Usually they come attached with a warning that they might be unsuitable for heart patients and the like. Indian Cricket however comes unattached with any such strings but who’s really complaining? The pieces are slowly beggining to fall into place - ofcourse you never know when they might be rocked again - but unlike the last close loss versus the Windies, this time around India have bounced back strongly.

Often while solving a jigsaw puzzle, all it takes to finish it off is getting that one critical piece in place and the rest takes care of itself. For anyone following Indian Cricket - it wouldnt take long to realise that the most critical piece in this team is the captain himself Rahul Dravid. Over the last year he has batted at all positions from 1 to 7 with varying degrees of success. However the one place where he has had success and more importantly the team has had success has been the no.5 position. Dravid undoubtedly is the best repairman in the Indian team and hence the best guy to go to when we need an innings to be rebuilt - hence the best guy when wickets have fallen cheaply - say a 50/3, Dravid coming in and one would have to feel reassured.

Over the last couple of years Rahul has also developed into India’s best finisher - push the ball into the gaps, run the ones and twos, hit the boundaries and generally either finish off a run chase or end the inning with a flourish. So say at a 200/3 with 13 odd overs to go, Dravid would be a safe guy to have there.

Imagine the guys batting at 1-4 - would you not feel secure if you knew that Dravid was there to watch your back? One cant help but feel that a Dravid at 5 would end up creating a peaceful scenario for all around.

The other pieces have mostly fallen into place - Dhoni has been a brilliant no.6 - he has brains along with the brawn and that makes him really good. Yuvraj coming back to form and fluency basically solves the question of who will bat at 4. Ganguly has come back to international cricket with a vengeance that only bodes well for us. And that brings me to the call to reinstate the old firm of Sachin and Saurav to the top of the order. Their century partnership at Rajkot proves that they still have the coordination and fluency to bat together

A backup of Karthick, Uthappa and Sehwag (who should be whipped and caned for his runout today) looks good.

Indian batting will in all probablities continue their round trip from excellence to selfdestruction but in excellence it looks pretty much looks as good as it gets. And by subscribing to the rollercoaster of Indian cricket, one has anyway foregone the risks of heart attacks - statutory warnings be damned.

Technorati Tags: Karthick, Uthappa, Sehwag

I’m surpised we are not having a “Challenger Trophy” before selection of the Indian team for the World Cup. For, of late, the BCCI practice before any big tour or tournament has been to have this mindless tournament, named after yet another of those politician-administrators N K P Salve. A tournament where the “India Seniors” team takes on the supposed second and third string teams, with the intention of providing the 33 best players in the country a chance to show their mettle.

In my opinion, the whole premise of this tournament is flawed. For a start, the national selectors select all three teams, and randomly distribute players among the teams. This means that each time there will be a certain set of players under the radar of the national selectors, and only they are given a chance to perform. Say, if a player is playing really well for Tripura, and Ranjib Biswal (the East Zone selector) doesn’t care to watch Tripura’s games, this player’s career is doomed.

The second problem with the tournament format is the division of players into the three teams. Usually two senior players are picked out of the senior squad to lead the A and B teams, and while announcing the teams, selectors are creating a clear seeding system amongst the teams, and communicates to the players on view that some of them are more equal than others. Also, this leads to a few hopelessly lop-sided matches (though India A regularly beats India Seniors, India B end up getting badly mauled every time).

Thirdly, the format of the tournament is also flawed - with four matches scheduled for four days, sometimes a situation arises that a team has to play three matches in three days, thus ensuring it’s players can’t perform to their potential in the final. Even otherwise, it’s too much exhaustion.

The fourth, and most important problem with the Challenger is that there are absolutely no loyalties - neither among the players nor among the spectators. A player knows that the Challenger is primarily meant to be the basis for selection, and hence plays for himself - the team be damned. This leads to a drop in quality of performances and also prevents the five wise men from testing a player’s commitment, teamwork, etc. The impact on spectators are also significant - the absence of any team loyalty means that you simply go there to watch individual players perform, and this results in massive reduction of spectator interest.

