With a hectic time at office, it’s been hard to find time to catch up with all the matches last week. The IPL with its jam packed schedule is not only testing the endurance of players but the fans too! I wonder how exhausted all of us will be, come the T-20 world cup!
It’s been a week of fluctuating fortunes with literally every team except Delhi and KKR standing unsure of their future course in the tournament till Saturday. The Delhi juggernaut continued to roll on with the odd hiccup against Kings’ XI and KKR have improved from losing badly to coming close but still not able to close out a match. CSK has stamped their authority back in the tournament with 5 consecutive victories but put themselves in a vulnerable position going into the match against Mumbai Indians by losing to B’lore in the earlier match.
In the meanwhile Mumbai have continued their “one step forward, one and half steps back" campaign in this IPL. But at the end of Saturday’s games, 2 semi-final spots seem to have been finalized and with Mumbai losing the do or die battle against CSK, 2 teams are surely eliminated. And amazingly B’lore is still in with a chance. Its gonna be fun to see Deccan, Rajasthan, B’lore and Kings’ XI fight it out for the remaining 2 semi-final spots.
It’s been a bizarre week. Deccan lost a match which it had in its bag against Mumbai. Mumbai did the same against Rajasthan Royals! And just what should KKR do to win a game? They did everything right against B’lore till Ross Taylor came out and played an absolute blinder to get B’lore out of jail and he did a repeat act (a less thrilling one though) against Mumbai too to keep B’lore’s hopes afloat.
But nothing was quite as bizarre as the match between Deccan and KKR. With 21 runs required off the last over, all the camera focus was on the KKR dug out – finally they were about to pull of a win. And then McCullum commits a blunder which would be remembered for long – has only 3 fielders inside the circle for the first ball off the last over and Rohit doesn’t make his life any better by belting it for a boundary. Amazingly Mccullum seemed to be suggesting to the umpire that it should have been called a dead ball!
With 16 runs required off 6 balls, Deccan would have fancied their chances especially with the classy Rohit Sharma on strike. Just as luck would have it, Mortaza bowled a full toss which Rohit deposited on top of a stand some 115 meters away. This was the decisive blow which sucked any little life left out of KKR. Then Rohit played a lovely cover drive for four and an audacious pull for a six when all that was required was a single to finish off the match. I have said it many times before and wouldn’t mind saying that again – he is simply the best young batsman in the country right now. Can’t wait for him to get a test berth!
Whoever makes it to the semi-finals, I would love to see a Delhi-Chennai final!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
IPL Day 22: Of grit and graceful grit
In the match between the last year’s finalists, the competition started even before the first ball was bowled with Warnie hurling a bouncer at Dhoni by calling Chennai poor chasers at the toss. Not the one to duck ungainly at the bouncer, Dhoni added more spice by saying that Rajasthan Royals will be under pressure to put up a big total against CSK’s strong batting line up.
After yet another first over dismissal from Albie Morkel, CSK built on the pressure to ensure that Rajasthan Royals didn’t get away to a great start. After a patient 3o from Graeme Smith, some lusty hitting from Ravinder Jadeja in the middle and a cameo from Shane Warne ensured that RR put a decent enough total to make a match of it.
With Hayden continuing his rich vein of form, it looked like CSK will cruise through easily despite the loss of Vijay and Raina by the 6th over. Then came Warnie and bowled a mesmerizing over to Badri which would have given the CSK dug out a few uncomfortable moments. Having watched it from the other end, Hayden took it upon himself to take the attack to his ex-teammate and how well he did it. First he reverse swept Warnie for a four, but what followed was pure genius. In a pitch which was stopping a bit after pitching, turning square, against the ever so wily Warnie, Haydos walks down the pitch with the calmness of a monk and whacks it over long on for a six. And amidst all this not a thought of failure!
Having survived the Warne scare, Badri grew in confidence at the other end and scored 18 runs off an over from Shane Harwood. First he moved inside the line to lift the ball over fine leg for a six, then steered a boundary wide off point, helped himself for a boundary on the on side when the bowler erred in line and finished off with a cheeky little upper cut over the keeper’s head. The match was almost settled in that over. But Warnie came back and got Hayden stumped down the leg side to give RR some hope. But Badri ensured that CSK romped home without any more damage. It was a fine display of gritty batting from Badri after being made to look clueless against Warne and he admitted just as much in the post match conference too!
But the match wasn’t over yet. Just like how it started before the first ball was bowled, it ended after the last ball was bowled. Shane Warne comes out to the post match conference and says they were 20 runs short and Dhoni claims they gave away 20 runs too many!
In the first match of the day, Deccan were off to a flier only to lose their way mid way through but Symonds on his comeback match resurrected the slide beautifully. He handed out a special treatment to Sreesanth especially and with Venugopal Rao playing a nice little cameo, Deccan put up a competitive 168 on the board.
Kings’ XI got off to rollicking start with Sohal displaying his weird brand of cricket - moving away from the stumps almost all the time and trying to clear the off-side field. He did it astonishingly well and when the bowler chased him, dispatched the ball over fine leg for a six too. Just when Kings’ XI looked like running away with the match, Gilly brought on his man with the golden arm – Rohit Sharma. And Rohit struck in his over not once but twice, dismissing both Sohal and Katich in the same over. In came Yuvraj and Sangakkara and cruised along at a fair clip until a moment of brain freeze resulted in Sanga paddle sweeping Shoaib Maqsusi onto his stumps. Immediately after, Yuvraj too seemed to have gotten a brain freeze when he played an ungainly pull of a ball which stopped a bit after pitching to give a skier to Gilly. Going into the Strategy break, Gilly should have backed themselves to win.
But Mahela had other ideas. With 82 required from 10 overs, asked Irfan to refrain from doing anything silly and motored along at a fair clip for the next few overs. He lost Irfan along the way and was involved in a run out soon after but that didn’t seem to deter him too much though. Just when the run rate seemed to be climbing to more than comfortable levels, Mahela upped the tempo by tonking Suman over mid-wicket for a six and then came down the next ball and thwarted it over long-on for another six and continued the assault into Ojha's next over too by hitting him to square leg for another four. A couple of balls later, a slight indecision and cramps resulted in his run-out. But Brett Lee and Piyush Chawla ensured that Mahela’s dismissal wasn’t regretted.
The beauty of Mahela’s innings was that under so much pressure, he summoned all his grit but didn’t look ungainly for one moment through the innings.
After yet another first over dismissal from Albie Morkel, CSK built on the pressure to ensure that Rajasthan Royals didn’t get away to a great start. After a patient 3o from Graeme Smith, some lusty hitting from Ravinder Jadeja in the middle and a cameo from Shane Warne ensured that RR put a decent enough total to make a match of it.
With Hayden continuing his rich vein of form, it looked like CSK will cruise through easily despite the loss of Vijay and Raina by the 6th over. Then came Warnie and bowled a mesmerizing over to Badri which would have given the CSK dug out a few uncomfortable moments. Having watched it from the other end, Hayden took it upon himself to take the attack to his ex-teammate and how well he did it. First he reverse swept Warnie for a four, but what followed was pure genius. In a pitch which was stopping a bit after pitching, turning square, against the ever so wily Warnie, Haydos walks down the pitch with the calmness of a monk and whacks it over long on for a six. And amidst all this not a thought of failure!
Having survived the Warne scare, Badri grew in confidence at the other end and scored 18 runs off an over from Shane Harwood. First he moved inside the line to lift the ball over fine leg for a six, then steered a boundary wide off point, helped himself for a boundary on the on side when the bowler erred in line and finished off with a cheeky little upper cut over the keeper’s head. The match was almost settled in that over. But Warnie came back and got Hayden stumped down the leg side to give RR some hope. But Badri ensured that CSK romped home without any more damage. It was a fine display of gritty batting from Badri after being made to look clueless against Warne and he admitted just as much in the post match conference too!
But the match wasn’t over yet. Just like how it started before the first ball was bowled, it ended after the last ball was bowled. Shane Warne comes out to the post match conference and says they were 20 runs short and Dhoni claims they gave away 20 runs too many!
In the first match of the day, Deccan were off to a flier only to lose their way mid way through but Symonds on his comeback match resurrected the slide beautifully. He handed out a special treatment to Sreesanth especially and with Venugopal Rao playing a nice little cameo, Deccan put up a competitive 168 on the board.
Kings’ XI got off to rollicking start with Sohal displaying his weird brand of cricket - moving away from the stumps almost all the time and trying to clear the off-side field. He did it astonishingly well and when the bowler chased him, dispatched the ball over fine leg for a six too. Just when Kings’ XI looked like running away with the match, Gilly brought on his man with the golden arm – Rohit Sharma. And Rohit struck in his over not once but twice, dismissing both Sohal and Katich in the same over. In came Yuvraj and Sangakkara and cruised along at a fair clip until a moment of brain freeze resulted in Sanga paddle sweeping Shoaib Maqsusi onto his stumps. Immediately after, Yuvraj too seemed to have gotten a brain freeze when he played an ungainly pull of a ball which stopped a bit after pitching to give a skier to Gilly. Going into the Strategy break, Gilly should have backed themselves to win.
But Mahela had other ideas. With 82 required from 10 overs, asked Irfan to refrain from doing anything silly and motored along at a fair clip for the next few overs. He lost Irfan along the way and was involved in a run out soon after but that didn’t seem to deter him too much though. Just when the run rate seemed to be climbing to more than comfortable levels, Mahela upped the tempo by tonking Suman over mid-wicket for a six and then came down the next ball and thwarted it over long-on for another six and continued the assault into Ojha's next over too by hitting him to square leg for another four. A couple of balls later, a slight indecision and cramps resulted in his run-out. But Brett Lee and Piyush Chawla ensured that Mahela’s dismissal wasn’t regretted.
The beauty of Mahela’s innings was that under so much pressure, he summoned all his grit but didn’t look ungainly for one moment through the innings.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
IPL Day 21: Dominant Delhi
After a good start to the tournament, Mumbai Indians have lost their steam in the business stages of the tournament. As a desperate measure to change their fortunes, tinkered with what is arguably their biggest strength – Sachin and Sanath opening the innings. With Sanath not playing, Sachin brought himself down the order promoting Ronchi and Duminy to open the innings. With both openers not disturbing the scorers Mumbai were on the back foot straightaway and except for Bravo no one really made an impact. The writing was on the wall once Mumbai put up such a mediocre score against a strong Delhi batting line up.
But Mumbai still made a match of it with some very tight bowling from Dhaval Kulkarni and JP Duminy too. Just as they were pushing the match to the edge and with spinners doing well, Sachin took a gamble of bowling himself for an over and went away for 19 runs. It was all over then. AB has been making fast strides to move from just being a good batsman to a great batsman since the beginning of this season in Australia and his fine display in IPL so far is further proof of that. Since the beginning Delhi has looked the best team in the competition and after 35 matches, they are still the team to beat.
But Mumbai still made a match of it with some very tight bowling from Dhaval Kulkarni and JP Duminy too. Just as they were pushing the match to the edge and with spinners doing well, Sachin took a gamble of bowling himself for an over and went away for 19 runs. It was all over then. AB has been making fast strides to move from just being a good batsman to a great batsman since the beginning of this season in Australia and his fine display in IPL so far is further proof of that. Since the beginning Delhi has looked the best team in the competition and after 35 matches, they are still the team to beat.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
IPL Day 20: Mouthwatering stuff
Just what motivates a man of 37 years, retired from all forms of the game except IPL and has achieved almost everything that young cricketers would dream of. What else does he have to prove and to who? These are questions of mere mortals, to men like Haydos, they simply do what they are meant to do – compete hard, bloody hard. In this kind of a form, it doesn’t look like he’s gonna handover the orange cap to anyone almost through the length of the tournament.
The greatest pleasure of watching Hayden over the years has been his arrogant style of walking down the pitch against bowlers of all kind and depositing that red cherry over the stands. I can never forget one shot that he played against Shoaib Akhtar in Morroco in a one-day international. When most batsmen instinctively tend to go back against the pace of Shoaib Akhtar, this man walks down almost a quarter of the track and hits Shoaib’s thunderbolt out of the ground and doesn’t even bother to look up the ball and rather checks the edge of his bat! Its almost like spitting at the bowler – oh… this is what you’ve got – is it?
