Hysterics are shooting across the web; Kevin Pietersen has used the 'F' word on Twitter and that simply will not do. Really! And on social networking sites where such mode of expression is considered proper English! Be that side distraction as it may, what interests us is that which might be the cricketing reason for KP's downfall.
A quick look at his stats page suggests that KP has underperformed in ODIs in the past two years.
After five consecutive personally brilliant years during which England sat in the class corner wearing the LOI peaked cap so to speak, KP came up with a couple of poor years. And in the last of those two years, England happened to hit a jackpot and was lobbed from classroom-corner dunceship to T20 lordship. The 50-50 crown now looks even more seductive to stiff collars who refused to acknowledge LOIs as cricket. But success, however slight, changes and exposes concealed desires. Also, it now places KP, now on out-of-form ground, at the mercy of the pride that wants to rip him out given n excuse. This is a grand time to pull the rug from under the one serious LOI performer for England - he is weak when England no longer needs wear a mask of LOI disinterest. Who cares if he was carrying the flag when everybody had the mask on?
Dropping him may have a slender cricketing logic on the basis of his returns in the past two years, but it ignores the fact that form can return to a class player anytime and that after all, they are merely 17 ODI games spread over two years. Now who among the current plays only 17 ODIs in two years? 17 ODIs of formlessness of their prime batsman may mean nothing for other countries. But England is setting the standards of its tolerance with the Saffer. It can now safely cut him down to size because others have caught on to the LOI game and forged some sort of team relationship.
It matters little that he still probably is their best ODI player overseas as per overal stats.
The fact that Englanders are no Perry Comos singing "Catch a falling star..." is obvious when one notices that chaps are ready with a kick after dropping him down and he exclaimed in its pain.
They don't care for such language on a social networking site but they certinly care for broadish behaviour on field. I didn't say hypocrisy was in the air, I merely said hysterics were.
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Storm in a KP
Monday, 30 August 2010
Be swift, but be certain
There is a definite need for alacrity in this matter, but importantly, there is an equally great need to be thorough, accurate and committed as one cricket loving front against a common threat without much heed to petty or large compulsions. To achieve substantial ends to this effect, cooperation and collaboration between all concerned countries and their respective systems and agencies is required. This process itself can consume time, as the application of remedy in countries where the problem and, the loops and holes used by the problem, exist. Let's be ever mindful that we may eventually be dealing with problems of the size of Dawood Ibrahim or imitations of.
Read More......Atherton's Wild Waste
If forces ranged against racism in cricket were to ask who unlocked the kennels to let the dogs out, the answer will have to be Pakistan. My newspaper, The Hindu, ascribes the following to Atherton.
Given the shift to the east, given the way cricket is uniquely placed to offer betting opportunities, given that it is a game played by human beings and given that the governing body is weak, it is unlikely that an absolute end to corruption will come any time soon.
We agree with the stuff, he is said to have written, between the bold parts - a weak ICC indeed failed to throw the fellow out for bringing stuff in his pocket to rub the ball with during play, or John Lever for carrying a vaseline gauze while bowling deadly left arm swing, but I wonder if the west has been able to control corruption in their counties and boroughs? While enjoying the run, it may be better to not muck things up further with disingenious slyness. I'm off to read original MA article.
Captain Enterprise RIP ?
In a batsman's game, a middle class bowling attack may prompt the ambitious captain in possession of it to crank up his shrewdness machine and plot the downfall of awesome opposition. In the spirit of a Crowe he may summon his Dipak for just the surprise opening over, or formulate it into a proper, but unusual, attack policy to disturb rival preplanning.
Imagine if Martin were to do so in the times now and ahead! I am willing to wager :) Mr. Max Cricket would have had a bunch of chaps sniffing up and down his back till kingdom come!
Banish the unorthodox idea, Captain! Lest you taint cricket's lily-white expectedness with the unexpected forever.
Sunday, 29 August 2010
World Wide Web of Cricket
In this age of WWW websites, blogs, forums and social-networking sites, it is stupid to not expect shady characters to be mingling with the swarm of hobbyists and fans populating these niches. Many of these, especially networking sites, forums and chat sites, offer anonymous quiet sites for players and others to exchange information.
Upon forums, it is quite a game by now to crack someone's identity from the content of their conversation. Especially in contry/region-specific cricket fora where it may be easier to put two and two together.
We have all seen players with verified and unverified accounts on social networking sites. How many are actually proxies?
These kind of sites could prove to be intial approach points.
We must be careful of whom we interact with too.
I drafted this last night for publishing this morning, but news channels this morning have already named one of the ethnic fora. There are others where journos, players, agents, fans, adminstrators come together.
What will India do?
In case the Indian angle turns out to be true and these superbugs of cricket run before they/he/she/it is caught to stashes themselves/himself/herself/itself in say a Gulf country or Pakistan or any other with whom we do not have extradition treaties? What will India do? Have we been able to get Dawood Ibrahim from Pakistan's shelter after all these years? I hope the investigation is swift and without leaks so if any Indian badmash is involved, he is nabbed before he decamps to safe havens.
And what about Asian origin chaps abroad who might be involved and embedded in the 'legal' betting industries of various countries they are citizens of? How do you keep their slime from tarnishing you?
And hey, is it that that time is upon us when we might have to draw a line between shenanigans of Indians of India and Indian migrants who are citizens...first gen, second gen, third gen or nth-gen, of other countries? I don't know the answer to that - the ties are very intricate in many cases between the roots and offshoots. My personal guess is if we take the good of each other, we accept the bad and ugly of each other too. But that hour will cometh...
I urge Indian authorities, if any Indian is nabbed, to ensure swift and certain justice is meted out.
One thing is for sure a thousand messengers of peace may not bloom where a single peatal of peace and harmony has fallen, but a million crooks will definitely blossom upon the throne from which one crook has been just evicted. Such is the world we live in.
Has Pakistan established a new rule in cricket?
Packer established rebellion and parallel leagues. He gave wind to the spark of LOI which has flamed high and far into dangerously explosive T20 form. Sri Lanka established variety of bowling into the orthodoxy of cricket. Pakistan established the doosras and reverse swing into this game. Now, it is possible, that with the noise of saving Pakistan cricket and creating an aura of fear otherwise, there will be much wink winking and nudge nudgeing,and we will ultimately have embedded into cricket an enhanced acceptable level of corruption deemed genteelly part of the game.
Read More......Good deed for the day
In this politically correct world we have no choice but to live in, we agree with all and disagree with none. We support everone and bring down none. We hail everyone and decry none. All are correct and no one is wrong. We have all been Rohit Sharmas at some point of our lives and we have also been Pujaras, or AM Nayars, at other selections of our lives. So let us all be PC about this.
I think we have a potential Sanath Jayasuriya on our hands. The kind of guy who will, if we persist long enough, win matches for us, despite our current averages and such stats. He is one wo can impose his presence on the game and greatly influence the courseof it. All a question of getting that swhishing scimitair connect correctly with the ball.
Look at Rohit after 51 innings - 1155 runs, 11 not outs, 114 highest score, 28.87 average, 77.00 strike rate, and all with 2 centuries and 5 fifties in 1500 balls faced.
Contrast this with Sanath Jayasuriya after 51 innings - 783 runs with 2 not outs, 77 highest score, at an averaage 15.97, at a strike rate of 68.20, without any centuries and 4 fifties in 1148 balls faced.
If we stretch out Sanath Jayasuriya to 1500 balls faced....er..ummm...a bit more than that is what one can manage - 1522 balls, we observe that Sanath had 1089 runs, with 2 not outs, a highest score of 140...oooh, he got a biggie since his 51st innings...Kiwis got the caning; an average of 17.28, at a strike rate of 71.55, with one hundred and five fifties.
So you see Sanath getting close to our Rohit Sharma after comparable number of balls played in their career.
Therefore, I ask you India, and all the Nayars and Pujaras and Kohlis and whoever there is and is concerned, to hold their horses yet, and keep supporting Rohit Sharma. We may, fifteen years down the line, have a Jayasuriya.
Let's kick meaningless figures-laden comparisons and interpretations aside so as to not offend the delicate all everything connoiseurs who detest stats convenient to all but the special, and let us examine the 'feel' Rohit lends to us upon the field...get the figurative comparison going instead - Sanath Jayasuriya may not have been as pudgy as our bloke at a similar stage but he certainly didn't possess the Mr. Universe shoulders he came to possess by late 1995. And which last till now without withering! So fitness and looks can always be worked upon and acquired.
Rohit walks to the pitch like a demolisher, but Sanath acquired his swagger only after the '96 World Cup's mind transforming success, which must have been many more innings later than ourcomparison. So we are ahead of the game here. Both look equally humble while walking back.
See, it is all about connecting a few with the middle of the bat and getting that big one under yor belt of wherever - then see Rocket Sharma zoom! I kid you not, we shall have a transformation, a little less blubber and plenty more muscle in his innings, and sinc he has also begun to bowl, I kid you not again, we have a potential Sanath 'Gamechanging' Jayasuriya on our hands. Everytime he continues to hack the crosswinds across the pitch, my heart leaps - someday he will connect and connect and reconnect again. The legacy of Jaya then better be wary!
Abide with Rohit 'Rocket Singh' Sharma. Let's give our continued unstinted support and encouragement to him. Then watch di ride!
There, that's my one good deed of the day done...we humored all the agreeables, the disagreeables and the PCs.
Somehow I get the feeling we may still not have satisfed all and someboy will pop in to say we are all wrong and this is a lousy deed done today. Hah, who cares for feelings...negative feelings at that!
