Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Big Fight and Uproar

There is a big tug-of- war between the BCCI and ICL these days. The formation of the ICL is really a shock to the monopoly of the BCCI in India; which has been the greatest dictator in the Indian cricket. ICL is not going down so well with the BCCI. Though BCCI is a completely private body (technically), still it has been using our national flag and the term “Team India”: OK!! It has been representating Indian cricket for so many decades, but it does not mean that it is going to ban the cricketers who are going to play cricket for any other body. Being the richest board in the world it has been doing nothing for the development of the cricket in the grass root level, which is substantial. One can be sure that Indian cricket is standing exactly where it was before 25 years. By being hunted about the fear of exposure the board is not setting its own website. The board is getting 1395 million dollars in a year out of media rights and Ads but from that amount even 25% has not been spent on the developmental activities of Indian cricket. It has not been giving any extra amount of its own profit to the players. On the other hand it is imposing the gag order over the players. It does not give permission or recognition to players association. Even it is not accountable to the government of India. Now it is attracting the ICL contracted players by giving a pay hike and also applying different tactics such as: offering the captaincy of their state side. BCCI is also planning a counter league with the help of CRICKET AUSTRALIA. BCCI has already sacked the world cup-winning captain of India from the post of chairman of NCA, and even planning to put Sunil Gavaskar against him as the executive board of professional cricket league. This is all about dirty and murky politics going all over.

On the other side of this story ICL has filed a petition against the BCCI in the Delhi high court, in which the first round has been already won by ICL. In this war between the two bodies of cricket the players are going to be benefited; because they will have some choice and also they will be forming a strong players association once again. Kerry packer of AUS, Stanford of West Indies and Subash Chandra of India are the three different individuals who have different intentions also. One thing for sure that the cricket is a business for both BCCI and ICL, but they are pretending that they are developing cricket in the country. In this war of power and money, we should not forget that cricket is going to suffer a lot. Let us hope that cricket is not going to be compromised for the sake of money in the coming days.

Recently Lalu Jadav has been arguing for ICL and always telling that why BCC and its board officials are so worried about the ICL. Having said that he has also suggested that BCCI should take it as a challenge. But ironically enough Lalu’s own son has not joined the ICL. But Lalu was very recently offering railway grounds to the ICL.

Despite its tall talk, BCCI has not cared so much to nurture talent. It is only giving importance to those players who are in the limelight. Except those players there are so many budding talents in the remote areas in the country. But our five wise men have no time to go there and point out those talents. In India politicians run almost every state association who has no basic knowledge about cricket. Popular voice says that the ICL is the best thing happened to Indian cricket. It will induct a kind of competitive and sportive medicine in the mindset of the BCCI. The spirit of outshining each other will be very much there. Now each and every move of the BCCI will be under the scanner. We hope that some good will happen to cricket at last.

Williams advances in Korea





SEOUL: Top-seeded Venus Williams cruised into the second round of the Korea Open here on Tuesday, defeating American qualifier Abigail Spears 6-2, 6-3.In spite of warm conditions at Seoul’s Olympic Park tennis arena, the Wimbledon champion barely broke a sweat as she used her powerful serve to dominate the match.Spears, whose right arm was heavily strapped, failed to win a single point from Williams’s first serve in the opening set.In the second set, Williams broke again in the opening game and held off a late rally from Spears to complete a comfortable win.“In a competition where there are few Americans, I don’t know why I played against one in the first game,” Williams said. “I was happy with my serve as it got me through some difficult moments at break points,” she added.In other first-round matches, defending champion No 5 Eleni Daniilidou of Greece won a hard-fought match against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4, 6-4; Martina Muller of Germany beat local hope Han Sung-hee 6-1, 6-0; Ahsha Rolle of the United States made short work of Anne Keothavong of Britain 6-1, 6-1 and Mathilde Johansson of France defeated Junri Namigata of Japan 7-5, 6-2.Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn rallied from a set down to eliminate Australia’s Casey Dellacqua 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, China’s Yuan Meng defeated New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic 6-4, 6-4 and Colombian Catalina Castano beat Hseih Su-wei of Taiwan, 6-3, 6-2.Another local favourite was eliminated as Agnes Szavay of Hungary defeated South Korea’s Lee Ye-Ra 6-2, 6-3.Williams, who won her sixth Grand Slam at Wimbledon this year, returned to the top 10 in the WTA world rankings the first time since April 2006 after reaching the US Open semifinals.

