Opinions On Cricket

Staring down the abyss

2012-02-23T15:50:00.005-06:00

It wasn't too long ago that India had scaled the ODI peak by winning the World Cup. Tendulkar declared Dhoni to be the best captain that he had played under. It was Team India and not a collection of individuals anymore. We had declared that the team had been cast in Dhoni's image of being calm, cool and collected against the highest of odds.

Alas, it didn't last! Historically, India had never fielded unified teams. The feuds between stars are well known. Most times these feuds impacted the team's performances but sometimes they came together for the collective good. Sports persons are strong personalities. They usually require emotion to fuel their intensity and deliver great performances. Superb individual efforts often inspire team efforts of success.

On the ODI front, Tendulkar alone seems to have inspired stroke play hitherto not the forte of India. Often we had marveled at Pakistan's ability to produce the Inzy's out of nowhere to shred bowling attacks. Recently however, India laid claim to that title of inspired, jaw-dropping stroke play with Sehwag, Gambhir, Dhoni, Raina and Yuvraj leading the charge.

Sehwag has been a misfit in the ODI squad for quite a while and we had advocated dropping him completely from the World Cup squad. However, most people are willing to let Sehwag play for that occasional enormous innings that he plays like the recent 219 and the opening salvo he fired in the World Cup against Bangladesh.

Perhaps, the Indian team's astounding ODI performances had led to a happy dressing room and maybe not being accustomed to failure, harsh emotional exchanges had been rare or non-existent. Dhoni didn't need to perhaps assert himself on the team because the team was delivering without his inspiration. This is all theory and speculation.

Post World Cup, however, it appears that the team has begun to fall apart. Dhoni and the "seniors" in particular seem to be at odds with each other. In my opinion, Gambhir and Sehwag are deliberately undermining the captain and it is pretty sad. The captain is first among equals and he deserves the support of the team members, senior or otherwise. Every team member is a significant member and for Sehwag and Gambhir to claim some special exemption from a policy that the captain seeks to implement is quite sad.

Having said that, Dhoni's lack of ability to navigate the shark infested "senior waters" is telling. We would all want the captain to be the ultimate diplomat, salesman, motivator, evangelist and handsome to boot. Unfortunately, Jesus Christ died on a cross 2000 years ago and Gandhi didn't play cricket very well. We are still researching to find out if Jesus played any sports. Judging by Tendulkar's statements, Dhoni must be the best person to be captain of the team.

To me Sehwag dropping Rohit Sharma and making him a pawn in the game of team politics is pathetic. Sharma needed a confidence boost and I think this latest act of political doo doo would have done him no good. I hope Tendulkar is taking the time to help the young batsman stay focused on his cricket. Sehwag seems to have made it a point to drop Sharma to rub Dhoni the wrong way. For the BCCI to ask Dhoni and Sehwag to work it out and not instantly drop Sehwag is another pathetic attempt at non-leadership. Insubordination is a big deal and should be treated as such.

If a future inquiry reveals Dhoni's motives to be suspect, by all means Sehwag should be brought back. But to openly rebel against the skipper's stated policy is shameful. Coming from a mediocre ODI performer it's even more pathetic. For all of Sehwag's inspired test match stroke play, his recent captaincy performance deserves be to condemned. Putting his personal vendetta over the team is miserable. My respect for Sehwag has nosedived.

I had thought Gambhir to be an emotional, yet smart player. I also respected his captaincy credentials and thought him to be the man best suited to take over after Dhoni, should Dhoni have given up test matches. Kohli would be the future leader, but it would be another 6-8 years before he was ready. But by undermining the skipper, Gambhir deserves a reprimand too. None of Gambhir's and Sehwag's actions are helpful to the team, regardless of whether the rotation policy is the right policy.

Dhoni is still captain and he deserves to be allowed to succeed or fail on his merits. Back-stabbers like Sehwag and Gambhir will do it to other skippers whose policies they don't like. It's dangerous to pamper them.

Policies, Rules, Processes and Culture

2012-02-17T14:03:00.000-06:00

With the BCCI, it is probably hard to report anything with a straight face but almost all reports covering the predictable reunion of Sahara India Parivaar and the BCCI started off quoting Rajiv Shukla that "no rules were broken".

I am not sure if the intent of these reports was to induce a roll of the eyes, a scoff, an uncontrolled involuntary laugh or it was just plain old reporting the news as it happened. However I was curious as to why the BCCI would want to stress and communicate that it has broken no rules in mending relationships with Sahara.

The BCCI is run by smart, successful leaders in India, be it politicians or businessmen. A lot of intelligence, real world skills and dollops of cunning is plentiful among the BCCI elite. Over time, I have realized that nothing the BCCI bigwigs do or say should be dismissed as nonsense, however strong the urge to do just that. So when the BCCI says the they are rejecting the Woolfe report or want us to know that "no rules were broken" or they are unwilling to take a "leap of faith" with the DRS or they make statemements like "players are free to request rest" there is more to it than mere words and the meaning it conveys.

For an organization that makes up its own rules and accountable to no one, why the sudden need to convey that rules are important to them? I don't know. Maybe the message they wanted to send out was that the BCCI came out tops in spite of Sahara threatening to do a BCCI on the BCCI but could not quite pull it off.

Moving on...its been a while since we have heard Mahendra Singh Dhoni or any of the guys who care to front up to the media use the 'Process' line. "It is important to follow the process. The results will take care of itself", was a line frequently used in South Africa, through the World Cup and I think even in England. Lately however with the advent of some public airing of differring views on finishing wins, the process line has been rotated for a new term...."The rotation policy". But before that, I must say that the way Gambhir and Mahendra Singh Dhoni openly presented differing views on finishing off games has been refreshing. It is healthy. I don't remember any Indian team who were open about their disagreements.

I don't know if there is any meat to reports that Sehwag has captaincy aspirations. If he does, I am only happy. If he disagrees with Dhoni and he believe he can do a better job, he should go for the job. There is no value in having someone like Anil Kumble. In hindsight he would have been a great captain after Saurav Ganguly but who knew?

Lately there has been much talk about "The Rotation Policy". I don't know what the fuss is about. All knowing, presumptuous, cynical cricket fans like me can see through it. Sachin Tendulkar needs to score his 100th and preparations to dfefend the World Cup have to start. These are conflicting goals. In classic management consultant style Dhoni has coined a term... "Rotation Policy"... to do both without addressing the problem (to be specific about the problem - What to do with the the biggest whiteset elephantest elephant in the room). Watch how the policy disappears once Sachin gets his 100th. Something convenient will happen for the policy to be rotated like the 'Process takes care of the resullts line'

In a recent tweet, Harsha Bhogle had this to say..."i believe england's woeful record in asia can change if they embrace the continent and its culture. they have the team to do it". It got me thinking. Firstly it implies that England haven't embraced the continent and the Asian culture. Secondly, would he implicate India with doing the same? Do we lose in England and Australia because we don't embrace the 2 countries? Do Indians appreciate the English / Western culture? or do we still believe Gandhi's joke about it being a "good idea" as a serious opinion.

The legacy of India's greatest generation of batsmen is sadly just personal numbers and home wins

2012-02-12T15:03:00.000-06:00

Over at ESPN Cricinfo in a piece, titled Which teams are the worst travelers?, S Rajesh digs up some numbers since the end of Australia's reign as a super power on the field. I add 'in the field' because I don't even for a minute want to cast any doubts on who the super power is in the board rooms of the ICC.

The numbers reveal trends that are largely to be expected. On the surface it is evident that Asian teams struggle outside of Asia and non-Asian teams struggle in Asia.

However England, South Africa and Australia as a unit, compete far more effectively in Asia compared to Asian teams in Australia, South Africa and England combined. But these visiting teams have little to show in terms of real wins in Asia. However Asian teams simply refuse to show up and offer any sort of competition to home teams outside Asia.

The period covered in the analysis is since 2005. Roughly the time Australia lost its claim to being a truly dominating side after losing the Ashes to England. It is also the period when India's undisputed all time greats Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid have been collectively prolific

What was hard to swallow is that in this period India, amongst Pakistan and Sri Lanka did not even have the best Win/Loss ratio in Tests in England, South Africa and Australia. That distinction goes to Sri Lanka. For all its troubles and controversies; although self inflicted; Pakistan have only 1 win less than India.

And that led me to think....what value are our current greats truly bringing to the team? Their personal legacies are unquestionable. However what of India's? Younis Khan and Mahela Jayawardhane will probably never be given the same respect in India as say a Sachin Tendulkar or a VVS Laxman or a Dravid. However the likes of say a Sangakara, Jayawardhane, Younis Khan; they are part of teams that have done better or as worse as India when it comes to competing out of their comfort zones.

It is harsh but I have to say it...beyond personal numbers India's greats have not been able to make an ounce of a difference to their country's fortunes. The problem may lie with the openers, with the bowling but the numbers are painful nonetheless.

I then went on a trip down India's history since the beginning of time.

How have the current greats helped India in away series compared to Indian teams of the past. To simplify I broke up India's away history into 3 periods

The first that began with the Nawab of Pataudi Jr, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. Who by all accounts was the first to inculcate, in his own words, 'A winning mindset'. This period include the rise of India's great spinners and ends with the retirement of Sunil Gavaskar and the fading of Kapil Dev as a real threat. The period between 1968 to 1986 of 18 years. A period where the captaincy went from Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi to Kapil Dev.

The second period is a transitional period of 13 years between 1987 and 2000. A period, or rather the mindset, we often refer to as the '90s mindset'. This was when winning a Test abroad was never entertained even as a stray thought. It started with the captaincy being awarded to Dilip Vengsarkar as just reward for long service to the country. There was no other cricketing reason for Vengsarkar to be made captain. The period ended with Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammed Azharuddin playing musical chairs with the captaincy. Many of the current greats made their debuts in this period but Indian wins in this period were templatized to win big at home. Score runs and spin the hapless tourists out. Something that Gautam Gambhir pines for even today.

The 3rd period, is popularly known as the Golden era of India's middle order. One of the greatest in the game. This one is the period of 12 years since 2001. Post match fixing to early IPL era. The actors in this period are well known and current.

To keep things comparable, I excluded tours to Sri Lanka and South Africa since these opportunities were unavailable to all periods. Having won no significant number of matches or any series in either Sri Lanka or South Africa, I think this only reflects favorably on the current team

In all honesty, I was hoping to find that our Golden Generation has a lot more wins to show for all the individual runs they have scored. During this period, mind you, India have had world class bowlers in Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan.

But try and digest this...

In the last 12 years India have lost 39% of their matches away from home compared to 36% between 1968 and 1986. There isn't much to shout about in the win column as well. 22% wins for the current bunch compared to 19% between 1968 and 1986. In fact India won 12 matches combined in Pakistan, England, West Indies, New Zealand and Australia in this period compared to only 10 since 2002. For the record India did not win a single Test match away from home in these countries between 1987 and 2001

Even our record in Australia was better during the 70s and 80s than now. If Ajit Agarkar had not happened one afternoon in late 2003, our Golden Generation would not have much to show for all their runs.

The one thing our current greats have achieved, that past teams did not, is series win in Pakistan. That is all.

Outside of that series, series wins in West Indies, New Zealand, England have been achieved before by previous Indian teams. Even the World Cup was won before. Indians held individual batting and bowling records before.

The legacy of India's greatest generation of batsmen is sadly just personal numbers and home wins. They are no different than past greats and I see no reason why future generations cannot do what India has always done. Win big and often at home, score lots of 100s and keep fans happy.

Victory is Beautiful

2012-02-03T13:42:00.000-06:00

India win an away game. Yes it was a T20 game. But it was a win. Actually to hell with the but. It was a T20 game. Big deal. It was cricket wasn't it.

Even so, let us put this win in perspective.

It is huge. As in BIG huge. It got me all animated while watching. Alone. It felt important. It was needed. I needed it.

Even though my belief in India's youngsters is steadfast, it was not that I believed they would start winning games right at the outset. Especially after the mindset that the illustrious seniors had adopted, I had resigned myself to the definite possibility that this tour too like the one in England, end with no wins for India.

This win is indeed special.

First, it just feels nice to be winners.

Secondly, it came with no Sachin Tendulkar.

No VVS Laxman

No Rahul Dravid.

Thirdly, It came on the back of excellent fielding and more importantly...

...Fresh minds. New thoughts

Fourthly, it came against Australia. I hate losing to Australia. I hate it more than losing to Pakistan. Its just the way it has been for me.

Fifthly, it was delivered by Dhoni's team.

The way he can express himself with the seniors out is good to watch.

Sixthly, it was comprehensive. Not a fumbling, someone-had-to-win-the-game kind of win. India controlled the game right from the start. The kind of win that we can build on. This could translate to wins in ODIs and God willing wins in Tests.

I think we can now compete. On this tour. Something that seemed impossible after the 8 Test defeats. While the older lot was always in denial, the young ones know only wins matter. They have no past records to fall back on.

Before this win, I did not believe we could compete in the rest of the series.

Not after the doom and gloom and our experiments in trying to redefine insanity. Trying to do the same things over and over in 8 Tests and expecting a different outcome every time.

It feels good to see a young side win.

It feels beautiful to be the winning side. Feels good.

And what of the IPL?

2012-01-27T19:45:00.001-06:00

I am Indian. I am passionate about the game of cricket. Like millions of other Indians who are also passionate about cricket, I am reasonably intelligent. Perhaps India's cricket team, especially the guys who are asked to front up to the media, have a different understanding of my intelligence.

Ishant Sharma's, R Ashwin's and especially Gautam Gambhir's responses to the media have been frankly disgusting. The thinking in the team that leads to comments like "we will see them in our back yard" and "it is just 2 series losses" I feel is appalling. How many more losses will it take for the team to get their senses back and stare at reality?

Like every one else I have played the game. Not at any serious level but as far as I am concerned serious enough. On streets, on the beach, on proper cricket grounds. With all sorts of cricket balls. At times I am a fan and at times an armchair analyst. Sometimes a critic; not always polite. Sometimes cynical and even unreasonable. In short I am just like any other cricket loving Indian.

I have no explicit loyalties towards the BCCI and to me they are simply a body that runs and administers domestic cricket in India and have the authority to form a team that represents India internationally. Somebody gave them that authority or they took it upon themselves. I really don't understand how it came about. But its unimportant. I don't easily trust them but perhaps I do not totally appreciate what it means to administer the game of cricket. The BCCI nevertheless to me is incidental.

To me the face of Indian cricket is its players.

To my mind, they are athletes who should feel privileged that they have been chosen to represent India. That they are contracted employees of BCCI is a minor administrative aspect to me.

Rahul Dravid in his speech at the Sir Donald Bradman oration said something about cricketers at the end of the day being entertainers. I must say I never thought of cricketers as entertainers. To me they are sportsmen. Athletes. That athletes entertain is a possible, but not entirely guaranteed, side effect of their performance. Men like Chetan Chauhan and Anshuman Gaekwad did not entertain and yet they were proud sportsmen. Test cricket, the Olympics, World Cup Soccer isn't about entertainment. It is something infinitely exhilarating to witness and experience sports played among men and women who are willing to give their all for the glory of their country.

To me India's cricket team is meant to give their all for India's glory. That is my basic and at the same time ultimate requirement. You meet that and you have earned my trust, my respect. You lose a 100 Test matches in a row, I will have no complaints.

That the BCCI can join hands with the private sector and create a private league with the express interest of making profits and entertainment, is none of my concern. I do see its benefits. I certainly recognize the opportunities it creates for all players. Established as well as fringe. Young as well as veterans. I also see the disruption and distraction it has created. I recognize the threats it poses. Some real and current; some anticipated.

I am unwilling to entertain the view that the IPL is not affecting India's national cricket team. Because it is.

When Sachin Tendulkar skipped the tour of the West Indies after playing the IPL, I was extremely uncomfortable. Something did not seem right. I became even more circumspect about the IPL. The threat of the IPL to my team was real. I understand the need for an ageing body to rest. I do not and will not want to understand why the window for private cricket (IPL) not utilized for the rest.

When Gambhir and Sehwag revealed injuries deep into the IPL season I was disappointed. Not because their absence would hurt India's chances of winning but because it was evident that my team was putting club over country.

India may well have lost all the 8 Test matches they lost even if the IPL were absent. But I would have trusted that effort. But knowing that my team has indeed put club over country, I find myself questioning whether their efforts were genuine.

Am I the only one who feels that way? Why aren't there more people who are similarly fearful of the IPL. Why aren't more people not questioning Sachin Tendulkar who could have used the IPL to rest and gone to the West Indies for India.

I remember at that time the debate was about India not being "ruthless" at Dominica and content to do just enough to win the series. At that time all I could think of was, India did not even send their best team to the West Indies because many of them exhausted themselves playing in the IPL

Why is this okay? What has changed?

Just because BCCI says that IPL is legal does not make it alright for me. I want to know what Sachin Tendulkar feels. What Rahul Dravid feels... not in a politically correct way. I want to know where they stand.

For over 8 months I have heard a billion excuses for India's losses in Test Matches. The loses don't hurt as much. What hurts is that I can no longer say that my cricket team is 100% committed to bring glory to India. I honestly cannot say that. What I will not forgive Team India for is the pussy footing around the issue of IPL. I understand there are investments at stake, money on the line. What I do not understand is that how and when did my team including Sachin Tendulkar, become stakeholders in that.

I do not have it in me to forgive my team for putting club before country. They had a legitimate chance for greatness with tours to the West Indies, England and Australia lined up. All they needed to do was to give it their best shot. And they did not. This is not just 2 series losses as Gambhir puts it, it is the question of my team clearly affected by the IPL and unwilling to confront the problem head on. They played the IPL, arrived in England half cooked and if I know my team, their conscience unclean. Because deep down even they know that they compromised India's interests in Test Cricket. And yet they are silent.

May be they have contracts with the BCCI prohibiting them from speaking against the IPL. May be making it mandatory for them to play the IPL. May be. But to me my team should be committed to India. Can they honestly say they gave themselves the best possible chance in the West Indies and England?

Ganguly and Kumble retired without taking a stand. The last 3 seniors still have that opportunity. I want them to openly speak about how the IPL is leaving them conflicted. Skipping tours, hiding injuries and generally risking an India game for the IPL is not cricket.

To me the reasons for India's poor performances may be about unimaginative, stubborn, rigid captaincy. May be about the openers failing. May be weak bowling is a reason. May be the seniors have slowed down. May be the #6 slot is the problem. These problems even if real can be fixed. A new captain can be appointed, the openers can be trusted to find form again, new bowlers can be found, the seniors can be replaced with sharper more fit men, eventually a long term #6 can be found. There is no humiliation in losing in the face of these known issues. What is killing me is that my team has succumbed to the IPL and no one has the desire to tackle the issue.

And from what I know of the BCCI and the general stakeholders in Indian cricket, no change will come unless it is good for the long term profitability of cricket in India and that includes the IPL. May be I am too paranoid about the IPL but unless rebuilding makes business sense to the IPL, it ain't going to happen. Any decision to rebuild has to be evaluated against the bottom line of advertising revenues. Because that is the core of the money the BCCI has gotten...by the sale of TV rights. Its not going to be about whether the new generation will score as many runs as the seniors rather it will be about whether the young generation will bring in as much advertising revenue as the seniors.

The players have become all too powerful and have been conditioned in the Indian system to not use their power to solve real problems facing the game. They will use it simply to further their Test careers whether they want to or not. They will continue to be victims of the system corrupted by greed and short term profits.

India's Test players have been conditioned for decades to think if themselves as national players. To put country first. Always. For the last 5 years they have been put in a situation where they find themselves conflicted. It is eating their conscience. It is showing in their performance.

The IPL is welcome to thrive as long as it is not preventing players to give it their all for India. At the moment it is causing disruptions.

The problem is not confined to India alone. India is merely the early adopter to the franchise model and seeing its national cricket team disrupted because of that. Bangladesh, South Africa and Australia too will face similar questions. The problem is not the T20 format. The problem is the franchise model. It certainly has its benefits. It will bring new fans, trigger growth of the game globally but isn't it utilizing resources and skills meant to represent the nation?

And whose responsibility will it be to make sure that India's national team is not negatively impacted by demands of the businessmen who run the IPL franchises?

The BCCI?

And the new era begins...

2012-01-26T16:47:00.004-06:00

Years ago when I was in college, I returned to the building complex where my folks lived. One evening, I saw some high school kids playing cricket and I decided to join in. The kids were cool with it. I enjoyed my batting, hitting a few sixes off the 14 year olds (I was 21). About halfway into the game after our batting turn was over, one of the guys said,"Do you want to keep wickets, uncle?" I was zapped!!! UNCLE??? (For those that don't know India, every kid addresses grown ups as Uncle and aunty.) I was indignant, pissed, you-name-it, etc. and I took the kid to the cleaners.

Little did I realize that the problem was not with them, but with me. I was over the hill and playing in the wrong league. India's batting seniors are in a similar place. Cricket has gone past them into the Pattinson-Kohli era and our uncles are insisting on playing with the boys because kids in India don't disrespect uncles and tell them not to play. Our selectors, fans and sponsors are all being kids (normal) and our seniors are being......me! It's time to leave before they start feeling the unwelcome stares.

Kohli's century should have put things into perspective. While Sehwag's consistent underperformance can be put down to unwillingness to adapt, Laxman, Sachin and Dravid are just too slow. SRT can score runs and centuries until he is 50. He has that God-given ability. But the "uncle" should decide whether it's smart to play with the boys.

Kohli's performance over the last two tests should put to rest any fears that India will not be able to replace the seniors in the team. The new crop may not score 10,000 runs each, but for sure they can team up to score 300 plus on a regular basis. Along with a promising seam attack in Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, the resurgent Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma, India also has some bowling riches to exploit yet. The spin ranks are also suitably staffed.

The troika have served India very well, but their last hurrah on Adelaide's forgiving pitch is unfortunately a sad farewell to a great era.

Sir Ian Botham set to come out of retirement

2012-01-23T22:57:00.001-06:00

Sir Ian Botham today tweeted "See you India Winter of 2012" ending days of speculation if rumors of the great man ending his retirement were true. Eventually, it turned out that the rumors were true as the tweet was followed by an official press release by the ECB that Sir Ian Botham will indeed be included in the squad that will tour India on supposedly 'rank turners' during the winter of 2012

Speaking exclusively to Opinions, Sir Botham said, "I draw inspiration from Ricky Ponting as I restart my international career. But more importantly, I recognize this Indian team from my playing days"

As we probed further of his "recognize this team from my playing days" comment, the talismanic all rounder referred to Gautam Gambhir's recent comments as the cornerstone around which he is now re-entering the international scene.

"Look during my days, India knew that they could only win on rank turners and did not allow any stray thoughts to enter their minds about winning abroad. Any away win was entirely an accident", said the beefy allrounder, adding "And what's more I too have won a Test for England while following on". His tongue nowhere near his cheek as he made a caustic reference to Gautam's similar claim about India having won a Test following on approximately a decade ago, when Gautam himself was yet to be potty trained.

"I think this Indian side is a great vehicle for people from my generation to make a comeback and make a few of today's bucks. Who knows we might even be invited at the auction at one of the 546 leagues across the world" he said

We asked him if he is still in touch with his peers from his playing days and he said...."Why yes, just today I spoke to Martin Crowe, Terry Alderman, Javed Miandad, Sidat Wettimuny, Kim Hughes and Zaheer Abbas" imploring them to revive their careers whenever their country is scheduled to play India as per the FTP"

Sir Ian Botham has a tremendous record in India winning the Jubilee Test single handedly in Bombay in 1980 with an overall record of 30 wickets and 554 runs in 7 Tests. More importantly over the 7 Tests England had a winning record over India which they have never had since his retirement.

It is largely believed that Sir Ian Botham may not be the only one making a comeback. There are enough indications that the ECB is seriously considering sending a 'rank seniors' team to India. This opens up doors for David Gower, Allan Lamb, Nick Foster, Gladstone Small, and John Embury as well. Opinions sources in the ECB have reason to believe that this move is largely to keep the series competitive and allow India to draw at least one of the four Tests.

Maybe there's one more left in the tank.....

2012-01-22T07:07:00.005-06:00

At the end of the day, I'm a fan. Perhaps a cynical, irreverent and bitter one, but I'm a fan. And the first characteristic of a fan is to believe. To believe in his team. To believe that the team will beat the odds. To believe that despite all the indicators pointing to a mauling, his team will emerge victorious. So I'm going to put my head aside and use only my heart today.

I'm a fan of the individuals in the team. I grew up around the lore of Sachin from my days on Shivaji Park. I was the insider in my college dorm, who knew Sachin and Kambli because I had seen them in the nets and seen them bat at close range. I knew from friends how the coach treated them differently than others and I used this insider information to gain credibility among my cricket-mad dorm mates.

We dreamed big for Sachin. In fact huge. We believed he would break all the records. He did, but he didn't. I wanted him to break Sobers' and then Lara's record. I wanted him to score more triple centuries than anyone else. I wanted him to bat like the cricketers I admired in those days - Alan Border and Steve Waugh - which is rearguards. Rallying the team in a crisis and inspiring the rest of the team to raise it's game. I wanted him to be the best, most ruthless captain that India ever had. In many ways, Sachin did more than just this, but I began to sulk. Because he didn't specifically do what I had dreamed for him.

