The Googly

Sreesanth weeps like a prom queen with a ripped dress whose boyfriend has done one with the class slapper

Grass roots cricket is the place to be

This is my farewell piece here for the Googly and it's hard to know where to begin or what to write.  With only one piece left, I wondered whether to continue with the off-stage antics of Shane Warne - thinking the tram-crash fest in Melbourne last week - or whether to write about something closer to home.

I've chosen home because I'm sure you all know about the other thing! So last weekend I went to our season opener. A triangualar tournament of Twenty/20s between Lossie, Elgin and Fochabers. What a day to open the cricket season. Minus about 10, no-one there but me and the prettiest ground in the north-east looking dreadful because all the trees are still in full winter mode.

A ground that delights in being situated beside the Spey and lined on all sides by lovely trees was left looking like a 12 year-old's football playground at the side of the A96!

It didn't matter - my team hammered the opposition to win their matches and to my surprise, enchanted with some damn fine cricket. The match I'd been to before this had been Australia v India at the MCG. Sitting in the sun there, I had been entranced at the sight of Ishant Sharma befooling the Aussies with his magnificant bowling, and equally been impressed by Gilchrist walking when palpably not out. Last weekend, everyone out walked before the umpires even gave them out. It was cricket as I know it.

There could be no greater contrast between freezing to death at Fochabers, and having to leave the MCG because it was too hot. Amateurs playing for nothing but the love of the game - professionals earning their livings, but there was something that made these two experiences the same. I was the fan at both matches. I cared. In fact I probably applauded my mate Dave with more enthusiasm when he got a wicket than I did Ishant.

This may be the end of The Googly, but it won't be the end of fans wanting to have a voice.

It's been great fun being part of this and I hope all readers will find their way to other sites. Here at The Googly we have directed readers to check out many up and coming England cricketers - so follow our stars. Last year Toots and I brought you all the news of the County Cricket and hopefully you enjoyed that. Keep the faith. County Cricket is not dead. Outside the Counties, not just here in Scotland, cricket is a fine place to be. See this little song from someone in Oxford:

If you go down to the Parks tomorrow, you’re sure of a big surprise,

If you go down to the Parks tomorrow, you’d better go down in whites,

For ev’ry fan that ever there was, will gather there for certain, because

Tomorrow’s the day the Oxford UCCE play Nottinghamshire

Ev’ry cricket fan who’s been good, Is sure to see 3

England

players,

Including a leading wicket taker, and lots of runs beside

Beneath the spires where nobody works, they’ll bat and field as long as they please,

Cos that the way the cricketers have their innings.

All the best to my readers. Follow the links and you'll find me elsewhere.

[Image: Getty] [mimitig}

Allen Stanford: "Twenty20 could be bigger that football"

Allen Stanford is a very clever man, or at least I assume he is, as you don't become a multi-billionnaire if you have the brains of a Kookaburra bat.  However, he has said some things today that make me question his intelligence, if not his sanity.

Take this one, for example, "I'm hugely impressed by their [ECB] organisational capacity." He said that without laughing, by the way.  He then followed it with this purler: "Twenty20 has the potential to be the most popular team sport in the whole world in maybe less than 10 years."  Eh?

Far be it from me to question a man as successful as he is, but is he serious?  Twenty20 is still cricket, no matter how you commercialise it, and given that only a handful of ex-British Empire countries are really in any way interested in it I find his prediction doubtful.  And by doubtful, I mean bordering on bonkers.  But he's a visionary is Allen, and he may very well prove me wrong.  Do you think he will?

IPL: Sehwag tonks 4 6 4 6 4 6 off Symonds

IPL first weekend verdict - still not as good as it thinks it is

So what are we to make of the first weekend of IPL action?  I have been asked by a commenter on my Friday post if I have changed my mind about the league.  The short answer is no.

McCullum's innings was fabulous - a perfect boon for the organisers and their vastly-pumped money - but what people forget is that the match itself dissolved into a uncompetitive victory parade. There has been nothing occuring here that does not happen in the county Twenty20 championship in England.  Lest we forget, prior to McCullum's butchering the highest score in this form was by Cameron White playing for boring old Somerset in a boring old county match.  Yes, the second match between Chennai and Punjab was tight and exciting, but so was Kent vs Gloucestershire on Finals day last year. 

The IPL is a triumph for marketing, a few ego-maniacs off the field, and players who like lots of money.  It may change cricket forever, but only by simply causing a shift in the international calendar, leaving the month of April and early May free for the competition.  Hardly Packer and the WSC is it?

