The buzz in world cricket is now on Zimbabwe with some nations primarily led by the ECB leading a vote towards getting them stripped out of their ICC elite panel membership and cutting the much needed funding for the growth of their cricket if there is any such thing.

From the administrators of the game, sports journalists to players like Atherton and Gower, the call for the crucial support of India and the rest of Asia for this referendum has primarily been the voice in the media with the spotlight on India having to look beyond being selfish on money and power and do this for the sake of humanity and morality.

So what morality are they talking about seriously? Yes the current political regime is bad and there is a genocide coupled with large scale corruption that has left an already fragile nation in tatters. But then if morality is the word today, why should any nation then have any cricket or moral political ties with England itself, who as the sidekicks of another associate nation, the United states of Apathy, have done no less in their exploits in Afghanistan and critically Iraq with the flimsiest of excuses and with no shame or impunity.

Where does this morality stand for the millions and millions of people slaughtered in Iraq, where an everyday law abiding, educated tax paying citizen have to live with a mere 30 minutes of water supply and electricity in a day and rationed fuel! How come nothing is done when several developing nations around the world are crippled under the huge price rise of fuel largely due to the exploits and plunder of these nations in the middle east to create instability. How come there is no move to strip the US of its associate status or funding under moral grounds for their gross human rights violations in Gauntanamo bay? Sounds like a clear case of the have’s and have not’s.

If morality then is only a question of what affects their citizens especially their expatiates living in nations like Zimbabwe, it sounds hollow to rake this as a reason for other member nations to look beyond power or money and act on morality. Morality my foot! Morality is only another form of politics!

While it may be debatable and wise to consider not having Zimbabwe as part of the elite panel of cricketing nations, I am still wondering if it makes sense whatsoever to cut their funding. The fact of the matter is these administrators are employed to solve these issues and it is obvious that they did nothing in the last 8 years when arguably the situation was not this bad. Other than cutting funding, what alternative financial solutions did they come up with in terms of funds regulation and distribution.

There is a definite need for a significantly higher contribution in funding to be distributed to the smaller cricketing associate nations and that is not happening. Take the classic case of Ireland in the world cup where the issues they faced on administration was an absolute shocker. When Ireland qualified for the next round which they were not expected to, there were hardly any funds to support their extended stay. You can read more about this on the Sledgers and sandbaggers blog.

The point here is there is too much dependency on nations from Asia to supply the money and it is ridiculous that the other nations don’t care about trying to change their policies to generate some funds. If nations like England are going to forever pick and choose which tours to undertake and skip in the name of political backing or morality and escape the ICC loophole of a whopping fine for skipping a tour in case of a political directive, where are these smaller nations going to make any money and where is there going to be any interest in the general local public which is critical for the growth of the game in the region. There is already a talk on the English players on not wanting to participate in the Champions trophy in Pakistan. Reminds me of an old Prodigy song called “fire starter”.

If these nations are really bothered about the wellness of cricket or whatever morality they want to talk about, let them tour and help cricket. Let them tour and generate money and local interest. No amount of Shakespearean style classical quotes on morality and high ground is going to change anything.

By the way, did you know that Mugabe was actually bestowed an honorary knighthood by the queen of England some time back!

Work has caught up to me… now that I have none of the comforts offered by a salaried job and have to work my way through for a living, it’s been apparent that cricket just got thrown out of my life for the last couple of weeks… not a single match was watched by me and the only sporting action which I had managed to catch was some glimpses on the amazing football euro championship tournament.

So the realization that has hit me is why it is extremely crucial for the twenty-20 format to take a much more significant and prominent role in world cricket today. There is endless amount of pessimism among cricket journalists and former players (mostly unknowns) on the state of cricket today and where it is heading towards. Almost everyone is signaling the death of test cricket due to twenty-20. And it sounds ridiculous, no different from the time when ODIs were introduced in the break away league several decades ago. But cricket proved them wrong and it will again.

