Dhoni and Cook, Two Poor Captains Leading Test Teams, India V England Investec Test Series

It is a no brainer to know who are the two worst captains, especially in test cricket, at the moment. The answer is - Alastair Cook (Captain of England) and MS Dhoni (Captain of India). If you want to see most boring test cricket being played, then watch when these two lead their teams in the field. The game of cricket dies every moment when these two gentlemen take care of it.

So far the Investec test series India V England (2014) has been tied at 1-1 scoreline. India won at lords when conditions were more favorable to English team while England won at Southampton when pitch turned square on last day, the conditions that one would imagine would suit the Indians more than the Englishmen. Such results further put captaincy, rather poor captaincy, in focus. The victories are not result of any strategic intelligence of captains but just a lottery.

MS Dhoni, the captain cool, is a wonderful and proven leader in One Day Cricket (ODI's), but has always been found wanted at test level. Since his contributions are not much to the teams cause in 5 day cricket, it makes matters worse. It is clear that he is in team because he is appointed as captain of India, else he will never be able to make as a player into the team just based on ability, wicket keeping and batting, both. This is sad because there are more talented players than him, like Naman Ojha and Sanju Samson waiting to get chance and show their talent to the world.

Alastair Cook is wide known for his strategical incompetence in the field of cricket. He is someone who is known to let the game drift, so much so that other teams often regain the lost momentum and get into position of strength from that of weakness. Of late he has been struggling to perform as an opening batsmen as well. He had a torrid time against Mitchell Johnson, Australian fast bowler, in Ashes last winter. Cook has not scored a test century in his last 28 innings in test cricket. He showed signs of coming back to form with two half centuries at Southampton. But the fact that innings was full of luck, and chances that opposite team failed to grab doesn't quite give the confidence that he is indeed back in form.

Both captains are dependent on couple of players to get the result in their favor. If Ishant Sharma (now out of injury) doesn't fire for India, India cannot pick 20 wickets to win a test match, it is clear. Same is the case with England. If controversial James Anderson, medium pace swing bowler of England, doesn't get it right, no way England cricket team is winning any game of cricket.

Who will win the Investec Test  series India V England 2014, is anybody's guess. Both teams look equally vulnerable at the moment. Even wins does't guarantee anything. Such is the past record of both these teams, full of losses and defeats, that one cannot rule out them being back to worse once they start to loose a session of play.

Now the cricketing carvan move to Old Trafford, Manchester for the fourth test. Since both captains are tied as poor test captains, it will be no surprise that the match ends in draw, followed by another one at oval with similar result and test series ends in a tie. Although the controversy between James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja, forcing BCCI and ECB to react in a hostile manner, might add much needed spice to contest.

Green Lords Cricket Ground Pitch - Good for India! Indian V England 2nd Test Match lords.

England has decided that they will serve the greenest cricket pitch ever produced on earth to the touring Indian cricket team in 2nd Investec Test match to be played at Lords Cricket Ground in London from July 17, 2014. This is because they believe their own bowlers, like James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Liam Plunkett, and Moeen Ali are of club standard. The way James Anderson. England's medium fast bowler,  cried seeing the Trent Bridge pitch is also the reason for this sudden love for greenery. Also there is an ego in England camp that Indian batsmen can't play on green tops (a notion as far away from truth as polestar from earth).

green pitch being rolled at Lords Cricket Ground, london

But what is England Cricket team (and management) are forgetting is -

• England batsmen are struggling with form. Captain Alastair Cook is horribly out of form along with Ian Bell and others.
• On faster pitches England was chickened out in Australia in Ashes.
• India have a better pace attack, more disciplined than the overrated English bowlers, to exploit the green pitch conditions.
• Green pitch never helps reverse swing bowling and that means the potency of England bowling attack will be greatly marginalized by the conditions.
• England bowlers are tired due to long hall in the field courtsey strong batting performance by India in previous test match.

If one looks at the recent history of Indian cricket, the team has always done well on pitches which have offered some assistance to the bowlers, be it in the form of spin or in form of pace and bounce. If one cast the mind back to last  years Indian cricket team has tested victories in bowling friendly conditions at Durban (South Africa), Perth (Australia), Headingly (England) etc.

The reason for India's better performance in bowling friendly conditions, contrary to belied that they should struggle, is that it covers up the weakness of the team. What is the weakness of Indian cricket team? The weakness is bowling. It is young and inexperienced with Ishant Sharma being the leading bowler. With all the great batsmen in their lineup the Indian team struggles to get out the opposition batsmen on flat pitches. On green pitches, however, the batsmen are good enough to put up decent number of runs on the scoreboard and then bowlers can weave their magic around the technically weak and vulnerable batsmen of other team.

With first test match being drawn team Indian has a great start already. Usually they start an overseas test series with a loss. Now on a green looking lords test match pitch, India will look to do one better i.e. to win this match. History says they have won only one match out of 16 played at Lords (Mecca of Cricket) so far. But after the end of this test match the number of wins will be 2 out of 17, thanks to green pitch.

India V England, Live Streaming, Test Series 2014, Watch live here, Listen Cricket Commentary, Cricinfo cricket

Watch Live Streaming of India V England Test Match Cricket Series 2014

India and England will start off the grueling 5 test match cricket series sponsored by Investic with first match being played at Nottingham from Jun 9, 2014 - Jun 14, 2013. Live streaming can be accessed here. Streaming will include updated scores, scorecard, commentary, and statistics.

India V England Cricket Score

To see the cricket score you can visit this page any time. Cricket score of test match played between Indian and England will be made available to users free of cost. Who won the toss and team for the test match will also be shown here as and when the events happen. The test match will start at 15.30 IST (Indian Standard Time).

England led by cook is most boring test cricket side

England yet again, for the umpteenth time, suffered a humiliating defeat against a minnow Sri Lanka in a recently concluded test series which according to cricket great pundits has been the most boring 2 match cricket series ever. Not only the cricket played was boring but also the teams involved.

It was a pathetic demonstration of how to play cricket (test match) as none of the 5 days in either of tests saw a team completing their full quota of mandatory 90 overs. The overrate was abysmal 75 overs a day. And if you think that was not enough, the empty stands at lords and Headingly cricket grounds at London, frequent drinks break, boring commentary, made it worse.  In fact there were many occasions when the  game of Cricket - so called Gentlemen's game was bought to disrepute by both Sri Lanka and England. The words spoken by the players, in frequent dog fights, were not something a family men would like to hear when sitting with children and elders in his drawing room.

The result showed Sri Lanka won 1-0, but do you know it was not cricket that decided the result, it was a machine o may I say a human made system run by machine called Decision Review System (DRS) that decided the winner. In first test the controversial and inaccurate system benefited Sri Lanka by giving not out to a batsmen and in second test it hurt England when the DRS favored Sri Lanka more than once. True cricket lovers still can't understand what benefits ECB (English Cricket Board) reaps by using such a flawed system. Thankfully, by the grace of GOD, it was a mere 2 match series since many cricket lovers would have fallen sick if it was a 3 or 5 test match series.

England was brutally exposed again, against a short ball, which was not quite delivered at 150 kph this time as in Australia (aka Mitchell Johnson) but by 125 kph slow slow medium Dhammika Prasad. Quite clearly the England batsmen were shivering, as was evident from shaking legs of Alastair Cook (captain of England), Ian Bell, and Moeen Ali (the new comer). Moeen gave so many chances (which Sri Lanka failed to grab) that it is very difficult to rate that innings as an International Level cricket innings. It was full of faulty strokes, third class footwork, and no temperament.

Among the two boring sides it is always difficult to conclude who played the most boring cricket but after little analysis, it is quite clear that England cricket team lead by cook takes the cake. Even Shane Warne would agree on this, no doubt.

It was funny how hard Nasser Hussain was trying to cover up the boring show of England. He said, in his cracked voice on sky cricket commentary - "England plays modern cricket, while Sri Lanka plays old fashioned cricket".

Among all the cricket captains in the world right now Alastair Cook is not only tactically the weakest but also the most boring captain to see in playing field leading his side.

