The Wall Crumbles

This is perhaps the second biggest shock to indian cricket this yr aftr the gr8 WC debacle..Rahul Dravid has although nt officially step down as Indian captain but dats fr sure tht he is steeping down...His decision cums jus days b4 the mighty australians tour india fr a seven match one-day series and also the all impt series with Pakistan at home and biggest daddy of all , the test series and one-day series in Aus...the reason fr his resignation as told by him is tht he wanted to concentrate more on his game...but the biggest question tht cums in front of the gr8 BCCI is "who next?" ..
Given tht sachin n saurav r too old fr d job...and reinstating ganguly as d captain wudn`t b a wise decision for future indian cricket....that leaves wid only two options...Yuvraj and Dhoni....between the two Dhoni will b d obvious choice bcoz Yui has still nt cemented his aplce in the test side...but the question is tht will Dhoni b able to do it,,,well v hafta wait n see....

Is it the beginning of an end of an era...!!!!!!!

Is it the beginning of an end of an era.... The decision of the Big Three of Indian cricket — Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly — to opt out of September's Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa is a clear indication that the era of the 'Team of the 90s' is coming to an end.The trio of stalwarts, one the current Test and ODI captain and the other two his predecessors, have carried the burden of shoring up the Indian batting for several years and have had ups and down in their illustrious careers.It was former chairman of selectors, Raj Singh Dungarpur, who had famously coined the phrase 'Team of the 90s' when he unseated Krishnamachari Srikkanth at the end of the tour to Pakistan in 1989 and elevated Mohd Azharuddin to the throne.Azhar has not only led the famed trio but also Anil Kumble, the veteran leggie who's now playing only Tests, as well as another leading member of the batsmen's club - V. V. S. Laxman.And when India play the Twenty20 lung opener in Kingsmead Durban, on September 13, none of these five champion performers - with a combined experience of a staggering 534 Tests and 1359 ODIs - would not be part of an Indian team for the first time since Tendulkar's debut against Pakistan in 1989.In the aftermath of the World Cup debacle, Kumble retired from the one-day game while Tendulkar and Ganguly were 'rested' for the trip to Bangladesh for ODIs but were included in the Test squad before regaining their ODI spots.

The Great BCCI contract...!!!!!!!!!

The decision that might has raised eyebrows amog the cricket fraterniy, BCCI offered pace spearhead Zaheer Khan a Grade C contract even as the struggling Irfan Pathan was put in Grade B. Newly appointed ODI vice-captain M S Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh have been promoted from Grade B to Grade A—even though Yuvraj is yet to cement a Test spot and Dhoni hasn’t fared too well outside the sub-continent. But the biggest surprise was clearly the poor grade offered to Zaheer, who has bowled consistently well in the last few months.
Virender Sehwag, Pathan and Harbhajan Singh have been downgraded from Grade A to Grade B in the new player contracts list. In all, 17 players have been offered annual retainer contracts based on performance during the last season. These contracts, effective October 1, 2006, will run till September 30, 2007.
SWINGS OF FORTUNE
Grade A (Rs 50 lakh/yr plus match fee): Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh, M S Dhoni
Grade B (Rs 35 lakh/yr plus match fee): Laxman, Harbhajan, Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar
Grade C (Rs 20 lakh/yr plus match fee): Gambhir, Jaffer, Sreesanth, Zaheer, Suresh Raina, Munaf Patel All’s not lost for Dinesh Karthik
Perhaps the biggest blunder was dat wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik, who has not been offered a contract along with Ramesh Powar and Ishant Sharma among others, will not be left out entirely. Any player who plays a minimum of 5 Tests or 15 ODIs during a season automatically qualifies for Grade C contract.
Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh— all of whom do not find a place in the current team to tour Ireland, Scotland and England — will now be in Grade B, a demotion from last season’s. The trio finds a place in the list because they played a key role in India’s record streak in ODIs as well as the Test series win in West Indies in June 2006.
VVS Laxman too has been demoted to Grade B. Laxman is now considered only a Test specialist and no longer finds a place in the ODI squad.
The two players to miss out from last season’s contracts are Mohd Kaif and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik. While Kaif was in Grade B, Kartik was in Grade C. Kaif struggled for form and Kartik battled injury most of last season and have, therefore, been left out. The announcement of the new contracts has been delayed by nearly nine months as the Board and senior players had some differences.

It's not cricket: Club bans dhoti

India it appears still hasn’t grown out of its colonial hangover. Chennai's prestigious cricket club is in the middle of a controversy for disallowing a civil servant entry because he was clad in a veshti - the traditional Tamil attire.But the club maintains its only maintaining its time-honoured tradition by imposing the dress code.Could you imagine Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi in anything else but a dhoti. Well he might have to wear trousers if he's to enter the Tamil Nadu cricket association's club.Atleast that's what A Narayanan figured out. The Congressman and advisor to the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj was denied entry into the club for a lecture all because he came in Tamil Nadu's most traditional attire.Narayanan says, "It's an insult to an Indian traditional dress. They have not insulted Narayanan. They have insulted a representative of the union ministry."Furious with the club's decade's old tradition Narayanan's shot off a letter to the Chief Minister and is now launching a signature campaign against the TNCA club.Several other big clubs in the city too have strong rules on dress code and Narayana's out to fight for the dhoti to be part of that code."This clubs is located in the Chief Minister's constituency and it's sad that it can happen here in the Capital of Tamils, " Narayanan adds.While the TNCA club authorities did not comment on record they did admit that in the past even ministers have been asked to shed their dhoti and wear trousers before the entering the club.But Narayanan says the question now is whether a club's tradition can be more powerful than Tamil Nadu's tradition.

Wisden puts Raina in rare company

Suresh Raina may have lost his place in the Indian team due to indifferent form but he figures among the 10 players, who will "define" cricket in the next decade.
The latest issue of the Wisden Cricketer clubs Raina with Australians batsman Michael Clarke, paceman Shaun Tait, all-rounder Shane Watson, England batsman Kevin Pietersen, Pakistan's fast medium seamer Mohammad Asif, Sri Lanka's fast bowler Lasith Malinga, West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor and Bangladesh vice captain Mohammad Ashraful as the players who will define cricket's next decade.
some well-known British cricket writer stated in his article that Raina had the talent to be a left-handed Sachin Tendulkar with even more intuitive flair.

I think BCCI must bring mandatory retirement or else the oldies will hang around and will reduce the matchpractise of youngsters. BCCI must think of giving oldies pension as well..So it will bring little interest for them to retire early...Now Dravid i hope ur listening...!!!!!

India wins GRAMEEN PHONE series

Gautam Gambhir scored a fine century helping India 2 take an unbeatable lead in the Grameen Phone series against Bangladesh 2-0. This victory was very crucial as it was more of a "revenge series" for d indians of their WC debacle which left a billion hearts broken.
The left-handed opener’s second ODI ton helped the visiting side score 284-8 after electing to bat on a good batting pitch. Gambhir scored 101 off 113 balls with the help of 11 fours as India did one better in the second tie after winning the opening match of the series by five wickets on the same ground.Gambhir suffered a severe bout of cramps when on 87 but continued with Yuvraj Singh as runner before he played a tired shot off left-arm seamer Syed Rasel to find his stumps shattered.
For manager Shastri , his experienced hands hav proved his worth at coaching.