Introducing: The Manoachirector

gchakravarthy — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:48:00 GMT

First there was the captain, then came the manager, then the "coach". Each with an increasingly lower shelf-life, maybe not individually but as a breed. Now walks in Andy Flower. The great lefty opener that he was, he opens once again for this new breed ... and guess what, it is from the left-field to boot! Trust the ECB to "innovate" yet again by creating the: "Team Director".

As if to confirm the warne-ing that It is already a cliche to call the coach a team-bus, the English cricket establishment has established yet another new post that their prima donna national players could have a beef with, although there seems to be enough "e-pinion" that suggests that the two men newly at the helm of the English team probably have more in common than, well, just being familiar with being at the top of the order in a lefty kind of way .. .and a first name.

You know what they say about e-pinions though (e-pinions are like blogs ... e-veryone has them!) and so does this one.

If one thought a coach was one too many, John Buchanan has taken off on a different tangent altogether by instituting the ploy of multiple captains for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Actually, if one were to pay a modicum of attention more than needed to the name of the franchise itself, one might immediately realize that in the fantasy world of Knight Riders, there has to be more than one knight! But the "real" world doesn't need more than one Knight to Ride a team if you were to believe this Gentleman.

One of Sunny's ex-adversaries, Tony, feels that the Andy-Andy combo might not be that handy if and when Strauss leaves the scene.

Regardless of how dandy things might be between the Andies, manager, coach, and team director all just seem to be euphemisms for a non-playing captain, and that is someone cricketers and captains just don't seem to want at all.

Which begs the question ... is the "Team Director" a new beginning for this non-playing captain or is this the beginning of the end for him?

Warne-ing Ganguly

dcsiva — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:03:00 GMT

Another controversy hits the IPL. Having one per week seems about right, although from the way the little punishments are being handed out it seems that the powers in charge aren't in control of the process yet! One big surprise is the liberal handing out of punishments to umpires. I guess they're not in charge on the field anymore, much less off it.

Nestaquin has a detailed and well-written summary of the game taken as a whole. Ganesh argues that the media's spin on this as an Australia vs India thing is a very bad idea, but Ottayan conversely suggests that Warne's lauding of Graeme Smith is a remarkable building of bridges between Aussies and Saffers. Ducking Beamers has some youtube clips, sides with Warne, but points out that Warne

slips up a bit when he says that the "Indian umpire" caved; I’m not sure his ethnic background had anything to do with his decision.

And finally Q has the quotes from the press conference. Spirit of cricket, indeed.

Cover Points : Shane Warne

Introducing: The Manoachirector

Warne-ing Ganguly