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51 |
Grunting and Gasping
My Sunday TV sports spectacle began as an even contest between the Windies/Oz finale ODI and the Wimbledon Gentleman's Final. Astonishingly both events virtually ran the length of each other. However while Wimbledon provided a deserving winner who could not positively have claimed to have answered every question posed by his opponent in easily the finest Grand Slam finish of our generation, the ODI made things abundantly clear as to 'who was who and what was what'.
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Jonathan Cumberbatch |
1072 |
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52 |
Not Murali's heir, please
It's exciting, but it still may not be the future of cricket.
I'm talking about Ajantha Mendis, the man who took India apart like they were a birthday cake.
This will fall on deaf ears though, because I told people not to get too excited before, and people ignored me.
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Jarrod Kimber |
1164 |
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53 |
Some more dodgy selections
Shane Watson and Cameron White are playing the most important one day series of their lives.
The 'play well or be damned' series.
Shane Watson finds himself in an odd position.
He has been picked based on form.
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Jarrod Kimber |
1689 |
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54 |
How to survive a Katich innings
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Jarrod Kimber |
887 |
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55 |
Nine myths the IPL busted ...and one that it sadly didn’t
Eight pm no longer feels the same all around India. Forty four relentless days of (pretty much) non stop cricket action ended with the last ball hush and roar of a dream final, one that seemed as perfectly scripted as the final of T20 World Cup a few months ago. Both times, it entrenched T20 further in the psyche of the Indian cricket follower, both casual and maniacal. It will be difficult for 50-over cricket to justify its considerable fat now (Test Cricket though, with its intricate wefts and weaves to test character and mental strength, should be safe and sound, provided sporting wickets become a priority).
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Jaideep Varma |
1447 |
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56 |
The man who never fit in
Lord Stuey was like an unromantic and grumpy version of Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.
Unfortunately for him he walked into a dressing room that was more Mad Max than Jane Austen.
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Jarrod Kimber |
1686 |
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57 |
No Ashes 09 Test in Old Trafford
"You win here, why wouldn't you want to play here?"
- Ian Smith, at the end of the Old Trafford Test
Why not indeed?
The five venues for the next Ashes series are Lords, Edgbaston, Headingley, The Oval and Cardiff.
|
Mark Smith |
1287 |
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58 |
Window to the world
One of the key reasons why everyone is hyperventilating over the IPL (or was hyperventilating 3 weeks ago, more on that up ahead) is that it is set to change the grammar and nature of the game across the world. If life were a cartoon series (it is not, cartoon series' aren't as crazy), no doubt Lalit Modi would have had an enlarged, laminated picture of his head morphed on Bernie Ecclestone's body put up in his house.
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HW Edit |
2001 |
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59 |
The Right 'un
Ian Chappell is pushing a familiar wagon.
Warne as captain.
Once Ian gets a woody over a girl, it doesn’t matter if she becomes a nun, the man still talks about it about what he thinks it would have been like to bonk her for the next 30 years.
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Jarrod Kimber |
1028 |
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60 |
A Touch of Class
Through the good services of the extraordinary search engine on Cricinfo.com, I found out today that - between June 1952 and June 1965, England played a total of 120 test matches.
|
Mark Smith |
845 |
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61 |
Only in it for the money
I really can't get excited about the Indian Premier League (IPL)
To my mind, strip away the lights, noise and action, and when you get down to it, it's really just one group of mercenary all-stars playing against another. That's not using 'mercenary' in it's perjorative form, just simply stating fact. That sort of format is alright as a one off - maybe as a charity game for Tsunami relief as we saw at The Oval a few years ago, but 59 games over six weeks just smacks of complete and utter overkill.
|
Mark Smith |
977 |
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62 |
Project Snow
An undiscussed chapter in the history of cricket politics
|
Stuart Wark |
140160 |
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63 |
Building the Perfect Beast
The monster needed to break Murali's record
|
Mark Smith |
137144 |
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64 |
Richards vs Ganguly vs Ponting
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Sreeram Ramachandran & Jatin Thakkar |
4768 |
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65 |
The 'culture' of sledging
The importance of understanding players' backgrounds before judging them
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Stuart Wark |
140974 |
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66 |
Dhoni Vs Gilchrist
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Jatin Thakkar and Sreeram Ramachandran |
4717 |
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67 |
Sachin vs Lara
Superstars are, like it or not, an essential part of any sport. Any grand epic loses its flavour without its great heroes, its talismanic figures, and most interestingly, clashes between these great champions.
