The "silly points"

A blog by ©hinaman

They prove over and over their disrespect for human rights or
for employment laws in different nations.

Now they are acting as schoolground bullies,
simply disgraceful.

BCCI bars its players from counties with ICL staff
Source: Cricinfo staff | July 17, 2008

The BCCI has cranked up the pressure on English counties that have employed players linked with the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL) by “advising” its own players to not sign up with such teams.

Niranjan Shah, BCCI secretary, told Cricinfo that its contracted players - including VVS Laxman, Piyush Chawla and Ajit Agarkar - who have signed or are in the process of signing with English counties this season are being “advised” to pull out if the county has ICL players on its rolls.

“We don’t want our players in teams that have other players playing in unauthorised tournaments,” Shah said.

Shah, however, clarified that “non-ICL” players from these county teams will be allowed to take part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) - Hampshire’s Dimitri Mascarenhas had played for Rajasthan Royals in the tournament’s first season. The decision does, though, put into doubt the participation of Indian players in the English Premier League, which was unveiled on Wednesday and will start in 2010.

LINK: to full article

It should work both ways,
if BCCI does not allow their contracted players to play for Counties with ICL players,
then they should not sign non-ICL player from those counties to play in the IPL.

This is hypocrisy at its ugliest.

As an Indian, I hang my head in shame.

Come on cricketers, from wherever you maybe from,
show some solidarity and boycott the IPL, this monster needs to be taught a lesson.

Sphere: Related Content

TOP OF PAGE

A request from ©hinaman

I found this on my comment box from jRod

Please sign the Save our Bill Lawry petition to keep the Corporate vultures from ending the career of our favourite excitable one.
Think of the children.

So reading between his lines, I realised,
since retiring Bill Lawry has been commentating on Channel 9.
That is when he not arguing, although in good humour,
with former English captain Tony Greig.

It seems Lawry and Greig have reached the final round of musical chairs -
it is but the one chair now between the two of them.

My Aussie blogging friends do not wish to lose Bill Lawry.
So they have launched a Save Our Bill e-petition.

Here is their plaintive cry for justice.

Save Our Bill Lawry email campaign

Spun by Jrod at about 20:04 Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Dearest friend,

A grave injustice is about to unfold.
Are you willing to put a stop to it?

Strangled whispers out of Bendigo St in Richmond say that either Bill Lawry or Tony Greig is to be dropped from the channel 9 commentary team. Now unless you were born slow, got hit on the head at a young age, or hate life, you will agree that it must be Tony Greig.

Tony Greig is, has and always will be a terrible commentator. He gets names wrong, he miss reads the game, he barracks all the time, and he talks hours and hours of dribble. Outside of Sri Lankan administracrats I couldn’t think of anyone who would like him.

Bill is a god.
If someone is boring, Bill will out them.
If something is exciting, Bill will orgasm over it.
He is passionate and one of the best cricket commentators ever.
Mark Nicholas told his commentators of the 2020 world cup to channel Bill.

Has anyone ever wanted to replicate Tony Grieg?
Greig had to stop his pitch reports from just before the game, because his microphone was clearly hearing the chants of Greig is a wanker from the stands. And he actually phones in his podcasts, poor form.

I do not disagree that Bill has slipped a little over the last few years, but even if he gets to 10% capacity, he will never be as bad as Tony Greig.

Sign up friend.
He is not a Victorian icon.
He is not an Australian icon.
He is a cricketing icon.

If we get 1000 responses I will send this to Channel 9.
Click here, http://www.petitiononline.com/SOBill/petition.html, and
Save Our Bill.

They are 981 short of their target at the last count,
so if you are reading this, please sign this petition for our friends.
It does not hurt or bite, I swear. I have signed it, and am still alive to write this.

The last time (er the only time)
I saw Bill Lawry was way back in 1969 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata -
I had to stand on the seat to see above the heads of the spectators.
I remember they had us 0/2 - before I could rub the sleep off my eyes
although I confess I quite liked the roundshape of the 0 on the scoreboard.
And they beat us by 10 wickets - I have been hooked on test cricket since.

