ICC going after YouTube videos - Damn them!

Now this is fucking ridiculous. In the wake of Viacom suing YouTube, the ICC, thinking that its actually an important organization, has ordered YouTube to remove WC cricket footage. Bastards! They now join my infamous "Omar hates cricketers" list.

The ICC has ordered YouTube, the online video-sharing website, to remove World Cup clips claiming copyright infringement. The ICC and the rights holder to the event, the Global Cricket Corporation, took the action after hundreds of World Cup clips appeared on the site.

"We are here to protect the commercial broadcast rights for the ICC and GCC and there is an issue here," Christopher Stokes, the chief executive of online rights protection agency NetResult, which represents the ICC, told Media Guardian.

Go Stoke your balls, fucker! Now the ICC are starting a dangerous precedent. They're actually messing with the fans now. This cannot be good. Even though the ICC has the legal right to do all this, what exactly could they lose by having cricket videos on the Internet? It's good for the game, awesome for the community, spreads the word, and great for us bloggers.

Put blogging aside for a minute, It's great entertainment too as I'm youtubing cricket all the time watching highlights and such of past games. And its past games. I've never heard of the ICC peddling footage of old games. Are they planning on making more money from this? Fuck you if are! This obsession with money needs to be curtailed.

Cricket was the one sport that was so untarnished by commercialism and video ownership. It's rare to find baseball and basketball clips on the net because they have been completely submerged by legality and lawsuits and all the things that make sport boring. I love the fact that if I want to see Umar Gul bowl Laxman and make him look like a fool, I can do in a second. Here it is. This is the beauty of having YouTube for us cricket fans.

YouTube was reported to have agreed to the request and the clips were gradually being removed from the site. However, one of the problems faced is that as fast as the offending clips are withdrawn, more are uploaded. A search this morning showed only a handful of clips from the Bangladesh v India game, and yet a few hours later it was dozens

Naturally. You're messing with cricket fans, and they're not going to succumb so easily. I say we get back at the ICC. Lets surface some videos of Malcolm Speed and some mammals? It's perfectly okay if they we make them on Photoshop and they look really fake. Malcolm is old and old people are offended by everything.

Andrew Miller's response is worth quoting. A snippet...

Does this game know of any other ways to shoot itself in the foot? Only three days ago it was suggested on this website that the events of the past week might serve as a wake-up call for cricket's fiscally obsessed powerbrokers. Fat chance. A game run increasingly by lawyers for lawyers, has deemed it necessary to go to war on the very online enthusiasts who can spread the word of a game whose reputation has been dragged through the mincer.

Don't make them cut their hair, you bastards!

The Zimbabwe cricket board is allegedly forcing its players to chop off their dreads otherwise the poor chaps get dropped from the national side!

Dreads are cool. Why the hell do they feel the need to do this?

I just wanted to redirect some attention towards this story and talk about how ridiculous and inane this issue is. Admittedly, I have not paid much attention to Zimbabwe's cricketing turmoil, as I probably should, but its never to late to talk about this injustice...and it is injustice. Why should players have to conform to ideals and set by others? As long as they get their job done as best as they can, their personal lives, and dress are their own business. (Hmm...can anyone else see the parallels with the Pakistani team?)

Why do these boards feel the need to play God and impose restrictions. It pisses me off to no end, and the Zimbabwe Cricket Board is now making my hate list.

You're very welcome!

Here's the story from Cricinfo...

It has emerged that three of the national side - Keith Dabengwa, Tawanda Mupariwa (pictured above) and Christopher Mpofu - were ordered to have their hair cut or be dropped as part of a new board dress code.

Mpofu and Dabengwa were the first to be chopped, although Mupariwa tried to resist and even wrote a letter to a ZC board member explaining why he wanted to keep his hair. However, he eventually gave up on Saturday evening and was seen spotting his new look when he took to the field for Zimbabwe A on Sunday.

...and some reactions and the reasons behind this order...

"I had to comply with ZC because they say it is a new dress code," one unnamed player told the newspaper. "There was nothing I could do because refusing meant I would be out on the final squad to the World Cup. If you ask me, this is gross human rights abuse but I need to look after my family. Cricket is my job and I cannot risk my job for dreadlocks."

