After shouldering the responsibility of Team India in 20 Tests and 62 ODIs Dravid decides to resign.
According to Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, final decision would be taken on September 18, wile setting up the team for Australia ODI. However, Board President Sharad Pawar seems to respect Dravid’s decision.
Now the biggest question is: Who is going to lead the Team India now??? Any guesses?
Adam Gilchrist lived up to his billing as the most dangerous batsman in the one-day game with a record 149 as Australia won an unprecedented third straight ICC CWC final on Saturday.
Australia triumphed by 53 runs over Sri Lanka on the Duckworth/Lewis method at Kensington Oval in a game ruined as a spectacle by the weather.
Gilchrist’s innings, the highest in a final surpassing the 140 not out made by Australia captain Ricky Ponting against India in Johannesburg four years ago, was the centerpiece of the champions’ 281 for four.
But the game ended in confusion with Australia thinking the final was finished due to bad light after 33 overs of the Sri Lankan innings, in a match reduced by rain to 38 a side, only for play to resume in pitch darkness on a ground without floodlights.
In all, Gilchrist, dropped on 31, faced just 104 balls with eight sixes and 13 fours as Australia set a daunting target in an innings reduced to 38 overs because of rain.
Victory meant Australia had won their fourth ICC CWC, improving their own record, in the tournament’s nine-edition history.
In the process they extended their unbeaten run of games in the competition to 29 with 23 straight wins after their semi-final tie against South Africa in 1999.
Sri Lanka, in reply, finished on 215 for eight after a second rain break reduced their target to 269 off 36 overs.
They had a glimmer of hope during a second-wicket stand of 117 between left-handers Sanath Jayasuriya (63) and wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara (54).
The 1996 champions, who beat Australia in the final 11 years ago, lost Upul Tharanga early when he edged left-arm quick Nathan Bracken to wicket-keeper Gilchrist, Sri Lanka seven for one.
Jayasuriya, one of three survivors from the 1996 team, was reprieved on eight when a trademark square cut off fast bowler Shaun Tait was dropped by Shane Watson, diving forward, at third man.
At 36 for one, Glenn McGrath came on in his last match before retirement, the 37-year-old quick already this tournament’s leading wicket-taker with a record edition haul of 25 wickets and the most successful ICC CWC bowler of all-time.
But keeper Kumar Sangakkara hit him off his usual good length for six over mid-wicket. Next ball the left-hander cover drove for four and the following delivery was disdainfully pulled to the boundary.
Jayasuriya then completed a 51-ball fifty before Sangakkara reached the landmark at a run-a-ball.
But spinner Brad Hogg delivered again for Australia when Sangakkara, on 54, pulled a long hop straight to Ponting at mid-on to leave Sri Lanka 123 for two in the 20th over.
And that became 145 for three in the 23rd when Jayasuriya was bowled for 63, trying to slog part-time spinner Michael Clarke.
Despite a fresh rain burst, the umpires kept the players on the field until, with Sri Lanka 149 for three in the 25th over, they called a halt.
Play soon re-started amidst confusion before the revised target was confirmed and then Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene was lbw to medium-pacer Watson.
Now, in gathering gloom, the game was up for Sri Lanka, Gilchrist’s diving catch on the run to dismiss Russel Arnold giving Glenn McGrath a farewell wicket in his final match.
Earlier, Gilchrist and fellow left-hander Matthew Hayden’s stand of 172 was a new first-wicket record for a ICC CWC final, surpassing the 129 shared by England’s Mike Brearley and Geoff Boycott during West Indies’ 92-run win at Lord’s in 1979.
Left-arm quick Chaminda Vaas saw his now maximum eight overs cost 54 runs after Ponting won the toss.
Lasith Malinga took two for 49 in his eight overs after his first four cost just six runs.
