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So it is in the news now. Laxman will not go to South Africa. And here is what the chairman of the selectors had to say -

VVS Laxman is a class player but he has a fitness problem,” said Vengsarkar when asked about his case, “and we thought his fitness wasn’t good enough for one-day cricket. Raina has the potential but he needs to perform now. I think we need to groom him.

Let me say it again. WTF!! I think we shall hear from Laxman within the next 24 hours and I have a faint idea that it might not be what Vengsarkar would want to hear!

It seems it has been years since I posted on cricket, a subject that was the reason this blog was born in its previous Blogger avatar. But it was not a conscious decision to stay away from cricket and so when I this article on Cricinfo yesterday, I had so say something.

Dinesh Mongia and Ashish Nehra are two players who brought out contrasting reactions from me as I watched the drama unfold in South Africa during the last World Cup. While in Nehra’s case it was all “hip hip hurrah”, I dreaded the sight of Mongia walking in. Through the course of India’s campaign, he never looked like he deserved his place ahead of Laxman.

This was never more apparent than in the match against England at Durban, where his 38 took all of 62 balls. In a game where India scored just 250, I thought his strike rate did no good. But that was before Nehra took over and broke England’s back with a World Cup best performance for India. (more…)

I believe it was very unsporting of the Indian cricket team to successfully appeal for obstructing the field against Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and that too at a very crucial stage of the first one-day international at Peshawar. To me, it appears that the Indian team was desperate to win the game by hook or by crook, no matter even it came at the expense of the norms of this sport known as the gentleman’s game.

Those are sane words - heard normally from one of the game’s mostly misinformed greats. Which is why it is surprising when one reads the byline accompanying these words. Even though I believe that the circumstances leading to this quote could have been avoided (from both sides), let me take you back in time to the year 1999 to demonstrate why this particular comment riles me up.

Exactly 7 years and one week ago in Chennai, on January 31, 1999, India lost the first Test of their two Test series against Pakistan. This particular Test match shall forever be known to every Indian cricket fan as a story whose positive end was so near and yet turned out to be so far. For some people in Chennai, that Test match shall be the one that sealed the reputation of the crowds at Chepauk for being the most sporting of live audiences ever. But to me, the Test, particularly the last day, will be a milestone dripping in infamy - the day when Sachin’s back began asserting itself and when Mongia’s wild hoick against Akram with so few remaining to be scored changed derailed India’s fight-back. While these incidents are all that most people will remember about the Test, personally I will never forget one particular ball.

Now, most people talk only about Mongia and the subsequent failure of Sachin and the tail to score those precious 17 runs. But if you ask me, I think the deed was done much earlier. For, I am of the firm opinion that the vital balls/wickets that change the complexion of a game are always the ones that come at the start of a innings. So if you lost a game by one run, don’t blame the late order batsmen, but blame the top half of the order for not scoring that vital run.
Similarly don’t blame the misfield at the fag end of the innings, but the reprieve earlier. Don’t blame that run out that claimed the 9th wicket, but blame the umpiring error that caused the premature demise of number 3.

So, it all happened on the 4th (and what turned out to be the final) day. I did not see the match live. But I remember lying flat on my belly in my hostel room and listening to the radio commentary on AIR. Twenty three overs into the final day, India were with their backs against the wall. Earlier that morning, Dravid had lost his off bail to Akram and Azhar had fallen cheaply too, lbw shouldering arms to Saqlain, while Ramesh and Laxman, the openers had already been cleaned up by Waqar the previous evening.

With Tendulkar looking rock solid at the other end, in walks Ganguly as India are down to the 5th wicket (and last remaining) pair of specialist batsmen, still requiring 191 runs to save the game. But Sachin is soon frustrated, with only 9 runs coming in the next 10 successive overs bowled in tandem by the Saqlain - Afridi pair. And then comes the shocker, the memory of which exposes Moin Khan as a man possessed by double standards like the worst of us. I will let Cricinfo’s Travis (Basevi?) describe what transpired in his own words (as part of the ball by ball commentary).

