Spot (fixing) less era of Indian Cricket

Spot fixing or fixing of the match is not new to India earlier also the players like Mohammad Azharudin and Ajay Jadeja has been involved in match fixing. In the year 2000 Azharudin was a captain of India and was caught by CBI on the allegations of match fixing. As per the CBI report Mohammad Azharudin confessed to fixing games with the help of Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia. At that time I was just 9 years old so didn't even understood what match fixing is?

At present the level at which I am passionate about cricket, I find it as big thing as selling its own nation for some amount of money. When you don't like spot fixed naturally on the face then how can you like spot fixing in the match. As we go out in the market to find spot removal cream to remove spots from the face, similarly we need to find out some pretty strong punishment to remove spot fixng as I feel life ban is not enough. Some more strict actions needs to be taken to remove fixing with its root.

After Azharudin and other players' life ban, reins of team India was given in the hands of Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly along with Sachin, Dravid, Kumble, Srinath and Laxman put the base of world champion team India since 2000. These players had such a strong personality that if anyone tries to raise a finger on them then their finger used to get burn automatically. So these players made a spot (fixing) less team with their discpline & professionalism. They set an example for youngsters that nothing matters more than playing for India.

Players like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Sehwag, Gambhir etc. came under Ganguly, Dravid & Kumble. Under them these players also learnt the lesson of India first. So overall it was a spot (fixing) less decade or you spot (fixing) less era of Indian cricket. During that decade we won world t20 as well as the 50 over world cup.

It was the high time to put India's dominance over the world cricket then IPL 2013 happened and all those fixing scandals came out. And big names including players, team owners & even BCCI cheif were involved in it. All politicians and cricketers turned politicians came into it by saying to stop IPL to gain political advantage. I would like to say them that it has also been done in international cricket so that too should be banned right. Now everything is hid under the champions trophy win as the big names were getting involved. I feel proud that IPL as an Indian brand has grown so much but it equally saddens me that it was created in such a corrupted country.

Now its time to clean the dirt from Indian cricket as the trust of the people towards the fame is on stake. Its time to bring back those spotless legends of Indian cricket & allow them to control the board. If it happened then I am sure with likes of Ganguly, Dravid & Kumble India will be back in that spot (fixing) less era again & the dream of Indian dominance on world cricket will come true.

A Revolution in Cricket Industry

Twenty 20 format of cricket was introduced in English County Championship in 2003 by ECB. Since the introduction of this format of cricket, it has created revolution in its industry. It is getting popular very quickly as compared to other formats of the game. Twenty 20 cricket is fast, entertaining and adds new color to the game. Twenty 20 normally ends within three hours so it is fast. We see the most attacking form of the game as we see more 4s & 6s plus dance & music makes it entertaining. Music, cheerleaders & dances adds new color to the game. The first twenty 20 international was played in 2005 since then it has never looked back. Soon after that first twenty 20 world cup was played in South Africa which was won by India & the current champions are West Indies as they won the fourth twenty 20 world cup recently.

Now let's go back in 2008 the year in which Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) launched Indian Premier League (IPL). IPL changed the definition of club cricket. For the first time in any sport players were auctioned to play in IPL. IPL invested huge amount of money in this format of cricket. IPL offers such a huge amount of money to players that they have started prefering to play in IPL instead of playing for their country. IPL teams were bought by great Indian tycoons such as Vijay Mallya, Shahrukh Khan, Mukesh Ambani, Preity Zinta etc. So it became second highest paid league in the world beating English Premier League (EPL) in that matter. This entire star studded event became a huge success & it gained lot of popularity over its five seasons. With its success Champions League T20 (CLT20) was launched in which champion teams of twenty 20 leagues around the world competes to become the champions of campions.

You might be thinking that why am I writting about it as every one knows about it. I am writting about it because I can say that with start of IPL, revolution speeded up like a fire in the forest. With the advent of IPL cricket became popular in non playing nations like U.S and China with its shorter format, star studded nights, music, dance, exciting games etc. By witnessing the success of IPL many countries has started their own t20 leagues like Cricket Australia launched Big Bash League (BBL), last year Bangladesh cricket board launched Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), Sri lankan cricket board launched SLPL & Pakistan Cricket board West Indies Cricket board is about to launch  Pakistan Super League & Carribean Premier League.