Do you remember a tournament called the Deodhar Trophy? For those who don’t, it is the inter-zonal limited overs tournament. It used to be a major event when I first started following domestic cricket (around 15 years back), with the high point being the presentation of the trophy by the Late D B Deodhar (yes, the tourney was named after him when he was alive) to the winning captain. Those days, it used to be scheduled to enable national team players to take part, and gave rise to some pretty good performances and games.

Why can’t we replace the Challenger with the Deodhar? Have it once a season, and at a time when National Players are available to represent their zones. For a start, there will be five fairly strong (and well-matched) teams. Puts fifty five odd players on display as against the thirty three odd for challenger. Gives a chance to the older players who excel in domestic cricket to show their wares (such people are usually excluded from the Challenger). With zonal selectors selecting the teams, players from the plate states won’t go un-noticed and will play a part.

Most importantly, there will be loyalties. Players will be playing for their zones for what was once a prestigious trophy. For their zones. And beside players they have grown up playing with. And are most likely to play for their teams, rather than for themselves. Will raise the quality of the game by a few notches.

From the spectator point of view also it is better. Now it is easier for you to choose a team to support. The teams are more balanced. And it is more competitive. With day-night matches and colored clothing etc. it should serve up a treat! And bring in the much-needed crowds into domestic cricket.

There will also be those little little battles. For example, we might get to see Laxman and Dravid testing their mettle against Zaheer, Agarkar and Munaf. Or Sehwag and Gambhir and Chopra take on the firepower of Bose and Mohanty. Should definitely bring in some revenue for Neo Sports

Of course there do exist a couple of roadblocks. Firstly, with five zones, we need to come up with a tournament format which won’t last for more than ten days, and not exhaust the players before the tour. Next, we need to find a slot for this in the annual calendar and make sure that all the National Team players take part. Thirdly, what happens to Shri N K P Salve, the great politician-administrator? Getting rid of the challenger means one less tournament which can be named after a politician. A solution for this would be to name the stadium in Nagpur after him (it is a test venue and still unnamed, and unimaginatively called “Vidharbha cricket association ground”).

Is anyone in the BCCI listening?

Technorati Tags: N K P Salve, Ranjib Biswal, Deodhar Trophy

A very very special player, one who has at most times dominated the best team in the World, one who engineered arguably the biggest turn around in the history of the sport and in one fell swoop stopped a seemingly unstoppable juggernaut, one who despite all this and much more has never been sure of his place in the team, but has delivered consistently will never play a World Cup.

A travesty, something that does happen often in football, whose World Cup hasn’t seen the likes of a di Stefano or a Best or a Giggs display their wares. But it is rare that something similar is happening in cricket. The only other guy who comes even close is Justin Langer, but it can be explained by the fact that the Aussies have always had a comparative abundance of talent during his time.

Look at the players who have represented India at World Cups, lesser talents like Sadagopan Ramesh, Dinesh Mongia, Aashish Kapoor, Parthiv Patel, Chandrakant Pandit, Salil Ankola have been part of World Cup squads but never him. Ofcourse this year was not his best chance, it was the 2003 edition. He was cruelly dropped after a dismal New Zealand tour, where everyone except Sehwag failed and he ended up with better averages than Kaif, Dada and Mongia. But in his place played Mongia, who apart from a six off Murali, just free-rode throughout the tournament.

Post the World Cup saw him in his best form, saving a test match against the Kiwis at home before unfolding in totally majestic glory down under. The Aussies had no answer for him. They won a test only when he failed. The ODIs saw even more majesty, three centuries in a week.Now that the Indian team has been announced, all I hope for is a good performances from our boys. At the same time, an encore of his 2003-04 performances in the tours to England and Australia that are lined up would be even sweeter. VVS Laxman its upto you now to prove the selectors wrong.

