Biz-cket

Subhash Chandra, of Zee fame, has announced the formation of new cricket series, the Indian Cricket League. Apparently Chandra was miffed by the poor performance at the World Cup and wants to develop "a reserve pool of cricketers who could play for the country." No one minds making millions in the process, of course. "We are not shying away to tell that this is also a business proposition but at the macro level, this is a passion of the group to promote cricket," Chandra said.

Whatever be the intention behind it, this can make difference. Check out Chandra's plans -

Format: Six teams will participate in this year`s league, which would start any time between July and August. The number of teams would be extended to 16 in the coming three years. Each team would comprise of two national, four international and eight budding players, who would be selected by the talent scouts. The matches will be played both in the ODI and Twenty20 formats with teams playing on a home and away basis.

Ball's in BCCI's court now.

Infrastructure Support: The league will be supported by cricketing academies across the country having state-of-the-art facilities headed by international and domestic coaches. Talent scouts would pick talents from across the country and groom them in academies to provide a pipeline of reserve players.

Chandra did mention Kerry Packer - "No, that was a coup. All the players of Australia were signed and he also chose not to get the telecast rights of the Australian board," he reasoned. Chandra has seeked support from BCCI & state cricket associations and said, "If BCCI wants to draw from the talent pool, they are welcome to do so." BCCI is yet to respond, but I guess they won't be happy to lose the monopoly control they have over Indian cricket.

This thing looks good. The point about searching talent at the grass-root and grooming them at state-of-the-art academies and giving them chance to rub shoulders with international players, all this sounds too good to be true! This should definitely bring forth some quality competition in the domestic circuit. Chandra is basically offering to do the work BCCI should be doing, and taking the bounty in the process, sounds fair to me! However, we presently have a mechanism in place to find players from the member states of BCCI. All players representing the teams in domestic tournies are basically held by contracts. If BCCI puts its foot down and outlaws it to play in the ICL, the league might get reduced to all fizz and no fun. Some players might get lured by the money, but I doubt if it'll be a big number. Then we'll have probably retired or forgotten players; Vinod Kambli might just get another chance there :-).

"At present there are only 20 players contracted with the board and there is a restriction that they cannot play for anybody else. From each state only 25 players can come up as registered players. What about the millions of boys playing cricket in schools and colleges? Do they get a chance?" Chandra said. Not another reality show, I hope! But if Chandra's league doesn't get the top 20-25 players from the states, I doubt if their talent scouts can hunt plenty of good ones. Hence, the ball essentially lies in BCCI's court. As per the good of Indian cricket, Chandra's plans definitely have my thumbs up. It's essentially an open market vs monopoly situation and I would always go for open market.

Domestic cricket in India

The recent World Cup performance by the talented Indian team has stirred the hornet's nest. Heads are rolling in Pakistan and the blame game is just about to start in India. However, I doubt if anything meaningful would come out of it. Ramachandra Guha describes cricket as a "special game" in India in his outstanding book on Indian Cricket - A corner of a foreign field, and one has to agree. More than just another sport, it's now another icon of national pride. When tension mounted between India & Pakistan, Indian government was quick to snap all cricketing ties, however, the Pakistani hockey & TT teams were touring India, that too without a whimper from Thakre and likes. Every year the broadcasting rights for cricket in India are fought over intensely with the amounts going up astronomically. Every cricket match in any corner of India, featuring the Indian team, sometimes even without them, meets full-house with thousands turned down!

If such is the love for the game, how come no one cares a damn about the domestic cricket in India? Before delving deeper, let's see if it is really the "love" of the game or just fanatic following of the home team. The Indian crowd has given diametrically opposing impressions over time. Compare the standing ovation received by the Paki team in the Chennai test and the unruly crowd of Calcutta in the '96 WC Semifinal. So, do people want to see good cricket or they just care for their team's win? The truth lies somewhere between these two extremes. I think, people have some idea (almost fair) about the team's calibre and when they perform below there capability, they face the fan's ire. Indian team's ouster in the first round was definitely below their capabilities. It's not that the fans expected them to win the cup; they were hailed as heroes in the last WC when they played out of their skins to reach the finals, only to get hammered!

Coming back to domestic cricket, one most common argument is that the Ranji Trophy has too many teams, thus diluting the quality of cricket. I quote from the wikipedia page -

Up until the 2002-03 season, the teams were grouped into five zones - North, West, East, Central and South - and initial matches were played within the zones on a league basis. The top teams (two until 1991-92, three after that) from each zone played in a national knock-out competition, leading to a final which decided the winner of the tournament.

Kids playing cricket near Payakara Falls, Ooty

Starting with the 2002-03 season, the zonal system was abandoned and a two-division structure was adopted: the Elite Group and the Plate Group. For the 2006-07 season, the divisions were re-labelled the Super League and Plate League respectively.

