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In an article Aussies and others published in cricinfo , Five Australians figure in each of the two XIs of the decade picked by Cricinfo’s jury. The teams are:
Test XI
Matthew Hayden, Virender Sehwag, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Shaun Pollock, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath
12th man: Andrew Flintoff
ODI XI
Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Flintoff, Shaun Pollock, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan
12th man: Shane Warne
The teams are formed from only three countries, Australia, Indian and South Africa. The inclusion of Sri Lanka was due to undeniable existence of Murali whereas Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand were ignored all together despite achievements and records.
Our Teams
After browsing the records for the decade, almost half of the both sides fell down showing the biasness of so called jury. Our teams are:
Test XI
SR Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Mohammad Yousuf, Rahul Dravid, DPMD Jayawardene, KC Sangakkara (wk), SE Bond, Shoaib Akhtar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath
12th man: SM Pollock
ODI XI
ML Hayden, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, RR Sarwan, S Chanderpaul, KC Sangakkara (wk), SE Bond, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan
12th man:A Flintoff
These teams are more realistic. Based on the records and player influence on his team performance, the player of the decade award goes to Jacques Kallis, Muttiah Muralitharan or Glenn McGrath, not Ponting (see Ponting voted Player of the Decade).
“Imran Khan and Benazir Bhutto” This used to be a romantic tale popular in our childhood. So there’s nothing surprising. Obviuosly a good story to sell a book. BUT if they had relationship of any sort at that time, Is there anything wrong with it? One of them is not with us. Imran Khan has many other allegations of this nature to defend. If he is so ‘sincere’, he should come up and accept what he has been doing. If he has noting to loose, let the people decide. The story goes like that: Imran Khan and Benazir Bhutto enjoyed a close sexual relationship in Oxford
Thanks Cricinfo for article ‘Cricket won’t be played in Pakistan in the foreseeable future’ which summarize “Reactions to the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore, which has put in doubt Pakistan’s status as an international sporting venue.”
It was astonishing to see support of people of Ahmedabad for Lahore Badshahs during ICL finals. In fact they supported Lahore instead of their own Hyderabad team.
During preparation of a slide show about Pakistan for an event, I indulged into knowing something about Indus Civilization. It is one of the four earliest urban civilizations of the world. The other three being Mesopotamia, Egyptian and Chinese.
Indus civilization dates back to 7000 BC. During its evolution, it was a cradle for four great cities. Two of them named Moenjodaro and Harappa lie in current Pakistan, whereas the other two named Rakhigarhi and Ganweriwala lie in current India. Not surprisingly, both cities in India are near Indus basic, first in Haryana and the second in Rajhistan, respectively.
In Pakistan the offshoots of Indus civilization are spread across both extremes in Balochistan to the mountains of Himalyas. Interestingly, the spread of Indus civilization in India in not towards East (interior of Indian). Rather it expands towards South (current Gandhinagar) originating from Moenjodaro.
I do not want to draw any conclusion from this. But the coincidence of my intrigue to know about the nature of Ahmedabad’s crowd during ICL finals and desire to know something about ancient Indus civilization forced me to consider the following historical perspective. Ahmedabad is situated in Gandhinagar, an offshoot of Indus civilization originating from Moenjedaro.
Shoaib Akhtar has been included in a provisional Twenty20 squad for the four-nation series in Canada © AFP
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Leading lights in Pakistan cricket have called on the International Cricket Council (ICC) to change its rules so countries cannot pick and choose tours.
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Australia’s Test squad still plans to depart for India on Sunday despite increased fears over security following deadly bomb attacks in New Delhi on Saturday. Cricket Australia officials were due to meet with representatives from the Australian government’s department of foreign affairs on Monday afternoon to receive an update on the safety situation in India.
Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s general manager of cricket, will also receive a report on Tuesday from Reg Dickason, the team’s security advisor, but a spokesman said there had been no change to the schedule for the four-Test series. “Our position is that the tour is going ahead unless we are otherwise persuaded,” Peter Young, Cricket Australia’s general manager of public affairs, told Cricinfo. “Our advice is there are some concerns and to exercise caution, but currently they do not compromise the tour. Our plan is to depart on September 21 subject to our advice.”
Stephen Smith, Australia’s foreign minister, said the final decision on the tour, as in the past, would be taken by Cricket Australia. “We’ll provide them with all of our up-to-date travel and assessment advisories. They are also, as I understand it, getting their own independent security advice which is what they do on a regular basis.”
Australia have scheduled warm-up games in Jaipur and Hyderabad, where bombs have gone off over the past year, before heading to Bangalore, where one person was killed in attacks in July, for the opening Test on October 9. While Cricket Australia will continue to discuss the issue with their security advisers, the government and the Indian board, more information on the situation in the country is available from members of the Australia A squad.
The outfit is currently in Hyderabad, 1500km south of New Delhi, for a one-day tri-series and the first match will be against New Zealand A on Monday. Young said the team wanted to stay and play.
“In consultation with the BCCI, we have upgraded security in and around the dressing rooms and they will have an escort to the ground,” Young said. “They have also been told not to leave the hotel without good reason. It’s just a matter of prudence.” The squad is travelling with a security advisor who is part of Dickason’s team.
The Australian Cricketers’ Association does not believe the danger in India is as bad as in neighbouring Pakistan, but Paul Marsh, the chief executive, said he expected “heat” if Australia toured. “If the team stays in India, there might be some who criticise us for double standards,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “But people need to understand our starting point is that we always want to tour.
“We go to extreme lengths to obtain the best advice on the situation of each country we visit. In Pakistan’s case this year, people we rely on told us not to tour. If they say not to tour again, we’ll listen. Bombs going off anywhere are a concern.”
More than 20 people were killed in the explosions in New Delhi, which will host the third Test from October 29. “The threat assessment for India has been considerably lower than that of Pakistan,” Marsh said in the Australian. “We want to find out if the latest bombings will change that in any way and what our independent experts think about our Australia A players being over there at the moment. As always we’ll rely on the advice of the experts.”
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