Scoreboard
Hossain showed the famed Lillee temper right in his second or third over...soon after Trott cover drove him for four a couple of balls after Shahadat had consumed Cook. From mid-pitch he displayed all his feathers just like the competitive cockerel Lillee used to imitate. Trott fliched only for a mere fraction and then went on to rule.
That said, a day after commentators and bloggers had suggested Bangla should have a line-up of only spinners and sniggered at the Lillee version on display, Hossain took five and put his name up on the Lord's board for all time to come.
I think he proved a point when England was looking well on its way to 1500-5 declared by bundling them out to just over 500...505 in fact. In the bargain he recorded figures of 5-98 off 28 combative overs.
Over to Tamim Iqbal and Kayes to set the Englishmen off on a leather hunt.
Friday, 28 May 2010
BanglaLillee Shahadat truncates England's Innings
The bowling sucks Cheeka
I was planning an article on how India's ascent in cricket coincided with a brief glorious period of all-weather bowling attack it possessed, but I have been preempted by my laziness and the Zimbo-India ODI.
Maybe later, for the heat still bugs me even though the breeze was cooler today and carried the scent of faraway rain. Monsoons aren't very far, so I'll wait.
Led by Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, a hungry Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, supplemented by Sreesanth and Munaf - India's bowling attack could bamboozle the best at one time. Take a look at this.
They complemented an equally hungry, lean and mean bunch of talented young batsmen like MSD, Yuvraj Singh and others, guided by the seniors.
Today the cupboard's bare and barren. There aren't anymore quality bowlers in the domestic cricket godown.
Then, the Indian bowling philosophy also appears to be totally screwed up. Part time spinners who just roll their fingers across are the prime bowlers for India! It is a philosophy because it is a consistent line through IPL, ICCT20 WC and now. Hopefully this is just testing out strategies and sorting thorugh those which work and which do not.
Then, these bowlers also no longer appear to have the competitive fire...edge...to their bowling which they initially had. It was with their limited talent that they made their present. No longer now.
I am not sure if BCCI is at all taken up with cricket and Indian cricket right now - what with Howard and Modi looming large on the ruling clique.
Zimbabwe have played magnificiently - at the time of typing this post they are on course to win this encounter with 43 needed off 33 balls. If they do win, as I imagine they will, Zimbos will put Indian cricketers, selectors and the various philosophies at play in proper perspective. From NCA to BCCI, things aren't working well.
India's ride to World Cup 2011 sure is proving to be an interesting one. I really like to see how India plans to win stuff with this combination of bowling philosophy, committment, enthusiasm and skill.
Scorecard
Quit Smoking, Quit Tobacco Today : WHO World No Tobacco Day
I had that vice too till deteriorating health and my son's urgings finally sparked off enlightenment four years ago. I quit...just like that...no cravings afterwards, no struggle, no nothing.
I used to top off a 24-hour day with as many sticks as I could pack in, and for considerable number of years. I went through all th stages of justification, which changed with my age and social situation, and many many failed attempts to quit it. I don't know how and why the pendulum swung my way, but when I quit finally it was the most painless and easy decision to take. Four years on and I have no craving for it.
Then I realized, we make gods out of vices in our minds. There's nothing more to them than what they snatch away from us. Give it up, quit smoking, quit tobacco.
It's not worth a single puff for any reason.
WHO World No Tobacco Day
May 31st, 2010.
Take a look at this tragedy. Read More......
Balle Balle Bhajji !
“It was sad to hear Zimbabwe didn’t have sponsors to fund even the basic equipment for the sport,” he told the Mumbai Mirror. “But I was shocked to find the kind of cricket gear they were using in the West Indies. Some of their top-order batsmen carried the type of bats usually used in school cricket. I couldn’t believe it and asked how they were playing with such kit in a tournament as big as the World Cup.“When I saw those school bats I realised how lucky we Indians were. I remembered my under-16 days in Jalandhar. All I had was a pair of Ace shoes in my bag. That was the world for me. It was only when I enrolled myself in the Punjab academy that I got a proper cricket gear.
“On return, I spoke with some of my friends,” he explained. “I was keen they have the right shoes, the right bats required at the highest level. Reebok volunteered to help and so did KG Sports. I also approached a friend of mine who works with ANM Sports. These three firms have been extremely supportive. I think the kits have already reached Zimbabwe by now.”
Kudos to the fiesty Sardar with a large heart. Well done Sir! Read More......
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
The Marrow's Bubbling
and popping through cooked skin. Air conditioning is a misnomer. The brain box, also called the cranium, is like a toaster someone has forgotten to switch off. The two lobes insides are terribly charred.
The game shall recommence after monsoon forces the sun to relent.
46 degrees and it's just May. What will June be like?
Sunday, 16 May 2010
When headlines can be dozen a penny tonight
Picture a scene.
The church clock strikes the third quarter.
THE DAUGHTER [in the space between the central pillars, close to the one on her left] I'm chilled to the bone. What can Freddy be doing all this time? He's been gone more than twenty overs.
THE MOTHER [on her daughter's right] Not so long. But he ought to have got us a cup by this.
A BYSTANDER [on the lady's right] He won't get no cup not until nine, missus, when they come to play after dropping their theatre faces.
THE MOTHER. But we must have a cup. We can't stand here until nine. It's too bad.
THE BYSTANDER. Well, it's not my fault, missus.
THE DAUGHTER. If Freddy had a bit of grumption, he would have got one at the inaugural. Or Beefy too, for that matter.
THE MOTHER. What could he have done, poor boy? Or they, poor men?
THE DAUGHTER. Other people got cups. Why couldn't he? Why couldn't they?
Indeed we ask, "Why couldn't they?"
Perhaps it took this long for England to shed the shame associated with competing for any other cricket trophy. Its old flame, Ashes, lay as a mere pinch of soot in an urn. Perhaps England felt guilty to look beyond and consort with another trophy. Perhaps it required Kieswetter and Pietersen instead of Botham and Flintoff to entice England to a new love.
Perhaps it required the ambidexterousness of ex-Zimbo, Andy Flower, to sweep England's mask away, behind which it hid so long for fear of shame and comment from its past, and wear instead, an unafraid boldness to go out and seek new life - an as yet unexperienced glory beyond the pinchful of soot it forfeited the rest of its present and future to. Perhaps there is something about the jungles of Africa after all - it must provide a wider picture of life and sport. Flower must be a Higgins, stepped out of the pages to rescue English cricket from its hackneyed accent.
Be that as it may, the experience of watching a team win a maiden world title, and its aftermath among its supporters, is always an enjoyable one.
If England cricket ever needed a stimulus, this is the one.
Here, we did feel England had the perfect team balance this time and the correct attitude to go far. They did go all the way. England doing it right...
What must have also eased any nerves in the final could be the presence of familiar rivals with whom England has long competed for the attention of the burnt and urned one. No farriner teams, thankfully, that could spin tricky webs unexpectedly.
Well played England! Congratulations! And welcome to the real world of world winners!
I also tip them to do well in the 50-50 WC 2011. Swann is an unimaginable asset to the England team.
And, meanwhile, the great playwright's flower girl might have been giving red roses away today to all and sundry.
Scorecard: Finals: ICC World Twenty20 2010: England b Australia Read More......
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Sachin’s Crusade against Cancer in Children
In his own words
Anjali and I are committed to help children suffering with cancer in their treatment. We have joined hands with Dr. Jagannath for a fund raising effort to create a corpus for ‘Sachin’s Crusade against Cancer in Children’.
We need your support for this noble cause. We invite you to an exclusive charity dinner on 27th May at Mumbai and have an opportunity to meet us personally.
Cancer in India is a tragedy for those in whose family it happens. Centres for treatment are few and is expensive and are overcrowded. Research naturally is pushed to the backshelves. In this scenario, any help is great help, and if leading lights like Sachin Tendulkar step forward to generate resources, maybe it will make a difference in the long run to a significant number of people.
Sachin invites you to join him in generating funds for a cause at India Cancer.org
We are spreading his Twittered word around. You could too.
Read More......
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Viswanathan Anand is Champion Again!
He won the 12th and final game of the match playing blacks to Topalov's white.