The Super League is divided into two groups of eight and seven teams, while the Plate League is divided into two groups of six teams each. In both divisions, the top two teams from each group advance to the knock-out phase. The finalists from the Plate League are promoted to the Super League the next year while the two teams at the bottom of the Super League are relegated.

If this seems too many, we've got Duleep Trophy, with just 5 zonal teams. I quote -

Five Indian zonal teams regularly take part in the Duleep Trophy - North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone.

The original format was that the five teams played each other on a knock-out basis. From the 1993-94 season, the competition converted to a league format.

From the 2003-04 season onwards, the five original zonal teams competed along with a sixth guest team which was a touring foreign team. The first guest team was England A in 2003-04.

If you say the slow test cricket is the deterring factor, we've got Deodhar Trophy, 50-over one-day competition played on a league basis among the 5 zonal teams since 1973!

So there, we've got all flavors of cricket in the domestic competitions, yet it's not able to pull the apparently cricket crazy crowd of India. It has to do something with the quality of cricket played. The difference of quality between international fixtures & these domestic ones has to be huge, thus not attracting the attention of people. This again is a mind-boggler! Cricket is played almost everywhere in India and yet we can't produce ample number of quality competitors for the domestic cricket? This points towards the callous attitude of cricket governing body in India. We should do more to train & prepare cricketers from their younger days. There is another anamoly here, our under-19 team was among the strongest & in the final of last two U-19 World Cups! How do you explain this decline of form of the same players when they graduate to the big league? It's as if they stop adding value to their cricket while their peers from other countries move on.

There is another deterrent, parents skepticism towards career in professional sports. I don't know if we can tackle this problem in the short run in a third-world developing country like India. May be BCCI can announce some comprehensive scholarships, may be they have these even now. But the fact remains that the parents are scared to let their kids chase their cricketing dreams at the cost of sound academic background, thus increased probability of a decent career.

Another face of the problem is the media coverage of these games. I do get to read about them in the newspaper, however no channel is ready to air these games. We do get to see the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, but not other games. This again depends on the fact that there aren't many buyers for these games, because these are low quality matches. Some vicious cycle we've got here! We can't relate with these matches, because we can't see them. They can't broadcast the matches, because no one sees them!

These definitely aren't the only problems with the Indian cricket. Still, I feel if we can address these one fast, the Indian cricket will be benefitted a lot and fast. Depleted bench strength & mediocre domestic cricket are holding back Indian cricket big time.

Freak Show!

(Mark Boucher pumps the air after hitting the winning runs)

Australia - 434/4 (50.0)
South Africa - 438/9 (49.5)

Can you believe this?! Would anyone believe this, who hasn't watched this match? I'm sure this match would remain like an one-off incident; one spike in the relatively saner landscape of one-day cricket; one deafening toll of some distant bell in the normal chitter-chatter in the world of cricket. Something to tell your grandchildren about. I say send this DVD to Mars and the outer space, this is the best we can offer to our alien friends!

Of course, the boundaries were short & the track was totally dead. Yet, there have been deader pitches - especially in the Indian sub continent - & shorter boundaries (Singapore pops into my mind) but never did we have a 400+ score, ever. But what makes the match extra-ordinary is the South African effort. After letting the Kangaroos run away with it and posting an impossible total of 434, one can imagine how gloomy the South African dressing room would have been during the lunch. Even the staunchest supporters wouldn't have seen any silver lining in that dark cloud. Yet, they refused to kneel down to the pressure and fought back & fought hard. And when the finally reached there, they had scripted an epic saga which made the tale of David & Goliath look like a cheap imitation.

Australian inning was dominated by their captain’s scintillating knock. There is something very chilling in the way Ponting bats. Right, he’s not the only one to play such aggressive cricket. We have Sehwags, Afridis, Gichrists & of course Gibbs, but there is a subtle difference in their approach to the game and Pontings’. While others take risks and make shots to get the scorecard hit the roof, Ponting approach is more calculated & easygoing. He has such huge confidence that rarely he mishits or looks like manufacturing shots. The difference is somehow similar to the game of Jayasurya & Arvinda D’Silva. While Jayasurya relied on high-risk shots, D’Silva could maintain the same run-rate in a very low-risk manner. And that was what made him more dangerous for the opposition. Ponting brings the same sense of danger to the opposition. His approach doesn’t have the belligerence of Afridi or makeshift brilliance of Sehwag, still he is no lesser than them in his own cool style. Lately, it looks like impossible to get him out early; his technique leaves no chink for the opposition to attack. That’s why he is the best ODI batsman in the recent times.

