umpire deemed the ball out of condition through human intervention

CRICKET: The simple beauty of the centuries-old game was shown again when a team lost a Test by forfeit after refusing to resume after tea because an umpire deemed the ball out of condition through human intervention. Darrell Hair's actions against Pakistan at The Oval were hailed in many quarters as a victory for strong umpiring, and got him sacked off the global umpires panel. Cricket was also highlighted by the Ashes, which revived memories of last year's epic series except for the bigger crowds and the farcically one-sided cricket. The year was also headlined by Pakistan batting phenomenon Mohammad Yousuf, the Phil Taylor of cricket

Stage set for Twenty20 showpiece

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni led the tournament favourites to an impressive nine-wicket win over fellow 2007 finalists Pakistan in Wednesday's warm-up, but said the formbook should be thrown out of the window when it comes to the shortest format of the professional game.
"I don't think the win against Pakistan underlines our status as favourites," said Dhoni, who played in the final two years ago.
WORLD TWENTY20 GROUPS
GROUP A: India, Bangladesh, Ireland
GROUP B: Pakistan, England, Netherlands
GROUP C: Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies
GROUP D: New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland
"It's not about being favourites, you have to perform like this throughout the tournament to win.
"You can be thrown out of the tournament easily, especially at the knockout stage.
"We are the side that has done well, but that's all on paper after all that you have to go and do it but we have potential and we will be a tough team to beat."
South Africa captain Graeme Smith is more bullish about his side's chances. The second favourites open their campaign against Group D opponents Scotland at The Oval on Monday, followed by New Zealand at Lord's on 9 June.
"We have an exciting squad with pace, swing and spin in the bowling department and plenty of depth to our batting," Smith said.
We're very much dark horses and hopefully that will give the boys a bit more of a licence
England captain Paul Collingwood
"In terms of talent, flair and confidence, this is the strongest Proteas team that I have captained."
He added: "We are very well balanced both in terms of youth and experience and in terms of having all our bases covered regardless of whether the conditions favour swing or spin.
"Most international cricketers have not played a lot of international Twenty20 cricket to date and the 14 matches in the recent Indian Premier League has given them the chance to formulate new ideas and plans for this format of the game."
Australia's challenge was dealt a huge blow on Friday when it was announced that all-rounder and big-hitter Andrew Symonds would be returning home because of an "alcohol-related incident".
However, captain Ricky Ponting believes his side have enough strength in depth to cope with the loss

Hotstepper of the Week

With the high profile Indian Premier League taking place in India right now, interest in local cricket matches opposite weak sides like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have been of little interest. It is certainly disheartening. But our team never gave up. In the past few weeks, Pakistan has played on home-ground with Bangladesh and before that Zimbabwe and our young players like Salman Butt, Umar Gul, as well as veterans Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan as well as cappy Shoaib Malik have won every single game. In other words, we won 11 straight one-day international games in a row and in the process, the young guns of Pakistani cricket set a record.We followed up this triumph by playing a Twenty20 game with Bangladesh and again thrashed them. With major players like Abdul Razzaq, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shabbir Ahmed among countless others out of the team - they now form Lahore Badshahs under the wing of Indian Cricket League - it must've been difficult for our players
to win every single match and that too at a time when most people are tuned to IPL matches that have Bollywood stars and international players pitched together.
ZFor having the heart to play their best and not giving in to pressure, we at Instep salute these young stars. And here's why the Pakistan cricket team are Instep's hotsteppers of the week!With the high profile Indian Premier League taking place in India right now, interest in local cricket matches opposite weak sides like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have been of little interest. It is certainly disheartening. But our team never gave up. In the past few weeks, Pakistan has played on home-ground with Bangladesh and before that Zimbabwe and our young players like Salman Butt, Umar Gul, as well as veterans Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan as well as cappy Shoaib Malik have won every single game.In other words, we won 11 straight one-day international games in a row and in the process, the young guns of Pakistani cricket set a record. We followed up this triumph by playing a Twenty20 game with Bangladesh and again thrashed them.

This picture is interesting at so many levels.

The official caption reads: “Pakistanplayers pray after winning the ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 round two group stage match between Sri Lanka and Pakistanat Manuka Oval on March 9, 2009 in Canberra, Australia.”
What should one comment on? The achievement of the Pakistan women’s cricket (we have written earlier about Urooj Mumtaz Khan, who was again instrumental in this victory). The significance of the women’s team’s achievement when the men’s team is in doldrums. The fact that this was against Sri Lanka, given the horrible incidents of last week. Or just the gesture of gratitude and prayer (and whether this was synchronized for the cameras or spontaneous!).
I will leave the commenting to our readers.
I put this up, because seeing the picture I felt good at the news. Felt good for our womens’ team. And felt good that at least there is some hope for Pakistan cricket. Most of all, because I think its a great picture.

Deccan Chargers Logo

The logo of the franchise representing the state of Deccan also features classical logotype elements such as the crest, stripes and a serif font set employed intelligently to form a contemporary design which can find its origins in the logos of European football teams

Bangalore Royal Challengers Logo

The logo of the Bangalore-based cricket franchise is a simple and elegant design consisting of the initials RC” written in gold color in a classical typeface, and encircled by the team name with the crest of McDowell Royal Challengers, the top-selling liquor brand of Vijay Mallya – the company owner, sitting right at the top.

Chennai Super Kings Logo

The Chennai Super Kings logo features the head of a lion in orange/gold color with the team name typeset in the whitespace available at the side of the lion’s head.

The Best IPL 2008 - Shawbshank Redemption (Cricket - IPL)

Shoaib Akhtar’s comeback into cricket in IPL 2008 - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Daredevils, with 4 stunning wickets that included Virender Sehwag, Gautham Gambhir and AB de Villiers.

Sports Marketing in India a Struggle Despite IPL Cricket.

IPL cricket has promised big financial rewards to players and big exposure and brand-building opportunities for sponsors, but the large agencies in India are struggling to make it work for them. An article in the Business Standard, reports that IPL moving to South Africa will make it even harder for Indian based sports marketing companies to survive.
Ogilvy Sports downed shutters last December 2008.
“Ogilvy Sports was a part of Ogilvy Action (brand activation arm). Making it a specialised, separate entity was just an experiment. To be frank, it never existed and is not existing. There were only two-three people working in it, who have quit,” : Sanjay Thapar, group president, north and east, Ogilvy & Mather.
Anand Yalvigi, general manager, Havas Sports (a division of MPG India), however has a different perspective.
“It depends on how unique and viable is your sports marketing solution. For us, the growth has been quite good, thanks to IPL, where we have been able to generate huge sponsorships for one of the franchisees.” He refused to disclose the name of the team, saying that it would be announced soon.
Mahesh Ranka, general manager-India, Relay Worldwide, Starcom MediaVest Group’s sports marketing arm:
“Stakeholders are not professional. In India, 85 per cent of the sports property is cricket, and a little bit comes from golf, tennis and badminton. There are not enough heroes (excluding cricketers). Consider the case of Abhinav Bindra. He remained in the media for a couple of months but is seen nowhere today.”
“For sports marketing to flourish, it needs sports to be successful, which is not happening. Sports infrastructure is lacking. It’s only cricket that is working. Administrators blame it on the lack of sponsorship. But even if sports get sponsorships, one can’t make stadiums from that money,”

popular national game of pakistan

Hello friends, again a Weekend Masti article but this time without disclaimer.
Cricket is can be called it as a popular national game of India, (because Hockey stick is used for some other matters rather than playing…). Every one is crazy about cricket a number of players, teams, leagues are there in India. Here the topic is not like that who knows cricket well but it is a normal scene of every ground, road having space for playing cricket.
National & international level Cricket has so many rules, regulations & restriction, but Gali cricket is different. It is Customized version of standard cricket:
Version : Customized
Players : Can be any one who knows cricket, boys, girls or
both.
Age : 11 to 15 years
Number : Depend on the strength of friends (can be 4-
15…)
Kit : Bat & ball is required only ( stump can be change
with bricks or anything which gives a feel of
stump)
Umpire : Elder one whose decisions is accepted by every
one.
Commentator: One who speaks better?
Duration: Whole day till any one’s mom came to stop that /
somebody’s window smashed.
Dress code: N/A
Trophy: N/A
Sponsors : Grand fathers who know the importance of
physical games.
So Gali cricket is something which really is amazing. Motivate your children to play Gali cricket…but … save your window glasses…
Keep reading…

Indo-Pak game at Lahore.

Two things to be noted: Contrary to Pakistan’s age-old stance, the Northern Areas are not being considered as part of Kashmir. But then are the Northern Areas to be treated as another autonomous region or as a federally administered area? Or what? Confusion lingers. Secondly, the whole of Kashmir has been termed as “disputed territory” – a significant deviation. I am not sure, what to make of it. Maybe, this map has been released to test the waters – to gauge how people would react to any major deviation from the hackneyed Pakistani stance. On the other hand, it can be considered as yet another signal to India: that Pakistan is willing to give ground and have some serious discussion over the issue. It may also be an attempt to score a point with the Kashmiris – Pakistan does not want to divide the Kashmiri families.
Or it may just be a simple map. But interesting nonetheless.