Differentiate, but do not diminish - Phase 5
[ we are back with access to solid internet instead of character-limit constrained mobile internet so we can wind up this series here ]
From our eyrie, we may be able to see the clustering to, say, one or two office cubicles, understand the spread pattern of the disease from contact to contact by observing the interactions, and are alerted to the dangers posed to the vulnerable one/s in the office. We can see the scale of the problem which you in the clinic room could not. Same with spot-fixing.
Imagine if we were the eye in the sky and we could observe the numbers and clustering of SFs (spot-fixers) across the cricketing vista, their interactions with potentially vulnerable players and mediation between source and contact - suddenly, spot-fixing isn't a lesser evil but a more dangerous forest fire. One very difficult to weed out and one which will demand continuous and considerable resources without ever promising a disease-free zone. There may come a time when that may not even be the goal! ACU's goal may change to keep cricket cheating within containable, non-epidemic levels! I guess we, spectators, will have to play along and imagine we are watching a game being played in a perfect word.
The need to distinguish can save unnecessary infamy to the innocent, can help identify the hot spots and observe their flow from source to contact and therefore disrupt the chain of corruption. We can design specific protocols which are also dynamic taking into account the feedback from monitoring. We can anticipate future trends of the disease, relapses, developmental of scarier forms of cricet-fixing. We can have a whole new game by hair-splitting cricket cheating! For we can never cure it.
Spot-fixing is like post-modern terrorism - minimal, isolated, unlinkable resources are used to infiltrate and propagandize the local susceptibles, who will then wage a proxy war from within the fabric of the nation. Far cheaper, politically useful and effective than waging a direct war against a nation. Spot-fixing, unlike the more difficult and flaw-ridden match-fixing, is a bit like that. Spot-fixing is swift, need not adhere to one patters, can be subtle, can e implemented on a per player basis without the player knowing who else is involved (thus insulating the entire cheating agenda from collapse as opposed to complete match fixng which must involve many stooges and some of whom could turn stoolies).
Spot-fixing is a sleeker cricket cheating machine - the hit-and-run attribute of it is difficult to detect unless a pattern is being followed and observers are looking for continuously. And then they have to detect a pattern.
There could be diverse sources to escape detection - 'legal' betting havens like England, Australia, the internet, can be a great source for recruitment into this fixing plague. Players need not even have to meet with a face - transactions can be initiated, concluded and mainained via anonymous handles on the web on the numerous social networking sites. It can be done through proxies even by payers to avoid scrutiny!
What about umpires? This spot-fixing mechanism is tailor-made for them. Just one or two decisions and none the wiser! A couple of decisions can alway be attributed to 'human-error' or the 'sporting-spirit' method of dustbinning a problem. And who is keeping an eye on umpires? What will it cost to monitor umpires, umpires and players?
Spot-fixing is going to be the biggest threat to cricket's credibility. It can come from any source, at any time, and in no consistent pattern. Make no mistake about it - and certainly, DO NOT UNDERPLAY IT. That's the mistake a few commentators are making. This is a problem which is here to stay, difficult to eradicate totally, and will be far more damaging and enduring than match-fixing.
In fact, it may be time to consign match-fixing to the museum of cricket crimes. It is far simpler, to contact and recruit, in exchange for a healthy "punt" placed by a "proxy" via the net and transacted via the relatively anonymous an noisy social networking sites/sponsored blogs and webites/forums, players from both sides, completely ignorant of any other participating member, to perform just one or two tricks at the prescribed time. If it sounds like match-fixing to you, well...like we said, it is necesary to ditinguish for the purposes of formulating effective strategies, but there isn't much else different between match-fixing and spot-fixing in the long run. Maybe the jargon.
Both are potentially fatal to the game. At least will weaken the game - Teest match, ODI or T20 or whatver else.
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Other posts in this series
Read More......
Differentiate, but do not diminish - Phase 4
Imagine your office building to be housing 120-150 employees. A chap walks into the attached clinic and is diagnosed as TB. No problem you say, put him on the protocol and move on, mostly certain that 6-9 months later the problem would be resolved. Now aother employee walks into the medical room, TB again. No problem again, endemic zone and all that, the protocol again and you move on. Imagine now if the next person who walks in is diagnosed HIV/AIDS complex. You perk up in the clinic and run an epidemiological query in earnestness. Now, suppose the next man who walks in is again TB, I'll wager :) you will respond to him a little differently than the first two chaps who walked in. And if it turns out to be MDR-TB? Or one of the earlier cases returned with MDR-TB?
Now imagine we are the office surveillance camera, and we were able to see all the hotspots out of 150, their clustering which you in the clinic could not, we have a different understanding as compared to you.
To be continued...
Differentiate, but do not diminish - Phase 3
A few meticulous commentators are painstakingly distinguishing between match-fixing (MF) and spot-fixing (SF) for everyone, as it must be, but the biggest worry is the diminishment of effect of SF also rising out from their churning. It may be an unintended consequence of their setting out discriminatory points without adequate or proper explanation. It is also, unfortunately in some cases, a deliberate reduction.
Both TB/MDR-TB and HIV/AIDS complex can be fatal individually. That must not be forgotten by those minimizing SF. Spot-fixing is as fatal to the game as match-fixing is.
One of the suggestions towards the 'lesser damaging capability' of SF by a few commentators is a classical epidemiological error. Because TB may be cured and is therefore less of a problem than HIV/AIDS complex is a clinical view and a common error when looked at with an epidemiological overview.
To be continued...
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Differentiate, but do not diminish - Phase 2
Jargon from the growing compendium of cricket cheating has begun to leap out and stand alongside the eternal, all encompassing, 'match fixing' (MF). 'Spot fixing' (SF) is claiming independent limelight. This differentiation is most necessary. Especially, to focus investigative energy and correctly apportioning penalty and infamy to the right backside. Both can be independent in existence, but SF can, and must, prompt investigators to look for MF. For SF is no less damaging in the end than MF. The relationship between SF and MF is not dissimilar to that between TB/MDR-TB and HIV/AIDS complex, we wrote about earlier. SF may be in isolation like TB/MDR-TB and may require different protocols.
SF may also be contained, even cured, by isolating the particular individual and applying remedy to him. As easily, it may just be one caught aspect of as yet unknown MF - Match Fixing.
To be continued...
Differentiate, but do not diminish - Phase 1
Emergence of Tuberculosis (TB), especially of the MDR variety and in unusual epidemiological scenarios, prompts physicians to, among other things, also explore for HIV infection. TB is also one of the things watched for while monitoring a HIV +ve person. Not all TB or MDR-TB is embedded in HIV/AIDS, and not all HIV/AIDS persons have TB/MDR-TB. Both are distinct, have independent treatment protocols, can suggest the existence of the as yet undetected other, but can also coexist. Both can also be indepently fatal. The coexistence of the other may necessitate modification of independent treatment and monitoring protocols. TB may be more curable than HIV/AIDS complex.
In short, besides being more distinct than only obvious causal agents, each MAY suggest the coexistence of the potentially fatal other and need for appropriate protocols be instituted. So with cheating in cricket and the growing jargon in the compendium of cricket cheating.
To be continued...
Yuck! But pause when you say that
I now agree wholeheartedly with the gentleman that there is no comparison between Md. Aamir and Irfan Pathan. Irfan is thoroughly incapable of selling out his nation. But pause...Why did a teenaged talent join others in match fixing?
Does the 'legal' nature of England's Betting Industry fool people into playing along? Remember Lehmann Bros when you think about secure practices. Did senior Pakistanis corrupt this young lad? Why are Pak cricketers so desperate when it comes to earning money? What about England batsmen? Can they turn from stout batsmen to tremulous ninepins at the mere fancy of corrupt Pak bowlers? County cheat investigations have after all revealed well paid CC bulldogs to be just common bounders. Is it possible for one corrupt team to take wickets at will? Like poor bowling? UDRS could undermine them now, but surely umpires must also fancy a punt at English 'legal' bookmakers or their windows elsewhere? Given the glaring umpiring we have seen in the past, why not umpires punting?
Congratulations Lanka
For winning the finals. Not being able to watch the match since Wouf Wouf gave a blatantly wrong decision to get India's batting started. One moreopportunity for the human error-sporting spirit brigade to lather about if one points out useless umpiring. But India didn't lose because Wouf began to err the moment the innings changed hands, India lost in the first innings itself for easing pressure just when they were building it. Bowling on the legs or wider down, coupled with a fielding philosophy willing to concede one run per ball, lost the match for India before they had a chance to bat. If I can catch the highlights maybe one can crit about the batting as well. The tail was said to have been shortened, but technically it still began after Raina, that is if we ignore the mutability of the form above him. Sri Lanka caught a slothful India on the middle stump and deserved to win.
Oh, by the way, turn on the ACU scanner to include umpires too; these days they have taken to sculpting innings.
Friday, 27 August 2010
Karsan Ghavri
In a recent conversation with Samir Chopra of Eye on Cricket, Karsan Ghavri's name cropped up from my side. That triggered a few memories - pleasant ones - in me. I thought I'd reord them in this journal before they are completely erased.
Karsan Ghavri was a southpaw. He blasted with the bat as an elegant lefty and bowled left-handed too. It was Ghavri's bowling which brought him into the aforesaid conversation. He could bowl everything - from left arm medium pace swing, equipped with a mean faster one when he was younger, to slow left arm orthodox. He wasn't very tall, but had broad shoulders, wide chest and a huge heart beating in it for his team. There is one curious fact about Karsan Ghavri: he partnered young Kapil Dev in about 27 Test matches in an opening combination and together they never once allowed a century partnership to happen. Now how's that for an effective opening combo? Also, he was the first Indian left arm pacer to pick up 100 Test wickets. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
Before Kapil Dev launched himself from an Indian cricketing outpost, the philosophy of Indian bowling attack revolved, for some reason, around spin. There was a tendency to reduce opening bowlers to mere ball shine-removers. Rarely were pacers given a complete chance to express themselves with the complete range of skills at their command, especially in Tests played at home. Yet the tribe didn't die out - they simmered like hot embers in the domestic set up and a few of them flared occasionally on the international stage when the wind was just right. It was in such a scenario that Karsan Ghavri played his cricket. Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal were his regular partners in the Indian team before Kapil arrived. However, it was mostly musical chairs for the pacers, with spinners claiming first right to bowling slots. So when batting needed to be strengthened, out went a pacer and Amarnath or even Gavaskar doubled up as shine-removers for the odd over or two before spin set in. Those were peculiar times when spinners even opened the bowling for India with a bright red shiny cherry. Today, such a one-eyed philosophy of attack would be considered outrageous...even foolish.
