Old wine, new bottle
Apologies for the absence, folks — had a ton of traveling to do, and stuff to complete, before the World Cup gets under way and consumes the bulk of my mind-space; a clearing of the decks, if you will. Besides the really urgent stuff, we’ve been working on setting up a cricket blog within Yahoo Cricket. It is still, visually and in terms of functionality, a work in progress, but starting later today all of us will begin posting on it with increasing frequency. As part of the experimenting/seeding stage, just put up a post there about Cricinfo’s list of top XI bowling performances of all time, and an omission that struck me as somewhat glaring. Here it is.
I’ll try and either cross post, or at least link to, any posts I do there — but in the bustle of the WC, it may not be always possible. Appreciate it if you could swing by once in a way. Oh, and? As my colleagues begin posting, I’ll over time work with them on content, style etc. Any qualitative feedback from you guys would be hugely welcome — in the interests of keeping things in one ‘file’, post them here, please.
Back here in a bit.
That evening in Durban was a special one, as an Indian fan. While rushing to get out of graduate class, catching the bus and running home in snow, after I received a call from roommate that Nehra was making the ball buzz around, is something I’ll remember.. Caught the last 5 wickets to fall and waited for the replay to come up on DISH and watched the entire Nehra spell.. Absolutely brilliant. Sure, Malinga’s magic that brought life to an otherwise dead match which was headed in only one direction is worthy of the “list” discussion (and SL still lost that game, remember), but a 6-for 23 in a crucial game leading to team win needs to be up there, IMO. Oversight by CI. But who’s gonna complain if people ignore the fact that India actually produces good quality seamers.
-Subash
RSS feeds link to the Y! Cricket blog?
Double that request. the blog needs an rss feed.
not sure if this is the best way to reach you…but saw this article on cricinfo which is interesting:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/500878.html
great to see bhajji having the humility and desire to learn even after 11 years…i’ve been a great fan of his fighting spirit over the years and would often get frustrated by his defensive leg stump lines in the recent past…it seemed so obvious – even to a layman like me – what was wrong, that sometimes i’d wonder if it was sheer stubbornness / lack of openness to feedback that was costing him
(“ek aur gora aa gaya bowling sikhaane ke liye”, etc)…but if he’s looking to learn and improve even at his stage of his career, there’s hope that we’ll see him back to his match-winning ways soon!
would be great to hear your thoughts on this – i’m sure you know him well personally and have been following the changes in his bowling style closely
Were there these ads before too, on your blog?:( Am not liking this disturbance at all….
Thanks for mentioning that spell. I watched it live on TV, with numerous ball-by-balls with my relatives in Delhi over the phone (I was in the US). All that puking & eating bananas
I taped the game, & still watch it whenever England plays well & I am depressed with the state of Indian fast bowling.
Prem, do you have RSS feed for ycricketblogs?
I agree with the Nehra omission. But your article on Yahoo cricket left me with mixed feelings. The major part of the article was consumed by quotes from two other articles. I was disappointed to read that on a cricket opinion website. But saying that, this is one of the qualities that i admire in your blog – that you assimilate many news sources. On a blog, I don’t mind the author just quoting a few other articles or even putting a list of interesting articles of the week. In fact, many times, i find that more interesting than trying to come with yet another viewpoint when there is none. But in an opinion column, i want to know what the author’s opinion and not merely a reflection of other’s opinions. That suits more a cricinfo surfer-type page where you might cite articles and quote interesting paragraphs.
But then it is really your call – is Yahoo cricket an opinions page or news analysis or both ? But it would help both to segregate the two for readers like in cricinfo. You know when you are reading a news and when an opinion.
The ending, especially seemed rushed.
I believe they should drop Yuvraj, esp. after Kohli’s consistency, Raina coming back into form, and Pathan’s explosive ability:
1. Sachin
2. Sehwag
3. Gambhir
4 Kohli
5. Raina
6. Dhoni
7. Pathan
8. Harbhajan
9. Ashwin or Chawla (with turning wickets makes sense to have a 2nd spinner, esp with Yuvraj out)
10. Zaheer
11. Munaf or Sreesanth
Also this means Nehra is out – too inconsistent at this point.. I can’t recall him getting breakthroughs in recent times, but I can see him at #11 instead of Munaf/Sree
Thoughts?
For me, there’s no doubt that Bhajji doesn’t have a place. Ashwin spins it more, and gives it more air, so does Chawla (albeit the other way). But I agree, we need Kohli more than Yuvi right now. He’s definitely more in form, and hence a better bet for this game.