Captains need to rethink power plays

Match in review: World Cup 2011, Group B game, India vs England, Feb 24, 2011 at the Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore.

Result: Tie.

The match between India and England was a game where the crowd got their monies worth. India scored 338 in their 50 overs and England in reply also scored 338. India probably never thought any team could score that many runs chasing.

The one area where captains need to rethink their strategy are power plays. When India were going on well, Sachin and Yuvraj were scoring at about 7 or 8 runs an over without taking any risks, India decided to take the batting power play and India ended up loosing a few wickets and this brought England back into the game.

I believe they should have waited and continued batting the way they were until like the 45th over where they could slog at every ball. Captains need to be flexible rather than go with a fixed strategy.

If India's decision on the power play was horrendous, England returned the favor by taking a powerplay around the 40th over to bring India back into the game. Overall, the game ended in a tie and both teams shared points.

Both teams will take positives and negatives from the game. For India, it will be an eye opener, they can no longer believe, they can score big and bat the opposition out. They will have to bowl well.

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