[Eddy]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

So fellows,

Whats up ?

The sky

Also the stockmarket

[diabloo]

.............Nothing, business as usual

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

So fellows,

Whats up ?

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by diabloo

.............Nothing, business as usual

Too quiet to be business as usual. Please continue!

[benbsb29]

Maybe everyone's having a break.. Tik Tak, or was that Kit Kat ?
LOL !!

[Rtech]

***Yawn*** Bring back the T20!

[diabloo]

Who can be the greatest player when our dear master blaster is still blasting?

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

Whom might you be referring to?

India was more unprepared than them. Still they managed to pull off. How about a word of appreciation for the young team?
Note: Other teams played their regular ODI team. India rested their players !

They like SA, NZ, SL didn't make much of this tournament in their own right justification. Not necessarily one that we agree to. But as I said earlier, tough luck played its part, specially with SA. NZ who didn't think much of this game and came unprepared % did play some good cricket. Maybe they just didn't find this tournament to be taken too seriously. And they paid for it.

T20 is still in infancy. Can't generalize this as of now. For instance, Dmitri Mascarhenas blasted Indian bowlers in ODIs but failed miserably in T20

I was wondering if a T20 player has the SKILL why is it only restrained to T20 and not ODI cricket? Just in case, I don't understand why all these players are just managing to clear the ropes while they kept hitting boundaries over 100 mtrs in T20? What happened to that skill now, why isn't it being used? The point I am trying to prove is that not all T20 players will play well in ODI. But almost all ODI players will play well in T20. A fact that has been proven by all teams.

[Lukeskywalker]

LOL! It must be the tea break or end of the innings, hang on guys, the teams will be back refreshed and the match will continue. No rain stoppage here, but we may well have a tie on the cards.
This is much better than watching the actual match. Pls continue guys.

[diabloo]

Why, don't you like to see the real cricketing skills on display

Originally Posted by Rtech

***Yawn*** Bring back the T20!

[Surprise]

Waugh: Ganguly, Tendulkar should retire | The Daily Telegraph

Ganguly's injury and Sachin Tendulkar's duck in Bangalore would once again fuel the age debate in India," Waugh said

'I dream of an India that is more than hope'- Hindustan Times

Tendulkar wrote:

I also want to imagine an India as a land of equal sporting opportunity and choice, one where people honestly believe that sport can give them a better shot at life. No one should have the option of saying that he didn't get a chance, he or she should only be able to say that 'look, I got a chance, but I wasn't quite good enough to make it'.

Stalwarts, including Sachin, face Hyderabad acid test

And in that, for the first time in 18 years, Sachin Tendulkar just might have to strive to keep his place in the one-day team. A source says Tendulkar, and even Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly could find the going tough

[khaadu75]

maybe its time to start a thread with Drag vs track and how drag racing is not about skill , just the way T20 isn't about real talent and skill !!!

Also someone said Sa , Aus and NZ didn't take the T20 WC seriously -- but remember that only happened after they lost and got knocked out . All of them came thinking they would win but unfortunately for them they didn't and thats when they started making press statements about how they only took part coz they had to .

This debate is so useless .... India WON , PERIOD

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by khaadu75

maybe its time to start a thread with Drag vs track and how drag racing is not about skill , just the way T20 isn't about real talent and skill !!!

There @khaadu, I second you again. IMO, both require different skills. F1 champ or WRC champ. Both are drivers. Who is more skilled? There are differences of opinion here (refer F1 vs WRC thread).

Similarly this discussion will remain split based on what 'skill' means to a person.

IMO, Robin Uthappa has the skills to play a key role in both shorter formats of the game. Whereas VVS Laxman can be more effective in roles required for Tests. Technically/theoretically, VVS may be a better player - but then Robin too has special skills. I don't think we can disregard either skills.

[mclaren1885]

First & foremost, I think a player (be it any sport) should be the best judge on when he has to hang up his boots. Because he is the only person who can be a judge of this. None other. When Alonso won the WDC everyone said MS should retire. But he stayed on to get defeated yet again. I respect his choice to carry on for another season & then subsequently for retiring when he felt it was good. So I wouldn't see much into all these gyan that people give about other players retiring.

