Tent Bridge Day 1

India's advantage seemed to be cut down a little by the amount of runs it leaked for last 2 wickets. And  the tormentor was again the naughty kid in the block -- Stu Broad who was on verge of  being dropped before Lord's test and now he is back in very firmly. 


India has made a very strong comeback in the series and it would have been even better if England were bowled out within 150. Sreesanth made a quiet and impressive comeback in the team with a 3 wicket haul. He bowled consistent outswingers and made the  ball talk despite booes he got from the crowd. 


Ishant and Praveen continued their impressive show of West Indies even in England. 


With this show India would have managed to make a lot of so called experts in both countries eat their humble pie. A lo of whom had already questioned the worthiness of # 1 ranking would have got the answer, though its still early days in the second Test. 


Dravid was again made to open in absence of 4th opener. Sorry 3rd opener. No Sehwag in the team. No Gambhir in the team. Mukund fell first ball duck to a lazy shot. Surprise. This is probably his last opportunity to be in the test team unless somebody's injury gets an extension. And he failed to impress. And make return of Sehwag  Gambhir a bit harder, though thats inevitable. 


VVS Laxman and Dravid showed the class they've had to ensure there were no more losses in the last session to cap it as India's day. A lot would depend on how this 2 guys bat and how much Tendulkar has recovered from viral infection that bogged him down in Lord's. Tent Bridge has been his favorite ground in England and he has scored a 100 and 2 90s here. Yuvraj Singh would be very keen to score big in his first test in over a year. 


Should be intriguing days of play over the weekend and that would have decided if India would manage to hold on to # 1 ranking or lose it to England.

India's first test woes

India have begun strongly in Nottingham Test as ever they always have in the away tests. This time the seam bowling attack, none of whom can bowl express pace have sent 70% of the team in the hut by session and three fourths. Without Zaheer Khan, the jelly bellies of 2007 are yet casting their magic around the Englishmen.

The English need to win a test and then ensure they dont lose any to grab # 1, India just need to win this one and prolly draw next 2 and not lose both to ensure they hold onto the # 1 test ranking. India are way better side than they were at Lord's. Plus they begun as slow as they always have on away tours. West Indies is an exception, they won the first test there.

One thing that comes to my mind seeing the build up to this significant tour is the preparedness and mindset of India towards this tour.  A whole bunch of key players were rested for the West Indies tour. No Tendulkar, no Zaheer, no Sehwag and Gambhir. No Yuvraj, Yet India almost managed to have won all 3 tests.

In the England tour, the injuries woes have returned to haunt India. No Zaheer, no Gambhir. Yuvraj and Sreesanth in.

That has been the story of Indian cricket since 2008. There have been hardly a tour where India have gone in with full strength team entire tour. Some of their players either have rested or got injured. Sehwag and Gambhir have missed many tests either together or one of them has lost out. Imagine the picture if Sehwag was around in West Indies and Lord's.  Imagine the scenario if he was around in 2007 in the same country.

Same goes for the ODI team. The world cup winners played hardly together since 2009 yet when they played together they won.  So many fringe players out of quota,  regionalism were tried, but later on it came to the core players and experienced players who got India the trophy.

Perhaps the skewed priorities of BCCI to have its players play the IPL and then CLT20 and then scheduling a tour immediately after has got to do a lot towards player burn out and perhaps thats where lies the anwers to the woes India faces in the first tests of away tours.

BTW India have now came back strongly to send 8 Englishmen back in hut even before the tea.

Lord's Test Musings Yet

The 2000th test is on at the supposedly home of the cricket which can just house 30000 odd spectators between India and England. They also play 100th test vs each other, highest for India against any Test nation. Here are my musings so far on this test:

• India have begun slowly in the first test as usual on an away tour. Thats been a consistent pattern now. Batting came apart, the bowling didnt show its usual flair as well (till day 3 barring PK's 5-for)
• Zaheer showed his importance for India. He was out to injury and the rest of folks struggled for impact.
• KP loves Lords and Indian attack.
• Sachin takes up all the hype. Dravid does his business unnoticed, without hogging the limelight yet again.
• Gambhir, Laxman need to get some runs in 2nd innings to ensure India save this test match.

