Rahane can be leader in the future. He has just started his career and would be too early to even think of burdening him with captaincy. I am not sure if Vijay has the temprament for being a captain. And Rohit in view is not consistent/reliable enough. Leading an IPL side is different than leading a test side. At present Kohli and his ‘aggression’ seem to be the only decent option that Indian cricket has post MS Dhoni. Too early to say where will this aggression lead the team to.

Cricket is an unpredictable game. These players are good but don’t have international exposure. But still they may come good on their day. How much will they be able to do on a big stage such as the world cup, well that is for us to see. Morgan and hales are good. But will have rise up to the occasion? I mean they have good players but are they good enough to help England reach the final stage (winning would be a different thing).

But, all said and done cricket is still unpredictable. When Indian won the inaugural t20 they were the least rated team to win that year. Especially after what happened in the 50 over world cup and with a novice captain. But they did something unbelievable.

WI and Aus are no doubt the front runners. Hope England can put up a good show too.

My top 5 will be – AB, Kohli, Williamson, McCullum/Amla and Smith

Haha..yeah. may be

Yeah Vic. He is an amazing player and a very nice person too

Yes, Mc cullum is in the form of his life now and playing attacking cricket which is best at. And, smith has had an extended consistent season. And well, Jayawardene has retired. And they all are amongst the finest.

But AB also has been consistent enough for long and has been winning matches for SA for a very long time now. He has shown is mettle in all three formats more consistently than any other batsmen. A few stats in the write up support that. I rest my case.

Yeah. I also think that his talent at the crease is complement by a very good cricketing brain. He always out-thinks the bowling side. He might look animated but he is also very strategic in playing his shots and planning his innings as well.

May be there aren’t may examples at he moment. The test innings that I mentioned in the post I think was an example of one of the best test innings that one could play and save the game for your team. With time and more test matches, I am sure AB will prove his mettle in the longer format too. May be the most would agree.

+1 to that. I also think that Smith might be a little ahead of Warner at the moment (not ahead of AB may be 🙂 )

Smith is the golden phase of his career – he doesn’t seem to get out. Warner has really come of age. Once known as only a dynamite in the shorter format, today he is a threat in all forms of the game. I also think that both will score plenty against the weak Windies and against the englishmen too (who look more confused today..more than anything else)

Of course Jarijari. Sachin is my all time favorite too. In fact as I said in the article that after his retirement I almost stopped watching cricket.

But, watching AB after watching few of these greats constantly during my teen and even till the last couple of years I thought that AB is the most complete batman today. I feel he brings out that X factor to the game apart from his batting skills. From the lot of batsmen playing today he might be the most complete amongst them. He might still take some time to get up to the likes of Sachin and Sir Viv. Lets hope the excitement never dies.

Cheers!

It’s almost like an act of treason. But, the guy has accepted his mistake and apologized as well. But, don’t you think such a great talent deserves another chance – not for himself but for English cricket and the game at large?

Haha..yes.

I just miss those reverse swinging yorkers that we used to see in the earlier days of ODIs – especially from the Pakistani legends. I think that an old ball just makes the game more interesting towards the end 🙂

Agree that the rule book mentions limitation on the length and width of the cricket bat. And nothing on the size of edges/thickness is mentioned. Because of which poor shots or mis-hits are going for sixes very frequently. And of course the bats are so good these days that the sweet spot is much larger than it would have been 10-15 years ago.
In fact a report commissioned by the MCC, cricket’s official law makers, has found the bat thickness to have increased up to 22 mm over the past century and the size of the ‘sweet spot’ on the face of the bat is almost two-and-a-half times larger. The thickness of edges in modern bats has also increased by almost 300 per cent which, combined with greater stiffness to limit vibrations, means mis-hits can travel much further. I am sure ICC must be noticing this.

I know that stump heights are defined by the laws of the game. But, every can be re-looked for good.

Actually, both are independent suggestions. I am not trying to say that because of the changes in bat size, height of the stumps should change. I am suggesting that a change in height of the stumps may have some advantages for the bowler similar to what the variation in type of bats have had for the batsmen. It might just make the game more exciting 🙂

I am sure AB won’t 🙂
I am not sure what the height of stumps should be. But, if the size of bats have been changing why cant the stumps. Why not if they might the bowlers a better chance to get bowled outs and also increase the chances for leg before.

Good bowlers will do well and good bastmen will always work wonders. The point is that the game will continue to be exciting if all the teams had 5 best bowlers and 6 best batmen. That’s an ideal world scenario. If you look at the stats of CWC’15 you will see that the top 10 bowlers in the tournament had an economy in the range of 4.5 and 5.0 (Starc was just exceptional with 3.5).