When he failed in Barbados chasing 120, I felt terrible. When he fell just short of beating Pakistan at Chepauk, I felt let down. When Akhtar got him for a duck at Kolkatta, I was sure there was some mistake. When Sachin crawled to 194 with Sehwag at Multan and didn't up the pace to help with a declaration, I was mystified. When Sachin was not shepherding the tail at Sydney in 2008 and going after the Aussies, I was downright angry. I didn't realize that Sachin was always himself and that he had done nothing wrong. He simply didn't fit into what I had dreamed up for him.

But Sachin has done much more than be an individual great. He has inspired an entire generation of cricketers in India to bat big. Gambhir, Sehwag, Kohli, Raina, Pujara and to a certain extent - Dravid and Laxman are all products of the Sachin inspiration. Not just this team, but every Indian playing in the IPL is really batting like Sachin batted in his early days. With the freedom of a child. Sending the ball soaring like Sachin sent Qadir into orbit in that festival match in his debut series.

This team is a product of Sachin's inspiration. This team that has delivered the first World Cup victory in 28 years. This team that held the number one ranking for a year and has won more away tests without a genuine fast bowler than any other team. And yet, I am sulking because Sachin hasn't met my expectations.

What has happened recently to the Indian team is that normal service has resumed. Sachin and other seniors have done their job and it's getting close to the end of an era. Will there be another golden period like this? Most likely not in the next 10-15 years. We are likely to see a middling performance from India as it sorts out it's future. As players make it to the team, flatter to deceive and are then dumped. Because we will judge them with the Sachin test, the Dravid test and the Laxman test. And no one is likely to come close. I will be another 8-10 years before we get over that. We didn't look too long for the next Gavaskar, because Sachin came along almost immediately. But another Sachin is not likely to happen.

So what's wrong if we want to make it last a little longer. What's wrong if we delay the sunset? And what's wrong if we hope for one more encore at Adelaide?

The odds may not be in favor of India winning or even drawing. The odds may not favor Sachin, Dravid and VVS turning things around. The odds may favor the Australian speedsters. But I believe that Sachin will get his 100th century in a win or draw in Adelaide. That he will deliver a giant rearguard and an inspirational swansong in Australia....with Dravid and Laxman in a great support act.

Here's hoping that Sachin, Dravid and Laxman will leave Australia with their heads held high with an encore that will erase all the bitter memories of the recent past. The series is gone and I don't care anymore. I am hoping for one more great memory to treasure from the troika of India's greatest batsmen.

Opinions Guest Post: Adelaide Test Preview

2012-01-20T04:26:00.000-06:00

In the era ofremakes and sequels, the Indian cricket team took it upon themselves to do a remake oftheir own.

"Saat KhoonMaaf"

(7 murders pardoned)

Genre: Drama,Mystery, Thriller, Inevitability

Plot: The Indianteam's quest for #1 in Test Cricket goes awry leading to 7 murders in 7 tests.Who is responsible? WHAT will happen of this Indian team? WILL "THEY" GET AWAYWITH ANOTHER MURDER?

Is there one lastmurder waiting in Adelaide?

Watch thischilling murder ~~mystery~~ inevitability

Producer: BCCI (IPL Makers)

Director: MS Dhoni

Asst Director: Virendra Sehwag

Starring: Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid

Co-stars: Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma

Introducing: Virat Kohli, Umesh Yadav, R Ashwin

Spot Boy: Rohit Sharma

Music: Listen to theIndian batsmen dance to the throaty, bouncy music of English and Australian bowlers

Locales: Bouncy green tops in England & Australia

Azhar and Kirmani back for Adelaide test

2012-01-18T10:54:00.004-06:00

BCCI today ordered Srikanth and co to bring back wristy right hander Mohammed Azharuddin and doughty wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani for the Adelaide test. They are slated to replace Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni in the side. In fact, Azhar will also captain the side in Dhoni's absence.

During the press conference, Srikanth confessed that it was a little surprising because the BCCI never interferes in selection. However, he claimed that he fully supported the selection. He believed that seniors like Azhar and Kirmani will bring much needed stability to the side. "Just look at their records.", he is supposed to have said.

Insiders though have given a different explanation. Given the mounting criticism of giving Tendulkar an unending opportunity to score his 100th century, BCCI felt that it had to mute the criticism. As most fans are aware (probably not fans of this century), Azhar has played 99 tests for India. He was dropped prior to his 100th test. Playing the Adelaide test would give him the opportunity to get to that landmark and fully rehabilitate him. Azharuddin meanwhile has put in a special request to CA to bowl only spinners against him. He wants to get to a century. Scoring a century as captain will also be a landmark as it would be his 10th century as captain.

Some of the seniors in the Indian team had apparently protested this move. More investigation has revealed this is because Azhar is still fit and fields with agility. He throws himselfs at balls and makes diving saves at his age. In the negotiations with Azhar, BCCI has gained agreement from Azhar that he would field and run between wickets like any normal Indian senior. He will now amble across for runs and convert sure threes to twos. He will also not make diving saves or field in positions of high visibility such as point or cover. He has agreed that fine leg or third man would be his "hiding places".

Syed Kirmani's case is a little more straightforward. Kirmani was stranded on 198 victims when Dungarpur axed him for fellow Baroda keeper Kiran More. The BCCI decided to right that wrong by giving him a chance to pouch the two victims he needs to get to the 200 victim mark. Dhoni's ban means this re-entry and unretirement for Kirmani was a no-brainer. Dhoni, though has asked Kirmani not to bog down the scoring rate by wasting too many balls.

Many commentators see a consipiracy in this advise from the non-captaining captain. They believe that given Dhoni's penchant in Australia not to last more than 20 balls per innings, Kirmani's doggedness might get fans nostaligic and force Dhoni to change his style for test matches. Dhoni has vociferously defended his and Virender Sehwag's natural styles. Commentators point out that Sehwag has two triple centuries with his natural style, while Dhoni is averaging below 40 in an era of sky-high averages. Dhoni is said to be upset at this comparison and has accused commentators of causing a rift in the team between him and Sehwag.

Zaheer Khan is said to be peeved because he believes this is an insult to Baroda. But Kirmani has assured him that he will not drop any catches off his bowling. This has apparently mollified the senior pro.

BCCI has done a lot of market research before coming up with this brainwave. They believe that India's reverence for people of advanced age is a genuine market characteristic that can be exploited. They cited examples of the Indian cabinet, Prime Minister and all as well as opposition leaders being seniors. In fact, BCCI itself is remote controlled by "senior defender" in chief, Sharad Pawar. Numerous examples of past prime singers, actors and sportsmen were given.

Stay tuned for more moves by BCCI to assign God-like status to all past cricketers. UP chief minister Mayawati is said to be considering constructing statues for all those that will attain senior status.

Latest indications are that Gambhir is in negotiations to be declared a senior of the team. This will allow him to continue to be in the team based on past record and not have to win matches for his team anymore.The coveted status will also allow him to skip important test series to spend time with other famous sportspeople and shoot more ads.

School suspends student for calling classmate "a senior"

2012-01-17T22:06:00.002-06:00

Raju; name changed to withhold identity; was by all accounts an exemplary student. Aged 11, he was bright in his studies, with History and Science as his favorite subjects. His interests were well rounded with Raju showing a keen interest in the performing arts and sports. What's more, he was captain of his school's cricket team.

His proud parents had high hopes from him.

However their hopes and dreams for Raju came crashing down, last week as Raju was handed down an indefinite suspension from his school by the principal.

"The school has very strict policies against the use of abusive and foul language and Raju's inappropriate use of words while venting his anger against a fellow student violates the school's zero tolerance policy against verbal abuse", said Mr. Patil (real name) who is the Principal at the school.

According to accounts by witnesses the altercation between Raju and the victim Jay (real name withheld), occurred during a friendly cricket match with a neighboring school. By most accounts Jay was having an ordinary match and at almost 13 years of age insisted on playing the game which was meant for kids under 12 years of age.

While fielding Jay was lethargic on the field and had dropped an allegedly easy chance at slip. While batting he was adjudged LBW but bullied the umpire into reversing the decision and the very next ball was clean bowled through the gate.

It is at that point, Raju, who was at the non striker's end allegedly vented his anger via a series of age inappropriate expletives, hurling abuses at the hapless Jay.

"Why are you playing like the seniors in the Indian team?" Raju is alleged to have said

It is learnt that the school had instituted an awareness program imposing a ban on ridiculing anyone under the name of India's seniors and Raju had attended and evaluated well on the program.

When we interviewed the victim's mother for this story, she told us that Raju was not always like that but over the last few days her son, Jay used to come home with frequent complaints against Raju. Initially the abuse words were harmless.

"Mostly, at the beginning Raju's bad words were confined to disrespecting mothers and sisters and I told my son that he needs to toughen up because as a cricketer he needs to learn these swear words himself", said Jay's mother.

Then last week, she said her son complained that Raju had shown her son the middle finger, which too she said is something her son needs to toughen up to.

"I just told him, next time just tell Raju Teri Ma Ki" said Jay's mother adding that "after all the term is approved by Sachin Tendulkar himself"

But after Raju's latest allegation that Jay "plays like a senior", the entire family is devastated. "Who will give my Jay a job now. Every one wants a senior to retire. No one wants to have a senior on the team. There will be a talk of phasing him out even if he does land a job. My Jay's life is ruined. No one will even want to marry him. Tell me will you give your daughter's hand in marriage to a senior? Jay's mother said inconsolably.

Most of Raju's teachers have expressed shock at his suspension and are divided over whether such a harsh sentence should have been handed to him, given that this was his first offence. However, Mr. Pawar, the school's cricket coach said that he is not surprised that this has happened.

"Raju has shown certain developmental problems ever since August last year and I had brought this up with the school's special needs consultant" said the coach.

Describing a discussion he had with Raju after India lost to England 0-4, Mr. Pawar described how delusional Raju was. "He kept saying that India should ask the seniors to leave and rebuild with a young team of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Badrinath in the middle order" said an exasperated Pawar.

Mr. Pawar added, "A normally intelligent Raju did not realize the simple fact that India's youngsters do not have even half the number of centuries that the seniors have and some of them even don't have a Test average. How can he suggest that we should give juniors a chance. I think he needs to get his head examined"

However Raju's parents were most devastated and broken. "Where did we fall short on our parenting? We were very diligent about sharing with him every individual milestone of Sachin, Rahul and VVS and this is how he responds? We are ashamed that he is our son"

The school has instituted a special rehabilitation program for Raju. It involves Raju learning by rote every individual record of each of the 3 seniors and start every discussion about them after paying rich tributes to the stellar performances of the 3 over the last decade and more...in Sachin's case almost quarter of a century.

"Are baba even bollywood does 7 khoon maaf, and Raju cannot ignore 7 Test losses", said his distraught father

The Dream is Dead

2012-01-15T10:40:00.005-06:00

Upstart young Australians wiped the floor with India's batsmen in three tests. Bowlers with less than 50 tests of combined experience looted the vast Indian batting riches in broad daylight for three tests. Every ounce of experience, wisdom and skill that India's one-time fantastic batting line-up put up against these bowlers seem to come down to a tame, unhappy LBW. Sachin didn't agree, but we agreed and perhaps the whole of India mutely agreed that even if he were to be given a reprieve, the elusive 100th century was not going to be found at Perth.

Most telling was Nari Contractor's comment that Sachin was getting out LBW to a routine inswinger, Dravid bowled to a straight fast ball and Laxman and Sehwag were unable to line their bat up against a ball moving towards the slips. In their heyday, these veterans would have blunted such a line of attack and out-persevered the bowlers to fatigue and despair. So we don't believe, Australia have discovered a new formula to blunt Laxman, Dravid and Sachin. This can't be anything but the ravages of age and injury. They might still score centuries against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and New Zealand at home. But the dream is over against disciplined fast bowling on helpful or unhelpful pitches.

Most recently, the formula came good in Durban. They would have batted 2 days routinely and provided their very normal bowling attack, enough runs to pressure the opposition into making mistakes. India won many tests overseas with that formula and even won a couple of series in England that way.

But it's not working anymore. The bowling seems to have some more bite to it than usual, but the batting simply doesn't exist. Seniors who would normally be around to guide the young Sehwag or Raina score a debut century, are now hiding behind fans' defense that others are not scoring enough runs to cover their failures. We supported the seniors when Harbhajan saved India the blushes in the first test against Australia in Bangalore a couple of summers ago. The rot had begun to set in then perhaps, but our romantic obsession with immortality blurred the facts.

The selectors were pragmatic enough to blood Cheteshwar Pujara. Unfortunately, he got injured at the wrong time. It's probably worth giving credit to the selectors that had he been playing all this while, we may have one senior less in this team. So, the seniors are perhaps not to blame that they are still playing. But should they force the hand of the selectors by voluntarily announcing their retirement, given that at least two of them have not been pulling their weight in the team by batting enough time and runs?

My colleague feels that the poor performance is a direct result of the disrespect shown by Sachin to the test format. I tend to agree that he disrespected the format by choosing to play IPL and not setting himself up for the contest against England by going to the West Indies. But Dravid and Laxman didn't follow that route. Yet they have been laid low. Dravid probably summoned his last gasp of energy and wisdom to shine in England. It appears that he is unable to do that anymore. The rush is over and the tank is now empty. Unfortunately, for Laxman, his lack of modern levels of fitness has probably caught up with him. The invaluable fifties and face-saving runs that he routinely scored are not coming anymore.

We had a decade of the best that Indian cricket has ever been. No stretch of time in Indian cricket can come close to the levels of performance that we saw from 2001 to 2011. We might never see it again in the future. Maybe this truth is evident to everyone and therefore they want it last for a little while longer. The time to let go is close. Vishwanath, Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev and Mohinder didn't know when it was time for them to leave the stage with their heads held high. They all faced the ignominy of being dropped. I hope Laxman and Dravid don't lose their dignity by being dropped, instead of calling time themselves. It's clear that Sachin will leave when he sees fit. We hope that he chooses it carefully, so that his legacy is not smeared by accusations of selfishness.

Sachin Tendulkar likely for Harris Shield

2012-01-15T02:46:00.001-06:00

After the debacle in Australia, there may be a clamor for the seniors to retire but one man refuses to be bogged down. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. It was made official today that Sachin Tendulkar will represent Shardashram Vidyamandir in the next Harris Shield Tournament.

"In my heart, I am still a teenager and I am striking the ball well and enjoying myself", said Sachin Tendulkar visibly thrilled after the BCCI cleared him to represent his school.

It is common knowledge among the 7 people in Bombay cricketing circles, who follow Harris Shield beyond the newspaper clippings, that Shardashram Vidyamandir, has been struggling recently to stay competitive in the Harris Shield but all of that will change because it is widely expected that Sachin will help his school overcome stiff challenge from Rizvi Springfield from Bandra and Raja Shivaji from Dadar.

Sachin has 67,003 career runs in all of cricket and has a chance at finishing his career at 67,901 which will be the highest aggregate runs in all cricket; that is also a prime number.

Ravi Shastri, the former all-rounder and commentator turned IPL cheer leader, said, "Its runs on the board that count and the milestone is symbolic. It is indivisible and stands for unity.What we have witnessed in Perth is probably most fluent 15 and 8 scored in the history of the game. He is striking the ball well and his form will do Shardashram's chances in the Harris Shield a world of good".

One time cricket romantic and journalist and now management guru and motivational speaker Harsha Bhogle said, "Sachin is an example of how individuals who seek excellence benefit the team as whole"

Outside of these,the reactions to Sachin playing the Harris Shield were muted.

Only Saurav Ganguly,writing for a Bengali publication, was critical of the move and suggested that Sachin Tendulkar is longer young and should not be displacing a more deserving Shardashram student.

It is widely expected that the Supreme court of India will include this publication in their blacklist of organizations that indulge in the creation and distribution of 'objectionable content'

Eric Hofsink, principal at the Launceston Christian school in Tsasmania, issued a blunt statement saying, "What Sachin has done is very un-australian. This option is not available to Ricky Ponting, who in recent times has shown an unnecessary tendency to emulate his older contemporary"

The Supreme Court of India has no jurisdiction over Tasmania.

A message to Team India

2012-01-13T04:20:00.001-06:00

...in a language they understand

Rohit Sharma to retire from Test Cricket

2012-01-12T19:19:00.000-06:00

Rohit Sharma today announced that he will be retiring from Test cricket. It makes him the first cricketer to have retired from Test cricket without playing Test cricket.

He said that he had reached this decision after careful thought, consideration and talking to friends, family and Sachin Tendulkar.

Rohit announced his decision at a press conference actually called to reflect on Sachin Tendulkar's impending 100th, Rohit Sharma; thanked Sachin Tendulkar for what might have been a stellar career. He said he had no regrets. He said, waiting for someone of the calibre of Sachin Tendlkar, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid to retire, one can wait a long wait.

Reactions to the retirement of a potential future great were swift but mixed...

Sachin Tendulkar said that "Rohit is just another cricketer who has retired before making his debut but I will let my bat do the talking"

Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that, "Ideally you would want someone warming the benches for 2-3 years before making his debut. So from a timing perspective Rohit Sharma has ensured that the next in line would have enough experience warming the benches by the time Virat Kohli retires. But the important thing is that we follow the process".

Virendra Sehwag said..."Yesterday it was Dhoni; now, Rohit, I think it is high time Sachin gets the message..."

Ravi Shastri said that although the decision was "Spot on", he just had the feeling that the first half an hour or so of retirement will be crucial. "Make no mistake, retirement is a two paced wicket and the ball tends to stop and come. I would invite Rohit to always play the rest of his life on the front-foot. Hanging back in the crease may just not be what the doctor ordered".

Shahid Afridi said, he is looking forward to bowling to Rohit Sharma in a Test Match, as he has heard a lot about him from Akram bhai.

Sanjay Manjrekar and Naseer Hussain in a joint statement said that..."The elephants in the room are forcing the donkeys out".

The ECB released an official statement on behalf of all English cricketers. It read..."We think this is ridiculous; he must be depressed".

"It's difficult to truly express what we feel. Its like we are tongue-tied", said Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma, whose fingers under the latest BCCI gag order were taped to their palms.

Sirajuddin Mohammed Alamgir, secretary of the The Bangladesh Premiere League (BPL) governing council has said that he hopes Rohit Sharma spends his time away from the game in Bangladesh and help Bangladesh's Test fortunes....by playing in the BPL.

Birthday boy Rahul Dravid said, "I think Rohit is lying or under the influence. I strongly urge the ICC and the BCCI adminster a lie detector test or any half backed test; but not including the DRS; to prove Rohit's guilt. We cannot let such a massive lie go through the gaps".

The PCB Chairman too said he would like to pay a tribute to a potentially storied Test career of Rohit Sharma. "We are very close to issuing a tribute and we will have our new coach; when appointed; deliver it on behalf of the PCB"

India can be dangerous at Perth

2012-01-11T03:35:00.002-06:00

After an uncharacteristically business-like performance on and off the field by the Australians, the put-on good behavior seems unsustainable with Hadin cracking first. Two victories is all it takes for an Aussie to start preaching his "insights" and passing free unsolicited judgement best left for casual chit-chat over drinks (or blogs like us).

I thought Australia's strategy to talk up this Indian team and saying all the right things about the batting and Sachin Tendulkar in particular was working well. Inviting Rahul Dravid to deliver the Sir Donald Bradman oration served up well in the context of this strategy. Even before a ball was bowled, Australia had used flattery to subdue India into complacency.

So I am not sure if there is a change in "strategery"; or it was a one off case of Hadin losing the plot.

Things don't look too good for India. When cricketers start reacting to rowdy crowd behavior, one has to conclude that the team is cracking under the pressure. It happened in the West Indies during the T20 Championships, England, and its happened now in Australia.

The Dhoni v Sehwag rift, is entirely a creation of the Australian media. That's what I would like to believe. Except Virendra Sehwag, on occasion, no one from the team really likes to speak his mind or opinion on cricket matters. Surely that is not to assume that there may be differences of opinion in the team. I hope there is and given how different Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sehwag approach their games, it can't be a surprise to anyone that they might differ on tactical matters from time to time. To suggest that there is a "rift" between the captain and his deputy is perhaps stretching things too far.

India are dangerous when incited and even without the drama of words I am strangely optimistic of India's chances for the rest of the series.

India, for much of the year, was a team in denial. After Sydney I think what the team saw in the mirror must be hard to turn a blind eye to. Perhaps what is reflected will spur them on. Also this Australian team is not known to string together victories yet and there might be just enough pride, desire and skill left in the ageing Indian team to turn one against the home team.

Though I hope that does not translate to mass euphoria and the seniors are given another free reign for an unspecified amount of time. If that were to happen, I would gladly settle for another loss at Perth.

Composition wise, it does not make sense to drop VVS Laxman mid-series or replacing Virat Kohli with Rohit Sharma. Ojha for R Ashwin seems even less of a rational move given the left handers in the Australian team and traditionally off-spinners doing well in Australia.

However, Mahendra Singh Dhoni may be forced to make token changes.

If a change is indeed forced by the selectors or the BCCI, what I would truly like for India to arrange it self around Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli at 3 and 4 however appropriate and for the seniors to bat around the two. Of course nothing of that sort is going to happen but the reason for this suggestion has many motivations, the main reason is that the seniors, once again, have gotten away without criticism for routinely putting Raina and Kohli under pressure at #6. Additionally the change is both tactical and long term oriented.

6 straight failures of the middle order; however accomplished the order may be; surely must be cause for tweaking.

Kohli coming in higher up the order with the assurances of his more illustrious team mates yet to bat may just set him up in the right mental frame of mind.

Irrespective, I think Australia are in for a rude shock at Perth. I have nothing to base this on; other than plain old optimism and romanticism that I would like Sachin, VVS and Rahul to dazzle one last time.. as a unit

Dirty Picture: The Indian Story 2011

2012-01-07T02:18:00.000-06:00

India started 2011 in the most enviable position. Ranked #1 in Tests and with a legitimate chance of winning the World Cup. With tours to the West Indies, England and Australia lined up, I truly believed India had the resources and the motivation to extend their supremacy.

The year began well when Greame Smith; possibly out of respect to Virendra Sehwag; chose not to force a series win and India gained much needed respect for drawing a Test series in South Africa with a win in the Durban Test.

Then India and Mahendra Sing Dhoni delivered one of the most memorable performances in World Cup history by lifting the World Cup under the most intense pressure any home team is likely to face, possibly in any sport. Barring a freakish loss to South Africa, India were hard to beat throughout the entire tournament. Against the lesser teams they did just enough and they beat every other past World Cup champion as the tournament progressed - a fact that made this World Cup win that much more sweet.

In April 2011, to be an Indian cricket fan meant... bragging rights and endless hope

Then we had the IPL; something like 28 minutes after Mahendra Singh Dhoni clubbed the World Cup winning 6; although the break seemed a little less than a tea break in a Test match.

Leaving the player auctions aside; the IPL generally is a good thing. For the game in India. For business. For the players; both Indian and foreign. But sometimes its benefits are overstated and the disruptions it causes in the short term are ignored, denied and wished away.

2011 was a good example of that. The negative impact of the IPL's 2011 edition to India's standing as a Test nation cannot be denied. There is no doubt in my mind that had we rested our Test team after the World Cup, made national cricket a priority, sent a full strength team to the West Indies, had adequate practice games in England, the results would have been vastly different.

But as the IPL progressed and player after player revealed injuries deep into the tournament, our fears for the worst started to emerge. Suddenly England and Australia seemed daunting tours because it was evident that even the greatest of our great cricketers had completely succumbed to and enslaved by the politicians, corporations and film makers that run the IPL.

Test Cricket was no longer the focus of India's leading cricketers and for the BCCI, maintaining India's #1 standing in the format suddenly had no business case. Whatever sound bytes that were uttered around Test cricket being the ultimate; was mere lip-service.

From West Indies - April 2011 to Sydney - January 2012, the sum of all fears; the disruption caused by the IPL, ageing batting line up, injuries, conflicting priorities and hectic scheduling; all amounted to something far greater than the sum of the parts and Indian cricket spiralled uncontrollably, but not unexpectedly into mediocrity.

Helping it along the way were the men who run, play, and sell Indian cricket. They insulated themselves so much from the visible problems that to them every set back was occasion for an excuse and doing nothing became the only solution. Cobbled together the actions, in-actions, decisions and in-decisions paint an extremely dirty picture.

Here is the story line as we saw and captured it in our posts...

Disrespect

Sachin Tendulkar decides that IPL is more important than a tour of the West Indies. Of course the Ambani's had a say in this but if Sachin cannot be backed to put country before club, why even fool ourselves into believing that between club and country, country stands any chance. Under the guise of 'I want to spend more time with my family', Sachin Tendulkar skipped the entire tour of the West Indies and while a Test was on, was seen prominently in the most repulsive set of images I have seen in 2011. Flirting with Roger Federer @ Wimbledon when he should really have been giving his all to help India win all Test matches on the West Indies tour.

2011 is the year Sachin Tendulkar became just another cricketer.

Arrogance

Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads India to an expected win in the first Test on the West Indies tour. Then he takes the mike in the post match press conference and delivers perhaps some of the the most arrogant and unsportsmanlike responses to questions by any Indian captain. He creates a babel of words around his love for hotel rooms and makes personalized comments against a specific umpire.

