Friday, July 21, 2006

Poll of the Week: Comments


Should we continue to allow anonymous comments on our blog?
Yes
No
  
Free polls from Pollhost.com

40 comments:

Ramsundar Lakshminarayanan said...

apart from disallowing anonymous comments, comments should be moderated as well.

hari said...

personally I'm in favor of having anonymous comments since that gives guys who otherwise may not want to bring up edgier ideas, suggestions etc an option to take part. I think it helps make the discussions richer and more rounded. But, I just hope that the majority of us will sign in and comment under their own name. At the end of the day, we are all friends and its so much more nicer to say what we have to say out in the open.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Hari. I bet you'll see less comments and less ideas being shared if not allowing
ananonymous cmts.
Samir

Anonymous said...

moderating the comments seems like a full-time job.
Samir

Ramsundar Lakshminarayanan said...

Hari - If we can tolerate few posts with abusive content, then we would not be having this discussion.

Samir - moderating comments can be shared by different people which may lessen the load a bit. The drawback that I see is this will cause some latency which may not go well with the bloggers.

hari said...

Ramsundar - I did not say that we can tolerate abusive language. I don't think there is any place for that on the field or off. But, we have to accept that whatever we do its going to be there. The challenge we all have is to find a way to manage that - it maybe by stopping anonymous posting, maybe moderating - there are downsides to all of these. But, I'm sure we will find a way.

Anonymous said...

It will accomplish nothing and is a waste of time to even think about this.

Whatever you do, people will always use some other identity to write here. It wont take much to create a fictitious name and account. It wont serve the purpose, so moderators or MCC management's time will be better spent on other things.

Anonymous said...

I go back and forth on this, but overall I think I agree with Hari.

It would be nice if everyone signed their name - it makes the discussion better to know who you are talking to. But it likely would stop some people making the odd valuable point.

I say allow the Anon postings for the moment - and I dont think we need to even consider any moderators. However, just as has already been done, if anyone posts using abusive language, it obviously will remain the responsibility of the Newsletter Team (led by Hari) to remove those posts - thats already understood.

Maybe most of us "regulars" (including me :-) ought to register, however, so that nobody can post pretending to be us either.

Sadiq

Anonymous said...

Hey Jaggi,
I have a suggestion for the new poll.

Who is the best All-Rounder in the league?
choices are
a. Shahid Munir
b. Bhavneet Sarna
c. Mehul Shani
d. Dakshesh Patel
e. Satya Kallur
f. Kamran Khan (Muslim)

Your more than welcome to change the players...Bakshi (Pak Gymkhana) and Perera (Purdue) aren't too far back. Just think that having more than 6 names in the poll would be a bit boring. I don't want to mention my name here, since I don't want anyone to feel that I am biased towards certain players. Hope you add this poll
thanks

Anonymous said...

its me again...
maybe you should add the stats of each player besides their names.
For example...
Players stats are posted in the following format.
(Runs, Avg. Runs, Wkts, Econ, Bow. Avg)

a. Shahid Munir (338, 37.56, 15, 3.67, 13.2)
b. Satya Kallur (238, 58.25, 9, 3.22, 16.89)

Anonymous said...

Best allrounder is Shahid Munir - I think that is accepted league-wise. He was selected to play for US last year (for a tour to Canada which never materialized).

Anonymous said...

lets take a vote and find out....I think Mehul is just as good if not better.

Anonymous said...

Mehul's stats are not as good as Shahid's whether you look at batting or bowling. Shahid is on top or around the top in both categories. Stats don't lie my friends. I believe Shahid is the best cricket player in the league. Mehul is one of the best players in his own right.

Jaggi said...

I will run my end of month MVP points and then put up the poll. This way, I will have the stats.

Anonymous said...

what about poll on who's the best keeper in the league?
some of the recognized keepers are..

1.Shashi Bhuluswar(chicago giants)
2.Mahesh Parikh (Challengers)
3.Asad Munawar (Pak Gym)
4.Samir Champaneri (Phoenix cc)
5. Mateen Inamdar (Suburban)

Anonymous said...

Best wicket keeper in the league -Hands down it has to be Todd Pinnington from Milwaukee United. Ask any umpire who has seen him keep wickets, they will have a lot to tell. By the way how many of the players (let alone WKs) in Midwest have an entry in cricinfo player database. Go check Pinnington out in cricinfo.

I see he is not even in the list..talk about frog in the well chicagoans!!! :-)

Anonymous said...

well i'm sure Todd is the most talented wicketkeeper, just like how Shahid Munir is probably the most talented player. But Todd, really played much this season. Most of the games he has played he hasn't even kept. So he shouldn't be in the poll at all. We are just talking about this season so far.
That said, if I had to pick the top 11 MCC players, Todd would definately be in that list.

Anonymous said...

what i meant was that Todd hasn't played much this season (typo)

Anonymous said...

Agreed.

Ravs.

Anonymous said...

Todd Andrew Pinnington, is this the same guy playing for Milwuakee United?
WOW

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:20 pm, If you are going to make a big statement like "How many players from MCC are in Cricinfo database", you need to do your home work, there are two other players from mcc in that database. so get your stuff right and then make statements. As far as Todd goes, he's an amazing athlete and a very good keeper, but how many games has he played this year or last year.