30. e4 f5 31. exf5 e4 were the crucial moves. If Topalov erred with exf5, Anand's masterstroke was e4. But before all this, a prescient move from Vishy was keeping his Bishop at a8. That anchored his attack...again across the board after throwing the red herring on the other flank.
Details tomorrow please...too tired, have to crash.
Congratulations Vishy Anand!
Past masters of thrill are at it once again
India have a knack of achieving the zenith or nadir when least expected to do so. Running contrary is a specialization for them. Today, as Achettup of SOAL tells us, India are in a situation to reenact such a thrill.
I have also seen another aspect of India - they are also masters of illusionary tricks - no wonder India churns out so many movies and they are all consumed to various extent. It is also possible that the Indian team can exercise a third option to what Ache suggests - play a blazing match against Lanka, get that RR up as suggested by Cricinfo, and then find upon waiting on the other match that Australia have surrendered to their gracious hosts - the West Indies. All perfectly capable and a situation that has happened before.
The spin off of the third scenario is our Blueboys can come skipping back home like little Samsons claiming to be undone by blonde Delilahs.
Today, it is every man to himself as far as hopes and aspirations are concerned.
We execute our duty and wish India luck and sadbuddhi.
Scorecard : Match to commence at 10.30 pm IST tonight.
Other match from which Delilahs to our little Samsons could emerge, four houts later. - Australia v West Indies
Monday, 10 May 2010
Stressed Indian Potatoes
Can please unwind at Som's Doosra.
All are invited to the Naamkaran ceremony underway there.
Please don't forget to bring your wits along - that's the dress code you see.
What Is A Sportsman's Greatest Sin?
A day after India were knocked down bad, one has had the time and opportunity to come to terms with a spectator's sin - of being sucked too deeply into supporting one's team rather than enjoying the game with just an pinch of support - which is actually curious for our initial instincts about the team's likely performance and outcomes were proven correct after all. Somehow watching sport has this ability to firmly draw the spectator in like quicksand unless the spectator has that strong mental discipline to be alert to, and avoid the trap.
Disappointment quite often leads to blame and disrespect, and perhaps we might have been so to the sportsmen in question in ours. The criticism however remains true - it might hurt but that is unavoidable. I felt the need to record my thoughts in a marginally saner state before scampering off to a minor break from the game.
The common mistake people make in reacting to criticism after such inept all round performances is to call the criticism itself reactionary. To an extent that may be true but to a large extent that is also the defence employed by players and people disinclined to acknowledge and make the necessary changes within their game and attitude towards it.
Winning and losing a game are simply two sides of the coin. Everybody knows that, and many sportspersons and commentators from around the world have frequently dwelled on this theme. It is the extention of this theme, which incidentally is also a well discussed one, is what keeps sports sports rather than merely a toss of a coin or uncontrollable fate. The manner in which the game was played holds the key.
That is something a spectator senses...you just know it when you see it...the quality of effort put into a game by players, and as sensed by those who watch and support their game, is usually the sum of many things. From their language before the game to body language on the field to actual play and strategy - it is a mix of all these which conveys impressions of a team's committment. It is easy to spot a team whose efforts have been bettered by another and one who failed to compete to the best of their abilities....for whatever reason or reasons. It is difficult to put a finger on such a thing, but you can simply sense it.
Poor concentration and lack of committment can manifest themselves in various ways. From the absence of routines, through poor planning, slack training to actual play, in which errors are repetitive - the absence of anyone putting his hand up consistently to step out beyond their individual comfort zones for the sake of the team is usually well expressed and noticed by those who watch.
A misshapen body, a duck waddle on the field, responding to a call a fraction late, moving to catch similarly, the inertia of leadership when things are not going according to plan (if there was one in place), the casual...almost disconsolate gifting away of existing talent through a mute application of it...they all so easily come together to suggest the state of a team mind. One might have easily recognized the same in teams at your respective workplaces/work situations too.
Fielding is one area which reveals team characteristics more than other skills. Efforts on the field necessarily have a degree of anonymity unlike batting and bowling. Nowhere in the scorebook is it ever recorded that you slid and stopped a boundary and therefore cut off that crucial run which was the difference between a win and loss. Catches may be recorded by name, and even run-outs these days - which actually should be an incentive like batting and bowling. Coming back to the point, the relative "anonymity" of fielding efforts makes it a great tool to guage the overall team committment and attitude and that of it components. You can tell if a team is keen for a fight and game for competition from their collective efforts on the field.
A player's contribution to fielding is usually selfless for there may not be individual glory recorded in the books. What he does to promote this contribution of his to the team's cause always reveals more than all talk of any kind. How a player maintains his physical fitness tells without uttering a word how he sees himself, his chosen profession and his role in the team. It speaks volumes about his mental fitness too - How hungry is he? How determined is he about his chosen career? Does he retain the desire for more achievements? How he participates and follows his training sessions - private or group - reveals similarly. Fat bodies, lethargic moves and consistent failure to correct one's errors over time peg the levels of committment - individual and team - for all to see. No amount of aggressive mofoing abreactions in press from players or those concerned with training will erase what they are displaying through their bodies...through their selves.
A training session - when you suggest "a training session" to members of your team at your workplace, what does it usually mean to you and them? Why do you organize them in the first place? Obviously you want that your team learns new skills or repolishes existing skills frayed with time and by constant use, for their and your organisation's benefit....your team's benefit in a nutshell. You may wish to refresh concepts which may have been forgotten or distorted with time. Therefore you design them in such a way that the "training session/course" fulfills these purposes and equips/re-equips your team members with a greater fitness, abilities, creative and survival potential.
Continuing with the same thought process as above - What would be the reason your team members opt for training sessions/course or refute them? Like injury in sports, there could be valid reasons why someone may opt out of your training session at work. There could be shirkers. There could be people who are mentally in such a state that they are incapable of visualizing the benefits of the session. A mutinous mood could also be a reason for lack of interest. Each one of these, I am sure readers will understand, have to be tackled in different ways. Sometimes, you may even have to drop team members who cannot respond despite the employ of different strategies to help them.
Then what about those who opt for participation in your proposed "training sesion"? Are the reasons of all team members who have opted for participation the same? Do they match the reasons you had in mind while designing the "trraining session?"
You may find many team members opting to participate because they see no option but to participate...perhaps fearing an adverse impression upon their jobs and performance. They do so because they feel they have to participate instead of desiring to. Maybe some Indian team members feel likewise. You may find some team members opting to participate in the "training session" because it offers a "change" from the usual. This cuts both ways - it can actually refresh a team member or a team member may treat the crucial session as a paid holiday of sorts while remaining on the right side of management. Practice sessions can be very much like this. There may be some who are merely participating to please you...their boss...because it is your idea perhaps.
Then there are those who can see the value you are trying to impart/share. They can see the good improvement which can happen to the team through their participation and learning from the training session. Such will see the usefulness of the same to themselves too and their progress towards common and individual goals. They recognize the symbiotic value between a team and individual's ability levels, committment, and contribution. Sharpening them all is obviously of value to both team and self, for such eyes.
What I want to know is how many of Indian team players belong to the last category?
What about the "training session" itself?
Is it designed well? Will the "training session" fire up the participants in such a way that they come out feeling they have gained something? That they actually feel the improvements to their game, their attitude, their committment? Is it conducted in such a manner so as to maximize individual and group improvement? Are sufficient remedial measures taken to ensure the "training session" isn't derailed from its team and individual goals? Are there built-in mechanisms to draw team members out of cynicism and fixed mindsets and to deal with recalcitrant participants who do not respond to any measure? Can you drop team members who simply are resistant to improvements and common purpose? Irrespective of how their individual skills otherwise were crucial in your set up? Will you look around for someone who can match those skills but show greater committment and initiative to take himself and the team forward?
Are the routines you include in your "training session" predictable and mere lip-service? Or are they recreating intensities and challenges you may actually be required to face and respond to?
I mentioned Dhoni's yadda yadda in a previous article where he speaks confusingly about training sessions and lack of improvements in player techniques over periods of time. I wonder if he and his team members were particpitating in the training session with the correct focus...a real purpose? I also wonder if the training sessions were designed and implemented as we described above. Did players walk away from training sessions feeling they had learnt something...added a new string to their bow to use whenever a similar intensity or situation faces them again? From Dhoni's yadda, one inference could be no.
