Vanburn Holder - West Indies Cricketer

One of the first set of players to play one-day cricket for the West Indies, Vanburn Alonzo Holder was a fast-medium bowler who played for the regional team between 1969 and 1979. He played in the transition period for the West Indies, where they moved from being a good, competitive team to being world-beaters in the late 70s.

Born on October 10 1945 in St. Michael, Barbados, Vanburn-better known as Van-made his First Class debut for Barbados as a 21-year old. His first Test for the West Indies-against England at old Trafford, Manchester-was just two years later, in 1969. The Barbadian medium pacer had an average debut-taking only one wicket as the West Indies lost by 10 wickets.

Holder's best Test haul in a match was 8/223 against Australia at Adelaide, where the Caribbean team lost by 190 runs. It was against the Aussies in Port of Spain that Holder produced a match-winning effort while taking career-best innings figures. He scalped 7 Aussie wickets for 44 runs to help the Windies to a 198-run win. In 40 Tests, and bowling in 72 innings, the Barbadian took 109 wickets at an average of 33.27. His strike rate of 83.4 suggests that he was more of a stock bowler than a penetrative strike bowler. Vanburn took more than five wickets in an innings on three occasions.

With the bat, Holder was handy but not spectacular. Like his bowling, his batting was composed, but he never scored a half-century in Tests. His best effort of 42 came against New Zealand at Port of Spain in 1972. Batting in 59 innings, "Van" managed 682 runs at an average of 14.20. In addition to his 40 Tests, the medium pacer played 12 ODIs, including the West Indies' inaugural one-day international in 1973. Holder played in the Caribbean's winning 1975 World Cup team. From his 12 ODIs, he reaped 19 wickets at an average of 23.89 and an economy rate of exactly 4.00 runs per over.

For the West Indies, Barbados, Orange Free State (South Africa) and Worcestershire, Holder played 313 First Class games. He scored 3593 runs at 12.97, with a best of 12 for Barbados. In the bowling column, his medium pace bowling brought him 950 wickets at 34.52, with a best innings analysis of 7/40. After his playing days ended in 1986, Vanburn Holder become involved in officiating and later became a First Class umpire.

And now you can read brief profiles of some of the best spinners and fast bowlers that the game of cricket has ever seen:

The best spin bowlers in cricket history: http://www.helium.com/items/1516046-best-spin-bowlers-in-cricket

The top 5 fast bowlers in cricket history: http://www.helium.com/items/1518569-top-fast-bowlers-in-cricket-history

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Pressure tactics on Sachin didn't work: Strauss

England batsman Andrew Strauss talks about his superb form and the partnership he shared with Paul Collingwood in the first Test match against India at MAC stadium in Chennai.



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I want to win World Cup for India: Sachin

Sachin Tendulkar at the press conference after unveiling his wax figure from Madame Tussauds in Mumbai.



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Cricket World® TV Live From - Tendulkar 200, India Win Series

Cricket TV - Alastair Symondson and John Pennington look back at the second One-Day International between India and South Africa, dominated by a double-century by Sachin Tendulkar. They also hear from Chetan Narula in India as he describes the scenes after the record-breaking run was scored.



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1of4 Tendulkar-Making of a legend

Clips of Tendulkar with his contemporaries' opinions of him.



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Cricket Records Help in Creating a Cricketing Idol for Cricket Enthusiasts

Cricket is game involving passion and the sentiments among the fans run high whenever a match is in progress. Every match presents an opportunity for new cricket records to be created on the field and a player and his supporters are always expectant about some such opportunity that may arise. Every team has some key players that have established themselves as the world cricket records holder and occupy a special place in the heart of cricket enthusiasts. The records not only give the players a morale boost and a tremendous sense of achievement, but they also form the basis of perception regarding the player. Selectors base their judgment of player performance on the basis of the existing records by a certain cricketer.

