 |
|
|
| |
 |
Cricket
is undoubtedly India's most popular sport and players like Sunil Gavaskar
and Sachin Tendulkar are among our national heroes. Cricket is a bat
and ball game. The bowler bowls the ball in an attempt to hit the
wicket the batsman is defending. The batsman in turn, tries to hit
the ball far enough for him to get the time to run from one wicket
to the other and score runs. There are 11 players in each team and
the winning team is the one that scores the most runs. |
 |
|
| |
| Match
Fixing |
| |
| What
is it? |
| Match fixing
means bribing the players or authorities to ensure that the results of the
match are determined according to the match fixers' wish. |
| |
| Why
is this done? |
| Although reasons
can be many, for example - to ensure a favourite country's win. But the
most common reason is betting! Before the match, a number of people bet
on its outcome. An innocent bet would be if you promised to give your coke
to your brother if Pakistan wins! But when a lot of people are betting on
a match, it may benefit some specially the persons organizing the betting
if the results go against the expected outcome. For example if there is
a match between India and Bangladesh, most people would bet on India winning
but what if someone bribes the players to make Bangladesh win - they could
make a lot of money! |
| |
| Are
matches fixed? |
| While no one
can say for sure that matches are fixed a lot of people including cricketers
believe that matches are fixed. Hansie Cronje, the ex-South African captain
recently admitted to taking money from a bookie (a person who organizes
betting). Manoj Prabhakar, a former Indian cricketer has claimed that none
other than Kapil Dev once offered him Rs. 25 lakhs to play badly in a match!
Prabhakar even secretly videotaped conversations with cricket officials
to prove that match fixing goes on in Indian cricket and even top players
like Azharuddin and Jadeja are involved. So are matches fixed? Only time
will tell! |
| |
| FUNDU
FACTS |
| *
Sachin Tendulkar, perhaps the greatest batsman of his generation was
out first ball in his first two international matches. |
 |
|
 |
*
The duck which appears on TV when a batsman gets out without scoring
a run is named 'DADDLES' and was first shown by Channel 9 of Australia. |
|
| *
The first ever test match was held between England and Australia,
at Melbourne, from the 15th to the 19th of March 1877. Australia won
by 45 runs. Exactly 100 years later (15th-19th March, 1977) a match
between England and Australia was again held at Melbourne to mark
100 years of test cricket. Australia won - again by 45 runs!!! |
 |
|
 |
*
Mohammed Azharuddin has led the Indian team for the longest duration
and is the most successful Indian captain ever. |
|
| |
| * The first
two twins to play in the same test match were not Steve and Mark Waugh of
Australia, but Rosemary and Elizabeth Signal of New Zealand, versus England
in 1984 - in women's cricket!! |
| |
| * Anil Kumble
is known as Jumbo, Rahul Dravid as Jammie, Saurav Ganguly
as Dada, Venkatapathy Raju of India is known as Muscles, Navjot
Sidhu as Sherry, Kapil Dev is known as Paaji (big brother),
Venkatesh Prasad is Venky. |
| |
| * Anil Kumble
and Javagal Srinath got married on the same day. |
| |
| * The shortest
ever test was between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo, in 1996. All but 50
minutes of the match was rained out. |
| |
| *
Once every two years, England and Australia play a test series, alternately
in England and Australia, called the 'Ashes'. They came to be called
the 'Ashes' when in Australia first beat England in England, and the
bails used were burned, and their ashes were preserved. These ashes
are stored at the cricket museum at Lord's cricket ground in London,
and a replica of their container serves as a reward for the 'Ashes'. |
 |
|
| |
| * C.B. Fry
not only captained England in cricket, but also represented his country
in football, and once equaled the world long-jump record. |
| |
| Mad
about cricket? |
| Cricket fans
are known to be passionate about the game. From breaking a TV set when the
national team loses to threatening suicide fans can go to the extremes to
express their feelings for the game. Here's a joke about a fan's obsession
with cricket: |
| Gurmeet
was always thinking of cricket. One day his angry wife said, "You
think nothing but cricket. I bet you don't even remember the day we
were married." "Of course I do," said Gurmeet "It was the day Kapil
paaji won the World Cup!" |
|
| |
| The
Little Master |
| Sunil Gavaskar
may be known as the little master but there is nothing little about his
achievements in cricket. |
| |
Sunil
or Sunny as he is popularly known is:
*
The first cricketer to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket
*
The only cricketer to hit a century in each innings of a test thrice.
* Only cricketer to score 1000 runs or more in a calendar year on
4 occasions. |
 |
| *
Only cricketer to score 5000 runs or more abroad.
* The
cricketer to make fastest 1000 runs - in 78 days and 6 tests.
*
Highest
runs by any player in a series (774) - against West Indies.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |