Lets Get off the Sub-Continent

As far as batsmen go, my vote has got to be for Brian Lara.  Not only did he set the record for most individual runs in an innings once, but after his first record of 375 was broken, he re-set it at 400.  The two innings both came against England, but were separated by 10 years.  He has also scored a phenomenal 20% of the West Indies runs.  And speaking of Tendulkar, Lara is tied with number of innings to reach 10,000 runs (one of only five crickiters to reach this total).  His average, over 50 runs puts him in the ranks of the great Garfield Sobers (considered by many to be the best West Indian all-rounder ever).  He also captained the Windies on many different occasions, leading them to the the semi-finals of the world cup in 1996.

Tendulkar vs. Khan

From Wikipedia, an impeccable source: Tendulkar's two tenures as captain of the Indian cricket team were not very successful. When Tendulkar took over as Captain in 1996, it was with huge hopes and expectations. However, by 1997 the team was performing poorly. Azharuddin was credited with saying "Nahin jeetega! Chote ki naseeb main jeet nahin hai!," which translates into: "He won't win! It's not in the small one's destiny." Imran Khan, on the other hand, had a "career-high as a captain and cricketer ... when he led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 ICC Cricket World Cup. Playing with a brittle batting lineup, Khan promoted himself as a batsman to provide stability in the top order together with Javed Miandad, but his contribution as a bowler was minimal. In the final match, at the age of 39, Khan scored the highest runs of all the Pakistani batsmen and took the winning last wicket himself." Arsalan wants me to point out that Imran Khan was a fine example of a captain translating his smart cricket thoughts and moves to practical execution. He was brave to take uncomfortable decisions and base his cricket on aggression. It was either playing for a win or a loss, never to draw games. Raskin, if you get a chance, you should post a photo of Morris in the Tendulkar jersey! I would love to see it.

Back to cricket

This is not a joke: coincidentally my son Morris went to nursery school today wearing a Sachin Tendulkar shirt that I got when I was in India a couple years ago. Tendulkar would get my vote for best cricket player, not to start a little India/Pakistan rivalry on sMaCkDOWn or anything. I have played cricket once, in Australia, in 1997, with Dave Leonhardt's ex-girlfriend; I found it fun but totally weird and yes, kind of slow moving. Which is probably how she found Leonhardt, come to think of it. Is he even on this blog? Can you talk smack about someone who's not here? Doesn't seem quite fair, but then that is incentive to get your picks in on time next year.

Non-math guy speaks

This is from a guy who had to talk his way out of a D in physics in college (I was taking it credit/D/fail), but isn't the problem with Lauren's calculation just this: it relies on a proportionality that evaporates in later rounds. In the early rounds, with many games at ten points each, there are many different score levels one might come in at. What I mean is, if someone got 70% right in the first round and say there were a hundred points at stake (10 games x 10 pts per game), then one got 70 points. But in later rounds, where there are fewer point slots, doesn't that 70% rating Lauren gave you just turn into 50 points in the semifinal round (because - with 2 games x 50 pts pers game - in that round one can get either 0, 50, or 100 points, and nothing else). So if someone got only 60% right in the earlier rounds, shouldn't that also slot into the 50 point slot in the semifinal round? I can't express the point well, but it seems to me that her numbers will have to be way off because of this kind of thinking. If someone can explain to me why my thinking is d-u-m dumb, or can explain it better, I'd be grateful. Of course, Lauren is still a genius... for having so magnificently stroked Dodie's ego.

Late entry into the smack talk arena Nell (not Nellie !!)

This is the not a great year for smack talk, but I was so impressed with Lauren’s formula to predict who would win the brackets that I suggest that we just start a new poll to see who can come closest to predicting who will come closest to predicting.  Surely we could be more successful at that we are at actually predicting the results of the games.  Or maybe we could have Lauren develop a formula for predicting the game scores.

Imran Khan has a mullet

By the way if you do a google image search for Todd Keithley, the 8th thing that comes up is this:





Looking good, Todd!


And, yes, if you search for Piers Turner, it doesn't take long before you get to this:




This dissertation has taken its toll!

Stew-Baller

Check out the new poll: who has the best nickname?

I'm a fan of Stew-Baller. I was curious what a Google image search on "stew baller" would find. I was kind of worried that it would get me in trouble at work, but this is what turned up:



P.S. One nickname is missing from the poll: Captain Lose.

Cricket Talk

We have seen a decent number of bollywood movies here, and one of the better ones is Lagaan. The IMDB synopsis is this: Sometime during latter half of the 19th century, a small village in North India is facing drought conditions. Captain Andrew Russell, the British captain of the nearby cantonment, demands double of the usual land tax (lagaan) from the villagers. When the villagers' representatives go to meet Captain Russell to discuss the situation, Capt. Russell challenges them to a game of cricket with his team after three months. A young villager Bhuvan accepts the challenge and starts to build his team of villagers for the showdown with their colonial rulers. The movie is fair, but as the villagers learn cricket, so does the movie audience. If anybody needs a not-so-quick primer, it's available from Netflix. And it's about 3 1/2 hours long. I'll have to check with Anwar, our driver, about cricket smack-talk. We'll see who HE thinks is the best cricketer of all time (though I can already guarantee he'll play for an Indian team). Mook

Imran Khan

Sadly, we haven't been able to make it to Thanksgiving in a long time, and Meredith's schedule this fall will be the most inflexible of her residency. But if we make it down, count us in for cricket. My co-clerk, Arsalan, is a huge cricket fan and we've actually followed it here in chambers. We're fans of Imran Khan, who, according to Arsalan, is the greatest cricketer of all time. Nowadays he's an opposition politician in Pakistan, and we were on the edge of our seats last year when he demanded the death penalty for Musharraf, was put under house arrest, and then escaped!

How 'bout we keep talking cricket until the basketball tournament resumes? Anyone have any thoughts about which stat is more important, wickets or balls bowled?

Cricket - I'm in!

CS:
If you'd like to learn cricket, that can be the activity for Thanksgiving '08.  Hell, one year you guys built Thomas's deck.  Anything's possible over a long holiday weekend.  Bring your laptop, an external hard drive, and the latest version of excel.

 

-Diego