Sports News And Tidbits

[19thmay]

Johnson and Gambhir scoop top awards

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/conte...ry/427665.html

Dar is Umpire of the Year
Dhoni leads Test Team of Year
Dhoni leads World ODI Team of the Year
Dhoni named ODI Player of the Year
Dilshan wins Twenty20 award
Gambhir is Test player of the year
Johnson is ICC Cricketer of the Year
New Zealand win Spirit of Cricket award
Porterfield named Associate Player of the Year
Siddle named ICC Emerging Player of the Year
Taylor named Women's Player of the Year

[ajaybaskar]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puc...urn=nhl,193765

[19thmay]

'Greed is killing the game' - Botham

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/con...ry/435382.html



Do you agree with MCC that Test cricket could be dying?

It didn't look like it was dying this summer with the Ashes, did it? They are playing too much Twenty20 right now. We have just had a Twenty20 World Cup and within a year we're going to have another in the Caribbean. It is greed, greed, greed. That is what will kill the game, the greed of the authorities. Twenty20 has its place but not on the international stage. It is a domestic and franchise sport. I don't want to see the best players in the world standing there and slogging. Twenty20 is bastardising the game.

[19thmay]

Murali may quit before 2011 World Cup

http://www.cricinfo.com/indvsl2009/c...ry/437258.html

"I am 37 years old and I can't bowl as much as those days because I get tired after 15-16 overs. But I will try and play a little bit of one-day cricket - that's only 10 overs to bowl. If I find everything is not going well I might retire from both forms of the game before the World Cup," Murali said. "Everything depends on how much my body can take. In Test cricket it's a little bit harder because I have always been a threat to other sides [but] at the moment it's not looking like that because others are playing me well. I think I made the right decision to retire from Test cricket at the end of the West Indies series next year.

[littlemaster1982]

From Cricinfo,

A fanciful story from Michael Henderson on Don. Absolute Gem . "I think I have a beauty. It was told to me by the great Australian batsman, Dean Jones, who positively swore on the head of his daughter it happened, and I have since been told that Merv Hughes also confirms its truth.

The scene is set at a Test match between Australia and the West Indies at Adelaide Oval back in February 1989. These were the days when the Windies were the greatest power the cricketing world had ever seen, the days when they used to select 11 fast bowlers in the team and a 12th man who was a fast bowler just to be on the safe side.

And it was into just such a furnace that the young bowler Mervyn Hughes walked - with bat in hand. Figuring fortune favoured the brave, Hughes wielded the willow like an axeman his axe, and somehow - after snicking fortutiously, connecting full-bloodedly, and missing entirely - he finished the day's play at 72 not out.

The tradition in Test cricket is that the batting side take a few beers into the fielding side's dressing-room afterwards, but not on this evening. Instead, Merv took an ice-box full of bottles, so keen was he to give the men of the Windies the full blow-by-blow account of every run he'd made. So it was that half an hour later, Jones - who himself had contributed 216 - and Hughes and several other Australian players were in the Windies dressing-room, when a sudden hush fell upon the gathering.

They looked to the door and there was Sir Donald Bradman himself, being ushered into the room by several South Australian cricket officials. The Don had expressed a desire to meet this mighty team, and now here he was.

For the next 15 minutes or so, the great man was introduced to the visiting players, with each West Indian standing up well before Sir Donald got to their position on the bench. Then, when their time came, they warmly shook his hand and had a few words.

This all proceeded splendidly until Sir Donald got to the last man on the bench, Patrick Patterson - the fastest bowler in the world at that time. So the story goes, not only did Patterson not stand, he simply squinted quizzically up at the octogenarian. Finally, after some 30 seconds of awkward silence, Patterson stood up, all two metres of pure whip-cord steel of him, and looked down at the diminutive Don.

"You, Don Bradman!?!" he snorted. "You, Don Bradman?!?! I kill you,mun! I bowl at you, I kill you! I split you in two!"

In reply, Sir Donald, with his hands on his hips, gazed squarely back at Patterson and calmly retorted: "You couldn't even get Merv out. You'd have no chance against me, mate!"

[Raikkonen]

how to spoil your name and image in a single week - by tiger the woods.

[vanchi]

daily oru news varum pola. clubku vera use irukkunu maram purinchikittruparu

[Raikkonen]

Naloru meni.. pozuthoru figaru.. avar per tiger alla..

his mistresses count is increasing every single day. now he's being linked with an adult movie star..

i never liked him before, but this is certainly a massive blow/embarassment for a guy who is idolized by lot of kids in the world.

[Plum]

An interesting story on how BCCI discovered its Golden Goose

[19thmay]

Twenty20 will 'finish' Pakistan cricket - Mohammad Yousuf

"It [batting failures] used to happen before but now because of Twenty20 cricket no player knows how to stay at the wicket anymore," Yousuf told Cricinfo. "Batsmen are finding it very difficult. I know the format has money, players get it and boards do but if Pakistan hypes up Twenty20 too much, Test and ODI cricket will really go down."

"Twenty20 is easy for Pakistanis because they know how to hit, nobody knows how to defend. Until players do not play with discipline and play ball to ball and leave balls they are supposed to we will struggle in ODIs, let alone Tests. If you see a ball, hit it because you have to score. But if you are going to slog all the time what is the point? I could have hit jumping out but unless you get a ball to hit what is the point? That is the point of Test cricket. It is necessary that Pakistanis, the media, the board, the fans realise that we play as little Twenty20 as possible.

"One domestic tournament is enough and a World Cup apart from that, but my belief is that you have to reduce Twenty20 heavily. They shouldn't play it in club cricket - even there you play 20 overs, not 40-over matches. I only have 2-3 years left in my career but I worry Twenty20 will finish Pakistan's cricket."

http://www.cricinfo.com/ausvpak09/co...ry/441839.html

apparam edhuku ivaru mudhal-la ICL-ku ponaaru?