Gautam Gambhir potentially a better test cricket captain than MS Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni or MSD in short continues to remain the captain of Inidian Cricket team even though he has the shameless away record among all the Indian captains thus far. The 8-0 away series drubbing where India lost to mediocre England and bore Cricket Australia's team in past couple of years has had no affect on MS Dhoni's captaincy as he continues to remain the most tactless captain ever. Under him India is likely to loose all the away matches this year as well. This will not be because of lack of quality players under him but because of his inability to use what he has got.

Gautam Gambhir - A Perfect Captain

MS Dhoni continuation as captain of India despite head shaker losses raises a question of two about the availability of resources for captaincy of India. Does India lack players who can lead the national team? After thinking about it - answer is comprehensive 'NO'. Far from it - India has many potentially great captains waiting to get an opportunity to serve the nation. Gautam Gambhir is the front runner in the race. The way he has been able to lift the morale of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 7 after a horrible start to the league is a prime example of his leadership qualities. Some of the international great players like AB De Villers have openly said in press that Gautam Gambhir has a potential to become the great captain. Jaques Kallis, now retired from test cricket, also shares the same view. Only problem with Gautam Gambhir is his own form which is not enabling him to get into the first eleven and hence the captaincy looks far away thing to be had.

Form is not the only thing that denies players to get their true position in Indian cricket, there is politics too. Everyone knows the backing MS Dhoni get from selectors, although Mohinder Amarnath was exception and he had to paid the price for raising voice against MS Dhoni, and has done quite well in limited over cricket. This is another problem in Indian Cricket. If you do some thing well in ODI and T 20 cricket you are considered good for test cricket as well. This is especially true if your godfathers are in cricket commentary who are also the former greats. You might be wondering what commentators has to do with who gets the captaincy or not? It matters a lot in Indian cricket. If a 'kar' and 'tri' says good things about you - no one can replace you from captaincy position. On the other hand if 'kar' and 'tri' don't like you - you won't be in a team no matter however good your performance has been. Then there is 'ogle' as well - master of creating the environment in favor and in against (mostly against) the player. Ask Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, and Ishant Sharma, if you don't know what I am saying, how the comments from Mr. Ogle has made their cricketing career a hell at various times.

They say that all salute the shining sun. MS Dhoni is a shining sun even though he is not the best captain for India at the test cricket level. Bad luck is that he has age and so many other factors backing him. This means that the most deserving players who can captain India, especially Gautam Gambhir, will continue to be kept denied the opportunity captain the Indian Cricket team. India is most likely to suffer another whitewash by the hands of England in the upcoming test series this summer. MS Dhoni might win the IPL 7 for CSK Chennai Super Kings but he will struggle to win a test match series for India, for sure.

IPL 7 has Indian Commentators again Cursing Young Indian Players

Many IPL seasons have gone and this is the 7th one. We have seen some magnificent display of skills by cricketers in the Indian Premiere League both with bat and ball. It has combined with some of the most spectacular fielding efforts, like taking amazing catches, to make the cricket contest worth watching. But one that that has remained the same, much to disappointment, is targeted insult and cursing of young Indian cricketers from Indian Commentators.

It has happened in all the seasons of IPL. Some of the Indian commentators and cricket writers feel awkward in the company of much better and knowledgeable english commentators from overseas. What happens is that they feel that they need to be neutral. So they tend to err on the other side i.e. they tend to bias towards the foreign cricketers and often cross the line many times to insult the young Indian cricketers.

Why Indian Commentators are overpraising slogging of Glenn Maxwell? Yusuf and Samson are
better hitters!

In this IPL Sanju Samson has played some amazing strokes. But to take away the credit and earn more money by continuously telling world that Indian cricket is not good enough to produce great cricketers one of the Indian commentators has termed Sanju Samson as a slogger. We all know that Glenn Maxwell is the real slogger who hasn't had an innings without life in the whole tournament. Yet this Indian commentator describes him a better batsmen than Donald Bradman and Sanju Samson as just a swing and a miss batsmen.

Also notice how in earlier editions of IPL the Indian commentators would keep bringing up the topics related to bowling the commentary more than the batting. This time they aren't even touching on bowling and only concentrating on batting and foreign hitters. Do you know the reason for this? The reason is simple. This time Indian bowlers have done better than the much talked about foreign superstar bowlers. Dale steyn's pants have been taken off by some of the local bowlers by smashing him all over the park. Much insulted indian fast bowlers are the leading wicket takers in this IPL season. So that no one appreciate their good bowling and the agenda of 'India is a worst bowling line up' continues to live on for these commentators to make more money, they have cunningly focused on batting. 

Yususf pathan did more in first edition than what Maxwell is doing this season. Yusuf's hitting was of gold standard than the mud standard of Maxwell. At that time Indian commentators used to say - 'real class of batsmen is known by test cricket,' this time no mention to test cricket is made and commentators are happy to tell to the audience that Slogger Maxxwell will even be a super star in test cricket. How ridiculous.  I have nothing against Maxxwell but how low would Indian commentators go down just to prove that they are neutral.

During IPL t-20 games there are twitter battles and contests going on in which we cast votes to favorite cricketers. Whenever someone like Yuvraj Singh is leading the vote percentage the blood pressure of one of the Indian commentator rises and he says Indian fans are brainless and so many  other things which can't be written on a social blog like this.

T-20 IPL cricket was started to give platform to young Indian cricketers. It is sorry to see that it has become a platform to insult the young Indian cricketers and overpraise the ugly skill less overseas cricketers. Thank god only four of them have allowed per team otherwise who knows what might be extent of insult of players like Sanju Samson from Indian commentators. Sorry thing is that even foreign commentators have lowered their standards of cricket commentary in company of India cricket commentary team.

Sri Lanka Just Lucky To win the T20 world cup

Have you ever seen the lady luck smiling more on anybody than the Sri lanka cricket team? The team that should gave been out in first round itself and should never ever have made the semifinals of world T20 has managed to somehow win the world cup. Even in the final they got lucky as India's best striker of cricket ball wasn't in good form on that day.

Let us see why sri lanka is the most undeserving winner of ICC world T 20. First of all their side is completely imbalanced. The team lacks quality and even few club level cricket teams have more talent than these bunch of egoistic cricketers from small emerald island. The sri lanka cricket fans are bad loosers, a fact well known to everybody. They shout a lot even when they should be quiet because their bowlers have iffy actions while delivering the ball giving them unfair advantage over other teams. In fact if one say that it is 'cheating' he would be the most correct cricket lover ever.

Sri lankan batting is all about slogging. Most batsmen don't know how to hold the bat. Most of them hold it upside down. The worst thing about sri lanka playing cricket is over appealing by their cricketers. Most of them play for money as it is clear from day to day fight between cricket association of sri lanka and its cricket board. There have been news coming from sri lankan news paper agencies that mahela jayawardene and kumar sangakkara wouldn't have played world cup final if the Sri Lanka cricket board not promised a huge sum of money as a prize. Apart from that the sri lankan batsmen are known to play for personal records rather than the team as it is clear from number of double hundreds and triple hundreds scored on flattest cricket pitches in the world. Mahela and Sangakkara who shiver seeing the sight of medium pacer scores almost all of their runs on slow low and flat wickets of Colombo.

Everyone had tear in their eyes when final match of ICC world T20 was over and highlight of the match was the disappointment among the true cricketers who knew that it was not Sri Lanka but their opponents (India) who were the deserving winners of the tournament.

ICC should also take serious action on how the senior sri lankan cricketers make expressions when umpires don't make decision that suits Sri Lanka. World cricket can't affort sri lanlka cricketers insulting umpires in front of audience who have come to watch the cricket match live in stadiums.

India will win ICC T 20 World Cup 2014

I know that this T20 cricket is a mercurial form of cricket. And I am not an astrologer too. Yet I have been following this game ever since I was born. So here is my prediction - India will win ICC T20 2014 and will not loose any match.

Much criticized Yuvraj Singh will hit the winning six
for India.

