Cricket Regime: Who Will Replace Australia?

Australia Cricket team has long ruled the Cricket World. In almost every Cricket World Cup, Australian Cricket team has played as favorites. They still hold the Cricket World Champions title. But, will they be able to continue their regime on Cricket World? Let’s look into it in some details!

Australia has been known as the “Unbeatable” team in world of Cricket for the most of 2000-2010 decade. They have been on No.1 spot of the ICC Team Rankings in both Tests & ODIs. Aussies team has been termed as the synonymous to “Consistency”. They got habitual of winning in every game, every tournament, and every country and under all sorts of conditions! 

But for the last year or so, Australian Cricket team seems to have been losing the grip on this Consistency. They lost their Top spot in Test Rankings to India. Australia is not even ranked No.2 in ICC Test Rankings. They have 3^rd Spot after South Africa in Tests. On the other hands, although they are on No.1 in ICC ODI rankings but they are not far away from South Africa & India at No.2 and No.3 respectively. 

England lost the T20 World Cup-2010 final earlier this year to England. And now they are touring England for ODIs and the Ashes. Aussies have already lost their first 3 ODIs to England out. This means the 5-match ODI series is already won by the hosts, England.

Australia is also scheduled to play 2 Tests and 2 T20 matches against Pakistan in England. It will be great test for both Aussies and Pakistani Cricket team.

So, which Cricket team do you think has the potential to take the place of Australian Cricket Team?

Worst Ever Pakistan Cricket Team For England?

Well, Pakistan Cricket Board has done it again! Pakistani Cricket team is due to tour England from the next week where Pakistan Cricket Team is going to play against the hosts, England, and the World Champions Australia.

What Pakistan Cricket Board has done this time is not new though. The one-man show continues to run in PCB. Mr. Ejazz Butt, the king of Pakistan Cricket, is absolutely free to make decisions. It only happens in Pakistan Cricket, that the Chairman of Cricket Board announces the team in the Press Conference with the Chief Selector sitting beside him during Asia Cup-2010!

As expected, the Pakistani Cricket Team announced for England tour has raised many eye-brows. The Pakistani Cricket team includes names like Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat, and Kamran Akmal and excluding Younis Khan, Asim Kamal, Abdul Rahman and Sarfaraz Ahmed.

The most unfortunate news is that Pakistani Cricket team’s

Pakistan Cricket Team: Crisis Or Bad Luck!

Now, I feel sorry for Pakistan Cricket team. Yes, they lack consistency, but their recent record in Cricket does not realistically highlight the quality cricket they have been playing.

It all started from the ICC Champions Trophy in 2009. Pakistan, the-then T20 World Champions, played against New Zealand in the Semi-finals. Pakistan Cricket Team played well, the game was very close, but New Zealand managed to hold their nerves and won the match.

Then Pakistani Cricket team toured New Zealand in the end of 2009. Pakistani team was winning the first test but eventually lost to the Kiwis by 32 runs on the last day. Pakistan Cricket team comprehensively won the 2^nd Cricket Test by 141 runs but the final match was without result. The series was drawn 1-1.

Just before the end of New Zealand tour, Pakistani

Asia Cup-2010: India Vs Pakistan Cricket History

Cricket claims to be the world’s 2^nd most popular sport in the world after Soccer. Although debatable, but when it comes to South Asia, Cricket is by far the most popular sport here.

South Asia is the power house of Cricket. And the most powerful cricket board, BCCI, the Indian Cricket Board, is also a part of South Asia. Over the years, South Asia has contributed a lot towards the game of Cricket. First, India and Pakistan produced legendary cricket stars like Sunil Gavaskar, Zaheer Abbas, Sarfaraz Nawaz, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Majid Khan…and the list goes on and on.

Then, Cricket spread its roots to the neighboring countries of these two arch-rivals. Sri Lanka started showing some great talent. And now Bangladesh is emerging as the 4^th strongest team of Asia.

But the Cricket in South Asia is mainly dominated by India and Pakistan. And when these 2 teams (India vs Pakistan) are up against each other, you are bound to get excited. No matter what the event is, no matter what the Cricket Ranking of each of these teams, no matter which era it is, when there is match featuring India vs Pakistan, the whole Cricket world expects a fascinating clash.

The history of India vs Pakistan Cricket is very volatile. More often than not, the two teams avoided playing Cricket against each other due to the several political tensions.

India Vs Pakistan History

Since 1978, there have been a total 118 ODI Cricket matches featuring India vs Pakistan. Out of which

Asia Cup-2010: History & Future!

Asia, not only the largest Continent on Earth but it’s the biggest region when it comes to the craze for Cricket.  Asia is really the power house of Cricket. Nations like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and now Bangladesh have contributed a plenty to the Cricket world.

Asia Cup is a tournament that features all these 4 teams in ODIs. The tournament was first played in 1984 in Sharjah, UAE organized by ACCA, the Asian Cricket Council. However, this tournament has not been held regularly due to the unfavorable political and Cricket affairs between different Asian nations, especially between India and Pakistan.

A total of 8 editions of Asia Cup Cricket Tournament have been held. India and Sri Lanka have been victorious 4 times each. The first Asia Cup was won by India in 1984. However, in 1986, Sri Lanka managed to become the Asian Champions. In 1988, team India regained the title.

