Cricket | Mirabile Dictu

About the ashes and why the Ganguly-Chappell spat is actually good for Indian cricket!

September 30, 2005 at 11:04 pm (Cricket)

And

Well, a few hours from now, September 2005 would be history and october would arrive, so it becomes imperative that I come up with another blog before I earn the wrath of friends again! Well, I am back after another extended hiatus and cricket as always has provided me it’s shoulder to lean on. And while I wallowed in the mirth of indolence, the hypertext world was hyperventilating about the Ganguly-Chappell spat. The sports pages and in most cases, the front pages of all leading indian dailies and portals were going cock-a-hoop over the biggest drama to unfold in indian cricketing circle since the match fixing scandal that put paid to the hopes of my favorite cricketer playing his 100th test.

But before this Indian cricketing soprano unveiled itself to cataclysmic results, my nost”raman”us prediction or rather, predilection of an English revival during the ashes came true! As I recount that blog now, most of my analysis turned out to be on the dot. England’s bowling proved capable of taking 20 wickets in a match, their batsmen rattled up nearly 400 runs a day and Pietersen and Flintoff proved they are worthy of their big frame and name! Most importantly, that self-confidence that I felt made this England team special was to the fore again after the debacle during the first test at Lords. England of yore would have given up and asked to be shot, but this new England recoiled and stung the Aussies where it really hurt.

While this bout of super heavyweights was being played out holding fans at the edge of their seats through many a thrilling encounter, the sub-continental giants India and Srilanka were indulging in some farcical minnow bashing providing an opportunity for their players’ to bloat their averages to further gloat on! Luckily, the depleted WestIndians don’t have their tour of Australia till the end of the year. I do not think the cricketing world, for all it’s infinite patience, has the temerity to watch another collossal carnage! Hope that the windies sort out their sponsorship issues soon. Please, I beg of thee, give the great man a chance to hold the title of greatest run scorer in the history of test cricket before this other great comes back and hopefully usurps it back for India.

Among the greatest things to come out of India’s tour of Zimbabwe were their first victory outside of the Indian sub-continent in nearly twenty years. But, even this has been overshadowed and pushed off the activity radar by the now infamous Ganguly-Chappell spat.

As evident from the blogpulse chart, the blogosphere has been very active discussing Ganguly and Chappell. Looks like the recent spurt indicates that I am not that late to contribute my mite towards the discussion. And unfortunately the majority of them seem to either vehemently support either Ganguly or Chappell. Though dada would feel aggreived that Chappell seems to have more supporters than he has. I have been a big backer of dada but he belittled himself in my book by bringing forth the dressing room saga in public. Agreed that the dressing room is no Las Vegas for things happening there to stay there, but as many already have, I beg to question if dada would have brought this up if he hadn’t scored that century!

Dada does have the tendency to get under your skin at times and there is a great deal of arrogance that seems perenially instilled within him. He always carries a distinct aura of braggadocio with him. But, even all the blue blood running through his veins doesn’t warrant washing such dirty linen in public. On the other hand, Greg Chappell hasn’t been saintly himself, what with copying all and sundry in his email! Unfortunately, I cannot bring myself to take sides, which is no surprise considering that I’ve supported both of them as evidenced here and here.

But, I can say this, despite all the derision that the BCCI committee has been copping up for their compromise decision, I personally feel that they made the right decision. Our obsession with seeing the axe fall on someone’s head continues. Some called this incident, the coach-captain divorce, but even our judicial system provides for a six-month or one-year period before divorce is fully given. The time period is basically to provide more time for them to try and work things among themselves. My favorite movie Mouna Raagam floats instantly to mind!

Chappell now would have understood that the Indian system works a lot different from the Australian system. You never call a spade a spade here, you call it as something that you shovel your garden with or one of the four shapes in cards! More importantly, he would have understood the fact that some members of the team are shit scared of his tactics and harbor feelings of insecurity.

Ganguly now has no place to go, but forward. He has to perform now or he will become history before the calendar starts showing 2006. Dada usually revels in these kinds of situations. During the last world cup, after India capitulated for 125 against the rampant aussies, Ganguly’s own brother Snehasish had written a scathing piece stating that Saurav did not seem to be in the right frame of mind and may have to step down. Dada responded brilliantly averaging above 58 for the world cup. And of course, he will work on his fitness just to prove Chappell wrong! Dada’s that kind of guy…

During the course of this episode, the most shocking section I encountered was this part from Andrew Miller’s article on cricinfo,

Reams upon reams upon reams of irate Ganguly fans, complaining in the bitterest terms imaginable about a perceived South Indian bias that has captured the tongues of our commentators and forced them to spew venom on a leader they once adored.

Wow! Now, do we hear anyone talking of a South Australian bias because Ponting comes from the tiny island state of tasmania? No, we are not! According to me, that’s how cricket should be followed! Don’t work yourself to a frenzy, it’s just cricket!

5 Comments

Duck Dada, Duck!

July 17, 2005 at 11:17 pm (Cricket)

Just like there are climatic seasons and movie seasons, even mail forwards seem to be occassionally afflicted by the seasons allergy. Just a few months back, during the height of the Pakistani tour of India, it was Ganguly jibe season. It was getting so crazy that on one day I received about five different jokes involving Ganguly and his failures.

The cricketing lull for India in international cricket thankfully quelled the seemingly non-abating gush of ganguly-bashing forwards. Or so I thought until this friday, when the Ambi-Ganguly-Anniyan forward put paid to the false hopes. The conditioning camp just had to start and the bayonets were out to barrage Ganguly out of not only the captaincy honors but also the team. My personal opinions on this are known to regular readers of Mirabile Dictu. As you can see from this blog and this one, I feel that the time for Ganguly has not yet come. He still has a lot to give for the country.

He has had a good season with Glamorgan and leads the batting averages for them in the county championship. Especially pleasing to note has been his strike rate which means that he is not struggling. And in the 20-20, his bowling has come in handy as well. So, Dada seems to be priming up for a productive international season.

And of course, the new media has also fallen back to their recent favored obsession when it comes to Indian cricket – Saurav Ganguly. Times of India continues to be the exception, focussing on targetting arguably the greatest cricketer India has ever produced – Sachin Tendulkar! Rediff even went ahead and asked former cricketers like Farokh Engineer, Salim Durrani and Ajit Wadekar to voice their “expert” opinions on Ganguly’s form. And of course, these former cricketers state the known – he should learn to play the rising ball well! Now, even a ten year old kid who’s seen Ganguly bat would be able to tell you that!

Maybe, this was indeed the problem for Ganguly in a different way! John Wright may have advised him to duck. Duck, Ganguly duck said John Wright and dada totally misunderstood it and thought the coach wanted him to score a duck! Now that’s bad, Even I seem to have caught the ganguly-bashing-joke fever. Saurav’s got enough talent and will power to force himself out of this rut. This is possibly his last season to bring it to the fore. Else, he may have to end up writing best sellers like this one!

You know a batsman has a problem with either his concentration or is under enormous pressure when he gets dismissed clean bowled! Some of Ganguly’s recent dismissals have been such. Ganguly has never had the greatest of footworks and depends entirely on his great eye and excellent timing. He just needed some time in the middle and some runs and confidence under his belt. The success in the county matches have possibly injected new energy and confidence within him. To borrow a cliche phrase, International cricket is a whole different ball game, but I feel Ganguly will deliver the goods this time around.

For those of you interested, here is the Ambi-Ganguly-Anniyan forward that I received. The writer definitely has a great sense of humor laced with knowledgeable wit.

(Ambi confronts Gangully after another failure)
Ambi: Mr Ganguly why are you shouting at the umpire, after u have been declared out? Athu satapadi thapu.
Ganguly: Dey kudumi, naa yaar theriyuma bengal tiger appidithan daa kathuven!
Ambi: Kenya, Bangaldesh kooda century adikirale; Australia, Pakistan naa one bathroom poraelaey?
Ganguly: Naan dhadha da, thevayana appo matum thaan aaduven.
Ambi: Mr Ganguly, captains like Ponting, Inzy, Smith ellaarum century adichu team jeyika vaikaraa, aana neengo aadave maatiringale?
Ganguly: Dey kudumi, athaan Sachin, Dravid, Sehwag ellam century adikiraanungala apuram naan yethuku adikanum?
Ambi: Alatchiyamaa pesathingo Mr Ganguly, aduthava talentla fame gain pandrathu thapu!
Ganguly: Podaa kudumi, yenake advice pandriya @#%@^#$%^@$%^$%^$%^

(Having had enough with Ganguly’s pertinence, Ambi transforms into Anniyan)
Anniyan: Dey Baadu!
Ganguly: Yaarunga neenga Gillespie maathiri hair style vatchurikeenga?
Anniyan: Naan avan ila daa, yeman! Yenda run adika ve maatengara?
Ganguly: Batting form appo appo vanthuttu pogum, cricketla ithellam sagajam thanaga.
Anniyan: Ippadi solli thapichidalaamnu paakiriya.
Anniyan: 5 run edutha thapa?
Ganguly: Onnnum thapu illainga.
Anniyan: 5 matchla 5 run edutha thappa?
Ganguly: Thappu maadhiri thanga theriyuthu.
Anniyan: 5 varushamaa 5, 5 matcha 5 run eduthaa thappa?
Ganguly: Periya thappu dhaanga!
Anniyan: Kamunati athath thaandaa oru oru matchlayum nee panikittu irukke.
Anniyan: Unakellam ballbojanam thaanda, nee than stump. Akthar, Sami, Lee, Mcgrath ellaarum unna vetchuthaan bowling practice pannaporaanga!

14 Comments

Sorry India times. We will never ever forget the great master – Sachin!