I am pretty sure that other teams are already dispirited watching India play in this ruthless and commanding manner. While others living in a dreamworld of their own dreaming about how good their batsmen and bowlers are, it is reality for India. Indian bowlers are best in the tournament, never mind what the critics have to say. India have comprehensively beaten the much talked about Pakistan and West Indies, and that too by out-bowling them.

Some of the comments that people born to be critical of India's performance are really funny:

Indian Slog Over's  Bowling is Weak - Really? On what basis? I saw even the much higher rated Australian, South African, and Pakistan bowlers serving waist high full tosses. And it is not that Indian bowlers are not trying it. Actually the batsmen have become smarter and they convert full yorkers into full tosses and smack them for sixes. Batsmen are not servants or slaves of bowlers that they will remain stagnant at one place when the bowlers delivers the ball. It's high time the critics stop making such useless statements. It will help reduce the number of people making joke of them.

Indian Batsmen Are in Hurry - Really? So you want them to emulate that strategy suggested by Sunil Gavaskar. The strategy is to give first couple of hours to the bowlers. Listen critics, if you do that then all 20 overs would have been bowled in that time and there would be nothing left other than to scratch the pole and looking at the poster of Gavaskar. In T 20 cricket you must always look for runs, and doesn't matter if it looks cultured or not.

Indian Batsmen don't drag the bats - Not true at all. This Indian team has better athletes than any Indian team of past. Those who are making such statements must look at the highlights of their playing days. That will make it clear to them how ordinary they were when it comes to running between the wickets.

Oh! It seems I am getting bit out of context as far as topic is concerned. Actually the critics is so critical of Indian cricket that as a true fan of Indian cricket I always like to take them (critics) on and smash them out of park, just as Yuvraj Singh smashes the cricket ball out of stadium.

Now coming to Yuvraj Singh, the strongest man in India (when it comes to character), leave him alone critics. He is a proven match winner and doesn't need any of your advise. Please learn to respect the men who bring glory to the country otherwise there is someone up there in heaven who will seal your fate.

T 20 World Cup Contest Win by wishing Yuvraj Singh

World Cup of Twenty Twenty Cricket i.e T 20 World Cup is about to begin at Bangladesh and you have a chance to win great prizes. It is simple to win. Just wish Yuvraj Singh all the best for the tournament by composing a wish in twitter word limit. Contest Dates (March 14 - March 20).

Post your wishes with the hash tag #YuviWT2. The best wish, selected by Yuvraj Singh himslef, will get signed YOUWECAN mug from YUVI, as claimed by a site on the internet. Your blessings will help Yuvraj hit again 6 sixes in an over, may be 12 in a row.

Yuvraj Singh Seeking Blessings to win world cup

Yuvraj Singh can be officially reached at his twitter account www.twitter.com/YUVSTRONG12  i.e @yuvstrong12, on google plus at https://plus.google.com/104651270798181695001 His website is  http://www.yuvrajsingh.in/.

The contest news is gathered from a facebook page, which has the poster. Participants are requested to verify themselves the genuineness of the contest.

By all means this year's T20 world cup is going to break all the records as far as cricket following is concerned. The TV coverage of world cup will be unique in the sense that it has a potential reach of more than 1.8 billion viewers with live pictures shown by 29 broadcasters - the highest ever figures for an ICC event.


The following facts will make it clear as to why it could be the most live see world cup ever:

• Commentary in more than 20 languages.
• Live Pictures  of 35 cricket matches will reach Europe via Eurosport and as far as Norway, Nepal, Afghanistan and the Pacific Islands.
• Coverage involves 28 cameras, including seven ultra-motion cameras, Spidercam as well as graphics with key analytics, which will make it hard for viewers to take away their eyes off the TV screen.
• All 35 matches in the men's tournament, plus all four of the warm-up matches in Mirpur, will be covered, as well as both semifinals and the final of the women's event.

The tournament will begin from March 16, 2014.

There are many more chances coming you way to win many prizes online during the ICC world T20 event. For the moment you can send wishes to Yuvraj and Enjoy the coffee in the mug if you do win it. Also If you are declared winner do comment on this page so that we can share your name (if you wish) with others, and make them a bit jealous of you!

Take away Sachin Tendulkar Silver Coins facts

 Valuemart Gold and Jewels Ltd in association with Diamond India Ltd presented the first Collector's edition of Sachin Tendulkar Silver Coins to take away for the public.

It is clear that the minted coins are of silver Ag metal.  The more details and  facts about the sachin tendulkar coins and why they are special are listed below:

• Atomic Mass: 107.8682 amu 
• Melting Point: 961.93 °C (1235.08 K, 1763.474 °F) 
• Boiling Point: 2212.0 °C (2485.15 K, 4013.6 °F) 
• Number of Protons/Electrons: 47 
• Number of Neutrons: 61 
• Classification: Transition Metal
• Crystal Structure: Cubic 
• Density @ 293 K: 10.5 g/cm3 
• Color: silver

Many cricket fans are asking the company to take away the coins and instead asking Sachin Tendulkar to come out of retirement and play for India again. Indian cricket, especially batting, is struggling to cope up with the pressure of international cricket and comeback of tendulkar will be of high value to the team.

It will be a silver shining among the dark clouds that loom over Indian cricket at the moment if somehow sachin agrees to pick up his bat again.

The energy levels are surely going to increase with the return of little master, the cricinfo cricketer of the generation. This is clear from the energy levels of silver coins of sachin as well which have 5 energy levels.

1. First Energy Level: 2 
2. Second Energy Level: 8 
3. Third Energy Level: 18 
4. Fourth Energy Level: 18 
5. Fifth Energy Level: 1

Who discovered the silver is unknown, but in case of Sachin's case we know who has invented them. Other facts that I have gathered are :

Name Origin: From the Old English word seolfor (silver).
Symbol Origin: From the Latin word argentum (silver).
Uses: jewelry, photography, electrical conductor.
Obtained From: ores (argentite, light ruby silver, dark ruby silver, brittle silver).
Where can I buy: Online or through the showroom.

All in all one would love to have these coins in the purse, especially when it comes to 1 rupee,  5 rupee, and 10 rupee coins.

There is a news floating around that BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) is also coming up with its own edition of gold coins. But that might be too expensive to buy.

Cricinfo's cricketer of the generation award should have been gone to?

'Cricinfo' or 'EspnCricInfo', a well known sports news website among cricket lovers recently announced various awards including the 'Cricketer of the Generation' award which went to Sachin Tendulkar. But there were other worthy candidates in the race to win the award, including Australia's leg spinner Shane Warne, and South Africa's allrounder Jaques Kallis, both of whom could have won it easily.

Best batsmen of the generation

While it is foolish to argue about  who should have been the real winner, especially when the jury includes former greats of the game like Barry Richards, Rahul Dravid, and Martin Crowe, no one minds if someone puts up his point as to why the award should have gone to a 'looser' than a 'winner'.

Sachin Tendulkar was arguably the most correct batsmen the world has ever seen. The back lift of the bat, straight blade, decisive footwork, elegance and grace and what not, all were there to see in tendulkar's batting. When it comes to dynamics of the batting, the technical aspect, there is no one even close to matching tendulkar. But is this enough to crown him with cricketer of the generation awards? Mind you he scored more runs in international cricket than any other batsmen with that technique of his. So it's not about only looking stylish, the guy produced the runs as well.  He produced runs all over the world in all conditions, from humid chennai in India, to cool london in britain, bouncy Perth, and seaming Durban.

 Jaques Kallis, who in my opinion is the best allrounder a world of cricket has ever seen, his tally of runs and wickets is there for all to see. Kallis would come to batting crease with his head down, approach to bowling crease with his head up, and do what he does the best i.e to score runs and bowl meaningful wicket-taking overs to help South Africa boss the game. There have been many a occasion where this calm and quite looking man has turned the cricket matches around. These were exactly the reasons as to why he was called 'King Kallis'. But then why he ended up not winning the title? May be his performance against the top team of the era Australia in Australia was not up to the mark. May be jury thought he had more quality cricketers accompanying him in the team as compared to tendulkar who had 'none' for most of his career as such the task of kallis was made much simpler than the tendulkar. But I still say that Jaques kallis should consider himself very unlucky not to have become the generation's cricketer.

