January31

Australia and Twenty20 cricket

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A look at why Australian cricket has failed to achieve success in Twenty20 that it has in other forms of the game.

January24

UDRS: To review or not to review

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I lamented on the use of referrals and how ICC should prompt the use of technology to the fullest extent in cricket last year during the fourth test between West Indies and England at Bridgetown, Barbados. Daryl Harper, the TV umpire from Australia was at the hot seat for a period of play on the final session of the third day during that Test when he gave two absolute shockers which baffled one and all. As the year went by ICC had realized the importance of technology and to eradicate umpiring errors implemented the UDRS (Umpire Decision review system) from October 2009. When this announcement came out, I was elated that ICC had taken the step in the right direction to help the game, the players, the umpires and the fans.

January21

ODIs – One Dimensional Internationals?

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I felt so disappointed after India lost to Sri Lanka in the Tri Nation Idea Cup. Not because India lost. But for the fact that I did not feel disappointed after India lost. For me, it was just another ODI, just another India-Sri Lanka match. Tharanga, Dilshan, Sehwag, Kohli, Sanga, Yuvraj blah blah blah.

No, I am not getting Americanized, I have not started losing interest in cricket. I watched the Aus-Pak test (Sydney Test) with utmost interest and also updating my “what you feel like” status on Facebook during the match! I followed the Eng-Sa tests with so much more interest. I want to talk about a few of issues here, all of them related to ODI cricket:
1) Too much ODI cricket and improper planning.
2) Empowering bowlers/ De-powering batsmen.
3) Changing the format of the game to remove the monotony from ODIs.