Guru Greg Speaketh: Cricket Bloopers - 01

TO KICK OFF this section of the blog, we'll have to go back in time and catch up with a person from history and his continuing foot-in-mouth disease. Our time machine travels into history and stops to pick up Greg Chappell from his tongue-stomping days as India coach and zips back forwards to April 14th to alight on the pages of smh.au.

We're not like India, we can't waste talent

That is the broad proclamation by the man from history who is, in present time, managing Australia's national cricket talent. Nobody deliberately wastes talent Greg. Not unless he has a distorted way of thinking.

This was his statement as part of the reasons why Australia could not afford to let talent slip through gaps.

But what is it that's D'Oh in that statement?

It's the use of words like 'waste' obviously.

Only eleven players can play at a time in a team at a given time. I'm sure Greg Chappell must be aware that half-a-billion cannot play in the India team at the same time.

What the man from history would probably be aware of is only the very best of players would figure in the India team.

If he is suggesting that talent lies deliberately unutilized in India, it isn't as much because of allowing them to rot as it is that only a few can play. A player will have to come up with a superior performance over time to displace one on the team.

That isn't 'wasting' Chappell, it isn't a deliberate destruction of talent. It is allowing the best merit to select itself.

Perhaps the reason why India is picking up in organizing A-team tours and fixtures like IPL, in an effort to keep its talent maximized and ready.

At least one things pops out of this - Chappell acknowledges the scarce talent pool of Australia in present time.

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The 'trivial' matter of theme songs

I doubt if we have ever mentioned here on this blog an IPL Extraaa Innings broadcast theme song here before, but since this is the year of ICC Cricket World Cup too, we have an additional inspiration of ready comparison besides the catchiness of the current IPL chune.

Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy had an almost perfect rustle-up-round-up song in their Visa Mind and Body Heart and Soul advertisement song. Perhaps it was that which made them the leading choice for the ICC CWC 2011 theme song. I'm still not certain what that ICC theme song was all about. In a way, it left me cold and irritated unlike the inspired upliftment conveyed by their Visa number.



Visa Number



The effort and degree of compositional complexity is certainly more in the CWC 2011 theme song but it fails to lift off for some reason or the other from its mumboed-jumboed start.

ICC CWC 2011 Theme Song



But this season's DLF IPL Extraaa Innings' theme song Dum Dhadaka composed by Sajid-Wajid and sung by Wajid is simple, peppy and captures intensely and intricately the mood of India in relation to cricket and the IPL phenomenon.

In a way, it recalled to me SEL's Mind and Body movement without being on the same plane as that. However, we rate it better than the ICC effort.

DLF IPL 2011 Dum Dhadaka



A theme song...a sporting theme song should bind your soul to the sport or the team. Since one couldn't decipher the ICC CWC 2011 theme song at all nor could relate to the heavy techno beats, we felt something missing. But hey, India won!

One more thing, SEL's world cup effort was far superior to AR's CWG fiasco. Actually today the ICC theme song sounds a little better. Voice recording clarity appears to be a serious problem with it though.

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Watching Mr.Valthaty bat

INDIA has a very brief spring season. If one remains preoccupied with receding winter or the approaching summer, it is likely that one's eye shall miss the shade of tender green that sprouts between dusty evergreen leaves of previous seasons and bare branches of vacated trees. Unlike the accommodating seasons of England, the young green can ill afford to linger in their state of innocence in this country. Summer in India races upon them far too quickly, and any lingering can only result in instant wilting, without the graces of gradually ageing through designated stages before mingling with the humus at the feet of great trees. Tenderness must wisen up speedily before they can hope to see the world. It's a survival tactic, strategy...a necessity. And it was on such a brief Indian spring evening that Mr.Paul Valthaty chose to unveil his specialness for us.

Every person has a daub of specialness brushed into him by a superior hand. Most of us never see the entire canvas or complete our lives without being aware of those daubs of divine paint inside us. Many see the paint but do not quite know what to make out of it. Sometimes, we are blinded - deliberately or by happenstance - and by the same measures, those who can see their specialness are sought to be dissuaded from their vision. Somewhere in all this confusion, Paul grew up from being a U-19 Youth cricketer of substance in 2002, to Mr.Valthaty, playing only his second IPL innings on yesterday's balmy April evening of 2011. If Abhishek Nayar hadn't plucked up the courage to speak to KXIP people about Paul, his long-time cricket mate, and if KXIP owners hadn't been the inquisitive and exploratory kinds, this withered youth cricketer might have been humus around the feet of Indian Cricket without ever having the opportunity to show us the daubs of paint the great overseer left inside him.