Kevin Curran, Zimbabwe's beleaguered coach, refused to react, telling the paper: "I will not comment on those matters. Talk to the authorities."

The new dress code was introduced days after Peter Chingoka was re-elected as Zimbabwe Cricket's chairman. Critics point out that the side, which has now lost 13 consecutive ODIs, have greater worries than the hairstyles of the players. There is already unrest over the fact that players are paid in worthless Zimbabwe dollars while it is widely claimed that others, including administrators, are paid in US dollars.

This reflects a more widespread policy called Pfekazvakanaka (which means "dress well" in Shona), a rigid dress code, inside Zimbabwe being enforced by the ruling Zanu-PF party.

At the moment the country's supreme court is considering the case of a seven-year-old Rastafarian boy who was expelled from school for having dreadlocks. There are other instances of men with dreadlocks being accosted by the police and being forced to shave them off. It seems ZC's latest move is more evidence of that its leadership is merely aping the wishes of the government.

Announcing the 'omar hates cricketers list'

Once in a while, we at omarlovescricket ironically find ourselves hating people. Thus there is an urge to write about them and complain. So after considerable thought, we are announcing the birth of the "omar hates cricketers list". This list will generously include cricketers, their boards, maybe the groundsmen, some fans, journalists....There is no limit! We will include whatever we hate at that point in time!

The inspiration for this idea came from King Cricket's fetish for lists. We like the lists at King Cricket and though we do enjoy cricketers, it's easier to write about people we hate. The words seem to flow naturally.

Oh and one more thing. Assume that we hate equally. It's not easy to quantify our hate, so we're not going to rank them.

So keep an eye out for further developments. I have already tagged a few stories with buggers I don't like. Adam Parore as a journalist, Brendan McCullum as a bastard, and the PCB on the whole are a good start...

The PCB reeks of double standards

Its interesting how Pakistan will play Mohammad Yousuf without a seconds thought but Shoaib Akhtar was sidelined from the first test match for 'fitness' reasons and lack of match practice. MoYo has not played any cricket since December. One could argue that he needs to play a couple of first class games prior to this. Mohammad Asif played exactly the same amount as Shoaib, yet he played the first test match too.

My argument is simple. Why these double standards? Its plain to see that there is something about Shoaib that management does not like. And they keep making excuses to sideline him. I agree that match fitness is crucial, then why don't those exact rules apply to other players? Inzi is far from fit, and was short of form, yet they persisted with him.

Shoaib is a proven match winner. The term match winner is thrown about a lot, so I'll explain what I mean. Shoaib has the ability to change the course of a game in a single spell. He has the ability to take 10 wickets. Of course he may not take any and might have an ordinary game, but when you have someone like him on the squad, who you know will cause problems for the opposition, why play around with his career, and the outcome of the game. Support the guy and give him the same treatment you give everyone else.

It was a stupid mistake to keep Shoaib Akhtar back in Pakistan playing with Rawalpindi. That cost us the first test match. The difference between the South African side and ours was that only 1 of our bowlers was decent enough to get a wicket. Umar Gul's injury or not, by flying Akhtar over on the first flight to South Africa, the selectors looked like complete idiots.

Once again, the PCB and the selectors have shown themselves to be a bunch of clowns, who don't have the best interests of the national team in their minds when they make their decisions. They claim the higher moral ground and speak against the arrogance of players and officials. Their dealings with Waqar, Mushtaq, Younis Khan, the ECB, all come to mind. Yet they are the biggest culprits of all. Their pompousness is ridiculous. They are there to advance the sport, serve the players and serve the nation. I feel like they're completely submerged in this gossipy world of 'he said, she said' type accusations and age old grudges against people who talk back against them. I agree that Shoaib think he's a real something something, but this comes with the territory. He IS a big shot. That's how he is supposed to act. He's our star bowler. I may not want to hang out with the guy and have tea with him, but I certainly want him to be wearing my country's colors and getting wickets.