Anonymous said...

-----
By the way how many of the players (let alone WKs) in Midwest have an entry in cricinfo player database.
-----

Todd Pinnington has been mentioned. Apart from him, Sohail Alvi, Tehsin Ahmed, Humayun Mirza and Phanindra Ilapakurty all have CricInfo pages. Don't know others.

BTW, how come the LA Open WK Imran Tailor has not been mentioned in the list above?

Also, as for Shahid Munir having better stats than Mehul Shani, it depends on what stats you wish to consider.

Batting avg:
Mehul 6 games, avg. 46
Shahid 9 games, avg. 37

Bowling avg:
Mehul 6 games, avg 11
Shahid 9 games, avg. 13

Econ rate:
Mehul 6 games, 2.75
Shahid 9 games 3.67

Those are the stats currently. You can draw whatever conclusions you like. My opinion is I wouldn't want to face either one of them.

-Samarth.

Anonymous said...

I wasn't talking about averages. I was talking about total wickets and total runs. In any case we will know who the best all rounder is when the season is over. Shahid Munir has played all games so I understand he has more runs but he might have a lower average because he has had more chances to get out. Similarly he has a higher bowling average because he has bowled more overs but he has more wickets. How about Bhavneet with his otherworldly batting average. He bats down the order though. As I said, we will know when the season is over.

Anonymous said...

------------
Best wicket keeper in the league -Hands down it has to be Todd Pinnington from Milwaukee United. Ask any umpire who has seen him keep wickets, they will have a lot to tell.
--------

Yes, of the keepers Ive seen in this league at least, Todd is by far the best. In terms of glove-work its not even close IMHO, Todd's glove-work is on a different level from most in our league (the other one whose glovework was probably second-best to Todd was, IMHO, Ashar Mehdi- but he left our league 2 years ago). Todd is also a very good batsman - solid and a long-innings guy IMHO, not a hitter.

Overall, in today's world (and in limited overs games), you have to keepers who can bat - just glovework doesnt do much. Even given that, Id probably rate Todd as the best keeper/bat in the league in my opinion - last year he played on low-scoring pitches, but was Milwaukee United's top rungetter after playing only 8 matches (we all have seen how good Bhavneet and Satya are this season when theyve gotten to play a few more games on better pitches - Todd scored more runs in 8 matches than either of them did in 14 matches last year! That alone should reveal something about his batting abilties, in addition to his keeping).

After that... well, not much "after", really... Mahesh Parikh of the Challengers is brilliant as well. He didnt keep last year most of the time, but he has this year - he is quite clearly the best active keeper/bat in our league this season (since Todd has only played 1 game to date). An excellent keeper who is also one of the best pure bats in the league this year IMHO (currently in the Top Five in batting stats).

People seem to forget, BTW... Satha keeps quite regularly for Capitol :-) His glovework is decent just because of his athleticism (even if not near the Todd/Mahesh level), and there is probably no better batsman in our league in either division.

Last year Purdue had 2 excellent keeper-bats as well - Ashwin, who was one of the top batsmen in Division Two on average for the past two years (he has not played all season, but should return for the final 3-4 games this year), and Sharath (who is now opening the batting and keeping for Milwaukee United, in Todd's absence).

Sadiq

Anonymous said...

"I understand he has more runs but he might have a lower average because he has had more chances to get out. Similarly he has a higher bowling average because he has bowled more overs but he has more wickets"

This doesn't make any sense dude.

Anonymous said...

After wicketkeepers, we can talk about the best spinners in the league. Asif Mahmood would get my vote. But there are some other good spinners in the league too.

Anonymous said...

asif mahmood??? What has he done outside of Lincoln Park???? Who else would you consider a good spinner in the league, let’s break it down, who’s the best off spinner and who is the best leg spinner in our league??

Anonymous said...

BTW apart from players mentioned above with CricInfo pages, Sadiq Yusuf has in the past written articles for CricInfo.

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/84308.html

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/story/84306.html

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/99766.html

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/99816.html

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/104966.html

-Samarth.

Anonymous said...

Nasir Mahmood also has a cricinfo page:

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/player/42308.html

Anonymous said...

hmmm, I think Bhavneet is a very good spinner. Even Narpreet from the Royals is having a good season. Other than that, Bakshi has taken a ton of wickets with a low econ rate. But personally, I think Asif is the best spinner in the league. If Asif had a couple of decent players(especially batsman) in his team, Milwaukee Cricket Club would have been really good.
I don't think there is a single team in the league that has a very well balanced bowling lineup. Some of the better teams are obviously Pak Gymkhana who I think are a spinner or medium pacer short of being perfect. Challengers could really use a 'true' spinner, although their medium pacers add to their variety. United Cricket Club also have a very good bowling lineup but I think even they are a bowler short. Mehul and Samarth are tho of the best bowlers in the league. Dhiraj is a bit inconsistant. The rest of the guys (Nipun, Narotam etc) are decent but not great. Milwaukee United could use another fast bowler.
Don't know much about the other teams.