At present the situation is that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is doing changes in the longest format of cricket to keep people interested in that too as tests are finding it hard to survive. The condition of test cricket is because of T 20 cricket as people are getting the result within three hours rather than waiting for five days for the result of match. Popularity of T 20 cricket has reached to a level that it is on the verge of becoming an olympics sport. By seeing its popularity even players are diverting themselves towards it by retiring from test cricket to concentrate on the shorter formats of the game.

Twenty 20 format has won advertisers also along with its fans. Advertisers are always ready to advertise where viewership is highest and twenty 20 cricket generates viewership and high involvement. Moreover its unlike soccer and tennis, here much longer duration is available for advertising. So it offers several opportunities for branding and communication. Be it celebrity endorsements, commercial time on television, contest and promotions, team and umpire uniforms, cricket bats and stumps, boundary ropes, sight screen, and just every imaginable space is being used as commercial medium.

Twenty 20 cricket is like the grand son of test cricket, but here it is like grand son kicking his grand father out of the house. Its one way of looking on other hand Stuart Robinson, the former marketting manager of ECB said it is "intended as a stepping stone for people to watch longer version of the game." In the end I want to say that launch of twenty 20 has helped the game a lot as it has started matching the popularity of football, basketball, etc. twenty 20 surely ha created hysteria among its fans but it has also attracted many new fans. So twenty 20 cricket has definately been a revolution in the cricket industry but a good one.  

The Wall Became Immortal

If you think there is only one great wall in the world in china then think again even India has it's great wall named Rahul Dravid. Rahul Dravid one of greatest batsmen in the history of the game has retired from international cricket on 9th march 2012.

Rahul Sharad Dravid made his test debut against england in 1996 along with Saurav Ganguly. He scored 95 and prepared strong base of the wall. With his technique he slowly became the back-bone of Indian cricket. Many expert has said Dravid has the best technique to play test cricket.

Dravid made his ODI debut against sri-lanka and had disappointing start to his career but he proved his worth in ODIs too. He went on to make 10000 runs in ODIs. He played his last ODI against england and scored 69 runs.

Rahul dravid has made 13288 runs in test matches at the average of 52 with 36 hundereds and 63 fifties with the top score of 270. He has scored 10889 runs in ODIs at the average of 39 with 12 hundereds and 83 fifties with the top score of 153. He is only second batsman in the world after Sachin Tendulkar to score 13000 runs in test matches. He has taken highest number of catches in test cricket at present.

He also has made many other records such as Dravid is the first batsman to score a century in all test playing nations, he was invovled in 2 highest partnerships in ODIs 318 with Ganguly & then 331 with Sachin Tendulkar is still a world record & many other.

Dravid got his nickname 'THE WALL' because of his consistency, his technique and his ability to stay longer on the crease. He had very strong defence. He is very calm and composed every time he comes to bat. He is equanimous personality and it plays important role in his batting. You won't see him getting frustrated quite oftenly while batting. He acheived almost every record in his career if he missed something was only a world cup.

He served indian cricket for 15 years. He began an era with his arrival in international cricket and ends it with his retirement. No one can replace him in the team or can match his ability. He is going to be remembered forever in the world of cricket. This is small tribute to his service to Indian cricket. We will miss 'The Wall of Indian Cricket'.

The Unforgettable Tour Part - 3

India beat England 5-0. No i am not talking about football match. I am talking about cricket India white washed England in ODI series as India beat England in 5 match ODI series 5-0. As expected India was dominating in India. It was most awaited tour not only because India didn't won even single game in England but it was also awaited because of all those comments on Indian Cricket Team off the field by English ex-cricketers. Indian cricketers were also eagerly waiting to payback to english cricketers what they got in England.

As England came to India has just witnessed an awesome Champions League T20. India welcomed England by beating them by 126 in 1st ODI. Bounce on the pitch was low & through out that match English bowlers danced like shakira around Dhoni & Raina. While batting Jadeja made English Batsmen dance like Anil Kapoor.

In 2nd ODI also India dominated throught the match as India beat England by 8 wickets with 80 balls remaining. In this match Indian bowlers put English batsmen under shock so they were not able to do anything & similar kind of thing was done by Indian batsmen to English bowlers so they were in shock so in this way they lost the match in shock 'shock laga shock laga shock laga lagaa'.

In 3rd ODI India beat England by 5 wickets this is the only ODI in which England dominated with the bat. On the contrary English bowlers started singing(sledging) as they didn't get early wickets Indian batsman were so frustrated by their singing that they started hitting them all over the ground & won it comfortably. In this way India won the series 3-0.