41.1 Saqlain Mushtaq to Tendulkar, no run, a step forward, aggressive shot, played to midwicket fielder

41.2 Saqlain Mushtaq to Tendulkar, one run, bounces and spins a lot, turned to backward short leg, quick run

41.3 Saqlain Mushtaq to Ganguly, no run, short ball, cracked very hard at silly point fielder. both silly point and short cover turned their backs. the ball bounced off silly point’s back but short cover was not ready either turning his back too

41.4 Saqlain Mushtaq to Ganguly, no run, pushed to offside

oh no….

41.5 Saqlain Mushtaq to Ganguly, OUT:

India 82/5, Partnership of 9
SC Ganguly c **** b Saqlain Mushtaq 2 (25b 0×4 0×6)

Saqlain Mushtaq 14.5-5-19-2

Ganguly cracked this ball to ohard at silly point. the ball off his body fell down and diving **** caught it off the ground very clearly and Dunne gives him out! this is clearly not out according to TV replays

Now, I saw the replays during the evening news and what I saw clearly corroborates Travis’s version of what happened. Ganguly’s defensive stroke off the front foot hit silly-point and one could see the ball bouncing on the ground before being pouched by ****.

Guess who “****” is? It is the same man who has been quoted in the first para of this post. Lets see what more he has to say.

A captain needs to stand tall and handle situations, specially when they come in critical stages of the game and I think, Dravid has not only let himself down but also his team. I am dead sure that if Sourav Ganguly would have been the captain, the matter would have been defused tactfully and sportingly.

Ummm.. Moin, if I remember right, you were also the vice captain, that day in Chennai! So now, 7 years thence, you are qualified to comment on Dravid’s integrity as a sportsman?

I understand that according to the laws of the game, Inzamam was out and if he does not know the laws, then it is not the fault of the law but Inzamam himself. But my point is that there are several cricketing laws that we don’?t follow because they are not considered within the spirit of the game.

You need to watch yourself, Moin. For, upon reading what you have to say, if they did not know even as much of cricket as I do, someone might start to wonder if you are a Nobel Laureate.

Batsmen don’t run for singles or twos when the ball is deflected off their bodies or bats from throws, batsmen pick the ball and throw it to the close-in fielder or the bowler when it falls close to them. So much so, when Greg Chappell told his brother Trevor to bowl the last ball under-arm, it was also within the laws of the game.

So, now it is Chappell’s integrity you are questioning? Hmm, wonder what qualifies you. Let us see. What were you doing in Calcutta, barely 20 days later, when Shoaib (while glancing over his shoulder to see Sachin sprinting toward him at the non striker’s end) took a step backward calmly plonking himself firmly on Sachin’s path, forcing Sachin to run wide (a few extra steps) to avoid him and getting him run-out in the bargain. Did you say something about your own team’s insistence to win, hook or by crook. Even if we just assume it was a honest mistake from Shoaib, why did you, the magnanimous clean character you are, not rescind your appeals (in both Sachin’s and Saurav’s case). I saw that on TV, Moin.

I fear history might not forgive Dravid for his poor captaincy and unsporting attitude. After all, we have still not forgotten the acts of the Chappells, have we?

Yes, Moin, history might not forgive Dravid, if his captaincy was judged to be poor at the end of his career. His tenure is just a few tests old, but every other “expert” has praised his captaincy these past few months. But hey, I forgot. You are the “all-knowing guru”, aren’t you?

Anyways we have certainly not forgotten about the Chappells, but neither have we forgotten you. And lest YOU forget, a lot of Indians (in fact, let me add the Englishmen to this list too) have forgotten neither your un-sporting attitude nor your chaffing demeanor on the cricket field. Were you not the captain who resorted to moving your fielders after every single ball, and that too making these from mid pitch, seemingly in deep discussion with your bowlers, under fading light at Karachi in 2001 against England when they were fighting to win the test on the fifth day. I saw that too, Moin.