Ghavri's bowling was complimentary to Kapil's, and often the spinners. He may not have picked up international wickets by the bushels but he had a mean faster one...usually a deceptive bouncer...with which he used to rein in the best of the adventurous batsmen who fancied an advance towards him down the pitch. He could swing the ball both ways and when the conditions were favourable, he'd be more dangerous. His career is one where the couple of wickets he'd pick up would be key wickets and at just the right time. Who can forget the role he played in the Melbourne Test in 80-81, which India won to square a Test series in Australia for the first time. His performance in that Test was overshadowed by more spoken about events such as, the Gavaskar Walk upto the boundary line and Kapil Dev's steamrolling of the Aussies despite being in fever. In that match, when Australia needed a mere 143 runs to win, Ghavri came up with twin strikes of John Dyson and Greg Chappell. It need not be emphasized that Greg Chappell was the best batsman of that line-up and Dyson could be a stodgy customer. Kapil Dev then finished up the rest for an Australian total of 83 and a series levelling victory for India.
His other asset was his batting. Not only could he drop anchor usefully to partner in a rearguard action, he could also step on it if required. With Syed Kirmani he formed a doughty lower order unwilling to quit easily. Talking about his batting takes me back to a 1977 Ranji match between Bombay and Delhi at Ferozeshah Kotla which I had the opportunity to watch.
Joga Rao was a good friend of my father. Bombay were coming to Delhi to play a Ranji match. He was due to comment for AIR. Those were the days when the copuntry's best participated in Ranji trophy and took great pride in performing well for their teams. Of course, I understand times have changed and perhaps it may be difficult for newer generations to recapture the excitement cricket enthusiasts used to feel during the Ranji season or understand the same. Ranji matches were fiercely competitive, well attended...I have seen laathis used by securitymen at Kotla during Ranji matches and even minor stampedes when the gates were thrown open for the day. Being a member of a cricket club perhaps was also responsible in bringing the Ranji experience closer to me. There was much discussion on various aspects of all players and collective opportunities were sought for a club excursion to watch the matches. But I also had a cricket loving father and his group of cricket frenzied friends as well. So domestic season was as important as the international one.
There was some needle between Bishan Bedi and Sunny bhai before this Ranji encounter. At least the media was leading everyone to believe so. There were murmurs about some Indian players and their likely Kerry Packer interests. By some quirk of media reporting, Sunnybhai was cast in the role of a potential mutineer and Bedi was said to be leading the traditionalists. Another media angle, a more muted one, suggested that both Sunny and Bedi were contemplating. One doesn't know what the truth of the matter is, but Sunnybhai wasn't one to let down his country and neither was Bedi. But that's how the media was painting things to be.
Normally, Delhi-Bombay encounters always key up the players and supporters. Under the prevailing rumors and in the light of the upcoming India tour of Australia, Delhi was waiting to give a 'warm reception' to Sunnybhai. The media had done just enough whispering to allow the impression to gain ground that Sunny bhai was on the verge. Another thing, Sunny was still remembered for his Prudential Cup '75 innings.
So when Bedi came on early and bottled him up quickly, nearly all hell broke loose at Kotla. On lithe sardar with a black turban near me was ready at the staricase leading from the ground to the pavilion, ready with some Punjabi fun topoke at Snny as he'd walk up the stairs. Sure enough, that's ow it happened and to the surprise of of all of us, Sunn bhai, instead of ignoring the provocation, stopped and turned dangerously to face the the surdy boy, with a dare to say things on his face. Naurally, surdyboy there leapt back with alacrity. I did say he was lithe. So that was an indicator of the level of interest, competitiveness and involvement of eveybody. It's another matter that Sunny again was dismissed cheaply by Bedi in the second innings and there wasn't so much fuss then.
Delhi itself foundered against Ghavri, Madan Lal fighting to inch Delhi as close to Bombay as possible. Shouts of Maddipa! Maddipa! rang around the Kotla whenever he scored a run and bhangra would break out whenever he boundaried. Maddipa scored 41 valuable runs with Surinder Khanna, the Delhi and India keeper, and the portly Rakesh Shukla, the veteran Delhi leggie who also played one Test for India and was an able batsman as well.
Ranji Trophy had great presence back then and full houses were quite frequent on all days of play. India players took great pride and enjoyed playing for their teams. Especially when teams such as Karnataka, Bombay, Tamil Nadu or any of the Zones were visiting, the crowds would be following on and off the ground, transistor radios to their ears.
Earlier, Surinder Amarnath and Chetan Chauhan had laid the foundation for a total but Hari Gidwani (who later migrated to Bihar and Bengal I think), Jimmy Amarnath, Venkat Sunderam (the long-serving Delhi opener) couldn't quite contribute. It was actually Vinay Lamba, Delhi's middle order batting all rounder who began the fightback, but he too fell after a start.
Coming back to Ghavri, he took six Delhi wickets, constantly pegging Delhi back with critically timed wickets with his wickedish left-arm pace, but Madan 'Maddipa' Lal had still brought Delhi to within 26 runs of Bombay's 317. It was stirring stuff and the crowd was in good, uncynical spirits again. The match was on even keel again after Delhi appeared to have let it slip following Bombay's first innings dismissal for a struggling total. Maddipa had taken three and Bedi, four. Delhi needed to do one better than they did in the first innings and bowl Bombay out to win the match. Batting fourth on the pitch against the likes of Shivalkar would be hellish anyway.
Delhi's spinners struck - between them, Bedi, Chauhan and Shukla snared all but one Bombay wicket. Suresh Luthra snared the one that got away with his medium pace. Bombay were pretty down at one time, regularly losing wickets to be five down for just about a hundred-odd runs. The stands were ecstatic, anticipatory...Delhi were on top. In stepped Karsan Ghavri at six-down, with only a limpid Bombay tail to follow - and he batted!
If there is any innings I reember of anyone, it is this Karsan Ghavri knock. Not just because I had to take swift evasive ation whenone of his sixes thudded into the chair behind me through a trajectory which might have gone dead centre of my face, but because it as singlehanded commandeering of the innings with brilliant farming of the strike. His 70-80 odd came next to no time and I guess his partners didn't score five together! Bombay were living again!
The 200-odd Bombay scored second with the 26 run lead from the first was formidable runs when you consider that Shivalkar (as good or better than Bedi) would be bowling to Delhi in the fourth innings. Covering of the pitch wasn't yet the norm those days and wear and tear made itself felt in the match. Delhi had a solid line-up, but it hadn't clicked....and on top of it, Ghavri was on a high.
Just two blows more Ghavri struck - Chetan Chauhan and Maddipa - Delhi's two Test class players and in-form batsmen, dismissed or a single each by Karsan Devjibhai.
Padmakar Shivalkar feasted on the rest and Delhi was minced meat on theirown skewer and roasted to perfection over coals of anguish.
If I remember Karsan Ghavri for anything, it is this match. It was the highest quality of cricket played and so thoroughly competitive that you could be forgiven to think it was an international match of the calibre of India-Australia or India-Pakitan. Such was the glory of Ranji Trophy at one time and such was Karsan Ghavri.
Aamer's 50
Congratulations and all that Aamer bhai! These fifty wickets have been an aesthetic experience. Allah kare, you take many many more!
I wonder why chaps get peeved at Trott so easily. I have always seen him to be one of the lynchpins of England's batting revival. For so long England toyed with Bangla Bell that one thought there wasn't a single worthwhile no. 3 on all cricketing grounds of England. I see him as England's Rahul Dravid.
And Matt Prior, one of England's performing bats of this series, was naturally sick with himself on ending up the 50th wicket of Aamer. There was work to be done like before, but this time Prior couldn't be around to bail England out. Now hopefully chaps will not begin to ride Prior's back again after this dismissal and when England eventually loses! Okay...I'm geting ahead of myself here and let's leave it at that.
Once again, congratulations to young Aamer.
When Freddie had to Flint Off instead
During the lunch break in the ongoing second day of the fourth Test between England and Pakistan, Star Cricket, the channel beaming this match into my home, decided to replay highlights of the Natwest trophy 2002 Finals at Lord's played between India and England.
The match has cult attributes and has been called by various names - Hussain's Match, Kaif-Yuvi Jugalbandi, Tango of The Young Turks, Ganguly's Lording Moment and so on and so forth. All those are well known and well discussed.
Today, I was looking at it quite dispassionately, despite the fact that I can never tire of watching it and there is always hint of excitement because I wasn't able to watch this match live in the first place. Be that as it may...what grabbed my attention today was Freddie Flintoff.
Now, the more you see something the more you notice details. So with this match and I. This particular highlights package appeared to dwell on Freddie...I looked at the scorecard once again and found he had taken only two wickets...so I cannot fathom why so much footage in the package was devoted to the bowler. Anyhow, because of this focus, one was able to observe the expressiveness of Freddie boy during the match.
Quite frequently he appeared to be roaring at batsmen to "Flint Off"...and never more louder, theatrically or explicitly than when he dismissed the meek and frail Harbhajan. How I laughed!
If only Freddie baby had the power of travelling ahead in time! I bet he wouldn't have been setting an example for a Stuart to follow!
