The biggest upset of the century

I was trawling through the internet for something to write about and I was shocked to see what I saw, I kept saying "Netherlands beat England" over and over again. England is the home of cricket, and where Twenty20 cricket first started off from. This game was played at Lords, which is known the world over as being the spiritual home of cricket. Anyone would expect England to easily trounce a minnow like the Netherlands but as some history suggests, not even the giants of cricket are immune to the biggest upsets (Bangladesh Beating the Aussies at Sophia Gardens in 2005, Ireland's heroics at the 2007 World Cup are two examples that stick out in my mind).

The Netherlands played well above their weight and known skill level to beat England by 4 wickets in the upset with TN de Grooth being the man of the match. This is a game that will go down in history and remind the big players in world cricket to not underestimate any opposition. I hope that they will produce more giant killing performances.

View the news bulletin and scorecard by clicking HERE. Also see them celebrate their deserved win by clicking HERE.



*Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.

Introducing...the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash

The KFC Twenty20 Big Bash is the domestic Twenty20 cricket competition in Australia. The competition is organised by Cricket Australia, and sponsored by fast food chicken outlet KFC. Australia was slower to pick up the format of Twenty20 cricket than other countries such as England and South Africa, but eventually established a league amongst the domestic Australian sides in 2005. The inception of the domestic Twenty20 competition was hailed as one of the games biggest innovations in Australia since the advent of World Series Cricket nearly 30 years previously. The format has proved highly popular with crowds in excess of 10,000 for games even during the working week.

The format for the 2007/2008 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash consisted of a 15-match competition which saw each State play 5 matches. The teams which finished first and second on the points table met in a final at the first placed side's home ground. The final was held at the WACA Ground in Perth with Victoria beating Western Australia.

As in other countries, Australia has taken a light-hearted high entertainment approach to the domestic Twenty20 competition, with cheerleaders, DJ's, and nick-names all being features. The crowd are encouraged to wear fancy dress, and create a carnival atmosphere. Big hitting and fast scoring is a notable feature, and encourages crowd involvement.

Teams:

Victorian Bushrangers(VB Victorian Bushrangers)

New South Wales Blues(SpeedBlitz Blues)

Tasmanian Tigers(PKF Tasmanian Tigers)

Western Warriors(Retravision Warriors)

Southern Redbacks(West End Redbacks)

Queensland Bulls(XXXX Gold Queensland Bulls)

Records:

Highest Score: 7/233 Victorian Bushrangers vs New South Wales Blues, 21 Jan 2006, at North Sydney Oval.

Lowest Score (batting first): 97 (19.3 overs) Southern Redbacks, vs Western Warriors, 8 Jan 2008, at Adelaide Oval.

Biggest Winning Margin: 93 Victorian Bushrangers vs New South Wales Blues, 21 Jan 2006, at North Sydney Oval.

Lowest Winning Margin: 2 Victorian Bushrangers vs Western Warriors, 6 Jan 2006, at WACA Ground, Perth.

Highest Individual Score: 111 (56 balls) Michael Dighton, Tasmanian Tigers vs New South Wales Blues, 10 Jan 2007, at ANZ Stadium, Sydney.

Most Runs (Overall): Brad Hodge (476) for Victorian Bushrangers

Best Bowling: 6/25 (3 overs) Michael Dighton, Tasmanian Tigers vs Queensland Bulls, 1 Jan 2007, at The Heritage Oval, Toowoomba.

Most Wickets (overall): Shaun Tait- South Australia, Brett Dorey- Western Australia, Shane Harwood- Victoria Bushrangers (all took 15 wickets each)

Most Catches: 12 David Hussey, Victorian Bushrangers.

References:

Cricinfo - Records - in Australia - Twenty20 matches - Smallest victories (including ties)

Cricinfo - Records - in Australia - Twenty20 matches - High scores

Cricinfo - Records - in Australia - Twenty20 matches - Best bowling figures in an innings

Cricinfo - Records - in Australia - Twenty20 matches - Most catches

Cricinfo Australian Domestic Cricket Archive

Links to more information on the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash:

KFC Twenty20 Big Bash @ cricketworld.com



*Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.