And in case you want to know, this was the verdict from one of your own countrymen (writing for the Dawn) after that Karachi Test match

…Moin Khan’s captaincy and wicketkeeping (was) far from satisfactory.

Without taking any credit from England in this Test, Pakistan’s batting proved disgusting, their bowling pathetic, fielding horrendous and Moin Khan’s captaincy and wicketkeeping far from satisfactory. Saqlain Mushtaq picked up three wickets but conceded 64 runs from 17 overs.

Moin Khan showed that he needed a lot of experience before he can command his men in the field when he made senseless bowling changes. …

Moin, let me stop now. I think I have made my point. I hope you read this and I also hope to get a chance to remind you of your on field shenanigans every time you conjure up something similar.

(P.S: What the hell was the New Indian Express thinking when they were giving Moin a chance to comment? When will the Indian MSM learn? If this is how they are going to function, looks like I will be making more such posts here!)

Screenshot courtesy: ESPN

Wow! And to think that I always thought that the Ashes was cricket’s best known rivalry
(P.S: Guess the significance of the post was not very clear. My bad. I posted it not because of the headline, but because of the location of the headline. This was on ESPN’s US homepage and finding cricket mentioned there was a pleasant surprise. In the time I have been here, only once before have I seen this first hand. That was a couple of years ago, when Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays of the Day featured Chaminda Vass plucking a catch out of nowhere on the ropes, a shot that would have gone for six otherwise. However, I have to mention here that with the amount of TV access that I have had in the past few years, it is possible that I have missed some other references, though I never fail to watch Sportscenter when possible.)

Jaime Alter’s piece on India’s sorry trend of making the most unlikely of batsmen open, kinda set me off. A couple of weeks ago, when the Indian team to Pakistan was to be announced, I wondered whether the possible exclusion of Gambhir from the squad was going to be another notch in the “drop them like a hot brick” attitude that seems to have plagued the Indian selectors. And using Cricinfo’s Statsguru as a reference, I came up with this analysis.

I considered the career averages of the seven regular openers (including Sehwag) and the number of tests they played before being dropped for good (Wasim Jaffer has not technically made a comeback). The inference I hoped to make was that any struggling batsman was bound to succeed given a long run, something that openers in India haven’t been having for a long time now. I certainly could make that reference, as you can see, with Sehwag having the best record. And then Multan ‘04 came to mind and then I realised that Sehwag’s 55 plus average is also the result of a few huge scores, something that he has not had in sometime now (well I certainly hope that this 96 at Lahore is built up to something more substantial, since India needs it). Which is when I decided to take Sehwag out of the equation and look at the career progression of the rest of the six regular openers that India has had in the recent past. And what I came up with, was this.

So we see that every single opener had been the middle of a lean run when they were dropped like hot coal, as the drop in their averages shows. So is their dropping justified? Well, I still don’t think so. And that is because I believe in the inference that I made when I started this analysis.

And if my inference was true, then what else would justify this trend? I suspect that that dreaded word - technique, might be used. Ramesh for one was said to possess a less than perfect technique. And recently Gambhir has been talked about in similar breath. But then Sehwag is the best proof to debunk the technique theories. So is it hand to eye co-ordination that’s the clinching factor? That Sehwag has and IMHO Ramesh had more than a fair bit of that as well. So, is it that other quality that has been thrown about, i.e., attitude? Chopra seems to be a level headed guy (his writing demonstrates that) , so that may not be the only reason.

So, I am unable to pinpoint a reason for this trend. But wait, let us see. I can probably see one more reason. We have a long history of accommodating people just because we have to. Most of our cricketers do not have proper exit strategies chalked out. So we end up accommodating them on the team way past their expiry date, sometimes to enable them reach personal milestones and in others, just because we think we should let them take that decision when they feel like. And in some other cases, the reasons are more political.