Following upon the heels of the seminal formation, Indian Cricket League (ICL), Indian Premier League (IPL) quickly made it its purpose to be that seeking needlehead of BCCI's syringe that tapped into rich and full veins and exposed precious corpuscles of vital talent hitherto hidden from our eyes. To be able to do that, IPL would require sure hands like those of one operating a well-intentioned and knowledgable syringe. To be able to harvest talent from veins coursing through India's vast landscape, IPL would also require assistance of such hands that sincerely share their local knowledge and apply tourniquets of recommendation and highlight the specific channels that need to be tapped. If Abhishek Nayar was being that tourniquet for his Mumbai mate, KXIP honcho, Preity Zinta, was the proving to be the appreciative hand guiding the syringe into the vein.

But frankly speaking, nobody knew who the hell Valthaty was as he walked out with his captain, Adam Gilchrist, in KXIP's attempt to chase down Chennai Super Kings' mammoth total. People might have been forgiven to think he was probably a South African recruit from one of the provinces of that Rainbow Nation. For nobody...nobody..had ever spoken about him before. Not before all IPLs, not before every IPL, or not before this IPL. Forget what they are saying now. Forget what the mee-maa-mine-aamchi-only-Mumbai-is-India brigade is falling over itself to say now. Forget what Indians-means-only-Mumbaikars brigade is twittering about right now. That's the nature of fame and reflected glory.

A sage and wise follower of domestic cricket in India, who also writes in prominent sports pages, and is an incorrigible slave of the above-mentioned 'brigade' weakness many Mumbaikars appear to be afflicted with, was instantly airing his views like one who has been espousing Mr.Valthaty's case ever since he was merely Paul the young one. Frankly, whatever research I was able to conduct through the good offices of Google Search, I was unable to detect one single mention of Paul Valthaty by the said gentleman in any of the his articles I managed to access from archives receding into the distant haze of 2002 AD. Yesterday, the gentleman was all over cheeping - calling to account first the MCA (Mumbai Cricket Association) and blaming them for ruining Valthaty's career; then addressing 'Pawarsaheb' and informing him first that Paul Valthaty was a Mumbaikara and his, Pawarsaheb's, selectors always ignored the boy; before he informed the socially networking public that the Late Dilip Sardesai it was who spotted Paul firs; and then he lapsed into something about 'ghodes' and gadhas'.

Like many Mumbaikars who like to set up a lofty platform quickly to assist in their being seen as a unique force of commentary dispensation, the wise and sage follower of 'Indian' domestic scene presaged his subsequent cheeping with "Those who understand.." and phrases like that. We were left to figure out that there was some covert mode of an attacking batsmanship that only 'those who understand' can spy. What you and I were enjoying watching - Mr.Valthaty purposefully putting away to boundaries bad and good balls with inspired anticipation, make-or-break confidence, exquisite set of skills and a sang-froid par excellence - was somehow supposed to be an extravagance of pleasure in comparison to the joy of one who had held him inside his bosom, away from public mention, for so long! The gentleman went on to assign credit to Vengsarkar's academy for designing this lad.

We must all get ready for Nohit kind of mania to once again blow from the west. Suddenly all cricket-oriented Mumbaionics were wording the same message - They knew! They knew Paul 'The Mumbaikar' Valthaty was always good all the time and it was the mistake of the Indians to not have recognized him earlier.

I wondered why not one of them ever mentioned in their reams of articles and terabyes of web publishing. Not in any year going back in time.

But Mr.Valthaty was playing the kind of innings that generates that kind of fevicol pride. He wasn't baulked as wickets fell around him. He wasn't embarrassed by one drop at 16. He wasn't ruffled by the Super Kings trying to. He was a batsman in the zone, completely intent on playing out the defining innings of his life and taking his team to victory.

The beauty of Mr.Valthaty's innings, for me, lay in how few sixes he scored in rattling up 120 runs in about ten overs he played! His innings underlined the overratedness of hitting sixes in LOIs. Especially T20. Almost on pat with Sachin Tendulkar's philosophy of scoring quick runs.

Mr.Valthaty played all around the wicket. He played deliberately but with no predeliberation. It didn't matter who bowled, what and where - all things from Mr.Valthaty were in perfect place and execution.

