The Surfer
Should Pakistan be chucked out of the World Cup?
An English journalist, Ian Wooldridge, suggests there may be calls for Pakistan to be chucked out of the World Cup
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
An English journalist, Ian Wooldridge, suggests there may be calls for Pakistan to be chucked out of the World Cup. Writing in the Daily Mail, in London, he says:
Cricket's World Cup opens next month in the West Indies. I may just be alone in anticipating its start with a violent political explosion — a demand for the expulsion of Pakistan.
If you recall, two of Pakistan's most volatile fast bowlers were found guilty of drug abuse in October. Shoaib Akhtar was banned for two years, Mohammad Asif for one.
Both appealed. Their appeals were heard by Pakistan's Cricket Board without external influence.
Both were exonerated. Both were immediately chosen to play again. Don't tell me this is going to pass unnoticed.
Full postThe truth about ring tones
Most of the Indian players attended the celebrations of Tamil Nadu Cricket Association completing 75 years on January 26
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
 | ||
|
| ||
|
|
|
Balaji's famous toothy smile is there, his thick mop of hair still needs to be regimented regularly but a stress fracture of the back means he has to be in casuals and sit behind the Men in Blue.
Watching the just healed pacers Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar sitting in the front row and remembering the missing faces of Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel and Ashish Nehra, it seemed Balaji's ring tone was more like the signature tune of the fitness-fragile India pace department.
ECB bosses 'don't have a clue about cricket'
Geoff Boycott doesn’t worry about upsetting people when he speaks, and that’s just as well as much of what he says is plain common sense
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
Geoff Boycott doesn’t worry about upsetting people when he speaks, and that’s just as well as much of what he says is plain common sense. As England’s hierarchy puffs and splutters, the national side is fast becoming an international joke. Boycott, writing in The Daily Telegraph, thinks he knows why:
The reason is that there are no cricket people running our game any more. The decisions are taken by men in suits who might do a fantastic job on the business side, but they don't have a clue about cricket. Our domestic cricket is not strong enough or competitive enough. In Australia it's highly competitive. If you don't perform in domestic cricket you don't get picked to play for your country.
And he is again keen to offer his help:-
There is nobody on the panel who knows what winning against Australia is about. Where is Botham, Gower, Mike Gatting, Bob Willis or Geoffrey Boycott? We are not considered good enough to be on the review team. I played in eight Ashes series and only once finished on the losing side, in 1964 my first series. I played in four winning sides - two in Australia and two in England - and three drawn series. It's a better record than England have had against Australia in the last 18 years.
Ponting: Training may offer toughest test
A day after John Buchanan comments (realistic or arrogant, depending on where you stand), Ricky Ponting has told The Australian that Australia’s toughest test at the moment might be on the training ground.
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
A day after John Buchanan comments (realistic or arrogant, depending on where you stand), Ricky Ponting has told The Australian that Australia’s toughest test at the moment might be on the training ground.
"It is all about us stretching ourselves as far as our skills and tactics go … sometimes you can do that in games, otherwise you do it on the training track. If we are not getting what we need to as far as competition goes in terms of these games, we have got to find other ways of doing it."
After today’s farce at Adelaide, you can only think that a net against some local Under-16s might be more taxing.
Full postPress tell England to go home
England’s latest dismal display at Adelaide drew no sympathy from the Australian press
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
England’s latest dismal display at Adelaide drew no sympathy from the Australian press. Robert Craddock writes in the Herald Sun that England might as well not bother turning up for their remaining CB Series games.
Send the England cricket team home and refund all tickets. Give them a fresh batch of OBEs for being Obscenely Bad Englishmen. Enough is enough. Andrew Flintoff is captaining one of the greatest British comedy outfits to visit our shores but people have stopped laughing.
Andrew Ramsey, in The Australian, agrees.
In the era of reality television, the time has surely come for England's cricketers to be voted off this island. Yesterday's submission was so meek and disrespectful that even the most jingoistic Australians were left insulted at England's unwillingness to have a go on the national day.
Was Astle pushed?