What is Twenty20 cricket?

Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in the United Kingdom for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each have a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs.

A Twenty20 game is completed in about two and half hours, with each innings lasting around 75 minutes, thus bringing the game closer to the timespan of other popular team sports such as football. It was introduced to create a lively form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television and as such it has been very successful. The ECB did not intend that Twenty20 would replace other forms of cricket and these have continued alongside it.

Since its inception the game has spread around the cricket world. On most international tours there is a Twenty20 match and most Test-playing nations have a domestic cup competition. The inaugural World Twenty20 was played in South Africa in 2007 with India defeating Pakistan in the final. The Indian Premier League is currently the largest and most popular (in terms of attendance and television audience) Twenty20 league in the world.

History:

Origins
The idea of a shortened format of the game was discussed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 1998 and 2001.

When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the ECB needed another one day competition to fill its place. The cricketing authorities were looking to boost the games popularity with the younger generation in response to dwindling crowds and reduced sponsorship. It was intended to deliver fast paced, exciting cricket accessible to thousands of fans who were put off by the longer versions of the game.

Twenty20 cricket was formally introduced in 2003 when the ECB launched the Twenty20 Cup and was marketed with the slogan “I don’t like cricket, I love it”.

Twenty20 Worldwide:
On 12 January 2005 Australia's first Twenty20 game was played at the WACA Ground between the Western Warriors and the Victorian Bushrangers. It drew a sellout crowd of 20,700.

Starting 11 July 2006 19 West Indies regional teams competed in what was named the Stanford 20/20 tournament. The event has been financially backed by billionaire Allen Stanford, who gave at least US$28,000,000 funding money. West Indies legends also backed the programme, and several "looked after" the teams during their stay in and around the purpose built ground in Antigua. It is intended that the tournament will be an annual event. Guyana won the inaugural event, defeating Trinidad and Tobago by 5 wickets. The top prize for the winning team was US$1,000,000, but other prizes were given throughout the tournament, such as play of the match (US$10,000) and man of the match (US$25,000).

On 1st of November 2008 the Superstars 101-0 West Indies team beat England 99 by 10 wickets. England slumped to 33-4 and then 65-8 after 15 overs before Samit Patel's 22 took them to 99 in 19.5 overs, still easily their lowest Twenty20 total. Chris Gayle got an amazing 65 runs not out.

On 5 January 2007 Queensland Bulls played the New South Wales Blues at The Gabba, Brisbane. A crowd of 11,000 was expected based on pre-match ticket sales. However, an unexpected 16,000 turned up on the day to buy tickets, causing disruption and confusion for surprised Gabba staff as they were forced to throw open gates and grant many fans free entry. Attendance reached 27,653.

For 1 February 2008's Twenty20 match between Australia and India, the Melbourne Cricket Ground was sold out based on pre-ticket sales and 84,041 people attended the match involving the Twenty20 World Champions against the ODI World Champions.

Twenty20 Internationals:
On 17 February 2005 Australia defeated New Zealand in the first men's full international Twenty20 match, played at Eden Park in Auckland. The game was played in a light-hearted manner - both sides turned out in kit similar to that worn in the 1980s, the New Zealand team's a direct copy of that worn by the Beige Brigade. Some of the players also sported moustaches/beards and hair styles popular in the 1980s taking part in a competition amongst themselves for best retro look, at the request of the Beige Brigade. Australia won the game comprehensively, and as the result became obvious towards the end of the NZ innings, the players and umpires took things less seriously - Glenn McGrath jokingly replayed the Trevor Chappell underarm incident from a 1981 ODI between the two sides, and Billy Bowden showed him a mock red card (red cards are not normally used in cricket) in response.

The first Twenty20 international in England was played between England and Australia at the Rose Bowl in Hampshire on the 13 June 2005, which England won by a record margin of 100 runs.

On 9 January 2006 Australia and South Africa met in the first international Twenty20 game in Australia. In a first, each player's nickname appeared on the back of his uniform, rather than his surname. The international match drew a crowd of 38,894 people at the The Gabba. Australia convincingly won the match with man of the match Damien Martyn scoring 96 runs.

