ICF Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger - Episode 2

[Guest Evil Mod Consortium]

The following is an Evil Mod Consortium Production brought to you by Salil and graphic23, shamelessly ripped off from inspired by the greatest nation on Earth, the Colbert Nation. As followers of the Colbert Nation, we have started a new segment: Tip of the Hat-Wag of the Finger. Every week, we will tip our hats to a cricketer or a fan (of ICF) as a recognition to their hard work and achievements over the preceding week. At the same time, there are those who deserve to recognized in the public's eyes as the ones who've let down the community of cricket fans - verbally or through their actions on the field. This week, EMC offers a Tip of the Hat to the left handers of India. Following the lead of Sourav Ganguly, who played a near perfect innings against the Rajasthan Royals a week ago (albeit in a losing cause), Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina showed that the legacy is being carried forward. In a team total of only 164, Suresh Raina scored 98 runs with the next highest contributor being Badrinath with only 29 runs. He was cruelly cut short of what would've been the first IPL hundred by an Indian - because of an irresponsible scoreboard error by the folks at the Centurion. Raina's domination didn't stop then - his groundfielding was top class, he took two skiers, and even the important wicket of Rob Quiney. A day after Raina lit up Centurion with his allround game, Yuvraj probably went one better - a hatrick and a fifty in the same game - at Kingsmead, where he played that innings.Yuvraj came on in the 2nd over after the strategy break, when Punjab's bowlers had already done enough damage by removing Bangalore's top order. The piechucker removed Uthappa and Kallis in the same over, and the first ball of his next over, he completely outfoxed Mark Boucher, forming the 4th hatrick of the IPL. Yuvraj's job wasn't done though - as Ravi Bopara had left to England to play in a test match series against the West Indies (who does that anymore?). He opened the innings, and got a breathtaking 50 with 4 sixes and 3 fours. Unfortunately for Yuvi though, his team collapsed as soon as he got out, and fell short of a meagre target by a 10-run margin. For ther brilliant show this week, we tip our hats to Yuvi and Raina! The Wag of the Finger is not as easy to decide on as last week. Earlier in the week EMC debated with itself whether to give the award to Kevin Pietersen for being such a spectacular waste of 1.5 million dollars with his miserable batting and captaincy, or to Vijay Mallya for disrespecting some of India's finest cricketers by undermining them and buying Pietersen to captain, when the same money could have bought him a whole lot of five dollah sucky sucky and only 93 fewer runs (Yes, Pietersen scored a grand total of 93 in 6 games - well done)! But late in the week another name emerged and made a far more convincing case for earning the Wag of the Finger. Step up, Mohammad Yousuf/Yousuf Youhana, former Pakistan player, former ICL, almost-IPL, Pakistan-again, ICL-again and now former ICL and almost-Pakistan-again player. After signing with the Indian Cricket League a couple of years ago after omission from the Pakistan World Twenty20 squad, Yousuf suddenly made an about-turn and decided to play for Pakistan once more - obviously a decision that COULDN'T have had anything to do with the IPL coming around the corner and even more money to be made. The slightest threat of legal action sunk this rat's chances of playing in the IPL, and soon after he returned to the ICL claiming he was "misguided and confused". Now with the IPL managing to work around security concerns and Pakistan finally finding other teams willing to play with them, Yousuf has unsurprisingly made yet another about-turn, claiming he has resigned from the Indian Cricket League as of yesterday and deciding that "his priority was to play for Pakistan". We'll see if this priority lasts as long as it did last time, where within a year's time (and a couple of lawsuit threats) he was retracting all statements about his loyalty to country and discarding the green and gold-starred cap. Given his track record of stability and loyalty, it won't be surprising if that shameless mercenary also sends feelers out to the American and Japanese baseball leagues, or the American Premier League in hopes of another quick paycheque with no loyalty or honour needed. And if he also gets recalled back to Pakistan once more, it will be interesting to see whether his old teammates, countrymen and fellow Muslims around the world, oh wait, it's not Shoaib Malik will continue supporting a man who's turned his back on his side twice in the last two years now. Yousuf deserves no sympathy or immediate amnesty, even though it's likely he'll get both from a board full of people as dishonourable and untrustworthy as him. What Yousuf does deserve though is this:

[flamy]

I wanted the :hitler:

[DomainK]

Mohammad Yusuf has got multiple personality syndrome and he wants each of his personality to play for a different team and earn bucks that go to same bank account. Unfortunately modern science and modern law are failing to catch up.

[Holysmoke]

can someone tip a wag for me?

[The Outsider]

Good write up, guys! I would have gone for MS Dhoni as the wag of the finger for being the most paid cricketer in IPL and not delivering anything - after all Pietersen and Flintoff got a lot of stick for it.

can someone tip a wag for me?

[h4te] I would tip my wag wag at you. [/h4te]

[Zap_Brannigan]

Maybe Yousuf Youhana can play for the ICL and MOhammed Yosuf for pakistan

[coffee_rules]

Tip of the hat - Raina Wag of the finger - SRK - Backing Bookha-nang and abusing Gavaskar over the multiple captaincy issue, sacks captain Dada over McCullum, who is pants in this IPL..deserts his team when they are down and wanted to sell his team..:finger: