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Photo of the Day courtesy the Sun UK.

I will remember this day as Bangladesh beats England for the first time in ODI cricket.

Pessimists predict that this can be the future of Bangladesh cricket - when everybody will lose interest in the game and the cricket bat, ball and stumps will be put in good use - nothing will be wasted.

However, lets hope that this never happens.

(Image received in a chain mail)

The game of cricket is now almost a religion to the Indians. The glorious era of Indian cricket started from its 1983 world cup win. Other popular games like hockey and football lost their popularity and cricket become a widely loved and followed sport in the country. In 2007 India became the world champion of the shorter version of the game - Twenty20 cricket. The result of this victory prompted Indians to take a great interest in this format of the game. India pushed Twenty20 cricket to next level by organizing a domestic tournament containing international stars called The Indian Premier League (IPL), which was initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and supervised by BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi, Chairman & Commissioner for IPL.

The tournament started in 2008 in India but in 2009 the venue of the 2nd season was shifted to South Africa for security reasons. In 2010 IPL has come back to India and the 3rd season was inaugurated today with a spectacular opening ceremony.

Indian bloggers have been abuzz about this extravaganza much before the tournament as it created a number of controversies with incidents like ignoring Pakistani cricketers in its first auction and irking the media people. Many Netizens were eagerly waiting for the tournament.

Kunal Mudgal at Just a slice of life writes:

Its time for the madness to begin!!

IPL is back in its 3rd season. Its bigger, better and now back in India. This year will be the true test of this carnival on whether it can sustain itself in this format.

When IPL started out, it was a unique concept in India. But in essence, it was trying to recreate the fanaticism found in football leagues across Europe.

Greatbong at Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind weighs on the entertainment part the tournament offers and asks:

Will all this be worth the Rs 1200 I will shell out for my ticket—-around the same price one would pay, once upton a time, to watch 5 days of Test cricket?

Shubhashish is at the stadium to watch the opening ceremony and the first match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers. He posts this picture at Twitpick.


Abhinav notes the IPL craze in India:

TV, Internet, Newspapers… Every medium is flooding with DLF IPL, a private event; that above all, explains the success of Indian Premier League. For a private event, entire media is fighting to give free of cost coverage! Strange, but Interesting!

The bloggers lists the marketing and branding strategies which have worked in favour of IPL to hype this craze. To highlight a few:

• “Packaging of the Event” from day 1 as entertainment is the biggest strategic hit. Cricket just happens to be there!
• To keep it focussed in 20 overs and inviting International players, not only enhanced the entertainment value but also factored in the fastest growing segment of high income youth.
• Attracting the movie stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty along with highly placed industrialist as team owners, ensured ample media and public interest which further contributed to the success of the event.

Prem Panicker at Smoke Signals sheds a light on IPL auction’s bidding process and the various pros and cons of the process.

JS tells everybody to enjoy IPL shunning all controversies:

Nothing other than the ODI and T20 World Cups, not even the Champions Trophy, has maintained the anticipation levels as high as the Modi juggernaut called the Indian Premier League (IPL). And if we may take the liberty, even the ODI World Cup has its interest dwindling since the last couple of editions, albeit ever so slightly.

But it’s not the time to ponder anything else; rather just grab a drink, dig into your couch and get immersed into the IPL. It’s that time in the cricketing calendar when all the soaps take a backseat and the desperate housewives either get remote-controlled or join the gang.

WATBlog reports that YouTube is promoting IPL by showing all 60 matches live via its official IPL channel and it has already bagged 200 million Indian Rupees (4.4 million USD) from sponsorships.

Yesterday at the digital media awards night I was part of a discussion with a couple of agency folks who updated me that Youtube was doing exceedingly well when it came to sponsorship monies. One of them stated that Youtube had garnered 20 crores worth of sponsorship for the entire IPL series with individual sponsorship amounts from some sponsors going upto 2 crores as well.

This makes youtube more expensive from a cost per reach perspective when you consider the number of viewers TV will reach vs the no of viewers youtube will reach in India. All in all most agency folks said that this was a big win for digital in India and a lesson for all of us in how to sell digital.

