mcgillianaire | overwhelmed by the masses...

i feel smothered by everything going on around me right now. bien sur, i'm not the most organized @ the best of times, but even then there's just a lot happening. hardly three weeks into school and i'm being told about a calculus midterm next week! and the week after isn't any better, another midterm. still trying to pick up a 2nd hand management accounting textbook and with the cricket @ odd hours, it just doesn't seem to be working out too great right now...

i don't feel like i'm losing the battle, but i don't think it's exactly a pleasant week or two lined up in front of me. they should plan india's cricket schedules according to my convenience. it's great and all to follow matches but how many more sleepless nights?

on a more pleasant note, i'd like to welcome

pappubahry to planet-lj. it's great to have you on board mate.

the cricket continues tonight, with an obvious focus on mr.dravid who appears to have embroiled himself into some unnecessary ball-tampering mess. silly, silly! *cries of ban him!*

the australian open has started and once again a string of seeds slide out @ the first round. flippin' heck. does anybody know of an instance or the last time the top 16 seeds made it through to the 2nd round successfully? what do u guyz think about this 32 seed system?

anyways, i'm off to get rid of my cloudy lenses and get started on some calculus assignment due tomorrow. in the meanwhile, anybody like to do a social context assignment for me? *lol*

cheers!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

It should be legal in ODI's. Either that or they shouldn't roll the pitches.

Heh.

I'm serious. About ball-tampering. The game is far too batsman-friendly these days. I really think that fast swing bowling late in the innings makes the game far more exciting. So I suggest that we had sunscreen, zinc cream, lollies, bottletops and sandpaper to the allowed list of things that can be applied to a cricket ball.

The other change to ODI's I would make is to reduce them to 40 overs a side. This way, you have 1-15 slog, 30-40 slog, and only 15 overs in the middle to see accumulation. An hour of slow cricket is acceptable. Twenty-five overs of it (Laxman had thirty-one scoring shots as singles in a row the other day) makes me fall asleep. Maybe that also has something to do with the time of day. But I think that something needs to be done about the middle overs, and the batsmen domination.

The Australian domestic one-dayers have fielding restrictions to 30 overs (three men outside the circle from 15-30). This is also an idea.

I agree, the game is too batsman-friendly. The 40 overs a side idea sounds interesting. I also liked the idea of breaking the first 15 restriction into three chunks and allowing the fielding captain to use it whenever he wanted during the innings.

Bowlers should also be allowed more than one bouncer an over. I'm curious to know whether Akram's interpretation of the one bouncer per over rule is correct. According to him, it is one bouncer per batsman per over. So, assuming an existing batsman gets out the first ball, and new batsman face one ball in each of the following 5 deliveries, technically, as per Akram's interpretation the bowler could legally bowl 6 bouncers?

Australia deserved to win yesterday after Gilchrist's inital onslaught. Martyn has been in horrible form throughout the Indian Summer. I wonder how long he has until the selectors run out of patience and replace him. Katich missed out on a good opportunity. Ganguly is 7 wickets short of an ODI double.

Meanwhile, here's a curious link I came across: Diamonds are a cow's best friend (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3410955.stm).

Enjoy!

42, 66*, 30, 38, 31, 7, 40.
Not great, but consistent enough to suggest that he hasn't been in "horrible" form. You shouldn't be dropped after averaging 42 for a series (though it has been done - Dean Jones averaged 48 in his last test series, 92/3 in Sri Lanka, for no good reason).

Not sure about the current one-day playing conditions on bouncers. I can't find any recent playing conditions on CricInfo, if you can't find them I'll make a more thorough search sometime later.