The South African reply was hinged around Gibbs’ innings. Though half the battle was won when they believed that such an total can be chased, still it was an impossibly uphill task and if they were to even get closer to the Australian total, they needed a solid yet speedy start. Dippenaar disappointed but this couldn’t pull the team morale down. The partnership between Smith & Gibbs made it possible to even think that this can be done. Gibbs is one hell of a character! Immensely talented, extremely unpredictable. His arsenal has almost every attacking shot in the book. He reminds me of the Windies World Champion team. His game has the same gay abandon which was once associated with the calypso cricket. On his day, I don’t think he can better this performance. Though I felt a tinge of pain when he finally fell before going past the 194 run mark (Oh! How badly I wanted him to wash that scar off every Indian cricket fan’s mind :-), I don’t think I remember any ODI innings better than this one. Batting under imposing pressure of chasing an utterly impossible total, and then to come up with such a gem – truly awe-inspiring!

This match is definitely going to be my favorite match for quite some time. It is not always that you get to see such an entertaining freak show. That's what it was, an insane freak show! Pure madness & sheer brilliance!

P.S. - Good luck to the Indian team too. Com'on, kick some pommie butts!
P.P.S. - Wish me some luck too. Have IIMC interview tomorrow.

The Great Indian World Cup Dream

(Rohit Sharma attempts to pull, India U-19s v West Indies U-19s, Colombo, February 11, 2006)

While the senior cricket team is toiling hard for success on the docile pitches of Pakistan, some young guns are blazing big time for India in the Emerald island. The Indian Under 19 cricket team has made it to the final four of the U-19 Cricket World Cup! Incredibly, they haven't lost even a match in their pursuit of the ultimate glory. India now face England in the semi-finals on Wednesday. The other semi-final would be between Pakistan & Australia. Its sad that almost no one in India is following their campaign.

While the semifinal line-up looks in perfect harmony with the respective senior teams' stature, the truth is infact far from it. Other than Australia, who are almost as rampant in their campaign as their seniors, its the subcontinent teams who are the major forces to reckon with in the junior arena. Even the Bangladeshis command the kind of respect their seniors can only get in their dreams. The result of the quarter-final match between England and Bangladesh, which the English won of course, is being considered a surprise! Indian U-19s have been among the toppers in their batch since the times when Kaif used to be their captain. Then there was one Indo-Pak U-19 tour where Irfan Pathan and VRV Singh unleashed hell on the Paki kids. Shikhar Dhawan, who is making a mark for himself in the domestic circuit, was their star batsman on that tour.

Now the question arises that if our kids are frontrunners in the U-19 scene, why do they fail to blossom in promising prospects for the senior teams? If our junior team can kick butts of their counterparts comprehensively, why do they shy away from this when they meet them in the senior circuit? I somehow got a hunch that while other U-19 players improve a lot on their games before and after getting into the senior side, our juniors' game kind of stagnates at that juvenile level. One more reason can be that quite possibly we send over-19-but-certified-to-be-under-19 players to the junior matches. Since such practices are not very uncommon in the subcontinent, it explains why the subcontinent does well at the junior levels.

The current Indian ODI team has some young & promising prospects, but over the time we had problem finding youngsters who can take the burden of the international cricket with great confidence. Yuvraj Singh showed glimpses of his immense talent in his debut match; Irfan Pathan had a decent debut tour; MS Dhoni became a household name is lesser number of matches than the number of alphabets in his name, but then I look at Mohammad Asif. Here is one young speedster, bowling to the likes of Sehwag - who is riding high on confidence after scoring 250 runs just two innings back, Tendulkar - who is considered the best batsman even today, Dravid - arguably the most technically sound player and other aces of the famous Indian batting line up and he bowls with such vigor & wile that all the big names failed to save the inevitable defeat. When will India produce such confident debutantes? What do our youngsters lack? We have to look towards Australia for this answer, where every other debutante is almost as competitive & confident as the senior members of the squad. If Chappell's grand vision of 2007 world cup doesn't include grooming young talents at U-19 and other junior levels, one day India will pay dearly for that. He seems to be concerned towards building a decent bench strength and a very flexible core team. Healthy competition and perform-or-perish funda should bring the much needed professionalism in the Indian cricket, sooner rather than later.

Paki batting vs Indian Batting.

