General Cricket Thread ...

[S_K_S]

It is absurd to leave Kohli out of any world test XI.
This seems to be an exercise in distributing lollies to a varied group of players.

It's based on results/performances from Sept to Sept for some reason. Typical ICC.

[crickspoluv]

It is absurd to leave Kohli out of any world test XI.
This seems to be an exercise in distributing lollies to a varied group of players.

It's based on results/performances from Sept to Sept for some reason. Typical ICC.

Even i was shocked by this decision

[Atithee]

"Even" you or you "too."

Jay, another chance for your periodic reminder.

[Sin Hombre]

Pakistan with a hilarious collapse to lose in the last hour on the flattest of MCG pitches.

[PKBasu]

Pakistan's pretensions to being #1 in test cricket have taken a real knock with two successive defeats in Australia, and pretty bad ones at that.

[ssp]

Pakistan's performances in Australia (& NZ before) are pathetic. They are being hammered in the 3rd test. I thought their bowlers were generally better than ours, but on this showing even the likes of Ishant or Umesh look ok! Australia are scoring at 7-8 runs an over in the 3rd innings. Men v boys.

[prasen9]

So has Sri Lanka's in RSA. And RSA and England's in India. Time for tests in neutral venues with neutral umpires. If you have these in West Indies, England, etc., there will be audience. And, the TV audience is what keeps the game going anyway. ICC will not do this.

A smaller reform would be to allow the visiting team to choose whether to bat or bowl first. That would prevent designer pitches, both, turners and greentops to some extent. Matches will actually run longer and the better team will still win (see England in India). This is a reform that is a must, imho.

[ssp]

A smaller reform would be to allow the visiting team to choose whether to bat or bowl first. That would prevent designer pitches, both, turners and greentops to some extent. Matches will actually run longer and the better team will still win (see England in India). This is a reform that is a must, imho.

This might work, but in England, the cloud cover can make batting difficult on day 2 or 3. Possibly in NZ too. However, something like this has to be tried out to make test matches more interesting and last 5 days.

I feel Asian teams lose badly in RSA, Australia, NZ and England mainly because their quick bowlers get thrashed yet the batsmen can't handle the bounce, swing and seam movement of the home teams. For example, Sri Lanka had lost the 2nd test by end of day 1, when RSA had nearly 300 for 6 or 7 on a greentop. Their batting on day 2 was pathetic. I've seen India do this kind of thing many times-especially in England.

I can't understand why Asian quick bowlers are so ineffective in these 4 countries compared to the home team's bowlers. is it just the current generation of quicks? I remember Pakistan being excellent in all these places when they had Wasim & Waqar & before them, Imran & Sarfraz.

[Sin Hombre]

Stoinis with one of the great ODI knocks and would have been a contender for the greatest of all time if useless Hazlewood hadn't gotten run out with Australia needing 7 runs off the last 3 overs!

Stoinis added 84 runs for the last 2 wickets with Starc facing 3 balls and Hazlewood facing none. All they needed was to not throw their wickets away.

Second match in his career and Australia were 55/5 and 67/6.

[prasen9]

Epic innings! He should possibly be in line for the all-rounders slot before Faulkner and Maxwell (except on a spinning pitch) for ODIs. The Aussies dumped solid ODI batsmen in Ferguson, Bailey, and Voges. Instead they went the big-hitter way. So, their batting is flakey when one of Warner or Smith is not present especially abroad.

[Rajiv]

A Major T20 tournament takes place in Hong Kong starting on March 8-12
Yusuf Pathan from India joins Mishbah Ul Haq , Shahid Afridi , Tyma Mills, Darren Sammy , Johan Botha , Kumar Sangakara , Dishan Tilakrante , in this star studded line up.

5 teams make up the tournament and with each team permitted a maximum of 5 overseas players , more big names are expected to join the already named players , thus making it an exciting and fascinating tournament which will be a first in this part of the world.

http://www.hkcricket.org/en/media/news/ ... or-cantons
http://www.hkcricket.org/en/media/news/ ... -t20-blitz
http://www.hkcricket.org/en/media/news/ ... on-cantons
http://www.hkcricket.org/en/media/news/ ... litz-squad
http://www.hkcricket.org/en/media/news/ ... jd-jaguars
http://www.hkcricket.org/en/media/news/ ... blitz-2017
http://www.hkcricket.org/en/media/news/ ... -t20-blitz
http://www.hkcricket.org/en/media/news/ ... ne-dilshan

[Rajiv]

After initially getting an NOC from BCCI , They (BCCI) make a U turn and refuse permission to Yusuf Pathan to play in HongKong.
Fearful of the fact that it would open flood gates for more Indians to join ( And yes there were discussion going on with other players) the BCCI nips it in the bud.
Don't understand the logic behind this as the Indian community here was looking forward to having an Indian in the tournament dominated by Pakistan players and of course there are some other big names like Tymal Mills , Darren Sammy , James Botha , Sangakara etc.
Probably the BCCI feels Indian player's supporting other tournaments dilutes the IPL

http://indianexpress.com/article/sports ... t-4525374/

[prasen9]

Idiots! The players should go to court.

[sameerph]

Yes, that is stupid. I think apart from commercial benefits,especially for someone like Dhoni ( & other ODI/T20 specialists) it makes sense to play in other leagues to keep them sharp.

[Rajiv]

True Prasen , Sammer an absolute ludicrous decision by the BCCI.
This entire tournament is funded by the Indian community , the Diamond Merchants , Bankers , Traders , to raise funds to bring in the big names as mentioned above and than not to have a single Indian player is big shame .

, My Son who has played semi professional Cricket in the Middlesex Premier league while completing his graduation in the UK , will be making his debut in this tournament after having being bought by one of the Franchise 'Hong Kong Island United ' during the bidding process and whose Captain will be Misbah Ul Haq and just to be on board and under the wings with a legend will be unbelievable and valuable experience and than simply to rub shoulders with Darren Sammy , Sangakara , Shahid Afridi etc is a stuff which dreams are made of.

On a scary note the prospect of facing Tymal Mills at 150 kph had his mum order special extra layer helmet and added protection