On 16 February 2006 New Zealand defeated West Indies in a tie-breaking bowl-out 3-0; 126 runs were scored apiece in the game proper. The game was the last international match played by Chris Cairns - NZC handed out life-size cardboard masks of his face to patrons as they entered the ground.

Criticism:
Although the format has proved successful, it is not without its critics. Purists[who?] feel that Twenty20 waters down the sport and draws attention away from the more serious and technical arm of the sport, first-class cricket and Test Cricket.

It is also argued that since Twenty20 encourages far-from-technical cricket, youngsters wanting to pick up the game will be misguided into believing that cricket is all about trying to hit 6’s and 4’s no matter how you do it. Also it may create the misconception that cricket is a batsman’s game and there is little incentive learning how to bowl, since it is the bowlers that are usually at the receiving end, leading to fewer youngsters taking up bowling.

Rules of Twenty20 Cricket:
A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each have a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs.

The Laws of cricket apply to Twenty20 with some exceptions:

Each bowler may bowl a maximum of only one-fifth of the total overs per innings (generally four, for a full, uninterrupted game). i.e., 4 in the 20 overs

Should a bowler deliver a no ball by overstepping the popping crease, it costs 1 run and his next delivery is designated a "free-hit", from which the batsman can only be dismissed through a run out, as is the case for the original "no ball". (Strictly speaking, the almost never seen methods of dismissal from a "no ball" -- for hitting the ball twice, obstructing the field or handling the ball -- also apply to the "free-hit" delivery.)

Umpires may award five-run penalty runs at their discretion if they believe either team is wasting time.

The following fielding restrictions apply:
-No more than five fielders can be on the leg side at any time.
-During the first six overs, a maximum of two fielders can be outside the 30-yard circle.
-After the first six overs, a maximum of five fielders can be outside the fielding circle.

If the fielding team doesn't start to bowl their 20th over within 75 minutes, the batting side is credited an extra six runs for every whole over bowled after the 75 minute mark; the umpire may add more time to this, if he or she considers the batting team is wasting time.

If the match ends with the scores tied and there must be a winner, the tie is broken with a one over per side "Eliminator" or "Super Over". Each team nominates three batsmen and one bowler to play a one over "mini-match". In turn, each side bats one over bowled by the one nominated opposition bowler, with their innings over if they loses two wickets before the over is completed. The side with the higher score from their over wins.

If the teams finish tied on runs scored in that one over, the side with the higher number of sixes in its full innings and in the one-over eliminator will be declared the winner. If the teams are still tied, the one with the higher number of fours in both innings will win.

Twenty20 Records:

Highest individual score - Brendon McCullum (Kolkata) 158* (73) (2008 IPL)

Highest team total - Sri Lanka 260/6 (20 overs) (2007 ICC World Twenty20)

Most sixes in an innings - Graham Napier (Essex) 16 (2008 Twenty20 Cup)

Most sixes in career - David Hussey 63

Fastest hundred - Andrew Symonds (Kent) 34 balls (2004 Twenty20 Cup)

Fastest fifty - Yuvraj Singh 12 balls (2007 ICC World Twenty20)

Most hundreds - Ian Harvey 3

Best innings bowling figures - Sohail Tanvir (Rajasthan) 6/14 (2008 IPL)

Highest Paid - M.S.Dhoni (Chennai) 5.8 million US dollars (2008 IPL)

Most runs in one over - Flag of India Yuvraj Sing 36, 6 balls 6 sixes (2007 ICC World Twenty20)

Links to more information and records on Twenty20 Cricket:

The Twenty20 Cup

List of Twenty20 International Records

List of Twenty20 International Games

The history of Twenty20 Cricket



*Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.

Introducing... The Stanford 20/20 Tournament

The Stanford 20/20 Tournament is a cricket tournament in the Caribbean island of Antigua. It was held first in July and August 2006 in the West Indies at the Stanford Cricket Ground, St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda and the same place the year after. It is a variety of the popular Twenty20 format first introduced in English cricket in 2003.