Virender Sehwag is being missed dearly and heavily. 

And the IPL be damned now for causing injuries to Viru and Zak in a  very important tour.

Anti IPL rheoterics

Sport and politics are different. If Australia is not going to play any more in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Zimbabwe... If they only play in some countries, world cricket will die and IPL will take over.

Muralitharan spoke.

He fears IPL shall take over cricket if Australia dont play in SL, Pak and Zim.

He himself has been part of IPL for 4 seasons, champion team for 1 year and even he was part of defending CLT20 team. He has made millions of dollars playing for IPL in 4 seasons and he would be back for 5th season too. Then he shall forget this high moral talk of IPL taking over the cricket.

If he feels IPL is so daemonic and monster, then stop being a part of it. Who's asking him to be part of that venture if he feels his country's cricket is going to be rolled over and dead by IPL ?

Its time the Lankan cricketers take a unified stand -- vs or with IPL. And stick to it. Not long back 3 or 4 of their top class cricketers chose to stay back for IPL instead of touring to England.

Terror strikes Mumbai again

Terror has stuck Mumbai again, 2 days after the 5th anniversary of 7/11 train blasts that killed close to 200 people in 2006. This time the target was Zaveri Bajar, Opera House and Kabootar khana. The first 2 are diamond hubs of Mumbai where predominantly Gujju merchants deal. And Kabootar khana is a predominantly busy area in Dadar (W) near station which is a meeting place for central and western lines of Mumbai's lifeline -- local trains. 

21 people met their end and 141 were injured. 

But souls of many a millions Indians home and abroad were hurt.  But thats a constant phenomenon right. The dates are fast becoming too frequent to remember. The cities are becoming too many to remember which have been victims of bomb blasts in past decade or so. And today it was 13th. 4th bombing on 13th. 

Mumbai did not learn any lesson from 11/26. Neither did Indian government. But were they supposed to? When the entire government is busy making money, lathi charging innocent people in the midnight, dealing with a peaceful activist, how can they focus on the planning or inputs from intelligence that something nasty is going to happen. When the chance best in years came to kick those incompetent people out of power in 2009, Mumbai stayed away from ballots. They chose not to vote and the corrupt, incompetent people who've been eating the country within, the troops of MMS and Sonia Gandhi who are out to destroy the  very founding principle of this country returned to power. 

When there are folks like Digvijay Singh who love to call Laden as "Osamaji" or question the encounter that led to busting of people behind 9/13 blasts in Delhi, the country shall continue to fall prey to the terrorists who want that India bleed.

The establishment did not learn a single lesson from the wave of bombings in 2008, the suspects / convicts are still to be penalized, the biggest of them all Ajmal Kasab from Ijaz Butt and Shahid Afridi's country is enjoying tremendous hospitality in Mumbai even after sentenced to death by lower and high court. So it gives out a very soft message to the terrorists -- do anything in India, you shall never be brought to justice. The vote bank politics, the minorities appeasement by Congress and like minded parties, poor conviction ratio are many factors that are responsible for the continued bombings in major cities of India. 

There is no infrastructure for emergency services in India. The police didnt reach the spot till 715 PM whereas the last blast happened at 650 PM. That says the story how lax the administration and government is for its own people's security. The governments in Maharashtra, the so called developed state of country were busy in Adarsh scams, Lavasa scams, making money, harboring Kalmadis but damn they didn't spend the required attention to develop an anti-terror infrastructure. 

The tough laws to deal with terror are abolished, every terrorist is made to go through rotten judicial trial and given full chance to be freed through Kandhar 1999 like incidents.  How can such a country win the war against terror?  Anybody can sneak in anywhere in India, do a blast and gets away with it scott free. No harm done to him.  Shame on us, shame on being called Indians. We love to call ourselves "mahan country".  So much we dwell on the so called glorious past that we forget the fact that we live in most volatile neigbhourhood in the world and we gotta have a very strong mechanism to deal with terror and insurgents.  We continue to vote Gandhis in the power who have done more harm to the country than good. Or Gandhis' cronies like MMS who should be the worst and weakest prime minister of the country.