Speaking of politics, I think Ganguly missed an important play in what seems to be his endgame, a play that could have earned him a few brownie points from everyone concerned. I feel that Ganguly could have backed himself on this pitch and put his name forward for the opening slot. Or maybe he did and Dravid did the unthinkable, i.e., refuse Ganguly’s request. But regardless of what happened. I hope we DON’T lean about what transpired, at least not until the kingpins of the Indian top order call it a day. For, regardless of our posturing, intrigue and deceit are never an Indian’s strong point. The truth (or something like that) always leaks out.

(Cross-posted on Different Strokes, Cricinfo’s group blog that I contribute to. Please do visit me there too and read posts by more people and I think this post pales in comparison to any other post on Different Strokes.)

This is an old story, a story that started almost five years ago and will make some people see red, for it seems to paint a picture of colonialism perhaps. But I see more to it, a sorry story soaked in media callousness and irresponsibility. Half way through reading what I am about to say, I anticipate that you will ask me the standard “Why now?” question. Well, I guess I have more unsuspecting victims who can silently suffer my ranting, more than the one or two that used to read earlier. Also I believe strongly in what I have to say.

Anyways, fresh out of engineering college, I was then waiting everyday with sweaty palms, waiting for the Mahatma in maroon to bring in warm tidings about the various applications that I had put in. With nothing to do and having won at both the Knock-out and the Tournament modes in Need For Speed II (Special Edition), I found myself reading more about cricket than I had in the past. And that was when Australia landed in India for what is now considered a turning point in Indian cricket.

Soon, I started reading more and more about the Australian team’s preparation. So much that I started expecting to see babes in bikinis and surfer dudes off the surf at Beasant Nagar. At one point of time, the sidebar in the cricket section of a major Indian website sported links to columns by at least three (then current) Aussie cricketers not to mention regular interviews and columns from former Aussie cricketers who, as expected turned on the heat against the Indians. Of course, that was to be expected, given that the Australians were then in the midst of a record run of victories (before flying out of Kolkata with their tails between their legs). In contrast, the Indian repartees (if you want to call them that) came from the likes of the current manager of the team who sought to raise the Aussie captain on a high pedestal that others had not put him on. But then Laxman (and Dravid) happened. Soon after that, Harbhajan decided to join in the fun. And the world turned on its head, in spite of the negativity thrown at the Indian team by its own media outlets (by the opposition in proxy).

Well, that was in 2001. So this is where you get to ask the one question that I have allowed you to ask. The answer is perhaps Indian media�s worst kept secret. Since the Indian media talks very little sports other than cricket, it is definitely fair to pin the blame on the whole media than just the cricket specific outlets only. You see, I don�t think any media outlet in India cares about the game. Otherwise why would they go and talk to a Pakistani about India�s chances. And why would they highlight a Aussie cricketer�s visit to a slum while simultaneously claim (quite illogically, I should add) that Indian cricketers don�t do something similar (or raise money for the Tsunami victims!)? So finally I come to the point of this rant.

From the time Australia landed in 2001, till this day, a couple of hours before Dravid and Inzy go out to toss at the Qaddafi Stadium, Indian media seems to get the most explosive of statements from every Sarfaraz, Javed and Khan. That�s not to say that the Singhs, the Lele�s and the More�s have been spared from an opportunity to insert a footwear less appendage into their mouths, though in his defense, I should say that Mr. Lele became a star performer in this category much earlier.

So, why am I riled what a lot of people (outside the media) term minor? Because I think it is not minor. If it was minor, then you would see the likes of Sidhu write columns in papers such as the Dawn and we would hear Kapil Dev speak about how strange it is that Shoaib Akhtar has had only one series when he has bowled more than 100 overs (a stat that I read somewhere). I think the Indian media is being disloyal and irresponsible by repeating comments by washed out ex-cricketers who are not Indian. And they seem to do more disservice by pushing the mics in front of our own men and forcing them to react to words that they rather ignore.

If I were to play Devil�s Advocate, I�d argue that one of the key qualities that international cricketers should possess would be the ability to get into a zone and push distractions like the media out of their mind once they step onto the turf. But my defense would go along these lines - Is it too much to ask of the media to get behind their own team and support them? Why should the media take perverse interest out of making a cricketer�s job any more difficult than it is? Why would a Mid Day or a Hindustan Times go to a Sarfaraz Nawaz for quotes every time India lands in Pakistan? Do we expect cricketers and officials from other countries to turn against their own just like we do?

Oh, I get it. It�s the money. Bold text sells newsprint, just like breasts sell Bollywood movies these days. All through these past few years, I see this same vicious cycle unfolding � the media opens up a Pandora Box by breaking news about something and carping about it like nobody�s business. Then the Indian public jumps on the cricketer concerned. The cricketer loses whatever sanity he must have had and goes on the defensive. Then the public slowly start losing interest. The next thing you know, the media turns all preachy and starts hoping that in the best interests of Indian cricket, the events of the preceding days could be avoided in the future. But wait! Didn�t the media fuel the flames with the inflammatory commentary? All that is conveniently forgotten. So at the end of it all, the poor cricketer (who, by then has started feeling that the worst indiscretion that he ever committed was to start playing cricket in the first place) is in the dumps. The public, by now has lost interest and the media has earned its few cents.

So has Indian cricket gained anything from all this? From where I am looking, it doesn�t seem so. It just seems like every time Indian cricket is on the verge of something big, we find that the media, cricketers and the public participating in their own version of the Mexican standoff. And in few of these occasions, one of the nervous parties pulls the trigger and then we have mayhem. So who is to blame? All three, I would say. But the party who has the best chance of defusing the situation and guarding against history repeating itself would be the media. But does the media realize this? More importantly, does the media want to do something to change this status quo? Sadly its seems that this will continue forever and that, my friends is a shame. Because for all that we Indians talk about patriotism, we seem to forget that while cheering for the opposition is defined as sportsmanship, dissing the home team is not exactly in sync with the concept of patriotism in a country that wants you to respect your national colors so much that till recently, you were forbidden by law to fly your own flag without �official permission�.

Time and again, history shows that man has embarked on futile searches for elusive mythical riches. The search for an Indian all-rounder seems have fared no better. And I don�t think that this search is ever going to end, well, not until certain issues are resolved. But far easier would be a simple scope change.

If you ask me, the definition of an all-rounder is all skewed. Ask one the selectors who were in the panel last year to name his favorite all-rounder and I bet I can guess what his answer would be. Oh wait, I was not supposed to write that. But to my defense, I think this mindset is typical of any average Indian, who would define an all-rounder as a batsman who can bowl at least 5 overs a day and keep the batsmen quiet and take wickets from time to time. So, the focus in the sub-continent seems on finding players who would contribute both with the ball and the bat. And there lies the flaw.

Read more here…

This was originally cross posted on the Cricinfo Blog - Different Strokes. I took the original post off here to drive traffic to the Cricinfo Blog which is not majorly promoted at the moment. There are more posters there who are coming out with awesome posts and who deserve your comments much more than just me. So go there and read all of our posts…

It’s finally official! Starting soon, I will be posting from time to time on here too. Thanks to Amit for the invite.

If you talked cricket with me during the early days of India’s 2004 tour of Australia, just before the Test matches, you would have heard/seen me argue tooth and nail for Sadagopan Ramesh’s inclusion as India’s opener. But by the end of the tour, I had to grudgingly agree that the man who took Ramesh’s (then) rightful place at the top of the order was the calm eye to the hurricane that was Virendra Sehwag.

As an opener, I still think he did nothing wrong in Australia, though so many people seemed to criticize him. I maintain that as a classical test opener, he did what was required. If you’d look carefully at the series stats and do some minor math, you would find that, on an average per inning, he played just 6 balls lesser than his partner. And the 20 minute difference in duration in their innings can be explained by the fact that the number three batsman was Dravid who’d have probably hogged some of the strike settling in. So essentially what I am trying to say is just this - he managed to hold one end up while Sehwag went bonkers on the other end, while scoring 40 percent of what Sehwag did and staying for the most part of Sehwag’s innings. And in no point of time did you hear that Sehwag got bogged down due to his partner’s stonewalling (though I’m not sure we will ever hear that statement about Sehwag, ever!).

