Amnesty

The Indian board has announced an "amnesty" for all Indian players associated with the ICL, who can return to official cricket provided they cut all ties with the unofficial league by May 31. The players who choose to return to the official fold will be eligible to play international cricket after a one-year 'cooling period' but can play domestic cricket from June 1, when the ICC's new rules on official and unofficial cricket come into force.

Bloody masterstroke, that!

1. It boosts the Indian talent available to the various franchises. Imagine Stuart Binny playing for the BRC and an Ambati Rayadu for the Deccan Chargers!

2. It undermines the ICL in a manner that no "negotiations" ( regular and underhand) could have.

3. Imagine how interesting the Ranji will be now that teams can actually call upon their best talent instead of having to make up with the best of the rest.

4. The BCCI is no longer beholden to the whims and fancies of different cricketing boards. Pakistan can no longer shadow box on offering amnesty to the ICL players in lieu of conessions from the BCCI, CA is welcome to withdraw its players after committing them to the IPL etc etc.

5. No more having to listen to the carping from the sidelines - from British journos and disgruntled Kiwi supporters.

And if the offer for "amnesty" is not accepted by the ICL players, the BCCI can always turn around and say, "We tried".

New moniker

From this day forth, in honor of the mad acting skills ( operative word being mad) of Ben Affleck,the Dilli Daredevils will be called the

D _ _ F _ E C K S.

or _ _ F_ E C K S (for short)!

The bloody dabbawallas win...

....and I am a happy chappie coz, who the be the we? We the be the Mumbai, yaaar!!

Is Cricinfo dead?

Or am I the only one unable to access the website, irrespective of browser, machine or IP?

Is left right?

MS Dhoni seems to think so. Vide the batting order today

Parthiv Patel
Matthew Hayden
Suresh Raina
MS Dhoni
Jacob Oram
Albie Morkel

5 of the top 6 - left handers.

And seriously, why is Parthiv being persisted with? He wont keep and he definitely cannot open - so what is he doing in the team, especially when you have Sudeep Tyagi, S Vidyut and Murali Vijay warming the bench?

The Kinks need to address their team balance. And fast.

Fk

Fk Fk Fk Fk Fk


FK!

Its back...

And how!!!

Two close contests.. One a high scoring match, the other a super over cliff hanger..Emotion. Drama. Action. A contest.

Cricket has taken back the narrative of the IPL.. No need for the extra hype anymore because the cricket has taken care of that too.

The biggest USP of IPL 1 was the fact that people bought into the city franchises and because the quality of cricket was of such consistently high standard.

The IPL 2 began on a damp note, was talked up by Lalit Modi and Ravi Shastri and the motley crew of commentators. Till today.

Cricket is back baby!!! Front and center!

Watching Pragyan Ojha

Loop, control, variation, angles, changes in speed.

Is Pragyan Ojha the left arm spinner India need to complete their troika of offie, leggie and left arm orthodox?

And will his performance in the IPL finally open the door for his test match debut?

Kindred spirits

This was last year

Rohit Sharma, the most successful batsman for Deccan Chargers in the ongoing IPL, has found an admirer in South African team-mate Herschelle Gibbs, who believes the young batsman has a "prosperous" career ahead.

This was yesterday

That brought together Rohit and Gibbs, who knuckled down to work a few singles and steady the innings. Gibbs then started playing some inventive shots, a bent-knee sweep off Ganguly for four followed by a deft dab towards third man. Any pressure that Kolkata had built up vanished, and neither batsmen was afraid of lofting the ball after that.

Rohit joined in the fun once Ajit Agarkar was introduced, a huge six over long-off and a couple of boundaries helping take 17 runs off his first over. Some more merry hitting from the pair finished off the game with nearly seven overs to spare.

The Kaif factor

Md Kaif

• captained the India U-19 team to World Cup success
• led Uttar Pradesh to to their maiden Ranji Championship in 2005-06
• Led Uttar Pradesh to being losing finalists in2007-08 and 2008-09.
• Led Central Zone to Deodhar Trophy honors in 2007-08
• Led Central Zone to Duleep Trophy success in 2004-05
• Led Uttar Pradesh to the Ranji Trophy ODI finals in 2004-05 ( where they were joint winners with Tamil Nadu).

