Let me start with a trivia..
Q: Which two teams have been playing against each other every year for the longest stretch of time in one-dayers?
A: India and Srilanka - For 21 years (1984-..)
Makes sense, right? It is no wonder that two neighboring nations meet every year this frequently.. You would expect a good frequency in tests too.. but, no.. Srilanka is playing tests in India after 8 long years.. After 1997 when they toured last, Aus has managed to visit us THRICE, far-away nations like NewZealand, Zimbabwe and our 'supposedly-least-friendly' neighbor Pakistan twice; that, despite having fought in Kargil and after the volatile situation post-9/11. And our cricket board hasnt found time to accomodate a tour by Srilankans, despite the ICC's 4-year cycle announcement in 2001.
Take a look at this tour: The first test was alloted to Chennai during the worst time for cricket and was sincerely washed off by rain. The third host had to be relocated to some other venue, after a dispute between the board and the state organization on the stadium. The second test is going to begin tomorrow in a stadium in which construction is still going on; there is rubbles everywhere. If the Delhi crowd decides to go volatile, they have enough 'weapons' provided by the ground itself to attack the Srilankans. Moreover, the fire-safety measures are woefully short and out-of-order.
If someone had filed a common petition in the Delhi court/Supreme court on the risk attached to holding the match in such an 'unsafe' venue, I wonder what the court would have ordered. I hope the match goes on smoothly and manages to produce a result, the fog and mist in Delhi not-withstanding.
P.S.: Ever since I removed the 'Word verification' option for the comments nearly a month ago, I havent received a single 'junk' or spam comment. I guess the spam guys have given up intruding into comments. Blogger has gone crazy for the past week or so, and a few days back, I couldnt post comment on several blog friends' posts, with the 'word verifn.' word being the same for all the sites and not accepting what I type. So, I strongly recommend/request you to disable the 'word verification' option in ur blogs to make life a little easier.. Thanks !! :-)
Have a good weekend, all of you!!
11 comments:
I have this long standing opinion that sri lanka are only fit for ODIs, barring murali. Of course, critics also go to the extent saying thet murali (the second hjighest wicket taker) has taken the majority of his wickets in SL. But somehow i prefer him to warne.. :)
Anyways, it is good that we are playing them again..
looks like sehwag is not playing. dravid.. they said he would play, but you never know.. atleast kaif/yuvraj would be playing too.. along with SG.
why am i getting irritated looking at news articles titled "Sachin up for 35th ton" for the 100th time?. If he gets it, he does. thats all..
word verif: naa vekkavey illa.. i think we are not that *important* for spammers!.
thoo.. yevalo spelling mistakes ennoda prev comment la.. worst-u.
i get pavillion tickets for both matches, and its washed out,romba kodumai.
TTG i disagree, SL is proper test playing nation, just coz they r goin thru lean patch doesnt mean they are unfit to play tests. india was in that stage at one point of time.
Raju uve been tagged by vishnu, neengal dhanae u liked tags nu sonnengal?
enna raju india emeblem a perusa vum srilanka emblem ye chinnathavum poturukinga?... showing ur support for india va??...
Enjoy your weekend Raju...
Deepak, undoubtedly, Srilanka play their one-dayers better than the tests; but, like Vatsan, I have to say that they have had their share of high moments in tests since the WC win.. When you see that they have lost just one test to India in their last 11 encounters, you cant take them lightly. They wrangled us in Chennai; and even today they had us in a bit of bother at 133/3. If Dada had continued his 'old form', we could have easily been 150/4 with Yuvraj and Dhoni to come..
And, Murali being a 'Tamizhan' always gets my support (except of course against India).. :-)
Dravid made himself a sacrificial lamb by deciding to open.. I think it would be better for us to always have Akash Chopra as a buffer opener..
About thalaivar, unga vaaikku sarkkarai podanum... off the last ball of the match, a world-record conquered and with that out of the way, I hope he can bat free.. mm.. the euphoria was there for a while; it is the 6th match after he scored the 34th hundred and first in 2005. Many hearty congratulations to him !!
Today was (is) a day of breaking records, it seems.. NZ, with its batting running real deeeeep, has managed to chase down a record 332 and beat Aus.. For the first time, Aus has lost a match after scoring 290+, and what a quantum leap at that.. Aus bowling attack was undoubtedly the weakest, with Bracken being the only experienced main bowler.. Gives hope for the rest-of-world during post-McGrath era. And, Pakistan, chasing 328 is well on its way on 156/2 after 22.
On spammers and WV, it appeared that they found us as a major advertising chance but with WV intro, they have given up that hope.. Moreover, since most bloggers are 'smart', their site hits through the ads would have been abysmally low.. Hope they dont revisit us..
LOL on ur typos... happens.. I can understand the fast typing on a friday afternoon.. ;-)
Vatsan, really bad luck for you... You will have to wait awhile to watch a LIVE match for quite sometime now, with ur looking forward to go abroad, ille?
I have to agree with you on SL's status as a test nation... The problem for long has been their bowling.. except Vaas and Murali, not many matchwinners..
oops... just as I am typing this, Pak lose their 3rd wicket.. anything can happen now..
For recommending me to Vishnu, ungalukku kOdi nandri!!! Oru interesting post is ready for late dec/early jan.. :-)
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Karthik, adada... neenga pick pannitteengaley.. I tried to get a larger Srilankan emblem for sometime but in vain.. just coincidence, boss.. Didnt mean to lower their value/importance.. Though my support is to India, I would have liked equal-sized emblems... Anyway, hope India does well..:-)
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Vanathi, thanks.. :-) I have a test match, our Prof's X'mas dinner and a few movies lined up for this weekend.. :-)
great knock by Tendulkar, read what dravid had to say about tendulkar at cricinfo, great interview. he should get more centuries. good luck to him.
have they really been playigng ODI's every year.
thalaivar 35thukku thani poste poduveengannu paaththa onnum kaanume..
Nitin, yes... that was a real good innings by Sachin. Now, in today's match situation, that innings could be the difference between a win and a loss. I read that interview by Dravid.. Seems like it was taken last year, but what mentions about sachin speaks volume about the influence Sachin has created in Indian cricket.
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Paurna, yep... I checked the stats.. Amazing to see that, ever since srilanka became a regular member of ICC, India has been playing them except in the World cup winning year of 1983.
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Sundar, mm.. indha post 9th ezhudhunadhaaley separate post panna mudiyaley.. More than the importance of his world-record, we have to focus on our team's fortunes in this ever-fluctuating test. Looks like it would surely give produce a result.. hope it is in our favor.
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