May 27, 2005 at 7:43 pm (Cricket, Current Affairs, News)

I have never been a big fan of the Times group publications and their way of reporting. And now, after seeing this link that Karthik sent I am starting to harbor more dislike towards them! The title in itself is repelling – Forget Sachin, move on. Couldn’t these guys at least have spent some time coming up with a more apt label that acknowledges the greatness of the man! For Christ’s sakes, they are talking about one of the best cricketers of all time in world cricket. We are privileged that he was born in India and wore our country’s colors.

As the trite saying goes, Numbers speak for themselves. So, lets take a look at Sachin’s numbers over the past four seasons and the numbers not only speak but they thunder!

Season	Matches	Runs	HS	Avg	100’s	50’s
2001/02	12	1085	176	60.27	4	4
2002/03	5	406	176	50.75	1	1
2003/04	9	659	241*	54.91	2	2
2004/05	9	664	248*	55.33	1	4
Overall	123	10134	248*	57.25	34	41

Over these last four seasons, India has won 14 of the 34 matches with Sachin averaging a staggering 81.82 in these matches to facilitate the Indian win! Compare that with these numbers – in his first 12 seasons, India just won 24 matches with Sachin averaging a lesser looking 59.43 to aid the win. So surprisingly, India in recent years may probably have been more dependent on Sachin scoring well for their victories. Just that his style of scoring runs has changed and is not so dramatic as it used to be earlier. But, as we all know – efficiency and final output is what really matters. And Sachin has been efficiently delivering without us even realizing that akin to Yahoo reaping in huge revenues silently while everyone is gawking at Google and their revenues!

This is a man who has rendered such exemplary service for the country from the time of his debut as a precocious 16 year old nearly 16 years back. Such has been the burden that he has carried on his shoulders that until recently the Indian cricket team was looked upon by opponents as a one-man army. Now, merely 32, he is at an age when most players start to mature and peak in their cricketing careers! Agreed that he is not the same buccaneer that he was in his early days. With maturity comes responsibility and as Sachin himself said recently – his role in the team has changed.

The greatest thing about the man other than his magical cricketing talent and prowess is that he has never let all this success go to his head. Has any Indian player complained that Sachin is a bad influence for the team like Ridley Jacobs said of another contemporary great – Brian Lara? If you were making a collection of all the words you would ever use to describe Sachin, words like selfishness, rebel and ego would never find a place in that!

His love for the game still remains unscathed after all these years of delivering and fulfilling the enormous expectations day in and day out. His passion for winning with India is visible in every match. A recent match that instantly comes to mind is the fifth one-dayer against Pakistan. With Pakistan just needing 3 runs to win, Sachin almost won the match for India bowling four dot balls at Inzy. You couldn’t seem to pry the ball from his hands and the disappointment writ all over his face after Inzy squeezed out a boundary was there for everyone to see. This man lives for doing his country proud and as dutiful citizens the least we can do is to support him during these tough times when his career is being threatened by this injury. He’s been there when we needed him, now is the opportunity for us to pay our dues back.

Publications like India times and other media entities should stop dramatizing his tennis elbow surgery for their own readership value and possibly try and come up with suggestions like the Indian team’s new physio Gloster has for sachin – to use a lighter bat. That would be the least they could do in support of the great man rather than just trying to write him off so foolishly. Try and come up with constructive thoughts that could aid Sachin. Whether he takes it up or not is as Gloster puts it – upto him.

It would serve everyone well to remember that the game of cricket still draws youngsters because of players with the charm and charisma of Sachin Tendulkar. Otherwise, cricket would have taken a worser beating than this article on rediff suggests! Sachin is still indispensible for Indian cricket and his mere presence on the field seems to instill fear in the opponent’s mind while boosting his teammates’. In my humble opinion, Sachin has at least three more seasons to give.

P.S. I could write pages and pages about why Sachin is still in an integral cog in the Indian cricketing wheel but the lesser said, the more thought it evokes. So, I leave it to you to self-fill the remaining pages within your mind. And of course, the comments space is always open!

5 Comments

They are a bunch of jokers. But, I am the lead joker!

May 24, 2005 at 9:00 pm (Cricket, Current Affairs, News)

Finally, the drama behind who is the right man to replace John Wright is now complete. But, like the never ending mega-serials, this one just refuses to end. The BCCI has anointed Aussie great Greg Chappell as the coach of the Indian Cricket Team. And he already has his hands full – a group of talented individuals who still need to play as a team! Arvi has detailed on what needs to be done, so I will not delve into that.

So, lets stick with the next episode of the drama. Soon after the Board had announced that Greg Chappell would be coach, Jimmy had wished Chappell luck. During that address, he had said that he did not have any complaints about the selection process. And to quote him – The whole (selection) process was correct.

Now, just three days later, our dear Jimmy has started backtracking. He asks,

How can the Board judge the credentials of the future coach just through a mere presentation? I hope they will not follow the same procedure in future

Now, it was not as if he was the most qualified among the lot. His coaching experience was probably worser than even Greg Chappell. But, he tried to play the Mein Desi Hoon card, but luckily for us that failed! Anand Vasu had written this wonderful article – A case of misguided nationalism on cricinfo a few days back. You should read that to find out how much of a comic Jimmy was before the selection process.

