THE UNADDRESSED ISSUE: CONGRESS’S PLENARY MEET

The Indian National Congress Party recently organized its 83rd Plenary Meet to mark the 125th its anniversary. As a responsible political party of India, it came with a lot of paraphernalia which would help it contain corruption at all levels. The well compiled 5 point agenda was a good one. It talked about probity on the part of ministers, careful exercise of discretionary powers, protection to whistle blowers, competitive system for exploiting natural resources and fast-tracking corruption cases against public servants, including politicians.

The BJP was quick to bemoan the absence of JPC probe in the list but fell flat on supporting the cause of curbing discretionary power of CMs and ministers, even when the lack of same was haunting BJP’s Government in Karnataka. Apart from this, one more issue required some attention in the agenda, and that is No Self Contradiction or having a clear policy in other words.

The Jaganmohan Reddy’s Odarpu Yatra post the untimely death of his father and Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister, YS Rajshekhara Reddy to meet the family of the people who committed suicides in the wake of this unfortunate incident was seen by Congress as a threat to the stability of the its Government in Andhra Pradesh. The Party took it this as his move to gain Chief Minister’s Portfolio and thus asked him to stop it and condemned it severely. Now, I am not aware about Jagan’s motives and Congress’s plan. But when Congress can create a congenial atmosphere for Rahul Gandhi’s uprise which finally culminates on his becoming the Prime Minister of India subjected to the UPA’s getting of the popular mandate in next elections, then why stop Jagan from claiming his father’s legacy.

I am nowhere supporting that Jagan should be put at the helm of affairs of Andhra Pradesh but then atleast Congress doesnt has a right to oppose this because this will be in contravention to its own stance. The shrewdness involved in appointing the the appropriate candidate for these constitutional post is already pestered and should not be burdened with the dynastic politics. Let us hope that this issue is also adressed somewhere down the line and the the rhetorical 5 point agenda changes into transpires into concrete action.

QUICK CT NEWS.......

Hi friends! If you were not able to view the match yesterday due to heavy office work or other important things, do not worry as we have got a solution to end your anxiety. A quick review of the previous matches in the form of QUICK CT NEWS has been initiated by the cricketalltime.blogspot.com for all our busy members and fans.

- The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is hoping that the encounter between India and Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy would help improve ties between both the countries.

- Sehwag and Gambhir fitness saga continues.

- India defeated by New Zealnd in the warm up match.

- West Indies defeated by Sri Lanka in the warm up match.

Sri Lanka defeats South Africa

- Sri Lanka defeated South Africa in the first encounter of the CT by D/L method. The match was charatcerized by thrilling performances of Dilshan (106) and Jayawardne (77). With this defeat of S.A., INDIA REGAINED NO.1 SPOT which had been earlier enjoyed by India for a 24 hour duration.

NEW AVATAR OF IPL 3

Every passing edition of the Indian Premier League has rung changes to the delight of spectators and the owners alike.

1. NO ICON PLAYERS: Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians), Virender Sehwag (Delhi Daredevils), Sourav Ganguly (Knight Riders) and Rahul Dravid (RoyalChallengers) will lose their icon status Can they be traded now? Not this season, since all of them hold three-year contracts. From the next season, i.e. for IPL IV, they will be up for trading. Will they continue to be paid 15% extra? Not exactly. The onus of whether they should be given 15% more than the highest paid player in the team is entirely on the franchise.

2. NEW VENUES: Ahmedabad, Dharamshala, Nagpur and Visakhapatnam will be the new additions in the IPL calendar.Which teams will play there? Rajasthan Royals will play at Ahmedabad, Kings XI Punjab at Dharamshala, Mumbai Indians at Nagpur and Deccan Chargers at Visakhapatnam. How many matches will the new venues get to host? A minimum of two games. Again if the franchises want more they can schedule more matches.

3. MORE STRATEGY BREAKS: Unlike in the last season where there were two strategy breaks per match now there will be four such breaks. What will be the duration of these breaks? There will be two breaks of 2 ½ minutes per innings. In all, there will be four such breaks per match.Who will call for the breaks? The bowling captain has the option of calling for the first break anytime between the 6th & 10th over while the batting captain or the batsmen at the crease can claim the second break anytime between the 11th & 15th over. How is it different from last season? These breaks will consume 10 minutes per match, which is five minutes lesser than last season

4. MORE MATCHES: The total number of matches will now be 60, one more than last season? Why the increase? It is to accommodate the third place play-off. It will be played after the two semifinals.

5. MORE DOMESTIC PLAYERS: With the Indian Cricket League players being granted amnesty by BCCI, all those cricketers who had crossed over, get a chance to return to the fold. But their participation will be subject to certain BCCI guidelines, which will be finalized in soon. How much will they get? A minimum of Rs 8 lakh and a maximum of Rs 20 lakh per season have been fixed as their wages. Players with international experience to be auctioned.

6. NOC RULES CHANGED: Every foreign player will now have to get a No Objection Certificate from his board to play every season. What was the earlier rule? The NOC was applicable for only those players who had retired. They had to obtain it to play else they had to wait for two years to be eligible to play.

MURALI'S FAREWELL SOON

Sri Lankan offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan has said he will retire from Test cricket next year. Murali, who is the highest wicket-taker in Tests with 770 wickets in 127 Tests, announced that the two-Test home series against West Indies in November 2010 would be his last.
Speaking at the end of the first ODI against Pakistan, in which he won the Man-of-the-Match award, the 37-year-old Murali said he would focus on playing one-day cricket until the 2011 World Cup, to be held in the subcontinent, and would thereafter stick to Twenty20 cricket.

