Yesterday was the 25th day of the IPL, which hosted the 41st and 42nd match of the league, thus ending the 3rd Quarter of the group stages.

Deccan Chargers dominated Q1 and Q2, ending both quarters at the top of the table.

However at the end of Q3, it is the Delhi Daredevils that are sitting pretty on top, having lost only 2 matches, the lowest among all teams, thus far.

They have also played the least number of matches, hence are in a very strong position with the most points and matches in hand.

Despite their dominance, none of the Daredevil's top order batsmen - Gambhir, Sehwag, Dilshan, De Villiers, or Warner - feature among the top 5 run scorers at the end of Q3.

Leading Batsmen
1. Matthew Hayden (CSK) - 9 inn, 426 runs at 47.33
2. Suresh Raina (CSK) - 9 inn, 309 runs at 34.33
3. JP Duminy (MI) - 9 inn, 297 runs at 49.50
4. Yuvraj Singh (KXIP) - 11 inn, 296 runs at 32.88
5. Jacques Kallis (RCB) - 10 inn, 274 runs at 30.44

Hayden firmly holds on to the number 1 position, just like he did in Q1 and Q2. Only this time he has stretched his lead further, and is more than a 100 runs ahead of the next best batsman. It doesn't look like anyone will be catching up with him by the time the IPL ends, and he will certainly be taking the Orange cap back to Australia.

Raina also continued his good form in Q3 and ended the quarter in the same position he held at the end of Q2. His and Hayden's form has finally managed to get the Chennai Super Kings into the top 4, something they had not managed in the previous 2 quarters. CSK even topped the table briefly during this period and are now sitting at 2nd place.

Duminy breaks into the top 5 for the first time this quarter on the back of some powerful performances for the Mumbai Indians that included 4 50s, which are the most among all batsmen. His form has been instrumental in driving MI into the top 4 and they end Q3 with an eye on a semi-final spot.

Yuvraj finally found some form this quarter and ends it in the top 5 after 2 50s. He has not been as devastating as he should have been in the IPL, and his lack of consistency has resulted in KXIP staring at an exit before the semis.

Kallis holds on to his position within the top 5, but just barely. He was 4th at the end of Q2, and this time slips a notch lower. Only 9 runs separate Kallis and the 3 men that follow him - AB De Villiers, Adam Gilchrist, and Sachin Tendulkar.

Its interesting to note that the top 4 run scorers in the IPL at the end of Q3 are left handers.

Another interesting fact is that after Raina and Yuvraj, the next best Indian batsman is Sachin - no Rohit Sharma, no Gambhir, no Sehwag, no Dhoni, no Pathan, but Sachin. Is the petition still running?

Leading bowlers
1. RP Singh (DC) - 10 inn, 16 wickets at 14.93
2. Lasith Malinga (MI) - 10 inn, 15 wickets at 15.13
3. Ashish Nehra (DDD) - 8 inn, 14 wickets at 16.14
4. Yusuf Abdullah (KXIP) - 9 inn, 14 wickets at 17.21
5. Laxmipathy Balaji (CSK) - 8 inn, 12 wickets at 16.41

RP Singh who was at number 2 at the end of both Q1 and Q2, ends this quarter as the leading wicket taker in the IPL. His success has played an important role in Deccan Chargers holding on to a place in the top 4.

RP's rise however has been helped by the fact that Kings XI Punjab have kept Yusuf Abdullah out of the team for the last 2 matches due to the return of Brett Lee. I feel that is a bit harsh on the man who was the leading wicket taker of the IPL till Q2.

Malinga has been consistent throughout the IPL staying among the top 5 bowlers in all quarters, despite being a bit more expensive lately.

While Balaji has surprised one and all by holding on to the 5th position since the end of Q2.

I was a bit shocked to see Nehra among the top 5 bowlers but then realised how well he had bowled in the last few matches for the Daredevils.

The race towards the purple cap seems to be between RP, Malinga, and Nehra, and I sense that its going to go to Sri Lanka.