And now, with statements questioning the validity of the selection process, he has continued on the comedic vein. Haa Haa. Come on Jimmy, we are all laughing at your antics! As a player, you were a great one – facing up to the windies pace quartret with aplomb while others shivered under their helmets. But, all this bravado to be the coach is a bit buffoonish to say the least. You once called the selectors rightly A bunch of jokers. But, you should realize that all selection committees need not be a clique of jokers. The selectors in this coach selection panel were your contemporary greats – Sunil, Ravi and Venkat. So, lets quit the charade! Shall we.

When we were discussing about the coach selection, Karthik brought about an interesting twist as to why Dean Jones was not even shortlisted and why Sandeep Patil suddenly withdrew himself from the list. The answer to both is the same – linkage with match-fixing. While the Dean Jones’ episode is quite popular, Sandeep Patil’s is a bit convoluted. It was during his tenure that Maurice Odumbe got involved with the match fixers and the chief bookie involved was from Mumbai. And where does Sandeep hail from? Mumbai of all places! And Sandeep definitely should have known that something fishy was going on. But, he chose to remain silent.

The Board is scared to get into another match-fixing mess. It’s a Pandoras box and it is safer kept closed! The embers of the previous match-fixing fire are just dying. And the board can ill-afford to have another break out now. Moreover, Sandeep’s handling of the Sidhu episode during his earlier tenure didn’t go all that well with the management.

And as far as poor Moody goes, the conspiracy theory is that he would find it hard to earn the player’s respect. In fact, according to Gavaskar, even Wright was abused on his face by some Indian players. So, Moody with lesser international experience could have gotten more than he could handle. Greg Chappell on the other hand has a great international record as a player. Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar have all expressed respect for Greg over the years and that should augur well for the team.

As for Moody, no need for him to become moody as neighbouring SriLanka beckons. And Jimmy should stop his one-man stand-up comedy show. If he keeps doing any more of these comedic espacades, no one is going to take him seriously!

1 Comment

Two minute time-out called by the Indian Cricket Lions!

May 19, 2005 at 9:11 pm (Cricket, Kollywood, Sports)

The NBA playoffs are drawing to a close and one of the things that really intrigues me about the game other than the ball skills and athleticism of the players is the strategies involved. Unlike in cricket, the coaches in the NBA are involved throughout the course of the game. And strategies like time-outs, running plays etc. plays an equally important role on deciding the outcome of the game.

And there is always talk about how to make cricket more exciting. For crazy afficionados for the game, the current game is exhilarating – be it one dayers or tests. But, then we now make the minority. People want to spice up the game more. Most people do not have the vive and werewithal to enjoy the gentleman’s game in its full splendor. So, these neoterics are on the van-gaurd of such modern hypersonic mutations like Twenty-Twenty and very briefly Max Cricket.

But, these shortened time-shrunk miniature versions are like mini-golf to a big time golf fan. It’s just not the same thing. You still can practice your shots and get your swing right etc. But, it just doesn’t seem right. Despite it’s amazing popularity and the possibility of having international twenty-twenty matches in the near future, it ceases to please me to see 22 players hasten through without having the time to showcase their full talent. It would bring to the fore just a miniscule percentage of the fabulous talent that these players have. Most of them would just be making up the numbers!

Don’t get me wrong that I am against twenty-twenty. Not that the hustle, bustle and energy that twenty-twenty brings is not good. It’s got a charm of its own. To give an analogy, it’s like comparing a Manirathnam or KB classic with a masala movie. We movie fanatics will take Gilli, Saami with good enthusiasm but we reserve our full zeal towards watching a Mouna Raagam or Unnaal Mudiyum Thambi! Maybe, most of the current generation prefers Saami and Gilli, but we old-timers still prefer the classic. We are the cricketing equivalent of the gourmet meal lovers in today’s fast food world! We may be the minority but we all know the political clout that minorities carry, don’t we. 😉

Staying with the movie analogy, even Manirathnam made some small changes in his style to cater to the audience in Alaipayuthey and Kannathil Muthamittaal. Mani was willing to make changes to cater to the varying desires of the target audience but ensured that he left his core cinematic style untouched. That is why I was really pleased to see the recommendations from the ICC Cricket Committee(CC) to be considered by the ICC Chief Executives’ committee when they meet on Jun 24-25 at Lords. The one’s that I especially liked were the suggested changes to the ODI’s,

It recommended that restrictions should apply for the first 10 overs of every innings with two additional blocks of five overs to be applied through the course of an innings at the discretion of the fielding captain.
It recommended the introduction of soccer-style substitutes for international cricket wherein a player could be replaced at any stage of a match but would then be ruled out for the remainder of the match. Both the substitute and the substituted player would receive a cap and the replacement could happen at any stage of the match, including during a batting innings.

