Milestone reached on the eve of World Cup 2007

Today we reached a milestone - CricketerNews.com went live with next generation Live score card - Livescore Beta, thanks to efforts of our developers. This score card has various features like the dynamic run rate graphs, runs scored in previous overs, etc. It also offers quick access to player's profile and other score details without refreshing the whole page. We hope this will enhance the user experience to a large extent.

We all must have enjoyed the opening ceremony of the World Cup 2007. Let this spirit continue throughout the world cup.

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Australian team - 2003 vs 2007

Here is the chart for comparision. Please arrive at your own conclusions. And btw, Glen McGrath did not play twice in the 2003 World Cup (though he ended up taking Sachin Tendulkar's wicket in the 2003 World Cup Finals)

Two cricketers and a World Cup

Rahul Dravid and Jacob Oram come from different worlds. One is from a cricket crazy city(Bangalore) of a cricket crazy country and the other is from a country where cricket needs to compete with other sports for the top slot. In one country cricket is a religion and in the other, its a mere sport. But these two cricketers made news last week for reasons that are completely non-idiosyncratic.

Last week CNN-IBN interviewed Rahul Dravid. After the interview, quite a few eyebrows were raised among those who follow Indian cricket. Rest of the media picked it up and ran with the story, or a version of it. There was quite a bit of noise in the blogosphere as well. In the interview, Rahul Dravid simply did not say what people expected him to say. He simply refused to be told that he was the center of the world. He refused to take himself more seriously than he needed to. He refused to share the belief that all his life's hard work (and that of his teammates') culminates with World Cup 2007. All of it, while maintaining the typical composure and assertiveness. In that interview with CNN-IBN, a couple of things struck with me. First - "Its not modest, its just the way I feel about it" line. And then the "Life goes on after the World Cup" line. Quite uncharacteristic and gutsy for an Indian captain about to lead his team in the World Cup. Or for that matter, uncharacteristic for any captain from the sub-continent. With 2 weeks to go, the last thing the captain wants, is to sound as though winning the World Cup is less important than anything else - a n y t h i n g e l s e.

Around the same time, Jacob Oram was talking about amputating his finger in order to play the World Cup(Thank God he didn't have to and hopefully no Cricketer has to). Remember again that Jacob Oram has never had his effigy burnt. He will never have to see his house mobbed due to one bad performance. In his country unlike Rahul Dravids', cricket is simply not that big. But still he wanted to play the World Cup so badly that he was ready to go under the knife. Was it worth the prize ? Only Jacob can answer. Because, like Rahul Dravid, ONLY he knows the answer. Because, like Dravid, only he could measure his success.

Well, tale of two cricketers - each with a big heart.

England team - 2003 and 2007

Simply comparing the team that played the last edition of the WC verses the team that will be playing this edition tells a story. It tells you what the team has been upto in last 4 years. While you are free to interpret the story in your own way, here is how I would read it :

The 2007 England team is a much younger unit. There are only 3 players who have played in the 2003 WC. The English bowling attack is as fresh as it could get. Scouts must have worked over-time trying to replace aging stars with younger talent. One name thats missing from the 2007 squad is that of Steve Harmison. He is the first casulty of the Ashes whitewash. On paper, this team does not look threatening - especially if you compare roaster to that of the star-studded Indian side. But as a unit on the ground they may be able to do quite a bit of damage.

What the comparision doesn't tell you is that England won and lost Ashes in the same breath. When the lost - they lost bad.

Indian team - then and now

We at cricketernews.com started comparing Cricket teams announced for this World Cup and its previous edition played in South Africa in 2003. Here is a comparion of 'Team India' that played in 2003 and now:



Its going to be the last world cup for the some of the Indian bigwigs - Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly. While Mohd. Kaif is unlucky to miss out the 2007 bus, the 2007 squad still looks a solid batting unit.