Cric Talks

Pune IPL teams fictional jersey [Funny]

It is common knowledge that next years IPL tournament will have 10 teams instead of the current 8 teams. I had written over a month ago on which two cities I felt were favorite to win the bids and I got Ahmedabad wrong as Kochi was the winner but I did manage to predict Pune as the new IPL team correctly.

Now the exciting part for us at rtBlogs (network of blog under which Crictalks comes under) is that we are located in Pune and having an IPL team in our city will be quite a lot of fun.

Here is a fake or fictional IPL jersey for Pune someone came up with and mailed us about it. It is quite hilarious.

This one is quite funny as it has sponsors like Chitale Bandhu and Joshi Wadewale who are old and iconic brands in Pune but unlikely to be sponsors for the IPL team. The sting in the tale seems to be inscription on the bottom part of the t-shirt which hails the team owners to not keep advertisements there as it might distract the players to wear so many ads. 🙂

Do you have such funny stuff regarding Cricket to share ? Do share it and we will certainly put it up on our blog.

Watch live IPL matches on YouTube

In my previous post I wrote about IPL website allowing a great interface for setting reminders with the IPL season schedule. So now after reminders what next? The Cricket for obvious reasons. IPL matches will be streamed live on YouTube right through the season.

Is IPL a test run for YouTube?

YouTube later in the year is schedule to partner FIFA for the Soccer World Cup. I guess the viewership will be massive for that event and showing IPL live will allow You Tube a test run before a truly massive event. This makes sense and also makes YouTube a great brand in India. I recently saw many hoardings in innocuous places like buses and train stations. We never had a website being promoted in such places.

So when it is match time and you cannot see a television set around for you to tune into, watch it live on YouTube IPL channel.

Set reminders with IPL 2010 complete schedule for teams and matches

The IPL 2010 season is about to start within the next couple of days. I thought I would publish the calendar for IPL matches to be played this season but I think it would be more prudent and helpful to have a calendar which was interactive as in something with which we could set reminders for following our favorite teams.

Visit the IPL calendar website and you can look through all the matches being played through the next 7 weeks. I could toggle the view by either selecting your favorite team or the venue. Then you can select the matches you want reminders to by checking on a box.

This is great as now can be notified by email or SMS. I could also download the entire season schedule as a PDF file. 🙂

I think the IPL has been really proactive this year in reaching out to people through the internet and also really making accessibility very easy. The easy method of buying tickets including allowing people access to information online which is customizable for your own needs is a great leap for Indian cricket administration.

My only wish is when a Test match series is plays or a ODI series for that matter would BCCI give people the same sort of friendly accessibility? I guess only time will tell.

For now regarding IPL, I guess we can say let the games begin. 🙂

Play Twenty 20 Cricket on Facebook

If Cricket can have a zillion groups and fan pages on Facebook would a interesting strategy game be too far away. That is exactly what Twenty 20 Cricket, a Facebook application is all about.

The application is quite simple but the game a little complex. It pits you as a manager and lets you recruit your friends as players. I guess the players who play the Facebook T20 Cricket game with higher ranking or points will obviously be better players in your team.

The options are quite a few and you can play against other teams in different sorts of tournaments. There is also a reward system. As a captain/manager you can set the batting order, bowling preferences and also field settings.

I have been playing and trying out the interface only for a few days but it has a decent community and a lot of options.

For trying out the Twenty 20 app click here. Do drop in your comments; I would really like to read them.

Tendulkar is the Titan of Cricketing mythology

In Greek mythology a Titan is someone who is a giant. Giant not by size but by deeds who would their rule their domain with absolute power. The two titans Atlas and Hercules are legends of the mythical world. Hercules for beating the odds all alone with just his strength and wit along with Atlas who literally carries the world on his shoulders. Truly if the game of cricket was mythology then Sachin Tendulkar is a Titan.

Sachin Tendulkar’s shoulder carry no less of a burden and he has often single handedly taken on odds we cannot imagine or identify with. But today in his 442nd One Dayer, with his 17,598th run and a good 100 runs after he had scored his 46th century, the little master that Tendulkar is, scored the first double century ever scored in international limited overs cricket.

