Elton Chigumbura wishes to step down as Zimbabwe Captain

This isn't something new right? We have seen people's own form suffered after being the captain of a side. Similar is the case of Elton Chigumbura. He has expressed his wish to step down as the captain of Zimbabwean cricket team. The final decision would come out in next few days.

He said his primary task in the team is to bat and bowl well. But in the last few months his batting and bowling has been suffered because the captaincy is a demanding role. He succeeded as a captain against Sri Lanka and India back home in an ODI series where Zimbabwe lost in the finals. But considering the World Cup which was recently concluded, Zimababwe's performance was disappointing. So was the form of Chigumbura.

He also said that he needs to regain is form playing under someone else. This will not only help him but also the team as a whole.

Pakistan Vs West Indies Test Series

Pakistan Vs West Indies Test Series

Pakistan has already won the ODI series winning the first three matches on the trot. After the conclusion of 5 matches ODI series, these two teams will play a test series. Following is the test series schedule:-

1st Test - Guyana - May 12 to May 16

2nd Test - St Kitts - May 20 to May 24

After the conclusion of Pakistan's tour to West Indies; India will tour West Indies in the month of June.

IPL fever continues

People speculated that this year IPL won't be that successful simply because of the recent conclusion of the World Cup. The biggest reason for this speculation was that people saw loads of exciting matches in the World Cup and the Indian fans could see their long awaited dream come true after the World Cup victory, so probably the passion must have reached a saturation point. This could have been the reason for such speculations regarding IPL 2011.

Well things have changed after first few matches of IPL. Slowly again this great game of cricket has catched all eyeballs. Thanks to some exciting matches in this year's IPL. A team like Mumbai Indians have been purely dominant so far leading the points tally. Defending champions Chennai Super Kings have slowly got their rhythm back and they are climbing up the points tally too. Some teams have obtained a mixed success.

Overall things are proceeding very well as IPL leads to the next round. In short we could say the cricket fever is still alive and continues to entertain the cricket fans currently in the form of IPL.

Pakistan Clinches the ODI Series

Still two matches to go but the result is already in front of us. Simply because the first three ODI matches are won by Pakistan. Disappointment continues for West Indies cricket team. After winning the one and only T20, West Indies couldn't regain the form and Pakistan continued to win.


In the third ODI played here at Bridgetown in Barbados; West Indies batted first and could only manage 171 runs in their alloted 45 overs. The opener Simmons scored 51 and Bravo was the next highest scorer with 47 runs. Riaz and Ajmal took 3 wickets each.


Was a rather comfortable win for Pakistan as they reached the target in the 41st over with 3 wickets in hand. Misbah continued his consistency with another half century. He scored 62 not out. He was declared Man of the match for this game. From West Indies, Bishoo claimed 3 wickets while Rampaul was impressive with 4 wickets at an economy rate of just above 3.5


The next two matches are to be played on 2nd May and 5th May which would be followed by a test series. Keep yourself updated with our live cricket online news.

Duncan Fletcher appointed as the coach of India

After the successful stint of Gary Kirsten as the coach of India, speculations were high regarding who would be the next coach of team India. The speculations come to an end, as Duncan Fletcher is named as the new Indian cricket team coach for two years. At the same time Eric Simons' term as the bowling coach is extended.

It is likely that Fletcher will join the team after the tour to West Indies. Fletcher's age is 62. He had a long tenure of eight years as England's coach. The biggest achievement in his tenure was the Ashes triumph of 2005. This was the triumph when England managed to win Ashes after 1986-87. He started the coaching for England team from 1999. He coached the team along with Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan as captains.

He gets the credit of changing fortunes of England team in the test cricket as the team saw test series wins against Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa and Australia in his tenure. 0-5 Ashes loss in 2006-07 and early exit from 2007 World Cup resulted in his resignation.

Now he would be handling a team which is ranked number one in Test rankings and has just won the ODI world cup.

