Nelson

With the sad demise of David Shepherd there has been much in the press about Nelson and why it's called that - we all know.
But I've never seen any explanation about why it's unlucky beyond my own theory that it looks like 3 stumps without bails and that's clearly unlucky for the batting side - and, as we all know, it's a game for batsman.
I think, however there was a bit of ammunition for this theory in a letter to The Times today from a chap (must be quite old) who says that when he was doing hand writtem tenpin bowling scores he was taught to always put a hat on the digits if 111 because without it was unlucky. His 'hat' would have been a straight line - like bails .

436 - not bad for a 12 year-old

This innings in India relegates Sachin Tendulkar to 10th in the all time top scorers in this Indian schoolboys competition. So there's a pretty decent chance that you'll hear about Sarfaraz Khan again in a few years time....

The Ireland problem....

Ireland have made their intention to become a full member of the ICC clear, but the tricky thing to work out is how they will ever make the step up if England keep taking their best players. If anyone is truly world class they're going to get snapped up, so if you start from the point that Ireland will at best be an England 2nd XI then they're already struggling.

I don't have the answer, but that's a tricky one to solve....

An amazing innings....

....but still on the losing side. Glad I had Tendulkar as my double scorer in fantasy cricket!

BCCI selling sponsorship rights

It'll be interesting to see what exorbitant sum the BCCI end up selling the sponsorship rights to the Indian team for. It may be a recession, but I'd be surprised if they have much of a problem - if they don't have some resistance to the price they have of course priced it too low!

By the way, 1 crore = about £150k.

Tendulkar nears latest milestone...

In Thursday's 5th match of what's been a pretty absorbing series between India and Australia, the likelihood is that Sachin Tendulkar will pass 17,000 runs in ODIs. That's pretty special.

In case you're in any doubt just how special that is, here's the top 3 ODI run scorers:

Tendulkar: 16,993 runs at an average of 44.25 in 434 matches, hitting 44 centuries.
Jayasuriya: 13,377 runs at 32.54 in 441 matches, with 28 centuries.
Ponting: 12,241 runs at 43.25 in only 328 matches, also with 28 centuries.

Believe it or not, over the years Indian's have at various times called for the Little Master to be dropped from ODIs - personally I'd like to see him play at least until the 2011 World Cup....

Wow!

Look at this !

http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/ashes2asheszombiecricket/playgame

Stopping beach cricket in Chennai...

....the thought of it! Not suprisingly, the cricketers (i.e. every man below 50) aren't particularly happy about the police trying to crack down on cricket on Marina Beach, Chennai (Madras), to allow joggers and walkers safe passage.

Dhoni's batting position

There's a lot of debate about where MS Dhoni should bat in India but for me number 5 looks spot on, despite the fact that his record at 3 and 4 is even better than at 5. The Indians are in the fortunate position of having a quality top 4 and they're right to leave it as is unless in exceptional circumstances.

It's also interesting to see a couple of England players up there with the best ODI number 5s in the world - Flintoff and Collingwood. They've used a batting index that multiplies average and strike rate, which leaves Flintoff as 2nd behind Dhoni as an ODI number 5 and Collingwood in 5th place.

Ponting and reading of pitches

We all get the reading of pitches wrong from time to time, but Ricky Ponting has the unfortunate knack of doing it publicly and often. His view was that 220 would be a good score in the 3rd ODI against India, and his batsmen seemed to work towards that perfectly. Unfortunately it wasn't good enough as India ambled to victory by 6 wickets!

Incidentally, I'm not sure if there's any truth in it, but this article claims that the groundsman sabbotaged Australia's training plans - if true, something that's inexcusable.

The series is hotting up so happy viewing those with Sky!

Movember

This week's Sport has the top 9 sporting moustaches (page 8) and it features 3 cricketers - David Boon, Merv Hughes and Richard Ellison.

Surely there's more cricketing challengers? Richard Hadlee springs to mind...

Just what you need...

...when you've changed clubs. My wife met someone who has suggested that "Steyning Cricket Club has been responsible for many a relationship breakdown"!! Having been there a year I can't see any evidence for that!

Moises Henriques

Moises Henriques stats for New South Wales in one day cricket:

20 Matches, 242 runs at 18.62, highest score 43*. 18 wickets at 39.22, economy rate 5.41.

Why is this man playing for Australia?? I know stats don't tell the whole story, but I've seen nothing to suggest he's ready for international crciket. Moises has been playing first class cricket for a few seasons now, and was given the "next big thing" tag very early. He may well turn out to be an excellent cricketer, but until he's proven himself at domestic level he shouldn't be selected to represent his country.

Tendulkar's failing...

No, not on the cricket pitch and, yes, one of the grainiest pictures ever! It's from when we visited Tendulkar's back in 2007 during our time in India....it appears that Tendulkar's could be either shutting or reopening as a nightclub. Can't say I'm surprised - it seemed very average when we went!

Interesting to see that restaurants and bars seem to be all the rage with the Indian cricketers - Flintoff's bar anyone?

Fiery Fred real ale on it's way

Skipton's Copper Dragon brewers will be creating a real ale in honour of Fred Trueman next year....the beer launches early next year alongside a bronze statue of Fiery Fred.

Sod the statue - having a beer brewed in your honour is of course the ultimate!

Wisden Cricketer Test player of the year

It seemed that no-one agreed with me that Shakib Al-Hassan was going to be a world star....well not outside of Bangladesh anyway....so it's a vindication of sorts that he's won the Wisden Cricketer Test player of the year!

How he hasn't got an IPL contract still baffles me, given he does so well in a losing team, but I assume that will be put right prior to next year's tournament.