India Cricket Live » Photos

Sachin Tweets: By the way this time its real me

Alka Verma — Fri, 07 May 2010 07:51:42 +0000

Sachin Tendulkar

Maestro Sachin Tendulkar can be accessed now on Twitter through Sachin_rt and Bollywood stars went all out to welcome the world-class cricketer on the micro blogging site.

India vs Sri Lanka: 1st Test Day 2

Neetu Sharma — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:09:25 +0000

On the Day 2 first Test India is over to Srilanka with the score of 271 runs. India creates a score of 426 runs in the 1st innings.

Srilanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan made a half century being not out in the match with 88 runs. In 58 matches it is his 14th 50+. Srilanka creates a score of 155 runs in 1st innings. In the 2nd session of the innings srilanka showed good work in batting. The duo made 81 runs in 107 hit. [smartads]

India vs Australia Series 2009 Fixtures

Neetu Sharma — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:00:29 +0000

If you are looking for Hero Honda Cup Full Schedule and want to know that where and when each ODI will be played between India and Australia then just click on the schedule mentioned below. You can see the date, location and timings of each match of India vs Australia series 2009

Top cricketers

Neetu Sharma — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:46:00 +0000

List of top cricketers in my point of view… Numbers do NOT indicate ranks.. I am not going back to the old era, staying with the 90s and 2000s

GREATEST CRICKETERS:( nos. do not indicate ranking but when you ask yourself the question, the order in which you remember the names are the below. That is how I made this list )

01) Sachin Tendulkar
02) Brian Lara
03) Shane Warne
04) Muttiah Muralitharan
05) Wasim Akram
06) Glenn McGrath
07) Ricky Ponting
08) Jacques Kallis
09) Curtly Ambrose
10) Waqar Younis
11) Adam Gilchrist
12) Courtney Walsh
13) Steve Waugh
14) Inzamam-ul-Haq
15) Rahul Dravid
16) Sourav Ganguly
17) Mohammad Yousuf
18) Allan Donald
19) Andy Flower
20) Shaun Pollock
21) Matthew Hayden
22) Aravinda de Silva
23) Anil Kumble
24) Sanath Jayasuriya
25) Michael Bevan
26)Arjuna Ranatunga
27)Hansie Cronje
28)Saqlain Mushtaq
29)Mark Taylor
30)Gary Kirsten
31)Kevin Pieterson

Few other impact players who miss out on making it to the greatest list

01) Chaminda Vaas
02) Chris Cairns
03) Alec Stewart
04) Mohammed Azharuddin
05) Saeed Anwar
06) Stephen Fleming
07) Nathan Astle
08) Jonty Rhodes
09) Imran Khan
10) Marvan Atapattu
11) Mark Waugh
12)Nick Knight
13)Navjot Sidhu
14)Nasser Hussain
15)Michael Vaughan

GREATEST CRICKETERS (individually):

Technologies-Bowling machine

Neetu Sharma — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:49:00 +0000

What is a bowling machine, and how does it work?
A bowling machine is a device that functions as a nets bowler, firing balls at batsmen, providing them with practice. The machine can simulate various types of pace, swing, and spin bowling accurately.

The main mechanism in a mechanical bowling machine (the most common kind) consists of two spinning wheels, each driven by its own motor, between which the balls are fed via a chute. The device is mounted on a tripod or similar, at such a height as to
simulate the delivery of a bowler of average height. The machine runs
on rechargeable batteries; each charge provides between two and six
hours of running time.

swing and spin–

Swing is produced by varying the speeds of the wheels independently using
a manual controller – i.e., speeding one wheel up and slowing the other
one down, which produces an effect similar to that caused when a football
is kicked with the outer part of the foot. The ball swerves away from the
faster wheel.

To impart spin, in addition to having the wheels move at different speeds,
the machine head is tilted and then swing rotation is put on the ball. The
ball turns because the rotation is at an angle when it hits the ground.

The length of deliveries can be adjusted by tilting the head of the
machine as required.

The speed can be varied from 20mph to 95mph.