Today Haydos was in that kind of a mood, dancing down against the spinners and thwarting them out of the ground and that one-handed six of Sreesanth was probably the shot of the day (till I changed my opinion on seeing Mahela’s six against Murali). As if that’s not enough headache for Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni joined in the party too. That one over against VRV Singh, Dhoni flat batted a square cut for a six over point, then hit a home run and followed that up with a forehand smash to mid-wicket. Rain or no rain, CSK gave themselves the best chance of winning by posting a mammoth total.
King’s XI started off rather badly with Sohal gifting his wicket away.That didn’t deter Katich much though; he was in a mood to make a match of it and he was smashing the CSK bowlers - both spinners and fast bowlers, all around the park. Just when he was starting to look dangerous, played a horrendous shot to gift his wicket to a loosener from Balaji. Yuvraj at the other end was in his elements from the beginning smashing Murali for a huge six and when he tried to replicate that again, Goni generously continued Chennai’s catch dropping tradition in this IPL!Yuvraj rubbed salt into CSK's wounds by hitting the biggest six of IPL soon after. And with an in-form Mahela for company, the chase was certainly on.
If Hayden at his belligerent best scored at a strike rate of 153, Mahela bettered that in his own silky grace style. He started off by reverse sweeping his country man for a boundary and that inside out six over cover against Murali was straight out of heaven, but equally effective were his exploits against Balaji especially that flat pull for a six. Yuvraj and Mahela put together a 50 run partnership in next to no time and just when CSK were looking like losing control of the match, Dhoni brought in Suresh Raina out of nowhere to bowl the 15th and 17th overs and he did exactly what his captain wanted him to do – choked up the runs. And Balaji bowled an icy cool final over to close out the match.
BTW there was one match earlier in the day right? I guess Rajasthan Royals won against a not so Royal Challengers!
The greatest pleasure of watching Hayden over the years has been his arrogant style of walking down the pitch against bowlers of all kind and depositing that red cherry over the stands. I can never forget one shot that he played against Shoaib Akhtar in Morroco in a one-day international. When most batsmen instinctively tend to go back against the pace of Shoaib Akhtar, this man walks down almost a quarter of the track and hits Shoaib’s thunderbolt out of the ground and doesn’t even bother to look up the ball and rather checks the edge of his bat! Its almost like spitting at the bowler – oh… this is what you’ve got – is it?
Today Haydos was in that kind of a mood, dancing down against the spinners and thwarting them out of the ground and that one-handed six of Sreesanth was probably the shot of the day (till I changed my opinion on seeing Mahela’s six against Murali). As if that’s not enough headache for Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni joined in the party too. That one over against VRV Singh, Dhoni flat batted a square cut for a six over point, then hit a home run and followed that up with a forehand smash to mid-wicket. Rain or no rain, CSK gave themselves the best chance of winning by posting a mammoth total.
King’s XI started off rather badly with Sohal gifting his wicket away.That didn’t deter Katich much though; he was in a mood to make a match of it and he was smashing the CSK bowlers - both spinners and fast bowlers, all around the park. Just when he was starting to look dangerous, played a horrendous shot to gift his wicket to a loosener from Balaji. Yuvraj at the other end was in his elements from the beginning smashing Murali for a huge six and when he tried to replicate that again, Goni generously continued Chennai’s catch dropping tradition in this IPL!Yuvraj rubbed salt into CSK's wounds by hitting the biggest six of IPL soon after. And with an in-form Mahela for company, the chase was certainly on.
If Hayden at his belligerent best scored at a strike rate of 153, Mahela bettered that in his own silky grace style. He started off by reverse sweeping his country man for a boundary and that inside out six over cover against Murali was straight out of heaven, but equally effective were his exploits against Balaji especially that flat pull for a six. Yuvraj and Mahela put together a 50 run partnership in next to no time and just when CSK were looking like losing control of the match, Dhoni brought in Suresh Raina out of nowhere to bowl the 15th and 17th overs and he did exactly what his captain wanted him to do – choked up the runs. And Balaji bowled an icy cool final over to close out the match.
BTW there was one match earlier in the day right? I guess Rajasthan Royals won against a not so Royal Challengers!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
IPL Day 19: Rohit Sharma steals the show
Deccan looked every bit like the team which had lost 3 matches on the trot. They didn’t look like winning it till Mumbai pressed the panic button. Gibbs consumed nearly an over to get out without scoring and Gilly couldn’t set the world on fire either. A sensible innings from the classy Rohit Sharma and a useful cameo from Venugopal rao helped Deccan post 145 on the board.
R.P.Singh has had no inhibitions in expressing his love for the SA wickets both on the field and off it. It’s not difficult to understand the reason though. He had a very good T-20 world cup and now has had a terrific IPL too. As if to celebrate his comeback to the Indian team for the T-20 world cup, he removed Sanath and Sachin in successive deliveries and got back the purple cap too! With Mumbai on the back foot straightaway, it required all the solidity of Duminy to pave their way back into the match. And just when they seemed to be cruising along, Bravo holed out to long off.
After the fall of Bravo, it was a Rohit Sharma show all the way. He picked up the second hat-trick of this IPL to finish with figures of 4 for 6 off 2 overs. What’s about these pie-chuckers and hat-trick in this IPL? Once Duminy was gone, Mumbai had no hope left.
R.P.Singh has had no inhibitions in expressing his love for the SA wickets both on the field and off it. It’s not difficult to understand the reason though. He had a very good T-20 world cup and now has had a terrific IPL too. As if to celebrate his comeback to the Indian team for the T-20 world cup, he removed Sanath and Sachin in successive deliveries and got back the purple cap too! With Mumbai on the back foot straightaway, it required all the solidity of Duminy to pave their way back into the match. And just when they seemed to be cruising along, Bravo holed out to long off.
After the fall of Bravo, it was a Rohit Sharma show all the way. He picked up the second hat-trick of this IPL to finish with figures of 4 for 6 off 2 overs. What’s about these pie-chuckers and hat-trick in this IPL? Once Duminy was gone, Mumbai had no hope left.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
IPL Day 18: Royal Rajasthan and hapless KKR
Everytime RR had been categorized as favorites they have lost and every time they were written off they have comeback – the team’s character seems to be an extension of the captain’s. Oh boy did their openers come out blazing today! Where was Naman Ojha all this while? He launched into Ramesh Powar even before the bowler could warm up which set the tone for the match.
Graeme Smith, who’s had a quiet tournament by his standards couldn’t have timed his return to form better. If he played the second fiddle to perfection in the previous match, he was at his belligerent best today. Then Ravinder Jadeja came out and showed us why Shane Warne rates him so high. It was a blitzkrieg that sucked whatever little life was left out of King’s XI.
With the tournament’s highest score to chase, King’s XI badly needed a flying start and once that wasn’t to be, they were going down the hill all the time. Yuvraj provided a bit of fireworks at the end but it was too little too late. And where does Shane Warne scout for fast bowling talent? Amit Singh gave a good account of himself in a quality spell. It’s exciting to see domestic players expressing themselves on such a grand stage.
And the second match of the day had no surprises with KKR looking as clueless on the field as they have been with the bat and ball so far in this tournament. For once McCullum got going and with van Wyk providing the much needed inspiration for KKR at the top of the order, there was some hope of making a turnaround in their fortunes.
But that little hope faded away completely in a hopeless display of fielding. And Delhi were anyways too strong to be overwhelmed by a just about par total. Delhi has looked the best team on paper since beginning and they are doing their reputation no harm by being ruthless on the field so far in this IPL.
Graeme Smith, who’s had a quiet tournament by his standards couldn’t have timed his return to form better. If he played the second fiddle to perfection in the previous match, he was at his belligerent best today. Then Ravinder Jadeja came out and showed us why Shane Warne rates him so high. It was a blitzkrieg that sucked whatever little life was left out of King’s XI.
With the tournament’s highest score to chase, King’s XI badly needed a flying start and once that wasn’t to be, they were going down the hill all the time. Yuvraj provided a bit of fireworks at the end but it was too little too late. And where does Shane Warne scout for fast bowling talent? Amit Singh gave a good account of himself in a quality spell. It’s exciting to see domestic players expressing themselves on such a grand stage.
And the second match of the day had no surprises with KKR looking as clueless on the field as they have been with the bat and ball so far in this tournament. For once McCullum got going and with van Wyk providing the much needed inspiration for KKR at the top of the order, there was some hope of making a turnaround in their fortunes.
But that little hope faded away completely in a hopeless display of fielding. And Delhi were anyways too strong to be overwhelmed by a just about par total. Delhi has looked the best team on paper since beginning and they are doing their reputation no harm by being ruthless on the field so far in this IPL.
Monday, May 4, 2009
IPL Day 17: CSK bulldozes past Deccan
Just by looking at the scorecard, if you can figure out how dominant CSK was against the Deccan Chargers, watching CSK’s fielding would have told you that the result could have been much worse for Deccan. In what must be rated as one of the funniest moments on a cricket field, Shadab Jakati did everything he could to avoid effecting what must one of the easiest run-out chances ever. It was such a comedy of errors that even Courtney Walsh would have been embarrassed to see! Add that to the near half a dozen dropped chances…
Albeit a poor show on the field, CSK bulldozed past Deccan with consummate ease. After yet another blazing start from Matt Hayden, Dhoni came into his own for the first time in this tournament. His belligerence is not something new to us, but that farmer’s club straight back past the bowler was some sight. Is that wrist or something else? There was the trademark down the track heave over mid wicket and the Kapil Dev resembling pull too in an innings which befittingly got Dhoni a MOM award. And like always Suresh Raina played his part to the “T”.
If there is any team which is capable of chasing down Chennai’s mammoth total, Deccan is one of them. But it was curtains for them even before it began with Gilly walking back to the pavilion after the very first ball of the innings. And Sudeep Tyagi continued to impress with a beauty to get rid of the dangerous Gibbs. There was nothing special from the Very Very Special Laxman too.
From 1 for 3 (3 wickets for one run) chasing 179, Deccan needed a miracle to get back into the match, they almost got half of it, a quarter from Dwayne Smith’s maverick batting and a quarter from CSK’s amusing fielding! Jakati cashed in on good work done by Tyagi and Morkel with his second consecutive four wicket haul. There’s something about Goan’s and IPL. It was Asnodkar last year and Jakati this year who earned himself a release from the obscurity of domestic cricket! Hopefully more such men emerge…
Albeit a poor show on the field, CSK bulldozed past Deccan with consummate ease. After yet another blazing start from Matt Hayden, Dhoni came into his own for the first time in this tournament. His belligerence is not something new to us, but that farmer’s club straight back past the bowler was some sight. Is that wrist or something else? There was the trademark down the track heave over mid wicket and the Kapil Dev resembling pull too in an innings which befittingly got Dhoni a MOM award. And like always Suresh Raina played his part to the “T”.
If there is any team which is capable of chasing down Chennai’s mammoth total, Deccan is one of them. But it was curtains for them even before it began with Gilly walking back to the pavilion after the very first ball of the innings. And Sudeep Tyagi continued to impress with a beauty to get rid of the dangerous Gibbs. There was nothing special from the Very Very Special Laxman too.
From 1 for 3 (3 wickets for one run) chasing 179, Deccan needed a miracle to get back into the match, they almost got half of it, a quarter from Dwayne Smith’s maverick batting and a quarter from CSK’s amusing fielding! Jakati cashed in on good work done by Tyagi and Morkel with his second consecutive four wicket haul. There’s something about Goan’s and IPL. It was Asnodkar last year and Jakati this year who earned himself a release from the obscurity of domestic cricket! Hopefully more such men emerge…
Sunday, May 3, 2009
IPL Day 16: Royal Challengers are back….
Royal Challengers turned in their most professional performance yet in their IPL history against Mumbai Indians. To restrict Mumbai to less than 150 was crucial given the fact that Mumbai arguably has the best bowling attack in the tournament. The newcomer Du Preez ensured that Mumbai didn’t get much momentum upfront by dismissing 3 top order batsmen in no time including the crucial scalp of Sachin. Jayasuriya and Bravo repaired the early damage to an extent and posted a competitive score on the board. With Mumbai’s strong bowling line up and B’lore’s perennial opening woes, Sachin would have felt comfortable going into the innings break.
Like they have done in almost every match of IPL, B’lore came out with yet another opening pair – Jaffer and Kallis. But Jaffer didn’t last long which brought in the man who was playing for the opponents in the last year’s IPL! Uthappa has had a forgettable tournament so far, but he set a few things right today. With Kallis taking on Malinga & co in a classy counter attacking innings, Uthappa was content on playing himself in. And once he was set, launched into the second string bowling of Mumbai big time. An in-form Uthappa is great news for the team which is slowly but surely on the ascendancy in this tournament. After such a thoroughly professional victory, it takes a brave man to rule B’lore out of contention for one of the semi-final spots.