Crucially first-change Dilhara Fernando, retained despite conceding 45 runs in five overs during Tuesday’s 81-run semi-final win against New Zealand, dropped a low caught and bowled chance in his second over off Gilchrist’s checked drive.
It didn’t get much better for Fernando, his eight overs going for a hugely expensive 74, including Gilchrist’s two fours and a six off successive balls. Gilchrist’s fifty was up in 43 balls with two sixes and five fours and he was on the way to passing his previous best score this tournament of 59 not out against Bangladesh.
Perhaps his best shot was a six off Muttiah Muralidaran that soared over mid-wicket, the Sri Lanka star’s seven wicketless overs costing 44 runs after he’d dismissed 23 batsmen in the tournament - second only to McGrath’s pre-final haul.
Malinga’s first ball back was smashed for six by Hayden.
Gilchrist then also struck Malinga to the long-off boundary to bring up a superb century in 72 balls with six sixes and eight fours.
Hayden, renowned as a power-hitter and the tournament’s leading run-scorer, made a relatively subdued 38 before falling to Malinga’s fifth ball back when driving to a leaping Jayawardene at extra-cover.
Gilchrist broke Ponting’s record, with his skipper at the crease, when he drove left-arm spinner Jayasuriya for six.
Fernando eventually dismissed Gilchrist, skying to Chamara Silva running round to mid-wicket, but the damage had been done.
Today is 28th April and every cricket lovers know that today is the Final of world cup 2007. Here is good news for all of you. You can win a prize by predicting who will win the toss and will win the cup and by how many runs or wickets. If your prediction is right then you will get a ticket for the next world cup final. So let’s predict …….
Ricky Ponting insists Australia are ready for Sri Lanka’s veteran bowlers Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas in Saturday’s World Cup final in Barbados. Australia beat Sri Lanka easily in the Super Eights match but Mahela Jayawardene chose to rest Muralitharan and Vaas while Lasith Malinga had an ankle problem.
“Sri Lanka have a chance to make a statement against us,” Ponting said after Australia secured their passage to the final with a seven-wicket win over South Africa. “There’s no doubt Sri Lanka are a good team, but we are very confident after what we’ve done in the last seven weeks. Winning games with big margins gives us a lot of confidence.
“We executed our gameplan very well the last time we played them. They had their full batting line-up and we bowled them out. We know Murali will do what he does. Lasith Malinga is bowling well and Vaas is a good bowler with the new ball.”
Australia have won all ten of their matches in the Caribbean and are unbeaten in their last 28 Cup games, a run stretching back to the 1999 tournament in England. Saturday’s final in Barbados will be a repeat of the 1996 final when Sri Lanka beat Mark Taylor’s side by seven wickets in Lahore.
Is there a weakness in this Australian side? Who knows it? It’s been 27 matches and eight years since they were beaten in a World Cup. With every passing day in this competition their aura grows stronger, their stature more forbidding. On Monday a member of the coaching staff flung balls at close range to Ricky Ponting and the captain kept pouching them as nonchalantly as snapping his fingers. Brad Hogg was in a boxing drill. Matthew Hayden was swinging ball after ball out of the practice area. Even at training they have such a presence. It is said the law of averages must catch up with them. Yes, but whose averages?
In any event they had five losses on the run before coming to the Caribbean so that takes care of averages for a couple of years. There’s been all this talk of peaking early but Ponting would have nothing of it. More left in the tank? “Absolutely. All that we’ve done in the tournament so far is play somewhere near our best, individually and as a team. Until individual performances start surprising me we’ve always got room for improvement. I haven’t been surprised with anything so far.” Well.
Try another one. Fair to say they have not been challenged? “It depends how you regard being challenged. We’ve challenged ourselves through the tournament. We’ve made 377 against South Africa last time. That’s a challenge in itself. You have to do that. I think to win the last two games the way we have against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, we challenged ourselves a lot in those games. We’ll challenge ourselves again [against South Africa] and if we get stiffer opposition then it should be a great game.”