Fastest Century in all forms of International Cricket

Isn't it exciting to see a batsman scoring a century at a lightning speed? Yes it is. And batsmen are becoming more and more quicker in terms of scoring runs with incredible strike rates. 

Let us have a look at the fastest centuries in all forms of International Cricket.

1) Test Cricket:-

Vivian Richards scored a century in 56 balls playing for West Indies against England (1985-86)

2) One Day International:-

Shahid Afridi scored 102 in just 37 balls playing for Pakistan against Sri Lanka (1996)

3) T20 International:-

Two batsmen share this honour:

Chris Gayle scored a ton in 50 balls playing for West Indies against South Africa (2007-08)

Branden McCullum in 50 balls playing for New Zealand against Australia (2009-10)

The Rose Bowl will finally host a Test Match

The beautiful stadium of Rose Bowl finally gets a Test match. England is scheduled to play three test matches against Sri Lanka. The test series begins from May 26th at Cardiff. The second test is to be played at Lord's. The third and the final one would be hosted at the Rose Bowl.

Let us know something more about this beautiful venue for cricket.

This stadium was built in 2001. It has floodlight facility so it can host day and night matches too. Seating capacity is somewhere around 20,000. It is the home ground of Hampshire.

Although the ground was established in the year 2001 but the first ODI was played in 2003 between Zimbabwe and South Africa. It has also hosted T20 matches, the first being in 2005 between England and Australia.

Highest ODI total on this ground is 290 for 4 scored by India against Kenya in 2004. The highest T20 total on this ground was scored by England 179 for 8 in 2005 against Australia.

Finally this stadium gets an opportunity to host a test match. Also an ODI will be played here between England and India on 6th September.

Pakistan wins the ODI series opener

When others got a start but failed to capitalise, it was a brave effort from D. Bravo who scored 67 off 109 balls to take West Indies to a respectable total of 221. But the efforts fell short as Pakistan easily scored the target in 41.3 overs.

For Pakistan it was M Hafeez and A Shehzad who opened the innings and scored 54 and 22 respectively. Just after the fall of openers' wickets, Pakistani batsmen Shafiq and Misbah-Ul-Haq stood firm on the crease to take Pakistan to victory. Shafiq stood unbeaten on 61 and Misbah on 73. It was Bishoo who could manage to claim two wickets of Pakistani openers. Rest of the bowlers were mere spectators.

Happy Birthday Master

Since a decade you would have heard just one name in cricket around the world. It is certainly the master.. Sachin Tendulkar. As he grows older and older so does his love for cricket grows. In a scientific language we could say, his passion for cricket is directly proportional to his age!


His life seems to be scripted. He has every record to his name in this great game of cricket. He has highest number of international centuries, highest number of individual runs, the only man with a double hundred in ODI cricket. The one and only thing he couldn't have under his belt and he always dreamt about was a World Cup triumph. But on 2nd April 2011 his dream came true when India was officially coroneted as the World Cup Champions.


A time came in his career when he was suffering from tennis elbow. He missed a few matches and experts said this is the end of his career. But he fought hard and came back to the international scene. He never looked back after that. India has undoubtedly the highest number of cricket fans. He was burdened with the expectations of all the cricket fanatics. He has fulfilled all their expectations.


Not only in International and first class cricket, but now he is proving his worth in IPL too. He is leading Mumbai Indians with perfection. A triumph in IPL would add a feather to his hat.


As the master turns 38 today, the whole nation salutes to his dedication towards the game of cricket and wishes him a happy birthday and a prosperous life ahead. May he break more and more records and continue being one of the greatest cricketers ever born.

Devils dared at Delhi

Live Cricket Online


Delhi Daredevils finally dared a huge total on board against another North Indian franchise Kings Eleven Punjab. Very recently Delhi chased a mammoth score of 178 against Pune Warriors but again they lost one. Today it was a total run feast for Delhi at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium


This is the advantage of T20 cricket where one can see scores of 231 in 20 overs. Yes 231! This is the score Delhi scored today against Punjab. It is actually mammoth! Sehwag was on song when he hit 4 sixes and 8 fours. His individual score was 77 in 35 balls. Warner scored 77 too in 48 balls with 4 sixes. 


