The PCB

or how not to present an argument

c. India due to law and order situation had to relocate IPL Series to South Africa although the official reason given is IPL schedule clash with the national elections. Recently Australia refused to send its Tennis Team to India for Davis Cup which was due to be held in Chennai, India.

1. Does the PCB have in its possession, documentary evidence to substantiate its claim that the IPL move to South Africa was for reasons other than the schedule clashing with the national elections? And documentary evidence does not purport to Javed Miandad ( Director General, PCB) calling his son's father in law to enquire if the law and order situation is kosher in India and what can be done to disrupt it.

2. It will behoove the lawyers representing the PCB to know that Australia faces sanctions including, but not limited to, a monetary fine plus a forfeit and a possible relegation in the Davis Cup group for not honoring its commitments to play India at Chennai after the ITF had cleared the security arrangements made for the clash.

3. It would also behoove the PCB to know that Pakistan faces a civil war within its own borders. One that Pakistan's prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, said the army was fighting for "the survival of the country",

Strong words, coming as they are from the Prime Minister of the country - so how does the PCB plan to address this real and present danger to thier ability to host the World Cup in 2 years time? Or is "dog in the manger" the PCB policy when it comes to the World Cup?

Badri can bat saala!!!

when the pressure is on. And the spotlight is on him!

Who would have thunk?

PS:- And he is a pretty good linebacker too!!! Whistle podu!!!

Yusuf Pathan, Jacob Oram

the boundary rope, a T20 game and a catch.. Irrespective of the venue, the link remains.

Dont mess with Achettup

especially when he is in this form.. Brilliant!

Goodbye to all that!

Shaun Pollock,Sachin Tendulkar, Praveen Amre, Sanath Jayasuriya, Jonty Rhodes.

And this is the team they come up with.

Luke Ronchi and Pinal Shah - two keepers in the same side. Ajinkya Rahane in and we open with Ronchi and Duminy. Rahane comes in at 8. Rohan Raje in the team but gets to bowl in the 16th over. Bravo bowls the one over, Dhawal has 2.

We did not lose the match because we batted badly. We lost the match because the collective thinking of the Mumbai Indians has gone to the dogs.

I mean, how dense does the bloody think tank have to be to come up with a solution like this?

The only thing left for Mumbai now is to play spoiler.. Get some other city ( besides Dilli ) to hate us with some passion for raining on their parade.

Disappointed!

The Suresh Raina catch

Legit or not?

Do they know what is a legit catch in Australia?

2.5 Lee to Ahmed Shehzad, OUT, banged in short on middle, went for the pull, mistimed it wide of midwicket, hit the high end of the bat and Laughlin dived full length to his left to pluck falling to his left. Shehzad stayed his ground to wait and check if he grassed it while making contact with the ground, but replays suggest the catch was clean

If the ball making contact with the ground when the fielder completes the catch is clean, then yes, the catch was clean.

Pity the rule book does not agree

Law 32 (Caught)

1. Out Caught
The striker is out Caught if a ball delivered by the bowler, not being a No ball, touches his bat without having previously been in contact with any member of the fielding side and is subsequently held by a fielder as a fair catch before it touches the ground.

2. Caught to take precedence
If the criteria of 1 above are met and the striker is not out Bowled, then he is out Caught, even though a decision against either batsman for another method of dismissal would be justified. Runs completed by the batsmen before the completion of the catch will not be scored. Note also Laws 21.6 (Winning hit or extras) and 42.17(b) (Penalty runs).

3. A fair catch
A catch shall be considered to have been fairly made if
(a) throughout the act of making the catch
(i) any fielder in contact with the ball is within the field of play. See 4 below.
(ii) the ball is at no time in contact with any object grounded beyond the boundary.

The act of making the catch shall start from the time when a fielder first handles the ball and shall end when a fielder obtains complete control both over the ball and over his own movement.

(b) the ball is hugged to the body of the catcher or accidentally lodges in his clothing or, in the case of the wicket-keeper, in his pads. However, it is not a fair catch if the ball lodges in a protective helmet worn by a fielder. See Law 23 (Dead ball).

(c) the ball does not touch the ground, even though the hand holding it does so in effecting the catch.

(d) a fielder catches the ball after it has been lawfully struck more than once by the striker, but only if the ball has not touched the ground since first being struck.

(e) a fielder catches the ball after it has touched an umpire, another fielder or the other batsman. However, it is not a fair catch if the ball has touched a protective helmet worn by a fielder, although the ball remains in play.

(f) a fielder catches the ball in the air after it has crossed the boundary provided that
(i) he has no part of his person touching, or grounded beyond, the boundary at any time when he is in contact with the ball.
(ii) the ball has not been grounded beyond the boundary.
See Law 19.3 (Scoring a boundary).

(g) the ball is caught off an obstruction within the boundary, provided it has not previously been decided to regard the obstruction as a boundary.

4. Fielder within the field of play
(a) A fielder is not within the field of play if he touches the boundary or has any part of his person grounded beyond the boundary. See Law 19.3 (Scoring a boundary).

(b) 6 runs shall be scored if a fielder
(i) has any part of his person touching, or grounded beyond, the boundary when he catches the ball.
(ii) catches the ball and subsequently touches the boundary or grounds some part of his person over the boundary while carrying the ball but before completing the catch.

See Laws 19.3 (Scoring a boundary) and 19.4 (Runs allowed for boundaries).

5. No runs to be scored
If the striker is dismissed Caught, runs from that delivery completed by the batsmen before the completion of the catch shall not be scored, but any penalties awarded to either side when the ball is dead, if applicable, will stand. Law 18.12(a) (Batsman returning to wicket he has left) shall apply from the instant of the catch.