If there’s one thing this South African team has shown it is that they have it in them to take on Australia at their own game. Everyone remembers the miracle at Wanderers, and St Kitts last month for a while threatened to go the same way. Then Shane Watson made a direct hit - from the backward square-leg boundary. The moral of the story seemed to be: whatever the situation, the Australians seemed to have a man for the moment.
But South Africa will have to do more than match Australia for power-hitting: they will need precision, control, nous and energy required to penetrate them. If South Africa are able to make inroads with the ball, it will be a first in the tournament. Australia have not lost more than six wickets in an innings in the entire World Cup. Five out of nine times they’ve put up more than 300; whenever they haven’t they’ve been chasing with insulting ease.
Only three times in nine games has their opening stand put on less than 50; on both those occasions the second-wicket partnership did. Hayden has demolished all comers. And as he says, even if, say, Watson was to get a blob on Wednesday he’d still average 142 for the tournament. “As a batting unit we’re very proud,” he said. “We’ve had some unbelievable achievements.”
Indeed, so dominant has been the Australian top order that it’s been easy to overlook their bowling. Yet, look at the tables. Before the first semi-final the leading wicket-taker was Glenn McGrath with 22. The contrasting figures of Brad Hogg and Shaun Tait have 19 each.
It is difficult to say just which breed will stand to benefit from the surface at Beausejour. Hayden, who spent a fair amount of time knocking about the ground on Monday, thought the surface to be the best he’s seen all tournament. “It’s superb, very even.” It might be a difficult decision at the toss, Ponting suggested. “This morning it would have been a bowl-first wicket because there was a bit of moisture around but the covers had only been off for about half an hour before we got here,” he said. “The groundsman assures me they will be off at about 5am tomorrow so it should be a little bit drier.”
The open architecture which allows breeze and the reasonable boundary size will probably make spin a factor, and while Australia have the left-arm mysteries of Hogg, South Africa have, well, Graeme Smith - assuming that they will, as they should, prefer their more accomplished fast bowlers to Robin Peterson.
Australia remain unchanged, Ponting announced. But then not much has changed with them all World Cup.
Mahela Jayawardene produced an innings of pure class, a rare gem, when it was most needed as Sri Lanka claimed their rightful place in the final of the 2007 World Cup, brushing aside New Zealand, who have reached the semifinals five times and never gone further. The 81-run win was Mahela’s baby, but Upul Tharanga played his part, as did Muttiah Muralitharan, who picked up 4 for 31 and spun New Zealand out for only 208.
The progress of Jayawardene’s innings was not unlike the shaping of a diamond. It was raw to begin with - carefully negotiated dot-balls, as he reached 17 off 47 balls, and, as the right environment was created slowly but surely, 23 runs came off as many balls; then, as the carbon crystal was almost worth its weight in carats, Jayawardene applied immense heat and pressure, carting 60 off 30 balls; finally, when the stone was done he cut and polished his gem, taking 15 off 5 balls, and left it out there for the world to admire.
Even Stephen Fleming, Jayawardene’s opposite number, and a captain known to take on and target his counterparts, was moved enough to walk up and congratulate him immediately after Sri Lanka had ended on 289 for 5. The manner in which he built his innings, never once doubting what was best for himself as batsman or the team as captain, harked back to the mindset of Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning captain, Arjuna Ranatunga. But the purity of his strokeplay, oozing class, not one shot played in anger, barely a desperate run scrambled, was reminiscent of that stylist, Aravinda de Silva.
But though Jayawardene was never once in trouble in the course of his innings, and always in control, it was not as though the conditions were perfect for batting. Although there wasn’t exaggerated assistance for the bowlers, the ball wasn’t exactly coming onto the bat nicely to be driven on the up at will. The fall of first Sanath Jayasuriya - bowled through the gate by James Franklin with the score on 13 - and later Kumar Sangakkara, who chipped Franklin to mid-on with Sri Lanka on 67, and New Zealand sniffed a chance.
