[Shumi_21]

Originally Posted by Emvi

Women's T20 World Cup 2023

Richa Ghosh is damn exciting to watch. She's almost like a prototype MSD.

Originally Posted by AtheK

This is so cool!

Indeed. And the fact that Smriti Mandhana & Elyse Perry will be turning out for RCB is red-hot.

Originally Posted by AtheK

Kohli should move out of slips, he has been dropping way too many catches.

And deprive ourselves from the catch dropping contest that's currently on between Virat and Smith? Come on man, that's the only contest where the Aussies are showing some fight!


Meanwhile, cold water was literally thrown on the Australian team's plan to practice on the Nagpur pitch after their innings defeat. I wonder if it's payback for the crap the Aussies put us through in the lead up to the Gabba test.

[naveenvenkatesh]

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

I wonder if it's payback for the crap the Aussies put us through in the lead up to the Gabba test.

What crap? Cold Sand witches and far away practice ground?

[Shumi_21]

Originally Posted by naveenvenkatesh

Cold Sand witches and far away practice ground?

This actually happened recently during the T20 World Cup instead of the test series back in 2020-2021. Also, such arrangements are the ICC's area of responsibility in World Cups, rather than the host nations. Hence, the Indian players made an informal complaint to the ICC and had their foods in hotels & the BCCI brushed it aside as one of those things that happen while you're touring..

Originally Posted by naveenvenkatesh

What crap?

1. The Aussie close in fielders throwing the ball at Vihari & Ashwin's body rather than the stumps more than once during their epic batting stint to draw the Sydney test. Perfectly legal shenanigans, but doing it despite being aware of the batters being injured and unable to move very well to take evasive action did leave a bad taste in the mouth.

2. The whole narrative to show that the Indian players were somehow afraid to play in Brisbane and were using BCCI's clout & Covid bubble fatigue to wiggle their way out of facing the Australians at the Gabba. You'd expect such shithousery from the media but here were the Australian captain Tim "See you at the Gabba" Paine mischievously referencing "India's power in world cricket" & even Queensland's shadow health minister joining in. All this being done despite the BCCI & CA agreeing to move forward with the tour seems just gamesmanship.

3. Quoting from an amazing article written by Jarrod Kimber (an insightful Australian cricket analyst) that has chased away my sleep better than any coffee would. Do give it a read.

Then they arrived in Sydney with politicians attacking them, feeling like animals in a zoo and having just made a covid breach that could have lost them some of their rare fit players............

................They had been abused by the Australians, mocked by their own fans, seen more time in MRIs than the middle and been patronised for their effort. Among them were net bowlers, injured substitutes, IPL failures, grieving sons, racism victims, new fathers, social media punching bags and white ball guys. All of them, 11 of them, 20 of them, a billion of them, they were going to hit..........

..........India was on the ground, and still watching the ball. Even against Australia at a fortress. Even with kids and third choices, India kept watching it, onto the bat, down through fine leg, even as they fell, then rolled. They had their eyes on it from flat on their backs in the dirt as the ball goes into the rope. India beat Australia while lying in the dirt.

[Shumi_21]

Sorry for the back to back posts guys, but couldn't resist

Babar Azam dropping truth bombs on Valentine's Day.



Here's the link to the original SOURCE,

Because I solemnly swear I don't have a hand in creating the above message. It's only Babar's hands that are involved. The same hands that he will be using to hold his bat later this evening. After all he is a Master Batter & he will prove that as Peshawar Zalmi take on Karachi Kings in the PSL tonight.

[HappyRider]

Originally Posted by Emvi

India vs Australia third test match moved out of Dharamshala, shifted to Indore.

Pathetic from BCCI. They knew this ground is under renovation. Why don't they pick another venue in the first place. Imaging the trouble people who planned to go there for tourism+cricket package. They have to cancel flights, hotels etc.

For all the grounds undergoing renovation, why don't they first test the new facility with domestic matches first.

All along, BCCI and associated state associations never care for spectators and HCA is the worst

[Emvi]

Spectators of a local cricket match were fortunate to witness this spectacular "bicycle kick" catch!

https://youtu.be/l5AKyyP9H5c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyCMdtR11Xw

One of the greatest catches ever?
Michael Vaughan definitely think so!

https://www.google.com/amp/www.first...44832.html/amp

[deathwalkr]

Any thoughts on the new controversy with the Chetan Sharma "sting" video?

[Shumi_21]

I don't want to get into the details of statements made by Chetan Sharma in the "sting operation" for the simple reason that his statements are (unsubstantiated) allegations at this point in time. Emphasis on this point in time.

But it does make me wonder, how does an ex-player who is best known for being smacked by Javed Miandad for a last ball six, end up being the Chief selector of the Indian cricket team? Or how is Salil Ankola, who is more actor than cricketer, on the selection panel? I see a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the selector's job itself is an almost thankless but crucial role. Even selecting a probable squad of 15-20 players for any given tournament gets them no admirers because of the sheer number of talented players available. Every selection meeting can easily disappoint at least 10 players and not to mention the brickbats from the legion of fans of the overlooked guys. And then they have to travel all over the country regularly to watch untelevised games and tap into the informal ecosystem of junior selectors/coaches/scouts, umpires, and even sports journalists spread all over the country to get context to the numbers they get from matches they haven't watched. The selectors are then expected to groom these players and monitor their progress until they are ready to play for India.

