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15 Non Stop

2006-04-07T01:38:00.000-07:00

All India critics pay attention. India has set a world record for the most successful consecutive chases (15) by winning their 4th ODI against England in Kochi. Once termed (chase) chokers, India under Dravid and Chappell have come a long way. 6 months ago India was a dilapidated ODI outfit. Some change in methods and personnel and now India are rocking. A thinking captain who decides to delay Powerplays based on the opposition energy levels, youngsters given responsibility, the same youngsters performing under pressure and a flexible batting order are the norm.

Kevin

2006-04-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

Kevin Pietersen is a player totally different to what the typical English batsman mould is. England are privileged to have a player like him. His attitude towards the art of batting is very clever. That demoralizing the bowler is a part of batting is known to very few and Pietersen is one of them. His attack to the spinners is what makes him largely successful. Playing spin traditionally has not been Englands forte. Rather, players like Pietersen have not been English forte! His attitude is the pillar of his success. A lions share of the English triumph in the Ashes has been the manner in which Pietersen has dealt with Shane Warne.

Licence To FAIL

2006-04-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Presently various Indian players have a unique licence. The licence to fail. Under this licence players are allowed to consistently fail and still retain their spots in the playing eleven. While it is good in some cases it is questionable in others. Heres a look at who is who:

Licence To Fail Memberships

Life Member:
Sachin Tendulkar

Active Membership:
Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble

Not offered Membership yet:
Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, Ramesh Powar, Munaf Patel, Venugopal Rao, S Sreesanth, RP Singh

Membership Revoked:
Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar

Membership Expired due to non-availability:
Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathi Balaji

India and 400+ score ODIs

2006-03-14T01:02:00.000-08:00

Now that the storm of the most exciting ODI match in history is over, I have a few observations regarding such high ultra-high scoring games. I think with Twenty20 (PRO20) matches being played, batsmen are developing a capability of non-stop hitting. Its no more a question of hitting when the field is up or when the PowerPlays are on. Its about constant hitting. Being an Indian fan I am concerned about this. My basic reason of worry is that BCCI has declared that India will NOT play Twenty20 games at all since its an 'absrurd' format. Fair enough. But what about the constant-fast-scoring ability other Twenty20 playing team players are inherently developing? Can Indian players match up with such peers? Its not an immediate crisis but something worth pondering.

According to me, India will get in a win/win situation if they decide to play Twenty20 matches with an alternate squad. The likes of Dravid, Tendulkar need not play these games. Sehwag, Yuvraj, Raina, Ramesh Powar and others who are young and can be honed to gain multidimensional capabilites can be included. Not only will it improve the current players game, but it will introduce new hitters for a stint in ODIs.

Wreck-ord

2006-03-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

What just happened will go down as the best revenge anyone has ever had (or maybe will ever have). South Africa has been jolted too many times by Australia in the past. Being so near is actually being most far from the final target. SA have experienced this more than any Cricket playing nation. But that is history. New history is now written.

SA successfully chased a target of 434 against Australia. (That they did it in 49.5 overs with only 1 wicket remaining are mere details which will be forgotten). Herschelle Gibbs played the innings of his life slamming 175 off just 111 balls. Graeme Smith ably supported in the mammoth run-chase. In essence, what SA did to Australia is equivalent to what Andy Dufresne did while inside the Shawshank prison to Warden Sam Norton in The Shawshank Redemption. First let Australia set a World record and then not only break it, but set a twin record of the highest score and highest chase in the history of ODIs.

As statistics tumbled, an unimaginable result ensued when the likes of Van der Waath and Boucher steered SA to victory. Now you either bask in the victory glory or search reasons for why all this happened!

Ill-timed Hurricane

2005-12-19T03:03:00.000-08:00

Indian Cricket seems to be attacked by hurricanes with alarming regularity. Most of them are related to selector-decisions. Sourav Ganguly was initially dropped from the ODI squad, much to no-ones surprise. He was then infiltrated into the Test Side much to everyone's shock. At that point, it seemed like a Dalmiya diktat more than a selectors decision. After that he performed well in the Tests. A regime change happened. Ganguly was abruptly dropped from the Test side. Fingers were pointed. Accusations were rife. Demonstrations happened in every nook and corner of India. Politics was seen playing an important role in the proceedings rather than Cricket. I deliberately refrained from writing my opinion at that sensitive period when things were happening and changing almost every 12 hours. Now the dust seems to have settled. Here is my opinion on all that happened:

The Test selection of Ganguly happened as a political decree. He played well in the tests and all credit to him for making an 'all-round' effort (batting and fielding only). But the selectors did not have Ganguly in the longer picture of Indian Test cricket. So they decided to axe him. It was a selector-decision and not a political one. However, the timing of the axe was awfully wrong. The manner of axe was dreadfully wrong. But the idea of axing was not that wrong. Ganguly has been a remarkable thing to have happened to Indian cricket and he needed a graceful exit than the haphazard one that he actually received. A great players exit has to be planned well. This was not done and the selectors have received a more-than-enough amount of flak for it. As for the central issue of all this ruckus - the removal of Ganguly, well it was on the cards. Ganguly, though showing a lot of commitment, is not the old devastating Ganguly anymore. Signs of an aging star, a burnt out cricketer are seen very markedly. Ganguly fans, of course, don't see them.