England cricket team discover interesting new phenomenon - “winning”

Three days, two matches, two wins; it doesn’t get much better than that. If you are England, it usually gets nowhere near as good as that where limited overs cricket is concerned (and Test cricket since 2006). But the Ginger Prince’s trusty charges have once again shown that they have what it takes to win abroad when the pyjamas are on.
Another convincing 50-run win today sees the ever-improving short game squad claim another scalp; even it is over a Bond-less New Zealand. Let’s not do this achievement down though, England were appalling at theTwenty20 World Cup, while Kiwi cricket involves a plethora of limited-overs matches with two Tests thrown in every couple of years or so, and they were at home.
Only another five one-dayers to go until we get to seThe way England has played the twenty20 matches against New Zealand was impressive. It was really inspirational victories for England. They played well in all three departments of the matches. Collingwood is leading the side in the front. This is what needed for a captain to influence the players. So, I see a good future of the side in the coming days. However, England’s test performance is below the mark. So, they need to work on their test performancee a Test match in March. Happy days

I agree England played well and its good to see the tour getting off to good start but success of the England cricket team is going to be judged on how well we can play at the longer version of the game not a 20 over slogout. Don't get me wrong twenty20 is good for the game and is creating interest amoung young players, but we have to perform at test level. I agree England played well and its good to see the tour getting off to good start but success of the England cricket team is going to be judged on how well we can play at the longer version of the game not a 20 over slogout. Don't get me wrong twenty20 is good for the game and is creating interest amoung young players, but we have to perform at test level.

Why cricket is such a popular game in India?

The IPL fever is in its full intensity in India these days. IPL and its probable winner is one of the hottest topics of discussion here. Many people are of the view that it is one of the best things that ever happens to the game of cricket. In fact IPL has become so popular worldwide that Australian Captain Ricky Ponting had to issue an appeal to his countrymen to focus more on their national team’s recent series with West Indies than to watch their retired cricketers perform in IPL. The entire IPL tournament is being broadcast in Australia as free-to-air and it has become a huge craze.
As I watch so much craze of Cricket among people some thoughts come to my mind. What exactly is there in this game that make it so interesting and worth watching ? Why people are so crazy about Cricket especially in India ? Here is my attempt to demystify the secret of this game’s huge popularity in India (and the world at large).
First of all, in India we don’t have many ideals. At least not in sporting arena. Our performance in Olympic, Asian Games and in other world sporting events has been pathetic since a very long time. In our national sports Hockey (now it is a matter of debate whether we should call it our national game at all) we even failed to qualify for the Olympic. The only game where we are considered somewhat at par with other sporting nations is Cricket. Our Cricket team is always considered as a tough opponent and no team in the world take Indian Cricket team lightly. In such a situation, it is but natural for us to find our ideals in our cricket team. When the team wins, it brings laurel to the country and makes the players more popular than ever. And when the team loss, the whole nation become angry with them. For Indians, the cricket players are our ideals, they motivate us to perform better and better. They are role models for millions of Indian youth. And they’ll continue to be so unless they find more role models in other sports. Going by the sorry state of other Indians sports such as Hockey & Football, it seems to me that Cricket will be the only source of role models for Indian in many years to come.
Secondly, if you see the entire format of Cricket, you will find that this is the only game, which, despite being a collective team sport, give the opportunity to individual players to become national hero in minutes. A batsman who hit six on the last ball of the innings and win the match for its team become a national hero overnight. Indians have not forget the last ball Six of Javed Miyandad (of Pakistan) which shattered our dreams of winning the Sharjah Cup in 1985. Similarly, who can forget the last over of Sachin Tendulkar in the final of Hero Cup against South Africa that turn the table totally in India’s favour.

amazing game today

Live Cricket Enjoy Live Cricket New Zealand vs India Free Online Live Stream - Did you know that there is an amazing game today that is going to be broadcasting live? Can you guess what it is? Well, just in case you dont know, it is the great game of cricket! To be honest I never really have watched a cricket game in my life. I had heard of it but I have never played it either. But the more I search the internet for awsome stuff the more interesting cricket sounds. In fact, did you know that it is possible to watch live stuff on your computer? So, really then now that you have learned it is possible to watch live stuff on your computer, you can now move on in life. Hasn’t this information just changed your life? Because I’m so nice, I have found a way to be able to entertain you by providing stuff that you will want to watch. I have spend many long hours scouring the internet for a way to watch live stuff and without further delay, here it is!! Don’t miss out on this chance!