Test cricket will remain. There is no question of that getting knocked out of the equation as it is the highest pinnacle which every fan and player loves about. However one thing is apparent that an overhaul is needed and improvements have to be introduced to address the concerns of dwindling audiences.

One day internationals just have to go and replaced with the more efficient, exciting and spectator friendly format, Twenty-20. At the end of the day, it is also time for the administrators to realize that in today’s fast frantic lifestyles that people lead, there is little time one can spend on recreational pastimes which would last for a whole day. Coupled with that is the amount of cricket being played, it is logical and sensible for the truncated format to replace ODIs.

Cricket around the world:

A cricketer, Yuvraj Singh will present the man of the match award at the Euro 2008 match between Switzerland and Portugal. WTF?

The most comical episode ever in the history of world cricket was the sight of Stanford landing his helicopter at Lords (The home of cricket) with his so-called cricket classical greats (read cronies), typical ‘men in black’ style. A blatant show of a cabinet filled with money was childish and was in such bad taste. The English media all of a sudden starts talking about how it helps impoverished cricketers. One can only let out a wicked smile. What this person in question wants in return is something none wants to address. Either way cricket needs a Stanford… definitely for comic relief.

Shoaib Akhtar’s ban got reduced to a couple of months. The PCB continues to be a totally clueless organisation. The only wish is to cut the drama each and every time and create such a big scene.

A PCB cricket administrator sends threatening emails to the team on performance. Goonda-raj alright. While there might be popular support for him on this episode, at the end of the day somebody should remind him what his job is and what has he done to his cup of tea before sipping someone else’s.

England are having fun thrashing the New Zealanders while Australia faces uncomfortable questions against West Indies but continues to win.

Andrew Symonds misses his team bus by ten minutes and is fined an undisclosed amount by Ricky, Clarke and co. A good way to recover all those unpaid beer bills.

And to finally spread the cheer, here is Merv hughes in an interview with cricinfo. Some of his simple views are amazing and still continue to draw out some chuckles. This guy rocks!

For somebody like Sachin Tendulkar, who has played cricket for close to 20 years and the other, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who just seemed like yesterday to me when he made his debut, has gone on to overtake Sachin Tendulkar as the highest paid Indian cricketer in terms of endorsements, is quite staggering to me.

Dhoni now makes a whopping Rs. 3.5-5 crore per year in endorsements only which is marginally better than sachin who makes Rs. 3-4 crores annually. The difference is marginal but not to me considering Sachin’s demonic status in India’s cricketing world and how the little boy from Jharkhand has shot to fame and money like a nuclear fueled rocket. Remember all of these are estimates from the market and there is no way a cricketer would actually come out and disclose the amount of money he makes by the side, so you can safely add a cool 40% more to this for each of these guys on all the silent deals that pass by.

5 crores in spending 2 hours to a day in a shoot for about once every 3 months is whopping. In contrast, on a lighter note, how much do we bloggers who write about these guys day-in-and-out and the game make? Zilch or pittance that we would be better off begging out of a railway station.

And to think of the fact that Harbhajan singh wanted to buy a Hummer out of his IPL money huh?

Just to put the record straight, I have no problem in cricketers making money… all I wish is these advertisers want to consider putting less than a tenth into us bloggers who are actually concerned about the game and write about it.

On yet another lighter note, I found on a discussion forum, an overzealous fan that claimed the following.

Bradman never had to face quicks like Sharma and Irfan Pathan. He wouldn’t of lasted a ball against those 2, not to mention a spinner like Sehwag.

I do not know whether it was his sarcasm but whatever it was, it killed me for twenty minutes laughing my way off into the hospital for stitches.

Seriously they have! Because how meaningless in context are these so-called knockout rounds in the name of Semi-finals and finals are in the IPL! Let’s face it… in the case of a tournament having a large number of teams say the world cup where it is impossible for all the teams to play significant number of matches against each other considering a tournament that has to be spectator friendly, cannot go on for months. Hence it makes sense for the officials to divide them into groups and the leading contenders of the respective groups face off in a do-or-die clash all the way to the final.

