Empty two months...

This blog needs some serious updation, said many. Yup, agreed...

Too many things to fill in...

Australian summer, long gone and forgotten... First, they swept the Kiwis in the tests and lost fort to the South Africans. That was SOME series. Pls check the details on the website I've referred to on the side-pane... I lost touch big time...

Then the ODI series, in which the South Africans again took the honours, and left Australia in misery with too many retirements and injuries. SA moved to number one in ODIs and are breathing down the back of Aus for the peak in the tests.

West Indies toured NZ for two tests and five ODIs. Test series was pretty much washed away, and ODI series was won by the not so experienced Kiwis.

Next, NZ toured their neighbour for the ODI series and sent some shivers down the Aussies when they won the first two ODIs. Aus brought two back and rain saved the Aussies from losing the decider. Hence, Australians get to keep the Chappel-Hadlee trophy as they had won the previous series (also held in Aus 3-0 early in 2008).

Elsewhere, Sri Lanka had won the trination tournament in Bangladesh (after having lost round robin match to the hosts). Zimbabwe was the other invited team. Lankans rode on Dilshan's impeccable form to win 2-0 in the test series against Bangladesh.

India refused to tour Pakistan and hence, Sri Lanka toured them, and wanted India to tour SL for a compensatory ODI tour. SL won 2-1 in Pakistan and made a mockery of their decision to force India tour them again in less than 7 months and were thrashed 4-1. SL went back to Pakistan for the test series.

Some series...no not much of cricket...bowlers were already scorching for wickets... Some 7 or 8 days of play yielded not many wickets... Pakistan pitches are becoming un-sportive. Crowd was quite disappointing yet again. And the very purpose SL toured Pakistan, to show the world that this place is safe for anybody to play, WAS PROVEN BLOODY WRONG!!!!!!!!! Nasty shootout by lethargically armed gunmen, at the SL team bus early in the morning was a very upsetting news. As many as six Sri Lankan players including Vaas, Samaraweera, Sangakkara, Paranavitana (gosh! He had an unbelieavably forgettable tour! Golden duck to kick start his career, and then the terrorist... really pity him), Mendis and captain Jayawardene (about to step down from captaincy to let a new captain build a good team for the WC'11). If this is going to be the security level, I don't see any possibility of International matches to be held in Pakistan for a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time. World Cup seems impossible! Pakistan may be playing 'home' matches at neutral venues, prominently in the Gulf.

Currently, West Indies are hosting England, India is touring New Zealand ( I've been waiting for this for years, long time since this happened), and the revenge double header Aus tur of SA is gonna be some high voltage encounter.

Cling on for more, I hope to fill in soon.