Slow - Part 2

By the time this month ends, Rahul Dravid will have played 9 tests against Pakistan in 22 months. You need to go really really far to figure out how long it has taken him to play his last 9 games for Karnataka. And that is easier than doing the same thing for Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai. You can go further. So there you are, cut and dry, the reason our Ranji Trophy is dull, uncompetitive and, this year, somnolent, is because the stars don't play. Wrong. The reason the Ranji Trophy has been dead this year is that the teams are boring the daylights out of each other. When we were younger, we used to have a competition called slow cycling where you had to go from point A to point B as slowly as possible without putting your foot down or falling off the bike. That was a million times more interesting than the slow cricket we have had this year.

Just look at the scores: Gujarat have made 200 from 93 overs in response to which Mumbai galloped to 207 from 97. Maharashtra made 237 from 111.4 overs and in reply Railways were 98 for 5 in 54. Punjab made 316 in 136.4 overs and Andhra battled along to 185-2 from 76. Both Punjab and Gujarat batting first made less than 200 on day 1. Batsmen must be getting paid by the minute these days with points taken off for runs made! Witness this one for example, probably the saddest way to play a cricket match. Bengal play Gujarat and make 462 in 198 overs, thats over an hour into the third day of a four day match. Presumably they were hoping to knock them over twice in the remaining time, assuming they wanted a result, and, continuing in denial mode, Gujarat made 371 in 160 overs. Nobody got any points and it was the equivalent of shooing off a spectator who might have wandered close by. In fact Bengal must have thought they had done pretty well in terms of run-rate,having significantly improved it from their previous match against Karnataka when they managed 335 from 151 overs. Railways and Delhi went the other extreme, finishing off their game in two days with Railways batting first bowled out for 77; and when Delhi batted Murali Kartik took 8-40. It must have been some pitch there had it been visible.

It is only when you play positively on good pitches that you get good cricketers. There are two elements to developing quality teams: good pitches and positive cricket. By the look of it, it is a combination that is eluding us and the BCCI don't seem to have noticed it either for I havent heard anyone say that six rounds into this year's Ranji Trophy we have had some pathetic cricket. And as a continuation to my last post, Lakshmipathy Balaji hasn't been playing , and we have seen virtually nothing of VRV Singh either. Ashish Nehra has vanished and seriously Munaf Patel remains the only contender for a new ball bowler's slot. It begs a debate. It is not only good pitches that we need but good physios and trainers for Ranji Trophy teams as well.


PS: This post is produced by Harsha Bhogle

Why India Can't Be The Best Team.

This blog is drifting from its orignal motive, but I just had to pin point a particular trouble some reason for India's often below par performance or lack of consistency at the top. This has nothing to do with the present series. Indian cricket has been one of the most astonishing brands in the world. It has had huge demand, huge investment but has at best shown average quality. I pondered why is this so. While, there are a variety of reasons, I wondered if there was a lack of a resouce somewhere.

Was just going through the records of the great bowlers in the past and present. A point that came across resoundingly is that for bowlers having taken above of 200 wickets, India have never had a bowler who has had an average of under 25 and/or a strike rate of under 60 balls.
And how often have we heard the phrases that bowlers win matches and that to win a test match you have got to take wickets. In comparison, Pakistan -who in my opinion over the years have been a lesser batting side than India - have had more away test wins, simply because they had in their arsenal the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan. And some competent spinners and pacers complemented them. By the way, Waqar had a superb strike rate, among the best ever. He had a staggering strike rate of a wicket every 43.1 balls. Even Shoiab has a superb 45.2. Just look at the confidence and choices a captain has with these two in the team.

Another point that came across was that among mordern day spinners, only Muralitharan and Warne have strike rates comparable to quickies. And for all the talk, the Indian spinners, Anil Kumble and H Singh lag both Warne and Murali by healthy margins in both the departments of strike rate and averages. This, when they play most of their matches on turning wickets. The message is clear to the BCCI, we need the infrastructure - both hard and soft- in place to develop world class bowlers, until that time we will have to be content with at best being a challenger to the tag of the best cricketing nation in the world.