Be it the caromming Superking, Ashwin, or the Lankan doosra - Randiv, Mr.Valthaty cut, square cut, late cut, pulled, swept, drove off the front and back foot, on either side of the wicket and straight. He did the same to Southee, Morkel, Styris and Jakati. The paint daubs inside him were taking shape of a dream come true.

The pleasant northern evening was garnished by his batsmanship. It was a classic innings. That said, we must give Mr.Valthaty opportunity to be accustomed to this new light shining on his revived career. We must provide him with space to set up consistency and progress.

It matters little what happens in future - Paul Valthaty owes nobody anything except perhaps those who truly helped him expand on this stage.

We shall enjoy him whenever he can whip up such a course for us. We shall enjoy him as a batsman, a cricketer back from the dead, an Indian, a Mallu and also as a Mumbaiyya.

We shall relish the modesty of that man. We shall preserve the turbulence rising and quickly calming to purpose when he scored his hundred. He had transcened anonymity, he had transcended juvenility...he came across a man firmly rooted and quietly feeling the joy of achievement.

It isn't often an ignored talent can sustain fire in his belly for so long and not be consumed by it all.

Next time an anonymous talent shines, hopefully those who wish to share the light would have made mention of their cases or even promoted theit qualities through their intruments.

Full match highlights on Indiatimes YouTube

Second Innings highlights on Indiatimes YouTube

Scorecard

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Most Chuffed, We

This morning, good friend Jarrod Kimber (Uncle J rod of CWB fame), popped a most gratifying tweet across our timeline.

Hobbyists like us live and die for such moments as that we have captured in the screenshot of Uncle's tweet.

You can bet your bottom basic monetary unit without the slightest hesitation for fear of losing it that one's grandchildren (If one survives till they happen - most certainly by word of mouth, and if one doesn't - through our written memoirs) shall hear about this. Such are we.

Our thanks to UJ for his caring tweet straight from Wisden dinner itself, and to Wisden for finding space for us upon their pages.

Our congratulations also to others mentioned in the tweet, most of whom readers here, and of cricket blogs in general, would be familiar with already.

We must add here that WesPFCNFS and Ant Sims of Paddlesweep are also mentioned as per an earlier tweet by UJ.

What one has to figure out now is how to lay hands on a copy of the Almanack (2011 Edition) and find the page where the mention occurs. We are hoping to get all blurry-eyed upon espying the sacred space, not to speak of being re-energized. :)

I convey my gratitude on behalf of TCWJ, Balajhi and self.




PS:- Our good friend from Leg Side Filth had once suggested we stay on for the England series as we publicly contemplated retirement in face of creative block we were trussed up in. This tweet today does much to encourage us to accept the suggestion. You see, we have to continue keeping an eye on England!

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Deconstructing a low slung yorker

[ NOTE:- This article here is purely intended to be an aid for budding cricketers who may increasingly be exposed to low-slung yorkers in future - as batsmen, wicketkeepers, or even as bowlers who may wish to take it up and add this low-slung sports car of a delivery to their bowling repertoire. The screenshots from the YouTube portal of Indiatimes have been employed purely with this limited educative purpose in mind. Our sincere thanks to them. If this limited, educative, non-commercial use is objected to, we'll take them off with thanks again.

At no time do we claim this to be an article discussing the legality of the delivery or questioning the bowler's action. That is NOT our purpose, intention or our ability - for we are not authorities in either cricket, its laws, bowling, camerawork or scientific testing. I reiterate, this is NOT an article discussing legality of delivery or intended to denigrate anyone and is ONLY an attempt to provide some markers for batsmen to recognize it quickly and in time.

Thank you ]

Lasith Malinga is the sleek car in the happening spots of cricketing towns. Everybody wants to bowl a yorker like he does. And all the time too, for those kind of low-slung balls appear to get the right kind of fan following up and hopping in their chairs. Some fans even want to be married that instant to the leading exponent of this art, if one goes by the posters seen on television during matches! So little wonder that every fellow who fancies himself to be a bowler wants that ball on him.

Only the other day, I saw a couple of chappaled kids in an open plot playing THE game with a Cosco ball and an antique piece of wood which must have been at some time of its life a glorious sapling first, and then a bat waiting for the right hands. Needless to say, there were replicas of Malingas and Bothas operating. Tells you something about which player is being watched and where success is sauntering currently like a pretty princess.