People get fired, or get criticised, all the time around the world. Its not always acrimonious. Its not always mudslinging for days afterwards. The desi emotion driven bureaucracy at the helm of the PCB must be replaced by a professionals, who have a board in charge, so its not a dictatorship, some smart administrators with clear goals in mind.

Muralitharan's runout

Charlie Austin's bulletin from CricInfo...

...Sangakkara glanced a single to bring up his century.

But as Sangakkara started to raise his hands aloft in celebration, Muralitharan had a brainstorm, tapping his bat into the crease and then leaving it again to congratulate Sangakkara while the ball was still live. Brian Jerling, the square leg umpire, motioned to Muralitharan that over had not been called, but it was too late and Brendon McCullum whipped off the bails. Muralitharan may justifiably claim that the dismissal was not within the spirit of the game, but it was within the letter of the law and, for a cricketer of his immense experience, it was a moment of unpardonable madness.

Now lets be honest here. It was unsportsman-like of New Zealand. Screw the letter of the law. In situations like these, the entire world is willing to shove the 'letter'. Murali was clearly not running the second run and had already made his ground. I was shocked to see it unfold on tv. And after you make your ground, you're bloody safe. Its common sense, after all. It was the end of the over and the leg umpire was already walking towards to the crease. Sangakarra had just made such an important century, shuffling around with the tail and it was plain to see the New Zealanders were desperate to get the last wicket.

The umpire had no choice but to give it out. He has to follow the rules. There is no fault there but if he had let it pass, it wouldn't be such an issue either.

New Zealand should not have appealed. McCullum is a bastard.

Parore accuses Pakistani pacemen of dabbling in dope since the 90's

Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald wrote a very interesting article about how this drug controversy just served to compound his already-held beliefs that Pakistani bowlers have been taking performance enhancing drugs for a while. Here are the relevant pieces of his column.

The only thing surprising about the two Pakistan players failing drugs tests is that it hasn't happened sooner. Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif failed tests for the steroid nandrolone and are out of the Champions Trophy. They have a hearing coming up this week and B samples to confirm the findings. If the results are confirmed they should have the book thrown at them, which means a two-year ban, although they might escape with a far shorter suspension, given that the Pakistan board is acting as the judicial panel.

I'm certain this has been going on for years with Pakistan's fast bowlers. We often looked sideways at what some of them were able to achieve. It's not normal to bowl 25 overs on a searing hot day and seem to get faster as the day wears on. I remember thinking more than once in the subcontinent, "somethings not right here". I prided myself on being pretty fit during my career. I'd look at some of these guys and think "you can't do that".

Well, naturally I was startled by his accusation. So I decided to see if atleast the games he played in showed something interesting or maybe alluded to the fact that the Pakistani fast bowlers might be doping. ....

Adam Parore has played only 2 tests in Pakistan, in the 1996/97 season.

New Zealand won the first one by 44 runs. Here are Pakistan's bowling figures for the first innings....

Bowling O M R W
Waqar Younis 15 3 48 4
Shahid Nazir 8 3 15 1
Mushtaq Ahmed 22.1 4 59 4
Saqlain Mushtaq 12 3 24 1

and the second innings....

Bowling O M R W
Waqar Younis 15 6 26 1
Shahid Nazir 16 1 84 1
Mushtaq Ahmed 32 8 84 6
Saqlain Mushtaq 22.2 4 95 2 (1nb)

Hmm...Nothing untoward here. Spinners routinely bowl large chunks of overs. But as Parore was talking about 25+ overs bowled in a day AND the bowler getting faster and faster, I assume he was talking about Waqar and Shahid, who bowled..well..you can read it yourself....less than 20 overs each.

It's possible that Shahid and Waqar bowled them at a stretch....did they? I read the match report as well. Nothing stood out here. Apparently NZ well and truly beat us on the 3rd day. Simon Doull doing most of the damage.