Observing the repetition of old mistakes and complete failure of improvements in some aspcets makes one wonder what is the focus of players, their goals, the team focus and goals and of those who run the show. In fact there is erosion of skills - you find players who are committed, enthusiastic, hungry and are keen in the field, terribly blunted. And not because age or has eroded them. If injuries are the cause then a call has to be made as to how long a team is willing to trade one for the other and should it not look to a newer package.
Committment to a team cause is also evident in the kind of team you choose to build. What kind of personnel you wish to retain and whom to drop. It is reflected in the kind of strategies you devise to take the team forwards and how you respond to the feedback which you get from their implemenation. Strategies are shaped around persons in the team, or teams may be shaped around strategies - as long as there is coherence, sincerity and a finely tuned system sensitive to monitoring outcomes and feedback from implementation - either may work. But goals are usually non-negotiable. No matter what method you choose, you expect, while implementing it, 100% committment in that chosen strategy from the team members. You prepare them accordingly...you select them accordingly...you train them to such a purpose...you maintain the overall mental and phsyical and moral health of the team best suited to those goals. Goals can expand and grow, teams will have to follow. Preparation will have to follow and support the growth.
I'm sure we'll hear all of this is done. We'll have no option but to take their word for it...that "All Izz Well". Improvements do not happen simply by wishing, and then one must wonder again from that "All Izz Well" response, what Dhoni's comments about technique, practice, situations and improvements and try and figure out exactly mean...What is it that he is actually saying?
Winning and losing are part of the game. How you win and lose are what we devoted ourselves to. Large totals can have two outcomes in a chase - we could witness a grand assault, or we could see a crumbling defeat.
The grand assault on a large total may result in a victory spoken for long or may end up equally as a memorable tragedy. Whichever of the two is the outcome, we will know when we see such that the better team prevailed after a battle. That teams which may have made mistakes initially, rose up to the challenge to correct those immediately in their innings.
Perhaps more commonly, in the context we are speaking, we may see neither, and in fact may end up seeing an abject crumbling without any devotion to purpose or desire to compete...make amends for earlier errors in a match...the hunger to win.
What is it that creates these differing situations?
I have read it written that there is no mental factor in the game. There is nothing called 'mental discipline'. That it is only a question of things coming off or not coming off.
Things don't come off on their own...not even clothes come off on their own unless there is something wrong with their construction or the structure of one wearing them. You have to make them come off usually...so in the game we are talking about. Winning doesn't usually happen by chance. Shots also do not happen by chance but because the mind is clearer at that time and in an instant has factored in all the rapidly changing variables and executed the shot. The role of discipline is to establish such routines which maximise such situations by decreasing the amount of energy expended by us in executing them. Whether it is physical routines or mental routines, a system in placehelps you deal with quickly evolving situations with alacrity. Mental discipline also helps clear the cache quicker and more effectively than without.
Therefore, the role of mental discipline in cricket is not yadda yadda yadda.
You may lose despite all the above but therein is the crux of what we began with - you can see effort and also the lack of effort. We tried to peek behind the curtains to see how it ticks.
It might be educative to look at careers like Anil Kumble's, Warne's, McGrath's, Sachin Tendulkar's, Ricky Ponting's, Rahul Dravid's, Jaques Kallis', Steve Waugh's, Hayden's, Lara's, Chanderpaul's...to understand what discipline is. What is the aim of training? What is preparation? What mental and physical discipline is? These are just a few examples. Some of these were/are prodigiously gifted others less so, but each one of them made best use of having mental and physical routines and discipline to maximise their outcomes. Not just going through the motions, but instilling even their practice with such an intensity and purpose so as to help recreate situations they might face on the field. They worked to bring in new aspects to their game or restrict those which were less useful. Through their contributions, they tried to maximize their team's hances of winning or survival.
I have deliberately restricted myself to recent players/active players in other formats so that there is a greater similarity of influencing factors which might be operating upon current players.
I must stop at this point and relieve you of the stress of reading through a long article with this quote from Steve Waugh extracted from his book - Out Of My Comfort Zone
We were soft, and I was ordinary, going down without a fight - a sportsman's greatest sin.
I wonder how many Indian players even reflect upon their game thus with a view to improve and achieve and be fit and consistent? There is more to winning and losing a battle than mere toss of chance.
Sunny Gavaskar said the same thing the other day and on countless occasions before. It's how you win or lose which characterizes sports - mere winning and losing is too common in sports to remain in memory.
♦ ♦ ♦
Now I'll duck back into my mouna vratā on cricket blogging for a few days.
But before I do that let me slip in a final word - IPL before an ICC event is not working for India while it may be working as great practice for others. The differences may be in player attitudes which we have discussed above.
Read More......
Sunday, 9 May 2010
We'll take a short break at this point
Thank you all who read and follow this blog.
We'll take a bit of a break here.
Cricket needs to be mothballed for a while.
We'll be back soon.
Thanks once again
Plenty of yadda yadda yadda
In this Cricinfo article. Lovely part, chief lala makes it sound all so sophisticatedly cute.
Sample this
"The IPL is a very different from international cricket. You have four foreigners and don't have always the best bowling attack, you have to keep your side balanced," Dhoni said. "Most of the sides have maybe one bowler who bowls really good, really quick, but apart from that you try to target the weak links.
"But in international cricket most of the sides have got at least three bowlers, you can maybe target one or at the most two [bowlers]. I think the IPL is very different, it would be unfair to compare the IPL to international cricket. We are on the losing side and that's the fact right now."
I didn't hear Mahela J say the same. Neither did I hear Gayle or Bravo complain. Nor did I hear a whisper from Kallis and Boucher. And did we hear any murmur from Collingwood?
There's more in that article from Dhoni...one wishes he'd just congratulate the opposition, admit his team played poorly and shut the f up and come back. The more he yaddas, the more he sounds sillier...like the contradictions further on in what he says.
What lack of experience against short stuff is he talking about? For the past three years they've been peppered with short stuff everywhere...if three years are not enough to pick up the ropes, you'll never will. And by the way, you all were playing the short stuff much better three years ago...hooking and pulling with panache. Forgotten the Australian and Pakistan ODI series?
If through this comment he's suggesting incorrect personnel were selected, then pray what was he doing as captain? Could he not convey his mind to the selectors effectively?
And the Qrap Qamaal Quote of it all is this
"We have prepared well," Dhoni insisted. "We knew they would use short-pitched deliveries, we practiced against short-pitched deliveries in the net sessions but until you don't face it in a game you are not match-aware of what is needed in that situation.
Then what was it that he spoke of earlier about lack of exposure? How do others manage the show? Do they practice stuff outside the nets? How did the same blues conquer the short stuff when they were winning?
Play well and lose, no regrets...play crazily then expect craziness.
Lala Dhoni ji, sometimes it is better to speak less. I'm sure you are familiar with that poster which has a quote about better to keep mouth shut than etc. etc.? Read More......
India hasten their rest
The senior players of this fatty side are slated to rest while some newbies go and play in Zimbabwe. Dhoni's men have just hastened the process by losing to West Indies and therefore a few more precious days of rest.
Today's match was an almost replay of the previous match except that West Indian bowling not being like Australian's, they allowed India to get closer.
Same fatty tactics, same fattier bowling and the same fattiest batting display.
Since there isn't anything different to add from our previous article, we'll wait for the spinmasters to work a way around little details.
The other day somebody said a few shots didn't come off, another one said, it has nothing to do with mental preparation or discipline....well for the second game on the trot something gave way in every aspect of India's game.
Over to the spinmeisters to tell us now, what that could be..
Our congratulations to the home team - Well played West Indies - the better team on the day!
Come home my defeathered peacocks and let's eat some aloo paranthas and ghee dripping saag...maybe some murge-shurge and daaru-vaaru. maybe we can have a chillum-shillum as well. Any kudi-vudi will go along just fine with all that, tadka maar ke. Phuck the team's interest, phuck the nation's interest, Phuck training with a purpose, Phuck putting yosself into yo performance...daz the bizness of soljus and baboos...not fi Raja Babas! Because if you were conscious of all that stuff, you'd have been responsible and moulded your body and mind and game and habits to be fighting fit.