As it turned out, it was our poor lil Freddie who had to "Flint Off" in the end. By the way, my memory fails me here, was he rapped on the knuckles by the match ref back then? I daren't even mention a fine!
I'm still chuckling at the rage Freddie was generating uselessly towards fellow cricketers...but hey, it WAS he who had to Flint Off in the end. Fair compensation that and one more description of that match added....the "Flint Off Freddie" match!
England blame English weather for cricketing woes!
In the past Test as in this one, I have heard a new one being insinuated - that one of the reasons for Pakistan's success is while England have had to bat under English skies against swinging Pakistanis, the chaps from the East had the good fortune to bat under clear homely skies! Like the fancy dress party English spectators enjoy at the ground, making excuses is another sport which rivals it and anything. Making excuses, especially in this age of interactive instant media, is a sport almost like paying darts at a pub! The latest in the excuse inventory flummoxed me - a home team offering home weather as an excuse. It's like India offering excuses about the sun, heat, dust and spin.
C'mon Englanders...surely you can do better'n this! Be greatful for a testing season before the Ashes...only the other day chaps were moaning sourly about the lack of grilling this season.
This is great cricket from Aamer and Pakistanis. Enjoy it! Combat it with your homegrown skills.
Can you tire of watching Aamer bowl? Okay, with Aamer and me it is a bit like that Indian filmy cliché where the parent losing his/her child is confused and either latches on to each and everone claiming that person to be the lost apple of its eye, or, in a more refined manner, latches on to one with some similrity and remains in a fugue state for a while till the eventual exposé of the truth and subsequent heartbreaking tears and dialogues. Lest you be confused already, let e explain - right now whenever I see Aamer, my lost favorite, Irfan Pathan, springs before my eyes. But that's not the only reason I like Aamer's game. The boy has class.
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Qualification drives
Qualification crisis in tournaments is not a new phenomenon as far as Team India is concerned. Rarely has it a placidly smooth run in any tournament, '85 B&H World Championship being a significant exception. Thanks to its inconsistent tournament performances, India has found itself frequently in a race to qualify. New Zealand and India have shared their moments in such a situation before, especially in ICC tournaments, where the Kiwis have also proved to be India's nemesis whenever they have squared up to qualify further.
Coming to Tri-nation tournaments, more than a decade ago, India found itself in similar qualification distress in the sandiness of Shrajah. The unfancied Kiwis were poised to qualify for a finals with their traditional trans-Tasman rivals, Australia. Everything hinged upon Australia's ability to dismiss just one Indian, having dominated the rest to position themselves for an unexpected double success – Australia previously won the ODI Tri-series tournament in India just before, defeating India, who were expected to win , in the finals. Zimbabwe played gamely and caused a few flutters in that series. So in Sharjah, Australia were poised on the brink of commencement of a great sequence of future ODI success. Only one man – Sachin Tendulkar – was stalling them. India went on to qualify of course, as history shows, despite losing that match – one doubts if anyone remembers that match result as one in which India lost ! - and then went on to win the finals. Poor New Zealand were left behind in the race to qualify by Sachin Tendulkar on that inspired desert night.
But Sachin Tendulkar wasn't playing the other day. Having opted to rest from this Tri-nation series instead, after all these years. India's qualification now rested upon whom a writer had once, in a partially enlightened moment, had famously called the “poor man's Tendulkar”. Virender Sehwag, the self-confessed admirer of Tendulkar, was of similar bent of mind the other day as Sachin was on that sandstorm day. The “Poor Man's Tendulkar” was bent upon ensuring that the ordinary Indian cricket watcher, thoroughly destituted by Team India's nonsensical efforts, would be compensated well for the trust reposed in his team.
The Kiwis can be vicious competitors when it suits them, and they began this qualifier aggressively pecking out unprepared, tentative, disinclined Indian batsmen. Suddenly, one team looked to be qualifying. True, the pitch had some life and conditions allowed lateral movement of the ball in the air and off the pitch, but the Kiwis were disciplined and Indian batsmen obliging. Dinesh Karthik looked like somebody who had had woken from a trance and found himself unfamiliarly attired with pads, gloves and a bat in hand upon a cricket pitch. Before he could figure out his circumstances and make up his mind about how to play the delivery, the ball, otherwise sailing outside the off stump, kissed his uncertain bat. DK was put out of misery quick time.
If DK's was in quick time, Virat Kohli went in doubly quick time – completely foxed by one which moved just enough to take a slight edge. The actor in Virat Kohli pounced onto the stage just vacated by the batsman in him. He did a wonderful impression of a man staring at nothingness with nothing on his mind. In case he was attempting to show puzzlement at the decision, I must say ruefully, that the actor in Virat hammed as poorly as Kohli the batsman. But it was a good ball and the egde, faint. Credit to both the bowler and umpire for getting their respective roles right.
In walked Yuvraj, the once handsome prince of Indian cricket, but now a bearded and blubbery shadow of his self. He could well prove us wrong but right now he looks like a man on death row marking out the days with a piece of chalk on the wall. He may essay the short sweet innings but his mind and body appear far from fit for a longer session of concentration. Yuvraj Singh was applying himself and trying to prove wrong all the observations upon him. But then the thread snapped – the frail concentration he now suffers from imploded in an overheated heave across the line in an arc from somewhere to nowhere. The ball ended up going straight up nd the keepr did the rest.
Raina sahib has picked up the bad habits of this Indian generation. Brief success must be followed by periods of non-commitment. So much so that those periods of success must be quickly forgotten and they are back at square one. It has been a while since I saw an Indian batsman build from one success to another. Cheteshwar Pujara is the only one among the current generation with this ability to build upon success, but he hasn't played for India yet – Who knows what jalwa he'll show once he gets the whiff of Team India!
Meanwhile Sehwag was exquisitely watchful and respectful to the bowling at his end. He was employing a degree of selection I have rarely seen from him. He was being cramped out of his booming assertions, so he found the lanes and alleys to cut or wristily turn the balls into. This was a Sehwag, self-described purists populating the echelons of cricket and its watching always sneered, Viru didn't possess. Sehwag was as artistic as Laxman or Azza or Gower, if not better than them. Even the six he hit was aesthetic rather than SurrRichardly. Yet he was gamboling along at better than run a ball and was delicately shredding the dominance of the bowlers. That aspect of him can never change. Also, the manner of his dismissal after a pristine hundred. The double hundred was there for his taking if he so chose, but he fell instead.
So India skewed limpingly towards a mediocre total of 220+ like a listing ship before drowning. But that ship found a sandbar to rest before it drowned!
It has been ages since Indian bowlers have been jointly menacing enough to defend a low score. One has begun to forget such instances, and India defending 120 something at Sharjah against Imran's Pakistan or 183 at Lord's against Lloyd's West Indians are now lonely chapters of cricket's one-day folklore. Dambulla is a new chapter in that section of India's ODI history.
The seeds for this were sown before the toss itself when Captain Dhoni dropped one of the profligate Indian spinners for Munaf Patel. This tall medium pacer has developed into an accurate bowler, who bowls close to the stumps, and has the ability to extract just enough movement from there both ways to keep the batsmen honest with his pace. Kartikeya Date had called for his inclusion into the Test team as well during the just concluded series. But to envisage a masterful stroke in the dressing room is one thing and for it to be actually executed on the field is quite another thing. Further, Patel's inclusion pushed the improving Ishant into the second half of bowling when the field is spread out and there is only one short Power Play left, meaning that a decent bowler would be bringing up in the rear as well. Jadeja got a game due to his supposed batting skills.
Ashish Nehra is a talented bowler who knows his limitations and refuses to play Tests. He was bringing the ball deceptively in the other day, slicing the batsmen up like those slices carved out from hunks of roast meat one sees on Discovery's TLC channel. And then, unexpectedly, he'd take it away. If he retains this form of bowling and if the conditions of play remain the same for the finals, I am sure the Sri Lankan batsmen would feel the spirit of their own Chaminda Vaas has wafted across from the stands to recommence play. Such was Nehra's influence on the Kiwi batsmen.
When you add Praveen Kumar who can bowl as well as any when the conditions are ripe, it was a potent opening combo for India. Good balls can elicit plenty off Oohs and Aahs and go waste without doing anything. An element of luck kicks in to make those good balls count as wickets. That toss of luck also fell in India's favour and batsmen played and fell as the bowlers wanted them.
Munaf and Ishant kept the tight hold, and very soon the game was all but over. At 60-8, the Kiwis had been accounted for. Or so one thought.
Kyle Mills, with no pressure and plenty of injured pride, chose his bowler and punished Jadeja with a hiding he'll never forget. So much was Mills' extravagant dominance that the jitters began to creep in. It was possible that a man can have his brilliant day and this could be one that would lob Mills into everyone's memory for good. But Indian bowlers held on to their common sense and then it was all over.
Along with Viru, the Indian pace quartet played to the conditions and extracted the best out of themselves.
While it would only be a fool who'll expect consistency and such stout determination from the Indian team on a regular basis, we must say it was wonderful to watch an Indian team battle through the entire length of the match. Jadeja is a club bowler and hopefully he can learn a few guiles and get his batting act together for without that he is a meaningless selection.
Some batting spots will to the biggies when they return, and they should on performance for chaps haven't sealed their spots. One expects better from Raina these days and he must rise to the expectations. That's the difference between an okay player and a good player. I will not burden him with the superlative of greatness now - it is up to him to prove us wrong on this count.
On to the finals now and hopefully the bowlers continue their form and batsmen step up to play a proper game.
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Get ready Messrs. Kumara and Petroline Jelly
You have been alerted, be ready to cross bats, balls, words and whatever else...
Like we say it - Sāvdhān!
India's coming to get you both.