In the first match of the day, it was an all too familiar story for KKR. After a rather nervous start, KKR looked to be going down even without a fight till Brad Hodge took it upon himself to put on a challenging score on the board. He really carried on his rich vein of form from the last match and played a very good innings. He’s the only batsman in KKR to have got a fifty (2 of them now) in this IPL! Even though commentators were creating artificial excitement about the last ball finish, Punjab never looked like losing it or to put it more appropriately, KKR never looked like winning it. And they don’t look like winning too many more in this tournament. First fix the team guys, captaincy comes later…….
Like they have done in almost every match of IPL, B’lore came out with yet another opening pair – Jaffer and Kallis. But Jaffer didn’t last long which brought in the man who was playing for the opponents in the last year’s IPL! Uthappa has had a forgettable tournament so far, but he set a few things right today. With Kallis taking on Malinga & co in a classy counter attacking innings, Uthappa was content on playing himself in. And once he was set, launched into the second string bowling of Mumbai big time. An in-form Uthappa is great news for the team which is slowly but surely on the ascendancy in this tournament. After such a thoroughly professional victory, it takes a brave man to rule B’lore out of contention for one of the semi-final spots.
In the first match of the day, it was an all too familiar story for KKR. After a rather nervous start, KKR looked to be going down even without a fight till Brad Hodge took it upon himself to put on a challenging score on the board. He really carried on his rich vein of form from the last match and played a very good innings. He’s the only batsman in KKR to have got a fifty (2 of them now) in this IPL! Even though commentators were creating artificial excitement about the last ball finish, Punjab never looked like losing it or to put it more appropriately, KKR never looked like winning it. And they don’t look like winning too many more in this tournament. First fix the team guys, captaincy comes later…….
Saturday, May 2, 2009
IPL Days 9 to 15: Hectic time……..
It’s been a hectic time at office…….. So couldn’t catch up with most of the matches this week leave alone having the time to write about ‘em. My thoughts on watching bits and pieces of the matches this week:
Oh boy did Sachin and Sanath turn the clock back by a decade against KKR. As if KKR didn’t have enough problems to contend with, these two veterans decided to put on a show and what an astounding show it turned out to be! It was such an audacious assault that KKR didn't quite recover from the shock when they came out to bat too and folded like a pack of cards. For all the magic of spin wizards and the breathtaking finishes by Yousuf Pathan, watching Sachin bat the way he did against KKR was probably the most satisfying aspect of this IPL so far. I know I am being biased here but I can’t be anything else with Sachin! The way Sachin smashed Ishant for a six over mid-wicket was a picture stolen straight out of Nairobi….
Not only is Sachin turning the clock as a batsman but also as a captain too. After a superlative start with Jayasuriya ended in the match against KKR, Harbhajan came in as a pinch hitter and smashed a few too. He so loves the idea of a pinch hitter that he sent Bhajji at no.3 in the next match as well. A decade back when he was captaining India, Srinath was almost a permanent No.3 against SA in a ODI series…… What’s even worse was in a home test match against NZ; he didn’t enforce the follow on reasoning that his bowlers needed rest so that they could come back fresh in the 4th innings to bowl NZ out. Then he sends Srinath at No.3 in the second innings as a pinch hitter – what a way to rest your strike bowler!
Just what is Yousuf Pathan made of? He’s turning out to be a one man army for RR. To come in at 64 for 5 in 11 overs with 81 required from the remaining 9 overs, against arguably the best team in the tournament, he put on a royal show of breathtaking stroke play and what more he finishes with a over and half to spare! One more wicket at that stage would have been curtains for RR but there’s no such negativity in Yousuf Pathan’s thought process. A good part of that credit should go to Shane Warne too who’s given him the space and liberty to play his natural game under all circumstances. I wonder if there’s a more dangerous batsman in this tournament at the moment. He’s almost a poor man’s Richards at the moment…..
Sanga’s hunch…. Chasing 120, Mumbai would have fancied their chances going into the break but after a top order collapse with the scoreboard reading 12 for 3 in 4.1 overs; it required every ounce of the skill and grit of JP Duminy to pull the match back in Mumbai’s favour. Just as he was doing it, Yuvraj left the field with an injury handing over the captaincy reins to Sanga. With 19 runs required from 2 overs and a rock solid Duminy still at the crease, Sanga gave the ball to Abdullah for the penultimate over. And as he was walking back to his mark, changed his mind and tossed the ball to Piyush Chawla who had given away 19 runs in his 2 overs. And did Piyush justify his captain’s faith on him! Apart from getting Bhajji’s wicket, he only gave away 7 runs of the over making life easier for Abdullah. But Duminy almost spoilt the show for Abdullah with a heave over midwicket which had some of the Mumbai Indians owners’ friends jumping in joy only to realize later that it had found the fielder’s hands….
Could this be the turning point for B’lore? For a team which has an extraordinary ability to dig itself into trouble, the way they kept coming back against Kings’ XI despite Yuvraj’s heroics with both the bat and the ball was refreshing. Ian Chappell often says that Kumble is one of fiercest competitors on a cricket field that he’s seen. And if anyone thought he wouldn’t be the same competitor post retirement, just watch the video clips of him celebrating Yuvraj’s and Sangakkara’s dismissal. After a nervous victory over KKR, this victory from the jaws of defeat would have given a lot of confidence to Mallya’s boys. Hopefully they make it count.
CSK is inching their way back after a rather disappointing start to the tournament. Finally Dhoni realized that Badri is a top-order batsman and one of the best going around in domestic cricket at that! Is Balaji making a comeback here…..For a guy who couldn’t bowl for nearly 2 years, his performances in the Ranji Trophy last season and this IPL so far have been very impressive indeed. He’s still not the same bowler as he was against Pakistan 3 years ago but the fact that he’s reached this stage from a near hopeless situation is commendable. And does Raina love his time in IPL! What a blinder of an innings he played against RR. He almost single-handedly won the match for CSK. And with Sudeep Tyagi and Jakati settling in well in the team, hopefully Dhoni shouldn’t complain too much about his bowling any more. And if Dhoni could find some form, CSK has both the skill and the character to go all the way.
Is Lasith Malinga the most valuable player in this IPL so far? Or is it Yousuf Pathan?
Oh boy did Sachin and Sanath turn the clock back by a decade against KKR. As if KKR didn’t have enough problems to contend with, these two veterans decided to put on a show and what an astounding show it turned out to be! It was such an audacious assault that KKR didn't quite recover from the shock when they came out to bat too and folded like a pack of cards. For all the magic of spin wizards and the breathtaking finishes by Yousuf Pathan, watching Sachin bat the way he did against KKR was probably the most satisfying aspect of this IPL so far. I know I am being biased here but I can’t be anything else with Sachin! The way Sachin smashed Ishant for a six over mid-wicket was a picture stolen straight out of Nairobi….
Not only is Sachin turning the clock as a batsman but also as a captain too. After a superlative start with Jayasuriya ended in the match against KKR, Harbhajan came in as a pinch hitter and smashed a few too. He so loves the idea of a pinch hitter that he sent Bhajji at no.3 in the next match as well. A decade back when he was captaining India, Srinath was almost a permanent No.3 against SA in a ODI series…… What’s even worse was in a home test match against NZ; he didn’t enforce the follow on reasoning that his bowlers needed rest so that they could come back fresh in the 4th innings to bowl NZ out. Then he sends Srinath at No.3 in the second innings as a pinch hitter – what a way to rest your strike bowler!
Just what is Yousuf Pathan made of? He’s turning out to be a one man army for RR. To come in at 64 for 5 in 11 overs with 81 required from the remaining 9 overs, against arguably the best team in the tournament, he put on a royal show of breathtaking stroke play and what more he finishes with a over and half to spare! One more wicket at that stage would have been curtains for RR but there’s no such negativity in Yousuf Pathan’s thought process. A good part of that credit should go to Shane Warne too who’s given him the space and liberty to play his natural game under all circumstances. I wonder if there’s a more dangerous batsman in this tournament at the moment. He’s almost a poor man’s Richards at the moment…..
Sanga’s hunch…. Chasing 120, Mumbai would have fancied their chances going into the break but after a top order collapse with the scoreboard reading 12 for 3 in 4.1 overs; it required every ounce of the skill and grit of JP Duminy to pull the match back in Mumbai’s favour. Just as he was doing it, Yuvraj left the field with an injury handing over the captaincy reins to Sanga. With 19 runs required from 2 overs and a rock solid Duminy still at the crease, Sanga gave the ball to Abdullah for the penultimate over. And as he was walking back to his mark, changed his mind and tossed the ball to Piyush Chawla who had given away 19 runs in his 2 overs. And did Piyush justify his captain’s faith on him! Apart from getting Bhajji’s wicket, he only gave away 7 runs of the over making life easier for Abdullah. But Duminy almost spoilt the show for Abdullah with a heave over midwicket which had some of the Mumbai Indians owners’ friends jumping in joy only to realize later that it had found the fielder’s hands….
Could this be the turning point for B’lore? For a team which has an extraordinary ability to dig itself into trouble, the way they kept coming back against Kings’ XI despite Yuvraj’s heroics with both the bat and the ball was refreshing. Ian Chappell often says that Kumble is one of fiercest competitors on a cricket field that he’s seen. And if anyone thought he wouldn’t be the same competitor post retirement, just watch the video clips of him celebrating Yuvraj’s and Sangakkara’s dismissal. After a nervous victory over KKR, this victory from the jaws of defeat would have given a lot of confidence to Mallya’s boys. Hopefully they make it count.
CSK is inching their way back after a rather disappointing start to the tournament. Finally Dhoni realized that Badri is a top-order batsman and one of the best going around in domestic cricket at that! Is Balaji making a comeback here…..For a guy who couldn’t bowl for nearly 2 years, his performances in the Ranji Trophy last season and this IPL so far have been very impressive indeed. He’s still not the same bowler as he was against Pakistan 3 years ago but the fact that he’s reached this stage from a near hopeless situation is commendable. And does Raina love his time in IPL! What a blinder of an innings he played against RR. He almost single-handedly won the match for CSK. And with Sudeep Tyagi and Jakati settling in well in the team, hopefully Dhoni shouldn’t complain too much about his bowling any more. And if Dhoni could find some form, CSK has both the skill and the character to go all the way.
Is Lasith Malinga the most valuable player in this IPL so far? Or is it Yousuf Pathan?
Saturday, April 25, 2009
IPL Day 8: What a comeback!
Deccan Chargers have been charging ahead in this IPL. Being counted as favorites and finishing at the bottom of the table in the last year’s IPL, Deccan Chargers had more than a few questions to answer at the beginning of this season and how well they have answered them. With 3 on 3, they have given themselves a great chance to qualify for the semi-finals. After another power start from Gilly and Gibbs, Deccan lost its way in the last 7 overs making only 40 odd runs and losing 7 wickets. It’s a weakness that might prove costly towards the business stages of the tournament. Its got a too top heavy batting line up and still a relatively moderate bowling attack. But for now they are bulldozing past everyone.
With Sachin pacing the innings like a computer and tutoring Duminy along the way, it was all set for another tight finish but as has often been the case in this year’s IPL, the whole equation changed after the tactical break. And then Mumbai lost the momentum and never looked like winning it once Sachin departed.
I am delighted to know that Sachin has expressed his displeasure over the tactical time out along with others. It’s a real shame that such a gimmick has been entertained for commercial considerations. It might bring additional dynamics into play and might even make the game more entertaining but the bottom line is that it’s a fake one. If Sachin’s views are not taken seriously to review this tactical timeout, then be assured that nothing else can make Lalit Modi change his mind.
With Sachin pacing the innings like a computer and tutoring Duminy along the way, it was all set for another tight finish but as has often been the case in this year’s IPL, the whole equation changed after the tactical break. And then Mumbai lost the momentum and never looked like winning it once Sachin departed.
I am delighted to know that Sachin has expressed his displeasure over the tactical time out along with others. It’s a real shame that such a gimmick has been entertained for commercial considerations. It might bring additional dynamics into play and might even make the game more entertaining but the bottom line is that it’s a fake one. If Sachin’s views are not taken seriously to review this tactical timeout, then be assured that nothing else can make Lalit Modi change his mind.
IPL Day 7: Oh poor B’lore….
