Australia State Cricket Awards; Ponting takes Center Stage

Former Oz skipper named Sheffield shield player of the year at the Australia state cricket awards in Hobart.

It was a closely contested voting; Ponting won it ahead of Chadd Sayers, Gurinder Sandhu and Usman Khawaja. Among other awards, Bushrangers starlet Aaron Finch won the limited overs trophy, while Nicole Bolton took the garlands for the Women's National Cricket League.

Ponting Stated "You put a lot of thought in to your retirement announcement. International cricket is behind me now; there is enough young talent around Australia to see us at top of tree for years to come."

As for the recent performance of the Test team in India, Ponting reminded all those present of his own struggles to get used to the subcontinent in his earlier days.

"India is tough, I couldn't score a run when I first went there, our players will learn a lot for next time," Punter said. "I've tried to distance myself from watching too much international cricket since I retired. Michael Clarke and Mickey Arthur have both been round block a few times and know how to bounce back."

Sheffield Shield Player of the Year: Ricky Ponting (Tas) - 18 votes (8 games, 875 runs at 87.50) Chadd Sayers (SA) - 16 Gurinder Sandhu (NSW) - 12 Usman Khawaja (QLD) - 12

Limited overs Player of the Year: Aaron Finch (VIC) - 15 votes (7 games, 704 runs at 84.00, SR 98.05) Kane Richardson (SA) - 14 Phillip Hughes (SA) - 12 James Faulkner (TAS) - 12 

TEAM OF THE YEAR  

SHEFFIELD SHIELD TEAM OF THE YEAR
Ricky Ponting (C)	Brad Haddin (WK)
Chris Rogers	Ashton Agar
Phillip Hughes	Luke Butterworth
Alex Doolan	Chadd Sayers
Callum Ferguson	Jackson Bird
Moises Henriques	Mark Cosgrove (12th Man)

RANGERS CUP ODI TEAM OF THE YEAR
Aaron Finch (C)	Brad Haddin (WK)
David Hussey	Steve Smith
Phillip Hughes	Nathan Coulter-Nile
Johan Botha	John Hastings
Callum Ferguson	Kane Richardson
James Faulkner	Gurinder Sandhu (12th Man)

BIG BASH T20 TEAM OF THE YEAR
Aaron Finch (C)	Tim Paine (WK)
Shaun Marsh	James Faulkner
Brad Hodge	Ben Laughlin
Ricky Ponting	Lasith Malinga
Ben Rohrer	Muttiah Muralitharan
Adam Voges	Dirk Nannes (12th Man)

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Kolkata Knight Riders - Profile

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (KKR)

The Kolkata based franchise was brought by Shah Rukh Khan in 2008. The team had a dismal performaces in the first 3 campaigns and came up with a mamoth effort in the fifth edition and won the IPl Championship in 2013.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS TEAM INFO
YEAR FOUNDED	2008
OWNERS	Shahrukh Khan, Jay Mehta, Juhi Chawla
COACH	Trevor Bayliss
CAPTAIN	Gautham Gambhir
CHIEF MENTOR	Brett Lee
FIELDING COACH	Trevor Penney
ASSISTANT COACH	Vijay Dahiya
PHYSIOTHERAPIST	Andrew Leipus
FITNESS/TRAINING COACH	Adrian Le Roux
IPL CHAMPIONSHIPS	1 (2012)

2013 KKR SQUAD

BATSMAN	ALL-ROUNDERS	BOWLERS	WICKET-KEEPERS
Gautham Gambhir	Jacques Kallis	Brett Lee	Brendon McCullam
Eoin Morgan	Shakib Al Hasan	James Pattinson	Brad Haddin
Manoj Tiwary	Ryan Ten Doeschate	Laxmi Balaji	Manvinder Bisla
Debabrata Das	Yusuf Pathan	Iqbal Abdulla
	Ryan McLaren	Mohammed Shami
	Laxmi Shukla	Pradeep Sangwan
	Rajat Bhatia	Sunil Narine
		Sachithra Senanayake
		Sarbjit Ladda

KKR IPL STATS

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS IN IPL SO FAR 72 MATCHES

36 WINS 35 LOSS HIGHEST TOTAL (222/3 VS RCB 2008) LOWEST TOTAL (67/10 VS MI 2008) LEADING RUN GETTER GAUTHAM GAMBHIR (2063 RUNS) LEADING WICKET TAKER LAXMI BALAJI (52 WICKETS) BEST INVIDUAL SCORE BRENDON MCCULLAM (158* VS RCB 2008) BEST BOWLING FIGURE SUNIL NARINE (5/19 VS KIXP 2012)

KKR HOME GROUND

Eden Gardens - Kolkata

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Mumbai Indians - Profile

MUMBAI INDIANS (MI)

Mumbai Indians started as favorites in the first two seasons of IPL but failed to qualify for the knock-out stages of the tournament. In the third, fourth and fifth season they qualified for the playoff's and in 2010 they reached the finals , but lost to Chennai Super Kings. Mumbai Indians CEO Nita Ambani hopes to win the lucrative league title in 2013 with some bug buys including Glenn Maxwell, Ricky Ponting and Jacob Oram in the 2013 IPL auction. Former Australia Skipper Ricky Ponting is appointed as the skipper for IPL 6.

The Mumbai based franchise has won the Champions League T20 Tournament in 2011 edition in Chennai.

