Mark Boucher Judgement Day

Boucher Then:

Boucher Now:

Controversially Yours

I completed reading this book this morning. I wanted to know what this man called the 'Rawalpindi Express' wants to say in spite of many openly telling that he has used cheap tricks to market this book.

He might have clocked the fastest recorded ball ever (161.3 kmph) in the history of the game till date but he is very arrogant calling himself as 'The match winner' several times in the book.

He deserves respect of the cricketing world for his pace bowling and also equally deserves flak for all his controversies which he himself admit, which include
-Partying lot during match tours
-Ball tampering
-Hitting Mohamed Asif, his colleague with cricket bat in the dressing room
-Playing pranks with his team members
and many more.

For me as a follower of cricket, I loved him bowl during early part of his career especially in Sharjah. I remember him bowling awesomely well in a series which had India, England and Pakistan and then in a series involving India, South Africa and Pakistan. He was fast and aggressive back then. Once Ganguly got a earful from him for stopping him from bowling a ball after he started his run up which is nearly a kilometer away from the crease. Most batsmen struggled against his pace back then. Not sure if speed guns where used back then.

His career had a sad end with all his controversies and bans.

Through out the book he blames his coaches, captains, board and many more. Who knows, the real problem could be Shoaib himself.

Favorite Tag Stripped

I watched the cricket world cup 1996 with much excitement back in my 7th Standard. The game has changed a lot in the last 15 years. Power-play broken into 3, Free Hits and UDRS (Umpire Decision Referral System) introduced. Sri Lanka has become a cricketing power house while West Indies lost their bully stature.

Even the world out of cricket has changed a lot. Not to mention that American President is a Black and the best Rapper of the year is a White :)

Amidst all these changes a single man remains as he was, Sachin. A player who was bowling at him in 96, is umpiring (Dharmasena), players who played along with him in 96 and made debut after 96 have already retired and are doing commentary (Sidhu, Ganguly .. ) and refereeing (Srinath, Mahanama). Few others (Andy Flower, Kristen, Donald..) have taken coaching roles. But Sachin is still chasing the cup that counts.

Back during 96, the entire Indian batting was dependent on this man. I remember every innings of his in the 96 world cup when I followed the tournament ball by ball. Sachin was at his peak form back then. He has grown from strength to strength from there. I have to admit that Sachin is the greatest Indian batsman I have ever watched in my lifetime.

But I am doubtful that he might have to end his career without a world cup to his credit.

He has quality batsmen like Shewag, Yuraj, Raina and Kohli batting alongside him now unlike the 96 team where he was anchoring the entire batting line up. But the biggerst concern of team India is its bowling. They still don't have a quality bowler. Zaheer and Harbajan bring good deliveries many times but not all times.

The world cup so far has been tournament of dead rubbers. The actual tournament starts only now from the quarter finals. The favorites tag for being host already been stripped for its poor bowling show in the tournament so far.

I feel India does not deserve to win this world cup even though I want it to win.

Success 800 Times

Matches : 133

Balls: 44039

Wickets: 800

Had I written this blog anytime before 22-Jul-2010, my data would have been obsolete as Murali's numbers were increasing exponentially every now and then.

On 22 Jul, 2010, this veteran of Sri Lanakan Cricket was battling hard to break the last partnership of India between Pragyan Ojha and Ishant Sharma. The partnership which lasted more than 15 overs was the 800th victim for our 'Master Of Off Spin' 'Muttiah Muralitharan'.

Before this match at Galle, The veteran had announced that this would be his last test match of his career needing 8 wickets to reach the historic number 800. If this is not confidence then I don't know what it is.

He could have ended his career wicket less on that test. Who knows!

But that would not be the fitting end to the magnificent story of Murali who fought many controversies and bans due to his unorthodox bowling action. He established the ball which turns the wrong way 'Doosra', even though the credit of inventing it should go to Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq.

He hit the bull's eye achieving the magical number. When 799 was achieved and when the last wicket was showing resistance to Murali, the Lankan captain cut Murali's spell and went in for Herath and Malinga. Many of us thought Murali would end like Sir Bradman's unrounded figures (batting average: 99.9). But Murali's dexterous wrist finally overcame the last hurdle with much effort after he was brought again into action.

If this single wicket caused his much sweat, what would have the other 799 caused him?

He was immediately congratulated by a another spin master in Twitter.

"Congrats to Murali on his 800th wicket and a wonderful career !!! Well done buddy awesome.."

The master is none other than the second highest wicket taker, 'Master Of Leg Spin' 'Shane Warne'.

Matches : 145

Balls: 40705

Wickets: 708

The veteran who rediscovered the ebbing art of leg spin. He might have played more matches than Murali but has bowled lesser deliveries compared to him. Thanks to strong pace bowling which the Aussies had. Amidst the strong pace bowlers lived this deadly weapon.

Being a leg spinner myself, I have admired Shane more than many. I learnt my leg spin when Shane Warne demonstrated how to bowl in TV long ago. My grip has changed in years since my Cricket coach in School 'Mr. Charles' wanted me use the orthodox grip for the act.

Vicious Spin with guile to deceive batsmen are the prowling deliveries of these masters of spin. The Sri Lankan and Aussie board have done the right thing by calling the Test Tournaments between them as 'Warne-Muralitharan Trophy'

Here is my favorite delivery from Murali and Warne.

Murali:

Warne:

Tweeting To Controversy

I am the President and Managing Director of Modi Enterprises and the Executive Director of Godfrey Phillips India.

I was the chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League until yesterday.

I am the visionary behind the IPL. I was inspired by ICL rather.

I was responsible for sealing the fate of ICL (Indian Cricket League).

I was arrested on charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill in 1985.

I was indicted on second-degree kidnapping three months later.

I am responsible for making the franchises pay millions to players when they could have bought them for few lakhs.

I was responsible for moving the Indian Premier League to South Africa when general elections were around in India.

I tweeted the ownership details of the new Kochi Franchise which I was advised not to.

I was solely responsible for making Shashi Tharoor step down from his ministerial post thereby.

I put the IPL body under Income Tax's radar thereby.

My Tweeter account got hacked immediately after I got into controversy.

My account became active the next day after Media questioned my silence in Tweeter.

I was suspended from the chairman post of IPL by BCCI last night.

I am Lalit Modi and I am not a terrorist.

References:

Wiki, Tweeter

All of us need to wait just few more days to see how this story is going to end.

Lalit Mode on Tweeter (18 Apr 2010):

We have figured out who the hacker is. Its a person from singapore. Faisal did a remarkable job of identifying the hacker. We are on it.

Shashi Tharoor on Twitter (23rd Apr 10):

Looking forward to thorough inquiry into the IPL. If my resignation leads to real reform, it will be worthwhile. Our cricket shld be clean.

Lalit Modi on Twitter(24 Apr 10):

Wait for the ipl to finish - I will reveal the men who have tried to bring disrepute to the game and how we stopped them from doing it.