The Chappel Effect

There was one point about the Veeru -Dravid partnership in Lahore, which has not got its due in after match analysis , cricket discussions, write -ups etc. Isn't it striking that Dravid & Veeru were on the cricket field for five continous days? This fact signals the rising fitness levels in the Indian cricket team and that is good for our team. I remmember having read a Chappel interview, where he said that the most important thing on his list was increasing the fitness levels of the team. Chappel & his gang have put effort and it shows. Mr, Kapil would do well to realize that Chappel was not appointed the coach just because he knows how to operate a laptop. Sometimes it helps to have a man from the other side of the fence, to broader our perspectives and our horizons of improvement. I wonder, if any Indian coach or a wannabe is as up to date with the latest fitness techniques or would have laid the same stress on fitness. A laptop is not a fancy instrument, and lets not use this as an arguement to darken the audience. A player and a voice of that authority as Kapil should realise that if the world is moving on a Ferrari, it does no good to us that we still ride on a Maruti 800, just because its produced in India.

Tendulkar - reinforced my fears.

Tell you the truth, no matter how great a batsman I consider Tendulkar to be, have always found him suspect against a quality fast bowler. And God I hate when Tendu gets out to Akhtar. Apart from one dominating display against Akhtar in South Africa, (there too Akhtar got him in the end with a stunner) Akhtar me feels has reasons to feel happy against Tendulkar. Its sad Tendu is not working hard to develop this short and intermittent rivalry into a great evenly contested boxing match. Tendu falls to Akhtar once again.

If my views smack of unwanted fears and over reactions, read this. Its a post that I had written in December, and somehow my archiving is not working, so I am copying the post here.

India had just lost a batsman, perhaps Rahul Dravid. I felt India were batting well. They had seen off Akram and Co. quite well. Plus the Indian team was fresh from having defeated the Pakistanis, days earlier at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, where Kumble had taken 10 wickets in an innings. So, in came Tendulkar , cameras focussing on him, to a huge roar from the fans.
By the way if you haven't ever witnessed the reception Tendulkar gets in Eden Gardens, be sure to witness it personally once before you die. I can tell you its worth billion and billions of dollars..as the ad says, there are some things money cant buy..really it just can't.

Coming back to the scene, my TV was mute, I thought Tendulkar's gonna blast this fellow away. Really was not interested, I mean this was to be expected from Tendulkar. But moments later what I saw, still psyches me out. It instilled a fear so deep down in my conscious that I still pray like mad when Akhtar bowls to India. I was just not prepared for it...didnt have the capacity to imagine it...or maybe Tendulkar never gave me reasons to, before that delivery. That was a snorter of a delivery. It was like a laser guided bullet. The ball, a yorker, travelled at approximately 150 kmph, mid air it swinged slightly from off stump line to middle stump and hit the feet of the middle stump, which cart-wheeled and landed miles away from its orignal position. Tendulkar, bowled first ball and that too his middle stump, which is uprooted.

I cant tell the shock waves it sent around the stadium and I personally felt it in my body. I was stunned, the crowd was stunned. It was pin drop silence in Eden Gardens. I mean who was Shoiab Akhtar then, and he was bowling to arguably the gratest batsman ever. A shiver ran through my body and that one delivery for me destroyed the air of invulnerability about Tendulkar. That one delivery, I think went a long way in making the Pakistan team the favourites for the world cup which was to be held later that year. Ofcourse it hit our moral so badly, that Pakistan remained undefeated in the rest of the series

The Zing Thing

Just couldnt watch India take on Pakistan. Too weak hearted for that, instead watched Sri Lanka take on Australia. And wow the lions were playing like one. And this is a side which has been thrashed resoundingly by India and New Zealand recently. Talent was always there, why they slumped I dont know. With Murali and Vaas, I think they have a better attack than India. And Murali was right when he said batsmen are not performing and they have to get their act together. And it was a joy to watch the old Jayasuriya. Reminded me of the glory days. The child in him was back as he portrayed the same joy in his shots as a child would as he hops from one dinky car to another . I love this kind of Kiss approach. The keep it simple stupid, types. And when the shishyas Veeru & Afridi were reaping windfalls based on this strategy, how can the master stay behind.

SLOW!

