Tag Archives: sourav ganguly

Baggy Greens getting Spanked

Posted on by

Smugness Well it’s come to this. I’m normally silent when we’re losing, but am breaking through the pain barrier to share my grief. There is no silver lining – we’re getting spanked, and not in a Peter Roebuck sexual deviant kind of way either. India have bent us over their knee and given us a proper rogering this Test.

It was a good toss to win, but so was the toss we won in Bonnydoon or whatever they’re calling Bangalore this month.

Rudi Koetzen is having a barry crocker. He’s happy to refer 4′s to the third umpire but when it comes to a close stumping on Ganguly he’ll just say not out. Turns out Gangers foot was in the air as Haddin removed the bails, and Gangers went on to notch up a hundred, so yes this did hurt Australia. It’s the worst mistake the Colonel has made since not referring Kumble’s caught and bowled on Ponting in Bonnydoon, though that mistake only cost India 10 runs.

The writing was on the wall for Australia when Kumble was dropped. Not only do they get a proper leggie in Mishra who turns it a mile, has 300 domestic wickets, and possesses one hell of a deceptive wrongun, but they get Dhoni as captain who has inspired them in the field and suddenly remembered how to bat. Assuming his fitness returns Kumble may get to carry the drinks in the third test.

Credit must go to the Indian Batsmen, though it must be said if they were to have any concers, it should be all of their batsmen making starts on a road against undisciplined bowling and not going on with it. Still, to have a question mark over the batting and make 470, it could be worse.

And by worse, I mean Australia. Hayden failed again, and this time he can’t blame the umpire. Had Jaques not gone home with a buggered back he would be looking good for the 3rd test. I was most upset when Hussey gave Clarke the strike for the last over on Day 3, as Clarke is now officially a final over bunny. Each time he goes out right before stumps I die a little inside. Hussey has ridden one hell of a lot of luck and still only made 50. Ponting went to the new ball that Hayden shouldn’t be exposing him too, probably too early to judge.

This is hardly news, but we are sorely missing a quality spinner. White has bowled better than expected, but I expected him to bowl 3 pies per over and he has only delivered 1 every 12 balls. So he’s been tight, but not threatening. Mishra has given him a lesson in turn, deception and bounce.

Johnson must have pissed Punter off, cause as our best paceman in both tests he would have expected to get the new ball. Siddle must be the chosen one in Pontings eyes, and his treatment couldn’t be further from that given to Tait, who was hyped all week in the press then held back till the last over before lunch on a juicy WACA wicket. He has bowled pretty well on debut, with lots of short stuff and the standard Victorian debutant first wicket of Tendulkar, but in truth offers little difference from Lee and really Bollinger should be there.

A fit Stuart Clark is sorely sorely missed. Nesta best articulated what he provides to the side

It’s been a long time since we haven’t had a clever back of the length bowler in the team – McGrath debuted in ‘93 – and although the Indians have problems too, this is the least confident I’ve been about a winning a Test since petrol broke the 50 cent barrier.

The only department in which Australia have been ahead is bums on seats – we’ve got a clear majority for paying patrons. If it weren’t for the Mohalians giving away free seats to kiddies Tendulkar would have broken the record in front of 240 travelling Aussies and his Mum.

Jim Maxwell and Spanky were on the radio and went into some detail on how one goes about securing a ticket to the match. You have to go to a bank in central Mohali and buy a 5 day pass. There is no single day pass, and no option to buy a ticket at the ground. The bank was presumably closed on Sunday. Go India.

Outside the line

Posted on by

Following is an excerpt of the LBW law relevant to this post.

Law 36d part ii
“or outside the line of the off stump, if the striker has made no genuine attempt to play the ball with his bat”

Now this is something that’s been bugging me for many years, and last night I saw the perfect example of why.

Sure it’s struck the pad outside the line of off, but if Ganguly was really playing a shot then his bat wouldn’t be hiding behind his freaking pad. I know these appeals usually go to the batsman (Aleem Dar’s randomness aside), and I know it’s not unique to Ganguly – all international batsmen use this as a way to negate spinners.

This sort of play is a blatant attempt to take advantage from the lbw law, and umpires should stamp out this behaviour.

To spell it out, “A genuine attempt to play the ball” is one whereby the batsman genuinely attempts to hit the ball. If the toe of the bat ends up in the arch of a batsman’s foot with the face of the bat completely hidden behind a pad, then no such genuine attempt has been made, and as such LBW should be back on the table. In the example shown the ball was on track to hit middle stump halfway up, which for me would be Sayonara Sourav.

Were the MCC to come out and announce that they were looking for this law to be interpreted as written, we would have a more exciting game of cricket, especially on 5th days of tests. Batsmen can no longer hide behind their pads for anything outside the line, more balls would be played at, more wickets would fall, and more tests would end with a result.

Oh, a little treat at the end is Zaheer Khan talking about raising his bar, something we should all endevour to do.

Prince Sourav mis-quoted

Posted on by

Not content with being an ordinary batsman and terrible fielder, the man described by his own website as ” Philosopher Prince” has come out and said some bad things about his teammates, you know, the same guys he’s spent the past decade in the trenches with.

I have played badly in only one series (in Sri Lanka),” the Aajkal interview said. “Yet every Tom, Dick and Harry is playing in the team. There are players who haven’t scored in the last three series for India, even for the last one year. There are some who have changed their hairstyle more than they have scored for India.

I am really struggling to understand the motivaton for Sourav’s comments. Perhaps it’s a cultural difference that I’m struggling to understand. In Australia, the value of mateship is regarded very highly. We expect our players to respect their team mates to the detriment of all others. Often they’ll take a seige mentality against the press, refusing interviews and avoiding questions that would require a negative answer about a collegue. We’re fine with this and in truth would rather be lied to than hear them rat out a mate.

A good example is when Warney allegedly was picked up on stump mic saying that Scott Muller “can’t bowl, can’t throw”, we were quite happy with the explanation that it was in fact Joe the cameraman who made the remarks. This was scandalous at the time and still is 8 years later, yet still has nothing on what Sourav sprouts from his princely orifice.

Gangers has since come out and denied the comments, personally I’m hoping this goes down as well as Michael Vaughan’s denial of using the word Fredalo in a Guardian interview, where they categorically backed their journalist to the point of publishing an mp3 of the interview on their website. Oops.

Then again perhaps Sourav is just a d’ick. After all, the guy couldn’t even read out his own denial!

“The reports of an interview from a Bengali daily published in other newspapers are false,” Ganguly’s statement, read out in the press box by an Indian team official, said. “I have not given such an interview to anyone. I request you to clarify with me before publishing views from other sources.”