India ended up with a meagre, yet moral-boosting lead of 15 runs over Pakistan in the first inning of the second test against Pakistan. The second session of the third day was worrisome for India and they lost wickets in a flurry. Solid resilience from Dhoni & Pathan and some innovative shots from lower order took India from a position where they were looking in the face of follow-on to a position where they've taken first innings lead. While this is a befitting reply to the total posted by Pakistan, Indian batting worries me. Take a look at the graphic (courtesy CricBuzz) on the left; while Pakistani innings had many healthy partnerships, Indian inning was marred by spans where the batsmen just lost concentration and wickets fell in quick succession. It had just two over-50 runs partnerships, which turned out to be real big ones. Other than these two partnerships, our batsmen couldn't build partnerships. Its ironic that while there are many contenders for the middle order and it has been the eye of the controversies for some time now, we still haven't got someone as solid as "The Wall" in there. Yuvraj Singh, with all his flamboyance and talent, again failed to pull team out of the rut. Sachin is playing quite uncharacteristically for quite some time now. He looks like getting very negative in his approach, while for the better part of his career his extreme positivity has been the key to his success.

I hope the top order doesn't skittle before the Paki bowlers at a reportedly fast pitch at Karachi. I feel top-order will have to shoulder the burden there since all-rounders like Dhoni & Pathan can't be expected to have the supreme technique to tackle the pace & swing of Paki bowlers in a more suitable setting.

At the Right Place @ the Right Time

Indian team's camp is kept at National Cricket Academy, which happens to be at a walkable distance from my office. This afternoon, I took my camera along to the stadium. The doors were closed and I climbed the 10 ft high fence to catch a glimpse (I shouted their names too, no one returned even a glance). I didn't have the best seat in the house, so the pictures have a blue rod obstructing the view. Never mind.

In the first image we have (L to R) Chappell, Sachin, RP Singh, Yuvraj & Gambhir. Second image - Tendulkar & Chappell. Third - Dhoni bats as Harbhajan looks. Last picture - Sachin, Murli Karthik, Pathan (bowling) & Harbhajan. Click on the images to see a bigger version.

And lastly, the wall-

I pulled that autowala (in Khaki dress) up! I never knew I can climb this tall a wall, leave alone pull people up :). Thanks Mom for all the Dabur Chavyanprash!

Encouragement Needed.

Middle of the week, we talk about cricket!

In a Cricinfo poll last week, 49% of those who voted said that Zimbabwe should be stripped of their Test status, with 38% advocating a similar fate for Bangladesh. About 26% thought both should stay and Kenya should be brought in. 27% people believed that test cricket should be divided into 2 tiers while about 48% advised that performance benchmarking should be made the basis of awarding and relegating the test status. Almost two thirds of the samples didn't believe in restricting the test status to a limited number of teams.

The contrast between the super charged Ashes series and the SL-BD & Ind-Zim test series was stark. While Ashes brought back the glory to test cricket, the other two series were plain boring like most of the Bollywood movies. The results were clear even before the start and the tests were interesting only from a statistician's point of view. The debate about stripping Bangladesh & Zimbabwe off the test status raised it head again after such lackluster performances from these two teams, again. Bangladesh has played 40 test matches till now and has recorded win in only 1 till date, that too , you guessed it! - Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was well on the path of gathering momentum after the debut in 1992, but most of their established players were forced to leave the country due to the political fiasco in the nation.

Country	Debut	First Test Win (Test#)	First Series Win (Series #)
India	1932	1952 (25)	1952-53 (9)
New Zealand	1930	1956 (45)	1969-70 (31)
Pakistan	1952	1952 (2)	1955-56 (4)
South Africa	1889	1906 (12)	1905-06 (6)
Sri Lanka	1982	1985 (14)	1985-86 (8)
West Indies	1928	1930 (6)	1934-35 (5)
Zimbabwe	1992	1995 (11)	1998-99 (16)
Bangladesh	2000	2005 (34)	2004-05 (18)

So how much water does this argument holds against these minnows? As the table above shows, almost all of the test playing nations had to wait for a while before getting a firm grip on the international turf and register a win. But have we spared them a bit too many chances? Bangladesh might not have won against any other test playing nations, other than Zimbabwe, but they have certainly shown improvement. While the team performance is still poor, some brilliant individual talents have made their mark in the international scene. Batsman like Ashraful & bowlers like Murtaza and Rafique are capable of getting place in more than one test playing teams. Their success at the international scene might give the gen next a hope to compete with the best, just same as Kapil Dev's success inspired next generation of fast bowlers in India. The onus lies on the Bangladeshies too. They must show improvement in every tour. Defeat is not a matter of shame, not learning from your mistakes is. They should take the story of Sri Lankan success as their inspiration as strive to do better.

How much a two-tier system help these minnows? These teams need the exposure to top class team most and the two tier system will take away their chances for the same. The argument in favor of two tier system are on the line of having more competitive games. The matches between these minnows and big teams are absolutely no shows. But if we see like this, the domestic cricket in India doesn't attract much public attention, the stadia are mostly vacant. So should we discontinue those tournaments also? No! Not only the weaker teams but many other test playing teams are plagued with the lack of competent bench strength. The problem lies with the substandard domestic arena. The mediocre players pile up runs against poor bowling and the blunt bowlers shine against unimaginative batting. The result - these players are grossly unprepared for the international arena! The two tier system will never let the weaker teams be competent enough to compete with the best.