Under Kaif, under rated teams have consistently punched above their weight. Vide Uttar Pradesh's run in the Ranji Trophy or Central Zone's performance in the Duleep Trophy.

And yet, the Future India Captain finds himself out of favor - both with the Indian cricket team and the Rajasthan Royals.

Which I believe is a travesty . He may not be flashy enough or consistent enough to be a part of the national set up, but being cut by the Royals was uncalled for , given what he brings to the plate as a leader.

And that is also a worry.

Being out of favor with the national set up is one thing. Being out of favor with a year old franchise, quite another. And given that he now leads a Uttar Pradesh team filled with "names" ( Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Tanmay Srivastava), how much longer before he finds himself out of favor with the powers that be in U.P?

And that , for me, is the biggest worry. Because what Kaif brings to the plate is something that cannot easily be replicated.

And if Md. Kaif is lost to Indian cricket, the greater the pity. For Indian cricket.

Awwww...

But the biggest threat to the IPL lies within. Twenty20 cricket was conceived as a three-hour package to appeal to busy people who wanted to switch off after work, and thus it remains in England. But the IPL is making its 20-over games longer and longer, reducing its essential attraction. This second tournament saw the introduction of an interval of 7½ minutes after 10 overs of each innings: an invitation, if ever there was, to go and do something else.

It has been dressed-up as a timeout for a team talk, but it is nothing more than an extended advertising-break, the maximisation of revenue, naked greed.

So with the dog running on to the Newlands ground and holding up play, the inaugural match lasted 10 minutes short of four hours.

It would be shame if this was the self-contained seed of IPL’s destruction.

Firstly, as was the case last year, it matter not a jot if worldwide audiences tune in to watch the IPL. The only audience that matter are the ones in India, and if the TRP reaches anywhere close to last years, the tournament is a success.

Secondly, given 6:30 AM starts in this part of the world, people underestimate the value of the 7.5 minute break.It is, to quote Tiku Talsania from Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, "Oh! What a relief!" .

Thirdly,the tournament started sluggishly in India too last year with people not quite aligning themselves with the home town teams ( except in Mumbai, but then again, Mumbai crowds are the bestest!). But by the time the return matches took place, the atmosphere was electric. The same could happen in Cape Town and Durban and Jo'burg.

Finally, the wickets in India in summer were not quite the flat wickets everyone claims they were.. Summer and the schedule ensured that the wickets were tired by the time the second round of the IPL started and a lot of the inflated scores can be attributed to the shortened boundaries. And even then, most matches were hardly the slugfests everyone claims them to be ( so much for sepia tinted memories). That being said, what are the odds that we wont see 200+ totals in the Bull Ring? And what odds that 125 will be a good total at Durban under lights? And seriously, why would any one want to argue against bowlers holding their own in a format that is so slanted towards batsmen that it hurts?

Chennai Soopher Kinks ka whistle podu

Mumbai 165/7 beat Chennai 146/7 by 19 runs.

Whistle podu!

Homers XI

MMBAI		(o)	JP Duminy

CHENN			SK Raina

BLORE		(o)	JD Ryder

MMBAI

SR Tendulkar

Trump Player

MMBAI			AM Nayar

CHENN		(o)	JA Morkel

RTHAN			YK Pathan

DELHI			KD Karthik

DECCN			RP Singh

CHENN			L Balaji

RTHAN

(o)

SK Warne

Yup, thats my fantasy XI!

And then there were three

Pakistan has been stripped of hosting rights for the 2011 World Cup because of the "uncertain security situation" in the country, the International Cricket Council said on Friday.

"It is a regrettable decision (but) our number one priority is to create certainty and...deliver a safe, secure and successful event," ICC president David Morgan said in a statement.

Pakistan were due to co-host the event with India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Idiot

"To be selected for such a national honour and then getting the opportunity of receiving it from the President of India is a rare good fortune and must be treated with greatest respect. I certainly don't approve of any casualness in anyone's approach," Gill said.

And to ensure it does not happen again, the ministry would issue a new circular soon, he said.