The format was initially devised and made possible by Allen Stanford as a part of his (private) plan to bring West Indian cricket back to life. 19 teams took part in the inaugural knock-out tournament and 20 teams took part in the second tournament (although 21 teams were originally scheduled to take part). It will now be a part of the official calendar of the WICB.

Current teams participating in the Stanford 20/20 Tournament:

Anguilla Pro Team

Antigua & Barbuda Pro Team

Bahamas

Barbados

Bermuda

British Virgin Islands

Cayman Islands

Cuba (in 2008 [barred])

Dominica

Dominican Republic (in 2009)

Grenada

Guyana

Jamaica

Montserrat

Nevis Pro Team

Puerto Rico (in 2009)

Saint Kitts

Saint Lucia Pro Team

Saint Maarten

Saint Vincent & the Grenadines

Trinidad & Tobago

Turks and Caicos Islands (in 2008)

United States Virgin Islands

Links to more information about the Stanford 20/20 tournament:

Antigua and Barbuda

Stanford Super Series

Stanford 20/20 Official website

Stanford 2020 - You Gotta See This

Allen Stanford Blog on Cricket-Other Sports

Discussion About the 2007 Tournament

Cricinfo.com tournament page





*Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.

New Zealand Cricket Test, ODI and Twenty20 schedule

Here is a schedule of the games that are going to be played by New Zealand at home during the 2007/2008 home summer season. Make sure you proudly show your support for your favourite teams and make this summer of cricket an entertaining occasion, and who knows, you could be made famous by showing some enthusiasm and dedicated support for your team.

If you are a BlackCaps supporter lets attend the games' dressed in black and on mass and let Bangladesh, West Indies and India know that we are a force to be reckoned with!

Here is the Black Cap's home schedule for the home summer season of 2008/2009:

2008:

West Indies in NZ

Test
Dec 11-15: New Zealand v West Indies Dunedin
Dec 19-23: New Zealand v West Indies Napier

Twenty20
Dec 26: New Zealand v West Indies Auckland
Dec 28: New Zealand v West Indies Hamilton

2009

One-day matches
Dec 31 New Zealand v West Indies Queenstown
Jan 3 New Zealand v West Indies Christchurch
Jan 7 New Zealand v West Indies Wellington
Jan 10 New Zealand v West Indies Auckland
Jan 13 New Zealand v West Indies Napier

India in NZ

Twenty 20
Mar 6 New Zealand v India Wellington

One-day matches
Mar 8 New Zealand v India Napier
Mar 11 New Zealand v India Hamilton
Mar 14 New Zealand v India Auckland
Mar 17 New Zealand v India Wellington
Mar 20 New Zealand v India Christchurch

First class match
Mar 22-24 New Zealand v India Lincoln, Canterbury

Test Matches
Mar 26-30 New Zealand v India Hamilton
Apr 3-7 New Zealand v India Wellington

Adam Gilchrist goes Nuts!

A few days ago I was frightened, because Adam Gilchrist went nuts...No he wasn't admitted to a mental institute but he went nuts in the Indian Premier League the other day by blasting 109 not out off 47 balls which included an impressive 10 sixes and 9 fours. It was his scintilliating performance that enabled the Deccan Chargers to take charge of their match against the Mumbai Indians in style by beating them by 10 wickets. It was an excellent display of power hitting by Gilchrist, who is known for his brilliant attacking acts with the bat, and I'm sure that him and the Kolkata wicket keeper and New Zealand International, Brendon McCullum, will be challenging eachother for the rights as the most explosive batsman in the Indian Premier League. McCullum is currently the 2nd highest run scorer in the league so far and even though Gilchrist is a few places behind him I'm sure that with more punishing displays like that he will definetly provide a challenge. To the Deccan Chargers: Congratulations for the win! Enjoy the spoils of that huge win and let that build your confidence up for your remaining time in the tournament, to the Mumbai Indians: Bad Luck this time, lets see you assess what went wrong and hope for some success for you in your remaining time. I have noticed that Twenty20 games can be unpredictable and it can take only one mistake to turn a whole game around, I think its that which will keep us on the edge of our seats for the remainder of the tournament.

Right click HERE to view the the story behind Adam Gilchrist's brutal innings.