Robbie Williams said that cricket is basically baseball on vallium. Cricket has been subject to much mockery and mostly due to the five day feature of the sport. Even the one day nature of the sport is a long one considerring that a football game gets wrapped up in under 2 hrs. And it is true that in today's world when Almighty Bush takes just a wink to decide to bomb a country, five days is too long a time. Its equally unviable to sit in a stadium for five days and watch a game. And because we sit so far off from the pitch we dont get to relish some finer aspects. Thats where the TV comes in. To me there is none more enjoyable sport to watch on TV then cricket and the best cricket is played in the five day feature. While TV gives you the flexibility to leave the game at any moment of time, it also has the ability to focuss on larger landscape of things and then there is always that joy attached to hearing Benaud say' simply put simply superb' or Lawry say 'got him...yess gone' or Grieg rhetorically saying ' right off the meat of the bat' or a Sidhuism like ' wickets are like wives you never know which way they will turn' or or a Shastri ' Hez seeing the ball like a football' or better still a Boycott 'Even my mum could do that'.

Watching a test match is often like watching a tele serial. The match will have its own sets of battles, smiles, humorous incidents etc. Time is a major factor here. No other sport will give two people the kind of opportunity to go against each other as does cricket. And the best arguement is done with the bat and the ball. Theres one that I remmember. Between Allan Donald and Mike Atherton. Atherton whipped the first ball for a four on the leg side, then the next delivery he drove for a four through the covers. The third delivery from Donald didnot move away and held its line. Artherton was upto it. Donald stopped and gave a glare and Artherton smiled back as to say, that was silly of Donald. Fourth ball swings in towards Artherton in the air and knips back after bouncing, Artherton just gets the bat down in time. Donald immediately turned away for his run up. Fifth ball, he pitched it higher up, it again swings in and knips back sharply after bouncing and takes the leg stump along with it. Donald just stood there smiling. As Cronje, Rhodes etc ran into him, he just stood still smiling all the time while Artherton kind off froze in his stance at the crease, preferring not to look back. It was a moment to treasure. No words exchanged, no blows exchanged,no heating arguements, none in the stadia would have realised this sweet little battle. But questions were asked to each other and they were asked and answered in a language which was crystal clear to the batsman and the bowler. And the arguement was settled in a most refined manner. Beautiful. And all this was enabled for us to enjoy because it was a five day game and players had the 'time'. And ofcourse TV was there to capture it.

Cricket is but a chocolate that melts slowly in your mouth. Its not a drink you gulp and guzzle in a wild party, get a hit and then get lost in its intoxication but a wine that you sip slowly along a romantic conversation over a candle lit dinner, with music in the background ( read commentry)whose after effect are equally intoxicating and last longer.

Predictions

I am not a pessimist.

In my own rationality, the results of the Indo-Pak series should be

Test Series: 2-0 to Pak, last test being drawn

ODI's : Difficult, but I'll again put it 3-2 to Pak

Some Other Predicts

It will be the beginning of the end of SR Tendulkar.

Will be more than happy, infact extremely happy if I have to eat back each one of my words, but I dont see it happening :)

Don't Cuss At Me, Man!

Steve Waugh's autobiography aptly titled 'Out of my comfort zone' is a most rivetting account of cricket matches played by him and ofcourse. Due to continuous re-reads of chapters ,stopping.. soaking the emotions and giving my brain a breather from what is an absolutely captivating book, I am still 150 odd pages away from the last page of this tome. And am happy that there is still some ammunition left to keep me at the edge of my seat for some more nights. To give you a peek, as to what I had experienced go through the below account. My comments are in brackets. Over to Mr Waugh:

A volcano of emotions was brewing: frustation at my inability to get on top of the situation, anger at the booing that had greeted my arrival at the crease, irritation after a restless night's sleep and now Ambrose's bloody stare. A steepling bouncer that flew harmlessly over the top of my head was almost a relief, because it didn't pose a danger, so when I saw Ambrose staring intently from close quarters I snapped back at him ' what the fuck are you looking at?' This was a clear case of mouth beating the brain to the punch. It even took me by surprise. It was pure instinct as my survival mechanism took over. I wasn't just going to stand there and cop physical intimidation while Curtly was making a mockery of me with the ball and his gestures. It was fightback time and my last resort to get some impetus in my innings.Ambrose was clearly stunned, most likely because no one had ever been stupid enough to employ such an aggresive measure against him. Furthermore respect is very important at the Carribean, and when you swear directly at someone you donot show respect. Amby countered my bar talk bluff by saying 'dont cuss at me man'. Commonsense should have told me to leave it at that. But I needed to have the last go, to get all anger out and start afresh. Unfortunately nothing inventive or witty came to my mind, rather another piece of personal abuse: 'why dont you go and get fucked!'