If you strip away all the gold trousers, silly team names, dancing girls and umpires in daft clobber, all you have is another game of cricket.  Pretty soon the paying public are going to work that out.

IPL Highlights: Chennai vs Punjab

IPL Hiighlights: Kolkata vs Bangalore.

Here it is, in all its McCullum bowler-mangling glory...

The IPL starts today, as I try to stifle a yawn..

There are a host of previews, match facts and profiles all over the cricket media - traditional and online, -regarding the Indian Premier League's first match today as Bangalore take on Kolkata. 

The start of the league has been mercifully quick, just six months or so after the inception of the idea - it has been a whirlwind.  But for me, it has been a really boring whirlwind - like that one they had in London a couple of years ago when one house had its chimney knocked off - I just cannot get excited about some very rich Indian people paying a fortune for a load of cricketers to play for teams I have zero emotional context with.  Kevin Pietersen, the England man agitating the most to play in it, is on record as saying he does not even like playing Twenty20 and that he is "exhausted" with the amount of cricket he has to play.  It is obvious what his (mercenary) reasons are for playing.  Many others are taking the rupees for the exact same reason.

Yes, it may change cricket forever; but that doesn't make it an interesting spectable to watch does it?  Our friends over at King Cricket have picked a team to support in order to make it a bit more interesting.  I can't even be bothered doing that, such is my apathy.   I think if most of us are honest, we feel the same way.  Am I wrong?

Michael Vaughan: "We all want to play in the IPL, and no-one, not even the ECB can stop us. Mwahahahahahaaaaaaa!"

The England captain Michael Vaughan has made it very clear that every player in the England set-up not only wants to play in the IPL, but will do in the next two years.  It seems he is about as impressed with the ECB's new Twenty20 ideas as a newlywed groom whose wife has just passed out on the wedding night after too many Bacardi Breezers.

This is an important turning point the constant bickering about the IPL in England.  Inevitably and predictably the player's union have had their say, and rent-a-gob Kevin Pietersen has thrown in his two cents ("I like money and I want to earn more" basically).  However, neither of these are the current England captain, and Vaughan sticking his neck out like this means that he must have the support of the dressing room.

Giles Clarke will do well to bear this in mind before he comes out to the press with his usual petulant, foot-stampy nonsense about England players being barred from joining the Indian league.  He is pissing in the wind - it's time he accepted it and dealt with it like a man.

It's the Cold War all over again, but with cricket instead of nuclear bombs!

Two worlds collide, rival nations
It's a primitive clash, venting years of frustrations
Bravely we hope against all hope, there is so much at stake
Seems our freedom's up against the ropes
Does the crowd understand?
Is it a East vs. West, or man against man
Can any nation stand alone?

Never have more insightful words been spoken of the Iron Curtain than those above by Survivor in the epic Burning Heart. Now it seems the rubble of the great east-west divide that so dominated world politics (until some students got drunk and pulled a wall down in Germany) looks as though it is settling on cricket. 

The battle lines for this new Cold War, this clash of the hemispheres, were today drawn by Giles Clarke, who looks about as likely a player in such a grand scheme as Eisenhower did, as he admits that the ECB are meeting with Sir Allen Stanford to discuss a multi-franchise competition of our very own.    Clarke knows, like Eisenhower, that you don't need to look cool when you have the money behind you - and in Allen Stanford there is a veritable packed pustule of money.

"We don't want a knee-jerk reaction to the IPL" Clarke knee-jerkingly said today, "but we believe that we can set up a robust, spectator-friendly, economically sustainable competition of our own which will not cut across the core revenue streams of Test and one-day international cricket."

Have you ever heard less inspiring fighting talk in you life?

Allen Stanford: "Twenty20 could be bigger that football"

Allen Stanford is a very clever man, or at least I assume he is, as you don't become a multi-billionnaire if you have the brains of a Kookaburra bat.  However, he has said some things today that make me question his intelligence, if not his sanity.

Take this one, for example, "I'm hugely impressed by their [ECB] organisational capacity." He said that without laughing, by the way.  He then followed it with this purler: "Twenty20 has the potential to be the most popular team sport in the whole world in maybe less than 10 years."  Eh?

Far be it from me to question a man as successful as he is, but is he serious?  Twenty20 is still cricket, no matter how you commercialise it, and given that only a handful of ex-British Empire countries are really in any way interested in it I find his prediction doubtful.  And by doubtful, I mean bordering on bonkers.  But he's a visionary is Allen, and he may very well prove me wrong.  Do you think he will?