These are really welcome changes. One-day cricket has become so predictable that on today’s placid batting tracks you expect an Afridi or Sehwag to wreak havoc in the first 15 overs. With this 10 over start and 5 + 5 over restrictions at the bowling team’s discretion, it adds a new strategical dimension to the game. It takes some of the predictability out. And the soccer style substitutions would also work great. Imagine this, if Laxman plays out the middle overs and then struggles to accelerate, you substitute him with Yuvraj towards the end overs. So, you can get the best of both! And if you are batting first, that’s an advantage as you get Yuvraj to field. But, if you are batting second, then your strategy may need to change as Yuvraj on the field and as a bowling option is a definite value add. Hmmm. So, you put your thinking caps on!

It brings some of the importance of strategy in NBA that I was talking about in the start of the blog to our lovely cricket. It may just be the boosting spark that the game needs. As expected, there have been people welcoming these changes and others who are not sure. Of course you would expect Pat Buchanan to back these changes. Here is a guy who wants to get as innovative as having ambidextrous players i.e. one’s who can bat and bowl with both hands with near equal adeptness! Ah, a Steve Nash in cricket. Now, that may be thinking a bit too far!

3 Comments

Captain four eyes

May 8, 2005 at 11:48 pm (Cricket, My Motley Life, News, Science, Sports)

Performance Enhancing Contacts
{courtesy:foxsports.com}

It’s now been nearly fifteen years since I started wearing glasses. Still remember the first time we visited the eye doctor. There was absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes, but there was this feeling instilled within me that wearing glasses brought the hidden scholastic aptitude within me to the fore. The doctor was a shrewd man and immediately realized that I was just playing around to get myself a set of glasses. So, he diagnosed the power to be 0.5 on one and 0.25 on the other and directed my mom to a nearby optician. Whether there were financial benefits for the doctor by his referral to this optician, I am not sure.

But, I was clearly overjoyed. At that time, metallic frames weren’t all that popular and the few that were available were on the expensive side for my little hankering. So, I chose a maroon shell frame. Still remember that frame as I tried on the frame, it suddenly made me look mature! It was going to bye-bye to everyone who treated me like a kid at school. Especially those girls whose words of depracation usually shrunk me even more than my short lean frame warranted! Yeah … Yeah .. I was the shortest in the class – shorter than most girls even. You don’t need to rub it in!

But in typical anti-climatic manner, things actually took a turn for the worse. Gone were the Podiyaa and Pul thadukki baylvaan tags. Now I was stuck with Sodaa butti and Captain Four Eyes. It helped that students at my school were fined for having non-english conversations. So, was thankfully liberated from the more derogatory tamil terms! And I threw those glasses away much to the chagrin of my mom who had spent quite some time and money satiating my whimsical desire. But, I could take my mom’s bashing anytime to my classmates’ ridcicule. It also doesn’t help being born a Leo with a bloated ego!

But, within years, my eye power started taking a turn for the worse. Gone were the decimal power prescriptions. Just two years after my first dabbling with glasses, I was officially myopic! As usual, my mom was the first to notice as my eyes moved closer to the television and books moved closer to my eyes. This time though, there was no going back on those glasses. I was stuck with them for life!

I wasn’t very keen on wearing contacts. And given my propensity to break and damage things beyond repair, it wouldn’t have taken Einstein to discover that sensitive contacts weren’t for barborous hands like mine. Just to give an indication of what could have happened to the lenses, imagine this – have broken nearly half a dozen glasses and lost two of them during the last 15 years that I’ve been wearing glasses! Imagine the plight of those contacts if I had worn them like my mom insisted I do! She felt that I looked better without glasses. Sorry mom, some things will never change irrespective of what you add to or strip out of them!

Now, many may ask what prompted me to come up with this unusual post out of the blue! Nope… I’ve definitely not broken my one and only spectacle frame! The glass may be all scratched and all that, but it still serves the purpose! Was prompted to write a blog on glasses after reading this article on performance enhancing contact lenses.

These lenses were designed to help hitters pick up the seams on the ball better and to protect the eyes from the sun. As one player said, they’re almost like wearing sunglasses without wearing sunglasses! But, they seem to come in a devilish amber color. Take a look at the pic in the blog, would definitely scare off any kid! Imagine me with one of those lenses waking up from sleep! Definitely scary! For the smart one’s who are tempted to say that one is not supposed to sleep with contacts on, you just don’t know me! I can do just that and a lot more crazy things 😉

But, jokes apart, just imagine what this could do to the game of cricket. As far as batting goes, one of the aspects that separates the journeyman from the master is his eyesight and ability to pick the ball early. If these contacts provide an enhanced vision on the seam of the ball, imagine the plight of bowlers around the world! Sehwag 500 n.o in 250 balls! Quite a possibility! I don’t want to be a bowler in that era. Am happy with being just Captain Four eyes!

Selecting the World XI for ICC Super Series

May 5, 2005 at 9:41 pm (Cricket, News)

The ICC is cricket’s official governing body and in their attempt to boost the sport have come up with the idea of a World Series. The top ranking team in the world, plays an assortment of the best players assembled from the remaining cricketing countries. This year, the Aussies stand atop the rankings for both tests and one-dayers. So, they gain the right to play the World XI.