Technorati Tags: Sadagopan Ramesh, Dinesh Mongia, Aashish Kapoor, Parthiv Patel, Chandrakant Pandit, Salil Ankola, Sehwag, Mongia

Well, here are the 15 men who are going to be boarding that plane to lovely West Indies for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

1 Rahul Dravid (capt), 2 Sourav Ganguly, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Virender Sehwag, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 8 Dinesh Karthik, 9 Irfan Pathan, 10 Ajit Agarkar, 11 Harbhajan Singh, 12 Anil Kumble, 13 Zaheer Khan, 14 Sreesanth, 15 Munaf Patel.

I don’t think the selectors had too much of a choice really. There might have been a case for an additional middle-order batsman (Laxman, Raina or Kaif) in place of either Uthappa or Karthik but the fact is that each of those three had something going against them.

Laxman is a big liability on the field, Raina has not grabbed the opportunities given to him and Kaif has not not really given too many reasons for the management to continue sticking with him. I still feel that Laxman should have been on that plane to the World Cup (what happens when Ganguly or Dravid or Tendulkar gets injured? and Yuvraj hasn’t fully recovered anyway) but he will end his career without having played in a single world cup.

Powar has to be very unlucky to miss out, I don’t see the need for 5 pace bowlers considering the pitches you have in West Indies but again Powar didn’t have a spectacular case for his selection. He was always going to be back up for Kumble and Harbhajan anyway.

The big questions remain:

1) Who is going to open the innings with Saurav Ganguly? Tendulkar or Uthuppa or even Sehwag?

2) Will Pathan recover form and confidence to warrant a place in the starting XI?

It’s going to be interesting to see if the Indian management gives away any indications regarding the final XI over the next two one day internationals in Margao and Visakhapatnam.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Cricket World Cup., Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar,

The upcoming Sri Lankan series is another example of bad planning by the BCCI. A series so close to the world cup with matches on featherbeds, under lights is a reflection of the mercenary attitude of the board. All they care for is finding a slot and throwing in whatever matches they can.

This series could prove to be extremely costly if any of our major players gets injured. And all this, for the sake of some more money in the BCCI coffers. Even if they felt the series was essential, what is the point of holding some matches under lights - no match during the world cup will be played under lights and on batting paradises- the Windies wickets are generally more slow and low with a bit of spin these days.

The argument that it gives us a chance to test out players like Sehwag and Munaf Patel under match conditions is unacceptable. The lack of form and injuries was unexpected while the schedule was drawn up a long time back. It will prove to be a blessing for Sehwag though. He has had a break from cricket though not long enough out of the team in my opinion.  But it has given him time to reflect on his game and hopefully some of the reflecting will translate into reults on the field. But on the whole, I think it is a badly timed series and the hope is some players will find form and no one will get injured.

Watch out for a sportsnob World cup squad…. hopefully!

“It’s Indian cricket that is a religion in India.”
-Sanjay Manjrekar

So very true. While almost the whole of the country has been rejoicing in the aftermath of Dada’s comeback, a group of 44 people took the field today in an attempt to reach the finals of the Ranji Trophy. The Ranji semis started today but the people who matter, the selectors and the team management, just seem to have ignored it. Instead the focus is the pat on the back that Chappell got.

Nothing else proves the ad-hoc-ness of the BCCI in general and the selectors in particular than the selection of Robin Uthappa for the ODI series. He did have a great Ranji season and was rewarded with a place in the squad for the Windies. But instead of warming the bench in Cuttack, it would have been better for him to have had some practice against the likes of the formidable Randeb Bose in the Ranji semi. No, but the powers that be just turn a blind eye to the Ranji.

Instead of wasting time on belters of pitches very different from the ones at the World Cup, it would have been better practice for the likes of Dada and Dravid to be playing on the green top at the Eden Gardens, and it might have also ensured some crowds at the matches. And at the same time it would have given chances for some lesser knowns to stake a claim for the WC team. Dada, Sachin, Dravid, Kumble and Zaheer Khan are certainties in the WC team, so make them play the Ranji while let a second string Indian team take the field against the Windies.

