Viru is confident of being fit before England series: Coach

New Delhi, May 17 (PTI) Virender Sehwag, who underwent a successful shoulder surgery in London last week, is expected to be fit before the important tour of England, according to the star player's childhood coach A.N. Sharma.

"He spoke to me after surgery and informed that it went off well. He is hopeful he will recover in time for the England series," Sharma said today.

When asked whether he would be able to bowl his off-breaks again, Sharma answered, "that completely depends on how quickly he gets the strength back in his shoulders. He will have an extensive rehabilitation programme at the NCA in Bangalore. Hopefully, everything will be fine."

Sehwag left the IPL campaign after playing 11 matches as Delhi Daredevils were out of the race for play-offs.

The injury he sustained is known as slap lesion or labrun tear (shoulder blade tear).

Delhi Belly songs release

The most awaiting Delhi Belly songs are released today
trailer is looking much promising and intresting.
This is the most awaiting movie of the year. 


Watch the official trailer here, Delhi Belly music launched

End India's domination to set ICC right: Tony Greig

London, May 17 (PTI) Ending India's "domination" of the ICC and dismissing the "nonsense" idea of having a window for the IPL would top Tony Greig's agenda if the former England captain is given charge of cricket's world governing body.

"Number one, we have got to try and get the ICC right. We have a situation at the moment where the ICC is dominated by India. They tell Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and one or two other countries what to do and they always get the vote," Greig told the 'BBC' in an interview.

"It's very hard, but somehow we have got to change things at that level," he added.

Greig said there is too much cricket being played and having a separate window for the IPL would be ridiculous while players complain of burnout.

"We are playing too much cricket.

Speak Asia Press Conference LIVE!

Speak Asia Press Conference

Speak Asia has announced holding of a major Press Conference on Tuesday afternoon. All the TV channels & print press has been invited. 


Click here for LIVE Conference Now

Is Chris Gayle taking revenge against WI cricket board?

The big question: Is it really a revenge against WI board Mr. Gayle?

The big tall man... entered IPL 4 like a rock star, a record breaking innings of 37 runs off 7 balls in Prashanth Parameswaran a debutent to IPL  last week. This guy after playing only 4 matches made 2 centuries which is more than any other player in the same tournament which is a record so far. His century was an entertaining knock for the fans and other cricket lovers from all parts of the World.

Is he really taking revenge against WI team? suddenly how he got this energy? He must be showing WI cricket board that how valuable i am. Now he definately forced the board to re-think about his exclusion and contract prcings.

When he was in KKR, he rarely used to play such a tall and long innings. Vijay Malya must be a pround owner to have such a great in form batsman in his team.

He is the person who can win the matched single handed. He has also contributed in many matches for his West Indian team by lifting up the innings single handed. He needs a support from his team with 2 or 3 quality players and he will become closer to legendary team mate Brain Lara.

Wish you all the best Mr. Galye! your innings is truely world class and like festival to the eyes... Keep rocking, keep on entertaining us



Watch him scoring 37 runs off 7 balls against Punjab

Don't copy Malinga, but learn from him

NEW DELHI: There's only one thing on the minds of IPL teams not titled Mumbai Indians: How and why is Lasith Malinga so dangerous? And how can his success be emulated?

The MI seamer has bagged 24 wickets in 10 games in IPL 4 so far, and his strike rate has sent shockwaves down opposition spines. While his slinging action cannot be emulated, maybe there are lessons to learn from Malinga's success for every Indian seamer.

For one, Malinga is adept at not pitching the ball in a good length area, which is between four to six metres from the stumps. His preferred length is between six to eight metres, and by mixing his deliveries, he ensures that none of the batsmen are able to read him easily.

By the time you have read Malinga, an over is already up. Then there are the variations. If a batsman is expecting Malinga to bowl one of the deadly yorkers, there could be a bouncer - either fastish or a markedly slower one - in store.

As Virender Sehwag has pointed out, Malinga doesn't depend on the pitch to be effective. An economy rate of below seven in the T20 format also marks him out as extraordinary.

In his team, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh are the other two bowlers who have that kind of an economy rate, and the only other IPL bowlers in this club are Pune Warriors' Rahul Sharma and Kolkata's Iqbal Abdulla.

"Malinga is very quick through the air and that is probably why he doesn't bother how the pitch is playing. Irrespective of the nature of the track, he will give you wickets. If he is bowling on a pitch that will assist pacers, he will be simply unplayable," former Indian pacer Manoj Prabhakar said, adding: "In this format, every batsman is trying to hit out. The bowlers who have not done something innovative to survive have struggled. Malinga is a thinking and innovative bowler."

India's bowling coach Eric Simons agreed that Malinga's success is a pointer for every IPL seamer. "He is a unique bowler. But everything that works with him can't work for someone else. The focus should be on concentrating on your strengths to develop yourself as a mature bowler," Simons said, pointing out that Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel have been bowling exceptionally well this season because they know their limits.

Reverse swing is another important element in Malinga's repertoire. "He reverses the ball late. Even Zaheer can do it well, but in T20 it's not effective because he doesn't have Malinga's pace. Munaf gets close to the stumps and is showing improvement in every series. It will do a world of good to the other Indian seamers if they follow Zaheer and Munaf's footsteps," Prabhakar said, adding that Sreesanth has the talent but not the temperament to try things differently.

While Zaheer and Munaf have been India's best bowlers, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Vinay Kumar are the other top contenders for the West Indies tour.

Praveen depends heavily on swing, and is not as effective with the older ball. Ishant depends too much on his rhythm to get going, while Vinay utilises the short ball well and also varies his pace.

Against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Vinay uprooted Chris Gayle's off-stump using a Malinga-style 'slinging' action.

Early wickets are a must in T20 if a team's score is to be limited to the 150-run range, and this is where Malinga has been so effective for MI.

He has targeted the top order with success in every match. How many Indian bowlers can meet such a requirement?

DEADLY MALINGA

Matches: 10

Wickets: 24

Economy Rate: 5.79

Strike Rate: 9.7

Trott hails England's split-captains theory

London: Jonathan Trott has hailed England's decision to opt for three separate captains as a "forward thinking" move.
England will go into their upcoming home season with Andrew Strauss still captain of the Test team but, having retired from one-day internationals, it will be down to Alastair Cook, his opening partner in the five-day game, to lead the side in 50-over cricket.


Meanwhile, Stuart Broad, despite a lack of senior captaincy experience, has been drafted in by the selectors to replace Paul Collingwood as captain of England's world champion Twenty20 team.
Conventional cricket wisdom has it that one captain across all three international formats is the ideal set-up.

But top-order batsman Trott, named as England's most valuable player during the northern hemisphere winter for his Test and one-day exploits, told Sky Sports on Monday: "It's forward thinking in that other cricket boards might not have the guts to do it.
"If you look at all three guys, their cricketing nous is very, very good."

Trott, who scored 445 runs during the victorious 3-1 Ashes campaign triumph in Australia, and his England teammates are now turning their attention to home series against Sri Lanka and India.
"Everyone tends to raise their game when they come to England," said Trott. "It's important to hit the ground running and set the tone for the summer.
"There's a lot of expectation after the Ashes, and from us as well."