India never won another Test away from home in 7 more tries. 8 if you consider Sydney as well.

Then in the 3rd Test at Dominica Dhoni actually believed that India would lose 7 wickets chasing 90 odd in 15 overs. As the year progressed that belief turned into reality many times over as India's famed batsmen failed to routinely cross 300.

Betrayal

Emotionally exhausted after the world cup, physically spent after the IPL and after a tour of the West Indies which many cricketers viewed as a voluntary social service, India arrived in England foolishly believing that they can compete.

They could not.

Just as we predicted.

Pre Series, we predicted a 0-2 loss which after Lord's was down graded to 0-4.

Why men like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virendra Sehwag, and Zaheer Khan did not do more to come better prepared left me with a sense of betrayal. What value do these seniors bring to the team if they are unwilling to influence priorities and make a stand and instead simply be content to play the 'We are victims of the system' card.

A 0-4 performance was engineered by a total failure of the middle order and a green bowling attack. And yet no one took accountability for the disaster. India sold the humiliation as a 'one-off'. Perhaps the first instance of a whitewash which was successfully but ultimately wrongly; attributed to a perfect storm of minor events.

There is no known instance of the #1 ranked cricket team getting white washed. India became that team. The miracle wasn't the whitewash it self, rather it was the consummate ease with which the media bought the pathetic excuses; mostly conjured up from thin air and occasionally from the back sides of players and administrators.

We did not buy it. We called it a spectacular betrayal and called for the seniors (Sachin, in particular) to make way for the next generation

Rebuilding had to start post-England. Although realistically we knew India's cricket setup is not designed for such proactive measures. When Sachin played in the first Test in the home series against the West Indies, following the England tour, we said, he has played one Test too many.

India moved on. Settling yet again for celebrations of personal milestones. It was like the 90s all over again. Only this time celebrating personal milestones seemed hollow. That Dravid had a prolific year as a batsman meant nothing because India kept losing. We did not buy the world cup narrative that finally Sachin had achieved everything in his career. No. Far from it. It will always be a painful reminder that in spite of having the luxury of playing as part of the world's best team, he will retire without having won a Test series in Sri Lanka, West Indies, Australia and South Africa.

A 100 100s may have meant something more in the 90s not any more.

Greed and Insult

The BCCI like many boards, have sold far more than they think with the TV rights to corporations. That fact was exposed when England toured India for a series of 5 ODIs immediately after defeating India 0-4 in a Test series.

The series had no context in a cricketing sense.

From a dollars perspective, it was perhaps necessitated because of an ODI series abandoned in 2008 after the Mumbai terror attacks.

The sponsors packaged it as a 'Revenge Series'. It was a direct assault on the intelligence of the common fan. They responded by staying away.

Irreversible Mediocrity

After the England ODIs West Indies visited India for a full tour even at home, India embarrassed themselves by failing to chase a sub-300 score against a friendly West Indies attack. The embarrassment however was not felt, so its wrong to call it an embarrassment. So let's call it plain denial. By now India's cricket team had miraculously insulated itself from any criticism and taken an ostrich-like approach to introspection. England was sold as 'bad luck' and every defeat or non-performance was drowned as a statistic in the face of meaningless personal milestones including the nation's quest for Sachin's 100th.

There was a time when there was legitimate pride in individual achievements and milestones. Gavaskar's 10,000th run was truly historic. The joy of Gavaskar's 29th Test 100 lasted for months. It didn't matter that we lost the Test Series 0-3 to the West Indies. Kapil's quest for his 432nd was laborious but with international Test wins scarce, the pursuit of the goal seemed wholly acceptable to most except probably Javagal Srinath.

For brief periods men like Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Ajit Wadekar had the skills to create winning teams from superlative individuals but it wasn't until Saurav Ganguly that India learnt how to win consistently. While the nation still celebrated Sachin's milestones during Ganguly's era and it continued to overshadow India's achievements; against the backdrop of Sachin's achievements was India's growing supremacy in Test Cricket.

In 2011 as the wins dried up, there was nothing to hold on to other than the personal milestones of Sachin, VVS and Dravid.

When the Australian tour came, India continued to live in denial. Expecting wins when England and West Indies had shown that the core team was far too obsessed with managing their own career extensions than deliver wins or think about what's in India's long term interest.

Unwilling to trust assurances from VVS Laxman and Dravid, once again we predicted a 0-2 trashing. It confirmed to us that India's seniors are now completely out of touch with reality and had an over sized estimate of their capabilities.

Disrespect, arrogance, betrayal, greed, and insult resulted in India embracing mediocrity. Inventing excuses along the way. To us, it is evident that the rot is irreversible. We need a new team. When a number one ranked team filled with all-time greats loses 6 in a row; something drastic needs to be done.

Looking ahead
India needs to shed its obsession with Sachin Tendulkar. Without any fault of his own, he has succeeded in taking us back into the 90s where humiliating losses are swept under a carpet decorated with individual achievements.

India needs to rebuild. And if Sachin, Rahul and VVS do not agree, their agreement should be deemed unnecessary. They need to be dropped (asked to retire) not because there are better players waiting but because we need to invest in players who will give us new wins again; may be not in the next few year but shortly after that.

ICC unwilling to recognize Clarke's 300 as legitimate...

2012-01-05T02:23:00.000-06:00

The International Cricket Committee has moved rather quickly following the end of Day 3 @ Sydney in the ongoing ~~contest~~ series between India and Australia.

In a statement, addressed to Cricket Australia, it said that Michael Clarke's unbeaten triple hundred should not count. At best it can count as a List A score or it must be adjusted to something in the range of 80-85.

This step was taken after questions were raised by Match referee Ranjan Madhugalle about India's tactics while bowling.

"I have been around for quite a while now and I know what a bowling attack looks like and I can sense when there is an intent to attack. What I saw at Sydney from India was....how should I say...the best I can say is that it resembled some sort of a protest movement..."

Like those "Occupy... protests that have sprung up over the world?" we asked...

"You can say that...expect that I am not sure what they were protesting...It had the feel of some sort of civil disobedience, non-violent, non-cooperation type movements...It was like they were protesting their own incompetence... Perhaps it was an involuntary response out of self-pity.." said Madhugalle...

While they investigate and certify that it was indeed "bowling" that India were doing, the ICC has said that none of the 100s by Australian batsmen will count.

In a separate event...Andrew Strauss was admitted to a hospital in London, England after he suffered a bout of acute depression and was reported to the local police by a neighbor who spotted him trying to commit suicide.

The TV in his living room was still on with Sehwag bowling.....

Andrew is said to be fine and is learning to deal with the guilt of humiliating such a pitiful Indian team earlier during last year's summer.

"It also throws up existential questions...perhaps we are not as good as we thought we were...." he said

Now, it's Tragic

2012-01-04T09:17:00.006-06:00

In the second innings of the Nottingham test during the summer of 2011, England raced to 544. They scored at 4.5 runs an over. Any semblance of a contest between England and India in the series was effectively over. From that point forward India didn't have a chance. Several people preach that hope is not a strategy, but for India that's exactly what it became.

Yesterday, Ponting and Clarke took a leaf out of the English strategy and attacked India. They plundered runs at will and faced with the onslaught, the bowling wilted. Someone needs to care for Umesh Yadav quickly or he is in danger of losing it completely. He desperately needs a coach that can help him harness his talent and put it to effective use.

Ponting may celebrate his test century, but this is definitely not a sign of things to come for him. He may not find another bowling attack as friendly as the Indian one for a while. His class is not in doubt. His reflexes and hunger are definitely in doubt. Canny, conservative and age-adjusted batting can take you so far. Energy, enthusiasm, hunger, desire, goals and drive are essential for success. It's hard to judge if these wane with age, but several good batsmen have retired sooner than 38. Run production is not the sole metric to retain one's place in the team. Team chemistry, fielding and other intangibles count as merit as well. Ponting needs to articulate to himself what value he adds to the team and whether playing because he enjoys it and scores runs are the reasons to stay. Australian selectors are merciless when it comes to elbowing veterans out of the team. Steve Waugh was a case in point. Ponting's place is secure for now, but the day is not far off when the selectors come knocking.

In many ways, Australian batting has the same issues as India's does. The newer crop of batsman are unable to step up and make cricket matches their own. The seniors are constantly outdoing them. Unfortunately for India, their batsmen don't get to face their own bowlers, else they may rediscover form too. For India, there is no silver lining in all this. My belief is that the lack of production from seniors is demotivating Dhoni. He is no longer a captain that believes. India appears to be in for a long period of rebuild. A captaincy change does not make sense, but constant failure drains one out and suddenly keeping, batting and captaincy may be seeming burdensome to Dhoni.

Virat Kohli's failure puts additional pressure on Dhoni, Fletcher and the selectors. On the subject of Fletcher, if we count this test as lost, then this would be his seventh straight loss in Australia. We digress though. Kohli has been out of depth and it's time for him to be given some respite. He might yet find a way back into the team, like say a Michael Hayden or Navjyot Sidhu, but right now he is unsuited for the rigors of test batting. The middle of a tough series is unlikely to produce a breakthrough for him. It's time to try Rohit Sharma.

What this tells us though is that the case for the seniors going out of their own volition doesn't exist. Tendulkar may earn his keep, but Laxman and Dravid (despite his recent fine form) are clearly out of depth. Which brings us back to the point that it appears that India's best team is playing. Unfortunately, it's a mediocre team and it is not playing at a level befitting it's ranking.

India's batting is now just a Facade

2012-01-01T01:32:00.000-06:00

Earlier this year, when India won a Test Match at Kingston against the West Indies, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, a man usually careful with his words, blabbered something against the umpires and how he should have been in his hotel room much earlier.

Something about the words,even discounting the media sensationalism made me uncomfortable. India were already showing signs of disrespecting Test Cricket, with the focus on IPL and many regular players deciding to skip a prestigious tour of the West Indies. Dhoni's words were uncharacteristically arrogant; showed disrespect towards the West Indies and I found them unsportsmanlike even.

That was the last time India won a Test away from home.

In 7 away Tests following that Test, India has been limp with its performances in Test cricket.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's blabbering and later India's refusal to go after an achievable target in the Dominica Test was only a vague indication of something not quite right with India and Test Cricket. Later in the summer, England confirmed that it was India's middle order batting, as a unit, where the problem lied. And unless things change pretty darn quickly at Sydney, Australia will show us that the problem is irreversible.

We realize that we are in the minority when it comes to making this conclusion but finally we have found some support through Sanjay Manjrekar's acknowledgement that India's ageing batsmen may indeed be an area of concern.

Of course, we think that Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman are the core of the problem because India have traditionally fed off the mountain of runs these three have produced in partnerships and suddenly there is proof that the three are just not cutting it.

Lets look at India's batting numbers this year since the West Indies tour. 10 innings....all all-outs. Not a single time were India able to last for more than 100 overs. They never crossed the 300 mark. Their scoring rate has been a mediocre 3.1 and on most occasions Dravid, Sachin and Laxman have been dismissed either around the time the second new ball is due or the opposition's quicker bowlers have sensed an opening and on an attack that the 3 have been unable to quash. On 3 occasions India have been dismissed under 50 overs.

Here are the sequence of scores from Lords to MCG...

286, 261, 288, 158, 224, 244, 300, 283, 282, 169.

Average 250. Totally Limp.

Most, if not all of India's other problems feed off this inability to put up runs on the board. When the opposition has piled on the runs, India's batsmen have been unable to match it with their own pile. And on rare occasions when India's bowlers have dismissed the opposition cheaply, India's batsmen; most notably Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman have let India down. Trent Bridge and Melbourne are cases in point.

With averages that read 38, 54 and 19 in these away Test matches you might think they belong to Muhammed Ashraful, Tamim Iqbal and Peter Siddle. Not quite....they belong to Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the 5 away Test losses in 2011.

To win India needs huge 100s from the 3 and they have dried up. Not once in the 10 away Tests this year has anyone even come close to a huge 100. The result is 1 win and 5 losses.

The latest trend is to blame India's inability to clean up the tail. While that is a fact, I totally reject that as the main reason for India's mediocrity. The problem of the wagging tail is a problem only because India's batsmen have been ineffective. It isn't like its a new problem. India's inability to wipe out the tail. has been a problem since eternity. Thus I find it very interesting that people are finding faults with things in Indian cricket which were never India's strong points.

Even on this blog, most feedback is to reject our criticism of the performances of Sachin, Rahul and Laxman and pointing out failures of Gambhir and Dhoni. Well before these 2 debuted India won Test matches in England and Australia. The openers were Sanjay Bangar and Aakash Chopra and one win was engineered by Ajit Agarkar.

Our point is this....if India puts on runs on the board even Praveen Kumar might occasionally do an Ian Botham. But to blame Praveen Kumar (just as an example) for India's inability to win Test matches is quite stupid in India's context.

India's batting is now just a facade over a legacy of thousands of runs and hundreds of centuries. It reveals a lot of history and famous wins but largely inconsequential; it seems; for the challenges of today.

We would love to be proven wrong in Sydney...

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses, Excuses, Excuses....

2011-12-29T00:47:00.007-06:00

There is only one way India knows how to win Test matches. That is to put runs on the board. With that their bowlers until recently, have used it as a pressure element along with their own skill and conditions to claim 20 wickets.

This year, the runs have dried up. Consequently the losses have piled up. 5 in a row now; against competent opposition.

England was a wake up call. Except no one really woke up.

Analysts, bloggers, players, administrators and commentators have highlighted a myriad of excuses. IPL and World Cup fatigue, tail-end collapses, Dhoni's defensive captaincy, the non-performance of openers, inbility to finish the tail...

...everything but the obvious.

Lords, Trent Bridge, Birmingham, Oval and now the MCG has only one thing in common.

The failure of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman to put runs on the board in tandem. Glance at all of India's famous wins away from home and the thing that is common is the runs scored by the 3; and by Ganguly before his retirement; in tandem.

The key is 'in tandem'... Partnerships.

Short of blaming something as absurd as Umesh Yadav's pink underwear he parades in, in the dressing room, India have manufactured all sorts of excuses for their decline. Of course, there is no way for us to know if Umesh wears pink underwear or that he parades in his undies in the dressing room. The statement is simply to hit home the point that India's excuses for 5 consecutive Test defeats away from home have largely been manufactured, irrelevant and ignorant of the obvious.

Abjectivity. Time to invent a new word for the new low in India's Test fortunes. If India can manufacture excuses, we can invent words to describe India's pathetic surrenders.

Let us turn the argument around and ask..what can be the excuse for allowing the 3 elephants in the room, to further their careers.

The excuse is to win in Australia.

Find some way to win at least 2 and draw one Test match. Anything short should call for the heads of the 3 great men. Except that it will not happen. Their individual career numbers will be paraded in any argument and used to obscure the real analysis.

Mind you, the argument isn't that India will win without Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Rather the argument is that if India has to rebuild, lets rebuild with the team of the future. Allowing the 3 to find their winning ways again; which I doubt they will; will only rob the next generation led by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma of valuable experience to find their feet at the highest level. The only way the loss at MCG would have had a silver lining is if it had been achieved with Sachin and co. out of the team.

There is no disrespect for the 3. These 3 are perhaps the best combination of middle order batsmen ever in the game. A game with more than a century's worth of history.

But they no longer have the right to make their own career choices. There is only one way they can earn back that right...

That is to win the Border-Gavaskar trophy outright.

It will be up to Dhoni and Kohli

2011-12-28T08:31:00.004-06:00

From 214-6 in their first innings, Australia rallied to 333. India, in contrast, collapsed to 282 from the comfort of 214-4. Clearly, India's lower half of batting didn't pull their weight. Laxman, Kohli and Dhoni being the guilty parties. They were up against a very good pace bowling trio that exploited the conditions well. However, test batsmen are expected to muster up enough runs to keep their team in the hunt. At least one of these three should have scored 30 plus runs.

Ashwin continues to impress everyone. Ponting being the latest. It appears that Harbhajan's test career is effectively over. India's bowling has been extremely good, except for allowing the late rally by Siddle and co in the first innings. Unfortunately, that could be the difference in this test match.

India have yet to get the last two Australian wickets. Dravid's drop might come back to haunt India. Even though, Sehwag feels India can chase anything under 300, history doesn't agree. But this is a great opportunity for India's best batting line-up to re-write history.

India' fought to 1-1 draw in 2003 against a bowling line-up without McGrath and Warne. This bowling line-up has no Brett Lee either. India's batting line-up is virtually the same with Gambhir and Kohli replacing Chopra and Ganguly. Even Stevens. Australia's bowling has heart and skill, but doesn't have the experience. India's batsmen need to bring all their experience to bear and bring this test match home. There may not be a stand-out innings, but if everyone were to play with intent, India might just take this test.

Having said that, chasing in the fourth innings is tough, even for an experienced line-up like India's. It's going to be a fourth day pitch and not a fifth day one, therefore, odds are in favor of India. This will be mental game. India's experienced batsmen with Sachin at the helm are extremely aware and have been in this situation several times before.

My prediction is that due to the pitch and weather conditions favoring swing and seam, it'll be down to Dhoni and Kohli to get the last 30 or so runs. The top and middle orders will bring India close without being able to take India home. The question will be whether Dhoni and Kohli can step up or will we see another Ashwin rescue act?

Why is Michael Clarke delaying the declaration?

2011-12-28T05:11:00.001-06:00

Cricket statisticians the world over and especially Australian ones, have lashed out at Australian captain Michael Clarke for "delaying the declaration" against India in the ongoing Melbourne Test that will now go well into the 4th Day.

India have already done enough to earn an honorable loss at Melbourne,ensuring that the most illustrious batting lineup ever to play the game will once again have failed without inviting any criticism from their extremely satisfied customer base. In a year that Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid routinely failed to help their team cross the 300 mark away from home; the amount of adulation they still hold among Indian fans has product marketers perplexed. Performance, long thought of as an essential for any product to sustain sales in the market, may be "old school" thinking according to market analysts. Finding external factors to hide poor performance may be key.

Researchers have noted how thin bowling, IPL, tail-end collapses, DRS, injuries have all served as "excuses" for the non-performance of the great Indian middle-order. The reality is that India's young bowlers have carried their more illustrious batters for almost a year now. Researchers have further observed how India have successfully sold their "first-test-woes" as part and parcel of the experience.

Given this context, there is general consensus among statisticians that Michael Clarke has delayed the 3rd innings declaration by at least 30 runs and thus Australia have lost an opportunity to truly humiliate India and gain a lasting upper hand in the series.

The statisticians may have a point. Even at their peak the highest score ever chased by India's middle order led by the trio of Sachin, VVS and Dravid, outside the subcontinent is 233. Today they are far from their peak as evidenced by their meek performances in the West Indies and England.

There is generally an extremely high level of curiosity in the market for what excuses India will give when they lose the Melbourne test.

But what if they win....

But they are expected to to win against no names like Lyon, Pattinson, Siddle and Hilfenhaus. There are new lessons to be learnt only from unexpected events.

Leaving statistics aside, the reality is India would most likely chase somewhere around 250-260 to win with Australia needing to get Virendra Sehwag out to win the Test.

It is entirely possible that Clarke's decision to delay the declaration was an homage to the great man.

Zaheer & Sehwag Deliver

2011-12-27T04:44:00.005-06:00

If one makes enough predictions, he is likely to be right. I think I met that threshold. Ashwin and Yadav were key to India finishing Australia quickly. Both bowled much better than their test ages. Ashwin, especially, has been a wise bowler who is an ideal replacement for Kumble. He may or may not end up with as many wickets, but he certainly brings that cerebral element to the game.

Umesh Yadav is all heart. It was nice to see him let it rip. He did get pasted on a few occasions, but it was a blast watching him go. India's bowling has come to this game well prepared. For this, we must compliment Duncan Fletcher. Ishant has been bowling extremely well, although he's been somewhat unlucky not to get wickets.

The story of India's bowling though is Zaheer Khan. He has returned from injury and how! His bowling keeps batsmen guessing and he has now got an Akram-esque feature to this bowling. He can produce unplayable ones from nowhere. He doesn't have Akram's pace or raw class, but he's definitely a very dangerous player. Great news for India, if he continues to bowl the way he is and stays healthy.

From a batting stand-point, it was important for Sehwag to show up and he did in more ways than one. He got into it with Pattinson. Although, the latter had the last laugh by bowling him, Sehwag got a measure of the Australian attack. He played with purpose and took the attack to the Aussies as he normally would. He didn't let the early loss of Gambhir affect him. The Australians now must fear him more than any other Indian batsman barring Laxman.

Dravid and Tendulkar played with the predictability and assurance that test cricket demands. Both were cultured knocks worthy of their stature and ability. Tendulkar was a tad unlucky to be out in the last over, but he is now a notch lower than his immortal form and self of before. He probably has to try a little bit harder for the game to come to him than he used to. That doesn't diminish him at all.

India need to eye a big first innings lead and continue to bowl with purpose. My guess is that Ashwin will play a big hand in India's second innings. Prior to that though, Kohli should take his chance to cement his place in the side.

Pattinson is bowling extremely well and he's certainly a huge find for Australia. But the rest of the bowling has been just about test class. This includes Hilfenhaus, who was extremely good with the new ball. Pattinson's got the potential to be as good as Steyn in my view. He's aggressive, has raw pace and a potent out-swinger. Maybe he needs to develop the one has comes in to be up there, but he looks ready and able.

India have the upper hand and barring an extraordinary turnaround in the bowling ability of Australians, they should string together enough to earn a 100 run lead.

In Dhoni I trust... (again)

2011-12-22T16:16:00.001-06:00

Perhaps its the hurt from past broken promises. 1985-86 certainly. Perhaps it is cricket's adopted truism that beating Australia in Australia is tough. Perhaps it is the step motherly treatment to Tests by India's seniors. Not sure what it is. But something is preventing me from being too optimistic about India's chances in Australia this time around.

As the Tests near, I search for reasons why India will lose.

My rational mind says that this is indeed India's best chance to beat Australia in Australia but part of being an Indian fan through the late 70s leading up to the 2000s is to know that this is also Ponting's and Hussey's best chance to revive their Test careers and who else other than India to be the willing ally?

My rational mind tells me that barring 1985-86 this is perhaps the mightiest batting side India has sent to Australia. Winning a Test Match and drawing the rest with even a half decent pace and spin combination, should be doable and more than enough. However, part of being an Indian fan is to know that its been quite a while since India has created an overnight bowling sensation. In Australia's gravest hour, surely India will oblige.

The reason, I hold the 1985-86 so high up in India's achievements in Australia is that till date it represents the only tour down under where India did not lose a Test match. India were simply hard to beat. Yes Australia were pathetic but that fact rarely has prevented the Aussies from not winning.

If I were to encapsulate my fears for India on this tour, it is that perhaps India are too old. That Australia's speed, need for survival and naivete will be too much for India's creaking gentle giants. Perhaps India is holding on to its great middle order for a tad longer than it should. Perhaps England was not just a 'one-off' like Darvid and Laxman - conveniently - want us to believe.

If, however, I sometimes experience flashes of optimism it is when I am reminded of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the youth India possess in Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav and R Ashwin. I would have felt much better had India taken a much younger side. With no Rahul Dravid, with certainly no Sachin. Had this been unquestionably Dhoni's team.

Right now its a matter of opinion whether this is Dhoni's team or Sachin's.

The only time I feel optimistic about India's chances in Australia is when I think of this tour as Mahendra Singh Dhoni's chance to further greatness. A win will further his legend. And just like during the 2011 World Cup finals, after Sachin got out, I closed my eyes and simply put my trust in Mahendra Singh Dhoni, I will do the same now. He has done it for me before. He might just do it for me again...

Then again, just to highlight my confusion about how to read this match-up, I sometimes think the team that can draw games will win the series with an odd win. While I will criticize India if they play this tour with a defensive mindset, I do hope they first and foremost play to draw Test matches.

India can control and hopefully win if they play for draws.

Australia's is a curious mix of youth and experience. The composition...it's not been a natural evolution. Its been adopted as a compromise. The experienced men in Ponting and Hussey are under pressure. They will be far too consumed in protecting their own careers to have any influence in the decision making of how the Test match is played tactically.

Australia simply have to win. Ponting and Hussey can only survive if Australia wins. Michael Clarke needs to win to secure his hold on the Australian captaincy. And while wins are on Aussie minds, India should attack with a mindset to draw. Australia despises draws; they would rather lose than hold on to a draw.

I have no analysis to back this up but India will lose a series where there are result games.

Ashwin, Yadav Key to India's Fortunes

2011-12-21T13:12:00.006-06:00

Australia has put their cards on the table. They are struggling to string together a team that can be called their first eleven. Retaining Ponting and Hussey was a no-brainer given the underwhelming performance of Ponting's putative replacement, Usman Khawaja. Marcus North and Steve Smith's quick fizzle means that Hussey gets some more chances to get it right.

Ed Cowan and David Warner at the top of the order may seem a juicy proposition to Zaheer. However, our feeling is that this is just what the doctor ordered for Australia. These two might be the long term answer for Australia. Ed Cowan's style (I have not watched him) based on what's described seems to be sedate. Almost creeping up on you without making waves. Warner, clearly relishes the visibility, much like Sehwag and Hayden. A couple of tests against India will be a good way to kick-off a long term partnership at the top for Australia.