Brendon McCullums Record Brutal Bludgeoning

Wow! What a magnificent innings by Brendon McCullum of the Kolkata Knightriders! He certainly put on a magnificent show full of fireworks, I'm sure the crowd had great viewing pleasure, who wouldn't? Well not the Bangalore Royal Challengers anyway...

McCullum bludgeoned all the bowling deliveries from Kolkata to all parts of the park, eventually scoring a record 158 n.o from 73 balls- the highest score by a single batsman ever in an Twenty20, of which was a HUGE factor in his teams 140 run rout of Bangalore. When Ricky Ponting didnt even get a start the Kiwi decided to lift his game to an extraordinary level, its a remarkable innings given that it wasn't in a ODI or Test where he would've had all the time in the world to plot his attack on the bowlers. For this game the Bangalore side didn't appear to be "Royal Challenges" at all.

I can't say much about the innings as when I heard it on the news I was speechless, I havn't seen such an explosive innings before (well I can remember Nathan Astles 222 against England in a test way back in 2002) especially by a New Zealander. It was great to watch and I can see that he will be the batsman that bowlers from the opposition would love to loathe, shall he continue on more punishing innings that would make the BlitzKrieg look like a bunch of toddlers playing in a playground. Lets hope he can give many encores of his brilliant performance!

And as I said before his innings made me speechless, and as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, I find that so true, do you? Well I wonder how many words a video would have...Here is a clip from Youtube of his record performance:





*Acknowledgements to owner of the video (Its awesome!)

In the International Spotlight...New Zealand Cricket

The New Zealand cricket team, also known as the Black Caps, played their first Test in 1929-30 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth Test nation. It took the team until 1955-56 to win a Test, against the West Indies at Eden Park in Auckland. They played their first ODI in the 1972-73 season against Pakistan in Christchurch.

The current Test captain is Daniel Vettori. He replaces the Black Caps' most successful captain, Stephen Fleming who led New Zealand to 28 Test victories, more than twice as many as any other captain. Vettori lost his first match as captain (vs South Africa) by 358 runs, New Zealand's worst ever defeat by runs.
The New Zealand cricket team became known as the Black Caps in January 1998, after its sponsor at the time, Clear Communications, held a competition to choose a name for the team.

As of October 2007, the New Zealand team has played 332 Test matches, winning 18.67%, losing 39.45% and drawing 41.86% of its games.

DOMESTIC TEAMS:
New Zealand Cricket involves the following first-class teams:

·Auckland Aces
·Canterbury Wizards
·Central Districts Stags
·Northern Districts Knights
·Otago Volts
·Wellington Firebirds

CRICKET DEVELOPMENT:
New Zealand Cricket has established High Performance Cricket training centre based at Lincoln University. It also operates a grassroots development programme for school children called 'MILO Kiwi Cricket' . John Wright, former NZ opening batsman, was appointed acting high performance manager for NZC in November 2007.
New Zealand has many private cricket academies and the Bracewell Cricket Academy based at Rathkeale College is one of the largest cricket academies, providing an Overseas Cricket Development Programme, a Pre-Season Coaching Camp, a Festival of Cricket.

There are around 100,000 registered cricketers in New Zealand. By way of comparison, Australia and the U.K. have around 500,000 each. According to Mark O'Neill, New Zealand's batting coach from 2007-09, the competition at club level in NZ is nowhere near as intense as in Australia.

"In Sydney there are 20 first grade teams, each club has five grades. To get to first grade you've got to be a friggin' good player and once you get there the competition is very, very fierce. Unfortunately it's not the same standard [in NZ]. Competition is everything and the only way the New Zealand guys are going to get that is to play the world's best players."


TOURNAMENT HISTORY:

World Cup
·1975: Semi Finals
·1979: Semi Finals
·1983: First round
·1987: First round
·1992: Semi Finals
·1996: Quarter Finals
·1999: Semi Finals
·2003: 5th Place
·2007: Semi Finals

Mini World Cup
·ICC Knockout 1998: Quarter Finals
·ICC Knockout 2000: Won
·ICC Champions Trophy 2002: First round
·ICC Champions Trophy 2004: First round
·ICC Champions Trophy 2006: Semi Finals

Twenty20 World Championship
·2007: Semi Finals

Commonwealth Games
·1998: Bronze medal

World Championship of Cricket
·1985: Fourth

Austral-Asia Cup
·1986: Semi Finals
·1990: Semi Finals
·1994: Semi Finals

TOURNAMENT VICTORIES:
·ICC Knock-Out Trophy Nairobi Gymkhana Club Nairobi Kenya 2000. New Zealand beat India in the final.