Left handers dominate the top 5 bowlers as well with 3 of them of that variety.

What is it with left handers and the IPL? The Orange Cap and Purple Cap winners of IPL 2008 were both left handers!

Its interesting to note that there are no spinners among the top 5 bowlers despite all the talk about the impact the spinners have had in this IPL. However, there are 4 spinners in the top 10.

Other Stats
Highest Team Score: 211-4, RR vs KXIP
Highest Individual Score: 105*, AB De Villiers (DDD) vs CSK
Best Strike Rate (min 150 runs): 164.61, Dwayne Smith (DC)
Most Sixes: 17, Matthew Hayden (CSK)
Best Bowling Performance: 5-5, Anil Kumble (BRC) vs RR
Best Economy Rate (min 18 overs): 5.63, Harbhajan Singh (MI)

Finally 200 was surpassed during Q3 and it was none other than by the defending champions who scored 211-4 against the Kings XI.

Given the strong batting line ups of CSK, DDD, DC, and Kings XI it sure was a surprise to see a relatively weaker Rajasthan Royals become the first and only team to score more than 200 in this season of the IPL.

AB De Villiers' unbeaten 105 remains the top score by a batsman, while Dwayne Smith still has the best strike rate, which in fact is higher than the rate he had at the end of Q2.

Hayden's 6 sixes in one match against the Kings XI has enabled him to overtake his former opening partner Adam Gilchrist in the number of 6s hit by a batsman in the IPL this season. Though he leads by only 1.

No one has yet been able to better Kumble's performance in the very first match of this IPL, while Bhajji gives Straight Points some food for thought regarding his economical performances for MI.

The final quarter of the IPL starts tomorrow and ends in about 8 days from now. Almost the last week of the tournament and we're still not sure about the final 4 - this is what I call the beauty of the IPL.

We'll be back with the Q4 report at the end of the group stages.

Surrey have released Saqlain Mushtaq, who served the county for 11 years, in order to sign Harbhajan Singh.

Due to Saqlain's ICL links, the BCCI had not allowed Harbhajan to sign with Surrey for this last season.

However, the Surrey boss has now made it clear that they will not be going into the next season with an ICL player on board and that this will also allow them to sign up Harbhajan Singh.

Hence Saqlain, who plays for the Lahore Badshahs in the ICL, has been released from his contract.

I guess the world is still far away from accepting ICL players, and I thought we were moving closer to that.

So where does this leave Mushtaq Ahmed, who also plays for the Lahore Badshahs in the ICL, as England's spin coach?

I think a more consistent approach is required from the ECB. Surely the counties' and the ECB's interests should be aligned.

Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma
Harbajhan Singh
Amit Mishra

Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma
RP Singh / Sreesanth
Amit Mishra

The first one for home tests and the 2nd one for tests in Australia, England, South Africa and elsehwere, will win India a lot of test matches going forward.

It reminds of the times Pakistan used to have Wasim, Waqar, Aquib, and Mushtaq.

Matthew Hayden and Harbhajan Singh, the 2 who went head to head over the Australian summer when monkeys, bastards, and obnoxious weeds were the order of the day, come face to face again tonight.

But its not Australia taking on India. Its the Chennai Super Kings against the Mumbai Indians.

Whats even more intriguing is that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was instrumental in pumping Bhajji up for his assault on Hayden, will actually be on Hayden's side this time around.

Well into its first week and the Indian Premier League continues to dish out lip licking match ups.

There's another great contest on the cards tonight, and if it happens during the match, it will surely be one of the major highlights of the game. Its Sanath Jayasuriya taking on Muttiah Muralitharan. One has tormented bowlers the world over and the other has bamboozled batsmen the world over. Both have done it for over a decade for Sri Lanka, but today they will be on opposing ends. Who will come out on top?

Sachin is a doubtful starter, but if he does walk out for the toss he would be doing it against the boy he recommended for India's captaincy - Dhoni. One a failed former Indian captain and the other a successful current one. One the only senior Dhoni wants in his Indian team, and the other who has nothing but admiration for Sachin. It will be an intriguing battle.

