http://www.yardbarker.com/content/sport/17 Recent Yardbarker articles: Cricket en-us 'A Test side that can't even draw games'. The glum look on the face of the teenager who held up the banner at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, at the end of Bangalore's latest defeat, told a story. A forgettable IPL journey so far - Rahul Dravid booed on his homeground, Wasim Jaffer heckled on the boundary line and five defeats in seven matches - became unforgettable for all the wrong reasons on Tuesday with the ouster of Charu Sharma. It's unclear, though, what impact a change of CEO will have because Bangalore's poor form stems from poor cricket-related decisions. Most didn't give Bangalore much of a chance before the tournament - simply because the side was packed with so many Test specialists - and the prediction has been spot on so far. "After the first round of auction in Mumbai, a few friends congratulated me on my Test team," Vijay Mallya, the franchise owner, said before the IPL. " I mentioned this to our captain Dravid and he laughed it off and told me that Test cricket is the ultimate test for any cricketer and if a player can do well in that format, then he can do well in all other formats, be it one-day matches or Twenty20." Wed, 07 May 2008 02:05:19 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/264165 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/264165 "When Harbhajan Singh hit S Sreesanth beneath his eyes after Friday's Indian Premier League match, the feisty off-spinner could hardly imagine that he had just delivered what was arguably the costliest slap in the history of Indian cricket. Notorious for his on-field skirmishes, Harbhajan's violent outburst resulted him being banned for the rest of the IPL, besides inviting a fine. Consequentially, Harbhajan, who had been bought in the landmark IPL auction by Mukesh Ambani's Mumbai franchise for a whopping Rs 3.4 crore, will now pocket merely Rs 48 lakh and he forfeits all his match fees from the third game onwards. IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi today spelled out the arithmetic and said, "A player's fee is divided over 14 matches and Harbhajan will be paid for only the first two matches." Effectively, the slap that invited the ban leaves a huge hole in Harbhajan's pocket, costing him just about Rs three crore. In contrast, Sreesanth will be laughing all the way to the bank, retaining the entire Rs 2.5 crore that Preity Zinta's Mohali franchise shelled out in the auction. Modi revealed that Harbhajan, having led the Mumbai Indians to their third successive defeat, was hardly in the best of moods and while shaking hands with opponents, he slapped Sreesanth after the match in Mohali." Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:44:08 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/261002 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/261002 Watch free online cricket highlights of the IPL 20-20 Indian Premier League match – Bangalore Royal Challengers versus Kolkata Knight Riders. Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:09:38 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/241714 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/241714 Woody Paige is trying to sell crazy Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:24:44 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/240373 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/240373 In keeping with the spirit of things, we at Cricinfo Fantasy Cricket present you with a chance to own and control all the big names that were auctioned for gazillions of dollars to the various teams, absolutely free: a dream-come-true for all cricket fans Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:02:12 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/237145 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/237145 With the 5th and final day of the 1st India vs South Africa test match petering out to a draw, here's a cricket music video of the highlight of the day – Harbhajan Singh having several gos at Sreesanth after the latter dropped a catch off Bhajji's bowling..... Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:46:20 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/224677 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/224677 Watch a free streaming online cricket highlights video of Virender Sehwag's 300 + triple hundred/century from the 3rd day of the 1st test cricket match at Chennai between India versus South Africa on March 28, 2008 (Chidambaram Stadium). The morning session was filled with some pathetic tactics by South Africa. Spinner Paul Harris did an Ashley Giles, bowling outside leg and over the wicket. The worst part was, unlike Giles where the field was set to dare Tendulkar to step out and go over the infield, here it WAS undeniably negative – the long on was midway in, so Sehwag would be taking a risk stepping down to hit over him; a short cover was in place to prevent inside out shots; a short fine leg to prevent the fine paddle sweep. Finally when Sehwag pulled out the reverse sweep a point came in for a short while....... Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:27:57 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/222484 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/222484 Watch a free streaming online cricket highlights video of Virender Sehwag's 300 + triple hundred/century from the 3rd day of the 1st test cricket match at Chennai between India versus South Africa on March 28, 2008 (Chidambaram Stadium). The morning session was filled with some pathetic tactics by South Africa. Spinner Paul Harris did an Ashley Giles, bowling outside leg and over the wicket. The worst part was, unlike Giles where the field was set to dare Tendulkar to step out and go over the infield, here it WAS undeniably negative – the long on was midway in, so Sehwag would be taking a risk stepping down to hit over him; a short cover was in place to prevent inside out shots; a short fine leg to prevent the fine paddle sweep. Finally when Sehwag pulled out the reverse sweep a point came in for a short while..... Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:04:55 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/222471 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/222471 Watch online free cricket highlights from this 3 test series between India and South Africa everyday at end of play. The 3 test venues are Chennai, Kanpur and Ahmedabad. Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:57:44 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/222469 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/222469 Darrell Hair - the umpire sacked and left out in the cold for nearly two years over a controversially abandoned cricket Test between England and Pakistan, has been reinstated as one of the game's top officials. Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:44:13 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/210976 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/210976 Somebody needs to edit this video and make a big OWNED stamp on it Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:01:13 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/184738 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/184738 He should have taken the bat to the dude's neck as a finishing blow. Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:07:10 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/182590 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/182590 Ok so we all know that they love cricket in other countries, why I don't know but they do. I've tried to watch this sport and it makes golf look like football or something but there is a big fan base. There is even a big enough fan base that they have the infamous streakers, cricket players don't play that though. Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:57:17 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/182133 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/182133 During a One Day International cricket final in Australia - Australia vs India (Australia lost… sigh), a streaker managed to avoid security and take the field, but stupidly ran very near the rather large Andrew Symonds. Symonds - unimpressed - lands a vicious, punishing hip & shoulder on the guy… Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:33:33 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/181113 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/181113 Finally a cricket video worth watching. About halfway through the video is when the leveling occurs. The streaker was no match for the outstretched hand of the cricket player. Side note: Cricket players are no match for the Bull Charge. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kTWOk6slU_Y&rel=1&border=0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kTWOk6slU_Y&rel=1&border=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"width="425" height="355"></embed></object> Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:42:22 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/180626 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/180626 Now I do not know a lot about Cricket but this video is awesome. Cricket player Andrew Symonds takes out a streaker with a vicious cross-check, the best close-up of the hit is about halfway through the video. Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:23:24 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/180603 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/180603 Sanjay Manjrekar until a couple of years back was someone you could safely call an absolute expert on Sachin Tendulkar. He had the kind of knowledge and understanding that only cricket fans seem to have about their idols. The problems started around the time Greg Chappell was at the helm – Manjrekar wrote a piece...... Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:43:59 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/167005 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/167005 Ok, so I've been mentioning a little bit lately abut the Indian Premier League and now after the player auction, I'll piece everything together from scratch. The Indian Premier League is a new 20/20 Cricket League which will be held in India in April this year. The tournament will run for just over a month (44 days). The tournament will be a round robin format consisting of 8 teams, with the top 4 teams playing off in semis, then the final. The prize money will be $3 million. The 8 teams were determined by the highest bidder for different regions of India. The teams are as follows (their winning bid are in brackets): Bangalore Royal Challengers ($111.6 million) Chennai Super Kings ($91 million) Delhi Daredevils ($84 million) Hyderabad ($107 million) Jaipur ($67 million) Kolkata ($75.09 million) Mohali ($76 million) Mumbai ($111.9 million) With the franchises established, next came selecting the players. The squads are