Also needless to say, the state of batsmen on that vacant plot facing up to the Malinga clone was the same as the state of batsmen facing up to the real Malinga on international and domestic cricket fields. Stumps were flying everywhere and batsmen were being flung off their feet. A zipping Cosco ball straight on your toes can leave you limping for a day at least, if not two. Chaps prefer to get those bare toes quickly out of the way for you can always bat again in the next innings if the stumps are uprooted. I paused for a while absorbing the scenes and that's when it struck me that batsmen perhaps do not know how to read a low-slung yorker.

If the bowler is bowling with an action like Malinga's, then it is important, I feel (and I could be wrong), to watch the angle between his arm and flank rather than the palm of his hand. Forget the swing...forget watching the seam...a low-slung yorker is going to come into you from outside your off stump and from nowhere else. It'll curve into you from under your eyes...right arm bat or left arm bat...Malinga has that ability.

That swing is standard.

Watching the ball is pointless because the palm usually comes at great speed firstly, and then is usually in front of the umpires face.

The trick to playing a Malinga type bowler is to be able to spot when that arm comes in low to bowl that yorker, as against his regular round-arm action which is a few degrees higher, and his other variation - the higher arm ball...almost like other bowlers on the circuit.

Malinga uses that higher arm variation from his stock round arm to bowl the slower bouncer or the slower yorker or the slower ball.

His special delivery - the low-slung yorker takes the lower variation from his stock round arm action.

This is my basis for batsmen to observe the angle between hos sleeve and side of body to qucikly recognize the variations.

And they have to be quick!For Malinga whips the ball from behind his head acutely. He extends his arm away behing his body and doesn't allow the batsman to guess. When his arm comes to the level of his head behind his mop of hair, it is at this point that he applies one of the three levels and speeds to his arm - 1) the low slung yorker comes in almost horizontal to the ground and fast and furious arm speed. It was hell trying to split the frames while trying to capture the screenshots! 2) His stock delivery is slightly higher than the horizontal to the ground and speed isn't that quick. About 5-10 degrees difference can be observed in the gap between the side of his body and upper arm. The axilla/armpit angle is wider. 3) The third variation, almost a high-arm delivery is easy to spot and from the back of his head continues to rise up and comes down slower. There isn't as much strength in his high-arm variety.

Importantly, he will always flex more laterally when bowling that low-slung meanie yorker. That's another giveway. His shoulder tip rises as a result and batsman's eye follow the rise expecting the arm with it only to be shattered down to earth when the arm comes below his line of sight or at level to it in a furious downward arc from behind Malinga's head. Watch the angle formed by his arm and flank always to just before release point.

The screenshots I took were only of the low-slung variation...the yorker that kills...for that is the most prominent ball today in world cricket. And, the process was tedious and I didn't have the stamina to screen shot his stock ball and high-arm slower one.

That is an exercise I leave to you all and you can scan videos at You Tube to understand those aspects.

Plate 1



To assist in understanding what I wrote above, is a screenshot of his dismissing DD's opener. The legends are self explanatory and I have color coded them to avoid confusion.

I have used the point of his shoulder as reference and all lines except white, intersect through it.

Yellow is the horizontal to the ground. Horizontal parallel to the pitch.

Red is a line that connects his two shoulder tips and has been extended on either side. If you imagine Jesus Christ's cross, that red line can stand for the horizontal arm of the cross.

Blue is the hypothetical ideal for high-arm overarm bowling. Bowlers tend to flex laterally to clear the way for their arms and allow them to come into that line from that high-point. Pollock, McGrath, Morne Morkel...any number of examples. They have to get their heads out of the way by latelally flexing the trunk and allow the ramrod straight arm to flow down straight.

White line is a crude representation of the line of vertebral column...the spine. It flexes severly around the lumbar region to lift that shoulder tip high to the level the horizontal to the pitch (yellow line) so the bowling arm may come arcing round at that level, or around that level give or take a few degrees.

The mottled black-white line is the extention of the vertebral column line and represents the vertical arm of Jesus Christ's cross.

So once all these things are understood, the rest is easy to relate with what I have written above.

In the next plate, I have rotated the above image by 30 degrees in clockwise direction to help you see the Jesus Christ cross I speak about formed by red line and white line with its mottled extention. This is just to get that perspective and understand better if you have trouble reading tilts.

Plate 2



The whip begins here. Forget trying to watch the ball/palm of hand.

Plate 3



In the two plates that follow, is the high point behind his head. It is from this level that any of his three angles can take off - 1) The low-slung yorker comes in at the level of yellow line 2) his stock round-arm comes higher between yellow and red, and 3) his high-arm action slow ball comes in between red and blue lines.