Other players to watch out for today are:

• Micheal Hussey who hammered an unbeaten 116 in the Super Kings' first match.
  
• Suresh Raina whose strokeplay in the same game was unmatched.
  
• Robin Uthappa who stood out in Mumbai's 1st match with swashbuckling 48.
  
• Shaun Pollock who was miserly in his 1st match and smashed a few 6s lower down the order.
  
• Luke Ronchi whose 2 hits to the fence the other day showed that on his day he could be a destroyer.
  
• Dwayne Bravo who could make his debut for Mumbai today.

It all goes down at Chennai tonight at 230pm GMT.

Its Matthew Hayden, and its look like he's missing his daily fix of weed. After 2 and a half months of making love with Harbhajan Singh, Matthew Hayden wants more of him. Watsup Matty? Missing your Indian love?

I've stopped laughing now Obaid. I've always liked how you can make the funniest comments about a very serious issue. I thought of commenting but then I had too many thoughts, thus I'm blogging instead.

About 17 months back at the Oval in London, Darrell Hair accused the Pakistan team of ball tampering. The events that unfolded after that resulted in the first ever test match in history to be forfieted. The match referee could not convince the Pakistan team and later on Darrell Hair to re-start the match. A hearing for the incident declared that Pakistan had not tampered with the ball.

About 1 month back at Sydney, Steve Bucknor gave too many decisions against India resulting in India losing a test that looked like heading for a draw. In the same test Harbhajan was accused of racism by the Aussies and banned for 3 tests by the match referee. A hearing that took place following an appeal by the Indians declared that Harbajhan had not made a racist remark.


In both cases the match referee was Mike Proctor. In both cases a charge was made against an Asian team. In both cases the ICC acted by removing the umpires. And in both cases the Asian teams got the charges overturned.


You see what I'm getting at?


The solution to the 1st point, i.e. the match referee, IMO is that maybe the match referee should not be a former cricketer but a lawyer. If the match referee's task is to make sure the match is played according to the rules and in the right spirit, act as the intermediary between two arguing teams, accept or deny charges against players, and decide on fines or bans then this job can be best done by a lawyer rather than a cricketer. Does any university offer a degree in Cricket Law?


The 2nd point about charges against Asian teams. History shows that Asian cricketers have had the most complaints against them, Asian cricketers have faced the most number of fines and bans for a variety of reasons, and Asian cricketers have been at the wrong side of umpiring errors for a long long time. Pakistan lost the test series in WI in 2001 due to bad umpiring. Pakistan lost the 1987 semi final due to bad umpiring. Pakistan lost the Perth test in 1999 due to bad umpiring. And India lost the Sydney test due to bad umpiring. I'm sure there are more examples. Why Asians? Pakistan followed by the Asian Bloc were instrumental in the introduction of neutral umpires just because of these issues. But what do you when the neutral umpires turn against you?


That brings me to the 3rd point, i.e. removal of Darell Hair from the elite panel and removal of Steve Bucknor from the subsequent tests.


There is no doubt that India followed by the Asian Bloc holds a majority position within the ICC, not only in terms of number of full members but also in terms of number of associate members and the amount of revenue generated. So why should they not use this power to get what they want. For decades England and Australia held veto rights within the ICC. Did the Asians complain? Yes they did but it took decades for the complaints to be heard. If the Asian teams feel victimized should they not act against it? Would Australia or England have remained quiet had they been accused of ball tampering? Would either of them have stayed quiet had they felt that they lost a test due to bad umpiring?


And now for the final point about the charges being overturned. In both the cases the charges were dropped but in a very diplomatic way. While Inzamam was not charged for ball tampering, he was for bringing the game into disrepute. And Harbajhan was not charged for a racist remark but for a derogatory one.


