England in India

[zimrahil]

Or even Planetcricket if we had a couple of million $s!

If ever I win the Euro Millions Lottery then this will happen...

I can see it now - As its my money, I would naturally be the main presenter

Commentators:
barmyarmy
jk16 4
Ste
legend master
stevie
sid 19840

Pitch Side Reporter:
Duffarama

The Analyst:
The_gas

During the luncheon break we could have a 'Ask Andrew' section where members of the public try to stump andrew_nixon with cricket trivia, those being successful winning tickets to the forthcoming matches

Remember.... if I win the Euro Millions


Ahem, anyway getting back on topic................

 

[jonah]

If ever I win the Euro Millions Lottery then this will happen...

I can see it now - As its my money, I would naturally be the main presenter

Commentators:
barmyarmy
jk16 4
Ste
legend master
stevie
sid 19840

Pitch Side Reporter:
Duffarama

The Analyst:
The_gas

During the luncheon break we could have a 'Ask Andrew' section where members of the public try to stump andrew_nixon with cricket trivia, those being successful winning tickets to the forthcoming matches

Remember.... if I win the Euro Millions


Ahem, anyway getting back on topic................

Lol ...now, if it was the adult channel who got the rights, as Ste mentioned, I guess you'd all be in the buff, sitting on comfy sofas with telephones to your ears....er, not that I've ever actually watched the adult channel, just heard about it from a mate of course...

Anyway, back to topic...

 

[Ste]

The Telegraph tommorrow says Sky have got the rights.

If ever I win the Euro Millions Lottery then this will happen...

I can see it now - As its my money, I would naturally be the main presenter

[etc. etc.]

Remember.... if I win the Euro Millions

Each adbreak would ofcourse be full of adverts for each of Skateboarder(2)'s forums. With 90 overs per day there should be enough forums to have a different advert after each over in a day.

 

[kenni_greg]

It'll be on Sky.

Sky last night secured the rights to show the England Test series against India, which begins next week. However, the expected announcement was delayed while lawyers examined the complicated contract.

I understand Sky paid about ?10 million for the package, although Harish Thawani, the chairman of Nimbus, the Indian marketing company who have the global rights, wanted a lot more.

Nimbus had suggested this week that Sky would not get the UK rights and floated the idea that Setanta, a pay-per-view channel shown on the Sky platform, may get the rights, with viewers paying ?150 to see the three Tests.

Indeed Thawani even told me: "If I was a betting man I would not bet on Sky."

However, as The Daily Telegraph disclosed yesterday, Sky were always expected to be the favourites. The only problems were the haggling over the price and the desire by Thawani, who has paid a world-record $612 millon (?351 million) for the rights to Indian cricket for the next four years, to achieve the best price.

To get Sky to pay more, Thawani encouraged a bid from Zee, the Asian channel, and talked about selling the rights on a non-exclusive basis, aware that Sky prefer doing exclusive deals and paying a premium, as they did with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

I understand the contract with Sky covers the next four years of cricket from India and is a two-tiered deal. Sky have exclusive UK rights for this series and also the series England are due to play in India in 2008-2009.

However, Indian Tests against other countries during the next four years, while they will be available on Sky in the UK, will be shared with a channel aimed at the Asian community.

Four Sky commentators, Ian Botham, David Gower, Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton - who will be making his debut for the channel - will be broadcasting from India.

The Indian commentators have not yet been finalised. They are likely to be Sanjay Manjrekar, Ravi Shastri, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Harsha Bhogle, but, as they already have existing contracts with other channels, the Indians have to secure their release.

The Indians were keen to have Mark Nicholas but his commitment to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games ruled him out.

They would also have liked Geoffrey Boycott, but he could not commit himself to the one-day internationals that follow the Tests.

The neutral will be Dean Jones, the former Australia Test batsman. The Indians had wanted Ian Chappell but he could not do the entire series.

From The Telegraph.

 

[Dhoni]

Its as if you are a guru in technique and have seen Kaif/Raina very closely... :

Kaif has a very good technique and temperament to succeed at test level. Same with Raina, though i do not know much about him. We've seen him play ~10 matches and you cannot judge him by that.

Regarding Khan,
I don't think you would say his attitude is poor after watching him in the test series. He bounced back, with aggression and determination. You won't get 10-11 wickets in two tests...that too, on placid tracks...for nothing. I agree, he is not consistent at all in ODI's and he does not deserve a place either.
Test cricket is different.
Can we say the same thing with Sehwag? His last few ODI performances are quite poor, same can be said about Sachin, and even Laxman. Pathan had a poor outing in the Sri Lanka series, did the selectors kick him out?
Khan did reasonably well in Pakistan test series, so what was the basis by which he was dropped from playing test cricket?
Don't cling on to attitude.
You select a player to play a whole series, both Tests and ODI's, adn then you dump him because his so called "ATTITUDE" is not impressive on the field.
Thats BS, atleast for me.