There is another guy who has been consistent for Delhi this season but goes unnoticed. I would like to call him the unsung hero. He is Venugopal Rao. He has easily hit sixes in this edition of IPL. He came to international cricket scenario before but was never in such a good touch. Even today he gave a finishing touch to the Delhi innings with 28 off 15 balls.


Pravin Kumar gave away 45 runs in 4 overs. Harris gave 48, Srivastava gave 46. David Hussey bowled an over to cost 19 runs although he claimed a wicket of Sehwag. The valuable one.


Kings Eleven Punjab does have good scorers but chasing a total of 231 is a daunting task.


This is an update for cricket fans from live cricket online news. You can share your inputs through your valuable comments.

Pakistan Vs West Indies ODI Series Schedule

As the first ODI begins today between Pakistan and West Indies, cricket fans would be surely interested in keeping a track of this ODI series schedule. Here is the schedule:-


1st ODI - 23rd April 2011 - Gros Islet (Venue)
2nd ODI - 25th April 2011 - Gros Islet (Venue)
3rd ODI - 28th April 2011 - Bridgetown


The ODI series will be followed by a test series.


Live Cricket Online News for all cricket fans!

Pakistan tour to West Indies begins today

Live Cricket Online

Pakistan tour to West Indies begins today. After disappointing end to the World Cup campaign, its time for these two teams to revive. Let us have a look on few of the ODI records between these two teams.

If we talk about highest runs scorers in the matches between Pakistan and West Indies, it is Desmond Haynes who scored 2390 runs in 65 innings. He scored 18 half centuries and 4 centuries against Pakistan with a highest score of 142. For Pakistan, Javed Miandad tops the list with 1930 runs in 64 innings. He scored 12 half centuries and 1 century. Highest score 100 not out.

Yes nowadays cricket is a batsmen game but we can't write off the bowlers' efforts. Wasim Akram was the highest wicket taker for matches played between these two countries. He took 89 wickets in 64 matches. Best bowling figures of 5 for 38. For West Indies it was Ambrose who took 69 wickets in just 44 matches. Best figures of 5 for 53.

Highest ODI total was by West Indies. They scored 339 for 4 at Adelaide in 2005. Highest by Pakistan was 307 for 8 at Perth in the same year.

There are many more records to be mentioned here. Cricket is a game of records being created and broken. Let us hope few are broken and few are created in this series which begins today.

What about Test Cricket?

There was a time till the early 70s that we used to watch test cricket and only test cricket. Infact people used to eagerly wait for a cricket match. The schedule never used to be so tight. It was in the early 70s, the shorter version of cricket viz. 50 overs cricket took birth. It soon gripped the eye balls and became popular.

Last decade saw the emergence of T20 cricket mostly in the domestic cricket of England. This form of cricket was the biggest tool to commercialise the game of cricket. It is as short as watching a movie. Total 40 overs with a small break in between makes it fun to watch and less time consuming. So people prefer watching T20 and it provides more fun with more runs and more sixes.

Somewhere the cricketing world feared that test cricket is losing its importance. But the fact is none of the cricket format has lost its significance. Whenever a test series is played nowadays, the matches are so interesting. The test matches which used to be dragged in a draw few decades ago, now generally end in a result. Infact few of them are nail biters as the result is decided in the final over. Honestly thanks to the approach of limited version of cricket, which has changed the attitude of cricketers playing in test cricket. Rather than hanging on the pitch for long time; batsmen have started scoring runs. Similar is the change in attitude of the bowlers. We now see more result oriented matches than draws.

Similarly few of them felt because of T20 format, 50 over matches are losing interest. But after cricket World Cup 2011, even this theory has been written off. Most of the matches in this world cup were very interesting. This world cup has been a grand success.

Overall we could say this great game is still safe because cricket fans still love all the versions of the game. And above all, true cricket is the 'test cricket' which still survives proudly after ages and ages.