How else will a Sehwag get his form back? Just practice in the nets is not enough as has been shown in the past. Match practice is needed and with Delhi out of the Ranji, there is no other proper way to get his form back than play in the ODIs.

The Ranji semis started today with Karnataka playing Bengal at the Eden Gardens and Baroda meeting Mumbai in Baroda. Without Uthappa at the top of the order and Ranadeb Bose on the other end and a green top (must be as Karnataka are also playing 4 medium pacers), the team I am supporting, Karnataka have collapsed big time, losing 7 wickets by lunch. So now I will be supporting Baroda to win the Ranji Trophy. Baroda have started better in their match, with the good news for Indian fans being that Irfan Pathan got Wasim Jaffer.

Thanks to cricinfo for covering these matches live. One of these matches should be coming on Neo Sports also, the highlights come sometime around 10 pm.

Kesavan Mukunthan

“…The next six weeks will decide the fate of many cricketers who will be playing against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, and Sachin Tendulkar is no exception to that…”

This line in an article here passed off rather silently without raising too many eyebrows and with good reason. After the batting performance in the third test in South Africa, I started writing a post on why Sachin should take a break from the game and come back with renewed energy.

But the selectors had different ideas. Vengsarkar and co have made him vice-captain and if the team fails in the upcoming series, Dravid could very well be on his way out. But is making Sachin captain the right move in that case?

The Indian team flattered to deceive yet again. It is disappointing that we refuse to learn from past mistakes. Memories of Durban ten years ago came flooding back in as the Indian batsmen failed to put up a fight at Kingsmead. This series best encapsulates Indian cricket this year: incredible performances followed immediately by stunning ineptitude.

Vs Pakistan in Pakistan

This test series was a bowler’s nightmare. The pitches were featherbeds and the batsmen on both sides amassed runs like it was nobody’s business. Mohammed Yousuf, Younis Khan, Rahul Dravid, Sehwag all made big centuries in tests 1 and 2. In the deciding test of the series, Shoaib Akhtar provided the match-winning breakthrough. Needing to play out the final day at Karachi, India was looking towards Rahul Dravid to bat for a significant portion of the day. Akhtar, in a spell of consistent bowling (!), removed Dravid and with him, our hopes of saving the game.

The pitches

The pitches designed for the series were absolutely unsuitable for test cricket. The ball doesn’t have to jag around and seriously maim batsmen for it to be a disgrace for test cricket. If the wicket fails to produce an even contest between bat and ball, we might as well be playing on mats. With test cricket’s popularity dropping precipitously, series such as India vs. Pakistan provide an opportunity to revive the mass appeal for test cricket. The organizers have failed miserably in their duty towards the game.

High point

The 148 by Dhoni in partnership with Pathan in the second test was a revelation. We needed over 100 runs to avoid follow-on and the century that followed was a Dhoni special. He showed that he was capable of delivering on the big stage when it really mattered. He needs some more work on his keeping but India has found a wicket keeper for the future.

One-day Series

This is where Indians realized their ability to chase down big totals successfully, surprising fans around the world. Followers of Indian cricket know that Indians choke under pressure. We can make heavy weather of chasing even moderate totals and we can’t bat out a day to save a test even if our lives depended on it.
This series was different. The batsmen seemed to come out believing that no total was beyond reach . Has Greg Chappell bought about this change? I don’t know but my own guess is, it is more a reflection of the confidence of our times. Beating Pakistan 4-1 in their own backyard was a perfect beginning to the ODI calendar.