The big story though is that of the bowlers coming back into focus. Cricinfo ran an insightful article highlighting the leveling of the playing field. Young bowlers - both fast and spin - are beginning to make impacts on test matches. While the era of Marshall, McGrath, Donald, Waqar, Wasim, Ambrose is not back, signs are that we might be seeing the end of multiple 50+ batting averages. Australia has a bunch of young bowlers that seem to be ready for the big test against India's vaunted batting line-up. Lyon will play a containment role at best, except in Sydney where he may do more. Clarke too is a decent bowler, who I believe underbowls himself. Despite the cloud over the Sydney test in 2008, we remember that it was Clarke that sent India to doom. It's likely that Siddle, Pattinson and Starc will make up the seam attack with Lyon being the sole spinner.

Australia's biggest challenge is going to be it's ability to gel as a team. This combination of players has not played together and coming together for the first time against one of the top teams is probably not a perfect place to be. Having said that, India need to drive home the advantage by being aggressive and hostile in terms of their fast bowling. They should immediately seek to put pressure on the Australians whether bowling or batting first. Austalia's top three are relatively inexperienced and India should seek to take advantage of that.

Umesh Yadav needs to be given the full license to be hostile and quick. This is one quality of Sreesanth that made him a great test match bowler at times. Umesh, would do well to learn the patterns of the great bowlers of the nineties. Ambrose, Akram, Younis, Donald and others were capable of producing bursts of hostility that no batsman could counter. If Umesh has that capability of stepping on the gas in key moments of a test match, India would have found a winner. On the other hand, it's hard to do that if he's playing as the third seamer. So getting the combination right is going to be important for India.

India's achilles heel is obviously the fitness of it's opening bowlers. Enough has been written about Ishant's ankle and Zaheer's readiness. Our worry is that Ishant may bowl conservatively due to his ankle. Neither Mithun nor Vinay Kumar are adequate replacements. And this gives me the chance to lament once more about Irfan being left out.

Should Zaheer and Ishant not pull their weight in the team, it'll be upto Umesh and Ashwin to do the heavy lifting. This could lead to Umesh being overworked and a candidate for future breakdown. Ashwin has quickly become the hope for India. He's intelligent, smooth and incisive. He's got all the tricks and he's in form. Hopefully, he'll be used right by Dhoni and play a key role in India's success down under.

But then, it all comes down to India's batting. The formula has been to post big first innings runs. Lately, this has suffered somewhat with Tendulkar not being able score the huge runs he normally did. We have found someone that can consistenly play rearguards in Laxman. Kohli too is picking up this mantle. Kohli to me is doing everything that I had imagined Mohammed Kaif would do when he was the hottest item in Indian cricket. India's fortunes once again will depend on Sehwag and Gambhir demoralizing Australia's young attack.

If India get it right in the first test, then this series will be India's to lose. Zaheer or Sehwag need to set the tone in the first innings of the first test for India to win it's first series down under.

India in Australia - First Thoughts

2011-12-12T15:18:00.003-06:00

Australia has just lost a test to New Zealand by 7 runs. When a team loses by that kind of margin, it hurts not just it's pride but it's morale. Losing by a whisker often saps the spirit of teams. After Australia pulled out a tight victory against South Africa earlier this season, one would have thought that they would win this time too. Looks like Clarke and company have not quite begun the journey back up.

On the other hand, coach Wright seems to be doing the same wonders to the New Zealand side that he did with the Indian side a decade ago. Ross Taylor may not be Ganguly, but he sure is leading well. His players seem committed and he too, like Ganguly, seems to be finding his Bracewells and Brownlies. Ganguly found Harbhajan and Laxman and never looked back. New Zealand have always been the team of honest triers, but with Wright at the post and Taylor to lead, they may scale some heights here.

Which brings us to India. They have just finished up a series against West Indies. The results speak of a one sided series, but the details show that India didn't quite destroy the Carribeans. India's aging middle order was put to the test and they only got passing grades.

Australia is grooming a pace attack that has some teeth, including the bane of Indian batsmen, swing and bounce. The test matches are going to be played at MCG, SCG, WACA and Adelaide. Barring Adelaide, that favors India's style of batting, India have some work on their hands. Pattinson and Siddle have the potential to bother India. With Cummins, Johnson and Harris gone, India's work is theoretically easier. Watson may be back for the Boxing day test to restore much needed balance to the Australian team. He will give a big boost. He could very well become the key for Australia.

Australia's batting too has an aged look to it. Ponting and Hussey seem to have slowed down. With Marsh back in the side, Australia may find some missing steel. Watson, Warner and Marsh at the top with Ponting, Clarke and Hussey to follow is a difficult sight for Indian bowlers. Zaheer and Ishant have to fire. If Zaheer manages to stay fit, India might be able to pull out some victories. Ishant has been ok without being menacing. But in Australia he could turn dangerous if his previous series is an indicator. Umesh Yadav will probably get carried away by the bounce and swing on offer and will need to really use the practice games well to fine tune himself. At his pace, he can be a handful. But in Australia pace and bounce helps batsmen too.

And this is where, India's best bet is. Gambhir and Sehwag. Both can exploit the bounce and can play very well on the up. If Gambhir keeps his cool and deals with the bouncers smartly, India's openers can win games by themselves. Sehwag's audacious ODI double century must put fear into Clarke's side. Hopefully, he will carry the form to Australia and put Aussie bowlers on the defense. MCG is where the first test is being played. We remember the 194 he smacked there in 2003. If he decides to begin the series similarly, India's chances receive a huge boost.

There is no doubt, this is India's best chance to win a series in years. Irfan Pathan would have added to the team's options instead of Mithun or Vinay Kumar. His banana swing is back and he seems enthusiastic as ever. Virat Kohli may play his first full series. This should be his coming of age series. For the first time, Tendulkar's batting may not be a huge factor for India. On the other hand, this is also his big chance to put his stamp of authority on Australia in Australia.

A juicy contest awaits and I can hardly wait for the series to start.

Dodda Ganesh on Standby for Australia

2011-12-10T19:03:00.003-06:00

Chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth, has indicated that when, not if, another Indian fast bowler reveals an injury or breaks down on the tour, seam bowler Dodda Ganesh will be chosen as a replacement. A veteran of 4 Test matches and 5 Test wickets is in prime form according to Srikkanth.

Srikkanth pointed out that of Dodda's 5 Test wickets 4 came in one Test and 2 of those were Carl Hooper; even as how that is a qualification to be selected ahead of Irfan Pathan was lost on the media gathered.

When asked where Irfan Khan Pathan ranked in the pipeline to be selected, Srikkanth said..."Irfan Khan who....that actor?"

Dilip Vengsarkar, reacting to the potential appointment of Ganseh Dodda,said that..."In my time at least we took Virendra Sehwag to Australia 4 years ago and did not play him. We gave ourselves a chance to do something bold before we settled for timid mediocrity..."

400* Next

2011-12-08T16:20:00.001-06:00

For a whole minute, I thought Virendra Sehwag did not thank Sachin for his double hundred. Then I read the words which went something like..."When Sammy dropped me, I knew God must be with me"....So folks all is well.

It has always been Sehwag as a Test batsman that we have talked up more, here on this blog because Sehwag has never displayed any true appetite for and consistency in, his one day career. Very early in his career he burdened himself by candidly (amongst his team - according to John Wright's Indian Summers) talking about scoring a 200 in an ODI game but the LOI game was too complicated for him, it seemed to us. His LOI numbers are very oridinary compared to the devastation he has displayed in Tests; a handful of monstorous ODI and T20 knocks notwithstanding.

Perhaps, just perhaps... now that he has scaled the 200 mark, he will be a changed LOI player. With this innings of 219, in his mind he now has lived up to his own expectations. Without the worry of proving something to himself, he might just have turned a corner and resurrected his LOI game. Who knows...may be its just a childish, naive wish.

And while we are in the mood for wishes, the one record that will truly do justice to this man's image, his legacy, and his truly beautiful, simple and uncluttered bastmanship is the record that is now Brian Lara's. The highest individual Test score. Amongst the candidates most likely to beat 400 not out, Virendra Sehwag is a front runner.

And if that innings too comes against the West Indians in the Carribean, who knows we might have a calypso version of "Why this Kolaveri Da...."

99.94

2011-12-03T14:49:00.005-06:00

I am not exactly aware of Murali Kesavan, but in an article attributed to this presumably knowledgeable man, published at Cricinfo, he attempts to sound wise but ends up revealing his ignorance. That may be harsh; so lets just say he makes some questionable statements in a professorial tone; now a trademark of Harsha Bhogle.

Firstly he calls all of us who are in fact anticipating Sachin Tendulkar's 100th 100; as cricket illiterate; and then immediately reveals his own questionable literacy levels on the game, by flatly suggesting that making a Test match 100 is more difficult than making a ODI hundred because, in Tests the bowling side's best bowlers have no restriction on the overs that they can bowl.

That automatically makes Agarkar's 100 at Lord's more difficult; and thus presumably of higher quality; than Arvinda De Silva's 100 at the World Cup finals in Lahore in 1996.

The gist of the article is that 100 is just a number;that we have arrived at by adding apples and oranges; and those who are fretting over this somehow have not made this discovery.

Sir Don Bradman can now truly rest in peace. What is the point of adding up a set of scores across all innings over a span of 52 tests, dividing that number by the number of innings where the batsman was dismissed and then fret that the math does not add up to 100?

Those who turned up to watch the great Sir Don Bradman play his last Test innings in 1948, hoping that he would make at least 4 runs were all half-witted, stat obsessed fools. That is what Murali Kesavan truly implies.

Opinions On...Virat Kohli

2011-12-02T11:53:00.003-06:00

Saying that Virat Kohli is special is like saying Aishwarya Rai is beautiful.

Through the eighties and nineties, Indian batsmen were prone to panic and collapse in tight chase situations. Miandad had put a lasting wound on India with his last ball six. India took a long slow road to completely exorcise that ghost. It started with Ganguly, Kaif, Yuvraj and Laxman and has now reached it's pinacle with Dhoni and Kohli.

Kohli is special because rather than huff and puff his way in typical 80s, 90s Indian style, he just seems take the bull by the horns. Failure doesn't even seem to occur to him. To him more runs seems to be more opportunity to score runs and enjoys being the man.

He is the culmination of India's efforts to find people that will not wilt till the last ball.

He made his international debut only 3 years ago and he already has made brand about him. If Bevan was the finisher of ODI games and Gilchrist the first authentic wicket keeper-opening batsman then Kholi is a certified night owl. Certified by us; at least at Opinions

There is no way of knowing if he enjoys batting under lights. It does not matter. In a short 3 years he has shown a rare penchant for partying under lights.

An average of 62 while batting under lights. Which obviously means chasing. By way of comparison. Sachin avarages 44. Of course Sachin has played 3 times as many matches than Virat Kohli, batting under lights and certainly Virat's average is going to tend towards a much lower number - I get that. Still in 30 matches an average of 62 is phenomenal.

Another data point...

5 centuries; in successful chase under lights.

Again how does he compare with other greats? He is already better than Virendra Sehwag (4), on par with Ricky Ponting and Jaysuriya and only 1 winning 100 under lights away from Sachin and Gilchrist (6). And the last 2 were openers with more opportunities than ever to score 100s chasing under lights.

Firstly chasing is tricky in ODIs. It is even more so under lights. And it is exactly in this area that Virat Kohli is making his name count against the all time greats of the game. And he is just now entering only his 4th year as an international ODI player.

Opinions On...Samit Patel

2011-12-01T17:05:00.000-06:00

Totally, absolutely, vehemently profusely, and uncontrollablly inspired by Samit Patel, today I read the following statement to my wife. I had thought of calling a "press conference" but better sense prevailed.

"My biggest ambition is to be a good husband and a good father" I said. "I need to spend high volumes of time in our marriage to push my case for an occasional night out with friends. If I was selected for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus then I would miss several dinners and lunches at home and that won't help me at a time when I need to do everything I can to impress you"

"I have listened to the advice from people that I trust and it is clear that this decision is the right one to have made for domestic reasons. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus is an exciting enterprise and I would like to be involved in it in the future, but not to the detriment of my marital ambitions"

Sadly my wife was unimpressed. Her only response was..."Today is Wednesday, Is the garbage out?"

Why does Samit Patel think Engand's selectors would react any differently than my wife?

Seriously, cricketers do not announce so many of the things they do not do, so as to improve their chances of a Test Match cap. So why the fuck, do they need to announce that they have no desire to play in the IPL?

No one says that "I don't want to participate in this year's fancy dress comptetition organized by 'The women's sewing circle of Ulhasnagar for Christmas' because I will be playing the boxing day Test match." So why do they think anyone would care what their plans are with the IPL?

Why do people like Michael Clarke, Ravi Bopara and now Samit Patel make such a big deal about something as flimsy as the IPL.

But joking aside, and in all seriousness, it is indeed very sad that we are making it so hard for young cricketers to do the right thing. For all its glitz, glamor and money, IPL's long term value, sustainability and its role in creating Test cricketers of the future is debateable. Questionable even. And even if it thrives, in its wake will lie a dormant, lifeless Test cricket setup.

Pakistan Cricket is blessed that their cricketers are not invited to the IPL.

We need more people like Michael Clarke and Samit Patel. And though it may sound ridiculous, Samit Patel should be shortlisted for England's subcontinental Test matches purely to set an example to others. For he has done something that is even beyond Sachin Tendulkar. Faced with a similar situation Sachin chose the IPL over a tour to the West Indies. With age (mine, not his) his decisions seem unacceptable to me.

In small controlled portions, the IPL is a blast. It will even bring in new fans to the game. However, to expect a bunch of politicians, businessmen and filmstars to contain and limit the bad influences of IPL on Test cricket and cricketers is to expect a toddler to chose right from wrong. For all its apparent short term benefits, the IPL is not "proper cricket" and in some aspects its just not cricket.

Samit Patel has endorsed proper cricket for that we wish him the very best.

India v Australia - An Early Preview

2011-11-29T19:16:00.001-06:00

India's World Cup win and easy Test matches against the West Indies, have helped mask their Test match vulnerability against quality opposition on challenging pitches. The popular sentiment has been that England was a one-off debacle, where they were unlucky with injuries.

The real Test will come in Australia.

The Numbers

Over the most recent 24 month period, India and Australia have had remarkably similar numbers. However, India has won the perception game with everyone. The general feeling is that Australia is a weakened side in trouble while largely everything is okay with India. India has walked away relatively scot free in delivering the same numbers with a far more experienced side.

Leaving head-to-head contests aside, both have not lost a series to anyone other than England. It is due to India's dominance over Australia in the head-to-head contests that allows it to enjoy a slight edge in the overall numbers.

The context - A loss should end careers but it won't

Both India and Australia have been reluctant to make decisive changes in favor of youth. Admittedly in Australia's case such a stance would have been far more easy and justifiable. It is however India's seniors who need to win this series more than Australia's because the quality of talent on the Indian bench is far greater than Australia's. It may sound crazy but it is the side that loses the series, which will emerge stronger, sooner.

Although it is not entirely impossible, it would be ridiculous if Sachin, Rahul and VVS do not announce their retirements if India lose this series.

History - Its never been done before

India's best chance of winning a series in Australia was in 1986. Perhaps the most balanced Indian side to ever tour Australia. That team came within a whisker of taking the series 2-0, but rain at Sydney and a reluctance to trust the Melbourne weather man cost us wins in both Tests.

The 1977-78 series was the most entertaining. Played against the back drop of the threat from Kerry Packer a second string Australian side came back from 2 Test matches down to beat India 3-2.

If anything can be learnt from India's bold 1-1 performance in 1981, it is that in and against Australia, attacking batting goes a long way. I will always remember the series for Sandip Patil's brilliant counter attack after he was felled by a Len Pascoe bouncer and taken to the hospital.

The 2003-04 series showcased India's batting might but a lack of a consistent bowler (that rules out Ajit Agarkar) to support Anil Kumble meant that India's batsmen were asked to win the series all by themselves. They almost did but Steve Waugh's batting saved the day for Australia.

The 2007-08 series was fraught with tensions and the tomfoolery of Ricky Ponting and Harbhajan Singh. Outisde of Perth though India's only solace was the proud manner in which Anil Kumble led them. While Rahul Dravid is a good choice to deliver the The Sir Don Bradman Speech, I suspect Kumble has a better sense of occasion and history to choose his words that convey his wisdom and ultimately a personalized message; but I digress.

If India wins....

The heros will have to be Virendra Sehwag, Varun Aron, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli and somehow Rohit Sharma.

If India loses...

Ricky Ponting's career will be resurrected. Pat Cummins will be the new Brett Lee; if not the new Glenn McGrath. Sehwag will advice David Warner to take up golf.

The Prediction

I am doing a Jaywant Lele here. I say 0-2 with India managing draws at Sydney and Adelaide and comfortably humilaiting losses at Melbourne and Perth, where they will be felled by Cummins. And yes, Zaheer Khan will last an entire Test Match. This is my stretch prediction.

The Justification - Yes I am still not over the England 4 India 0 score line

Not all wins are equal. Neither are losses. Some loses reveal a lot more than we are willing to read into. India's 4 Test match losses in England were not just shocking and humiliating but it also served an indicator of many collective missteps that no one is willing to talk about. Also a win-loss transaction is not a zero sum game. What England gained from the 4 wins, India lost far more than that. England simply confirmed their standing, India brushed the loss aside as "bad luck" and swept their real problems under the carpet. India are no longer as good as they were a year back and it will show in Australia.

Ojha and Ashwin: The New Arshad Ayub and Narendra Hirwani?

2011-11-27T20:44:00.001-06:00

For all the criticism from everyone; including this blog; over the nature of the Wankhede pitch, the Mumbai Test produced the most thrilling draws of all time. Why Test Cricket cannot be marketed and turned into a profitable venture is a mystery to me.

The emergence of R. Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha is heartening. However having seen Arshad Ayub and Narendra Hirwani deliver a similar performance (41 wickets in 3 Tests) against a much stronger New Zealand in 1988 and then fritter away their careers; I know we must all pause and see where the new spin pair stand a couple of years from now and how they perform away from India against quality opposition; before we can truly hail their arrivals. After all for spinners getting wickets in India and winning Test matches is not such big of a deal. L Sivaramakrishna, Narendra Hirwani, Rajesh Chauhan, all have done that. May be Ashwin and Ojha are different. Only time will tell.

After Dominica, India's willingness to go for a win,chasing a challenging target on Day 5 must be commended. However, why a side with VVS, Dravid and Sachin, can't pull off these chases is infuriating. Even more infuriating is the fact that the trio have acquired a sacred status and criticizing them is akin to blasphemy.

This is the 3rd series in succession where the trio has done nothing of note. West Indies, England and now at home, they failed to get the points needed to look good in the ICC rankings. If they think that the Test ranking points are just a bunch of numbers in just another table of randomly selected countries; then some sense needs to be talked into them.

There is no point getting emotional about the service the trio has given to India. It is their current indifference to deliver anything beyond just their personal numbers (led by Sachin of course) that is being criticized; not their careers. Even Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh can deliver a batting average of 40 odd in Tests in India. Sachin needs to do better. In the West Indies Sachin did not show up because he was tired from doing a few circus stunts. Then he flopped in England; then he failed in a run chase at his home ground against the friendliest of attacks. If this were Ricky Ponting, I can understand the "open invite" to the team. Its not like Australia have men like Kohli, Sharma, Rahane, and Pujara waiting in the wings. India do. Yet Sachin's sub-par, indifferent and selfish legacy enhancing performances find unanimous support and a ready spot in the Test team for a tour of his choosing. Sachin is a clear cut case of a man getting bigger than the game in spite of him maintaining all the humility of his teenage years.

In sum, India lost an opportunity to win a vital point which would have helped them reclaim the #1 spot sooner.

BCCI makes it just a number

2011-11-24T08:30:00.003-06:00

Sachin Tendulkar has a habit of downplaying his many achievements. Humility is ingrained in his psyche and this has taken him further than any other celebrity in India. His humility has helped him overcome his numerous dips in form and his failures as captain. He has maintained that he is just another member of the team.

Unfortunately, his refrain of ordinariness has not helped his fans reduce their expectations of him. They frequently expect miracles from him, expect him to score big in every situation and win test matches all by himself for India. That he has only occasionally met these high expectations is not his fault. But it has given a lot of grist to his critics.

We, on this blog, have started believing that Tendulkar himself is trying to live up to these lofty expectations instead of simply playing to true to his words of humility and being "just another team member". His unwillingness to tour West Indies as a preparatory step to England, while being ready to play IPL being our chief argument. The results were clear. Whereas Dravid showed up in England, ready and able to do his job, Tendulkar fell woefully short.

He also repeated his mantra about the impending 100th century. "It's just another number". He had used the same line while portraying his 50th test century in South Africa. Against an ordinary West Indies bowling attack that the rest of the Indian batsmen feasted on in the previous two tests, Tendulkar has flattered to deceive. He labored to get to decent scores, but has not crossed the milestone.

Given his talent, skill and perseverance, it would have been a matter of time. He would have risen to the occasion like he has in the past, whether at Sydney or in South Africa and made that elusive 100th ton. Unfortunately, the BCCI and MCA seem to have decided that he needs help. The wicket at Wankhede is a feather bed. This is the type of wicket that R. Ashwin will probably score a century on if he maintains his concentration. While we acknowledge that every century is a big deal, we also believe that centuries made with no context are worthless. West Indies have piled on 590.

Tendulkar is on the threshold of a 100th ton on his home ground. A doctored event thanks to the unimaginative BCCI or MCA or both laying out a feather bed to maximize Tendulkar's chances of scoring big. Did the master really need this help? Wouldn't a 100th ton scored in a meaningful contest on a sporting wicket been more memorable? The organizers are ensuring that Tendulkar's 100th ton will be forgotten and be remembered as "just another number". This is such a shame. The great man deserves better than help of this sort. His greatness is being diminished by such misconceived ideas.

Australia will not be helping Ponting against New Zealand by doctoring Perth or MCG. Neither will England doctor Lords for Pietersen or Cook. But India will doctor the sporting Wankhede to help the Little Master get to a milestone he's been struggling to get to. And then we lament about test cricket being boring? Inadvertently, Tendulkar is helping Indian cricket go down a rat hole that it may not be able to dig out of. This is so unfortunate, because he has done so much good and he is such a champion.

Test Cricket needs Don Draper

2011-11-21T22:01:00.003-06:00

What a Test match that was at Johannesburg! What a series!! While the cricket was not always at its best; the contest was compelling. Can you ever write off

Australia

South Africa

and its inability to win at home against meaningful opposition means that an already exciting Test match calendar has been turned, even more so, by this Test result.

Australia

, go into their series against New Zealand and

India

with ranking points on their minds. They are most certainly not a balanced side to win consistently but in Cummins, Australia have the right spice to seduce India later in the Australian summer. Then with England facing a string of Test matches in the subcontinent, we suspect their reign at the top will be short lived

India

v Australia now will be an even more exciting prospect than before. The winner, by the end of the next year may be eyeing the number 1 slot…again. All in all for Test Cricket fans, its much to look forward to.

Australia

and South Africa have just played a fantastic, competitive and gripping Test Series that was at least 1 Test too short. Yet one can safely deduce that in the short run, this is not going to get the fans back to watching the format and talk of the imminent demise of the format will continue to foster. And then there are the people who jump up and down calling matches like these as “advertisements for Test cricket”. Frankly they should stop doing so because Test Cricket’s promise has never been as flimsy as a tight finish. If Test Cricket’s market strategy were nail biting finishes, then T20 cricket will kill Test cricket every day of the week.

Test cricket has problems but we feel, its potential as a profitable enterprise has been neglected and untapped due to the shortsightedness of today’s administrators.

Indeed, Test Cricket’s problems, like the problems of the newspaper industry in the developed world, are not so much complex as they are real. At the very core is the inability of both to attract new customers on their own. Both are left in an unenviable position where they have to depend on third parties to get customers; third parties who have no allegiance to the products beyond making money distributing them. For the newspapers it is the Googles, Apples and Amazons of the world and for Test Cricket…..hmm. Actually Test cricket has no strategy to attract new customers.

Cricket administrators have sold everything they possibly could to Television executives and in turn they both have teamed up and have focused all their energies in enticing new fans using new formats that promise to deliver a-thrill-a-minute and far greater frequencies of tight finishes, than Test cricket can ever deliver. The tragedy of Test cricket is not that beyond certain markets, it is perhaps poised to die. The tragedy is that no attempt has been made to prevent that possibility.

Test cricket needs to be advertised and marketed for what it is and for what it is capable of delivering. Test cricket’s selling point is not the tight finishes; rather it has a much healthier proposition.

Tradition, endurance, long tours, bilateral rivalries, playing for draws, defensive batting, defensive fields and even sometimes predictability; this is what Test Cricket is about. Test cricket is about admiring the artistry of the proponents as much as it is about anticipating a result. And “draw” is a valid result. The thrill of a compelling draw is unique to Test cricket. Tight finishes, while they certainly add to the excitement are not prerequisites by any means for a great Test match or a Test series. The tragedy of Test cricket is not that there aren’t enough games that can serve as “advertisements”; rather that no one is willing to say that we do not want to build a future where there is no Test cricket. The advertisements for Test cricket therefore should not be limited to highlighting the occasional tight finishes and results.