Too much cricket is no excuse...most of these Indians warmed the dugouts in the IPL by being quickly out. Mahela J, all the Windian Mumbai Indians, the Ozzie players, the main English players...all have played more cricket in the recent past than my peculiarly coloured Indian brothers. While everybody's made good use of IPL in an all round manner, some of our chaps have made good use of it only in specific manner.
I am not surprised by the bumping-off for I did say in my preview that with India you take it one match at a time.
At least my Nike Blues will allow me to sleep properly instead of having to stay up to watch through the night. Unko kathaii fikar nahin hai, aur idhar ham paagal ho rahein hain un ke peeche! Let's have a paaarty yaar...don't take kirkit that seriously bro.
Maybe we can also postpone our discussion on the relative merit of having wickets in hand and not having wickets in hand for another day, my good friend H?
Hey, a thought just struck me...maybe our blue boyz were all moma sick for today IS Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day! Yeah...gwaan, mek us all proud you boyz.
Sunny bhai is too tired to pen the boys harder than this
Upon the Indian "performance" against Australia, Sunny's article in the print version of today's The Hindu (9th May, 2010) stops short of blasting the bowlers and fielders beyond a few cursory words. But he still tries with the batsmen and attempts to knock some sense into their young but sclerosed mindsets.You have to admit though that there is a certain weariness associated with his advice that jumps out of the article...as if he's written the same words too often to care anymore. I quote a small portion of Sunny bhai's sensible advice from that article
India were very disappointing in their game against Australia. It was not just the loss but the reckless approach of the batsmen that stung more. Winning and losing is part of the game, but when there is a wholehearted effort nobody minds it even if it is a big defeat.
Somehow one got the impression that India’s batsmen just did not want to face the music and looked for the easy way out with the excuse of a limited-overs format requiring attacking shots.
Even that argument would have been valid if the shots attempted were proper cricketing shots, but when batsmen attempt to slog fast bowlers on a hard bouncy pitch they are not fighting but committing suicide.
T20 does not allow for too many dot balls and batsmen have to be looking to score but even here common cricketing sense requires that the front line bowlers should be seen off and then go after the second line of attack.
Any slow run rate can be made up when the second string comes onto bowl but if wickets have been lost earlier then even the second stringers get away with good figures.
The bowlers get away with an even more tired slap on their wrists. And Sunny's stopped fretting about player fitness and unchangeables like that.
I recall him talking about his own fitness methods a while back when Greg Chappell was the ruling king in town, building a regiment of troops on the outskirts of India's cricketing centres - he admitted that he wasn't the most athletic or strongest fielder and could never be with his stature, so he concentrated upon being good where he best fit in on the field, concentrating on the requirements of his position. Maybe the Raja Babas of Indian cricket can take a clue from Sunny's experience after all.
[NOTE: I may be unable to provide you with a link because I just discovered that the two online versions of The Hindu are very different from their e-paper and print edition. The online versions - the familiar 90s style blue website and the natty new beta version...which are the free versions - do not appear to display syndicated columns such as Sunny bhai's PMG article. I learn something every day!]
On a related note, Pankaj Sharma of Straight Points is offering a detailed analysis in different posts on his website blog and at the Bored website, and as usual making well...straight points! Read More......
Saturday, 8 May 2010
England doing it right thus far
Scorecard - England b South Africa by 39 runs
From a bride being led up to the altar to exchange vows, to a bridesmaid who must wait in the pews - for England this has always been a simple matter of a short little hop, skip and jump executed with consumate ease before anyone could bat an eyelid. So, when they stay on course in an LOI tournament, it must be a huge leap of faith that's keeping them walking straight...to the altar.
We had anticipated a good performance from the Englishmen this year and said as much here and elsewhere. The portends were all there - the pressure of disappointment was rising. The frustration at constantly being the less endowed lassies who must, from the pews or outside, watch prettier brides walk up to the LOI altar, pick up their trophy and walk away as if it were as easy as walking into a supermarket, must have been terribly galling.
To supplement this frustration, there was enough covert "support" from the establishment to win anything LOI for it is now recognized beyond doubt, irrespective of traditions and heritage etc., that the path to better financial health and overall survival of the game must pass through a LOI path lined with glittering trophies. Perhaps expressed privately, this message must have been carried into the dressing room...most probably via Andy Flower and some of the Saffer imports who view the game a little differently than "normal". It must have come as a relief to the inmates of the English dressing room that they finally had official permission to go ahead and play Asian cricket (OK...if that grates, make it Ozzie cricket) and win a few trophies. We presume of course but the fact is the structure of England cricket has been trying to deal with everyone to boost their finances lately with a little LOI this and a little LOI that...and that must mean they feel the need to win something to remain relevant.
Then there are the players - the composition of the current English teams greatly dilutes adherence to mere legacy somewhat. It is inevitable that fresh ideas and ambitions must float into the stultifying staleness of a dressing room closed to progress. It is also inevitable that along with larger ambitions and greater enterprise in their heart and soul, players will also carry their innovations perfected in other schools of the game in their kitbags with them, without being too embarrassed to pull them out to employ in play. Especially when, they, of senses more acutely tuned to survival like that of pioneer migrants, see others chugging along merrily with the same things they could also do. It is almost impossible for legastructures to rein in a switch hit among those who have switched on the most private of places - the English dressing room.
In the opening article of this edition of T20 WC titled One's got to write about this too I guess - ICC World Twenty20 2010 , we had said
England, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies, Kiwis are front-runners. India too has a chance but better to take them match by match - if they cross the initial hurdles they'll go far...mostly they get stumped in West Indies at the start. If they have their engines primed up and ready, they too have a good enough chance
....
England and West Indies aren't to be underestimated. Both have the teams to go the distance and West Indies are at home too....so expect them to perform well. Both of them should, on paper and in circumstance.
England, we believed are getting into the LOI swing of things with all the necessary ingredients within and outside the cricket field. They must however guard against the compulsive tendency to lapse suddenly into being pucca Englishmen of tweeds and top hats. Better also to be a Sir Galahad and rule the hearts around the world than be merely satisfied being a Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe engaged in neighbourly battles across the pond with a Lord of Cricket they rarely can win.
In response to a Lawrence Booth article in Wisden Cricketer, one had commented
I’m sorely tempted to think the “woe is us” look is a good sign for England but expressed perhaps inappropriately. My theory is that that is born out disappointment because England not only expects but wants to do well in this tournament. Which is a major shift in its usual approach to anything LOI - they tended to wrap themselves in an air of unconcerned nonchalance in the past which in fact might have actually seeped into their efforts and short-circuited their chances in the past.
In this light, I like their showing concern….it appears they want to win badly an LOI tourney and are not afraid to show that unlike before.
The gist of the matter is England are playing fine LOI cricket at the moment and they can be upset by themselves and by those who know how to get them upset with themselves.
What stands out however is their relative "shamelessness" this time - normally a preserve of all other teams - of brazenly going after an LOI trophy. That is undeniable.
Glenn Turner, the Kiwi and Worcestershire batsman, while writing the Foreword for The making of New Zealand cricket, 1832-1914 By Greg Ryan in 2003, reflected thus upon the need for change in cricket with a view to the future - 'My approach to life generally - including cricket - has been to centre largely on matters of the moment and how they might affect what occurs in the future'. He tells us that reading Ryan's book 'is an important reminder of just how significant and instructive the past is to any of us planning for the future'. He then goes on to expand
As has often been said, those of
us who fail to heed the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. In
this regard, Ryan‘s book reminded me of when I was playing for the
Worcestershire County Cricket Club from the 1960s to the 1980s. In the
early 1970s, the then chairman of the club, Geoffrey Lampard, remarked
that ‘cricket is not a game, it is a culture’ - or words to that effect. Often,
in ensuing years, I have pondered that view and affirmed Lampard's
opinion. More than any other game l know, cricket reflects the trends and
values of the society of the day, which is one reason why some cricket
lovers are saddened by what they regard as an erosion of the ethical and
moral standards that they saw as underpinning the game and marking it out
as something special. Trying to stem the flow and, in some ways,
attempting to reverse it will always be much harder than simply giving up
and going along with the current impetus. ln this regard I think of' remarks
attributed to Mother Teresa: ‘What you spend years building, someone may
destroy ovemight; build anyway’.