Just what should B’lore do to win? I almost feel sorry for them but somehow they don’t look like a team – I take a slight sadistic pleasure in thinking that Mallya deserves such a team for his juvenile reactions in the last season! With Uthappa and KP failing once again, the responsibility of resurrecting the innings fell on the broad shoulders of Kallis and he did it in his own style. With 3 of the 4 overseas stars doing well, finally Royal Challengers put a competitive total on the board. But that proved to be inadequate.
With the Punjabi munda from England in top form and solid support from Sanga and Yuvi, Kings’ XI cruised to overcome their target. A well-deserved victory for Kings’ XI after two successive rain-curtailed matches.
With the Punjabi munda from England in top form and solid support from Sanga and Yuvi, Kings’ XI cruised to overcome their target. A well-deserved victory for Kings’ XI after two successive rain-curtailed matches.
IPL Day 6: Royal Feast
What a day of cricket it was. If the first match between CSK and Delhi was a humdinger, the second match between RR and KKR was an absolute edge of the seat thriller. This is by far the best day in IPL 2009 so far. A.B played the near perfect T20 innings with some help from butter fingers of CSK and Dilshan played a typically spunky innings to set a huge target for CSK. But what went a little unnoticed in the whole carnage is that L.Balaji returned with figures of 3 for 19 in 4 overs when the innings run-rate for Delhi was 9.45!
After a characteristically aggressive start by Hayden and Raina, CSK were looking all set to overhaul the target but Delhi bowlers pulled the momentum back beautifully by picking up crucial wickets at the death. But I still expected Albie to pull it off but it wasn’t to be. I wonder why Badri is wasted at 7 in every match – Only Dhoni knows why!
The second match had it all. There could not have been a better advertisement for T20 and IPL in particular. After the fall of 2 quick wickets, Yousuf Pathan did what he does best – attack without a second thought. He did that fairly successfully till Mendis was brought onto the attack. With Mendis picking both Graeme Smith and Yousuf Pathan quickly it looked like RR wouldn’t have enough on the board to defend. But the blitzkrieg in the final over by Raut changed it all.
When KKR batted, Warned opted for the most unusual pair to share the new ball – Yousuf Pathan and Mascrenhas! It was a gamble which paid off reasonably well with the wicket of McCullum and a sedate run rate. But Gayle at the other end was threatening to take the match away from RR by striking a few towering sixes. But as ever, Warne struck the crucial blow by sucking Gayle into a false shot. And with Hodge and Shukla falling soon, in came Dada with a determination that was last seen in his comeback in SA after the Greg Chappell forced exile. And just as he did in SA then, played a blinder to get KKR’s innings back on track along with Yashpal Singh.
The crucial point came with Warne’s obsessive idea of bowling short to Ganguly. And when Munaf obliged his captain and also overstepped, Dada played a pre-determined pull for a six and then hit a typically Dada inside out shot over covers for another six in the free hit. With 13 runs off one ball, the required run rate was brought down to more manageable levels. Sourav’s constant chatting with Yashpal asking him not to do anything silly with the match virtually in the bag showed how badly he wanted to win it for KKR. But when Warne tossed one high and wide, Yashpal did exactly what Sourav asked him to refrain from doing!
With one over left and seven runs needed, my money was still on KKR. In an inspired piece of captaincy, Warne threw the ball to the 18 year old Kamran Khan to bowl the last over in such a high pressure situation. And what a super over it turned out to be, followed by another super over – this time literally!
I am so glad that the obscene “bowl-out” has been done away with and replaced by the super over.
After a characteristically aggressive start by Hayden and Raina, CSK were looking all set to overhaul the target but Delhi bowlers pulled the momentum back beautifully by picking up crucial wickets at the death. But I still expected Albie to pull it off but it wasn’t to be. I wonder why Badri is wasted at 7 in every match – Only Dhoni knows why!
The second match had it all. There could not have been a better advertisement for T20 and IPL in particular. After the fall of 2 quick wickets, Yousuf Pathan did what he does best – attack without a second thought. He did that fairly successfully till Mendis was brought onto the attack. With Mendis picking both Graeme Smith and Yousuf Pathan quickly it looked like RR wouldn’t have enough on the board to defend. But the blitzkrieg in the final over by Raut changed it all.
When KKR batted, Warned opted for the most unusual pair to share the new ball – Yousuf Pathan and Mascrenhas! It was a gamble which paid off reasonably well with the wicket of McCullum and a sedate run rate. But Gayle at the other end was threatening to take the match away from RR by striking a few towering sixes. But as ever, Warne struck the crucial blow by sucking Gayle into a false shot. And with Hodge and Shukla falling soon, in came Dada with a determination that was last seen in his comeback in SA after the Greg Chappell forced exile. And just as he did in SA then, played a blinder to get KKR’s innings back on track along with Yashpal Singh.
The crucial point came with Warne’s obsessive idea of bowling short to Ganguly. And when Munaf obliged his captain and also overstepped, Dada played a pre-determined pull for a six and then hit a typically Dada inside out shot over covers for another six in the free hit. With 13 runs off one ball, the required run rate was brought down to more manageable levels. Sourav’s constant chatting with Yashpal asking him not to do anything silly with the match virtually in the bag showed how badly he wanted to win it for KKR. But when Warne tossed one high and wide, Yashpal did exactly what Sourav asked him to refrain from doing!
With one over left and seven runs needed, my money was still on KKR. In an inspired piece of captaincy, Warne threw the ball to the 18 year old Kamran Khan to bowl the last over in such a high pressure situation. And what a super over it turned out to be, followed by another super over – this time literally!
I am so glad that the obscene “bowl-out” has been done away with and replaced by the super over.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
IPL Day 5: Blast from the past and into the future too
The way Gilchrist was blasting the bowlers all over the park shouldn’t have surprised us too much. But if the word going around is to be believed that he played only one T-20 match in between last year’s IPL and this year’s, it should have been surprising but it still wasn’t. That’s the aura of the man. No matter what the constraints are, you still expect Gilly to be the same.
You can sense Gilly is in top form when he starts pulling good length deliveries and we had a few of them yesterday. He plays audacious square cuts, cover drives beautifully and smacks a few across the line, but its his ability to pick up the length of the delivery early and quickly rock back to pull fuller length deliveries is what sets him apart from others. As a bowler there’s just no safe area to bowl to Gilly. How Michael Clarke would be wishing Gilly was in Abu Dhabi and not in SA!
If Gilly’s innings was blast from the past what followed was a blast into the future. I am a huge fan of Rohit Sharma. To me he is the best young India batsman going around and surely deserves a test spot ahead of Yuvraj Singh. He oozes with class, can play spin and pace with equal ease and most importantly he seems to have that extra time in playing his shots. He’s also of that rare breed that spends time in settling down even in a T-20 match and has the ability to up the tempo at will. And he did it against no less a bowler than Anil Kumble when he hit him for 3 sixes in an over just when you were wondering if he was consuming too many deliveries. Except for that last six against Kumble, none of his shots would have been out of place in test cricket as well. At the end of the game his scoring rate is no different from an out and out dasher.
I can’t wait for him to be inducted into the test team, so that he’s ready to inherit the no.4 from Sachin whenever he decides to hang up his boots. Even in ODIs he’s been given the odd chance but dumped immediately. With such a talent, you are better off making the mistake of giving one chance too many than one chance too few. Mr.Srikanth – Are you listening?
And just what’s wrong with B’lore? They have got some fabulous individual talent and a reasonably good bowling attack but somehow they are not able to click as a team. It’s got something to do with the franchise’s mindset. First they made Charu Sharma a scapegoat, then the owner almost openly disowned the team, and then the club paid a fortune to acquire KP for this season as if that was the panacea for all their problems. Along the way Ray Jennings was hired and he had his share of taking a dig at the seniors in the team! There’s been a consistent search for that individual weak point but no talks about cohesiveness of the team. In a team sport, if the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts, then no part is worth a fortune.
You can sense Gilly is in top form when he starts pulling good length deliveries and we had a few of them yesterday. He plays audacious square cuts, cover drives beautifully and smacks a few across the line, but its his ability to pick up the length of the delivery early and quickly rock back to pull fuller length deliveries is what sets him apart from others. As a bowler there’s just no safe area to bowl to Gilly. How Michael Clarke would be wishing Gilly was in Abu Dhabi and not in SA!
If Gilly’s innings was blast from the past what followed was a blast into the future. I am a huge fan of Rohit Sharma. To me he is the best young India batsman going around and surely deserves a test spot ahead of Yuvraj Singh. He oozes with class, can play spin and pace with equal ease and most importantly he seems to have that extra time in playing his shots. He’s also of that rare breed that spends time in settling down even in a T-20 match and has the ability to up the tempo at will. And he did it against no less a bowler than Anil Kumble when he hit him for 3 sixes in an over just when you were wondering if he was consuming too many deliveries. Except for that last six against Kumble, none of his shots would have been out of place in test cricket as well. At the end of the game his scoring rate is no different from an out and out dasher.
I can’t wait for him to be inducted into the test team, so that he’s ready to inherit the no.4 from Sachin whenever he decides to hang up his boots. Even in ODIs he’s been given the odd chance but dumped immediately. With such a talent, you are better off making the mistake of giving one chance too many than one chance too few. Mr.Srikanth – Are you listening?
And just what’s wrong with B’lore? They have got some fabulous individual talent and a reasonably good bowling attack but somehow they are not able to click as a team. It’s got something to do with the franchise’s mindset. First they made Charu Sharma a scapegoat, then the owner almost openly disowned the team, and then the club paid a fortune to acquire KP for this season as if that was the panacea for all their problems. Along the way Ray Jennings was hired and he had his share of taking a dig at the seniors in the team! There’s been a consistent search for that individual weak point but no talks about cohesiveness of the team. In a team sport, if the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts, then no part is worth a fortune.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
IPL Day 4: Frustrating...
Why are they so desperate to get a result? A match with no result is no crime or shame. Agreed that KKR might have still won the game with Gayle playing as well as he did. But as we have seen so many times before in Cricket and more so in this IPL that the momentum can shift anytime. But sadly King’s XI didn’t even get a chance to come back. This is their second successive loss in rain-shortened matches. The first game against Delhi was an absolute lottery and this one is not much better. I feel sorry for King’s XI ...
IPL Day 3 - Magically, Murali
If you are a CSK supporter, you couldn’t have asked for a better show. It was a delight to watch Matt Hayden back in his elements even after retirement. It was a typically muscular innings from Hayden, which ensured CSK were off to a blistering start. If not for the mix-up with Raina he would have ensured CSK batted B’lore out of the match. What if he didn’t? Murali ensured that wasn’t regretted.
After a move, which was destined to fail (opening with Praveen Kumar), B’lore threatened for a while with Kallis hitting a few classy boundaries. The pitch was so true that our mortal cricketing instincts would have told us that B’lore would mount a serious chase especially with Pieterson and Dravid still to come. But Murali had other ideas! It was a magical spell from him.
Coming around the wicket and with the ability to turn the ball square both ways, he’s as canny as it gets. As if guessing between a big spinning off break or a doosra wasn’t tough enough, Pieterson encounters a ball pitching on the middle and still uncertain about the movement, offers a prod and the ball holds its line, evades the bat and catches him plumb in front. He was so confused that he ended up asking the umpire if there was some bat in it! But what followed was the real scene-stealer.
Having seen Pieterson’s dismissal from the non-striker’s end, Robin Uthappa appeared well equipped not to fall prey to the same trick. And what does Murali do? Without much change in the trajectory he bowls a similar ball again but its similar only till it pitches and after pitching it does a Shane Warne to leave Uthappa out of his crease searching for the ball and Dhoni does the rest. This is craftsmanship of the highest order. This dismissal of Uthappa and Shane Warne’s magic against Akhil has been the standout moments of IPL so far. Hopefully more magic lies ahead…
After a move, which was destined to fail (opening with Praveen Kumar), B’lore threatened for a while with Kallis hitting a few classy boundaries. The pitch was so true that our mortal cricketing instincts would have told us that B’lore would mount a serious chase especially with Pieterson and Dravid still to come. But Murali had other ideas! It was a magical spell from him.
Coming around the wicket and with the ability to turn the ball square both ways, he’s as canny as it gets. As if guessing between a big spinning off break or a doosra wasn’t tough enough, Pieterson encounters a ball pitching on the middle and still uncertain about the movement, offers a prod and the ball holds its line, evades the bat and catches him plumb in front. He was so confused that he ended up asking the umpire if there was some bat in it! But what followed was the real scene-stealer.
