Ravindra Jadeja may not retain place in ODI team

NEW DELHI: IPL's million-dollar baby Ravindra Jadeja may find it tough to retain his place in India's ODI team. Struggling with both bat and ball in last few tournaments, Jadeja may have to sit out of the Indian squad that will tour Sri Lanka for ODI and T20 series. The team will be picked by the selection committee on July 4.

Sources say skipper MS Dhoni is in favour of Jadeja's presence in the squad. The team does lack a quality allrounder presently, a fact which may go in favour of the Chennai Super Kings player. However, selectors feel India can do with part-timers spinners like Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma instead.

Harbhajan Singh, dropped from the team last year due to poor form, is back in the reckoning and could fill the third spinner's slot. Rahul Sharma too is in the reckoning. The batting lineup, however, looks good with Virender Sehwag set to make a comeback.

The squad is expected to comprise of eight batsmen though the availability of Sachin Tendulkar has not been confirmed. Ajinkya Rahane, in that case, is likely to get the nod. Of the seven bowlers, four will be pacers, with Ashok Dinda being a sure shot while Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Zaheer Khan are some of the other options.

The spin department will revolve around Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha.

India holds the key to the future

Tony Greig was funny, outspoken and enlightening in a
question and answer session.

Tony Greig's analysis is that India holds the future of the game in the palm of her hands and everything hinges on a willingness to apply the 'spirit of cricket'

I attended the Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket lecture at Lord's on Tuesday. This may seem an anglocentric way to start a World Cricket Forum but the speaker was Tony Greig, an international figure if ever there was one.

Greig was born in South Africa, played for England, settled and worked after the end of his cricketing career in Australia and is often feted in Sri Lanka and India – though after his lecture he may not be feted quite so extravagantly in India as he once was. He is without question a global figure, always provocative and entertaining whether as a player or a commentator on the game.

For Greig this was an emotional homecoming. Here he was, welcomed back to Lord's, the home of an establishment that he had enraged 35 years ago by signing up for Kerry Packer and then recruiting cricketers for the "Circus". It may have helped a little that the president of the MCC, Phillip Hodson, is a good friend of Greig and a brother-in-law. The welcome was genuinely warm.

Actually the lecture format did not suit Greig perfectly. It was almost as if he was shackled by a script, which had taken weeks to chisel out, and he was determined to cover almost every aspect of the modern game. This was highlighted when the evening moved to a Q and A format, hosted by Mark Nicholas, in which Greig was joined by his old mate, Derek Underwood, and the nearest equivalent to Greig that England can currently offer, Stuart Broad, blond, 6ft 6in and a dashing all-rounder with a bit of devil in him. Once the Q and A was under way Greig was at his best: instinctive, mischievous, funny, outspoken and enlightening.
Greig has always been a man of contradictions. He took on the old order, yet last Tuesday he mentioned how much he regretted causing such pain to two very contrasting members of that cricketing establishment, EW Swanton and Alec Bedser. In the Q and A he was extolling the virtues of "walking" to Broad one moment and then explaining amid much hilarity why he could not contemplate walking against the Australians back in the 70s and how he encouraged the English players of that era to follow suit.

He explained that one of his reasons for aligning himself with Packer was to secure the future for himself and his family. Clearly self-interest was a significant factor. Yet here he was beseeching India to put aside self-interest – or at least immediate financial gain – for the greater good of the game.

In simple terms Greig's analysis was this: that India holds the future of the game in the palm of her hands. Everything hinged on India's willingness to apply the "spirit of cricket" and to make some financial sacrifices along the way, a simple analysis but also an alarming one.

So it was all the more striking to read on the day after Greig's lecture that India would not agree to the use of the umpire decision review system in the forthcoming series against England at the end of this year. In the scheme of things it does not matter hugely that India should veto the DRS again. The assumption is that a senior player, such as Sachin Tendulkar, does not like the system partly because it is always used against him. After all, it makes sense for India's opponents to use their reviews against the opposition's best player. But there is something symbolic about India's stance. With all that financial clout, India is more than willing to go her own way on a whole range of topics whatever the majority at the International Cricket Council think.
Less symbolic but far more financially significant was Greig's suggestion that the administrators in India should reduce the duration of the Indian Premier League as part of a package to preserve and protect Test cricket. Even Greig, a natural optimist, was none too sure whether India currently regards Test cricket sufficiently highly that they might be prepared to do that.

Test matches in IPL is possible and this is how it can be

Traditional 5 day concept of test cricket format won’t work in IPL but the modified yet productive format will work. The main objective here is to make people find their enthusiasm back at test matches, players groomed to play longer format and successfully make the highest cricket form to sustain in this modern world.

