Oh no!

I have some bad news for you lot. The people over at World Cricket Watch think this is an exciting blog. They even put me in a list of 40 Most Exciting Cricket Blogs. There I am sitting pretty amongst names like CWB, 99.94, King Cricket, BCC!, Thoughts from the Dustbin, SOAL, Cricket=Action=Art, Poshin's World, SarahCanterbury, Swanning About, Test Match Sofa, Iain O' Brien, The Boundary Rider, The Old Batsman and many more. (This list is almost as long as the original one...!)

It's an abomination, I know. But since this is the first list that I have been a part of and probably the last, I will gladly take it. I also like the description they put of me, mainly because I've never heard anyone sum up this blog before. I myself take everything there is about cricket and fuck it up badly, so I can't really put a description. But this is what it may be:

Exploring the phenomenon that is cricketing celebrity, Cricket Minded goes beyond the boundary into some of the cricketing social circles that others can only dream of.

Damn IPL pictures have turned me into TMZ. But what the hell eh? At least I am the only blog to have a cricketer shake his ass on their home page.

I do have to warn you that this means I am going to be even more obnoxious and swear at the cricketers I dislike a lot more. Or I may get increasingly worse as more people come here to be "excited". Then you all will need to escape, so I suggest you go over and look at the other 39 blogs on the list. There are some pretty great ones out there and one day they will definitely help you recover from the psychological disorder that is Cricket Minded.

Oh, that sums it up pretty nicely doesn't it?

I WON!

It wasn't some blog award so you can stop choking on your food now. I won a copy of When Freddie Became Jesus by Jarrod Kimber.

I was going to buy it anyway, but was just trying my luck when IOB (the IOB) decided to give away two signed copies for free. In case you didn't know, he wrote about 350 words in that book, which obviously gave it the cool Kiwi touch that the world in general needs. New Zealanders are just so awesome.

Thanks IOB! You are the best! I am going to look forward to my copy even more now because it will have your autograph in it. Thanks to Jrod as well for generously giving away the two copies.

If you haven't bought the book yet, SHAME ON YOU. Yes, you.

Get published!

No seriously. It's Jrod's idea. A fab idea, I must say. Here's the link:

http://cricketsadistsmonthly.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/submissions/

You don't have to be a blogger, you don't even have to be a professional. But I suspect you have to be good. Slightly. And there is not money for your time and efforts. But when you get to write about cricket, who cares about money?

I don't think you will find another magazine where you have nobody restricting your creativity with 'guidelines'. So go ahead. Have fun.

Mind reader

I was going to do a post on the Delhi pitch and the stupidity of the whole situation. But then I came across this article:

Bring on the lousy pitches by Jrod.

It's pretty much everything I would have said with a whole bunch of 'fucking cowards' included. Maybe I'll just add it here to sum up.

Fucking cowards.

Go read it.

Vote

The topic for this afternoon is more other bloggers than cricket I guess, but this one holds some importance so read carefully.

World Cricket Watch has introduced a Cricket Website Award. A host of great sites have been nominated and you should go and vote for them because you read more than half of them regularly. Even if they offend you and piss you off, you are drawn to them every god damn day of your life.

Here's a little teaser, under Best Cricket Blog the nominations are King Cricket, Cricket with Balls and BCC!. Oh fuck! Who do you vote for? Yes, I had the same problem. Unfortunately, I don't think the coveted ICC ranking system will be able to help you out here, so you must make a decision and vote. No one will ever know anyway.

Also nominated under Best New Cricket Blog is my dear friend Sid from Thoughts from the Dustbin. She is an Australian living in England, counting down to the next Ashes so she can stop suffering. What more do you need to know?

No, I am not telling you who I voted for.

Freddie and Socks

Since I am coming to this a little late, I'm sure all of you have already heard about Flintoff's new range of socks. The artist in Flintoff has come alive after his retirement and instead of painting shit with cricket balls, he has resorted to designing socks.

Why socks you ask? Good question. The socks will magnetically draw your attention away from your knees, which in Flintoff world is always a priority. I've already sent them an email suggesting Joe Denly should be the face of this.

The socks will also come in handy when you want to stuff your mouth before making an utterly obnoxious comment to a batsman, resulting in complete demolition of your team-mate's ego. Broad will get a free sample so he can gag Freddie for 'that day'.

Finally, the socks and its designs will make for a delightfully absurd conversation to hide the fact that you are drunk and the real reason you are saying nonsense is because you have been chugging everything with alcohol in it since your birth. They are trying to land Andrew Symonds to market this but he seems to have dropped from the face of the Earth.

If any of the above is appealing, I suggest you buy Freddie's socks this Christmas. But if I were you, the only Freddie related thing I would buy is Jrod's new book on the Ashes, where Freddie becomes Jesus.

Was the transformation from socks to Jesus or Jesus to socks? Either way, it's a miracle and that is really the essence of Christmas.