made of 16 players, however there are some restrictions. For starters, each team could only select a maximum of 2 Australian players. This was a rule set by Cricket Australia so no teams looked like a mini Australian team. The squad of 16 can consist of up to 8 international players bought from the auction, 4 players from their local region and 4 players which are either Indian Under 22 players or Indian 'Icon' Players. The 5 Icon players were pre-selected by their teams, and their wage is 15% more than the highest paid player on their team. The salary cap is between $3.8 million and $5.43 million. Now I'll explain the player auction process. In a practice unheard of before, the players were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Each team had a chance to place 1 bid for the player and the highest bid got the player. The players didn't have a say where they ended up, similar to that of a draft. Each player had a minimum opening bid, with some players such as Glenn McGrath initially not attracting a bid. Upon this, they were re-auctioned later on. The teams: After the auctions, the teams shaped up. The contracts are for 3 years, and no player can be traded until the end of next season. Their annual salaries are the figures next to them, and are represented in US dollars. Bangalore: Rahul Dravid $1,035,000 Jacques Kallis $900,000 Anil Kumble $500,000 Cameron White $500,000 Zaheer Khan $450,000 Mark Boucher $450,000 Nathan Bracken $325,000 Dale Steyn $325,000 Shivnarine Chanderpaul $200,000 Wasim Jaffer $150,000 - Rahul Dravid was Bangalore's Icon Player. Cameron White and Nathan Bracken are the two Australians. Chennai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni $1,500,000 Jacob Oram $675,000 Suresh Raina $650,000 Albie Morkel $675,000 Muttiah Muralitharan $600,000 Matthew Hayden $375,000 Michael Hussey $350,000 Stephen Fleming $350,000 Parthiv Patel $325,000 Joginder Sharma $225,000 Makhaya Ntini $200,000 - Dhoni was the highest bid player in the IPL. He was not an Icon player, and is currently India's 20/20 Captain. Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey are the Australians. Delhi: Virender Sehwag $833,750 Gautam Gambhir $725,000 Manoj Tiwary $675,000 Mohammad Asif $650,000 Daniel Vettori $625,000 Dinesh Karthik $525,000 Shoaib Malik $500,000 Glenn McGrath $350,000 AB de Villiers $300,000 Tillakaratne Dilshan $250,000 Farveez Maharoof $225,000 - Sehwag is the Icon Player and Glenn McGrath is the only Australian Player. Hyderabad: Andrew Symonds $1,350,000 R. P. Singh $875,000 Rohit Sharma $750,000 Adam Gilchrist $700,000 Shahid Afridi $675,000 Herschelle Gibbs $575,000 V. V. S. Laxman $375,000 Chaminda Vaas $200,000 Scott Styris $175,000 Nuwan Zoysa $110,000 Chamara Silva $100,000 - Hyderabad didn't have an Icon Payer, and Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist are their Australians. Jaipur: Mohammad Kaif $675,000 Yusuf Pathan $475,000 Graeme Smith $475,000 Shane Warne $450,000 Munaf Patel $275,000 Younis Khan $225,000 Justin Langer $200,000 Kamran Akmal $150,000 - No icon player, and they have retired Australians Shane Warne and Justin Langer. Kolkata: Sourav Ganguly $1,092,500 Ishant Sharma $950,000 Chris Gayle $800,000 Brendon McCullum $700,000 David Hussey $625,000 Shoaib Akhtar $425,000 Murali Kartik $425,000 Ricky Ponting $400,000 Ajit Agarkar $330,000 Umar Gul $150,000 Tatenda Taibu $125,000 - Ganguly is their Icon Player, with David Hussey and Ricky Ponting the Australians. Mohali: Yuvraj Singh $1,063,750 Irfan Pathan $925,000 Brett Lee $900,000 Kumar Sangakkara $700,000 Sreesanth $625,000 Mahela Jayawardene $475,000 Piyush Chawla $400,000 Ramnaresh Sarwan $225,000 Simon Katich $200,000 Ramesh Powar $170,000 - Singh is their Icon Player, Brett Lee and Simon Katich are the Australians. Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar $1,121,250 Sanath Jayasuriya $975,000 Harbhajan Singh $850,000 Robin Uthappa $800,000 Shaun Pollock $550,000 Lasith Malinga $350,000 Loots Bosman $175,000 Dilhara Fernando $150,000 - Sachin Tendulkar is their Icon Player and they have no Australian Players. If you're still reading, just remember that the figure shown is the amount they will be paid per season. The season is only 44 days! This puts them up there in comparative earnings to NBA players and European soccer stars. Notable omissions are English players. They have a tour scheduled during the season, so unfortunately they will miss out for the next three years. You might also wonder why Australian captain Ricky Ponting went for such a small price, not to mention other strong performers Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden. Australia has a tour scheduled for Pakistan during this time, and Andrew Symonds has already said he will not be going. Adam Gilchrist will be retired by the time the tour starts. So most Australian players will miss a portion of the tournament due the tour. However, state level players Cameron White, David Hussey and Simon Katich won't miss any games as they are not in the Australian squad. This could be why these players attracted higher bids, because they can play the entire tournament. Some might wonder what all the fuss is about, but this 20/20 league will be a huge turning point in the history of Cricket, similar to the World Series in the 70's. What better place for it to be launched than India, where Cricket is their number 1 sport. Compiled from Wikipedia and The Age Newspaper Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:21:23 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/156151 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/156151 Cricket discussion with Kapsii, who's a lil' bit like 'Daniel-in-the-lion's-den' here - an Indian fan in what's predominantly an 'Australian-cricket-site'. He does ok tho... Well, guess its too late to have a live discussion, with match over and Australia winning comprehensively. But there is always a scope for post match discussions… :) India had Australia (almost) ... Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:00:23 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/148877 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/148877 Watch free streaming cricket video highlights from the 2008 one day cricket Commonwealth Bank triangular ODI series between India, Australia and Sri Lanka. Read about the day's events while your video loads. Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:42:56 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/128449 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/128449 Huge. Slow. Ponderous. That would describe the innings Australia amassed during Day 4 of the Adelaide test. Still, by having India bat part of the last session, and by taking Pathan's wicket oh-so-cheaply… there is a glimmer of hope... Sun, 27 Jan 2008 21:48:30 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/105291 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/105291 Once again, I gotta say, I wish we had seen more of this earlier, instead of all the theatrics. Fine performances from so many players, it would be unjust to start mentioning just one or two. 4 players with tons, wickets for everybody, spread nicely among the bowlers. Shame we see this at the end, and not at the begining. Sun, 27 Jan 2008 10:15:35 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/102669 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/102669 If anyone tells you that that was not one of the best days of cricket they've seen, you have my permission to call them an idiot. The surprises began before a ball had been bowled with India winning the toss and naming Irfan Pathan at opener alongside Virender Sehwag. It turns out though that Pathan has opened on two previous occasions. The first was in 2005 where he scored 93 against Sri Lanka and the second in 2006 against England for a yield of just 6. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:05:29 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/83556 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/83556 At stumps, Sachin Tendulkar is at 124 no, and India is at 309/5. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:11:45 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/82002 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/82002 Looking at the 4th test... "What a fantastic win to India though in Perth. For too long has the cricket world come to expect Australia to keep winning and winning and finally we lost. Lost to a better side. The Indian side on display in this match was a far cry from the one that lost in Melbourne and Sydney, showing true determination with both bat and ball to make Australia pay for any and every error..." Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:16:03 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/81522 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/81522 Wow… Australia pursue history in two very important ways today. 1 - 17 test victories in a row… 2 - they literally 'pursue' the highest fourth innings run-chase on home soil, with 413 needed to obtain victory. Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:03:21 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/77042 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/77042 Well, India certainly appear to have Australia on the ropes. A pretty good batting performance in the first innings, coupled with a dominant bowling spell has Australia reeling with a first innings total of 212, 118 behind the Indian team. If they can lay down the law with their second innings total, this test is theirs to win. Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:01:15 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/75774 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/75774 West Australian Cricket Association Ground (WACA), Jan 16th. India versus Australia, 3rd test. Keeping track of the game as it goes... looks like being a ripper! Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:45:24 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/74777 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/74777 Free streaming cricket video highlights from all the test matches between India and Australia posted everyday at http://cricketsbestvideos.blogspot.com Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:11:26 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/73649 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/73649 I was planning on writing a highly controversial article in the lead up to the test but given India have dropped all charges against Brad Hogg, Ricky Ponting and Anil Kumble have kissed and made up, and the BCCI have withdrawn their threat to pull out of the rest of the tour, I am severely lacking in ammunition. Sadly, I have had to resort to fact instead of name calling and innuendo... Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:51:28 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/72584 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/72584