Best allrounder of the generation. King Kallis,
a great cricketer

Shane Warne, for who I think the slowmo (slow motion) cameras were invented. It was amazing to see the visuals on the television when Shane Warne used to rip a ball and and slow mo camera would show the revolutions on the ball in the air on its flight path. Then suddenly the ball would drop and it will turn one way or the other and it was a delight to see many a great batsmen beaten by the champion bowler. There was a feeling of tension in the air among the opposition  whenever australian captain used to call Shane Warne for a spell. He was magician. His bowling action was clean, something to be jealous of, and his mastery on leg spin bowling was unparallel. He has a shrewd brain as well and it was fascinating to see how he would lure the batsmen into false sense of confidence before completely fooling him. He was always on the hunt. Many former Australian captains think that he would have been the greatest cricket captain ever if he was given the responsibility to captain Australia. So why he failed to win it? May be the controversies he got involved in, or his record in India where Sachin Tendulkar himself took him to cleaners, or also as was the case with Jaques Kallis he too was surrounded by many a great players, especially those fast bowlers.

best leg spinner of the generation

In the end I am as happy as I am sad that Sachin Tendulkar won the title while Jaques Kallis and Shane Warne missed out to become the CricInfo 'Cricketer of the Generation'.

Shikhar Dhawan is going great

In India, if one thing is common across the cricketing fraternity, it is 'Impatience'. It doesn't matter if someone is playing his first match, or is first time playing in overseas conditions, the Indians are always ready to paste label on player's forehead. Raina has been labeled as 'flat track bully', Virat Kohli was almost labeled as 'bad man', and Shikhar Dhawan can be labeled 'useless' anytime going by how things are going round in Indian cricket.

Yes, Shikhar Dhawan failed in both ODIs and test matches in South Africa. But the criticism from former Indian greats and commentators like Harsha Bhogle and Aakash Chopra, in particular about the way Shikhar Dhawan plays short ball, is too much over the top. After all what you are expecting from a career which is just 11 innings old in test match cricket. He is too inexperienced to even take something constructive from this huge criticism leveled against him. It's like saying to dhawan 'Since you have done well at the start of your career despite us claiming that no one coming from India's first class cricket has the quality to play at international level, thus proving us wrong and idiots when it comes to analysing cricket, we will attack you till you loose your confidence and become an ordinary player'. This criticism has never done any good to Indian cricket, but it goes on.

But Shikhar Dhawan is a fighter. He came back punching with two quality knocks of 100 and 98 in New Zealand, and proving that it was just inexperience and nothing else that made him perform poorly in South Africa. Actually this is the story of all young indian cricketers. It is a miracle that despite having not played many cricket matches they have won big tournaments like champions trophy where no one gave them even an iota of a chance.

Actually when there were demands from cricket loving community of India to drop the under performing senior players, the cricket experts always sprung up with excuse that there is no replacement. Hundreds of articles were written to show that these experts know their game and they succeeded in becoming famous. Most of them still troll on twitter. But the new crop of players, when introduces, started performing from the word go. This has irked these cricket experts, no doubt.

A story related to this is call by Sunil Gavaskar to remove Duncan Fletcher from the post of coach of Indian cricket team. Gavaskar is of the view that since the day Duncan took over the mental of coach of Indian cricket the teams performance has dived downhill and the team is now in to the hell. But same can be said about 'MS Dhoni'. Yes one can say that under Mahendra Singh Dhoni Indian cricket team achieved pole position in ICC test rankings, but it is a fact that most of the matches won by India to reach at the top were played at home. As soon as MS Dhoni stepped outside India, he found captaincy a very tough task and he failed to succeed. Now don't say Gary Kirsten would have made the differnce. No! This is because the same thing is true for Gary Kirsten's as well. He coached when India played at home all the matches. Very cleverly he slipped out when foreign tours were about to start. Winning at home was never a problem for India. It is their overseas record which has always been a matter of concern.

Coming back to Shikhar Dhawan, the guy is real hard worker and play with passion. He is very patriotic and his mustache twirl will turn the future of Indian cricket towards good. My humble appeal to all cricket fans of India, and experts too, be patient. Don't always find faults in techniques of the batsmen when world number 1 and 2, Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander are operating at the other hand. There are many technically unequipped batsmen in Sri Lanka and Pakistan side who you call 'Greats of cricket'.

Sri Lanka wins Asia Cup but India is quietly happy

In cricket every victory is like a fuel that keeps the motor of team going by generating extra confidence to clear the coming miles. The Asia Cup tournament is just won by Sri Lanka, as I get the news from cricinfo live, who defeated Pakistan by margin of 5 wickets.

Shahid Afridi, down and out. Over dependence on experienced players
means Sri Lanka and Pakistan has no chance of winning
World Cup 2015.

By going through the comments on article "Thirimanne ton takes SL to title" it is clear tat most Sri Lankan cricket team fans are happy and over the moon over the performance of their cricket team. The Pakistan cricket fans on the same forum seem to be happy for Sri Lankans as they are congratulating them more than what is required, at least it seems so. But what is amusing, or worrying if you are a true supporter of your cricket team, is the claims that some of the people are making that their team is best in the world exclusively on the basis of performance in Asia Cup. May I tell you that - the teams who did qualify for Asia Cup 2014 finals are far from the best.

When all eyes are on world cup 2015 giving too much importance on a regional tournament like Asia Cup is nothing more than throwing dust into one's own eye. At the present all teams in the world have their eyes fixed on ICC world cup 2015. Intelligent team managements, like India, South Africa, England, Australia, and New Zealand are fielding the players keeping in view the conditions that will greet the teams once the tournament starts down-under. This is where good teams make moves and don't mind getting out of useless tournaments like Asia Cup.

If one look back at India's squad that participated in Asia Cup one can clearly see that there was dearth of experience in the team with players like Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and MS Dhoni missing, who otherwise are regular members of the team. India quite rightly used the tournament to find out which of the younger players have enough skills and quality in them which will serve them and who would fare well once the world cup cricket matches start. Sri Lanka and Paksitan, the two finalists, on the other hand kept playing the same old players. While it was Misbah Ul Huq, Shahid Afridi, and Saeed Ajmal who helped pakistan perform well throughout the tournament, Sri Lanka was again dependent on experienced duo of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, along with bowler Lasith Malinga.

While Sri Lankans, and to some extent pakistani, cricket fans might enjoy the good performance in this tournament, there might be bad news coming their way in 1 year time. It is a huge possibility that both Pakistan and Sri Lanka would crash out of the world cup in first round itself. India is happy though as they have used this opportunity and found out which are the new players who are ready to accompany the established players, who have the capacity to perform under pressure, score runs and pick wickets, and hopefully win India the 2015 cricket world cup.

At the moment cricket fans from Sri Lanka and Pakistan are not hesitating to take a dig on Indians but times will surely change and they will surely eat their own words.

The players from Sri Lanka and Pakistan who will fail in next world cup are: Kusal Parera (a flat track slogger), Lahiru Thirimanne (doesn't know how to hold the cricket bat), Mahela Jaywardene (can't play on fast and bouncy pitches), Kumar Sangakkara (too much ego, should fail!), Shahid Afridi ( self destructive), Umar Gul (worst fast bowler in world), Umar Akmal (too much teeth but no runs).

It will be a huge fun when India will lift the world cup trophy in Australia. The blood pressure of cricket fans in Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be out of control and they might again spam the cricinfo live cricket website with hated comments towards the Indian cricket fans. But this is what Indians enjoy the most.

Bumpy Roads Ahead of South Africa Cricket

There is no doubt that if you ask who has been the most consistent cricket team in test cricket during last decade or so, the answer would be comprehensively South Africa Cricket team. The ride for South Africa cricket has been quite smooth thus far. But with retirements of likes of Jaques Kallis, Graeme Smith and with Dale Steyn getting old by the day the South African Cricket team's caravan is likely to find a bumpy road and ride could be quite uncomfortable in coming days.

