Cover Points : PCB

An emphatic win

dcsiva — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:01:00 GMT

India won easily. And they won the match by winning each session played over the five days. Andy Bull thinks that we now have four teams who can beat each other on a regular basis: Australia, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Bull is thinking of a watershed moment in India:

In the longer term I wonder if this series won't come to represent a watershed in Indian cricket. While so much attention is focused on the ageing geniuses in their middle order it is easy to overlook the overwhelming amount of young talent that has come into the squad in recent years. Having struggled for so many years to find quick bowlers, the Indian selectors now seem to be able to whistle up new candidates at will: RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Pankaj Singh, Irfan Pathan, all of whom are aged 23 or under. In the leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and the batsman Virat Kohli, India have two 19-year-olds who have already proven themselves in international cricket.
More impressive still is the record of India's Under-19 team, which, almost unnoticed, have accrued a phenomenal string of results in recent years. Since 2003, in fact, India's Under-19s have won 57 out of 64 one-day matches and lost just one Test in 15.
The talents (if not necessarily Test techniques) of that generation are only going to be enhanced by the Indian Premier League, where they will play under enormous pressure alongside the finest players in world cricket. With India at the centre of cricket off the field, it may only be a matter of time before the wealth of resources and money begins to have a real influence on the success of the team on the pitch.

The argument about the usefulness of the IPL is very interesting. And rather unconvincing.

Ponting is apparently in some difficulty with his own fast bowler, still the best fast bowler in the world by some distance. He says it's because of a worry about over-rates. Here's Jagadish on the Aussie over-rate problem:

One of the indicators that Australia were in trouble with the over rate yesterday was when Hussey bowled 8 overs, having bowled only 11 overs in his previous 27 tests. In fact, a few tests ago at Perth, Ponting was forced to bowl Clarke and Symonds in tandem to do something about the over rate during India's second innings. As a result, India went from 182/6 after 45 overs (a lead of 300) when Symonds & Clarke started bowling in tandem to 234/6 after 61 overs (a lead of 350+). It was to prove crucial in the context of the match. Despite the attempts to speed things up, there was a monetary penalty imposed.

Zaheer Khan's role on the last day with the ball was very important. Can he perform without all that fine-inducing adrenaline?

And, finally, Ijaz Butt, the PCB's new chairman, probably needs to take some media lessons or something. He's been full of fascinating inside information, including a possible merger between the ICL and the IPL?!

Pitch payments and names

dcsiva — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:26:00 GMT

Dhoni giving money to the curator is, apparently, standard practice, not at all an extra special thank you. And Straight Point counters the Saffers' complaints about the pitch:

if you collapse from 151-1 to 265 out on first day will you blame pitch...then how you were at 150 odd for a loss of single wicket...good batting?

if you field like you did...on second day...dropping catches like hot potatoes...infact dropping gangly when he was around 40...who later went on to become highest scorer of the match...

Have they been reading Well Pitched? Q reports that the PCB are going after the ICL:

The PCB seem to have picked up on it as well. They have filed a case against the ICL for using the name "Pakistan" for one of their teams and for projecting that Inzamam & Co. are representing "Pakistan". Feeling threatened PCB?

Finally, a note of caution from Jrod about Ajantha Mendis and a toe in the warm waters of the IPL from dailycric.

First up

dcsiva — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:25:00 GMT

Welcome to the Cover Points blog. My aim here is to cover some of the wonderful writing going on in the blogging world. Consider it a daily blog round-up.

There's plenty of celebration of Sehwag's monumental innings, of course. But perhaps it's tinged with a little sadness because he didn't get close to Lara's record and the subsequent batting collapse. Kunal Nanda has Sehwag's youtube highlights.

Meanwhile Dravid has edged over the 10,000 runs mark. He must have been told to get on with it during the lunch break, looking very out of sorts.

Finally, and by no means least, the trouble between the BCCI and the ICL is continuing to brew. Shafqat Naghmi denies that the BCCI has contacted them about the No Objection Certificates issued to the ECB for Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

Here's Samir Chopra's always direct take on the BCCI objecting to a transaction between Pakistan and England. Meanwhile the Professional Cricketers Association (when will India have such an organization?) is getting involved on the question of IPL schedules and county cricket.