"We will soon issue a new circular for public information and send a copy to the home ministry, which would inform the sportspersons about our policy to ensure that the players don't treat national awards with such casualness," Gill said.

The sports minister also lashed out at the practice of sending "substitutes" to the investiture ceremony and said such a thing was unthinkable in countries like England.

"As the sports minister, I was involved with national sports awards last year where the President gave away Arjuna, Dronacharya, Dhyan Chand and Tenzing Norgay awards. I was very surprised to see that a number of sportspersons sent substitutes to the ceremony. For me, this is totally unacceptable."

"Nobody in England can think about sending a substitute to the Queen in the annual award ceremony. I remember how Ian Botham received his Knighthood with all due respect for the Queen," Gill said.

He said it was also a clear violation of the sports ministry instruction to either personally receive the award or, in case of unavoidable reasons, send a letter of apology well before the event.

"After last year's sport awards, I held a meeting and issued a firm direction to all the federation and sport bodies that from now onwards, all sportspersons must receive his or her in person and would not be allowed to send substitutes to the President", Gill said.

"And if there are any genuine reasons prevent them from turning up, they must send an apology in advance so that at a later date the sports minister can give them the award," he added.

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New Delhi: They did India proud at the Olympics, but five months down the line, Sailesh Kumar and Vijendra Singh are now feeling sad at being overlooked for the Padma awards.

They have even found support from fellow Olympic hero Abhinav Bindra who has made it to the Padma Bushan list.

"Yes, I am disappointed to see that their names have been omitted," says Abhinav Bindra.

The controversy over this year's Padma awards goes beyond the sports category. Some feel that Aishwarya Rai got the honour because of the political affiliation of her in laws with the Samajwadi party. But the actress herself is unfazed.

"It's an absolute previlidge and honor and I am very thankful for this and I accept it graciously," says Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

This is not the first time that the national honours have been mired in controversy.

Sitar Maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan rejected the Padma Shri in 1964 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1968, saying the awards committee wasn't competent enough to judge his music.

Historian Romila Thapar turned down the Padma Bhushan in 1992 and 2005 because she wanted to accept awards only from academic institutions.

And Kathak queen Sitara Devi refused the Padma Bhushan in 2002, saying it is an "insult" as younger and lesser known people had got Padma Vibhushan.

Bharat Ratnas too have had their share of controversies. The awards to V V Giri, K Kamaraj, MG Ramachandran and Rajiv Gandhi raised eyebrows.

Even renowned vocalist Pandit Jasraj alleged that the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar had approached influential MPs to secure the coveted award in 1999.

All these controversies have made people question the credibility of these awards.

--
Sports Minister M.S. Gill washes his hands off the Padma awards controversy in which Olympic heroes Vijender Singh and Sushil Kumar were being left out of the list.
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In an unkind twist to the Olympic medallists’ rejection, one of Kumar’s coaches says he got a call from the Sports Ministry on January 22, 2009 three days before the awardees were announced, informing him that both Kumar and Singh had been shortlisted. “The gentleman didn’t tell me his name. And, in my exhilaration, I forgot to ask. There is no point talking about it now. You’ll get nothing, however deep you dig,” the coach, who requested anony mity, told TEHELKA. Meanwhile, sources told TEHELKA that when Sports Minister MS Gill was informed about discrepancies in the awards, he chose to remain mum. “It is important not to get into this messy business,” Gill told one of his confidants at the Indian Olympic Association.

Similarly, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who is also the president of Board for Control of Cricket in India, was silent when asked why VVS Laxman was ignored after being recommended. “Harbhajan Singh was not recommended,” says BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty. “I won’t comment beyond this.”
--

When the awards are themselves a joke, and when the Hon. Minister cannot stand up for the athletes who come under the purview of his ministry, isnt it a bit rich for him to then comment on the propriety of the presence or absence of sportspersons who are not under his ministry?

And what of procedure - if he cops out when asked the reason for not nominating the athletes who represented India in the Olympics with distinction, isnt it a tad much that he speak procedure when MS DHoni and Harbhajan Singh make themselves unavailable for the ceremony?

Idiot.