Meanwhile, IPL became a trending topic in Twitter today. Here are some of the Twitter reactions especially highlighting the opening ceremony which featured live performance from international rock stars like UB40, ABBA, Lionel Richie etc.

smokeysunny: The Official #IPL Community created by #ORKUT http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community?cmm=99087253

seopatel: #IPL #MATCH #CRICKET #MUMBAI are in the latest top 10 trends on twitter. India really uses twitter.. do you?

gynelwazlib: The DY stadium looks so beautiful. Feel uncharacteristically proud right now. One of those chairs is my indirect contribution. #ipl

pradeepto: OMG! An #UFO!!! White floating Ufo sighted at DY Patil stadium. #Aliens with funky fluorescent head-wear walking around the ground! #ipl

cricscoreapplet: #cricket #ipl Bollywood beauty, the sizzling Deepika Padukone is on stage now, sending the crowd into a tizzy with her moves

raknair07: Like always..what a crappy opening ceremony ...how much more do i have to bear this :( #fail #IPL

pranav_marathe: THE LASER SHOW IN #IPL #OPENING #CEREMONY IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. DEEPIKA'S PERFORMANCE WAS GOOD.

vedantvarma: Am thrilled with the IPL bashing so far. Sheer bliss. :-) they deserve it #ipl

The Indian blogosphere will continue to be flourished with IPL related stories. There will be regular predictions, analysis and gossip among other things. Amidst all the money, controversy, media hype and entertainment, here is hoping that cricket does not become second fiddle in IPL.

First published in Global Voices Online.

Click here for live cricket. (Embedding disabled because of annoying popups)

"Bangladesh are an ordinary side. They can't beat India because they can't take 20 wickets."

This was the remark of Indian cricket captain Virender Sehwag on the eve of the first Test in Chittagong.

Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons reacted on Sehwag's comment:

"He should stay away from mikes. Every team has good and bad phases. His comments might bite him on his bum in a few years time. It might even hit him in the bum in a week's time. We are definitely not an ordinary side. That's what we are hoping to show in this Test series. We could hopefully prove Sehwag wrong."

It did not take even a day. The Cricinfo headline read: "Bangladesh all over ordinary India." Shakib and Shahadat left India reeling at 213/8 at the end of the days play. Sehwag was obviously absent in the post match press conference.

Recommended read: A bite out of the bum.

Those who are familiar with Bangladesh cricket must know Aminul Islam Bulbul. He is one of the successful spinners of Bangladesh and has played for Bangladesh for 15 years since his debut in 1988 in the Asian Youth Cup cricket tournament.

Ever wondered what he is doing now? He is working as the ACC Development Officer for China, Brunei and Myanmar. And from this video you will notice that he speaks decent Chinese to do his job to spread the game in China:

"They are going to be talking about those three consecutive sixes for a long time in Chittagong."  - Cricinfo

The match situation was like this:

End of over 47 (3 runs) Bangladesh 198/9 (24 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 4.21, RRR: 8.00)

Then something happened:

47.2 Chibhabha to Naeem Islam, SIX, Naeem dances down the track and launches that on over long-on for a six to bring up his half-century, that was a length ball

47.3 Chibhabha to Naeem Islam, SIX, wow, what a shot that is, another length ball, Naeem gets under it and whacks it over the bowler's head for another six

47.4 Chibhabha to Naeem Islam, SIX, A hat-trick of sixes, Naeem Islam is going berserk here, Chibhabha not learning his lessons, offers a length ball again, Naeem smashes it over wide long-on for another six

“One day we will be right up there at the top and it is a realistic prospect. Just look at the players we have. Tamim Iqbal, Ashraful, Mortaza can be match-winners and now we have Rubel [Hossain] who can bowl at 90mph. Give us a few years to grow together. Teams who face us in the coming months will be taking on a victorious unit and not the Bangladesh of old. There is a difference you will notice.”

- Shakib Al-Hasan, Vice Captain, Bangladesh cricket team and The Wisden Cricketer's Test Player Of The Year.

"Everyone seems to ignore the fact that they have played good cricket. They aren't as weak as some people seem to think they are."

- John Dyson, the West Indies Coach, on Bangladesh cricket team

Congratulations to the Bangladesh cricket team for recording their first one-day series win over a test-playing nation by winning 2-0 against West Indies (WI) with one match to go and previously clinching the Test series (2-0). The boys really played well to prove that they are becoming a force to consider.

Surely Shakib's captaincy and performance are proving beneficial for Bangladesh. Bangladesh can now turn back and win. According to the current ICC rank Shakib is the no. 1 allrounder in ODI and the no. 4 allrounder in Test Championship.

But this tour was controversial before any ball was bowled. The West Indies Players Association withdrew their players from the series to pressurize the West Indies Cricket Board to settle their outstanding contract issues. The board took on these players by naming another squad with less experienced players including players from the A team.

I have seen that many are seeing this in the angle that Bangladesh is winning because WI has fielded their B team. I should remind them that Bangladesh also was in this position last year when 13 players signed for Indian Premier League and was handed a 10 year ban by the board. Included in the lists are veterans Mohammad Rafique and Habibul Bashar and indispensable players like Aftab Ahmed, Alok Kapali, Shahriar Nafees, Farhad Reza and Dhiman Ghosh. Considering the recent Bangladesh team at least 4-5 from them can be easily be included to form the best Bangladesh team. So Bangladesh is also playing in this series with reduced strength and with some less experienced players.