This is where the future of cricket lies

I already explained the reasons for the need of test cricket in IPL and possibilities in my previous article. So, we will shoot off straight to the format i am proposing.
Total no. of days: 5
Maximum no. of overs/day: 60 (60 * 5 =300 overs/match)
No. of sessions/day: 2
No. of overs/session: 30
Allowed no. of inns/team: 2
Maximum no. of overs allowed to play per team: 150 overs
All ICC rules and laws of cricket followed by default.

Only 150 overs for a team?
Yes, a team is allowed to play maximum of 150 overs in a match. This rule is aimed at providing a definite result in the match. Actually 150 overs is distributed across two innings, though not equally. (i.e) if X team gets bowled out/declares after playing 80 overs in 1st innings, then X team can play maximum of 70 overs in their 2nd innings. Only overs are carried over, not wickets. Each team still has 10 wickets in hand at start of their new innings.

Point system:
Point system is been the much of talk nowadays in both domestic and international level of test cricket. We will inherit the English county cricket point system module for better and more exciting cricket to be played. There will be never a draw match in our format because if a match ends in draw, then we either play 6 over match or bowl out to decide the winner.
Straight forward Win = 8pts/no. of innings played by the winning team ( ex: if X team played two innings and won the match, then they will get 8/2=4pts)
Win by decider (after match is drawn) = 3pts
Lose by decider (after match is drawn) = 2pts
Bonus points for teams includes,

• (Overall run-rate of a match by a team / 2) pts added to both teams.
• An outright win (innings victory/ by 9 or more wickets win) = 3pts.
• An outright loss (innings loss/ by 9 or more wickets loss) = (-)3pts
• More than 120 runs or run-rate > 4 / session by a batting team (minimum of 12 overs) = 2pts for batting team.
• Wickets taken more than 5/session by a bowling team= 2pts for bowling team.
• For scores more than 250 and also for next every 100 runs (i.e. 350, 450,…) scored by batting team = 1pt for batting team (i.e. 250 runs = 1pt, 350 runs=2pts…).
• Wickets taken more than 5 and also for next every wicket (i.e. 6, 7,..,10)= 1pt for bowling team (i.e. 5wkts = 1pt, 6 wkts=2pts…).
• Bowling out a team = 2pts for bowling team.
• Batting team declaring after playing minimum of 50 overs and 300 runs in 1st innings = 2pts for batting team.
• Winner of the each day* of test matches = 1pt.
• A team with most number of winning day* = 2pts.
• A team with most number of sessions won in match* = 1pt.

*A day winner – A team will be declared as winner of the day depending on the points it got on that particular day.
*A session winner – A team which gets more points in a session of play.

This point system will not only encourage team to go for win but also will give the fans to shout about which team heads at the end of each day in the test match.

Rain interruption? VJD method will be used for scores projection, over deduction and etc., If necessary, the bonus point will undergo some changes in minimum overs and runs need to be scored when rain interruption are longer.

A day of test match at one T20 match time:
At present a IPL t20 match takes roughly 4 hours to completely the full quota of 40 overs/match. We can complete per day of test match in 4 hours surely.
Allotted time for each over to complete = 3mins.
60 overs * 3 mins = 180 mins.
Session break = 20-30 mins.
The remaining 30 minutes can be for innings change, batsmen dismissal and other reasons. So, all in all we can complete a day in 4 hours (or 4hrs and 30mins at maximum).  Now, the viewers or the fans at stadium can’t complain about time a test match takes per day.

if you say, “IPL t20 matches are played only after 4pm but test matches are played on morning. So, its not possible for me to watch or go to stadium by bunking my work/school.” The answer is Night test matches.

We can have a IPL test match starting from 6pm and close at 10.30 pm(time can be adjusted). Only 1 test match per day is possible. If we want two test matches, then one must be played as day (starting from 2pm) and other as night. But i think with effective scheduling, we can manage with 1 T20 and 1 test match per day or even only 1 test match per day with T20 matches taking place on non-test match days.

Number of IPL matches:
The home and away concept need to be done away like i said in previous article. We can complete the IPL in same number of days as of now (i.e. 60 days). Assuming the current number of IPL teams (9 teams),
No. of T20 matches per team = 8 (i.e. Each team will play against each other once).
No . of test matches per team = 3* (Randomly drawn fixtures).
* – No. of test matches can be increased from 3 depending on effective scheduling.
The point system for T20 matches remains the same as it now in IPL. Both T20 and test match points will be added together while listing the teams in points table. The team with most points will be crowned as IPL champions. If the number of IPL teams increases more than 10 in future, then we can have teams in two different groups and knockouts(semi’s and final) at the end to decide the champion.