Even after the recent loss to Australia at home 2-1 in test series South Africa maintain the ICC ranking of number 1 in test cricket. This is an indicator of how consistent they have been in the past. A loss here and there doesn't make different to them as far as ranking of teams in concerned in test cricket. But this could be something that has happened in past and something that might not happen in future. The current crop of South Africa cricketers don't look equipped enough with skills to resurrect their team from such deadly losses.

South Africa will undoubtedly be knocked from their number one ranking - no cricket fan or pundit has an issue with that - that's sport. All teams rise and fall. WI (West Indies) dominated the cricketing world for a while but haven't been there for decades now, Australia dominated for a while but haven't been there for many years now. SA have enjoyed a good patch over the last few years but will also be taken over by another team sometime. At the end of the day the rankings are nice and do show who is playing the most consistent cricket but as long as teams are playing good competitive cricket then fans are happy, especially if team is around the top 3 or 4 in ICC rankings. Does this loss against AUS mean that AUS are now the best team in the world? Of course not - SA are still the best shown objectively by the rankings system. Aus were beaten every now and then during their reign as number one but that didn't mean they weren't still the best team in the world at the time. Aus still have to win many more games before they can claim the number one status again. Same can be said about India, who also won more than they lost when they achieved the no. 1 ranking in cricket.

Great or not, SA played good test cricket for a while. They were the closest to a champion team in all conditions though they failed to beat India in India. But then again, not many teams beat India in India which is why England's feat in 2012 was remarkable. South Africa have some decent players left in the tank but they are ageing. Dale Steyn will only get slower and older, AB De Villiers is already at his peak, Hashim Amla isn't the force he was 2 years back. Then you have guys like JP Duminy and Faf Du Plesis who are relatively inconsistent at test level. Finally, there are youngsters like Elgar and Quinton De Kock who are untested in different conditions. Add to that, SA still don't have a quality spinner. So it will be tough for SA to replicate their successes of the past 4 years. They will still be a good team at home but one is not so sure about their overseas chances.

May be this is the opportunity for South Africa to concentrate on ODI cricket more, than the other forms of cricket. South African cabinet is pretty bare when it comes to collection of  ICC trophies. Despite having a good set of players they have never threatened to win a world cup. ICC cricket would cup 2015 will be great opportunity for the rainbow nation to win the cup if they concentrate and plan towards it from now on.

Recently the South African colts won the ICC U-19 (under nineteen) world cup. Now, with their test cricket going down, South Africa has perfect chance to make forward moves as far as limited overs cricket is concerned. A twenty twenty (t20) world cup in Bangladesh will provide the latest chance tow in a world cup for South Africa. The present set of players in South Africa team also look to be more suited to shorter form of cricket rather than test cricket. May be we will see them winning couple of world cups over the next year or so.

The biggest problem CSA(Cricket South Africa) is facing immediately is to declare a captain for the cricket team. AB De Villiers looks to be the likely cricketer who will take over the reins of South African cricket team captaincy now that Graeme Smith is retired. But this move could be counterproductive as De Villiers is the best batsmen in South Africa cricket eleven and load of captaincy on his shoulders might wear him down quicker than what CSA wants at the moment.

Although the article might seem a bit negative but I will end it on a positive note. Change is inevitable and South Africa should embrace it as they have a core of top quality players to take them into a confident and successful new era. They need to look forward, not mope around lamenting recent retirements and searching for non-existent world-class all-rounders. Six batsmen, a wicketkeeper batsman, a bowling all-rounder and three fast bowlers. Don't believe that a side of Hashim Amla (capt), Elgar, van Zyl, de Villiers, du Plessis, Duminy, de Kock (w/k), Philander, Abbott/Hendricks, Steyn and Morkel will be any weaker than the sides SA fielded over the past 18 months. In fact, given the performances of the retired trio in their twilight years,one can say that 'new model' is a better one than old one.

Graeme Smith Retirement Special

The current South Africa Cricket Team captain Graeme Smith has decided to retire after the last test match between South Africa and Australia. Although Graeme's decision to retire from all forms of international cricket came as a surprise to cricketing fraternity, we must respect him for deciding to call time and wish him good luck for the future.

Graeme Smith, the forthright, direct, and upfront
cricketer

What can one say about this special men. He made a phenomenal career on the back of grit, determination and courage and hard work. He was a brash lad who grew up right from young leader to match winner and quickly became the heartbeat of South African cricket team.

Smith made his first-class debut for South Africa at the age of 21, and ends his illustrious career with 17 228 International runs and as the most capped test captain in the history of the game. He has always been someone who has left everything out there on the field for his team and for his country.

Whether he was a great captain or not is a matter of debate but he certainly lead the very talented bunch of players which itself is some task. As a batsmen his record is pretty good.  Graeme Smith has ended his test career with 9257 runs in 116 matches scoring those runs at a healthy average of 48.72. In ODI format too the batting record of Graeme Smith is envious to say the least. 6989 runs at an average of  37.98 from 194 matches is a decent stat for any modern day opening batsmen especially when you consider the South African conditions. The ball moves in the air and bounces too. Although there is nothing for spinners in rainbow nation but Smith showed batting prowess during his career by scoring plenty of runs in subcontinental conditions in India, Pakistan, and Sri lanka.

I would like us to remember Graeme for his nerves of steel and his match-winning performances that were synonymous with some of the most remarkable fourth innings victory chases of all time.
As a personality Graeme would be remembered as forthright man. His batting style was similarly direct and upfront. Anything down to leg side or slightly drifting towards the pads was sure to disappear screaming thorough the leg side through 'midwicket' fielding position in game of cricket.

Fact that Graeme Smith held the captaincy reins after the Hansie Cronje saga and under the difficult circumstances and again the fact that since then he was able to built the side and make it an extremely competitive side tells something about the character of Graeme Smith. After all if South Africa is currently the no.1 side in ICC teams ranking for test cricket, much credit goes to 'biff' (nickname of Graeme Smith).

Cricinfo puts its better "His achievements as a batsman are significant, but the most important monument to his career is the fact that under Smith, the confidence of South Africans, both within and outside of the national team and its structures, has been rebuilt."

He was favorite bunny of Zaheer Khan, fast bowler of India, but he never tried to avoid his wrecker-in-chief and in fact was able to dominate the bowler on quite a few occasions.

At time Graeme Smith could look ugly as he was never a stylish batsmen. But he was very courageous. Who can forget him battling against Mitchell Johnson with a broken thumb.

South Africa now face the same dilemma Australia did a few years ago - how to rebuild a team when key players decide to hang up the boots. First Kallis, now Smith and who's next? It does tend to happen in clusters. Ab de Villiers is just 30 and being a batsman has a few good years left so that's one player the Proteas can still build their team around, but Dale Steyn is 6 months older and being a quick, injuries and general wear and tear will probably catch up with him earlier. 32 - 33 seems to be about the use by date for most genuinely quick bowlers, but Steyn is clever as well so he might be able to go on a bit further. There is no doubt that is the key retirement that SA should be anticipating and planning for. Philander is never going to blast a team out and Morkel is, well Morkel ! You get the good, the bad and the ugly - sometimes in the one spell! Overall it doesn't look too bad for SA.

Following the recent retirement of Jacques Kallis from test cricket, there is no doubt that South Africa are now ready to move into a new era and it is the job of CSA (Cricket South Africa) to build on the solid foundations that these great players have left behind.

Graeme Smith was a gentlemen and game of cricket would be poorer without him.

Pakistan bowling not as good as cricket fans think, India v Pakistan

I write this column just before the start of crucial Asia Cup encounter between Pakistan and India. Both teams have lost a close game to Sri Lanka and this is like a virtual semifinals. Both team are in desperate need to win this game else the chances of reaching the final of Asia Cup'14 will be as good as over. It's sink or swim situation.

India v Pakistan live score

As always there is a great banter is going on between the cricket fans of both India and Pakistan. Traditionally India have been a strong batting side while pakistan has had few impressive bowlers. Due to their prowess in bowling, the pakistani cricket fans always tease Indian cricket fans and call India's bowling 'a club level bowling' while Indians respond by telling them about 'street level batting lineup'  of pakistan.

