Surprise! Surprise! When all the eyes were on the seriousness with which China is internally trying to get cricket going in their country with the help of PCB, silently the Americans are not far behind from the Germans (whoa) in getting a foothold into the cricket fraternity.

Apparently 12 teams including Germany, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, Vanuatu, Afghanistan, Bahamas, Botswana, Japan, Jersey and Singapore are all going to battle it out in the ICC world league division.

The weirdest thing about this was that the American cricket association, was actually banned for a couple of years for some strange internal political reasons which you come to expect from any sports federation organization, be it the ICC or FIFA. In the recent ICC meet, their suspension was lifted.

What is positive from the Americans is that from the usual takes of baseball, many of their public schools have introduced cricket. As you would come to expect, there would be significantly large numbers of their immigrant citizens from India, Pakistan, Malaysia, South Africa and the West Indies.

On a general note, perhaps with their love for baseball and the similarities of the two sports, it shouldn’t actually be too difficult a proposition for them to make inroads into the cricketing world. One thing I assume will be good from them would be the fielding if they take a leaf out of baseball like what the Australians do.

The other country getting into cricket which basically stunned me is Vanuatu! I plead my ignorance and my curiosity chased me into their association site.

Here is a pic on the boys from Vanuatu learning cricket! From all the bickering and whiplashes happening in world cricket, there is light after all at the end of the tunnel.

Finally, test cricket and I was all excited to see some sanity and so called real quality prevail. However after watching 5 overs of the match, it was evident that this match was turning out to be a borefest.

Was the crowd from a chess match where all the ‘oohs and aahs’ come every time a chess move is made? Probably specifically, it was a golf crowd.

By the time the first few overs were bowled, New Zealand already lost their top half and they should be kicking themselves for getting out to very ordinary bowling.

The recent success for Sidebottom seem to have paid off in terms of free beers and lunches all over England. The bloat on sidebottom was evident but there was still that sexy smile (oh hello Ladies, am back…. gaaaaw).

Neither Anderson nor Sidebottom got any real swing going and I was wondering if this was a sub-continental pitch. How in the world New Zealand lost those early wickets is a mystery, as big as Vaughan’s black jocks slipping off in the field.

To top this all, there was Anderson missing a sitter of a chance to throw the ball to the fielder to get a run out going. Typically England with all their plethora of alibi’s, there was immediately the support crew rendering eye drops to Anderson. How exciting!

Kevin Peiterson’s attempt for a catch was better than most of the IPL cheerleader moves. In fact, it reminded me of Marilyn Munroe’s famous photograph of her skirt flying.

Vaughan was there smiling so blissfully that it would have made Bucknor very proud, for all the lost chances that went by.

Ross Taylor who was disastrous in the practice matches got going with all the foreplay (cheers to SP for coining the term ‘foreplay cricketer’) but the much needed thrust to finish the job.

The hero of the day was yet again Brendon “MChammer” Mccullum who pounded a lovely 90 odd runs. He will be kicking himself thinking about the number of centuries in the recent past he has missed. But this dude is almost everything about New Zealand cricket now.

When Stuart Broad came on to bowl, there was swing, so it was the case of Sidebottom & co at the top not being able to use it… but there can’t be much complaints considering New Zealand sent in their suicide squad to bat. The boy band reject, Broad just became much more annoying after remodeling his hairstyle on all those absurd and silly Leonardo Dicaprio look-alike comments by his giggling fan base of prom rejects. Thankfully, sanity prevailed in not letting me bash up my TV.

Day 2… Oram and Vettori will try to build on. Looks like an yawn fest in the offering… amen.

Congratulations to the Indian women’s cricket team for their fourth straight Asia cup win. Read more… »

A truck load of matches in the IPL have gone by and due to the length of the format, it is still tough to establish a clear cut team that would probably win the tournament. Such as been the swinging fortunes of this format.

As far as players of the tournament goes, two guys stand out well with their consistent performances. Read more… »

Cricket has been hitting new lows in the last six months and the latest of these simmering episodes of rabid power struggles was seen in the unceremonious sacking of the ICC CEO Mr. Malcolm Speed just before the end of his tenure under the pretext of a paid holiday. Speed has been credited in revamping the functioning of the Australian board and for his actions during his tenure in handling the many controversies that erupted as the chief executive for the ICC. Read more… »

The next set of IPl matches went on with some mixed results on the quality of the cricket played.  Riders wrapped their second win while Laxman felt he was robbed. The Bangalore sloshers actually won a game but then it still required the brilliance of a T20 natural in Mark Boucher to wrap things up… so there is still food for thought on this team that chooses to have Jaffer and the unforgivable Sunil Joshi in it.  Read more… »

The big day came and there was it, full of the promised entertainment, dancing girls, performance artists, savage hungry crowd and fireworks that actually stole the show. What was really annoying was the on-field hosts, TV commentators and everybody associated with the event going forever on an overzealous note of ‘suggestive self-praising’ on the opening entertainment. Read more… »

Tomorrow would be the most anticipated day of the launch of the evil empire IPL. So be very afraid!

The IPL is here. Period. Read more… »

The last test ended with India quite easily romping home after their spinners predictably did what was expected on a dirt track which would easily qualify for Pro-racing or inspire the game developers for Motocross madness. The only positive in that pitch was that a result was definitely on the cards and it would never go on for 5 days. Read more… »

South Africa thrashed, smashed, raped, gored, mutilated, annihilated (please add in your adjectives in the comments ) India in the second test. Hats off to South Africa for playing an absolutely flawless brand of cricket. When the first test match in Chennai ended in a dull draw it was obvious that South Africa clearly looked the better team between the two. Both teams are equally matched but South Africa was putting in the effort. Read more… »