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Somerset to go for CLT20 with depleted side

September 7th, 2011 admin

Somerset will find it difficult to play in the Champions League T20 with their full squad after the side would have to miss out on many of their star players in the tournament. Amongst the others, there will be no place for Marcus Trescothick, Joss Buttler, Craig Kieswetter and Kieron Pollard, all of whom had played a huge part in getting the Sabres through to the CLT20 playoffs.

Trescothick’s issue is that he does not travel outside of his home and has, one expected lines, withdrawn from the tournament. On the other hand, Kieswetter and Buttler have not been named for the tournament by Somerset because they would be selected by the national side and that would mean that the Somerset team will be without some of the best players they had used to qualify for the tournament.

The other issue is that of Pollard, who will be plying his trade for the Mumbai Indians, leaving the Somerset side without too much traction.

Instead, the side will have the services of Alex Barrow, a 19-year-old, as a wicket-keeper, whose experience of playing in India hasn’t been the greatest.

Somerset squad: Alex Barrow, Jos Buttler, Nick Compton, Adam Dibble, George Dockrell, James Hildreth, Gemaal Hussain Murali Kartik, Steven Kirby, Craig Kieswetter, Craig Meschede, Arul Suppiah, Alfonso Thomas, Peter Trego, Roelof van der Merwe.

New South Wales are my favourites, who are yours?

September 6th, 2011 admin

While the fans concentrate on the Indian teams in the Champions League T20, it will be interesting to see how the other, non-IPL sides perform in the tournament. Apart from three teams who have made it directly to the final round and one in Kolkata Knight Riders, who are a part of the qualifiers, there are nine others, who will look to compete and win the trophy.

These nine are; New South Wales, South Australia, Leicestershire, Somerset, Cobras, Warriors, Auckland, Ruhuna and Trinidad and Tobago.

To me, New South Wales would be the one team worth looking at, simply because not only have they won the first Champions League in 2009, it was also played in India, where their bowlers were able to get the ball to keep low and make things difficult for the opposition.

While the captain hasn’t been decided yet, there is a good chance that Simon Katich could lead the side and given all that he has gone through with the selectors in the last couple of months, it may result in him going in full tilt.

Who are your favourites?

Can the Mumbai Indians win the CLT20 with all their injury issues?

September 5th, 2011 admin

The Mumbai Indians side could be bereft of some of their star cricketers with the kind of injuries that they have been suffering.

For starters, there is a foot issue with their captain Sachin Tendulkar and if he is declared unfit for the rest of the series against England, it will be interesting to see if he will be fit enough to play in the Champions League T20.

The one player who should definitely be out of reckoning is Rohit Sharma, who suffered from a broken bone in his hand. This meant that he will be out of competitive cricket for around a month and it will not make sense for him to risk playing.

Then, there is Harbhajan Singh who flew back from England to rest his stomach muscle which could be tested in the CLT20 if he opts to play for it.

If all three do not play in the tournament, not only will the side be without three of the better players they have, the Mumbai Indians will miss having a proper captain as well for the Champions League T20. They would be out of reckoning then, to win the Champions League T20.

Should Gautam Gambhir give Champions League T20 a miss?

September 2nd, 2011 admin

It will be interesting to see whether Gautam Gambhir does play for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Champions League T20 qualifiers. Gambhir had come back from the tour of England after he hurt his head while trying to catch Kevin Pietersen out and since then has been struggling with concussion.

However, given that the tournament begins from September 19, he will need to report to the camp by around September 15, which is around two weeks away. The big question is whether he will get fit enough by that time or whether he will risk aggravating an injury to himself.

Even in the IPL, Gambhir had played for the Knight Riders despite suffering from a shoulder injury and that had meant that he had had to miss the tour of the West Indies. Gambhir would know that if he were to repeat the same mistake again, there would be a huge backlash against him, and things could get interesting.

What do you think? Should Gambhir play in the CLT20?

Check out the CLT20 2011 Schedule

Champions League T20 to start from September 19

September 2nd, 2011 admin

The third edition of the Champions League T20 will be played from September 19 this year. The main tournament will still have 10 teams, but seven of them have got a direct entry into the tournament, while the remaining three will be decided from a six-team qualifying tournament that will be held before the start of the main round.

India will be represented by Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Australia will have New South Wales and South Australia while South African teams of Warriors and Cobras will make it to the main draw.