Up until then it was Upul Tharanga, under severe pressure for occupying a spot some believed should have gone to Marvan Atapattu, had kept Sri Lanka going. He was scoring fluently, reaching 50 off 51 balls, though without any of the debonair mien of Jayawardene, and built a solid partnership with his captain. A late surge from him, including a sweetly timed six over cover, took him to 73 from 74 balls before he was bowled round his legs, shuffling across his stumps too much, by Daniel Vettori.
In a tournament where the umpiring standards have been uniformly high, a rare error each from the most experienced umpire and the best one, accounted for the final two wickets that fell. Rudi Koertzen gave Chamara Silva out lbw after a thick inside-edge went back onto pad, and Simon Taufel raised the dreaded finger when Tillakaratne Dilshan attempted to sweep one from Jacob Oram that was delivered from wide of the crease and struck the left leg in line with leg stump and would easily have missed another set of stumps.
Yet Jayawardene had kept his end tight, and built partnerships both times - 41 for the fourth wicket and 81 for the fifth - and was around to finish things off in style. A straight six that was gently caressed back over Oram’s head, a wristy flick off a full-toss that just eluded Shane Bond at deep backward square-leg and went the distance, and some sizzling late cuts powered Sri Lanka to 289 for 5 from 50 overs. 102 runs had come off the last 10 overs, and with their bowling attack, in these conditions, Sri Lanka needed to play really badly to lose.
Lasith Malinga kept up the tempo with a fiery spell, getting the ball to move away from the right-handed batsmen late at sheer pace. But it was a left-hander who suffered as Fleming was trapped in front of the stumps by one that started outside off and came into him. Ross Taylor, who has harassed by Malinga, was put out of his misery by Chaminda Vaas and Koertzen, adjudged lbw to a ball that would have missed the stumps.
Scott Styris, as he has done all tournament, punched well above his weight, creaming three straight sixes - twice off Dilhara Fernando, who was a mental wreck after being twice warned for running on the danger area in his first over, and once off Muralitharan - but he only managed 37 before popping a simple catch to short midwicket off an innocuous offbreak from Dilshan.
Muralitharan then swooped in, having Oram caught and bowled off a doosra, and then off the very next ball Brendon McCullum brilliantly caught by a diving Silva at short fine-leg, and all of a sudden New Zealand were 114 for 5. Peter Fulton, who had batted well for 46, chipped Jayasuriya to midwicket, Vettori offered his pad to a doosra that was pitched in line and destined for middle stump, and New Zealand were dead and buried at 116 for 7. The rest was mere formality, though a cameo from Franklin towards the end provided some passtime, as Sri Lanka romped into the final of the World Cup.
Out of nowhere, Sri Lanka have become the soul of the World Cup. India and Pakistan went a long time ago, and now with the hosts gone, Sri Lanka who play a band of cricket that fuses subcontinental artistry with contemporary ethos, have emerged the sentimental favourites for the neutrals. So much so that if they manage to beat New Zealand in Jamaica, they will be accorded the status of the home team in the final at Kensington Oval. And the man who helped them win their first World Cup believes that they have it in them to go all the way.
Dav Whatmore, whose coaching experience in the subcontinent spans over a decade, says Sri Lanka have turned a corner because they have been able to strike a combination versatile enough to compete with the home team when they tour abroad.
“They go to a country that has a bit of bounce and they have got the boys who can play the part.” “You’ve got to have, as much as you can, a square peg and a square hole. Trying to fit in any other shape is always fraught with a bit of danger.”