LOLZ.....you're actually saying Kaif has better technique than the classy Raina. Lolz... I don't think you even have seen Raina batting. Ask anybody, he got lovely footwork and always great shot selections. He's going to be the future hero for India. He always looks not to get out when he's out at the crease as Sai have mentioned. There always are fewer chances for Raina getting out than Kaif. I'm not saying Kaif is a bad batsman. He's very experience and done pretty well for India so far.

 

[SaiSrini]

Thank you Sai! That's all what I was about to mention to Vibs89. Man this guy Raina is awesome! He got wayyy better technique than Kaif and can play aggressive. He's the perfect player to me in the middle order. And, Sai you have mentioned all the aggressive players, but you forgot one and only Sensational MS DHONI!!! Can't wait to see my boy DHONI show! Now the question is, where will it be? Nagpur? Mohali? or Mumbai? Really can't wait! Come on boys!!!

Kaif also has a good technique. I favor Raina because he can force the pace better and can play more shots than Kaif. With Dravid, Laxman and Jaffer around, we can have Raina instead of having Kaif. But it all depends on what Dravid and Chappell feel!

Its as if you are a guru in technique and have seen Kaif/Raina very closely... :

Kaif has a very good technique and temperament to succeed at test level. Same with Raina, though i do not know much about him. We've seen him play ~10 matches and you cannot judge him by that.

Regarding Khan,
I don't think you would say his attitude is poor after watching him in the test series. He bounced back, with aggression and determination. You won't get 10-11 wickets in two tests...that too, on placid tracks...for nothing. I agree, he is not consistent at all in ODI's and he does not deserve a place either.
Test cricket is different.
Can we say the same thing with Sehwag? His last few ODI performances are quite poor, same can be said about Sachin, and even Laxman. Pathan had a poor outing in the Sri Lanka series, did the selectors kick him out?
Khan did reasonably well in Pakistan test series, so what was the basis by which he was dropped from playing test cricket?
Don't cling on to attitude.
You select a player to play a whole series, both Tests and ODI's, adn then you dump him because his so called "ATTITUDE" is not impressive on the field.
Thats BS, atleast for me.

Well, I dont know what criteria the selectors have used to drop Khan!

But I for one feel he should be dropped because of the reasons I have mentioned!

 

[cricket_lover]

If Khan is dropped, its probably due to two reasons
a) lack of variety, three left-arm seamers may not provide the results. You need variety. Also, Khan lacks the pace he had couple of years back.
b) His poor show in the ODI series, he was quite disastrous but some "credit" to the management for not using him properly.

 

[puddleduck]

It'll be on Sky.

Cheers for the information, I guess that means I'll be leaving my girlfriend for 15 days worth of March and camping out back at my parents house

I think I'll find my sex life takes a major turn for the worse, but at least I'll be watching cricket :watchtv :rtfl

Perhaps in Kaifs favour is the fact that he has recently been highly successful as captain of his state side? Showing a new maturity in the process? Taking a side that had lost 4 out of 4 and then going on to win the Ranji Trophy, it could have affected his batting recently and the selectors feel that to drop him could seriously undermine the work done.

 

[vibs89]

LOLZ.....you're actually saying Kaif has better technique than the classy Raina. Lolz... I don't think you even have seen Raina batting. Ask anybody, he got lovely footwork and always great shot selections. He's going to be the future hero for India. He always looks not to get out when he's out at the crease as Sai have mentioned. There always are fewer chances for Raina getting out than Kaif. I'm not saying Kaif is a bad batsman. He's very experience and done pretty well for India so far.

As if you saying that Kaif doesn't have footwork. And he is right Kaif actualy has better technique then Raina does he's just new to International not much of expeirence. Just because Kaif had a bad patch throughout India-Pakistan series. And to tell you one facts that Kaif has a better stats againts England. Raina is surely Future Player of India and aggressive doesn't mean anything in Test you got to play sensitive and play throughout till end.

Also I hate those bloody BCCI full of polictics didn't select Ganguly. Ganguly was in a fine form and they dumbed him. Kiran More is saying that he'll be picked againts WI. The reason he said because WI isn't very good team that's why he'll put Ganguly in cause WI isn't top team like Pak, Eng,Aus and etc. What a retarted is he. Now I don't think any cricket is left in Ganguly. Till how long he'll fight to get in to team even though he performs in first class constants till I don't they'll pick him up.