Anonymous said...

i believe one team u missed out for there bowling were the bears, they have been known for there bowling. Only once in 6 or 7 years has any one from the bears won a bowling title, and that is because the distribution amongst the bowler in the bears lineup is almost similar, all the main bowlers take about 20 wkts each every season. Adeel and Tariq start the attack and then Faisal who was the winner of the bowling title some years ago comes in second change and then you have two descent spinners who don’t go for much runs in Imran and Hammad, and then as backups you have Arif K and Yousud Jamil in the lineup as well. BTW yousuf jamil is also on cricinfo, his stats can be found under Pakistan players page. It has been batting that has always ket the bears down!!!

Anonymous said...

Phoenix has a good bowling lineup too. They bowled out Pak Gymkhana for 150 and Challengers for 113. They don't have any superstarts that bowl as fast as Shahid or spin like Asif. But they are very consistant.

Anonymous said...

I agree, IMHO too the Bears have one of the best bowling lineups in the league. They had a pretty decent bowling lineup even last year - and this year they have re-added Adeel, Tariq Usmani and Kamran, which makes their bowling very formidable indeed. Their batting too is aided by the return of Naveed (not to mention the 3 mentioned earlier, all of whom are really allrounders - Tariq last year was opening the batting for Meadows, and was among the leagues Top 15 in batting, if I remember correctly).

The Bears batting has let them down a few times, and they werent batting very well early this season. That changed a couple of weeks ago, however, when they chased down 265 against the Flames at Washtington Park - which was an amazing effort, with everyone chipping in. There is a lot of ability in that batting lineup, the confidence-boost from the Flames chase may well have fixed any of the batting problems they had earlier in the season.

Overall its instructive to remember that the Bears have lost only 2 games this year - to the rampaging Pak Gym, and to the Wildcats (a game they dominated, but lost because they played one bad hour of cricket at the end). Given that, it is remarkable to me that they have continued to fly under the radar - nobody has been talking about what is really a pretty damn good cricket team that is cruising towards the playoffs!

Sadiq

Anonymous said...

Sadiq,
Bears have only beaten one good team this year. That was one week ago against hte Flames. I'm not saying they are bad. But I think you should judge them after the next 4-5 weeks.

Anonymous said...

their next 6 opponents are Milwaukee United, United CC, Royals, Challengers, Muslim Gymkhana and St. Louis.

Anonymous said...

--------
asif mahmood??? What has he done outside of Lincoln Park????
------

Poor guy. Destroys people year in and year out with awesome bowling when he plays them... and they say "whats he done outside Lincoln Park", when he never actually gets to *play* outside Lincoln Park to start with :-)

Way back in 2003, Asif got to play outside Lincoln Park - for 2 games! He played Pak Gym at WP, and took 2/30 in 8 overs (and made 79 with the bat)! Then he played Book Club in St Louis, and took 3/20 in 8 overs, and made 72 with the bat!

In 2004 Milwaukee wasnt scheduled to play a single game away. In 2005 they played one, in St Louis, but Asif was in Pakistan at the time I think (he missed a chunk of games last year). This year they havent played away yet.

How is it Asif's fault if his team is never scheduled to play outside Lincoln Park? We cant really blame *him* for that, can we? :-)

To me, at least, its partly the "evidence of the eyes", not just stats - he is just visibly the best spinner in the league, in my opinion. He flights it, turns it, has great control, has great variety (both the straighter one and the one that spins into the right-hander). Yes he is helped by the pitch - it is a clay-base, so the ball grips and turns more than anywhere else. But even so, there is the variety and control etc added to it - that would stay the same no matter the pitch, after all. He wouldnt be helped as much by the concrete pitches in Chicago obviously - but good players adjust, no matter where they play. If he played 14 games on Chicago pitches, I think he'd ajust quickly enough and do just fine on these pitches too.

The last time I saw Asif was actually last weekend - and he didnt take a wicket! But even on that spell Id rate him an excellent spinner - he had a hurt spinning-finger, but still gave the batsmen plenty of trouble, had a couple of catches dropped, and a couple of not-bad LBW shouts turned down (they were good shouts, but werent actually out IMHO :-)

Just as there is little doubt that Shahid is the best allrounder in the league, IMHO at least there is similarly little doubt that Asif is the best spinner.

Now, who is the best batsman in Division One... *that* might be a question that engenders some debate ;-)

Sadiq

Anonymous said...

One down for the Bears (170 run loss).
Sadiq, you still think the Bears have a good bowling lineup?

Anonymous said...

Bears did bowl well till the 20 over mark where we gave only 80 runs. But we just were playing a very good team. They scored 200 in the remaining 25 overs. We just ran into 'I-dontknow-whattheheck-we-ran-into'
Pure hitting by couple of their batsmen.
We still think we have a very good bowling line up.

Anonymous said...

Pak Gym gave up 300+ in last year's final - they're supposed to have the best bowling attack - it can happen to anyone. Aus failed to defend 434, they have an OK bowling line up too ;).

Anonymous said...

Ok bears, sorry if I offended u earlier. maybe this was just a bad day. Lets see how you guys do next week. I'll be rooting for guys