MUMBAI INDIANS TEAM INFO
YEAR FOUNDED	2008
OWNERS	IndiaWin Sports Pvt Ltd
COACH	John Wright
CAPTAIN	Ricky Ponting
CHIEF MENTOR	Anil Kumble
FIELDING COACH	Jonty Rhodes
ASSISTANT COACH	Robin Singh
MASSEUR	Robert Gibson
FITNESS/TRAINING COACH	Paul Chapman
IPL CHAMPIONSHIPS	-

2013 MI SQUAD

BATSMAN	ALL-ROUNDERS	BOWLERS	WICKET-KEEPERS
Sachin Tendulkar	Kieron Pollard	Harbhajan Singh	Dinesh Karthik
Rohit Sharma	James Franklin	Lasith Malinga	Aditya Tare
Ricky Ponting	Glenn Maxwell	Munaf Patel	Sushant Marathe
Philip Hughes	Dwayne Smith	Abu Nechim
Ambati Rayudu	Amitoze Singh	Yuzvendra Chahal
Suryakumar Yadav	Rishi Dhawan	Dhawal Kulkarni
Aiden Blizzard	Jacob Oram	Pawan Suyal
	Nathan Coulter-Nile	Mitchell Johnson
	Jalaj Saxena

MI IPL STATS

MUMBAI INDIANS IN IPL SO FAR 77 MATCHES

43 WINS 33 LOSS HIGHEST TOTAL (218/7 VS DD 2010) LOWEST TOTAL (87/10 VS KIXP 2011) LEADING RUN GETTER SACHIN TENDULKAR (2047 RUNS) LEADING WICKET TAKER LASITH MALINGA (83 WICKETS) BEST INVIDUAL SCORE SANATH JAYASURIYA (114 VS CSK 2008) BEST BOWLING FIGURE LASITH MALINGA (5/13 VS DD 2011)

MI HOME GROUND

Wankhede Stadium - Mumbai

Dr. D Y Patil Stadium - Mumbai

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Chennai Super Kings - Profile

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (CSK)

Chennai Super Kings is one of the most successful francise in the Indian Premier League. CSK have qualified for the knock-out stages of the IPL in all the editions, has been in the finals in 4 times and has won the championship twice. This Chennai based outfit is lead by MS Dhoni and their home ground M.A. Chidhambaram Stadium has been a fortress.

CSK has qualified for Champions League T20 Tournament thrice and has won the championship in 2010 edition in South Africa.

CSK TEAM INFO
YEAR FOUNDED	2008
OWNERS	India Cements
COACH	Stephen Fleming
CAPTAIN	Mahendra Singh Dhoni
BOWLING COACH	Andy Bichel
FIELDING COACH	Steve Rixon
MANAGER	Russel Radha Krishnan
PHYSIOTHERAPIST	Tom Simsek
FITNESS/TRAINING COACH	Gregory King
IPL CHAMPIONSHIPS	2 (2010, 2011)

2013 CSK SQUAD

BATSMAN	ALL-ROUNDERS	BOWLERS	WICKET-KEEPERS
Murali Vijay	Albie Morkel	R Ashwin	M SDhoni
Faf Du Plessis	Dwayne Bravo	Ben Hilfenhaus	Wriddhiman Saha
Micheal Hussey	Ravindra Jadeja	Dirk Nannes
Suresh Raina	Chris Morris	Nuwan Kulasekara
S Badrinath	Akila Dananjaya	Ben Laughling
Srikkanth Anirudha	Vijay Prakash	Shajab Jakati
Baba Aparajith		Jason Holder
		Imtiaz Ahmed
		R Karthikeyan
		Ronit More
		Mohit Sharma
		Ankit Rajpoot

IPL STATS

CSK IN IPL SO FAR 82 MATCHES

47 WINS 33 LOSS HIGHEST TOTAL (246/5 VS RR 2011) LOWEST TOTAL (109/10 VS RR 2008) LEADING RUN GETTER SURESH RAINA (2254 RUNS) LEADING WICKET TAKER ALBIE MORKEL (69 WICKETS) BEST INVIDUAL SCORE MURALI VIJAY (127 VS RR 2010) BEST BOWLING FIGURE RAVINDRA JAJEJA(5/16 VS DC)

CSK HOME GROUND

M.A Chidambaram Stadium - Chennai

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Oz Axe Quartet for Disobeying Team Orders

Australia tour of India is in total disarray after the axing of 4 players from the squad for third test against India at Mohali. The Quartet includes vice-captain Shane Watson, impressive quicky James Pattinson , Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja. 

Mickey Authur requested his players to submit a presentation on how to improve the performance in the upcoming tests against team India. But these four players failed to submit their presentation and were excluded from the team after a meeting with the captain and team management.

Mickey Arthur said "After Hyderabad the whole team was really hurting, we were discussing ways of getting back into the series,"

 "We were particularly aware of where we were as a team and how we were going to get back. I asked the players at the end of the game to give me an individual presentation.

"I wanted three points from each of them technically, mentally and team as to how we were going to get back over the next couple of games, how we were going to get ourselves back into the series,"

"I believe those four players unfortunately did not meet my requirements so those four are not available for selection for this Test match," Authur added.

Pacer James Pattinson was the best Australian in the bowling department the first two tests will be solely missed in Mohali wicket which assists quick bowlers. Khawaja was also in line to make it to the starting line-up after dismal performance by Phil Hughes.

All-rounder Watson flew to Sydney after the omission from the squad. The team management refused the statement stating "He has not left in a huff; his wife is expecting and that is why he has left for Australia, to be by her side.

“The two things (returning to Australia and being dropped from the team) should not be linked,"

Australia play their third test on 14 March at Mohali and will have only 13 members in the squad up for selection.

Image Courtesy: www.telegraph.co.uk 

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