Who's gonna be the hero, the messiah who's gonna get India rid of the mongrels within its own homeland who are trying to destabilize the foundation and existence of this great country? The answer to that is something which nobody knows.

India unable to win 2-0

The old haunting came back to trouble India again in Dominica where they had best chance to win a 2-0 series, first after Pakistan 2004. I was reminded of previous instances:

*
Chennai, 2004 vs Australia where Katich and Gillespie defied India on day 4 and later on day 5 was washed out in the rain. If they had got that win, Aussies would still have been searching for a 42 year gap to win a series in India. Now its just 7 years.
 *
Sydney 2004 vs Australia, same pair. Chance begone to win a series in Australia for first time.
 *
Mohali, 2005 -- Razzaq and K Akamal who went on to bat the day out and bail out their team. Another opportunity lost to win the series 2-1. They won the 2nd test in Kolkata and lost 3rd in Bangalore.
 *
WI tour of 2006, they won 1-0 but in two other tests, they were 1 wicket away from victory.

The inability to close out the tail cost India a 2-0 win.  And thats disgusting. More than the fact that they chose not to chase 86 off 90 balls, a perfect ODI scenario, albeit its in a final day of a test match. Yet it wasnt impossible. But that later.  When India began its day, they had match under firm control with 4 wickets to take and 81 runs behind.  By lunch they were even closer to a win when they had to take just 2 wickets and score runs at almost 3 an over to win. Gettable. But then the Indians deflated out. They bowled too many wide balls, too many short balls, Chanderpaul resited. Even Edwards hung around for 37 overs. And that to me was the biggest sin. Not able to close out a win after being in winning position. They need to get this killer instinct. Not let go of winning position. India have won many tests now out of nowhere all this years, but they have not gone ahead and won everything they were always going to win. Some one or the other from the opposition camp has stood up and deflated India.

Surely Chanderpaul resisted, denied, made his 100. But that was very unattractive, selfish and as usual boosted his average and secured his place for later tours of India and BD.  He doesnt make runs, has got a very idiotic stance, he doesnt get ruffled, doesnt rotate strike, he puts the opposition to sleep. Ishant Sharma summed it up correct -- he is most irritating batsman to bowl to. But yesterday he denied India and more than that Indians got themselves denied. They lacked a bowler yesterday who could york him with a superb pace. They lacked a bowler who could deceive him in the air through slower ball. All  a sudden, the heroes in Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar deflated. The usual agile MSD looks short of ideas. Raina was introduced too late before he eeked out those frustrating  2 wickets.  Harbhajan isnt the bowler he used to be when Anil Kumble was around. When Anil played, we were very much sure he would do something to get the wickets.  He built pressure and Harbhajan benefitted. But now as a lead spinner, he doesnt have that ability to spin pressure and grab wickets. He is 400 club member, but am not sure if he would be taken in same breath as the other members of this club.

Munaf Patel is always a let downer. He bowled too wide or too short to make anyone play. I was amused to see few of his deliveries go touch 80 mph+. But he continued to be ineffective in tests. What a shame he has just played 13 tests in his 5 yeard old Test career that begun so well in 2006 vs England.

In my view India lost the grip of the match when they allowed West Indies tail to bat for 37 overs and that was the end of India's intent and will to go for the win.

When India begun the chase of 180 runs in 55 odd overs, they had almost 2 sessions and they had the batting lineup to do that even if they missed Sehwag, Gambhir and Tendulkar. Kohli, Dravid, Dhoni and Raina aint new to this kind of situations. Dravid himself has been very fluent in ODIs few years back and he plays in IPL too, so he can accelarate.  Vijay did share he was supposed to, Mukund's first ball duck was also a deciding factor why India chose to shut the shop.

Dravid and Vijay were batting well, but when Vijay and Raina fell, the shop was shut. West Indies too started bowling negative line down the leg.  But Windies were not to blame. They had full right to save the game by whatever way they can.  What was baffling to see was shutting the shop 15 overs before and only 86 runs to get with 7 wickets in hand. Thats not expected out of a top test team. Unless India doesnt show killer instinct to close out wins, they wont be justified to hold onto their # 1 wins. Something they'd want to learn from Aussies in the prime. Dravid and Laxman have played their final Test in West Indies and they would certainly have done it better to win the test rather than walk off before the start of 15 mandatory overs.