While it seems revolting that a proper English game should look to American sports for cue, we are going to suggest just that.

Take American baseball for starters. American baseball has made it very clear. The umpire is an essential ingredient of the game; a character that will not be compromised. An umpire is allowed to impose his personality on the game. He is allowed to be as much a performer as the players. All decisions to use technology are evaluated in light of this fundamental principal. Test Cricket, which on the surface seems far more principled than baseball, unfortunately is unwilling to take a similar stance; neither for its own umpires nor for itself. All of cricket must be administered with the underlying principle that Test cricket is essential. It’s not a matter for businessmen to bet on or against; rather it must be the principle that governs all business transactions around the game.

Let us also take the case of the America’s National Football League. Arguably the richest sports league in the world. The season lasts through late summer to early winter. 20 odd games in total for each team; including the pre season and play offs. Yet its collective year-over-year revenues from all sources combined keep increasing. If cricket’s administrators were to be given the reigns of the NFL, I am sure we would have had 3 seasons a year with no pre season. Revenue is not a function of matches played. What NFL teaches us is that revenue is a combined function of the size of your customer base and a little hype and exclusivity.

On the surface it is convenient to think that Test Cricket will eventually die. However just as men (and women) become older they tend to become more discerning, conservative, republican and wiser (we could not help ourselves); there is reason to hope that an ageing population will want a more substantive form of cricket entertainment in the form of Test cricket. If the overall ageing of the world’s population is any indicator; there are likely to be more old people in the future than the younger ones. People are living longer. Surely there must be someone willing to bet that one day, Test cricket fans will outnumber circus cricket fans. As fans begin to appreciate the nuances of the game and as these very fans start living longer; Test cricket will be eventually back in business. Slapstick comedy is not for every age group. As we grow wiser we need substance; while still holding an appetite for an occasional visit to the circus.

Can Test cricket learn something from Golf? Like Test cricket, Golf too takes multiple days; a better part of the week; to determine a winner. Millions of people world wide are willing to wait that long; visit the golf course and follow the game on television, the internet and their phones. So people who say that Test cricket is too archaic for today, simply are wrong. There are customers waiting beyond the T20 loving tweenagers that cricket should to be courting. Golf tournaments run over multiple days; each day’s play runs for the better part of daylight; many rounds of golf are played over weekdays and yet the game thrives. Why then can’t Test cricket. All it needs is commonsense not to start a Test Match on Monday. A Thursday start is most compelling.

It is cricket’s custodians (not television executives) who need to in-source the core function of their business; which is to find customers and act on the knowledge that even if our opinion does not count; like Harsha Bhogle likes to point out so flippantly in this half baked piece titled “Oh No, not Eden”; it will simply not go away for a long-long time.

Test cricket is in trouble, if viewed only through the narrow lens of business executives and journalists whose interests have been conflicted by greed. The IPL is not more exciting just because contracted commentators say so. Test Cricket will always have its opinionated fans, they will live long and as today’s T20 fans mature they will appreciate Test cricket more, and they will live even longer than the current generation of Test cricket fans.

All said and done, Test cricket is a proven and sustainable product. The 60 over game is dead, so is the 55 over game; the 50 over game is seeing dwindling audiences already, most domestic ODI tournaments are 40 over affairs and T20 is still not even a decade old but the life cycle of new formats is moving at an accelerated, predictable and monotonous pace. At some point in our lives we all get conservative, start appreciating things we had no capacity of appreciating when we were younger and the sooner Test cricket understands that there are customers out there who are ready to be hooked, the better its chances for survival

Test Cricket needs a Don Draper, who can advertise it for what it is. Who can design hoardings that scream at Test cricket lovers saying that … whatever it is you are doing….Its okay.

This is our first post that is a collaboration between me and Vidooshak

Opinions On...Sachin

2011-11-16T21:41:00.002-06:00

After more than a quarter century of following Sachin Tendulkar, I am announcing my retirement from all forms of the game. I have arrived at this decision after careful thought but without consulting my friends and family. If I had consulted them, they would have thought I am nuts; which I probably am.

I know my time is up. My mind is not with Sachin's game any longer. I no longer switch on the Television even when I know that Sachin is batting and while I still switch off the television when Sachin gets out; I have to admit it more habit than instinct. There was a time when Sachin's batting helped soothe the pain of India's defeat. Today I crave for India to win without Sachin.

I am ready to move on to a newer India. An India which learns to win without Sachin; even if it loses a few in the process.

Sachin's batting no longer connects with me. Truth be told, I may not have matured as much as his batting but his batting seems robotic. Operational. Transactional even. If his batting has become boring to me; some of his decisions have left me alienated. It has never happened before. Before recently, following Sachin was my second nature; now many things he does leave me with questions. This however, is not the time to talk about it.

I have been luckier than the average Sachin follower. I was caught up in the Sachin buzz, a few years ahead of most. Around 85-86. At the nets of Achrekar Sir's coaching nets. Shivaji Park. Aimless morning sessions at the nets would suddenly transform into an hour of intense cricket, as Sachin did the rounds batting in various nets, starting with the youngest to the oldest age groups. He never acknowledged the bowler. Never looked the bowler in the eye. It did not bother me; because that was the only time Achrekar Sir would pay any attention to anyone other than Sachin and Vinod. I was looking forward to a nod of acknowledgement from the coach rather than Sachin.

My best years as a Sachin follower were when I would just enjoy his career unfold. Early on it was pure joy. His Ranji debut, Test debut in Pakistan, Vengsarkar v Kapil in the Ranji Finals, his first 100 in England, his first tour of Australia. India lost regularly. But Sachin made me forget that minor statistic.

My proudest moments as a Sachin follower coincided with his worst slumps in form. The uninformed used to question his ability to finish games. I found no such shortcoming in Sachin. Sachin was never about statistics and following him was never about counting anything really. Not runs, not wins.The joy of following Sachin was to see how a boy who knew he would be the greatest ever went about becoming just that with as little fuss as possible. Sachin's story is a story of a man who knew his destiny and understood his responsibilities in getting there.

His has been an epic career. But his story does not move me any more. I believe I have achieved everything there is to achieve as a Sachin follower.

I have nothing more to give. Nothing left in me. 25 years is a long time.

Time for the Next Gen

2011-11-12T09:32:00.008-06:00

In the Irani trophy in 1978, Dilip Vengsarkar smashed 151 against a bowling line-up that included Prasanna and Chandrashekar. Yet the selectors persisted in ignoring the obvious and named the spin quartet to tour Pakistan. Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad confirmed what Vengsarkar had already shown. The quartet was plundered in the test series. The Indian selectors missed a trick then and as a result the quartet had to retire under a cloud after a few more tests against a Packer-weakened West Indies. But they knew and the public knew that it was time.

India faces a similar challenge today. The batting stalwarts in the team deserve their places. Sachin, Dravid and Laxman routinely put in solid performances and make India a great test side. The recent clinical second innings batting performance against the West Indies showed what experience and skill is all about.

Yet something doesn't seem quite right with the Indian test team. It lacks a buzz, freshness and excitement that is the hallmark of good sides. Battle hardened as India's batsman are, England still steamrolled them.

India's benches don't yet have the riches to replace these three greats. Heck, they haven't found anyone decent enough to replace Sourav Ganguly. Yet, it feels like it's time to give it a go. Rohit Sharma re-introduced himself with two back to back centuries in the on-going Ranji Trophy. He has corrected his temperament to back up his talent with hunger. It's time to blood him. Virat Kohli's defining innings must be the one day century he cracked against England in Cardiff. After a woeful test and one day series, he dug deep and connected. He has an Australian quality of doggedness and resilience that Indian batsmen (with due respect to Laxman) have not had. If not for his unfortunate injury, Pujara might have been a regular in the test side and the experiments with Raina/Yuvraj would have ceased.

This is not a piece that is against Tendulkar, Dravid or Laxman. Much like many people are now less interested in listening to Lata Mangeshkar and want more of the newer singers, this is a clamor for something different. A time comes when the old must give way to the new. A good solid, batting performance may get us the draw and an odd win, but it feels like men playing against boys.

India may not win immediately with these new players. These players may not even be the answer, much like Pravin Amre and Kambli faded. But it feels like it's time to ring in the new. Australia's team is new. Sending a team of old stalwarts with a view to crush a team that is rebuilding may seem like a great idea, but it could fail and we might see a repeat of 1978/79.

P.S. Irfan Pathan picked up 8 wickets including a five for in the match against MP. Looks like he is back!!!

Sachin's first Test that is one too many

2011-11-04T22:38:00.002-05:00

There is a lot India has to do in Test cricket just to stay in the same place; both figuratively and ranking-wise; starting with the home Test series against the West Indies.

The players may say all the right things when it comes to Test Cricket, but the priorities on display by everyone directly involved with the game, tell a different story. Except England, every country is managing Test cricket as if its a demising proposition. However, The most compelling cricket in recent weeks has been in the Test matches between Sri Lanka/Pakistan, Bangladesh/West Indies and to some extent between New Zealand/Zimbabwe. That of course is a matter of opinion. A matter of dwindling opinion, I might add.

So while the administrators are busy dressing up the game with new formats, chasing new money and new audiences, traditional cricket fans are starved for meaningful, contextual cricket. Since the 1983 World cup, there have been 7 more World Cups contested. 3 of them hosted by India. In the same period, West Indies have visited India only 3 times. Its lamentable. But as a fan, I will lap up whatever is on offer.

Test cricket is living off the monies made by circus cricket, but those formats are slaves to television executives. Test cricket on the other hand has been relatively untouched by modern theatrics and a India v West Indies Test series is certainly worth the wait.

India has mortgaged their Test status and ranking in the pursuit of making the IPL and Champions League viable. Their Test cricket outfit is in disarray. A situation brought on by design. Design driven in turn by the so called "market needs". But not all of India's frailties in the Test arena is due to constraining priorities. There is clearly a lack of talent. There is a dearth of good bowlers. Both the fast and the spin kind. With batting they haven't transitioned from the Saurav Ganguly era. Flirting with LOI stars, hey have wasted many Test Matches on Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, when it is clear neither has the accumen to be Test class batsmen.

Then there is Sachin Tendulkar who is holding on to his place because he can. That he can still score centuries should neither be a surprise nor a justification not to call for his retirement. The question is are we giving Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara time to learn to score 100s like Sachin Tendulkar. Dilip Vengsarkar gave Sachin Tendulkar an early start. Sachin for his part is not similarly inclined. He will play for himself for a few Test Matches more; get all sorts of personal milestones and leave when it suits him.

Sachin's failure to want to win in the West Indies; preferring to flirt with Roger Federrer instead; and his failure in England, ought to be triggers that call for his retirement. In a way he is a liability to the team, from the standpoint that he is preventing a younger man from getting time to make a mark. He himself was given that when he was 16; but he is far too self-consuming and self absorbed to return the favor. This series would have been ideal for India to move on from the Sachin era.

On the other hand, a 100 from him at the Kotla will make the fans come back to the stadium. For the short term it may be good for Test Cricket but I believe the first Test at the Kotla will be Sachin's first Test that is one too many.

Coming off a World Cup Finals loss to India in 1983, the West Indies had sent their fiercest team to India the same year. That 83 series remains the one of the best cricket a visiting team has played in India ever. India along with Australia are traditionally most formidable at home and India have not lost a series at home in more than 7 years. This West Indies team however, if they attack well, can emulate the 1983 team with a surprise Test win. In a short series that may be enough.

India's batting will start slow but will eventually come good in the series to draw Test matches but it is the West Indies that have the bowling attack to put India into early trouble. If the West Indian batsman can learn to grind their way to 500+ scores, then I believe they have bowlers to spring a surprise and force a win and the series on the basis of that win.

And if India do lose, they ought to take a young Sachin-less side to Australia.

India and West Indies Take Baby Steps

2011-11-02T15:29:00.003-05:00

The next month will see the return of test cricket to India. India will have to make a new beginning with old batting stalwarts. With Sehwag, Tendulkar and Laxman fit and back in the side, India's batting looks impregnable at home.

We have held Kohli in high regard despite his bland entry into test cricket in the West Indies. Yuvraj may be a spent force, but his performance in the World Cup has earned him a reward, given his passion to play test cricket. This, definitely, will be his last chance to come good. The conditions are ripe with a home series against West Indies.

India are trying to re-tool their bowling attack (again). This time they are partnering Ishant with Varun Aaron or Umesh Yadav. I do believe Varun has the goods to succeed at the test level. However, it all depends on how he maintains his body and how he develops. His speed is definitely a plus and his performance in the last ODI against England was heart-warming. He seems fiery enough to justify being pitch-forked into the test team.

Ashwin is sure to make his debut, so India will go into the first test with at least two new bowlers. Not the greatest of ideas against the West Indies who will be coming to India after a good series in Bangladesh. They will have had the right kind of preparation. But India had little choice in doing what they are doing.

West Indies have taken the first definite steps to improve their cricket. Centuries by Darren Bravo and Kirk Edwards added to the solid batting of Marlon Samuels is good news for them. Despite it coming against Bangladesh, it's a huge boost. Bishoo too will be encouraged by his fiver. Indians are the best players of spin, but having a decent spinner in India definitely helps.

The series might produce draws with India on the back foot in the first test. This would be my prediction. Sehwag and Tendulkar are coming into the test series with very little to show in recent times. Laxman is always a slow starter given his lack of match practice. So it will be down to Dravid and Gambhir to lead in test one.

Looking forward to a memorable season with Tendulkar, Dravid and perhaps Laxman calling it a day after the Australia series.

The Future of Cricket

2011-10-26T06:13:00.000-05:00

It's not too much cricket. Its too much meaningless cricket

The administrators's greed for television dollars has finally achieved the impossible. The stadium going Indian cricket fan is now on the WWF (World Wildlife Federation) list of endangered species. According to current estimates the WWF puts Indian stadium goers along with the tiger as a species "vulnerable to extintion". Only 3,200 of them remain.

When NEO cricket proudly touts a meaningless ODI series as a "revenge series"; it betrays the sensibilities of average cricket fans. Beating England in a ODI series and celebrating it as revenge for a 0-4 whitewash in a Test Series is like Jai, Veeru and Thakur plucking 5 strands of greying hair from Gabbar Singh's beard and calling it a revenge for wiping out Thakur's family.

When asked to comment on WWF's assessment of the possible extinction, BCCI preseident N Srinivasan said, "We are not aware of any such report. If WWF have a problem they should speak to us. Cricket is produced for TV not for stadium goers".

The BCCI is also set to announce at the next ICC meeting that like the DRS, playing cricket in stadiums should be optional. According to a new proposal, which Gavaskar, Shastri and Harsha Bhogle have called "visionary", cricket matches will be played in "state-of-the-art" television sudios, so that the TV producers, technicians, managers and executives have better control of the game.

"Giving TV producers, the right to dictate only itineraries is not enough. The way business works, leaders need end-to-end control. There is no room for romantic opinion where money is concerned", said Harsha Bhogle speaking at a television debate on the issue of "Conflict of Interest", sponsored by Anil Kumble, the RCB franchise and Tenvic.

Along with the optional stadium issue, the BCCI is also set to table many changes to the format of the game to better suit it to live coverage over Smart Phones, Tablet PC's and Twitter. Some of the suggested changes

Do away with the 15 yard circle. It will now become the boundary line . It was Steve Job's dying wish that iPhones capture the market share for devices for watching cricket. He had said that cricket grounds need to be smaller to fit on iPhone screens. BCCI will now support this change as essential to securing investment from Apple.
Strategic breaks in T20 cricket should include batsmen making love to pole dancing cheer-leaders. This rule is to allow cricket to be broadcast on porn channels and websites like Playboy, Vivid and TEN. If a batsmen is injured a runner /substitute will not be permitted.
Introduce a new format of cricket called. "Tip and Run". After having signed a multi-billion dollar deal with Twitter, their basic requirement was that there should only be as much action in the game as can be "tweeted" in 140 characters.
To capture the "reality TV market" the BCCI has also suggested that powerplays in ODI cricket be determined by audience participation, where the captain has to either 'poll the internet audience' or 'phone a friend' to determine when to take the powerplay. Additionally the Big Brother franchise has secured the rights to place cameras in player dressing rooms, bathrooms, hotel rooms and lobbies.

Storms in Teacups

2011-10-12T15:18:00.002-05:00

A few years ago, we lamented about the loss of characters from cricket when Flintoff was penalized for pedalo-gate. Until recently, I didn't really understand this desire by journalists and "elites" for squeaky clean sportsmen and now ex-cricketer administrators.

When I was a student in a college in India, many times I would be asked as to how I managed good grades "even though" I enjoyed an occasional drink. Well, maybe not occasional....but you get the point. For the life of me, I never understood the connection between good academic performance and alcohol. In many ways, I (along with a few others) were the outliers.

Many of those that posed that question were squeaky clean A-graders and teetotallers. My misfortunate was that this lot was the majority and they probably now constitute the profile of the majority of opinion-makers.

To bring a long introduction to a point....such a lot (people who have never run cricket or played competitively) is now (Sambit Bal included) questioning Anil Kumble's ethics in running a sports firm and being a sports official. Sports is meant for enjoyment. Sportsmen are entertainers. They need money to feed themselves. So Kumble's firm Tenvic manages a few of the players. Sports is not religion and does not need priests to run it.

In this world, many things are inter-connected. It's incredible that we manage to figure out these connections and try to drive Kumble out of office in Karnataka, just because Vinay Kumar was selected to the India team.

Shame on Sambit Bal and his ilk for such idiotic journalism. Even if Kumble were to have influenced team selection, why should we assume that he had anything but the team's welfare at heart? I wish someone like Kumble were around to manage Vinod Kambli and get him a few breaks. I wish someone like Kumble manages Irfan Pathan. And thank you Sambaran Banerjee for having a conflict of interest and recommending Saurav Ganguly.

In the end, all players are picked based on numbers, recommendation, gut-feel and several other factors. If numbers were the only parameter, then Vikram Rathore would have eclipsed Tendulkar's records by now. Selectors themselves are taking a leap of faith even when they pick proven performers because past performance is no guarantee of future success. Vinay Kumar has done most of the stuff required to merit selection.

We are now hell bent on driving characters like Flintoff, Symonds and Gayle out of cricket and soon we'll drive out administrators with characters like Kumble. Soon Sambit Bal and his ilk will want cricket to be run by tetotaller IIT PhDs only and want cricketers to play slowly so that no one gets hurt.

New Rules: Batsmen can now change their sex at the crease

2011-10-08T12:51:00.002-05:00

The ICC have today announced new rules that require the fielding side; in the ICC's own words; "complete, total and upfront" transparency to the batsmen at the crease.

While so far, a polite "Left arm, over the wicket...sir" was enough of an indication for a batsman to deal with a delivery, the bowlers will now have to provide a complete "specification" of the upcoming delivery or deliveries. If the delivered ball does not meet the batsman's acceptance criteria, the ball will be deemed a "No Ball", the bowler will be reprimanded, and 25% of his match fees donated to the charity... of the batsman's choice. If the offense is repeated the bowler will be banned for life.

The specifications a bowler and his captain are now required to share with the umpire and the batsmen include, the direction of the turn, angle and linear deviation, which fingers will be used to release the ball, where the shiny side will be facing, the angle at which the seam will be held, whether the ball will be delivered at normal pace or will a "slower one" be attempted, whether the ball will be a yorker, the height the ball will rise after pitching, what the bowler had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the last 2 weeks, the bowler's blood pressure, kindergarten graduating grade, hobbies outside cricket, sexual orientation, favorite movie, movie actor, favorite sexual position, favorite dish, and allergies.

Giving new meaning to "Fielding Restrictions"; the ICC also announced that before every innings a fielding captain will have to clearly indicate which fielders will be left-sided divers and which will be right-sided divers. Fielders cannot change their assigned diving sides mid-innings.

Batsman on the other hand can now be allowed sex change operations while at the crease between deliveries. Not many know that in his second successive 100 in the Champions Circus event, David Warner started his innings as a left handed batsman, switched sex to play as a right-handed handed Diane Warner and switched (sex and batting hand) back to a left-handed batsman.

The ICC said...this is legal.

Opinions On...Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi

2011-09-23T02:47:00.002-05:00

The one-eyed Prince

India's youngest captain

But even with one good eye, he is bigger than Tiger Woods; at least in India

Ask Google..

Click to Enlarge

Future not bleak for India in ODIs

2011-09-12T15:13:00.002-05:00

In the run up to the World Cup and in the immediate aftermath of the victory, I was chuffed about India's bench strength. India seemed to be able to win matches despite some of their best players not playing games. They seemed to be able to cover for the stars when they were gone.

India unearthed some serious talent in Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan this way.

However, when I ran Statsguru to check India's record when Tendulkar, Gambhir, Sehwag, Yuvraj and Zaheer were all not playing, I found that India had won only one game out of five. India have always needed some of the big guns to deliver in the ODIs.

While pundits and fans alike may feel that the mighty have fallen, we must pause and think. India's third or fourth string team have given England a few things to think about in the ODIs, although, England seem to have an answer to everything that India has thrown at them. With little or no experience in English conditions, India have started finding their feet. Despite these players never playing as a group before. Some instances of panic were there, which is perhaps due to lack of experience.

Credit is due to Dhoni for ensuring teamwork and camaraderie.

On the bad news side, Ravindra Jadeja continues to demonstrate his inability to handle pressure. He has been roped in as a replacement for Yuvraj and now appears beefed up and more fit. However, in crunch times, he seems to panic and lose his poise. Enough has been invested in him.He can't deliver the final punch. As much talent as he seems to possess, he seems unable to step up at crunch times.

Frankly, I can't understand why Yusuf Pathan was not considered instead of him. Virat Kohli seems to have taken his fiery baptism in test cricket into his ODI game. There appears to be a crisis of confidence. Unlike Raina who seems to be able to compartmentalize the two formats rather well, Kohli, could be suffering from a hangover. However, he is too good to languish for long. It won't be long before he re-discovers himself and starts leading again.

Rahul Dravid hasn't really stepped up, even though there was ample opportunity. He seems to be in great nick, but somehow he's lost the ability to convert. In the absence of all other senior batting pros, he was supposed to provide the solidity. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get going in his last ODI series. A poor swansong for an all time great.

Dhoni and Raina cracked the code in the last ODI, but it was too little too late. Parthiv Patel will probably continue to remain on the fringes, although his hooking and pulling has been a great sight to watch. It's been ages since we've seen an Indian batsman hook and pull with such calm.

Rahane has been the find of the ODI series. He needs to continue to work on his game and improve it. He's got attitude, guts, shots and desire. In may ways, he's very similar to Kohli. Hopefully, he'll be nurtured just the way Kohli is being looked after.

Good signs all.

On the bowling front, RP, Munaf, PK and Ashwin seem to be ok, but they are unable to combine well. They are also inconsistent and are giving away too many boundary balls. A four every over seems like a definite possibility with all these guys. RP seems to be dusting off his cobwebs, but he'll never be a spearhead in the Zaheer mold. He does have enough potential to be a troublesome side-kick, but India need to desperately unearth a leader for the pack. Munaf is flattering to deceive, even though he seems to have all the stuff. PK has heart, but not the stuff. He'll probably continue to do yeoman service, but India will realize that they can't go into battle with him if they have to win big games against big guns.

The heartening news seems to be that Ashwin is ready to take Harbhajan's place in the ODIs. There are probably a few series after which this will come to a head and India will have to make the tough choice.

Harbhajan needs to find his fire again, if he is to fairly keep his place in the side. Despite the losses, India's ODI future is looking decent. India have won in the past without Tendulkar, but they fast need to find an answer to their bowling issues. Zaheer Khan has been huge to India's success.

To regain their aura, India will need to find another Zaheer or Srinath or Kapil. Within a year or so, India needs to find the core of it's next World Cup side.

Naseer calls Indian team bus "An Ambulance"

2011-09-03T20:14:00.000-05:00

The latest comments by Naseer Hussain, while commentating on the abandoned first ODI has created a stir that is likely to put India's tour at risk. BCCI has threatened to call off the tour and some reports even indicate that a private Jet is on standby to take the Indian cricket team home. For those concerned about the health and safety of Indian patients....err....cricketers, the Jet is staffed with the world's best Sports doctors and hospital facilities.

After alleging earlier in the week that India had "3-4 very good fielders"; a comment that has no basis in facts; questions were raised as to whether Naseer Hussain was on the BCCI pay roll along with Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri.

Any such suspicion was laid to rest by what happened today

Even before the dust had settled over the controversy over his "3-4 very good fielders" comments, Naseer Hussain has created another one by referring to the Indian Team Bus, as "An Ambulance".

His comments came as Sky TV was covering the toss for the 1st ODI and announcing the unavailability of Sachin Tendulkar due to injury. "As I walked into the media centre, I saw India's Team bus and it definitely resembled an ambulance"

BCCI was quick to issue a press release, demanding an apology. Indians across the board have termed Hussain's comments as "highly offensive and insulting" With hours the controversy seemed to just erupt like a volcano with television channels adding fuel to the fire.

Harsha Bholgle, the cross cultural expert via his tweets has urged that Indians to see better sense.

