Kiwis can't fly

I was reading the news of John wright not extending his contract when I found this article from fairfax .Newzealand have been always a country short of superstars but a team with great spirits and who always bows out in the semi's of international tournaments.

Don't you just get that gut-gnawing feeling that the wrong man's leaving?
John Wright is philosophically at odds with New Zealand Cricket's Aussie import and director of cricket, John Buchanan.

And unfortunately it's Wright who's decided to weigh anchor and leave the listing ship.
Wright's rejected New Zealand Cricket's offer of a contract through until the 2015 World Cup and will quit when his original deal expires in August after the West Indies tour, just 18 months after taking over.

Wright always appealed as the logical choice to inherit the Black Caps' coaching mantle, with his old school commonsense, no-nonsense approach immediately putting him on side with a swag of New Zealand cricket supporters tired of seeing their team underachieving.

New Zealand's test win over Australia in Hobart last December provided some encouraging signs that we finally had a coach capable of instilling some fight into a perennially erratic bunch of Black Caps.

Regulation limited overs and test victories over Zimbabwe followed and then South Africa happened.

What that did was, rather than point the finger at Wright for some lame one-day international performances, instead remind us that the process of transforming our international cricketers into a consistently-performing unit is no quick fix rather a time-consuming and often angst-ridden operation.

Wright has barely even scratched the surface and now, sadly, he won't get the chance to continue the process. Wright's all about guts and pride.

Buchanan's more new-age approach, with its infamous pie chart selection procedures, apparently doesn't appeal to anyone other than the New Zealand Cricket board.
Wright, evidently, would have remained as national coach if the New Zealand Cricket board had accepted chief executive David White's compromise deal to keep Wright in the job by ensuring he wasn't answerable to Buchanan, but instead to White. 

It was rejected by Chris Moller's board.It's been reported that Buchanan was critical of Wright in his recent performance review.Who's running the magnifying glass over Buchanan's performance? White's been forced into a difficult position.


His appointment came after the current hierarchy was already in place, with his predecessor Justin Vaughan arguably the man to blame for sparking this whole sorry saga by signing Buchanan to a four-year deal.

One of New Zealand's most respected and knowledgeable former players, Glenn Turner, had also previously applied for the national selection manager's post.
Instead, it was questionably awarded to another Australian, Kim Littlejohn, Bowls Australia's former high performance manager and national team manager.

It is fair to say that this is a total mess.Kiwis can't just fly !!!

Cheers

-H

World Cup 2011 Predictions !!!

Yet another cricket world cup is on the horizon.With an open format till the quarters  unlike the previous ones ,even co-host Bangladesh can make it to the last eight at expense of west indies or maybe England from their group.With that being said ,here goes my predictions : 

Team :South Africa

Prediction : Semifinalists

Key Players :Kallis , Smith,Steyn, Botha, Devilliers

MVP :Kallis

South Africa would have been my favorite to win the World cup this time,but the choker tag still holds true for them. They neither have the pressure of being favorites, nor they are playing in front of their home crowd. The tag of being chokers might actually work in their favor this time. Because they have been labeled chokers, it may release the any expectations on them, and may ultimately release any pressure on them. They have one of the best batting line up and best the best fast bowler in the world in their line up. South Africa can open their account for World cup trophies.

Team : Pakistan

Prediction : Quarter Finalists

Key Players: Afridi,Hafeez,Aktar,Gul,Umar Akmal

MVP :Boom Boom Afridi

The most unpredictable team ever, and the most unpredictable team in this tournament. Pakistan is not being given much of a chance by the pundits, but you should discount Pakistan at your own peril. Again, less expectation from this team may eventually work in their favor. Moreover, not having to play before home crowd, yet playing home like condition may also favor them. They may not have the best team in the world on the paper, but have the team to beat any team, and have players who can change the course of the game from any situation.If they reach the semis watch out !!!

Team :England

Prediction : Quarter Finalists

Key Players :Swann , Pietersen,Strauss,Anderson

MVP :KP

England has also emerged as a very strong team in the recent past. They could repeat their success in T20 edition of the World cup in the one day version, of course with little bit of luck at crucial stages of the tournament. England also has considerably less pressure on them.I do see them struggling with their bowling against teams like India which has power packed top order batsmen,especially if they bowl first in the D/N matches.

Team :Sri Lanka

Prediction :Finalists

Key Players :Malinga,Jayawardane,Sangakkara,Murali

MVP:Malinga

 Sri lanka is a good team, but will be under pressure playing in front of their home crowds. I do  see Sri Lanka going all the way if the batsmen  at the top of the order shed down  their indifferent form. Dilshan, Sangakara and Jayawardane are the key players , but there is an  absence of big hitters especially in the middle order. They do  have a pretty unorthodox and diverse  bowling line up in slinger malinga,accurate kulasekhara, spin wizard murali and the carrom ball genius mendis. Lot of people don’t expect them to reach the summit clash,but i do believe they have every chance being in the finals.Look out for malinga and his toe crushing yorkers.