Sri Lanka have the most varied bowling attack in the current World Cup. Chaminda Vass brings left-arm swing and experience. He can move the new ball both ways, and bowl a variety of cutters with the old one. Lasith Malinga brings skiddy, explosive pace delivered from an unnerving angle; Dilhara Fernando gets them to rear, with Sachin Tendulkar all at sea with one which cut in sharply off the pitch; Farveez Maharoof hits the pitch hard and gets the ball to deviate off the seam; and Muttiah Muralitharan has added to his considerable armoury a devious scheme to bowl doosras to right-handers from round the wicket.
“To me, one of the biggest differences in Sri Lankan cricket has been finding the right balance,” Whatmore says. “They have multi-skilled boys who can fit into different roles without weakening any department.” It has helped that in Murali and Malinga they have two freaks, one a legend, the other fast acquiring a reputation for turning matches. “Good luck to them. These are players who come along once in a lifetime. The challenge is to keep them injury free.”
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Steve Bucknor, the Jamaican umpire, is in line to officiate in his fifth successive World Cup final. One criterion for choosing an umpire for the final is that the incumbent’s national side wouldn’t be playing and, with West Indies already out of the competition, Bucknor, who holds the record for having officiated in the maximum number of Tests (117), is a shoo-in.
Bucknor and Aleem Dar, from Pakistan, will be officiating in the second semi-final between South Africa and Australia in St Lucia on Wednesday. South Africa’a Rudi Koertzen and Australia’s Simon Taufel, who has been voted the ICC Umpire of the Year for the last three years, will adjudicate in the first semi-final between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Jamaica on Tuesday. Either Koertzen or Taufel will definitely miss out on officiating in the final, as one of South Africa or Australia will feature in the clash.
Bucknor officiated his first final between Pakistan and England in Melbourne in 1992. Four years later, the World Cup panel chose him for the Sri Lanka-Australia final in Lahore. In 1999, he and David Sheperd, the English umpire, stood in the final between Australia and Pakistan at Lord’s.
The umpires for the first semi-final will be assisted by TV umpire Daryl Harper (Australia) and fourth umpire Asad Rauf (Pakistan). Mike Procter (South Africa), former allrounder, will be the match referee. The corresponding list for the second semi-final reads: Billy Bowden (New Zealand) as TV umpire, Mark Benson (England) the fourth umpire, and Jeff Crowe (New Zealand) as the match referee.
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Ian Chappell, one of cricket world’s most knowledgeable brains, has termed the ongoing World Cup a “PR disaster.” The former Australian captain also slammed the ICC top brass over various issues in the World Cup.
Read the entire article written by the Australian legend,
If administrators were judged on performance the way players and coaches are, there would be a much higher turnover of officials.
The 2007 World Cup is a case in point. Malcolm Speed, the chief executive officer of the ICC, in response to strident criticism of the tournament said he was concentrating on the “positives rather than the negatives”. A serious cross-examination of Speed’s assertions suggest he’s doing more than just looking at a glass that is half full and it must contain something far stronger than water.
First, there was the failure of heavyweight Pakistan to qualify for the Super Eights. That was quickly followed by the mysterious murder of their coach Bob Woolmer and the abrupt retirement of the captain Inzamam ul-Haq. India, with its serious financial clout, was the next major team to be a no-show in the prestige section of the tournament. Shortly afterwards their coach Greg Chappell announced he wasn’t seeking an extension in the role but skipper Rahul Dravid survived.
Then the hosts imitated a well-fancied horse ridden by a careless jockey; West Indies started full of promise but faded quickly in the straight. This prompted Brian Lara to confirm his retirement from one-day cricket. That was followed by Ken Gordon, the president of the West Indies Cricket Board, alluding to a number of personnel changes for the upcoming tour of England.
Despite numerous serious controversies to divert attention, these calamities haven’t camouflaged the PR disaster that is the 2007 World Cup. Bickering over ticket prices and draconian measures to exclude musical instruments from the grounds has seen many matches played in a sterile environment and in sparsely populated stadiums. The blame game for these ill-judged decisions has been like watching a long rally in the French Open tennis tournament, which is all rather strange when every press release stresses: “This is the ICC Cricket World Cup.”Obviously in this case, the buck, like the tournament itself, appears to have no end of the line. Speed is always at great pains to spread the gospel that cricket is in good shape. However, you start to wonder if working in Dubai, where a ski resort is plonked in the middle of the desert and a hotel built in the ocean, hasn’t affected his grip on reality.