The biggest thing India missed yesterday was the golden opening pair of Sehwag and Gambhir who for sure would have raced out to a flying start thus giving the middle order a much needed impetus to close out a win.

The 2 draws doesnt count well on India's part for it was very good opportunity for them to win a series 3-0 and they could have done it had they shown some more resolve and had weather on their side.   Yesterday they lacked the resolve to win, they were more conventional and conservative. Old school may be. Wasnt expected out of MSD when he has been too sharp in the past to go for the kill whenever opportunity arose. This was against a team which is # 8 in the world and had no single bowler that was threatening or dangerous.  May be sending Kohli above Laxman would have helped.  Kohli had nothing to lose as he has already lost his place for England tour. Winning from this position would have sent a strong statement to England that they mean business and that would have given more gloss and marquee to the most crucial test series of the year for this 2 teams. But that opportunity was lost and India chose to win by 1-0 by not being mentally tough to go for the win.

There were lot of positives from this series for India:

 *   Raina almost has secured his place for Lords' test and Yuvraj might need to sit out for a longer time in the tests.
 *   Abhinav Mukund showed a lot of resolve and temparament to hang in there and in words of Dravid "weather the storm". Though he fell for first ball duck in 2nd innings yesterday, his 62 in first innigs showed he is a good prospect. He might still play his 4th test in Lord's as indications are Sehwag isnt fully fit.
 *   Ishant Sharma coming close to a finished product. 22 wickets in 3 tests overseas is a very good achievement, after all through he went in past 2 years. Augurs very well for England as Zaheer returns in the jelly land too.
 *   MSD getting some runs finally on day 4.

Despite few key players missing out on the tour, winning the T20I, ODI series 3-2 (should have won 5-0 or 4-1) and Test series (2-0 or 3-0) is a good result, if not very good.
Now a 10 day wait before we get on with the Lord's test to repeat the heroics of 2007, this time with 2-0 result hopefully.

India look good to go 2-0 up

The 3rd and final Test of this series is seeming to be going India's way should weather permit on day 4 and day 5. If weather would have been good all this far, India would have been 2-0 up in the series thus far.

Its just good for India that the man who leads them in all 3 formats of the game and their World cup winning man has got back some form, some runs before the tough England tour begins in few days time. He had been scratchy and pathetic in all the 4 innings before today's 50 and in this process he also got to 3000 Test runs in 57 Tests, not bad for a man who was considered untechnical and ugly to watch when he came 7 years back.

Laxman is continuing his good form in the series and this would only mean better in the tougher England series in few days time. 3 50s in as many innings is sureshot welcome from the man who likes to bat in crisis. He may not need to bat in the 4th innings depending upon the size of lead India gets on day 4.

Raina has almost sealed his place for the # 6 spot in England and he would be keeping Yuvraj out for while from the Test team with a super 3rd 50 of the series. But the biggest beneficiary of the first Indian innings was ABhinav Mukund who not only grinded hard but also made some runs to boost his confidence. Its almost certain he would be walking out in Lord's test with Gautam Gambhir as Viru is yet to get total fit and might not make it to the Lord's.

A lot depends on how much Dhoni and Bhajji make on the first session of the day 4 and another 50-60 runs would be very handy given the brittle batting of West Indies and weather permitting, India shouldnt find going 2-0 up so difficult.

Kumar Sangakara's original statement describing passion of his country for the game

The statement below from Kumar Sangakara in one of his articles contradicts what he said in MCC. All it proves is he didnt mean anything what he said in that lecture and most of it was played to the gallery.

India at home and India overseas are two different teams.

To be honest, though, I feel sorry for India's cricketers. They'll now face a torrent of criticism and abuse in the coming weeks. Fanatical fans will no doubt be burning effigies as I write. The huge expectation places their players under enormous pressure. And when that expectation is raised a degree or two, it can easily have a crippling effect."

In Sri Lanka, the general public seem to have a more easy-going perspective. Yes, most Sri Lankans are passionate about sport, especially cricket, but we also seem to understand that sport is sport. I am not sure whether that more balanced attitude is the product of two decades of civil war, or merely reflects the more happy-go-lucky style of an island nation. The attitude of our fans makes it easier for us. Yes, we still get our fair share of criticism. There can be mud-slinging in the media too. But our houses are not stoned when we lose and we can still walk down the street without fearing for our safety. I am grateful for this and really don't envy the situation of India and Pakistan's top cricketers.

Kumar Sangakara's MCC Spirit of Cricket Lecture : Dissecting the lecture to bring out the contradictions Part 1.

There is a lot of stirr and buzz created by Sir Kumara Sangakara's spirit of crickt lecture in MCC this Sunday. There have been few cricket writers who have hailed this speech as most remarkable in the cricket history. Just becos he has launched an attack on corrupt SLC, he has been hailed throughout the world. Now lets just dissect his speech in detail (courtesy: cricinfo.com).

"Cricket in Sri Lanka is no longer just a sport: it is a shared passion that is a source of fun and a force for unity. It is a treasured sport that occupies a celebrated place in our society. "

He contradicts himself, his colleague and many of his fans who repeatedly urge in every forum that cricket is just a sport in their country and they dont attach too much beyond the sport to it. This basically is their argument when it comes to comparison with India and repeatedly they point out the unfortunate events of 2007 world cup when some bigots vandalized some of the houses and burnt effigies. But they were very miniscule and to generalise that with the entire country is moron argument. MJ and himself have said it often that they dont value cricket more than a sport and in case of a crushing defeat, they are cool with it. Life doesnt stop for the Lankans even if their team suffers a defeat. But the world cup finals losses in 2007 and 2011 suggest altogether a different belief to the external parties. There have been too many conspiracy theories propogated around to suggest why India or Australia won and why Sri Lanka lost. Squash balls, Indian brothers appeasement and crap.

He talks of force for unity. Really? Cricket is a force for unity in Sri Lanka? Since when ? Suddenly after the end of 30 years civil war, they feel that cricket is a force for unity in Lanka. When the innocent Tamil people were murdered in those dying years of civil war what happened to that unity? On what basis does KS term cricket as uniting force? Did 1996 win saw a reduction in the incidents of Tamil massacre by government forces and killing of Sinhalese people by LTTE? Does he have a proof for that fact conclusion or he is just making a statement in the air?

It is remarkable that in a very short period an alien game has become our national obsession, played and followed with almost fanatical passion and love. A game that brings the nation to a standstill; a sport so powerful it is capable of transcending war and politics. I therefore decided that tonight I would like to talk about the Spirit of Sri Lanka's cricket

Again here he is contradicting his own stand of the past and his colleagues' stand on the level of passion the cricket game evokes in the Lanka land. Focus on the word "fanatical". Thats the difference for me. What he actually tries to portray SL cricket to be and what actually the cricket is in his country. He is talking of spirit of SL's cricket. The history of their cricket is full of:

• SLingers
• Cheats who bowl based on some crazy tweak by the ICC (15 degree rule) and have taken 800 odd wickets in Tests and 534 in ODIs
• Individual records
• Selfish batting thus killing spirits of cricket
• Negative approach to the game when they couldnt win anything, their captain Arjuna Ranatunga suggested them to go and make all sorts of records. And then 952 evolved, 374 evolved, 576, 624 evolved, 443 and 260 evolved in subsequent years.
• Dead batting tracks where the home batsmen and bowlers enjoy unprecedented advantage over touring teams making them grind in the dry, torrid, hot weather of Lanka, sap them of energy and fluids and kill the remaining morale by batting days in and out. And then throw their slingers on the deflated, depressed batsmen of the opposition team.
• Political interference from men who are guilty of heinous war crimes and who take moral high stands based on their fractured knowledge of the history of their own country and of course of the region their country lies in.
• Cheaters who constantly appeal for catches which aint, who ask deliberately to ball a no ball to deny opposition batsmen of worthy 100.
• Captains who pretend to have said nothing in the sea of men in a world cup final during the toss and then have a 2nd toss to have it work for them to their advantage and yet lose the world cup final 2 times in row.

How can such a country be claimed to be the one who has won spirits of cricket award from ICC?