# Day 1: New Zealand 155, Pakistan 52/5 (Saleem Malik 11*, Moin Khan 5*)
# Day 2: Pakistan 191, New Zealand 88/3 (Fleming 12*, Astle 3*)
# Day 3: New Zealand 311, Pakistan 46/5 (Saleem Malik 15*, Mohammad Wasim 0*)

The kiwis only batted 57 overs on the first day. Got Pakistan all out by the middle of the 2nd. And batted till the 3rd. Which means Pakistan bowled at the kiwis in their 2nd innings on the 2nd and 3rd day. So, there is no way, anyone bowled a bunch of overs continously.

The tall and bearded paceman Simon Doull had destroyed the Pakistani batting by claiming five wickets for 46 runs in the first innings. He took three wickets for 39 runs in the second innings, despite having cramps in his thigh, to have a match haul of eight for 85. Simon Doull was declared the "Man-of-the-Match".

There is not much here about the Pakistani pace bowlers, except on the first day, when Waqar took 4 on a seaming track. But by then NZ was all out pretty soon after tea, and Waqar had bowled only 15 overs.
--------------------------------

Maybe the 2nd test had something funny occurrence happen? Maybe a fast bowler went crazy and bowled a 100 overs. Lets see.

Bowling O M R W
Mohammad Zahid 21 5 64 4 (9nb)
Shahid Nazir 9 3 23 0
Mohammad Akram 12 1 48 0
Mushtaq Ahmed 30 3 87 6
Saleem Malik 2 0 9 0 (1nb)

and...

Bowling O M R W
Mohammad Zahid 20 3 66 7 (12nb, 1w)
Mohammad Akram 7 2 11 0
Mushtaq Ahmed 22 7 52 2 (1nb)
Shahid Nazir 7 1 19 1
Saleem Malik 2 0 13 0

No need to write down the boring details, but one can infer from the match analysis, the number of overs....etc...that no fast bowler bowled more than 25 in a day. In fact, never more than 15.

# Day 1: New Zealand 215/8 (Germon 45*, Patel 6*)
# Day 2: New Zealand 249, Pakistan 269/2 (Saeed Anwar 130*, Mushtaq Ahmed 1*)
# Day 3: Pakistan 430, New Zealand 69/0 (Young 38*, Vaughan 26*)

This was Mohammad Zahid's debut. He got 7 wickets in the 2nd innings. But did he bowl his 20 overs at a stretch? I looked at the match report...

PAKISTAN completed an emphatic victory by an innings and 13 runs against New Zealand in the second and final Test at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium to draw the Wills Series.

The match was over a mere 53 minutes after lunch on the fourth day, when New Zealand, who were facing a first-innings deficit of 181, were shattered by 20-year-old medium-pacer Mohammad Zahid to be all out for 168 after having resumed at 69 without loss.

Zahid, from Gaggu Mandi in the Punjab, near the village where Waqar Younis hails from, pulverised the Kiwis' batting by taking seven wickets for 66 to finish with match figures of 11 for 130 to secure the man of the match award and also become the first Pakistan bowler to capture 10 wickets or more on his debut.

Of medium height but with a strong shoulder, Zahid started his rout with the first five of the six wickets that fell before lunch to reduce New Zealand to 137 for six. Moving the ball both ways and extracting a great deal of swing off the pitch, he was too hot to handle once Justin Vaughan was lbw for 27 after sharing an opening stand of 82 with Bryan Young.

Adam Parore, dropped by Inzamam-ul-Haq in the slips off leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed when one, was Zahid's next victim, rapped on the pad in front of the wicket as the ball cut back. Young, the only player to bat with authority, hit 61, with six fours in 174 minutes, before slashing a catch to gully. When captain Lee Germon was deceived off a swinging yorker and Nathan Astle fell lbw, Zahid had taken five for 47 in 11 overs, his first five-wicket Test haul.

I still don't know how many overs were bowled in the 3rd day when New Zealand were batting. But I can make some assumptions...

They ended that day at 69 runs. If they went at 3 runs an over, 23 overs were bowled. If 5 runs an over, then 14 overs were bowled. Since its the new ball, we can assume all the bowlers were pacemen. Since Zahid bowled 20 overs in that innings total, he could have bowled up to 12 of those overs, or 7 at a minimum.

Point being....Parore is has no basis for his accusations....