Nathan Astle retired on Friday, citing a lack of motivation ahead of the World Cup
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Nathan Astle retired on Friday, citing a lack of motivation ahead of the World Cup. But Richard Boock, in the NZ Herald, reads between the lines and finds Astle's reasoning doesn't add up.
So, what about the idea that coach John Bracewell and the management team have approached Astle, offering to assist him through a dignified retirement rather than announcing that he's been axed? It's certainly worth considering, not only because Astle seems to have lost the hand-eye co-ordination that made him such a threat in previous years, but also because of the remarks he made about retirement last month.At the time, Astle was being interviewed in the lead-up to the first test against Sri Lanka and his comments then contrasted wildly with the slightly rehearsed reasoning he came out with yesterday.
Race slur boomerangs with cricket ads on TV
As the row over claims of racism on TV show Big Brother subside, the Hindustan Times reports that in India TV advertisements for the current India-West Indies one-day series have provoked protests from people who claim they suggest that
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
|
| ||
|
| ||
|
|
|
Ad guru and theatre personality Alyque Padamsee told HT "the ads were disgusting … they certainly encourage racism. It is the ultimate in gadhagiri (idiocy). Just because I love my country’s cricket team does not mean I should hate every West Indian.
Barmy Army give up and go home
In the Daily Telegraph , Iain Payten reports that the Barmy Army are flying home in droves after England’s lacklustre start to the one-day series.
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
In the Daily Telegraph, Iain Payten reports that the Barmy Army are flying home in droves after England’s lacklustre start to the one-day series.
The head of the Barmy Army in Australia, Craig Gill, said last night that organisers had dumped dozens of tickets for the Commonwealth Bank Series with the edict: “Get whatever you can for them”. Easier said than done. Of the 19 spare tickets Gill has for next Friday's Australia-England clash at the Sydney Cricket Ground, only two have been taken.
Perhaps the next major one-day tournament – the World Cup – will prove more competitive. Dene Hills, the Australia assistant coach, has just returned from a fact-finding tour of the West Indies and, according to the Herald Sun, he reports that Australia’s four-man pace attack could be the way to go on the hard Caribbean pitches.
“There probably won't be a lot of spin,” Hills said. “The grounds were more lush than I expected and the pitches were hard. Some pitches haven't started to be rolled yet, so I guess if I had one concern that would be it. But they've got five weeks to go so I'm sure they will be starting to prepare them.”
Reality cricket
In Mumbai today, a match took place in front of the TV cameras that, for the victor, was arguably vastly more significant than the one-day international in Cuttack.
Andrew Miller
25-Feb-2013
In Mumbai today, a match took place in front of the TV cameras that, for the victor, was arguably vastly more significant than the one-day international in Cuttack.
It is only a Twenty20 match played by a bunch of unknowns, in front of a handful of spectators. But one of those spectators is Indian legend Kapil Dev, another is the ex-Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar, and they have the power to eventually grant one of the players involved a full professional contract with Leicestershire CCC.
And far from having had her fill of reality TV at the hands of Jade Goody, the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty is being lined up as a presenter for the UK version
Full postJust keep walking ... or not
The walk-or-don’t-walk debate that began with Michael Hussey’s insistence on leaving the decision up to the umpires has continued with Paul Nixon throwing in his two cents’ worth in The Age
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
The walk-or-don’t-walk debate that began with Michael Hussey’s insistence on leaving the decision up to the umpires has continued with Paul Nixon throwing in his two cents’ worth in The Age. Nixon says even though he’s no walker himself, it won’t stop him sledging Hussey to the hilt.
"If I feel strongly that he's nicked it and not walked I will give him a bit of stick and rightly so. The Aussies would be exactly the same if it was the other way around. I am not a walker. You get the rough with the smooth. But if you don't walk you're going to cop a bit of stick and that is fair enough."
Hussey started the discussion a few days ago in the Daily Telegraph where he explained why he’ll never give up his wicket unless the umpire gives him out. But his brother David Hussey, the Victoria batsman, also weighed in and says his brother should be more honest and walk when he knows he has hit the ball.
Full post