Cover Points : Mohammad Asif

Badri bats

dcsiva — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:19:00 GMT

India stumble to a win against Sri Lanka. Dhoni and S. Badrinath took India to victory with 39 and 27 not out, respectively. The real damage was done by that all too mercurial talent, Zaheer Khan, and Praveen Kumar. But all the attention was on Badrinath after he finally got a chance to show his skills on the big stage.

Samir Chopra wished him well as he began his innings:

India have batted deep in this second one-day and in so doing, have shoved a newbie, S. Badrinath, down to number seven. After watching his team lurch to 75-5, he finally got his chance. Though the required target is not that far away, the tension isn't absent.

And Soulberry couldn't see the game on TV and so called for assistance (see the comments) on how Badri was playing:

But the questions remain which the live text commentator chose not to answer, or did not recieve, How did Badri play today? Did he earn his keep? Did he plug a hole? Did he debunk a growing neo-gen myth? Can Amit Misra take hope from this?

It's a small innings, but of course it could easily have all gone wrong for India without him.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Asif is busy challenging the positive "B" sample. And Will notes that the irony-challenged BCCI have chosen this url for their new website: bcci.tv.

Sleepy Indian venues and doping Asif

dcsiva — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:53:00 GMT

The English media and the ECB, on behalf of English touring fans, have been complaining about the tour itinerary in India later this year:

The England and Wales Cricket Board announced on Monday it was upset that India's regular Test venues like Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Mohali were not given matches during the six-week tour.
India want the two Tests in December to be played in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, while the seven preceding one-dayers were spread across various centres like Rajkot, Guwahati, Cuttack and Jamshedpur.
"We would like to remind the ECB that our venues are always decided on the basis of a rotation policy," Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah was quoted as saying on the cricketnirvana.com website.
"The itinerary for the England tour has been finalised on the basis of this rotation policy."
...
An ECB statement issued on Monday said: "ECB are disappointed that, despite their representations, the itinerary doesn't offer the thousands of supporters who follow the England team abroad the opportunity to experience more of the great cricket grounds of India.

Here's King Cricket's personal take on some of the venues. Note the acerbic but exactly detailed first comment to King's entry. But for some real action, see the Guardian's David Hopp's entry and the ensuing commentary that even manages to discuss the 1857 mutiny and the current war in Iraq (see spoonman5150's comment, and humptydumpty's response.)

Mohammad Asif has been caught again in a dope scandal:

Pakistan paceman Mohammad Asif will seek a "B sample" test after testing positive for a banned substance during play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), his lawyer said Tuesday.
The IPL announced on Monday that the 25-year-old fast bowler had failed a drugs test at the lucrative Twenty20 tournament held from April to June.

But looks like he's going to get away with it. Again. This time because some idiot (or clever agent?) managed to announce his name before a testing of his 'B' sample. This is against WADA rules, apparently. Here's Ratnakar Shetty's nonsensical explanation:

The procedure is that once the report of dope test was received, the player has to be identified and can be asked whether he will exercise the choice for his 'B' sample test and can be asked to be physically present when the sample was tested, he said.

"However, if the player is not named, how do we ask the player to be present to give an option along with the representative" during the test?" Shetty said.

Apparently it's impossible for the chief administrator for the BCCI to do anything except via the media. And, finally, there was a Test match on. A tame draw between England and South Africa that might have been a fighting draw at one point. Will asks if we should be complaining about such cricket or not.

Old style bowling, new style crickentertainment

dcsiva — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:31:00 GMT

King Cricket picks out the two big stars of the IPL so far, for my money. Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Asif. They're bowlers and they're way ahead of the batting contingent. The interesting thing about them is that they haven't expanded on their repertoire of deliveries. This isn't a case of adapting to Twenty20, but just doing the same old brilliant thing of bowling accurately:

So good on Glenn McGrath for taking 4-29 for Delhi Daredevils against Bangalore Royal Challengers and for doing so through skill. For all the ‘imagine Matthew Hayden and Mahendra Dhoni batting together’ fantasies, it’s been McGrath and Mohammad Asif, Delhi’s new ball attack, that’s been the most exciting pairing - mere bowlers.

It’s not that they’re the most spectacular bowlers, because they clearly aren’t. It’s that they’re of the highest quality and with flat pitches and odds loaded towards the batsmen, everyone’s wondering if there’s anything a bowler can do or whether they’re merely cannon fodder.

Meanwhile, Ducking Beamers has a brilliant as ever post on the dangers of the crickentertainment that is the IPL:

It’s a win-win for the involved stars, but it’s still opportunistic and shady, not to mention a distraction from the real match at hand. The question of “branding” cricket obscures the actual cricket as cricketers — at least the Indians — become stars first, and players second. On endorsements everywhere, Indian cricketers spill into the Indian consciousness again and again, and I worry that the link between the sport and its audience will become mediated by something other than simply viewing a player’s bat hit another player’s ball. To some extent, that’s been this blog’s thesis all along (that cricket is more than cricket), but we’re talking about more than culture and history here. We’re talking manipulation. We used to use cricket as a focal point for our cultural neuroses, but now, the process has reversed itself, with cricket deciding what’s important to us. In other words, our cricketers have become media phenomenons, rather than sportsmen.