Dhoni Surpasses Kirmani

 

When MS Dhoni stumped West Indies' Kraigg Brathwaite off Pragyan Ojha, it was his 199^th wicketkeeping dismissal in Tests. He thus overtook Syed Kirmani, who had held the Indian record of 198 dismissals.

Kirmani, who finished playing Tests in 1986, was the first Indian wicketkeeper to 100 Test dismissals, and he had owned the record for over three decades.

Later in the innings, Dhoni caught Marlon Samuels, making him the first Indian wicketkeeper to 200 dismissals.

Dhoni is the 13^th wicketkeeper to reach the mark. He would be expected to climb this list quickly given that most of these wicketkeepers here have retired.

No	Player	Team	Mat	Inns	Dis	Ct	St
1	MV Boucher	SAF	139	265	521	499	22
2	AC Gilchrist	Aus	96	191	416	379	37
3	IA Healy	Aus	119	224	395	366	29
4	RW Marsh	Aus	96	182	355	343	12
5	PJL Dujon	Win	79	150	270	265	5
6	APE Knott	Eng	95	174	269	250	19
7	AJ Stewart	Eng	82	141	241	227	14
8	Wasim Bari	Pak	81	146	228	201	27
9	TG Evans	Eng	91	175	219	173	46
10	RD Jacobs	Win	65	122	219	207	12
11	Kamran Akmal	Pak	53	99	206	184	22
12	AC Parore	NZl	67	121	201	194	7
13	MS Dhoni	Ind	62	114	200	174	26

Dhoni is No. 9 among wicketkeepers with most Test stumpings. The list:

No	Player	Team	Mat	Inns	Dis	Ct	St
1	WAS Oldfield	Aus	54	101	130	78	52
2	TG Evans	Eng	91	175	219	173	46
3	SMH Kirmani	Ind	88	151	198	160	38
4	AC Gilchrist	Aus	96	191	416	379	37
5	IA Healy	Aus	119	224	395	366	29
6	Wasim Bari	Pal	81	146	228	201	27
7	HAPW Jayawardene	Srl	43	73	107	81	26
8	RS Kaluwitharana	Srl	48	85	119	93	26
9	MS Dhoni	Ind	61	113	200	174	26

The opponent-wise break-up of Dhoni's 200 dismissals:

Opposition	Mat	Inns	Dis	Ct	St
Australia	10	19	35	26	9
Bangladesh	3	6	15	12	3
England	12	22	40	37	3
New Zealand	5	10	22	19	3
Pakistan	5	9	10	9	1
South Africa	10	17	25	24	1
Sri Lanka	9	16	22	21	1
West Indies	8	15	31	26	5
Total	62	114	200	174	26

The top Indian wicketkeepers:

Player	Mat	Dis	Ct	St
MS Dhoni	62	200	174	26
S Kirmani	88	198	160	38
K More	49	130	110	20
N Mongia	44	107	99	8
F Engineer	46	82	66	16
N Tamhane	21	51	35	16
D Karthik	16	50	45	5
P Patel	20	49	41	8

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Jail for Pakistan cricketers a "wake-up call"

 

Tough jail sentences handed down to disgraced former Pakistan cricketers and their agent by a British judge were welcomed Friday as a "wake-up call" for the game as well as a tragedy for the youngest player involved in the fixing scandal.

Former captain Salman Butt, 27, looked aghast as he received a 30-month sentence at London's Southwark Crown Court, where he and fast bowler Mohammad Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of fixing parts of the August 2010 Lord's Test match against England.

Asif, 28, was jailed for a year, while prodigious 19-year-old bowler Mohammad Aamer, who admitted involvement in pre-arranging no-balls for shadowy South Asian betting rings, was sentenced to six months in a young offenders' institution.

Their corrupt British agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, who had also pleaded guilty, was given the longest sentence -- two years and eight months.

The Guardian's editorial recognised the waste caused by 18-year-old Aamer's detention, but reasoned that the game's reputation was too important for sentimentality to prevail.

"It's no time to surrender. A beefed-up International Cricket Council (ICC), longer bans, greater powers to investigate. The fightback starts now," it declared.

