from the Indian Premier League, with a franchise-based tournament
Alex Winter
25-Feb-2013
One would have thought golf is rich enough and packed full of prestigious events already. And of such a serene nature that only by reverting to the format commonly found on British seaside resorts could the sport have any chance of being open to artificial razzmatazz. But Shiv Kapur, an Indian golfer whose first love is cricket, is having a go and thus, the Golf Premier League (GPL) is scheduled for February 8-10 at Aamby Valley in Pune.
The prize fund is a paltry US$400,000 - a figure you can sweep up on your own for finishing third at any of the four majors - but Kapur is confident in three year's time GPL can attract the sponsorship to get a name like Tiger Woods involved.
Eight city-based franchises are being sold - one of them, the Colombo Sixers, to Mahela Jayawardene - with four players on each team: two Indians, one European and one from a different part of Asia. Darren Clarke, Angel Cabrera, Michael Campbell and Rich Beem, major champions all, will feature in the three-day tournament, encompassing two rounds of strokeplay followed by a final round of better-ball. All of them day-night with a 30-second shot-clock on each stroke.
But a sport won't have felt the breath of IPL on its neck unless major radicalisation takes place. So for the first time since the 18th century, golf will be played over a different number of holes than 18 with only 14 being used to create a three-hour window that will be popular for television.
Full post