He now owns the world record for most runs scored ever, most centuries ever and also the highest individual score ever. In both formats of the game Tendulkar his at the top and by miles. No player has dominated both forms in such absolute terms. At 36, Tendulkar is still breaking barriers and showing living up to the adage that ‘Class indeed is permanent’.

At the time of writing this post Indian bowlers have responded well and joined the Tendulkar party by reducing South Africa to 151/7. Most people who love cricket be they Indian or not will agree that if someone deserved to break the 200 barrier in ODI’s it was Sachin Tendulkar. If you want to watch the moment he scored a double hundred click here.

Tendulkar is towards the end of his career and when he retires his myth will live on. I say myth because his achievements are truly unreal and mythical. He is no celebrity but a hero. A mythical hero whose very name is enough to inspire future cricketers to awesomeness.

Sachin Tendulkar 200 Moment Video

Watch how Sachin Tendulkar set the world record of 200 run by scoring single against south Africa. This is one such moment which no Indian cricket lover will ever forget.

Sachin broke the world record of Saeed Anwar, Pakistan cricket player who held the record of 194 run against India. Here ar

Do share your view about Sachin Double ton and world record.

Note: Do read Tendulkar is the Titan of Cricketing mythology

Why Harbhajan Singh loves Eden Gardens?

I think we saw a great Test match today between India and South Africa. Both teams were playing for the number one spot and rain on the fourth day had made it possible for South Africa to play for a draw, win the series and get the No 1 Ranking for Test cricket. But Indian team had other plans and Harbhajan Singh took 5 wickets to win India the match. India now hold on to their No 1 ranking.

I though it would be nice to look up what Harbhajan Singh does in Eden Gardens Kolkatta. Obviously he seems to relish bowling there as it is also the place where he took a hat trick against Australia way back in 2001. I thought about looking up some distinct statistics to see actually how much does Harbhajan actually love Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

It is incredible to be honest. He has taken 355 wickets in his career in 83 Tests that is a average of 4.27 wickets. Now compare it to 07 Tests and 46 wickets at Eden Garden in Kolkata. He has taken a astounding 6.5 wickets per Test in Kolkata.

On a lighter note India played in Kolkata since November 2007 and since then Harbhajan has had his form be a little on and off. I guess to get him back in the groove India should schedule more matches in Kolkata. What do you say?

Here is a table of comparison of how he has performed in Kolkata and his entire Career statistics.

	Career Stats	Eden Garden’s Stats
Tests	83	07
Overs	3900.1	415.1
Wickets	355	46
5 Wkts	24	6
10 Wkts	5	1
Winning Side	35 Tests out of 83	4 Tests out of 6

Source of data is Cricinfo.com StatsGuru. Statistics were accurate on 18th Feb 2010.

Pune and Ahmedabad possible front runners for new IPL teams!

Indian Premier League fever is catching up. Last time I did write about the new advertisement for IPL season 3. Here is a new and interesting twist. This year there will be eight teams as usual but next year there will be ten teams in the fray. That means two new teams. Here is a list of cities which might host the new teams.
Ahembdabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamshala, Indore, Cuttack, Gwalior, Vishakapatnam, Rajkot, Pune, Baroda and Cochin.

I think the front runners are probably Ahmedabad and Pune. Let me tell you why?

The base price of the new teams to be bid on will be 225 million dollars. That is almost twice the amount spent on the latest highest bid which was for Mumbai Indians. I single out these two cities as likely to be bid on as these are on the only cities which can help the owners recover their millions. Pune being close to Mumbai and has a huge population for sustaining a franchise. Also Ahmedabad is a bustling city at the cusp of being a mega city will be ideal place to set up a IPL franchise.

Anyways we will know about it soon. March 8th, 2010 will be the day when the new two teams will be announced for the next year. Who do you root for? Which city do you want the newest IPL teams to be from?

Drop in your comments.

Is IPL a test run for YouTube?

Here is a compiled list of all records the great man owns…