Taking Strike

Dhoni running short of ideas

2012-02-01T21:05:00.003-05:00

MS Dhoni is so defensive and insipid in his captaincy that a newcomer as captain beat him in field placings and tactical acumen in the first T20I yesterday. Pity what a stage MSD has reached in his captaincy within a year of winning the world cup. If that was a peak, then certainly the descend to the bottom has begun and begun very fast. And perhaps that's why he has been making some real weird statements like.

We wanted to play Rahul Sharma bcos he has done in IPL.

We wanted to play Ravinder Jadeja cos he gives the balance to the team.

Wonder what influence Duncan Fletcher is bringing to the team.

Australian tour going England way

2012-02-01T16:16:00.000-05:00

The Australia tour is turning out the England way. The maiden win is elusive and the pattern of defeats is disheartening from the fact that the Indian team is just not showing up the fight or desire to fight. The excuses are readymade and put up after every debacle. Rain in T20 defeat, the pitch in first 3 Tests and lack of fight in the 4th one. Seniors were the scapegoat for the Tests whitewash, who’d be the scapegoat for the T20I whitewash, which is a game away.

The new folks have arrived, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and of course Lord Ravinder Jadeja, the next IPL multi-millionaire. A lot of noise was made on why Rohit Sharma was not played in Tests especially in Adelaide when Lax was having disaster of time in the middle. He was supposed to be the god sent savior to the losing Indian side. Unfortunately he didn’t have any magical wand that could have turned the defeatist attitude, lack of fight to a winning one. He lasted a ball and was bowled to the daddy of international cricket, Brad Hogg first ball.

The selection of the playing XI was ridiculous:

• No Zaheer Khan or Irfan Pathan in the playing XI. The seamers who played were Praveen Kumar and Vinay Kumar. One was returning from injury lay-off, the second one was exposed in Test in Adelaide, yet somehow he continues to find a place in XI. He bowled decent enough, but not good enough to justify his continued selection in the team. No pace, no variation, no skills. Vinay Kumar for you, the reason that seems he is in the team is just cos of South Indian lobby that now (Chennai, to be precise) rules Indian cricket.

• Ravinder Jadeja at 7. He is deemed to be a person who gives the team as balance. Balance as in a bowling allrounder or batting allrounder? He concedes 23 runs in 2 overs, he makes 7 runs and saves a few. Saving and making still fall short of conceding. So where is the balance? He cannot contribute when needed and often plays when all is lost (like he did in England T20). MS Dhoni is in awe of him and that is harming the team.

• R Ashvin. Supposedly new age bowler who can bowl anytime, the bowler who can do no wrong. He proved his worth for CSK in IPL and CLT20, but when it came for impact on international stage, he froze. He continued bowling full tosses and down the leg side. Easy meat for someone like David Warner to display their switch hit skills. The only reason he still plays every game and Harbhajan doesn’t is he is from Chennai and represents Chennai Super Kinks whose captain, owner and brand ambassador occupy strong posts in Indian board.

• Virender Sehwag is fast turning out to be a flat track bully. I hate to say this, as I still feel he is a great, but he has done his reputation no justice on this tour.

• Gautam Gambhir and Kohli would probably rue the way they got out and their dismissals gave Australia an opening that was match winning in the final context of the game.

• And MSD, the man who once could do nothing wrong, now can do nothing right. He has been stubborn, defensive, defeatist and strangely passive and switched off from the proceedings. When Ashvin got hit for runs in 2nd over, he still found himself bowling 3rd over in trot. Ashvin completed his quota before 10th over was bowled and that suggests the blind faith of MS in him and also a glaring proof of being stubborn and close to experimenting. Rahul Sharma was introduced late in the attack and he did impress in bits and pieces.

• Part time spinners might work in India, but not in Australia. And there were plenty of them. When the runs were scored, there was no pace around to put some brakes and get some wickets. Only options available were Raina or Jadeja or Sharma who might grab wickets in India, but would be hit for runs elsewhere. I don’t get the fascination for part timers for Indian captains off late. Ganguly did use part timers but they had some quality – Yuvraj, Sachin and Sehwag then did use to take wickets and break partnerships. Jadeja actually gifts away runs, easy runs to the opposition. He might have got few wickets against England, but then who wouldn’t against England? They are such pitiful spin players. And based of that success, he finds himself part of every limited overs team India puts up.

The patience is long running thin and unless there is a drastic change in the mindset of the captain and the team, the fans would be forced to switch off from watching the games. I spoilt my night yesterday sacrificing 5 hours of sleep to watch the flop show of the team who once was world champion in this format.

What an irony, the team of country that hosts the richest T20 league in the world, doesn’t have players who can combine as a team and win games consistently. The top 7 of this team or top 8 are star players for their respective franchisees in IPL, but in the Indian team they are zilch contributors. That makes the fans pose questions on the mindset and attitude of this players – do they really want to play for India to win or just turn up and grab their booty from BCCI and not bother to show up a fight.

I think the latter one is fast turning out to be a reality and unless addressed soon, the IPL would become a monster who would be hated more than it is loved.

BCCI isnt serious about the Test defeats

2012-01-20T16:42:00.000-05:00

If you have a look at Mr Srini, the BCCI chief, comments then you’d probably bite your own head or hit it on the wall bang bang. That gives you how much seriously the board has taken the disasters of England and Australia. Yes, India are not the bad team, as the results show in this 2 tours, but there is something that needs to be fixed. Either that’s the mindset that’s suddenly deteriorated or it’s the quality that’s gone begging. Or it’s the coach regime that’s plotted the downfall more than anything else.

The media has been equally negative, and so have been the ex-players like Bapu Nadkarni or Kirti Azad or even Kiran More. This players were no good in their playing days, played negative all their careers and today they are echoing the thought that Tendulkar should retire. So much for 22 years of international cricket the man played for India.

The headlines in ToI or NDTV say “Another green pitch awaits India”. Cricinfo reads “dry pitch could help under the pump Indian batting lineup”. Who’s more reliable? Perhaps cricinfo. The media hasn’t played less role than the ex-players in forming a negative opinion against the beleaguered cricketers who are being hammered down under. The next venue is Adelaide, where India hasn’t lost in last 2 series, or rather last 13 years. So much for the historic facts.

The board is busy in arranging logistics for the IPL-5 and Srikanth’s Tamil Nadu are in Ranji final after hammering Mumbai in the semis. But the defending champions are edging them out of the tournament race by being ultra-slow in their batting. 2/404 in 180 overs is heinous. But if Tamil Nadu wins the trophy, again the likes of Boss DK, Vijay, Mukund, Dabrinath and L Balaji would find their way to the Indian team on the name of fresh blood and injury replacements. But if Rajasthan win again, then there won’t be any players from Rajasthan finding their way to the Indian team. Zimply because Srikanth is head of selection committee, which has been unaccountable for the 7 defeats overseas.

Whose heads is going to roll after the test leg of this tour is completed? The ODIs are expected to be little bit more successful than the tests cos the team is world champion in this format. And it has won the previously held tri-series in that country with exact same combination of teams participating then and now. MS Dhoni might find his aura back after ODI success (read few wins, if not tournament), the selection committee would then hold its head high “See, we selected this team”. Certainly it wont be the case of “Oh, we also selected the teams that lost 4-0 (or 3-1 or 3-0) in both England or Australia. “ And as Bishen Bedi perhaps for first time said something right in ages “Every test team would be forgotten once IPL starts”. But if there wont be any viewership for IPL, then where would the unaccounted for selection committee head and officials who have hefty share in IPL franchisees find rest in?

N Srinivasan and Kris Srikanth are the 2 biggest culprits to have landed the Indian cricket in such a pitiful state. They probably take more solace in the fact that they are part of the team that has won past 2 IPLs and one CLT20. But they fail to understand they also hold the biggest posts in the board that manages the national cricket team. The statements from this 2 buffoons is good enough to reveal the fool hardiness with which this folks have taken the defeats.

The road ahead

2012-01-16T14:22:00.001-05:00

With great disappointment and disgust here is my take on the reasons why India lost so miserably in the 3 test matches so far.

Opening Pair is silent

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are best bet when it comes to open the innings in any format for India. This pair has been excellent in Test matches across all conditions barring Australia. This was an acid test for the duo and they have failed miserably in this tour. Not technically for Sehwag, because he doesn’t have much of it, but in mental thought process. Something which is surprising given his exploits in Australia over past 2 tours. Gambhir was expected to have come full circle on this tour, but he has failed to live upto those expectations. Sehwag and Gambhir haven’t fired together or in solo attempt, which makes the task of ageing middle order a bit tough, something which has happened consistently in this tour. Barring the first innings in MCG, Sehwag hasn’t fired. Gambhir has showed some fight in last 3 innings, but that doesn’t redeem of 3 aghast failures in first 3 innings on this tour.

The reason why India was so successful in 2003-04 in Australia was the start Sehwag and Chopra provided. Chopra didn’t make more than 48 in any innings, but he played out the dangerous span of 15-20 overs from Gillespie, Brad Williams and company. That Australian team was far superior to the one which beat India blue on this tour.

Sehwag and Gambhir are the best bet to continue opening for India in long run, since they are not supposed to tour for another year or so outside subcontinent, they would need to find their mojo back very soon. The replacements for them, the TN implants don’t look promising either.

Ageing Middle Order

When your middle order is past the prime, the usability date, such failures are long due. And sadly India did not learn through the mistakes of England tour. No one expected India to lose 0-4 in England and so badly in Australia. Perhaps this was the best chance for India to beat Australia first time in Australia. Instead they ran to their worst defeat in Australia in 13 years. Dravid,Tendulkar and Laxman are ageing stalwarts and they look no good to extend their career beyond this tour. Tendulkar has been under severe pressure for that elusive 100th century from the media and perhaps that has got to him. As a result the team has suffered. He has been the best batsman on this tour and every time he has walked on the crease, he has looked assured in the start only to grow nervous in the end of the innings. He is going to be 39 in April and perhaps he is the only man who looks to play a few more series at home before he calls it a day.

Dravid has been in superb form in 2011 with 5 hundreds and topping the run charts, but he has been back to 1999 form on this tour. Worst, his defence has been breached. He finds unique ways to get bowled and that is a sign for you to go. Its time for the fans and selectors to say thank you to the great man and move on. It’s a disgrace for fans, his loyal fans over the years to see him get bowled, given the fact he has been THE WALL and one of the most complete Test batsmen of the history, something very rare this era. He has made few runs, but they are not enough and they are not the premium that would extend his golden career beyond this tour. He has to sign off post Adelaide and since he is already 39, he would be remembered to have retired still at top (little lower than that though).

Laxman has to be dropped from the team after the Perth test. He was expected to make runs against his favorite opposition, but he has struggled miserably. Silken Hyderabadi should read the writing on the wall and should announce his retirement immediately. He hasn’t been dropped in ages and if he is dropped for Adelaide, then it would be a blot on his career. Again, a time to say thank you to Laxman for his contribution to the Indian Test arena in past 16 years.

Until England tour, we believed that the golden generation of Indian cricket has turned around the way it plays cricket in away series, but last 2 tours have diminished that notion, that belief which was installed by this very men in 2000s under the lion hearted Sourav Ganguly. It would now take perhaps another decade or so (less the better) to turn around from this moment of darkness in Test arena.

Defensive Captaincy

MS Dhoni, the ODI captain and MS Dhoni, the Test captain. Two different personalities, split personalities may be. MS Dhoni in limited overs is a different batsmen and captain altogether than what he is in Tests. The morning of MCG test, day 4 was the turn around for Indian team which pushed the team to the darkness it find itself in. And the culprit has to be Dhoni himself. Spreading out the field to 10 and 11 is aghast. When you have the last pair of an insecure batting lineup on the crease, you’d rather look for wiping out the tail and have less target to chase than what was actually. But those visuals implant a permanent memory in Indian fans that the captaincy from the world cup winning captain was insipid and timid. The timid captaincy in England and Australia have cost 7 tests on the trot.

Way ahead

The winds of change have to start blowing and the replacements for Dravid and Laxman have to be handy. Kohli has promised a lot and he should be persisted despite uneven scores in Australia. He is a prodigy and he has to be preserved from the evils of IPL to ensure he is transformed to a complete international batsman in all formats of game. There is a lot of young talent coming through. Rohit Sharma is certain to debut sooner than later and along side Suresh Raina, provided he cures his short ball weakness, the middle order for Indian Test team should be good, if not as formidable as in 2000s at least for few seasons. It took a few years for the likes of Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly to blossom into the batsmen they were. And similar chances have to be provided to the next generation of Indian cricket. The good news is there is a lot of young talent that is shining. Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Menaria, Manish Pandey etc are few very good prospects in the pipeline that should find their spots in the Indian team very soon. It’s the dawn of the new era in Indian cricket and it has to be ensured the evil clutches of easy money of IPL doesn’t hamper the transition from golden batting to the new gen batting.

The IPL has to be toned down and one more moderate or flop viewership would ensure that this monster is grounded, if not buried totally.

The ODI team looks well set and the transition from the oldies to the new gen was almost smooth. Sure, there were few hiccups in between, but the victories came more than defeats and the ODIs ahead do look promising and they evoke some kind of hope after the doom of the tests.

May be a different captain for ODIs and Tests could be a theme to follow just like 2007-08 or what South Africa follows, or England follows (they go to a maddening extreme with one captain per format). MS Dhoni has looked clueless in Tests in batting and captaincy. May be the one test ban might serve as a deterrent for him and he could arrest the slide. He looks top notch in ODIs, but he has to catch up on the Test front. And if he is making way for another captain, then may be somebody young as Virat Kohli could be an option, but that would be too soon for him for now. Once he finds his mojo in Tests too, he wont make a bad captain. And the need of the hour for India’s test team is to play aggressive cricket, something they did over past 2 tours in Australia. And they need an aggressive captain for that.

Coaching regime

The coaching regime has to undergo a change and 7 tests is good enough to judge the resume of Duncan Fletcher. To me, he seems the biggest culprit for the disasters. Something which Gary Kirsten did in 2 years, it didn’t take even a year for Fletcher to demolish all the good work done by Kirsten and of course John Wright. So for sure he needs to be shown the door. 5-0 for England in 2006-07 laid the foundation for their success running into 2011 and similar whitewash for India (England and probable Australian) should lead to a change in coaching regime and a new coach has to be found out. May be likes of Wasim Akram could be a good option to start with for the bowling department and hire somebody for batting too, as the transition begins. Something which Justin Langer does for Australia.

Duncan Fletcher has escaped the media attention and the buck has to stop at this man, the culprit to sow seeds of disaster by making the team negative and defensive.

The signs were visible in 3rd test in West Indies when India decided to close the shop with 86 runs to get in 15 overs and 7 wickets in hand. In modern T20 era, this is a cheap target and then even though Laxman, Dravid were at crease, the runs should have been gotten. For me that was the turning point when the team stopped belief. And the same set of batsmen performed credibly in South Africa, almost winning the series. And sooner, one tour later, the technique and attitude of the same batsmen were found deficient. Hard to believe. More to do with the external advice coming from the so called coaches. India struggled to bowl out weaker Windies team in Windies in 2nd and 3rd test and as a result 3-0 became 1-0 and then the famous cold act of R Ashvin which ensured India let go of whitewashing a team again in the return tour.

And not to cite the numerous occasions, which were encountered in England where some defensive and inexplicable tactics led to a 0-4 rout.

Hard decisions bestow, some culling to follow and probably more than anything else, the mental belief and attitude of winning and aggression needs to return for the remainder of the tour and the next series India plays at home against England and then Australia should dawn the new age and a scoreline of 3-0 and 4-0 should be aimed at least in home.

In hope of a comeback

2012-01-12T17:49:00.001-05:00

The prospects of 4-0 on Australian tour are bright and perhaps that is a sad story for Indian cricket. At this point of time, it seems that this team under MS Dhoni has basically undone all the hard work taken under Saurav Ganguly and Anil Kumble. Whats more saddening fact is that the culprits are the same stalwarts of the past. The same heroes who scripted epic innings in past 2 tours have been the culprits in the 2 tests now. VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid. When this 3 names come into the mind, the innings of 167, 178, 270, 195, 151, 93* on those golden test matches of the past 3 series come into picture. And when you see this heroes struggle on this tour to a substandard Australian team which is nowhere near to the mighty teams of 1999 or 2003-04 or even 2007-08, it pinches you even more.

Sydney has now come to be associated with painful bunch of memories for an average Indian cricket fan.

Sydney 2008 and Sydney 2012.

Two extremes. The former reminds us of ugly incidents on the field and the remarkable statesmanship displayed by then captain Anil Kumble who gave the memorable statement “Only one team was playing with the spirits of the game”. And the latter, reminds of the meek struggle India showed on day 1 of the first test match of 2012. Much contrast even if you roll back an year to Capetown, which India almost won in South Africa.

In 2008, the monkeygate propelled India to a famous win in Perth and this time it’s the talks of another 4-0 rout that could possibly propel India to a magical turnaround.

The worst feeling associated with this losses is the fact that you know your team isn’t that bad, it is made out to look from the media of both countries. The failing stars are the same people who have scripted infinite comebacks and have changed the perception of Indian cricket worldwide in past decade. When you know your team isn’t that bad, then its causing you even more agony and pain. So much so that you want to switch off totally from cricket. For me its been a total off thing. I deleted all apps from my gadgets which read “CRICKET”, turned off all those sites which reminded me of the painful defeats in MCG and SCG.

The MCG test was in the hands till day 4 morning when some strange defensive tactics from MS Dhoni gifted the momentum to Australia and they are too good to let it slip from their grabs.

India needs to do a few things different from what they have been doing in this 2 test matches and most of those things are in the mental thought process. The Indians are too experienced to not let the turnaround come into their mind. Defensive attitude has to be buried and the days of Dadagiri have to be remembered. Sourav Ganguly’s presence is the most critical thing that’s needed now and nobody other than the legend himself can do a pep talk kinda thing to the boys and then the results would be up for everybody to see.

He himself has said “Get rid of the cobwebs and play fearless cricket”. That had been the mantra behind those memorable victories India has secured in past 12 years or so. The time has come to relive that attitude and get rid of any defensive crap Duncan Fletcher might be bringing from his English experience. Also it’s a time to rethink to have Fletcher as coach. Is he really worthy and is he really bringing any value to the table?

May be a change in the bowling department could do wonders. Getting rid of Ashvin who has been ineffective should be replaced by Pragyan Ojha. 0/157 is a stark reminder to him that Test cricket is not always fairytale and his honeymoon period is over.

And for a change try batting 2nd on a wicket if you win the toss. Let the opposition bat first who are also suspect against quality fast bowling and India does have quality in that. When Australia came out to bat on day 2 and 3 of Sydney test, the pitch was totally flat and had India batted on those days, they would have scored the same runs as Australia did. The batsmen did show some glimpse of return to form in 2nd innings and that should be the founding stone for the possible comeback.

Its time to rally behind the team, not disown it.

And I am going to watch the Test match on willow.tv through You Tube hopefully awaiting that magical moment that could script a remarkable comeback from the cornered tigers.

SL !!!!

2012-01-11T13:29:00.001-05:00

13 for 6 to 24 for 7 and now 35 for 8.

That looks like a pitiful score SL used to heap on the minnows in the haydays of Vaas and Murali. Poor them, they are undergoing the same hammering now.

Wonderful.

Cant stop laughing out loud.

Go bundle them out below 54. Revenge would then be extracted for that pathetic Sharjah night 12 years back.

Where are those talks of character and stuff now ?

PS : I logged onto cricinfo after 2 weeks reading out a superb jab on SL cricketer names on FakingNews.

SCG Test dos and donts for India

2012-01-02T13:09:00.002-05:00

Glenn McGrath really sucks.

A look at his famous habit of predictions suggest that he has been failing miserably in past 2 years. He predicted 5-0 whitewashes for England twice in 2009 and then in 2010-11.

Both times Aussies lost the series.

He has predicted 2 things for this series:

1. India would lose 4-0

2. Tendulkar wont score 100th ton in SCG this time.

The onus is now on the Indians to prove this predictions wrong. The time has come up for the famed batting order to step up and deliver. They havent crossed 300 once in last 5 away tests and if they dont do it this time the chance of squaring test series is lost.