While it is true that Indian team selected for Asia Cup is missing many experienced and seasonal campaigners from their squad, likes of MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Yuvraj Singh, and Pakistan's bowling is tipped to bowl out India well before 50 overs of cricket by cricket experts, the reality is far from it.

Pakistan bowling is always talked as if there is no bowling line up equal to it. There are spinners and fast bowlers with unusual and suspect bowling  actions and with it they are able to do things which team like India having bowlers with clean actions can't do.  But despite unfair advantage that Pakistan bowlers have over the years over other bowling units, except Sri Lanka who also have bowlers with suspect bowling actions, they have made no impact on India's batsmen.

In all ICC world cups and other major tournaments conducted by International Cricket Council it is India who has always come out trumps. Indian batsmen not only dominated their Pakistan counterparts but their bowlers have also managed to out-bowl the pakistan's fast bowlers.

In fact there is an argument that India's Varun Aaron and Shami Ahmed are quicker than any of the fast bowlers of Pakistan team.

But fans are fans. With support of tiny Sri Lankan fans the Pakistan fans find no disgrace is passing irking comments towards Indian cricket fans. The disgusting behavior often lead to setting teeth on edge of India's supporters. They will go to the extent that the manipulate facts and present fake cricket records to prove that their team is better than Indian cricket team. If you don't believe me go and see the comment section of espn cricinfo.

Indian bowling is often termed as 'toothless tiger', 'club level', 'street level', by Pakistan Cricket fans. Sri Lanka Cricket fans join them and together they will generate barrage of anti-india comments on cricket forums all over the world.

Fact of the matter is that India has been dominating both Pakistan and Sri Lanka over the last one decade or so, and they (India) is among the top 3 teams in both formats of cricket. India are currently ranked number 2 in ICC cricket rankings of ODI teams while Paksitan is at 6th position which clearly indicates the huge gap between them and also proves that despite so called poor bowling India have been a better team with a proven track record.

Meanwhile I quite enjoy the way the cricket fans go at each other and strain every nerve to get the attention of the cricketing world. There is no love lost between Pakistan cricket fans and Indian cricket fans despite desperate attempts from both sides to bring sanity among the relations of two nations.

Sri Lanka Cricket Fans

Sri Lanka Cricket team won the World Cup of 1996, rather gifted to them, curtsey match referee Clive Lloyd calling their semifinal game against India 'complete' before the schedule close after 50 overs of cricket.

Apart from that they have won nothing and in fact have been quite dismal, both with performance and behavior on field, in years after the win in ICC world cup.

Sri Lanka cricket fans dancing and have rockets
ready to throw on opponent players

Sri Lankan fans are quite ill mannered. They can't digest the success of other cricket teams like India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand which are the only consistently performing teams in ICC cricket tournaments.

The abuse coming from Sri lankan Cricket community can be seen of websites like 'cricinfo.com' where they continuously use words which are otherwise restrictive on other websites. They are full of abuse and hatred against Indian cricket team.

There is a reason for such behavior of Sri Lankan cricket fans. Over the past few years the Indian cricket team has continuously defeated Sri Lanka both at home and away. More importantly India completely outplayed Sri Lanka in 2011 world cup finals to win it for the second time in the history of cricket. Sri Lankan fans couldn't digest it and the got such a jolt in their bodies that they keep making senseless comments against India. In particular they blame that India was involved in 'match fixing' and thereby proving again and again that they are sore looser's.

But if you have seen how a cloth-less man reacts when on occasions he gets a piece of cloth to cover his body you can understand what happens when once in a blue moon Sri Lanka manages to win a cricket match against India. The highlight again are abusive comments on cricinfo when it happens.

Fact is SriLanka cricket team cannot defeat India even in their wildest of dreams. Every good team has a bad day, and it happens with India as well. So when India under-performs against Sri Lanka in cricket on some unlucky day the wilder then wildest dream of Sri Lankan cricket fans come true. And they loose their senses, it seems. Although one might ask when were they really sensible?

Sri Lanka Cricket got test status in 1981 and that is where ICC (International Cricket Council) made a huge mistake. Sri Lanka failed to perform at highest level of cricket and many times their players brought gentlemen's game i.e cricket to disrepute Cricket has suffered because of Sri Lanka.

Although Shane Warne is easily the greatest spin bowler the game of cricket has even seen but stats says that it is Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan who took 800 test wicket compared to 708 of Australia's Shane Warne. But we all know which was spinner among the two and which was not.

After than there have many funny Sri Lankan bowlers with unusual bowling actions like 'Lasith Malinga', 'Ajantha Mendis', and worst of them the current captain of Sri Lanka cricket team 'Angelo Mathews'.

Kumar Sangakkara is well known for not walking even if he has given a straight catch to the fielder and Mahela Jayawardene is a world renowned flat track bully batsmen the cricket has known in its history.

Just like their are voices raising for ban on Sri Lanka cricket in ICC, one hopes there is some sort of punishment or controlling measures being adopted to control the Sri Lankan Cricket fans for abusing other, throwing stones, and breaking stadium chairs. They also once got attacked in pakistan because of their bad behavior.

ODI is a role based cricket game, please understand india

Indian cricket team is loosing most of the ODI (One Day International) cricket matches off late. And as always, experts from India have found a reason of loss in lack of technique of batsmen and poor bowling resources. But things aren't straightforward as that. India is confusing ODI cricket and Test Match Cricket.

Don't underestimate role of finishers in ODI
cricket!

India is of the theory of playing out first 10 overs without loosing a wicket and settle for a score between 20-30 runs and then accelerate later on with wickets in hands. But for that to happen you need finishers in the team. Without Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, there are no finishers in this indian team. India have selected players who might have good solid front foot and back foot defense, and may be who are better looking against short pitch bowling than Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh, but this ploy of selecting technincally good batsmen has messed up everything. With theory of saving wickets at top, you would really like to have players at the end who have ability to attack and cover up for slow and secure starts. Not only Indian team is not getting off to fast starts, as was the case when Sehwag and Gambhir were around, to make matter worst they are not looking secure as well, loosing couple of wickets early.

On the name of technique some very good players have been dropped. Yuvraj Singh can hit 6 sixes in an over and Suresh Raina can hit few of them as well. You need to have that ability even if you can't do it every time.

At top of the order you need someone to get as many as possible in powerplay overs, at least look to do that, especially in subcontinent since it is mighty difficult to do anything against old ball on slow and low pitches and with bowlers like 'Lasith Malinga' and 'Saeed Ajmal' bowling accurately. But Indian Cricket is lost in theories. There are people of 1970's and 1980's sitting in commentary boxes representing India who don't waste any time criticising players if they get out trying to play their role.

Rohit Sharma can easily play freely and go over the top, but he won't do that because he knows that someone sitting in commentary box will reprimand him if he gets out trying to play his role, even make him look like a schoolboy with his words and blame him of not having elementary cricket knowledge. Interestingly, the same man would praise and shower all the appreciation on Kusal Perera and Shahid Afridi if they slog a few terming it as good strategy and as per their role.

India has never given respect to someone who has maintained average of 35 (more than Mahela Jaywardene's) and strike rate of 95 (again more than Mahela Jaywardene's) over 200 caps. On the name of bad technique and how a player looks suspect against a bouncy ball, India is quite happy to drop their finishers and instead select those who might look a bit solid but can never get as many as India needs to achieve a safe score.

Ajinkya Rahane has had a good start to its test career. According to theory of Indian cricket pundits "one who is good test players is surely a good ODI player," but it is not true always. Ajinkya Rahane has looked tense and incapable to consistently do what Suresh Raina did with good consistency, and that is to get those 35 runs at strike rate of 100 in slog overs. It requires skills, a different skill than may be what is required in test cricket.

But Indian Cricket is confused. They fail to understand that ODI cricket is a role based cricket. You need cricketers who can maximize the first 10 overs, consolidate the mid innings, and then finish their batting with a bang.