Curtly's eyes were spinning and the situation rapidly escalated to the total point of ugliness. Thankfully Richie Richardson intervened and grabbed his great fast bowler by the wrist with both hands and attempted to yank him away tug of war style. Of course Amby didnt want to back down and I was also at the point of no return. We needed to show the Windies that it was our turn to dictate the terms and weren't afraid to get into their faces and get our hands dirty. Ego plays a healthy role in these type of situations; neither of us was willing to loose face by backing away. I was totally unsure what to do if he lunged at me, because I am certain he would have made light work of me even though I had the bat in my hands. I kept saying to myself, dont move dont move. Look tough, stay focused. He'll have to go away.Eventually he did.

However as he ran in to deliver the next ball, I braced myself for an Exocet missile at the throat. That would be his way of winning the battle. He put in the big ones, striding out to full pace before letting go an absolute scorcher of a bouncer that reared alarmingly off a shortish length and crushed my top hand against the handle of the bat, directly in front of my grill. ((It was actually a snorter...an absolute ripper of a delivery)) Such was the venom in the execution that I was foot off the ground at the time of impact. Again Amby was there, menacingly staring me down, but this time my lips were sealed. I'd already smashed the wasp nest open; there was no need to go back and trample on it.

For many players , getting involved in a confrontation is a death sentence for their performance as it consumes their thoughts. The guilt and embarrasment often lead to a loss of clarity, as most players cant compartmentalise and move on. I knew I could forget about it after using the altercation as motivation to do well. I never minded being the villain because it set me against the rest- a scenario that turned me on. Obviously being the bad guy had the same effect on Amby, because he finished this innings with figures of 5/65 from 16 overs, while I scrapped , scampered and stroked my way to one of my finest test knocks: 63 not out in a team total of 128 . ((It was also the only score above 50 for both teams for the entire match and considered by many as to be among the top Test knocks ever played)).

Me back again. Moment I finish the book I will be writing a tribute to the book and the man. I am sure the post would be a who's who of adjectives. Also after the read I need to change my dream team. I'll have to make some serious changes and it would be challenging. While I can't drop any of the players mentioned but I also have to make sapace for Mr S R Waugh. How I hope things were easy.

Some Things Just Don't Mix

My blood boiled when I saw Mr Dungarpur air his comments on TV that Ganguly was the lazziest and a sloppy fielder and not a good student of the game. The same person who is the manager of the Indian cricket team, had some time ago gone beyond the call of his duty and not in an appreciable way to stick his neck out and say that Ganguly would be a part of the playing eleven in the test series against Pakistan. Mr Dungarpur perhaps in the glory of being in front of the cameras forgets that he is the manager of the Indian cricket team. In these exaggerated times when praise is bestowed so easily and adjectives tend to not fully imply in the minds of readers what they should, care should be taken that the sanctity is maintained with regards to certain words. These words are not prostitutes and should not be used like one, that they be attached to anybody by anybody. Infact these words should like an alchemist, when attached to even the most dishonourable man, should so cast a spell that he forgets the vices and takes to the task with a determination and purpose of a saintly warrior, and they have. So, Mr. Dungarpur should realise he is not the manager of 'a' cricket team, he is the manager of the 'Indian' cricket team. Alas, some men are so selfish that they donot even care a peck about the fabric of the word 'Indian'. Mr Dungarpur to you that may be just a collecton of six alphabets, to me and countless others it defines what we are in the first place. And we are not jokers, we are not loosers and we dont want any one of us to loose. For God's sake there have been men in the past who have given their life to maintain the sanctity of the word that is just a prefix to you. Had you been a careful Indian you would have done well to realise that as you gleefully crossed our national frontiers there were men of impeccable character proudly standing gaurd and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice so that people like me and morons like you can go about their duties without a fuss.

That Ganguly should have been selected or not, is he any good or not, we dont know and at this stage dont want to bother about it either. But what we do know is that the Indian team is away from the country playing against an opposition we dont want to loose against. So its a humble request to keep your mouth shut and concentrate on managing your tongue and actions before laying your hands on anything else. Like I said it may not be apparent to you, but we Indians hate to loose. And to give you a final advice, for the betterment of yourself that you so obviously are in dire need of, try being an Indian.


PS: Dear blog excuse me for the venom, its but a temporary act, but you have to bear with such unwanted interludes for as you know the world is not perfect.