He further says

Ladies and Gentleman, the history of my country extends over 2500 years. A beautiful island situated in an advantageously strategic position in the Indian Ocean has long attracted the attentions of the world at times to both our disadvantage and at times to our advantage.

Sri Lanka is land rich in natural beauty and resources augmented by a wonderfully resilient and vibrant and hospitable people whose attitude to life has been shaped by volatile politics both internal and from without.

In our history you will find periods of glorious peace and prosperity and times of great strife, war and violence. Sri Lankans have been hardened by experience and have shown themselves to be a resilient and proud society celebrating at all times our zest for life and living.

Sri Lankans are a close knit community. The strength of the family unit reflects the spirit of our communities. We are an inquisitive and fun-loving people, smiling defiantly in the face of hardship and raucously celebrating times of prosperity.

In the modern history of South Asia, no other country than Sri Lanka has seen a civil war lasting for 30 years, no other country has seen minority speaking community being massacred cruelly and brutally on the name of culling the civil war, no other country has seen such heinous war crimes than Sri Lanka, no other country has killed its own countrymen for 30 years. No other country has forced minority speaking community to lift weapons against its own state, country and government. No other country has seen forces operating in the mainland to conspire to kill the prime minister of other country. Such a country cannot be called close knit community, such a country cannot be allowed to take advantage of war crimes and killing of humanity on the name of suppression of civil war. You'd not find any other country in the world or the area which is termed as dangerous to be working for the journalists. When you have so many odds stacked against your country you cannot just go around and say this kinda things in honnourable forum as important as MCC.

Over four hundred years of colonization by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British has failed to crush or temper our indomitable spirit. And yet in this context the influence upon our recent history and society by the introduced sport of cricket is surprising and noteworthy. Sri Lankans for centuries have fiercely resisted the Westernisation of our society, at times summarily dismissing western tradition and influence as evil and detrimental.

Yet cricket, somehow, managed to slip through the crack in our anti-Western defences and has now become the most precious heirloom of our British Colonial inheritance. Maybe it is a result of our simple sense of hospitality where a guest is treated to all that we have and at times even to what we don't have

If they are so alien to the western influence and bothers to preserve the culture of Sri Lanka which emanates zillions of years back to the demonic kingdom of Ravana, then let them give up the game of cricket, for the world of cricket would be cleaned up by huge amount. No cheaters, no war criminals would be around in the sacred game of cricket. Civil war of 30 years negates every morally high statements this guy has made out in the lines above.

Lanka kill spirits of game again

Sri Lanka have won ICC spirit of award couple of times in last few years but they have been the team who put the spirits of the game in doubt most often that any other team does. Playing bowlers with suspect actions, calling them slingers, chuckers, playing players who are long gone past their usability, political interference in the running of the game,  talking high of their record outside subcontinent and falling flat when it comes to the action.

What happened in the 3rd ODI @ Lord's was again a prime example of how Lankans take the game to be. Supposed next captain to be plays out 21 balls for 1 run and allows a certain Chandi to score a 100 on Lord's, unfortunately ODI hundreds dont get honor boards in Lord's. So what was all the fuss about?

Dilshan expressed his anger on the go slow approach but offered a booty in the end by saying stuff like a family unit and all. Who are they fooling? Isnt playing slow or blocking something for good part of 3 and half overs at par with spot fixing or little bit of toned down version of it?  Sri Lankans have got super natural flair for personal milestones and that guides their cricketing setup and attitude. They want to own every batting and bowling record in the game, no matter how it comes and no matter how many times they have to kill the spirits of the game.

The Lankans are going to find it very tough days ahead after all the turmoil in their cricketing setup thats going on.  And as long as they shall continue to put individual glory over team, the spirits of game shall continue to be culled on every Lankan match.

Vijay needs to be shown the door

Time to throw Murali Vijay out of the team and not get him through to England if Sehwag doesnt recover in time. He's got enough opportunities and failed to convert any of those. Any slot in the Indian team is not Tamil Nadu's right just cos Srikanth heads the selection committee and another buffoon N Srinivasan is about to head the BCCI.

 

12 Tests, possibly 13 are more than enough to show your class and moreover attitude and temparament.