It won't be wrong to say that the selectors actually decide what direction the team takes in the long run. Sure, the captain/coach have a say too, but it's just not possible for them to keep track of everything that's happening in the domestic ecosystem. As a result, the selection panel's job becomes that much more important, even more than that of the coach.

It's no surprise then, the most eligible candidates amongst the retired cricketers tend to choose comparatively easier gigs like commentary which have more exposure and less accountability. The rest get into the coaching scene, especially the high paying IPL jobs. The talent pool thus becomes very limited.

The second reason, is ironically one of the Lodha committee reforms that was implemented in the aftermath of the IPL spot fixing saga. The conflict of interest & one person one post rule, although enforced with the best of intentions and in good faith has had unintended consequences. The BCCI is literally scraping the bottom of the barrel for filling crucial positions in the selection panel and the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC)

We went from having Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the CAC to Ashok Malhotra, Jatin Paranjape and Sulakshana Naik. No offence to the current CAC members, but the difference in quality is glaring. Similarly we went from having greats like Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohinder Amarnath and Sandeep Patil heading the selection committee to having MSK Prasad, Sunil Joshi & Chetan Sharma. Again no offence to anyone.

Having a comparatively lightweight selection panel and CAC gives the captain + coach disproportionate influence in team selection. Do we really think MSK Prasad could have ruled out a 3D recommendation made by Kohli/Shastri? Or would Chetan Sharma dare to disagree with Rohit/Dravid? Or would any of those two have the guts to tell Sourav Ganguly that the BCCI president need not be present for selection meetings? Highly unlikely. As a result, the selection panel is all but reduced to be a glorified rubber stamp to the team management.

With regards to selection, the discussion should ideally be around whether we need more younger, recently retired players on the selection panel for fresh insight into the modern way of playing cricket, especially in T20's or how technical support by way of video and data can help make the selection panel more competent.

It's a bloody shame the whole Indian cricket world (including us) will end up discussing a damned "sting operation" involving our Chief Selector.

Rahul Dravid as head coach and VVS Laxman at NCA need a competent person as head of the selection panel with whom they can literally build the future of Indian Cricket. Australia have ex captain George Bailey in the selector's chair while England convinced T20 journeyman Luke Wright to retire at 37 to be national selector. Why can't India convince someone like Sachin or MSD to take up the mantle?

[SoumenD]

What sorcery has KL Rahul done? SKY made way for Iyer but Gill still not able to replace KL. This is preposterous

Even if KL scores a century in this match, it’s really unfair to have someone in red-hot form (Gill) sitting outside like this.

[redCherry]

Originally Posted by SoumenD

What sorcery has KL Rahul done?

This is what he has done. What more he has to do

Average of 34 after 8 years and nearly 80 innings
Average of less-than 40 against all teams except WI & Afghanistan
Average of 32 in last 19 innings (in last 2 years)
Average of 17 in 9 innings with just 1 score of 50+ runs in last one year

The writing is on the wall, but seems like the decision makers are affected by selective blindness or see huge potential no one else is seeing, or he has done sorcery as you have mentioned

[volkman10]

Update on the recent Cricket saga:

[Shumi_21]

I have a few thoughts about forum-favourite KL Rahul. Will try and make a coherent post after this match.

The Australians came out fighting in Delhi with a 50 run opening partnership until Warner nicked out to Shami. Khwaja got to his 50, riding his luck, but he played some good shots too. Both he and Marnus were looking ominous. But India came back as Ashwin dismissed Labuschagne & Smith in the same over. This test is already so so exciting!

Hard not to feel disappointed for Surya, who's sitting out after just one innings, but Shreyas coming in is the right decision, especially with Australia playing 3 spinners.

During a practice game in Mumbai before Australia's tour of 2017 began, a comparatively lesser known Shreyas Iyer, then playing for India A, dominated Nathan Lyon enroute to a double century. The story goes that the champion Aussie bowler in his frustration after being hit for 3 or 4 consecutive sixes exclaimed to the non striker, "Who the **** is this guy?!"

Hope Shreyas answers that question (again) when India come out to bat in this game

[KPR]

I'm both happy and sad seeing scorecard of 180/6. Happy for 6 wickets. Sad that KL Rahul is playing.

KL's mind voice: "Without even knowing if I will be in playing 11 of next match l will play my 50th and sooner 100th test like Pujara ".

[Fx14]

Jadeja needs to do something about his number of 'no balls', given his limited run up. Fortunately the reprieve to Handscomb didn't prove to be too costly.

[rx100]

The way England playing the test cricket is really mesmerizing. Their attacking approach so far working for them very much.

Against NZ, they scored 320 odd runs with 2 sessions and declared with a wicket remaining. And on second innings, they are on more than run a ball even though wickets fell early on.