IPL: Sehwag tonks 4 6 4 6 4 6 off Symonds

IPL first weekend verdict - still not as good as it thinks it is

So what are we to make of the first weekend of IPL action?  I have been asked by a commenter on my Friday post if I have changed my mind about the league.  The short answer is no.

McCullum's innings was fabulous - a perfect boon for the organisers and their vastly-pumped money - but what people forget is that the match itself dissolved into a uncompetitive victory parade. There has been nothing occuring here that does not happen in the county Twenty20 championship in England.  Lest we forget, prior to McCullum's butchering the highest score in this form was by Cameron White playing for boring old Somerset in a boring old county match.  Yes, the second match between Chennai and Punjab was tight and exciting, but so was Kent vs Gloucestershire on Finals day last year. 

The IPL is a triumph for marketing, a few ego-maniacs off the field, and players who like lots of money.  It may change cricket forever, but only by simply causing a shift in the international calendar, leaving the month of April and early May free for the competition.  Hardly Packer and the WSC is it?

If you strip away all the gold trousers, silly team names, dancing girls and umpires in daft clobber, all you have is another game of cricket.  Pretty soon the paying public are going to work that out.

IPL Highlights: Chennai vs Punjab

IPL Hiighlights: Kolkata vs Bangalore.

Here it is, in all its McCullum bowler-mangling glory...

The IPL starts today, as I try to stifle a yawn..

There are a host of previews, match facts and profiles all over the cricket media - traditional and online, -regarding the Indian Premier League's first match today as Bangalore take on Kolkata. 

The start of the league has been mercifully quick, just six months or so after the inception of the idea - it has been a whirlwind.  But for me, it has been a really boring whirlwind - like that one they had in London a couple of years ago when one house had its chimney knocked off - I just cannot get excited about some very rich Indian people paying a fortune for a load of cricketers to play for teams I have zero emotional context with.  Kevin Pietersen, the England man agitating the most to play in it, is on record as saying he does not even like playing Twenty20 and that he is "exhausted" with the amount of cricket he has to play.  It is obvious what his (mercenary) reasons are for playing.  Many others are taking the rupees for the exact same reason.

Yes, it may change cricket forever; but that doesn't make it an interesting spectable to watch does it?  Our friends over at King Cricket have picked a team to support in order to make it a bit more interesting.  I can't even be bothered doing that, such is my apathy.   I think if most of us are honest, we feel the same way.  Am I wrong?

Michael Vaughan: "We all want to play in the IPL, and no-one, not even the ECB can stop us. Mwahahahahahaaaaaaa!"

The England captain Michael Vaughan has made it very clear that every player in the England set-up not only wants to play in the IPL, but will do in the next two years.  It seems he is about as impressed with the ECB's new Twenty20 ideas as a newlywed groom whose wife has just passed out on the wedding night after too many Bacardi Breezers.

This is an important turning point the constant bickering about the IPL in England.  Inevitably and predictably the player's union have had their say, and rent-a-gob Kevin Pietersen has thrown in his two cents ("I like money and I want to earn more" basically).  However, neither of these are the current England captain, and Vaughan sticking his neck out like this means that he must have the support of the dressing room.

Giles Clarke will do well to bear this in mind before he comes out to the press with his usual petulant, foot-stampy nonsense about England players being barred from joining the Indian league.  He is pissing in the wind - it's time he accepted it and dealt with it like a man.

It's the Cold War all over again, but with cricket instead of nuclear bombs!

Two worlds collide, rival nations
It's a primitive clash, venting years of frustrations
Bravely we hope against all hope, there is so much at stake
Seems our freedom's up against the ropes
Does the crowd understand?
Is it a East vs. West, or man against man
Can any nation stand alone?

Never have more insightful words been spoken of the Iron Curtain than those above by Survivor in the epic Burning Heart. Now it seems the rubble of the great east-west divide that so dominated world politics (until some students got drunk and pulled a wall down in Germany) looks as though it is settling on cricket. 

The battle lines for this new Cold War, this clash of the hemispheres, were today drawn by Giles Clarke, who looks about as likely a player in such a grand scheme as Eisenhower did, as he admits that the ECB are meeting with Sir Allen Stanford to discuss a multi-franchise competition of our very own.    Clarke knows, like Eisenhower, that you don't need to look cool when you have the money behind you - and in Allen Stanford there is a veritable packed pustule of money.

