Cricket

Tendulkar may drive a Ferrari, [:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tendulkars_aura_proves_too_much_for_Potter/articleshow/2231379.cms|get queued by stars for autographs], but what sets the likes of Gavaskar and Ponting apart as legends in their own way seems to be the match winning ability. [:http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/columns/content/current/story/303750.html|S Rajesh has a nice article today on Cricinfo] which puts some light on just that.

Sachin Tendulkar has scored 10,975 runs, but only 976 of them have been in the fourth innings of Tests.

And News channels bashed Kapil [:http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/engvind/content/story/303542.html|for saying just this on TV].

Much of the Indian viewer base is already accustomed to ads between each over during the live telecast of Cricket. It has almost become an accepted part of life, although many have become smart enough to keep the remote on their side to mute the TV between overs.

But those of us who watched the Cricket World Cup this time in India might have spotted, fumed and then cursed at the insensibility of the SET Max crew. Commentary was cut short, ads DJed in even before the over was completed, et al. H R Venkatesh of tv18 [:http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/hrvenkatesh/161/39371/aussies-champs-viewers-tramps.html|puts this aptly on his recent blog post]:

Cutting back to action from a commercial break, we were treated to a celebrating Australia in the 33rd over of the Sri Lankan run chase. Apparently, the Lankan batsmen had accepted an offer to walk off because of bad light with three overs to go (in a 38-overs-a-side-final), sparking off premature celebrations in the Aussie camp. Of course, we didn't know that, because we were watching the ads.

Many moments later, the channel did it again; just when Australia were about to take off with the World Cup trophy, they cut into Charu Sharma, Mandira Bedi and co.

A disappointing World Cup has just got worse. Just when it seemed a World Cup semi- final couldn't get any lower than the first one, it did.

[:http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/wc2007/content/current/story/292394.html|Samit Bal] on [:http://www.cricinfo.com|Cricinfo].

Catch Kumara Sangakkara on this [:http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/281454.html|very nice podcast on Cricinfo]. Sangakkara talks to Sanjay about the Cricketers entering this World Cup and his opinion on who might make it big (he leaves out himself, obviously)

Sangakkara seems very eloquent and also forthright. "I was average at both" he says, referring to his wicket keeping and batting. "But my father helped me improve".

In the run-up to the World Cup, media is coming out with all sorts of special features to grab the attention.

"Dumped" List

CricInfo has an article today titled "They dumped me". As the names suggests, it is about those players who were dropped from the team. The article tries to guess the reasons. And it is quite hilarious.

The part about Runako Morton is specially hilarious for those who don't know yet:

In the course of his career, Morton been expelled from the squad in 2002 for lying about a grandmother's death

Read the complete article [:http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/wc2007/content/story/281201.html|here].

Media Campaigns

IBN-Live (read tv18) has started a "[:http://www.cricketnext.com/features/2007/cheerindia/|cheering campaign]" this time. It doesn't need to be mentioned that Indian team doesn't have time to listen to one billion cheers. Maybe this one is for them to read after their retirement (There are going to be many after this World Cup, anyway).

The Indian Cricket fans who tried to enjoy their Sunday today watching the (7 minutes delayed) telecast of [:http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/indvsl/content/story/279565.html|India vs Sri Lanka] that was played at Rajkot, only got the opposite.

While checking out the [:http://ind.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/ODIS/TEAM/ODI_HIGH_TEAM_TOTALS.html|record for highest ODI Scores], there was a [:http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/netherlands/content/story/252357.html|surprise in store today].