Aussie cricketers have openly claimed that they are not happy with the verdict against Harbajhan and they have even gone on to say that they don't like the use of power by India. And all this despite India dropping the charges against Hogg after a meeting between the captains. Now I don't advocate the use of chartered planes or threats of boycotts but I don't think it was either of these factors that resulted in Bhajji's ban being removed.


Cricket Australia feared a law suit, which would have damaged their coffers unlike the mega bucks making BCCI. Australian cricketers feared the backlash from India, which would have hurt their earnings from the IPL, endorsements, and bollywood movies. Maybe the boycott threat made CA feel that they would make huge losses but I doubt India would have gone ahead with that. Cricket has more often than not prevailed over these issues and I think cricket would have continued regardless of the decision on Bhajji.


Conclusion? None really.


India is the cricket superpower off the field and everyone should accept that. I think everyone does but their little use of the power should not be criticized. Anyone in power will use it to their advantage. Asians have been at the wrong side of decisions from umpires and match referees and its high time they do something against it - they have done so over the last year and a half and it has pissed of Australia. But everything was hunky dory when the Asians were meek and couldn't stand up for themselves and we were told that it was only a game and we and to take it in our stride.


I'll say the same to CA and the Aussies - take it in your stride, its just a game.

Racism is “prejudice coupled with power” – Ernest Cashmore

“A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person”
- the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry 1999: recommendation 12

As the events of the Sydney test unfolded and the now the aftermath boils over, I have been thinking about 3 main themes...Firstly, poor umpiring: I truly believe that Bucknor is well past his prime and he should retire from the game. He should say that he is sorry for making some crucial mistakes and that should be the end of that. Indian supporters will tell you that he has a history of poor decisions against India. Secondly, sportsmanship and the integrity of the players themselves is also a very serious issue that I will address in a separate post. Finally, the most serious and interesting issue is the one of a racist taunt made by Harbhajan which I will address in this post.

Racism is racism, whether it occurs on the street, in an institutionalized form or on the sports field. There are some who argue that a person or persons guilty of racism are only reflective of the larger society they are part of. That may be a sweeping generalization, because you cant judge a whole society or nation by the actions of certain individuals. What is clear, or should be clear, is that racism in any shape or form should be called out, penalized and addressed. In light of the Harbhajan incident, further thought is required before we reach any conclusions

I started off by "deconstructing" what a racist incident exactly is. Without delving into dry literary theory, the best way to describe "deconstruction" is a way of analyzing the meaning given to words by Western writers, texts and readers. Simply put the semantics of language are defined by those more powerful than others. Western, English speaking society has a patriarchal, male dominated history, which is why you see words like "man", "mankind" being used to represent a collection of both sexes.

In the context of racism in the Sydney game, Harbhajan is accused of calling Symonds a "monkey". There is no doubt that this word has racist connotations in the Western world. In fact it is pretty ironic to note that the English used this word for others in a way that is now considered racist.

Until a hundred years ago Irish Catholics were discriminated against by white protestants in the UK and USA. Charles Kingsley a prominent English novelist went to the extreme of calling the Irish Catholics “white chimpanzees”. This is an excerpt from one of his letters to his wife on a visit to Ireland - the overtly racist tone is chilling:

"But I am haunted by the human chimpanzees I saw along that hundred miles of horrible country. I don't believe they are our fault. I believe there are not only many of them than of old, but they are happier, better, more comfortably fed and lodged under our rule than they ever were. But to see white chimpanzees is dreadful; if they were black, one would not feel it so much, but their skins, except where tanned by exposure, are as white as ours.

Moving to more recent times, I found an interesting example of the use of the word “monkey” in Australia, that sparked a racist outcry. An Aussie rules footballer for the Brisbane Lions, Jason Akermanis described his radio show’s producers as “monkeys” in 2005. This sparked a large outcry from Aboriginal activists as well as the general public, resulting in the cancellation of the show.

There is no doubt in my mind that monkey can be a racist term – it also has a history of use in a racist context in America, “being used by whites to describe blacks, by US blacks to describe whites or West Indians, and by Americans generally to describe Japanese or Chinese”. Also during the recent tour to India by Australia there were widespread allegations of sections of the crowd subjecting Symond's to “monkey” taunts.

