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.

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'.

Cricket Australia must be shameful of their performances in India

Australian cricket is riding on one man's shoulder at the moment - Mitchell Johnson. It is making australian cricket look as if their golden days are back. But in real, things are entirely different. Aussies can't be accepted as champions until they improve their pathetic cricket record in India.

In last 50 years, Australia has won only 1 test series in India. That too was marred with controversy and crucial players missing out from India's cricket team. Due to fight between cricket association at Nagpur and BCCI, the curator was ordered to prepare a track completely suited to visitors. Not a single ball turned and it was all green. Australia fielders claimed one bounce catches, appealed profusely and shamelessly, and took advantage of not having to face Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. Also there was honest (only in context of aussies) and mad (in context of indians) australian media publishing stories and events which never happened. Also they were assisted by some former Indian Captains who think they will get a free pass to clubs in Australia if they join India's opponents in criticising the indian captain. The captain of India, then, was Saurav Ganguly, a man who got Steve Waugh mentally deteriorated.

Steve Waugh got mentally disturbed by a young captain, Sourav Ganguly

It's not only the number of test wins, which are very few in India for aussies, but the pathetic show that their batsmen and bowlers have put on display. Ricky Ponting, the great aussie, managed to average a mediocre 20 odd despite touring more than thrice to the shores of country on whose name indian ocean is named. There is no Australia ocean, of course. Shane Warne, the so called great leg spinner, managed average of about 45 with the bowl. Less said about other's records, the better it is for Aussies.

The shambolic performances put up by Australia, and also by likes of England, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, over the years, and the way they shout about India's overseas performance's, shows that they are mentally disturbed, at least the cricket analysts and cricket fans of these countries.

Just last year, after ridiculing India's performance in Australia, Cricket Australia's boys put up such a pathetic display of cricket, loosing 4-0 and no match lasting more than 3 days, that made one wonder if the wins of Australia vs India in Australia was real or fluke.

It is high time Australia improve their performance in India. It will happen only when Australia improves its domestic cricket and prepare pitches that spin. This will help producing spinners of worthwhile class and batsmen who can survive more than 6 balls while facing them. It's laughable how Australia's batsmen play a spinning ball. South Africa, New Zealand, England batsmen are equally pathetic. They say that even a sun can rise from west, but the dog's tail cannot become straight. Same is the case of overseas batsmen playing in India.