Video begins at 1:30

On sendoffs

16.6 Sreesanth to Hayden, OUT, caught! Hayden walks down the track and smashes the ball high, it;s really high but this time it hasn't gone far, Jayawardene settles under it at long-on and holds on to a well-judged catch, Sreesanth gives Hayden a small send off but he's copped a fearful hammering in the over

and that is what it was - a small send off.. No histrionics, no facial contortions , nothing over the top.

And that did not stop messers Morrison and Wessels from going on and on about how the send off was ill timed and how Sreesanth had taken the wrong pills etc etc.

Contrast this with when Broad and Anderson had their hissy fit moments in the West Indies. Lots of talk of how the bowlers were staying aggressive and how they had the mongrel in them etc etc..

Yeah, its like that!

Time for a resurgence

And who better to start it against but those hated Dilli "boys". This is it Mumbai, time to invoke the spirit of 2006/07. Time to turn this season around.

Must win games all, must win all games. Time to show why we are who we are.

We are Mumbai. Impossible is nothing!

Chokers R Us

What else is left to be said?

Time to clean house

Its about time Shahrukh took the damn broom and cleaned house. The performance today was a joke. The batting order was a joke. The fielding was a joke and the bowling was a joke.

4 captains? How about getting someone to get a finger on the ball first, never mind catching the damn thing.

Director of Cricket, Coach, assistant coach, fielding coach, wicket keeping coach, strength training coach, throwing coach.. What about a goddamn catching coach, batting coach and a bowling coach?

Its a sad sad joke, the KKR is.

Time to play Donald Trump Sh..Sh..Sh..Sh..Shahrukh.. Get rid of the whole goddamn bunch.

Equal opportunity selectors

So the Indian T20 team has been announced. And the team break up is as follows

DC - 3 players (Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha,RP Singh)
CSK - 2 players (MS Dhoni,Suresh Raina)
RR - 2 players (Yusuf Pathan,Ravindra Jadeja)
MI - 2 players (Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan)
DDD - 2 players (Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir)
KPXI - 2 players (Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan)
BRC - 1 player (Praveen Kumar)
KKR - 1 player (Ishant Sharma)

No franchise left behind!

As they say in Mumbai, Q benefits all!!

Its subtle Deano

DO I get this right? Pakistan recently had eight people tragically killed when terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team and officials and consequently everyone has decided not to tour Pakistan again for years to come.

And last year, more than 200 people were killed in India through the Mumbai terrorist strikes and England returned three weeks later to finish the tour with ramped-up security. So please tell me: what is the difference?

queries Dean Jones in his article in The Age.

Well, for starters Deano, Pakistan had promised the highest levels of security to the Sri Lankan team and reneged on that promise.

Then there is that bit about the Sri Lankan cricket team being the actual targets of the attack - imagine that!

And finally, unless you have been living in a cave Deano, you would have known that the people responsible for the mayhem in Mumbai were Pakistanis ( as in, they were citizens of Pakistan).

Subtle differences Deano.. Not sure you can quite grasp them.. Stick to making off air "terrorist" comments - thats all you are good for.

"he can adjust to all conditions"

says Justin Langer about Phil Hughes. To quote him in full

"He [Hughes] has got a nice technique, but he's also got a head on his shoulders," Langer said. "He's already shown he can adjust to all conditions and I can't see any reason why he's not going to score a lot of runs this summer. And I mean a lot."

Fair point.

Except what conditions has Phil Hughes been exposed to exactly?

Here are the score cards from the 2 four day games Hughes has played so far

Middlesex 414 for 8 dec and 94 for 3 (Hughes 65*) drew with Glamorgan 505 and 278 for 8 dec (Dalrymple 112, Croft 52)

And this is the scorecard of the Middlesex v Leicestershire match

and here are the reports on the ODI games

Middlesex's batsmen enjoyed a romp in the sun, piling up 302 for 7 against Scotland at Lord's and then bowling the visitors out for 140 to win by 162 runs. Phillip Hughes continued his good form with 74, adding 147 for the first wicket with Billy Godleman (82) and the rest of Middlesex's runs, like their wickets, were shared around.

James Tredwell tore through Middlesex with six wickets as Kent notched their first win of their summer campaign, winning by six wickets at Southgate. Middlesex lost Billy Godleman early, and Neil Dexter, the former Kent batsman, soon followed. Thereafter Tredwell took centre stage, picking up 4 for 2 in 12 mesmerising balls, including Phillip Hughes for 23. Hughes may not have dominated, but that his 23 was the second-highest rather told Middlesex's sorry tale, as they were rolled for just 133. Ben Scott smacked a quick-fire 29, and Steve Finn did his best at No.11, but there was little else of substance. Kent lost four wickets in reply but were never in serious difficulty, as Darren Stevens carved five fours in his unbeaten 37.

And here is Sam Collins on the Wisden Cricketer

As we sit smugly in sunshine (or offices) and the IPL wades through South African rain, there is a temptation to raise two fingers in the direction of Lalit Modi. Yet the joke could, eventually, be on us – for it is a rarity that an excellent start to the summer continues through the main event

So where are the wickets where you could swing a tomato? What about over cast conditions, of rain interrupted play, of green wickets and collapso cricket?

If the English summer is an extension of the Aussie one, what "all conditions" has Phil Hughes adjusted to exactly?

Should have known better

than to open by gob and put my two big feet into it.

First, KKR muck it up on the last ball. And now the Royally Challenged annihilate Mumbai.

So much for my predictive qualities!

Mumbai's loss hurts.. Because, despite a bad start, the Mumbai batsmen gave the team a chance. And whoever expected Robin Uthappa to bat?

Well played RC. Halfway through the tourney, 7 league games and the semis and the finals. 9 left, 9 to win.

Easy doozy!

The next 3

KKR over KPXI
Mumbai over BRC
CSK over DC