But in the case of the IPL, does it make any kind of logical sense at all… after all, there are only 6 teams that duel with each other for well over 1O matches in the league stage. The concept of introducing a semi-final or final format is absurd and is only for the romantics that get a kick on the idea of the given team on that day that wins as the real winner.

So to me, the winner of the inaugural episode of the IPl are the Rajasthan Royals… congratulations to Shane Warne and his team!

Ah! It feels good to watch some cricket now in the name of semis and finals and not really bother about it!

The clear pre-tournament favourites for many was the most disappointing team in the tournament. A batting line-up filled with explosive stars like Gilchrist, Gibbs, Symonds and Afridi was supposedly the sure-fire hit for twenty-20 cricket, yet they failed miserably. To be fair, on another year, the same people like Afridi and Gibbs could well have taken apart every opposition to boring sports psychologists. But then, the catch with these guys has been the big tag called ‘inconsistency’.

Gibbs is not part of the South African team. Why? Dropped due to his recent lack of consistency and form.

Afridi… can you associate this guy on dependability and consistency? With his bowling yes but certainly not by his batting.

Gilchrist… though he has been their best player with many good knocks, there has also been his fair share of out and out failures. A look at his recent form while he was playing for Australia also shows signs of dwindling consistency. After all, didn’t he not go for an entire world cup with ordinary performances and then magically fired in the final with a great knock.

So their coaches/management should have considered the risks behind fielding their players, should have thought well in building a right base of local talent, which they have out and out ignored. Is there anyone from the local lads who had a decent run? Without a shadow of doubt they were the worst of the local talent compared to the other teams. The management simply did not invest enough on hunting the right people.

After all the teams who are there in the semi-finals are the ones who have paid attention to their local talent base and quite clearly these so called lesser knows were the toast to their success. Teams like the Kolkatta Knight riders who had a good local talent base but choose to ignore them took a very deserving stick.

But the biggest and the most disappointing aspect of the Deccan Chargers was their bowling. To be honest, it has been the single most valid reason for their failure not their batting. One look at the stats and you can see that their win ratio largely depended on their strike bowler’s performances. The likes of R.P. Singh and Vaas looks washed out and flat and on a serious note on Vaas, he ought to hang his boots and give the lamp over to Maharoof. RP may have once been among the contenders of the purple cap but quite honestly with the exception of maybe 2 matches, none of it was flattering for someone with a good international experience.

It was nice to see Gilchrist keeping his faith in Vijaykumar and Ojha who both seem to have some ability. And the biggest mystery would be the faith in Sanjay Bangar for such an extended time, where each match was a disaster. I did not find Laxman’s captaincy inspiring and he often looked totally clueless. Rohit Sharma was the next best player after Gilchrist, whose slump towards the end took out the only working teeth in their batting attack.

Seriously thinking, this batting line-up could have taken the rest apart, maybe next year but the management has to have a very serious look at revamping and strengthening their bowling attack and spend significantly time and faith into understanding the abilities of their local talent and pick out the better ones.

If reports from some of the Israeli based newspapers have to be believed, Israel is all set to play a few one day internationals with India A. Jonty Rhodes would be giving his valuable inputs to the Israel cricketing youth as the mentor-coach and would be participating in the 3 ODIs. The Israel team would comprise of many Jewish cricketers across the world including India!

While the catch here is that this is an event… an event to celebrate the county’s 60th anniversary and that is why this could stir up the hornet’s nest in India, considering that they have the second largest Muslim population in the world. India’s political stand on the Israel-Palestine dispute is a tightrope with no real teeth. And this news could well cause a political storm, if the mainstream media latches on to it, where one would assume that cricket officials would be working overtime to douse out political volleys.

