Surprised that no one could accurately predict the margin for the first match. 7 out of 20 correctly predicted the winner, but none of them got the margin right. I was expecting MI to win the match, so didn't won any points. Never expected a batting collapse from MI after such a good start. And even after that I was hopeful, until Sam Curran came to the crease. He made the difference at the end.

Honestly I am getting tired of this drama. Philippines is an independent country and the EU can't dictate their policies. And it is so hypocritical to blame Philippines when many of the EU nations are supplying weapons to the worst human rights violator in the world (Saudi Arabia). If they want to criticize Philippines, then they should criticize the human rights violations in Saudi Arabia as well.

Let's see. I made a bet in favor of MI. And surprisingly a majority from the Bitcointalk pool have opted for MI. Around 2 hours remain and till now there is no news of any of the players pulling out due to COVID 19 infection.

Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock will be opening for MI, and Trent Boult/Jasprit Bumrah are likely to open the bowling. For CSK, the middle-order looks strong, with the inclusion of Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni. And indications are that Josh Hazlewood will be paying for CSK today, which will be a very big boost for them.

If CSK bats first, the big concern for the fans would be their ability to score quickly. Most of the players are 30 plus and many are 35 plus, and they don't have as many big hitters as MI.

My gut feeling says that the team which wins the toss will opt to field fist.

Things just got a lot more complicated, with the death of SCOTUS judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg (known as Darth Vader Ginsburg among the conservatives). Remember that she refused to resign in 2016, when Barack Obama had a chance to replace her with a similar ultra-leftist judge. Now Trump is the president and the GOP holds a sizable majority in the senate (53-47). Even if the most liberal GOP senator (Lisa Murkowski) defects, the conservative pick will be elected to the SCOTUS. Just one and half months before the POTUS elections, now a new topic has emerged all of a sudden.

No one is going to deny this. Even I agree that Indian market accounts for more than 60% of the ICC revenues. But the question here is, should the ICC given them a disproportionate share of the funds. We are not talking about revenue that originate from the Indian bilateral tours. We are talking about the revenue from ICC tournaments. Take the example of the T20 World Cup. A total of 16 countries participate in the main tournament, and dozens more take part in the qualifiers. Ideally, the revenue should be divided equally between these 16 countries, with another share going to those teams which failed to quality. But the BCCI want half of the revenue from the world cup. Is this fair?

The other boards are already agreeing to a lot of unjust demands made by the BCCI. They allow their players to participate in the IPL, while the BCCI never allows the Indian players to participate in the other leagues. No major tournaments are conducted during the two-month IPL window, while none of the other leagues, such as BBL and CPL enjoy such largesse.

And the BCCI receives more than $1 billion every year from the IPL (sponsorship, TV rights, gate collection.etc), which they don't share with any of the other boards. And the BCCI is not satisfied even after all this and they want a larger share of the revenues from ICC tournaments as well!

I am glad that SaShiRaJaVu finally decided to join. So we have 15 members and just 24 hours remain now. I still want Haunebu and eaLiTy to join the pool. Already a majority of the users who are active here in this section are part of the pool. Apart from these two, I would like a few others, such as mersal, MFahad, pakhitheboss, Juggy777, vella85 and UmerIdrees as well.

These 3 matches were the first ones for Australia in the 2020–22 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League. They are still at the second spot, since England has a total of 3 wins compared to 2 for Australia (England played 6 matches, 3 against Australia and another 3 against Ireland). The next matches may be from the series between India and England (but I heard that this series was also postponed).

The ICC needs BCCI, as much as the BCCI needs ICC. But that doesn't mean that the BCCI should be given lion's share of ICC revenues, at a time when some of the smaller boards are facing bankruptcy. None of the other sports bodies such as FIFA or FIH follows a similar model. They divide the revenues equally, without thinking about from where the revenues are originating.

The last time I participated in a pool here (CWC 2019), we had far fewer participants. The current number is not bad (I can see 13 players active in the pool, with user amishmanish yet to join). I still hope that Haunebu, SaShiRaJaVu and eaLiTy will join the pool, as they are very active in the cricket related sections. The prizes are very attractive, when compared to the pools we had earlier.

