India's squad for the Windie tour

Saturday, May 14, 2011 amit mishra, cricket, gautam gambhir, india, IPL 4, ishant sharma, rishabh bablani, rohit sharma, selection, subramaniam badrinath, suresh raina, vinay kumar, west indies No Comments

India's selectors threw up a squad for the tour to the West Indies today - and there were no surprises. Partly because Srikkanth and Co. have lost the ability to shock us, but mostly because it is, after all, a tour to the West Indies.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (c), Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar, Yusuf Pathan, Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha (wk).

With MS opting out (I presume), Gambhir will be the skipper (Fact: this originates from the Dutch word 'schipper', meaning 'shipper', or captain of the ship. I know there's a joke in here somewhere, about one-legged captains who can't run.) Raina will be the eager deputy, hoping to learn many things, like how Powerplays aren't magically constant.

Spot Dada

Saturday, May 07, 2011 cricket, cricket comics, IPL 4, rishabh bablani, sourav ganguly No Comments

Click to enlarge, to be able to see anything (that is not a guarantee of comedy gold).

Couldn't think of another way to fill a blogging hole.
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The Mumbai Indians are winning

Wednesday, April 13, 2011 andrew symonds, cricket, davy jacobs, indian premier league, IPL 4, james franklin, kieron pollard, malinga, mumbai indians, rishabh bablani, sachin No Comments

Two games into the IPL, and they've hardly been tested, mainly due to the strong bowling unit. Malinga has been great with his yorkers-on-demand, and the early wickets he has provided have allowed the back-up dancers bowlers to build on the pressure. Bhajji, Murtaza, Munaf and Pollard have done a great job though - they've ensured that MI haven't needed the hittables, Sathish and Sharma, to turn their arm over. Having that many options, plus Franklin or Symonds, is a good sign for when Malinga leaves for the England tour.

Only the top 4 batsmen - Jacobs, Sachin, Rayudu, Sharma - have had to bat so far, so we haven't really seen how explosive the rest of the line-up (Symonds, Pollard, Franklin, Sathish) can be. When they all do come off, it will be beautiful. Or ugly, if you're on the receiving end. Looking at you, Delhi and Kochi.

I didn't do any sort of preview for the IPL because of the apocalypse exams, so this'll have to do. Mumbai look a good bet to top the table a second year in a row, and they might even be motivated enough to win the whole thing.

PS. The blog now looks different, as you may have noticed. Vote on the poll to the left on which you liked better - the previous red or the current blue. Or don't, there isn't a gun to your head. Or is there? Look behind you! Just vote.

Not the Definitive Guide to the IPL

Friday, April 08, 2011 cricket, fantasy league, IPL 4, mumbai indians, rishabh bablani No Comments

So, the IPL starts today. 6 days ago, India were crowned world champions. That's hardly enough time to gloat about India winning, now we're supposed to care about how soon Sreesanth will be dropped from Kochi too?

Anyway, I'll be supporting the Mumbai Indians and hating the Rajasthan Royals as always, though that will be slightly harder this time with Dravid playing for them. If you have a Fantasy league team on Cricinfo, this is the PIN to join my league - 119620-56c5c9d504a91c70 - compete with the very best of the very worst.

That's it for now.

IPL 4: Player Retention. Even though it's all hypothetical.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010 bangalore royal challengers, chennai super kings, deccan chargers, delhi daredevils, IPL 4, kings xi punjab, kolkata knight riders, mumbai indians, rajasthan royals, rishabh bablani, virat kohli No Comments

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga

They've released Zaheer and opted for Harby. Maybe because Harby is a 'confidence bowler' (cliche alert) and being released would make him bowl like a buffet. Oh wait, that's already happening. Bad call. Also, MI now have spent half their budget of $9 million, so they now have to buy the rest of the squad with half the money.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, M Vijay, Albie Morkel

The only other team to retain all four players allowed. I didn't think they'd go for Albie, since Ashwin and Murali have perhaps been more crucial to their success. As they say in Austria, "Votever."

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne, Shane Watson

So Warne will be back, which is awesome. They keep Watson, which is not so awesome. And no Yusuf Pathan? Whoa. Seriously, whoa. It'll be interesting to see if they get Rajasthan quick Deepak Chahar.

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag

But no Gautam Gambhir, who was their captain last season, and is Viru's hunting partner. No Nannes, no Mishra, no Dilshan.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli

They wanted to keep their finances flexible, so out with most of the squad that was so successful. No Kallis, Pandey, Taylor, Vinay Kumar, Dravid and no Kumble!

Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers released everyone, and the Kings XI Punjab were kinda forced to.

Remember, it's all hypothetical.

IPL 4: Fact or Fiction? (working title)

Sunday, December 05, 2010 cricket, indian premier league, IPL 4, kings xi punjab, kochi, pune, rajasthan royals, rishabh bablani No Comments

I've noticed that some people are finding the website via several different Google searches, almost all of them seeking information about IPL 4. Now I won't pretend I know what's going on, but I will summarize everything I've read or heard into an (un) impressive-looking list of bullet-points, so that you, 3 and a half readers, can be as confused as I am.

• There were going to be 10 teams this year.
• The new teams were the Pune Pratfallers and the Kochi Katerwaulers.
• Suddenly, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab had their names erased with the back of a pen because they were corrupt.
• The Kochi Katerwaulers were asked to give a bunch of reasons why they might be allowed to stay, because they were corrupt too. Easiest punishment ever?
• Wrong. They argued so much that they broke their only pencil and couldn't come up with anything.
• But they were allowed to stay.
• The Rajasthan Royals clawed back in after some judge let them remain a franchise. For six weeks. And they have been allowed to participate in the auction.
• Meanwhile, the Kings XI Punjab won't go away quietly and are still on hunger strike trying to take legal action.
• The player retention deadline for all teams was tomorrow, but the Bombay High Court postponed it to the 8th
• There really shouldn't be an IPL this year because of the World Cup.

And now, to summarize in one paragraph of gibberish, if you don't get it yet.

The IPL supposedly will happen but we don't know how many teams are there because there were to be ten but two were removed and then one was allowed back so now there are nine and they can all take part in the auction so next month they may all have players but then one team may still be kicked out and then what will happen to their players will they be given to the other team that was kicked out and has not yet been allowed back or will they be distributed like maltesers among the other teams or will the auction not even happen because we aren't certain which teams are in it and there are a buttload of court cases happening which keep getting delayed and the IPL may not even happen in the end which would be good because all the players would be tired from the World Cup anyway.

That should capture the theme effectively.