Off Stump

First up, a disclaimer. I don't dislike the IPL. I have not really become a fan but neither do I completely ignore it. In theory, the idea of a cricketing league similar in structure (and maybe one day in popularity) to football leagues the world over is great. As a passionate follower of the game, I would be delighted if that came to fruition in the future but again as a passionate follower of the game, I find the IPL lacking in something. Maybe its the fact that the format is too heavily loaded in favour of the batsmen. Or that there are too many games and it becomes impossible to distinguish one game from another (heaven knows how Americans follow the MLB with 162 games per team!!). Or (and I'm being snobbish here) the fact that Dwayne Smith plays ahead of Ricky Ponting because he is a better slogger. But mostly I think its the fact that the quality is not consistently good enough. It would be simplistic I think to attribute that to the format alone. Yes, T20 games can be s

By most measures, cricket is an old fashioned sport. The premium form of the sport consists of contests that last five days and even the shortest format lasts longer than most full matches in other major team sports. The club/franchise culture is just about starting to catch on, especially when compared to the likes of football. Its also one of the few outdoor sports that is affected by (and leaves itself open to be affected by) the elements. So as Dave Hawksworth points out in this blog post , its not a real surprise that its been slow to embrace the internet. As I see it, there's two barriers or problems that have prevented this. First, most forward thinking organisations these days have a dedicated team that focuses on digital and new media, whether it be getting content online, creating a social media presence or marketing themselves. Most cricket boards across the world and the ICC don't really have such dedicated teams or if they do (like the ECB) they don't do a go

So India's Champions Trophy squad has been announced and 13 of  my picks  were accurate. Its heartening to see Patil and the other selectors put their faith in a young squad and lets hope they can stick with it even if things go pear shaped initially. In terms of the squad itself, I wasn't too surprised by one of the ones I got wrong (Vinay Kumar over Shami Ahmed) and quite surprised by the other (Mishra over Rahane). Three spinners in June feels like a luxury especially given Dhoni's faith in and familiarity with Ashwin and Jadeja. Its also harsh on Rahane who was one of the few players (Praveen Kumar being the other) to emerge with any sort of credit from India's last trip to England. It will be interesting to see whether Mishra gets a game at all. On balance though, this is the best India have got at the moment and whether that's good enough to get into the last four of the short, sharp, almost sudden death tournament that the Champions Trophy is remains to be

I have always liked the word southpaw. You know how there are some words that one takes an affinity to for inexplicable reasons? Southpaw is one of those for me. In a cricketing context I always found it ironic that the term was used much more for left-handed batsmen than left arm bowlers, especially given the origin of the word . Left arm pace bowlers are a breed I've always loved watching primarily because Wasim Akram was one of my favourite cricketers in my early days of following the game. There was something completely magical and joyful in the way he bowled and I can still recall some of his incredible spells from the early '90s. The memorable '92 WC final of course with those two magic balls, but even more so the first morning of the Oval Test in 1992 a few months later and the sensational spells he and Waqar Younis conjured up to blow away the Kiwis early the next year. Other left arm quicks since haven't quite matched up, but nevertheless Bruce Reid, Cham

My appetite for ODI cricket has gone down in recent times and (as I wrote here ), now that a certain little man won't be opening the innings in his #99 jersey I'll find it harder to tune in. Nevertheless, the upcoming Champions Trophy is going to be an interesting one because its so open. With Australia, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan (who between them have contested all the 50 over World Cup finals since 1996) all in transitional periods, South Africa and England will probably be marginal favourites. And if that in itself is unusual for a limited overs tournament, the fact that the Kiwis are always competitive and the West Indies are the current world T20 champions means that the ICC couldn't have hoped for a better run-up to the next World Cup. As the squads start to be announced, I'm going to indulge in a bit of playing selector and picking what I think the Indian squad should be. The fact that Sehwag, Harbhajan, and Zaheer didn't make it to the 30 probables