With the future tour of Pakistan in sight, the current Ganguly would be tormented by the bouncers/short-pitched deliveries from Akhtar, Hasan, Sami and Co. Also news about Pakistan preparing bouncy tracks for the Indian tour pouring in, the scene becomes even worse for Ganguly. So his removal, at least of the Pakistan tour, is justified. Having said that, this axing can also be a blessing in disguise for him. Ganguly can now go back to first-class cricket to hone himself for a possible stint against England later. If he thinks that he has a lot of Cricket left in him, he need not worry! He has the whole nation backing him in wake of the injustice meted out to him. That is a definite confidence booster.

Pondering in hindsight, the selectors should had waited for the Sri Lanka test series to be over before announcing Ganguly's removal. Their haste is where it all went wrong.

Refreshing Revamp

2005-12-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

Indian cricket seems to be proceeding in the right direction. Administratively for a change. The new BCCI is shelling out fresh ideas which are not only sensible but will turn out to be lucrative as well. Sports merchandise is a globally accepted form of revenue generation world wide. Cricket - Indian cricket - has been shying away from it for no plausible reasons. I hope to be wearing a Dravid T-Shirt soon. Lets see how fast my wish comes true. The television rights issue also seems to be on the path to resolution. The approach has been to scrap the earlier tenders, born out of complex and controversial rules, and start with a clean slate. A BCCI official website is also being talked about. All in all it seems that a professional approach is in place. But its still the beginning. Well at least its that! Here is Harsha's analysis on the same in his usual lucid and intelligent way!

Venue Betrayal

2005-12-02T05:49:00.001-08:00

Bad venue selection has deprived Chennai fans (and billion others on TV) of an ODI already. Now it threatens to rob them of a test match. All this because of lack of gumption shown by the former BCCI officials. In the much touted "rotation of venues" policy, simple norms of weather forecasts have been completely neglected. While the rotation policy makes sense, neglecting weather at the assigned venues makes none. Factors such as weather, distance from the venue of the previous match, distance of the airport from venue etc should be considered while finalizing venues. This would be in the best interests of the cricketers and fans. Hopefully the new BCCI takes these things into consideration in future. Here is Harsha Bhogle's latest cricket article.

Crisis Meltdown

2005-12-01T03:15:00.000-08:00

So the Prince re-enters the arena. Amid political and ethical battles cricket had taken a backseat for sometime. Now cricket is the sharpest tool with Saurav Ganguly to prove his detractors (who are multiplying with each of his innings) wrong. As Ganguly turned up for practice with the Indian squad members for the testseries against SL in Chennai a crucial meltdown of the deadlock between himself and the coach Greg Chappel was observed. Cricket technicalities were the only things discussed between the two (and for heavens sake rightly so!). Lets hope Ganguly snatches the opportunity awarded to him with both hands and shows his mettle. And more importantly lets hope the first Chennai test is spared by nature and proceeds on schedule.

Umpiring Technology

2005-11-29T04:14:00.000-08:00

As technology becomes ever more involved with the game, its use for mending blatantly wrong decisions by the human umpires is imperative. The stakes get very high with star performers becoming victims of poor decisions. (Un)luckliy such decisions seem to favour the Goliaths of cricket (read Australia) more than the Davids. Obviously personnel from such teams (read Ricky Ponting) always object to such changes. They want the "human element" to stay in the game, no matter how brutally its rare betrayal can cost. That is illogical. With proper rules, technology can only assist in revoking conclusively wrong decisions.

Many international sports today allow challenging the referee/umpire decisions for want of plain justice. There is absolutely nothing wrong in using technology prudently. It only fills in the gaps left by the out-of-reach expectations of the human. While run-outs and stumpings are clearly benefited by technology with the arrival of the 3rd umpire, some other aspects like lbw decisions, (slightly) grounded catches, illegal lines of ball pitch for lbws will also get easily caught and rectified.

The team coach should be empowered to challenge such questionable decisions from umpires for want of sporting justice. The final decision in such cases is made by the 3rd umpire using his judgment and all technology at his disposal (screen freezes, snickometers, hawkeyes etc). However small or large the inherent error in these technological tools, the collective evidence augmented by the umpires intellect will almost always give a just decision.

Regime Change

2005-11-29T00:18:00.000-08:00

I was delaying, for no reason, starting my blog on this greatest sport ever invented. Today marks a special day for the future of Indian Cricket. After a successful series leveler from a precarious situation against South Africa, the Indian Cricket administration body BCCI now gets a new leader. Sharad Pawar contesting for the BCCI elections gets a landslide victory of 20-11 to be at the helm of affairs. This victory ends the black period of bad decision making and corruption in the BCCI under the rule of Jagmohan Dalmiya (actually $miya is a better name).

Lets hope sanity prevails at the highest order of Indian cricket with this regime change and all decisions henceforth are made solely in the interest of Indian Cricket upliftment.

Today is a good day to start the blog.