What Nonsense!

English football and Indian cricket have much in common. An irrational public following since it wont be wrong if I say that both teams have at best been average performers. Given the public excitement and curosity,the media laps up any story and turns it into a sensational one. It seems the media considers as its religious duty to map in its news every single minute detail pertaining to the team. Right from the players underwears to the bones hidden in some deep dark corner of their body. Ofcourse all this is capped by obeisance to the individual superstar

And so England would have us, and worse still their fans, believe that the World Cup cannot be won without Wayne Rooney.Much in the same way as we kidded ourselves into thinking that no game could be won without Sachin Tendulkar. You start thinking that the hyped player is indispensable, worse still the player himself could imagine that to be the case, and start putting him above the team. The moment that happens alarm bells should start ringing and yet, they rarely do.

Well I thought football and cricket were team sports. If a particular player is indispensable to the team, then the team isn't good enough. It goes against the very definition of a team, which in sport is a collection of performers playing together. Such teams rarely win. Argentina and Napoli under Maradona maybe, but even there I am sure he inspired the others to over-perform. It wasn't Maradona himself winning matches it was Maradona inspiring everyone else to win matches. Like Imran Khan with Pakistan.

Uptil the world cup of 1999, Tendulkar was India's talisman cricketer; the country, probably the team, believed he had to win matches. When he missed a game against Zimbabwe at the 1999 World Cup, one could sense the void. The team had capable players but India lost. I am not sure the others were empowered. So too with Brazil at the 1998 World Cup final. With Ronaldo reduced to a zombie, the team came apart because they did not believe they could win. And that is why Mark Taylor told Shane Warne before the 1998 tour of India that if his team believed it was up to Warne to win the series, they would lose it anyway. And they did.

Good teams play down the individual; indeed when a key player goes down, the others gain strength. It is amazing how many times the loss of a major player makes the team perform even better because it empowers others, the additional responsibility acts as a bonding force and players play out of their skins. That is what playing sport is all about, of the human spirit rising to the challenge and discovering powers that were hitherto buried. That is why teams with ten players on the field are sometimes more dangerous than those with a full eleven. Skill counts in sport but spirit counts for much much more. Look at my fav 'team' Real Madrid, and you will know why they are trophy less for last two seasons.

Rooney's absence can either destroy England or actually make them stronger. Currently, the likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and John Terry are being told that their collective skills, and what absolutely marvellous skills those are, count for little in the face of the Rooney injury. If instead the message delivered was: too bad, we are likely to lose Rooney but we have others who can rise to the occasion, England might have bonded like never before. They still might, Gerrard and Lampard might still play for England the roles they play for Liverpool and Chelsea, Terry and Ferdinand might defend like their lives are on stake, Beckham might provide those silken crosses from the right. But if they continue to lament, Sweden and Paraguay and who knows, Trinidad and Tobago, might well start celebrating.

There is no end to this fatal obsession with the individuals in India too. What with polls asking whether Dhoni is the new Tendulkar. He cannot be and must never be for it is in being Dhoni that his achievements will truly lie. So if Dhoni breaks a thumb a week before the World Cup of 2007, can India not win it? Like England cannot without Rooney? What nonsense!

We Didnt Start The Fire

The world is changing a little too fast for some of us. In this relentless search for progress, pillars -- or what we thought were pillars -- are crumbling. Ganguly discovered the shifting sands first, now VVS Laxman.

So is it the end of the road for him? The first time a player is left out, the pit-stop option seems the most likely. But as you look a little closer, look at the path ahead, it is difficult not to come to the realization that Laxman needs a dramatic re-entry to remain a force. India seem to look increasingly towards a five-bowler regime, certainly in home conditions, and with a renewed, and necessary, emphasis on specialist openers, it means there are only two middle order slots available. Tendulkar currently occupies one and that means there is a bit of a dog-fight for the one that remains. There is one other, more global, trend that we are seeing, cricketers playing only one form of the game are struggling to hold their place and I have no doubt that Laxman has lost out on that count.

Like bowling, batting is about rhythm.Yuvraj Singh has benefited from the rhythm in one-day cricket. Elsewhere, some spirited one-day performances from Michael Clarke have helped him get a spot. New Zealand are picking their new one-day batsmen into test cricket, Ashwell Prince and Justin Kemp have made a similar move and that means Justin Langer is now the only top player in the world getting by without playing one-day cricket.