But for Indians and even Pakistanis a monkey is just an innocent taunt. Being called a donkey, an owl or a monkey is common place and definitely a step down from the many colorful words that involve family members. I cant speak for Harbhajan, but there is a possibility that coming from where he does, he called Symonds a monkey without understanding the implications. But then you can counter argue by saying none of the other Australian players have come up with similar accusations so why was only Symonds complaining? Also, none of the Indians have denied that Harbhajan used the monkey taunt, the chief argument is that there is no evidence to prove that it was used.

Another way to look at it is that Indians are relatively new to the art of sledging. The Australians are veterans and the chief protagonists of the art of sledging. They know better how to stretch the limits without crossing the boundaries

Being racist and making racist taunts - are they in separable? Can someone not be racist but just be making racist taunts as part of gamesmanship? I dont think so... racist taunts are not justified in any circumstances? But then what is kosher and what is not? Is it ok for Indians to be called "bastards"? That is what Hogg is accused of doing - and if did use it, did he know that it is a very offensive word in the sub-continent.

In the end I leave it to you to make your own judgments. I did find it interesting that during Australia's recent tour of India the captains came to an agreement where the word "monkey" was off limit during sledging. Did India present a similar list of off limit words? Racism is after all "prejudice coupled with power". I am left wondering whether the most powerful team in the world gets to define what is racist and what is not... I hope that this is not the case

Here is a little something for Ricky Ponting to think about:

For when the one great scorer comes

To write against your name,

He writes not how you won or lost

But how you played the game

(Rice, Grantland, “Plumnus Football”)

Which test match am I watching? The same one that you guys are. The way the events have unfolded during the first 3 days of this dramatic test, the above score line looks more than likely for tomorrow. Read on to see why.

Aamir Sohail said that all non-fans of test cricket need to watch this test match to change their mind. I agree cent percent! Another day off, and I managed to catch a full days of action, which did not diappoint even for a second. What a test match its turning out to be. Up and down and still anybody's game.

The India-Pakistan series has definitely lived up to its hype of being bigger than the Ashes. An Australian and an English cricket fan agree to this - 2 men from Australia and England have flown to India all the way from Tokyo to witness this test series. Why are they supporting India though? Surely Pakistan is the more exciting team. Not better, I said exciting.

A few observations from today:

1. I still don't know what the commentators are smoking.
   
2. The new Kaneria has got some coaching tips from Shane Warne. Shorter run up, hardly a googly, more of the straighter faster delivery, 4 wickets for less than 60 - thats not the Kaneria I know.
   
3. Laxman can be atheletic in the field, and so can Ganguly - more time for Yuvi on the bench.
   
4. Finally catches in the slips - both of spinners.
   
5. More often than not Pakistan's openers fail and the middle order is left to do damage control. Rarely when the openers put up a good stand, the middle order collapses.
   
6. Misbah still fancies Harbhajan Singh.
   
7. Rameez Raja fancies Ranjan Madugalle.
   
8. 9 wickets to fall in the day and only 1 to a pacer.
   
9. Yousuf was the first Asian cricketer to be sponsored by Gray Nicolls. Kamran Akmal is the second. Why?
   
10. Anil Kumble, after 117 test matches, decided its time to get some variety into his run up.
    
11. Rameez Raja does not like Bruce Yardley.
    
12. Bruce Yardley's mom is 88 years old and likes poker.
    
13. Shoaib Akhtar loves his new soft toy.
    
14. Day 1: 210 runs and 8 wickets. Day 2: 249 runs and 8 wickets. Day 3: 260 runs and 9 wickets. At this rate day 4 will end with India on 161-4 chasing 276 leaving an exciting day 5 of cricket.

The 2nd ODI between Pakistan and India starts in less than 3 hours. Here are some interesting pics from their training session yesterday. What do you think is going on in the minds of these players?