Indian cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar, is trending on Twitter …….. in 3 different spots! Things related to India trending on twitter are starting to become fairly common. The other day a viral tag titled #awesomeindianthings (which loosely translates to …… uberdesi) was #1 for a while on Twitter. Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to score 200 in a one day international match against South Africa earning him 3 different spots on Twitter trends.

Update: Turns out being politically incorrect when referring to Sachin Tendulkar as batsman as opposed to batsperson saved me a redaction, so did my habit of using his profession (batsman) as opposed to using something more general (cricketer, human being, god, unicorn, tooth fairy, etc). This blog (Karthik via FB) informs us that Sachin Tendulkar is merely the second person to score a double hundred in an ODI, the first being by Belinda Clark of the Australian women’s cricket team back in 1997. Unfortunately for Belinda back then there were no Twitters, Facebooks or YouTubes, so she did not “trend of Twitter” or have a million views on YouTube. So there you go, Sachin Tendulkar was the second batsperson and first batsman to score a double hundred in an ODI.

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It’s a weird world these day. We have Indian players in the MLB and MLB players playing cricket. To be fair, Manny does hail from the the region of the former cricket world champions.

On the third day of the second test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Lahore, the Sri Lankan team bus was attacked by masked gunmen numbering nearly a dozen. The players escaped with about five of them sustaining minor non-critical injuries. Five security personnel however were killed in the gun battle. Cricinfo link.

Speaking from Sri Lanka, Sanath Jayasuriya said that it was an “extremely unfortunate incident. “We’ve never had this kind of problem,” Jayasuriya told CNN-IBN. “They are all safe, that’s the good news I got when I spoke to Kumar. I don’t they they’ll stay back and play. I think they will come back as soon as possible. Depends on the injuries.”

The Sri Lankan team had stepped in after the Indian government had barred the Indian team from touring Pakistan after the terror attack in Mumbai.

A couple of weeks ago, ICC Chief Haroon Lorgat had directed the World cup organizing committee to monitor the security situation in Pakistan for hosting the world cup in early months of 2011(link), the venue of the attack today, is the scheduled venue for hosting one of the semi-final matches in the world cup.

Today’s attack seems to be a co-ordinated  attack by trained gunmen and news results are still pouring in about terrorists being battled in the city of Lahore, no word of any casualty on the terrorists’ side has yet been reported. News reports also indicate that the Sri Lankan team has been called back to Sri Lanka immediately.

Update:

CNN-IBN reports:

The attackers – who came in a white car – lobbed two grenades at the bus carrying the players.

The gunmen, reportedly surrounded the team van and opened fire indiscriminately. They reportedly continuously fired for two to three minutes.

The attackers then started firing at a police van which was providing security to the Lankan team.

Officials said rocket launchers were used in the attack as well.

We’ve not blogged much about cricket lately and most of us on here hate the Australian cricket team but this is truly amazing. In a T20 match against New Zealand, Aussie Adam Voges made a stunning catch for the ages.

Coming under a skier on the boundary line, Voges realized his momentum would take him out of bounds. So he tossed the ball back into the air, went out of bounds with his momentum, stumbled back into bounds and made a diving catch which Sourav Ganguly would have a tough time making on a good day. Oh, and he accomplished this within the time one can say “The Aussie cricket team still sucks”. Back here in Amrika, this would’ve been played on Sportscenter for a week and earned him an ESPY nomination.

Cricket as an Olympic sport has been discussed in the news off and on for many years. Logistics for organizing a sport like cricket were complicated, the number of teams requiring the number of grounds and the time taken for a cricket match in the traditional format was overwhelming. With the introduction of Twenty20 format, things look a little different and time constraints seem to have been overcome for cricket to make a comeback as an Olympic sport, after 120 years when ignorant players, not knowing they were Olympians, played a cricket match in 1900. (cricinfo)

The world’s first (and till date only) Olympic cricket match poster
Source: Cricinfo

And so ended the competition. Neither side seemed aware that they had taken part in the Olympics, and the match was only retrospectively formally recognised as being an Olympic contest in 1912, when the International Olympic Committee met to compile the definitive list of all events in the five modern Olympiads up to that point. By the time of the St Louis Games in 1904 cricket had been forgotten.

And in a recent ICC directive to BCCI, among other points mentioned are that BCCI should meet with the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) (the actual T20 format organizers, who had hoped to redefine Indian cricket and are now in trouble for daring to end BCCI’s monopoly). ICL has requested a recognition approval from ICC, who in turn have directed them to meet BCCI. Yes, the same BCCI who have been continuously victimizing ICL players (link), anyway thats a whole different post.

Rediff reports that, apart from these directives,

The ICC also discussed the possibility of cricket being part of a future Olympic Games.

“It was agreed that ICC management continue research on the matter and present to the Board at a later date.

“If cricket wished to be part of the 2020 Olympic Games then it would have to make an application to the International Olympic Committee before 2013.”

So after India’s best ever run in Olympics this year, when sports other than cricket have been getting a long overdue recognition, what do you think is in store for cricket as an Olympic sport?

Pros – Cricket is a sport, like soccer, volleyball, field hockey and so many others. And the ultimate joy of standing on an Olympic podium for a gold medal is exhilarating. Just imagine a Indo-Pak/Indo-Aus final T20 match for an Olympic gold medal.

Cons – With the amount of politics we have in zone based selections, the underlying illegal betting, and our never ending madness in the sport that tends to overshadow other important sports in our country, is it good for cricket to be in Olympics or not?

What say you?