Just Cricket

               Captains of this era have all been the perfect ones for their respective countries, if one considers the situation that each country was in at the time of being made captain. Andrew Strauss, Graeme Smith, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ricky Ponting have all been good captains given the records that they possess even after such lengthy stays at the international level as captains. The thing that was common amongst these people was that they all had a good base for them to start on. Strauss was probably the one amongst these four to have started on shaky ground. Statistics as Captain for each player.                               Three people who catch the eye are Michael Clarke, Misbah-ul-Haq and Darren Sammy. All these 3 have been captain for about the same number of Tests which is on...

The Forgotten Man              It has been a year and the World Cup has been largely remembered by Indians, if not anyone else, for the tears from Sachin Tendulkar, the first ball fours from Virender Sehwag, the six from M S Dhoni sailing over long-on bringing the Would cup home, the 97 from Gautam Gambhir in the final, the accurate bowling of Zaheer Khan and last but not least the tremendous show by Yuvraj Singh with both bat and ball. There are so many things that have gone unnoticed. For example, this World Cup was considered to be a poor tournament for Harbhajan Singh. People , largely think that he was there to provide wickets and he didn't and Yuvraj did his job as well. But, Harbhajan was the guy who was tying up one end which enabled Yuvraj to get wickets at the other end, sometimes even through poor short deliveries. Wickets that come to mind, Kumara Sangakkara in the final and William Porterfield when he was sailing at 74, both coul...

This post is mainly for the people who are saying that Sachin's 100th century isn't that special because it came against Bangladesh. The others who don't think that way can read it and take pleasure in reminiscing all the great moments that this great man has provided over the past 23 years. First of all, saying that it's not that special because it came against Bangladesh is entirely wrong because Bangladesh are progressing well and they have shown signs of this in the ongoing Asia Cup, coming close to Pakistan's total in the opening game and beating India in their second. In fact their bowling attack is what they rely on to win matches most of the times. Getting a hundred off that attack is not as easy as everyone thinks. Secondly, there are opinions that when Sachin scores a century India lose which might have been true on so many occasions in the past. But, does that statement mean that Sachin is losing India games by scoring centuries? It doesn'...

There are 3 things that I have been pondering over for the last couple of weeks. Why do batsmen have to be given out if their bat is in the air even after getting the bat over the line? Why do bowlers get to keep their foot in the air behind the crease and still don't get a no-ball call? If handling the ball is something that has to be decided whether it was done intentionally or not, why don't batsmen just put their hand out gently to stop the ball, when they find themselves in a situation where they know that they are definitely going to be definitely run-out? Run-Outs and No-Balls Bowlers can keep their foot in the air behind the crease Batsmen cannot keep their bat in the air over the creas e In the recently concluded ODI series between England and Pakistan, Asad Shafiq, in trying to sneak a leg bye of Graeme Swann had to turn back and ended up just getting the bat over the line, but with the bat in the air which proved just a touch costl...