Off-course this proposed format may or may not be perfect. So, I am more than welcome to debate on this proposal. With more people support, we can definitely send this proposal to BCCI. So, lets decide the future!

DRS will not be forced on India - Richardson

Dave Richardson: "The introduction of technology has
always been controversial".

Dave Richardson, the ICC's new chief executive, has said that India would not be forced into accepting the universal application of the Decision Review System (DRS). The BCCI has been the sole objector to making DRS mandatory in international cricket and the ICC's Executive Board decided not to put the issue to a vote on Tuesday.

In his first day on the job, as the successor to Haroon Lorgat, Richardson said that while the majority of players and umpires back the DRS to rule on marginal or controversial decisions, India could not be dragged "kicking and screaming" to comply. The ICC's failure to enforce the universal application of DRS means it will only be used in bilateral series when both national boards agree to it. 

"The point is that the BCCI need to make that decision for themselves," Richardson said at the close of the ICC's annual conference in Malaysia. "It's never good to take anyone kicking and screaming to do anything.

"The introduction of technology has always been controversial ... but, slowly but surely, that's changed and I think we're pretty much at that point where everyone is accepting, certainly at international level. 

"I don't think [the Executive Board's decision is] negative at all. We'll be seeing DRS used in the majority of series going forward and there would be no sense in forcing anything upon anybody." 

India's resistance to DRS stems from their 2008 Test series with Sri Lanka, when the technology was on trial. N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, has said that the system would only be supported when it was "100 percent error free".

Richardson said: "The bottom line is, the ICC board determines policy for the ICC going forward. I don't think my job will involve any special negotiations with India. A lot is made of that but there are ten full members and I think our task is a lot more simple and a lot more practical than these high-level talks you might imagine." 

As well as Richardson succeeding Lorgat, Alan Isaac, the former chairman of New Zealand Cricket, has taken over as ICC president for a two-year term, succeeding Sharad Pawar. The ICC has voted to make the presidency a ceremonial position from 2014, with power passed to the new position of chairman.

New Zealander Isaac takes over as ICC chief

Alan Isaac

New Zealander Alan Isaac took over as the eighth president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) today on a two-year term before the post becomes titular.

The former New Zealand Cricket chairman succeeded India's Sharad Pawar at the ICC Annual Conference in Kuala Lumpur, where former South Africa wicket-keeper David Richardson was confirmed as the new ICC chief executive at the end of compatriot Haroon Lorgat's four-year term.

"I believe that the challenges ahead are no less daunting than those we have faced in the last two years if we are to maintain the vibrancy and viability of the three formats of the sport," Isaac said in a statement.
"I look forward to serving the game with honesty and integrity and to the best of my ability. I look forward to handing on the guardianship of the sport with the game enjoying even greater health," he added.

Isaac takes over at a time when the ICC is perceived as too susceptible to the financial might of the Indian cricket board.

The governing body's failure to mandate the use of the Decision Review System earlier this week is cited as yet another instance of its helplessness against the Indian board, which has been steadfast in its opposition to the technology.

In the annual conference, the ICC agreed to create the post of an ICC Chairman, who would call the shots, remove the role of ICC vice-president and make the president's role "ceremonial in nature with a term of only one year."

The ICC board will select a chairman in 2014 with a two-year term.

Indian business houses buyed all seven SLPL franchisees

COLOMBO: Indian business enterprises showed keen interest in the inaugural edition of the Sri Lanka Premier League and bought all the seven contesting franchises on offer, even as the BCCI decided not to allow its players to participate in the Twenty20 league.

The Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) had even last year prohibited its players from participating in the league, which forced the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to abort the opening season of the SLPL.

While Wadhawan Holdings shelled out the highest bid -- $5.02 million -- for Wayamba, Number One Sports Consulting offered a bid of $4.98 million for Kandurata.

The Uva and Ruhuna went to Success Sports and Pearl Overseas respectively for an amount of $4.6 million.

Basnahira was bought by Indian Cricket Dundee at $4.33 million, while Uthura at $3.4 million went to Rudra Sports.

Varun Beverages, meanwhile, spent $3.22 million for Nagenahira.

The debut edition of the SLPL is scheduled to commence from August 10, with the final to be held on August 31.

The matches will be played at capital city Colombo and the central province's Pallekele.

The franchises will be allowed a maximum of 18 players, including six foreign cricketers, for registration. However, a team can play only two foreigners in the playing eleven.

The value of each player will be decided by SLC in the player draft to be held on July 5 and 6.