Cricket News sort by Cricwaves Columns

June 1, 2013 marks the 11th death anniversary of late South African cricketer Hansie Cronje. The former Proteas skipper, who was once among the most respected guys in world cricket, was unarguably the biggest name to fall from grace during the match-fixing scandal that rocked world cricket at the turn of the new millennium.

In the days when former international umpire Mervyn Kitchen played for Somerset County, he and teammate Graham Burgess were in the habit of doing pretend commentary while they waited to bat.

As per the latest, India will remain number one on the ODI rankings as per the ICC cut-off date on April 1. They have 119 points at present, and although it is doubtful how long they will remain there since England are a close second with 117 points while Australia are also close on their heels with 116 points and South Africa are only slightly behind on 112 points...

Not all Test draws are dull. The tense finish between New Zealand and England at Auckland on Tuesday, when England managed to hang on and save the match in spite of losing nine wickets made for engrossing viewing.

For starters, I seriously believe that India deserves a better performer than Sachin Tendulkar at no.4. Everything may look well from outside following the 4-0 whitewash over the Aussies but it was against a team which was completely inexperienced to the Indian conditions and a bunch of players who are yet to establish themselves at this level.

India may have easily trumped Australia 4-0 in the recently-concluded Test series at home, but the question marks over Sachin Tendulkar and his position in the team remain. It is all but clear that the selectors aren’t going to axe him, but how long can Tendulkar himself carrying on playing in the manner that he has been doing?

Okay, this is probably not the right time to say this. After all, India are on the verge of their first ever whitewash of Australia. But while India are euphoric over their wonderful triumph against Michael Clarke’s men, it still doesn’t make the present Indian squad a great one.

Yes, it is too early to make such a statement. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is way too raw to fit into the veteran Zaheer Khan’s shoes. Also, India have another senior bowler, Ishant Sharma, who ideally should take over the mantle of India’s lead paceman, once the left-arm seamer officially calls it quits.

In a somewhat surprising decision, the BCCI has extended the contract of current Indian coach DuncanFletcher, so as to maintain continuity in the team. While it is a fact that Fletcher may have come to know the Indian players, including the fringe ones, quite closely...