ICC must pay attention that the domestic cricket gets adequate attention by the corresponding cricket boards. I suggest that during English and Australian summers, along with the local counties, second string teams from other nations - bunch of talented players needing the exposure - should be allowed to compete in the Pura Cup and the County Season. Not only this will help them understand the rigours of the international cricket, it'll also raise the bar for their own performances. If ICC has to expand the circle of cricket, such steps are most required now.

Irfan Pathan weds Sania Mirza (?!!)

Atleast two people want it badly (you need orkut login for that)!

Kifayat: hwz it ,f irfan khan pathan marries sania mirza ,i think it vil b ideal,plz comment
Tapabrata: You Are correct. That will be a great match.

And check out this second thread -

Sana: hey guyz in dis comm u ppl hav3 to pridict that in which age will irfan gonna marry n to which type of girl..will he do arrange marraige or lov3 marraige??..i hope u ppl gonna lyk this topic so enjoy!!
anonymous: Irfans will BE arranGed Marriage.
HE WONt marry any stupid, UGly girl like you Sana so Forget Thinking AbOUT Him.
anonymous : i think he loved Her very Much so he will Marry with Heeeeeer
Sana:hey anon chilll ur tokin ass!! ur tokin lyk if he'll cum rite at my place if i'll jus offer him up:P....ahhaha ugly statement u've got!:P peace out ppl this topic is for nice ppl not for nerds...anyways resto'z haff nice tym!!:)

Hats off to Orkut - The noble source of ceaseless laughter!

Letter to Greg Chappell

Middle of the week, we talk about cricket!

Dear Mr.Chappell,

I still remember the day you arrived at Bangalore. Next day all the newspapers had this magnificent picture of yours - uttareeya in the neck, south-Indian turban on the head, hands folded in Namaskar pose. You indeed made an excellent start towards understanding & adapting India, but afterwards you haven't done quite justice to that start.

Ya-ya we know you are an Aussie, a tough egg - striving hard to win and all. But India works on the principle of Santosh - it doesn't translate well into English, but it's meaning varies between complacency and contentment. I don't understand the screwed up logic Australia follows to just keep on winning world cups. We won one for ourselves way back in '82 and are content with that, what if more than one third of present population is born after that win? What did you think? We - the nephews & nieces of great socialist Chacha Nehru - will fall for your evil capitalist plans? We will compete for another world cup only after every other cricketing nation has one. We are doing our best to boost chances for teams like Zimbabwe & Bangladesh.

And what was that blubbering about Indian players not giving 100% in the field & training sessions? Finally, the Indians have deviced a method to perform totally out of sync, so that even if the team keeps on losing matches, personal records keep on bloating. Very rarely all of them perform together, it's something like the 'V' formation birds form while flying - collective laziness. Do you think it doesn't take any effort to perform such a sleek tight rope walk? Ask Bhajji! Ask Dhoni! Ask Yuvraj! It's the delicate art of coloring all the sheeps grey so that no one can be pinpointed as a black sheep. And you say team is divided! Duh! You wish we'll fall for it - dream on mate!

Seriously buddy, you gotta answer this - What wrong has Ganguly done to you?! Agreed, he took you advice in Australia, but did that give you the impression that you can advice him even as a coach?! In India, coaches are meant to just nod along with the captain - understand this! And what did you whimper about Ganguly feigning injury to avoid new ball - here is a captain who knows his weaknesses and tackles them while remaining within the boundaries of the rules - and you are busy with nitpicking?! Shame! Shame! Poppy Shame! You should have been the first to congratulate Ganguly on this sleek strategy.

If India teaches you one thing, it's the lesson of tolerance & ignorance. Ask John Wright, towards the end he had to tolerate so much, he ignored all the offers made to him to continue. He tolerated all the indiscipline, all the wimpy efforts. He even tolerated it when team members roughed him up - allegedly Sehwag help him up with his shirt's collar, and he tolerated! You've got a lot to learn pal!

Wishing you a pleasant stay (if you decide to stick around, i.e.),
- Varun

The Ashes Recovery.

Middle of the week, we talk about cricket!

"I think I was saying 3-0 or 4-0 about 12 months ago, thinking there might be a bit of rain around. But with the weather as it is at the moment, I have to say 5-0."

