Entries Tagged 'Sports' ↓

Doordarshan (DD) has clinched deal with ESPN - Star Sports and now matches will be shown live on DD.

This is great news for Soccer fans like me who don’t have access to Pay Channels (due to CAS in Chennai). I thought we would miss the action this time around also. We missed out Euro 2004 due to this CAS BS.

There might be two matches going on simultaneously, so we can watch only one match live. DD and Hindi commentary go together, which sucks. But something is better than nothing.

Hope England wins the World Cup 2006!

The team for remaining four ODIs for the ongoing TVS cup between India and England is announced.

Robin Uthappa replaces Gautham Gambir. Rest of the squad remains the same.

Please drop Mohammad Kaif and Verender Sehwag
Well, it’s not easy to decode More and Chappell’s “Scheme of things”. Why is the 33 years+ crickets are overlooked? Well, the World Cup is just a year ahead and not 3 years, Mr. More and Chappell. Anil Kumble, Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman are not 37 years old grandfathers.

Kaif is the new Hat trick star. Yippee!
If you take the selection on merit and performances, then how the hell does Sehwag and Kaif come in the picture? Man, Three ducks in a row! His scores in the past five innings are 0,0,4,0,0. (Thanks Riyaz for pointing out the error). We have a new Hat trick star. Yippee! Yet why is Kaif not “talked” about? I have always thought that Kaif is not a very good batsmen and with a otherwise good Indian batting lineup (at least on paper), he should be dropped. More, see his average and his average this year sucks. I have hardly seen him score beyond a dozen of runs (leave alone a “good” innings). Coming to his fielding. Agreed that he is a better fielder than Anil Kumble, Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman but he fields in odd positions these days like slips, line leg, deep mid wicket and even short leg when a spinner is in operation rather than his cover/extra cover usual positions. I guess you don’t need specialized fielders for boundary positions.

Sehwag: Take some dance classes
Sehwag should understand that legs can be used for foot movement while playing his shots and not only running between the wicket. Man, how much time has he been dismissed by playing a casual shot? Now, in the 2nd Test match against England and the recent ODI innings have something to say. He is not playing aggressively as he used to play. He is “afraid” that he might loose his place in the side, now that people have started to question about his performance. Sehwag should be dropped for a series or two, in the meanwhile he should play for Delhi and regain his confidence back.

Even Dravid wanted Laxman and Anil back in the squad but sadly they don’t fit into Chappell and More’s “scheme of things”. They want to “look ahead” and play youngsters. We should have the veterans back and play them until they can perform and contribute to the team. Anyway Anil, Laxman or Ganguly can bat better than Kaif.

This is cricket season and many would be loking for live audio or video streaming of matches. We have India Vs England, Sri lanka versus Bangladesh, New zealand Vs West Indies and Australia Vs South Africa series going on..

[Update] - 19/07/2007

Live Cricket Streaming for India Tour of England, 2007

Enjoy!

It’s time that I donned the role of Kiran More, Chairman of Indian Cricket team. England Tour of India get underway this wednesday, so I thought I’ll select the team.

Here is my team:

• Virender Sehwag
  Rahul Dravid (Cap)
  Sachin Tendulkar
  VVS Laxman
  Suresh Raina
  MS Dhoni (Wk)
  Irfan Pathan
  Anil Kumble
  Harbajan Singh
  RP Singh
  S Sreesanth or Wasim Jafer

12th man Mohammad Kaif

* 3 Pacers in case the pitch is not a dust bowl. Else Wasim jafer can open with Sehwag.
* 2 spinners , India’s USP!
* Suresh Raina is selected to play ahead of Kaif (who IMO has no business to be in the team)
* Other members are automatic selections/inclusions in the team.

England Tour of India - 2005-06 Calendar and Schedule

England or England A? - A depleted English side
England captain Michael Vaughan and pace bowler Simon Jones (who underwent training at MRF Pace foundation in Chennai) are the latest causuality in England side. Vaughan is rulled out of the Wednesday’s first Test against India, failing to recover from a knee injury. Vaughan is to return home for treatment. Jones suffered minor cartilage damage to his left knee in the practice game against BP’s 11. They have lost the services of vice-captain Marcus Trescothick due to “personal reasons”. Michael Vaughan and paceman Simon Jones were forced to return home following injuries.

Andrew Flintoff will lead the depleded side now.

So no Vaughan,Trescothick, Jones and Giles are out of the First test (and maybe the entire tour). Plunkett has a bruised left heel and is a doubtful starter for the test.
Owais Shah is the third England A player, after Alistair Cook and James Anderson, to be called up as cover

It seems that England’s first test is against it’s players form and fitness problems!

The Winter Olympics is going on at Torino till 26th of this month. I am a great sports lover and this CAS has rendered me without any Pay channels like ESPN, Star Sports, Ten Sports and Zee Sports. DD Sports sucks bigtimes but I have no choice.

Now this on going winter Olympics is really good and entertaining to watch! Daily at 5:30 PM I switch on DD sports and catch the live excitement.

Some of my favourite events are

Figure Skating
Bobsleigh
Ski Jumping

The games will go on till 26th of February. Don’t miss it, it’s Hot!

Official Site

I know many of us would like to track the cricket matches when they don’t have access to television.
So here are some links of sites which provides live cricket scores.

Sify Cricket scores
Cricinfo Live scores - You get ball by ball text commentary as well.
Game Cricket scores
Cricbuzz

Enjoy!

While reading today’s The Hindu Newspaper, I came across a article where a fool challenged the exclusion of Ganguly from the ongoing Hutch Cup between India and Pakistan in the Supreme court! I was surprised to read how foolish people can be. Moreover the writ petition was filled by a TV journalist.

Here is the article:

Ganguly issue: plea for early hearing rejected

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has refused to entertain the application for early hearing of the petition challenging the exclusion of former skipper Sourav Ganguly from the Indian cricket team for the ODI series against Pakistan.

A Bench comprising Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice Dalveer Bhandari on Friday declined to fix the petition for early hearing, saying that scientists, doctors, engineers and other professionally qualified persons were not being given due place in the country as compared to cricketers.

“India will not be at the receiving end if it does not play matches” the Court observed while turning down the plea for early hearing of the writ petition filed by a TV journalist.

The petitioner’s counsel, V.N. Sharaf, contended that the petition shall become infructuous as the ongoing ODI series between India and Pakistan may be over by the time the matter is listed for hearing.

The petitioner has sought directions to the BCCI Selection Committee to place before the court the minutes of the meeting that picked the Indian team for the ODI series.

The petitioner also alleged that Ganguly was a victim of board politics and had been dropped from the team on considerations other than merit as he had been doing well both in domestic cricket and in the recent three-test series against Pakistan. - UNI

Source: The Hindu

The Bench correctly observed two things, which I am quoting again:
* “India will not be at the receiving end if it does not play matches”
* “Scientists, Doctors, Engineers and other professionally qualified persons were not being given due place in the country as compared to cricketers”

I am totally surprised as how a man (a TV Journalist) go such distance to file a writ in the apex court!! Some people in India seem to have no other job other than filling PILs in the courts. Sachin’s Ferrari was also an issue and same with Kushboo’s remark on pre-martial sex.

Ganguly must be a happy man, so much people to his support who file writ petitions, stage darna, burn effigies, go hunger strikes, and what not!