But that does not stop me to lend support, so please,
do it for our friends
do it for justice.
And for Bill Lawry.

When he is not campaigning for Bill Lawry,
jrod can be found at cricketwithballs.com; saving the world, one cricket blog at a time.

TOP OF PAGE

A blog by ©hinaman

So, the ‘icon’ has decided to take a rest.

Selectors rest Dhoni for Sri Lanka Test series

Mumbai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni has opted out of the Idea Cup three-Test series in Sri Lanka. Speculation had been rife that India’s one-day and T20 captain was considering skipping the Test series part of the tour of Sri Lanka.

In three-and-a-half years, Dhoni has played 29 Tests, 115 ODIs, 10 Twenty20 Internationals and the DLF-IPL T20 for Chennai Super Kings.

“He wanted a break and the BCCI acceded to his request,” said Ratnakar Shetty, Chief Administrative Officer, BCCI. Dhoni had formally made a request to the BCCI officials here on Monday evening. He is reported to have conveyed his decision to Dilip Vengsarkar, Chairman of the national selection committee.

Were his motives honorable? The cricketing jury is still out.
Is he genuinely fatigued?
Is he showing ‘maturity’ by preventing a burnout?

Or is he cleverly avoiding cricket that brings him the least return.
So that he returns fresh to play when he likes:
in a role he likes,
and for the amount of money he likes.
As the ODI and T20I captain or
… to earn by the IPL millions.

Burnout?

No.
True burnout has at its core a sense of disillusionment in the task.
It is certainly not an identity at crisis either,
or the job becoming meaningless.
Lets face it, he was the captain iconic of the losing finalists at the ipl-dorado,
raking in a staggering $1.5 million.

Fatigue?

No.
No more than many others.
It is reported in 3.5 years he has played: 29 tests | 115 ODIs | 10 T20I
- and of course the 16 IPL matches.

On an arithmetical annual average that is: 8 test | 33 ODIs | 3 T20Is
A 76 working day year. A massive workload. Not.

But equate this to his earnings:
Set aside the earning through endorsements which flows irrespective
and prize money that is perfomance related, his fixed earnings last year were:
$150,000 (roughly) for a year; as a Grade A BCCI contracted player he earns Rs 60 lakhs.
$1,500,000 for just six weeks work as an Icon in IPL.

He “wanted a break” -
BCCI rewarded him with one, he will be chomping at the bits for the next IPL series.

What would happen if every high earning player,
every icon,
starts to demand rest from Tests matches to be able to play IPLs and similar T20s?
Is that the sounds of hammer hitting the Test-cricket’s coffin nails, I hear?

TOP OF PAGE

A topsy-turvy world for Miss Field:

I had this idea to write a post about how England, upon having reached an impressive score, would launch their strategy, trialled in a previous match, of tripping batsmen over and running them out.
This tactic would see them win for sure.

And Vaughan would be responsible, so we wouldn’t have to endure Paul Collingwood sooking it up at a press conference (”Mummy!”).

However it would seem that contrary to, well, my belief, they might just have the skill to bowl Graeme and his boys out. Upon reflection of this last sentence, I think it’s all a bit generous, especially my use of the word ’skill’, which is often bandied around.

Let’s be honest; South Africa are just useless.

Somewhere along the wall the wheels fell off, rolled into a pool of ethanol and caught fire. The consequences were not only disastrous for Ian Bell, who was standing nearby at the time, but also for Graeme Smith who needs to bloody retrieve and repair them.

But watching this match has been like opening a brand new bag of previously unknown cricket emotions.

The joy of watching South Africa humiliate themselves.
The horror of watching England doing well.
The surprise that England aren’t playing as defensively as usual.
The amusement in seeing Ian Bell dismissed on 199.

The hope that England are being lured by flukes into a false sense of security, as opposed to actually, er, bothering. Further to this, the wonder of whether they’re serious about winning for once or would take the light without hesitation as usual.

It’s a world gone topsy-turvy.

Miss-Field’s own website: Miss-Field’s Cricket Blog

TOP OF PAGE