As if the litany of disasters at the World Cup isn’t evidence enough of a game in need of a re-think, there have been numerous other warning signals in the lead-up to the tournament. In the recent past there was the appalling handling of Zimbabwe’s predicament, the first ever forfeit of a Test match and the two prestigious one-day tournaments have been played within six months of each other.
Then there is the preposterous dilution of standards that has occurred under this regime. To have a match anointed as “official” appears to require nothing more than an assurance there are more than eleven registered cricketers in both countries participating in the match. This has led to a plethora of one-sided matches in both forms of the game. And we haven’t even mentioned corruption, which the England captain thinks is still prevalent in the game, or the mind-numbing mess that now constitutes the laws of cricket.
Nor does it take into account that two teams have dominated the Test arena for the last two-and-a-half decades. And one of those sides has just gone 25 games at the World Cup without defeat and is currently on track to clinch the first hat-trick in that tournament, while also being the current holder of the other major ODI trophy.
“Never mind,” I can hear the response, “the game is more affluent than ever before.” The game is like a tree: if you keep the trunk and the roots healthy the branches will take care of themselves. Perhaps the officials believe money grows on trees but the reality is, it only grows on Indian trees. And now there is conflict in cricket’s biggest market where a prominent Indian businessman has proposed a Kerry Packer-style raid on local cricket.
Packer’s influence changed cricket for the better in the late seventies and the game now needs a strong leader to set it on a firm footing to ensure a strong playing and financial future. The problem is the only drastic changes are among the playing and coaching personnel.
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West Indies’ last two World Cup games are shaping up as a valedictory to the captain Brian Lara, who will retire from one-day internationals after the tournament. Lara, who turns 38 on May 2, said: “My day in the sun is over. It’s tough playing one-day internationals out there.”
Lara, who has appeared in 297 matches scoring 10,354 runs with 19 centuries, will almost certainly finish his career against England at the Kensington Oval on April 21. West Indies can still make the semi-finals but need an unlikely sequence of results to allow them into the last four.
Lara will continue to play in Tests and after the 67-run defeat against South Africa he looked ahead to the tour of England. “We’ve got to pick ourselves up,” he said. “Cricket is going to go on.”
Lara is in his third stint as West Indies captain and has been the subject of much criticism for the team’s lacklustre performances. He said the campaign had been a major personal disappointment. “It’s a situation where you are playing your last few one-dayers and you hope you can end up in a World Cup final or a semi-final,” he said.
It is his fifth World Cup but West Indies have only once reached the last four during his career when they were beaten by Australia in Mohali in 1996. Lara denied that contract negotiations, which were still going on when the tournament started, had affected the West Indian performance.
“We’ve got a players’ association and a West Indies Cricket Board,” he said. “These matters are handled at that level by people who are astute enough to understand the delicate situation. We are just the players.
“Whatever the situation, when we go on the cricket field we try our best. I know the disappointment of the cricket fans. I am sad that we have disappointed the Caribbean and our supporters around the world.
“We feel it a lot and we know the man in the street is definitely disappointed. When we go to practice and see the people waving on the side of the road, we understand what cricket means to them.”
West Indies still have to play against Bangladesh on April 19 and England two days later. “We’ve got to dig deep,” Lara said. “It’s tough playing games where you’re not really involved in the tournament but you’ve got to put that aside and show some character and pride.”
Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, said it would be sad to see Lara go. “He’s been an unbelievable performer for the West Indies,” he said. “I hope the team plays for him in his last two games. He’s been a credit to the game.”
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