The six teams playing in the qualifiers are Kolkata Knight Riders, Somerset, Leicestershire, Trinidad and Tobago, Ruhuna and Auckland. The qualifiers will be played on September 19, 20 and 21 while the main tournament will be held between September 23 and October 9.

The qualifiers will be held at the Uppal stadium in Hyderabad, while Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata will host the main matches, something that is surprising given that it is Mumbai Indians who have qualified for the tournament and are still not hosting a single game.

Bell run-out sparks controversy

August 3rd, 2011 admin

The Ian Bell run-out controversy will be one that will be remembered for time to come and the reason for it is simple. For long, the Indians have been expected to accept decisions on the grounds of sportsmanship even as the team at the other end, has made merry.

It had happened on the tour of Australia in the Sydney Test when one decision after another went against the Indian team and they could only helplessly look on.

There was a stumping decision that went against India, and there was a caught behind that also went against India before Ganguly was given out caught off one bounce.

So, I don’t understand what was MS Dhoni expecting to gain out of the decision to recall Ian Bell. If winning a sportsmanship award was the issue, he can easily do that in the IPL’s Fairplay award but with a number one ranking at stake, it was something that he should have kept in mind.
Besides, Bell was clearly out and it should have remained that way.

Why did India lose to England at Lord’s?

July 30th, 2011 admin

There are many reasons for the loss, one can argue but to me, the biggest one is that what Nasser Hussain says it is. He has said that the Indians do not respect the number one position as much as they should and there cannot be anything farther from the truth.

India were under-prepared for the game and they always knew they would be under-prepared. Unfortunately, the feeling I got was that the Indian team was not bothered about the fact that they were going to remain under-prepared without the warm-up needed.

If I were an Indian team captain I would do my level best to get the board to organise at least two warm-up games before the start of the series. Probably even three.

However, it has clearly been the case of arrogance getting the better of the Indian side, resulting in the one-sided defeat at the hands of the far superior English team.

The question now is, whether India deserves the number one rankings in the Tests?

Well done BCCI!

December 22nd, 2010 admin

The BCCI has informed the franchises that they cannot sign up the domestic players for now. The reasons are said to be varied. However, one gets the sense that inadvertently or otherwise, the BCCI has done a good job by having limits associated with the amount of money paid to the domestic players.

It is easy to say that every player must be allowed to earn his living but that also means that the franchises must be protected and so too must the players. The franchises don’t want to get into a situation where they don’t have control over the players and that the player is able to hold them to ransom.

Similarly, while money is good for the game, too much money may spoil the cricketers – especially if they don’t really deserve it. For someone who is 17 and has not played a single season of Ranji, signing up for Rs.50,00,000 could end up spoiling him – at that age, the mind is gullible and could believe that it is the end of the world for them.

So, well done BCCI – for whatever reasons.

BCCI retains panel hearing charges against Modi

December 11th, 2010 admin

The BCCI on Saturday retained the three-member disciplinary committee probing charges of financial irregularities against Lalit Modi, rejecting the former IPL chairman’s demand for a reconstitution of the panel.

The decision was taken at a Special General Meeting convened to resolve the matter after Modi’s counsel Mehmood Abdi pointed out last month that the panel did not have the BCCI General Body’s mandate.

The committee comprises the trio of Chirayu Amin, Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia.

“The committee had already got the BCCI’s approval in the Annual General Meeting but it was not recorded in the minutes of the meeting,” a BCCI source said after the meeting. Read more »

BCCI shouldn’t hold auctions during Cricket World Cup

December 6th, 2010 admin

The fourth edition of the IPL will be held one week after the Cricket World Cup ends and yet, there is a good chance that the BCCI may have to rethink the dates.

The reason for this is that the dates were announced based on the fact that the player auctions will be held in January 2011. However, with the case between Punjab/Rajasthan and the BCCI having gone to the High court, it is evident that the player auctions will not go ahead as planned.

What is funnier is that it has been reported that the auctions could be held during the World Cup.

World cup? You must be kidding. So here we have teams trying to focus their minds on the games that they have and there, on the other hand, a few of their players will be keeping a close eye on what they could potentially earn out of the deal with their new franchise.

Really, this is the silliest thing that BCCI could come up with in recent times – there should be some kind of restraint shown by them and not hog the limelight even during the World Cup.

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