"In the West an ambulance is a highly effective and responsive vehicle; unlike in India (contd)"

"Where pizza delivery vans and marriage processions have a higher social standing (contd)"

"I am standing up for Naseer here. He was complimenting India here"

When asked if Naseer's comments would have anything to do with the number of injuries the Indian side had endured on this tour, a BCCI spokes person said...."We have not heard anything from any doctors that the team needs an ambulance. As far as we are concerned, the Indian team bus is a bus and not an ambulance. If a medical doctor or Dhoni, asks for an ambulance, we will consider the matter in the next meeting"

India's Schedule for 2012

2011-09-01T15:21:00.001-05:00

Following heavy criticism and accusations of subjecting its players to in human work load, the BCCI has published a more humane schedule for the Indian National Cricket team. One that is designed to make cricket games involving India more competitive.

JANUARY	FEBRUARY	MARCH
India tours Australia. 4 Tests, 2 T20 and a 5 match ODI series v/s the Maddington Village Second XI. Maddington Village is one of Perth’s fiercest cricket team made up mostly of retired club cricketers now suffering from age related arthritis. Sponsors - BENGAY		4 weeks of rest and rehabilitation. BCCI to conduct free seminars on helping ~~patients~~ Indian cricketers deal with hearing loss, sore hands and weak intermittent eyesight. Sponsors - OIL OF OLAY (Age Defying Lotions)
APRIL	MAY	JUNE
IPL 6453 x 10^6 games in 12 weeks followed by 762 games of a quick eliminator style playoffs where a team has to lose just 67 games in a row to be eliminated. Sponsors – Indian Economy, Political Parties, Film Industry, and ICC. For a complete list visit google.com and type the name of any business
JULY	AUG	SEP
India hosts the Royal Pensioners Association from Wellington, New Zealand. Tour is organized and sponsored by the ‘Bucket List Foundation’ – A British not-for-profit organization, that helps retired farmers fulfill their life-long ambition to play Test cricket for their country	Sachin and Roger’s Honeymoon
OCT	NOV	DEC
India in South Africa – Warm Up Games 5 T20s with Durban Girl’s High School Cricket Team	Full Series with South Africa 2 Tests One off T20 International (Bishen Singh Bedi and Chandu Borde will make their T20 debuts) 7 ODIs The games are optional for all. Full strength team is required for the Toss after which players are free to use the time to mend injuries (from warm up games), relax and call off matches if players are bored to force a result Sponsors – Tourism Ministry of Dominica

(Pataudi Trophy) India: Marks out of -10

2011-08-23T14:06:00.001-05:00

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has always talked about expectations. How his team is expected to win every time. He uses this to indicate the kind of pressure his team is always under. On the surface it makes me scratch my head trying to understand the motive behind repeatedly bringing up this perfectly rational expectation from fans. To expect their team; who have all the necessary funds at their disposal; to be the best in the world, is certainly not unreasonable.

Of course in reality what he means is the irrational behavior of fans when India lose. The heckling and even violence to players properties.

Quite surprisingly, India's non-compete attitude on this tour that ended in a humiliating clean-sweep of defeats has earned their board; the BCCI; the ire of fans and analysts alike.

The players have been spared.

So Mahendra Singh Dhoni was all this while wrong about what fans expect and by being calm and calculated in his dealings with the media he has protected his team from any criticism and made the BCCI look like the ugly villains; perhaps unintentionally.

But the players do not escape our scrutiny. So here's our assessment of their performance and marks out out -10

Sachin Tendulkar (-10) - Was at his selfish best. Played the IPL, skipped the tour of the West Indies, flirted with a married man with children; Roger Federrer and in what we hope is his last tour of England, flopped like Amitabh Bacchan in Jaadugar. By the time he made it into the 90s in his finals innings at the Oval, there was a danger of a significant milestone being inconsequential in the scheme of the series. Its time for him to go away. It really does not matter that he is enjoying the game. It matters even little that he can still score centuries and win India Test matches. Investing a few losses in the Sharmas, Kohlis and Pujaras is going to give us more gains than investing a few wins via Sachin.

Virendra Sehwag (00) - Fast bowlers hunt in pairs. In this series, Sehwag hunted for them. His involvement in this series epitomized India. It was difficult not to laugh, really. I know he is still not recovered from the shoulder injury ,which somehow seemed okay during the IPL. I know he has suffered hearing loss. So what was he, the team and the board thinking? That Stuart Broad, Anderson, Swann and Bresnan were going to line up as nurses?

Praveen Kumar (0) - Deserved the man-of-the-series award for India. For the large part his success only highlights how pathetic India were with their bowling. With his pace, he isn't ever going to be a real Test prospect.

Rahul Dravid (-5) - When Rahul Dravid scores centuries and they get noticed and he gets written about; it usually means trouble. I mean it takes utter and complete, collective failure from Sehwag, VVS, Sachin and Raina for Dravid to get noticed. Dravid's was a competent performance in the series but by his standards not spectacular or extraordinary. We cut 5 points for careless shoelaces and not using the DRS properly.

Suresh Raina (0) - Suresh Raina's successes need to be questioned not his failures. Full marks to him because really its not his fault. WV Raman was crappy too but he was never picked to play Tests in England. Its not Raina's fault that he did. He is who he is. A top dog at local dog-and-pony shows, but of not much utility when you need to get real things done. The homeless man's Saurav Ganguly. But without Dada's guts and attitude.

VVS Laxman (-9) - Why he had such a mediocre series is baffling. He had none of the excuses that some of his peers had. He did not exactly set the IPL on fire and seemed to have had ample time to prepare. The quality of the opposition was right up there. The conditions were challenging. India always in a hole. Everything he typically needs to click was in place. But he never really got going. We give him a point for just looking good all the time. None of his eight dismissals really made him look ugly. After all there are some points for aesthetics.

Zaheer Khan (-8) Its probably unfair to blame Zaheer Khan for a hamstring injury but we can't completely acquit him either. We don't remember Kapil Dev ever breaking down during an important series and bowlers like Brett Lee and Malinga have stood up and made their preferences for the short format clear. Presumably because they don't want to end up like Zaheer Khan ever. Perhaps its time for Zaheer Khan to take a similar stand. We hope in favor of Tests. The 2 points we award him are for playing his part in the only session in the entire series when India competed with England as equals.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (-7) Can't think of too many captains who have shown Dhoni's poise in defeat. Even in a white wash he led admirably. As a Test batsman he has probably regressed beyond recognition and as a leader his one glaring blemish was the spectacle with the Ian Bell run out. But we largely give him points for...not sure why. May be we just like him. He will come back. He deserves Sachin's retirement. This needs to become Dhoni's team.

Fatigue, IPL, Preparation and other excuses

2011-08-19T10:20:00.005-05:00

Now India wants another warm-up game before the Boxing day test in Melbourne. This completely confuses me. On the one hand, we crib about too much cricket, then we want one more warm up game because cricketers have not had enough of the "right" kind of cricket. But warm-up games don't cause any mental fatigue as any athlete can tell you. I'm joking of course.

There is a very simple explanation for this. "You can take a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink." That's exactly what's going on with the Indian team. During the 80s and 90s it was inadequate pay, poor pitches, lack of fast bowlers, unimaginative board, lack of incentives, selectorial stupidity and player selfishness. Most of these issues have been tackled.

There are now better pitches, enough fast bowlers (although PK may not fully qualify), enough salaries and a good contract system, good domestic pay, incentives, selectorial consistency and a board that will fight for players (example Sydney) even if it is sometimes misguided.

India's cricketers are low on motivation right now after winning the world cup. Very simple and straightforward explanation. The nerdy types would want some other "fact-based" reasoning. It doesn't exist because the cricketers are human and not statistics. Even if this tour meant a lot to them, they couldn't crank themselves up after winning the world cup.

Why can't we just agree that we were completely out-thought and out-played by a smarter team? England killed Australia mercilessly and down under to boot. Let's admit that the Andy Flower, Andrew Strauss led English team is more motivated and smarter than the teams that they are playing.

Sure, India has made some mistakes, but I don't believe IPL has led India to perform poorly. This is the core group that challenged SA in South Africa and won the world cup. They can't become stupid overnight. A second string team did decently in the West Indies to win the series.

I don't think Sehwag, Zaheer, Gambhir and Pujara played the IPL expecting to pick up injuries. Resting during the IPL would have meant giving up a huge source of income that is critical for professional players. In any case, that in itself does not mean that India would have given England a run for their money. This is pure speculation that a fit Indian team would have challenged England more or won even.

The Australians were well rested when they took on the English and they were well-prepared too. But they got creamed, didn't they? It's time to put the cribbing aside and salute an English team that well and truly deserves to be the number one team. It's time for critics and commentators and quit cribbing about preparation. India were in the West Indies prior to this tour. What else should they be doing? Play the English team in a pre-series series?

I'm mad as hell that we can't give credit where it's due. Our cricketers are now officially over the hill and it's time to rebuild the team. We needed this series to certify that. If we close our eyes to reality and send this same team to Australia, so that Sachin, Dravid and Laxman can have the satisfaction of a series win in Australia by beating an undercooked Australia, then we are set to suffer for another generation.

IPL is here to stay. We need to figure out how to prepare and win while it is there. India weren't much better during the "good old days" of no IPL.

Where is Sunil Gavaskar when you really, really need him...

2011-08-17T06:54:00.000-05:00

The unanimous acknowledgement of England as the best Test side in the world was anticipated.

No one is pointing out that England lost a Test series in the West Indies. That the last time they beat India in India, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Since then they have beaten Australia in Australia not once but twice! They have not won in Sri Lanka in over a decade

This too was expected to be conveniently forgotten.

Suddenly when it comes to England, everyone sort of understands that the ICC ranking is based on the last 3 years of performance and on that count England's ascent is beyond debate.

However no such concession was given to India when they reached the top of the same rankings that England claim today. Every western leaning human and his/her dog, would jump to point out the exact same shortcomings in India's record that even England are not immune to and question India's legitimacy as the best Test side in the world.

India's number one ranking got legitimacy only when England realized that by beating India they could claim the spot for themselves.

Where is Sunil Gavaskar when you really, really need him. Surely his contract permits him to show a mirror to the people dancing around the English bandwagon....

India's cricketers find worldwide support

2011-08-14T14:07:00.001-05:00

On the eve of India's Independence day, Amnesty International has called on World Leaders to intervene and call an end to what it alleges are atrocities carried out by Britain's cricketers against India's defenseless "Prisoners of Corporate Greed". Better known as the Indian cricket team. It further alleges that comments made by Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron; congratulating his cricketers; also implicates him in the atrocities and does not rule out urging the international community to press charges of Human Rights violations against the Prime Minister.

"We demand that India's tour of England be immediately called off. Britain has a responsibility to set an example when it comes to human rights but the way its cricketers are humiliating and degrading India's senior citizens and untrained young men, who have shown no intent of retaliation; Britain's human rights record will not withstand international scrutiny" said an Amnesty International spokesman for cricket related crimes against humanity.

Over in the United States, in an unprecedented criticism of Britain's actions; former Vice President Dick Cheney said that the kind of 'interrogation tactics" the English bowlers used against defenseless, under-prepared, under protected and innocent Indian batsmen was; in his words..."worse than water boarding". Dick Cheney a staunch advocate of "enhanced interrogation techniques" said that humiliating ageing, IPL infected batsmen with bouncy green tops, swing and seam is not something the United States considers "humane". "Its just not something we do...." he added.

Over in India, the non-violent approach adopted by India's cricketers in the face of English atrocities and humiliation, has moved Munna Bhai to tears. Munna Bhai, the lovable gangster turned doctor and Gandhian; decided to end his 90 day fast which he started to lament India's departure from Gandhian values. In a statement he said, "I was wrong. Gandhiji lives in our cricketers. No matter what the English threw at us, our boys just never responded. While watching, even I had the urge to just pick up the phone and call Circuit to 'take care' of Broady, Cooky and Jimmy, but our cricketers inspire me to refrain from anything stupid. Most of our cricketers are Gandhiji's age when he started the non-violent movement for Independence. I think age is doing wonders for our cricket team"

Munna Bhai broke his fast by feasting on Wada Paavs and buckets of strawberries and cream, Wimbledon-ishtyle. After Circuit reminded Munna Bhai..."Aaj dry day hai bhai...." Munna settled for Boost for drinks.

For years now, economists the world over have been warning us about the widening gap between the rich and the poor. At a meeting in Shanghai of the world's leading economists, Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman labelled the series as a series between the "Haves and the Have Nots".

"Of course in this context we are talking about basic cricketing skills and intelligence but the series is a perfect model using which we can project how scary the world will be if we allow the gap between the rich and the poor to grow beyond sustainable levels" said Paul Krugman who is widely expected to win a second Nobel Prize for his work on the series.

Explaining his analysis, Krugman says, "Look in the First test, India won the toss invited England to bat, then could not get them all out and when their turn came to bat, they nearly followed on. Then in the 3rd Test, they could not avoid the follow-on in spite of batting twice! Legally they should have lost by 2 innings and 42 runs. From an economic sense, this is like the poor living off of just tips and gratuities offered by the rich".

Krugman added that purely from an academic standpoint, he is grateful to India's cricketers for giving him a ready made Test case to prorate his economic models for the impact of widening wealth gap.

While international intervention is eagerly awaited, India's cricketers have found a helping hand from the famous spin quartet. A few decades ago, Bedi, Prasanna, Chandra and Venkatraghvan had faced similar humiliation at the hands of Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Zaheer Abbas. Bedi who was so traumatized by the series developed an involuntary defense mechanism centered around cynicism and sarcasm, said that "I want to make sure Sachin does not suffer the way I suffered." then seemingly unable to control another bout of sarcasm, he said...."Once you have this disease, its not like you can pick-and-choose what you want"

BCCI cheer leaders, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri said, "England are just jealous of the IPL".

A spectacular betrayal

2011-08-13T08:49:00.000-05:00

Its not about India losing. Its not even about the 0-4 scoreline. The sense of betrayal I feel is beyond the hurt of losing.

India have lost before and almost never I had to question their commitment or their intelligence. This time around I question both.

Their commitment to their national duties needs to be questioned. Immediately after the World Cup, they knew their next national duty was in the West Indies and England. There was more than enough time to prepare for the tours. The most prestigious tours in the context of cricket.

And yet they collectively; the players and the board; adorned pom-poms and entertained cricket obsessed Indians, publicity starved Indian film stars and opportunistic business tycoons. For them, the Indian cricketing establishment became jokers performing circus stunts in return for some cash.

It is not the IPL that is to be blamed. There is the Netherlands Circus in a nearby town outside London and I have nothing against it. Not its producers, not its performers, not its spectators. Its a perfectly valid channel and means for entertainment and business. It is India's mindlessness and stupidity in investing resources meant for national duty into the IPL circus that has to be questioned.

And then Dhoni has the gall to comment on the schedule and work load. England have had the same work load, but they have the intelligence to stay away from risking their players performing circus stunts.

Then they treat the West Indies tour as if its a voluntary, social service type community duty. They cribbed about umpiring when they won comfortably betraying an arrogance that is not usually associated with Indian cricket and when the time came to be arrogant in a strict cricketing sense, they went home. 96 runs in 16 over was a bit much beyond the cricketing ability and intelligence of India's cricket greats.

And what did they think The Pataudi Trophy is some sort of a street play? Where you can call on some neighborhood stars and produce a play to an applause of neighbors or tourists? That Test cricket methods can be turned on and off at the switch of a button.

Teams have been white washed before. Humiliated even. But India have just delivered the most spectacular betrayal to their national duties. The list includes the Board and the players, led by Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir.

England and Pataudi Sr. deserved better.

In Defense of the New Order

2011-08-10T08:00:00.003-05:00

There has been a lot of hand wringing about India's status as the number one test team. India's poor (euphemism alert) performance in England has generated a great deal of commentary. The general refrain is as follows; Indian players put T20 (IPL, Champions League) above all else, BCCI is money-mad and therefore doesn't care about Indian cricket. Indian players are unfit and unprepared because of BCCI's callousness, especially with regards to the cricket calendar. India don't really deserve to be number one because they never really beat anyone good in a series away from home.

I would like to provide a contrarian view. Everyone including Harsha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar have decided that the BCCI is to blame for India's poor showing in England. It's convenient because then you don't have to name names and can simply blame it on a boogeyman. I believe this is the most progressive board set up in my lifetime. The board has contracted several players. The board needs to put eleven 'qualified' players on the field at any given time. The board needs to provide a good support structure in the form of a coach, conditioning expert, mental strength consultants, masseuse, physical therapist etc. Plus, there is the NCA where any player can go back to school. All this has been done.

The reason I believe we are seeing some problems is that the players have not yet figured out how to use their "vacations". In other words, the board has been consistently saying that players are free to choose when they need rest. I imagine most of us are professionals. There's always something going on at work that I want to be part of. If I choose to sacrifice my vacation and decide to burn myself out, my employer is not to blame. Or if I use poor judgement and stay away at the wrong time and miss a critical review with the CEO. BCCI, rightly or wrongly is taking this attitude that the players need to manage their schedules. I support this whole-heartedly. The players are adult professionals and don't need a nanny.

Unfortunately, the players have not yet figured out how best to use this flexibility. Tendulkar skipped the West Indies tour and Gambhir, Sehwag and Zaheer took an injury time-out. Not exactly the best timing. With time, the players will become more smart about how to use this flexibility to their advantage. As contracted players, they are financially secure. The board honors it's end as long as players honor theirs by training hard and performing regularly and displaying the right attitudes.

India's ODI success is a direct result of the board and selection committee's foresight. Replacement players step in without missing a beat and the team keeps chugging along. This is true of both bowling and batting reserves. The all rounder slot is being filled by Yuvraj at this time, but needs a long term solution. India will continue to look for Kapil's second coming in this regard.

On the test side, the injury to Cheteshwar Pujara has been unfortunate. Otherwise, India have a reasonably settled batting order. Until Vijay lost form in the Carribbean, he was the second choice opener. Pujara, Kohli and Badrinath were viewed as the next best and were being groomed. Unfortunately, Badrinath too was a disappointment. My guess is that Rohit Sharma will be the next one to be given a little bit of a run. When Pujara comes back, we'll have to hope that he maintains form and pushes Dravid for his spot. Likewise Sharma should spend time with Tendulkar and be ready when the master calls it a day. It's clear that Kohli has class regardless of his actual showing in the West Indies. He will come good and will captain the team in future. Raina is being persisted with in the hope that with experience he will fulfill his enormous potential. I don't see how one can blame the board or T20 for this. The planning has been immaculate and needs to be applauded.

India's bowling has been what it is. Right now there are Zaheer, Praveen, Ishant, Sreesanth and Munaf as the top picks. RP has made a comeback. Akram is plugging for Balaji. Irfan Pathan might yet come good or one of Mithun, Unadkat or Yadav might get better. Once again, I think the BCCI has been good about the bowlers.

I agree that India's ascent to the top has coincided with others' decline, but so did Australia's ascent coincide with West Indies and Pakistan's decline. There's always a cycle of sorts and now it's England's turn. But I think it's South Africa that are a heartbeat away from greatness too. And don't discount New Zealand. They have made all the right moves to become a contender.

Let's all take a deep breath and enjoy England's performances. India is not all that shoddy.

The London riots

2011-08-09T16:05:00.000-05:00

We @ Opinions are very concerned over the riots in London and the safety of our cricketers with word that the violence has spread to even Birmingham, the venue of 3rd Test of the ongoing Pataudi Trophy. With England a mere 20 wickets or 4-5 sessions of Indian batting resistance away from the number #1 ranking, conveniently our thoughts (and prayers) are reserved for the safety of our players and rankings seem such a flimsy thing to be worrying about.

And we are not alone.

At a press event scheduled to officially count down India's last remaining sessions as the World's best cricket team, BCCI President Shashank Manohar was asked a question on the actions the board is taking to ensure player safety. When a journalist mentioned "riots" the President jumped instantly..."Riots, what riots? The Champions League will go ahead as planned. These riots are illegal, we oppose them and we will get them banned. We have 40 days before the Champions League starts and we will ban all riots to ensure a smooth tournament"

When reminded that the question was specifically about the riots in London, he said..."Well we haven't heard anything from the English board. We can't govern based on what is written in the papers and shown on television. Its all hacked you see. There has been no communication from the ECB so as far as we are concerned there are no riots. In any case its their internal matter, we don't want to interfere".

The press then challenged The President...but aren't you worried about the safety of our players?

"Look, we don't force players to play. If they feel that security is not proper, they can ask for permission to be sent home. It is up to the players. Security is a personal matter. We can't force people to feel secure. Its against our policy"

When asked about the possibility of India losing the #1 ranking to England, The President gave the journalists a lesson in business. "What #1? Look, we don't like the #1 ranking. Its still not perfect. We have to spend millions of dollars in sending a team early to tours instead of expanding the IPL. In return we get no new sponsors. Being number #1 is a loss making venture. We don't support it".

Speaking on television, "independent BCCI cheerleader" Ravi shastri ripped into fellow commentator Naseer Hussain, suggesting that the riots have been staged to disrupt India's preparation for the 3rd Test. "The important thing for India is to keep their eye on the ball. England knows nothing about being #1. Its India's ranking to lose. The first hour will be crucial, if India can start aggressively, then there's nothing that can stop them. Not even the riots. Aggression is the key here. If anything India must learn from the people rioting. Its about aggression".

When asked about the possibility of England claiming the #1 ranking from India, Ravi Shastri thundered... "England are jealous. We have the IPL. I don't understand why England complains about the BCCI. The BCCI is the #1 board in the world. Now is a good time to be Indian and Naseer is only half-Indian".

At the team hotel, as the players were huddled in the lobby, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, when asked about the rioting in London wore a quizzical look. "You guys are catching the riot story now? There is strong evidence that the rioting started since Day 1 @ the Lord's...Thanks, I want to head to my hotel room....."

India has a small chance

2011-08-09T08:40:00.003-05:00

The heading isn't misleading. I actually do believe India has a chance. Both England and India are missing some first choice players. In India's case, it's Zaheer and Harbhajan, whereas in England's case it's Trott and Tremlett.

It appears that the English reserves have stepped into the breach and filled the void admirably. Bresnan replaced Tremlett in style and England didn't miss a beat. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Sreesanth who replaced Zaheer. India become a completely different bowling unit in Zaheer's absence. Whereas, Zaheer leads from the front and the rest of the bowlers play subordinate roles, in his absence, India have hunted as a pack. In the second test, this aspect of the attack so evident in the West Indies was missing. The bowlers appeared to be somewhat rudderless.

I have always felt that Mishra is a much better test match bowler than he gets credit for. He is a wicket taking bowler and unfortunately struggles to switch to containment mode. Harbhajan usually switches into containment mode quite easily and perhaps that's why he plays ahead of Mishra even on pitches with a potential for turn. With Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan down the order, Mishra's inclusion might expose a vulnerable under-belly.

On the batting side, England will miss Trott big time. He brings the sort stability that Dravid and Kallis bring to their teams. In his absence, Strauss and Cook will have no room to fail. If the Indian seamers get their heads straight, they might manage to exploit this pressure to their favor. Pietersen and Bell remain huge threats and with Prior and Broad in form, England definitely look menacing.

India on the other hand have to figure out how to combine better. VVS' promotion up the order has not worked. Perhaps he needs to go back to batting at number six and let Raina bat at number five. This way, Raina will have the confidence of being sandwiched between two greats and the pressure of performing will likely ease. With Sehwag, Gambhir and Dravid at the top and Tendulkar to follow, India look as formidable as England on the batting stakes. It will take only one of Sehwag or Gambhir to come good for India to take control of a game. However, both are somewhat rusty and will have play out of their skins to come good.

A Tendulkar special is round the corner. Given the way he has been stiking the ball, it seems that he's been out more to lapses of concentration, rather than bowlers getting him out with unplayable balls. Dhoni remains in poor form, but India can afford to carry him if they play to script.

The optimism stems from the fact that this batting order for India is much more familiar and normal than the last five tests that India have played. The bowling becomes much more potent if the batting comes good and hopefully, Dhoni will have the sense to bat first should he win the toss.

England are favorites with their formidable bowling, but India have a slight chance at Birmingham. Hoping for a slugfest at Edgbaston.

What is India expecting from Viru?

2011-08-05T16:42:00.000-05:00

Ask Meenakshi...

Anderson rues a missed opportunity

2011-08-03T09:01:00.001-05:00

Jimmy Anderson who missed a golden opportunity to score a century in each innings against India in the recently concluded Test Match at Trent Bridge, has lashed out at team mate Greame Swann for his inability to support his quest for a rare; but in Anderson's words achievable feat; particularly against this Indian bowling attack.

For the record, no player in Test history has taken 5 wickets in a match and scored a century in each innings of the same Test. Not even Gary Sobers. Ian Botham and Jacques Kallis also never came close. But Anderson believes this series was the best chance for him to score a couple of Test centuries and be counted as one of England's greatest all-rounders. "There is something about this Indian bowling attack that makes me back the batsman in me. It's not like these guys are Mpofu, Utseya or Roubel Hossain...." said Anderson' neither with a twinkle in his eye nor his tongue anywhere near his cheek

In both innings of the recently concluded Trent Bridge Test, Greame Swann was unable to withstand the hostile Indian attack and fell while his partner felt he was nearing centuries in both innings.

"I was just 94 short in the first innings and 99 in the second. You'd expect someone like Swanny, who's played a decent amount of cricket, to hold off the Indian attack for a few overs. I told him, I just need an hour in both innings but I guess it was too much of an ask for him".

