Cricket: "Duncan Fletcher to succeed Gary Kirsten as Indian Coach"

The wait is over for the new coach of World Chapions India. Indian Cricket board BCCI (Board of cricket control India) has named Duncan Fletcher as the new coach. He will succeed the very successful Gary Kirsten under whom India won the most prestigious World cup recently.

Expectations will be hell high to take over the reigns form Gary Kirsten as Gary Kirsten has set very high standard with his coaching, under whom India became Number one in tests and won the 2011 World cup.

Duncan Fletcher was born on September 27th 1948 in Salisbury, Zimbabwe which is now called Harare. His complete name is Duncan Andrew Gwynne Fletcher, In short DAG Fletcher. He represented Zimbabwe in six One day Internationals. He was the first person to captain Zimbabwe and that to in a worldcup. His international representation was just the worldcup in 1983 where he captained and steered Zimbabwe to their first One Day International victory on their debut against the mighty Australians. In his 6 innings he scored 2 fifties against Australia and West Indies. The former was most crucial as they defeated Australia in their inaugural debut into the international arena.

He was the first foreign coach for England from 1999 to 2007. Under his coaching England won the most prestigious Ashes against Australia after 18 years and rewrote England fortunes with his exceptional coaching in 8 years to bring England team from low level to top 3 in tests. After loosing the ashes in 2007 with 0-5 margin to Australia and disappointing world cup in 2007 which led to his resignation. He was credited as one of the best coach england has ever produced.

His contract is for 2 years and due to prior commitments he might not join the indian team for the West Indies series which is to follow soon after the IPL 2011. All the best to Duncan Fletcher, and lets hope he keeps the form of Indian team intact and India will be number one in ODI and sustain their number one position in test arena.

Cricket: World Cup 2011 Fever Part - 1 Minnows

Just couple of days left for the World Cup to start. Here is an exclusive preview of what will be the 10th World cup in limited overs cricket.

World cup is returning to the subcontinet after 1996 world cup which was won by Srilanka. I will give a detailed review on each world cup in separate posts. Here i will take you to the teams competing and their strengths and weaknesses.

First lets look at the minnows in other words the underdogs. In this section i will review Netherlands (also called Holland), Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. It would be foolish to call Bangladesh a minnow as they have almost defeated all the test playing nations quite convincingly recently. But to be precise lets add them here.

Bangladesh
As said in all the minnows Bangladesh leads them in all respect. Infact Bangladesh is a serious threat to all the main teams in this world cup in various respects. Local conditions, spin friendly pitches, local support are few to name. Apart from these one of the biggest asset is their attitude thru which they have clean sweeped New Zealand in one dayers. This is a perfect platform for them to showcase their talent and show the world that it is not far behind.

Ireland
Next comes Ireland. They were the surprise package in 2007 world cup. They play serious cricket and few of their team memebers have eventually made it to the England main squad. They have their strengths and can surprise the main teams and one of the team to watch out for. Their only draw back will be not enough experience in world tournments and playing with big teams.

Zimbabwe
Next comes Zimbabwe. They were once transforming to a good cricketing side but fate had differnt version to their story as their test status was revoked and their main players withdrew from squad and they had to start all over again. Now they are in a stage of transforming again, but in their early stages. They can win with minnows but it will hard to say that they can spring any surprises against main squads. But there is a strong chance of they making quarters, which in itself is a big victory and morale boosting one.
Kenya
Next comes Kenya. They were the promising side when they debuted in 1996 world cup and surprised everyone when they defeated westindies. In 2003 too they came till semifinals, though thru some forfeited matches in their favour. They are a side who lack the big match experience but can be devastating on their day. But in current circumstances their biggest hurdle will be the minnows itself. Its highly unlikely that they will make it to the quarters, but if they do it will be good for kenyan cricket.

Netherlands
Next comes Netherlands. Netherlands is also one of the promising sides in world cricket. They are in and out in world cups. They have match winning players but they havent performed as a team in recent times. This will be a perfect platform to show the world that they belong here. Its highly unlikely that they will make it to the quarters but will give good fights for the minnows.

Canada
Last but not the least canada. Canada is the weekest team in this world cup. They will try not to be last in this world cup. This world cup will give them good platform, international exposure and experience. They will give a close fight to minnows in their group and try to prove things wrong.

All the best to the minnows in their respective matches and look farward to some surprises and upsets in this tournment. Minnows and underdogs are the primary teams who create and define the terms surprises and upsets, so look farward to it.

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