Former England captain and Times cricket correspondent Michael Atherton called Aamer's plight "tragic" and claimed all three custodial sentences "bordered on harsh".

"There are those who want to see blood spilt, of course, those for whom no punishment is too severe," he wrote in Friday's edition. "Their careers are already over. What more do people want?"

The former opening batsman questioned what was to be gained in sending Aamer to London's notorious Feltham Young Offenders Institute, which, according to its latest inspection, was a place where 'fights between young people were frequent and vestiges of youth gang culture were inevitably imported'.

"There is only sadness and the hope that, for Amir, redemption can be found," he concluded.

The Telegraph's Paul Kelso echoed Atherton's concerns, calling it a "hollow victory" in the battle to clean up cricket.

"So much of this case is singular that the prospect of three UK cells being filled by foreign cricketers can only be greeted with sadness," he wrote.

"It is one of many singularities of the case that Aamer's no-balls came in the midst of a devastating spell of four for none that reduced England to their knees and set up one of the greatest days of competitive cricket Lord's has seen.

"No-one who saw him send the England top-order packing could suggest he was not trying," he argued.

Tim May, head of the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA), which co-ordinates the activities of national players' associations, said it should be a wake up call to anyone contemplating cheating.

"The real possibility of spending time in prison is a further compelling argument for players to distance themselves from those who seek to profit illegally from the game," the Australian said in a statement.

He said he had mixed emotions about the verdict in London's Southwark Crown Court, saying he was concerned that spot fixing still appeared to be prevalent despite cricket authorities spending millions of dollars to stamp it out.

But he said he felt "satisfaction that the prosecution has been able to identify corruption and deliver a loud and clear message to players of all sports that if you are caught cheating the integrity of sport you will be prosecuted and face severe penalties".

In passing sentence judge Jeremy Cooke said the offences "regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice," adding they would each serve half their sentences and then be released on licence.

He said the players were motivated by greed despite the fortunes they could earn legitimately, and said he hoped the sentences would deter other cricketers and agents from following their "hugely detrimental" example.

The judge also condemned the "insidious effect" of their actions on the sport of cricket itself, "the very name of which used to be associated with fair dealing".

"It's the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it which make the offences so serious," he told the packed courtroom.

Its "image and integrity" stands "damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded three of you as heroes".

Despite their status, he said the players had "procured the bowling of three no-balls for money to the detriment of your national cricket team, with the object of enabling others to cheat at gambling".

Any surprising event in a cricket match will now be suspect to suspicion, he said.

The world of cricket has reacted with dismay to the worst fixing scandal since South Africa captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, but the head of the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council, Ronnie Flanagan, denied that corruption was rampant in the sport.

"The vast, vast majority of cricketers are not only wonderfully talented, but wonderfully ethical people," he said.

The ICC has banned Butt for ten years, with five suspended, Asif for seven years, with two suspended, and Aamer for five years straight, sanctions which they are appealing against.

Butt, whose wife gave birth Tuesday, intends to appeal, his lawyer said outside court. Aamer also intends to appeal, the BBC reported.

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Spot-fixing: Butt and Asif found guilty