Asked which of the Indian bowlers he fancies the most, Anderson replied..."All of them are top class; but I am very comfortable with the pace with which the Indian bowlers bowl at you. However, I have had my struggles against spin, so I would say other than Praveen Kumar, I fancy my chances against most other Indian bowlers"

He added...

"Look, I do not want to cook up a storm here, but I know Anil Kumble is considered by many as India's best spinner of all time, but at times he bowled too fast. He never learned to slow the pace on his deliveries the way Praveen has, so early in his career. I think he will beat Murali's record because unlike Murali, he knows how to turn a new ball, fair and square"

James Anderson also revealed something that Andrew Strauss might be livid with. Apparently it is England's game plan; according to Anderson; to make Praveen look better than he really is. Praveen's pace means that India are never able to complete their overs in time. "Its surprising how no one has realized that with Praveen in your side, no captain can get his side to bowl more than 12 overs in an hour....Praveen's fastest deliveries are something like 56 mph and they have to travel 22 yards roughly, and say he bowls 30% of the overs every day...you do the math....it just takes longer for him to finish his overs. As a batting team we have learned to use the bowler's pace to our advantage"

Other Fake News...

A Well Deserved Thrashing

2011-08-01T20:49:00.004-05:00

A well as India played in the months prior to the World Cup, ultimately leading to the World Cup win itself, they have badly let themselves down since then. A stirring series in South Africa where India tamed Steyn and Kallis and gave South Africa some back was followed by a World Cup run that seemed scripted by a fairy tale writer.

It's hard to believe it is the same team that's getting it's butt kicked by a rampaging England. The manner of defeat resembles abject capitulation as opposed to going down fighting. One can accept the excuse that India is not at full-strength, but to give up without much of a fight is demeaning to the game itself.

Indian fans can be forgiven for conjuring up images of Gavaskar's 221 at the Oval chasing 440-plus. I for one had hopes that one out of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman would play that kind of a knock and would remind the world that India was still number one, even if the team lost. I was totally unprepared for the team to lose inside of five days.

The foundation was laid by Broad's hat-trick, followed by a rapid demolition of India's attack by Bell and co. The scoring rate for England stayed almost ODI-like throughout their second innings. Demoralized doesn't even come close to describing the state of Indian bowlers. They were clueless, leaderless and exposed. The captain and coach both need to cop a lot of the blame for this. If Harbhajan continues to play ahead of Mishra in this series, something is definitely wrong with the think-tank.

India's vaunted batting line up stood exposed against aggressive seam bowling. They had pooh-poohed the notion that they were vulnerable to short-pitched fast bowling. Dravid alone utilized his time in the Caribbean to come good. But he couldn't help the emperor don a fig leaf. Tendulkar and Laxman haven't given a good enough account of themselves and I'm sure they need no one to let them know that.

Sehwag and Gambhir will likely play the next test. Assuming Sehwag hits form rightaway, which is unlikely, India could still show some class. Unfortunately, Dhoni seems to have lost his luck. This could be the series that sends him downhill. He needs to seriously discover some batting form on this tour, otherwise his credibility is on the line.

Unfortunately, the golden period for Indian cricket seems to be getting close to over. They have fallen short against a full-strength Australian side in the past and now against a full-strength England side. The chasm between England and India is huge. It's unlikely to be closed in this series. I have a feeling that the big three have already played their last good series in South Africa. India could be staring at losing the series 3-0 or even 4-0. What then?

Spinning a spectacle - The Ian Bell run out

2011-08-01T04:54:00.000-05:00

Had India not run-out Ian Bell in the first place, only then it could be argued that India and their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had upheld the spirit of the game. As things stand, they did run him out, which they were entitled to within the laws of the game and then had a change of heart. Rahul Dravid terming it as the 'right thing to do'. Implying that running him out, in the first place, was the wrong thing to do.

To credit India with upholding the spirit of the game is thus wrong and misplaced. Only a naive eagerness to find some good in a team that has let themselves and their supporters down by showing the most scant regard for the trophy they are playing for, by turning up under prepared and unfit.

To compliment and thank England for their role in the episode, the way the ICC did yesterday is infuriating and exasperating, as well. I can't digest the news that during the tea interval captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower met Mahendra Singh Dhoni and asked him to reconsider the appeal. Why would anyone defend a grand display of sheer ignorance of the law by one of their players? Or are the English so desperate that they will even beg for a few wickets to be reversed.

You know an action is in the 'Spirit of the game' when you see one. I saw this and all I saw was ignorance, indecisiveness and and finally an attempt to generate some goodwill.

When Courtney Walsh did not run out Saleem Jaffer, when the latter was backing up too far down the pitch, with the 1987 World Cup finals berth on the line...that was in the spirit of the game. You saw it and there was a unanimous, instinctive and spontaneous acknowledgement and appreciation of what Walsh had done.

What happened yesterday at Trent Bridge was just a spectacle. Lets not dig for deeper narratives. Lets not fall for misleading advertisements that Test cricket is so eager to offer these days.

Broad's heroics won't count...

2011-07-30T22:02:00.003-05:00

It has taken Stuart Broad roughly 7 days of Test cricket to flatten India. If he can hold up his performance for the second half of this Test; the series can be safely labelled Broad's Pataudi Trophy. Of course it does not have the 'Botham's Ashes' feel to it, but it can be safely said that Stuart Broad has finally arrived.

Rahul Dravid notwithstanding, a Sehwag-less Indian batting lineup is a pale shadow of the one that tamed England 4 years ago. When you start missing the solidity provided by the likes of Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer at the top of the order, you know you are in serious trouble.

Even on the bowling side, without Zaheer Khan, this Indian bowling line-up can boss a side around for, say 40-45 overs, after which even a Greame Swann can start having designs of dominating a tiring attack groomed on a rigorous diet of 4 overs a day cricket.

It's not like Stuart Broad is flattening a truly great side, but its a performance around which he can build his legend. Before this series started, I used to wonder why a bowler whose numbers were pretty much similar to Ishant Sharma's, was so talked about in English circles. But England's obsession with finding the next Botham is well-known and I excused Stuart Broad as the latest English obsession after Andrew Flintoff finished his career leaving many Englishmen and beyond thirsty for more.

For Stuart Broad, emulating Andrew Flintoff's numbers career-wise won't be much of task. All said and done Flintoff has pretty mediocre numbers. Both Flintoff and Ian Botham however are Ashes heroes and unless Stuart Broad wins an Ashes series singlehandedly, taking wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, even by the dozens, just won't count.

There was; until the beginning of this series, another thing that used to irk me. The steadfast refusal of the English to accord any opponent equivalent billing to the Australians . Kevin Pietersen after the Lord's Test suggested there exists a genuine hatred for the Australians in English hearts, as a reason why the Pataudi Trophy will never equal the Ashes in intensity in spite of India ranked #1 in the Test rankings. Hatred and for that matter even history by itself are quite in capable of sustaining interest in a century old cricket contest. When India arrived in England, under cooked, disinterested and exhausted by the IPL, the reason why The Ashes will be the holiest of all cricketing contests was clear to me. Both sides covet the trophy. Both want it badly and neither side will risk their players in circus acts in return for a few dollars and risk 'The Ashes'.

Iftikar Ali Khan; the Nawab of Pataudi; Senior. had the distinction of playing for both England and India. In a way, naming the series between India and England after him was apt. After all, making his Test debut for England he had scored a hundred on debut. His career spanning all of 6 Tests was divided in half. One playing for England and the other for India.

The way England have prepared for this series, they have respected his legacy. The way India have approached this series leaves a lot to be desired. The trophy is only as prestigious as the opponents intend it to be. England and Australia have made sure that the Ashes legacy is protected and enhanced. Indian cricket, drunk with the success of circus cricket called the Indian Premier League, have no appetite for, or an appreciation of the Pataudi trophy or the man it intends to honor.

So my message to Stuart Broad....sorry mate, but don't waste your time on India, preserve your heroics for someone who deserves your passion and skills. Find someone equal to your intensity. India is not that team.

India's #1 ranking has no business case

2011-07-29T04:40:00.001-05:00

The business case for India to hold on to their number one ranking expired on April 2nd 2011. From the moment Mahendra Singh Dhoni clubbed the six that gave India the World Cup, the business conditions changed. Being Number One in Test cricket was an investment with returns too meager to satisfy all stake holders.

The market decided that the best way to account for the 'fan capital' accumulated after India's nerve wracking chase in the finals and indeed their entire World Cup journey, was to spend it in reviving the faltering TV rankings of the fledgling Indian Premiere League.

And for the benefit of organizations in need of cash like Reliance, India Cements, UB Group, etc India mortgaged their number one ranking by settling for reduced performance from its champion Test side on tours of the West Indies and England. That these tours were a chance to emulate Ajit Wadekar's 1971 champion side, did not find a mention in discussions among even the most hard core of traditionalists.

There is no doubt in my mind that the team and conditions that made India the world's best cricket team in Tests would been a much better match for the soon to be champion England side. Then again, there was no money to be made that way.

Even while the ICC Test rankings are more cryptic than Gulzar's poetry, India knew; I hope; that every Test they fail to win from the number one position, will likely result in points docked from them. Just to maintain their points, India needed to win the West Indies series 3-0. Instead they utilized all their resources towards the IPL and Sachin Tendulkar decided to skip the series, for no real reason at all.

It is amazing how little noise was made in the media about the way India approached the West Indies tour and Sachin Tendulkar in particular. I do not believe Sachin Tendulkar has earned the right to pick and choose tours. Scoring 50 odd Test Centuries, helping India win 50 odd Test matches in 170 odd Tests in return for the money and adulation he gets, is par for the course. He hasn't done India any favors or charity that we should feel the need to extend him privileges far beyond what he deserves or has earned. He has skipped 2 tours to the West Indies now and if he can't appreciate what a series win in the West Indies means to Test cricket fans, I find it extremely hard to connect with his decisions. Having grown up watching Clive Loyd's teams humiliate Indian teams, I find Sachin passing an opportunity to finally get back at the West Indies inexcusable. Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Gordon Greenidge and a host of others showed no mercy to us and when it was our turn finally, Sachin Tendulkar was murmuring sweet nothings in Roger Federerr's ears eating strawberries and cream. The image is revolting.

If this is the example Sachin Tendulkar has set, then who is to blame Zaheer Khan and Virendra Sehwag to arrive in England either under cooked or like a Salman Khan making an entry post interval in a Karan Johar movie.

Cricket teams don't win if they are operated like movie production houses where the best talent is sourced from various disciplines to produce a hit movie. India can't expect to assemble their best only for prestigious events like the World Cup and the England tour and expect to win consistently. Good sports teams evolve as a unit and learn to win only as a cohesive unit. But India have sold the narrative of 'rotation' and this seems to have been bought by even the most discerning of cricket fans.

Had India sent their best team to the West Indies, there is no doubt we could have swept the series and arrived at England more attuned to winning Test Matches. This would of course have meant limiting appearances at the IPL.

Coming to the ongoing tour of England and on the day of the Trent bridge Test, I have a feeling this tour is heading for a disaster. Unless rain intervenes, the scoreline is very obvious. Having seen the 2 teams at Lord's, I can say India looks defeated already. Its going to be 4-0 but all of India will read it as

England 4: India IPL

This one didn't hurt as much

2011-07-26T07:56:00.004-05:00

The Lords test confirmed to me what I feared after Dominica. India are a team that plays to it's strengths and does well to hide it's weaknesses. This India isn't Kapil Dev's 1986 India or Steve Waugh's win-at-all-costs Australia or Clive Lloyds attack-relentlessly West Indies. This is not a criticism. It's simply a recognition of reality.

This India is not about winning and losing and letting the ranking take care of itself. It feels like for this Indian team managing the ranking is critical. Mahendra Singh Dhoni's press conference at the end of the Lords test was as much an exercise in excuse mongering than anything else that I have ever heard. It did his standing little good.

Batting in the fourth innings is never easy. It's in fact rare that a side facing 458 and more than a 100 overs can stave off defeat. However, it also appears that India were aware of this fact. In fact, they seem to have memorized these types of statistics. Therefore, while I saw gallant effort, I somehow didn't see bloody-mindedness. I didn't see the Sachin battling through back pain in Chennai or the Sachin batting with Prabhakar while scoring his maiden hundred. I didn't see VVS fighting tooth and nail at Sydney to restore some pride to a match already lost. I didn't see Dhoni from 2007 resolutely keeping away everything to instill confidence in the fans that he was not just a swashbuckler, but a man on a mission who had a decent head on his shoulders. Right from the moment Dravid fished foolishly outside off stump, it felt like India didn't believe they could save the match.

The match was more or less lost when India lost Zaheer on day one. Dravid came back into his own and helped India make a match of it. So India are a good team. But unfortunately, India are still not close to wearing the tag of a "great" team. But this is more a mis-alignment with my romantic notion of wanting India to be a dominant world beater, than a problem with the Indian team. The Indian team has found a formula for success and is relentlessly sticking to it and executing it with great discipline.

While on the subject of Dravid, no one has scored more runs for India since his debut and no one has turned out in more tests than him. The fact that he has found his mojo again is great news for India. He has also graciously acknowledged that Tendulkar affords him the luxury of faiure, although it has been rare until recently.

Somehow, the world cup win seems to have lulled India. It's now been two tests in a row that India have given up on the last day facing high odds. There are huge positives coming out of this match, that suggest that India can pull one or two back in the three tests to follow. Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Rahul Dravid. Maybe adding Sreesanth to the mix will create unpredictability required to the bowling. Harbhajan perhaps needs some rest and needs to make way for Mishra. Bhajji isn't batting or bowling well.

With Tendulkar and Gambhir hopefully finding their rhythm, India could be expected to win at least one test out of the remaining three. India have dealt with English batting reasonably well, despite not getting England out even once. With another bowler, India can take care of that. They seem to have good plans and are executing to them. However, I did feel that on the first morning Kumar and Sharma weren't making the batsmen play enough, but that's likely because they were still coming to terms with the amount of swing they were getting. With this test, behind them, India have much better chances of winning with or without Zaheer.

This loss didn't hurt as much. The series has just begun.

India will need Plan 'C' to win

2011-07-23T16:58:00.001-05:00

For all its history, the Lord's cricket ground is yet to acknowledge present day greats Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting. While it has room on its board for workmen-like performances from Praveen Kumar's or Shane Watson's, it had none for Rahul Dravid. Even a Ajit Agarkar has his name on the board.

But today, the famous ground took its opportunity and acknowledged Rahul Dravid's absolutely proper and Test Match Quality innings. It still has some time to acknowledge Sachin Tendulkar but that's for another day.

How many times, has a side faced the ignominy of facing the possibility of a follow on after their inability to bowl the opposition out; having invited them to take first strike? Well I am not sure about the all the instances, but this is the second time that it has happened to India against England. The last time too at Lord's. Remember Gooch scored something like 5.8 trillon runs and Kapil hoicked 4 successive sixes off Eddie Hemmings with Hirawni for company to avoid the follow-on?

And for all instances where a team has lost the match after inserting the opposition in and failing to dismiss them....here it is. Its happened only 21 times. India banked on Zaheer Khan and without him, we need our batsman to be absolutely in top form to save Test matches

When play started today, India had only one option. To execute Plan A. Which roughly would have been to put up somewhere around 700+ odd runs and skittle England out in the second innings and win by an innings. Stuart Broad had other ideas however and when he had India 5 down, Dhoni and Dravid played Trott, Pietersen and Swann as I imagine Syed Kirmani and S Venkatraghvan would have played Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Malcom Marshal in Kingston Jamaica.

Now had Zaheer been fit, India could have executed Plan B, which is to get England out tomorrow and chase down the deficit and win on Day 5. But with Ishant and Bhajji, even a timeless Test would not have enough time to allow Praveen Kumar to price England all-out.

Which leaves India with Plan C....wait for Strauss to declare and get the target.

I think when you are losing, there are more options for a win. Or may its is just hope.....

This is the first time we write about a game we have actually watched...live...in person. All other times we simply pretended that we did.

Opinions On... Praveen Kumar

2011-07-22T11:29:00.003-05:00

Praveen Kumar is Madan Lal's Second Coming

For us children of the eighties, nothing is humbling and funnier than Maddi-pa running full speed and delivering a military medium pie. Humbling because he got many vital wickets and never ever gave it away. He never dropped any catches and never threw his wicket away playing ungainly shots. Here was a man that valued every second he spent on the cricket field and gave it his all. His utmost was military medium pies. If God had given him natural speed, he would have devastated the world.

Praveen Kumar reminds me of Madan Lal. He is all heart and a lot of guile. But his methods are old-fashioned and simple. Grunt work, effort and more effort. His bowling reminds me of Javed Miandad. Perhaps because I'm constantly subjected to the phrase "street-smart" in his context. But watching the first two days of this match and his bowling in his debut series in the West Indies, I have felt a strange sense of anticipation on every ball he bowls. This from a military medium bowler that doesn't even try to bowl any faster. Not since Kapil Dev, have I felt that way when an Indian bowler has bowled.

No good bowler from Srinath to Zaheer and Pathan to Ishant has generated that feeling since Kapil and Maninder Singh (for a brief time). Every wicket to fall almost felt that it was against the grain of play except in certain furious spells that each of these bowlers have bowled. Kumble was unplayable on spinning Indian tracks and we always knew India would wrap things up. There was no waiting with bated breath, it was a question of how long is it going to take to prise out these non-players of spin.

With Praveen Kumar though, it's different. It feels that every ball he is going to bowl is a trick ball of some sort that's going to deliver a wicket. If he gets whacked, it feels like the batsman was lucky to have received a dolly. Every wicket he gets feels like he's earned it and not been given it. At times, he asks Dhoni to come up to the stumps. It's clear he's comfortable in his skin. What fast bowler of any stripe would feel good about the keeper standing up? But not Praveen. He's ok and in fact, it's part of his arsenal of tricks.

Praveen Kumar makes military medium look good. Hope he keeps it up and plays for a long time. If anything, he is a symbol of many things that are right about Indian cricket right now. In this age, where fast bowling is the rage and India is fast trying to unearth the next typhoon, Praveen puts things in the right perspective. It's not about bowling fast, it's about getting 20 wickets. He is doing it in style.

Other unsolicited opinions on unsuspecting cricketers...

Its India v England's Belief

2011-07-20T14:49:00.001-05:00

The only time, I was confident about India winning an away series was in 1986 when a strong Indian line up took on an Australia in transition. That side on form and skill was almost as strong as this Dhoni led Indian side; perhaps a bit stronger given that Virendra Sehwag will be watching the Lords Test from the sidelines.

Gavaskar and Srikanth to open; a middle order of Mohinder Amarnath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammed Azharuddin and Ravi Shastri; two decent spinners in Shivlal Yadav and L Sivaramakrishnan and the great Kapil Dev.

That series ended in bitter disappointment for me when all Test matches were drawn; Adelaide because of a flat pitch; Melbourne due to rain and India's strange reluctance to get on with things and Sydney when India, in spite of the rain, almost bowled out Australia twice in day and half, but ran out of time. 26 years on, India has still not won a series in Australia.

India have come a long way from that series but then even as recently as Oval 2007 and Dominica 2011 they have shown that they are still averse to giving it their all in an away series. This may come to bite them because in this series, I have a feeling that the side that wins will be the one that goes for wins whenever they find an opening.

This series, will probably produce the highest quality of cricket in a long time, the crowds will be there and hopefully both sides will show up for all the games.

The last time, India lost a series in England was in 1996 and the last time England won a series in India was in 1985. To top that, India have the number one billing here and yet, it is England that have the belief that they can beat India and be the legitimate World Number one.

I have to say one thing. Early on when India became the number one side and when England won the Ashes, there was a lot of noise among the English that India is not a legitimate number one. But now that there is a distinct possibility of England beating India and claiming the top spot, there is unanimous agreement that India is the legitimate number one side. Strange are the ways of legitimizing rankings.

India will miss Sehwag. There is no disguising that. He gets them into positions that India has no capacity of even envisioning. Without him, the threat of Anderson and Swann is real. India have invested far too much in the IPL and in a way this will be contest between a side untouched by the IPL but are the World Champions in the shortest format and a side that is in bed with the IPL but World Champions in the longest format. Strange isn't it?

I admit, I believe in England's belief. I believe their batting is as strong as India's if not stronger and I believe Swann is better than Harbhajan. In sum, I believe England will prevail at Lords and in the series. And I admit I also envision a horror scenario that Dravid, Laxman and Sachin will go out the way India's famed spin quartet were forced out, by the relentless attack from Javed Miandad and Zaheer Abbas. 3 of the 4 from the famous spin quartet had played 1 series too many and I hope with Sachin, Rahul and Laxman, they never play that one series too many and that if they do, this is not the one

See also...

India lose Lords Test by 5 wickets

2011-07-17T16:49:00.001-05:00

As one of those that is still somewhat livid with how the Dominica Test ended with teams declaring a 'total strike', I am still not over the India - West Indies Test series and the English series is upon us.

I braved the rain and took a train ride from Borehamwood to Taunton to watch Day 2 of the tour game against Somerset and to be at the ground where Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Ian Botham and Joel Garner played their summer cricket, was humbling. There were more people than the turnout at all the 15 days of Test cricket in the West Indies combined and many of them had come just to see Sachin bat.

However, today fans like me and those that sat in the rain to watch the game, were dealt a severe set back. The ECB and the BCCI have jointly announced that England have won the first Test against India and have gone up 1-0 in the series and take an early lead.

Connoisseurs of the game have already written loads and loads of articles and crunched numbers to suggest that it is absolutely the right move because all the evidence, the numbers, the context, the build up points to India being trashed at Lords.

India are without Virendra Sehwag and while they did win the series against England without him the last time around, they should have lost by a huge margin at Lords. Only a lucky LBW decision and rain saved them.

India always do poorly in the first Test of a series; especially in England where they tend to lose the first Test of a series more often than not.

The point however is not that; what is newsworthy is that Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Andrew Strauss met today; just about an hour ago; and shook hands and signed off the result. India initially conceded that all signs point to India losing by a huge margin but BCCI's clout and some concessions on DRS helped narrow down the margin to India losing by 5 wickets.

Test cricket enthusiasts were so excited at the way the result was achieved that many of them ejaculated in sheer excitement. "This is the biggest "turn on" for me and after the sophisticated way India handled the Dominica result, I did not expect such mature thinking; 2 games in a row; from Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The man can do no wrong for me" said a prominent blogger

Mahendra Singh Dhoni said, he is committed to Test cricket and he was not happy that in Dominica, they took almost 4 and 3 quarters of a day to figure out that the match was headed for a draw. This according to Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a marked improvement where the 2 sides have agreed on a result even before the toss; in fact 4 days before the toss. He said he dreams of the day when results can be agreed upon the instant the Future Tours Program is conceived.

He said Test cricket should be played only when it must. When it does not rain, does not interfere with the IPL, does not interfere with lunch, tea and drinks breaks, when there is time between 2 ads, when players are not injured and only when the 2 sides do not agree on the result. If both sides agree on a result up front, why play? Isn't that the beauty of Test Cricket...

Duh...

Big Bully BCCI or maybe not

2011-07-15T10:47:00.007-05:00

It appears that the BCCI has effectively browbeaten Sri Lanka and Darryl Harper into supporting it's stance on the DRS. This reminds me of a t-shirt that used to do the rounds when I was a kid. "Eat shit because a zillion flies can't be wrong".

All the worshippers of technology that jumped on the DRS bandwagon must now be puzzled as to why the universal truth that a computer "simulation" is smarter than human judgement is not everyone's version of the truth.

Sri Lanka made BCCI's case about the affordability of the technology. This claim was pooh-poohed by most that thought that the BCCI was an Ostrich. While I am not a huge supporter of BCCI's tactics, it appears in this case the board got bad press for no good reason.

Darryl Harper's substantive and detailed demolition of the case for DRS over umpiring judgement might just get him reinstated into the Elite panel. He probably has made the most compelling rebuttal of the technology bandwagon-wallahs. The 25-50-1800 frames/second difference is simple to understand for anyone with a high school certificate. This science is taught in every secondary (middle) school.

The case that Golandaaz (especially) has tried to make is that the umpire needs to be the final authority. Let him judge the output/recommendation provided by technology and make the final decision. The Decision Review System usurps the umpires authority. In addition, if technology were infallible, then why limit the number of reviews. Giving the umpire the tools and letting him take the time to arrive at the right decision is the way to go.

Epilogue:

I didn't respond to Anonymous's comment about my last post. I had trouble with the comments. Our technical staff is working to fix the issue. Meanwhile, here's my riposte.

Anonymous - My friend, you actually made my case for me. By bringing full-strength, half-strength, pitch condition, body-fat etc. into the mix, we muddle a game. This is exactly what I was talking about. A cricket match is played to win and not make mathematical calculations for. The calculations should be made to assist in winning, not to decide whether to win or not.

Also by Opinions...

Test Cricket is no longer intuitive

2011-07-11T08:35:00.000-05:00

For the times Test cricket is played in; for the competition that Test cricket finds itself facing; it's a far too nuanced game for its own good. Modern; and dare I say; rational; spectators demand the game be intuitive. There is a growing tendency among Test cricket lovers to disconnect from reality and hang on to those very nuances of Test cricket that are threatening to make the game irrelevant. Of course it was prudent for India to call off the chase at Dominica; question is why does Test cricket afford this option to a team. To walk off. To claim a 'no-result' when a result was inevitable.