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Tony Grieg once famously remarked during 1996 when India was touring England, that 1973 was the best year for Indian cricket. It was not just because it was the year that a certain Sachin Tendulkar was born, but because the year also saw the birth of the two batsmen that Grieg claimed at that time had the capability to overshadow the genius of Tendulkar; Sourav Ganguly, ‘The Prince of Calcutta’ and Rahul ‘The Wall’ Dravid. Both made their debuts at the Mecca of cricket – Lords, and both announced their arrival in typical fashion. Saurav Ganguly, at number 3, smashing 20 boundaries, a good chunk of them in the point region that he made his own, and scoring a 131 that is still etched in many a cricket fan’s memory. Rahul Dravid, coming as far down the order as number 7, scoring a patient workman like 95, with hardly half a dozen hits to the fence, but showing enough resilience and skill to prove to the selectors that he was the answer to all of India’s batting crises. Of course, as the years passed by, a lot of things changed. Rahul Dravid soon became the greatest Indian batsman to have batted at number 3, and Ganguly slowly slipped down the batting order as far down as number 7, and eventually out of the team. With Ganguly back in the scheme of things, this might be an opportune moment to reflect on the paths that the test careers of these two batting stalwarts have taken over the past decade.

The Prince

After a blazing start to his test career, though there weren’t too many memorable knocks (with the exception of probably the Brisbane ton which set the tone for India’s awesome display for the rest of the tour), Ganguly’s ability to galvanise his side into a fighting unit, his ability to effortlessly pierce a 7-2 offside field when he was in the mood for it, his aggression that was a rarity among Indian cricketers, and to some extent the destruction he havocked at the top of the Indian ODI top order meant that Ganguly’s position in India’s all-star batting order was relatively safe and cemented.

But then, post 2004, the downward slide took a turn for the worse, patchy batting form aside, his injuries, some real, and some apparently-not-so-real meant that he missed quite a few matches, where Dravid riding the crest of his life, would lead quite impressively (impressively enough to even let critics praise in hindsight the decision to declare an innings when Tendulkar was on 194*). The powers-that-be soon realised that Ganguly’s captaincy skills were not enough anymore to override his batting failures, and after the much talked about Ganguly-Chappell fiasco, the board decided that it was time to take away the crown from the Prince.

The Wall

Unlike Ganguly who took the scene by storm, Dravid almost nudged into the team without being noticed. Over the next few years, with his dependable batting, he laid stake and won his rightful number three position. He was building his career as he did his innings. He recognized fully well, the importance of staying there and that the runs and power would both come to him when they were due. Over this period, he proved himself to be the complete team man: batting at number five if required, keeping wickets in the shorter version.

Dravid’s batting is the work of a mechanic. Imagine Dravid batting and the picture is one of immense concentration, sweat dripping off the forehead, the perfectly poised head, the back-lift just right. When the stroke is played, the head is steady, the footwork decisive and the follow through complete. Every ball is a test and every shot is an answer, evaluated in terms of runs and correctness (defined by a copybook). He was making runs where everyone else was failing and significantly, when everyone else was failing. The chips are down? Dravid is the man. He had become the most prized wicket for any opposition. Dravid was also the poster boy of the Indian middle class: an educated youngster who had worked hard, understood his limitations and risen to the top through sheer hard work and strength of performance in the domestic league. Dravid’s was another face of the new India, reflecting a quiet confidence of the times.

Over the period of the Ganguly captaincy, Dravid had risen up to the top rungs of power and was the trusted ally of the Prince. When the opportunity presented itself, Dravid took over the reins with a defining victory in Pakistan. As a respected senior, an astute thinker of the game and the most prolific batsman, Dravid seemed the right man for the job. In fact, Team India was as much Dravid’s as it was Ganguly’s. He had the support of all members and with Greg Chappell backing him, was turning things around for the team. The team had become the most successful chasers in history, youngsters like Raina, Dhoni and Pathan were playing well, Dravid was batting well, the birds were singing and spring was on.

