Now that India and Pakistan are out of the WorldCup – here is the updated schedule.
The big losers are the sponsors, with India & Pakistan both out of the tournament – its going to be an incredibly boring worldcup for 1 billion people.
Greg Chappell better lock his door in his hotel tonight!
After searching a while for timezone specific Calendars for the upcoming WorldCup 2007, I found many shared calendars, but none for my specific timezone (Pacific Standard Time). So I edited an existing calendar to various timezones, and shared it here. Thanks to ‘rajeshblue’ for the original calendar.
Link to Willow TV’s schedule – it automatically detects your timezone to show the list.
Click only your timezone button -
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Well, I saw the match live – and Lara has been unfairly portrayed in the media and elsewhere. They same Lara, who is one of the few guys who has a reputation of being a walker (without waiting for a verdict from the umpire, if he knows he is out – other being Adam Gilchrist). He has done so when he was 91*, and even when he was given not out for caught behind (Lara was 91* he was caught by c N.Mongia b V.Raju when Umpire Venkat ruled him NOT OUT – he walked!).
When the Umpire & Dhoni didn’t believe Daren Ganga’s version that the catch has been cleanly taken – he was pissed that there is no sportsmanship – and angrily snatched the ball from the umpire Asaf to give it to Dave Mohd to continue blowing to Dhoni. This after the fact that Dravid signaled from Pavilion that he had declared.
Update: ICC has now issued a clarification of the rules in its website: “Lara did not cross the line”
It is in India’s best interest that they declare as soon as possible. So the blame is squarely on the indecisiveness of the umpire’s. Why did they call for 3rd umpire when Dravid declared and Dhoni is walking off his grease?
In other words:
If Dhoni says, I hit a clean six – then Lara should believe him. But Dhoni cannot.
If Ganga says, I took a clean catch Dhoni should believe him. Thats sports. Even ICCI says, the umpire can tap into fielders version of what happened when a conclusion cannot be reached.
Now, only one of them can conclusively say what happened – and that is Ganga – so when the people in the middle call him a liar – the spirt of the game is lost!
Australia hasn’t lost a test match since last year. Now they are struggling to avoid a follow-on to *gasp* Bangadesh!.
Yup – Bangladesh, the same team which was famously fried by Sharne ‘big mouth’ Warne. I love it when minnows stick it up to Goliaths – let see what Richie Bernard says now…
Bangladesh 427
Australia 145/6
Gripping test match! I have no doubt that Aussies will pounce back like a wounded tiger in the 2nd Innings – like they did to hapless South Africans – but little joys like this makes cricket worthwhile..! 
Edit – Aussies won by 3 wickets… 
*whacked* -
South Africa 438 for 9 (Gibbs 175, Smith 90, Boucher 50*, Bracken 5-67)
beat
Australia 434 for 4 (Ponting 164, Hussey 81, Katich 79, Gilchrist 55) by one wicket
On first glance the score does look like a Test match first innings score. At least this will shut up Sharne Warne for good.
First this:
Commentators practically gave the cup to AUS, and started predicting doom and gloom for South Africa:
“Graeme Smith was left wondering how the series could have gone so wrong.
Smith will need little reminding that his team had led this series 2-0 after two matches, with Australia crumbling for just 93 in the second game at Cape Town. But now, with the Test series getting underway in just four days’ time, Ponting and pals had served a stark reminder of where the balance of power really lies. A day that began with Shane Warne fuelling the war of words between the two camps culminated with the sight of Roger Telemachus losing the plot so spectacularly that, just prior to his fortuitous dismissal of Ponting, he managed to serve up four consecutive no-balls that were smeared for a total of 19 runs.
Their game has become an universal horror story.”
Next this
SA has made everyone eat their words – and how! This reminded me of the 400+ run chase WI successfully chased in the 4th innings. Thereby creating a new world record for the maximum runs scored to win a test match.
Those who watched Superbowl on Sunday might have noticed the wonderful Skycam in action. The change in perspective is startling for us folks who have been used to pretty ordinary cricket telecasts. Whenever we need to get closer to the player in field, we have always been used to a simple Zoom. But robotic Skycam flies down to that part of the field and shoots the player over his shoulder!
Skycam can any point in a specified 3D space as shown the illustration below. The Skycam has 3 components:
The whole unit is around 3feet and can fly as fast as 30mph. Now the most obvious question. Will it bump into a player, stopping play at a critical stage or even worse, what happens when the ball collides with the cam when flying towards the goal post?
The Skypath software takes care of it – the operator programs the shape of the object to look out for – like a cone, box, cube or in case of a ball, round.
I am sure they are working on a ball-cam and a bat-cam. Imagine seeing the point of view of a ball getting released from Shoaib Aktar’s hand at 150mph, hitting Lara’s bat darting skywards for a six, flying off the stadium towards the parking lot… to your car’s windshield at 100mph!
Trinidad beat Barbados in a regional test. It looks like a simple ordinary news, and then you come to this “Brian Lara, who hailed it as one of the highlights of his long career”. Woah.. what..what??
He explains further: “On the international circuit, playing Australia and beating Australia is real cricket to me. On the regional scene playing Barbados in Barbados and beating them is what it’s all about.” Ok fine.
And then this: “You have to understand I am now aged 36,” said Lara, who contributed 54 and 47 with the bat. “Any sort of success on the playing field would be greeted with uncontrollable emotions because I’m not sure I’ll experience it again.”
Thats just sad.
I will be heartbroken when this legend, whom I have religiously followed since 91, walks off the field next year. He has been my inspiration – my personal hero. Whenever I read “Lara stuns XYZ” or “Lara leads the rampage” or the frequent “Lara rescues WI from 35/6″ or the most common “Lara Stands Alone” I couldn’t help but wonder if he is from Kryptonite.
He has one mountain which he hasn’t scaled yet – and that little T from India is sitting on the top of it with his 35 test centuries I just wish he conquers that before walking off. That would make it easier for record keepers and cricket stat books.
see? it make it easier to manage record books when almost all records are held by one superman.