DreamCricket.com will be bringing to you, our weekly - okay, let's call it a - quiz called "Think it Over". Each of these quizzes shall contain 6 questions related to some recently relevant topic. These would be the 6 "balls" of the "over". There are bound to be bouncers, googlies and banana swingers in each over! You can take a shot at each of these 6 balls in the over by emailing us your answers at: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM. You will have exactly one week to do so.

April 2010 - Posts

• Think it Over #7 - The Name Game

  Over #7: The Name Game Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #6 of "Think it Over" . Mahela Jayawardena molted out of his ‘non-T20’ skin in one of his last few matches in IPL 2010, a bit too late, some might add. But what he did manage to do is to create a new identity for himself right up the order as a dashing opener in the latest format. This prompted us at DreamCricket to take a closer look at his literal identity, his name. Though referred to commonly as “Mahela Jayawardena”, his name is often written as DPMD Jayawardena, which is short for Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardena. His long-time team mate in his national side and more recently turned foe, Vaas was known quite well for the length of his identity. So why not, for our 7th over, turn our collective attention to players who are better known to us by certain names but whose real names are often longer or ... just plain different. Thanks to Google search, we have to be a bit cheekier than we’d like to be. So we are going to give you visual clues – puzzles, if you will – that you have to first crack to get the names and then using those names you can fill in the more famous parts of these cricket-related personalities. Here is an example of these visual clues: + _ _ _ Each horizontal row of clues would correspond to one name of the subject of that particular question (or puzzle). In the above example, the 1st row of images corresponds to Kapil and the 2nd row of dashes to Dev. Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz". You will have about one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced. Posted Apr 20 2010, 01:08 AM Filed under: Quiz, Think it Over, Mahela, Yousuf, Jayawardena, Name

• Think it Over #6 - Two-timers of the Cricket Ball

  Over #6: Two-timers of the Cricket Ball Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #5 of "Think it Over". The IPL is on full display and, for some time now, the debate rife about the implications for several players from outside India to choose between playing for their country’s domestic league and the IPL and/ or the Champions League. Even as the fans themselves grapple with the daunting task of choosing between their national heroes and their respective local, villainous versions, we at DreamCricket wonder in this week’s edition of "Think it Over" if the subjects of our 6th over would have had any such moral cricketing dilemmas? Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz". You will have about one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced. This cricketer, shown in the picture playing a shot that he employed to revolutionize the way cricket was played in his era, represented his country of birth in important political summits of international significance. Moreover his country of birth was the one that immortalized him by naming their premier domestic competition after him. Yet he played all Test matches for England. Who? This cricketer’s father is famous for having had a complete career that included Tests and One Day Internationals (ODIs) for both his country of birth and Australia. Name the son and his father. Our next ball deals with a player who became the youngest batsman that did not hail from the India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh to score a 100 in ODI cricket. The reason he makes this list is that he also achieved the rare feat of playing for his country of birth and that he adopted in the same year; in fact, within 2 months. Who is this two-timer? The man on the right of this picture started his Test career playing for his country of birth. A few Tests later, he played for a different country in that country’s very 1st Test match ever, against players with whom he had played together as a team. Can you tell us who? This trophy you see was announced as the prize for the winner of the Test series between these countries both of which were represented by the subject of this, the penultimate, delivery of this over. As if he had not done enough to stake a claim to this honour, he also ended up playing exactly the same number of Tests for both those countries. Not surprisingly it has also been named after him. Who are we referring to? Let us now focus on these following gentleman who have all obviously played for more than one country. There is something else that they all share with the subjects of our 2nd (the father) and 3rd balls of this over that no one else has achieved as far as the theme of this over goes. Who are these gentlemen and what is that unique thing? Posted Apr 13 2010, 12:15 AM Filed under: Quiz, Think it Over

• Think it Over #5 - S-election Policy

  Over #5: S-Election Policy Note: Go here for answers to and our "leader board" at the end of Over #4 of "Think it Over" . Sanath Jayasuriya has raised a lot of political and ethical eyebrows since he announced that he would be attempting to ‘run’ slightly differently than one is normally used to seeing him do; and what’s more, he will be contesting in a very different battle altogether! We are talking about his decision to contest in elections for a political party in Sri Lanka from his home town of Matara this month, while still continuing to play cricket for Sri Lanka. Much like his cricket strokes, he seems to have been rather assertive and curt in the immediate wake of his decision leaving the discussions and arguments to others. In this over of “Think It Over”, we shall recollect other cricketers who have been involved in politics, regardless of whether they did it while still working from their lush green office. Take a shot at the 6 balls in this over by emailing us your answers to: FRONTFOOT@DREAMCRICKET.COM The subject of the email should read "Think it Over - Enter the Quiz #, Enter the name of the quiz". You will have about one week to do so. Entries will be closed by midnight of the Sunday after each quiz is announced. This charismatic leader of men retreated to a reclusive life style a few years after retiring from international cricket and then embarked upon a political journey with his party whose name, when literally translated, means “A move for justice”. Who? Connect these three pictures with this once-famous cricketer who also ran unsuccessfully for office more than once. Born in Italy, this batsman and ex-captain once embarrassed himself by guiding his own car onto himself and getting injured rather badly in the bargain. His foray into politics doesn’t seem to have been much different than that either. Identify this cricket, also shown in the following picture. Breaking the pattern of successful cricketers and unsuccessful politicians, here is one cricketer, shown below playing an immaculate stroke, who did rise to very high office in his country political system. Can you tell us who? A cricketer who brought the word “winningest” to the lexicon of his country’s cricket scene, this exquisite stroke-player (shown in the picture below playing one of his characteristic strokes) contested in and became an elected member of his country’s parliament recently. Rahul Dravid famously said a few years ago of his then team mate, Saurav Ganguly, “On the off side, first there is God and then there is Ganguly.” The subject of our last ball in this over actually moved the Bishop of his area to say in his speech that he was actually better than the Almighty on the leg side. This ex-Test-captain, army officer and war hero was also an elected member of his country’s parliament. Posted Apr 05 2010, 08:43 PM Filed under: Quiz, Cricket, Think it Over, Politician, Jayasuriya, Cricketer