well the number 1 reason being that there is a whole lot of money flowing into the sport which is a good thing but is the money that is flowing in actually having a impact on the outcome of the game is what I want to know? A simple example the recently concluded Twenty twenty world cup which India won but was india suppose to be in the final, can australia the world champions in cricket lose a match from a position that they are sure to win the match. Was the india - pakistan final just so that that the advertisers (mostly indian companies ) had their target audience watching the match.

Here is a scenario the main sponsor of the tournament is Reliance mobile a company which has presence only in India (so far) so would a final of Australia and New Zealand be of any real benefit to them I don’t think so. And not to forget the ad slots prizes went up so the TV channels piled in all the cash from the sale of the ad inventory for the finals which was a India- Pakistan final something which most advertisers in India would definitely give their arm and leg for.

Here are some interesting figures apparently India’s early exit from the world cup costs advertisers close to 600 crores (wow thats a lot of money) when ad campaigns etc had to be pulled of the air and then most of this advertisers decided to move their interest to something else which is less risky like the use of film stars rather then cricketers for endorsing their products And some of the advertisers were considering never to look at cricket tournaments as a platform to reach their targeted audience. BCCI had to do something drastic and This win by india is exactly what they wanted but most of you must be wondering this is perfect timing but according to me it is not the entire event seems fabricated that India reached the final so that the indian television audience would watch the matches.

India defeating England yes the one over from Yuvraj did it for India but comprehending that Australia can lose to India in the semi final from the position that they were in is totally nonsensical to me as they were not Bangladesh or South Africa to choke under pressure but they did throw the match away. I have not seen Ricky Ponting happy sometimes even when he has won the match but he was happy to lose to India. If you see the video footage you see him smiling.

After all BCCI is the richest cricket board in India and if they were exiting tournaments early it would impact the ICC more then BCCI as some of the major tournaments for ICC seem to have indian sponsors the simple fact being the booming economy and loads of cash for companies to promote themselves so the ICC will be at the mercy of BCCI for money.

The lots of money flowing in is good for the game but if the match outcome is influenced by this money then I think it is really sad for everyone who enjoys watching a good old contest between the bat, ball and human spirit. Well with India winning the T20 world cup the advertisers are all upbeat about cricket again and even some of the ads from that 600 crore world cup debacle of India are making their way back onto the TV screens.

If you think this post is crap then this simple questions will clear your mind
Would you as a Indian charged with emotion watch the final if India was not playing in it? and would you see the many reliance mobile ads that were shown?? If you still have doubts why do all the teams in the tournaments that India is playing in the deciding match is always the last match of the series?? (see India’s England tour before the T20 after the initial drubbing at the hands of the English suddenly India rise and win then for the last match of the series it is do or die situation if India had lost the series before the final match then hardly the last few matches would have drawn any serious viewership) I think the only countries that are playing to their potential is countries like Bangladesh,Zimbabwe etc

Go Gayle Go
Go Windies Go Make Me Proud

ok South africa’s reply has started hmm bad move I think Gayle should have opened the bowling that would have played into the minds of the South African batsmen and make them loose their cool this Sarwan is not good at mind games

well thats all for now me getting back to the match

The deal is a good deal for Espn but they have not mentioned the price tag that they paid for the site i am guessing it must be somewhere in the 15-20 million $$ dollars if u just consider each visitor to we worth 3$ the deal size would be 21 million $$ since cricinfo claims that they have 7 million visitors hitting the site every month but what makes it useful is the wealth of data that it has collected over the past few years player stats,game stats etc etc

The parent company of cricinfo the wisden group is selling it so that they can conc on their hawk eye technology and market it better for cricket and other sports (I wonder what happened to that other New Zealand company building something similar to hawk eye I remember reading it somewhere).
Hawk Eye is a great technology for cricket fans especially since it provides visual display of info in real time to the suers during the matches and provides a bit of interactivity and fun element to the cricket viewers experience.
Well getting it to other sports now that I am a bit skeptical about I mean cricket, baseball yes but would they also be doing it for kabadi,ko ko, basketball etc cause for the later sports it would makes no sense.

