I am surprised that Nadal lost to Tsonga. No, I am not saying that Tsonga is not somebody who cannot beat Nadal, what I am saying is just before a Wimbledon you cannot afford this kind of mediocre performance when you are a world number 1. Moreover you are the contender of beating Federer’s record of 16 Grand slams. Nadal has 10 grand slams 6 of them are French Open, 2 Wimbledon, 1 US Open and 1 Australian Open. Maily most of his victories are on clay. If the surface is not clay he does not have a very good record. He has been accused of being an unidimensional player, and if you compare it with Federer it might be true as well. Federer has 16 Grand slams. 4 Australian Open, 6 Wimbledon, 5 US Open and 1 french open. He has a more balanced tally. Federer over the years have dominated all major tournaments. He was No 1 for the longest period of time and he has shown signs of his old self in French Open even though he lost. In all these comparisons most of the factors have gone in... Read More

Its a do or die match for the West Indies cricket team. The side is 2-0 down in a 5 match series. Their spearhead batsmen, Chris Gayle, is not in the team for reasons known only to the West Indies cricket board. It is no news that West Indies is not producing any more World Class players. They have a very long list of legends but currently their team is not at their best. They have two excellent batsmen one is out for unknown reasons and the other is resting for which their captain does not seem amused. West Indies cricket was at the top for a very long time but now it is on the verge of becoming a second class cricket playing nation probably in the same league as the Kenya or Scotland or something of that sort. To compound this problem their senior team members have recently had a problem with their board as well and I think that is why Chris Gayle is out. Today’s match I think even if the West Indies manage to win will require a super performance in all three department of... Read More

Yesterday Indian pace prime Zaheer Khan and theatrical Sreeshanth were ruled out of the West Indies Test tour due to injury. They both underwent fitness test and it was found out that they needed rehabilitation and rest. Praveen Kumar who is already part of ODI squad and Abimanyu Mithun will replace them. THE INDIAN TEAM : - M.S. Dhoni (captain), V.V.S. Laxman (vice-captain), M. Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, S. Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina and Parthiv Patel. This tour will be a great learning experience for the newcomers and youngsters as Sahin, Sehwag, and Gambhir are not playing the test series due to injuries and rehabilitation. Recently concluded IPL and before that world cup has drained many senior players leading to rest, injury or rehabilitation. These injuries have put up a question mark on the timing of the IPL and the much needed rest that the world cup... Read More

Yuvraj Singh, man of the tournament of the 2011 50 over world cup said that Indian captain MS Dhoni resembled ” bomb about to explode”. MS Dhoni had not fired in the most of the tournament. He fired when it mattered the most and had an great impact on the result of the game and probably to the lives of 121 billion people. Yuvraj Singh helped India win many matches in the recently concluded Cricket World Cup 2011. His role as batsmen, bowler and fielder was detriment to India finally winning the world cup which eluded India for the past 28 years. He wrote in the quarterly published newsletter of BCCI “He (Dhoni) was not getting big scores in the tournament, but he kept working hard, and did not miss a single practice session. Watching him in the nets gave one the impression that he was a ‘bomb about to explode’,” “Looking back, I am glad he ‘exploded’ in the final, and not earlier! He went in ahead of me in that game, but that was purely to keep the... Read More

When he left India after the world cup everyone in the team and country wanted him to stay on as coach but that was not to be. Gary Kirsten will coach South Africa for the next two years. Gary Kirsten has been selected after an extensive research for the post had been made. He will be assisted by Russel Domigo and Allan Donald will be the bowling coach. Gary Kirsten played a very important part in winning India the world cup. He was urged and requested by the board and senior members of the Indian team who had developed a great respect from the players. As a player Gary Kirsten represented South Africa and played 101 tests and 185 ODI’s. In tests he made 7289 runs at an average of 45.27 with 21 centuries under his belt. Allan Donal was the bowling coach in the New Zealand side during the world cup. He was with England before that. Kirsten said consultants would be used from time to time to assist the full-time coaches. He said Paddy Upton, the mental conditioning coach who... Read More

According to PCB Afridi has violated the players’ code of conduct, they suspended his central contract and denied him permission to play for Hampshire in England. The PCB does little to its players for ball tampering and doping but they cannot stand their players speaking a word against them. They have literally banned him from playing cricket. Shahid Afridi took an inexperienced team to the world cup and took them as far as the semi finals, he won them a series in West Indies and still he is the one who is wrong in doing things. Pakistan Cricket team coach Waqar Younis and team manager Intikhab Alam submitted a report that says “Afridi came into the meetings with a decisive mindset and was refusing to discuss the playing 11 options for the team, and behaved very inappropriately and walked out of the meeting,” Waqar wrote in his report. “Afridi’s attitude and unwillingness to sort out matters led to a very uncomfortable dressing room environment which affected the... Read More