In 4th ODI where India was playing for clean sweep on the other hand England was searching for a win. India was so dominating in Indian conditions that it didn't gave England any chance to come on top of them at any point of the game & again India beat them by 6 wickets. India was 4-0 up.

In 5th ODI India was ready to make it 5-0 but England was also ready to stop India from winning.England didn't play for winning the match but they played to stop India from winning. That's why they sung (sledged) & danced on the field but niether their singing nor their dancing impressed India & again they were badly defeated. In this way India washed England with white in the ODI series. India would have allowed England to win one or two matches if Cook have begged in front of Dhoni in a way Hoezaay do in 'Please Daddy Please' ad of lenovo Laptop.

In this way India made this tour unforgettable for England. As i mentioned in my earlier posts that nothing went India's way in England but this time India made it worst for England. Now all ex-cricketers of England are hiding their faces. I just want to give them one advice that think twice before speaking from now onwards. In England they tried to prove that India wasn't deserving to win the world cup. In India England have framed their own perception in front of whole world that they can't perform well on the turning pitches. India put that much pressure on England that they were fielding like real donkeys. They were droping easy catches & fumbling the balls from the hands. Overall India made it worst for England & they deserve so.

At the end every Indian cricketer should ask a question from themselves 'Have I made it large?' as people didn't turned up to watch the matches. Throughout the series stadiums weren't full upto its capacity even in single game. What should be the reason behind that? as its very rare to see half filled stadiums in India during Indian team's matches. Is it overdose of cricket in India? Or something else. Whatever it is BCCI have to work on this & have to find a solution for this.

The Unforgettable Tour Part-2

Its not over yet after test series lot has happened during T20 & ODI seires after test series also India's failure continues during t20 & ODI series. It wasn't only about poor performance on the field but off the field also happened a lot, where Nasser Hussain & Geoffery Boycott commented about Indian players. We will come back to it, first let's take a look what happened during rest of the tour.

T20:
India started well during T20 with Parthiv Patel & Ajinkya Rahane. Rahul Dravid made his first & last international T20 memorable by hitting 3 consecutive sixes before getting out but at the end of there was great Indian collapse & India was restricted to 160 odd runs. England had long batting line-up it proved so Indian bowlers were not up to the mark. India lost T20 match.

1st ODI:
India still looking for its 1st win of the tour once again Parthiv Patel & Ajinkya Rahane gave an excellent start but Rahane departed for 40 odd runs & Patel played his career best innings of 95. With the help of Patel's 95 & Raina's fireworks at the end. India reached the respectable score of 274 of 50 overs. England in reply started shattering after 6 overs they were 27/2 when rain saved them. In this way India was restricted from getting its 1st win.

2nd ODI:
This match was reduced to 23 overs due to rain. India was put to bat first by England. Rahane & Raina gained fighting total but Indian bowling fell apart once again in that match & we lost the match

3rd ODI:
In this match India didn't got off to a good start. India was going down at 58/5. Dhoni & Jadeja rose to the ocassion & gained respectable total of 234. It was the match in which Indian bowlers were enjoying bowling but here English batsmen got an edge over Indian bowlers & won the match.

4th ODI:
India got off to a good start then few wickets fell quickly. Raina & Dhoni showed their class & took India to winning total. England gave a hard fight when they were 270/8 in 48.5 overs. Once again rain came in to play & match was tied according to D/L method.

5th ODI:
In this game India crossed 300 mark for the first time in the tour. Dravid made his last appearance in the ODIs memorable with his 50. Kohli & Dhoni also played formidably well but Indian bowlers didn't had potential to stop England from winning.

According to me who really shined throught the rest of the tour were Rahane, Patel, Raina, Dhoni & Jadeja. Rahane made his debut count & played well in his debut series. Parthiv was like a new born child who has no fear in this series. Raina played to his potential in the limited overs which was lacking in him during test series. Dhoni was the only one who was with the team through out the tour. Jadeja without any match practice performed very well as allrounder.

Now let's come things happened off the field. Nasser Hussain called Indian fielders donkeys. If you look at his records under his captaincy England were beneath the earth. After Nasser's comment Micheal Vaughan tweeted I saw 4 donkeys on the field. Now his records were ok but then also he was forced to retire & when he announced his retirement he cried like a child during the same press conference.
The last one was Boycott ya the one who looks like a swine. He said in the pre match show that i have seen some dogs practicing while Indian team was practicing. I don't know much about him other than he looks like a swine.