More details of this 'semifinal' later. Too late for me now - have to crash out.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Team India's world cup chances
WORLD CUP IS approaching and Team India is far from settled. Quite a many gaps in the middle order that needs some fixing. Bowling is a worry too. Injuries, lack of form, flattening pitches.... I was wondering how would we fare in the World cup 2011. We won the Asia cup and may even win the triangular but then a world cup win means consistent performance against varied opposition. That's one big ask for Team India at the moment. They have been playing Sri Lanka every other day, yet their performances are inconsistent. Even when you lose your performance should improve and that's the mark of an improving team. Winning every other match with a huge defeat in between is not improvement. Opponent's poor performances (inconsistency) also mean you win one day and they win another day.
Reading SP's post on a similar topic, I commented that we are not on track for 2011 WC. Few days back while watching that terrible match (thanks to Dharmasena and Rauf) I was thinking about the Indian teams of past and how good / bad they were compared to the current. I then went on to select a 12 for each decade (80's, 90's, 00's and current) and rated their strength in batting, bowling and fielding. My subjective assessment is given in the table below.
In my view the 80's team outperforms other teams. They can accelerate if there is a need and can also hold fort. They are unlikely to collapse in a ODI. Their all rounders add up to their batting and bowling strength. They batted till No.10. Very good fielding team. May be in this era, had they played, they may have dived and saved. Only Shasthri and Srikkanth can be labelled as average ground fielders but even they held onto their catches. Srikkanth was a very good close-in fielder. My rating is (23 / 30)
The 90's team was average on all fronts. Their batting strength comes down due to long tail from no.7 though they had good batsmen at the top. Their bowling was hugely dependent on Srinath / Kumble. Days when Venky came good they performed well as a bowling unit. Fielding was ok. Few good fielders like Azhar / Jadeja and the rest can be considered safe barring Venky / Raju. In all just an average fielding unit. I think my rating of their fielding is high. It should have been 6 or 5. (19 / 30)
The team of 00's is the one that comes close to 80's team largely due to their heavy batsmen. A very good batting unit. But for their tail starting at No.8 their batting would have got a perfect 10. Some may even think they only deserve a rating of 8 for their batting. Very average fielding, but for Yuvraj and Kaif they wouldn't have got to 5. Their bowling is OK and can pass the test on most of the days. (21 / 30)
When I started rating I expected 90's team to rank lower. But surprised to find the current team at the last spot. Their batting lacks the middle order of the 00's and lacks the all rounders who can bat, something that the team of 80's possessed. The top is fine and may be with Dhoni chipping in they should do well. But only 4 of them and it's highly improbable that all 4 will click on each day. Unless India fixes its middle order that too soon, they will be found wanting when the task is harder. Their bowling is another worry and is weakened by injuries to Zaheer. Bowling is about rhythm. In, one day, out, next day, is not going to help their bowling. Harbhajan isn't the same bowler and is no more a threat to batsmen. (18 / 30)
In 80's we had two good world cups, though the 87 WC was a bit of disappointment. In 90's we fared poorly in 2 world cup and at home in 96 we were just good enough for a semifinal berth. In 2000's we had one very good and one poor campaign. I am afraid a repeat of 1992 / 1999 world cup is waiting for the 2011 team unless something drastically changes. It can be the return of Yuvraj of 2007 and / or a new find for the middle order or poor showing by all other teams or .....
What are your ratings for Indian teams of each decade and your take on Team India's 2011 world cup fortunes?
Monday, 23 August 2010
Swann Lake
As the camera gently zooms in on the flecks of white, they magnify - Swann is gliding gracefully on ripples of green, a crisp ballet to a classical composition, himself orchestrating an off spinning symphony without a single bent note of any doosra degree, yet enrapturing batsmen into a mesmerized bliss of release. Swann is wearing a crown: he is the prince of England's cricket destiny. Not he a Graeme cursed to be a Swann upon England's long tears for a quality spinner, but a magician...a magical classical spinner who promises quality capable of enduring many seasons in style. Not since Underwood has such a spinner played for England...created by a divine Tchaikovsky. It is an enchanting idyll we espy on the small screen...and then the camera zooms out and jerks away into the gloomy broad swathes yonder. We are yanked back to theater of a very very different quality all over again.
Read More......Left handed West Indian pace bowling hero anyone?
While drawing up a personal list of players from all countries for our Geniuses of Cricket series of posts here, intended merely as a force of recollection to an ageing mind, of those players we have seen or heard about from credible sources, I awoke to a curious coincidence when examining the fast bowlers list with respect to West Indies. Of all teams with a quantifiable heritage of quality pace bowlers, West Indies is curiously short of left arm pacemen. Leads one to wonder if coincidence is all there is to it or if influences existed which selected against lefty pacemen?
I invite West Indian (and others!) fans with a sense and experience of West Indian cricketing and social history, to shed light that will illuminate our interest. One also requests stories - unavailable via googling - about Manny Martindale and his purported foundational role with Constantine in establishing this pace heritage. Also welcome about any unsung untried lefty pace hero from WI domestic. Thanks in anticipation.
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Cricket watching India's desire for the week
I'm willing to wager all India wants to see is a fitting cricketing reply to the crap shooting Kumaras and wouf woufing Rauf.
There is also one petroline lump of jelly greasing up and down its favorites in the mix too, whose oiliness leaking miserably out of the box, Indian cricket watchers would love to see evaporate this week.
Here's a short-term goal Team India - Qualify first for the finals and then let's pay cricket...real cricket in the finals, taking into account the Kumaras and Wouf.
Wotsay Team India? Game for it? Hai dum?
Look, if you are looking for players with character to represent you in the World Cup, then this here is a good testing ground now.
Wasim Akram
For some reason being a left arm player in cricket lends an additional sheen to player's abilities and performance. I doubt if any other sport suffers from this magnificient illusion as much as cricket. Both batsmen and bowlers of the southpaw variety carry an aura of mystique around them...well, almost all. One such left arm player - a pace bowler to boot - is Wasim Akram.
There have been pace bowlers who bowled with great hostility and guile before Wasim Akram - India's Kapil Dev is a perfect example - but somehow the illusion of Wasim being the one who made guile a regular element of a paceman's armamentarium after borrowing it from the spinner's cache lingers. Perhaps he tended to bowl more variety of balls in an over more regularly...or appeared to be able to successfully work a batsman into the position he wanted. Perhaps the presence of two speed demons - Imran and Waqar - alongside the once frail-looking Akram accentuated this illusion. Whatever it is/was, I am one who am enthralled by it.
For me his genius lay in forever being a thinking bowler. Who thought about possibilities out of the ordinary and mundane and went ahead and put them to test without fear of looking silly. If he had to force the batsman to reach out and cut to the gully, he didn't just bowl one that screamed away - that was just one of the many balls he could bowl - he'd even bowl a slower one temptingly with just enough revs and/or lift to decieve the batsman. He would employ the width of the crease to great effect. And to top it all, he had what were called 'snake balls' - banana swingers which could sting back so much as to knock out the leg stumps of both right and left handed batsmen.
Many have rated Akram's worth in his ability to rise to the occasion and take wickets on heartless subcontinental conditions. Without doubt he had all those abilities and looked deliciously delightful doing batsmen in with them. Others might have achieved more than he, but to me, he will always be a bowler worth the effort of watching. You wouldn't want to drop off to sleep during a spell of his for fear of missing a great sequence of deliveries all geared to eventually snare the batsman. Simply watching a wicket go down without the play leading up to it is meaningless.
The canniest pace bowler I have seen in my entire time would have to be Kapil Dev, and that is not only because he is an Indian like me, but because he was able to outthink the best batsmen batsmen, on subcontinental pitches, all the while shouldering the burden of India's attack - at times the entire attack! Kapil Dev has quality top order wickets of his time at the top of his bowling list, home and away, which is in quite a contrast to many subcontinental pace bowlers, including Imran.
Wasim Akram, statistically, may not measure as much as Kapil Dev in terms of the quality of batsmen dismissed most by him, but to me Akram remains one of the geniuses of cricket alongside the brilliant bowlers I have seen in in his era and those envolping his. He may have more middle and lower order batsmen higher up in his list, but like with Imran Khan, the presence of wicket-taking bowlers on the other side must be responsible for that.
It is a shame that Wasimbhai didn't bowl enough to the better of the modern Indian batsmen than he did. Not his fault for the nations didn't play enough Test matches.
For me, Wasim Akram, is also a role model because he succeeded in the toughest part of his sport while himself suffering from a debilitating illness like diabetes. He wa alays enthralling to watch and a wicket always looked possible when he was in attack. There were times he'd suddenly appear to lose it, becoming tamely bland, only to return in the next spell with a bushel of wickets.
It was always a pleasure to watch Wasim Akram play, both as a bowler and batsman - he was always attacking and thrilled upon a challenge in both roles.
What does the report card say?
After so many years of investment in 'identified talent'?
We are no longer going to undertake the tedious effort of drawing up such figures only for a few chaps to have kickass fun at no expense. Instead, we'll just wait for the good and the ugly to come along, drop the names they want to, say what they have to....maybe we'll go around virtual town having some kickass fun of our own!
Yeah, let's hear some about the various chosen investments. Is there any discernable improvement in the games and character of some of these golden-spoon guys?
One hopes eventually these investments do not prove to be the duds they are currently looking to be, and the four years invested in them finally show results at just the right time. Hope Mumbai controllers of cricket know what they are doing.
Nothing scientific in this our hope of course.
Advertisements during cricket matches
This is, surpsingly again, not another bleat from us, but more in line with the laudatory post we had here about Vodafone Zoozoos.
The new Vodafone Parrot is a wonderfully graphic creation. While it may not be in the same cult-developing class of the Zoozoo mahāparivār, the details of its expressions deserves our applause.
