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India just short balled out of the ICC T-20 Cricket World Cup

India and Dhoni just lost it ! Expect a Swift and Strong Media and Public Backlash in India 

I penned this blog title before the last ball was bowled!

We lost to England in a crunch Super 8 game by just 3 runs!… We needed 154 to win and 19 of the last over… We got just 15 !..4th ball was hit for a six by Pathan… fifth ball he hit to Long On and just a single was taken ! when Going  for Two would have put some pressure on the fielder ! and given strike back to Pathan… who knows ! he could have hit the last ball for a Six and tied the game !… what actually happened was that we needed an impossible 8 to win of the last ball and Dhoni managed a Four.We ended at 150/5 chasing England’s 153/7.

Dhoni needs to shoulder full responsibility as a ‘completely out of clue’ captain ! Get Anil Kumble back ! he commented on this lack of Intent in going for Two runs on the penultimate ball 

Dhoni, himself seems to have lost the art of hitting sixes on call or frequently !…. so vital to facilitate a win in the T-20 Format….. there was no real killer instinct to win !… they were playing matter of fact… no sense of intensity or even enjoyment…something is amiss in this Indian Team ! It seems divided !… Dhoni, you paraded your team last week to show unity and dispel Indian Fears of a split in the Team….This spirit was not evident on the field !

Dhoni needs to answer himself first before he answers the nation

He boasts in the Aircell ads how while playing Cricket he connects on Facebook through his Mobile to connect with Friends and have fun….. I wish he had connected with me on Facebook… I could have conveyed to him to bring Yuvraj in early to Bat… we would have won the Game.  

He held back the in form Yuvraj Singh till late… Jadeja scored 20 + but took over 30  balls to do it !Rohit Sharma and Raina failed in two consecutive games. Yuvraj came in at 4 down after 10 overs and hit the first ball he faced for a Six! he scored a quickfire 17 in Nine Balls before a brilliant Foster stumping of Swann got him.

And if you see the margin of just 3 runs that seperated us,I must comment harshly on Harbhajan Singh needlessly gifting away 10 runs by bowling two unnecessary wides that went on to cross the fence with Yuvraj misfielding one of these.

And Ishant continued to bowl short… and surprisingly Zaheer gifted easy boundaries continuing to bowl a wrong legside line  read more

I C C ..International Cricket Council….or International Cricket Cowards !?…Popularising or Polarising Cricket ?

Chris Broad,the Match Referee in the ongoing third cricket test match between India and Australia at New Delhi,has just announced a one test match Ban for Gautam Gambhir for his elbowing Shane Watson on being provoked by the latter

‘Gambhir’ in Hindi  means ‘Serious’ and such physical aggression is certainly not cricket ! It’s a serious matter….Gambhir has been earlier penalised for his Spat with Pakistan’s Afridi in an ODI…Chris Broad says he could have given a two match ban but the Umpires said that he was provoked by Watson

This Means that the back to back Centurion and Double Centurion,Gambhir will miss the Final Test Match in Nagpur…was this the gameplan by the Aussies ?

My simple observation is this…While Gambhir clearly deserves this Ban for repeated offence and that too a physical one,the provoker,Shane Watson should not have got away with a mock fine of just 10% of his Match fees

Watson should have been fined his Full Match fees ! What Say, Watson ? To steal a line from Sherlock Holmes,”It’s elementary,Watson !”…You were provoking him from the first over itself…Your reaction to Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan belting you in Bangalore included some choice expletives…you got away then.

This continuing double standards by ICC makes you suspect that something is amiss in the World of Cricket…on one hand you want to popularise the Game and on the other you are polarising it !

ICC and it’s Match Referees, like Chris Broad, are clearly discriminating between players from Australia,England,New Zealand and South Africa on one hand and the players from India,Pakistan,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on the Other when it comes to applying the ICC Code of Conduct

It’s Australia who is not playing Cricket in the spirit of the Game…even their Prime Minister had to warn their Captain,Pointing, to play the Game in the spirit of it during the acrimonius India -Australia Series in Australia,where the West Indian Umpire,Steve Bucknor repeatedly and deliberately gave blatantly wrong umpiring decisions in favour of the Australians to enable them to win the Sydney Test…a test that they were on course to otherwise end up losing

The Australians just can’t win on the field and beat the opposing team in a fair and square manner…they need to resort to hardcore sledging and provocation and psychologocal warfare…the problem is that they cannot take any ! read more

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