The future

The honeymoon is now over: poor forms of Sehwag and Pathan, dismal Champions trophy performance, inept display in South Africa means that Dravid is under some pressure. And to strengthen the middle order, Ganguly has been resurrected. It will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming series. Ganguly has shown that he is a hard man to keep down. With the fighting innings in South Africa he has indicated that he is likely to breathe fresh life -or atleast try to- into his rather ordinary test career. Dravid is too much of a team man and nice guy to field anything but the best eleven of the fittest for the test. This probably means that Ganguly will play the first test against the Proteans. But with all this history behind them, how will their relationship develop from this point on? As a lover of Indian cricket, I hope to see another successful Ganguly-Dravid partnership. Ganguly batting in the form that earned him praises in Brisbane and Dravid doing what he does best, bat intelligently and score prolifically, and a resurrected Indian team coming away with a drawn Protean series would be a good start.

Will we see a beautiful friendship or are there more surprises in this story? I don’t expect another era of Ganguly captaincy but we will wait and watch this space for further developments.

- Prof and Thejaswi Udupa

Technorati Tags: Ganguly, Dravid, Sehwag, Cricket, Tendulkar

So yet another Duleep Trophy final seems to be headed to a dreary draw, with North Zone showing no signs of “showing mercy” on the Lankans and allowing them to bat again. For they know that they don’t need to win the game to win the trophy – the first innings lead will do.With domestic competitions largely consisting of four-day matches, the powers-that-were decided that in case of drawn ties in knock-out matches of domestic tournaments the first innings lead would prove to be the tie-breaker. And this “rule” seems to be a good reason for the rot that has set in to Indian domestic cricket and a large number of batsmen with obscene domestic averages failing miserably at the international level.

What the first innings rule has effectively achieved is to convert two-innings matches to one-innings matches! Result being that teams don’t try to win the game anymore – just gaining the first innings lead will do. The bowlers don’t need to take twenty wickets to win a game – they only need ten. And on the featherbed wickets, batsmen can afford to play on as long as they wish (score triple centuries and boosting averages) and there is no compulsion to work towards a result!

Another fallout of this rule is that there is no incentive for groundsmen to prepare balanced wickets and they can easily get away with a wicket full of runs – once again leaving a huge gap between domestic and international standards. There have been numerous calls to prepare sporting pitches for the domestic matches at least, but why would the groundsmen take the pains to prepare one?

Actually, a fair bit of progress has been made in this direction, with the new format of the Ranji trophy keeping knockout matches to a minimum. What this also means is that we could experiment with a new format of knockout which encourages teams to produce results, rather than deciding games on first innings leads.

In the FA Cup football tournament in England, in case of a draw, the match is replayed and in case of a further deadlock, extra time and penalty shootouts decide the matter. Given the small number of knockout matches (3 Ranji Elite, 3 Ranji Plate and 1 Duleep), we could experiment with the same home-and-away format, with a bowlout to decide the deadlock! For example, suppose the Ranji Semifinal between Baroda and UP at Vadodara ends in a draw, with Baroda failing to capitalize on a 200-run first innings lead. Instead of awarding the tie to Baroda, the match will be replayed in say Kanpur. In case of a deadlock there also, a bowlout will decide. For the finals maybe we could have a single leg in a neutral venue followed by a bowlout if necessary.

For a start this new format will give due respect to the true format of the five-day game – that you must dismiss the opposition twice to get a result. It will lead to teams trying for a win, and thus “normalize” the averages of a large number of “tigers at home”. Sporting wickets will be prepared, thus enabling us to look at a batsman’s “true colors” before calling him for international duty. Also, result-oriented matches means enhancement of spectators’ interests, and I am sure our domestic matches could use some crowds. And a chance to play more matches might mean more money for the board!

Another important thing to be kept in mind is that there should be absolutely no incentive for just a first innings lead. A draw is a draw is a draw. Right now a team gets 2 points in the Ranji league for a first innings lead, with the team that conceded the lead getting none. Both should be awarded a point apiece.

I am sure such a move will be really good for the game, and will help produce better cricket at all levels. It is left to be seen if the board will move in this direction, or continue to sleep and get rich as it has been doing over the years.

- Karthik S a.k.a. Wimpy

(a senior of mine and a good quizzer. Read his blog at http://skthewimp.livejournal.com/ )