Team :NewZealand

Prediction :Quarter Finalists

Key Players :Ryder, Mcullum,Vettori

MVP:Brendon Mcullum

New Zealand is one team, about whom the less said the better. They have some capable cricketers, but are failing as a unit. A couple of good games at the knockout might just give them an outside chance of winning the trophy.They got blanked by bangladesh and India recently and considered a push over ,although they have few game changers like Mcullum and ryder. Difficult to see them any serious inroads.

Team :WestIndies

Prediction :Quarter Finalists

Key Players :Gayle, Dwayne Bravo,Pollard,Roach

MVP:Gayle

West Indian team of today is exactly opposite of the West Indian team that participated in the first three editions of this prestigious tournament.Apart from kemar roach ,its bowling attack is made up of medium pace and spinners  I do not see West Indies winning this tournament, but cricket is funny old game.With a little luck they can make the semis.There have explosive batsmen in Gayle and pollard ,but the bowling is weak in subcontinental conditions

Team :INDIA

Prediction :Finalists

Key Players :Sachini,Dhoni,Harbhajan,Pathan

MVP:Sachin

Can the MIB(Men in Blue) do it after 28 years of wait ?That's the question a billion odd people has in their mind ?Experienced bowling attack led by Zak & Bhajji,possibly the best batting line up in the world including people who are match winners - Sachin,shewag,pathan,yuvraj,dhoni and cool captain.If India field well and their part timers bowl well,they have every chance in reaching the finals and possibly the trophy.

But the most important areas that India needs to do things the right way are bowling in the  the power plays and the strategy while chasing under lights.These are the two areas that has sometimes let them down in the last year. Dhoni has shown a tendency to go with just 4 front line bowlers .So if one of them has a poor day with a 3 or 4 over spell,then obviously the part timers like yuvraj ,pathan and raina would be needing to bowling close to 15 overs.

Team :Australia

Prediction :Semi Finalists

Key Players :Watson,Lee,Ponting,David Hussey

MVP:Watson

The country with the best record in world cup,winner in the last 3 editions..sounds good ,eh ?But this time the kangaroos are coming to an Worldcup with out that aura around them.Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Andrew SymondsHussey

Kreja.But in batting belters that would be seen in this WC,the pace of the ball can be a serious disadvantage unless its spot on.

As Ian chappel says “Pace will win or lose the Worldcup for Austrailia “.The attack seems one dimensional,but you can never bet against the never say die spirit of the Aussies .Amazingly, the last time Australia were defeated at the tournament was on May 23, 1999, when they were upstaged by Pakistan in a group game.Should make it to the semis.

Surprise Team of the Tournament: Bangladesh


Prediction:A good start would ping them into the quarters


Key Players :Tamim,Shakib,Razzak


MVP:Shakib Hassan


Bangladesh blanked newzealand 5-0 two months back and know their environment pretty well .They have the potential to beat big teams especially in the world cups and could make the quarters.Bunch of left as proved in the last edition would be vital this time also .Plus if tamim iqbal can provide good starts they can put pressure of teams like west indies and England especially while defending  a decent total 




Thought of putting my thoughts on one ICC Associate team also,since they are quite an interesting bunch of individuals.

Team : Canada

Prediction :Will find hard to win a match

Key Players :Bagai,Davison,Cheema

MVP:Davison

I still remember davison trashing the windies bowlers all over the park in WC‘2003.However that turned out a one time heroism in their dismal world cup record Ashish Bagai agai, the wicketkeeper so synonymous with Canadian cricket and one of seven professional players in the side, is leading a team that has seven different nationalities and an age-bracket typical of the ICC's Associate nations.Tough to win with such inexperience.

God is Retiring !!!

Yes,that's true ..The God of Cricket ,Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is retiring in couple of weeks .Absolutely adore that last picture !!!Right from his childhood as the picture indicates above ,even then his batting stance was spot on.

Cricket to millions of Indians is about one man named Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Right now the world is the middle of celebrating his retirement after 24 yrs of cricketing brilliance by SRT.It just speaks about his endurance,his will power and above all his sheer passion to play cricket for India.Truly amazing.

It has been an incredible journey for Sachin and India , a trip that figures alone cannot define,although it would be hard to imagine anybody getting 100 international hundreds,playing 200 test matches or scoring 18000 plus test runs !!!