I do not recall Mother Teresa having been dragged before into supporting an idea being espoused in cricket writing!
But the change in English establishment, even if it is for the express purpose of regaining some financial clout, or in their dressing room no longer tolerant of unaffected nonchalance in obeisance of a legastructure to which they may not completely relate to in their youthful playing days of today and immediate tomorrow, is evident.
They have cosciously built to this point a team they have tried and tested with fine tunings along the way. Mind you, theirs has been one of the steadiest changes with a fixed focus on winning something realistically. Australia is the other one. Whether they do win or not is a separate issue, but the desire is tangible.
On a different note about change in cricket, Glenn Turner tels that 'Ryan also shows that while colonial women often enjoyed a greater range
of opportunities and experiences than their counterparts in Britain they still operated largely within prescribed roles as wives, mothers and upholders of moral purity.'
He then recalls from his Worcestershire days and experiences
and festive atmosphere to sport, I couldn’t help but recall an incident in The
Shakespeare, a pub in Worcester, in 1973. I had just married Sukhi, an
Indian from the Punjab. She had little knowledge of cricket but wanted to
leam. She sat quietly and patiently while a small group of Worcestershire
cricketers discussed the game. ln an effort to join in she made a couple of
brief comments. This drew an immediate response from one of our players,
a Yorkshireman, who looked down his nose and, in a broad Yorkshire
accent, stated that ‘women knew nothing about the game ofcricket’ and that
‘they were at grounds to decorate the place, not talk about the bloody game'.
At that time, there were still no-go areas for women at cricket grounds in
Britain, but by 1976 my wife had gained sufficiently in confidence to com-
plain to the county cricket club's chairman. She said that she had just come
back from a visit to South Alrica where she had been discriminated against
because of her colour and now, in a so-called more civilised society. she
found discrimination on the grounds of her gender. The result of Sukhi’s
actions was that women at Worcester were allowed into areas previously oil'-
limits - the Member's Enclosure, for instance.
Sukhi Turner, or Dame Sukhinder "Sukhi" Kaur Gill Turner DNZM, in a more complete and formal manner of addressal, was the Mayor of Dunedin from 1955 until 2004. It was in this period when Dame Sukhi was 'Mayor of Dunedin' that she had the aforesaid brush with the unchanging cricket Legastructure in a Worcester pub of ailments and their liquid palliatives.
J. A. Mangan, Director, lnternational Research Centre for Sport. Socialization and Society, De Montfort University (Bedford), as a "Series Editor" writes in his Foreword to the same book about the Legastructure of English Cricket that resists change as a matter of instinct and philosophy
Cricket ‘... is still largely the province of the old imperial realms, which,
by the death of Queen Victoria, covered a quarter ofthe earth’s land surface
and a quarter of the world’s population'. There was a common supposi-
tion at that time that cricket demonstrated enviable English qualities, espe-
cially a sense of ‘fair p|ay'. lt was a supposition that more than hinted at a
crude Lamarckism: ‘via acquired characteristics, an aptitude to keep the
elbow up was inherited'. In fact, the English confidently proclaimed it!
Of course, the reality, even in the heyday of Victorian imperial self-con-
gratulatory confidence, was somewhat different. Cricket with other games
were initially a source of socialisation and considered a means of 'transforming' mid-Wctorian middle-class hooligans into heroes - of an imperial
stamp, supposedly firm of purpose, determined in adversity, calm in crisis
and compassionate in conquest.
Eric Midwinter got it right. There was no national gene-bank for the
capacity ‘to play a straight bat’, but there was a powerfull set of social imper-
atives that ensured its public demonstration on and off cricket fields
throughout the Empire!
The current social imperatives of England of the post-Stanford era limping along in the IPL era is to win an LOI trophy - T20 or ODI. Not only does it fail reason to claim supremacy when everbody but the originators of all formats are winning everything, the internal squabbles are getting testier. Only money and power can calm those fires of survival. Hence the green light for some accommodative change within the Legastructure of Cricket.
J. A. Mangan explores further the basis of that Legastructure
Nurture not nature was the source of a complacent period belief' in an
English ability to project collective decency on, and beyond, the cricket
pitch. Cricket inter alia as a form of social control to ensure the survival of
the English public school was the mid-Victorian instrument that the nurtur-
ists used to bring about this projected decency.
In short, the cricket field was as much a source of pragmatism as idealism
in England and Empire. Strenuous attempts were made in dominions and
colonies to clone culturally the inhabitants of these disparate places and pro-
duce white, brown and black ‘Englishmen‘, for the supposed benefit of all.
As has been remarked elsewhere, ‘there was more than wishful jocularity
in these lines by Norman Gale:
There will be a perfect planet
Only when the Game shall enter
Every country, teaching millions
How to ask for Leg or Centre.
Closely heed a level-headed
Sportsman far too grave to banter:
When the cricket bags arc opened
Doves of Peace Hy forth instanter!"
Many now mock this period Utopianism but it was well meaning; it had
some merit; it did some good.” Is cricket more decent in ambition in the
twenty-first century?
It is from such philosophies that are born biases against an uppercut played by a Sehwag and the like. That innovation is a clap of doom to Legastructre adherents. The ease with which former subjects are able to climb up the vines of LOI cricket to overall dominance is gravely threatening.
Mr. Mangan might have blunted his sharpness with those final lines, but England is seeking to blunt many things within and without by winning one LOI trophy.
Further, the effect of any winning effort and the possibility of England going the whole hog does something to English fans after all. I quote (without permission at the moment) the eruption of an English fan I like to follow, and who prefers, for some reason I cannot fathom, to call himself and his blog, Leg Side Filth
Tonight I expect I am going to be dreaming about KP's orgasmic knock. Yeah, it probably will be one of THOSE dreams
There is great power in winning, even if it is only in "Not Cricket" kind of T20 - Legastructures can be shaken to their deepest roots. Fans like it and that's good for their game.
A final word about change and its direction - the only way time can travel and we with it is forwards. It may not be possible to travel back in time to a Victorian cricket ground except in our imagination. Stephen Hawking has himself theorized against such a possibility of travelling backwards.
Paradoxes are fun to think about. The most famous one is usually called the Grandfather paradox. I have a new, simpler version I call the Mad Scientist paradox.
I don't like the way scientists in movies are often described as mad, but in this case, it's true. This chap is determined to create a paradox, even if it costs him his life. Imagine, somehow, he's built a wormhole, a time tunnel that stretches just one minute into the past.
Through the wormhole, the scientist can see himself as he was one minute ago. But what if our scientist uses the wormhole to shoot his earlier self? He's now dead. So who fired the shot? It's a paradox. It just doesn't make sense. It's the sort of situation that gives cosmologists nightmares.
This kind of time machine would violate a fundamental rule that governs the entire universe - that causes happen before effects, and never the other way around. I believe things can't make themselves impossible. If they could then there'd be nothing to stop the whole universe from descending into chaos. So I think something will always happen that prevents the paradox. Somehow there must be a reason why our scientist will never find himself in a situation where he could shoot himself. And in this case, I'm sorry to say, the wormhole itself is the problem.
--- MailOnline
Watch out for them! Bring on those who can firmly remind them of their heritage, culture and stimulate the Englishness within every natural and migrant's game! Psyche them back into the dark spaces of their Legastructure's philosophy.
That's one way to derail this English Juggernaut's progress...the other was is to keep playing better than they ever can.
- - -
The making of New Zealand cricket, 1832-1914 By Greg RyanPublished by Frank Cass (now Routledge I guess for the website address - www.frankcass.com - leads there)
Anyway, Routledge
Flipkart for Indian readers Read More......
Have BCCI become such suckers?
How can BCCI, for winning a minor battle within its house, step out and take the assistance of those who have axes to grind? There is evidence of many centuries of history that those whose help BCCI has sought/or took word of, to settle personal scores within the country, have always been perfect practitioners of 'divide and rule'. How can BCCI be blinded to this?
And, when BCCI themselves are fighting covert battles within their home, how could they be stupid enough to think that what they might have been told was not part of a similar power struggle in the house where the conveniently "useful news" came from? That too when their battle - Counties vs ECB - has been simmering in the news, albeit just below boiling over point?