In my opinion I think they sold out a bit early if wisden group had stayed invested in cricinfo for a bit long with now cricket being promoted to more countries they could have been able to get a better deal with more users but I guess they were feeling the heat from other ventures like cricketnext , crictv.com , sixer.tv and rediff sports and now with the renewed focus by biggies like yahoo, aol , microsoft they might come up with their own offerings in this cricket crazy nation of ours to attract peoples attention. So I guess wisden decided to sell out and concentrate on the hawk eye technology before the market gets heated up and they have to start a battle to keep their leader position intact.

The match made me very very sad as it was coming to the conclusion what would have been a great farewell for a great cricketer is lifting the world cup and then resting his boots for good but I guess the windies could not overcome the jinx of home teams not lifting the cup so far lets see if the jinx is broken for the next world cup.

Well back to the entertaining life at the batting crease of a great cricketer called Brian Charles Lara aka Prince of Trinidad some of the best moments i can recollect when he got the 400, when he was batting for a win against australia and he was down with the last men in the most reliable batsmen courtney walsh hahahahaha ( i will always remember him cause of his weird stance and action while leaving the ball to go through to the keeper ) and the brilliant double centuries he scored in the sri lanka and the way he came down the track to hit sixes of the bowling of murali.

But of all the memories the one which is most nerve wrecking is the one when lara was batting with walsh against australia which match the windies went on to win.

Some of the good things to watch was the one leg calypso shot which he used to play a lot in the early days but he slowed down i guess later in his career and the shot was not seen much in the last few years the only other windies player whom i have seen playing this shot the calypso style with brute force and style is chris gayle. The other sheer delight in his batting is when lara comes dancing down the track to hit the spinners for a six that is a glorious sight for a cricket lover.

Well my great tribute a great cricketer is my post on my blog and I wish lara all the best in whatever he choses golf, commentary or coaching but it will be great to see him in someway involved in rebuilding the windies team for the next world cup (which I think they will win)

So my final one line tribute to the great Prince Of Trinidad
thanks for the great cricketing memories it has been a privilege to see someone like you at the batting crease

Well according to the new system cricketers will get to only endorse 3 products a year what shocks me is BCCI thinking that this will lead to team India performing better and wining in the future. Is BCCI headed by a bunch of morons and have taken the decision based on the suggestions of former captains of india who are still coming to terms with how they are making a meager fortune now for their cricketing exploits in their hay days and are not comfortable with the fact that the cricketers nowadays are making more money then they did in their lifetime with just short stints with team India this days. Well personallyI think instead of putting a cap on the no of products a cricketer can endorse the cap should be on no of days a cricketer can spend off the field endorsing the deals and fullfilling a endorsing contract.

The other very very disappointing thing is the fact that BCCI is not making the entire report submitted by the outgoing coach which I think is utter stupidity because it is a sure shot cover up to hide names like sachin, yuvraj, dravid who are just going as dead weight with team india becoz of their larger then life image as cricketing demigods in india and their attitude problems and why they deserve to be in the playing level even though they cant deliver the goods out there on the field

Well I never liked team india because they were never good and they never had potential to be the best in the world even the young team from bangladesh is showing now on the playing field that they have arrived on the grandest stage of them all and giving their fans something to cheer about.Unless team india consists of a bunch of go getters who want to win every time they get on the field and if they loose they only say that they played well and deserved to lose (like the way windies do it everytime they lose) and not come out saying the coach is threatening the integrity and our commitment (how sachin did in this interview which i think he did because he wanted chappel out before he benched him like ganguly and make him work his way back in the team) i think till they are on the sporting track forget the winning track all the cricket fans should pickup team from overseas to support