Some of the world renowned cricketers who are held in great respect the cricketing world are Sachin Tendulkar from India who holds the cricket records for the maximum centuries scored in both one day matches and test matches and the highest number of runs in one day matches. While Shane Warne holds the cricket records for highest number of wickets taken in test matches and there are many others who have created a mark through records in their own field of expertise. However cricket records can be a very temporary situation as every record holder knows that sooner or later some other cricketer will come along and break the previous records. Although nothing can take away the credit of being the first player to achieve a new goal and later records just go on to enhance the passion of the game.

Cricket records also have a major influence in the way the fans perceive a particular cricketer. It also adds to the overall image and impression that the player creates of himself and many advertisers want to cash in on this achievement. A player who has recently created any cricket records is sure to be in the limelight for a long time to come and hence it makes perfect sense for the advertiser or marketer to use the player as a brand ambassador for the product or service. The logic behind it is simple, if a player who is a world cricket record holder for the maximum runs tells you that a particular credit card is the best source of financial power and you should go get it, chances are that his fans will actually go and get it. It creates a winning situation for the advertiser as his sales shoot up due to the brand value of the cricketer.

Even if a person is not much interested in cricket it is often seen that he or she would still know about particular cricketers who hold cricket records. This highlights the fact that a record makes a cricketer famous among the masses irrespective of the fact whether or not they like the game. Hence a cricketer has much to gain if he plays exceptionally well and manages to contribute to the creation of cricket records that is a matter of pride not only for the player but for his team and nation itself.

Ella Wilson is a cricket fanatic. She simply loves the game and tries to catch live action no matter where she is. At Stickiewicket she works on Online cricket score, live cricket score, world cup live score and live cricket match among other things. You can see her works at http://www.stickiewicket.com

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Indian Premier League 2010 - Most Expensive Players

While the IPL 2010 auction only produced two bids in excess of the player cap of US $750,000, the IPL franchises already had a bevy of expensive cricketers. West Indies all rounder Kieron Pollard and New Zealand pace bowler Shane Bond were the only two additions to the list of well-paid players on the IPL books. The auctions for the previous editions fetched higher prices because no cap was implemented then. Therefore, we do not have a good idea of how expensive Pollard and Bond really are. However, we can still identify the most expensive players in the league.

In the first two editions of the Indian Premier League, five players had icon status. This status allowed them to be compensated 15% more than the highest played player in their team. Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly were the five designated players. Although the icon concept would not be used in 2010, it is very safe to say that these players are among the most expensive in the league.

Andrew Flintoff (England), Kevin Pietersen (England), Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Andrew Symonds (Australia) are the millionaires in IPL 2010. In 2008, Dhoni fetched a price of US $1,550,000.00, while Symonds cost $1,350,000.00. In the 2009 auction, Flintoff and Pietersen became the most expensive IPL players, as they each fetched $1,550,000.00. Given that the silent bids for Kieron Pollard and Shane Bond in 2010 were unknown, Pietersen and Flintoff remain the most expensive IPL players.

Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka ($975,000), Irfan Pathan ($925,000), Brett Lee ($900,000) of Australia, Jacques Kallis ($900,000)of South Africa and Ishant Sharma ($950,000) are the players in the $900,000 - $1,000,000 bracket. Considering the profile of players like Kallis and Lee, the franchises got a bargain in the process. Ishant Sharma might not be as celebrated a player as Kallis, but he fetched a higher amount from the bidding process.

Other players who have substantial contracts in the IPL are:

RP Singh ($875,000)

Harbhajan Singh ($850,000)

Robin Uthappa ($800,000)

Chris Gayle, West Indies ($800,000)

Kieron Pollard, West Indies ($750,000 + silent bid balance)

Shane Bond, New Zealand ($750,000 + silent bid balance)

Rohit Sharma (750,000)

Many other players earned contracts beyond their initial or base price in their respective IPL auctions. This article highlighted those with contracts worth a minimum of $750,000.00. Rumour has it that Kieron Pollard's contract cost Mumbai Indians in excess of US $1,000,000.00. Given that he had four franchises bidding for his services in 2010, it is quite likely that the tall six-hitter is much closer to the top of the list than his $750,000.00 suggests.

Andre V is a freelance writer from the Caribbean. He is also a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Referees Association and an avid cricket fan.

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