***Official*** England in India

[Tom Halsey]

I really can't understand why it's such a big deal that he supports Australia. So he decided to support the Aussies, what difference does it make? There are plenty of people who support teams not from their birth country or country of origin....there's nothing wrong with it.

When he had no connection with the country, and he supports them after watching them thrash his home country - it says "glory hunter" to me.

 

[adharcric]

The selectors declared the team BEFORE this match went past the first session of the first day. Now they have to include him in the team for the next two Tests.

Let's hope so. In the meanwhile, let's hope VR Singh or Sreesanth (if either play) rattle the English batsman the way Munaf did in this match.

 

[honestbharani]

no actually im not all that concerned with high quality bowling. i merely mentioned it because someone suggested that he had succeeded against the likes of wasim and waqar in their prime. i would not mention his innings against tuffey,oram and co as a performance that counters my point otherwise. his performances in conditions which are conducive for bowling have been disastrous period.




most international players are concerned with playing their own game rather than watching innings after innings of tendulkar bat.
as far as those innings are concerned, ive referred to every one of them at some point in time and dont see the point of going through them again.

Why would the commentators NOT watch his innings, and the opposition players for that matter?

 

[marc71178]

Some serious late-order slogging going on here.

RIchard must be hating it, although since it was the useless pairing of Harmison and Flintoff being hit, maybe he didn't...

 

[honestbharani]

gavaskar is about the most biased commentator that is out there, and honestly he just wastes whatever knowledge has has on the game by being an absolute clown. as far as the others are concerned, did they mention that the ball was moving around while tendulkar was batting? because if they did they were hugely mistaken.

Need I say more? TEC says he knows more about swinging conditions than Cullinan, Symcox, Gower etc...

 

[marc71178]

this would be funny if anything was true..

Unfortunately it is.

 

[honestbharani]

because its clearly obvious that flintoff was clearly drafted into the side while he was not ready and was not even half the player he is now.

Kapil played his first test when he was 19 or 20. It was not his fault that he was better than Flintoff at the same age.

 

[marc71178]

I've got no idea why England are batting for a draw in a tour match. They should be batting normally so that their batsmen actually get practice, and then maybe give their new ball bowlers a bit more time with the ball.

It's the batting normally that's got them into this mess.

 

[marc71178]

I really can't understand why it's such a big deal that he supports Australia. So he decided to support the Aussies, what difference does it make? There are plenty of people who support teams not from their birth country or country of origin....there's nothing wrong with it.

But those people have roots in the country they support.

 

[CDAK]

Munaf has been there for more than 3 years with a reputation of being India's fastest bowler .If Chappel was looking for an express bowler, how couldn't he see Munaf
An interesting comment from Sreesanth was that he got all those 4 wickets in the last one-dayers bacause of his reduced pace and it was adviced by Chappel.!! ( he was bowling at 130s).
So what is really needed? Pace or lack of pace?

Conclusion:-Munaf was not selected beacuse he was bowling too faster to be Indian Bowler

 

[Dasa]

When he had no connection with the country, and he supports them after watching them thrash his home country - it says "glory hunter" to me.

He said he started supporting them when he was younger and didn't really understand the game. Why should he have to change who he supports? SO he supports Australia...is it that much of a big deal that a few English supporters have to remind him of it in nearly every thread. I know several people who support teams in the same way - they see a good performance early on when they don't understand the game, and see no reason to change their preference when they're better educated.

edit: Marc, that's not true of people I know. I know Indians who support West Indies, England, even Pakistan. I know Aussies who support England, West Indies, Sri Lanka. I don't think something like which team you support in cricket should be an issue for anyone other yourself. It's such a meaningless issue to browbeat someone with.

 

[Arjun]

Were England missing Pietersen? He left the field at 47 with a back injury during the first innings, and didn't bat in the second.

 

[Arjun]

Munaf has been there for more than 3 years with a reputation of being India's fastest bowler .If Chappel was looking for an express bowler, how couldn't he see Munaf
An interesting comment from Sreesanth was that he got all those 4 wickets in the last one-dayers bacause of his reduced pace and it was adviced by Chappel.!! ( he was bowling at 130s).
So what is really needed? Pace or lack of pace?

Conclusion:-Munaf was not selected beacuse he was bowling too faster to be Indian Bowler

Sreesanth varies his pace a great deal, and one delivery was bowled at less than 100k. Pace or lack of it, he bowled a lot straighter in that match than in the others.

As for Munaf, he missed one year due to injury, after his not-so-impresive (but for an average of 23) debut for Mumbai, and was getting injured quite often. His transfer to Maharashtra had helped a lot, as he took two five-wicket-hauls in consecutive matches, against top teams.

It may have to do with differences in operation of the local cricket boards of Mumbai and Maharashtra. Mumbai have a reputation to defend, so it's perform or perish out there, and they don't really try to nurture youngsters so much, except in the last season. Maharashtra, on the other hand, were a minnow side with moneybags, and were looking at building a quality team for the future, so they took good care those players whom they considered to be very talented. That started since the appointment of Australian coach Darren Holder as the Director, who mentioned Munaf's name when it came to raw talent.

 

[Tom Halsey]

I know several people who support teams in the same way - they see a good performance early on when they don't understand the game, and see no reason to change their preference when they're better educated.

I don't.

Even at age 8 (or whetever it is) you should be well aware enough to know that England is your country, and I don't know anyone else who would, even at age 8, go against their country. Call all of the people I know patriotic, but I don't.

 

[Arjun]

The feed from Nimbus has the BCCI logo on the top right corner. Maybe we'll see a lot more coverage of local matches on Doordarshan, and hopefully we'll see this quality maintained.

The Board team have won by 8 wickets, with Raina smashing the winning boundary.

 

[alternative]

very impressive victory by the board team, Gambir stood tall in the first innings and Munaf Patel taking a 10 wicket haul.. very impressive..
and Arjun u are one lucky guy to see the match...

 

[CDAK]

Thanks Arjun for the clarification.

How does it help cricketers being superstitious than believing in their talents?
Sreesanth said he changed his number from 65 to 36 (his lucky number is said to be 9) for the last 2 ODIs.(suggested by some Mumbai Pundit) .Since it got clicked, now he has changed the spellings of his name from "Sreesanth" to "sreesunth".(the same pundit is again in action)
I feel it's too bad for a young cricketer to try all these rather than polishing his armoury .

I can't wait to see Pieterson hammering him all around the park.

 

[honestbharani]

wow. Well done to the BP XI... Good to see that the bench strength is decent for India.

 

[Dasa]

I don't.

Even at age 8 (or whetever it is) you should be well aware enough to know that England is your country, and I don't know anyone else who would, even at age 8, go against their country. Call all of the people I know patriotic, but I don't.

Well I suppose I'm not patriotic, but I don't think that supporting a different country in sport (it's just sport!) is going against your country. Certainly not in any meaningful manner - supporting Australia over England is hardly treasonous. At any rate, I think enjoying the game is far more important than any patriotic/nationalistic urge to see your team win. I watch cricket for the love of the game, not to support my country.

 

[Dasa]

wow. Well done to the BP XI... Good to see that the bench strength is decent for India.

Who's going to start a thread now saying Indian FC sides could beat most Test sides?