The inaugural Johnnie Walker ICC Super Series will pit world champion Australia against ICC World Test and One Day XI teams in the three One Day Internationals in Melbourne’s Telstra Dome and a six-day Super Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

But, choosing a world team is no easy task. And the people appointed to perform this thankless task are Mike Atherton, Richard Hadlee, Clive Lloyd, Jonty Rhodes and Aravinda de Silva with Sunil Gavaskar as the chairman of the selection committee. And with as many as nine test playing teams to choose from, it really looks onerous.

These selectors meet to shortlist 30 players on Monday – May 9 which they will further trim to 20 in early July. The final teams of 13 for the Super Test and 14 for the ODIs, plus management and coaching appointments, will be confirmed in August. After much thinking and debate, the ICC has decided that the Super series will have official test status.

Though picking 30 and shrinking that to 20 and 13 sounds fine, we are worried only about the final 13 who get to play the one-off test. So, lets try and pick our World XI for the test. One thing before picking any player, a sane selector will do is look at the opposition they are playing against and the pitch they are playing them on. Also current form and performances will also be taken into consideration. For those who are not as insolent as me and want to crunch the weightages, Arvi’s got just the blog for u!

Lets try and see how we want to split the team. As it is just one test, I would go with just 2 openers and 1 WK in the squad. Lets have 6 bowlers in the squad out of which 2 would be bowling all-rounders and then the remaining 4 will be batsmen. The only way to defeat the aussies is to take 20 wickets. So, the bowling better be good!

Here are the options that I could think of (Disputers please use the comments section!),

OPENERS (2)
V.Sehwag, C.Gayle, A.Strauss, M.Trescothick, G.Smith, M.Atapattu, S.Jayasuriya, G.Smith
My Picks: Sehwag picks himself. The other one is a toss-up. But, I would love to see the effect of Gayle and Viru opening up against McGrath and Gillespie. Something’s gotta give! Would be pure thrills!

WICKETKEEPER (1)
M.Boucher, G.Jones, K.Sangakkara
My Picks: Jones’ keeping has taken a nose dive. So, it’s between Boucher and Sangakkara. Boucher seems to have the aussie fever while Sangakkara definitely has the fervour to give it back to the aussies – be it verbally or with the bat! So, my pick is Sangakkara for his fluid batting style, reasonably safe keeping and bad-mouthing talent.

BOWLERS (6)
M.Ntini, A.Nel, I.Pathan, L.Balaji, S.Akhthar, M.Sami, S.Harmison, A.Flintoff, S.Pollock, C.Vaas, H.Streak, H.Singh, A.Kumble, D.Vettori, Murali
My Picks: We are playing in Sydney. So, need two spinners. Against Aussies in recent years, two spinners who’ve held their own have been Kumble and Vettori. So, they are my first choice. Murali hasn’t played much this year which possibly counts him out and Bajji has been having a below par season.

Fast bowlers is more difficult. Flintoff picks himself for his batting. The three remaining slots will go to Vaas, Ntini and Harmison (Hope he doesn’t get homesick after the first day!). Pollock’s just coming from injury, Akhthar’s still coming out of one and poor Streak – need we say more!

BATSMEN (4)
J.Kallis, H.Gibbs, B.C.Lara, R.Sarwan, S.Chanderpaul, R.Dravid, S.Tendulkar, V.V.S.Laxman, S.Ganguly, Inzy, Youhana, Younis Khan, M.Vaughan, G.Thorpe, S.Fleming, N.Astle, H.Marshall, M.Jayawardane.
My Picks: So many choices for just 4 slots! Kallis, Lara and Dravid as the top three batsmen in the rankings and given their recent performances will make it to the team. Kallis is a dour batsman most of the times and could slow things down. So, with dravid at the other end, is it going to kill this team? Hmmm. Still his bowling option is an added advantage. The fourth player is the real mess. Laxman loves Sydney, but it is a choice between Sachin and Inzy. And going by current form, I would pick Inzy.

But, we need a captain. And none in our team except Inzy leads their countries regularly. And in my books, Inzy is not a great captain! But, I wouldn’t worry too much though. Dravid has proved that he is among the shrewdest captains in the limited opportunities that he’s had and Vettori can be his able deputy.

So, here’s my final squad. First XI appears in bold!

V.Sehwag, C.Gayle, R.Dravid(c), B.C.Lara, Inzy, K.Sangakkara(wk), A.Flintoff, D.Vettori(vc), C.Vaas, A.Kumble, S.Harmison, J.Kallis, M.Ntini

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Indian cricket needs …

April 30, 2005 at 2:30 pm (Cricket, News)

I was so disillusioned with the Indian cricket teams performance during the Pakistan series that I took a decision after the disastrous final one-dayer to stop writing cricketing blogs. But, the love for the game just ceases to desert you come what may. And here I am, back to blogging on cricket!