Much blame of it goes to commentators like Hasrha Bhogle, Aakash Chopra, Sunil Gavaskar, and Ravi Shastri. Their old theories and the environment that it creates, is not helping indian cricket at all.

Harsha Bhogle says: "We are going back to times when people used to take time in first 15 overs," Really? Jesse Ryder, Kusal Perera, Quinton De Kock all are trying to get as many as possible in first few overs. Let Indian openers do that, and please don't impose your theory so much that they don't even try to attack a bit.

Cricinfo cricket score with commentary

If you want to follow all the news about cricket, get cricket statistics and remain updated with live cricket scores then see cricket score (i.e cricinfo like cricket blog) is the best resource available.

The best thing about 'cricinfo' is  that it is completely focused on game of cricket. Not only one gets to know about international cricket matches which are being played currently but also schedule of future cricket matches is available.

There has been huge fan following of "Cricinfo", also known as "EspnCricInfo", and it can be easily gauged by the number of people making comments on various cricket articles that are published.

The best thing about 'cricinfo' is that every cricket fan can go through player's statistics and records. There is an online tool that allows to mine into the career statistics of cricketers. Statsguru is Cricinfo's searchable cricket statistics database.

As one can see from picture above that one can search for cricket stats of players in all formats of cricket i.e Tests, ODIs, T20Is, All for Batting, Bowling, Fielding, All-round, Partnership, Team performances across 30 random parameters. It is probably the most useful tool to dig into cricket statistics of men and women cricket.

Apart from stats there is a record section where ESPN Cricinfo provides records by team for one day internationals and test matches for all players. What I like is the section where one can go through records by tournament or trophy. For example, one can easily fins all the 'Ashes', 'Border-Gavaskar trophy', 'Champions Trophy', 'World Cup' cricket records.

Records by calendar year, records by ground are also available to make it easy for cricket fans to enhance their cricket knowledge. The cricket information thus provided on Cricinfo is up-to-date and it can be relied upon.

It is truly a marvelous cricketing website. I really enjoy the 'features' section where cricketers of past like Ian Chappell, Rahul Dravid, Martin Crowe, Mark Nicholas speak their mind on cricket. You will also find cricket columns by renowned cricket journalists and reporters like Sharda Ugra, David Hopps, Brydone Coverdale, ED Smith, Rob Steen, Christian Ryan, Ed Cowan, Daniel Brettig, and others. There is also a section called guest column where cricket fans can submit their own articles on cricket and thereby have a chance to express their own views.

To keep visitors engaged cricinfo.com has a trivia section where cricket fans have a chance to test their cricketing wisdom. For example a trivia might throw up a question:

 "Since 1990, how many times have teams been bowled out for less than 100 runs in an innings in Tests?"

OR

"Who has won the most man of the match awards in defeats in ODI's?"

There is a cricket fantasy cricket show and one can part into cricket fantasy game and score points to win some great gifts.

If you want to download cricket videos and wallpapers of cricketers than those are also available on the cricinfo website.

Varun Aaron fast, fearsome bowler of Indian Cricket deserve some respect

Varun Aaron has played only 19 first class game, so if he misses his line and length a bit, it is very understandable. But he has what India is looking for years - PACE!

Varun Aaron clocked 155 kph, faster ever ball from Indian fast bowler
in cricket

Yesterday in match between India and Bangladesh in Asia Cup at Fatullah, Varun Aaron averaged 145 kph on speed gun. He even touched 150 kph at times, even in returning spells, and showed us that he has in him, along with Umesh Yadav, to become India's first tare away new ball opening pair.

But fear in India is always been how bowlers are treated. Kapil Dev, former Indian captain and opening fast medium bowler, once said that batsmen are treated as 'owners' and bowlers as 'labors' in India. They aren't given the respect they deserve. After all they are also servants of Indian cricket just like batsmen. But batsmen having created many records by batting on flat and docile wickets in India, even scoring 12 centuries against West Indies in past on such wickets, have a big 'EGO', and they are in no mood to give that respect to the bowlers.

One saw yesterday when ball slipped out of Varun Aaron's hand, possibly due to sweaty conditions at humid fatullah in bangladesh, and it ended up as a 'beamer'. In a game of cricket, a beamer is a ball delivered by a bowler that does not bounce before reaching the batsmen and end up above his waist. Without giving any thought to conditions that prevailed, and without wasting any time, Sunil Gavaskar was all over young Varon Aaron. "Don't tell me that ball slips out of hand at this level. He should not only be suspended, but also banned for quite a few matches," Gavaskar said.

May I tell you that in last 50 matches 35 beamer's have been bowled, and those were not delivered by Indian bowlers. But this is the sort of attitude we carry towards bowlers in India and then expect them to come up with good. I am sorry nothing good is going to happen unless former Indian cricketers drop their ego and behave as a servant of Indian cricket. Varon Aaron is not playing here to get a certificate on how to behave on cricket field. And Aaron has never taken is partner off the field of play when umpire has given him LBW, that's what Sunil Gavaskar did in Australia, something Ricky Ponting keeps reminding us.

What has also been disappointing is this constant calls from former great indian batsmen to reduce pace/speed of India's bowlers. Other teams, like Australia and South Africa, encourage their bowlers to ball as quick as possible and never compromise on speed. They feel that line and length will come with experience but if a bowler deliberately reduces his pace it doesn't come back. But there is 'no one' who understands fast bowling, and its dynamics, in India and they keep making 'silly' comments. You wouldn't have heard anything more than 'pitch the ball up, swing it' from Indian commentators. It is as if pitching the ball up and swinging it will happen easily and batsmen will remain static and not take that pitch up ball on full, i.e convert it into a fall toss, and hammer it away. It's painful to see how cricketers of 80's with their  old theories have been able to impose on new generation cricketers, especially bowlers.

Both Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron are assets of Indian cricket. They need to be groomed well. Insulting them for everything will not help. What will not help them is blaming them for intentional beamers, which they never intended. Start giving some respect to Indian bowlers and they will deliver. Just like Russel Arnold of Sri Lanka was giving it more than Harsha Bhogle of India at commentary yesterday.

Onus entirely on Virat Kohli to win Asia Cup cricket tournament

India began their Asia Cup tournament with victory over hosts Bangladesh, thanks to yet another magnificent century, while chasing, by captain Virat Kohli. Virat is captaining side in absence of regular captain MS Dhoni who is not participating due to injury.

136 runs that Virat Kohli scored were absolutely essential. It seems like he has to do it again and again if India needs to win Asia Cup. This is because the players coming before him and after him, look incapable of handling the pressure. The team selected is bit of a 'joke', to be frank.

How far can Virat Kohli take India?

ODI cricket is a role based game. You need to have openers who can take advantage of field restriction overs and power hitters to maximize the score in the end. India is missing both of them.

Openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have been struggling for long as One Day Cricket openers. They started brightly with century partnerships in Champions Trophy but faded quite quickly after that. Shikhar Dhawan though has impressed in Test Cricket, the most difficult form of cricket, as per experts, but Rohit Sharma has struggled in all forms of cricket that he has played, although he has been publicised as 'most talented' batsmen by same experts.

After openers come Virat Kohli and he has been the main reason for India maintaining its number 2 position in ICC One Day Cricket rankings.

But If Virat Kohli fails, does India have players who can win matches by accelerating the scoring if need be? Answer is comprehensive 'no'. Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh, 2 of the best finishers in ODI cricket have been dropped because experts, Aakash Chopra, Harsha Bhogle, Sanjay Manjrekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Sourav Ganguly etc, have made it a point on more than one occasion during their commentary stints that both Raina nd Yuvra are not capable of handling the 'short balls'. It has created environment against both Yuvraj and Raina, pressure on selectors mounted as a result, and both have been dropped to please these stalwarts of Indian cricket.

Mind you, Yuvraj was man of the series in World Cup of 2011 and Suresh Raina played match winning knock in quarter finals against Australia in the same tournament. Both of them have changed the equation in India's favor, by quick running and strong hitting under pressure, if one is frank in his analysis of cricket. Also people like Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma etc, who have replace those two are getting out on even normal full length deliveries along with 'short pitch bowling' and india have possibly replaced better players with worst players.

Others are new comers. Ambati Rayudu, Cheteshwar Pujara, Stuart Binny haven't even faced a single ball of likes of 'Lasith Malinga' and 'Umar Gul'. It will be unfair to expect them to hit sixes and fours of them, and India will need them to do that if they want to win Asia Cup at some point or the other.

This leaves Virat Kohli to do a lot. Apart from leading young and inexperienced team, he needs to settle the ship every time because openers are ordinary, accelerate the scoring and bat long every time, then stay at the end to make sure India have a good finish. It's too much of an ask of 25 years old man.

Indian selectors have committed a blunder here. Even if India wins the tournament, the team selection will require some explanation.

10 ways to make test cricket more enjoyable

There are 3 forms of cricket that are existing in world cricket right now. ODI cricket, T-20 cricket, and Test Match cricket. Out of three forms, 'test match cricket' is the oldest surviving cricket form and is currently in danger of being out fashioned, especially by new kid called t-20 cricket. 

While you hear cricketers of 'past' and 'present' make statements like: 'test cricket is the real cricket', 'test is the purest form of cricket', 'one wants to be known as a successful test cricketer', etc in order to establish the importance of test match cricket, the longest form of cricket, the fact is that at present it is endangered to become 'shortest life left' form of cricket.

Will colored cricket bats help?

People, especially teenagers and young men, are more excited about twenty-twenty cricket. One day cricket has also great following until there is not too much of it. But nobody wants to sit for 5 days, in front of television or in cricket stadiums, to see captains making excuses at the end about why the test resulted in a draw. In limited overs cricket the result is sure-shot. Even if match is tied, there is a 'super-over'  or 'bowl-out' to decide the winners. In short time, without needing to take full leave from office, people can come and watch a match going to logical conclusion, having a winner.

Clearly test cricket is struggling to attract the audiences, as we saw from empty stadiums during Ashes series in Australia and India v South Africa test match series played in South Africa, and it needs to be overhauled and needs to be presented in a manner that makes it more attractive and enjoyable to watch.

So what can be done to make test cricket more enjoyable? Here is my take on the issue:

1.Make Result Oriented Pitches Mandatory - Doesn't matter if it is turning as in India or bouncing as in Australia, test match pitches should produce results. Rather than flat boring pitches, as we just saw one at Port Elizabeth, cricket pitches must have enough in them to test the skills of both batsmen and bowlers. I am not talking just about getting a 'result' in a match. Because a good bowling line up can prepare flat wicket to secure their batsmen against a spinning or seaming ball and yet look to score a victory on strength of its bowling. This is what we are seeing in South Africa. Both India and Australia lost their test matches on flat wickets. While cricket fans would be happy that the home team won, but the fact is test cricket lost as the pitch didn't allow exciting cricket to happen. 

In New Zealand we saw that pitch refused to offer turn to spinners even on 4th and 5th day. Batsmen scored centuries and triple centuries with ease and the match ended in a boring draw.

My suggestion is for ICC to direct the boards to go to extremes with pitches. If pitches in your country have been 'seam friendly' traditionally, make them more seam friendly. If they are historically 'turning and spinning' wickets, make them turn more.

2. Go Back To Timeless Cricket - One way to ensure a result in a cricket match is to play it until you get the result. If 5 days are not enough to get a result let the match go for 10 days if need be. This will automatically force cricket boards and pitch curators to prepare more result oriented pitches as no one will want to take upon headache of making arrangements for more than 5 days. Even players, once having experienced what it takes to keep energies going for 10 day match, will demand their boards to not make road like pitches.

3. Introduce Day/Night Test Cricket, Pink Balls - Make sure that each test match series is at least 3 matches long and one of the matches be a day/night match. Use pink ball. Experience has shown us that ODI cricket took a new leap after day/night matches were started. It automatically attract more audience as they can watch the match without having to compromise their office times. Pink and enjoyment go together. Pink balls and may be cricket gear with radium stripes pasted on it will add a bit of color to otherwise 'all-whites' of test cricket. 4 PM to 10 PM is an ideal time.

4. Make 90 overs mandatory  in 6 hours - Over rates have been a huge problem in modern day cricket. Teams are struggling even to bowl out 80 overs in a day and matches go in extra time frustrating the audience. Slow overrates mess up the entire schedule of people who come to see the day's play. No wonder they take a call that 'they will never come to watch test cricket again'. Teams should be fined in terms of runs and wickets for each extra minute they take to complete their quota of overs. There should be a counter 'stop watch' in all cricket stadiums and a 5th umpire to operate it. Countdown should start bang at 6 hours and clock to be only stopped by the umpire if batsmen gets injured, or waste time adjusting his gear. If then the overs still remain to be bowled when counter strikes '0', the fielding team should be penalized. Also if batsmen is guilty of wasting time 10 runs must be deducted from his score.

5.Improve Facilities at Stadiums - No one want to sit on concrete slabs or plastic chairs sweating for 7 hours. Improve facilities at cricket stadiums. Make it easy for audience to move around and have bit of fun while watching cricket match. Make arrangement of serving drinking water, coffee, tea, beer, refreshment at the seat. Giveaway freebies like autographed caps and T-Shirts to the audience. Conduct contests, like 'cricket quiz', 'predict who will win' or 'what will happen in next over',  who will be man of the match etc. Basically involve the crowds in the game.

6. Improve Commentary, Choose Commentators Well - This is one of the most overlooked area when it comes to cricket. Cricket commentary is touching new lows. There are no more Richie Benaud's or Tony Cozier's in the commentary box. One feels like putting TV on mute, and most people do it, while cricket is on television. Don't just make anybody do commentary, especially for test match cricket. A minimum of having played at least 1 test match must be made mandatory qualification for any one who want to sit in a commentary box and pass comments on cricket. More commentators who can help spread the traditions of test cricket are needed than the one who just shout for no reason.

7. Encourage Player-People (P2P) Contact - I can tell you most people go to stadiums watch their heroes play. Not every one is able to get the autograph of their hero. It makes cricket fan feel "What is the need of going to stadium. At least they show replays on television, and closeup of my heroes". Make an interactive session mandatory, between cricketers and public. A direct connect will help people understand what a test cricketer goes through and will develop interest in the game. It will also help players understand the type of cricket fan's want them see play.

8. An ODI, T-20 free To Test Cricket Ticket buyer - 2 in 1 always works, especially in India. Give 2 for the price of 1 and both things will get popular, it's an experience. Why not encash the enthusiasm of people towards limited overs cricket. If they are mad to watch short form cricket, make sure that road to limited overs cricket goes through the test match arena. May be authorities can go to extent of selling tickets of ODI matches to only people who buy a test match cricket ticket. This move could be counterproductive but it's worth giving it a try, especially when Test Cricket is hospitalized and is lying on death bed.

9. Don't be stubborn, Cheer leaders are OK - Have you seen cricketers after consuming few bottles of wine. They don't behave like a gentlemen. In fact that is true for their on field behavior as well. Enough of this "Cricket is a Gentlemen's game". It is not. Allow Cheer Leaders to entertain audience with their moves, even in test cricket. Ensure uninterrupted supply of them at 'Lords', the home of cricket. And watch all the members fighting to take best place available.

10. Play Under Same Rules With Same Balls - Someone is using a SG ball while someone else is using Kookaburra ball, yet someone else is using Duke cricket ball. Can't they have one brand of ball, standard size of bats, and more importantly one set of rules written in stone for game of cricket. All these things are creating confusion to the young audience. This is the era of 'simplification' and not 'complexity'. Things should be easy to understand. Why India don't use DRS -Decision Review System and why others are mad about using it, is creating too much confusion among the masses and is making test cricket less enjoyable.

I know the list is incomplete and much more needs to be done to make test cricket more enjoyable and to make it regain its position among three forms of cricket. But the above mentioned ideas, if followed, will go a long way in making test cricket more enjoyable and bringing back audience to watch it.