DHONI, GAUTI AND BHAJJI NOMINATED BY ICC

Dubai: Indian cricketers finally seem to be reaping fruits of their hard work over the past 12 months, which, in turn, translated into some fantastic results for Team India. Though there have been many catalysts to India’s stupendous recent performances, none has been more significant than captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.And deservedly, Dhoni, along with his team mates Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh, has been nominated for the prestigious ICC Cricketer of the Year award.
The above mentioned trio, along with the evergreen VVS Laxman, also features amongst those, nominated for ICC Test Player of the Year award.
Not surprisingly, Dhoni has been nominated for ICC ODI Player of the Year award as well. He gets company from dashing duo Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag in this segment. In the 2008-09 season, Dhoni led India to Test victories over Australia (home), England (home) and New Zealand (away), besides registering bilateral ODI series triumphs over Sri Lanka twice (both away), England (home), New Zealand (away) and recently West Indies (away).During the 9 Tests he played in this period, Dhoni contributed 918 runs to the Indian cause at an average of 54.40, while the in 15 ODIs (excluding the West Indies series) he played, his 592 runs came at an astonishing average of 65.77! His most potent weapon during his conquests, especially the Tests, was Gautam Gambhir.The Delhi southpaw, currently ranked second in the ICC Test rankings, amassed a whopping 2612 runs from just 8 Tests last season at a ‘Bradmanisque’ average of 84.60, striking as many as 5 hundreds.His one-day form was more mortal but staggering nonetheless. He scored 606 runs at an average of around 45 from the 15 one-dayers he played, scoring a solitary 100. Following Anil Kumble’s retirement, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was faced with the mountainous task of stepping into the former’s shoes. And, as statistics reveal, Harbhajan has lived up to the challenge quite efficiently. With 39 wickets from 8 Test matches, at an average of 27.05, Harbhajan has played a perfect foil to team India’s pace attack. Most noticeable aspect of Harbhajan though has been the rapid strides he has taken to improve his batting prowess. He has scored 3 crucial half-centuries and averages a healthy 32 in the 2008-09 season. He added 12 wickets to his kitty from the 10 ODIs he played last season.Laxman, whose contributions to Indian cricket have been restricted just to Tests lately, scored 1531 runs from 9 Tests, at an average of 61.75. His 2 centuries include a double hundred against his bunnies- The Australians.Yuvraj undoubtedly has been India’s most powerful performer in the shorter versions of the game, setting victories for India single-handedly.In the 15 one-dayers he played, he scored 643 runs at an average of 59.08 and a mind-boggling strike-rate of 110. He also scored 3 centuries. During the same period, Sehwag played 14 one-dayers, butchering 782 runs at a strike-rate of 127! He averaged 60, scoring 2 centuries.Courtesy these efforts, India have moved up the second rank in ODIs and the third rank in Tests. Dhoni has already been the ODI Player of the Year in 2008 besides being named in the ODI Team of the Year.Zaheer Khan was nominated for Twenty20 Performer of the Year award while Amit Mishra will be vying for the honour in the Emerging Player of the year category as Indians led the overall nominations for the award.Mithali Raj and Priyanka Roy were nominated for the Women`s Cricketer of the year award.The ICC Awards nominations were announced by dashing Indian opener Virender Sehwag and former captain Ravi Shastri in the presence of International Cricket Council Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat. The awards will be presented on October 1 in Johannesburg, South Africa during the Champions Trophy.The nominations were based on performances from August 13, 2008 to August 24, 2009 and were selected by a five-member selection panel, headed by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd,The panel also included former India Test captain Anil Kumble, Mudassar Nazar of Pakistan, Bob Taylor of England and New Zealand`s Stephen Fleming.The awards include eight individual prizes and also features the selection of the Test and ODI Teams of the Year. There will also be an award to the side that has adhered most to the Spirit of Cricket.Besides Dhoni, Tillakaratne Dilshan has also been nominated in three different categories, while 18 players make appearance in two distinct categories in the sixth edition of the awards.The individual player awards will be selected by an academy of 25 highly credentialed cricket personalities from around the world.The academy includes a host of former players and respected members of the media, representatives of the Emirates Elite Panels of ICC Umpires and ICC Match Referees.

WARNIE ON ODIs

Twenty20 has rendered one-day cricket irrelevant and the 50-over format should be done away with, according to spin great Shane Warne."I'll say it again, one-day cricket should go. It has evolved into Twenty20," said the Australian legend, asserting the game would be better off with just two formats."Cricket only needs two forms of the game. Something needs to be done about scheduling: it's been going on for too long," Warne wrote in his column for 'Herald Sun'.The leg-spinner, who led Rajasthan Royals to a fairytale triumph in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League, remains a staunch supporter of the Twenty20 format and believes one-dayers simply has no business in the international calendar.Warne was equally critical of Australia's post-Ashes schedule which pits them against the same English side for a seven-match ODI series.

TWIST

The recent rank game of cricket resembles the unexpected ups & downs of life.

1. With ICC releasing fresh rankings after Ashes, Australia's No.1 Test ranking and its 14-year hold on world dominance has ended. They have been placed at 4th place below India with 116 pts.

2. Gauti taking the advantage to Sangakkara's and Clarke's poor performance climbs to the summit in test player rankings.