How long would sports like tennis, boxing, athletics, survive if participants are allowed to collectively decide and effectively strike in the middle of a contest?

The best scoreline that can capture the series concluded yesterday between India and the West Indies is

T20: 1 Tests : 0 (Rahul and Laxman walk-off)

There are fines, bans and all sorts of tricks employed by the game's governing body to speed up the game. Its working too. In one of the sessions in the 3rd Test, I saw India bowling at the rate of 16.2 overs per hour. Perhaps they had one eye on the Lord's Test. Whatever the reason, the game had picked up pace.

And what did they do with the time that was created over the first 4 days?

They shook hands and went home. Presumably to their hotel rooms.

Rational thinking fans can't be blamed if they were waiting to see how much of the contesting team's match fees would be cut. They played only 80 overs when 98 was the ask. The 18 overs they refused to play would surely have been the most exciting 18 overs of the entire match assuming India were willing to risk the series,

The problem with Test cricket is what happened is entirely defensible.

India did not want to risk a series and the only way West Indies would win is if India were willing to do just that. And without getting into either defending or criticizing India's approach; I ask...why does a team in Test cricket, even have the option of just walking away.

I mean they play 2 entire Tests, in a 5 match series even if one side has won the first 3 and the series is won. Isn't it a bit like being penny wise and pound foolish when teams are allowed to walk off to save a few overs of effort that is unlikely to change the end result when meaningless Tests and ODIs are played under the same circumstances.

In my view this series was already rendered inconsequential by a series of actions. Sehwag, Gambhir, Zaheer and Yuvraj choosing IPL over this series. Sachin Tendulkar trying to pass of Roger Federer as "family" and Chris Gayle and his tasteless tussle with the WICB.

This 'walk off' by two of India's all time great batsmen isn't going to add any more ignominy than that was already conferred on this series. But allowing batsmen of this caliber to walk away from the contest adds no qualitative attributes to the game. While India's actions can be defended; they raise questions as to whether today's teams can be trusted to take decisions that will help the game in the long run.

A few decades from now when some noted film maker decides to produce a documentary lamenting the state of Test cricket, this India v West Indies series will be exhibit A. When the need for Test cricket was to make it relevant for today's fans; its greatest ambassadors walked away.

Sachin, Rahul and Laxman

Wimpy World Champs

2011-07-10T16:46:00.007-05:00

With 86 runs to get off 90 balls, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman walked off the ground. These were India's most experienced batsmen. These two were responsible for putting India into winning positions and winning numerous matches for India. But today, they walked off.

Time was when the West Indies with Greenidge in the lead chased over 300 in a day to eventually help deliver a "blackwash". India chased 347 on the last day to tie a test match. Several other such examples abound of champion teams having taken up the challenge to assert their superiority over their rivals. With this game, India has also given England a huge boost.

The art of percentage cricket has been mastered by India. However, the mantle of World Champions, the instinct of a winner, the swagger of a better team doesn't belong to India. Despite being World Champions and the number one ranked team, India is a defensive, percentage cricket under-performer. They are really number one in an academic ranking, but not really the best team out there.

Going for it would have meant that India either win or draw the series. How can India and Dhoni be satisfied with a 1-0 series win when a winnable game is given up? As far as I am concerned India are wimps. They are world champions of series wins perhaps, but not cricket. They approach the number one ranking like preparing for an academic test. Sure, they have garnered the points, but they have mastered no one and nothing.

Sure, this behavior can be rationalized, but this team gave up it's "great" tag today. It's made up of statistically superior players, but this is a team of wimps with no heart and no pride. Any team that worries about losing more than wanting the rush of a win is not a champion team.

A lot of people may go home feeling happy with the series win in the West Indies, but as far as I am concerned every game needs to be won or taken to it's logical conclusion. Giving up in the middle of a chase is a loss. India has a long way to go and needs to acquire some guts before they are respected as World Champions. Today, they are not champs, they are wimps.

Dhoni and his hotel room

2011-07-02T11:41:00.000-05:00

Regular people like you and me can’t even begin to comprehend, what a hotel room means to someone like a Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Captain of the world’s number one ranked Test team.

Captain of the reigning World Champions

Captain of the reigning IPL and Champions League title holders

Superstar.

The World’s 7th or 8th whatever that number is most marketable athlete in the world.

A hotel room for Mahendra Singh Dhoni means everything. It’s a place where he can spend some moments with himself in private. As Amitabh Bacchan would say (or may be Javed Akhtar) have a conversation with his solitude. There is really no other place on this earth where he can be alone with himself.

Everywhere else he goes there are either family members or friends or players or agents or bookies or film stars or ad-men or reporters or fanatic fans or the risk of maid servants; wanting to make a few bucks by wrongly implicating him.

For someone like a Mahendra Sing Dhoni, the hotel room is a place for solace. Where he can, well of course, rest, put his feet up, put out a “Do Not Disturb” sign and sign off for the day.

Away from the madness of having to playing Test matches.

And when he has the urge to get away from it all, that’s where he goes. To his hotel room. He once had an argument with his wife over the food she cooked and Mahendra Singh Dhoni shouted…”You fortunate woman, if you don’t get me some good food, I will go to my hotel room”. He uses it as a threatening tactic.

Sadly, umpires the world over have not understood what it means to get in the way of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his hotel room. You delay the gratification he gets from entering his hotel room and you may even lose your job. If a few wrong decisions cause Mahendra Singh Dhoni to spend a few extra hours under the sun, the price you have to pay as an umpire might be a bit too high.

And what a place his hotel room is.

It’s not your usual 7-star hotel room that we don’t stay in, unless someone else is paying for it.

It’s a place which is so private, even Google has no pictures of it. Once Mahendra Singh Dhoni turned on “location service” on his facebook and Twitter accounts from his room; and the whole internet crashed to protect Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s privacy. Not even the Prime Minster of India is allowed to send congratulatory messages to Dhoni when he is in that room. Even the most experienced, Al-Qaeda suicide bombers don't know where this place is.

Also it is rumored that its a place where Technology and Humans coexist in harmony. Responsibilities are strictly divided and there is no adulteration of technology by human intervention. It’s a place where Technology never fails.

Everything works the way it is supposed to. Right from the toilet flushes to the Entertainment Systems, nothing fails. Not the electric shaver, not the alarm clock, not the coffee machine, not anything.

And God forbid, if it does, people lose their jobs. Mahendra Singh Dhoni makes such a ruckus that bell boys are fired, executives start looking for new jobs, managers shiver in their boots.

Stand back and salute every one - Lord Mahendra Singh Dhoni has arrived.

Roger is like family : Sachin

2011-06-25T18:28:00.001-05:00

Roger Federer has said that he dreams of a day when he can take time off from Wimbledon and spend time watching Sachin Tendulkar play live, meet with him and take pictures with the great man.

Sachin Tendulkar said, he is living Roger Federer's dream.

Usain Bolt too said that he dreams of watching Sachin Tendulkar play live. He could have realized his dream in his hometown of Jamaica but Sachin Tendulkar was spending quality time with Roger Federer; whom he considers "family".

It was only last year when Usain Bolt declined to participate in the Commonwealth games. Had he done so, he could have watched Sachin Tendulkar score a double hundred against Australia at Bangalore.

The same day Indian women ran one of the most inspired 4x400 race ever

See Also...

Sachin Tendulkar is a health hazard: Ministry of Health

India Ahead

2011-06-21T20:17:00.003-05:00

Instead of inflicting a beat down, India have just about nosed ahead. West Indies batting turned out to be worse than originally anticipated. Is this a result of not playing together enough or is this a result of constant turmoil? Either ways, the West Indies are pathetic.

India handed debuts to Kohli, Praveen Kumar and Mukund. Praveen Kumar with his canny variations and control came good and how. Ishant Sharma seems to have regained his test match form and is once again asking questions of batsmen. This is great news for India as it heads to England after this series. Praveen Kumar's burst gives India an option that it had not bargained for. In English conditions, Praveen could be a handful.

Firstly, Harbhajan has proven that he is willing to wear the allrounder's tag seriously. His latest innings gives him credibility. Hopefully, he doesn't take his batting too seriously and turn into a plodder. Raina too seems to be aware of the talent that is knocking on the doors of the test team. He seems intent on fighting for his spot ahead of Pujara. There seems to be an embarrassment of riches. Kohli is sure to come good in this series. He is a good learner and has desire.

India bowled with purpose and aggression, except for a phase when Harbhajan was simply sending down balls down the leg side. India seems to have discovered some bowling mojo. This is really heartening. They may not have the Steyns and Amirs, but it looks like you don't need them if you are smart.

India has this match in a vice-grip. On day one I was worried about a repeat of South Africa. West Indies can definitely come back, but it looks like Dravid is cruising right now. If he's back, then God help West Indies and England.

This performance by India does beg some questions. Are we excited to see the new India or do we continue to want to watch the old firm of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman? There is no loss of form. Perhaps, the three men can answer it themselves as to whether fans deserve to see some others play.

The Tests Begin

2011-06-18T09:57:00.004-05:00

A depleted India and a struggling West Indies team gather to play India's first test match World Champions. The one day series showcased India's depth in ODIs. India didn't sweep the West Indies, but did enough to demonstrate that they were the reigning experts of the ODI art form.

The tests are an altogether different ball game as the cliche goes. India have a tough game on their hands at Sabina Park. Right off the bat, I would give West Indies the advantage in this test match. Test matches always offer an advantage to the home side. India will miss Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth in test matches. Both have the ability to gain surprise breakthroughs and make the batsmen think. Munaf and Ishant can be good, but they are not going to consistently put pressure on batsmen. Praveen Kumar could surprise us due to his street-smart bowling, but his lack of pace means that decent batsmen can play him out. The only thing that could work for Praveen and perhaps other Indian pacers is the assistance from the Sabina Park wicket.

India go into this test match with an untested batting line up. Laxman is the only one that could be carrying along some confidence from the long past tour of South Africa. Dravid is not his old self yet, but his belief and mere presence is a huge boost. He may be able to put some runs on board against this West Indies team.

Vijay, Mukund, Dravid, Laxman, Kohli, Raina, Dhoni, Harbhajan, Praveen, Munaf and Ishant would be the likely eleven, unless India plays Parthiv as an opener. I think it would not be a bad idea to do this, given that Parthiv has some test experience. This would only be a minor gain though. I'm generally in favor of letting openers open and giving Mukund a go would be my gut call. Perhaps, Vijay has enough opening experience that he can guide Mukund through his early jitters.

The big event that I am looking forward to is Kohli's debut. He has impressed in the ODIs and T20s and seems to have the hunger to succeed. I would not be surprised if he scores a debut hundred.

1 Angry Board

2011-06-14T19:52:00.029-05:00

In 12 Angry men, Henry Fonda's character dissents on the sole basis that before the accused is sentenced to die, the least he deserves is a discussion amongst the jury of his peers. Eventually the lone 'not guilty' verdict, after an angry evening of arguments is responsible for a 11 others to overcome individual prejudices; in some cases; and change their own 'guilty' verdicts.

A Decision Stalled

India is the Henry Fonda of the cricket world where the system on trial is the DRS and India has taken a 'guilty' stance, just for the heck of it.

While in "12 Angry men", the dissenting character backed his vote by reasoned discussion of the events, India's dissent is backed by pathetic, off the cuff, explanations like "human adulteration" in technology is unnecessary, technology should be fool proof before its adopted and some irrelevant observations like the Hot Spot being more reliable than the Snico-meter.

The solution is
Astrology

The first two explanations are of course by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the third is by well of course, Sachin Tendulkar. Between these two, I wouldn't be surprised if they recommend that we leave decisions of LBW to astrologers because what other skill is required than the questionable skill of predicting the future. If we have the time to allow challenges, wait for replays and heat maps, surely we have time to allow an astrologer to read a batsman's palm, ask his time and place of birth and conclude if the ball would have hit the stumps.

The beauty of this is, there is no attempt by India to convince the rest of the world of their view point. Its like they don't even care. They seem to be saying..this is what we believe in and we will stick to it no matter what. If you back your dissent by a campaign to spread awareness of your view point then it is meaningful. If you dissent just because you can then its foolish and people begin to look for ulterior motives. BCCI's dissent of the DRS is as flawed as the flaws they point out in the technology used in the DRS.

If there is anything good that is coming out of BCCI's stance, it is that it has helped the rest of the world unify in support of DRS.

Not long ago, there were murmurs against the system from England, South Africa and Australia but all of that has given way to profuse support for the system from the moment BCCI has been opposed to it.

At the end of the day, everyone needs to get over the technicalities of a dismissal. Especially the LBW law. The way I had understood the law was that, yes it has a lot of factors to be assessed but a batsman is out LBW when the umpire raises his finger, after he has done his best to gather the evidence, extrapolate a few things and interpret the rules. Then the debates can start. You can debate the umpire's competence and his biases. All that is part of the game.

But this is changed. These days, everyone thinks that the LBW is some eternal truth and that the umpire is supposed to sense when that moment of truth happens. This, in my view, is the problem. Give the umpire all the tools, the technologies, and everything that can be digitized but then a batsman should be out LBW because the umpire raises his finger.

West Indian cricket is inconsequential

2011-06-10T11:21:00.003-05:00

Sachin Tendulkar will be skipping India's Test tour of the West Indies and spend time with his family instead.

Of course this news is not new but it still rankles.

A few years back, this event would have been inconceivable. Today it generates a muted response. A few raised eyebrows and then a quite resignation to the times we live in. It is now acceptable for one of the greatest players of all time to play for a private franchise and rest when his country will be trying to win a Test Series at the home of a side that was once the most feared and respected side of all time.

Its a reflection on many things. The decline of the West Indies; first and foremost.

Its one thing to be in decline but when the foremost cricketer of today, does not even consider worth his while to be a part of something he has never accomplished; win a Test Series in the West Indies; the condemnation is total.

It is also a reflection of the importance, might and influence of the IPL. Not one of India's stars thought it was in their best interests to skip the IPL in preference of the West Indies tour. Not Sachin Tendulkar, not Zaheer Khan, not Yuvraj Singh, not VVS Laxman, not Rahul Dravid.

One of the reasons, often cited, for Zaheer Khan's resurgence as a Test class bowler to possibly India's best since Kapil Dev, is his stint with Worcestershire. That was before the IPL. Which young bowler today will sign up for the rigors of county cricket to be a better bowler when he can make millions bowling 'back of the hand' slow bouncers in the IPL. No one. Not Dhawal Kulkarni, not Jaidev Unadkat, not Praveen Kumar.

And who would blame them, when Sachin Tendulkar himself does not consider a Test tour of West Indies as worth his while. If ever anyone needed an indicator of the viability of West Indian cricket in particular and Test cricket in general.

This is it.

Sachin Tendulkar has confirmed. Test Cricket is not important and West Indian cricket is inconsequential.

ICC's New Rule

2011-06-07T20:55:00.002-05:00

In not-so-subtle moves the ICC is pursuing changes that are validating Ijaz Butt's claims that there are elements in the ICC conspiring the defraud Pakistan and its cricket.

First came the news that the ICC is going to stop the rotation policy that yields ICC presidents and then the news that ICC is seeking to curb government interference in the functioning of cricket boards.

If the ICC were trying to be subtle with these announcements (the next ICC President is due to be appointed from Pakistan / Bangladesh) and not mention Pakistan by name, wait till you hear the new announcement from the ICC.

In a shocking announcement that abandons previous attempts; however meek; at subtlety regards naming Pakistan outright the ICC said that they will be pursuing a new rule that determines how future winners of World Cups are determined. As per the new rule proposed, if the 2015 World Cup final game is won by the 1992 World Cup winners, then the championship will be awarded to the runner up.

On further investigation of the roots of this proposed rule change, what has emerged is that Ijaz Butt was present when the rule change was discussed and what is more shocking is that he was the one who pursued this as an agenda in the meeting.

India-West Indies Preview

2011-05-31T14:02:00.006-05:00

India embark on yet another Carribbean tour without Sachin Tendulkar. The one day squad has a deep bench. When the regulars were unavailable, it was easy to find credible replacements. It's to India's credit that it has blooded a bench that can put a game face on anytime. However, the game plan for this time is going to be very different that what the first eleven would follow.

The routine that India has gotten into is that one of the top three always drops anchor and score big fifties or hundreds. Everyone else bats around them and scores the bulk of runs. In the world cup, Yuvraj Singh played a massive role and he balanced the team big time. The new look squad is going to rely on Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma or Suresh Raina to play that role. None of them by themselves can do what Yuvraj did. However, given that the West Indies too aren't a top notch team today, maybe they can pull it off.

The West Indies gave India a scare in the World Cup, only to give it all away in a dramatic collapse. The test match victory against Pakistan showed that some semblance of mental strength has been built. Although, this team will not have the swagger of the once dominant West Indies, they can start the process. South Africa and England will continue to be dominant, while Australia and soon India will be in rebuilding mode. Pakistan are going through a major crisis. The time is ripe for the West Indies to develop some confidence.

The one day series can be expected to be competitive and not one sided despite India's world champion status. This is a superb opportunity for highly rated Rohit Sharma to cement his place in the side alongside Kohli and Raina.

Cricket Professionals

2011-05-27T15:41:00.006-05:00

There has never been a better time to be an Indian cricketer. Annual contracts, a variety of formats to choose from and a board that's as capitalist (profit oriented) as they come. We have come a long way from an era where player power was meant to be squished with court cases. Vengsarkar couldn't write a column to generate a few extra bucks to ensure that his future was more secure.

The number of elite Indian cricketers has gone from four in my early days of watching cricket to at least 20 now. Gavaskar,Kapil Dev, Vengsarkar and Vishwanath were the only superstars. Compare that to today's situation where India can easily field at least two superb ODI teams. The number of opportunities for cricketers to show their wares has increased a thousand fold. Any domestic cricketer today who is a reasonable performer can expect recognition and visibility. Had poor KP Bhaskar played in this era, would he have been ignored?

I'm amused by several people's concern for players and rush to judgment on the BCCI's stance. Here's how I see it. The cricketers are professional performers. Their income depends on how well they perform. Their performance depends on how healthy they keep themselves. So watching their health is key to their income. Watching their health is in their own hands. If they need rest, they need to get it. It's survival of the fittest. Almost Darwinian.

The BCCI's job is to put a show together with a team. I think they are doing a wonderful job. In an era where Amitabh was the only superstar, it was difficult for other actors to find work. Today, anyone can be part of a successful film. Cricket too has evolved like that. The days when Tendulkar alone could draw crowds are almost gone. When Tendulkar retires, people will come to watch India play and not watch Tendulkar play. There is a vested interest for BCCI in this and it's a good one.

The BCCI is a club of capitalists who have realized that "expanding the pie" is the best way to make more money than restricting the boundaries. More formats, more games, more money for players, attract more pleasing performers, more, more, more...This has led to more superstars, more ways to attract crowds and hence more opportunities for a Joginder Singh or Manpreet Gony to even be mentioned in a newspaper in the same breath as Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The BCCI and it's selection committee has shown it's commitment to merit. So, Gambhir got injured. Anyone can tell you that he could have rested had he wanted to. He could have rested for a few games if not for the entire IPL. Granted that the IPL followed too quickly after the World Cup. Keep in mind that Sehwag didn't play many ODIs in the lead up to the world cup. He had ample opportunity to get himself fixed. His love of the game, money and country all could have played a part in his decision. But it was his decision alone and he's reaping the results of it. I don't think it's necessarily bad.

Gambhir's case is a little more troubling because it shows some immaturity on his part in not knowing his limits. Dhoni rested himself from a Bangladesh tour several years ago. It showed his confidence and character. He didn't want to let his team and himself down by his poor performance due to his fatigue.

Today, when we see the team to the West Indies, there were no surprises to those that follow cricket. Vijay walks in when one of the openers isn't playing. Mukund who has been prolific gets the nod. All the frontline bowlers are playing. No one will contest Badrinath's, Kohli's or Raina's selection. About the only debate is whether Rohit Sharma too should have been considered. The fans will follow India. They might miss Tendulkar if we lose, but if not, it's going to be no big deal.

So the BCCI is correct. No one is forced to play one format or the other. It's their desire for money and fame that lures the cricketers to choose one over the other. So players are being foolish by putting their health at risk. If they want to play for India, then there is a way for them to perform and get into the Indian team. Abhinav Mukund's example proves that. VVS Laxman can choose not to play Test cricket and play the IPL. But he will soon find out that no one will bid for him in the next auction because he isn't a good fit. So he is better off sticking to the test format and earn whatever he can out of that format.

If someone such as Ponting has a passion to play for the country, he can turn down the money offered by IPL and do so. I feel Tendulkar made a choice to play IPL because he plays for his home team. It allows him more time with his family than if he were touring. Plus he makes a ton of money. So it's all win-win. He's turned down the West Indies test leg in addition to other things because it does not offer him these benefits. International players might turn down IPL for the same reasons. Play a home test and ODI series instead of the IPL.

Several people feel that playing for country is better than club. I too believe that. But a professional cricketer doesn't have to believe that. Every individual's goals are different. We need to respect that and enjoy our chance to see them play.

Playing for Club is playing for Country

2011-05-26T07:24:00.001-05:00

At some point someone will realize that the same limited set of overworked players aren't going to be able to sustain our World Champion status in One Day Internationals, entertain us at IPL games and sustain our number one ranking in Tests.

We need a larger pool of players and we need players to specialize...not just as bowlers, batsmen and wicket keepers but specialize in formats too.

The alternative adopted by administrators the world over, which is largely push the players to make an illusionary club v country choice; is short sighted, self serving, mean, wicked and ultimately harmful to the game. Many talk about "a window"... but that too is a band-aid fix. India has a built-in IPL window and yet the next few weeks promises to unfold like a soap-opera starting with the Gautam Gambhir situation.

Players, including Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, probably have no leverage with either their IPL franchises or the BCCI about not playing the IPL. I doubt that any of these players would have been able to skip the IPL to rest for the tour of the West Indies. Just too many incoming dollars depend on certain players playing IPL games and franchise owners and the BCCI have a lot to lose if the fans stop coming to the games.

This makes the club v country argument an illusion to avoid the real issues, especially for Indian cricketers. Indian players are playing the IPL for the BCCI and thus by extension for the country.

The way things have been unfolding ahead of the tour of West Indies is nothing short of a tragedy. A tour to the West Indies was, not so long ago, a main event. Worthy enough to command a delayed broadcast of a running commentary on the radio. Today India can’t find a man fit enough to lead because many have been exhausted performing circus acts for receiving large sums of money from bollywood actors and actresses.

There is real risk that the IPL will negatively impact India’s chances in the West Indies

Sometimes the value of something can best be assessed based on what one is willing to give up acquiring it. The BCCI has to decide how valuable the IPL is by figuring out how much it is willing to lose. And sometimes the choice is not in your hands. You are rudely shown the value of something you possess through an inventory of things you have lost in the process.

I hope what India loses because of its short sighted obsession with the IPL is substantial enough that it forces permanent changes. Fortunately we have a lot to lose this year. How about a Test Series in West Indies as starters and dropping to the middle of the pile in Test rankings by the end of the Australian tour.

I think these losses are strategically important for Indian cricket.

The IPL Qualifier, Qadir on Qadir and Showing Cause

2011-05-24T14:35:00.000-05:00

First things first.... The IPL

Un-lose-able

Normally as most commentators would say; it doesn't matter how you get them; its the runs on the board that count.

Today the Chennai Super Kings disproved the theory.

If Gayle doesn't contribute then even a total of 175 can be chased. Perhaps its the way he gets those runs. Each time Gayle has got the runs the Royal Challengers from Bangalore have won and every time he hasn't they have lost. It almost does not matter what the others do.

Another reason Bangalore lost is because we @ Opinions are beginning to suspect that its not luck; its just that Mahendra Singh Dhoni might simply be "Un-lose-able". May be the games he does lose are the games he does not want to win.

Qadir on Qadir

Over at Cricinfo there is an interview with an attention seeking Abdul Qadir...

Abdul Qadir says that "they" said he had 3 types of googlies. We are wondering who "they" are...Our guess is its Robin Smith. He was the kind of batsman quite capable of getting out in 3 different ways to the same ball from the same spinner.

To this Anil Kumble said he had 3 different types of straight balls.

Kamran Akmal said "That's nothing, I have 5 different ways to drop an edge"

Malinga said "That's too much variety, I have 1 yorker to get all types of batsmen out"

In a few dozen lines of interview with Abdul Qadir , we learn that Qadir had endorsements from all world cup winning captains that he is better than Shane Warne, he told Anil Kumble to be fast in the air, was responsible for selecting Mushtaq Ahmmed, he produced Kaneria, his WC 87 match winning innings in the Walsh game was equal to Miandad's last ball 6 in Sharjah, he declined to be Pakistan's Test Captain out of respect for Javed Miandad, and girls who did not follow cricket liked him....phew...

Showing Cause

Earlier today talking about Mumbai's chances in the IPL, Kapil Dev said that "Others need to step up, Sachin can't do it all the time. After all, he is just human".

The BCCI is has issued a show case notice to Kapil Dev, asking him to explain his comments.

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