The bowling machine is most accurate with a round object, and cricket
balls are not perfectly round. Moreover, cricket balls are made of leather,
which is prone to tearing when squeezed between the spinning wheels.
This is why hard polyurethane balls – dimpled for swing – are used.

An advance over the mechanical version is the programmable bowling
machine, which can be configured to bowl different types of deliveries
in sequence. A programmable bowling machine called Merlyn, which
it was claimed could bowl any ball known to man, including
Shane Warne’s legbreaks, was in the news when it was used by
England in the run-up to their successful 2005 Ashes campaign.

More common are pneumatic bowling machines, which use a
pump to provide a flow of air that propels the ball through a
tube at varying speeds.

CL T20 FIXTURES

Neetu Sharma — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:34:00 +0000

Thu Oct 15 (D/N) 20:00 IST	League B – Royal Challengers Bangalore v Victoria BUSHRANGERS	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Fri Oct 16 16:00 IST	League A – Somerset CCC v Diamond Eagles	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad

Champions league CLT20 stage round recap

Neetu Sharma — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:41:00 +0000

What happened thus far, a look back..

Great inauguration, amazing choreography by Shaolin Monks and others.
Boring speech which was booed by the audience; started clapping before he could finish. (Mr.Modi)

match fixing

Neetu Sharma — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:23:06 +0000

Why did each of the IPL teams lose their 1st match ??
What do the empty stands indicate ??
Do the less famous sides have to lose out ??
Who is watching them play ??

Ray Jennings had made a comment that IPL teams will find it tough in the tournament.. True..

The other domestic sides that compete in the tournament are well established sides who play cricket right throughout the year.. Take Victoria Bushrangers or NSW blues for example.. Pura cup which is Sheffield Shield cup now is a tough 4 day competition that 6 teams compete in.. Then there is an ODI tournament that they take part in.. KFC big bash is just an addition to that.. So, these teams play the 4day competition, the one-day and T20..

IPL teams on the other hand meet a week or two before the tournament begins and stay together for 1.5 months in playing a minimum of 14 matches and maximum of 16 matches in the tournament.. So it is seriously difficult for them to compete against the other domestic teams.. But what makes the tournament alive is that it is a T20 competition and reputation counts for little..

So, we can argue that the IPL teams took a little bit of time to group and come together as a unit than blame the quality of cricket or the lack of it..

The tournament matches of non-IPL teams were played against empty stands.. The question that was asked immediately was, what if the IPL teams do not go into the league stage ? Will there be viewership on tv sets India, forget the stadiums ?

If the IPL teams were to be left behind, there wouldn’t have been any advertisers for the tournament.. With poor viewership, it would have been a tough ask for the organizers to call the CL T20 to be a success..

There was a question asked in the IPL-2 not only by the cricket fans but also by the ICC as to whether the matches are stage managed, to say that ‘we had to wait till the last day to decide the semifinalists’ and stuffs that would speak of the success and quality of the tournament and how the teams are so evenly matched..

Do we have to ask that question here too that deliberate efforts are made to push IPL teams through?

Ah, common..
The Deccan match went to the wires, a thrilling last ball finish..
The Bangalore match was punctuated by one classy knock from Duminy, whose individual brilliance enabled SA to win against AUS in Australia..
The Delhi match can be attributed to the slow low nature of the pitch..
Thats it, we have the answers.. No FIXING !!!

If a drop catch by Younis Khan in the CT2009 semi finals can be debated for fixing, a catch where the reaction time wouldn’t be more than half a second, then these matches can surely be..

Fixing or no fixing, the tournament isn’t a success yet.. The general public need to know the teams, the players, how they qualified and develop loyalties.. May be by the second edition, which may or may not be held in India, the viewers would have learnt about the teams and the tournament would have a larger reach..

trp goes down in champions league clt20

Neetu Sharma — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:23:04 +0000

Ratings point is a measure of viewership of a particular television program.

One single television ratings point (Rtg or TVR) represents 1% of viewers in the surveyed area in a given minute.