Having seen Pieterson’s dismissal from the non-striker’s end, Robin Uthappa appeared well equipped not to fall prey to the same trick. And what does Murali do? Without much change in the trajectory he bowls a similar ball again but its similar only till it pitches and after pitching it does a Shane Warne to leave Uthappa out of his crease searching for the ball and Dhoni does the rest. This is craftsmanship of the highest order. This dismissal of Uthappa and Shane Warne’s magic against Akhil has been the standout moments of IPL so far. Hopefully more magic lies ahead…
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
IPL Day 2: Ambivalence is the word
There’s so much to love about IPL. But it’s just as easy to detest it too. If first day was refreshing with good quality cricket on display, the second day was proof of the extreme shameless commercialization of the game. Cricket has been a game where even after 5 days of hard intense cricket, we may not get a result but in the T-20 the administrators have been very desperate to get a result somehow or the other.
There’s no shame in having a game with no result and more so in a lengthy tournament like IPL. The desperation with which a result was achieved in the Delhi Vs King’s XI match was ripping the soul of the game. If twenty overs for each side are not possible, then the match ought to be either cancelled or rescheduled no matter the commercial ramifications of doing so.
If this was appalling, the fact that they stuck to the “tactical time-out” for ads despite rain shortening the match was obscene. And then I saw the sight, which I feared the most – the boundary ropes were brought in by almost 10 yards!!! It’s worse than reservations.
I don’t know who gives the idea to administrators that more boundaries mean more entertainment for the audience. And can anyone tell the commentators that cricket lexicon hasn’t been officially changed yet. A six still remains a six and not a DLF maximum and WTF is a citi moment of success (BTW Citi bank was struggling to survive not too long ago). I wish I never buy a DLF house or bank with Citibank ever in my life – the very mention of those names get me worked up.
I had recently asked Prof. Aswath Damodaran (Professor – Corporate Finance and Valuation in Stern School of Business, New York University) about his views on IPL. His response sums the problem with IPL:
“I must confess that I stopped following cricket about 25 years ago... I used to be an avid cricket fan and I have followed the IPL only in passing. I think the key with professional sports is to maintain the illusion that it is only a game (and not a business). The fans know that they are being taken along for a ride, but they are willing to go along. I think the problem with the IPL is that it does not even bother to preserve the illusion...”
There’s no shame in having a game with no result and more so in a lengthy tournament like IPL. The desperation with which a result was achieved in the Delhi Vs King’s XI match was ripping the soul of the game. If twenty overs for each side are not possible, then the match ought to be either cancelled or rescheduled no matter the commercial ramifications of doing so.
If this was appalling, the fact that they stuck to the “tactical time-out” for ads despite rain shortening the match was obscene. And then I saw the sight, which I feared the most – the boundary ropes were brought in by almost 10 yards!!! It’s worse than reservations.
I don’t know who gives the idea to administrators that more boundaries mean more entertainment for the audience. And can anyone tell the commentators that cricket lexicon hasn’t been officially changed yet. A six still remains a six and not a DLF maximum and WTF is a citi moment of success (BTW Citi bank was struggling to survive not too long ago). I wish I never buy a DLF house or bank with Citibank ever in my life – the very mention of those names get me worked up.
I had recently asked Prof. Aswath Damodaran (Professor – Corporate Finance and Valuation in Stern School of Business, New York University) about his views on IPL. His response sums the problem with IPL:
“I must confess that I stopped following cricket about 25 years ago... I used to be an avid cricket fan and I have followed the IPL only in passing. I think the key with professional sports is to maintain the illusion that it is only a game (and not a business). The fans know that they are being taken along for a ride, but they are willing to go along. I think the problem with the IPL is that it does not even bother to preserve the illusion...”
Saturday, April 18, 2009
IPL: Day 1
What a contrasting start we had for IPL 2009 as compared to last year. If McCullum set the field ablaze to kickstart the last IPL, this time it was the calm, measured and composed innings from Sachin which gave a good account of how this year’s IPL might shape up. If day 1 is anything to go by, we are in for a real feast with a fair contest between bat and ball.
Today was an anti-thesis of most theories floated around about IPL and T-20 cricket. It was supposed to be a youngster’s game but the stars for today were Sachin, Dravid, Warne and Kumble! And the money the franchise spends determines the kind of talent at their disposal. FYI Abhishek Nayar was bought for $40k last year and revised to $100k this year! What a difference he made. In my opinion his was the innings which took the game away from CSK. It’s a delightful feeling that such a cameo was not the status quo but a special effort which tilted the balance of the match. I just hope that it continues to remain an even contest between the bat and ball throughout the tournament.
But the moment of the day belonged to that showman again – Shane Warne. The way he made Virat Kohli look like a novice was comfortably outdone by the way he mesmerised Akhil in an over of masterful leg spin. He sets him up beautifully for the flipper only for the umpire to disagree, then he bowls an absolute beauty to clean up Akhil with the ball drifting in in the air and turning away sharply after pitching to disturb the timber leaving the batsman dumbstruck.
The final word for the day has to be on Rahul Dravid. It was typically Dravid, reconstructing the innings after a top order collapse. But what was more special is that he did it at the pace that T-20 cricket demands but with all the style and grace that we generally associate with Test Cricket. It was a little funny to see Dravid getting so animated on the field. But afer all the non-sense that he went through last year, its easier to understand that he wanted to prove a point as much to himself as to the critics. And Jumbo helped himself to a 5 for. I wonder what Mr.Mallya has to say now?
Today was an anti-thesis of most theories floated around about IPL and T-20 cricket. It was supposed to be a youngster’s game but the stars for today were Sachin, Dravid, Warne and Kumble! And the money the franchise spends determines the kind of talent at their disposal. FYI Abhishek Nayar was bought for $40k last year and revised to $100k this year! What a difference he made. In my opinion his was the innings which took the game away from CSK. It’s a delightful feeling that such a cameo was not the status quo but a special effort which tilted the balance of the match. I just hope that it continues to remain an even contest between the bat and ball throughout the tournament.
But the moment of the day belonged to that showman again – Shane Warne. The way he made Virat Kohli look like a novice was comfortably outdone by the way he mesmerised Akhil in an over of masterful leg spin. He sets him up beautifully for the flipper only for the umpire to disagree, then he bowls an absolute beauty to clean up Akhil with the ball drifting in in the air and turning away sharply after pitching to disturb the timber leaving the batsman dumbstruck.
The final word for the day has to be on Rahul Dravid. It was typically Dravid, reconstructing the innings after a top order collapse. But what was more special is that he did it at the pace that T-20 cricket demands but with all the style and grace that we generally associate with Test Cricket. It was a little funny to see Dravid getting so animated on the field. But afer all the non-sense that he went through last year, its easier to understand that he wanted to prove a point as much to himself as to the critics. And Jumbo helped himself to a 5 for. I wonder what Mr.Mallya has to say now?
The spectacle is about to begin
Oh finally…. IPL is all set to begin.
For want of time, will settle for twitter style updates for now:
I hope the crowd turn out is good throughout and really really hope that boundaries are not shortened this time and some sanity prevails in the commentary box. Lets call a six a six and not a DLF and Lalit Modi is no moses please…………….
Otherwise I hope the second edition continues from where the first edition ended as far as the quality of cricket is concerned.
Its always a dicey proposition to pick a favourite out of such evenly matched teams especially in this format of the game. Its still fun doing it though. My favourites for winning the second IPL are Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils.
I just hope B’lore makes it to the semi-final stage atleast this year. Last year they were badly let down by their owner after a couple of losses. Surely Rahul Dravid and co deserved greater respect and support. Lets not forget they had one of the best bowling line-ups with Zaheer, Steyn, Bracken, Praveen Kumar and Anil Kumble.
Just for the sheer excitement of watching Shahrukh celebrate, I wish KKR does well too…
But being a quintessential Chennaite, I have only one team to support except when Sachin is batting!!!
For want of time, will settle for twitter style updates for now:
I hope the crowd turn out is good throughout and really really hope that boundaries are not shortened this time and some sanity prevails in the commentary box. Lets call a six a six and not a DLF and Lalit Modi is no moses please…………….
Otherwise I hope the second edition continues from where the first edition ended as far as the quality of cricket is concerned.
Its always a dicey proposition to pick a favourite out of such evenly matched teams especially in this format of the game. Its still fun doing it though. My favourites for winning the second IPL are Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils.
I just hope B’lore makes it to the semi-final stage atleast this year. Last year they were badly let down by their owner after a couple of losses. Surely Rahul Dravid and co deserved greater respect and support. Lets not forget they had one of the best bowling line-ups with Zaheer, Steyn, Bracken, Praveen Kumar and Anil Kumble.
Just for the sheer excitement of watching Shahrukh celebrate, I wish KKR does well too…
But being a quintessential Chennaite, I have only one team to support except when Sachin is batting!!!
Friday, April 17, 2009
How I wish IPL was covered by ESPNSTAR!
How I wish IPL was covered by ESPNSTAR now that another of my favourite commentators -- Sanjay Manjrekar, has also joined the team. I always thought Sanjay was underutilized by Tensports by making him the host and not the expert commentator. And in ESPNSTAR with Harsha playing the perfect host, it would be refreshing to hear Sanjay's impeccable views and analysis on the game which after a few centuries of existence is still evolving and evolving at a faster pace than ever before! I had written something about the Voice of Indian Cricket in praise of Harsha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar a couple of years back. I thought its a good time to reproduce that here now that both will be working as part of the same team:
The Voice of Indian Cricket
I remember Harsha Bhogle once saying that when Sunny padded up for his innings as a commentator, he wanted to become the “Voice of Indian Cricket” like Tony Cozier is to West Indian Cricket. For all my respect for Sunny, I can at the most see him as the face of Indian Cricket and not quite the voice of Indian cricket. I used to wonder if the man who narrated Sunny’s wish himself was a better fit for that tag. For someone who started radio commentary when he was just a school student, he could seamlessly alternate between radio and TV commentary. His writings on cricket make you wonder if Peter Roebuck is over rated and has a few fan clubs in the cricket mad countries – India & Australia, Harsha Bhogle seems to be fitting the bill perfectly as the “Voice of Indian Cricket”
But then, how can a guy who hasn’t played competitive cricket beyond the university level be called the “Voice of Indian Cricket”? .So what if Tony Cozier was never a competent cricketer and still be called the “Voice of West Indies Cricket’. Probably West Indies didn’t have any good cricketer turned commentators during that time. But India certainly has no dearth of cricketers turned commentators (by the way is there any well known cricketer who hasn’t turned a commentator yet?) and that too very competent ones. Ravi, Sunny, LS, Sidhu, Sanjay and the list goes on. Why can’t one of them in this long list be called the “Voice….’.For someone who loves his dose of channel 9 commentary, I am not particularly a great fan of most of these commentators except for Sanjay (He’s a class act). It is too stereotypical for my liking. I can almost predict what they would say depending on the match situation.
Sanjay Manjrekar’s foray into TV commentary brought a whiff of fresh air for the Indian viewer who cherished his dose of honest and intellectual commentary. In my opinion, he’s the best Indian ‘cricketer turned commentator’ by some distance. He’s made tremendous strides as a commentator. I remember watching him on TV in his first year as a commentator; he seemed to be literally hero-worshiping Sachin and somehow could never find a flaw in Sachin, even when almost everyone else seemed to be thinking otherwise. Sometimes he appeared to be too much in awe of some of the personalities like the Chappell brothers for him to even disagree with them. But then as he grew in stature he shed his inhibitions of his personal preferences and grew more neutral in his perspective.
The Sanjay Manjrekar of now is a dream of a commentator with neither a put on accent nor a complicated vocabulary. His knowledge of the game is immaculate, his views and insights on the game are absolutely unbiased and grounded on sound cricketing logic and his writings on the game are the one of an honest man who knows and cares about his sport. I remember an interview of Sanjay by Harsha Bhogle in ESPN, in which Harsha said that Sanjay’s the most honest cricketer that he’s seen, to which Sanjay replied that it’s the only way he knows to live. He does not mind questioning Sachin’s attitude (and also the repercussions of doing that), doesn’t believe that regional selection committees have been as big a problem for India’s lack of success as the lack of skill and doesn’t mince words when it comes to the question of an even contest between the bat and the ball.
I’ve put my case forward. Harsha Bhogle or Sanjay Manjrekar – Who’s the “Voice of Indian Cricket”? Take your pick. Whom would I go for? If competency as a cricketer is not brought into the equation, I would go for Harsha Bhogle and if competency as a cricketer is important then, I can’t think of anyone beyond Sanjay Manjrekar.