·2003 Bank Alfala Series Trophy held in Sri Lanka (New Zealand, Pakistan,Sri Lanka)
·2004 NatWest Series Trophy held in England (West Indies, England,New Zealand).
·2005 Videocon TriSeries held in Zimbabwe (India, Zimbabwe,New Zealand).

WORLD RECORDS:
·Richard Hadlee, one of New Zealand and the world's best all-rounders, took the world record for most Test wickets (374) vs India at Bangalore in 1988. He lost the record to Kapil Dev. Hadlee was the first bowler to reach 400 Test wickets vs India at Christchurch in 1990

·Andrew Jones and Martin Crowe held the highest ever 3rd-wicket partnership in Tests which at the time was the highest partnership for any wicket.

·Brian Hastings and Richard Collinge together scored 151 runs for the highest ever 10th-wicket partnership against Pakistan in 1973.

·Nathan Astle scored Test cricket's fastest ever double century versus England Christchurch 2002. He scored 200 off 153 balls with the second hundred coming off just 39 deliveries. He was eventually out for 222 — the dreaded double Nelson. He knocked the first hundred off 114 balls. Astle smashed the record by 59 balls, previously held by Adam Gilchrist Australia vs South Africa Johannesburg 2002).

·Geoff Allott holds the record for the longest time taken to score a duck. South Africa Auckland 1999. He faced 77 balls in 101 minutes for his zero score.

·Danny Morrison held another "unwanted" record for the most ducks in Test cricket(24)
. He lost the record to Courtney Walsh.

·Chris Cairns and his father Lance Cairns are one of the two father-son combination to each claim 100 Test wickets, South Africa's Peter and Shaun Pollock being the other.

·Chris Cairns held the record for the most Test sixes. He passed Viv Richards record of 84 (vs England, Lord's, London, 2004) and retired from Test cricket with 87. He has since been passed by both Adam Gilchrist (the current record holder) and Brian Lara.

·Chris Harris is the only New Zealand cricketer to have taken 200 wickets in ODIs. (vs England, Lord's, London, 2004). He is only the second player in ODIs to complete the 4000 run / 200 wicket double. (The other is Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya). He holds the record for the most ODI caught and bowled dismissals, with 29.

·Fast bowler Shane Bond holds the best strike rate in the history of One Day International cricket of 26.5 (one player out for every 26.5 balls bowled).

·John Bracewell became the first - and so far only - substitute fielder to take four catches in a One-Day International, vs Australia in Adelaide on 23 November 1980.

·The New Zealand team holds the dubious honour of the record for the most consecutive Test series played without a win - 30 series between 1929-30 and 1969-70 (40 years), comfortably ahead of Bangladesh on 16 series.

·Another unenviable distinction is the largest margin defeat in the Cricket World Cup, by 215 runs, by Australia. (April 2007).

Notable
·New Zealand dismissed Zimbabwe (Harare 2005) twice in the same day for totals of 59 and 99. Zimbabwe became only the second team (after India Manchester 1952) to be dismissed twice in the same day. The whole Test was completed inside two days.

·Daniel Vettori scored NZ's fastest Test century. (vs Zimbabwe Harare 2005). Vettori needed only 82 balls to reach the 100 mark.

·In the same match, he became the third NZ cricketer (after Richard Hadlee and Chris Cairns) to take more than 200 Test wickets.

·Lou Vincent holds the record for the highest one-day cricket innings by a New Zealander of 172 (vs Zimbabwe Bulawayo 2005). The previous best was Glenn Turner 171 not out (vs East Africa Birmingham 1975). Vincent and captain Stephen Fleming broke the New Zealand one-day opening partnership record against all countries. Their total of 204 beat Fleming and Nathan Astle's 193 (vs Pakistan Dunedin 2000-2001). The team total of 397 was just one run short of the then record one-day total of 398 (Sri Lanka vs Kenya Kandy 1996).