God given talents apart his sheer dedication and ability to work out the pitch and bowlers real real quickly. "Sheer passion" as one of my friends used to say was inbuilt in sachin right from the time we all saw him playing .It takes me to the memory lane- getting bloodied by waqar as a 16 yr old ,smashing abdul qadir in the same debut  series,that wonderful century in perth ,1992 world cup match against Pak..the ball which got aamer sohail ,sheer exuberance in bowling the final over against Donald and macmillan in the 1993 hero honda final ,the desert storm in 1998 ,2003 WC innings featuring the upper cut six  against shoaib,waqar & wasim ,241 in Sydney in 2007,the winning second innings century in chennai against england in 2008,the one day double hundred against SA  and lots more ; lots. Truly amazing that one person has given so much majestic moments in cricket for Indians.

That coveted #4 position in Indian Test  batting  line would be tough to fill by anyone once sachin goes ,be it kohli ,Rohit ,Rahane or whoever gets to bat in that position this December in south Africa against probably the best pace attack in the world .Who would be that unlucky guy ???Anyway that's another discussion ...

There are many times we literally prayed for sachin to stay in the crease especially in the 1990's when he was the one man batting army. As we look down into the great man's retirement after his 200th Test in a few weeks time,it seems that one constant factor is our life will be gone after November ,i.e watching sachin  playing that awesome straight drive or that paddle sweep or the perfect cover drive or even the mandatory semi sit-ups while  taking guard to the first delivery

Salaam Sachin & Kudos to the greatest ever !!!

Cheers

-Hari ...

.

Remembering Manjith !!!

It was September 4th,2009 11.30 in the night.It was raining heavily and i was in a very psoitive mood enjoying the onam weekend with my family .Then i thought let me look into my hotmail which i hadnt looked in a long time.To my horror and schock there was a email from prem indicating the death of manjith.All of a sudden i thought ,is this some kind of joke ?Or is prem is indicating about any other person named manjith.Then i realised that it was our own Manjith,the leanest and youngest of our mallu gang of our batch in our college.My mind and body froze up for several moments looking into the rain and thinking of Manjith a.k.a Jeetu!!!

Jeetu...i have never addressed Manjith with that name in person be it in college or the years after that.But when ever i spoke to some one especially dinesh(his cousin)i used to adress him with that,i dont know why ?

The first thing that comes to my mind is the first year hostel life ,especially in the morning when the van used to come to pick us up,manjith would be just waking up.All of a sudden he would go to the terrace, open the tap and get his "punk" hair straightened and the dress up.On talking to dinesh last week ,he told me that Jeetu had still the same exhuberence about his hair and hair style saying to his cousins"What a silky hair i have ".

I cant still beleive that he has gone to the heavens,his face and mannerism is still vivid in my mind even though i hadn't met him for almost 6yrs.He was frank,naughty,has his views on everything and liked my one and all.Every one enjoyed his company and friendship.There are so many incidents and faces flashing across my mind now.

I am lost for words,really wanted to write a lot out of frusturation...why has been he taken away at this age ?I dont understand...its such a pity

Jeetu,I know you are looking upon us from the heavens ... we will remember you for the rest of our lives !!!

Love & Peace

HD

Captain Cool !!!

Who else but Mahi a.k.a. Dhoni



Its very rare to see Dhoni getting poker faced or abusing any of his fellow players and loosing his cool.In the last 2 years in which he has been captain,he has encouraged players like Gambhir ,Yuvraj and Ishant to name a few to reach personal career highs without interfering too much whilethey are in the field.We rarely see dhoni advising his bowlers be it the first ball of the match or the last ball of the match.Its quite amazing from the days of ganguly and sachin when the captain used to stand at midon and be behibd the bowlers.Comparing to the previous captains of india from the gavaskar era ,i think azhar and ganguly were the most sucessful captains,but azhars victory were mostly in homecondtions with laid out dust bowls to help kumble and co.Azhar was laid back and rarely enforced his decisions to the bowlers except in some instances.Sachin and kapil did rare justice to their captaincy compared to their individual performances.Common perseption was that they expected the other 10 players in the field to perform just like them.Although kapil was the captain of our worldcup winning team in 1983,there has been many instances where he had absolutely no clue,first instance comes to my mind in the 1987 series against pakistan the 2nd one day when salim malik was going bongers against the indian bowling and repeatedly pepperd the square leg and point boundaries and pakistan won from a situation needing around 80 in 8overs.The second instance was when Graham gooch swept his way to a hunderd in the worldcup semi's in 1987.

Gavaskar was pretty mucha a defensive captain and very vocal.Some of the incidents that he was part of like the walkout with chauhan in the 1980 Aussie series would have been a life ban if it had occured in the modern time.Ganguly is the only one who comes close to Dhoni in terms of vocitories in the one day ,but major titles have eluded him.Coming back to body language and coolness dhoni is way ahead of his predecessors.

More to come....Watch this space !!!