Umpires get some help

I nearly missed this story on Cricinfo. Three umpires — Mark Benson (England), Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Asad Rauf (Pakistan) — have been added to the elite panel of umpires, making it 10-strong. So, now there are three Australians (Daryl Harper, Simon Taufel, Darrell Hair), two Pakistanis (Aleem Dar), two West Indians (Steve Bucknor), one Kiwi (Billy Bowden), one South African (Rudi Koertzen) and one Englishman comprising the elite panel. This will bring some much-needed relief to their already-high workload, which was further increased by the retirement of David Shepherd last year.

<whisper> This might also be a good time to pop a pill and fire Bucknor. </whisper>

Super Slow Mo

Apparently, embedding videos doesn’t work here (or I just don’t know how to do it). So, a link will have to suffice for now.

Enjoy.

What’s with the obsession?

Suresh Raina could be forgiven for being confused yesterday when a huge roar went up around the ground in Kochi at the fall of his wicket, with India needing just 14 runs to win. That has happened in the past to Dravid: his wicket being greeted with delight since it meant the arrival of Tendulkar. But surely there’s no comparison between Tendulkar and Dhoni. Then what’s with this obsession? If it’s his big-shot hitting antics, surely the ones at the crease were no less able. Yuvraj, Raina, Pathan can all belt the ball a mile. Nor is Dhoni the most promising youngster coming through the ranks for India (although he surely is one of them). Is he better looking than the rest? I think not.

I don’t get it. Somebody please explain it to me.

Trescothick’s back

Unfortunately, not back in India. But certainly back to cricket. He will be “playing for Somerset when the County Championship starts this month.” England (and those hoping for a better fight from England, such as myself) would be quite glad (and relieved) if he could make the trip to India for the remaining three ODIs, but apparently there’s no such plan.

Dravid shows boldness

Dravid has now become the first captain to take the second powerplay after the 25th over in an ODI. Currently, the 28th over is going on, and he hasn’t taken it yet. Whatever else it may be, everybody will agree this move is bold. I had been wanting some experimentation of this sort, and I like this move. Even though India might pay for it later on.

Pietersen’s at the crease, and quickly tiring. Taking a powerplay at this point might play right into his hands. Making him run for his runs would further tire him. He’s already played some shots trying to force the pace, rather than earn runs the hard way. India needs to persist with their strategy. If they can prise out his wicket soon, it’ll be a masterstroke.

Work for Cricinfo

Saw this posting on their website:

The job will involve vetting articles and features for grammar and syntax (including spelling and punctuation) and overall style and clarity. A few articles may require a certain amount of rewriting and basic restructuring. All articles will need to be fact-checked ­- mainly statistics and dates, which will need to be verified against the cricinfo.com database.

More

I did consider it for about a minute (perhaps if they weren’t looking for a full-timer). Then decided to post it here for any readers from Mumbai who might be interested.

D/L needs updating

It’s been a while since the ODI rules have been changed. The supersub rule has been tried out and dumped already. In the meantime, several new scoring records have been set. New Zealand, of all countires, nearly missed chasing a score in the vicinity of 330 against Australia at the end of last year, but followed it up by chasing a world-record 331 in the very next game a couple of days later. Then, of course, there was THAT game. Australia scored a record 434 in an innings, only to see South Africa chase it down.

The pattern of higher scores because of the rule changes is quite clear, and that is only expected given that there are more overs with fielding restrictions now. So, why then hasn’t the Duckworth-Lewis system been updated to reflect this? Until it is, any team chasing under D/L will be at a disadvantage.

Quotable Quotes

The most beautiful girls in the world come from South Africa. And that’s from Shane Warne…he should know.

        - Tony Greig, during the third Test between SA and Aus (Hat tip: Will)

India v Eng 3rd ODI under way

And three things strike me immediately.

1) The pitch is awful.  There's NO bounce in some parts of the pitch.  A ball pitched halfway down the track is hardly a foot high when it reaches the batsman.

2) The boundary line has been brought in significantly.  That's harsh for the bowlers on any surface.  Nobody wants to see mis-hits go for sixes.  It makes even less sense when your opponents have big, strong players like Pietersen and Flintoff.

3) Agarkar is back!?  For the love of God, why?  And Dravid is opening?

Quiz no. 2

How many times has Dravid been run out?  In Tests and ODIs.