You can always watch the angle of his axilla....armpit...which will be different, unless if he is wearing loose fluttering sleeve when it will be difficult to observe. Thankfully, Malinga doesn't wear loose sleeves.

Plate 4



Plate 5



This is the delivery part of the low-slung yorker. I have added the coloured axes for your convenience. This is the most important part of watching for a batsman. Look at his axilla...the angle between his uppr arm and side of chest...it will not be more than 90 degrees for this variation if you have a concept of geometry.

If that upper arm is around horizontal to ground (yellow line) expect the ball to be tearing after your toes! Observe the release shots.

This is the point of release of the ball, of one of his low-slung yorkers bowled to Aggarwal of KXIP in IPL.

Plate 6



Just after release.

Plate 7



Mind you, his arm movement is quickest when it is bowling this low-slung yorker. It is slower as it gets higher and away from the side of his body. all this happens in a blur and a batsman preparing to face Malinga or Malinga-type bowler should have this image in mind and readiness as he walks out to face him. Be prepared from ball one, for that's where he likes to begin with regarding yorkers.


It wasn't easy to split frames as you can see the time in screenshots. In one second there were so many frames and manually slitting them was difficult.

To those who want to study this subject and topic more, I urge you to watch all the videos of his, identify his variations and stock ball, split them into frames and mentally form a picture, just in case you meet him orone like him!

Kids are wanting to be Malinga...let's not ignore that!

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GOD is a True Champion

[ Credit: This Image belongs wholly to Cricinfo and Associated Press and has been linked to from here just to illustrate the points below and not for any commercial purposes. We do not have any commercial interest on this blog or arising out of it and is purely hobby and educational. We shall be happy to remove it if objected to just as we'd be happy and grateful to be permitted it's limited use as shown. ]




Take a good look at the above picture my friends. GOD has been pictured here holding the elusive World Cup. This is not out of a promotional but a scene out of real life. Take a good look and read below.

► If ever should you feel like giving up, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "Carry on. Don't give up!"

► If ever should you feel like your dream is taking too long, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "It's never too long for a dream to come true"

► If ever should you feel like your efforts are not bearing desired fruit, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "Keep doing the right things again and again and again and change only what you really need to."

► If ever should you feel like there are too many hurdles strewn in your path, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "There's always one less hurdle if you are determined to overcome it."

► If ever should you feel like good things happen only to others, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "They also happen to you."

► If ever should you feel like it takes only a genius to do what you wish not to attempt, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "Geniuses have to toil long and hard to be geniuses."

► If ever should you feel like there is nothing more to achieve, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "Expand your vision. Allow your dream to grow."

► If ever should you feel like complaining about what you do, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "Enjoy what you do."

► If ever should you feel like you are a cut above the rest, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "The best things happen to you when you are contributing to a team. The team then wants to add value to you!"

► If ever should you feel like it's a huge risk to make your dream happen, take a look at the image above. GOD smiles at you and says "Dreams are built upon wise risks taken."

~0~

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Congratulations Team India and Thank You

For making me feel like 1983 was just the day before and not 28 long years ago.

But let me share with you a few of my innermost thoughts about the Cup this time and the two world cups.

1) I was certain you would win this cup. The only time I was ever certain about Team India was in '83 when I first espied the whittled down probables (from 60 to 30) in the newspaper. When the final squad was announced in '83, I was absolutely convinced India would win. My friends and colleagues on the cricket team were naturally not convinced for India was NOT an ODI playing team. I just asked them to take a look at the players selected....I asked them to read a name, close their eyes and visualize what kind of player he was. They did play along and mumbled "ya ya" every time I called out a name but remained unconvinced about the entire tournament. One tried to show how most were all-rounders, proud mature men who hated to lose ( as we saw them in Ranji and Tests), athletic types capable of cavalier batsmanship, fielding and applied bowling. I reminded them of their win in West Indies. It took India to win two matches before they began to be convinced.

I ended up wagering Rs.100 (large amount that time and which I didn't have but promised to cough up if I lost) - the first and only time I ever wagered with money on cricket. Thanks to Kapil's Devils, I never had to figure out how to touch my father for a hundred. And that too to pay off a bet!

This time too I was convinced we had the team...maybe slightly weak in bowling but a mature team nevertheless. I had no suspicions about the batsmen but did expect the bowlers to be on their toes.

India had played tough games coming into their tournament...like in 1983...one felt it was well rounded.