Just two more days to the first match. I haven't yet made my picks, as there is a lot of confusion. I think it will be better to wait till the last day, as players can pull out at the last minute due to any medical or personal reasons. If there is no such issue, then I will go with MI for the first match.

If you are saying that the Conservative Party is an extreme-right outfit, then I am sure that no one else in this forum would agree with you. FPTP has been very successful in removing both the extreme-right and extreme-left parties from the parliament. It was through the proportional representation that neo-Nazi parties such as BNP of England, NDP of Germany and Golden Dawn of Greece won their seats. If I am given a choice between the Tories and the BNP, then I would chose the former anytime of the day.

Well... what did I tell you guys? Australia (without Steve Smith) is once again proving that they are the ultimate chokers. They got a dream start and had England reeling at 0/2. And still they allowed England to score a total of 300 plus. England lower-middle order is just the opposite of what Australia is having. They have added valuable runs in almost all the matches this year. Anyway.. now it's just a matter of time. 2-1 series win for England. A much needed morale booster, after their ODI loss to Ireland recently.

To tell the truth, around 98% of the existing tokens and coins doesn't have a real life use. They can be used only as a speculative investment asset. But one thing to remember here is that these cryptocurrencies will undergo pump-and-dump cycle at least once during their existence. If you can sell them at the time of the pump, then you may be able to make good profits.

Sputnik is not the only vaccine available at the market right now. The Chinese army is vaccinating their soldiers with the Sinovac vaccine. And the WHO hasn't approved any of these vaccines. Some of the analysts are saying that the WHO is biased against non-Western pharmaceutical firms. I don't completely agree with them, but at this point we have only two options and they are from China and Russia. 

Having watched all the drama from the second match, I am still feeling skeptical about Australia. They are experts in wasting a good start. Starc and Hazlewood are bowling really well. But I don't want them to release the pressure once Cummins comes to bowl, along with Mitchell Starc or Marcus Stoinis. I guess it may be a good idea to bring Adam Zampa a bit early. He is a bit expensive, but gets the wickets. 

Hi Royse, I have credited you 5 merit points. Please don't consider it as a loan. I know that you give merit only for deserving posts. So please feel free to use them.

It was so exciting to be back with superbru. The last time I had participated in a superbru pool, was almost 1.5 years ago. I saw some of the familiar names in the pool, including akhjob, roysesuper, pffrt, deadley and RapTarX. I guess JSRAW is using a different name. 

This time placing a bet is a lot difficult because of the ongoing pandemic. You never know who is going to pull out at the last minute. Anyway, I hope that the Delhi Capitals will win this edition.

Can I take this spot?

For almost one month, I was thinking about joining this pool, but then I decided against it. I was running short of coins. Earlier I had participated in the CWC 2019 pool, which was managed by Royse.

If I qualify for this offer, then please let me know what I need to do.

@Royse, I could have given 5 merit points, but then some may interpret it as an attempt to bribe.

Can I take the spot?


Thanks. I have quoted his post as per the instruction.

And just now he has replied, confirming the slot.

This is really exciting!!! IPL 2020 will start in 3 days from now, and the first match is going to be between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings. I can't wait to bet in favor of MI!!!

I agree that both (online and physical gambling) are enjoyable. But the level of enjoyment may be different. Here in India, there is only one state (Goa) where casinos are allowed to operate. People visit these casinos because they are considered "exotic" and not necessarily because they are compulsive gamblers. This "exotic" experience may be absent, if you rely on the online casinos. 

It will be wrong to claim that they are doing this charity work just for some cheap publicity. Even if that is the case, why we should complain about it?  In the end, the money is going to those who need it the most. What's the issue if Ronaldo or Rashford gets some publicity out of it. But I agree that these things should not be considered for awards and prizes. It should be solely based on the performance on field, and not off the field.

Franchise leagues are privately owned commercial enterprises and they will invest money only if they get good returns out of it. The BCCI has banned Indian players from participating in the other franchise leagues, and this has severely impacted their viewership and revenue generation from the Indian market. Only the CPL and BBL have some viewership in India, due to the presence of some of the big names in T20 cricket.