Now away from the one-day game, Laxman was probably watching some fine young players get injections of confidence and time in the middle. It can make players insecure and lead them to believe that every opportunity is their last. In reality it is probably that way anyway but confidence doesn't allow thoughts like those to clutter the mind. I suspect though that the five bowlers route is a horses for courses policy. India are backing their batsmen to come good in these conditions but will probably go back to six batsmen when they travel. That will be the moment of reckoning for Laxman; that will decide whether he has another two or three years at this level.

Meanwhile Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla get to wear India caps too. Patel, takes the place of a young man from Rae Bareli who two test matches ago was thought to be a little gem. That is how quickly things are moving but player's careers need to be handled a little more sensitively than stocks and yet with both, volatility isn't the best course. Chawla is the flavour of the month and may he long be that way. His ability to bat at a decent number can actually help the five bowler theory.

Dreams...

India finished the Pak tour with a bang. A big bang. 4-1, thats the stuff dreams are made of. Ok dreams are made of 5-0. And I predicted lot of hedious stuff for my team. Thankfully, I was wrong most of the times.It feels good. So,wrapping up a few positives for India, wont be a bad idea.

First : Rahul Dravid or the art of captaincy. When teams are on a roll everything seems good. Similarly can be analysed Dravid's captaincy. And its too early and too short a frame of reference to say Dravid is a brilliant captain. But I never expected Indian captains to take the lead and put themselves on the sword first. A precedent has been set. And I hope when this is not followed, questions should be asked.Seriously, the test series were no thrill till the final test. But watching Dravid accompanying Sehwag to open the batting will be a sight I'll never forget. Maybe I am taking too much out of this act but I sincerely hope its much much more.

Second: The ghost of Ganguly is at rest for the moment. By logic it should have been dead long ago. But what the performance of Yuvi and other youngster does is starve the politicians, the limelight seekers of food for tossing this issue again for the moment. I hope the performances in Pak will be augmented by still finer ones and thus the Ganguly is put to rest for all times.

Third: Smartness. I longed for a smart Indian team, and this is it. Physically agile and mentally sharp. These two features came off brilliantly in the series. And that to me was the biggest difference between the Indian and Pak one day sides. There was a small moment in the series which exemplified this very well. Suresh Raina was stationed by Dravid between silly mid off or short mid off, rather unorthodoxly for Kamran Akmal. And Akmal surely did played into their hands. And after taking the catch Raina straight away rushed to Dravid pointing a finger and Dravid was running towards him. It was clear they had plotted the wicket with the bowler rather than waiting for it. This is the stuff I used to see implemented by the South Africans and Australians.

We are on the right path. But we have just knocked the door and made the first few steps. The trophy is in the next room cupboard.One team is already there in the next room. And another doesnt believe in taking steps, it jumps.

Strategy

India win again and Pakistan loose again.
I am very happy that way. But one thing is for sure, Bob Woolmer and Inzamam are helping us in a big way. As I looked at the scorecard on rediff.com, some things just beat me.

• What is a batsman in a form and of skill like Younis Khan doing in No 7?
• Why did Inzamam ( in my book a better batsman at the moment than Tendulkar) doing at No.6? He should come as early as possible.
• What is Afridi doing opening the batting?
• They have got one of the best late order hitters in the form of Afridi, Razzaq and Malik and why arent they channelising their talents?

Pakistan have an edge over India in the form of their bowling and they are themselves thwarting it. My Paki batting line up goes like this:

1. Salman Butt
2. Kamran Akmal
3. Younis Khan
4. Inzamam ul Haq
5. Mohammad Yousuf
6. Shoaib Malik
7. Shahid Afridi
8. Abdur Razzaq
9. Rana Naveed
10. M Asif
11. Gul

Now with a batting line arranged like this, which goes as deep as No.8, and a bowling line up with a distinct edge over India, they are in a better position to defeat India. Tinkering is good when there is shortage of talent or too much of concentration of it in one particular department. But when you have an extremely talented and well balanced side all you need is allignment of that talent, Mr Woolmer.

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