"We don't want a knee-jerk reaction to the IPL" Clarke knee-jerkingly said today, "but we believe that we can set up a robust, spectator-friendly, economically sustainable competition of our own which will not cut across the core revenue streams of Test and one-day international cricket."

Have you ever heard less inspiring fighting talk in you life?

The VOTE! Are India moving into the elite?

With an eight-wicket thumping of SA in the third Test, are MS Dhoni's team finally showing the kind of mettle that can take India to the best side in the world?

Cricket Snapshot: Meet the IPL logos

All the teams, all the logos.  You've gotta love the Knight Riders - I wonder if David Hasselhoff and KITT will be putting in an appearance at their matches.

What options do the ECB have regarding the Indian Premier League

The head honcho at the ECB, Giles Clarke, has made his position quite clear regarding the IPL; that no contracted England payers will be allowed to play in it and if they do they risk losing their central contract.  Apart from Andrew Strauss, along with cockroaches his contract will be the only thing that will survive nuclear holocaust. 

The players, however, are getting increasingly agitated.  Kevin Pietersen's exhaustion that he spoke of last year has evaporated in a puff of potential rupees, and he has also admitted that "all the players are talking about it."  So what can Clarke and the ECB do?  Here are the options as I see them:

1.  Stick his fingers in his ears and do the "I cannot hear you, I am the greatest, I am so right" song until the Summer is over.

2.  Allow them to play, but with the proviso they must be available for all England matches.  As the kiwis have done with their stars.

3.  Set up their own Twenty20 Superleague, attracting the cream of talent from all over the World and sell the rights to Sky to make money.  Might be a problem, in that they have already sold the ENTIRE GAME OF CRICKET to Sky in the UK.

4.  Leave it to Hugh Morris to sort out, then sack him.

Five things for Shoaib Akhtar to do now he’s been banned

The Rawalpindi Express has been given the boot by the PCB for five years.  What could he possibly do with his time now?  Here are our suggestions:    

1. Take drugs, but properly this time, without fear of being caught.  Then put on demonstrations of bowling at 134mph before his heart explodes out of his chest.    

2. Star in his own Bollywood film, entitled “My Big Fat Bowler’s Arm” - a musical rollercoaster ride through the life of a legend.   Featuring the songs All the Ladies Love Me; Drugs, Glorious Drugs; and Whoops Mr Asif! Your Arse Is On The End of My Bat    

3. Play in the Indian Premier League, where the Mumbai Super MonsterSquad (or whatever they are called) will pay him handsomely.    

4. Come over to England and play for Surrey, with it’s lovely villages and easy access to West London’s finest male entertainment establishments.    

5. Keep his head down for once.

Shoaib Akhtar is dropped AGAIN because he's facing ANOTHER disciplinary panel

Pakistan are due to play the newly victorious Bangladesh in five ODIs and a Twenty20 match in April.  One person who will not be joining them - in what will no doubt be a walkover - is Shoaib Akhtar, who has landed himself in the pooh again.

Shoaib is to face a PCB disciplinary panel amidst charges of giving statements against the policies of the Board and spoiling the team spirit of the Federal Areas side whom he captained in one match of the recent Pentangular Cup. He faces several counts of violation of the PCB Players Code of Conduct.

"I will submit my viewpoint when I appear before it." the fast bowling dope-fiend said, "I am still very keen to play for Pakistan against Bangladesh in the upcoming series and I don't think my career is finished."

Of course it's not finished, Shoaib could sacrifice a goat in the middle of the wicket at lunchtime and still be recalled by Pakistan, such is his talent/their spinelessness.

Video: Virender Sehwag tonks 319 off 304 balls

As is usual in matches where such a high score is made, the draw is looming.  However, that doesn't take away from what an incredible knock this was; the fastest triple century in history.  Sehwag is special, but he is not hard to work out - he wants to hit every ball for four.  It's a high risk approach, and he runs the risk of being dropped if it doesn't come off consistently (like for most of last year).  But when is does work, like here, is there any better sight in the whole of cricket?

England players' union weighs into the great Indian Premier League debate/war

Dimitri Macarenhas has already gone (for about £25 in the cut-price, low-end second auction) to the IPL and it seems some of the other England players have been bleating to the PCA about it.  You see, they quite fancy making huge wodges of cash in a pointless competition as well; trouble is the ECB would rather they didn't.  The players' union, as you might expect, are on the side of their members.

