General Cricket Thread ...

[prasen9]

UK is a country with an immigration rate of 2% and the white population is 92%, per the CIA Factbook UK entry.  If the immigrants are getting selected, then, it says both: that the English are not that good and, of course, there is reasonable equal opportunity.

I like it that the legal system in England does not allow monopolistic practices wrt employment.  The ICL players could easily play for the counties, whereas, in India, they say the ICL's cases will take years to resolve.  Maybe the same in Pakistan.  I would think that the Aussies and the Kiwis would have an efficient court system, but, may be they do not, for, otherwise, players like Gillespie would not have to retire to play in the ICL.

[Atithee]

I count at least the second generation (Asian) immigrants in the "immigrants" category.  Moreover, some per cent of "white" population may be immigrants too.

Anyway, my point is that cricket will survive in England courtesy of Asian immigrant population (and their lingering legacy seeping into at least the next generation).  Therefore, I am not surprised by the abundance of non-English players in the team.  The equality laws (and the inequality in other countries) only aids this transformation.

[prasen9]

Atithee, sure I see your point, and, some % of the white population are immigrants, but, I do not think it is a major % yet.  Currently you have Pietersen and this other guy Pattinson as foreign developed guys and Tim Ambrose is Australian born.  So, the immigrants are indeed doing very well.

[BSharma]

It must be a slow day in cricket that we are discussing why England is not producing good cricket players.   

On the other hand, I am sitting in Jay's former home-away-from-home and wondering when some crazy Longhorn is going to beat up an Okie wearing an OU shirt.    Whom should be I be more worried about - Longhorns or if England is producing enough decent cricketers?  I could always take off the OU shirt and wear one that says UT Longhorns - naah!

[prasen9]

OFF-TOPIC:

Doc, nah, I don't think the Longhorns really care that much about the Sooners   If you look at the NCAA Directors' Cup standings, given to the most successful athletics program over all sports, over the years, the Longhorns have consistently placed within the top-5 except a few down years.  I was really searching for Oklahoma on that page and am sure the Sooners appear a number of times, but, I guess some crazy Longhorn must have scrubbed the page, so I did not find the Sooners mentioned even once.  Maybe you should set them right   But as they say over there, "Don't Mess with ...

p.s. "Hook'em Horns"

[BSharma]

OFF-TOPIC:

Doc, nah, I don't think the Longhorns really care that much about the Sooners   If you look at the NCAA Directors' Cup standings, given to the most successful athletics program over all sports, over the years, the Longhorns have consistently placed within the top-5 except a few down years. 
p.s. "Hook'em Horns"

Sorry Prasenjit.

The only sport that counts in NCAA is football. 

National Championship:

Oklahoma 7 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, 2000
Texas 4 1963, 1969, 1970, 2005

[prasen9]

OFF-TOPIC:

The good doc showed some mercy and did not mention the last 5-6 years' Longhorn-Sooner record at the Cotton Bowl.  I hope Mack Brown rectifies the "problem" soon and at least has a better defense this year.  Otherwise, it is time for him to move on.  Maybe instead of talking about football records, we should talk about football recruiting records, then we will win almost every year!  In that sense, Brown has under-achieved.

[prasen9]

Back to cricket.  The futility of the Pattinson selection (and the Broad selection) is evident now.  At least they should have brought back Simon Jones and I would also put in hit-the-decker Tremlett or the fast Harmison instead of Broad.  Harmison has been performing very well for Durham in the counties; he could be given a game too.  Broad is going the Liam Plunkett/Sajid Mahmood way of bowlers with excellent potential but blooded a tad earlier than they should have been.  Broad's batting is very good, so when Flintoff was hurt, he could easily be the all-rounder or covered for one jointly with Ambrose.  But, now when Freddie is back, he seems a liability.

[prasen9]

EU says free trade: ok, free movement of labor: not!  I say, bad!
Kolpak

I am actually against this artificial restriction on the number of foreigners and requirements about # of junior players in the team, etc.  Actually, for IFA league, I support having 1 U-19 player in the team, but not beyond that I do not support any quotas, etc.  IPL should not have any quota on the number of players, foreign and domestic.  See the NBA, NFL, etc. in the U.S.  They do not have quotas but they are developing local players all right.  If IPL has no restrictions, then the quality of the play in the league will increase (assuming the team administrators are not idiots, if they are, they will learn or be out of business).  Then, maybe instead of gazillion Indian players, only 40 will play and improve.  I do not think India has that much talent that more than 40 should play in the top league.  #s 40-60 will most possibly never make it anyway and thus it does not matter, #s1-40 will play a more cut-throat league and will develop better or make way for the really talented ones.  No salary caps, no artificial player quotas: if I were the commish.

p.s. The NFL in the US complains about rookie salaries.  Huh?  The owners are paying them that much.  Who told you to pay and then complain?  If the market says they are worth that much, so be it.

[prasen9]

Although I do follow test and ODIs and did not watch a single ball in the IPL, I think they should let the market decide.  If people want Twenty20, then all power to them.  There is no point in artificially propping up Tests and ODIs.  They can actually run Twenty20s and Tests in parallel and earn even more money, go for it.  We play a separate team for Tests and ODIs anyway and Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan, and Ishant Sharma can choose what they want to do.  The FTP that mandates the strong teams play with the weak teams every 5 years or so should be scrapped and let the teams decide.  If Australia are chicken to play in Pak, then let them be.  If India does not want Bangladesh to visit that is fine.  Why introduce so many artificial regulations and prevent good games from happening more often.  I would prefer an India-Aus test series every 2-3 years.  Ditto for India-RSA or India-Pak.  With no offense to them, the Poms are boring and we beat them well in Pommyland.

[gbelday]

Though there may be other deserving candidates (outside cricket), I won't complain Dhoni getting this award!  Thanks to Dhoni for the bringing home the T20 worldcup!!

Dhoni to be conferred Khel Ratna

[PKBasu]

Yes, congratulations to Dhoni, the deserving winner of a Khel Ratna. Winning a world championship in any sport is a huge achievement, doing it in a new (and exciting) version of India's favourite sport is a gigantic achievement that deserves every recognition.

[PKBasu]

Interesting that Kevin Pietersen (an Afrikaaner or atleast a South African of 50% non-English parentage, and a non-English surname) is now captain of England, while Graeme Smith (a South African of clear English lineage) is captain of South Africa 

[Man Stone]

The wounds and agony of the Indian Criecket team continues to increase in the Emarald Isle. After being crushed by the SriLankans in their Asia Cup encounter they lost the test series 2-1 to the home team. They were completely outplayed in the first onedayer when they lost the match by 8 wickets.If Dhoni and his boys really need to regain some pride they must learn to counter attack the spin duo of Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan or else all seems gloomy. The bowling deoartment is ok but then the SriLankans have some top class batsmen. With Jayasuriya still in the side and the likes of Jayawardhane and Sangakarra in the ranks , the Indian think thank should seriously do some re-thinking as far as their strategy implementation part is concerned.

[jayakris]

I guess I hadn;t looked at the cricket thread for several week, and did not even see the Longhorns and the LandThiefs being mention above over a month back ...

Anyway, just saw this -

Sreesanth subject of cartoon contest in Kerala

That is funny.  Where the heck is the daridravAsi now?  Any chance to see him again in the Indian team anytime soon?

Jay