Sunday, October 25, 2009

ICC Awards 2009

Its that part of the year when the Cricket players are honored. And they have something to brag about officially!! This year the awards had a very good Indian presence. Hope it gets better with years :)


ICC World Player of the Year - Mitchell Johnson [Australia]

Test Player of the Year – Gautham Gambir [India]

ODI Player of the Year – MS Dhoni [India]

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year - Tillakaratne Dilshan [Sri Lanka]

Emerging Player of the Year - Peter Siddle [Australia]

Spirit of Cricket - New Zealand

Umpire of the Year – Aleem Dar [Pakistan]

World Test Team of the Year – Led by Dhoni [India]

Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (England), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Australia), MS Dhoni (India, capt & wk), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Stuart Broad (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Harbhajan Singh (India, 12th man)



World ODI team – Led by Dhoni [India]

Virender Sehwag (Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Martin Guptill (NZ), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Nuwan Kulasekara (SL), Ajantha Mendis (SL), Umar Gul (Pak), 12th man: Thilan Thushara (SL)

Women's Player of the Year - Clare Taylor [England]

Associate Player of the Year - Will Porterfield [Ireland]

Thanks Cricinfo, from where the content was heavily borrowed :)

Saturday, October 3, 2009

The clash of the champions

Would have anyone thought that something like this cud happen at the beginning of the Champions Trophy!!?



  • NZ, Eng and Pak comfortably thru to the next round.

  • Particularly Eng who just came out a 6 match losing streak against Aus

  • SL being thrown out of the tournament despite their good form

  • India and Aus fighting for a spot in the semis

  • SA (regarded as one of the title contenders) finishing at the bottom of the table at the end of round 1

  • At the end of round 1, India, the no. 1 team in the official rankings at the start of the tourney has been pushed out




Phew!!

Points Table (At the end of league matches)
























































Group - Group B
TeamsMatchesWonLostTiedN/RNRRPoints
New Zealand Cricket: New Zealand Cricket New Zealand321000.7824
England: England and Wales Cricket Board England32100-0.4874
Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka31200-0.0852
South Africa: Cricket South Africa South Africa31200-0.1712






























































Group - Group A
TeamsMatchesWonLostTiedN/RNRRPoints
Pakistan: Pakistan Cricket Board Pakistan32100+0.9994
Australia: Cricket Australia Australia32001+0.5105
India: Board of Control for Cricket in India India31101+0.2903
West Indies: West Indies Cricket Board West Indies30300-1.5370


Current official ICC Rankings for ODI teams











































































Rank

Team

Points

1

AUS

Australia

126

2

IND

India

124

3

SA

South Africa

121

4

PAK

Pakistan

112

5

NZ

New Zealand

109

6

ENG

England

107

7

SL

Sri Lanka

106

8

WI

West Indies

76

9

BAN

Bangladesh

55

10

ZIM

Zimbabwe

26

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Meanwhile, somewhere in South Africa, Pontings speaks sense. Thats a news really!! :)
Ponting paid tribute to Tendulkar, the leading run-scorer in ODIs and Tests. "The number of innings of his I have been able to sit back and watch, I think he is an amazing player," he said. "Look at his stats and records and it's quite incredible for someone to have stayed in the game for 20 years. He has set benchmarks for guys like me to chase him and get as close as we can. If I had to last 20 years, I would probably be batting in a wheelchair."

He sits at third behind Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya in the list of all-time ODI run-getters. Ponting is the only Australian with over 10,000 runs. In Tests, Ponting is also third to Tendulkar's 12773 runs with 11345. Like Tendulkar, Ponting has stepped down from playing Twenty20 internationals for his country.

Good on ya mate!! :)