New rules for Indian Cricket team by ICC for 2011 WC

ICC mulling over the possibility of allowing 13 players to play for India as lot of adv revenue is at stake in case India is eliminated before SF.

Other possibilities (at this time rumor) is that

- If a opposition bowler takes 2 wickets, he would be asked to change his bowling arm

- If a batsman scores 30, he would be asked to retire and come back again after 2 dismissals, if there are less than 2 dismissals after he retires, then he looses his chance to bat again
- If an India bowler is bowling well, he can bowl extra 4 overs to compensate for lack in bowling department.

ICC is in talk with all the other teams to take it further...
Speculation is that BCCI has a major hand in twisting ICC to take this further.. BCCI nor ICC spokesperson declined to comment.

After I posted this on my FB profile, below are the comments I received...

"Dhoni already told.. they don't want all these favor from BCCI.. they are going to give their 120 % effort... extra 20% as VAT :P"

"Couple of more rules that i could think of

1. Fielding power play: A ball hit in these overs cannot exceed speed of 50kmph so that our fielders can do a heroic chase and save.
2. Switch substitution: Teams could substitute max of 5 players during a single match

3. Live auctions: Working together with ministry of external affairs, any team could buy any player on auction with immediate nationality."

"I think the rule should be: no Indian batsman can be declared out until he agrees to go and an opposition batsman should have to go if an Indian bowler feels so. An umpire should be fined his match fee and his assets frozen if he ruled an Indian out. Also, replays should be banned for the public. Only Indian players should watch it, and for their entertainment only!"

IPL Saga continues

As IPL reaches its fag end of its season 2, more than the cricket it is the other things that have taken the centre stage, first and foremost whether one agrees or not, defnitely it is this blog - http://fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com/, which has made all the noise that is required for the marketing, there are many people who are watching just to see what the fakeplayer is mentioning in the blog, well to me it has certainly been a very entertaining affair.

I sincerely feel even now that the IPL could have been held in India by working out with the goverment, IPL boss thinks he and IPL and bigger and better than India and its democracy, well he is wrong and it would be proven. To ensure that spectators are present in the stadium there are so many stupid things IPL is doing, like choosing bollywood queen, sms game to predict the score in the over, giving money to schools (well I have nothing against it, my only grudge is what was done to schools here during last year season, nothing!!!!, this is purely a master marketing stroke by IPL to have more SA people come to ground for emotional reason)

I had written an year back during the last year about how IPL will change cricket and I see it happening, other thing that has struck me is the sheer lack of control on IPL by ICC, IPL is governed by its own law and whatever they may argue I believe that this is nothing but minting money and not cricket talent development. The owners have the right over the team, they can force anyone to play or drop and thus shackling a upcoming players confidence and BCCI cannot do anything, with less than 2 months for the t20 world cup, there is no effort done to keep our prime players fresh and they would be worn out (take Ishant Sharma for ex, he is playing for a lost cause, BCCI could do itself good to ensure that he gets the right break). 

I wish ICC has more control on IPL and rather leave it to just BCCI, else cricket wont be cricket.

IPL - Cricket, Money, Fame, Name and the Game and Localization

Cricket has been the mantra this year and last for most of the sports lovers in India, what with ICL - Zee's cricket venture headed by Legendary Kapil Dev completing its first tournament with a moderate success and thereby shackling the foundation of BCCI to sit up and take a note of the rebels (ICL is called though).
Cricket has money, it has fame, one can make a name if they are success in this game, but was BCCI willing to share the booty, yes to an extent but not that much what ICL was offering, but then hats off to Lalit Modi who is the brainchild behing IPL and the way it has been marketed.
It was good to see players being auctioned, big names investing in the local cricket teams and hence proving there is no dearth of money for talent and also thereby allowing other sport bodies in the country to learn how to market themselves.
I see IPL heading the same way as how the Football league is played in the west, moving ahead I see players performing more dedicated to the league than thier country (I am not jumping the gun, but how many times has Ronaldo/Ronaldinho/other top players turned out for thier own country when they have a league game), the reason is obvious, your talent is paid more in the league than turing out for ones country (I maybe be proved wrong, but only by an handful of players), even if the top players turned out, it would be interesting to see if the public would watch them with the same vigour as it is now, because what IPL has done is that it has localized the cricket and now fans would cheer for thier local club which would include players from across the globe and hence taking away the charm when two nations meet to fight out, but I firmly believe that during the world cup the passion would rise again as the stake is more.
The onus is on ICC to ensure that they still are commanding force and dont budge to this money game and make sure that players do turn up (I mean top players) for thier respective countries with the same passion it was before the birth of IPL.

Welcome to the world of localization :)

SHAME SHAME PUPPY SHAME ALL THE MONKEYS KNOW YOUR NAME

Somehow I haven't been able to hold myself back in saying this - ' Shame shame puppy shame, all the monkeys know your name' :)
What a weekend it has been, for once Indian cricket's stand has been vindicated and yes it feels ecstatic that 'Yes' people do listen to us.

If Symonds has complained against Harbhajan, its not the first time, why shouldn't ICC have a test done against Symonds to check if he suffers from inferiority complex, because he is only one who seems to have a problem, he likes to say things and when he gets it back he cannot digest it...... clearly a case for a psychiatrist.

Kudos to BCCI for standing up for the team and acting in the right manner and pulling the right chords for the first time.

ICC by agreeing to almost all the issues raised by BCCI has accepted that there has been mistakes done and mostly against India at Sydney, whether people call it BCCI's money clout that has made this possible, for me its a win for the right cause and from now on this would ensure that the game would be played in a fair manner.

A special thanks to the media which ensured that this sydney fiasco remained their respective top stories and thus putting pressure on ICC.

'INDIA cannot be ignored, if they do, then ultimately cricket would be'