From: karnik@cs.umn.edu (Neeran M. Karnik)
Subject: Re: English Umpiring, hello Rajeev
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 19:24:54 GMT

In article <01GMZN31QJMQAKVSYT@ccmail.sunysb.edu>
ABEGLEY@ccmail.sunysb.edu (Anthony M. Begley) writes:

>doing so. Pakistan may have the best (and most varied attack) in the world --
>its certainly not a bad attack. However, doesnt anyone else believe, as I do,
>that if Pakistan has the best attack in the world then there is a pretty bad 
>shortage of good bowlers today. 
	
	True. Apart from Pakistan, it would appear that all other teams
have a drought of good bowlers. One cannot even begin to compare England's
attack with Willis and Botham, or the WI attack (with the sole exception
of Ambrose) with their famous quartets of the 80s. McDermott and co. are
no patch on Lillee and Thomson, and India's spinners can't reach upto
Bedi/Prasanna/Chandra's knees. However, the fact remains that Pakistan's
attack today is more potent than any other in the recent past ; only the
Imran + Sarfaraz + Qadir attack may have had more success in spells in the
early eighties......

>Where have all the world class spinners gone to ?

	They're gone. Thanks to one-day cricket. I just hope they're not
gone for good. I think India should have kept Sivaramakrishna, Hirwani,
Maninder, etc. out of ODIs. On the other hand, spinners like Shastri,
Kumble and Ayub might be better suited to ODIs, in a totally different
role.

>By the way I couldnt believe my eyes when some Indian posters keep
>on discussing how many runs England will make this winter.
>I realise its better to be realistic but this pessimism is very disturbing.
>Its like everyone realises India are crap at the moment (SRT excepted)
>and dont want to lift their hopes too high in case they are diappointed.
>Come on guys -- be abit more optimistic, please. England dont have the greatest
>team in the world, but at least we think (misguidedly maybe) we can win
>any game!

	Oh no, we wouldn't say that the team is crap at the moment. Just
the bowling, especially on dead pitches. Our batting lineup is as good as
- if not better than - England's. However, since Gooch, Smith and co.
easily flogged the bowling in England (where the bowlers had much more
help) it is easy to be pessimistic.

	It all depends upon the state of the pitches. If they prepare
something like the Bangalore pitch (Gavaskar's last match), you'll see
results for sure. The batsmen might also  be in trouble against seam
bowling in Bombay. But whether they will prepare such pitches remains to
be seen....

>God help us: SRT scored a ton at (that very vvery small ground) near
                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Newcastle (cant remeber name or location).

	Ohhh, so that explains it, eh ? :-) Well, we fans can take some
solace from the fact that he was the only one in that match to score a 100.

>Nobody preapred to admit that their countrys cricket fans are hooligans
>like our soccer fans ?? Or was it rampant crystal palace fans causing
>trouble cos their team's so bad.
	
	Eeeeaaaggghh..... what a comparison! Although I have no idea what
happened during the game you refer to, I can say with confidence that
cricket fans everywhere are far better behaved than those hooligans...

>Tony "rooting for the Minor Counties at marlow and arnt they doing well''

	Hmmmm... a bit of a surprise shaping up there.


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Neeran  Karnik  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dept. of Computer Science,      | Email: karnik@cs.umn.edu,
University of Minnesota         |        karnik@atto.cs.umn.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~