-Glenn McGrath

A whole bunch of feet got into a whole bunch of big mouths with the result of recently finished Ashes series. The fact is that even the staunchiest of English supporters didn't expect them to win so emphatically. Before the series there were many talks about the possibility of English team putting up a decent fight this time. It was considered blasphemy to even talk of an Australian defeat. The truth, has indeed came out to be stranger than fiction.

(It's been a long wait: Jubilant English team. Vaughan is holding the Ashes urn.)

Dubbed as the clash of the titans, this Ashes indeed came out to be the best in the recent times. It has not only attracted people once again towards Test cricket, but has also replaced Football as the most watched sport in UK. After the humiliating defeat in the first test, where McGrath ruthlessly ripped the English batting line up apart, it seemed as if it's gonna be the same story all over for England. But the lady luck finally smiled for England and McGrath injured himself just before the second test. It looked as if the Brits were waiting for just this, a small chink in the Aussie armour. They made the most out of the horrible decision of Ponting to field first and amassed 407 on the very first day. The Aussie bowling's resistence didn't look more than that of a lamb being taken to slaughter house; in the end it was butchered. Australia was given the target of 282 in the last inning, with ample time. But at the end of 4th day, it was reduced to a meek total of 175/8 and defeat was staring Ponting right in the eyes. But hat's off to the defiant display from Warne, Lee and Kasprowicz. They took the aggression back to English bowling and almost made them lose. But this fairy-tale ended, quite ironically, with a harsh decision from the umpire. Australia lost the test, but not their pride. Still, if they would've won this test match from the situation they were put into, it would've turned the series in their favor.

The third test was the same story. Pommies played first and piled up 444 in the first inning. They got Australia to 214/7 at the stumps on day two but major part of day three was washed away by rain and the Australian inning came to an end only on day four, not before gathering 302. England put up 280 in 61.5 overs and asked Australia to chase 423 in about 110 overs. The kangaroos made a cautious start and finished the day on 24/0 but the next morning they were shrank to 201/7 with more than 50 overs to be bowled. In the end, it took some imperviable batting from the lower order and a top class century from the skipper to save the test. The fourth test saw Australia following on after 18 years. Their batting order did better in second inning and forced England to bat again, to chase 129. The task looked easier on paper, but the Aussies were in no mood to let it go. If only they could manage some 20-30 runs more, it would've been so much more difficult for English. But as Siddhu would say - "If ifs and buts were pots and pans, there would be no tinkers". Australia showed the spirit to fight back in the last test, but stiff resistence from England and bad weather did not let them get away with the match and the match ended as a lame draw. I feel, Vaughan should have had a crack at the Australian batting when 30-35 overs were left in the day's play. The lead was enough to avert any danger of losing and it would have made it all the more interesting. Anyway, England was more interested in keeping it safe and claiming the Ashes back, and quite rightly so.

Test	Countries	Date	Ground	Result
1st Test	AUS v ENG	14/11/1986	Brisbane Cricket Gr	England Won by 7 Wickets
2nd Test	AUS v ENG	28/11/1986	W.A.C.A. Ground	Match Drawn
3rd Test	AUS v ENG	12/12/1986	Adelaide Oval	Match Drawn
4th Test	AUS v ENG	26/12/1986	Melbourne Cricket Gr	England Won by an Innings and 14 Runs
5th Test	AUS v ENG	10/01/1987	Sydney Cricket Grnd	Australia Won by 55 Runs

(The last time England won the Ashes)

England played amazingly well to reclaim the Ashes, but Australia did have it rough from the luck. First of all, McGrath was not fit for the last four tests of the series and it made them pay. The decision, which turned the second test in England's favor, was unfair to Australia as the replays later proved. Not to mention the horrible form which eclipsed their top tier players for most of the series. But if Australia lost it, England has won it by playing top notch cricket consistently through out the series. "Freddie" Flintoff will get a special mention everytime this series will be discussed. Coming back to international scene after an injury, he played out of his skin and made Australia kneel before his accurate bowling and devastating batting. Perhaps, it was his superb form which made the difference in the end. He has been an important part of the current England team, which has been performing increasingly well in last two seasons.

It would be too early to discard Australia though. Sadly, that's exactly what many have done. This loss is getting names like "The start of the end for Australia". It's true that the start of this season has been very uncharacteristic for the champs; they lost to Bangladesh and lost Ashes after 18 years. But the loss in Ashes was not an act of submission to English superiority. The scorecards don't do justice with Australian performances, they went down fighting, their nails firmly dug into the wall. No one should have any doubt in their minds about the capabilities of this team, the only thing they were found wanting is momentum. It was disheartening to see many "fans" of the great game, wanting them to lose by hook or by crook. Some cheered to the news of injury to McGrath & rain in the last test. All in the name of rooting out their dominance! I just want to say, Australia got there after years of hard work and consistent delivering - it will be pointless to see them lose lamely. In the end, it happened in the way it should've happened - England had to play better to take Ashes back. Now they have to keep proving themselves time and again to retain this new found stature. I have a hunch that Australia will bounce back strongly from this and it won't be easy for Brits to replace them from number one position.

