Dhoni drives, Sachin campaigns, Freddie keeps his shirt on
Cricket gets on the MVP bandwagon, Mahi takes the wheel, and Sachin hits the election trail
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MVPs in cricket? England's Professional Cricketers' Association gave the concept currency , and it has now been borrowed by Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket.
Shane Warne, and Ian Chappell before him, described the role of a coach as that of transporting teams to and from the grounds. Mahendra Singh Dhoni perhaps took leading from the front a bit too far when he decided to drive the team back to the hotel after the first day of the fourth Test against Australia in Nagpur. Known to be crazy about bikes, Dhoni decided to try the team bus on for size. It's unlikely the designated driver, obviously not a member of the team, would have refused Dhoni, but one significant question is: did he have the requisite license?
With retirements the flavour of the month, there's one option India's senior cricketers could consider: politics. At the moment it's their clones who are cashing in. Along with a few film stars, a Sachin Tendulkar lookalike is canvassing for votes ahead of the upcoming elections in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. A few households were pleasantly surprised to see "Tendulkar" at their doorsteps last week. "My nine-year-old son Rehan was thrilled when he responded to the doorbell Sunday morning to find Sachin himself standing with three friends," said one of those caught unawares. "I asked my son, 'How come Sachin is roaming here rather than playing cricket against Australia?' Then my husband said he was just the cricketer's lookalike.
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With droughts plaguing Victoria, the state's cricket association has instructed all its premier clubs to shun covers for their pitches, unless told otherwise, the Geelong Advertiser reports. However, rains the first weekend after the new rule was enforced ensured covers were back on. "There are a few bemused curators around because this rule has taken away one of their tools," Geelong administration manager David Barnes said. "The covers can be useful, especially when it's hot, because they can place them over and get a little bit of moisture from the sweating to roll into the wicket.
Antigua hosted the Stanford 20/20 for 20 on its independence day, and the game, as well as a few other remarkable cricketing feats attained in the country, got mention in Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer's address to the nation. Following is an excerpt from his speech, published in theAntigua Sun:
The Stanford 20/20 Super Series is a dramatic punctuation mark to our 2008 Independence celebrations. The EC$54m prize money in the 20/20 game between the Stanford Superstars and England adds another record to the imposing list of international cricketing peaks Antigua holds.
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Sourav Ganguly recently said taking off his shirt and waving it around is something he will never do again. Andrew Flintoff, the man whose shirt-waving in Mumbai in 2001 provoked a similar reply from Ganguly at Lord's the following year, is also staying clear at the moment. "We will have to find some abs in the next few weeks," he said self-deprecatingly. If the two come head-to-head in the IPL, will the shirts stay on?
Most first-class cricketers having represented their team for a season would expect to make it back, even if their performance has been only average. Not so in Barbados, where the selectors have come out with stringent guidelines for players. "All players seeking to represent Barbados at the regional first-class level shall maintain a First Division average of 40 or higher as a batsman or a bowling average less than 15 with at least 35 wickets as a bowler," the document said. The stipulation for one-dayers is that they should "maintain a batting average of between 35 and 40 or higher as a batsman or a bowling average under 20 as a bowler".
"Branded a monkey, but I felt like a wild pig"
The Sunday Herald Sun reveals Andrew Symonds' anguish over how administrators didn't take the racism issue during the series in India in 2007, and in Australia later, seriously
Mathew Varghese is an editorial assistant at Cricinfo