2) Dhoni and the team around him didn't appear to be as disturbed as they were in 2007. It was more like the '83 team in the sense that while they may have differences they were mature enough to figure out priorities.

3) Another reason I felt India would win was that whenever domination became an issue in cricket, it was India that pulled the plug. If West Indies was rampant upto '83, so was Australia upto 2011. I know there isn't any logic in this thought but India has done stuff like this before and well it was just a thought which stayed in my mind.

Have fun and all that and hopefully you all play better cricket and win more recognition. There are targets of course - Test series wins in Australia, South Africa and an emphatic one in Sri Lanka before retaining this cup.

4) Pass on your experience and better aspects of what you have learnt individually and collectively to your juniors and state team mates, even as you play, well before your retirements. That way you become better Champions. You perpetuate the culture of excellence in your chosen field. Show others how it is done. That's all any person can do as contribution to his sphere of activity which enriches him in different ways, the society he lives in and his country.

That is probably what being a World Champion is all about. We wouldn't know of course but we imagine it is an ideal like that.

---

There is little to say anything which hasn't already been said or tweeted. Maybe someday we'll write a kahaani.

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Team India, you have already made us proud

Brothers, you have already done enough for us all.

You have allowed us a glimpse of what it is like to be the best Test team. You have been champions of T20 and you have shown that you are no less than the other team in 50-50 either. Believe me, you have given us, cricket followers in India, plenty of joy.

With your performances in this World Cup, you have already wiped away the disappointment of the last World Cup. You owe us nothing anymore.

Today is the the match for you to enjoy. To celebrate your preparations, your practices, your performances. Today, you go out there to simply play like you fantasized, like you visualized you would when you decided to become cricketers.

I hope you have a happy time on the field today, brothers.

Go on India, Enjoy yourselves! And Good Luck doing it!

Aaj fulltoo masti karne ka din hai aur ham sab aapke saath hain. Thodi si akal aur bahut saara jigre se bahut kuch haasil ho jaata hai.

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Dhoni lays his cards on the table

The challenge has been issued. The gauntlet has been taken off and cast at the feet of the Lankans. MS Dhoni, in that controversial presser earier in the day where the entire Indian press was banned by ICC, has clearly stated a few of his tactics.

He would like to bat first. The man who admitted he read the pitch wrong the other day feels the pitch and dew could be a factor in the second innings. That's a view in concordance with Sanjay Manjrekar's, long time Mumbai Ranji cappo, tweet earlier. The slow lowness of the pitch later and desire to bat first appear to go in favour of Ashwin as one of the configurees in the 2-2+Yuvi attack. Ashwin could be a surprise, but will he be to a team that has faced Murali, Mendis and Randiv in the nets so many times? If the pitch grips after it has been balded, then he could be handy. A large total first up and Lanka batting second could be the thought that cues in his entry.

There is a case for a third seamer instead too. The same low and slow pitch can be a deadly ally of a paceman who knows how to jive to its chune. Nehra might have been that but is Sree all of that? And the dew - doesn't it favour a third seamer? What one made out of that presser however was that Dhoni was Ashwinningly inclined.

So there is nothing left to hide from Dhoni - one single change, Ashwin coming in for Nehra. Munna and Zak to troll through the Lankan batting in snatches of twos and threes in the mid-game.

Yusuf Pathan will probably also sit out after Raina's last innings. Raina could also be the dibbly-dobbly needed on such a pitch.

To implement his plans, he will have to depend on the unpredictable - the Toss.

Is there enough in this plan to succeed if Dhoni loses the toss instead?


By the way, the ICC has backed off to save itself more bad press and further scrutiny of its illogical tax cut benefit, and allowed Indian media to also partake of the same crumbs given to foreign media.

And Lankan news is that Randiv could be playing. As Russell put it, that's 30 overs of doosra Lanka have loaded up their barrels. May cease to to be a surprise weapon.

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Be Magnanimous India

Captains do not follow what is said in the media. They are masters of their own decisions mostly. Yet the media is not merely impotent conduits of information.

Today, even more than yesterday, media draws up trellises upon which millions of opinions can creep and crawl in various directions. Often predetermined ones, or stray strands of opinions are cajoled into requisite directions by good gardening media fingers. Society may heed - captains and proletariat alike - sometimes, to such proddings.

While MS Dhoni is unlikely to follow the advice suggested in cricket talk shows on popular news channels of India regarding the Murali conundrum, I am slightly nonplussed by the sheer competitiveness driving those suggestions.