The West Indies media is trying to downplay the recent feats of Bangladesh. The headline of The Jamaican Observer reads "The RECORD low! Windies cede ODI series to lowly Bangladesh".

So to them Bangladesh is still the "lowly". And they undermine the feats of Bangladesh of chasing 274 runs in a fast pitch with fearsome WI bowlers. If Bangladesh could produce a convincing performance with some less experienced players why the WI could not do it?

If they try to say that these WI players are not quality players then we can argue that a legendary team like West Indies should have enough quality players waiting to be included in the national side. If they can't field enough performing players like Bangladesh did when they lost their star players to IPL, who should be termed "lowly"?

(Image courtesy BDNews24.com)

From Cricinfo:

Shakib Al Hasan has confirmed his consistently impressive performances by heading the ICC's ODI allrounder rankings, the first time any Bangladesh has topped any ICC rankings. His performances in the home tri-series involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, took him to 380 rating points, helping him surge past last week's top two, New Zealand's Jacob Oram (368 points) and England's Andrew Flintoff (366).

More on Shakib Al Hasan here.

Update:
An exclusive interview with Shakib Al Hasan. He is just another kid on the block but with strong commitment and full of dreams. I wish more Bangladeshi players had commitments like Shakib. You must want something before you can have it truly.

Congratulations to Bangladesh team for pulling out a victory against New Zealand in the first ODI in Dhaka.

People thought that Bangladesh had weakened by the recent exodus of a few key players to the commercially lucrative ICL. But this victory is the proof of their ability and proof that the team is not dependent on a few players. Its good to see that Bangladesh can still produce more talents.

Lets hope they develop themselves to be more consistent in their performance.

While the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has slapped a 10-year-ban on players who joined the Indian Cricket League (ICL), Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has done the reverse.

- CricketNext

"I am not here just to have the team win a game or two. I am trying to develop this squad and the future of Bangladesh cricket to a point where they can compete regularly against the top-ranked teams. This will take time as the players have so many lessons to learn and skills to develop."

- Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons

"Playing for money or the pride of the country which comes first?" this is always a tricky question. Bangladesh's cricket is facing a deep crisis after 13 of its national players was lured by the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Playing in the ICL ensues an automatic ban from all forms of official cricket. But they will be able to earn up to US$200,000 from a three-year contract, which is a lot of money in Bangladesh's context. According to Reuters this amount is five times more than a top Bangladeshi player's annual central contract, with which they were unhappy.

Cricinfo reveals:

The exodus of 13 players from Bangladesh to the Indian Cricket League - and into virtual exile from all official cricket - has been formalized with the unveiling in New Delhi of the Dhaka Warriors. The team, which will compete in the second season of (ICL) from October 10, will be led by Habibul Bashar, the former national captain, and includes recent internationals Aftab Ahmed, Alok Kapali, Shahriar Nafees, Farhad Reza, Dhiman Ghosh and Mosharraf Hossain.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board The BCB attempted to discuss with the six players still on contract, but the Daily Star reported that none of them turned up.

Not all could be lured. All rounder Sakib Al Hasan tells Cricinfo:

"I think it's a personal choice. But I am very much clear in my position. I want to play for my country and I believe everything will come in my way if I keep my position on the national side."

Many Bangladeshis were outraged by the rebel cricketers decision. Unheard Voices echoes the sentiments and claims that the Bangladeshi cricketers are trying to hide their incompetence and greed under fake outrage against the Board.

Kotha-Chilo argues in these cricketers defense:

What makes you think they have betrayed their country? These boys are professional cricket players. If they get better chance anywhere, they are entitled to leave.

Journey2infinitive comments:

This game is become monopoly of some Mafia people. Team like Bangladesh is suffering for that. Now Bangladesh (Cricket Board) should take the right step. They should not bow down to any unethical decision. They should see the interest of the players and equally for the future of Bangladesh cricket.

Sri Lankan Cricket board is rescheduling their England tour because of their players schedule in Indian Premier League(IPL).

Cricket is an individualistic game. If these players get the chance to play competitive cricket with higher standard players these could make them more experienced which can be beneficial for Bangladesh.

So I think Bangladesh Cricket Board should reach an agreement with these rebelling cricketers to allow them to play in the future for Bangladesh on certain conditions. An outright ban will not bring any good for them nor Bangladesh cricket.

After 14 losses Bangladesh cricket team finally wins a match...against Ireland. Captain Ashraful says:

"It's always important to win matches no matter against whom."

I think he was indicating to ICC "send more below Test status team to play to get my records straight".

