Vermeulen set fire to Zimbabwe Cricket Academy

Apparently, that is old news. Very old, in fact: it happened in 2006. How did I not hear of it? Peter Roebuck reports on the extraordinary personality of Vermeulen. Absorbing story.

Warfare on the field

I ran across this little post on the Esquire magazine’s website.
Cricket: International Warfare on a Ball Field

I always find it fascinating to see the “outsider’s” opinion of my favorite sport.

IPL Ad – Season 2

The second season of IPL is upon us. And I came across these ads from Sony Max, the broadcaster of IPL in India. Good stuff.

Tendulkar vs Ponting (Part II)

My first post about these two batting greats was three years ago to the month, and it still continues to attract an audience. So, I decided it was time for an update.

Here are the current career stats for both:

	Mat	Inns	Runs	Avg	100s
Sachin Tendulkar	159	260	12773	54.58	42
Ricky Ponting	131	221	10960	56.20	37

And here are their stats since April 2006 (ie, since the last post).

	Matches	Runs	Batting Avg.	Centuries
Sachin Tendulkar	27	2304	51.20	7
Ricky Ponting	26	2168	49.27	6

Nearly identical stats. Both Tendulkar and Ponting struggled with injuries but are now back. There was talk 3 years ago that Tendulkar would fade away and Ponting would take over the world record for the most number of Test centuries. Neither has happened. Ponting was playing tremendously around 2005/06, but since has returned to more earthly form, allowing Tendulkar to keep pace (and even pull ever so slightly ahead).

Ponting is slightly younger than Tendulkar and hence people have been conjecturing that Ponting will be ahead when both men put their bats away. However, both might still end up playing for about the same amount of time. Tendulkar has not mentioned anything about retiring and it feels like he wants to just carry on as long as he can. Given that he is ahead at the moment, I would say that he’ll most likely be ahead when they both retire.

We’ll have to wait a few more years to get the answer. Until then let’s enjoy the last few years of both these batsmen.

Obama in white clothes

Peter Roebuck weighs in on Dhoni. Great stuff (from both).

Post-series analysis to follow soon.

Finally, it’s happening…

I had first written about it nearly three years ago. It’s been a while, but finally it’s happening. Read all about it here.

Cricket is evolving. And not a day too soon.

All hail Ajantha Mendis

The Asia Cup final is going on right now and Mendis has turned the game on its head. India were coasting at 76/1 after 9 overs. Now, it is 98/5 from 16. Currently, Mendis’ figures read 4-0-8-4. That’s 4 overs, 8 runs, 4 wickets. I’d heard a lot about this 23-year-old gem that Sri Lanka discovered, and finally I got to see him in action today. It seems it was also the first time for the Indian batsmen. Frankly, I’m quite disappointed the way they handled him (it seems they hadn’t done their research on him), but this post is not about India. It’s about Mendis. And what he can do for cricket.

Cricket will be that much more interesting because of him. I can’t wait to see Tendulkar play Mendis. India has some of the finest players of spin (Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman), and Mendis playing a Test against them is a mouth-watering aspect. Or even the Aussies. I am anxiously looking forward to these contests. They should be thrilling. Looking at the cricket schedule, India is touring Sri Lanka at the end of this month. What good timing. What might have been a drab series, at least to me, now has become very interesting. Let’s hope Tendulkar is fit and back in the Indian team by that time.

For those that haven’t seen Mendis, here’s a short video of the buzz he created when he first joined the Sri Lankan national team to play against the West Indies.

Cricket in NYC

I like to mine YouTube once in a while for new cricket videos. And this is what I found on my latest treasure hunt.

The most dangerous ball in sports

Fox Sports (USA) went on a mission to find the most dangerous ball in sports and ended up finding that it was the cricket ball (although the ball in baseball can be just as lethal). Watch for yourself.

Sport Science: Dangerous Balls

Overthrows

Recently (as in, the last decade), some prominent cricket celebrities have suggested that the fielder should not be penalized for hitting the stumps, and that the ball should be considered dead when it hits the stumps. That’s been a bit controversial and the snail-paced ICC hasn’t made any decision about that. It seems fair enough to me.

But really it’s not the fielder that is being penalized; it’s the bowler. I don’t think anybody would disagree with me when I say that the overthrows should not count as runs against the bowler, but as extras. I believe this is a simple (read: not controversial) and fair rule change.