After the pathetic performances in the final one-dayers, there have been articles galore on what is plaguing indian cricket. You just need to look at what the media is throwing up and what the forums are being bombarded with and you realise – Oh! What a cricket crazy bunch of maniacs we are! Most of them claim that the depleted Indian bowling was to blame. We learnt that Pathan was over-hyped and that Balaji was just a test match bowler who wasn’t suited for the hyperactive style of one day cricket.

And the winning opposition coach Bob Woolmer ventured that India’s core problem was lack of three dimensional cricketers i.e. players who could bat, bowl and field well. Well, of course his team boasted of one bowling allrounder in Razzaq and two blasters and chuckers in Afridi and Shoaib Malik! Someone, prove to me that Afridi doesn’t chuck the faster one and as for Shoaib Malik, read about his being advised to undergo elbow surgery. Maybe, we should also look-out for chuckers, if not for anything else, they would at least have a strong throwing arm! But, jokes apart, Afridi and Malik both had stellar roles to play in the series victory. Malik had three well-compiled fifties while Afridi had a strike rate of 172. Ask Nehra about what Afridi can do to you!

But, this series confirmed a few things that we already knew and also threw in some new findings our way. The third and final one-dayers proved that Indian batsmen seem to get goose bumps chasing big totals. Point me to Kanitkar’s last ball boundary in Dhaka and the Yuvraj-Kaif starrer in the natwest finals. But, aberrations don’t make the rule! Our batsmen just seem to lose it when they see 300+ totals to chase.

Sehwag gives a feeling that he wants to be too aggressive during the one-dayers. All we need him to do is play like he does in the tests and the opposition would be devastated! He just needs to realize that he is too naturally talented that he doesn’t need to try and do an Afridi. Sachin says his role in the team has changed and seniority begets responsibility. Dravid is such an improved one-day cricketer that I feel we just expect him and Sehwag to fire every time for India to win. At least it is much better that there are two of them to share the burden. Ask Sachin how it feels to be the lone warrior!

We also realized that Pathan can bat but he can’t bowl. Check it out he sits atop the batting averages and brings up the rear of the bowling averages! We confirmed for the umpteenth time that Afridi is the heel of the Indian Achilles. Most importantly we realized that Yuvraj will keep his place in the side irrespective of how poorly he performs. Watching this guy play the spinners is painful for any cricketing afficionado. He just can’t cut! Bowl to him outside the off-stump and you’ve got your man. Every ball inevitably is played towards the on-side. I feel his grip has something to do with it. Too bottom handed to play the cut shot with any conviction.

Outgoing coach John Wright confirmed something we all knew – that the selectorial process is outdated and suggests a three-member paid committee as the solution.

So, the coach has spoken out, but what about the beleagured captain? Oh yeah, Ganguly is still captain in my books! Dravid is a shrewd captain and also scored the diplomatic victory during the recent series, but even he would want the job handed off to him in better circumstances than this. He and Ganguly have been the cornerstone of many an Indian triumph in recent years and it would really hurt him to see his captain mistreated and thrown out this way.

But, it is up to the “outdated” selectors to decide and lets leave them at their job. And there is no lack of advise for these guys from former players though. Especially our neighbours have been more than willing to offer their advise on this – Wasim Akram urges the selectors to back Ganguly while Waqar Younis is not in favor of it. But, have these two former greats ever agreed upon anything, except maybe on this!

As usual, the question again boils down to whether India can find another Kapil Dev. Well, this time the great man himself has an answer for this,

“My dad is 70, my mother is 60. The chances of another Kapil are close to zero.”
Kapil Dev on being asked when India will see another Kapil Dev

Hope, Kapil still retains this sense of humor after this MCD sealing of his delhi property.

Luck’s out for Laxman?

March 23, 2005 at 9:18 pm (Cricket, News)

Ganguly and Laxman

The third test between India and Pakistan starts a few hours from now at Bangalore and India seems to be thinking about heading into the match with the winning combination from Calcutta. For the last few matches, India’s batting has been shouldered by two men – one the vibrant dasher in Virendra Sehwag and the other a great artist finally winning recognition as a World leader – Rahul Dravid. And then there is the maestro, Sachin Tendulkar. Need I say more about him?

Over the last 15 matches, Rahul has been averaging nearly 70! And Sehwag and Sachin have not been far behind averaging 68 and 66 respectively. Ganguly and Laxman can well thank these three for saving them further ignominy over their repeated failures. Though I think that we’ve been unduly harsh on Ganguly. Today morning, me and Karthik had a brief chat going on about Ganguly’s performance.

CricInfo’s Stats search is a must-use for any cricket statistics lover. The guys there have done a really wonderful job with their search filter options. During his last 10 test matches, Ganguly averages a respectable 37.75 round about the same as Michael Vaughan. And if we bump it up to 15 matches, Ganguly’s centuries at Ahmedabad against NZ and that fighter at Brisbane bump it up to nearly 42. His century at Brisbane actually set the tone for the series and India did so remarkably well.