Kudos to the graphics designer who labored over it!
Vodafone Ads Download Site
Let's bleat a bit more
Sh!t umpiring has been encouraged more than adequately on this blog by those proponents of it whenever one has brought up the issue of poor umpiring robbing from the game, or ICC's stodgy numbskullness in not doing one thing about the poor umpires it employs or about any developmental work in this regard, and whenever we have called for technology to assist the morons employed by ICC in the garb of umpires.
Yessir! Sh!t umpiring has dedicated defenders who have performed in their "debates", and not just on this blog, with just one tool - human error. No wonder it prospers unhindered like alien spawn! Surprisingly, while we have always allowed for human error, sporting spirit and stuff but have aways spoken against sh!tness of ICC umpires, chaps chose to club all under convenient heading of spirit and human error. and when that failed, they have employed plain demonization against us here and elsewhere. Sh!t umpiring (different from stray human error) must die for good in this age of pro sports!
Our bleating for the day done, I must go back to look at some Team India/media bleating over and post- Randiv affair - The poorest element of leadership is that which reduces a good previous performance to a sense of victimization by hinging motivation around how that incident would make the team come out harder. It might have made more sense to take positive aspects of that chase to inspire an even better performance. Motivation via negative imagery can cut both ways...and uncertainly.
India are on the mat, Sri Lanka have bowled well and used all the help without wasting any, but the match isn't over yet. One hopes Indian bowlers rise to the ocasion and make this 100 the toughest 100 ever scored by Lanka. Yes, that's our hope even if that's not happening! Make no mistake however, Sri Lanka, when they win this, would not have won solely due to umpires.
Congratulations Sri Lanka! Dare we hope, Team India, that you win the finals after some qualifying excitement? Thanks though for mucking up an awaited Sunday.
Bowling Treat
The third Test between England and Pakistan was fascinating to watch. The bowlers on both sides ensured it to be so. Wahab, Swann, Ajmal and Aamer were quite outstanding. The batsmen also provided their contributions to this memorable match. Because of the mostly rearguard nature of it in besieged circumstances, the efforts of Prior, Broad, Azhar, Wahab, MoYo, Cook, Butt and Aamer linger in memory.
[ Image Link ]
Pakistan's young players can be a potent force in time. England must wonder how just one score of 300+ by the opposition was enough to upset the image of a rennovated team England has been wearing recently. And despite the presence of Swann, of whom we never tire - either in watching play or holding responsible for the new improved bite England packs in its overhanging jowls.
This performance at home against an essentially unsettled rag-tag Pakistani band, ahead of the Ashes, might just prompt some ruminative mulching by the heavy jowls of England cricket. Also, Azhar renders S. Malik redundant.
(A good article at Mail Online)
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Why are we ignoring Praveen Kumar for tests?
I was reading the article 'A test case for Praveen Kumar's talent' by Trevor Chesterfield in cricketnext.in.com. I have hardly come across a single article / blog post (especially by an Indian) in support of Praveen for tests. We have all seen his performance in ODIs and he deserves his place in the ODI XI. He is one of our unsung heroes with the ball in ODIs. His first class record is pretty good. He swings the ball, even the kookabura as Trevor cites in his article, and batsmen around the world, nowadays, don't know how to play swing, yet Praveen Kumar has no supporters for a test spot. He lacks pace yes but how quick is Mithun or for that matter Munaf is? What he lacks in pace he makes up with his "adrenalin pumping gusto" as Trevor puts it. Why not Praveen Kumar for the Indian Test side? The wrestler has had injury free (major) career so far since 2007 and could be a good long term bet if he can swing it out in tests.
How come he did not figure in the selectorial radar? How come we bloggers missed his case? Do we think he doesn't have what it takes to be a test bowler? If so, then who can be a test bowler?
When the keeper's holding on
Pakistan's mesmerizing swing bowlers look even better. Kamran 'Clanger' Akmal is latching on to the balls as if he never let one down.
A large large performance by the big hearted Wahab Riaz set the tone or England's quick batting slide today. And when you add the clever bowling of Asif and Aamer, you have a treat on television. Asif is mixing up the one coming in with the arm and the sraighter one well. Riaz is brilliant as well.
This doesn't mean England's lost this one for Pakistan have to bat yet, but Ponting and his men must be watching proceedings with interest. The only problem for them is do they have bowlers of this class?
Andrew Strauss, Captain England, appears to have a policy framed regardless of the presence of UDRS, but Kevin Pietersen's candour at the end of his term at the crease was refreshing. He walked promptly. Like we said elsewhere, while we shouldn't expect it as a right, it is pleasant to watch sportsmanship as and when it passes before our eyes. Strauss is a fine man but Captain England is about as fresh as Randiv. KP's inspiration immediately deodorized the rancid odor of extreme professionalism. That's the beauty of such acts.
Cook is probably reserving his best for Australia, where the bowlers may be quicker and the lateral movement may be lesser. The commentators tell us that England might like to have him around the team in Oz, irrespective of whether he plays or not, or how he plays. Who'll be Cook's Raina?
Let's go back and enjoy some fine seam bowling by Pakistan. Wonder how much Waqar is contributing to this display?
Aw Shucks!
To the point of being demonized for trying to help chaps see reality I had driven myself a bit too hard in the past, to make these points now echoed in this article.
Just hope this time the argument is nt that England is an island with limited population and they do not have as many disposable incomes as India possesses. That said, we reiterate, India, despite its vacant seats still generates more stadium audiences than most irrespective of the star value of a series.
Empty seats are a worldwide phenomenon as we tried too hard to explain and having population numbers does not translate directly into stadium backsides. And yes, the expense factor affects India too...expense of earning time and expense of money required to be spent. And once and for all, it is not the disposable income froth that throngs to see Test match cricket - it is middle class nuts and bolts types who plan their day out. Disposable incomes tend to go for the freebie complimentaries and corporate boxes in general, or for enclosures with limited seats, or have many other thing to do than watch Test cricket in the sun. Or they go for three hours of T20 at convenient evening hours.
Most cricket fans who must juggle many things in this heartbreakingly competitive world, tend to take in their cricket via TV and web alongside their work or later via highlights. Like abroad so in India. But India does throw up some challenging numbers despite all the hurdles as regads stadium backside on seats numbers.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
TinkerTen
When 2010 finally winds down one late winter night, we might ask, "What best will this decade be remembered for in cricket?" My vote will be for 'Tinkering'.
There has been much of it with the structure and laws of cricket - some essential, a few exploratory and/or preparatory, while others very much tokenish and perhaps unnecessary.
I shall remember these ten years as 'TinkerTen', a period when tinkertons (like yours truly) had a field day joysticking cricket in virtual and real space.
Because nothing is impossible
There is sore temptation to join Ponting on this one. Given that England's now look attack is as yet untested abroad. The batting too can stutter against quality bowling, as it has been shown. That said, does Astralia have the bowling to rattle the Englishmen? Does Australia have the batsmen to stand up to Swann, Anderson and co. if these boys discover they can play outside home?
On paper, England has come across as the more resilient team in recent times. But all that resilience has been at home and against Bangaldesh in Bangladesh. England abroad they can unspool faster than they unpack their travelling trunks. Especially in Australia.
Whatever it will be, 5-0 it cetainly will not be to either. I hope I haven't stuck my neck out on account of both teams!
Why so much Randiv fuss?
The Provocation: Virender Sehwag has wrestled away the match into bonus possibilities from hosts Lanka and is poised to score what could be a brilliant century.
The Response: Suraj Randiv masterminds it such that even if he goes for a six, a no-ball could ensure the match is won by India with Sehwag stranded on 99. And so it transpires! Randiv does go for a six, and he does overstep by the proverbial yard, thus leaving Sehwag stranded on 99 with India having won by a run.
The Reaction: Disappointed Sehwag plain talks. Many others blow a fuse.
How do I see it?
1) We are mostly not in a world of sportsmanlike give and take. This is a professional world with only the bare minimum adherence to things such as spirit. Even England maintains a tattered fig leaf of sporting spirit. It is great to see sporting actions on the field, but it is foolish to expect it as a right. At least I have ceased to think that way since Australia 2007, Ponting, Symonds, Bucknor and co happened. And I think it is more comfortable to NOT expect abstractions such as conceding an appreciative hundred. It is not the current way to play.
2) The intention of the bowlers and fielders through the nineties of a batsman is always to PREVENT scoring of a hundred. The only exception is India which dutifully pelts a couple down the leg side to release any pressure on a batsman in his nineties. General convention is to make it very bloody hard for the batsman to score the runs he needs. So in that regard, Randiv did exactly that - used all the available space within the laws even if it compressed the notion of spirit. As a post-modern born-again cricket watcher, I don't think it was abnormal. Any red-blooded player would try his best to prevent that extra icing.
3) Sri Lanka have always played a highly evolved game beneath a veneer of good-heartedness. It is only a fool who believed mild mannerisms to be innate sophistication. From well before the days of Arjuna has sophistry been an embedded part of Sri Lankan cricket. You go expecting it these days, especially under the extremely covetous current Sri Lankan captain. By now it is common knowledge that Sangakkara is no nunha-munna cricketing raahi. Anything can be expected from him...no surprises. That said, I couldn't catch Sanga suggesting that Randiv bowl that no-ball. So I am indeed surprised by the almost 'childish' reactions of Sehwag and others to this 'incident'.
4) On a different day, Randiv's action might have aroused suspicion of spot-fixing. But...but by the same yardstick, his conceding a gentlemanly hundred would reek of the same. In a way, similar to erring on the familiar side as a safety measure, Randiv did what could fit into Lanka's ethos and competitiveness of matchplay to steer clear of any such allegations.
Much as I love Sehwag's play and have affection for him as a fan, I can see it is disappointment more than anything else which is making him vocalize what doesn't need to be vocalized.