I usually back a player (or a team), through thick and thin, but in this case what has happened is that I have had to put Ramesh behind me and that has not happened often. And now when this guy is outside the limelight, I want to do something to highlight what he has been doing.

Akash Chopra is currently in England playing for a minor team in Stoke-on-Trent and has been blogging too, if you’d call his columns (hat tip to Prem Panicker) that! By all accounts these are not ghost written and present a rare insight into a cricketer’s mind. As the footnote to one of his early posts reads, he writes about life in England for Indian professionals (cricketers, that is), who have for years made the trips to the Old Blighty make some much needed money, something that they’d find hard to come by when not playing in India. And coming as it does from someone on the fringes of selection, the columns make for interesting reads. I have added his column to my browser favorites and though the summer is fast coming to an end, even in England, I think I will still go back and look at the archives to read about what he has been doing these past few months.

On a slightly related note (adding to my twin posts on May 15th and May 21st of this year), it turns out that Rahul Mehra and Shantanu Sharma have filed yesterday (September 7th) with the Delhi High Court, a set of suggestions for the BCCI to implement for improving cricket in India. Originally, this was scheduled to happen on the 25th of May and though it seems to have been delayed, it is certainly welcome progress in the proceedings that were set rolling more than 5 years ago on April 20, 2000! What will now ideally happen that the Delhi High Court will formally instruct the BCCI to react to this statement and inform the court what it intends to do to act on these suggestions. I am watching this situation with interest. If you are interested, you can read the complete text of Rahul Mehra’s email to Prem Panicker here.

I touched a violin again after almost 8 years on yesterday! Last time I remember, we were at CIT for Harmony-97 when I borrowed a friend’s violin (who was there to compete in the classical music events) and made a fool of myself by offering to play for the other guys. This time, I had no audience and I let my hair down, well sorta. I should have realised that I was not exactly playing well, when about a minute into the exercise, M excused herself from the hall to get some work done. But my senses were clouded by the exhilaration of playing after a long time.

First, in order to get the tuning right (N, who owned the violin had not played for a couple of years at least), I tried to play Jana Gana Mana and it was not too much trouble. I seemed to have got it right as soon as I was able fix the tuning. Thus emboldened, I tried to play the simple Vara Veena and nailed it (without too much improv) in the 5th try. Next I tried Ra Ra Venu and gave up halfway when my fingers refused to move as fast as my mind willed them too. I thought mebbe the dryness on my finger tips were the cause, but since N was not at home, I did not want to do anything, especially since I was playing without her permission (she did not mind when I told her later). So I tried to play something slower, another geetham - Mandhara Dhara Re and I found that I actually sucked. And try as much as I did, I couldn’t get my fingers to move to the tune of Tulasi Dhala! So on the whole, it was a downhill journey.

But the future is not completely dark. I could come to some conclusions pretty easily, once I put the violin down after 15 minutes.

• I haven’t exactly lost the feel of it, but I am not completely there either..

• I should probably start playing again, now that I don’t have to choose between the violin and the cricket bat.

• My fingers are longer now.

Suddenly I feel the urge to get back and play the violin again. I realise, now that cricket and music are not competing for my time, I might just be able to play without worrying that my friends are having fun without me. This was mainly the case when I learnt it while at school. Usually my classes were scheduled by my mom who wanted to use it as a tool to keep me from getting into trouble (apparently cricket was “trouble”) and soon it became a case of me being mentally absent while being physically present! I actually have had the whole story of my violin lessons as a (unfinished) draft for quite sometime now. Maybe one of these days, I will post it.

And I should probably ask my people to take my violin out of storage at home in Chennai and get it serviced or something. My mom would certainly be happy.