Should Sacin Tendulkar Come to the Opening Position in the Batting Order in the Upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2007?

Sachin Tendulkar is the most senior member in the Indian cricket team. With the time passes, this cricket legend has changed his batting much. Earlier in his career, he played as an opening batsman and as a batsman he was so dominating that there was a saying that making Sachin out early in the innings means winning the half of the match. However, now-a-days he is rarely seen in that hard hitting appearance which undoubtedly his fans miss. Now, he is seen to start slowly in order to be set at the wicket and then start playing stroke. In the last series against West Indies he played at the number four and scored one century and one half century which made him man of the series award.

I think he feels more comfortable to play in the middle order position. In that position he could easily cope up with which is a good sign for India too. As India needs to have a quality and experienced batsman in the middle of the innings to carry on the innings to a good score, he can be the best choice to think about. In the opening Sourav-Uthappa or Sourav-Shewag can start the innings and then Dravid will come in number three position. In the fourth place Tendulkar can be the most reliable batsman in the team. He can come after loosing a couple of early wickets where he can tackle the situation and can lead the other batsmen towards a competitive score. On the other hand, he can also come after having a good start, where he will carry on the score to the peak of the mountain. So, I think Sachin should go at the number four position in the batting order.

Should India Include One Reserved Wicketkeepre for the World Cup Squad?

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is now in a good form and he seems confidence in both wicketkeepeing and batting. This hard heater dashing batsman has showed his performance in the big matches which is well enough to say that he is going to be selected as the wicketkeeper in the world cup squad. Now, the question is that whether India will take a reserved wicketkeeper in the team. I think India does not need to have the second wicketkeeper. As wicketkeeping is an important position which can not be done by any player of the team, many teams take two wicketkeepers in the final squad. However, I think it is not needed for India to have a second wicketkeeper as the captain Rahul Dravid himself is a good wicketkeeper and can easily carry on the business if Dhoni can not continue his job. Here, it is noteworthy that Dravid played as a wicketkeeper in the last world cup cricket 2003.

So, it is well-enough to have Dhoni in the squad and Indian selectors can include one extra batsman instead. Dhoni has another quality and that is, he can bat in any position very well and can adopt with any situation quickly. This flexibility is very important for India as they can use Dhoni whenever they need.

Rana Saini: The Next Bollywood Star from Australia

Rana Saini lives in Sydney. He has a dream to be a Bollywood actor and he is now going to be one. He is lucky to have got the opportunity to be an actor in Bollywood.

Northern Star reported:

For Rana Saini, of Lismore, the call has finally come.

Rana heard this week he had been chosen to head the cast of a multi-million-dollar Bollywood production to be filmed mainly in Punjab State in north-west India.

A former Trinity Catholic College student, Rana, 23, has been living in Sydney and working as a fitness instructor while waiting for his golden opportunity.

He learnt his drama stripes from Trinity drama teacher Peter Derrett, OAM, before going on to study for three years at Theatre Nepean in Sydney, which spawned stars such as David Wenham and Joel Edgerton.

We will have to wait and see how Rana can perform.

Should India Include One Reserved Wicketkeepre for the World Cup Squad?

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is now in a good form and he seems confidence in both wicketkeepeing and batting. This hard heater dashing batsman has showed his performance in the big matches which is well enough to say that he is going to be selected as the wicketkeeper in the world cup squad. Now, the question is that whether India will take a reserved wicketkeeper in the team. I think India does not need to have the second wicketkeeper. As wicketkeeping is an important position which can not be done by any player of the team, many teams take two wicketkeepers in the final squad. However, I think it is not needed for India to have a second wicketkeeper as the captain Rahul Dravid himself is a good wicketkeeper and can easily carry on the business if Dhoni can not continue his job. Here, it is noteworthy that Dravid played as a wicketkeeper in the last world cup cricket 2003.

So, it is well-enough to have Dhoni in the squad and Indian selectors can include one extra batsman instead. Dhoni has another quality and that is, he can bat in any position very well and can adopt with any situation quickly. This flexibility is very important for India as they can use Dhoni whenever they need.

"Kaun Banega Crorepati": Shahrukh Khan no Match for Amitabh Bachchan

It was Amitabh Bachchan who made the game show "Kaun Banega Crorepati" (KBC) extremely popular with his smartness and charisma. Amitabh has become old and now it is the turn of Shahrukh Khan to show his magic in the hot seat of KBC as the host. It seems that Shahrukh Khan has so far failed to rise to the occasion and Amitabh was much better than him.