Truly, I didn't think BCCI were this dumb. It is possible however that they are vicious enough to seek an outsider's help to settle a dispute at home. An outsider who is known to care little for India and whose part of psyche it is to divide and rule.
Amazing! It is said about Kaal or Time - "Vinasha kale viparita buddhi". Translated - When it is time for someone's destruction, his fate makes him behave irrationally, with disastrous consequences.
Sort out whatever mess (if there is) you have in your house with means from within. If you want to settle scores, prevail with your intrinsic powers from within. History stands testimony to what happens when help is taken from those who mean no good to you just so you can sttle scores with your brother.
If Modi is guilty, prove it solidly, incontrovertibly, indisputably etc. etc., and take action here. If he isn't, desist from this public chicanery...in fact, this showboating may allow him an exit even if really something is fishy indeed. Be just, and that's not what BCCI is behaving as at the moment. Somebody will certainly take advantage of this deathwish between members within the house and play both against one another.
If he isn't guilty, or is proven not to be so, stop the witch hunt then.
Bloody egos and all that...
Some references:
Guardian
Timesonline
Cricinfo
Telegraph
CNN-IBN have an informative segment on the topic going on today - I'm afraid you'll have to locate the video yourselves in the news section.
Friday, 7 May 2010
The Fat Is Frying
Australia lost the toss, accepted yet another invitation to bat by an Indian captain and then went on to light a bushfire under the chunks of fatty strategy, fattier bowling and fielding and fattiest headed batting dumped before them. They had an Indian barbecue out in the Caribbeaaans.
Anybody can have a bad day, a bad match, so we will not berate the Indian team on that count, but some people repeat mistakes and that calls for dishonorable mention.
Indian captains exhibit the strangest behaviour ever known when they are confronted with Australia and a won toss in a crucial encounter in a tournament or ICC tournament - they, almost predictably, opt to field first! It doesn't matter who the captain is - Azza, Ganguly or Dhoni - they exhibit the same unlearning behaviour.
Zak is another common factor - his track record in LOIs, especially significant LOIs against Ozzies in ICC tournaments, is something he'll have to live with. It is on the strength of two factors that he is in the Indian team for LOIs - recent form in tests and complete failure of other young Indian pace bowlers. Otherwise, you can go ahead and even place a winning wager upon Zak being taken to the cleaners in such situations. It is a fact of life just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Fielding is not the work of Raja Sahebs - like the Kashmirs and Patialas of of cricketing folklore, so do current Hummer-friendly Indian commoners field.
The beauty of it all is that after all the fumbles on the field, they then actually come out to bat when they are totally defeated in their minds. Better to concede the match in appreciation of a fine roasting. The lalas waddle out and waddle back - it is so predictable.
When was the last time we saw a stirring fightback from India in LOI situations? OK, Raina's innings against Saffers, some may point out, but I'm talking of greater pressure than that. Who among these lads featured in those fightbacks? When did we last see a bowling and fielding fightback from Indians?
It was amusing to see the fat jiggle and wiggle the blue uniforms throughout the duration of the match. Sports never reflected more a certain amateurishness in approach that Indians are revealing.
India can still go ahead and make the semis and probably win it all - they have the talent, but they are in a typical Rocky situation right now. And like Rocky, they have to develop a fighting fit temperament and performance pronto to make use of that talent...if by mere wishing it were possible!
Otherwise, the aroma/stench pervading the Caribbean air in the stadia from the grills will be of roasted Indian fat.
Well played Australia...Kudos Dave Warner!
Oh yeah, with the pressure off and no real chance of winning, Rohit played an innings which makes us go easy on him. It is up to him to keep up his good form when there is a chance to win as well.
Scorecard
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Slam dunking in cricket to be voted upon by MCC
Some more rules are going to change in cricket shortly - MCC to vote on rule changes. No no...this is not a continuing post on what is REAL cricket or which version etc we had raised in a rhetorical post yesterday, but this is about some necessary changes or solidification of laws which are vague at the moment.
Three main things are under consideration as the article says. Our interest is keener on the slam-dunk phenomenon of taking a catch on the boundary which has gripped cricketers. Let me quote the relevant portion from the article
In view of the increasing frequency of athletic saves on the boundary, the MCC has created a law to clarify when the ball is beyond the boundary. The Laws sub-committee felt "it would be wrong to allow a fielder, seeing a ball flying over his head and over the boundary, to retreat beyond the boundary and then to jump up and parry the ball back towards the field of play." The change will require the fielder's first contact with the ball is when he is grounded within the boundary or, if he is in the air, his final contact with the ground before touching the ball was inside the boundary.
Regular readers of this journal would recall our suspicion that following Angelo Mathews' attempt a year ago, many more would imitate, and then the thin line between fair play and unfair play, as inferred from existing unclear laws, would be blurred. We had raised a question on the existing MCC laws in this regard....here is our article from last year which explored this conundrum - Slam Dunking Out A Six In Future?. It might pay to read this linked article first to develop a background.
There is one more article as a follow up to it with a discussion - Thanks Soups for drawing attention to this aspect of Cricket Laws - where Soups, a careful reader immediately recalled to us the article from a situation he observed. Of course slam-dunking has now gone on to become a photogenic addition to cricket, but the shortcomings we found on examination of laws of the game...the lack of clarity and reliance on deduction from different laws and sub-sections left a question mark lingering over this mechanism of fielding and its possible elaboration and expansion by captains and fielders in the future.
We are happy this aspect will be voted upon.
Cricinfo adds an explanation further down its article, in which they tell us a new law is likely to be framed to address this Slam-Dunking phenomenon.
A new 9.4 has been created to clarify further when the ball is beyond the boundary. In recent years, increasingly athletic pieces of fielding on the boundary have brought this area of the law into the spotlight. The laws sub-committee felt that it would be wrong to allow a fielder, seeing a ball flying over his head and over the boundary, to retreat beyond the boundary and then to jump up and parry the ball back towards the field of play. Consequently, law 19.4(i) requires that the fielder's first contact with the ball must be when some part of his person is grounded within the boundary or, if he is airborne, that his final contact with the ground before touching the ball was within the boundary.
[ Label = Fielding Laws ]
On a related note, regarding Fielding Laws in cricket, I am not sure what the fate of that point which the venerable Kartikeya Date of A Cricketing View, wrote to MCC was. The last I read was that MCC had replied to him that there was substance in his observations and they'd bring them up in their sub-committee meeting.
To refresh reader's memories -
1) Kartikeya Date Picks Up an Important Point
2) Kartikeya Date establishes an Important Point
I must check up to see how that conundrum was dealt with. Read More......
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Game 8: Anand pays for stalling his matchplay
In the past three games, one thing was obvious - the player making the greater innovations, albeit tentative clumsy and half-baked, was Topalov and not Anand. Topalov was innovating in brianching off to new moves while Anand stopped doing so by game 5. Game 6 and 7, even if draws, showed Anand to have regressed in attitude from the initial 3-4 games of this match.
We had feared, in one of our articles, he appears to like to sit on his lead for the remainder of this match instead of staying open to another win or two. So with this mental state, while Topalov was trying different answers to the same moves by Anand in the past three games, Vishy limited his scope. As a result, in Game 8, he was vanquished thunderously and convincingly to even up the match.
Now the score is 4-4 and decidedly, the momentum is with Topalov.
In Game 7, Anand displayed to the fullest his preference to step back to defence instead of exploring an advantage. Sure there was a slight risk involved in carrying the attack forwatd, but it was lesser than the line he eventually played and got away with thanks to Topalov's own ultimately tentativeness. It was an opportunity lost and a "win" for Topalov in a draw. Our analysis is too lengthy and on Twitter as the match wore on. I'm too disappointed by Anand's play in the 7th to reproduce our Twitter discussions among chess gazers here. So it was not surpriseing that Anand lost in 8th.
Topalov had prepared for what's now Anand's standard play. He changed the moves slightly and messed up Vishy. This is the result of Anand mentally limiting himself to hang on to that one point lead rather than play with natural freedom. It's happened before with Vishy.
Game 6 and 7 culminated in 8th. So full marks to Topalov for sustaining the attack and knocking Anand into punchdrunk senselessness.
Maybe now Anand will wake up and take into account that the other man has begun to innovate.
