[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by Eddy

MSD intents to keep playing till the T20 World Cup in 2020 to be held in Australia in October 2020. I don't think he will last that long.

Did he announce this somewhere? It'll be a sad day if he doesn't retire after the WC2019 irrespective of the result.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by noopster

Last night's win was, at least to me, thoroughly unconvincing.
...
Simply put, we do not look like a world-cup winning side this time. We are in the semis and may well reach the finals as well but will we stand the test against mighty Australia the second time?

Agree with many of the things you mentioned
Wasn't really a convincing win against Bangladesh and in terms of runs needed they were always in the hunt, another couple of bad overs for India in the end could have won Bangladesh the game, but they did lose wickets at regular intervals which made it tougher towards the end.

About the team not looking like a world-cup winning team, yes and no Other teams at the top of the points table like England and New Zealand are also edgy, playing some games very well and badly in others. Even Australia lost to India, so all these teams are beatable by another team on a given day, none are playing like they're invincible. West Indies came in with so much of expectations and they're out now after couple of flashes of brilliance!
Compared to these other teams, India played rather consistently to win the matches prior to the England one, first scare was against Afghanistan, that game was just 2 big hits from being lost. We knew England wouldn't be easy to beat, and they sprang lots of surprises to use the ground and conditions to their advantage while we were just gaping. That was a good eye opener, but again we struggled on the same ground against Bangladesh to add about 20-30 more runs in the death overs. In fact we will most likely get another chance at the same ground for the semi final! We need to be more robust in that game as it's a knock out one.
In 2015, India won all the league games only to lose the first knock out game which was the semi final and we were out!

[Eddy]

Did he announce this somewhere? It'll be a sad day if he doesn't retire after the WC2019 irrespective of the result.

I haven't heard him say this, but remember reading it somewhere. This was after ICC had put out a public poll on this topic sometime back.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Poor guy. He never got to wear his 3D glasses also. Pant and now Mayank were sent ahead of him and it might have hurt him.

He knew what was coming and made the right comment, MSK Prasad is just taking advantage of his position. We have laughed enough seeing his wicket keeping skills when he played for India.

[suresh_gs]

Looks like MSD will hang his boots after the current world cup

[harry10]

Originally Posted by Eddy

MSD intents to keep playing till the T20 World Cup in 2020 to be held in Australia in October 2020. I don't think he will last that long.

Which means he may very well retire from odis at least. Also, with Pant we have a wicketkeeper and good hitter for T20. Dont need MSD doing his tuk tuk there also. But, no one in bcci has the balls to remove him. He will retire when he wants to.

[aditya.86]

Originally Posted by Eddy

I haven't heard him say this, but remember reading it somewhere. This was after ICC had put out a public poll on this topic sometime back.

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Looks like MSD will hang his boots after the current world cup

Have also been hearing that his farewell is planned in the world's largest stadium being built in Ahmedabad which is nearing completion now.

[hemanth.anand]

Rayudu Retires!

Source: Cricbuzz

Quite a kneee-jerk reaction for his non-selection into the WC squad and a hasty decision I feel. But then I think he was always like this...especially looking at his ICL story. Anyway, now he can happily watch all future 3D movies

[suresh_gs]

Folks, a slightly different topic. What are the credentials one should have to become say president of BCCI. I just looked at the career record of MSK Prasad. Without hurting anyone's sentiments, I should say that he does not deserve to be in that position. I feel the contribution of a cricketer towards the game and country should be taken into consideration for such a position. Frankly speaking MSK Prasad has not done much at all. Correct me if I am wrong
Or is it political power that decides who should occupy that position.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

What are the credentials one should have to become say president of BCCI. I just looked at the career record of MSK Prasad. Or is it political power that decides who should occupy that position.

Well, just to clarify, Prasad is Chief Selector and the President of the BCCI is CK Khanna.

Usually the president is elected from among the members of the BCCI who are representatives from the various state cricket associations (36 in total, I think), but this current president was appointed by the Supreme Court after the last president was sacked.

The BCCI is the richest cricketing body in the world and the richest sports body in the country. Like any elected powerful post that requires the victor to stitch together support from several powerful parties (the state cricket associations) and where so much money and power are at stake (TV rights, control over all cricketing decisions in the country; many would say in the ICC and the rest of the cricketing World as well), it's usually a political, wealthy and powerful individual who can make it.

The list of presidents include cement magnates, politicians, former chief ministers, even royalty.

So in short, like any other democratically elected post in this country, the one with the most powerful political alliances and who is the best funded usually wins!

They in turn dole out favours to those they like or need to reward in the form of various positions within the BCCI organization.

[anb]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Ambatti Raydu retires from International Cricket!

That's sad. He is a much better player than Vijay Sankar

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by noopster

Last night's win was, at least to me, thoroughly unconvincing.

...
Simply put, we do not look like a world-cup winning side this time. We are in the semis and may well reach the finals as well but will we stand the test against mighty Australia the second time?

I doubt any of us would have made such a comment before Sri Lanka beat England and completely turned up the situation! There was a period where the general feeling among fans was the WC was "boring" because of two reasons - rain and the clinical wins by the top 4 (especially India).

But if one evaluates over the entire WC till now, none of the teams are perfect/winning side this year; that's what has made it interesting during the second half; tables have turned upside down; teams that were wobblish in the first set are now looking set (Australia, Pakistan) and visa versa (India, England, New Zealand).

I can't remember who said this (Lara?), but in one of the discussions during the innings break, a senior retired cricketer mentioned that the reason the knock-out method is different & unpopular from the normal WC method because of the heavy see-saw that happens during the qualification stages followed by a semi-final/final matches that literally has an element of luck that even trumps capabilities. It happened in 1992 (read:Pakistan), and he was betting on it happening again in 2019.

I agree with your points on Dhoni - clearly he (and Jadhav to an extent) are responsible for the slow rate play in the death overs and that is a problem hopefully Kohli and team sort out by the next match against Sri Lanka. The spinners have been unsuccessful only on the Birmingham pitch, primarily due to the short boundaries. Which unfortunately is one of the venues for the semis.

But we have the making of a winning team - almost perfect bowling attack, a solid opening trio (not perfect due to the injury, but they are delivering) and excellent fielding through and through. Perfect, no. But a good team.

Originally Posted by anb

He is a much better player than Vijay Sankar

'Shankar', saar. He's from the south machan, so the extra 'H'

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

'Shankar', saar. He's from the south machan, so the extra 'H'

No friend. It should be Sankar from TN Maybe Kerala too. Karnataka and Andhra would be Shankar ! But I see he is Shankar. So nothing coming out of this !

[kavensri]

How about this…
Before today’s match started, PAK must have been rooting for NZ victory. But, having seen the ENG innings so far, they must have switched their loyalty and rooting for ENG to score BIG total and then NZ to lose quite heavily. As they are playing after this match ends, they know exactly what they need to do to overcome NZ’s NRR, even if they need a miracle to achieve it!

[NPV]

England off to a great start, will they get to 400 today ? Heck, just before the world cup started, the official scoring sheet was updated to allow for scores upto 500, such were the expectations from teams like England!