"The value of the cricketer has just increased through what is happening in the IPL," Morris told BBC Sport.  It's perfectly natural for the PCA to want our members to take advantage of that - it's a unique opportunity."  PCA chair, Sean Morris, said today.  "Restricting employees anywhere will cause friction in a relationship - over a period of time that will break it down." 

Giles Clarke is not impressed though.  "I don't think the rewards being talked about are ones England players would be interested in," he gloated, in his usual particularly smug manner, "Should any player give up his English contract - which is not an insignificant amount of money, let alone all the extra methods of earning money that go along with that - he would, of course, risk losing his England place."

Will central contracts be enough to save the ECB from a significant player desertion?  Tell us what you think..

Player dies at Indian cricket match

We all know that cricket fans in India can be a bit on the bonkers side, but it seems they have nothing on the amateur players who can take a murderous turn after defeat.

A match between rival village teams Garwar and Pancheuri in the Siwan district this week ended in tragedy when a man was killed for jeering his defeated opponents.

"The Garwar XI members, delighted after their victory on their home ground, booed their rivals. Taking strong objection to it, the players of Panchneuri XI attacked the Garwar XI team with bats and wickets," an eyewitness said. 

The onfield battle that followed claimed the life of Garwar player Raju Chauhan, who was beaten so badly he died on the way to hospital.  A man has been arrested.

Makes those strongly-worded discussions about umpiring decisions made by opposition team members on the village greens of England seem rather tame.

Praveen Kumar credits his cricketing career to a wooden plank

Young Praveen Kumar, he of the 10 wickets in the recent CB Series, is a talented 21-year-old bowler at the forefront of MS Dhoni's radical new ODI team.  However, it may not have been this way if it wasn't for an old plank of wood.

It seems that all of Praveen's family are wrestlers and wanted the young man to follow in their footsteps of wearing spandex and poorly-acting out banal and pointless feuds on television.  Or it could have been the other type of wrestling, that one in the Olympics.  Either way they were so unhappy about the youngster taking up the greatest game that they refused even to buy him a bat.  But that wasn't going to stop him.

"I found this broken wooden plank on the rooftop of my house." the medium-pacer said, "I had one Rupee with me... I took along a cousin and got the plank moulded into a bat at a nearby carpenter's shop."

The rest, as they say, is history.  As Roy Castle once said: dedication, that's what you need.  I do wonder if his family is still speaking to him though...

Kevin Pietersen - Get thee behind me satan Indian Premier League

Kevin Pietersen is once again stepping up his efforts to prove himself to be the most English person in the whole world by today stating that he is not interested in the Indian Premier League.  The former South African has said that no amount of money will tempt him away from the Three Lions of England.

"I love playing for England," the ball-clobberer said today, as a perfectly formed tear rolled down his cheek, "I love playing for the spectators. England has given me a fantastic opportunity to a fantastic life at the moment. So I'm fully committed 100% to playing for England, to winning games for England, to scoring thousands more runs for England. I love playing for England and there will be nothing that will lure me away from England just yet."

He then ripped off his shirt, climbed on the desk, sang Jerusalem then punched a foreigner - probably his dad. 

Is KP to be admired for this, or is he perhaps cynically hoping to win over the remaining few of the England public who believe he shouldn't be playing for the team?  Let me know what you think.

Sky miss out on IPL UK TV rights

Setanta Sports have stolen a march on Uncle Rupert's evil empire by poaching the rights to broadcast the Indian Premier League in the UK.

Now, while I'm all for giving the great Australian magnate one in the eye, I can't help thinking that this may be the final nail in the coffin for the IPL in the UK.  Many cricket fans in the British Isles purchased a SkySports subscription under duress after the satellite monster had effectively bought the British and international game exclusively for the UK broadcast market. 

The Setanta director of sport, Trevor East, said: "The Indian Premier League is going to be massive. We're absolutely thrilled to acquire these rights and add another major sport to Setanta's programme line-up."  But will it really be massive? 

I doubt there will be a mass of Sky viewers champing to pay even more money out every month to see a league that features no players from the UK and teams (Bangalore, Hyderabad etc) that have zero resonance with British cricket fans, with the possible exception of the Asian population.

An analogous example is La Liga.   The Spanish football league is full of world class stars playing a great brand of football; but how many viewers in the UK would pay for a subscription to see this league only and no other football?  My money is on not many.

Will you be signing up for Setanta to watch?  Let us know in the comments.