This part of world, you got to score runs. And India has capable batsmen of doing it. The time has come to the glorious batsmen to fire and prove the critics wrong.

The bowling isnt a weak link, but the batting is. India has capable bowlers who would run through the opposite batting lineup, but its the batsmen who are unable to put up fighting totals. 2 of 6 have to bat long and long. Score runs as they did in 2003-04.

And yes MS Dhoni needs to shut up and find ways to wipe out the tail. This habit is now sucking and leading to a habit of losing Tests from winning positions. From position, India was on day 2 in MCG, there was no business losing the test.

He has to deliver through bat and through captaincy -- aggressive at that.

If India does most of the above things right and the weather is right, then we are going to have a favorable result.

MCG defeat dissection

2011-12-29T11:40:00.001-05:00

So the away woes continue. 5th straight loss. 5th straight batting failure in a test match. None would have expected a team at 3/214 chasing 333 in first innings on day 2 close to lose the test match day and half later. But India always exceeds expectations. They lose when none expects them to and they win when none expects them to. This has been a close knit team for almost a decade. The batting names have remained same more or less same. The spots 1, 3, 4, 5 have been fixed for 10 years now barring injuries and other reasons, but they were undone by some quality pace bowling by inexperienced Australian fast bowlers. The attitude of the Indian players on day 4 throughout was questionable. The players seem resigned, the shoulders were dropped, the field was open and spread out to a no 9 and 11. Cmon, you don’t expect to give easy singles to tail enders. No sign of attack, no sign of keeping up pressure on the tailenders was visible from the world cup winning, IPL winning captain MS Dhoni.

He has to own up this defeat. His captaincy on 4th morning was the worst, worse than Shahid Afridi or even a Dilshan (who won a test in SA).

He didn’t attack the jack and 10, he allowed easy singles and allowed the target to cross 250 when it was no business chasing more than 240 at the max. Perhaps the time has come now to see that the ageing legends quit and allow the fresh blood to sneak in. And the culling must start through VVS Laxman. He is supposed to be 4th innings champion, but yesterday he was abject. Scores of 2 and 1 are too bad for a player like him when he is taking on his favorite team. Hell with the history and ground stats for him. Why did not he take up the responsibility to guide the chase.

And same questions need to be asked to Virender Sehwag, why did he cut the ball when the trap was laid out for him through some imaginative captaincy from Clark. He just gifted his wicket away to the Aussies and that moment, the victory for them was sealed. Losing to an under rated team is frustrating, if this loss came in 2003 or 2007 then we would have been able to digest this, but hell the Australian team in transition with no big name firing has defeated a stalwart studded team. The lineup where top 5 has plateful of runs, but cannot stitch partnerships together to win a damn test match, they had no business losing.

Gambhir has been successful in almost all conditions, but he has failed in England and now that’s carrying in Australia too. He has been a dogged character, not the one easily to give up. He has seen the frustration of being dropped and had even thought of giving up the game at one point, then why is he not so considerate enough to play a dirty innings to get some runs. Don’t poke outside off stump, this is a test match, not a T20 and you are not captaining KKR, but opening for India in a country where they are yet to win a test series in 64 years. Scorelines of 2 and 13 don’t do justice to this man and his temperament.

Ditto 68 and 7 don’t work well for Sehwag. He has been successful in MCG before and very famously. 195 on day 1 of that test match in 2003 was a glorious innings and now both the men from Delhi would go in 2012 with no Test centuries to their name. They are not able to provide the fiery starts they are famous to provide. They have to own up and start producing runs freely. And that’s very critical for Indian batting to click. That gives the likes of Dravid and Laxman – the slow workhorses time to play their own game.

Kohli has been a failure here, but again early days for him. First major away tour for him and he should be given another chance in the Sydney Test.

MS Dhoni has to look up to his Test batting, he has been falling too frequently to soft dismissals and low scores. Yesterday he scored just 23, but he leaked far too many runs in the morning session. It would have been nice if he would have shown the captaincy skills he has been famed for past 4 years. If you leak runs through unimaginative captaincy to the tail enders, then at least exceed that amount by scoring runs, when you are a batsman of capability and over 8500 international runs, then some responsibility has to lie on your shoulders too.

IPL Ashvin, who has replaced Harbhajan Singh should first learn how to bowl in a test match and moreso to a tailender in a situation when its do or die. He came on pretty late in the attack yesterday, but he just bowled ordinarily with no attempt to grab the wicket. Happy containing? Not that either. He leaked 9 runs in one of his overs with short dolleys and poor bowling. Even when he batted in first innings, he continued giving strike to no 11 on 2nd or 3rd bowl of the over of firing Hilfenhaus or Pattinson. What was the motive ? The aim was to cut short the lead as much as possible, good that Yadav did not fall and showed decent character to block out the balls. But this is something IPL Ashvin will have to learn. May be a quick word or 2 with Anil Kumble would be good on how to bowl Yorkers to tail enders. He is the attacking spinner in Tests after having replaced out of form Bhajji, but if continues to play the same role as Bhajji did, then let Pragyan Ojha come in.

Throw this lad out of the team if he continues to make elementary mistakes.

All is still not lost. Before its too late work on the mindset first. Come out all attacking, take 20 wickets as soon as you can. Australian batting is fragile and prone to collapse any time. 4/27 to 240 was an unforgivable crime. And it shouldn’t be repeated.

Don’t leak too many runs to the tailenders and block runs. Play SL brand of cricket if possible to dry out the runs. Set 7-2 field like you did in Nagpur 2008. Who has stopped you? And have batsmen take up some responsibility.

New year, new test match, hopefully new mindset. All is not lost yet. But if they don’t improve in Sydney, then all would be lost and the legends would not like to sign off with a defeat in the test series, but with a series win. How much hungry the legends are, that remains to be seen.

292 to win

2011-12-28T19:59:00.001-05:00

What an insipid captaincy by 2 times world cup winner MS Dhoni. He just let the tailenders score easy runs through indifferent field settings when 9 down. Last 2 wickets scoring 75 runs with Pattinson getting 32 not out. The fields were spread out, there was no aggression, there were no attempts made to grab those 2 wickets. There were very less yorkers, the captain had lost it.

Not a very good sign when you are looking to win the first test match of an away tour. Something which has been the Achilles heel in the past and is haunting now too. Not a good sign when you want to regain the lost no 1 ranking.

Ashvin was the culprit, MS was bigger one and the biggest the fielders who let easy runs, allowed 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and even the tail enders ran 4 runs.

Attribute it to MS Dhoni's questionable tactics.

292 to win.

Key players : all batsmen.

For morning session it seemed the Australian team has got 2 captains --MSD and Michael Clarke. Thanks to Laxman who sent back Hilfenhaus to end the innings.

MCG Test day 3 updates

2011-12-28T12:54:00.001-05:00

The Boxing day Test in MCG is at a very interesting stage with the result very likely on day 4 itself. The key lies to the time India spends to take remaining 2 wickets of Australian 2nd innings. Anything over 250 would be a tough proposition given the up and down pitch. Michael Hussey needs to understand that any runs he adds to his overnight 79 would be a waste of time for his team and himself.

He is not anyways going to last beyond the end of this Indian summer, so why waste everyone's time. He and Ponting are now at the stage where one good innings would only delay the inevitable. The best bet for them is to just end the agony and walk into the oblivion.

Their legacy would be remembered as finest cricketers who excelled with great players around and struggled when their team needed them the most. To see Ponting and Pussey struggle for that one career extending innings is a pain to watch, given the fact that this players were part of once formidable team that conquered the world.

India were equally inept in the batting in the 3rd morning when they could have batted Australia out of the test match with Kohli, Dhoni and Laxman yet to come and edgy, lucky Dravid still on crease. But then Hilfy had some other ideas as he took his first 5-for and redeemed his career after the Ashes low of last year. Unless it was for valuable 31 runs from IPL Ashvin, the lead of 51 would have been lot more.

Umesh Yadav has been a revelation since the 2nd test match in Kolkata vs WI. It was heartening to see him go over 150 mark and grab 4 wickets in this innings taking his match total to 7. The other bowlers Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma were superb too.

All in all a very good looking pace attack from India and if the batsmen could get it right in the 4th innings and the remaining 2 wickets are drained quickly, the Indians should see themselves in a winning position. And its very crucial for Laxman and Gambhir to score runs. Laxman is playing on his worst Australian venue and the motivation for him should be the 4th innings chase, where he has been the best India batsmen to bat in recent past.

But as usual the pace would be setup by one and only Viru Sehwag, if he gets going and scores some quick runs, India should be on course. And Sachin Tendulkar would want to make his final innings in MCG a memorable one, as would Dravid want it to be. What better than winning on a ground which has been cruel and horrible for the country in past.

Australia memoirs : 1991-92

2011-12-22T18:45:00.001-05:00

Time for some digging in the repository for the memories of tours down under.

And first in this series is 1991-92 tour, the first one I saw live on TV back when i was 12. The series which saw the arrival of Shane Warne and more than him, arrival of Tendulkar on world scene as a master class batsman. Also the departure of Ravi Shastri, Kris Shrikanth and Dilip Vengsarkar.

Shastri played just one more test series after that tour, Srikanth ditto and Dilip Vengsarkar retired after this series at 35. He just managed 2 50s, 54 in each of those innings and he was out.

This was also the last tour of Kapil Dev abroad when he succeeded in grabbing wickets. 32(or 34) wickets in 5 tests and reaching 400 wickets milestone in Perth grabbing Mark Taylor was a highlight of the otherwise disappointing series for India.

This was also the first series for Javagal Srinath, lean and tall fast bowler who would go on to become then 2nd successful fast bowler in India (now upstaged by Zaheer Khan in terms of Test wickets). Subroto Banerjee was other debutant, but he fell out soon. In the ODIs, the triseries Benson & Hedges world series then, Sourav Ganguly debuted in 2 odd ODIs and then was dumped for 4 years.

From Australian perspective it was a series of Craig McDermott and Bruce Reid. Indians had no answer to the pace and bounce from this Aussie pacers and the likes of Whiteny and Paul Reiffel who debuted in that series supported the likes of McDermott and Reid aptly.

Those days, the ODIs were interspersed between the Tests unlike today's age when ODIs / Tests are played in clusters. It was also the first slice of viewing to the Indian spectators where in they got up early morning 530 AM and watched out those games. Hearing the likes of Bill Lawry, Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell was a delightful experience. Tony Greig was a good chap then, he hadnt fell in love with Sri Lankan jugglery those days.

Getting up at 530 AM and watch out the first session of the Test matches before going out to school was a superb experience. That was also the first time Indians saw the high end technology in cricket (colored clothes in ODIs, stump cams and of course pointers used by commentators used for field placings etc). Sunil Gavaskar was the lone commentator from Indian side and of course he was starter in the commentary business then as it was India's first tour to Australia post Gavaskar and with Tendulkar.

Gavaskar is now 62 and Tendulkar is 38, but its hard to believe that there was just a gap of 2 years between former’s retirement and later’s initiation.

That tour lasted for 4 months and by the end of the tour, India had played out 5 Tests, a tri-series in which they won just 4 games and a world cup they exited first round with just 2 wins to credit. The tests were spanned across 3 months, as opposed to just about a month this time. India had played out a tie game against West Indies, who were not so weak those days as they are now. Probably it was their first Australian tour sans Vivian Richards who had retired few months earlier, but was still available for the World Cup. At least he thought so, but the selectors didn’t think like him. That game in Perth, in which India were rolled over for 126 gave the world a bowler in Sachin Tendulkar, who bowled the final over of the game and taking the final wicket of West Indies, thus tying the game. In the wake of famous Hero cup last over against South Africa, this spell or this game for Tendulkar as a bowler is sort of diminished.

Cant imagine the fact today that there was gap of 24 days between first test in Brisbane and Boxing day test in Melbourne and then again a gap of 20 days between SCG test and the Adelaide Test. India played out a total of 5 first class games amidst the test series, a kind of thing unimaginable in the modern era of IPL, BBL and CLT20.

India were rolled over in the first test in Brisbane by 10 wickets. Australian batting comprised of Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor as openers, Boon and Border at 3 and 4, Jones and M Waugh at 5 and 6. Healy at 7. The bowling attack read Big Merv, Mike Whiteny, Peter Taylor and of course Craig McDermott.

Indian batsmen had no answer to the pace, swing and bounce offered from the Australian fast bowlers who were stronger than the current lot. Except for Sachin Tendulkar who scored classy hundreds in Perth (114) and Sydney (141), only Azhar (123) and Shastri scored 100s(he scored 206). Srikanth, Manjrekar, Vengie and More were sheer failures. Sachin's love for Aussies began on that tour which is ongoing till date and would continue till he retires.

India lost heavily in 4 Tests in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The only places where Indians did show some fight was in Sydney, where they were denied victory due to a day being washed out in rain and then in Adelaide where they scored 400 odd in 4th innings, though they lost by 140 runs. They rolled over in Perth and lost the series 0-4.

After the tests were lost, the Indians showed some fight in the B&H world series by beating Australia once and West Indies twice, tying once and then reaching finals. Their show in the world cup was a disaster in the modern era.

Bowling wise, Manoj Prabhakar and Kapil Dev were potent new ball pair, but lack of runs from batsmen crippled the experienced duo. Javagal Srinath emerged from this test series as fastest Indian bowler since Nissar Mohammed and the figures of 18 wickets in 4/ 5 tests proved this fact.

The small matter of the fact was that Shane Warne debuted in Sydney test and was taken up for runs by Tendulkar and Shastri. None expected what was to come from this blonde guy further down the years. He was promptly dropped for the next 2 Tests after returns of 1 for 150 and then he rocked the world starting Lanka tour later in 1992.

The love affair with viewing Australian cricket broadcast began then and is still ongoing.

Next : 1999 Series.

Preview to Boxing day Test

2011-12-20T17:22:00.001-05:00

The Boxing Day Test at the MCG is 6 days away and the excitement is slowly building up. The Aussies are hosting a batting boot camp in order to weed out the weaknesses that have been exposed in past 2 years in different countries and against different countries. The Indians are worried about their 2 premier fast bowlers -- would they last the entire tour to give the team its first series win in Australia. So far that worry is a genuine one and the news breaking out of the Indian camp isn't a good one. Ishant Sharma is mysteriously injured and there are no updates on his injury status. He didn't bowl in the first 2 day game more than 5.3 overs and then didn't take the field till day. Not sure if he would be part of the playing XI in Melbourne.

Zaheer Khan was ineffective on day 2 of the tour game in Canberra and he didn't take the field after bowling 10 overs for 41 runs and no wickets. Is he out injured too?

Now if anyone of Zaheer and Ishant Sharma break down before the test leg ends, then it would be clear that BCCI has not learnt anything from the England fiasco. The possible replacements for any of this 2 bowlers are worrisome. Ashok Dinda is being talked as Sharma's replacement as per Ganguly's brave claim he made in media few days back. Now anyone who has seen him bowl in ODIs he has played in 2010 would feel that Dinda is going to be a wrong choice. He leaks runs, doesnt have consistency and lacks wickets taking ability.

So that leaves India with the inexperienced trio of:

1. Umesh Yadav

2. A Mithun

3. Vinay Kumar

The Karnataka lads have been very ineffective in flat tracks back home and since the Aussie wickets would be flat too, not sure if this 2 lads can put some brakes on the runs and on the same hands take wickets too. Genuine contenders to ensure the woeful Australian batsmen get their form back and score runs. Irfan Pathan? Will he help? He might have if he had pace, but the sight of Patel standing upto the stumps in Chennai ODI was a disheartening sign. Though the good signs of the swing being back were visible.

The possible lineup for bowling should all bowlers be fit might look like:

1. Zaheer

2. Ishant

3. Umesh

4. Ashvin

Should Sharma be unfit then

1. Zaheer

2. Umesh

3. Mithun

4. Ashvin

India are going to miss Praveen Kumar heavily down under.

The batting lineup for India looks settled and Rohit Sharma will need to wait few more games to debut in Tests. Kohli with his superb 132 in the tour game and his run up to this series will seal his spot at 6 in the first 2 tests at least. One man I hope to score runs is Gautam Gambhir. Its being close to 2 years he last scored a Test 100. Australia would be a good place to start getting the 100s again and ensure his evolution as Test batsman is complete (England the only blot shall remain at least for next 2 years).

Australia are having their own worries. Shauns are injured and one of them wont play, the other one who is their lone consistent bowler over 2 years, wont bowl. David Warner has a dodgy back, Hughes refuses to learn and Ed Cowan has presented a strong case for himself to be selected with that 100 against tourists in Canberra. Usman Khwaja is still looking for an innings to prove his international class. Hussey and Ponting are on a daily salary basis like a daily waged laborer. Every innings they fail is going to put more pressure on them. Moreso for Ponting, one single failure means that Test could be his last. Good news : he is up against India, he has been amongst runs against them at home and there is no Harbhajan Singh to rattle him even with his sight.

Michael Clarke remains the only batsman consistent and in form and the danger man for India.

Brad Haddin is secured just by the fact that his replacements are injured. Does he put some sense in his ways of getting out or he continues to throw his wicket in irresponsible way remains to be seen. The bowling attack is little worry than the batting. Pattinson, Siddle, Lyon and Starc might not look threatening on paper but they are untested. Indians have never played this 4 men before, so the visitors could be little unsure of what to expect.

The MCG has not been a happy hunting ground for India. It has lost its last 4 Tests in 1991-92, 1999, 2003 and 2007. As stated before, this remains a best chance for India to win its first test at MCG and of course first series down under. And for some inspiration they just need to look back effort from their tormentors, a year back to the Boxing day of 2010 when Aussies were rolled over for 98.

?score zillions of runs on dead pitches, the opposition is so bored that they simply give their wickats away?.

2011-12-15T12:16:00.001-05:00

Mahela Jayawardhene says “we need to play Sri Lankan brand of cricket”.

Tilakratne Dilshan says “we need to play our brand of cricket, we can beat any team in any conditions”.

Perfect bells rang to boost the already demoralized team, short of victories, short of confidence and of course short of their salaries. They aint paid a single penny from the world cup. Perhaps the Lankan board (or interim committee) have gotten bored of this kind of articles and media statements from the statesmen of Lankan cricket, that they have decided to bar the players from their salaries.

Every test series defeat means some kind of article from Mahela Jaywardhene in the media and that contains usual stuff “We showed character”, “we need to do different”, “challenge is upon us”, “we need to cross finishing line”. And blah blah.

But when it comes to the action in the middle to let the ball and bat talk, this folks smell snake. They collapse, sometimes 7 for 19, sometimes 6 for 24. Yet they show the character. All articles, this folks articulate “we had one bad session, lost the test in that”. As if there were no other tests in those series to try win and square the series.

“I'm just highlighting that in six Test matches we fought well and competed”

Yet they won nothing. If they compete well, they win. If they give up, don’t show their character, they lose. That’s what happened to them.

“As it stands now, we've had different batsmen performing at different times. In England, Prasanna Jayawardene got a hundred; Sanga got a hundred right at the end; and Dilshan got a good hundred at Lord's. Against Australia I got a hundred and Angelo Mathews got a hundred. We've had different guys performing individually, but now we need to perform as a unit and get big runs in the first innings of a Test match. The batting unit has to try and take more responsibility, especially the senior guys.”

Everybody in SL gets hundreds, but they are meaningless and more of personal thing, but they don’t win the games for their team in countries outside dead low pitches of SL.

Now even in SL, they aint the supreme kings. They lost to Australia, drew against West Indies. They forgot how to take 20 wikats since their old workhorse retired. The others Herath, Randiv, Mendis (both Ajantha Watch and Jeevan) aint good enough to run down the opposition to take 20 wickats.

As expected they folded out for 180 in first innings in Centurion, though I feel they got more than what they deserved. Again a collapse, 6 for 24. They collapse in ODIs, they collapse in Tests. In ODIs they collapse to the likes of Hafeez and Afridi. Says a lot about their character and mentality.

The worst thing. After every drubbing, the Lankan fans on all sorts of forums blame India and IPL for every single loss their team suffers. Accept the fact that their team isn’t good enough to win anything. And yes another excuse they always produce is that they are in transit. What transit?