Lasith Malinga says Goodbye to Test Cricket

As they say Goodbyes aren't always Good byes, the thing applies to this case. Lasith Malinga has been a complete entertainer with his quick bowling. Especially his yorkers are unplayable. People say is this the only ball he practices in nets?


One must watch his yorkers with a quick pace which are so unplayable that within a split of a second they knock the wickets. Just with an idea to prolong his career with shorter version of the games viz. one day cricket and T20 cricket; Lasith has decided to say goodbye to test cricket.


He said his decision was very thoughtful. He added that a fast bowler needs lot of effort to bowl in 5 day cricket format. He wants to keep himself fit for 2012 T20 world cup and 2015 world cup of 50 overs. So he needs to retire from the longer version of the game.

Cricket never stops

Cricket is a game that moves on and on even after loads of success stories and controversies. Just a few months ago we all saw the spot fixing saga involving three players. Then we saw some beautiful cricket moments in India Vs South Africa test series. Absolute treat to watch when two top test playing nations fought hard to win the series. But ultimately the series resulted in a draw and India continued to be at the top of ICC test rankings. We also saw Sri Lanka visiting Australia and beating them in an ODI series in Australia.


Overall we saw emergence of India as test champions and even though Australia stayed at the top of ICC ODI rankings still we saw a downfall in their performances.


Talking about ICC World Cup 2011, we saw many tough fought matches. We saw England losing against minnows but at the same time winning against strong teams like South Africa. We saw Ireland playing really well to impress cricket fans. We also saw a great nail biter between India and England resulting in a tie. Ultimately when it was time to hold nerves and perform the best; India proved to be the best when they defeated teams like Australia, Pakistan and then Sri Lanka in a row to clinch the world cup.


Following the world cup, just in a short span of six days; we saw the IPL season 4 kicked off in India with players around the world meeting in the exciting T20 format. The tournament is still ongoing with two new teams included this year viz. Pune and Kochi.


After IPL we do have series like Sri Lanka tour of England, Pakistan tour of West Indies, India tour of West Indies followed by an England tour.


So cricket continues to entertain us and hence I say, Cricket never stops. 

Blues felt so good!

I wrote this article dedicating India's victory in World Cup 2011.

It takes ages for a cricketer just to have the feel of a World Cup Trophy. It took 21 long years for the greatest of all, Sachin Tendulkar to touch the trophy. His perseverance paid off on 2nd April 2011 when the ‘Men in Blue’ defied all odds and chased the highest ever target in a World Cup Final to be crowned as the World Champions.

The whole nation broke all decibel levels when the ‘uber cool’ Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed a six to clinch the trophy in style. We have seen dreams being shattered every four years since 1983 win, where one way or the other team India was eliminated out of the World Cups. But this edition of World Cup changed the story.

After facing the ignominy in the initial stages of this World Cup for fielding and bowling departments, the whole team clicked pretty well during the crunch games. The team never showcased such a killer instinct before that was evident during the matches against Australia and Pakistan. The same approach continued in the final and rest is history!

The highlights of this World Cup for team India were the heartening performances from Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan; the all round performances from the Man of the Series Yuvraj Singh, his sprinting and diving at point; Raina’s quick reflexes at covers; Kohli’s brilliant fielding at extra cover; disciplined bowling from Munaf, Nehra and Ashwin; and last but not the least – the calm and ever composed captaincy by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

This World Cup win also brought an ideal farewell for the coach Gary Kirsten. His contribution to Indian cricket in last three years has been extraordinary as the team has scaled new heights. Not to forget team India is not only the One Day Cricket World Champions but also world’s number 1 Test team.

Victory in this World Cup was absolutely not a ‘walk in the park’. It was an arduous task to keep the team performing successfully in all forms of this game in the last two years and also to manage the expectations of billions of Indian cricket fans. This is just the beginning of another success story. The blues felt so good on 2nd April 2011, an unforgettable day in the history of Indian cricket. Absolutely spellbinding!