So, I really felt sorry for Dada as he seemed very defensive about his batting form in today’s interview to CricInfo. Ganguly has been getting decent starts over the last few matches but has been kind of throwing his wicket away after all the hard work had been done. Hope Bangalore turns things for Indian cricket’s most successful captain.

For him the problem has been very similar to the relative truth and absolute truth concept of Mahatma Gandhiji. When Lord Mountbatten asked Gandhi why he seemed to be shifting his statements over time, Gandhi told him this parable. Dip your hand in cold water and leave it for some time. After that put your hand in warm water and your hand starts to burn. Now, wash your hand with very very hot water and then you place it back on the same warm water. Now, the warm water starts to feel colder. Though the temperature of the warm water is the same, it is the actions that preceded that, that made the difference. Similarly, Ganguly’s average has been pretty much the same even in recent times. But, the fact that the Trimurthi’s are averaging in the 70’s has tended to belittle Ganguly’s performances.

But, Laxman on the other hand has truly sucked. He has started failing with such amazing consistency that some runs from him would really surprise many! And his catching hasn’t been all that good recently as well. It is all possibly just confidence. Look at the sea change in KKD’s keeping after his fabulous batting performance! But, how long does Laxman get a run? Over his last 10 tests, he averages just 20! That is definitely not what one expects from one of India’s premier batsman.

And not that the bench strength is lacking. Kaif had a pretty decent series against the pummelling aussies and Yuvraj started off with a century on debut against Pakistan before that failure as opener in chennai forced him out of the team. Both of them have been having excellent domestic seasons. Sridharan Sriram and Dinesh Mongia have also as always been having run sprees in domestic matches. One of them would gladly fill into the No.6 position.

There is only a certain threshold point till which past performances ensure a place in the squad. And the Laxman Rekha is pretty close to being crossed! This bangalore test may turn out to be make or break for Laxman. And past history at bangalore does not augur well for him or any of his other teammates except for the notable exception of Sachin Tendulkar. Ganguly and Laxman both average just 13 in bangalore while Dravid is just a shade better at 19!

Time out from the playing squad is always good as it helps the player focus better. Hayden, Langer and Martyn all did time outside the team and have all come back with a vengeance. And Laxman’s earlier time out in the sidelines resulted in that memorable epic 281 at calcutta. The choices are pretty much clear for Laxman. Either he strikes gold at Bangalore or is sent off to spend time looking for other gold reserves and then come back. Hope it is the former as Laxman is just too good to be wasting his precocious talent away from the international arena.

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The domestic season continues

February 22, 2005 at 12:49 am (Cricket, Sports)

The second half of the Indian domestic cricket season is in full swing. The challenger trophy has drawn to a close with Rahul Dravid guiding his India-A to victory. And now the Duleep trophy has begun. In november, I had written this blog about the Ranji season and detailed with high hopes why I thought this was going to be Tamil Nadu’s year at the Ranji.

But unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Alas, some slow scoring and unimaginative captaincy ensured that they did not make it even to the semis. But, kudos to the teams that did make it to the semis – Mumbai, Hyderabad, Punjab and Railways. The way things are looking, this could well be just another season where Mumbai re-iterates that they are a domestic cricketing dynasty!

Not that Tamil Nadu fared so very badly. If they had just managed to score much more quickly against UP or at least been able to garner the bonus point in their last league match victory against Maharastra, they still could have made it to the final four. The members of the team all had amazing seasons. No wonder then that I was amazed to see that in the squad of 15 for South Zone to be led by Rahul Dravid consisted of 7 guys from TN!

The entire fast bowling line-up of Tamil Nadu made it to the team – L Balaji (back from injury, Rajamani Jesuraj (Having an amazing season. Reminds me of Balaji’s season in 2003!) and MR Srinivas. For those of you who remember, Srinivas was the guy at the other end when Vidyut smashed that amazing century batting at No. 11 a couple of seasons back.

The left-handed twin towers of the TN batting this season also made it into the SZ squad as well – Sriram and Sharath. Though Sharath is past the age to be in the reckoning for a national team slot, Sriram is still in the running. The half century in the ODI against Bangladesh albeit in a losing cause should stand him in good stead if he performs well.

The other two TN players in the SZ squad include national keeper KKD Karthick and the find of the season for TN – R Ramkumar. Finally, after a long wait since the departure of Sunil Subramaniam, TN has found a left arm spinner of class. In fact, last season, I think TN made do with the part time spin of Sriram and Vidyut. But, this is just his first season and the shoes of Sunil are big ones to fill in. Hope he can cope well.

At the time of writing, South Zone are locking horns with the West Zone at Uppal, Hyderabad. Four of the seven are in the final XI – Balaji, Jesuraj, Karthick and Sriram. Pity that Ramkumar is not in the squad. Would have loved to see how he bowled in tandem with Anil Kumble.

This match also marks the return to action of the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Will the legend imprint his mark and silence critics who have stooped to such low levels as to state that he is feigning injury to skip the impending Pak series. How easily these men forget the past and how even as kid, Sachin shouldered the responisibility of the whole of India. Cut the slack and show some respect for the Great man!

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