Harsha and Sanjay – Thanks a ton for making cricket watching a better experience!
The Voice of Indian Cricket
I remember Harsha Bhogle once saying that when Sunny padded up for his innings as a commentator, he wanted to become the “Voice of Indian Cricket” like Tony Cozier is to West Indian Cricket. For all my respect for Sunny, I can at the most see him as the face of Indian Cricket and not quite the voice of Indian cricket. I used to wonder if the man who narrated Sunny’s wish himself was a better fit for that tag. For someone who started radio commentary when he was just a school student, he could seamlessly alternate between radio and TV commentary. His writings on cricket make you wonder if Peter Roebuck is over rated and has a few fan clubs in the cricket mad countries – India & Australia, Harsha Bhogle seems to be fitting the bill perfectly as the “Voice of Indian Cricket”
But then, how can a guy who hasn’t played competitive cricket beyond the university level be called the “Voice of Indian Cricket”? .So what if Tony Cozier was never a competent cricketer and still be called the “Voice of West Indies Cricket’. Probably West Indies didn’t have any good cricketer turned commentators during that time. But India certainly has no dearth of cricketers turned commentators (by the way is there any well known cricketer who hasn’t turned a commentator yet?) and that too very competent ones. Ravi, Sunny, LS, Sidhu, Sanjay and the list goes on. Why can’t one of them in this long list be called the “Voice….’.For someone who loves his dose of channel 9 commentary, I am not particularly a great fan of most of these commentators except for Sanjay (He’s a class act). It is too stereotypical for my liking. I can almost predict what they would say depending on the match situation.
Sanjay Manjrekar’s foray into TV commentary brought a whiff of fresh air for the Indian viewer who cherished his dose of honest and intellectual commentary. In my opinion, he’s the best Indian ‘cricketer turned commentator’ by some distance. He’s made tremendous strides as a commentator. I remember watching him on TV in his first year as a commentator; he seemed to be literally hero-worshiping Sachin and somehow could never find a flaw in Sachin, even when almost everyone else seemed to be thinking otherwise. Sometimes he appeared to be too much in awe of some of the personalities like the Chappell brothers for him to even disagree with them. But then as he grew in stature he shed his inhibitions of his personal preferences and grew more neutral in his perspective.
The Sanjay Manjrekar of now is a dream of a commentator with neither a put on accent nor a complicated vocabulary. His knowledge of the game is immaculate, his views and insights on the game are absolutely unbiased and grounded on sound cricketing logic and his writings on the game are the one of an honest man who knows and cares about his sport. I remember an interview of Sanjay by Harsha Bhogle in ESPN, in which Harsha said that Sanjay’s the most honest cricketer that he’s seen, to which Sanjay replied that it’s the only way he knows to live. He does not mind questioning Sachin’s attitude (and also the repercussions of doing that), doesn’t believe that regional selection committees have been as big a problem for India’s lack of success as the lack of skill and doesn’t mince words when it comes to the question of an even contest between the bat and the ball.
I’ve put my case forward. Harsha Bhogle or Sanjay Manjrekar – Who’s the “Voice of Indian Cricket”? Take your pick. Whom would I go for? If competency as a cricketer is not brought into the equation, I would go for Harsha Bhogle and if competency as a cricketer is important then, I can’t think of anyone beyond Sanjay Manjrekar.
Harsha and Sanjay – Thanks a ton for making cricket watching a better experience!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Settling down in Hyderabad
Will be off blogging till I settle down in Hyderabad. There’s been so much to talk about in cricket of late - India’s historic series win in NZ, Yuvraj’s inability to make the test spot his own, Rahul Dravid’s record number of catches, Dhoni’s puzzling declaration call and the rise and rise of Zaheer Khan.But no time for the next 2 weeks.
In the meanwhile, read this piece on Dhoni’s captaincy by Samir Chopra in Cricinfo which is not far from my opinion as well:
http://blogs.cricinfo.com/diffstrokes/archives/2009/04/dark_cloud_over_dhoni.php
Hope to be back to blogging when IPL kickstarts. Have to rent a house and get a TV by that time…
In the meanwhile, read this piece on Dhoni’s captaincy by Samir Chopra in Cricinfo which is not far from my opinion as well:
http://blogs.cricinfo.com/diffstrokes/archives/2009/04/dark_cloud_over_dhoni.php
Hope to be back to blogging when IPL kickstarts. Have to rent a house and get a TV by that time…
Friday, March 27, 2009
“You cannot be serious”
I am yet to come to terms with what appears to be a rather weird idea from Mr. John Buchanan about using multiple captains for Kolkata Knight Riders for the second edition of IPL. What was he thinking? It’s hard to figure out the logic behind it- assuming there’s any! Is it the same game of Cricket that I have been following all my life? I am glad that he wasn’t talking this rubbish in the same pub in which Ian Chappell was having a drink with Shane Warne – there would have been no guarantee for his life!
However, if you had read or even skimmed through his book “If better is possible” you wouldn’t be too surprised with his novel idea. I must admit that I haven’t read the book completely but skimmed through it in a bookshop and even that was not a pleasant experience. It is full of buzzwords and corporate style management jargons and would have fitted perfectly in the company of Stephen Covey books! If he ever cares to read “Strategy Safari” or “Fooled by Randomness” in his life, he would be ashamed of having written such a book.
Also not so long ago he had another novel idea – to train all Australian cricketers to be ambidextrous! Imagine that for a while…. “Hey Ricky, you know why you struggle against Harbhajan – its because you are a right hander. You should start batting left-handed to tackle his threat better. If you are not convinced, go through this research of mine which proves that left handers have a 75% greater probability of success against Harbhajan than right handers”. I know I am exaggerating, but knowing Buchanan its hard to believe that such an act is beyond him.
The problem with Buchanan is that he has built this reputation as a masterful strategist because of his glorified success as the coach of the invincible Australian team. But how much of Australia's success can be attributed to the coaching skills of Buchanan is not even debatable, it’s surely negligible. I could have done as good a job if not better if I had the quality of players that Australia had in his tenure. Maybe he could be given the credit of not being a disruptive influence in a champion team (at least he is better then Greg Chappell!).
What amazes me more than his idea is his conviction of the idea as the next big thing in cricket. He articulates that cricket has changed a lot since the advent of T-20 and having multiple captains is to keep pace with that. And when someone reminded him that India had won the T-20 world cup under one captain, his response was:
"At the time there wasn't much research done about the Twenty20 format. I don't want to undermine India's achievement. But it's true that most of the renowned international players were missing then. The state-level players showed more efficiency and sharpness during the tournament. Gone are those days. The world of franchises has completely changed the face of Twenty20 cricket, The game is progressing”
Much research? So what have you done now? We are living in a time where in we are paying the price for adopting some nobel prize winning research in financial economics and here he is talking about research in cricket. Surely there’s something wrong with him. He is taking himself too seriously here. Maybe SRK should send him to some anti-narcissistic therapy clinic.
If anything, the advent of T-20 has reinforced the importance of good captaincy and leadership. Its hard to convince oneself that India would have done just as well in the world cup had the captain been someone else and not Dhoni. Just compare the videotapes of Collingwood’s restless discussions with Stuart Broad ball after ball when Yuvraj hit him for six consecutive 6’s and Dhoni’s calm and composed demeanor when Misbah-ul- haq hit Harbhajan for three 6’s in an over to completely tilt the balance in a world cup final. A good captain makes that critical difference between a secure and an insecure team. However, Buchanan wants the opposite, he wants even the captain to feel insecure!
And what about Rajasthan Royals? Take Shane Warne out and see if you can even entertain thoughts of Rajasthan Royals being the champions of IPL. The influence of Shane Warne on the team was so huge that almost everyone in the team surpassed themselves. They did not have the superstars, the million dollar players, but they had a captain who commanded respect, who was tactically brilliant and who liberated his little known players to express themselves on a grand stage. I agree that luck and skills are inseparable in evaluating a captain but cricketing instincts in us generally does a good job of differentiating a good captain from a bad one even though the scale may vary.
What an irony that Buchanan wants to try this idea out in the same tournament, which emphatically vindicated the long held (and sometimes over hyped) significance of a captain. As an add on, it also put the role of a coach in perspective (if you remember Royals did not have a coach at all! But had Jeremey Snape as a mentor). Not so long ago Indian cricket team played some of its best cricket especially overseas when it did not have a coach. I don’t mean to take anything away from a good coach. Gary Kirsten is doing a fine job for the Indian team now and so did John Wright during his tenure. Despite his dogmatic belief on coaches, Ian Chappell was not too far off the mark when he said that a good coach could make about a 5% difference to the team. And that’s all the respect that Mr. Buchanan deserves.
But Mr.Buchanan is not happy with that. He wants to be an avant-garde in cricket, to be known as the man who revolutionized cricket completely! In the process, he’s wiping away whatever little legacy he had built as a tactically sound coach. Had Buchanan lived in anonymity after his reign as coach of the Australian team we would have never known how bad he was. Thanks to his second innings with KKR, we now know the cricketing acumen of the most successful cricket coach of all time! As Warren Buffet famously said, ‘It is only when the tide goes out that you know who was swimming naked,’ Now we all know!
However, if you had read or even skimmed through his book “If better is possible” you wouldn’t be too surprised with his novel idea. I must admit that I haven’t read the book completely but skimmed through it in a bookshop and even that was not a pleasant experience. It is full of buzzwords and corporate style management jargons and would have fitted perfectly in the company of Stephen Covey books! If he ever cares to read “Strategy Safari” or “Fooled by Randomness” in his life, he would be ashamed of having written such a book.
Also not so long ago he had another novel idea – to train all Australian cricketers to be ambidextrous! Imagine that for a while…. “Hey Ricky, you know why you struggle against Harbhajan – its because you are a right hander. You should start batting left-handed to tackle his threat better. If you are not convinced, go through this research of mine which proves that left handers have a 75% greater probability of success against Harbhajan than right handers”. I know I am exaggerating, but knowing Buchanan its hard to believe that such an act is beyond him.
The problem with Buchanan is that he has built this reputation as a masterful strategist because of his glorified success as the coach of the invincible Australian team. But how much of Australia's success can be attributed to the coaching skills of Buchanan is not even debatable, it’s surely negligible. I could have done as good a job if not better if I had the quality of players that Australia had in his tenure. Maybe he could be given the credit of not being a disruptive influence in a champion team (at least he is better then Greg Chappell!).
What amazes me more than his idea is his conviction of the idea as the next big thing in cricket. He articulates that cricket has changed a lot since the advent of T-20 and having multiple captains is to keep pace with that. And when someone reminded him that India had won the T-20 world cup under one captain, his response was:
"At the time there wasn't much research done about the Twenty20 format. I don't want to undermine India's achievement. But it's true that most of the renowned international players were missing then. The state-level players showed more efficiency and sharpness during the tournament. Gone are those days. The world of franchises has completely changed the face of Twenty20 cricket, The game is progressing”
Much research? So what have you done now? We are living in a time where in we are paying the price for adopting some nobel prize winning research in financial economics and here he is talking about research in cricket. Surely there’s something wrong with him. He is taking himself too seriously here. Maybe SRK should send him to some anti-narcissistic therapy clinic.
If anything, the advent of T-20 has reinforced the importance of good captaincy and leadership. Its hard to convince oneself that India would have done just as well in the world cup had the captain been someone else and not Dhoni. Just compare the videotapes of Collingwood’s restless discussions with Stuart Broad ball after ball when Yuvraj hit him for six consecutive 6’s and Dhoni’s calm and composed demeanor when Misbah-ul- haq hit Harbhajan for three 6’s in an over to completely tilt the balance in a world cup final. A good captain makes that critical difference between a secure and an insecure team. However, Buchanan wants the opposite, he wants even the captain to feel insecure!
And what about Rajasthan Royals? Take Shane Warne out and see if you can even entertain thoughts of Rajasthan Royals being the champions of IPL. The influence of Shane Warne on the team was so huge that almost everyone in the team surpassed themselves. They did not have the superstars, the million dollar players, but they had a captain who commanded respect, who was tactically brilliant and who liberated his little known players to express themselves on a grand stage. I agree that luck and skills are inseparable in evaluating a captain but cricketing instincts in us generally does a good job of differentiating a good captain from a bad one even though the scale may vary.