Our friend, Prabu, has asked me about the absence of reporting on Game 6. I hadn't seen it live since I was at work. Game 7 left me exhausted for it was long and we were through the entire duration on Twitter. Game 8 was completely one-sided, expected, predicted, sensed despite the number of moves contained in its PGN.
Yes, Topalov's made a match of it, now it is up to Anand to do the same in the remaining 4.
Susan Polgar has a running commentary going on her website during matchplay too, or you can join our group of friends who discuss chess and the game on hand on Twitter during the match.
Was there a time when sports was not a spectacle?
I meant, "Was there a period of time in mankind's history when sports was not a spectacle?"
Wasn't sport a public activity watched by many eyes even in the most secretive tribal enclosures deep inside the Amazonian forests?
Or in mankind's mitochondrially tagged womb of Africa?
Or in the icy spaces and caves of the Neanderthals?
Or on the playfields of Homo floresiensis?
Or in the more modern arenas of Mohenjodaro, Rome, Greece or England?
Was there a time when it was NEVER a spectacle?
Then why do we ache today that sports has become a spectacle?
Why did men paint their cave walls with red images of sports and life?
Why did men incorporate sports into public displays of culture and heritage?
Why did man record sporting sagas in different ways - from mouth-to-ear-to-mouth medium to that of YouTube?
Why did man always make sports a spectacle?
Why does it hurt men now that a sport is such a spectacle?
Why do spectator men (and women) of cricket now ache so...as if they haven't descended from any of the three known Homos - sapiens, neanderthalensis or floresiensis?
Maybe cricket is not a sport at all...maybe it is a more cryptic code for a hidden something than Da Vinci's is.
What is REAL cricket?
The more I read back into the game's history, more the confusion...this above and following questions keep popping into my mind as I read along.
Would 17th - 18th century gentlemen, their farmhands and children, have accepted what was called cricket in the 19th century or the 20th? What about those who were said to have played a game/games parent to what is now called Cricket in centuries farther back...as far back as 13th?
Which version are we playing - the one defined in pre-Hambledon days, the Grace-ian version, the MCC version, or what? Which version of Test cricket are we currently playing? Whose version of cricket was Test cricket intially?
There have been so many versions of the modern game from its diverse parentage and ancestry. It is so easy to presume cricket was always the way it is.
Which one's the REAL cricket? Which one's the truth?
What does "REAL" cricket truly mean?
Monday, 3 May 2010
Kangaroo Dung's Begun To Hit The Fan Again
Let me begin with a quote right from the top of the article
THE farcical state of West Indies cricket is best highlighted by the television coverage of the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.
Many locals cannot watch their own team compete in a global tournament they are hosting, because the local broadcaster chosen to show live matches is barely available to residents.
Instead, the dwindling number of cricket fans in St Lucia who can be bothered following the progress of the tournament do so in 1930s style, ears by the radio.
What the International Cricket Council made sure to do was appease Indian broadcaster ESPN Star Sports, who paid the big bucks to have matches shown at prime time in the subcontinent, resulting in India's matches being scheduled for 9.30am starts here.
- the age.com.au
Now this bloke who wrote this may actually be on to something worthwhile, at least intially, but he lets himself and his article down with the insinuated crap.
Maybe ESPN-Star broadcasts here, but it would be interesting to know the details of its ownership. I asked around, my friends and other cricket watchers, and the rumour goes that it's ownership can be traced back to something called Murdoch's group. I can't guarantee that for my knowledge is little in that regard...so I am open to clarifications on the matter.
Be that as it may, for the sake of argument let us play along and presume ESPN-Star is an "Indian" company - then what is wrong with purchasing telecast rights to this part of the world?
How does India having 9.30 AM matches affect local telecast in St.Lucia? Or cause poor reception on their TV sets?
The crap shooter after his diarrhoes on India goes on to say this
Surely a more readily available station could have been offered coverage for peanuts as a way of building hype for the tournament. The channel broadcasting matches is free-to-air but the average television set does not pick it up - not even the ones in the fancy breachfront resorts.
So the fellow wants us to imagine that it is India's fault that St.Lucia's TV broadcasting system is the pits? Because a channel probably owned by a former Australian's group is telecasting matches to India, the telecast system in St.Lucia is stalled in the caveman era?
OK, since the kangaroo dungster has a problem with India buying a telecast feed...here's some good news - if he probably takes a survey, the ESPN-Star company is probably not catching as many viewers as it might have hoped.
And, I decided to take the suggestion of my friends and Googled ESPN Star Sports...it might not be news to the reporter on that Aussie rag to read this WIKIPEDIA on the company, for it is possible the man knew all along who owned the company but had mischief on his mind. Naughty fella that, lobbing Kangaroo dung at the fan!
Let me quote from WIKI for the benefit of our Kangaroo dung bombster
ESPN Star Sports (or ESS and stylized as ESPN STAR Sports) is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (through ESPN Inc., which it directly owns) and News Corporation (through Star TV, which it directly owns).
The venture operates 17 ESPN and STAR Sports branded networks throughout Asia, transmitting in 5 languages (English, Cantonese, Hindi, Korean and Mandarin). The networks broadcast various local and international sporting events, and also local editions of SportsCenter for China, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.
ESPN Star Sports also operates a 24-hour Cricket channel, STAR Cricket. Star Sports launched STAR Sports Thailand on Monday August 4, 2008 exclusively for Thai viewers. ESPN Star Sports is currently in the process of down-linking of their new channel: "ESPNews India" to India.
If the gentleman who slipped in the nasty about India has little faith in WIKI, then let me quote from the Corporate Info pages of ESPN-Star
ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world's leading cable and satellite broadcasters. As Asia's definitive and complete sports broadcaster and content provider, ESPN STAR Sports combines the strengths and resources of its parent companies – Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.) and News Corporation Limited (STAR) – to deliver a diverse array of international and regional sports to viewers via its encrypted pay services.
ESPN STAR Sports showcases an unparalleled variety of premier live sports from around the globe 24 hours a day to a cumulative reach of more than 310 million viewers in Asia. ESPN STAR Sports has 19 networks covering 24 countries, each localised to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers.
This includes ESPN SEA, ESPN China, ESPN Hong Kong, ESPN India, ESPN Malaysia, ESPN Philippines, ESPN SEA 2, ESPN Taiwan, MBC-ESPN (Korea), STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports Hong Kong, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Malaysia, STAR Sports SEA, STAR Sports SEA 2, STAR Sports Taiwan, STAR Cricket, ESPNEWS and ESPN HD. Our audience profile cuts across a broad demography who are predominantly affluent and educated viewers between the ages of 15 and 54.
ESPN STAR Sports’ top quality programming and world-class presentation is beamed from the company's 73,000 square-foot state-of-the-art production facility and earth station in Singapore. ESPN STAR Sports has offices in China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Taipei and Singapore and employs more than 800 employees across the region.
Blame fkcing Singapore Walt Disney or News Corp! Blame fcking St.Lucia/WICB for agreeing! Blame fkcing ICC for genuflecting to India..that is if grown men of non-Indian origin do that to India! Or simply grow up and get off your kiddish grudge!
And at least somebody paid big bucks to ICC-Windies for beaming matches to India unlike chaps who might have got it cheap. Money from that which could trickle down to St.Lucia might actually ensure they have a proper broadcast system for the future. Why the f... didn't Ozzies and Windians get together to develop the broadcast network on the islands? They've been bedding together for ages in cricket...surely enough time to pour money from Oz to WI and help the locals?
Chaps should get off their hate India-blame India agenda. It's like stale pi$$ now. Read More......
Sunday, 2 May 2010
ICC Twenty20 WC: Day Three
Mistah Bumble was wishing for some excitement at the start of the day - he was almost yearning for the presence of Tendulkar-Sehwag duet to lift the current edition of T20 WC to interesting heights. His wish was however fulfilled, the tournament had its most interesting day, sparked by other players and curious happenstance.
The game never fails to express itself irrespective of the players playing it - One saw a blazing Raina 100, an early Saffer choke this time around, the 9th seeded team upsetting the "after all Pakistan are the T20 champions" top seeds, great hitting by Shane Watson and finally a bizarre final over of the Australian innings which might have been construed as spot m-f-ing if it were played by any other team that way.
