Cricket loses a Legend

The former umpire David Shepherd is no more with us. He passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was an umpire of the highest order. He was a character and no wonder everyone liked his company. The players, the spectators, his colleagues and just everyone loved him for his good sense of humor. His hopping act is one thing that none of us can forget. He used to stand one-legged when the score was on 111 considering it an unlucky number for the batting side. ‘Shep’ as he was dearly known, stood for 92 tests and 172 ODIs before he retired in 2005. He made his first appearance in the International arena during The Ashes test match in 1985 along with Dickie Bird.

David Shepherd was very much attached to his hometown Devon and he is rightly called “dyed-in the-wool Devonian”. We surely miss him and cherish those light moments on the field when that cute man won thousands of hearts standing one-legged.

Kudos to England!

The prestigious little urn is all England’s. They win the series hands down. In front of an electric home crowd England beat Australia 2-1 to win the Ashes series in style. The 5^th and the final match at Oval just had everything in it. England was on fire from day 1 of the match and they truly and surely deserve this victory.

Oh dear! I was almost in tears when I saw my team winning it. This series would remain in my memories forever. Boy!! What a match that was! I’m speechless! We got to appreciate both the teams for the memorable moments they have given us. Australia was equally good in the series but it was the boys from England who put their hands up when it most mattered. Winning the decider at Oval after a terrible match at Headingly under immense pressure speaks volumes about the boys. Ecstatic and jubilant atmosphere at the Oval lightened up the stadium. I wish I was present there.

Andrew Strauss must be proud of the way he led his team to glory. Stuart Broad got a fiver, Graeme Swann bowled exceedingly well and that debutant Trott scored a ton. He must be going through an emotional phase early in his career. It was not a fairy tale exit for Freddie Flintoff but he would treasure every moment of his final series in White. Skipper Strauss came across testing times and did well to handle all the pressure moments. He was exceptional with his field placements. It was a complete team effort. They did remarkably well to win against tough opponents – Australia.

England won the big moments and eventually won the Ashes series. We have come to the end of an epic series and whether you are an Aussie supporter or an England supporter I’m very sure that you would have enjoyed every bit of the series. We witnessed some great cricket all summer thanks to The Ashes.

Job well done guys!!

The Wall makes a come-back!

The much awaited teams for the tri-series in Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in South Africa are announced. Rahul Sharad Dravid returns to one-day cricket after a long gap. The last ODI he played was way back in October 2007. All Bangaloreans are celebrating the moment and hopefully there are more celebrations in store when he contributes to India’s victory. Little Master Sachin Tendulkar who was not a part of Windies tour returns. Young Suresh Raina is fit and raring to go while Rohit Sharma who hasn’t made the best use out of his opportunities sits out. All-rounder Abhishek Nayar remains in the 15 member squad.

Amit Mishra is another come-back man. He returns to shorter format after 6 long years though he is a regular in the longer format. Mishra last played in April 2003 against South Africa. The spinner from Delhi is selected over Pragyan Ojha who has done nothing wrong to be dropped. Mishra faired well in the emerging players’ series and that could be the only reason for his selection. But sometimes LUCK does matter.

Sehwag and Zaheer Khan miss out due to injuries which means D.Karthick has to fill in Viru’s shoes while there are plenty other fast bowlers to lead the pace attack in Zak’s absence.

Overall it’s a pretty balanced side with solid batting order and decent bowling attack. I’m still not convinced with the exclusion of Rohit and Ojha. I have huge expectations from both these young men. Unfortunately, they haven’t lived up to my expectations as yet.

BCCI Corporate Cup begins on September 8th and the players will undergo a 4-day training camp at the NCA from August 27^th. It is to be hoped that ‘the Wall’ stands tall and so does Team India.

ODI squad - Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, RP Singh, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Karthik, and Abhishek Nayar