As an example, say, there are an estimated 100 million television households in the surveyed country. Thus, a single national household ratings point represents 1%, or 1 million households.. When used for the broadcast of a program, the average rating across the duration of the show is typically given. Ratings points are often used for specific demographics rather than just households. For example a ratings point among the key 18-49 year olds demographic is equivalent to 1% of all 18-49 year olds in the country.

In India, television ratings are collected by two main organizations – TAM India and Audience Measurement Analytics Limited (aMap). aMap entered the market in 2005, with more coverage and latest technology from Telecontrol-Switzerland. aMap polls the meters (6000 households) using GSM network and provides ratings overnight. TAM India collects data manually (physical visits) and releases data weekly. aMap also has a stand-alone digital panel (aMapDigital) to measure TV viewing in DTH homes.

The TRP ratings show that T20 is starting to get boring and unknown teams playing only adds to the woes.. The empty stands are also an indication that CL T20 hasn’t yet caught the viewers.. If this is the situation in a cricket crazy country, the situation will only be grim when CL goes around the world..

A comparison of important matches in ICC T20 WC 2009, IPL ,CT 2009 and CL T20 is done below..

For IPL 2009, the reach had increased.. More viewers but they stayed for a lesser time on the channel.. The ratings were 4.3 for RCB vs KKR in 2008 and was 3.6 in 2009 for CSK vs MI…
The 2nd semi final CSK vs RCB had a rating of 6.5 against 5.5 rating for semi-2 in IPL-1..
But 8.8 rating of IPL-1 was far too higher than 8.3 of IPL-2 ..

Having said that, and IPL being too loud being the reason for its reach and talks that IPL and T20 are going to take the world by storm spelling an end to test matches and the ODIs were proved wrong in the ICC world cup, may we say that the timings of the match were a dent to the viewership..

In ICC WC 2009, IND-WI match had highest rating points of 5.4 followed by Ind-Eng game 4.8 ..
The finals had a rating of 3.7 in star cricket and DD had a rating of 3.8 ….

Still we find that an Ind-Pak match garners the same rating as that of T20 finals.. So, a great game of cricket is still appreciated irrespective of whether its a T20 or ODI.. Over 30 million viewed Ind-Pak match.. The knock out stages did not do that well because of the absence of Indian team..

The Champions League has fared even worse with an average of 0.74 so far, according to TV monitoring agency, aMap.. Empty stands also adds to the woes.. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore was full even for the Ind-Aus test match while in the other 3 matches we got to see empty stands.. But now, the same stadium in Bangalore was empty for Trinidad match..

This takes us to the next question.. Will the matches be fixed to let the IPL teams into the league stage ?

the castrol index

Neetu Sharma — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:10:00 +0000

The Castrol Index looks at a batsman or bowler’s performance in his core skill area.For a Batsman, its the batting that counts and bowling adds on and vice-versa for the bowlers.. For the all rounders though, the indices are added..

For a batsman it’s his Batting Momentum, the combination of runs scored and the rate at which those runs are scored..

For a bowler it’s his Bowling Efficiency, the combination of wickets taken and the economy rate.

The Castrol Index also factors in each player’s non core skills, such as the Bowling Efficiency for a batsman or the Batting Momentum for a bowler. This is crucial, because in the shorter formats of the game every ball matters.

The Castrol Index also factors in each player’s fielding performance, such as runs saved or conceded, which further adds to the bonus or penalty earned. It’s by looking at all three aspects of the game for every player and not just the runs scored or wickets taken, that the Castrol Index is able to tell you the true impact of every player’s contribution in the shorter versions of the game.

With a match centre, that previews and reviews every match with the help of the Castrol Index.. It is claimed that this index predicts the outcomes and deduces the player performances in a much more comprehensive way than what a simple statistic of runs scored and wickets taken would do..

The expert fan view would run throughout the Champions League T20 where fans can post questions or answer the ones posted by their peers.. The best post and answer of each day would be picked up by Harsha Bhogle, the famous commentator of the ESPNSTAR group.. And what more there are cash rewards for doing the same..

visit http://www.castrolcricket.com/ for details..