Mistah Bumble might have slept a happier man later in the evening for the ICC T20 WC did actually light up for the day.
Raina's Best
One observation frequently murmured about Raina's career has been his distinct lack of application to register a big score, and against good teams, whenever the opportunity to do so was presented to him. It is in this regard that yesterday evening's hundred againt a decent South African bowling attack could be spoken of as one of Raina's best international innings thus far. In terms of quality of strokeplay, there may have been more outrageous 40s and 50s from his bat, but the stunning aspect of this innings was how he adjusted to the requirements of the pitch, humidity, the loss of first Gambhir to diarrhoea and then in-form Vijay to a golden duck, the slowness of the outfield and the testing South African pace-medium pace combo on such a wicket.
The determination to play the pivotal role for India in this match was evident in the way he took a few balls to guage what was on offer. Once he did that, he played marvelllous cricketing strokes of breathtaking confidence, skill and polish. When batsmen were plodding singles to counter the slow tracks and grounds of Guyana and Guyanabouts, Raina got himself into a zone and lifted the familiar Caribbean World Cup ennui blanketing itself rapidly upon watchers.
For those who like to label themselves as purists, there was every cricketing shot recommended in the cricketing bibles written centuries ago in this innings, so they need not feel they're missing test matches. For those who are trying to march along with time, Raina produced the perfect juxtaposition of assessment, technique, innovation and execution. In the final five overs of the innings, South Africa gave away more runs than they'd kept aside for the splurge.
The match appears close on paper, but it never was...somehow the explosion of Kallis towards the end, Albie Morkel and ABD, bore an element of desperation and the certainity of inadequacy.
Dhoni tried out his spin attack in the florid manner of a billionaire at a candy-floss store. Except for Yuvraj, everybody else bowled so many that Praveen Kumar was left thanking his stars for his single over and great economy rate.
I like Dhoni's approach in this world cup - there are no presumptions and he is completely businesslike and appears keen to examine the 2-3 plans he has in mind. Playing two all rounders in place of one Rohit has been commented upon, but Dhoni, it appears sees India's bowling as the weak link and is trying to see how best it could work.
That said, the fielding was funny - good when not expressly required and poor when most required - and the spinners ultimately proved an extravagance.
Chawla will continue to invite comment, but we shall reserve it for later post-mortem - at the moment a team is out there battling to win and we shall hope for the best rather than upset players through criticism.
Clearly, India will have to depend upon batting its way out of trouble most times.
A funny thing struck me - how out of sync with times were the ex-cricketing commentators on show yesterday! As far as T20 is concerned, they proved not better than those of us who have played tons of 10-20 over gully cricket.
A gem from Ramiz Raja about the late introduction of Piyush Chawla went something like - prime spinner of the team and wonder how Chawla must feel etc etc - it reveals a mind stuck in 50-50 over cricket, completely inflexible to the demands of dynamic strategizing in T20. T20 also requires a capable bat and a capable bowler for the end fragment for the innings when people explode Mr.Ramiz. And the name of the game is not to be predictable, while total cricket requires players of a standard level of capability to be on the team. The roles handed out need to be executed by each. Anyway, is Chawla the top spinner in the side? Moot...
Ravi Shastri went on a trip as well, including a Chawla diversion, suggesting that the IPL job couldn't have come at a better time for him. T20 commentary is not for those who retired aeons ago.
Plenty changes are required by not just players and spectators, but also by commentators to accommodate newer, different application of known methods in T20 cricket.
If India suffers, fielding will have a hand in it.
Scorecard
Let's remind ourselves of some combined goals
It is possible that some of these are already goals for the Indian cricket team and BCCI, but we cannot be sure. So let us remind ourselves intermittently of a few things which need to be done after the task in hand is accounted for.
1) Winning a test series in Australia irrespective of the designs of umpiring, match refreeing or baiting by media or poor sportsmanship. They can no longer be excuses and must be looked in the eye and overcome.
2) Winning a test series in South Africa. It will be something to cherish.
3) And winning a test series in Sri Lanka - another effort which will be cherished if it comes about.
Those are the Test-oriented goals.
4) As far as LOIs are concerned, adding to the '83 World Cup win would be top priority.
We would welcome it if India can add to its T20 title as well in the current episode of the ICC T20 World Cup.
I am looking to MS Dhoni to make sure the players walk the talk....like Allan Border and Simpson are said to have done, to turn around a bunch of talented, but not-completely-pulling-together team of Australian cricket players back in 86-87.
Where each member of the Indian team puts these team goals before self and contributes as such.
Batting and bowling are two disciplines which could be influenced by personal pride...it is fielding which determines the degree of team commitment...the selfless contribution towards realization of a team goal.
Indian fielding continues to languish well within the comfort zone of players - it is time they stepped out of their comfort zones and did that little bit "extra" for the team/nation's cause. The beauty is this attitude rubs off onto their prime disciplines as well.
Yes, it is time indeed for us to step out of our individual comfort zones..just a wee bit...for the sake of the team...our nation.
Saturday, 1 May 2010
ICC Twenty20 WC: Day Two
This was a day when the stronger teams adjusted to the conditions better and prevailed easily. In the Asian theater put up at Gros Islet, India creamed Afghanistan while Pakistan whipped Bangladesh.
We saw both matches on the replayed highlights this morning instead of live.
India v Afghanistan
Scorecard
Afghanistan showed better temperament than Bangladesh at a comparable stage of its career even if they lack the same talent at this stage. Their fielding was capable and their opener, Noor Ali, kept it ticking over for the Kabuliwallahs.
From their experience on their last trip to West Indies to play a short series of ODIs, India recalled that bouncers were employed on the slowish pitches to bamboozle their batsmen initially by the West Indians. Today they tried out the same strategy against Afghanistan with the similar results. However, I doubt if that might work very well against the Saffers (unless they are well-directed short balls). The surprise element may also not be there.
Nehra impressed greatly. The reason one must be cautious in jumping onto his bandwagon is that he tends to roll back the wagon from beneath you just as you are airborne to board it. But if he can sustain this opening form, then RP Singh of 2007 will not be missed greatly. Also, it will buttress Zak's performance.
The other day, a good friend, on Twitter, was advising another against the value of employing Nehra in India's playing XI on the grounds that Zak and he become repetitive. The Wise One may yet turn out to be correct - Zak and Nehra may prove erratic by turns - but I'll provoke him out of his bias by suggesting that the best, most experienced, in-form bowlers should play. It may well turn out that Mumbai Zak may struggle in LOIs all over again, and it may be he who may need to be dropped on form.
But let's leave that discounting chatter aside and assume that both Nehra and Praveen Kumar maintain the same form and play as per team balance requirements instead of just being Nehra and Kumar. Also hoping Zak can consolidate the attack and lead them from the front.
Murali Vijay might have shed his big tourney heebie-jeebies ,if he did indeed suffer from them, with a nice work out. Noor Ali should have inspired him to bat on rather than chuck it when things have been mostly conquered. He should move beyond being the 40s man in all forms...even though a well paced 40 at the top in T20 has an equivalent effect to about an even 90 in 50/50 from an opener. Without making too much fuss of his performance, he must be glad for the limbering up and time spent at the wicket and observing the conditions. However, he must know that more experienced teams can make more things happen with the same conditions.
Vijay may draw some confidence for today's match from this match in the just concluded IPL, where he ripped a pretty innings against some South African bowlers. Not many balls he played against them in that match - just 15 from Steyn and Kallis (and add Morkel in the CSK nets) - but nevertheless he had a look at some of them.
Playing for country is very different from playing for a club - different dynamics are at work. Together they add up to a larger sum.
By the same logic above, saffers too have had a good look at all things Indian and would be well prepared for this encoounter.
So here's hoping Gambhir can find his form, Vijay continues his, and Yuvraj moves forward rather than retreat from here, Zak pulls up his wily socks, Kumar remains on terra firma, Jadeja continues to slide in useful spells, Raina gives up being joker boy and Nehra (if he plays) makes sure he doesn't roll back his bandwagon...this last one is important for we are on the edge of boarding it and certainly wouldn't like to be spattered all over the field because Ashish snuck the wagon away...we could then have a decent match tonight.
Dhoni says "We hope to get better and better as the tournament goes." Believe me Dhoni, we too are hoping similarly.