Indian cricket team managed to defend the title in 1990-91. Then in 1993, the Asia Cup was scheduled to be held in Pakistan but due to political tensions, it was not held. In 1995, once again India cricket team managed to successfully defend the title. In 1997, Sri Lankan team came up as victorious.

Pakistan Cricket team could only win the Asia Cup Cricket Tournament in year 2000, held in Bangladesh. There was again a gap of 4 years when the Asian rivals locked horns again in 2004. This time, Sri Lanka reclaimed the title.

The last time Asia Cup was held in 2008, when Pakistan was hosting the event for the first time. Sri Lanka cricket team again managed to win the title when they beat India in the Final.

Now, the 9^th edition of the Asia Cup Cricket tournament is going to be held from June 15, in Dambulla, Sri Lanka.

It’s not easy to figure out the favorites for the Asia Cup-2010. Not because all teams are evenly good, but because the performance of these teams have not been impressive in the recent times. Let’s have a look at each team:

Team India:

Indian cricket team is struggling with

Can Cricket Compete With Football?

The biggest sport event on Earth, the FIFA World Cup-2010 is about to begin. Being held in South Africa, this will be the 19^th edition of the World’s most popular global event. FIFA World Cup is truly the biggest sports event when it comes to the craze, popularity and devotion. Even the Olympic Games cannot compete with the excitement and craziness that a FIFA world cup ignites. Soccer world cup is such a big event that people (like me) who normally do not follow football, are bound to take interest in the game!

Football or Soccer is the planets’ most popular game. Soccer has the world’s largest fan following on Earth. It’s fast, it’s exciting and it’s highly competitive. People are crazy about Football.

FIFA, the Federation of International Football Association, is the worlds’ most influential and powerful sport governing body.

So, why I opted to write on Soccer World Cup-2010? Actually, I got the feeling that I should write something about the comparison between Cricket & Soccer, or ICC & FIFA, for that matter.

Soccer is said to have a Chinese origin, where it was discovered by the English and is now the most followed sport in 93 countries with a two-billion population. 

FIFA has 208 member nations. The English Premier League (EPL) and the Champions League are the most popular football leagues. Soccer also has the largest base of diehard fans, players and professional leagues in the world’s largest economy, Europe.

As mentioned above, the FIFA World Cup is the biggest and most lucrative sporting event in the world. The 2006 tournament, involving 64 matches, 32 nations and television coverage in 214 countries, had a cumulative television audience of 26 billion people. According to another report, the final between Italy and France was watched by 700 million viewers.

Well, everybody knows Soccer or Football is the world’s most popular sport. But which sport comes 2^nd, it is highly debatable. The popularity level is measured in terms of total estimated followers/fans for a particular sport. The most recent records as

Why Team India Thrown Out?

What we predicted has happened. Indian Cricket team has been thrown out of the Tri-series in Zimbabwe, quite convincingly. The host Zimbabwe has beaten India twice in a week to remove Team India’s chances of playing final of the series.

So, what went wrong with Indian team? As we have already discussed in our previous post, the selection of team India was the main cause of the team’s dismal show. The team comprised of all youngsters with no big names. The most shocking decision was to exclude the skipper, MS Dhoni. The selection was pathetic.

However, I support the idea behind the selection, to give chance to the youngsters ahead of Asia Cup-2010. But the way this idea was executed, was absolutely unacceptable. You just cannot afford the risk of playing all the young 11, without any experience, and most importantly, under a very inexperience captain.

I also feel sorry for the youngsters who played in the tri-series. They were put under enormous pressure, with inexperience captain, and without any experience players to learn from. This might just ruin the future of these young Indian players.

This decision of excluding all the big names has backfired. India has lost the 2^nd position in the ODIs and has moved to the

Does Pakistan Need Shoaib Malik?

Well it’s disappointing. The Pakistan Cricket Board has once again taken a U-turn on their decisions. After banning and fining almost all the top players of the Pakistan team, PCB has now decided to take some steps back on the issue. PCB has lifted the ban from Shoaib Malik and halved the fine of Rs.3 Million. The fines on Umer Akmal and Kamran Akmal have also been relaxed.

However, the PCB has not taken any decisions on

Young Team: Toothless India...!

The Indian Cricket team is playing the Tri-series in Zimbabwe. This series also features the hosts, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. But the most surprising news is the team India selection for this series.

Senior Indian Cricketers have been rested for this triangular cricket series in Zimbabwe, Suresh Raina is leading the young Indian team in the series.

I support the Indian selector’s decision to include youngsters in the national team, but what amazed me was the exclusion of almost all the cream of the senior cricketers. I have not seen such a clean sweep of senior players from Indian cricketers for a while. The team does not include players like Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh  and most amazingly, the captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The idea was to give opportunity to a host of youngsters for their impressive performances in the domestic circuit. Players like R. Ashwin, Pankaj Singh, Umesh Yadav, Ashok Dinda, Vinay Kumar and Naman Ojha have been awarded for their good performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Murali Vijay is another youngster who will make his ODI debut. Virat Kohli is the vice-captain while Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha make a comeback in the ODI side.

Besides the Tri-series, ending June 09,  India will also play two Twenty20 internationals against Zimbabwe. Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla will play only in the two Twenty20s.

Now, there are a few issues I want to discuss here. First, the Indian team should not