The Videocon Cup: Final

Middle of the week, we talk about cricket!

Right before the start of this tournament a small controversy was born out of the comment of Greg Chappel. He said, "Ratings don't lie". Some of the players, reportedly, felt insulted as the Indian cricket team is rated above only the minnows in ODIs. Now, as the dust settles at the Harare Sports Club, in the hindsight the comment looks dead right. India, with all the heroes on paper, once again buckled under the pressure of a final. The professional approach of the New Zealanders took the match away from India as if it was as easy as snatching candy from a kid. Indians did nothing if not helped them achieve the target; they dropped catches, misfielded, and made a mess with the bowling options.

With the kind of pitch, known for supporting batsmen, it was natural for winning captain to bat first. So did Ganguly, but what beats me is the choice of super sub. The team decided to keep Harbhajan Singh as super sub when they could've kept him in the batting 11 and kept Nehra out. Nehra, who after aeons in international cricket, still refuses to understand the basics of holding a bat straight, made a big fool of himself in the end. Harbhajan Singh, though is not highly skilled with the wood, can swing the willow for a few. This might not have mattered much in the end, but it shows how poorly the think tank of the team did.

Ganguly, who is nowadays just a caricature of his glorious past, played some reckless shots, only after surviving many scares on Bond's bowling. But we must applaud the positive approach in his game, he doesn't hold back from pulling or hooking even in these times of horrible form, what if those shots take his wicket most of the times. Perhaps, it can help Dada to step down the batting order. He is, atleast used to be (lately we haven't had him stay that long), very good against the slower bowlers and it can do his confidence a lot of good to spend some time at the crease. I can't understand why he must stay as captain though. For me, it's uber important to get a place in the team first. With his horrendous run with the bat, I doubt if he'll be picked even for the Bengal Ranji Team. Moreover, replacing Dravid abruptly from the captain's post, seems to have done a lot of harm to his confidence. "The Wall" has shown all kinds of cracks oflate. He is getting out in most unusual manners for a player with his kind of technique and skills. The problem is clearly with his mindset. It's not very tough to get demoralized in such a course of events. The bottomline: Dravid's out of form and India payed for it.

As long as Sehwag was at the crease, the runs were flowing thick and fast. But after he departed, the slower bowlers dried up the runs. In the middle overs, when the singles are most important to keep it ticking, runs were hard to find. This pressure led to the dismissal of Yuvraj & Venugopal. It was the loss of momentum in this crucial period that left India about 20-30 runs short. Again, the incapability of Kaif to hit the big ones in the dying moments pinched India. Unfortunately, the big hitters couldn't do much. Special kudos to NZ since they fielded exceptionally well and held fast to some cruicial catches. Even after all the failures, 276 was a big total.

New Zealanders were off to a boombastic start. It's tough to contain the batsmen once they gain this kind of torrential momentum. But I think the Indian captain missed a trick or two by not introducing the slower bowlers early. A lesson was there to be learnt from the Indian inning, where Yuvraj and Kaif faltered against some quality slow bowling in 30's. The gound fielding and catching standards were abysmal! Even when NZ needed something in the order of 70, the Indian fielding was in the defensive mode. No one can save a match by stopping runs when the opponents need just run a ball! The initiative was to be taken and an aggressive field must have been introduced. Nothing but some quick wickets could have saved the match. Eventually, the better team took the bow as winners.

If we compare the players one on one, I'm sure Indian team will come on top of New Zealanders. But the matches are not won by individuals, they are to be won by a team. New Zealand has perhaps the most balanced side in present ODI scene. They might not have the Dravids and Yuvrajs but they make up for this by combined effort. India on the other hand, fails to provide any sense of dependability & consistency to the fans. Even when they win, it takes extraordinary efforts from an individual, never does the team play well as a unit. If this slacky attitude is going to stay, no power in heaven or in hell can raise India from the 7th position in ODI ratings. And they better accept this damned thing soon!

Future of One Day Cricket.

Recently, the ICC Cricket Committee made a series of recommendations to spice up ODIs. The CC, which was chaired by Sunil Gavaskar, made the following points (ICC report can be found here):

• The fielding restrictions should apply for the first 10 overs of every innings with two additional blocks of 5 overs to be applied through the course of an innings at the discretion of the fielding captain.
• 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.
• A technology trial should be undertaken at the Johnnie Walker Super Series to allow on-field umpires to consult with the TV umpire on any aspect of any decision. The final decision after these discussions would remain with the on-field umpire.