Did they have a mass exodus like Australia had or India would have in few months ? Only Murali retired, but that’s good a year and half back. Vaas was finished years ago, Malinga never played a bunch of Tests in a cluster, the other bowlers were simply not good enough to step in the shoes of the decent bowlers Murali and Vaas were. The batting line up has remained same for years – Dilshan moving up and down, Paravitrana, Jayawardhene himself. Sangakara, Samaraweera, the other Jayawardhene and of course overrated Angelo Mathews are around since ages. So what kind of transition are they talking about? Even in ODIs they have same lineup almost every series – the likes of Chamara Silva, Kapugedra, Kandamby, Karunaratne, the guy who scored a 100 in England and then was dropped after 2 failures, keep coming in, going out.

And yes read somewhere the Sri Lankan brand of cricket is

“score zillions of runs on dead pitches, the opposition is so bored that they simply give their wickats away”.

Perfectly summed up!!

Viru's 219 and what it means to Indore

2011-12-08T07:58:00.001-05:00

What a player. What a player.

219 is now a benchmark for a captain's innings and that benchmark would be bettered very few times in the World cricket, at least in ODIs.

A man who was out first ball duck in Motera scores a double hundred in Indore's Holkar stadium. The man who was best bet to score a 200 in ODI and he took 12 years to get there, but when he got there, he got in style when he cut Pollard for a four to go past his idol's 200*. What a player, if I can chant in Tony Greg style.

Virender Sehwag, the Indian captain for this series and the terrific Delhi opener has scored a 200 in ODIs, which is scored only for 2nd time in history of ODI cricket. And both of those scores of 200+ have come in the state of Madhya Pradesh, not famous for many things. But now its on the world cricket map. Indore is on the world cricket map to have hosted this incredible match which saw highest individual ODI score and highest ODI total for India.

India's 419 is its highest ODI total ever making it only team to go past 400 4 times. The other teams have either not crossed this mark or at max done it 2 times.

Virender Sehwag has scored 219 in ODIs as his highest score, 319 in Tests. And he also crossed 8000 runs in ODIs and he is 20 runs away in Tests. Too much for a man who didnt have a good technique and was dismissed as flop star in 1999?

Dilip Vengsarkar almost ruined the career of this incredible batsman in 2007 when he dropped Sehwag from the team to Australia in favor of Boss DK. Thanks to Anil Kumble who got the man back for Perth test and since then its been a revamped Sehwag. The likes of Sehwag make the game more interesting to watch in the era flooded by T20 bandagwons and for this precise reason and the ODI highs India has seen this year, the ODI cricket must stay on.

Sehwag makes everything in record book look obsolete and its not long before Sehwag gets a double double hundred in Tests too eclipsing Brian Charles Lara, another cricketing great.

South Africa would be relieved team today passing on the buck to West Indies to leak the highest ODI score. Both 200 scores have come in MP. Gwalior and now Indore. Indore is now redeemed in the cricketing world and after the 1997 fiasco when a match was abandoned due to bad pitch, the cricket is truly back in the city of Poha Jalebi.

Indore has had a rich cricketing history in India unfortunately, it didnt get its share of matches or didnt give country many players. CK Naydu, the first Indian captain, Narendra Hirwani, the current selector and famous 16 man are the 2 most famous cricketers from this city besides some domestic giants. And yes Indore is also the city where great Rahul Dravid was born!! But thats it.

The pathetic Nehru stadium was a blot on Indore and this excellent cricket stadium in the heart of the city makes a grand return of cricket in the city of Indore. Like every other city in the country, the city of Indore has rejoiced on every great cricketing milestone of India and people have congregated in the heart of city -- Rajwada in thousands, lacs waving tricolor and chanting India India. Be it 2011 World cup wins (QF, SF and then final) or 1996 win over Pakistan or Dhaka win in 1998 or Lords 2002, people in this city have always celebrated with rigor and highest enthusiasm. Its not like Mumbai which boos its own heroes or is indifferent to the cricket in the town. Or like the other big centers where the crowd interest is dwindling.

Holkar stadium today wrote the name of Indore with bright golden letters on world cricket map -- city to host highest ODI score in history of 40 years. And what a pity, I am not around in my own hometown to witness this epic moment in the history of Indian cricket and of course, the history of Indore.

Virender Sehwag well done, we Indoris are proud of you and thank you to redeem our city's cricket and bringing back the glory and respect it always deserved.

Indore ODI

2011-12-07T11:18:00.001-05:00

Cricket returns to the Holkar land once again after 3 years. In a new stadium, first day nighter ever in the history of city famous for its eating culture. Called as Mini Mumbai, given the diversity it has in its population and also famed for its poha jalebi world wide, Indore has hosted few ODIs on the older and pathetic Nehru stadium before. I had a chance to watch 3 of those ODIs, Australia playing in all of those,Steve Waugh playing in all of those. 1987 World Cup ODI, Aus vs NZ, 1996 Titan Cup Aus vs SA and 2001 India vs Aus when Tendulkar scored yet another ODI 100 and reached 10000 run milestone.

India goes in the 4th ODI as favorites despite losing the 3rd game which they should not have. And they are 1 win away from taking the series. Previous 2 ODIs on this new ground (Holkar stadium, much apt given the Holkars have ruled this city before Freedom and the Ranji team has had a glorious past), India beat England twice. Sreesanth took a 6-for in 2006 and Robin Uthappa made best Indian ODI debut then.

India's top order has been sluggish with lack of runs for Sehwag, Gambhir and Patel. Patel has been a disappointment and he is hampering the run flow on the top. Expected to bat longer or provide brisk start, he has failed to provide both. Him batting on top means Gambhir continues to bat at 3, his World Cup slot. He has failed to score much runs at 3. I think he should move back on the top as in the future he would be opening once again with Sehwag, now that we know Tendulkar would not play any ODI in the future.

And so does Sehwag who has been off color with the bat this series.

And so does Suresh Raina who was in prolific form in Ranji, but has no runs in ODIs.

Rohit Sharma is in pristine form, Kohli has got runs, but besides 2 no other batsman is so confident to take the team through.

The bowling attack is confused once again. Umesh Yadav is flying to Australia early, so he isnt playing remaining 2 ODIs. Vinay Kumar is so flummoxed in the slog overs when hit that he forgets how to bowl yorkers. 99 runs in 2nd ODI and then 73 in last 5 in 3rd one say pitiful figures about this useless lad from Karnataka, once famed for providing 2 of best modern day bowlers to India (Srinath and Kumble). Irfan Pathan is back for two ODIs and it is heartening to see him back. And if he gets a chance to play and he performs, nothing better than that.

Ideally he should have been on the plane to Australia for tests, but again some cryogenic freeze in Srikanth's non existent brain made a nod to Abhimanyu Mithun ahead of Pathan. Now the pace attack in Australia reads Yadav, Aaron, Mithun, Sharma and provisional Zaheer Khan. So if the latter 2 break down, the 3 inexperienced lads are expected to take 20 wickets for India along side IPL Ashvin 'who cant run sala' and Pragyan Ojha. All of whom test experience hardly adds to 50 tests.

India needs its openers (Sehwag, Gambhir) and Raina to fire immediately and seal the series in Indore, which has been a happy hunting ground for India in last 5 years.

Leaving anything to the 5th ODI would just make things difficult and India wont want to lose a home ODI series in land where it was crowned World Champions 8 months back.

India go 1-0 up

2011-11-29T20:29:00.001-05:00

India won the first one dayer in Cuttack after a lot of drama and a batting collapse which should not have happened. 212 was a very easy to achieve target even though 3 of the World Cup winners were not present in the team.

Parthiv Patel has been very lucky to be getting a lot of chances recently (his 4th consecutive series post world cup), but he hasnt seized a single chance to cement his place in the team. He got a start today and threw it again. He can bat aggressively, we all know that but he needs to convert those starts to substantial scores.

Gambhir should have batted for longer period and he must be very angry with himself to have let gone a very good chance to bat longer in a ODI. Ditto for Kohli, Raina and the captain himself who continued his trend to hit the very first ball to boundary he faces.

The move to promote Patel as opener was inexplicable given that the best openers were around to bat. I think Gambhir and Sehwag should resume opening together from Vizag ODI.

Jadeja, a changed player (till now) supported Rohit Sharma (who is redeeming himself) for a good 83 run partnership before the brain fade returned to haunt Ashvin yet again. He has got a ridiculous running. His running in Mumbai Test cost India a golden chance to whitewash West Indies and yet again today he showed he is useless when it comes to running.

Probably when he bats a burning cracker should be put up his ass to keep him on his toes. Or probably a sight of Mumbaikar makes him nervous enough to complete a 2nd run.

Rohit Sharma fell just before the victory and in the end it was left to the 2 worst batsmen in the side to complete the job. They played out 15 dot balls amongst themselves and in the end with the help of Darren Sammy, they got India home.

It should have been Kemar Roach to bowl that over instead of Sammy, but then he is captain and the decision to bowl himself backfired.

India won its 10th game in row in home soil and are now 1-0 up in the 5 game series.

7/19

2011-11-20T18:51:00.001-05:00

7/19.

It isnt a typical Lankan bowling figure against an ODI minnow say a Chaminda Vaas or a Murali or even a Dilhara Fernando or the much hyped Angelo Mathews.

This isnt even a McGrath figures against a top class batting side in his pomp.

Its not even an Indian collapse to their old West Indian nemesis.

Not even new age Australian collapse to South Africa on a swinging, seaming pitch.

And fuck its not even a typical Pakistani collapse (until 2010).

This is a Sri Lankan collapse against a spirited Pakistani team in the hotbed of Sharjah Cricket stadium. Chasing 201 in 50 overs and when scoreline reads 3/148 and your 2 best batsmen are on crease, the odds are that the batting team shall win this game 10 on 10.

But thats not the case with this Sri Lankan team which is under a superb free fall post World cup final 2011.

Shahid Afridi's one of the best all round performances in ODI history ensures that SL lose their 7 batsmen for 19 runs and go onto lose the ODI series.

What is now going to be the excuse from Mahela Jayawardhena in his next syndicated column in Cricinfo remains to be seen.

The SL captains are known to inflate the praise on their teams even in the darkest defeats and they rarely praise the opposition for outclassing them. Same has been observed in this series too against Pakistan.

Even when the wickets were falling, Sanath Jayasuriya who is pathetic in commentary was quoting "Unfortunately Sri Lanka has lost the series".

Their batsmen aint performing, the much hyped Angelo Mathews isnt performing. He did not score runs in the 3rd ODI when it was a stage well set for him to repeat the Australian heroics of last summer. But he didnt.

The openers are failing, Dilshan's ideas aint working.

Whats the road ahead for Lankans ? Their next trip is to South Africa. They are touring the country after 9 years. What's going to be the fate of the so called good team from subcontinent is anybody's guess when this Lankans, so good in their own home turf(doubt if that is true now) are going to face Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.

Probably the soul of Lankan cricket is dead with the retirement of Muralitharan and Vaas, and they are unable to come to the grips with it.

Vinod Kambli's exaggerated fixing claims

2011-11-18T23:00:00.000-05:00

Put your head in shame Kambli

Rewind back to 1996 World Cup Semi final in Eden Gardens.

India vs Sri Lanka.

SL unexpectedly in the semi finals riding on the back of hitting from Jayasuriya and Kaluwith'rna. India on home pitches making a smooth transition to the semis beating the defending champions in Quarter finals.

A little understatement of the journey of Lanka to the semi final was the fact that they had won most of their games chasing in that tournament. In the quarters they had demolished England on the back of 44 ball 82 from Sanath J.

In Delhi's league game, they had chased down 271 in 48.4 overs thanks to some nasty hitting from the 2 openers and other Lankans.

So the common sense suggested that the Lankans should be put into bat cos they had a decent bowling lineup, nothing great about it.

Azharuddin, the Indian captain did the same and invited Lanka to bat first. A dream start followed. Lanka lost both of its openers in first over from Srinath, thanks to some intelligent field placing from Azhar. Lanka then recovered to 251 for 8. India were cruising to a win when Tendulkar was batting tremendously as he had done entire world cup.

Once he was out, the team lost composure and the scoreline read 8/120 in 35th over. Manjrekar, Azharuddin, Jadeja, Tendulkar, Siddhu, Mongia were back in the hut and our hero Mr Vinod Kambli was on crease. Crowd trouble began and later on Clive Lloyd awarded the game to Lanka and they made it to their first final and later won it.

So no signs of match fixing. Not a suspicion even. Common sense from Azhar made him put Lanka to bat first and that was a correct decision given the way Lankans had chased the targets earlier. 4 quick wickets before 100 on the board vindicated his decision. While chasing Tendulkar made the target look even small. But then the disaster ensued.

Now after Sir Condon opened his mouth over the tall claims of fixing being rampant in the international cricket in 90s and 2000s, Mr Vinod Kambli, after 15 years of quietness opens his mouth and doubts that the semi final game was fixed.

Just cos Azharuddin had his name dragged in match fixing episode in 2000, Mr Kambli tries to put the blame again to Azhar for losing that game. And an ugly debate follows. Mr Kambli, the self styled victim, who had earlier blamed Tendulkar for not helping him much in his chequered career, now goes after Azharuddin. He talks of how his career was ruined after that game.

He says that everyone was stunned by the decision to bowl first rather than bat first. He also said Wadekar, then coach, knew everything. None of his team mates and coach have confirmed his gibberish.

His Test career was well over before the world cup 1996 started. He last played test against touring Kiwis in the winter of 1995. Perhaps he might want to puke some shit about Courteny Walsh and Winston Benjamin too as those lads sorted him out in 1994 series and since then he never was the batsman who shone after a Bradmanesque average in 1993. He ended up with an average of 54 in 17 tests. After that world cup game he played 35 more games for India in different broken phases. He never could cement his place in the team permanently. He got chances under Azhar, Tendulkar and even Ganguly gave him one final chance in that 2000 series in Sharjah. And post that series, he never made it to the Indian team again.

He came out of a poor family, to be precise, a scheduled cast family, rose to limelight on the back of that 664 partnership with Sachin in school cricket in Mumbai and the cricket pundits said he was more talented than Tendulkar. In 1992 - 94 his ODI average was more than Tendulkar. He got his first ODI hundred very soon in first few ODIs only. Tendulkar had to wait for 78 games and 6 years. He made 2 double hundreds in space of 2-3 months in few tests, Tendulkar had to wait 10 years for his first double hundred (against NZ in 1999).

Success got in the head of Kambli and he couldnt handle it. Boozing, clubbing, breaking team curfew, going behind girls (he has had 2 hot wives and thats a big achievement for him given his bald looks) was his strength instead of being in runs on the field. Tendulkar managed success with maturity, never let his priorities wander besides cricket field and thats why Tendulkar is at the stage where he is and today Kambli has to puke some shit to remain in headlines.

He keeps saying some Ijaz Butt style statements, good enough to laugh at and then forget. He has no moral standing of his own, he has no character, he has had a decent cricket career. He stopped playing first class cricket in 2003 or 2004 and then announced his retirement in 2010 or 2011. Who did bother if he is playing or not playing or what the hell he is doing. His image in the cricketing folklore is going to be of a spoilt brat who got his chances (much more than he deserved) but couldnt cash in on any of those.

He was from Mumbai, the powerhouse of Indian cricket, yet he let that chance go to earn a big name for himself through cricketing records. Instead he chose the wrong way to be in the limelight. By making the fixing claims on that painful game of 1996 world cup, he has let his credibility down and it wont be wrong to label him as Ijaz Butt of Indian cricket.

Ricky Ponting : time to retire now

2011-11-18T20:38:00.001-05:00

Ricky Ponting fell for a duck in the first innings of the ongoing 2nd Test vs South Africa. When he should have scoring a 100 to save his career, instead he has fallen for a duck.

And that should be it for his career. The curtain should fall on his illustrious, controversial and colorful career. Ponting the man who led Australia to its decline from the top, the man who led them to a world cup loss earlier this year, the man who lost 3 Ashes, none of the Aussie captains before him lost even one, the man who hasnt scored a 100 in 2 years, a 50 in one year, now should walk in retirement.

The man who led Australia to all glories when he had a great team to his disposal, something which he got as legacy of Steve Waugh, failed to win a single game when those great players retired. He lost in England twice, lost Ashes in Australia becoming first Australian captain to lose a series to England in 24 years, he lost to South Africa in 2008, lost to India twice 0-2. Actually he never won a test in India as captain.

He had a very ugly role to play in the drama of Sydney test in 2008. He never walked when he had nicked one to the keeper, but was prominent in appealing the catches which were not clean. He believes he has been good in nets and he deserves chances to get that elusive big innings soon that shall redeem his career. But he is no Tendulkar or Dravid or even Lara.

The runs aint coming to him, his decline which seemed to be a small patch is now a terminal decline. And if he has to be remembered as a great Australian batsman, then he should retire on his own. Else the bloody Indians await and this time they certainly would want to win the elusive series in Australia, which they have failed to do so courtesy Steve Bucknor in 2008 and 2004. And India would ensure that his career average shall drop even further.

Eden Gardens Test : Day 2

2011-11-16T01:30:00.000-05:00

India have scored the highest score in last 11 games for themselves. And also crossed 300 first time after 10 innings. Something that reflects the torrid times the team had in England quite unexpectedly. The 2nd day at Eden Gardens saw quite a lot of milestones:

1. Dhoni scored a hundred after 32 innings and 21 months on the same ground. Last one being against SA in that hard fought victory.

2. Laxman scored # 17, 5th in Edens and first in 15 months. He also became highest scorer in any ground in India.

And with a mammonth 631 on board, the bowlers did a good job in sending back 2 West Indian openers to hut for only 34 runs. And then bad light came to WI's help. Else few more wickets would have tumbled.

The biggest thorn in Indian flesh is going to be Shiv Chanderpaul and if he is accounted for soon, then India would have a very strong chance to win sooner than the case when Chanderpaul gets going with his irritating (though effective for West Indies) batting style.

There are few questions going to be asked after this Test is over for Yuvraj Singh -- how many more chances he is going to get to prove he belongs at the Test level. He is the most talked about player right now in terms of players who are insecure or whose position in thet eam is not secure. There are too many incumbents around to take his place and Yuvraj isnt helping his own case with low scores like he has had in 3 innings so far. He might not be coming out to bat again in 2nd innings, but I feel he should be given a free run of 4-5 tests and then a judgement call be made if he belongs to the test level or not. He has rarely got more than 5-6 Tests at stretch to prove himself. Most of the chances have came after Sourav retired in 2008.

And since then Kohli, Raina and Pujara have been tried for # 6, none being successful to make that place his own for different reasons (form or injury whatsoever). Yuvraj should make it to the touring party to Australia where his left arm spin would be handy to break partnerships. India is not going to play 2 spinners in Australia and most probably its going to be a toss up between Harbhajan(experience), Ojha and Ashvin to occupy that slot of lone spinner. Sehwag has a dodgy shoulder and he doesnt bowl that much now as he used to say a couple of years back. So Yuvraj would be one handy person to turn to roll his arm over to break a partnership. Having said that, the primary responsibility of Yuvraj would still be to score runs and score big. And if fails over course of next 2-3 Tests then may be it would be apt to ignore for the future.

I also feel once the holy trinity of Tests is gone, Yuvraj would be one of the replacements, but again depending on how good he comes through this set of opportunities.

And as of Sachin's most awaited 100th 100, the only folks continue to be worried are the mediamen and those impatient fans. The man himself, as Rahul Dravid mentioned, isnt bothered about the impending milestone. The 100 would come when it has to. The media is continuing to create some needless pressure on the man who today completed 22 years in international cricket.

And Rahul Dravid continues to be in golden run of form when he has almost 1000 test runs and 5 hundreds, most by any batsman in 2011. He is all set to finish up with 1000+ runs and 13000 runs by the year end (2 more tests India plays before year end). He is just 21 runs away from the 13000 run mark -- 2nd Indian and 2nd in the world to do so when he reaches there.

More on Peter Roebuck

2011-11-15T22:11:00.001-05:00

This is not right time to talk anything on slain Peter Roebuck, but I feel the issue behind his suicide was his own creation. Why does in the world he needs to be so desperate to have pleasure with a Facebook friend of his. When he returned back to the hotel after the dinner with the Australian team on Saturday night, he found SA police (who doesnt choke unlike its cricket team) detectives to question him on an alleged assault. And the fear of detention (as pointed out by Jim Maxwell, fellow commentator) led him to jump out of the window to end his own life.

The biggest question is was this desire needed for him to be fulfilled which led him in the trap of police and ultimately costed him his own life? Was it so important? Was it so worth that a life was lost for it? Was the cause so moral to have sought so much importance to end his own life? A life lost for such a futile issue which at best is attributed to inner instincts. If you can control your instincts, then you can avoid pitfalls like what Peter Roebuck had. Its been an enormous loss. Loss of life, loss of a prodigy in cricket journalism, loss of a complicated soul who was so well respected among the followers of the game and those who play it and those who govern it.

Was it essential for him to go and invite that Facebook friend for make up? And that too in a foreign country when he doesnt (in the past context) have a phone number good enough to contact a lawyer or contacts whom he helped and coached in times of despair.

From what has emerged out in the media, it seems his jump out of the window was out of despair and a strong desire to escape police detention. Perhaps if he had controlled himself, he would have been alive and a life would not have lost for a stupid reason what is being highlighted in the print and electronic media.

Stupid step by Peter Roebuck

2011-11-13T18:52:00.003-05:00

In the end it turns out to be that Peter Roebuck committed a suicide in a fit of anger and rage on being quizzed by detectives on a sexual assault charge. What a vague loss of life? And for what ? A suspended sentence handed over good 10 years back? What he if he was not angry and in rage? What if he thought over the situation and let it pass before his emotions got better of him? He would be alive today, may be little bit depressed. But then that state would have passed right with the time and he had been still writing columns bashing BCCI and praising everything Australian even though crap.

This to me looks like a sheer waste of life. Peter, you made a stupid mistake in jumping over the hotel only to end up your life.

Fallen Australian heroes

2011-11-12T19:30:00.001-05:00

9/21 for a team that not so long ago was world beater and perhaps the greatest Test team of the modern era. The scoreline of 47 might have saved them from holding the pitiful record of lowest Test score, but it has certainly raised a lot of uncomfortable questions over the ability and composure of Australian team. They have now been bowled over under 100 for 3 times in last 15 months or so in different countries. 98 in MCG, 47 in NewLands and 88 in Headingley.

When ball moves, Australiam batsman shievers. Perhaps Shahid Afridi should have quipped on a moving leg of Aussie batsman on facing Shoaib Akhtar.

There have been demands for axing of 3 players who havent been performing at all. Mitch Johnson, Phil Hughes and the once great Ricky Ponting.

Johnson has really struggled over past few Tests and hasnt got the wickets a spearhead is expected to. 33 wickets at 43 in 12 tests over 18 months dont do the justice to a bowler who has to step in the shoes of likes of Bret Lee and even Glenn McGrath.

Shane Watson is overworked, he is the best Australian bowler over last 18 months with 3 5-fors but he also opens the batting and that makes him prone to batting failures.

Their batting isnt the same as it was even in 2008, let alone 2007. The likes of Ponting are in terminal decline, what it seemed a slump, is now a prolonged decline. Perhaps selectors would need to take a call on his future sooner than later.

The media back home in Australia is impatient and is gunning for the heads of the fallen heroes of NewLands.

And it would be great that this slump continues till the end of their summer at least India is then able to win its first series in Australia, which they were denied in 2004 and 2008.

RIP Peter Roebuck

2011-11-12T19:28:00.001-05:00

RIP Peter Roebuck.

Staunch Australian commentator, had strong views on the cricketing matters, not very India centric, shocking news about his sudden departure.

Will ICC look into Capetown pitch?

2011-11-10T09:18:00.001-05:00

Australia are just past the lowest Test score ever of 26 and are in tatters at 9 down for 30 odd. This has been a spectacular test match in terms of runs scored and wickets fallen. 21 wickets on day 2 for 190 odd runs. Its still a possibility that the lead of 220 odd is a matchwinning one and Australia might still go and win this test.

But the bigger and relevant question here is will ICC look into the pitch and call for investigation of Capetown pitch and ban it? They have already banned Kotla, had a look in Galle and Green Park when this 2 nations were involved in a result.

And its again SA and Aus, so are they going to take some action over this?

Rockstar Ravinder Jadeja

2011-11-08T21:23:00.000-05:00

The fake RockStar

The real rockstar -- Sir Shri Ravinder Jadeja Maharaj, the future # 6 batsman in Indian Test team, a worthy replacement of "worst panicker of Indian cricket" -- SC Ganguly.

India vs West Indies : First Test at an interesting stage

2011-11-08T18:25:00.000-05:00

India are 124 runs away from a win in Delhi Test. This has been an attritional Test match, albeit an old school classic. One team ending up dominating a day's play followed up by comeback by the other next day. Something I hope wont be the case on day 4 and in almost session and half India shall be home with a comfortable win in the end.

The pitch has been slow, low and having variable bounce. Not that it has impacted a lot of stroke playing or resulted in dismissals of a lot of batsmen. If one is ready to grind on this wicket and have patience, the runs scoring would be lot easier. Chanderpaul showed it in both innings, Dravid has shown in both innings aided by Tendulkar in 2nd innings. Sehwag too had said that the collapse in the first innings had to do with the soft dismissals rather than the demon in the pitch.

India were typical of them in the first innings when they batted, collapsed. Worrisome part is they havent got to 300 more often than they would have liked to in past 8 Tests (starting WI tour, disastrous England tour). 209 is not a score that reflects the batting might of the line up India has, but it does say of the sorry state of mind India had on day 2. They self destructed, which they so very often have done in the 2nd part of this year in longest format of the game. It seemed that India were still stuck in the ODI mode. The likes of Tendulkar, Laxman and Yuvraj fell to soft dismissals. Sehwag and Gambhir fell to freak ones. And Dravid in first innings was setup off a short ball by Rampaul which invoked wild celebrations by WI captain Sammy.

Can you believe 3 wickets in first innings fell to Sammy and he further had a hand in 2 more wickets. Barring openers and Dravid, none reached 25 and India conceeded 95 run lead. The highlight of the first innings was the approach from Sehwag that showed that he is almost back to full fitness. Dravid continued his good form and barring that nothing much to write about. Chanderpaul continued to torment Indian bowlers for 10th year in row now which began in 2002. 3 hundreds then followed by 2 this year in back to back tests. His stance has grown weirder than ever before and he has been dour and ugly to watch. But he continues to make runs, valuable to the team which boasts of youngsters and has inexperienced batsmen.

Ojha got 6-for and Ashvin got 3.

2nd innings, West Indies had a chance to extend the lead to 350 plus and shut the door on Indians but they collapsed in the end and except Chanders and Sammy, none of the batters contributed. Ashvin got a dream debut with a 9 wicket haul, 2nd best to Hirwani, current selector. Ojha got 7 wickets in the match, Ashvin got 9, Yadav got 2 and Ishant Sharma got 2.

Ishant Sharma impressed with his rythm and pace. He almost got 3 wkts on 3rd morning but for crooked ignorance of Dharmsena to a plumb lbw and a drop catch (tough) from Ashvin, he could just show for 1. Umesh Yadav showed pace, but leaked runs at critical juncture on 3rd morning just before lunch to ease off pressure on the Windies. Still early days for him in Tests and he would (should) learn in the future. Both spinners earning wickets mean more bench time for Harbhajan Singh. He going wicketless in Ranji game didnt help his case either. Except for injuries and dramatic collapse on day 4, the team for 2nd Test shouldnt change.

India's 2 most experienced batsmen are on crease and they would want to ensure on day 4 that they do the job for India rather than leave it to the next 3. They survived the day 3 with some resolute batting and gritty determination.

IPL Ashvin has evolved a great deal and I have to eat my own humble pie when I said previously I wasnt a big fan of Ashvin. He would need to continue to be in the wickets for the remaining 2 Tests to be able to remain in contention for Australian tour later this year.

Gambhir and Sehwag need to bat longer than just 12 and 9 overs in this game and convert 50-100 to a 100-150 as they did in the past. Laxman and Dhoni would need to get some runs under their belt too.

All and all a good Test match with a classic finish in sight.

Ranji form of incumbent Indians

2011-11-05T13:17:00.002-04:00

Tracking Test contenders:

Suresh Raina :

Hit a double ton against Punjab. Good show of form, but would depend on how Yuvraj and Kohli fare in the Tests. A comeback seems far off for now.

Harbhajan Singh

No favors done playing in the Ranji game on a lifeless track. Went wicketless and only delaying the possible comeback for the Tests.

Rohit Sharma

A century against Railways shows good recovery from injury. Could comeback in the ODI team.

Manoj Tiwary

A hundred in the game vs Gujarat would mean he can retain his place in the ODI series should some seniors chose to rest before Australia tour.

100th Ton

2011-11-04T19:58:00.002-04:00

Let the 100th ton come in the first inning Tendulkar plays against West Indies in Kotla. A worried media would sigh a big relief.

Jadeja, Spot fixing verdict and the Butts

2011-11-04T19:54:00.001-04:00

Ravinder Jadeja has scored a triple century in the Ranji opener against Orrisa at a Sehwagasque strike rate of 83. And that has thrown rumor mills rife at the fact that he would be taken along to Australia as # 6 batsman and also a part time spinner. I doubt the wisdom and brains of cricketing selectors in India that they might be tempted to think that Jadeja has now turned completely into an allrounder mode and can contribute in Tests too. Times Of India shamelessly rooted for this chap to be included in tests. The only opening for now in the tests slot seems to be for # 6 with 3 contenders in the team for it and 4th one actually getting fitter. Jadeja, in selectors' view can become the 5th one.

He also took 10 wickets in the recently concluded England ODi series and now has 15 wickets in 8 games since his return. I wonder if he would be still considered to play when the likes of Yuvraj, Sehwag return to the ODI team.

The 3 tainted jailed stani cricketers are now asking for mercy or even considering to file for an appeal against the guilt and sentence. Its been reported in English media that they were even left to tears on hearing the sentences handed out to them. Strange. For 15 months on, from executing the no-balls, they dint show any remorse or accept the guilt. They continued to claim they are framed and are innocent, but now when they are in jail, suddenly they are now religious and their families are talking about GOD n all. Its weird to see that in Pakistan, the evil doers dont hesitate to commit the crime, but when it comes to receive the punishment for it, they suddenly start talking GOD.

The conviction of 3 cricketers has just been a start and this process must go on to find all the crooks and eradicate them. Across all countries including safe havens like middle east which are now home grounds to the Pakistanis.

Thats just the tip of the iceberg and whats concerning is the statement from Mazhar Mazeed "65000 pounds paid to Asif to keep him loyal and prevent him from wanderring to the "rival fixing factions in the Pakistan team" ". What does it mean? Are there more cheats and crooks involved from Pakistan? There are rumors about involvement of Akamals, Riaz and Farhat. Are they true? None of this players are now playing for Pakistan, so are they dropped cos PCB knows in positive about their involvement and have been proactive to drop them or is it just a coincidence that now Wahab Riaz is not even part of touring team to middle east for Lanka ODIs?

Who is gonna bring the clown farts sitting in PCB and ICC to justice? What was ACSU, the "toothless paper tiger" doing all this while since its inception to eradicate the corruption from the game ?

What happens to Sir Shri Ijaz Butt? Would he be a party to the crime of spot fixing ? Would he be let off?

And with this note, there is to say that Arm Ball is back.

A welcome verdict in Spot fixing saga

2011-11-03T20:28:00.001-04:00

The spot fixers are going to jail. And nothing can be better than this. The folks who got the game to disrepute and introduced the term "spot fixing" to the cricketing world and fans are now punished. Deterrent to the future fixers? Not quite? May be the fixing might not happen in England any more. But it certainly can happen in other parts like Pakistan or Dubai or South Africa or even India.

Given how lax judicial process in India is, any such episode unearthed in India would mean a long judicial trial and a bail subsequently. But thats not the point here. The orchestration of spot fixing saga has ensured the main stars are in the jail. Salman Butt and Mazhar Majeed, the composers and Amir, Asif -- stupid executors are now behind the bars.

English judicial system ensured the trial was fast track and the defendants were punished promptly. Perhaps we would have expected more stern punishments and something like life bans for all 3 players. The judge did take into consideration, the bans handed out by the ICC to the 3 folks and that probably reduced the quantum of the punishment to the 3 bastards.

Amir, being the youngest was laid astray by his captain then and bowled into the plot. Its more of his loss than anybody else's. If he is not mature enough or if he cannot hold onto his temptations for easy money and is lured easily into unethical greed, then he is better off the game of cricket. 1 yr would be gone soon and he would be out of the offenders institute. What would he do next ? He might have been gifted bowler, had exemplary skills as a bowlers, which typically every Pakistani bowler does, but that holds no good if he is sans self control. He is right to say that cricket wont need him when he has served his ban and punishment. Perhaps by that time Pakistan cricket would have unearthed few more Amirs and who knows all of them better than this lad. He has been able to garner sympathy for his case owing to the poverty stricken background and age, but he was not too young not to judge right or wrong. So he is right to have been punished.

Mohd Asif is perennial idiot and a top class bastard. Having served ban for drugs, out of the team, lucky enough to be back playing for the team again, he simply didnt value his talent and his superb bowling skills, good enough to trouble any batsman on any track. He almost got into prison in doping scandal, drugs episode in middle east and now he finally ended up in prison in England where he has bowled the BEST.

In the end we can say he is rightly punished.

Salman Butt is the biggest fucktard and biggest culprit. No amount of sympathy is good for him even on name of Allah or Khuda or anybody else. He should have been by his wife's side celebrating birth of his 2nd child, but instead he was standing in dock to be imprisoned. He as captain of the team had every control in the world and by misusing his powers he deserved every bit of punishment he has got. He has been lucky to have just got 32 months in prison. It should have been much longer than that. He lured a kid in the corruption, he got the game into disrepute and he just deserved every brickbat and abuse, hatred he is getting.

There are lot many Mazhar Majeeds roaming around in the cricketing world and nabbing one of them is not going to cleanse the game. All of them have to be cracked down and ensured that they are not able to excersise their influence on the next set of Butts, Asifs and Amirs so that the paying spectator and TV watcher would believe that there was nothing fishy behind a no ball bowled and it was natural rather than spot fixed.

ICC has to act now sternly than ever before in its existence to ensure the game of cricket which we love is back to its purest form.

Selection anomalies

2011-11-02T18:27:00.002-04:00

The first test vs West Indies at home after 9 years is 4 days away and the Test team for it is declared. The usual suspects in batting have returned, the injured players have returned and the selectors have chosen to revamp the bowling attack altogether. They have committed as usual blunders and thats going to cost heavily to the team.

Here are the anomalies:

1. Harbhajan Singh has been dropped from Test squad on the basis of his England Test form and previous ODI form of 2011. He hasnt had that bad tests altogether as selectors think so. He bowled fairly decent in SA and in West Indies before failing in England. The problem with him has been he has had quieter periods with the ball followed by a 3 or 4 wicket haul in Test. The consistency he used to have in 2002 - 2006 days is no longer around. And that probably takes selectors and his critics to think that he is woeful in Tests too.

A look at his 12 month record doesnt paint a very sorry picture that deserved him to be dropped.

Over last 12 months he has played 11 Tests and accounted for 38 wickets at not so decent average of 38. This figures involve a poor return of 2/287 in England. And fairly decent returns of 15 in 3 in SA and 11 in 3 in West Indies.

SA and WI are countries where he hasnt had much of success in the past. Whats worrying though is in last 12 months he's got just 1 5-for. And that was against SA in SA.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/29264.html?class=1;home_or_away=1;home_or_away=2;spanmax1=02+Nov+2011;spanmin1=02+Nov+2010;spanval1=span;template=results;type=bowling

I think he should have been given one more series to prove his mettle and if another failure, then perhaps he should have been then dropped. Alternatively, the second aspect of this drop can be that he would get to play 3-4 Ranji games and if he gets some form in it, that would be handy in Australia as he would be the only spinner to have some experience in there.

Replacements

The replacement for Harbhajan is R Ashvin who showed up decent figures in ODIs vs England. 11 in 5 with most of them holing out to the middle. Not sure if that should count in judging him to be a very good spinner. His carrom balls and doosras were easily negotiated. And basis of this and some decent success in IPL Ashvin has got in the team. Also dont forget that the selection head has pushed out TN openers out of the team and so to keep N Srinivasan happy, he's got Ashvin in the team. Thats for the conspiracy mongers to be happy.

Pragyan Ojha is back after some good performances in domestic circuit and Rahul Sharma is also finding a place in the Test team after ODI team. Worse, he has even got a contract in Grade C with IPL success. Superb!! His domestic record for Punjab is patchy. 18 wickets off 10 games. Average of 45 and best figures of 6/92. Last outing in whites got him 2 wickets in the entire game. Betetr thing would have been he should have playing in Ranji games.

Exclusions

Whats baffling is the ouster of Praveen Kumar. Dunno whats the basis of his ouster. He was the one of the very few performers on that ill fated England tour. 15 wickets in 3 games @ 29 is not a bad performance inviting an axe. 27 wickets in 6 tests with a strike rate of 59 and average of 25 is very good figure for a bowler once touted to be only ODI specialist. What forms the reasons for his ouster are beyond comprehension. Worse, the selectors didnt even offer an explanation if he was injured or has some other constraint. Performance is certainly not the reason why he is dropped. And if it is, then selectors are real jokers.

Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav are supposedly pacy bowlers in the nation and they found a place too soon in the test squad. They havent really been in wickets in the games they played and except for few pace deliveries, they havent shown real hope that they would be knocking the timber off the batsmen.

In absence of Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth, a half fit Ishant Sharms shall be leading the pace attack before the Australian tour.

Ajinkya Rahane shall be confined to the benches unless somebody (2 at least) get injured in the first choice XI.

Yuvraj Singh should find a spot in the starting Xi given he made a 50 in his last test innings before he got injured.

Probable XI :

1. Sehwag

2. Gambhir

3. Dravid

4. Tendulkar

5. Laxman

6. Yuvraj

7. Dhoni

8. Ashvin

9. Ishant

10. Ojha

11. Yadav / Aaron

The other sad aspect is the rushing of the injured players in the team. Sehwag, Tendulkar, Sharma and Yuvraj return from the injury. Except for Sehwag who has played some form of cricket to gain fitness, the others havent played much cricket to prove they are ready for internation cricket once again. Specially Tendulkar who has been busy with waving chequered flag to the Indian GP F1 race and moving to new house. And the mad hype for his 100th 100 would be on once again.

It would be a pity that he would be playing his first test against West Indies in 9 years time. The last time he played was in 2002, the last series WI played in India. He missed the 2006 and 2011 tours to West Indies on the pretext of injuries and rest.

Rant

2011-10-26T08:19:00.000-04:00

I hate to write it on anything Sri Lankan, but the huge moral standing from their players leave me baffled and amused on how much crap emanates out of their players. Its no secret to the world that Lanka are nothing in Test cricket after the retired lives of Malinga and Murali have begun in full flow. They have struggled to take 20 wickets in last 11 tests they have played post Murali retirement and not to mention that they haven’t won either of those tests.

They almost lost the first test in the desert safari, thanks to the penchant of their ex captain to score double hundreds aided by butter chickenesque fielding from their opponents, they were able to save the test. They were bundled out for 197 runs in the first innings and they scored this runs at a snail’s pace on a flat track. Not only this, the stani players too were surprisingly sedate and yawning for the poor spectators. They scored 500 odd runs at a poor run rate of 2.something and in the end when Taufeeq Umar got to his slowest 100, they declared. Perhaps the result in the hindsight should have motivated or prompted some thought process in their camp on what the story could have been if they would have played little faster when they batted.

In the end they were left to chase 168 runs in little under a session (less than 30 overs) which they didn’t and called off the game after 10 overs. This was the only logical conclusion as this was a 5 day and not a timeless Test match.

“We showed a lot of character coming back into the match and saving it, but we shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place”. No single article from Sri Lankans is complete without the utterance of word “character”. Now character means to Sri Lanka is totally different from what it means to the rest of cricketing world. If a Sri Lankan bowler or batsman would attain a personal milestone in the course of a test match, then the bosses of Sri Lankan cricket team (playing XI or the 15) are happy to term it as “character”. They don’t care the fact that they haven’t won a test or their record in 3 elite Test countries remain patchy or something to be shameful of. But that’s hardly something that bothers the Lankans. They are happy carving personal milestones, batting records and of course write out some real crap after a game.

“We showed a bit of quality to get a lead and put some pressure on Pakistan. They were negative and decided not to chase the target. We ended up being on top of the Test, and hopefully we can take that momentum into the next one”

SL ended on top of the test? A test match where in they just managed to get out of the jail, they appeared to be on the top. Its good to be positive to motivate the young inexperienced lads of the team, but to motivate them with false statements is insane and criminal.

Who were negative? SL managing to bat even after the tea until they got all out isn’t negative. But Pakistan declining to chase 168 in 20 odd overs is negative. Did MJ get in the T20 mode in whites?

Why does he even write this stuff ? Who reads them? Perhaps me, one of those few to rile him. I haven’t been a huge fan of this man or the team for the sheer way they play their cricket. Negativity emanates out of their style of cricket right their inception in 1982/83. Ranatunga taught them if you draw a test match, it’s as easy as winning the test match. And the team mates took him so seriously that his legacy is passed on even generations of the Sl test players. Their bowlers continue to bowl negative lines before and after Murali thus choking the other team for runs. And when they bat, they bat for long. Days pass by, their batting doesn’t end.

Remember the 952 test match, the Indians batted day and half and made 539/8 dec. Last few wickets were lost forcing the pace to ensure the team got time to bowl out SL twice, and it was boosted when Nilesh Kulkarni got Attapattu off first ball in test cricket, but what followed over next 3 days was torture. Every one batted and every one got runs. 340 happened, 225 happened, 576 happened and then even Vaas got a 70 odd. MJ debuted in that game. What a pity!!!

And then the 624 game when MJ and Sangakara batted on and on. Poor South Africans, they were so tortured that they collapsed badly in their 2^nd innings and lost the game.

Then Ahmedabad 2009, they had huge chance to win their first test on Indian soil after reducing them to 4/32 on day 1 and then bowling them out for 400 odd runs on day 2. MJ got into the act and made 275 runs, highest by a visitor on Indian soil. SL declared on 760 for 7. Day 4 and 5 were safely negotiated by Indians who had got wise after the first innings debacle. Indians never let Lanka come back in the series and they won the other 2 games to take the series 2-0.

Their history is ripe with such instances of penchant to bat longer and longer. Enuff said, the Lankans would never be a quality Test side lest they improve on their mentality to bat long and play negative cricket. Perhaps its their inherent inferiority complex over something historical or the age long civil war that has led them to go with such a mentality in the test cricket. And the solution has to come from them itselves and somebody has to do an honest review keeping Sangakara and MJ out of it on the way they want to play their cricket and the way they want their cricket to go in the future now that they don’t have Murali to do the slogging anymore for them.

India wins the payback series

2011-10-20T17:49:00.000-04:00

India won yet another game vs England in India. They now lead the series 3-0 and if everything goes the way it has for past 3 Odis, the story would soon be 5-0 and yet another whitewash for England in India. England have been hammered top, right, left and center in India over last 5 years. The scorelines of 1-5, 0-5 and probably 0-5 now read a very sorry figure. They have been competitive in their own conditions, but they have been very poor abroad. They showed up better performance in World Cup with some enthralling finishes and tight contests. But this tour, they simply have come abject with nothing good to show on the paper, no positives, no gains, no player gaining that extra mile in his career or benefitting from playing in this conditions.

The openers haven’t been able to give them good starts, the middle order has got starts, but rarely they have converted to big 100s or 90s except one or 2 out of the blue scoring occasional 90s. The late middle order has flourished but only sporadically. The bowling attack has been sorted out with ease, the same bowlers who were menacing in rainy conditions in England are looking ordinary. Only Steven Finn looks a bit better, but the rest of the pack are just ordinary. None of Bresnan, Dernbach or Patel do have skills to take wickets and stop the 2nd string Indian batting from scoring runs. There is no Sehwag, Yuvraj, Tendulkar in this batting lineup and the openers are part timers in Patel and Rahane, who any given day would sit out of any Indian team if they have full strength team available to play.

Simply said, England don’t have skills to win in conditions which don’t seam or swing. And even in seaming or swinging conditions in England, where they won 3-0, they had to rely on rain rules to win. Take this series win out and you’d find for most part of this decade, India have had a strong over England in ODIs and Tests too (barring 4-0 loss). England haven’t won a ODI series in India for 27 years and that stretch would just get longer after today’s defeat.

For India today there was a new batting star born in Ajinkya Rahane, the Mumbai batsman who has been pitched in as an opener in absence of regular ones. Very lucky to have been playing ODIs still as the seniors are out injured and selectors impressed to pip regular opener down to # 3, the batsman has picked up his chances good enough to have a suggestion drawn from Harsha Bhogle that he should be opening in all forms of cricket he plays in. That to me, is a far fetched suggestion. What happens when normal openers return to the team in ODIs – Sachin and Sehwag? Even if Sachin gives up ODIs soon, then we have Viru – Gauti pair to fall back upon, would still Rahane open? And this was just one inning of substance from him. At the max, it’s a stepping stone to the bigger things. That doesn’t indicate by any means that he should open in all forms in international cricket. Should the seniors continue to be injured, there are lot of other players who are good openers and natural openers – likes of Uthappa waiting to play.

Parthiv Patel shouldn’t even be in the 15, let alone playing 11. Dropping Gambhir to 3 to accommodate Patel is insane. Drop Patel and get in Manoj Tiwary for next 2 games. Let Rahane and Gambhir open, Kohli at 3 and so forth.

India’s bowling continues to be pedestal and the likes of Vinay Kumar, R Ashvin don’t inspire any form of confidence. Ashvin isn’t getting bucketful of wickets, the way he used to get in IPL (for same captain), he is happy stopping runs, who wants this kind of spinners who are happy containing? Basically that’s the main reason why Harbhajan was dropped and if Ashvin does the same thing, then let him go back and play for Tamil Nadu team. Play Rahul Sharma for next 2 games, at least give him few games before he is handed out the treatment similar to Ojha and Mishra.

The core group who’s won India the 3 games is the same – Kohli, Gambhir, Raina and of course well MS Dhoni. Raina flopped today, but Kohli and Dhoni batted sensibly in the stretch when England threatened to come back with 4 quick wickets. MS Dhoni is back among the runs and back in the job he does the best – finish the game. He has been not out 28 times in India’s victories and when he has been not out, India hasn’t lost a single game chasing. Remarkable statistic.

Its time for some experimentation over the next 2 games in terms of opening in batting and few pacers. Varun Aaron can be played in place of Umesh Yadav and probably Sreenath Aravind in the 5th game in place of Vinay Kumar. Rahul Sharma in place of R Ashvin. But would team management tinker the winning combination, that remains to be seen.

And yes Duncan Fletcher still is the coach of Indian team, if people forgot that.

India vs England 1st ODI Review

2011-10-16T19:49:00.000-04:00

India has won an international game after 4 months and few days. Last game it had won was the 1st test vs West Indies and then the only game it didnt lose was the tied 4th game in England. A lot has happened since then.

But its always good to get to the winning start and winning in own backyard is always pleasent.

India has just lost one game in India in last 2 years or so. And that was against South Africa in this year's world cup in Nagpur and then a little time back last year, just after that 200* game in Motera to the same team.. Perhaps that was the start of the times for India to play depleted side in ODI until the world cup 2011 and then the same practice is back this year.

Its a pity that the world cup winning team hasnt played another game together after that memorable night in Mumbai on 4/2. Chances are that the same team might never step on the field again to play another ODI, let go a bunch of games.

India started off sluggishly to reach 4/139 in 34 overs with both rookie openers, Gambhir and Kohli out and there were signs of a collapse, but Raina and Dhoni put on some sensible partnership and India were able to get to 300 mark.

Dhoni hit his 4th consecutive 50 in ODIs and first one in winning cause after the world cup win. It seemed that he is still in that world cup final mode and he just carried ahead where he had left in Mumbai. He played his helicopter shots, most of them came good and he was hitting balls all over the place yet again. People had criticized him for giving away his natural style of play ever since he was the captain of India.

He has been one of the best finishers in the ODI game in last few years and his average has gone back to 50+ again. And also he is the best runner between the wickets in the modern Indian cricket.

He was supported by Jadeja(hate to write this) and later Ashvin and PK to help India reach 300. Jadeja is back in the team and having him play for the world champion team is a huge insult to the world champion tag. No matter he contributes or he doesnt, he shall always remain a jinxed player and someone who always comes good in losing cause.

He also caused collapse in the English batting lineup after Cook was gone and surprisingly he ended up with 3 wickets. Ashvin, the other IPL guy got 2. And for time being Harbhajan Singh would be continuing to left out of the team. Perhaps that might give him the time to boost himself for tougher Test challenges ahead(Read Australia).

Its on him how he takes this drop as. Whether he takes it positively and comes back hungry for success, nothing better for himself and the team. And if he takes it in a negative sense, then again himself and the team are going to lose a lot out of it.

Umesh Yadav was expensive, got 2 wickets and had some pace too. Vinay Kumar continued to be useless, Praveen Kumar was his usual self and the 2 spinners caused the collapse in the English ranks to win a game by 126 runs.

England have been horrible in India for last 5 years at least in ODIs. And Friday's game just extended that run. How do they come back in next 4 games would be very keen for every one of us to watch. Unless they play well here, no one is going to take their claim as being best in the world seriously. But then they were never good in ODIs in last 20 years. They stopped being good ODI outfit since that World cup final loss in Australia 1992. And as usual after a series win out of nowhere, the English start some rants and this series would decide, if that rant continues for longer or meets its natural end after the series.

As of India is concerned, they have started to show what they really are in their own backyard.

A win after 4 months is a good thing and if it continues further, it shall just play a huge role in getting the disgruntled and hopeless fans back to watching India games after that disastrous England tour.a

Removal of Butt, DRS flip flop and Spot Fixing

2011-10-12T23:38:00.000-04:00

There have been some interesting happenings in world cricket in past few days visibly:

1. Ijaz Butt being replaced as a PCB chief by some banker.

2. Spot fixing trial being on in England and as it happens during any trial, some random names are being taken up and this time its been Indian and Australian players being named.

3. ICC goes flip flop in usage of DRS in a bilateral series.

Ijaz Butt has been one attrocious chief for PCB and his shenangians as PCB chief have been very well documented. Double digit captaincy changes, rollbacks on bans, punishments, multiple retirements, rollback, selection chiefs resigning, changes in coaches and stuff like that plus loose canon statements in 3 years, Lahore attack in 2009 and world cup drama have been the highlights of his tenure. Not to mention the spot fixing saga, fleeing of a wicketkeeper on the pre-text of threats from bookies, disastrous English and Australian tours, handling of players like Yusuf, Younis Khan, Afridi, Kaneria and Malik, relations with BCCI over IPL and bilateral series, tussle with ICC which led to an ultimatum to fix its internal governance or run the risk of expulsion from ICC. All of this issues have been mishandled by the great chief in general of PCB.

There is a distressing thought that he might have agreed to step down from the post in lieu of assurance that PCB and BCB would put him as ICC vice presidency candidate. If true, then it would take more than necessary efforts for the other boards than what were done to block John Howard from Australia, to block out Ijaz Butt from stepping into world cricket governance. One can only hope that Pakistan cricket shall progress in terms of every aspect under new chief and the ridicule it has invited over the years would yield to some respect in coming months and years.

Spot fixing trial has commenced in England and the 3 players in addition to the player agent in question have been cross examined and what has come out of it is a wide detail account of how the spot fixing was setup in England last year and what else was in the offing, but was prevented from execution owing to the bust up from the now defunct NOTW. Some Indian and Australian players were named as the ones whom that agent had an easy access to. No wonder, those allegations were promptly denied by CA and BCCI and the players themselves.

As the hearing is going on, more details are tumbling out of the closet of the spot fixing and thats just making the lives of those 3 tainted players more difficult and their return to international cricket being more unlikely even after serving the amount of sentence handed over by ICC. What was also distressing out of the details that emerged was the ease with which Pakistan players agree to lose / throw a match to disown their captain or bring the captain under the hood for some egoistical / weird reason. It's been the age old story of their country and their cricket ever since their inception since 1947.

ICC also has gone back on the mandatory usage of DRS (Dravid Removal System) in bilateral series. BCCI had been vocal in the criticism of DRS and though it diluted its stand in England tour, the happenings in England were good enough to indicate BCCI that DRS in current form has no future unless those acrimonious issues over Hot Spot usage and ball tracking technology have been addressed. India has suffered out of the DRS usage in whatever series it has accepted, be it SL 2008, or world cup 2011 or England tour of 2011. The BCCI has been adamant in its opposition to the DRS, thought they havent taken the pain to go ahead and explain the reasons for their opposition. That has never been BCCI's strong forte to offer detailed explanation for its views and stand over issues.

What is further baffling is the time ICC took to understand that DRS in current form is not good enough to be imposed as mandatory in all bilateral series. Instead of resolving the open issues that are meeting eyeballs, the ICC has chosen to keep the issue under the carpet and sit over it. Take a stance, revert back. Thats been ICC theme for 2011. Be it usage of DRS or the World cup 2015 format banning out the associate nations and then rolling back. What is Sharad Pawar doing ?

ICC has also been harping on the primacy of Test cricket and when its coming to the implementation of plans of test championship, it is developing cold feet. Its now saying that the proposed Test championship might be delayed until 2017 cos the broadcaster wants to lay stress on profit earning ventures like a T20 WC every 2 years and an increasingly obsolete 50 overs Champions Trophy, not to forget the T20 tamasha of Champions League T20.

This is also a start of the time period in world cricket when all 10 teams are going to be busy in cricket.

India vs England Preview

2011-10-12T22:00:00.000-04:00

A depleted India begins its first home series after being crowned as World Champions in 2 days time against England, the team which they failed to get past single time this entire year. The World Cup game was a tie and then in England there was one more tie and one wash out and then there were 3 losses. The similarity in the England series and this series is that the core players who won India the world cup 6 months back are still out injured and the bowling too looks thin in absence of four first choice bowlers. The game is in Hyderabad, the same venue where England made 219 and 367 in the tour games and where English bowlers enjoyed a lot of success.

India are without the services of Tendulkar, Sehwag, Yuvraj in batting department and there is no Ishant Sharma, Munfa Patel and Zaheer Khan in bowling. There are replacements, there are question marks over those replacements. Over the quality and of course on the nature of the selection for those replacements.

Injuries, fatigue and too much of cricket is an issue that still exists for India. The best example is MS Dhoni. He has been playing non stop cricket for over a year now. The only gap came in the ODI series vs NZ last year and then in the West Indies series this year just after World cup (or after IPL). In between he has played SA series, the World Cup, the IPL, West Indies tests, full England tour and league phase of CLT20. He just earned 10 days of break since his franchisee failed to get past the league stage. Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli are other lads who have been playing cricket continously for most part of the year. They have played all LOIs in last year. They also fulfilled their IPL obligations for their franchisees.

How much fresh and rejuvenated they would feel in a supposedly grudge series, is anybody's guess.

Gautam Gambhir has had his stints with the injuries -- shoulder in IPL saw him miss West Indies tour, then a concussion in England tour saw him miss ODIs and then once he recovered, he had to lead KKR in CLT20 and then one of the Challenger teams. It seems he is going to miss the final of that tourney and probably he has joined the Indian team.

So the issues that bogged India down in England still exist and there has been no steps sadly from team management and the board. Duncan Fletcher seems to have been disappeared totally. No one remembers if he is actually the coach of Indian team. Since he has taken over, the fortunes of the team have dipped drastically. One wonders whether he is assertive enough to stress the need for rest, injury management and player management. It may be too early to judge him, but in a cricket frenzy country like India it would be very good for him to get his act and experience together to see the team he coaches out of the rut. Else the cruel network of fans and media shall be gunning for his head. He better remember the fate of Greg Chappell in 2007.

There is no Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra in the ODIs. The spin department would be with Chennai's R Ashvin, debutant Rahul Sharma and of course much abused and maligned Ravinder Jadeja. The pace bowlers read S Arvind, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav. Its an insult to genuine allrounders to label the likes of Jadeja -- an allrounder. So the probable XI imo looks something like this:

1. Gambhir

2. Rahane

3. Kohli

4. Raina

5. Dhoni

6. Tiwary

7. Jadeja / Patel

8. Praveen

9. Sharma

10. Ashvin

11. Aaron / Vinay

5 pace bowlers on docile flat Indian wickets is another question mark over the wisdom of selectors. Just 2 specialist spinners with no option for the 3rd specialist one is another ? mark. The only bold move selectors made was to drop Harbhajan rather than rest him. Perhaps him winning the CLT20 for MI and taking his challenger team to the final might see him coming back for 3rd ODI ownwards.

But if India lose this series too at home, then more than the players' performance, it would be the blame to be put on selectors for their poor team selection and BCCI for their injury mismanagement.

For record purposes India has not lost an ODI series to England in more than 27 years. They won 5-0 in 2008, 5-1 in 2006, drew 3-3 in 2001 and 1993. And also they have not lost the home ODI series in last 4 years since losing 2-4 to Australia in 2007 which was Dravid's last home ODI series.

Zaheer Khan's injury calls for better injury management in India

2011-08-07T12:57:00.002-04:00

Zaheer Khan's injury now adds credibility to the questions posed by IPL critics on why dont this players get injured before IPL or why dont they need rest before IPL?

Why do this players have to rest only when tours like West Indies come?

Zaheer Khan, Sehwag, Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh are vital cogs of Indian team in any format and are few players who play all formats. Yet they played IPL throughout after a long season and a triumphant World Cup.

They could have chosen to rest during the IPL and came back refreshed for one of the most critical season for Indian team overall.

The faltering is seen in the England tour when every day a player is falling like pack of cards and India is struggling to place a first choice XI that could play to its reputation and save some pride before the damage is done.

Tendulkar is very chosy for his tours and games. He picks up and plays games he wants. He plays entire IPL and doesnt even bother to complain that he has to spend time with his family or tour to England to watch Wimbledon. He voices his concerns only when the WI tour is around.

Zaheer Khan played almost entire IPL before he got off citing injury.

Gambhir was captain of KKR and the screwed Khan made him play 14 games with an injured elbow, supposedly picked up during World Cup final.

Sehwag was the only lone Daredevil in Delhi's flawed IPL campaign. He played 11 games with injury before he thought he couldnt play anymore. How much his absence has cost India in ODIs and Tests is pretty much visible.

The BCCI needs to manage players injuries rather than let do the players and physio decide when they are fit to play. Just having a diktat that when the players demand rest, they would be rested isnt going to work anymore. If India has to build up to its success in both formats of the game and continue its reign for long, the BCCI has to step in and decide whats important for players and whats not. BCCI owns cricket in India, the international series and the IPL too. So if some star players dont play IPL, the cash registers aint going to go down.

It has to manage the greedy franchisees who look no beyond the profit margins and cash registers from the IPL. For them the international cricket doesnt matter. Its time somebody steps in and decides to put in some players rotation policy which is effective and takes care of the international cricket effectively and also ensures most often than not, India fields its best available XI in crunch and marquee series.

Dravid's surprise selection in ODIs

2011-08-06T20:28:00.001-04:00

Dravid's inclusion in the ODI team, which is nothing short of shocking and surprising is a move which is going to leave the fans and followers of India bamboozled. Dravid himself had given up on the ODIs long back and he himself said it came as a surprise to him after all the years.

In last 4 years he had more of been a Test player and not so long ago he was almost retired from Tests too. What prompted this move suddenly is unknown and mysterious as BCCI never explains its stands and selections. If Dravid was recalled based on his Test form in England, then thats a hysterical move. There is enough arsenal in the world champion team to beat England in its own backyard. Sehwag, Gambhir , Tendulkar, Kohli, Raina and MSD are good enough to give England ODI team a good drubbing. Besides England, the ODI team is lot poorer than England, the test team.

Dravid has said he would retire from the ODIs and T20s after this England tour. We thought he already had decided not to play the ODIs after being out of it for 4 years. To me, it seems a move to bid farewell to the ODI avtaar of Dravid so that in the long term, nobody would blame BCCI that it gave a raw deal to its icon players. What logic is behind to pick Dravid in the T20 game is beyond understanding. Long long back he gave up T20Is a now suddenly he is back.

I have utmost regard and respect for Dravid, the batsman in both formats of the game and his iconic achievements, his contribution to the team it is today. But I cringe when he is given the raw deal like in 2007 and then in 2009. This time he was bit more practical that he himself decided to give up the ODIs after the England tour. Else he certainly would have been dropped again for the home series against England, thats following next.......

The question is which spot would Dravid play in the ODI team? # 3 or his usual ODI spot of 5 ? How would he fit in the team which already boasts of a settled batting lineup? Would he replace Rohit Sharma who had a good outing in West Indies after the world cup? Or would he replace Raina?

A lot of questions, but the best time to get answer to this would be when the ODIs come. But the bigger question is, if BCCI wants to give a farewell to the legends of Indian cricket in ODIs, then would they give one such chance to Laxman too may be in the ODI series in India ?

Tent Bridge Day 1

2011-07-29T19:17:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-29T10:44:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-24T08:59:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-20T12:41:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-13T19:45:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-11T10:57:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-08T22:09:00.003-04:00

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

2011-07-07T08:54:00.000-04:00

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.

2011-07-06T18:59:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-05T08:49:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-01T11:50:00.001-04:00

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.

Ishant Sharma

2011-06-30T14:25:00.001-04:00

Ishant Sharma took a 6-for in the ongoing 2nd test of the series in Bridgetown, his 2nd in career and first after the debut test against the Pakistanis in 2007. He got through to 102 test wickets, past Irfan Pathan and only the 5th Indian fast bowler to get 100 Test wickets. And he is just 23, played 32 Tests already and has 102 test wickets in the bag. He would be very happy given his efforts in the innings and the figures that read 6 for 55.

Bravo kid!!!

He is gonna be very useful in England and when Zaheer returns they would form a very good opening ball attack in conditions that would aid seam and swing.

A slender 11 run lead and now the outcome depends upon how the openers bat -- the quota system entrants from Tamil Nadu.

And more guffaws add to the pathetic umpiring of the series, this time broadcaster mistake in showing wrong reply to Ian Gould for dismissing MSD off a no-ball.

West Indies at this stage look good to win this test match though.

Barbados Test musings

2011-06-29T19:47:00.000-04:00

India's young players are finding it hard to negotiate the bounce and pace of West Indies pitches and that makes them stand in poor light. The transition for this young lads from T20 glitz to the grind of tests is proving to be difficult, but there are still 3 innings left in the series for this lads to prove themselves before the seniors and first choice players return.

Kohli would be very unhappy with himself for the chances he has fluffed in the 3 innings so far. Also making things tough for him are the runs Raina is getting at 6. Scores of 82, 27 and 53 means he would certainly be front runner for #6 spot in England and would edge ahead of Yuvraj, Pujara and of course Kohli.

Bowlers are having hay day in the bouncier track of Barbados, but the rains made the spoilsport of the 2nd day when India had superb chance to make more inroads in the fragile batting of the Windies. Ishant Sharma has looked a super Test bowler this series and now he stands just 1/2 wkts away from 100 wickets, something which only 4 other fast bowlers in the country have achieved before. He's got a tight nose over Sarwan with dismissing him 3 times in 24 deliveries. An in-form Ishant Sharma augurs well for India's chances to retain the England series next month.

And it was left again to Laxman to play a crisis innings to pull India out of the dump. Something he has done so many times over his 15 year career. And he also became 4th Indian to reach 8000 mark in Tests. Unlucky to have missed 100, he made sure India had a decent scoreline.

MSD would surely be furious over himself given lack of runs in this series. 0, 16 and 2 dont do a justice at all to his ability in Tests. The 3rd day if uninterrupted by rains shall decide which way the series goes. If India nabs few early wickets and gets Chandu out quickly, then match would sway India's way. India would certainly like to avoid 1997 and 2002 encore on this ground.

Lankan GayLords

2011-06-24T09:03:00.000-04:00

Sanga : Kiss me Mahila

Mahila : In the bed tonite babeh, in the bed tonite.

India go 1-0 up

2011-06-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

India won their 2nd consecutive Test match in Jamaica, in West Indies, riding on second consecutive superlative effort by Rahul Dravid in second consecutive tour. India last won the test series in WI in 2006, the last test on a treacherous pitch by 49 runs and Dravid was the hero then. Today India won again, it was expected to against a depleted, weak West Indies side, by 63 runs and Dravid again starred in it. What an occasion to rise up and say he belongs yet. 15 years of Test cricket, 151 Tests, 12215 runs, 32 test hundreds and the man is still questioned whether he is worthy of a place in the test side.

Take out his 159 runs in the test and the two teams are very thinly apart. Take out his 400 minutes of batting in the 2nd innings and suddenly you see that the test match could have been very close. The openers in contrast failed to gave a decent start in both the innings which is very different from the routine opening partnerships all this decade. Sehwag and Gambhir not being around leaves a big gap at the top. Vijay fails remarkably to fill in for any one of them by even 10%. He just doesnt have any skill or temparament to last at this level, which is very strange given the promise he shown up in 2008 and 2009. Since then he has shone in IPL and declined in Tests. May be priorities redefined.

Mukund is just one test old and would not get more opportunities in the future when both Delhi dashers return. He has 2 more tests to impress. He showed some resolute resistance in 2nd innings but gave up when well set. He would have his own days in the future, but when you are battling with legends of the game for a spot in the team, you would want to cash in all available opportunites. Vijay failed on this count, may be Mukund should impress in the next 2.

Kohli has been a remarkable ODI batsmen in last 2 years and rightly so in Tendulkar's absence he got a chance to debut. Though he did survive the bouncers barrage from Fidel Edwards it would have been very apt if he would have survived the storm and then the things would have been very easy as his ex RCB colleague Rahul Dravid pointed out. Very wise words summing up the approach to the test cricket where you would find some tough spells going against you and if you keep the head down and grind it out, the sunny days shall get you runs. As for Mukund, Kohli too has got 2 more tests to impress and then in England he would compete with 3 other guys for a spot in the XI -- #6. Yuvraj Singh, Raina and Pujara....

Raina made up for his ODI failures with a very valuable 82 in the first innings and his partnership with Harbie saved India the blushes. He took the final wicket to clinch the lead of 1-0 in the series. MSD looked off color with the bat in the first game since that memorable 6 on 2nd April. With time he would be back in the groove and amongst runs.

Bowlers did display a very good display in the first innings and the stand out bowler was of course Praveen Pehelwan who took 6 wickets in his debut test. He got balls to swing, nip back and leave the batsmen in tizzy. Mishra continues to lose the confidence of MSD for unknown reasons. He did grab 2 wickets in late first session on day 4 before Sammy looked threatening. But he was always brought in late by MS despite being the best bowler in the ODI series. Ishant Sharma continued to dazzle in Tests and Harbhajan the batsmen impressed more than the bowler version.

West Indies were left to rue the batting failures in the first innings after folding out India for meare 246. The lead of 73 runs came in handy in the final outcome of the game. Not sure why Chandu is such an overrated player. He sticks his ground, doesnt make runs, doesnt rotate the strike, yawns the team and the spectator, yet he is # 8 in the rankings.

West Indies needs quality players to be able to compete with top ranked teams and that means the only world class batsmen left in the Carrib -- Gayle has to return as soon as possible. His place is not elsewhere but in the middle. He has to play to be able to give some chance to the Windies to compete.

15th test win for Dhoni makes him just behind Ganguly in terms of Test win.

Vijay

2011-06-21T19:24:00.000-04:00

Badrinath gone, Vijay in.

2 failures and it shows his class. Good for IPL, poor for India. Throw him out unfortunately he wont be. No replacement for him. If there is any, then there is another Tamil Nadu import Dabrinath.

Why do TN batsmen who are duds find way in the Indian team? Why dont those players who are real quality stuff (are there any?) from TN come forward?

Have to keep watching this lad throw chance after chance he got to play for India just cos Srikanth is chief selector, CSK are IPL champions and N Srinivasan is next board president elect.

So called young team

2011-06-16T11:27:00.000-04:00

Dabrinath should have been given 1 more chance in the final ODI to fail so that he could have shunted out for good. Now he would say he got only 3 games to struggle and prove his ineptiness. He would still have room to comeback for one more such tour in the future. Seeing him was a delight ? No, a torture. The way free caps are being distributed to unworthy players in a world cup champion team. Didnt see that in the previous champion teams. Even India for that matter in 1983. Other players who have been exposed and concluded stand out to be:

1. Shikhar Dhawan

2. Parthiv Patel.

Dhawan has struggled against a very mediocre attack in conditions almost similar to India. Every innings, every minute out in the middle has been an ordeal and he has struggled for pacing the innings, to make the ball touch the bat and rotate the strike. He is young and all that, fine. He has time on his side fine. But does he have the temparament? Not sure.

Parthiv Patel would not get this many opportunities in the future as this one. 5 ODIs on the trot to make himself count and deliver on that promise shown in 2002 - 2004. But he has failed and so has any ambitions for him to be # 2 keeper for India after the captain. He couldnt better his 56* as highest score on slow pitches and against a mediocre attack. He has been patchy with the gloves too. Something that would count against him in the future tours.

May be this could be used as reason to get back Boss DK in. Boss DK was a 20s master, Patel bhai is 30s and 40s champ. He has flair, he can accelarate, he can play his shots and they dont look ugly too. But he is as old as 9 years in the international circuit and that makes him senior to the skipper. But in terms of results he is still a novice.

Ishant Sharma continues to be plagued with the bad habit of leaking runs. Something he has to figure out to find a regular place in the ODI team as backup to Zaheer Khan. He's played only 46 ODIs in 4 years of time and only 2 in last 2 years almost. Not for long he can continue to reap harvest for troubling Ponting in Perth 2008.

Amit Mishra has been a revelation and he has been bowling typical leggie stuff and thats heartening to watch. Had he quit abruptly in those dark days, it would have been a great loss. Not sure if he still has won the confidence of MSD to play a regular role in both ODIs and Tests.

Yusuf Pathan continues to be enigmatic and useless after his exploits in SA. He hasnt showed that form and intent to stay on the crease for long. All of a stay of 30 balls in 4 ODIs isnt a justice to all the hype he has had around himself in past 4 years.

Chance for this guys to set something right else they would soon be forgotten boys of Indian cricket, cos there is no dearth of guys who'd be wanting to be part of an world champion outfit.

Why does Badrinath fail?

2011-06-12T09:59:00.000-04:00

A 30 ball 17 followed by a 28 ball 11 and a run out with bat lost and struggling to make it to the crease even with a dive.

That figures dont do the justice to the rant "I have made my game suitable to the T20s and ODIs" from a man who has been given ample opportunities in past 3 years and he has fluffed them all. He happens to be from the state which provides national selection committee chairman, the most powerful man in the BCCI and of course the 2 time IPL champion franchisee with a luck that the franchisee is captained by the man who captains India and the stand in skipper is also a part of the same franchisee.

All of that ideally shouldnt matter though, in the long run its the temperament and the attitude that decides if a player belongs at the highest level. And we aint bridesmaid now, we are goddman world champions in the ODIs and top ranked Test team. So no player should come in on the back of few hundred runs in the IPL. To me this man is like Ajay Sharma who scored tonnes of runs in the domestic circuit, but when confronted at the highest level, just came a cropper.

Why do lads like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina who are way younger than this lad find success at highest level and he doesnt? Why do even contemporaries like Gautam Gambhir find success but he doesnt? Gambhir was also treated in the same way as this lad was, but when he got his opportunity, he seized it and today he is best player of spin in the country after 3 greats and forms one of the vital cogs of India's best Test opening pair and possibly world's best opening pair at the moment.

Both this lads got their moments on the same tour -- 2008 tour to Lanka. Gambhir got in Tests, this lad in ODIs. Gambhir had been decent in the ODIs then and hadnt got the success in Tests by then. A solitary hundred against BD in 2007 was all he had. Even though he didnt have 100s in that tour, but his handling of M&M when the more famed and great names failed in reading them got him the place he deserved and since then hasnt stopped and looked back.

So what stops this lad? Self pity? Self inflicted daemons? Whats holding him? Is he scared? Or is he content to just play a few games for India and happy making millions in the IPL? Who would remember him few years down the line? Who remembers Padmakar Shivalkar today in the same breath as say Bishen Singh Bedi or Chandra or Prassana or even Venkat? Or Ajay Sharma? Or Pankaj Dharmani ?

The series is already in the bag and its time to test out the few players who havent got the chances so far. One of them is the original young player well before Kohlis and Rohits made their mark. Manoj Tiwary, who debuted in 2008 (after Rohit) but lost out to injury then.. He would be due to come in for a game or 2 before he heads back to India. So this lad hasnt done any favors for himself by making those slow starts. Yet, the backing he has, he might still get a chance to play the 3 Tests replacing Tendulkar ahead of Kohli. And that would mean there would be at least 1 walking wicket in the Test team.

Aamir issue

2011-06-10T16:00:00.001-04:00

Mohd Aamir playing for a Sussex club despite of a ban and pretending it wasnt an official match puts the Pakistani cricketers in bad light once again. It raises the question of how much do they take the bans and their integrity seriously. Aamir was banned for 5 years from playing any game affiliated to ICC or its member boards and any clubs / counties associated to the member boards. Yet Aamir plays a game and the ECB, ICC are caught napping. Who gave the permission to him to play in an offical ECB game? What was ICC doing ? Why didnt ICC let its member boards know the regulations and repurcussions of ban on the trio so that they dont play any official game?

Not only this puts ICC, ECB in dock, but it also raises serious questions over integrity, character of the banned Pakistani cricketers. This just proves they dont respect the game they have played in the past or would play in the future post bans. If the proceses are to be violated, then why have them and the drama of the bans and adjudications in different courts? Let them play on and make a mockery of players who play with maximum integrity and sincerity.

What is PCB going to do here? Is Butt going to do his favorite passtime -- issue a show cause notice to Aamir to find out why the hell in the hand did he play in that game?

The best thing now that can be done to this so called young kid is to ban him for life so that the game isnt brought to disrepute any further in the future.

--
~Sam

More injuries to Indian players

2011-06-10T15:15:00.000-04:00

Injuries to Zaheer Khan and Freesanth are going to raise further questions on whether having this lads play entire duration of IPL was sensible and how much workload should India regulars take up when the international season is just around the corner after IPL. Zaheer Khan would be very vital in England series, which is going to be THE series of the year and to have undefeated record against England of last 15 years, he would be the key. He has had tremendous success in last 2007 tour and jelly beans sparked a revival in Zak's career, the effects which we are seeing in last 3 yrs or so.

Freesanth remains enigma and he has pace if not anything else to be crucial to India's fortunes. Pace is something which very few Indian fast bowlers have...

So going in West Indies series without these 2 bowlers mean the team would be depleted and the onus on Ishant Sharma would be even more. So its time he is given some kind of match practice before the first test that begins on 6/20. Praveen Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun are the replacement for the injured duo. How much effective Praveen would be on slow dead pitches of Windies would be question given he doesnt have pace but relies big time on movement and swing. Abhimanya Mithun had a good debut in Lanka where he had more success with bat than ball, but at least he tried everything he could.

So a possible XI could look like this:

1. Vijay

2. Mukund

3. Dravid

4. Laxman

5. Kohli

6. Raina

7. Dhoni

8. Harbhajan

9. Mishra

10. Ishant Sharma

11. Mithun

Srikanth would be very happy to see the top 2 players at 1 and 2, perhaps one more in the middle order at 5 / 6. But its time for Kohli to make a test debut and set the ball rolling for replacements of the big 3.

Although Tests are good 10 days away, the performance of Kohli and Dabrinath in this 3 games of ODIs would decide who would replace Tendulkar in the team. And in that case Laxman can bat at rare # 4 spot for him and Raina can look for one more attempt to revive his falling Test career after a superb start late last year.

--
~Sam

"Focussed on contributing consistently" making 30 ball 17

2011-06-06T18:21:00.000-04:00

I don't want to say what exactly what I want to do. The first thing is that I need to cement a spot in the Indian team. I am just focussed on contributing consistently."

He said he is aware of the need to constantly work on his game and has been seeking the help of coaches in honing his skills to suit all forms of cricket. "I have been working with the coaches. The IPL experience has helped me a great deal. It's been lot of hard work but I enjoy improving my game and want to play for India for as long as possible."

When you make this kinda statements, you'd want to ensure you score runs at good S/R in 50 over game too. Having said that consistent displays of 30 ball 17 isnt going to help this lad any further and to longer extent.

So buddy backup your words and score runs as much as you can, otherwise 2008 encore is almost inevitable.

Parthiv Patel

2011-06-06T11:36:00.001-04:00

Parthiv Patel's wicketkeeping woes today in first ODI are big let down for the man himself for it seems he has not learnt anything since old days in 2004 when he was dropped for poor keeping. He has been around now for 9 years now and he still is a fringe kepper or a standby keeper.

When he first bursted on the screen, he was hailed as next big thing and his defiance in 2002 Headingley test / Nottingham test proved that he has necessary temparament to be in at highest level. He had success with the bat in 2003-04 Australian tour but he lost it later in the year and thats where Boss DK emerged.

Post 2004 MSD emerged and thus PP's ambitions for a fulltime keeper with Indian team ended. The only opportunities thereafter he's got are when MSD has opted for rest like in 2008 SL tour and now in Windies tour, but he has flopped every time.

Now its upto him when he learns and tries to grab a position within the team. There are many new keepers coming up in absence of MS and there is one even on this tour -- Wriddhiman Saha. Lets see how much of this motivates this guy and how much he turns around his performances with the gloves.

He just got Ramnaresh Sarwan off Munnabhai MBBS

Backing Ashvin for success in West Indies ODIs

2011-06-05T20:41:00.000-04:00

R Ashvin, the tall 24 year old spinner from Chennai and one of the vital cogs of CSK's twin IPL titles. He has been hailed as country's second best spinner after Harbhajan in ODIs at least. He has just played 9 ODIs, 2 in World cup, 5 in NZ series and 2 in that ill fated Zimbabwe tour. But he has earned a place amongst fans to be brave hearted and a constant trier. He doesnt held himself back from tossing the ball up in the powerplays in ODIs and T20s, he gets thrashed but more often than not he picks up wickets.

He proved that in the IPL and CLT20 that he can be a very good new ball bowler and he often started the attack in the world cup (against West Indies and Australia - 2 games he played). Got Watson in the Quarters in the first 10 overs. And then he was dropped for the next 2 games. He again proved his mettle in the IPL when he constantly grabbed Chris Gayle in the final and a game before when later was rampaging.

MSD has handled this man very well and its fortunate for Ashvin that MSD is also India captain. When he returns for the England ODIs, Ashvin would be keen to perform well in the West Indies ODIs and sneak a place in the starting XI ahead of Harbhajan Singh. Its most likely that Harbhajan would always play ahead of him in conditions favoring just one spinner, but if Ashvin could keep Bhajji on toes, only the Indian bowling attack would be benefitted.

After Kumble's shoulder surgery of 2001, India hasnt had an attacking spinner in the ODIs. Harbhajan fitted that role very well in early 2000s but in last few years he has become more of containing bowler than an attacking bowler. He cannot be always relied to grab wickets in pressure situation, something which Kumble always did for Azharuddin and Tendulkar in 90s.

India has tried a lot of spinners in supporting role to Harbhajan after Kumble bowed out of ODIs -- Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra (very few ODIs), Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawala, Ravinder Jadeja etc. But none of them have been able to cement their places in the starting XI. Also Sehwag's dodgy shoulder in last 2 years havent helped India's cause, he has proved many times he is better off spinner than Harbhajan Singh.

If Ashvin is able to replicate his IPL success in ODIs and T20Is for India then not only he would be a serious contender for Tests but also India would have much better bowling attack as compared to now. He is in the team in West Indies only for the ODIs, but if he puts up a strong performance, say 2 wickets on average per game and giving away 4.5 - 5.5 runs an over, he would be very tough to ignore for the tougher tours coming up later this year.

And thats when Ashvin would be just Ashvin and not IPL Ashvin.

India win by 16 runs in the first T20I

2011-06-05T11:16:00.001-04:00

India began the tour well by winning the 1 off T20 against a depleted West Indies side. This win was India's first ever in T20Is against West Indies. Strange fact given how weak the Windies has been over years now and yet India had to wait so long for the win.

The short ball woes, it looked would return again to haunt the inexperienced lads, when Dhawan got out to Samy in 3rd / 4th over. That was a nothing shot and Dhawan had no clue what to do for the delivery. Patel and Kohli then rebuilt for a while before Sammy returned to take 3 more wickets to leave India at 4/56.

Kohli, Raina and Patel dismissed. And then our Chennai hero Dabrinath settled to a run a ball knock which was sufficient on the uneven, turning pitch and alongside Rohit Sharma he led India to a decent 159/6 after a miraculous 72 runs off last 5 overs.

West Indies were given early blows by Munnabhai and IPL Ashvin, but Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo batted without sense and urgency till 16th over without losing further wicket and any sense of urgency to win. And when the surge came, it was too late for them as run rate had already climbed 17 a over. Hyatt and Barnwell put up a fight though, it was an easy win for India by 16 runs.

What is very disgusting to see is 3 good players of T20 -- 2 of them hyped in the IPL were not part of Windies team. Gayle, Pollard and senior Bravo. WICB has to get its act straight to get its best players playing in a team to have any chances of revival in the international cricket, else its all downhill for them.

Fartatunga

2011-06-01T12:59:00.002-04:00

Shut the fuck up Arjuna Ranatunga

Afridi Soap Opera

2011-06-01T11:17:00.000-04:00

Afridi sacked

Afridi retired

Afridi interview and he rips apart Ijaz Butt

Afridi's NOCs revoked making him ineligible in Hampshire and possibly Srilanka Premier League

Afridi appeals to Mr 10 %

Afridi accepts show caz notice charges and pleads guilty....

What next ?

Return to captaincy ? Out of retirement ? Sing Butt praises? Or ban ? And then revoked ?

Sri Lanka's shocking collapse

2011-05-31T13:17:00.003-04:00

Sri Lanka set themselves on a shocking loss when they couldnt bat long as they do and their typical walls floundered. And Jimmy Anderson didnt even bowl. When the test set to be a dull draw, the SL provided excitement by folding out for mere 82 thus giving strength to the theories that they play well only in their home grounds and of course Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The likes of Mahela, Sanga, Samaraweera, Jayawardhena Prasanna, ParaXXX flopped and England romped home by inns and 14 runs when none expected them to.

Problems with SL team are huge. They have politicians at their back, they have match fixing allegations and now they also have a dope test failure in their ranks, who unfortunately was one of their top scorers of the World Cup. How much runs did he score with that effect and what games were affected by that needs to be investigated. And its just fair that they lost the world cup final to India. A team of cheats, fixers, dope failures doesnt deserve to be world champions.

SL bowling was always going to be a worry in absence of Murali and Malinga, now the ineptitude of their batsmen in 2nd innings also raises more ? on their mindset in playing Tests outside BD and SL. The facts that they havent won a test in SA, Aus and India is a testimony to their poor mindset when they travel abroad. They cite FTP as reason to inability to play more in this countries. But who has stopped them to adopt themselves to the conditions in this countries. They arrived in England and good 2 weeks before, had 2 tour games, won both of them and yet when it mattered, they lost.

Sangakara and Jayawardhena, their bullies scored just 70 runs amongst them in both innings and it was unlikely 100 from PJ that gave a decency to the first innings score of 400. 6 batsmen theory isnt going to work for them. Especially when the 3 of 4 top batsmen (by SL standards) fail. They cannot play 2 spinners in conditions that aid seam and swing. And if one of the 2 spinners read MM, then it was ok, but if its Herath and Mendis, then its a shot in own foot.

Surprisingly none of Sangakara and Jayawardhena have spoken now on this loss. Well before the test started, the Jayawadhena feeder talked a lot about mindset and for brief I admired the guy, but now no more.

Club vs Country after IPL

2011-05-31T13:17:00.000-04:00

The IPL has taken one more World Cup winner down with the injury list and now following members are either not available or are resting:

1. Virender Sehwag

2. Gautam Gambhir

3. Yuvraj Singh

4. Sachin Tendulkar

5. Che Pujara

Sehwag, Gambhir played almost full IPL through their injuries and withdrew at the end of their franchisee's campaign to go for further treatment. Gambhir played full IPL for KKR and when he was to lead India in WI he opted out of the tour due to the injury.

Tendulkar has played entire IPL till today's loss and now he wants to skip the Windies test tour too to be with his family. Arrogance. Why couldnt he have skipped the IPL or part of it to be with his family? Why skip the test tour of West Indies? What if it was England tour?

Even more bizzare case is for Gambhir, the most expensive buy of IPL 4 and man who won the final for India. He is not only the best player of spin in the world but also a very valuable cog in the ODIs and Tests for India. Now India's and world's best opening pair wont be around in Windies. Why did Gambhir play through the IPL with a sore shoulder? Did Dildo Khan force him to? Did he inform BCCI about this? Does he qualify of being guilty to chose club over country? Is he right to play full IPL and skip test / odis of West Indies.

Still India shall win both ODI and test series in West Indies, but this entire episode leaves a very bad taste in the mouth and I hate IPL now. Its just killing the soul and spirit of world cricket. Indian players have set a very bad precedent in the world by skipping the national tour and playing the crappy IPL. Even worse is the role from BCCI who manages both and it needs to decide where does it loyalty lie? IPL or world cricket?

As a result the Tamil Nadu folks have made a comeback in the Test team and instead of Delhi lads, Chennai lads would open for India in Tests. The new Mukund and the failed Vijay. Also finding a place in the test team is Dabrinath, the same lad who failed when given the chances. Mukund sounds good prospect, would be keen to see how he performs.

Just 4 fast bowlers and 3 spinners. Riches. 2 of the fast bowlers are Sreesanth and Munaf Patel, that says the strength of the attack. They both were termed as "best pace attack of last 15 years" in 2006 when India under Dravid won the test series, but then Munaf had pace then, now he has just a nagging length and no pace. Sreesanth has everything except what it takes to excel in the middle of the ground. 3 spinners in West Indies is again a poor selection. Now suddenly Pragyan Ojha is back in contention...Basis of what? IPL? He failed miserably in the IPL.

Probable XI :

1. Mukund

2. Vijay

3. Dravid

4. Laxman

5. Raina

6. Kohli

7. Dhoni

8. Harbhajan

9. Ishant

10. Zaheer

11. Freesanth

The batting order suddenly looks depleted and the opening pair seems wobbly. Thanks to the IPL and player priorities. Tendulkar especially is the one to blame the most.

England Vs Sri Lanka Preview

2011-05-27T06:37:00.002-04:00

ts time to come out of decent hibernation after an intense world cup and long boring IPL to preview the start of some interesting cricket around the globe. Its time for SL vs Eng, WI vs Ind and then the biggest drawcard of the year India vs England in England. The undercurrent to the series Ind vs Eng in Eng is the fact that India have not lost to England in any test series home and away in 15 years. But that series for later, as both the teams have to account one more opponent before they square off against each other starting Lords on 21 July.

Pakistan are done with the Windies tour and they are going to Ireland under a new captain in ODIs, yet again. What's new? Nothing, they are going to be up against Ireland and they should be able to win the series comfortably, but you never know if Ireland combine well to upset the stanis yet again like in 2007.

West Indies are doing some brave talk to take on India in the upcoming series, but thats 15 days away. Only chance WI could have against India is in T20I where they are yet to lose against India.

Time now for SL vs England.

England come from an Ashes triumph and SL come into the series out of Murali's retirement and Malinga's bowing out of the Tests.

SL have a lot of new things in their stable viz a new captain, 2 ex-captains, no match winning bowler who thrived when none delivered (at least he took wickets in England, if not won them the series) and inexpereinced pace attack. No Malinga, no Vaas and no Kulasekra. Nuwan Pradeep is out, Dilly Fernando is under injury cloud. Anyways he has had a stop start career and never delivered outside SL. But he got some wickats in the tour games and he would be leading the pace attack. How SL win the test matches without Murali would be a huge think to watch.

The batsmen might still pile on runs mostly ex captains and Dilshan, but how would they take 20 wickets is a huge question. Its an imperious stat that they havent won a test since Murali's retirement (5 tests in their own home turf, 2 against India, 3 against WI in a rain affected series). They have Mendis, they have Herath and of course Randiv, but would they deliver in England and would the pacers continue to rattle Ashes winners is a huge question.

Dilshan is an attacking batsmen who can set the tone of a test match, but he is no Sehwag in terms of consistency. Plus he is captain now and has added responsibility of seeing the Lankans through a torrid times in terms of non cricketing things affecting them.

How does SL fare in this test series would depend a lot on the starts he and ParaXXXX provides and how much ex-captains build up on that. Will be a keen thing to watch if Samaraweera continues to make runs in alien conditions and how the keeper Jayawardhena makes runs here.

On the other hand England do not have that many concerns as does SL. They wont have Colly around, they would have Broad back and Steve Finn shall compete with Tremlett for a spot in the final 11. How does Anderson torment the visiting lions shall be another deciding factor in the outcome of the series. He comes after a disastrous world cup, but he is a different proposition in tests in home conditions.

It would be a metronomic achievement if SL win at least a test here given their bowling resources and shocker if they win the test series....After all their coach is hell bent to prove that England are the best team in the world in Tests conviniently ignoring the Test rankings all the time.

16 men to Windies

2011-05-14T13:07:00.000-04:00

The 15 for the ODIs and T20 leg of the Windies tour:

1. Gambhir

2. Patel

3. Kohli

4. Raina

5. Yuvraj

6. Sharma

7. Pathan

8.Ishant

9. Harbhajan

10. Ashvin

11. Munaf

12. Saha

13. Dabrinath Bussumaniam

14. Vinay Kumar

15. Mishraji

16. Praveen Pehelwan

Except a couple of choices or make it 3, the selection looks all rite.

Dabrinath, Rohit Sharma and Saha.

Sharma was ignored for the world cup team. Since the world cup and now, Sharma hasnt played any domestic cricket or international cricket except the IPL. So if selectors have

decided not to keep IPL as benchmark for this team selection, how is Sharma back in the team?

On the similar grounds how come Dabrinath is rejected for World cup and selected for this tour when the only form of cricket he has played is IPL.

And if IPL is the criterion for selection, then why have selectors ignored Rayudu, Rahul Sharma and may be Manoj Tiwary?

And what good has Amit Mishra done between World Cup and now except in IPL?

The positive side of selection is good to see no Vijay and Boss DK in the team, however DK is spurred on having being left out in favor of PP. He has hit 5 sixes out of nowhere in my home town IPL game.

May be a reminder to Cheeka that if somebody gets injured and there is an opening may be I can play. Not as keeper but may be as a batsman.

Aka India's Kamran Akamal.

Team selection to Windies ODI leg

2011-05-12T16:03:00.000-04:00

IPL is yawning and the matches dont draw any more interest in the watching. The race to the top 4 in "play-offs" is too predictable and is more likely to be between MI, CSK, KKR and RCB. RCB doesnt draw any more interest since there is no Kumble and there is Dilshan. CSK is full of players who pretend "I am good to play for India after my IPL stint", KKR's owner's theaterics and his handling of Ganguly makes me disinterested in team.

And MI is useless if Tendulkar gets out early.

So the sole point of focus is the team selection for ODIs vs West Indies tomorrow. The key points are:

This is first selectorial meeting since the epic memorable World Cup triumph.

Not many world cup winning players are going to be available for the series.

Dunc Fletcher is expected to attend this meeting, though he wont be around in WI (media reports).

Tendulkar, Dhoni, Zaheer, Sehwag, Nehra wont be touring either due to fatigue factor or injury concerns.

Questions would arise on participation of Tendulkar, Dhoni and Zaheer in IPL and opting for rest in ODI series vs WI.

Who would be selected for the series would be bigger question and point of interest. The same old and tried idiots who have failed or new IPL stars of 2011? Will Boss DK, Dabrinath, Jadeja and Rohit Sharma continue to brand themselves as immigrants who never deliver and always deported when the original players retur? Or will the likes of Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma find their way in the team and then go the Dinda, Gony way?

Who would be the skipper in absence of Dhoni and Sehwag? Would GG be the captain for the ODI/ T20 leg and then assume role of vice captaincy full term for all 3 formats?

Will Freesanth continue to occupy a slot in ODIs and not deliver?

All this questions shall be answered when the 5 wise men meet in Chennai tommorrow to decide the "bench strength worthiness" of India. And will this team correct the previous scoreline of 1-4 in ODIs in 2006.

IPL Musings

2011-05-03T14:42:00.001-04:00

IPL is well in the 2nd half and the trends are clear emerging:

Mumbai Indians are going strength to strength. Barring an undercooked performance against Royals, they have looked the team to beat. Tendulkar, Rayudu, Sharma, Symonds, Pollard, Harbhajan and Malinga have been too hot to handle. They fire collectively or else most of them fire at one or the other occasion.
Rajasthan Royals are firing despite the hot and cold opening pair. The bowling looks good with Shane Warne showing off his brilliance. Ross Taylor is the binding factor as is Johan Botha. Dravid looks solid but is unable to accelarate. Watson has lost his form he showed all the months leading upto the world cup. But none is complaining.
Kolkata Knight Riders are on a roll, something they never saw in previous 3 seasons. They are slightly ahead of MI in the terms of NRR and sit comfortably on the top of the table. Gambhir, Kallis, Pathan and Abdullah are key players.
Deccan Chargers are fused blown out and they look good to end up in the bottom half of the lot. They are pathetic in every department. Plus continous inclusion of Cameron White is hurting them.
Kocchi Tuskers are inconsistent, their captain has a knack for media flare, giving statements, questioning opposition tactics and getting out in bizzare fashion. When on field, all the talks of character and flair vanish quickly.
Pune Warriors are going through a disaster and even Sourav Ganguly's excellence wont save them. Pity to see th man of the tournament of the world cup sliding new lows in the IPL. Good thing is none would remember this month and half, as compared to the previous month and half for Yuvraj Singh.
Delhi are too dependent on Virender Sehwag. Barring him there is no daredevilry left in the team.
Punjab are living upto their billing of the weaker teams and Paul Valthaty is now sorted out.
Bangalore are without Kumble and that shows in the hot and cold performances in this season. The openers havent fired consistently and the Dilshan factor wont exist for them for last 4 games. Virat Kohli is lone player for them in form and the franchisee is more in news for th frenzied kisses between the son of the owner and the Bollywood dumb damsel he dates.
Finally Chennai Super Kinks have been unbeatable in their own ground, but they aint unbeatables. 4th on the points table, they are worried about the batting form of the captain fantastic who also leads India.

The selection committee meets in a week's time and it remains to be seen who all are rested and selected for the ODI leg of the Windies tour. Wont be a bad idea to rest key players who also form the crux of the Test line up -- Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, MSD, Zaheer and Harbhajan for the ODIs. And instead send a young team may be led by Gambhir or somebody else comprising of players like Manoj Tiwary, Ashvin etc who have come good this IPL consistently.

Ishant Sharma

2011-04-27T18:55:00.000-04:00

Ishant Sharma.

The man who troubled Ricky Ponting, the man who has got pace, height, bounce. But he does not have consistency.

A sure starter in Tests, but havent played an ODI since Aug 2009.

Ishant Sharma today wrecked Kochi Tuskers starring Mahila and Sreesanth with a 5-for.

A pure delight to see him succeed at the international level (IPL is domestic with some international touch to it). Only if he could replicate this performance many more times so that the bare cupboards in pace bowling in India would be full again.

Not only he would benefit out of such performances, but India would also be benefited of such performances and we would then no longer need the likes of Sreesanth and Munaf Patel in the teams.

Way to go Ishant Sharma.

Duncan Fletcher's appointment : Unworthy and too early.

2011-04-27T09:53:00.001-04:00

4 years ago it was a huge drama. Now it was pretty sedate and a bit of dampner.

Hunt for India coach. Then it took almost a year to find one, this time not even a month to find one.

But then we had found out a gem in Gary this time a dampner in Duncan Fletcher.

A lot of prodigies in Chandu Borde, Ravi Shastri and Lal Rajput managed India before Gary came aboard, this time board found one even without an ad or even a presentation from the ex England coach.

Duncan Fletcher was the man incharge of England in 2007 World Cup fiasco and 0-5 drubbing down under. He was also infamous for an idiotic approach to the English ODI team. When he took over in 1999, England was worst Test team notorious for collapses, when he left they were nowhere after plummeting of a wonderful high of 2004-2005.

It would have been too much to have asked for a man better than Gary to coach India, but at least they could have got someone at par. Fletcher's record as coach is for every one to see. He has been SA's batting consultant in the world cup and didnt they suffer batting collapses in crucial games. He also was part of Kiwi setup in December when they toured India. How much success Kiwis had also is for every body to see.

Its been said that this guy has a methodical approach and has a liking for physical fitness. Its also said that he loves being in the centerstage. He also had some strategic success like putting on a leg side field and negative line to Tendulkar in 2001 series when Ashley Giles managed to get him stumped first time in Test career. But the man who kept Graeme Swan on sidelines for Giles is expected to have some question marks put on his coaching resume.

India are the top team in Tests and very soon the transition to the new generation shall begin. The 3 batting greats shall bow out and they would need to be replaced by the likes of Raina, Pujara, Kohli etc. How Fletcher handles this would be a key to the future of Indian tests team. But the likes of those who shall replace the 3 batting greats would already have a lot of international experience and they would have spent a lot of time with the 3 batting greats.

ODIs would be other key area for this man. The expectations out of the team after the world cup win would be huge and they would be expected to win every game they play. Managing them would also be a huge thing for Fletcher to do.

All in all, the appointment of Duncan Fletcher is damp squib and too early. The board should have taken some time to research for a worthy candidate to replace Gary and who would come true to the huge expectations now everybody has come to keep with the coach of Indian cricket team.

Sehwag's return to the form

2011-04-23T22:18:00.000-04:00

Sehwag showed return to the form glimpses and that rubbed off the Delhi Daredevils to post 3rd highest IPL score. KXIP chased it spiritedly but in the end fell short by 29 runs. Valtathy failed and Marsh's efforts were in vain as none other batsmen except Gilchrist stepped up to the occasion.

Agarkar, Irfan Pathan and Piyush Chawla have represented India at some point or the other and they all struggled today. So did Praveen Kumar. Irfan Pathan did show some minuscule swing into the right hander in first few overs but the pace was too slow to have an impact on the batsmen.

Its a pain to watch Irfan Pathan in this avatar. Struggling for runs, struggling for pace, leaking runs. He has been one of the Dada's devils who had a great start to his career but thanks to Greg Chappell, he faded away in last 5 years or so.

He took Pathan to so many so called experts that later was confused whom to abide.

Resultant he has not played for India in more than 2 years.

Delhi prepared a green track for this game, though it didnt help its seam heavy attack, it helped its batsmen to post a formidable total.

They would want to continue to perform on the similar lines to ensure that they end up in the final 4 once again. They have the team to do it. Only thing they need to do is fire collectively.

IPL conclusions

2011-04-22T17:12:00.001-04:00

With the other IPL games going on and few upsets resulting in there are few conclusions that are firmly set in now:

1. Rohit Sharma is classy, elegant (or lazy elegance as they say it for Inzy and Junior Waugh), talent. But only in IPL. He is fit, slim, thin and agile for IPL. When it comes to India, he is complete reverse.

2. Ravinder Jadeja is one player who justifies all the faith shown in him by MS and Srikanth, but only in IPL. When the world isnt watching him, he is trying to impress everybody. But son, the world cup is over and he has lost one very good chance to be a part of world cup winning team. Something he might want to learn from Sreesanth.

3. Harbhajan finally got a 5-for in all formats. Only if he could continue on this.

4. Chris Gayle made the franchisee owners look fool when they didnt bid for him in the auction and now he is back with a bang. He;z also made WICB look fool with this innings. What injury?

5. Malinga and Gayle injured? Who said? Rehabilitation programs? Playing in IPL is biggest rehabilitation.

Bangalore got to the winnign ways in style. KKR got back to what they do best in IPL -- fizz out after a strong start.

Mumbai Indians continue to display they are strongest in the IPL and today with Tendulkar and Rayudu failing, they rode on the back of Rohit IPL Sharma to win and go on top. Rajasthan Royals forgot how to win.

MSD's excellence with the captaincy isnt showing up with CSK.

Kocchi continue to impress. Delhi and Punjab would slog it out tomorrow. Pune is another team that'd like to gather the momentum back and Yuvraj would quickly like to forget 2 ball duck. He would be pissed with himself when he fell to someone like Munaf Patel.

One third of IPL is over and Mumbai Indians at this stage look good to go the distance.

SLC needs to be cautious on IPL issue

2011-04-20T19:55:00.000-04:00

The hue and cry created by SLC on the return of its players from IPL is unwanted and not needed. SL players have been in hot demand in this season and 2 of their players are captains. One of them has led the new franchisee to 3 consecutive wins and the other has led to 3 defeats and 2 wins.

Both are crucial to the SL campaign in the Old Blighty and their form would decide if the SL return from the tour as winners or as usual losing the Tests. They might still win the ODIs given the pathetic display by England in 2011 ODIs.

The players have been asked to return to their country for a preparatory camp by May 5 and almost all of them have complied. At least those have who are / will play cricket for Lanka. Murali has slammed the board, but then he isnt supposed to represent SL anymore.

The latest salvo has come in from Duleep Mendis and Nishantha Ranatunga over Lasith Malinga. He doesnt play Tests anymore and is a superb exponent in T20 and ODIs. But England tour begins with Tests and since Malinga wont be playing in the tests, him returning to Lanka and participating in a rehabilitation program is a bit ridiculous. By playing IPL at least he would be match fit if selected for the limited overs leg for the England tour.

Everybody except West Indian players chose country over IPL and the players have promptly left for national duties when called for skipping IPL. So it doesnt make any sense for the players to actually say it in public forum that they prefer country over IPL of course if you are not Bravo or Pollard or Gayle.

SLC in a fighting stance with BCCI could be hurting itself in the long run. They are in debt and unless they play an India series, they tend to lose money than earn it. So it would be in their best interests if they take this situation in a bit more judicious and cautious way.

Weekend IPL games and stars of the IPL till date

2011-04-18T17:27:00.001-04:00

After the Kochi Tuskers spoilt Tendulkar's 100, they spoilt Chennai's run as well today in a rain shortened game and guess what Mr Jadeja romped them home with sixes and a 2. How I wonder what happens to him when he plays for India. I just hope he doesnt succeed to a level where he is thought to be inclusion in the ODI team in the forthcoming series. It would be an insult to the world champions status for India if guys like Jadeja or Rohit Sharma make it to the team.

Brendon McCullum provided the start to the Tuskers in the 2nd consecutive game and the batsmen later on capitalised on that. They are now 4th on the table after Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

Meanwhile in other games Kolkata hammered Rajasthan in Eden Gardens and Delhi notched up their first win of the 4th IPL.

Kolkata were all over Royals in the home game and dismissed them for mere 85. They lacked Dravid at the top and not sending Ross Taylor at 3 or 4 was a sin. The magical Warne tried hard with the ball, but he had very few runs in the kitty to defend the score. Tait bowled his heart out, but didnt get through to a win. Gambhir and Tiwary in the end saw KKR go on top.

Delhi were in a hopeless position when Yuvraj Singh in his trademark Johhanesburg style looted 26 runs in the last over off Dinda. They needed a strong start from Sehwag and Warner to have some chance in the game. By the end of 6 overs, they raced to 67 and Sehwag's contribution was mere 17 and Warner's was 43. Very rarely in any format you'd find Sehwag contributing very little in the scoreline in the first few overs of the game. Sehwag did make a decent 37, but that was not at all what we know Sehwag is capable of. Ojha, Pathan did fight a little but in the end Mathew Wade and James Hopes saw Delhi home and cross the winning line first time this season. Not to forget that little man Y Venugopal Rao's contribution.

At this point the most hopeless teams in the tournament are RCB, Deccan Chargers and Delhi to an extent.

We have seen a remarkable upturn in the fortunes of Kochi, Punjab who looked out of sorts in their first few games. The star so far has been the Mumbai man Paul Valthaty who has not only excelled with bat, but with ball too.

Not sure if he would ever make it to the Indian setup in ODIs or T20s at this point, but if he goes on to make bigger impacts in the upcoming games then who knows what future holds for this man who unfortunately lost his some bit of vision in 2002.

There have been some unnoticed lads who have gone on to make an impact with the respective franchisees / teams but havent got the due recognition. Few such guys are:

1. Ambati Rayudu for Mumbai. He and Sachin have been in such a form that the lads like Symmo, Pollard and R Sathish havent got many balls to bat for.

2. Y Venugopal Rao for Delhi.

3. Maninder Bisla for KKR with the gloves.

4. Iqbal Abdullah for KKR

5. Forgotten L Balaji who was such a force until Mohali 2005 when he took a 5-for in the first day of the series against Pak and thereafter continued injuries claimed him.

There are murmurs that few senior guys like Tendulkar, MS, Sehwag, Gambhir, Zaheer might skip the WI ODI leg tour and that might invite few replacements. That would provide a very good opportunity for the next gen players to try make an impact here in the IPL and force a selection in that team if seniors are rested. And it would be great that usual culprits as replacements -- Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Sir Jadeja and so forth are over looked and instead guys like Ajinkya Rahane, Che Pujara are given chances.

"Sachin's Jinx"

2011-04-16T10:18:00.000-04:00

Sachin scored a 100 and as his critics would point out his team lost. They shall call it as a jinx. Happened in world cup, happened in IPL.

So they say Sachin shouldnt score a 100 to let his team win.

The opening partnership of Baz and Jayawardene was well capitalised by Sir Jadeja who hit a few sixes. Now he is a different player when it comes to IPL and when it comes to play for India. When he plays for India, he scratches around, doesnt know what to do when the run rate climbs.

But in IPL he has a spark in the eyes. He becomes a different player in IPL. Suddenly he finds sixes, fours coming out of his bat, he springs and all.

And now except Pune, all teams have now lost at least 1 game.

Still Mumbai looks the strongest team in the tournament and the man is yet to get dismissed in the tournament.

Deccan Chargers and KKR win

2011-04-15T11:28:00.001-04:00

Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders registered comfortable wins in their 3rd games.

Deccan looked determined right from the onset and the Bangalore chase never happened even though Virat Kohli fought till the end. The batting order of RCB was flawed. Pujara coming at 6 after the lesser players was an awful sin and that reflected in their 33 runs loss. They have now lost last 2 games and they suddenly seem the team of the 2008 season rather than being the team of 2009 and 2010 under gutsy Anil Kumble. Still early days though, they would look forward to bounce back in the next few games.

Kolkata Knight Riders had their best outing in the IPL most probably today earlier morning EST. Gambhir played an aggressive knock after ages and the good thing was he didnt throw his wicket away. Kallis and he guided KKR to a comfortable win in the end thus ending fairytale of RR in Jaipur where they have won 9 of 12 games. The RR got a start but none of them converted that start to a big score. Dravid has been solid, but his strike rate has been in lowly 100s and 110s not quite upto the mark. It was sinful not to have opened with Shane Watson instead of Paunikar who had a 3rd failure in row.

The RR got their batting order flawed today and 159 wasnt a very safe score given the batting lineup the KKR have. Shane Warne for first time looked pedestal and today he had no resources and tricks to beat KKR in the game and in the end KKR romped home by 9 wickets.

And in the ongoing game, its the Tendulkar magic yet again. He is yet to get out this tournament and his last dismissal had been 2 weeks back on this very ground off his team mate Lasith Malinga.

Its a bit irony and strange that the cricket is back on the iconic Wankhede after 2 weeks India won that epic world cup final.

PS : India's 2 Test stalwarts Laxman, Dravid are injured and though its too early to press panic before West Indies tour, their handling in the IPL would be a thing to watch out for. Another concern is the dodgy shoulder of Virender Sehwag and some media reports say that he neeeds a surgery and for that he might skip the West Indies tour. Not good though if true.

Mumbai and Kings XI win

2011-04-13T19:53:00.000-04:00

Mumbai prevailed over Bangalore yesterday with Sachin continuing his super run into this tournament as well. The best thing about his innings was he allowed Rayudu to take over and he was happy playing second fiddle. And the gesture to share the MoM award with him was even better.

Zaheer was struggling and that was the difference between defeat and victory for Bangalore. Virat Kohli now needs to be little less innovative to find new ways to get out.

In other game Praveen showed how dangerous he is when ball swings and how ordinary he is when ball stops moving. Vijay and Dabri showed how good they are for IPL. Dhoni continued his superb batting run. No matter how many runs he makes now from this point, his super six off Kula would itch forever. That 6 got India the world cup.

Paul Valtathy hit a super 111 to see Kings XI home in a tough chase of 189 runs. Given the fact that CSK have been exceptional while defending scores of 180+,the effort from Kings was kingsman. They have had a brittle batting lineup, but today promoting Valtathy to opening spot was a master stroke.

CSK havent got going this tournament, but they are led by MS and thats the singlemost USP for them. As long as MS doesnt run out of the ideas, they are always in the contention to go the distance.

Rajasthan, Pune and Mumbai are the only teams to have won 2 games of 2.

Probable wooden spoon holders for IPL 4

2011-04-12T11:04:00.001-04:00

Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab and probably Mahela's Kochi Tuskers seem to be the weakest teams in this years' IPL. DC and DD have already lost 2 games. Kings XI might do so next. Tuskers have the biggest comic of the modern times in their team and he can be the factor between win and loss.

Delhi Daredevils is too dependent on Warner and Sehwag. Sehwag hasnt fired in the first 2 games and he seems to be going back to the 2007 days (Just a slight hint, given the way he has thrown his wickets after that 175).

The others except Y V Rao have failed to step up when required and the bowling has looked pedestal. Irfan Pathan troubled Mumbai batsmen for a while in first game but today he was taken to cleaners by Rahul Dravid who knows his bowling inside out from 2003 days .

Lest Sehwag steps up his game and stays for good part of 20 overs, its difficult to imaging DD going all the way to the semis.

Ditto for Deccan Chargers, these 2 teams have been hit by players exodus and though they have signed few key players but they seem off at this moment.

Pune Warriors get a dream debut

2011-04-10T18:49:00.000-04:00

The second new team in the IPL this year, the 2nd from Maharashtra, the team which almost had a quiet build up to the IPL since its inception last year had a dream debut in the IPL 4. Having got to play its first game in adjoining Navi Mumbai, the team streamrolled KXIP and its tough luck continued.

Nothing went right for KXIP since the toss. The new skipper, the old opener, the new reserve keeper, everybody failed and at one time its score read 4 for 9. (Or 9 for 4).

Dinesh Karthik scored a duck.

Punjab were restricted to 112 though Ryan McLaren did his best to up the ante, but the rest around him just didnt battle enough.

Graeme Smith's horror form continued and this time it was not Zak who nailed him, but Praveen Pehelwan who got him first ball of the innings.

And though Kings XI got 2 quick wickets of Jesse Ryder and Manhas, the pair of Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh took Pune Warriors home without any further hiccup.A dream debut for Pune.

Surprised to see Chitale Bandhu / Joshi Vadewale / Rohit Wadewale not figuring on the black jerseys of Pune Warriors India.

Delhi banished

2011-04-10T12:29:00.000-04:00

Lasith Malinga did what he did best, bowled yorkers and demolished Daredevils batting lineup for just 95 and in the end Sachin Tendulkar saw Mumbai home.

Sehwag scored just 19 and that wasnt enough for DD to post a competitive total. He, Warner and Aaron Finch are the only men who were of some quality in the exodus'ed team. They lost AB, Dilshan, Vettori and Gambhir in the auction to see themselves as one of the weakest team in this IPL.

A heartening site was to see some swing for Irfan Pathan, though he didnt get the wickets. He did trouble the batsmen with the balls that came in. That has been his strength in his peak years.

Sehwag would need to do more than what he did today and perhaps he shall need to bat 20 overs to ensure DD post a competitive total in the other games.

Players to watch out this IPL

2011-04-09T21:29:00.000-04:00

Players to watch out for this IPL from Indian perspective.

1. Ishant Sharma for the 3rd seamer in the ODIs. He leaks out runs and isnt very wicket taking bowler, yet he is better than Munaf and Freesanth, for he has a nack to get the bounce and carry. And he has got the pace to ruffle the batsmen.

2. Irfan Pathan for that # 7 spot in the ODIs. Compete with his brother. He is far better player than Yusuf Pathan and what he is billed for now. If he gets that swing back and is back to fitness, look no further than Irfan. A man who has had 90s and has batted at # 3 in both Tests and ODIs should be a lucrative prospect back in the team when fit and on the top of the game.

3. Manish Pandey : Can he now stake a claim in the ODI team if he has a successful IPL? If the likes of Vijay and Dhawan can get their chances owing to small success they had in IPL, then this lad who'z got some tremendous knocks in IPL and Ranji should get a look ahead in the lesser significant ODI series.

4. Cheteshwar Pujara: The things for that # 6 spot in the Tests would hot up once again when team travels to West Indies now that Yuvraj and Raina are back in the form. Tests are a bit too far for now, but if he proves his mettle for RCB, then he might also come in the reckoning as a backup player in the ODI setup as well.

There are not many open spots in the world champion team at the moment except # 7 spot. Sachin Tendulkar might not play ODIs any more, so the opening shall be going back to the Gauti - Viru combo followed by Kohli and Yuvraj. And then Raina and Dhoni.

So if there are couple of lads like Irfan or Saurabh Tiwary can get some success this IPL they can edge through the likes of tested and failed Jadeja and Fuddi Pathan.

Ravinder Jadeja today batted like he always does in the IPL, but he fails for India. One of those players who hit iron hot form in IPL, but flounder in the national colors. Freesanth, Rohit Sharma, IPL Ojha, Amit Mishra, Jadeja, Fuddi Pathan are the proud members of this lot.

Pune Preview

2011-04-09T21:18:00.000-04:00

I dont like Pune the city. 6+ years in that city were good to give me jitters to stay away from the city. But the IPL is back in that city. With its own team. No stadium. The age old Jawaharlal Nehru stadium is pathetic to host any game, be it IPL or a MPL or a club game. The new stadium in Gahunje, between Pune and Mumbai seems not ready to host the game.

Its 50 kms away from the IT park in Hinjewadi, the awful place for traffic jams. Given how bad public transport in Pune is, how many people would have travelled to Gahunje to view the games. So Pune would play all its home games in DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai.

Logistics apart, the team is called Sahara Warriors.

And is led by the reborn man of the World Cup, Yuvraj Singh. Its such a joy to see Yuvraj in full flow. And he is very much near the peak he has achieved in 2007-2008 duration. He would be a man brimming with confidence given his exploits in the premier tournament of the world.

He is up against Kings XI, franchisee for which he was icon player for 3 seasons. And they dented his confidence in 2010 when they gave the captaincy to Kumar Sangakara Nanga to end up wooden spoon holders. So he shall have a point to prove against them.

Team composition:

Desi players:

Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Uthappa, Wagh, Dheeraj Jadhav, Rahul Sharma, Manish Pandey, Mundhe, Manhas, Kartik, Jhunjhunwala, etc

Foreign Players:

Callum Fergie, Graeme Smith, Nathan McCullum, Angelo Matthews, Tim Paine, Jesse Ryder, Wayne Parnell, Jerome Taylor

The team is decent, the chances for them to go to the semis depends on how the team composition is decided and most importantly on the form of Yuvraj Singh.

The Bhamte and old generation Pune would support Yuvraj as IPL captain? Doubtful. They dont have too many players from Pune except few. Dheeraj Jadhav is one of them followed by Wagh and Khadiwale. The Puneris are a bit averse to the outsiders, so they warming up to the IPL players is a bit doubtful.

Freesanth gets a zip in IPL

2011-04-09T13:40:00.000-04:00

Lead tusker Sreesanth continued his antics in the first home IPL game. What was amazing to see was to get the swing and the zip he got. Something which was amiss in the world cup.

Misplaced priorities?

Please save us from Indian Russell Arnold -- Laxman Shivramkrishnan. He is just a fucktard.. Make him sit on a tusker and let it scream over him. Even the tusker would go wild and mad listening Shivramkrishnan.

Sanga cant lead sala

2011-04-09T13:33:00.000-04:00

Dabba Chargers or Dhakkan Chokers -- as you might want to call the 2009 champions, they are funnier lot. They played 5 bowlers today -- Steyn, Sharma, Christian, Ojha and Mishra. 4 of them genuine wicket takers. Mishra and Ojha amongst the top 2 wicket takers last edition.

Unfortunately they continued to lose their own home ground and VVS Laxman might be smiling down in Kochi seeing the plight of the home franchisee.

Positives:

Ishant Sharma didnt take a wicket, but he troubled batsmen quite a few times and he got bounce and carry on the pitch. Something that augurs well for the confidence of the bowler. ODI setup needs an express bowler and need to look no further than this lad if he gets his economy rate under control.

Negatives:

Ojha is yet to recover from the shock of world cup omission.

Sanga Nanga got off to a disastrous start to his 2nd franchisee captaincy stint. He lost the world cup final last Saturday and today he lost the IPL opener. He got a duck as well. Aduck getting a duck.

Rajasthan got off to a good winning start and the move to open with Dravid doesnt quite look good.

The worst part is the same commentators who were good a week back and now are shouting the usual IPL associated cliches. How sad.

Randi bhai

2011-04-08T13:46:00.002-04:00

Randi bhai just got hit for 14 runs in a single over and has effectively sealed the game for KKR.

No oh he has got Tiwary out. Randi has got a wikat. And he did not even bowl a no-ball. What has Randi done? He's got Tiwary stumped but not off Sanga Nanga, but off MSD.....Oh boy Randi!!!!!!!!!!!!

Murali Vijay cant play in IPL now

2011-04-08T10:49:00.002-04:00

Poor Murali Vijay. He now cannot play in front of his home crowd and in tailor made IPL now. Useless guy.

Kochi Elephants led by a Mahila

2011-04-08T10:20:00.002-04:00

Kochi Elephants Kerala.

Led by a Lankan World Cup losing captain and a centurion in succesive finals. Maniacked by insane, lunatic Freesanth, chucked invalid by Muralitharan and silkened by Vengiruppu Venkata Sai Laxman, the only saving grace. But then he is no T20 player.

The team has alreddy being in the controbersy bhen Shashi Pushkar Tharoor did all that crap ad had to lose his job, later he married Sunanda Sweet Equity Pushkar.

Captain: A lady by the name of Mahila Jaya is leading the team in the IPL.

Indian players:

B Akhil (From RCB), VVS Laxman (Indian great from DC), Some Chowgule, Rao, Jadeja (remember useless?), Gomez, Kedar Jadhav, Chandan sa Badan Madan Chitwan, Marathe, RP Singh, Romesh Pawar (Why doesnt he retire?), Vinay Kumar, Tanmay Srivastav and the one and only FREESANTH.

Foreign players:

Mahila Jayablabbawardhene, Chuck Chuckalidaran, Owais Shah, Hastings, Steven Smith, Thisara Hit me Parera, Baz, Brad Hodge, Michael Klinger.

Mahila and Chuck shall always play. VVS wont play. Freesanth shall throw tantrums if not bowled or if he didnt get a wicket. What if he runs into say MS?

They've got a very idiotic dress and their Lankan imports are seen in some comical war pose.

Dont think they would make any impact in the tournament though they've got a fairly decent opening pair in Baz and Mahila.

All the good work that could be done by the other bowlers shall be undone by the Charlie Sheen of Indian cricket -- Freesanth