In fact I am actually surprised by the reactions of so many others to this incident which isn't abnormal for the reasons I have mentioned above. They too must be terribly disappointed.
I am actually worried India players and ex-players have gone so soft in a tough world of cricket to actually speak at all about this...like this. Like nursery kids in the park. Much better to let their cricket do the talking...and emphatically. Okay, ex-players have no work now than to talk like us fans, but players who are in the thick of things musn't display this kind of weakness. Tomorrow this chink in the mindset could be manipulated and wrapped like an albatross around the player's neck by the opposition. Better reply would be to show you don't give a damn to such gamesmanship and then go out and get double the number of runs next time! Now Randiv knows he grates and has gone one step further ahead and apologized! How's that for more mind games?
But why should anybody be disappointed in the first place? Leave aside the KLPD factor of having scored a six on 99 and yet not scoring a hundred. Sehwag won a match for India...and in the best fashion India'd have liked with bonus points and some NRR benefit. So why hinge upon a hundred? This Sehwag innings was a team innings...This 99* is more valuable than just an individual statistical milestone. If Sehwag keeps calm and remains focussed, there are many better milestones which will fall to him in all formats of the game. And he'll get many hundreds...daane daane par likha hai khaane wale ka naam. You cannot be denied what is destined to you and you cannot take away what is not due to you. Never forget that.
Also remember, you had two balls to knock off a single before that idea crept into Randiv's mind.
UPDATE
TV news channels reveal Sanga reminding chaps about the single in Sinhalese. I didn't catch Sanga helping everyone along initially and that's why I mentioned as much in the article. But I still cannot understand the 'outrage' of the TV channels and popular names. It only fits into what I said before about Sanga and Lanka, and yet I'm sorry....you cannot demand a century because you think you deserve it. Opposition will deny you or try to deny you. By the way Murali failed to catch Sanga's reminder while talking to NDTV.
But is it such a crime as it is being made out? Sorry, but I've seeen far worse go unchecked. India shouldn't make a fool of itself here. How was this illegal? I still can't get that.
Monday, 16 August 2010
That man Viru!
On a purpotedly difficult pitch ( as per some commenators during first innings ), the man goes and almost scores a team nurturing unbeaten hundred. When you look at the stats, you suddenly realize it was run a ball! Okay, make it 99* off 100 if you are particular.
India, in the bargain, win the match in a canter.
Jai ho! Jai ho Viru! This man's a golden bonus point for Team India!
I miss those folks very much
The ongoing triangular series in Sri Lanka between India, New Zealand and Lanka is a personal failure of sorts to me - I am certain to miss considerable chunks of the action. Therefore, when I had the chance today, and with internet access handy as well, I settled down to watch a largish portion ofthe match.
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I saw the pitch getting cut off as a block and rising enmasse into the air...hovering...almost like the old studio effect depicting Mount Goverdhan being lifted on young Krishna's litte finger in black and white vintage mythologicals...or Sanjeevani parvat being airlifted by Lord Hanuman! And the cricketeres on it disappearing! Before one could blink one's extra-widened eyes, that chunk of airborne pitch transformed into a Micromax mobile! Then I knew, it was merely an advertising mid-over gimmick.
Lawd only knows how sorely I missed all those self-righteous folk one ran into on the web during IPL 2010! Love to read their views on this Ten Sports broadcasting.
In fact, was missing them even during the England-Pakistan Star Cricket-Sky coverage when the screen would resize and adverts would appear in the margins, and a whole lot of tricks would happen during play.
Hope those good webfolk return soon with their articles and views.
The script is reemerging
He strayed anyway at times, but one could see him putting thought into each ball he bowled. Early wickets by Praveen Kumar and Nehra helped for sure, but he didn't rush his bowling. Like invisible ink revealing itself under extreme heat, Ishant Sharma is finding his lost common bowling sense bit by bit after a torrid couple of years and a few.
The message isn't crystal clear yet, the paper may unfortunately end up burning before the entire message comes through, but the signs are there - the script is reappearing.
Keep it up - slow and steady - Ishant Sharma, you made some sense today.
Quaint little empty stadium
Rangiri Dambulla looks a pretty picture on television. The stands are not overbearing like in some stadia around the world, a fine ODI with the home team featuring is going on in this breezy floodlit evening, yet the stands are empty. As if this were a Test match in progress.
I hope it wasn't the threat of showers which kept the crowds away in Dambulla from a home team ODI. Looks a wonderful atmosphere and the home team's fighting hard too! Can even win!
Maybe it's just that there are more built up seats than people in Dambulla.
The Fantastic Mystery Of Broad Defending
Pakistan have, upon enquiry, claimed via Yawar Saeed, Stuart Broad's culpability in causing a grievous injury to one of their players - Zulkarnain Haider - who was baseballpitchedat by the alleged accused in the last match. The same article which brings us this news examines the 'charge' alleged by Yawar Saeed when asked. And then it goes on to do two things - Firsly, to destroy the allegation by erecting alibi against. Which is the expected thing when two paries are on eiher side of a contretemps brought about by a callous young man. I have no tiff with that - investigations and legal arguments, both if insisted upon by either 'aggrieved' party, will confirm or scuttle the charge. Fair enough that media should take a head start in the proceedings for that's quite the norm in today's society.
Second, the article then shores up the other flank, by calling the attention of readers to consider - "If Broad's uncalled-for throw was the culprit..." - and then seeks to trivialize a grievous injury (a fracture is one) from thereon in an unscientific and non-legal "fan-like" manner.
From Pakistan's "disingenuity", through a suggestion (later clarifed in the article by some Facebook reference) that the injury could have been procured in the nets, and also, that since the said Broad was fined the matter was closed, to nothing more serious than a "crack in his pinky" - each one of that reads little more than...well...how shall one put it?...something disposable?
That Pakistan is alleging because it is playing poorly, that it is merely a crack in the pinky, that Broad is fined and case closed and Pakistan reopening it (note: the article mentiones that Yawar Saeed said "Yes" when asked a leading question...but that's conveniently forgotten paragraphs ahead) is demonical...all are flimsy and useless one-sided arguments without any investigation results in hand.
While Pakistan may be duplicitous as suggested by the article, and Broad is indeed absolved, whether that is so or Stuart Broad, it turns out, caused grievous injury due to a callous action, is a matter which must emerge after investigation. That is if Pakistan presses for it...and that isn't what Pakistan has done till now. It appears from the articl that Saeed mentioned only when specifically prodded about it.
If, as the article says, "Broad's uncalled-for throw was the culprit...", the rest of pinky and poor-playing trivialisation in the article is indeed reduced to pure...what's the word for it..."sensational crap"...right? Why venture that bizarre way of defence in the first place? Wait for investigaions and stick to the former. Better still, why not call for an investigation (if not already afoot) if you really wish to show up the Pakistanis to be the kind of curs as suggested by the article? Prove them incontrovertibly wrong, save the young Broad, and then venture out with what you already have. After all there has an act seen by the world and now an allegation has been prised out in a press meet. Somebody is guilty of something - either of mischievous slander or of causing grievous injury with a deliberate action - let the world know the facts one way or the other, or don't mention it at all!
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Thursday, 12 August 2010
Good news from Neo Sports but still BAD NEWS for BCCI
As I move around the scape, I read this article at Cricinfo via the wonderful invention of mobile technology, web and convergence. How wonderful can life be with a dash of appropriate technology!
The issue of Hawk-eye technology's ball tracking system, while imperfect as regards judging behaviour of every square inch of the pitch, especially with the first few balls of a match, and the 'probability ellipse' discussed by Kartikeya Date at his blog, are but a few concerns. But one will have to get it started and any fine tuning can be done along.
BCCI's other concern, and perhaps its main concern, maybe the fact that UDRS concentrates power into the hands of a few broadcasting/TV raw material developing agencies, owned or controlled by one entity or maybe two or three. Neo's advent will provide a modicum of balance to the monopoly a particular business house has currently over world cricket coverage. But still, that will not be good news for BCCI. Also, this concentration of bargaining power with a particular, large, TV and News giant, maybe a trojan horse for some boards to checkmate BCCI. Worries continue to exist for BCCI therefore.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
The usual self-flagellation
Our good old Indian LOI team. Congratulations Kiwis!
India should bounce back.
I simply have to retire once again for about a fortnight.
Thanks readers. I'll return after the 21st of August but I might resort to my cricket postcards squence from mobile again in case I catch a bit of the action.
Thanks once again - be back full time after 21st.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
England must set an example
As inventors of the game of cricket and its intricate network of written and unwritten laws, rules, spirits and expectations, it behooves all England to ensure that the highest standards of these are maintained at all times. There can be no compromising of these at any time and under any circumstance or excuse - not even for the compulsion of being 'seen' as tough-as-nails competitors. In fact, the very laws, rules, spirits and expectations, define without any doubt how a tough competitior really looks like and behaves on and off the field.
I speak of three instances in this match which lead me to wonder if the new-look England hasn't given up this cricketing heritage?
Situation 1:- Andrew Strauss, captain of this new lean and mean England side, knew he had nicked it healthily. Stands his ground till the moment a review is asked for, and then walks as soon as it is indeed asked for! The game, he knows, will be up. Why not walk straightaway? - so much better and in concordance with England's definition of cricket. Leave 'theatrics' to lesser mortals.
Situation 2:- Kevin Pieterson backs slightly away to a distraction even as bowler bowls. It looks as if he's backing to make room. Bowler bowles, Pietersen plays and the ball lobs to Butt who catches. Somewhere in those milliseconds, the umpire called 'dead ball'.