IHT reported:

"Kaun Banega Crorepati" — based on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" — was scrapped in January last year following film legend Bachchan's illness, but was revived last week with 41-year-old Khan at the helm.

The program usually draws millions of viewers with huge money tied to advertising sales.

Star Entertainment India television channel restarted the show on Jan. 22, and a random survey shows that audiences have given Khan, one of the biggest Bollywood heartthrobs of the past decade, the thumbs down, the Hindustan Times reported.

The data compiled by India's Television Audience Measurement for the first four days showed a television viewership rating, or TVR, of 12.33. Bachchan, 61, had a bigger four-day audience in August 2005 with a 19.75 rating, the daily said.

I agree that Amitabh was a much smarter host than Shahrukh. However, I have to state that when KBC was originally aired, there were not too many cable TV channels. So, millions of people found KBC as the most attractive program. Now, the TV industry is over crowded.

Should India Include Six Bowlers in the 15 Member Squad of ICC Cricket World Cup 2007?

Seven bowlers, seven batsmen and one wicketkeeper can be a good combination for the world cup cricket squad. However, I think this can not be an idle combination for India. As India’s strongest side is batting I think they have to rely on batting during the tournament. For spinner, they have two ultimate choices- Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, who are serving India for a long time. However, India has not found any consistent and world class fast bowler after Kapil Dev, who can dominate the opposition batsmen. Pathan, Zaheer and other pacers are very good but do not have the power to rule over the batsmen. So, if India takes Harbhajan and Kumble as two specialist spinner then India can take maximum five pace bowlers to fill the slot of seven bowlers. However, I think they should take four pace bowlers so that they can include one extra batsman. As India does not have that dominating pace bowlers, so there is no difference between taking four pace bowlers and five pace bowlers.

On the other hand, there are lots of quality batsmen who are struggling hard to get into the squad. So, it is better to have eight batsmen, six bowlers and one wicketkeeper in the squad ahead considering the conventional pace bowler friendly wickets of West Indies.

An all-rounder can be a good choice to balance the team who will be able to serve the team as the eighth batsman and seventh bowler of the squad. Suresh Raina can be the best choice for this position. With his middle order batting quality and excellent off spin bowling, he can play a vital role behind the success of India. Anyway, whoever the player is, an all-rounder can make the squad more balanced and strong.

Should India Include One Extra Spinner for the World Cup Cricket Squad?

The biggest stage of world cricket, ICC Cricket World Cup, is going to be held from 11^th of March this year in the Caribbean island nations. So, the selectors of all participating nations are now busy with last time experiment to set the best combination. As the wickets of West Indies are traditionally friend of the fast bowlers, it is undoubtedly sure that all the participating countries will give more importance on their fast bowlers and the number of fast or pace bowlers, for sure, will be more than that of spinners in almost all the teams. However, the sub-continental teams, who are famous for their spinners mostly, such as India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will mostly rely on their spinners except Pakistan.

India played last world cup cricket in South Africa with two specialist spinners- Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, even though the South African wickets are also fast bowler friendly. Last time, India had three occasional spinners- Shewag, Yuvraj and Sachin who did well throughout the tournament and helped the strike bowlers taking important wickets in crucial situation. The only all-rounder Sanjay Bangar were batsman come slow medium bowler who could not do well. This time, India will also depend on the spinners mostly as they could not find any consistent medium fast bowler in these four years. The only difference is that Ashis Nehra has been out of the scene and Pathan came into the scene. Experienced bowler Javagal Srinath has got into retirement.

Now ahead of another world cup both Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble are still the first choices of the selectors as they were more or less consistent in the last four years. So, it is well enough to guess that both Kumble and Harbhajan will be seen in West Indies but the ultimate question is that would India go for third specialist spinners. Well, time can give the best answer of it but to me, India can go for a spinner-all rounder in order to keep the third option open for the captain. After having a look at the initial squad of 30 members, I think Suresh Raina can be the best choice of third spinner. He is a very good off spinner who can both check the runs in the 30 to 40 over range which is very important for a team. Moreover, I have seen Raina playing in the Under 19 world cup where he played very well as a middle order batsman. He can be a reliable batsman in the middle of the innings to carry on the innings to a competitive score. It is also needed to be mentioned that he is a good fielder too. So, Suresh Raina can be the best choice as an all-rounder.

If Suresh Raina is selected then I think it is not needed to have any other spinner in the squad. For occasional spinner, Sachin, Yuvraj and Shewag are still in the first 30 and they can well-serve to the specialist spinners. So, selectors can think about the fifth fast bowler in the squad or an extra batsman in order to make the batting line up more strong.