This was a unforgettable tour for every Indian. Hopefully next time India will make the tour unforgettable for England.

The Unforgettable Tour

I am not talking about Amitabh bachchan's world tour i am talking about India's tour of England. Where world champions team fell apart against the over hyped team named england. Before India went on the tour, England was out of the world cup as they lost against the underdogs like bangladesh & Ireland. On the other hand Indians were hot favourites before the tour started & when the started rest is history.


Overhyped England whitewashed India 4-0 in the test series. Let's see what's happened in test series? Before 1st test started India was coming of a west Indian tour beating them 1-0 in the test series. India was looking good with the come back of their injured players gambhir & zaheer.

1st Test:
India won the toss & elected to field first as per conditions that was a good descision so it proved to be until zaheer was bowling he sent back both the openers very early & then there comes India's first setback Zaheer pulled hamstring & left the field from that moment Indian bowling fell apart except praveen kumar no one really contributed. Same was the case with the Indian batting they failed in reading the conditions. England were up 1-0.

2nd Test:
Records says India most of the times didn't start well in the test series on the foriegn land but comes back very strongly. On that note India was expected to come back very strongly. India did so on the 1st day as Indian bowlers wrapped english side under 250 but again Indian batting fell apart. Yuvraj & Dravid gave India some sort of lead but that wasn't enough. In 2nd Innings both Indian Bowling & batting wasn't good enough even to draw the match. Again England won the match & lead the series 2-0.

3rd Test:
In the 3rd test there was one good news & one bad news for India. Good news was Sehwag was making a come back in the side on the other hand Yuvraj was injured during the 2nd test left the squad.
Sehwag's come back was a dud as he got king pair in the match. He got out on the golden duck in both Innings & again England dominated the match & after loosing this test India lost their no 1 spot in the test rankings.

4th Test:
In the last test of the series RP Singh got the chance in place of injured PK he surprised all of us with his bowling in a negative way because he wasn't confident enough to ball & secondly he was bowling at the pace PK bowls.
England set the big total. For the first time in the series we touched the 300 mark & unfortunately it was the last time in that series & we again lost the match.


So in this way India lost the series & no 1 spot to England. Media says this is 'forgetable' tour for India but I think it is 'unforgettable' tour for most of the Indian players.


In this series only Rahul Dravid fought hard for India. He played so well as he showed the glimpse of his whole career in his last tour in England. For England who really dominated was Stuart Broad before this series he was strugling with his form but he came back very strongly as an all-rounder.


I still think England don't deserve to be no 1 test side because this the same side which lost to Ireland & Bangladesh in the world cup. I think in this series everything gone right for England & all went wrong for India that's why India lost no 1 test ranking.

Rise of Corruption & related problems

Corruption is like charity it begins at home. I recently heard that all started 50 to 60 years back in our country. U can say that it was born & brought up so well that today every minister of our country is corrupt.

Corruption has been raised to such an extent that if you have any kind of work associated with government offices like getting a license or passport etc. You have to be ready to pay some extra amount if you to want that the work should be done quick & fast otherwise it will take long time. It has been root cause to the many problems. Corruption increases the poverty & inflation. Due to inflation even prices of basic necessities are so high that poor people can't afford it & due to this suicides & crimes increases in our country. For instance this year we had a record production of food grains but it wasn't available at cheaper rates to the poor people, even though 65 million tonnes of food grains got wasted due to improper or lack of storage facility. Government has no answer for why wasn't food grains available at cheaper rates? it would have decreased food inflation.

Corruption gives birth to the black money. Big amount of black money of Indian people is deposited in the foreign banks. Its such a big amount that if it is brought back & invested for the development of country then every thing will be so cheaper that even the people below poverty line can afford the things, India will never have to take the loans from the foreign sources for the development of infrastructure.

Corruption is biggest barrier between India & its development. All i can say that the corruption has lived a long life in our country. Now we have to kill it & for that we have to fight with our own countrymen. We should do our bit for kicking out the corruption out of our country. By this I don't mean to say only support Anna Hazare but i would insist that we should pay fine as per the law instead of giving 20rs to the police man while we break the traffic rules & similar kinds of things.