Practice video for 2/2/2014

All the practice videos for Feb 2nd 2014 are uploaded here.

Kalim

Zeeshan

Mohsin

Tauqeer

Is 41 The New 21?

Every time we attend a cricket league meeting, the topic of “involving the youth” in the cricket leagues is always discussed. Usually it’s the same chain of events that occur meeting after meeting; a few wise men bring forth their ideas and how it’s their life’s mission to involve the youth in our local leagues, some more wise men join in and pledge their support for the cause, we all clap and sing praises of probably a handful of times something was actually done regarding the subject and then we all have our refreshments and go home. Don’t get me wrong, a few individuals and organizations have indeed done their part in inspiring the youth to go out and take up the game of cricket and there is actually a youth team that takes part in CLNJ Division 3, but I do not think this is enough and I strongly believe that as a NJ cricket fraternity we have truly dropped the ball.

As they say, “Don’t Come to Me With a Problem If You Don’t Have a Solution” so, here is my solution or more of a suggestion to the decision makers in our local leagues.  Implement a rule that every playing 11 should have a player which is no older than 21 years of age. I do not believe that this is an unreasonable ask and this will not only mandate teams to involve a youth but it may also give chances to youth who are eager to play the game, but are reduced to just scoring or fielding as 12^th man for their father’s or uncle’s team.

I will love to hear from the team captains and club Executives regarding this matter. Will you support the idea of having a U-21 player in your playing 11 regardless of their skill level or do you believe that having a U-41 experienced slip fielder in for all 40 overs is the way to go ;) 

CLNJ: Color kit

At the recent Cricket League of New Jersey (CLNJ) AGM some very productive and to an extent ground breaking decisions were made such as the passage of the motion to use pink balls for the 2014 season.  I for one am extremely excited about the ruling, but in my opinion, the Execs and the BOD once again took a beautiful thing and put a blemish on it. The blemish I refer to is the allowance of teams using either white or colored clothing at their own discretion.

I believe that a league which prides itself in being organized and well maintained, there should be some sort of uniformity when it comes to dress code as well. I say this not just for the sake of argument, but have witnessed the eye sore of a game in which one team played in whites and the other in colors in a local tournament last year.

I hope that the Execs and BODs look further into this matter and make the correct call of mandating teams to either play in color OR whites as this will aid our league games not to look like street “pick up” games .

Stars vs Stars

Another special from Stars vs Stars... Saroosh vs Jessy and we all know who came up top but this video will go in the hall of fame of Stars CC.  Every Stars vs Stars game had a story, Fazeh vs Asif, Akif vs Mohammad, Jassim vs Akif but this one might have taken the cake :)

WASP up!

Over the years while watching cricket games on TV, my daughter always asks me "So who’s winning dad?” and I always stumble to answer the age old question.  My usual reply to her is, that Team A scored 275 and now Team B is 45 for 1 in the 9th over and my daughter usually reply is "I’m not asking the score papa! I want to know who is winning the game?" If it was any other sports one would know right away that which team is winning and by how much but cricket is a funny game, when it comes to predicting the winner, as long as there are wickets in hand and overs to be played anything can happen, like I always say "this is cricket so Kuch bhi oh sakta hai"
The other day when I was watching the ODI series between West Indies and New Zealand and I saw some stats flashing on the bottom right hand corner of the screen.  First I couldn’t make it as to what that was as I thought it was the bowler’s name but it remained up there throughout the game.  This is the first time I saw or heard of WASP (Winning and Score Predictor) and intrigued me enough to Google it, as the announcers were too busy talking about how they played game in the 80s and 90s.

What I learned after googling it is that WASP gives out a predicted score in the first inning and in the second, it gives the probability the batting team winning the game.
WASP was developed by University of Canterbury and it’s a measure of how well the teams have done to that point, rather than forecast of how well they will do from that point on.  
As Brad Throng in his blog“The models are based on a database of all non-shortened ODI and Twenty20 games played between the top eight countries since the late 2006.  The first-innings model estimates the additional runs likely to be scored as a function of the number of balls and wickets remaining. The second innings model estimates the probability of winning as a function of balls and wickets remaining, runs scored to date and the target score.’’
I’m not going to bore you guys with the mumbo jumbo of how it calculates but at least I can tell my 9 year old who is winning and that’s WASP up

Mohammad Hafeez: The other side of the Story

When you mention the name Mohammad Hafeez to Pakistani fans, all you get to hear is that he is a good 20 run batsman who somehow finds a way to get out but he is more than a handy bowler.  Lets put aside his bowling stats and focus on his batting.  Is he really that bad of a batsman especially in ODI that he does not belong in Pakistani lineup as a batsman?  or may be we remember him when he first arrived on the scene back in 2003 , is this a classic case of  first impression being the last and only impression? Or is it him becoming Dale Steyn bunny has something to do with it?

After the 4th ODI vs. the Sri Lanka, Hafeez is now the 14th Pakistani batsman to cross 4000 runs in the ODI.  This year he also managed to match Mohammad Yousuf’s record of scoring 5 centuries in a calendar year.  Lets dig a little deeper into his ODI career, so far he has played 140 ODI with an average of a little over 30 runs, which to be honest is not up to par with any decent top order batsmen, but if you divide his career in a half you will find a completely different picture. Lets take a look at the stats below

Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50
First 70 Games	70	2	1521	115	22.3	1	7
Last 70 Games	70	7	2534	140*	40.22	8	11

           

Interesting isn't it? That a guy who gets ripped apart for his batting is averaging 40 runs a game, for the second half of his career, yet he never gets any brownie points from the fans.  The stats clearly show that he’s maturing as a batsman, a batsman who knows how to convert his start into a bigger score, a skill that is still lacking in a lot of young Pakistani batsmen.  He’s averaging better than Umer Akmal, Ahmed Shezad, Nasir Jamshed, Asad Shafiq, etc etc.  The only player who has a better run with the bat in his last 70 games for Pakistan is none other then Misbah Ul Haq, who himself is another lightning rod to the Pakistani fans but unlike Hafeez he has some fans who actually root for him J

If you take that 40 run average, which in not all world, and for the argument sake we take the players like Dhoni, Kholi, Amla, Clark and AB out who are on top of the food chain, Hafeez holds more than enough on his own with the others in the world.

Last 70 games

Name	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50
Alastair Cook	70	70	3	2601	137	38.82	5	18
Ross Taylor	70	63	6	2188	131*	38.39	5	14
Rohit Sharma	70	67	9	2216	209	38.21	2	16
Mahela Jayawardene	70	64	5	2148	144	36.41	3	15
Suresh Raina	70	62	12	1756	89*	35.12	0	13
Grame Smith	70	69	3	2283	141	34.59	4	14
Brendon McCullum	70	66	5	2109	119	34.57	3	12
Kevin Pieterson	70	65	4	2051	130	33.62	4	9
Chris Gayle	70	70	5	2127	135	32.72	6	8

By no means I’m trying to say Hafeez is the second coming of Don Bradman but he’s proving that he’s not as bad as what most people think he is and along with his bowling and fielding he is an above average player and on his days a match winner.



Writer's Note: This was my perspective, I would love to know your perspective. To read what  Danish Shah has to say about Hafeez, read what he shared earlier on the blog Why Mohammad Hafeez’s three centuries are overrated