Cricket Roundup
By ICF Staff
January 16 2009
Although international cricket has been missing for a while following India's cancelling of the Pakistan tour, there is never a dearth of cricket news. South Africa has beaten Australia in Tests, English cricket is going through some stormy times, ICC is kicking up typically unnecessary controversies, and a reviled Australian player has retired to the relief of cricket followers the world over.
Kevin Pietersen, always controversial and puffed with self-importance, has brought infighting in English cricket to an embarassingly public stage. After doing his best to push out coach Moore, Pietersen was reportedly pressured to give up captaincy by both his teammates and board, along with the resignation of the coach himself. Since being relieved of captaincy after a losing streak in India to start off his short stint, he has managed to stoke more controversy with contrasting statements every other day. His continued presence in the dressing room will not make it easy on the team, and he cannot be dropped on form.
South Africa has built on India's destruction of Australia 2-0 by following it up with another demolition of the yesteryear champs, defeating them 2-1 in the Aussies backyard before they narrowly pulled back a meaningless final match. Even friendly ICC umpires have been unable to arrest the nosedive in Australian cricket following retirement of some of their best players.
ICC has stoked up its own controversy by producing yet another nonsensical ranking of so-called "greatest" batsmen and bowlers, in which the likes of Hayden are in the top 10 while Tendulkar and Lara languish far down in the bogus list. They have reacted with typical hypocrisy after unanimous slamming of the naked bias in the their rankers. Are all their statisticians jingoistic English high-school dropouts?
Finally, the exit of universally disliked Matt Hayden from international cricket is being greeted by applause from across the cricketing globe. Always abusive and disrespectful of other teams, and often in the midst of the ugliest fights on field, Hayden is ushered out of cricket by a grateful cricket audience that is hopeful the equally obnoxious Andrew Symonds will be able to join him soon.
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One negative on the aussie side though is the Brett Lee's lack of form and injury -- for a player who plays his heart out, he is liked and respected by most opposition players and fans alike. Hope he returns.
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Off break, doosra, yorker, googly, straight drive, sweep, square cut, late cut ... I love them all.
He was the one to call Bhajji an "obnoxious little weed" and he was the one to complain that he did not do well in India because of "Third World conditions"...
His run ins with everyone from Ganguly to Zaheer and Tendulkar are well known... if Indian fans have no love lost for him, they can't be blamed...
Even as a player he reserved his best performances for weaker opponents... e.g. his 380 v. a hapless Zimbabwe attack... Most neutral observers would place him below greats like Jack Hobbs, Sunil Gavaskar, Gordon Greenidge, Geoff Boycott, etc. as an opener...
Opponent Matches Inns Not Out Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Bangladesh 4 5 0 168 72 33.60 0 2 7
England 20 35 3 1461 197 45.65 5 2 29
ICC World XI 1 2 0 188 111 94.00 1 1 3
India 18 35 3 1888 203 59.00 6 8 23
New Zealand 11 18 0 658 136 36.55 1 5 5
Pakistan 6 10 2 374 119 46.75 1 2 3
South Africa 19 36 2 1486 138 43.70 6 5 22
Sri Lanka 7 13 0 664 132 51.07 3 1 9
West Indies 15 27 3 1237 177 51.54 5 3 23
Zimbabwe 2 3 1 501 380 250.50 2 0 4
Not true Birbal,a batting average of over 45 against England,over 46 against Pakistan,over 50 against West Indies and Sri Lanka and as much as 59 against India indicates he is one of the greatest opening batsman the Test arena has ever seen and most neutral and unbiased commentators would acknowledge that fact.His least successful stats are against the relatively weak New Zealand and Bangladesh,which rather destroys your arguement.
You don't have to love him to try and distort the true quality of his batsmanship.
He's only batted three times against Zimbabwe.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:01:18:13:13:04 by ''My Luvver''.
Myluveer..on his batting, he was 2nd fiddle to even guys like Mark Taylor and Slater, and could not break through into the team even when they were limp..
To be compared against the greats..one has to maintain a consitently high average over sustained period (> 10 years)..ALAS Haydo blew off withing 6 years..Had he played earlier or later for 10 years, he wud have been averaging 40..
so much for your argument of his being all time great..
However to present a hypothetical arguement
mr well wisher is absurd.His stats. are there for all to see,and nothing you say can disprove the true facts.
Go away and stop wasting my time!
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Tendulkar is the greatest cricketer of all time