The first test of Bangladesh vs South Africa has become very interesting on the first day when 14 wickets fell. Bangladesh reeled to a lowly 192 in only 54.4 overs which seemed more like a one day score. However their reply was also strong as they sent 4 South African batsmen home. The final score at the end of the first day was 76/4 (24 overs). From the Cricinfo commentary team:

"Nobody would have least expected South Africa to be facing the heat at the end of the day, losing their top four, including Kallis. Shahadat got his inswingers spot on and induced mistakes while Rafique's experience came into play later. There was something rather unusual about the way Kallis approached the spinners, exposing the stumps repeatedly to slice it through the off side. Rafique had the common sense to keep the ball on the stumps, and though the low bounce accounted for Kallis, it was still a classical case of the bowler out-thinking the batsman.

Bangladesh are in a pleasant scenario they're not used to at the Test level. It's important they hang onto the momentum over the second day and if possible get a lead. The low bounce will evoke fears tomorrow as well and the pressure will be on the batsmen to counter that."

Rafique's inclusion really paid for Bangladesh.

The under 19 world cup:

In group D Bangladesh had two big wins against Bermuda and Ireland and England did the same. Bangladesh played England today and won by 13 runs to become the group champion. But the play was bizarre and out of the ordinary as you can see from the scorecard. Bangladesh lost the toss and batted first. Within the ninth over England opening bowler Harris (5 wickets) put Bangladesh in disarray as they were 6 wickets down with only 27 on board. However the seventh and eighth wicket partnership took Bangladesh to 149 runs in 42 overs. It is out of the ordinary as Bangladesh front line batsmen fared well in previous matches.

Still that was not enough for a strong England side whose opening batsmen put 35 in 7 overs without losing wicket. After that wickets started to fall in regular intervals and England slowed down considerably. They were 69 in 4 wickets after 21 overs so thats about 2 runs per over. They could not recover from that and their lower order collapsed to a meager 136 in 47.4 overs still 13 runs short of target. That was a bizarre performance from them and of course credit to the Bangladesh team which could keep the pressure. Suhrawadi Shuvo of the Bangladesh Under-19 team was adjudged man of the match for his responsible 56 runs (highest score of the match) and one wicket howl.

Bangladesh will play South Africa in the first quarter final.

Looking forward to follow these matches.

Update: The Bangladesh South Africa 1st test took an interesting turn on the second day. Bangladesh dismissed SA within 170, 22 runs short from Bangladesh's first innings. Shahadat Hossain had a career best figure of 6 wickets (27 runs). The Bangladesh's second wicket reply was also poor as three of Bangladeshi batesmen fell to Steyn and they are steadying the boat at 52/3 in 20 overs.

For live streaming of Bangladesh vs. South Africa Test:

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Click for Live Score Card of Bangladesh vs South Africa.

Update II: Rick Eyre shares an interesting information. Ashwell Prince of South Africa was the only man in IPL auction who failed to attract a bid at his reserve price of $175000. He did an interesting analysis showing the card of the South African innings, with bowling from Bangladesh's first innings:

Neil McKenzie (non-IPL) 5,
Graeme Smith (Jaipur, $250K) 10,
Hashim Amla (non-IPL) 25,
Jacques Kallis (Bangalore, $900K) 17,
Ashwell Prince (passed in) 10,
Johan Botha (non-IPL) 25 and 2/57,
AB de Villiers (Delhi, $300K) 46,
Mark Boucher (Bangalore, $450K) 11,
Morne Morkel (non-IPL unlike his brother Albie) 1 and 5/50,
Dale Steyn (Bangalore, $325K) 7 and 3/27,
Makhaya Ntini (Chennai, $200K) 3 and 0/47.

Shahadat Hossain took 6/27 for Bangladesh in South Africa's first innings, but he is not on the IPL payroll. Nor, curiously enough, is anyone from Bangladesh. The BCCI head-hunters, it seems, were not interested.

This has to be a record in any form of cricket. Bermuda's women cricket team lost to the South African women team in a world cup qualifier match the result of which will be hard to be matched in centuries to come.

Bermuda could make only 13 runs in 18 overs with three of its batswomen scored 1 each (10 extras). Their captain Linda Mienzer held on to one end making 1 run off 48 balls.

Form Line and length blog:

In reply, the Bermuda opening bowler, Terry-Lynn Paynter, sent down nine wides and a no-ball before eventually getting one ball to land on the strip, which was hit for four. There was a grand sum of five scoring strokes in the match. Brilliant.

Here is the scorecard and the Cricinfo bulletin.

If you are looking for some good cricket don't forget to follow the Under-19 world cup being held in Malaysia.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan bought the Kolkata cricket team for 75 million Indian rupees last month. He offered Bangladesh's spin star Md. Rafique to play for them in the Indian Premier League. Rafique did not decline and said he will think about it after the upcoming series with South Africa, when he will declare his retirement. (Source: Independent Bangladesh, Cricinfo)