 

[sohum]

Oooh, less than a week to go and I'm excited. I hope this test series turns out better than the Pakistan one. Of course, I'd love to see India thrash England, but it'd be even better if the match was undecided going into the last day.

 

[Dhoni]

More than the match I'm so excited to watch my boy Dhoni. Hope he'll have a good series against England too.

 

[puddleduck]

Oooh, less than a week to go and I'm excited. I hope this test series turns out better than the Pakistan one. Of course, I'd love to see India thrash England, but it'd be even better if the match was undecided going into the last day.

Apart from India thrashing England, thats something that even I can't argue with

Here's hoping Englands key players make it to fitness in time for the first test, and that we see a good competitive series

 

[Cricket_god]

I feel bad for Munaf, not getting picked after that 5 wicket haul. Any news on how fast these guys were bowling? As for Ganguly's exclusion, I don't agree. And for Piyush Chawla's inclusion, I think this is a precaution in case one of our spinner's get injured. I don't see us taking 3 spinners into a game, especially without Ganguly. Our pace bowling unit looks pretty inexperienced, though, and if they get caned early, we could be in trouble.

i watched the total match live on ddsports munaf patel was around the 140 km/hr while vrv touched 145 km/hr with average speed of 139 km/hr

Apart from India thrashing England, thats something that even I can't argue with

Here's hoping Englands key players make it to fitness in time for the first test, and that we see a good competitive series

Mate,we will be seeing a very closely fought series.don't worry

As if you saying that Kaif doesn't have footwork. And he is right Kaif actualy has better technique then Raina does he's just new to International not much of expeirence. Just because Kaif had a bad patch throughout India-Pakistan series. And to tell you one facts that Kaif has a better stats againts England. Raina is surely Future Player of India and aggressive doesn't mean anything in Test you got to play sensitive and play throughout till end.

Also I hate those bloody BCCI full of polictics didn't select Ganguly. Ganguly was in a fine form and they dumbed him. Kiran More is saying that he'll be picked againts WI. The reason he said because WI isn't very good team that's why he'll put Ganguly in cause WI isn't top team like Pak, Eng,Aus and etc. What a retarted is he. Now I don't think any cricket is left in Ganguly. Till how long he'll fight to get in to team even though he performs in first class constants till I don't they'll pick him up.

the team management should go by form so raina should be picked or they should play 5 bowlers 3 spinners and 2 pacers as dhoni and pathan are pretty good allrounders in these conditions

Vikram Singh dint bowl that well, infact early on he was being smashed all over the park.[/QUOTE

Mate,he was pretty unlucky to have kevin dropped .he was really banging it in short of lenght with pace and getting high bounce .i have not seen any bowler getting so much bounce on a slow track not even harmisson could manage such bounce.as he builds and gets experienced he might be india's strike bowler

 

[zreh]

India wins test series 2-0. I Dont think India's spinner friendly pitches will help englands seamers. India's batting order is the best in the world and has too much depth. Plus with 2 world class spinners, i dont see India losing a match, let alone the series.

ODI's - India wins 5-2. Again too much depth in this team, and now with some new variety, i think India should clobber England. Too bad Penesar might have to make his debut against a country that feasts on spinners.

 

[cricket_lover]

LOLZ.....you're actually saying Kaif has better technique than the classy Raina. Lolz... I don't think you even have seen Raina batting. Ask anybody, he got lovely footwork and always great shot selections. He's going to be the future hero for India. He always looks not to get out when he's out at the crease as Sai have mentioned. There always are fewer chances for Raina getting out than Kaif. I'm not saying Kaif is a bad batsman. He's very experience and done pretty well for India so far.

LOLz LOlz Lolz,

I'm indeed saying Kaif has a very good technique.

May be you should start to understand what others have posted. I never COMPARED those two players.

BTW, are you Raina's closest friend/coach? How many matches have you seen Raina play? to talk about his technique and class.
5? 10? 20?
You don't go out there, play couple of matches, score 30 odd runs and call yourself a "class" player.

Raina may not get out as much as Kaif does? What made you say that? Have you observed Raina for years? or seen him play 100s of matches?
Shot selection? From what Raina played in international level, i've seen him play some wonderful shots on the off-side. Thats all. Nothing Else. If someone plays 5-10 shots like that, that doesn't mean anything.
If it does, may be McGrath is a better batsman.... :cool:

Comparing players not of the same experience is pure stupidity.

Most of us have seen Kaif play 100~ ODI's and couple of tests. Kaif is technically very sound, bailed India out of trouble many times. He's still young, 24/25 and he needs to spend time at the test level. Same with Raina, same with Yuvraj.

Who is going to get selected? we do not know. We can guess, but whats the use?

I appreciate your interest for the game and the Indian cricket team. But exxaggeration of anything will only result in dissappointment.