Just look at the way the balance of the game is slowly shifting towards the batsmen. Not all teams will have all great bowlers. There will also always be a mix of good and average in the real world (like it has always been). Let me compare a few stats of all the world cups (WC 2015 data does not include the scores of the final) to justify the points raised (assume that the mix of a cricket team has ideally remained almost the same)

Average first innings scroe
Innings Runs Score
All ODIs upto WC 2647 653900 247
WCs 1975-2007 231 57785 250
WC-2011 matches 27 7770 288
WC-2015 matches 26 8403 323

The average first-innings score, which remained at around 250 through all matches and the first-nine World Cups, registered a good increase to 288 in 2011. Now this average suddenly jumps to 322, a 10% increase.

Point at which scores have doubled
Innings Overs
All ODIs upto WC 1266 29.5
WCs 1975-2007 101 29.5
WC-2011 matches 27 31
WC-2015 matches 26 33.2

It is almost exactly at 30 overs. The 2011 tournament saw a slight move up to 31.0 over. But 2015 has seen a significant jump to 33.4 overs. This is almost exactly the two-thirds stage. That means the score is doubled in half the number of overs. Frightening thought indeed for the bowlers.

Avge runs scored & wkts captured in first ten overs (where data is available)
Innings Runs Wickets
All ODIs upto WC 3688 44.6 1.37
WCs 1975-2007 280 42.7 1.46
WC-2011 matches 98 46.8 1.37
WC-2015 matches 70 47.7 1.54

This has remained almost constant. Well, nothing much has changed in this phase.

Overs in which 10 or more runs were scored
Overs Runs Average
All ODIs upto WC 1844 16720 9.1
WCs 1975-2007 140 1148 8.2
WC-2011 matches 49 450 9.2
WC-2015 matches 35 476 13.6

This figure surely cant be such due to the quality of bowlers. We cant say that the skills of batsmen have improved drastically and the bowlers have lost shine.

Anyways, the point of here was that the gruesome battle between bat and ball which we all love has lowered drastically over the years. This has to do with the attitude of the batsmen and the changes in the rules as well. Bowlers also have the freedom to do variations but they would also need an equal say from if any variation in the game is brought about. For e.g. Most of the off spinners who used to be so effective are not be able to bowl the doosra or the wrong one now – mostly because of the rule of 15 degree. I don’t say that they should be allowed to bend more. But can it be relaxed? I don’t know the answer. The spinners are getting slaughtered due to the fielding restrictions – even the good ones. Bowlers like Corey anderson have gone 6.5+ in the WC. Batting side is free to choose a powerplay (which gives away runs but also takes wickets anyway). Why cant the bowling side have their powerplay. The game should be balanced and fair for both skills and so should be the changes. Our opinions might differ but I guess the intent remians the same.

Cheers to cricket 🙂

P.S. It’s in the news today that ICC might scrap the batting powerplay altogether.

Yes, there needs to be an overhaul in the format to bring back the lost colors. May be something drastic, if not the points mentioned in the post. Cheers!

Agree to the point about the pitches. I thought about it but then didn’t know how can the quality of pitches can be controlled. The only way might be to have some qualifying criteria for the season. But I guess that the iternary these days are fixed much in advance. Or may be there can be a point system/card system like football for the pitches. If they get say, two or three red cards, they won’t be allowed the next match until they earn it again.

Also, on the fielding restrictions they need to be a bit in the favor of bowling side as well. These restriction definitely need to loosen up if not left open. May be there could be a bowling power play of a defined period which gives the fielding side that advantage to have the field setting the way they want (without restriction) just like the batting power play.

I think having day/night test matches is something inevitable which is bound to happen someday.

Consider a few points –
1. Importance of commercialization. In the end the more fans we have, the more opportunities the game provides – profession and passion, the more it is good for the game. I think commercialization of the game is a much needed thing which might not be the most wanted by many
2. Consider cricket as an entertainment in the sports genre. It needs to compete with many other genres.
3. If cricket is a brand and ODI/t20/Test matches are in natural extensions, the extensions need to adapt to what the consumer wants
4. The game also needs to change as do our lifestyles. The way people (read fans) used to live say 20 years ago and the way they live today has change dramatically. The role of digitization, changing media patterns, the fact that 24 hours are also less for a modern generation guy (not much time for entertainment huh!), increase in the games reach making the rural consumers as important as the urban consumers are some of the lifestyle changes that the game also need to adapt.

And well as they say, change is the only constant thing in the universe. So, lets go with the flow. Cheers!

Yes, KP is much more than just his batting. And I am sure about any other place but some franchisee in the IPL would definitely have him – either as a player or a consultant 😉

Cant agree more. If the presence of a quality player is any sort of threat and the captain cant really do anything about it, he can definitely go. The captains put the team first and then think about their comfort. And in this case I guess if it comes to individuals (which I think should never happen), KP scores way over AC.Sorry state for a team sport.

Yep. His antics on twitter and that incident during the SA tour are no less than an act of treason. And it is also right to question his commitment. But, when you get success you sometimes become arrogant. His arrogance and attitude could have been controlled by his mentors, mates and ECB. That’s also a trait of team spirit. Isn’t it? Anyways, I still feel that his presence in the team would have definitely been of great value – talent minus attitude may be 🙂