Murali is said to be injured without confirmation. Again, without confirmation, it is said he might play as a pure bowler while sitting out the fielding stint. India's captain, it is being suggested, must raise objection to a substitute fielder or a runner (if it comes to that but I think that last one is a tad optimistic). This is where the disconnect begins to happen with me.

The way I see it, Captain Dhoni, Team India and the backstage staff of India have played this tournament on their own, positive, terms without having to resort to assistance and subterfuge. The people of India have also supported the tournament unstintingly and sincerely in a sporting spirit. I may typecast myself as one unfit to take tough decisions and execute them for the maximum advantage of a team at my command when I say, India must be magnanimous and not do a Randiv-Sangakkara type tango as the media pundits are urging us to do.

India has set out to win this Cup on its chosen terms. Fairplay and sportsmanship have been significant aspects of their campaign - irrespective of pressure to do otherwise. Be it a Nehra who broke his finger in taking a forward diving catch in the outfield but signalled to the umpire that it ptobably wasn't clean and he was free to check if he so wished, or a Sachin Tendulkar seeking a 100^th international centuty walking at the merest suggestion of an appeal, India has played this tournament like kings. They musn't diminish this royal nature of their game for the style of gamesmanship.

Talking about Sachin Tendulkar and his walking - at a forum generally hostile to India and Indians and anything Indian, populated by well known entities behind handles, and overflowing with deep jealousy at India's cricketing jewels, a cynic began a thread as soon as Sachin walked against West Indies in this tournament, asking mockingly if he'd do that in the next match against Australia or Pakistan looming up in the QFs? The gentleman poster was implying with a chortle that the great champion was merely filling up chapters of a carefully constructed life story by risking a walk against a weakly inconsequentuial side and match like that. He wondered if Sachin would ever repeat the walk now that he had done a Gilly by walking off once.


As luck would have it, Sachin walked the very next match. Versus Australia, only to be restrained by the umpire who wished to clear his own doubts as to the legality of that Shaun Tait delivery on the return crease aspect. It is understandable that the said gentleman poster had nothing more to add to the thread he had started and bumped up with visible enthusiasm a few days earlier. India must play the way it has. It is brilliant to watch as well.

Victory and defeat are just facets of the game even if they can be drenching to the spectators in opposite ways. India wants to win this Cup solely on efforts and without a tainted action to besmirch it. Allowing the great Murali the luxury and liberty to play as he wishes, wherever whenever the rules suggest a captain's discretion may be employed, in his final ODI (could be Sachin's too as we have said before) India will have added a certain grandness to this World Cup venture of theirs.

India's peripherals should not come across afraid of Murali's wizardry (not that Team India is) and plunge into this unsavoury action of suggesting denial to him of this small luxury and ruin what show Team India has conjured up for us thus far.

Team India has played like men...like champions....and champions respect another champions without being afraid of the other. Media and fans must do like the team they support does. Anyway, MS Dhoni is not a cheap man.

Give Murali a decent final game and yet prevail to win the Cup! Who knows if this isn't a distracting herring thrown your way? Lanka is capable of deeper and subtler mindgames than most countries are. And even if it isn't, what's the guarantee that India will not fall to Mendis or Herath or Kulasekara? Think like the champions you want to be. Visualize the road to it firmly and quit focusing on the end result itself all the time. Ensure the road to that goal is one you would love to walk upon again and again and again.

Haar gaye thoda gam zaroor hoga, par jeet pakki honi chahiye. Tute-phoote jeet ko kahan kahan sambhalte firoge?


What is the Murali Conundrum?

It is reported that Murali has a hamstring issue and may play only as a bowler without fielding. Some Laws of Cricket may therefore be in breach, especially if he also requests a runner and Sanga a substitute fielder. India's captain, MS Doni, can interject and disallow like England's Strauss has done in the past.

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Respect the opposition

Sangakkara's Sri Lankans are a formidable side. They aren't unbeatable by any stretch of imagination, but they are worthy of respect. If MS Dhoni has been a delivering captain for India, Sri Lanka has a matching skipper in Kumara Sangakkara. In fact, Sangakkara is one of the two main batsmen of Sri Lanka around which their team is designed. If we cut through the respective hypes of Sri Lankan fans since before the second semi-final and Indian portion of it after the same, we come up against two good teams who have played against each other and alongside (in IPL) frequently in the past four years. To say one is distinctly superior to the other, therefore, is something to be taken with adequate seasoning. Yet an assessment of forces and their relative strengths must be made.