LONDON - Former Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of involvement in a "spot-fixing" betting scam during a match against England last year.
In a case that rocked the world of cricket, Butt, 27, was convicted by a jury in London of conspiracy to accept corrupt payments and conspiracy to cheat at gambling, while Asif, 28, was found guilty of conspiracy to cheat.
Prosecutors alleged they conspired with British agent Mazher Majeed and fast bowler Mohammad Aamer to bowl three intentional no-balls during the Lord's Test between Pakistan and England in August 2010.
Butt and Asif were charged after allegations about their involvement in spot-fixing appeared in the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, owned by Australian-born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, shortly after the Test.
Butt and Asif had both pleaded not guilty.
They sat in silence in the dock as the jury at Southwark Crown Court delivered their verdicts, after spending nearly 17 hours in deliberations over four days.
The jury have not yet decided whether Asif is guilty of the second charge of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments.
Butt could face a maximum jail sentence of up to seven years while there is a maxium two-year prison term for the charge on which Asif has been found guilty. They are expected to be sentenced later this week.
Majeed, 36, and Aamer, 19, were also charged with the same offences but were not standing trial alongside Butt and Asif.
In a further twist, Butt's wife gave birth to a baby boy just 30 minutes before the verdict was delivered, his father said by telephone from Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore.
"Salman Butt has a baby boy 30 minutes before the verdict came," Zulfiqar Butt told AFP, without giving the baby's name. It is Butt's first son - he already has a daughter.
"It's a matter of great grief for us that Butt has been found guilty. We hope the Almighty will bring him out of this trouble because these are very difficult times for him and the family," he added.
During the three-week trial the jury heard that vast sums of money could be made by rigging games for betting syndicates, particularly in South Asia, and that the problem was theatening the game of cricket.
Mazher Mahmood, News of the World's former investigations editor, known as the "fake sheikh" for his disguises, told the court he had approached Majeed pretending to be an Indian businessman.
Majeed claimed he had at least six Pakistani players working for him and that it would cost between 50,000 and 80,000 pounds ($78,000 and $125,000) to fix a "bracket", where bets are made on incidents during a given period of play.
But the cost of rigging a result was far more, at 400,000 pounds for a Twenty20, 450,000 pounds for a one-day international, and 1 million pounds for Test matches, Majeed allegedly told the reporter.
The agent was secretly filmed accepting 150,000 pounds in cash from the journalist as part of an arrangement to bowl the no-balls, and recorded allegedly making arrangements with Butt for the no balls.
Butt told the court that he had ignored his agent's requests to fix games and had no knowledge of the plan to bowl no balls, while admitting that he had failed in his duty to inform cricketing authorities of Majeed's approach.
Asif meanwhile said he had bowled a no ball at the exact time the agent had predicted to the News of the World journalist because Butt had told him to run faster moments before his delivery.

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300s In ODIs: India Break Australia's Record

It took India nearly 22 years of playing ODI cricket to cross 300 for the first time in a matchand they were the last major cricket team to reach that score. Even Zimbabwe had achieved the feat many years earlier.

But once there, India have now made scores of 300 or more, more times than any other team.

The Mohali ODI provided the 65^th such instance, and India have now overtaken Australia at 64.

Here's a list of ODI teams that have crossed 300 in an ODI at least once.

Team	300+ Scores	Won	Lost	Tied	NR	HS
India	65	52	12	1	0	414
Australia	64	59	4	0	1	434
Pakistan	53	47	6	0	0	385
South Africa	45	41	4	0	0	438
Sri Lanka	38	33	5	0	0	443
New Zealand	32	26	5	1	0	402
England	27	17	8	2	0	391
West Indies	27	19	8	0	0	360
Zimbabwe	19	16	3	0	0	351
Ireland	6	4	2	0	0	329
Bangladesh	4	4	0	0	0	320
Netherlands	4	3	1	0	0	315
Asia XI	3	3	0	0	0	337
Kenya	3	3	0	0	0	347
Africa XI	2	0	2	0	0	318
Canada	1	1	0	0	0	312
ICC World XI	1	1	0	0	0	344
Scotland	1	1	0	0	0	323

Some Key Figures:

Out of India's 65 scores of 300, 16 were batting second.

Out of those 16, India won 11 games. Three were against England.

The 11 successful chases:

No	Score	Overs	Result	Oppn	Ground	Start Date
1	316/7	47.5	won	Pak	Dhaka	18 Jan 1998
2	302/7	49.4	won	RSA	Kochi	09 Mar 2000
3	326/8	49.3	won	Eng	Lord's	13 Jul 2002
4	325/5	47.4	won	Win	Ahmedabad	15 Nov 2002
5	303/4	46.1	won	Srl	Jaipur	31 Oct 2005
6	317/8	49.4	won	Eng	The Oval	05 Sep 2007
7	301/4	42.1	won	Pak	Karachi	26 Jun 2008
8	310/4	46.5	won	Srl	Karachi	03 Jul 2008
9	317/3	48.1	won	Srl	Kolkata	24 Dec 2009
10	321/5	48.5	won	NZl	Bangalore	07 Dec 2010
11	300/5	49.2	won	Eng	Mohali	20 Oct 2011

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