Stump Vision!!

Difficult is the task to step in to the shoes of an outstanding performer and replacing him. The level of expectations only goes on top and comparison begins on all the takes.
Same is the situation at which Bradd Haddin has arrived at. The wicket keepers job is cumbersome. No respite whatsoever and concentrating on every single delivery is the biggest challenge. Unlike the bowlers, there is no change of wicket keepers at the end of the over. Cheering the team is one of the major jobs for the keeper. If there is no fall of the wicket, the wicket keeper has to work a wicket out by way of chirping behind the wicket and distracting the batsman. Loads of words are exchanged between the batsmen.
Ian Healy has done some outstanding work behind the wicket. He was replaced by Adam Gilchrist, who added new dimensions to the keeper’s job. Explosive batting was his style. He was the perfect replacement of for him. Gilchrist went on to change the definition of the wicket keeper and added a new dimension as an explosive batsman.
Gilchrist took the job of the keeper absolutely with the expectations and his retirement has created a void in the Australian camp and the expectation from Bradd Haddin has gone to infinity. Haddin the current Australian keeper has been in the waiting wings for a long time now. It was in 2001 series, he was touring India as the backup keeper for Adam Gilchrist. Other than injury, Gilchrist is too good a keeper batsman to replace. The entire 2001 was a tour for Bradd Haddin. Finally Bradd made the test debut as a keeper against West Indies this year.
Australia has produced some wonderful and world class keepers. Instantly recollected are Rod Marsh, Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist.
It’s heard that Haddin is taking some valuable tips from the legend Ian Healy on keeping on Indian wickets. Can he handle the spin on Indian turf and can he step in the shoes of Gilly is the biggest point of concern for Australian camp. Even if he takes the tips from God, it won’t help him to gauge the bounce on Indian turf!!

Most Luxurious Tourists

Hello Everyone. Welcome to Shams & Wags cricketing world. As we are eager for the Test to kick start against Aussies, you all must be feeling the same excitement.
The Official tour will start from 2nd Oct’08 but thanks to RCA (Rajasthan Cricket Association) and Mr.Modi the Oz’s team landed on 21st September and feeling MLT. Before anyone jumps or guess what MLT means let us clarify it stands for Most Luxurious Tourists. We just cannot digest the fact whether this is “Mehmaan-nawazi” for which we Indians are famous for or Mr.Modi wants Aussies to better be prepared for the big war.
Coming on to some stats to share with our readers there’s been a lot of criticism on our Fab Four which after exclusion of Ganguly from probable for selection has cut down to Fab three.
Our readers will surely like this one to read and to be proud of –
Total Test runs scored by Sachin, Dravid and Laxman are 28,100
Total Test runs scored by entire Australian team which is touring India – 27,834.
So one can imagine if the top guns fire and am very sure they would , Aussies will have to run down under for cover.

By: Saurabh Sharma

Cheer leader Rakhi-Grace or Disgrace?

I think people have still not over come the hype of the success of the IPL matches where the cheerleader would rock the boundaries. What was a success for one series cant be taken for granted for the other series.

There’s a buzz around that Rakhi Sawant is going to be the Cheer leader for the ICL matches. Goodness gracious, spare a thought on the Gentlemen’s game, they could not get any better than Rakhi Sawant?

Cricket is all about class. The presence of Rakhi Sawant would take the grace away from cricket. Well as it is ICL does not have much of attraction so it’s ok for them to have her as the Queen Bee of the Cheerleader gang.

So Close Yet So Far!!

Seventy seven runs are all needed by the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar.Can't imagine of the moment of joy that he would bring into millions of people when he will score that 77th run.
That very moment would be recorded in Golden words.
Will he make those runs in the very first match that's going to be played on 9th October is going to be a huge point of discussion and a hope as well.

Here's the list of the Top 10 batsman in terms of highest number of runs in Test Matches

Sitting on top is Brian Lara at the tally of 11953 runs. 77 run more and he will be replaced by yet another sensational batsman of all time. Already an owner of the various records like maximum number of centuries in both the formats, and maximum number of runs in ODI(16361), he will be owner of yet another record of highest runs getter in the Test arena.

Way ahead to go Sachin Tendulkar!!Make as many runs as you can for our country.

Action Packed October

Once again we come close to yet another edition of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Come October and the excitement level is going to reach satiety level as we would have action packed test matches. As every one knows, test matches are played in sessions and the tide can change from one session to another.
The side that plays the match session by session has a greater chance to win the match.
90 over in a day, 5 days of action, its damn exciting.

Keep reading more in the days to come as I am going to write more and more when the match begins.

Harsha Online!!

If some one were to wake me up at 2 am in the mid night and ask me to name one commentator, with out slightest of hesitation, Harsha would be the first name that will come out of my mouth. Some of the other names that would come while one talks about commentators (but not at mid night) would be Sunny Gavaskar, Shaz- Ravi Shastri, Wilko- Allan Wilkins, Waaz-Wasim Akram , Ian Chappel, Tony Greig and mums favorite boy Geoff Boycott.
Harsha A. Bhogle was born in Hyderabad, 19th July 1961 in Maharashtrian Konkanastha Brahmin family. Advertising was his first love. He graduated from IIM-Ahmedabad in 1985. His first commentary stint was a Ranji Trophy Match played between Hyderabad and Kerala, when he was just 19!!
Any guesses on his international debut as a commentator? It was way back in 1992, he was invited by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation during India’s Australian Tour. Incidentally it was our Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar's first tour of Australia. Since 1998, he has been presenting live cricket from all around the world for ESPN-Star Sports. He has covered more than 50 test matches and almost 300 ODIs.

He has been hosting shows like Harsha Online and Harsha Unplugged.
In any wild stretch of imagination one can’t imagine that he is Indian Cricket's first non player celebrity. One peculiar style I have noticed about him and that’s what makes me wonder whether he is a left hander.Whenever he speaks  his left hands does lot of movements and his fingers keep on moving as if he were writing in air. His face is all smiles and always wears a stretched smile on his face all the while and he doe not have any qualms about scarcity of hair on his head.


Anil Kumble would be a proud person to know the fact that he is Harsha’s all time favorite player. Anil is a big heart, very tough and extremely understated soft spoken person. He likes the players who let their performance speak for themselves which includes Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. He likes Ganguly for his aggression. As a child his cricketing idols were Sunil Gavaskar and BS Chandrasekhar and he used to copy their style more often than not. His personal favorite test match is the one India beat England at Leeds in 2002.According to him, India took bold decisions, batted brilliantly in bowler friendly conditions and the spinners won the game on the last day.
One thing I remember is that in one of the matches, there was some discussion going on about the coaches using too much of technology, they use laptops etc. So the fellow commentator asked him if he uses a laptop, to which he quietly replied that
"I am still working on my desktop to earn a laptop"
Harsha clearly sets an example of how a person can be extremely witty yet have his feet on the ground!!