Witchery is standard practice in Romanian football, where superstitions and curses are an everyday feature of the game. Seeking luck in the remainder of this season, FC Dinamo Bucuresti players posed for a religious calendar to get help from God, while FC National Bucuresti had their stands and pitch blessed on New Year's Day. Witchcraft also plays its part, and a group of Romanian witches warned Chelsea FC's Adrian Mutu that his career might suffer because of curses put on him by a former girlfriend. "No problem," replied Mutu, revealing another unusual Romanian superstition. "Curses can't touch me because I wear my underwear inside out."

I am soooo glad that UEFA tries to make Romania look so good to foreigners. Well, I do not blame u guys, but I need to clear up things a little bit.

1. UEFA and the LPF (The Romanian Professional Soccer Association) have had arguments for years because of the referees that were assigned to Romania matches, matches that have been lost or tied thanks to those referees (there are 4 of them that fucked up at lest 5-6 Romania matches). Those referees are still top10 in the world, despite Romania's protests.

2. UEFA has an incentive right now to make ROmania look bad because of this series of arguments between UEFA and the Romanian league. So they take things and make them look worse than they are.

SO:
1: Yes, Dinamo Bucuresti (my favourite soccer team) did pose for a calendar for good luck (not a standard practice)
2: I see nothing wrong in having the stadium blessed. It is quite usual in Orthodox countries.
3: The so called "witches" are nothing but gipsy women that would look better dead...
4: There is no such thing as Mutu's ex-gf curse on him. Otherwise, Romanian newspapers would dedicate it front page coverage
5: Yes, Mutu wears his underwear inside out, but that is not Romanian superstition. It is only Mutu's. And as long as he plays well, I don't mind it.

There are several other players that have weird superstitions, but never get pointed out (BTW: Beckham wears Victoria's thongs during matches, does UEFA say that? Well, he does, but nobody mentions it...)

Then what about African countries, that during the World Cup were perfoming Voodoo magic... well, that is not so important.

But yes, Romania... that weird country in Eastern Europe that is full of weird superstitions... needs full coverage on UEFA.com

Thanks UEFA!

CRIS

And one more thing that is more important than all that has been written so far:

WITCHERY IS NOT, I REPEAT, IT IS NOT, A STANDARD PRACTICE IN ROMANIAN FOOTBALL, AND SUPERSTITIONS AND CURSES ARE NOT AN EVERYDAY FEATURE OF THE GAME.

I don't know how UEFA got that out. If they check the history of Romanian football, probably besides some blessings received from the church before some important matches, there is no trace of powerful witchery in our football...

UEFA needs to revise their attitude and their articles regarding this country.

"Self-denial is a virtue of the highest quality, and he who has it not, and does not strive to acqure it, will never excel in anything." -Conybeare

Any chance you've confused denial ("refusal to admit the truth or reality") with self-denial ("a restraint or limitation of one's own desires or interests") ?

Yes. :) Not confused, my mind was on the denial tangent, while my fingers and keyboard went on the self-denial path. Bloody hell.

U fucked up Hari... :)

BTW, if it was denial in my case, it is wrong... I am not trying to refuse the truth or reality, since there is no reality in what it was originally said... so there was no denial!

THE END!

Cris

Stop denying the truth man. That RROMANY country ;-) belongs to the gypsies! You dachians have come and ruined the old guard. Long live Communism! Long live Ceaucescu! Re-live the glorius days, i say!

And seriously man, Jai Transylvania! Jai Hungary! *lol* Jai Moldovia! Jai Russia!

THE END!

~moderator~ :)

luckily, it is ure b-day, so I will let u live this time, otherwise the Romanian Mafia would have come to your door with the latest weaponry and blow your a@@ off...

THE END! :)

overwhelmed by the masses...

Ball tampering:

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Re: ODI Changes

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Seeking comment by Cris (courtesy uefa.com)

Re: Seeking comment by Cris (courtesy uefa.com)

Re: Seeking comment by Cris (courtesy uefa.com)

Re: Romanian Witchery!

Re: Romanian Witchery!

Re: Romanian Witchery!

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Re: Romanian Witchery!

Re: Romanian Witchery!