Most tactics that will emerge from both sides are known. If Sehwag will open the batting for India in a particular manner, Dilshan is his counterpart on the Lankan side. Both are known entities and have been sufficiently studied. If Zak and Bhajji are expected, so are Malinga, Mendis and Murali. Another common component of strategies of both sides...a common tactic has been to employ spinners early. Lanka have employed Dilshan and Herath effectively and India has succeded with Ashwin and Bhajji. Of the two, if one were to nitpick, perhaps Sri Lanka it is who has more regularly employed spin early while India has used it on a per case basis. So can one predict this tactic from Sri Lanka? Probably not. They may change to another tactic of employing tradional methods like Malinga and Kulasekara.

Nuwan Kulasekara has been an able performer against India. Along with him is the 'India Specialist' Thisara Perera, who if playing, is capable of course-altering performances. Herath may make way, or somebody else may. Mendis and Murali have always had the upper hand over the Indian ODI middle order. Then there is that forgotten man, Fernando, who simply by being absent from the attack for such a long while has developed an aura of mystery. Dilshan has proved to be a man with a 'golden 'arm'. A combination of these palyers are likely to bowl 50 overs at the Indians tomorrow.

As much as it will be a test of Sehwag's patience and self-control, this attack will be a thorough examination for the new, revitalized Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj has been a self-confessed non-reader of Murali. Many times in the past he has been the archetypal rabbit frozen in the highway headlamps while facing Murali. I recall the Sharjah fiasco (circa 2000) where Yuvraj first displayed his inability to read Murali and he has confirmed that since many times. This World Cup version of Yuvi has looked different, but he hasn't played serious spin yet in this WC. Against Pakistan, he didn't have the chance to check out Ajmal, Hafeez and Afridi. He didn't bat against the Bangla spinners either. Yuvi did well against the likes of an ill Yardy and a petulant Swann completely defocused from his bowling. Against Saffers, Yuvi didn't have an impactful tenure at the crease and it is only against Bishoo and Benn that we have sufficient data to draw from. Yuvi scored 33 runs off 36 Bishoo balls and 10 off five Benn deliveries. So he is still a man who needs to play upper class spinners like Sri Lankan. Too often in the past we have seen his confidence against other teams dissolve against Lanka. But what we have today appears to be an upgraded version of the flammable Yuvi. Patience and clever play should see him through. In his favour are his bare stats - despite his weakness against spin, he has scored almost on par with his overall average against them in over 50 ODIs and at a healthy SR of 82. Is there then a case for his coming up at no.4 instead of Kohli?

If India needs something, it is a really good start from its openers. It is then that the middle order is likely to be dangerous even if WC 2011 facts suggest more of a collapso happening! Following a good start, India must be able to keep a threatening tempo despite a wicket or two at the top. Gambhir and Kohli/Yuvraj will have to ensure that. Dips in RRs have not helped India and the Bleeding Blues haven't been able to up their RR after a slump in most WC matches. That is something they will have to address. Against Sri Lanka, it is better to have a high score than a lower one if India bats first, for it is a team that has chased India's 400+ to within 3 runs with their own 400+ innings! If a good start accrues for India, then it must keep kicking on steadily.

India's bowling will be attacked in the most stealthy manner possible. Dilshan and a few of the middle and lower order bats may be more frank in their batting but Chandana, Jayawerdene and Sangakkara will slice you up completely before you realize you are actually dead.

Having said that, India's advantage has been that they have shown the ability to lift their bowling and fielding games by a few percentage points whenever they needed to. It is not as if India hasn't any strengths...their biggest one, batting, after beginning brightly hasn't really performed as per expectations even though everybody has had a chance to bat. I think batting is what upon which the result will hinge.

Both teams will be inclined to chase even though Dhoni's wanted to bat first at times in this tournament. It's my personal reading. But if India bat first, they must bat momentously. And in a pleasant manner to an Indian fan, I may add.

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Well said, Mr. Ajay Maken

Mr.Ajay Maken, Sports Minister of India, is reported to have recorded his strong objection to the inexplicable tax cut granted to ICC in a meeting over the issue.




Very correctly, he is said to have pointed towards the setting of an unhealthy precedent that could be emulated by all sports bodies operating in and out of India.

Ajay Maken has never been the meek sorts, and oh, don't get fooled by his looks. He can make a good point very well.

Esto Vir Mr.Maken!

Also, it is difficult to ignore the points Mr.Goswami is making on Times Now upon the issue of propriety.

My only question remains the same - Just Wondering.

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