India was more unprepared than them.

India went into this series with nothing to loose. The team themselves didn't expect to do well until the SF. Thats the way I see it.

I don't know what you mean by India rested the star players. From what I have read in the papers the star players "opted" out to spend sometime with family.

For instance, Dmitri Mascarhenas blasted Indian bowlers in ODIs but failed miserably in T20

You will have exceptions in any field. But the general funda still holds good.

Who can be the greatest player when our dear master blaster is still blasting?

Oh, that would depend from person to person. I think the greatest player to play ODIs was Wasim Akram.

Originally Posted by khaadu

maybe its time to start a thread with Drag vs track and how drag racing is not about skill

Yeah, about time I say. IMO I don't think drag racing requires too much of a skill unlike rallying/track racing. So there you go. I prefer drag racing, because its cheap, an empty stretch can be turned into a strip etc. But give me a track anyday & I will be quick to seize the opportunity.

Shuvc, I know Robin has skills. But skills is nothing without consistency or temperment. You cannot consistently afford to be getting starts and throw it off. Which is the case with Robin. He has to be nurtured & groomed well during this period to understand what his role in the game is. He has to learn to put a price on his wicket, which IMO Yuvraj has made a mockery of even till now. Yuvi is exceptionally talented, but he doesn't price his wicket too much. The day he does, he will be more dangerous.

And during this evolution of new players into the team, one has to realize that they cannot become heroes overnight. Infact, looking at it the other way round, the presence of the senior players will help them hone their skill further in the nets/practice sessions et all. So finally when they come on the field they are much more mature & better equipped. This is where the OZ's do so well. Even their bench strength has a lot of experience. They don't push a youngster into the team until a point where he has proved himself otherwise. While we Indian's go ho-hung on even the tiniest of performances from a youngster, the rest of the world expects them to go back to the drawing board and work on bettering their game and come out stronger.

All the Robin's, Yuvraj's, Rohit's, Dhoni's, Karthik's ought to grab this chance to learn more from the people who are experienced. Besides such good competition will only be good for the team.

[diabloo]

The point is not age with the Fab 3 - its the performance. Hayden is 36 and 2007 is his best year 26 ODIs, 1368 runs, 62.18 average with 5 hundreds & 4 fifties. I wonder why our established Fab 3 can't bat like this

Originally Posted by Surprise

Waugh: Ganguly, Tendulkar should retire | The Daily Telegraph

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by diabloo

The point is not age with the Fab 3 - its the performance. Hayden is 36 and 2007 is his best year 26 ODIs, 1368 runs, 62.18 average with 5 hundreds & 4 fifties. I wonder why our established Fab 3 can't bat like this

Answer is simple. Form! You will have ups and downs. But Sachin has done well in Ireland, then again in England. Ganguly has also been giving consistent performances. If it wasn't for the T20 not many would be complaining, specially after how we played at Eng. At times certain performances get overshadowed by the performances of the others. Most people think Gilchrist has not done too well this season. Truth is, he has. But Matty has just been outdoing him for most part of the season. Similarly, amidst the good performances of Yuvraj, Dhoni, Robin, Rohit we have just forgotten the contributions of these 3. Not to mention our bias/hatred towards them also makes us not want to recognize these matches where they contributed as well.

Most of us here PERCEIVE that fab 3 have done really bad in 2007. But the truth is far from this. You may check out the top 10 batsmen in 07. And surprise, surprise. Ganguly is at No 3 & Tendlya at No 8 (just two spots below Ponting).

Cricinfo - Records - 2007 - One-Day Internationals - Most runs

Now why would you want to drop 2 players that figure in the top 10 I fail to understand.

[khaadu75]

Originally Posted by diabloo

The point is not age with the Fab 3 - its the performance. Hayden is 36 and 2007 is his best year 26 ODIs, 1368 runs, 62.18 average with 5 hundreds & 4 fifties. I wonder why our established Fab 3 can't bat like this

At the same time I wonder why Hayden couldn't bat like this at 18 ... ???