Geoff Lawson stoic over final dismissal


JOHANNESBURG: Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson defended batsman Misbah-ul-Haq after they lost the World Twenty20 final to India here on Monday.With Pakistan needing six from four balls to win the game, an unorthodox shot saw Misbah caught at fine leg as he stepped across to the off-side.“He’s played it well in this tournament and with a little more bat on it, it would have gone for four,” Lawson said. “I could see him playing it because fine leg was up, a yorker was coming so the shot was pretty much on the cards,” he explained.He added: “Having already had a tie with India, it was always going to be close. With five overs to go we were almost out of the game, but with four balls to go, we were well and truly back in it. But if Misbah had hit the last ball a little finer, we’d have needed two off three balls to win the whole tournament — that’s how close it was”.“He’s been terrific — he’s 33, he’s been the top scorer in Pakistan domestic cricket for five years in a row and he’s been great in domestic Twenty20. He’s got a terrific cricket brain and I think you’ll see him around in Pakistan cricket for years to come,” Lawson added.Lawson also saluted his side’s spirit after they bounced back from a disappointing World Cup campaign to come close to winning the tournament.“Results apart, I’ve been really happy with the consistency our guys have shown. They’ve shown fight when they’ve been under pressure, and today was no exception,” he added.“If they had a bowler of the tournament award, I think Umar Gul would have won that, as he’s been outstanding. Mohammad Asif was great, we found Sohail Tanvir from somewhere to come out as a replacement, so there have been so many positives to come out of the tournament,” he remarked.“But I’m a little bit tired of reading how disjointed and unharmonious the Pakistan team is, as people just don’t know what goes on in that dressing-room. They’re a terrific bunch of guys, and we’ve got all the ingredients to be a good side,” he added.

Pakistan need quick switch from T20 to Test mode


KARACHI: Pakistani cricketers will get less than a week to switch to the Test mode after several weeks of non-stop twenty20 games as the opening Test against South Africa gets underway here at the National Stadium from next Monday.Skipper Shoaib Malik is urging his players to make the switch as soon as possible in a bid to give a solid showing in the two-match Test series against one of the world’s best teams.The South Africans, too, will find it hard to get in the Test mode but for them the harder task would be to adapt to the hot conditions here. They arrive here this morning (Wednesday) and after a single practice session, they would get down to work right away with a three-day warm-up game against a Patron’s XI here at the NBP Sports Complex from tomorrow (Thursday).Led by Graeme Smith, the South Africans will also be playing five one-dayers in Pakistan during the tour that concludes with the final ODI in Karachi on October 29.Most of the players in the South Africa squad have the experience of playing in Pakistan but even then it would take some extra effort from them to give their best in what would be really demanding conditions.For Pakistan, however, weather is not a cause of concern. They trained for the World Twenty20 in extreme conditions in Karachi and Lahore during a big part of the summer.For them, the biggest worry is whether their players would be able to shrug off the T20 mode in time to make a winning start to the Test series.Team coach Geoff Lawson has admitted that it would be a tough task but is confident that his players will give their best in the impending home series.Pakistan are yet to announce their Test squad but are expected to name their 15 men during the three-day match to be played from September 27-29.South African Test squad: Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, Mark Boucher (wk), AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Paul Harris, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince, Dale Steyn.Tour schedule: Sept 27-29 Three-day game (SA v Patron’s XI) at NBP Sports Complex Karachi. Oct 1-5 First Test at Karachi. Oct 8-12 Second Test at Lahore. Oct 16 Limited overs warm-up at Lahore. Oct 18 First ODI at Lahore. Oct 20 Second ODI at Lahore. Oct 23 Third ODI at Faisalabad. Oct 26 Fourth ODI at Multan. Oct 29 Fifth ODI at Karachi

Player of the year award for Gibson


another county championship triumph, to claim the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) award. Gibson took 80 wickets for Durham as they finished runners-up to Sussex, including all 10 in an innings against Hampshire.He also helped the county to two one-day titles — the Friends Provident Trophy and NatWest Pro40 (Sunday league) Division Two — and has been rewarded with a request to fill in as England’s fast-bowling consultant for the one-day tour of Sri Lanka which begins this week, with Allan Donald unavailable.Yorkshire’s teenage leg-spinning all-rounder Adil Rashid was named the PCA’s young player of the year, adding to the Cricket Writers’ award he picked up earlier this month.