·Brendon McCullum scored the fastest World Cup (2007) fifty (off 20 balls) for New Zealand against Canada, beating Mark Boucher's 21-ball record set against the Netherlands six days earlier.

·In a match for the New Zealanders (i.e., the New Zealand national team playing a tour match against non-test opposition) at Scarborough, Yorkshire, in 1986 vs the D.B. Close XI, Ken Rutherford scored 317 runs off just 245 balls, including 228 runs in boundary fours and sixes. In terms of balls faced, this is almost certainly one of the four fastest first-class triple-centuries ever recorded.

EXTERNAL RELATED LINKS:

BLACKCAPS official website

New Zealand cricket

Beige Brigade Official Website

Cricinfo New Zealand

A somewhat wacky site - Fun with the Black Caps

Cricket database

Runs on the board - New Zealand cricket (NZHistory)

New Zealand Cricket website

New-zealand Cricket News

Black Caps website

Bracewell Cricket Academy

New Zealand Cricket Blog

REFERENCE LINKS:

Cricinfo Test Team Records page

SEE ALSO:

List of New Zealand cricketers

New Zealand national cricket captains

New Zealand women's cricket team

Beige Brigade Blackcaps Supporters







*Acknowledgements to Cricinfo.com, Wikipedia.org and other related sites/links in this article/post.

Player Profile...Chris Cairns

Hi everyone,
I have decided to introduce Player Profiles to my blog-site. I randomly pick players from each cricket nation and it doesn't matter whether they play test cricket or not, no cricketing nation will be excluded, however due to the number of cricketing nations out there (in excess of 100), having a player profile from each country will take some time, so please be patient :)

The 1st player profile is going to be about Chris Cairns. Chris Cairns was a very accomplished cricketer in both the One-Day and the Test arena's. His career was blighted by numerous injuries, paticulary his back and knees. His career would've been longer if these injuries did not plague him the way they did. Here are some information and statistics about his career below:

Chris Cains brilliant century against India in the final of the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy -->

---------------------------------------





Christopher Lance Cairns (Chris) Developed from a rebel in his early days in cricket to being something of a senior statesman, which was noticed by the role he played in the players' strike of 2002. It was him that played one of the key roles in ending that strike.

On his day he was one of the top all-rounders in the world ( he was Wisden Cricketer of the year in 2000), when he was fit that is. He had a brilliant career full of many highlights, but unfortunately some low-lights, of which some were factors that physically blighted his career.

Some of his many highlights include beating Sir Viv Richards record for the most 6's in a Test career (he got 87 in total). He achieved this landmark at Lords in the 2004 Test series in England, and in 2000 he played a man-of-the-match key role in helping New Zealand to win the Champions Trophy final in Nairobi, scoring 104 n.o. It was said he batted with one leg which was due to a knee injury he had at the time. His efforts in that game typified the type of cricketer he was, a very gutsy, determined one who always gave his best even through the struggles and rough times. He also played superbly in the 2001/2002 V.B series in Australia involving the host, New Zealand and South Africa. The New Zealand side managed to tame Australia throughout the series to reach the final against the Africans but of which the latter overcame the New Zealand side. I still think it was a brilliant series by N.Z, and also Chris Cairns.

He also played county Cricket in Nottinghamshire (in England) from 1989 to 1996 and returned for a second stint in 2003. He was a dedicated player for them also, and was highly regarded amongst his peers there (and also in his national side).

Then it was on January 22nd 2006 he retired from all levels of cricket ( although he later joined the non-sanctioned Indian Cricket League in 2007), at a press conference that was full of emotion. The Twenty20 game against the West Indies on February 16th 2006 was his Last game for any New Zealand side. He will be remembered as a cricketing great and he will go down in history as one of the best all-rounders in cricket.

To see his career statistics, Click HERE I used material from Cricinfo to research a little on Chris Cairns history.

The next player profile article will be of a recent retiree, stay tuned to find out who this is :)