Monday, February 26, 2007

The Other Teams

Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, Brad Hodge, Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds, Brad Haddin, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait, Nathan Bracken, Glenn McGrath.

England: Michael Vaughan (captain), Andrew Flintoff, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Paul Collingwood, Jamie Dalrymple, Ed Joyce, Jon Lewis, Sajid Mahmood, Paul Nixon, Monty Panesar, Liam Plunkett, James Anderson.

Pakistan: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Rao Iftikhar, Rana Naved, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Akhtar.

Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, Chamara Silva, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Malinga Bandara.Reserves: Chamara Kapugedera, Akalanka Ganegama, Upul Chandana, Ruchira Perera

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Daniel Vettori, Daryl Tuffey, Shane Bond, James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Brendon McCullum, Craig McMillan, Michael Mason, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Lou Vincent.

West Indies: Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Ian Bradshaw, Corey Collymore, Jerome Taylor, Denesh Ramdin, Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons, Daren Powell, Kieron Pollard.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Jacques Kallis, Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher (wicketkeeper), AB de Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp, Charl Langeveldt, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince, Roger Telemachus.

Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (captain), Shahriar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Saqibul Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Rafique, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafe Mortaza, Shahadat Hossain, Tapash Baishya, Syed Rasel, Rajin Saleh, Javed Omar.

Zimbabwe: Prosper Utseya (captain), Gary Brent, Justice Chibhabha, Elton Chigumbura, Keith Dabengwa, Terry Duffin, Anthony Ireland, Friday Kasteni, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Christopher Mpofu, Tawanda Mupariwa, Edward Rainsford, Vusi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor, Sean Williams.

Kenya: Steve Tikolo (captain), Thomas Odoyo (vice-captain), Ravindu Shah, Tanmay Mishra, Collins Obuya, Peter Ongondo, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Maurice Ouma, Malhar Patel, Hiren Varaiya, David Obuya (wicketkeeper), Rajesh Bhudia, Jimmy Kamande, Tony Suji, Lameck Onyango.

Netherlands: Luuk van Troost (captain), B Zuiderent, Adeel Raja, P Borren, T de Leede, M Jonkman, A Kervezee, Mohammad Kashif, D Reekers, E Schiferli, J Smits (wicketkeeper), W Stelling, E Szwarczynski, R ten Doeschate, D van Bunge.

Scotland: Craig Wright (captain), Ryan Watson (vice-captain) John Blain, Dougie Brown, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Paul Hoffmann, Douglas Lockhart Ross Lyons, Neil McCallum, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Glenn Rogers, Colin Smith, Fraser Watts.

Bermuda: Irving Romaine (captain), Dean Minors (vice-captain), Delyone Borden, Lionel Cann, David Hemp, Kevin Hurdle, Malachi Jones, Stefan Kelly, Dwayne Leverock, Saleem Mukuddem, Stephen Outerbridge, Oliver Pitcher, Clay Smith, Janeiro Tucker, Kwame Tucker.

Ireland: Trent Johnston (captain), W McCallan, A Botha, J Bray, K Carroll, P Gillespie, D Langford-Smith, J Mooney, P Mooney, E Morgan, K O'Brien, N O'Brien (wicketkeeper), W Porterfield, W Rankin, A White.

Canada: John Davison (captain), Ashish Bagai, Ian Billcliff, Geoff Barnett, Kevin Sandher, Umar Bhatti, Desmond Chumney, George Codrington, Austin Codrington, Andy Cummins, Sunil Dhaniram, Asif Mulla, Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad, Qaiser Ali.

Indian Team for Cricket World Cup 2007

Quite some delay in my blog updates. Sorry.

I believe the next month will see a lot many blogs on Cricket with the Circket World Cup being fought out in the Carribean Islands.

The Indian Team was announced some time back, and I was really happy with the selections. The former Indian captain, Dilip Vengsarkar has carried on with his strong personality and assertiveness. Of course, the first instance of this quality came to the fore when he recalled the greatest Indian captain of all time and one of the most prolific cricketers in one day cricket - SOURAV GANGULY.

Sourav had fallen out of favor with the current coach Greg Chappell since the Zimbabwe tour more than a year back. And the then Chairman of the Selection Committee, Kiran More, after having come to a conflict much earlier on the Abhijit Kale episode, was more than happy and eager to keep Sourav out. Thankfully, More is gone and the onus to save Indian Cricket now lies with a batting legend in India - Vengsarkar.

The team he chose as the Chairman of the Selection Committee comprises

Batsmen: Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar (vice-captain), Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh.

All-rounders: Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan.

Wicketkeepers: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik.

Bowlers: Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.


To be very honest, the inclusion of Sehwag and Pathan will face careful dissection. Both of them have been awfully out of form. Whereas Sehwag has been fishing in the corridor outside the off stump and making a clear mess of short pitched and rising deliveries, Pathan has been looking for the right line and length for a greater part of the season. Of course, he has become more useful as a batsman. But let us face it, we have better batters than Pathan. All we can hope for now, that this duo will break the shackles of poor form and rise to the occasion in the mega event - the World Cup.