What an irony that Buchanan wants to try this idea out in the same tournament, which emphatically vindicated the long held (and sometimes over hyped) significance of a captain. As an add on, it also put the role of a coach in perspective (if you remember Royals did not have a coach at all! But had Jeremey Snape as a mentor). Not so long ago Indian cricket team played some of its best cricket especially overseas when it did not have a coach. I don’t mean to take anything away from a good coach. Gary Kirsten is doing a fine job for the Indian team now and so did John Wright during his tenure. Despite his dogmatic belief on coaches, Ian Chappell was not too far off the mark when he said that a good coach could make about a 5% difference to the team. And that’s all the respect that Mr. Buchanan deserves.
But Mr.Buchanan is not happy with that. He wants to be an avant-garde in cricket, to be known as the man who revolutionized cricket completely! In the process, he’s wiping away whatever little legacy he had built as a tactically sound coach. Had Buchanan lived in anonymity after his reign as coach of the Australian team we would have never known how bad he was. Thanks to his second innings with KKR, we now know the cricketing acumen of the most successful cricket coach of all time! As Warren Buffet famously said, ‘It is only when the tide goes out that you know who was swimming naked,’ Now we all know!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
In Defense of BCCI
Not even in my nightmares have I imagined that there would be a day when I would opine in defense of BCCI. But fortunately or unfortunately, I am having to do it now courtesy the extraordinarily over the top reaction of media and opinion leaders to BCCI’s resilience (or stubbornness as some would like to call it) in ensuring that IPL happens on schedule. From casual bloggers to editors of venerable newspapers, everyone has done their bit of BCCI bashing or more specifically Lalit Modi bashing.
Before proceeding any further, I want to make my stance on this very clear. I honestly think that BCCI should have been more proactive and less hot headed in working with the government once the election schedules were known and more so post the terrorist attack on Srilankan cricketers in Pakistan. It shouldn’t have taken the government for granted.
At the same time I also believe that government was too indecisive and was giving inconsistent statements on its ability to provide security support to host IPL. Surely it’s no shame to admit that they can’t provide adequate security for IPL considering the extraordinary logistical requirements of the world’s most complex election process. At least that would have made it easier for both the government and IPL to move on.
Except for BJP none would have had a problem with it and BJP is not a representative of BCCI – let’s not direct our criticism at the wrong place! Everyone understands that the government was in a real corridor of uncertainty over this issue and any unrealistic security assurance could have been catastrophic for the country’ image if some untoward incident had to happen. Better to be safe than sorry.
Now to the defense of BCCI.
Why can’t BCCI understand that the election of the world’s largest democracy is far more important than IPL?
Did Lalit Modi ever say that election should be postponed or cancelled because it coincides with IPL? He’s the commissioner of IPL and it’s his duty to ensure that the tournament goes ahead by managing the constraints surrounding the tournament. And he provided as much flexibility in the scheduling of matches as he possibly could by preparing various permutations and combinations of match schedules. It still wasn’t acceptable to the government and hence the decision to move IPL to an offshore location was made.
But why couldn’t BCCI have postponed it?
It’s a joke. With the international calendar so tightly packed, postponing would have effectively meant canceling the second edition of IPL. Don’t forget that ICC found it very difficult to find a slot in the cricketing calendar for hosting the champions trophy which was to be held in Pakistan last year and BCCI themselves are facing the same problem in trying to accommodate the champions league.
It’s no sin to cancel IPL for the sake of national interests?
Well, what’s the national interest that is being compromised by hosting IPL in offshore venue? Would people not go to voting ballots because they would be watching IPL matches in the evenings??? Do we all stop working because elections are on? Let’s stop getting jingoistic and be pragmatic. The cost of canceling IPL is humongous. There’s huge money riding on it and that’s not all. IPL is the showpiece event in cricket – probably even bigger than the world cup. And if you believe it’s just because of the money involved then you are a fake purist. If it was money alone, why didn’t the world embrace the Twenty-20 for $20mio farce of Allen Stanford? The quality of cricket on display in the first edition was top notch; just watch the videotape of Shane Warne working out M.S.Dhoni in an over of masterful deceit. Only a catastrophe of huge magnitude would result in the show-piece event of any sport being scrapped.
But what a shame that a domestic tournament is going to be held in an offshore venue?
As I have said before IPL is more than a domestic tournament. It’s changed the dynamics of Cricket as a game within a year of its formation. Agreed IPL will lose its charm if it’s not held in India but do we have a choice? For all you know, it might be able to garner a greater international interest than the last edition because of the move to an offshore location.
Also for years, we never played Pakistan in either India or Pakistan but in neutral venues – its not so shameful after all!
What’s the fuss about IPL? It’s all hype, Test cricket is real cricket. It’s all because of the money.
Yes, who’s denying that? If I have to make a choice between Test cricket and T-20, I would most obviously go for Test Cricket. But that’s not even a point of argument here. And there’s nothing immoral about the huge sums of money involved in IPL. If you don’t like it don’t watch it – simple. And BCCI didn’t pour the money into IPL; it’s the followers who have ensured that BCCI is laughing all the way to the bank by embracing the tournament so well. At the end of the day, if the cricket is not attractive the money will eventually drain away.
Mr.Chidambaram was so right about IPL. - "It appears that IPL is more than a game. It is a shrewd combination of sport and business. There is no reason to add politics to this combination,"
Yes he was. So how does that reflect badly on BCCI? He was not reacting just to BCCI members but also to the political fraternity who were gaining mileage out of this issue. Let’s not forget that Lalit Modi (for once) has also been politically correct by asking the media not to politicize the issue of moving IPL out of India.
Surely Lalit Modi hasn’t been a saint in handling such a sensitive issue but doesn’t deserve all the brickbats that he is getting now for doing what was the only pragmatic option left.
Before proceeding any further, I want to make my stance on this very clear. I honestly think that BCCI should have been more proactive and less hot headed in working with the government once the election schedules were known and more so post the terrorist attack on Srilankan cricketers in Pakistan. It shouldn’t have taken the government for granted.
At the same time I also believe that government was too indecisive and was giving inconsistent statements on its ability to provide security support to host IPL. Surely it’s no shame to admit that they can’t provide adequate security for IPL considering the extraordinary logistical requirements of the world’s most complex election process. At least that would have made it easier for both the government and IPL to move on.
Except for BJP none would have had a problem with it and BJP is not a representative of BCCI – let’s not direct our criticism at the wrong place! Everyone understands that the government was in a real corridor of uncertainty over this issue and any unrealistic security assurance could have been catastrophic for the country’ image if some untoward incident had to happen. Better to be safe than sorry.
Now to the defense of BCCI.
Why can’t BCCI understand that the election of the world’s largest democracy is far more important than IPL?
Did Lalit Modi ever say that election should be postponed or cancelled because it coincides with IPL? He’s the commissioner of IPL and it’s his duty to ensure that the tournament goes ahead by managing the constraints surrounding the tournament. And he provided as much flexibility in the scheduling of matches as he possibly could by preparing various permutations and combinations of match schedules. It still wasn’t acceptable to the government and hence the decision to move IPL to an offshore location was made.
But why couldn’t BCCI have postponed it?
It’s a joke. With the international calendar so tightly packed, postponing would have effectively meant canceling the second edition of IPL. Don’t forget that ICC found it very difficult to find a slot in the cricketing calendar for hosting the champions trophy which was to be held in Pakistan last year and BCCI themselves are facing the same problem in trying to accommodate the champions league.
It’s no sin to cancel IPL for the sake of national interests?
Well, what’s the national interest that is being compromised by hosting IPL in offshore venue? Would people not go to voting ballots because they would be watching IPL matches in the evenings??? Do we all stop working because elections are on? Let’s stop getting jingoistic and be pragmatic. The cost of canceling IPL is humongous. There’s huge money riding on it and that’s not all. IPL is the showpiece event in cricket – probably even bigger than the world cup. And if you believe it’s just because of the money involved then you are a fake purist. If it was money alone, why didn’t the world embrace the Twenty-20 for $20mio farce of Allen Stanford? The quality of cricket on display in the first edition was top notch; just watch the videotape of Shane Warne working out M.S.Dhoni in an over of masterful deceit. Only a catastrophe of huge magnitude would result in the show-piece event of any sport being scrapped.
But what a shame that a domestic tournament is going to be held in an offshore venue?
As I have said before IPL is more than a domestic tournament. It’s changed the dynamics of Cricket as a game within a year of its formation. Agreed IPL will lose its charm if it’s not held in India but do we have a choice? For all you know, it might be able to garner a greater international interest than the last edition because of the move to an offshore location.
Also for years, we never played Pakistan in either India or Pakistan but in neutral venues – its not so shameful after all!
What’s the fuss about IPL? It’s all hype, Test cricket is real cricket. It’s all because of the money.
Yes, who’s denying that? If I have to make a choice between Test cricket and T-20, I would most obviously go for Test Cricket. But that’s not even a point of argument here. And there’s nothing immoral about the huge sums of money involved in IPL. If you don’t like it don’t watch it – simple. And BCCI didn’t pour the money into IPL; it’s the followers who have ensured that BCCI is laughing all the way to the bank by embracing the tournament so well. At the end of the day, if the cricket is not attractive the money will eventually drain away.
Mr.Chidambaram was so right about IPL. - "It appears that IPL is more than a game. It is a shrewd combination of sport and business. There is no reason to add politics to this combination,"
Yes he was. So how does that reflect badly on BCCI? He was not reacting just to BCCI members but also to the political fraternity who were gaining mileage out of this issue. Let’s not forget that Lalit Modi (for once) has also been politically correct by asking the media not to politicize the issue of moving IPL out of India.
Surely Lalit Modi hasn’t been a saint in handling such a sensitive issue but doesn’t deserve all the brickbats that he is getting now for doing what was the only pragmatic option left.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Welcome to Indian Political League
Politics and BCCI have never been far away. To move Jagmohan Dalmiya out, it required a man of Sharad Pawar’s political stature. Lalit Modi’s nexus with ex-Rajasthan chief minister is too well known. And a lot of the state cricket associations’ office bearers are affiliated to various political parties as well. So any talk of seperating cricket from politics in India is living in denial of reality.
After weeks of ping ponging with the government, the BCCI has finally acted decisive or is it a blackmail? Despite preparing nearly 50 possible schedules as alternatives to factor in almost all possible scenarios, IPL officials could not get the government to give a clear go ahead for the second edition of IPL.
Along the way Maharashtra government announced their support to hold IPL in Mumbai with modified schedule and withdrew soon, Rahul Gandhi expressed his interest to utilize IPL slots for election campaign advertising until Lalit Modi said no to any political advertising in IPL and Lalit Modi lost a none too irrelevant election in Rajasthan Cricket Association. No wonder that IPL venue for Rajasthan Royals was shifted even before election security issues cropped up.
So what’s the real issue here? The rhetoric of “which is more important to the country – Elections or IPL?” hardly makes sense. Does the EPL stop when there are elections in England? No, so why should it be a problem here. But that’s because EPL doesn’t ask for paramilitary forces from the government to be able to conduct its tournament. So once the IPL has asked for it (sad after effects of Mumbai attack and more importantly the recent attack on Srilankan cricketers in Pakistan), they have no choice but to work around the government’s constraints (however real or unreal they maybe).
It all looks fine so far. So isn’t taking IPL offshore the most sensible solution albeit all the compromises involved. But its fine only if there is nothing more to it than what meets the eye. But that’s hardly a convincing hypothesis. Surely there seems to be political power play at work. BCCI was either too ignorant or too arrogant to not figure out that the Pakistani attack had huge ramifications on IPL and that coupled with the announcement of election schedule should have ensured they were working with the government from the early stages to sort out the security arrangements. But they were busy assuring the media that India is a safe country and it’ll go ahead as per schedule and presumed its their birthright to ask for paramilitary forces for security support.
The government on its part never displayed any conviction on the issue. One day Mr.Chidambaram articulates that elections and security is more important than IPL and hence there’s no other choice but to postpone it. Another day he says that everything will be done to ensure IPL happens in India closer to the original schedule. And state governments haven’t been any different. Already there’s a conspiracy theory floating around - that in Recessionary times, corporates who generally contribute to political campaigns will be pulling the plug and add that to the fact some of the big corporates of the country own IPL franchises for which they have to shell out huge sums. Is this conflict of interest which is the cause of all this political play is anybody’s speculation…
The irony is even without any political overtones the decision to conduct IPL in offshore venue in the given circumstances may just be the most sensible one! And any argument about Indian public being denied the pleasure of supporting their favorite team in the stadiums is redundant. Supporting your favourite team on television is still a better choice than not having a chance to support your team at all. And any argument against holding a domestic tournament in offshore location is absurd to say the least. IPL is a domestic tournament only for technical definition, its impact is far beyond, and it’s simply the best cricket tournament in the world involving the galaxy of best cricketers in the world.