Of all the colossuses who have stridden the history of the game, Brian Charles Lara and Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar are amongst the biggest. For all their faults and failings, there is no doubt that they will be recognized as greats. But here’s the question that has not seen a clear answer ever – who amongst the two was greater? Or, let’s put it this way. If you had to pick a World XI ODI team and could fit in only one of these two, whom would you pick?
We figured it would be interesting to add a new dimension to this perennial debate, and so, decided to slip these two through the SquadStats filter. This basically means, we try and find who amongst the two is a better player in terms of the value they add to their respective teams.
We took a look at their averages in ODI’s, put it against the West Indian and Indian team batting averages in different conditions, under different circumstances, analyzed various other batting statistics and found some interesting results.
And possibly, an answer to the above question.
Why Sachin's excellent 50 to 100 conversion rate falls short of Lara's big knocks
The better 'Big Innings' frequency
Where Lara scores over Sachin
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Sreeram Ramachandran & Jatin Thakkar |
7967 |
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68 |
India Vs Australia,2001 : The 'Final Frontier' saga
|
Sreeram Ramachandran |
5772 |
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69 |
England Vs Australia, 1981: Holding out for a hero
Mark looks back at the Botham's Ashes.....
|
Mark Smith |
2745 |
|
70 |
The Act of Bowling
(HW Classics is a section where we relive articles written in the past which are timeless. These are the articles which grow on you with each reading (well, that's what we feel anyway) and therefore, probably shouldn't be relegated to the back pages of the site.)
|
Mark Smith |
2449 |
|
71 |
Under the Spotlights
It's been a rather busy World Cup, one that has given the game's followers much to talk about. From this vast sea of drama, Alan Rothkopf picks out some of the Highlights and Lowlights of the past week. Not surprisingly, the ICC features prominently in the latter category.
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Alan Rothkopf |
1829 |
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72 |
1948-2007
For the man who has forever associated the cricket coach with the laptop, it is poignant to see the last shot of Bob Woolmer in the dressing room on the day of the Ireland-Pakistan debacle, packing his laptop in a somewhat hurried manner. Especially given what would follow in a few hours.
|
Jaideep |
4573 |
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73 |
Olympics...
(There is a lot of talk now with several big name cricketers following Gilchrist into pushing Cricket into the 2020 Olympics. But this isn't the first time the idea has been mentioned.
Several months ago, in fact a year and a half back, to be precise, Holdingwilley had put up an article suggesting that cricket bodies of significance make a serious move to get cricket a place in the Olympics.
We republish that article here on HW Classics, a section where we relive articles written in the past which are timeless. These are the articles which grow on you with each reading (well, that's what we feel anyway) and therefore, probably shouldn't be relegated to the back pages of the site.)
|
Ravi Singh |
1749 |
|
74 |
Is the Law an ass or Justice?
Two cricket-related events have been making news in the subcontinent in the last two days, and both are connected to the Law. One, the overturning of the drug sentence of two years by the Pakistan board on Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif. Two, former Indian test cricketer and media personality Navjot Sidhu sentenced to three years in prison for a street brawl that resulted in a death, eighteen years ago.
|
Jaideep |
2055 |
|
75 |
World Championship of Test Cricket
A way to determine the best team in test cricket
|
Jaideep |
140389 |
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76 |
Sachin Tendulkar : Cricket's most underachieving batsman?
An unpleasant question with unpleasant answers
|
Jaideep Varma |
1744 |
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