Now everybody doesn't know all the rules all the time, but KP, a county system and England player, should have known he'd be out as per written law of the game. Why play at all a shot? And there wasn't even a threat from the ball to call it a refelx action. The point is moot when the umpire called it dead. Chaps call it 'evasive' action when he had to reach across to play it! Well if it is reflex action then handled the ball could also be reflex. Sure that's 'ball in play' and this is 'dead ball' but it looked a lot like carelessness towards the laws of the game.
Situation 3:- Stuart Broad bowls something which goes through a rather wide channel outside the off stump to the keeper. Almost six inches from the bat. He goes on to celebrate nonchalantly, expectingly. knowingly - never once appealing to the umpire or even turning around and asking. All the close-in fielders and keeper are in on the game. There is 'bewilderment' and 'outrage' written on all faces when five minutes into the celebration they realize umpire hasn't given it. "How dare he not give this!" spoke Stu's face. Well, umpire indicates they could always UDRS it. Lo and behold, the celebrating congregation on the pitch dissolves like it never existed! The drama company chaps vamoosed!
Now this Stuart Broad fella has been given a free run of all things in cricket and he has single-handedly wrecked more laws, rules, spirits and expectations than anybody else in this game and gotten away with it, without a penny of punishment or a farthing of disciplinary caning.
Stuart Broad is proving a nuisance on television and field when others want to play cricket and watch it. And it is no longer funny either that he is let off as charity to cricket referees or England. Once, twice, three times...okay, how long can one humour brats and biased dispensation?
England continues to tread roughshod the laws etc. etc. of the game it itself cooked up, and admonishes others to follow today as it did say 50 or 100 or 200 years ago.
Those rules apparently were and are for others to follow, as the punishments - not they, for England's Broads.
England looked cheapskate back then flouting every spirit of the game - whether Jardine or Vaseline - and it looks cheapskate now as well with Broad, Collingwood-butting, throwing stuff onto the pitch, and a whole lot of stuff.
You can, as England themselves like to tell the 'erring' world incessantly, be a winner without having to pilfer a victory. They must follow to the last word all their laws and expectations of spirit first. Caesar's wife must be...and all that blah blah blah you know.
One good thing, UDRS will expose such 'players' as well as poor umpiring. Of course sometimes they are pure mistakes...but our joy is that those which aren't mistakes will now be scrutinized somewhat and shown up for good.
The Two Horned Lion
Zulqarnain Haider can bat. In an earlier post we had suggested than his ability or inability to, is immaterial if the top order doesn't exist and Kamran Akmal should have been a forced consideration. But this Lion, this warrior with two horns, Zulkarnain Haider might be capable of sending Akmal packing if he can hold on to catches as well.
The man is battling defiantly the combined strike force of a very potent England of our times. In Anderson's New Wings we had wondered what might be the state of England new assembly in more testing conditions. We had also emphasized the steering role Swann may have to play.
Those conditions came today - the dark clouds became fluffy and vanished quickly, the Pakistani 'top order' came and vanished faster..all looked well...then Haider stepped in to do battle. Zulki, combating the bowling with the bat and the constant chatter from the fielders around him with a pleasing confidence on his face, created the set of conditions we wanted - to test fly this new English joint strike fighter assembly - and it came our way so soon only fortuitously.
The end result, as they say in those Discovery Channel programmes which simulate and test various things, was that this formation crumbles under these specific conditions which may present overseas. Even home advantage fails to destress the formation which can otherwise look very threatening under the ideal conditions prescribed in its manual.
England will win this match, but Zulkarnain Haider, the two-horned warrior lion, has given everybody useful feedback on this new English bowling machine.
On a different note, this summer's Tests will be a loss of sorts for England's grounds - first the Australians and Pakistanis played to emptiness and then the Pakistanis are losing too fast for the gates to handle! Hopefully, Pakistan'll play better from now on and take the Tests into their fifth days.
Lanka spoke too soon.
Just a final word on the Lankan Test series. India, by no means, played 'satisfying' cricket except in snatches. Their best however was reserved for the final Test and the final day of it in particular.
If you put the Lankan bowlers on one side - Murali, Malinga and the Mystery Duo of Mendis and Randiv, India's was a pale shadow. If you placed the Lankan batting order on one side, given that this was a home series, the ageing in parts and formless Indian batting order looked forlon and vulnerable. Lanka, technically, batted till their keeper with useful abilities lower down. India was juggling with a couple of batting spots and forms of some of its regular players. MSD, in Tests, is a tangential hope as a batsman instead of a direct one. It all depends upon the angle of his mood, patience, concentration and physical aches, pains and stamina. But India cobbled together something out of this mixed bag.
So in that sense, India might have put one across the Lankans, who perhaps were a just a little too complacent progressively with each won toss. While this definitely was a series that Lanka let slip too easily, it is also one which India retrieved with their last millimeters of fingernails. In the end, they made it look grand and an easy walk back into the series.
This 'cussedness', this thick-skinned biding of time, to strike when opportunity presents despite overwhelming odds against beating you down consistently, is a hard-earned trait for India in Test matches and should never be given up easily. Perhaps the actual process of climbing up the ICC Test ladder, instead of merely talking up it or others down it, develops these kind of calves and haunches. India did not win the series but did very well to keep it all level and stave off a formidable challenge to its current supremacy. But more will be required in times to come...one cannot remain at the top by simply wearing a turtle shell all the time. You need potent, dependable, weapons of attack to go along as well.
I will give a few bonus marks each for the players who resolved to make a fist of it in adversity.
Saturday, 7 August 2010
Laxman and Sachin cream Sri lanka with Sangakkara on their side
Very very special victory for India at P Saravanamuthu stadium, which did not see a visiting side win since 1994, of course until today. That is one hell lot of a performance by this depleted Indian side. Congratulations to them and especially to the young bowling attack. They performed creditably, if not outstanding. Ojha made better use of the conditions in the 3rd innings and Ishant was a much improved bowler in this test. Hope he continues his journey upward without any distractions. Mithun is promising and if he could improve his bowling, he would be a valuable player for India. Raina is a pleasant surprise for me. I didn't expect him to show gumption on the face of pressure. He nearly proved me right, but thank god that was just that. Test cricket is not a fantasy, that one can hit away to victory. Hope the kid learns it fast as we would need him to show lot of courage, patience, determination and fight when we tour from this year end.
It's long time since I watched a full day of test cricket, ball-by-ball. Glad I did today. Sachin was brilliant and VVS was fabulous. Srilanka erred on the side of caution and find themselves on the losing side. They covered their boundaries and asked the Indians if they have the patience to collect singles besides handling the spin duo. Whom were they asking? Sachin can play like the way he wants. He can just defend all day, knock around or can exhilarate the spectators. With the assurance of Sachin at crease Laxman just needed play his normal game. Unfortunately, for Sri lanka, Sangakkara left it to Sachin and Laxman to choose and how well they chose and won it! When it was difficult in the morning they showcased sublime control and when things eased later they just rolled on. Even without Sangakkara's help India could have won but not with this ease. The chief tormentor of Laxman, Mendis, was nowhere to be seen when VVS arrived at the crease. Their pace bowling hope, Malinga was delayed for an hour, so that Welegedara can roughen up the pitch to help Randiv. Who would want to rough up the pitch, when there is already good assistance and the ball is nice and hard? Srilankan captain showed how tactless he can be. Singles where there for the taking. May be Sangakkara knew India would eventually win and hastened up things so that he can go home early for the weekend. Whatever it is, I am not complaining. I just wish Sangakkara remains SL captain when we tour them again.
Talking about captaincy, I just wonder if there is any current day captain who is tactful in test match conditions? Modern day captains, seem to come with a plan, chalked out in the comforts of dressing room, and want to execute it to 'T'. When the plan turns ineffectual or the execution goes wrong, they (Dhoni and Sangakkara, at least, in this test match) struggle to control the game and just wait for the inevitable to happen. For Dhoni it happenned some 110 odd runs later and for Sangakkara by tea on Day 5. In business, when we talk about planning I often mention bump plans. A bump plan, is one that you make to steer out of a situation caused by a bump in your planned passage. Always make one or two along with the original plan. And when in action if there is a bump that is bigger or different than what you expected, you should then be able to spring one faster and execute. Original plan is easier to make with all the resources available, but bump plans, while in action, are difficult and often has to be made with little resources and with lot of risk on your shoulders. Don't know why, but often we come across a situation where captains get stuck with a failing / failed plan. May be they are not ready to be singled out if things go wrong or just that they don't have it in them. Read More......
Friday, 6 August 2010
Anderson's New Wings
Despite the prismatic potential of Pakistan's batting performance to distort bowler abilities, it is clear from other recent series that James Anderson, in England, is now the nose, hull and engine of the English bowling attack. Stuart Broad and Steven Finn have emerged as his new wings. Swann serves well as the critical rudder of this new, all-English, Lightning Joint Strike Fighter assembly.
They are a formidable presence under English skies - quickly identifying, tailing, isolating and destroying their victims. The design of this new strike force has variations capable of adjusting to all three formats of the game. The main engine, Anderson, pummels opposition incessantly without pity. His newly designed wings, replacing the obsolete version of Broad and Sidebottom, Broad and Finn, allow more accurate and greater maneuverability for the main engine. When required, Swann has a stable hand in guiding the direction of attack. But what about when they'll leave English skies to do battle beneath foreign ones?
Anderson sputters like a leaky jalopy abroad in comparison to home. Finn and Broad haven't enough to write about. Swann, however, continues to be the stabilizing influence in alien currents, eddies and counter-currents. But this attack wears the label of the revamped, though as yet untested. Australia will be the first examination and will give us clues as to how really good these new wings are and the refurbished engine of this English strike force.
The batting turbos are also revving up reasonably well.
Can't wait for them to fly over to India in this form. That's not going to happen, but would have been a series worth watching. Such a series would have been a great learning tool for all concerned.
