The unsung hero

When I was a kid, I have never had an opinion of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, except when he'd bat against India. 

At that time, I was a frantic Indian cricket fan. Not that I am not now; I prefer being a lot more objective about the game.

But after yesterday, I feel Chanderpaul is the best modern day batsman produced by the West Indies. 

Lara is overrated, in my opinion and Gayle is too flamboyant. 

Chanderpaul has stayed in the side since 1994 and has been a good servant to the game. 

He has no great technique. In fact, CricInfo's biography opens with 

'The possessor of the crabbiest technique in world cricket, Shivnarine Chanderpaul proves there is life beyond the coaching handbook.'

 But yet, again and again, the guy doesn't disappoint. He's still unbeaten on 153 and I don't know how much he'll make. 

He's been making runs consistently against all nations, but has always been overshadowed by Lara, Hooper and now Chris Gayle. But he's always delivered and that makes him great. Let's not forget that he nearly averages 50 in test matches.

Also, the fact that if he didn't sport West Indies colours, he'd look like a runtier version of my brother, has made him one of my favorite cricketers today.

All time WI XI

So CricInfo has come out with the All-Time WI XI
It's simple actually. You have most of Clive Lloyd's side from 1983-1984
Just drop Gomes and put Sobers.
I'd do the same for Haynes and take Roy Fredricks instead. That way, you have a right and left hand combination as well.
I could replace Walcott for Jeff Dujon, but Dujon's a much better wicketkeeper and this side has all the batting that it needs.
So here they are
1) CG Grenidge
2) RC Fredricks
3) Everton Weeks
4) IVA Richards
5) Clive Lloyd
6) Gary Sobers
7) Jeff Dujon (wk)
8) Malcolm Marshall
9) Andy Roberts
10) Joel Garner
11) Michael Holding

The bowling partnership the world needs to see

It breaks my heart to see the West Indies play cricket the way they do today.

They have become a lot like the Pakistani side. Brilliant on a day and faulty on others. 

There is no consistency and for those who have loved and follow the game, their downfall is one of the tragedies of modern-day cricket. 

Having said that, there is one thing that makes me happy from this.

World cricket finally has a really good fast bowling partnership.

After Wasim-Waqar and Ambrose-Walsh dominated players for many years in the 90s and early 2000, it is now the turn of Steyn and Morkel to become the next pair of new ball bowling greats.

Now, the cricketing purist will crucify me for not including McGrath-Gillespie and Donald-Pollock in this list of great fast bowlers, but while McGrath and Pollock were great bowlers, they were not express. They relied on line, length, bounce and accuracy, which made them so dangerous.

Steyn and Morkel demoralized the West Indies in the first innings of the test match, but I still maintain that the best spell I saw them bowl was against Australia to Michael Hussey a couple of years ago.

It was genuinely quick shit and I had my heart in my mouth.

If you guys don't believe me, check this spell out yours

Clean and competitive cricket is back, but we can't see it

So I just read that Bermuda will host the Americas Championship
I like Beyond the Test World as a blog. It shifts the focus off all the players and gives cricket some popularity.
When I read about non-test playing nations play, my initial feeling is that it will be stiff competition because the teams are all in the same league.
Sometimes of course, they do something miraculous and end up beating a test playing nation. The best examples of that are  the Netherlands against England in the World T20 last year or Ireland against Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup and of course, Kenya against the West Indies in the 1996 World Cup.
But yeah, if given an opportunity, I'd watch this series because it would be clean. Let's face it Bermuda, the United States, Canada, Cayman Islands, Argentina and the Bahamas. You can't play dirty cricket with that combination.
There will be no media coverage and now intense fan-following.
It will be clean cricket in its purest and most competitive form

Is the IPL to blame?

India lost because they were crap.
In the first year of the T20 cup, India and Pakistan were unstoppable because they were the only two teams that understood the T20 format.
Yuvraj smashed Broad for 36 in an over; Sreesanth was actually bowling maiden overs and RP was the next big thing.
Similarly for Pakistan, Umar Gul was their bowling sensation and carried forward that form to the following World Cup, which Pakistan won. Also, Misbah-Ul-Haq invented the scoop shot that gave him a lot of runs and India the first World Cup.
Then came the IPL. In IPL I and II, since Pakistani players were selected, they got better international exposure and capitalized on it to take the next World Cup.
Meanwhile, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies were slowly getting the hang of playing the shortest form of the game.
Australia, however, were getting raped, which is why they have come back with a vengeance this year.
This year, IPL 3 saw no Pakistani players. There were more Caucasians than there were in the previous two tournaments. Hell, even Jacques Kallis was selected to represent South Africa for the T20 this year because of his IPL form.
India had just finished off two seasons - one with South Africa and earlier to Bangladesh - before IPL began.
The players felt that money was more important that resting their bodies.
The effect was disaster.
On the other hand, Pakistan hasn't played too much cricket are probably taking the same plane as India is.
So, is the IPL to blame totally? I'd ask Lalit, but he's got his own issues to deal with at the moment

Aman Ki Asha takes a whole new level

So India played shittier cricket that the West Indies today.
Gayle finally stuck form and raped the bowling, barring Harbhajan. The others bowled like a bunch of garbage.
As I predicted, they had Roach in the side and I forgot that Taylor bowled fast.
Roach took another two wicket haul in his 4 overs, something he has done only twice before.
We could have won because of the number of wides that were bowled by their side. So if we are to reconcile anything from the match, it was that they bowled shit. But then again, we batted shittier, while Gayle singlehandedly won the match for them.
Now, India and Pakistan can go home together in the same plane and Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza can pole dance for them as part of the Aman Ki Asha Peace process

India vs West Indies: A preview

So India play the West Indies tonight.
Personally, I hate watching matches in the Caribbean because I have to stay awake all night.
I've watched the all-nighters, when India or Australia have toured. When other teams tour, I usually watch until I can't keep my eyes open.
But yeah, back to the topic: it is a do-or-die situation for both teams.
West Indies will rely on an all-pace attack, after watching what Australia did to India the other night.
They'll probably take Kemar Roach, although his record in T20 is shit. The West Indies as a unit, personally is shit today. It's unfortunate, but it's the truth. Yet, despite being shit, they show signs of brilliance like the did when they beat England the other day (with a bit of help from Duckworth and Lewis). But yeah, their brilliance is inconsistent and hopefully tonight, for the sake of the Indian fan and the BCCI, whose IPL franchise paid some of their players millions of dollars to play for the IPL teams, they will play like crap.
India have some problems. Barring the brilliance of Rohit Sharma, who batted like he was on LSD the other night, the others are struggling. Yuvraj Singh shouldn't be in the side; the bowlers, except for Harbhajan are out of sorts and the fielding is as good as a child representing his apartment for a cricket match.
So tonight's contest winner will technically be the one who plays less shit. There won't be any brilliance; there won't be any one-man army (unless of course Pollard decides to sodomize us with his cricket bat); there will just be two teams making fools of themselves on the field.