Apparently, the focus is on encouraging tactical approach to the game & on increasing the quality. Not to underrate the other two recommendations, I feel the second suggestion will have maximum impact on the game. Harsha Bhogale also has something to say about it.

The first recommendation can increase the worries of the fielding captain. Most logical step would be to use these 10 overs of field restriction during the middle stage of the inning (20-35 overs). If the batting team is struggling to recuperate after some early wickets, this can be useful for the bowling team to cut off singles and tighten the screws further. This strategy can backfire if the batting side introduces some aggressive pinch hitter during those overs of field restrictions. I don't think any captain will even dream of keeping these overs towards the end of the inning. It'll further encourage the massacre of bowling in last 10 overs. This rule will definitely help batting side more than the bowling side.

The second rule is the most interesting one. With twelve caps to be distributed every match, a captain can afford the luxury of keeping another specialist batsman or a good bowler in the wings and employ them according to the situation. Today, ODIs have the allrounders taking the centerstage. This rule will increase the importance of specialists definitely. I don't see it making allrounders less important though. Another thing, it will bring excellent bowling-batting battles back to the game. With the liberty to play with specialists & using this rule wisely, the think-tank of the team can do wonders! Take Indian team for example, it's main strength lies in it's deep batting line up. It plays with 6 batsmen+1 wicket keeper+ 4 bowlers mainly. Most of the times, while batting first, we don't need all the 6 specialist batsmen. In such case, we can replace an unused specialist batsman with a specialist bowler for the bowling inning. So eventually, teams will start to play with 6-7 batsman in the batting innings & 5-6 bowlers in the bowling innings. This will reduce the necessity for mediocre batsman-bowlers like Yuvraj, Ganguly, Mongia etc. This rule is also biased a bit towards the batting side.

Third group is mainly to reduce the number of controversies over field umpire's decisions. Oflate we've had a little too many of such controversies. It's a step in the right direction, but my only concern is that it'll further increase the inning's length. With other changes encouraging run scoring, the length is already going to be stretched.

All in all, the future is exciting! Given ICC implements these changes, the batting side could score easily in order of 350-400. Interestingly, even these scores won't be safe anymore. It might affect the bowlers adversely, but then one day cricket is all about batsmen giving the stick to bowlers :).

Its bye-bye Ganguly.

Ganguly and another one of his atrocious shots!

Its high drama before the 5th ODI; is he in? is he out? is he captain?. ICC made is quite simple for Ganguly to gracefully take a break, but no sir! Our captain will go down fighting. I hope he is made to miss the next few matches, otherwise with current form he won't be able to come back to complete his 5000 test runs & 10000 ODI runs.

I just can't believe it when people argue that he should stay in the team because he has done so well in the past. They stretch it further to label everyone thankless who is in favor of Ganguly exclusion from the team. Sure he has done excellent for the team (in the past), but so have Kapil Dev, Gavaskar, Srikant. Going by the stupid logic all of them should be still playing for India! The bottomline is that with his current form he doesn't qualify to be in the team and ofcourse you have to be in the team to be the captain. As for the thankless tag, its a competitive sport and entire nation's pride and hopes are at stake. Its extremely important that we select the best team from whatever resources we have. Sadly, Ganguly doesn't make into the top 14, atleast in my opinion.

I do feel that Ganguly has some years' cricket left in him but to continue he must regain his form. Indian team cannot afford a free-rider, especially when there middle order is struggling to perform consistently. And what weight could his opinion carry with absolutely no performance to back it! In a time of such low confidence, his captaincy is surely to take a toll.

Best for Ganguly will be to not represent India for a while. He can try to get his form back in domestic cricket or English county cricket. When he comes back, he should be taken back as a top-order batsman and not as a captain. Let Dravid stay as captain for a while, make Ganguly his vice. It'll surely reduce the stress on Ganguly.

As of now, its bye-bye Ganguly. Get well soon!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Today we shifted to our new home. It (the moving process) was quite messy, a definite pain in neck! My mood has lightened considerably in the evening (now) since it has rained. Not enthu to write, so will let the pictures take over.

May be I'm being a little too mean to the pool soul. May be he can take few leaves out of Younis Khan's book. After the first test he was called names like "Useless Khan" & "P*nis Khan". But what a splendid come back to silence his critics! Ganguly's morale will be down in the dumps after such poor performance and specially after getting booed by compatriots, but confidence is the key for Dada. He has done excellently in ODI's and I hope he will come back strongly in tomorrow's game.

The opening game of the much anticipated ODI series between two bitterest arch-rivals, sounds yummy!

Currently Reading: The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason