Team slogans for the world cup

In the era of mental conditioning coaches, motivational speakers and advocates of visualization of goals, here is a look at some of the slogans being adopted by the various teams to help them prepare for the upcoming ICC Cricket world cup.

Contrary to what you might think, many teams have shown a refreshing ability to factor their limitations and temper their goals accordingly.

India
Pressure - As long as you know whom to blame for your defeats; there is no end to the amount of pressure you can handle

England
Hangover - Winning World cups does not cure hangovers. So why bother?

Pakistan
Leadership - Captaincy is over rated. Believe in the collective. Outrage resulting from from collective failures spares even the most incompetent of individuals - Modern Australian saying attributed to Andrew Hilditch

Sri Lanka
Team Work - You shall not let an opponents individual glory overshadow your team's well deserved losses. Your team over an opponent's individual. Always.

Bangladesh
The Power of Now - Now is your best chance to go deep. The older you get, there is no guarantee that you may ever get a chance to stand up to such occasions.

South Africa 
Happy Feet - No More Cold Feats

Australia
The Final Frontier - Its sometimes about losing it all as well.

West Indies
Talent - Only when you consistently keep getting worse as a team over long periods of time, do you appreciate the depth of talent you once had.

New Zelanad
Preparation - When you lose all 9 of the games in preparation for the world cup, you will need a good set of excuses for reaching the semis; as is the Kiwi custom

India can't win the World Cup

Call me a damp squib or a moron, but India have little chance of winning the world cup. Two reasons - Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina. These two guys were the bulwarks of the India batting and now they are spent. Literally spent and jaded. Add Dhoni to this and you will find that India cannot win without one of these three having a hand in finishing off games.

Sehwag is overrated in ODIs and I can't understand why people keep talking about him in the ODI context. He is a non-event in ODIs. It's between Gambhir, Tendulkar and Kohli therefore to put a game out of the opponents reach. When chasing one of these three guys has to fire big time for India to win. Granted it's three rather than one, but with the confusion in the batting order due to too many top order specialists, Kohli is going to come in flummoxed.

My recommendation would be to bench Sehwag and have Tendulkar and Gambhir open with Kohli, Yuvraj, Raina and Dhoni to follow. Dhoni and Yusuf can float depending on the situation. Yuvraj needs to be a fixture at number four. Zaheer, Praveen, Harbhajan and Ashwin can then finish up the eleven. Keeping Kohli out or accommodating Sehwag in the middle order by benching Raina or Yusuf will be a big mistake. He hasn't played in the m.o. for a while and as an opener he hasn't really stepped up when Tendulkar has had a bad day in office. Gambhir on the other hand has developed an appetite to play out fifty overs and pace himself.

But what's likely to happen is that India will persist with a Sehwag, Tendulkar opening pair with Gambhir at number 3. They might bench Yusuf for Kohli, but bring Kohli in at a time where he cannot build an innings. Add to it, the Yuvraj and Raina form issues and we'll have a confused set of batsmen.

Bring it on.

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Portraits: Ravi Shastri

I first saw Ravi Shastri on TV during his innings of 93 at Delhi in 1982 against England. It took longer than the time Trott takes to get ready for the next delivery.

That 1982 series was also of the most dull Test Series of all time. It was so boring that Geoff Boycott preferred to go golfing instead of playing a Test. 

I think after that Test Shastri's status was upgraded to that of a "utility man".

In 3 years, he became a full fledged, Audi driving, Champion of Champions.

Ravi Shastri - Champion of Champions

Other Portraits

1. Ricky Ponting
2. Dilip Vengsarkar

Appointment and Non-Appointment of Captains

Pakistan have named a 15 member squad for the world cup. But no captain. Australia on the other hand have named their test captain, one-day captain, T20 captain, future test captain, and a future test captain who is willing to captain the current test captain when he becomes a player; who is different from the current future Test Captain.

Behind the scenes, a group of at least 6-8 Pakistani players met at Queensland, a resort town of New Zealand and pledged on the Quran, after signing their names in blood that if Shahid Afridi is not selected captain, then they will lead a player revolt. 

The remaining team did the same for Misbah-Ul-Haq at a house next door.

The team deeply divided over the non-appointment of a ODI captain, is expected to end New Zealand's winning streak at Queensland.

Meanwhile in Australia, administrators, players, coaches, selectors and sponsors, in a show of unity at a media event, have pledged their unconditional support for each other. They all commended each other for the wonderful job they have done over the summer. 

At the event, Greg Chappel said that leaving Shaun Marsh out of the squad sends an unprecedented and bold message to Australia's opponents. If a side can leave Shaun Marsh out, they will wonder how good the guys in the team would be. 

Andrew Hilditch added that Shaun Marsh does not have an excellent record in India; even counting the IPL matches. 

He was reading from a prepared statement.

Portraits: Ricky Ponting

A man of self confessed integrity that can't be questioned. Especially by journalists.

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Late Night with Virat Kohli

India have picked part-timers to play key roles going into next month's world cup. Many say that India are at full strength. For the first time in a long time. Its an optimistic way of saying the same thing. Part timers.





Agreed, Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir and Zaheer were once full timers before age and injuries forced them to make a choice to not be full timers. But that doesn't change the fact that India is a team of part timers.

I don't much have a problem with that but the return of the part timers, especially Gautam Gambhir, leaves Virat Kohli out in the cold. The thing that I like about Virat Kohli is that in a very short time, he has built his brand around being an evening person. Almost a 1000 runs at an average of over 60 while chasing at night under lights. No one even comes close.

India will need night owls like Kohli. All their matches are likely to be day-nighters, where we will need Kohli to live up to his image.

Asking Virendra Sehwag to bat lower down the order will open up options for Kohli and better balance for India.

Portraits: Dilip Vengsarkar

Before there were blogs and the internet, there were pencils and water colors.

Trying something new @ Opinions. Some art work. At first we will use up what we already have. Which isn't much but its a start.

Hopefully as the year progresses we may be able to create something new.

Do check out our new page Portraits @ Opinions