Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Why do India pick injured players?

I just don't get it. When you pick injured players, there is always uncertainity. Especially when there is uncertainity over the injury itself.

This almost always hurts team morale. Dhoni says Gautam Gambhir is not injured, if he isn't injured why didn't he play in the warm up game. Even if he plays in the first game, is he going to be match fit. I doubt it.

Instead of Gambhir, a young player like Rohit Sharma should have been picked. He should have been tried in the opening slot. He may not be as good as gambhir, at least he is match fit.

Champions Trophy 2009 Schedule

Group A: Australia, India, Pakistan, West Indies
Group B: South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, England

Sep 22
Group B - South Africa vs Sri Lanka (D/N) Centurion
1800 IST

Sep 23
Group A - Pakistan v West Indies (D/N) Johannesburg
1800 IST

Sep 24
Group B - South Africa v New Zealand Centurion
1300 IST

Sep 25
Group B - England v Sri Lanka (D/N) Johannesburg
1800 IST

Sep 26
Group A - Australia v West Indies Johannesburg
1300 IST

Sep 26
Group A - India v Pakistan (D/N) Centurion
1800 IST

Sep 27
Group B - New Zealand v Sri Lanka Johannesburg
1300 IST

Sep 27
Group B - South Africa v England (D/N)Centurion
1800 IST

Sep 28
Group A - Australia v India (D/N)Centurion
1800 IST

Sep 29
Group B - England v New Zealand (D/N)Johannesburg
1800 IST

Sep 30
Group A - Australia v Pakistan, Centurion
1300 IST

Sep 30
Group A - India v West Indies (D/N) Johannesburg
1800 IST

Oct 2
1st Semi-Final (D/N) - (A1 v B2) Centurion
1800 IST

Oct 3
2nd Semi-Final (D/N) - (B1 v A2) Johannesburg
1800 IST

Oct 5
Final (D/N)Centurion
1800 IST

Blue print to make cricket the most popular sport

If cricket has to be the most popular sport in the world, ICC needs to make some radical changes.

1. Scrap the ICC futures program
2. Instead, have a world series like Formula one, or a bunch of grand slams like in tennis.

This is how the world series will work, it will involve two divisions, division 1 and division 2. Division 1 will involve the top 8 teams, every year the team that finishes last gets relegated to division 2 and the team that finishes no 1 in division 2 gets promoted to division 1.

There will be 8 T20 tournaments every read the rest of the article here