General Cricket Thread ...

[PKBasu]

Interesting. Mark Chapman looks quite Asian. Perhaps his mother is Hong Kong Chinese?

[Rajiv]

Yes PKB, his mother is Hongkong Chinese and his NZ father Peter Chapman is a fabled and sought after Criminal lawyer, and is involved in many of the City's high profile , Crime and Financial Fraud cases.

Peter played a huge role in shaping Mark's career, and for the U 13 matches there was perennial shortage of Umpires and both of us were regular feature as stand in umpires for almost all of the season and few times he even rushed from the courts to umpire a match handing the case to his collegues , so that the match could continue and not called off.

[prasen9]

The ICC came up with new regulations for super overs. I think we should have a 5-5 match instead of a super over. And, unlimited wickets and substitutions. That would generate some data for what happens in some new scenarios that can be used to innovate the game. What fun! Although I suppose the data will be sparse and so pretty much useless. So, scratch that. But, still. A 5-5 would take an hour more including innings change.

[prasen9]

Monga did an article on the advantage with respect to the toss a home team may have. The data clearly indicates that if we want series to be more equal and therefore more interesting, test cricket should do away with the toss and award the toss to the home team allowing the home team to instruct the curators on what sort of pitch they want.

[suresh]

Mitchell Starc raises fears of 'boring' cricket during spit-polishing ban

[PKBasu]

West Indies have arrived in England to play a test series, which will begin on July 8th, without any preliminary matches. The second and third test will be at Old Trafford, because there is a hotel almost attached to the ground. There will be no spectators. Weird!

[sameerph]

WI-England test starts tomorrow. I think first international sports being played since all England open badminton which ended on March 15th. Good that at least some sport is starting.

[Omkara]

It's good if no spectators. We saw what happened when Djokovic and others tried to act smart. Let's be careful.

[Rajiv]

If T20's introduction of diluting my beloved Game wasn't enough, the new BBL rules has turned it into a circus act... it's just "my opinion".

[SCG cricket fan]

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[rajitghosh]

Sourav Ganguly has some heart trouble and is currently undergoing angioplasty at Woodlands Nursing Home in Calcutta

[jayakris]

Guess who is back?... Daridravasi!!! (took a wicket in Kerala vs Puducherry). The dude is 37 years old now.

[Atithee]

He should just remain daridra and a vasi of Kerala. The hero worship syndrome and some delusions result in stupidities like this.

[jayakris]

He should just remain daridra and a vasi of Kerala. The hero worship syndrome and some delusions result in stupidities like this.

Yeah, he should go back to acting in movies or whatever he was doing the past few years. It's rather ridiculous to see him playing.

[prasen9]

We were talking about Pakistan in the IvE thread. I am continuing that here. Younis Khan says that Pakistan is not doing the right thing developing players. Young squad They have a hope and pray policy. They tried out Naseem Shah, who is supposedly 17. He played 9 tests and took wickets at over 42 and got dropped. Would it not have been better to hone this guy and use him when he is actually test class? Instead, Pakistan dropped people wholesale and have 7-9 players who are new in their RSA squad. Chop and change works sometimes but rarely as the only policy. I agree that these players should have been dropped because people like Shah and Harris were not performing. But dropping Abbas is a bit too much when you do not have a pipeline. Maybe he should have been allowed to develop. Instead, they bring in the next round of folks. Abbas has not been good in the last 7-9 tests but before that he was great. I do not mind dropping him but I do not think the people who are brought in are that good. RSA is gotten weak too. So, who knows the new guys may succeed.

Anyway, the world needs a lot of A-team tours in order for cricket to be of high class in this era of fast bowling and frequent injuries, etc. Even with their management, the Aussie bowlers got tired and even though they did not break down, they were not as effective. Now that we have about 7-8 decent pace bowlers to hone and nurture, we should ask people to go all out and then rest them. Or if they are injured move on to the next guard. That is, I am fine with an Ishant going full tilt for two matches and then getting injured. Let's accept injuries as part of the game. We should try to avoid them and work on fitness and nutrition as much as possible. But, fast bowlers need to be rotated and given rest. So, I would not mind rotating between Ishant, Bumrah, Siraj and Shardul in the England matches (first two).