From a purely cricketing perspective, it is great to see the sport being introduced there all over again with International stars like Jonty Rhodes playing a big role in the development of the game in the country. However, if a storm does break out on this here in India, it would not be worth risking its internal peace to celebrate another nations anniversary in this fashion considering the sensitivities that may be affected.

However this is completely in speculation and India can very well surprise everyone. When one sees endless articles from journalists, ex-cricketers (read unknowns) everyday from snooty white cricketing nations on the evil BCCI and the stinking rich Indian players who bath everyday in hot rupyas, at the end of the day, it has been the same people who welcomed South Africa back into International cricket, the same people who stuck on during the world cup in Sri Lanka, where snooty white nations hurriedly packed their bags leaving behind their underwear in their hotels (this is true folks! ) when some bombs went off and the same people who had no qualms about playing a test cricket series in Zimbabwe where other white nations who talk so much about the sanctity of the game where cricket should be nothing more than cricket and then conveniently boycotts all tours in the name of moral political grounds.

I am no fan of the BCCI and in fact people hate them here more than one could imagine but then this post is about cricket in Israel… and I wish them luck!

I stumbled upon this lovely post by K.Parthasarathi on his blog, which gave me fond memories of my childhood days playing cricket in my colony. The only difference I see in today’s kids is how monopoly of the game has caught on even with them.

Read Partha’s post on the corporate side of T6 cricket.

Cheers

In the very first edition of the Indian Premier league (IPL), there has been string of pathetic displays of bad behaviour from the likes of players and team officials, from downright physical assaults, verbal abuses and dirt cheap treatment of the lesser known fringe players of the IPL by their team owners.

What has been even more shocking is the report on some black cheerleaders been asked not to perform quite simply because the Indian people don’t “like to see dark people”.

Dancers Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson were stopped by the pre-match show organisers “Wizcraft International Entertainment” by apparent instructions by the boss before the opening match of the Kings X1 at Mohali.

Not so long ago, the net was flooded with overzealous Indians who cannot digest or understand the fact about Indians being racists. The statements you often hear is that Indians cannot be racists has to be a joke considering we have the crudest examples of the same in the caste system followed till date and the very obnoxious institute of marriage in India, which is nothing more than piled up cart loads of crude racial dung fest!

At the end of the day, one has to reflect on who these bosses are… highly educated, affluent, savvy public figures, yet so naïve and downright cheap! But then what else can you expect from bollywood film stars actors, whose industry is marred by only the fair and affluent.

The mix between Bollywood entertainment and Cricket may be a good idea on the positives to get the housewives and some of non-cricket loving groups interested. After all much of prime time in the evening gets taken over by this segment in endless soap serials and filmy gossip. However what the administrators failed to see is that it would also bring out the muddy slush of the bollywood entertainment industry. After all, the Indian affection of anything white is well documented in society and is almost a norm in the film industry. How many dark skinned leading actresses are there in this industry?

The two cheerleaders reported that they were upset and cried and they could have understood it if at least the crowd was not receptive to them. The crowd was receptive to them but the highly educated, affluent public star bosses had other ideas in implementing their age old formula for bollywood success.

On the cricketing crowd as such, one would have expected some serious ‘backlashes’ as some call, on the Australians, from the controversial Indian tour of Australia. On the contrary, they were warmly received and very well taken care. This crowd is typically what the affluent snooty snobs in India call the ‘front benchers’, with also the obvious mix of the educated and the not-so-educated.

At the end of the day, it took a big public figure filled with snooty bigotry to bring the house down. So where are all those millions and billions of Indians here and across the world. After all when Shilpa Shetty from the same bollywood industry was racially abused by from unknown small time actor in the UK, the whole community across the world rallied for her.

So where are those rallies for these Uk girls? Where those taxi drivers with their stickers to support? Where are those websites harping on voting for Shilpa to kill racism?

Oh I forgot… Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson are from the entertainment industry and are black. Indians don’t like seeing black people! I get it!

Here’s Hally Berry for you… she is black, a good actor, acts in films better than any bollywood crapreel and most importantly well respected!

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.