Not many people believed that IPL would turn out to be such a smashing success in the first edition especially given the fact that it was organized in such a short span of time. So for all the drama and constraints surrounding the second edition, IPL might just be able to surprise all of us by putting on a grand show again wherever it is held. And the critical component for that is the quality of cricket on display. Thankfully that can’t be influenced by political power play!
After weeks of ping ponging with the government, the BCCI has finally acted decisive or is it a blackmail? Despite preparing nearly 50 possible schedules as alternatives to factor in almost all possible scenarios, IPL officials could not get the government to give a clear go ahead for the second edition of IPL.
Along the way Maharashtra government announced their support to hold IPL in Mumbai with modified schedule and withdrew soon, Rahul Gandhi expressed his interest to utilize IPL slots for election campaign advertising until Lalit Modi said no to any political advertising in IPL and Lalit Modi lost a none too irrelevant election in Rajasthan Cricket Association. No wonder that IPL venue for Rajasthan Royals was shifted even before election security issues cropped up.
So what’s the real issue here? The rhetoric of “which is more important to the country – Elections or IPL?” hardly makes sense. Does the EPL stop when there are elections in England? No, so why should it be a problem here. But that’s because EPL doesn’t ask for paramilitary forces from the government to be able to conduct its tournament. So once the IPL has asked for it (sad after effects of Mumbai attack and more importantly the recent attack on Srilankan cricketers in Pakistan), they have no choice but to work around the government’s constraints (however real or unreal they maybe).
It all looks fine so far. So isn’t taking IPL offshore the most sensible solution albeit all the compromises involved. But its fine only if there is nothing more to it than what meets the eye. But that’s hardly a convincing hypothesis. Surely there seems to be political power play at work. BCCI was either too ignorant or too arrogant to not figure out that the Pakistani attack had huge ramifications on IPL and that coupled with the announcement of election schedule should have ensured they were working with the government from the early stages to sort out the security arrangements. But they were busy assuring the media that India is a safe country and it’ll go ahead as per schedule and presumed its their birthright to ask for paramilitary forces for security support.
The government on its part never displayed any conviction on the issue. One day Mr.Chidambaram articulates that elections and security is more important than IPL and hence there’s no other choice but to postpone it. Another day he says that everything will be done to ensure IPL happens in India closer to the original schedule. And state governments haven’t been any different. Already there’s a conspiracy theory floating around - that in Recessionary times, corporates who generally contribute to political campaigns will be pulling the plug and add that to the fact some of the big corporates of the country own IPL franchises for which they have to shell out huge sums. Is this conflict of interest which is the cause of all this political play is anybody’s speculation…
The irony is even without any political overtones the decision to conduct IPL in offshore venue in the given circumstances may just be the most sensible one! And any argument about Indian public being denied the pleasure of supporting their favorite team in the stadiums is redundant. Supporting your favourite team on television is still a better choice than not having a chance to support your team at all. And any argument against holding a domestic tournament in offshore location is absurd to say the least. IPL is a domestic tournament only for technical definition, its impact is far beyond, and it’s simply the best cricket tournament in the world involving the galaxy of best cricketers in the world.
Not many people believed that IPL would turn out to be such a smashing success in the first edition especially given the fact that it was organized in such a short span of time. So for all the drama and constraints surrounding the second edition, IPL might just be able to surprise all of us by putting on a grand show again wherever it is held. And the critical component for that is the quality of cricket on display. Thankfully that can’t be influenced by political power play!
Friday, March 20, 2009
The most complete meaning for the word "Balance"
The top four searches for the meaning of the word "Balance" in Dictionary.com produced the following results:
1. a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.
2. something used to produce equilibrium; counterpoise.
3. mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.
4. a state of bodily equilibrium:
But none of these capture the essence of the word as much as this image.
This is balance.
1. a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.
2. something used to produce equilibrium; counterpoise.
3. mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.
4. a state of bodily equilibrium:
But none of these capture the essence of the word as much as this image.
This is balance.
Poetically Sachin...
It’s always a risky proposition to wake up early in the morning to watch India play in New Zealand. Except for the one-day series in 1994, when Sachin opened the batting for the first time, it has generally been a story of disappointment. To wake up early on the second day of the first test with all the excitement of watching Sehwag tear the NZ attack apart ended in vain. I was just beginning to get a sense of Déjà vu.
But even before I could start regretting waking up so early, the sight of Rahul Dravid in his elements filled the heart with warmth. The return of the trademark classic square cut erased any doubts if Dravid had completely recovered from his form slump. That alone is worth every minute of lost sleep. Add that to the fact that Gambhir played a characteristically spunky innings and the day ending with Sachin priming up once the new ball was taken and promising plenty for the next day.
Surely to wake up early or not is not even a question for the third day. Anyone who saw Sachin’s backfoot punch to the covers to bring up his fifty the previous day would have felt something special was in store. And how special it turned out to be!
The day started with a gorgeous front foot cover-drive and was followed by an even better backfoot cover-drive. There was the “I’ll hit it even in my deep sleep” flick off the pads for a boundary and a brilliant square cut which had the sweeper cover struggling to cover hardly 10 yards of ground. Then there was a "flick of the wrist" straight drive (yes, you read it right!) followed by his signature straight drive without any follow through at all. And how about that tap over the slips and the civilized slog sweep! This innings had it all.
Today the poet’s son was composing a poem of a different genre that can’t be read but can only be felt… And if you didn’t feel it then you can only be an atheist!
But even before I could start regretting waking up so early, the sight of Rahul Dravid in his elements filled the heart with warmth. The return of the trademark classic square cut erased any doubts if Dravid had completely recovered from his form slump. That alone is worth every minute of lost sleep. Add that to the fact that Gambhir played a characteristically spunky innings and the day ending with Sachin priming up once the new ball was taken and promising plenty for the next day.
Surely to wake up early or not is not even a question for the third day. Anyone who saw Sachin’s backfoot punch to the covers to bring up his fifty the previous day would have felt something special was in store. And how special it turned out to be!
The day started with a gorgeous front foot cover-drive and was followed by an even better backfoot cover-drive. There was the “I’ll hit it even in my deep sleep” flick off the pads for a boundary and a brilliant square cut which had the sweeper cover struggling to cover hardly 10 yards of ground. Then there was a "flick of the wrist" straight drive (yes, you read it right!) followed by his signature straight drive without any follow through at all. And how about that tap over the slips and the civilized slog sweep! This innings had it all.
Today the poet’s son was composing a poem of a different genre that can’t be read but can only be felt… And if you didn’t feel it then you can only be an atheist!
Monday, March 9, 2009
40 what?
http://cricketnext.in.com/news/fanspeak-piece-of-the-week-40-what/39126-13.html
For all the talks of Sachin’s waning powers, he’s still one of the best in business. The fact that he was superior before shouldn’t be held against him now and more so when he proves to be just as effective to the team’s cause. Admittedly he’s playing only half of the repertoire of shots that he’s capable of. Surely we’ll never see another innings like his 155 against Shane Warne & co in Chepauk. But even with half his repertoire of shots, he’s better than most of the rest.
And we just saw an evidence of that at Christchurch a couple of days back. In his pomp he could have been more effective, belligerent, entertaining but he wasn’t far-off the other day. He may not be dancing down the track and hitting over the top anymore but he’s become more inventive these days. Can you imagine a swept six of a fast bowler? Even I couldn’t till I saw Sachin do it! And what about that late (should I say latest) glide to third man off a near perfect yorker, the many varieties of paddle sweeps (in fact some of them should be called reverse straight drives) and that slice over slips of a fast bowler.
As much as we regret missing the once instinctive pull and hook from that MRF blade, let’s also celebrate the new found inventiveness in his batting. His batting may not be as exciting as it used to be but it’s just as skillful and artistic. A lot of media content has been spent on putting that Sachin’s 163 in perspective by reasoning out the smallness of the ground and trueness of the pitch.
Well, when were the pitches not true in ODIs? I’ll have to go back at least a decade and hope to recollect something. The small boundaries were a sorry sight but that’s always been the case in NZ. At least it’s better than IPL where even in big grounds, the boundaries were pulled up by more than 10 meters! It was not a great innings by Sachin’s standards but still it was an innings worth celebrating and not be demeaned by factors that are just as common everywhere.
It’s so ironic that in a country where he is literally worshipped by millions and millions of people, so many of us (sometimes including himself) are not sure of how many hundreds he has scored in ODI’s. We all know its 40 odd but the exact number? That’s the problem when you score too many of them. We know it in test matches because Ricky Ponting is close on his heels but in ODI’s there’s no one in sight and presumably no one will ever be. And that’s the measure of the man. He’s his own benchmark – however unfair that is!!!
For all the talks of Sachin’s waning powers, he’s still one of the best in business. The fact that he was superior before shouldn’t be held against him now and more so when he proves to be just as effective to the team’s cause. Admittedly he’s playing only half of the repertoire of shots that he’s capable of. Surely we’ll never see another innings like his 155 against Shane Warne & co in Chepauk. But even with half his repertoire of shots, he’s better than most of the rest.
And we just saw an evidence of that at Christchurch a couple of days back. In his pomp he could have been more effective, belligerent, entertaining but he wasn’t far-off the other day. He may not be dancing down the track and hitting over the top anymore but he’s become more inventive these days. Can you imagine a swept six of a fast bowler? Even I couldn’t till I saw Sachin do it! And what about that late (should I say latest) glide to third man off a near perfect yorker, the many varieties of paddle sweeps (in fact some of them should be called reverse straight drives) and that slice over slips of a fast bowler.
As much as we regret missing the once instinctive pull and hook from that MRF blade, let’s also celebrate the new found inventiveness in his batting. His batting may not be as exciting as it used to be but it’s just as skillful and artistic. A lot of media content has been spent on putting that Sachin’s 163 in perspective by reasoning out the smallness of the ground and trueness of the pitch.
Well, when were the pitches not true in ODIs? I’ll have to go back at least a decade and hope to recollect something. The small boundaries were a sorry sight but that’s always been the case in NZ. At least it’s better than IPL where even in big grounds, the boundaries were pulled up by more than 10 meters! It was not a great innings by Sachin’s standards but still it was an innings worth celebrating and not be demeaned by factors that are just as common everywhere.
It’s so ironic that in a country where he is literally worshipped by millions and millions of people, so many of us (sometimes including himself) are not sure of how many hundreds he has scored in ODI’s. We all know its 40 odd but the exact number? That’s the problem when you score too many of them. We know it in test matches because Ricky Ponting is close on his heels but in ODI’s there’s no one in sight and presumably no one will ever be. And that’s the measure of the man. He’s his own benchmark – however unfair that is!!!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
“It’s just a bloody game of cricket and we are in a war”
Simon Taufel summed it up so well. Cricket seems so trivial all of a sudden. It was so unreal. I have been wanting to write about the audacious attack on Srilanka for a couple of days but somehow I am not able to get the words to express my emotions at the moment. The following extract of a moving piece written by Sambit Bal in Cricinfo after the Mumbai attack, describes exactly how I am feeling now:
“……men who have purged from their souls every trace of humanity - let's not confer on them the dignity of a religion - and I have felt the blood drain out of me. I have felt a sense of paralysis and rage. My family and I are safe at home, none of my friends were in the hotels or at the other attack sites; but I am numb, not with fear or personal loss, but something far deeper: a sense of overpowering bleakness"
http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/379988.html
Even though the context is different between the Mumbai attack and this one, there’s a sense of déjà vu about it. If anything the Lahore attack is all the more audacious given the scale of security measures expected to be in place for such an important cricket series. Given the ease with which the terrorists were able to attack and flee the place, serious questions ought to be asked.
Already Murali has raised some critical questions and so have Simon Taufel & Chris Broad. Surely it can’t be so easy. I can’t ride my bike in the surrounding lanes of Chepauk during any international match as part of the security measures, but for a series with so much at stake, whatever the PCB assured as presidential level security was woefully short. Was there some internal help for the terrorists or was it just negligence of the highest order? Hopefully we’ll get an answer soon.
“……men who have purged from their souls every trace of humanity - let's not confer on them the dignity of a religion - and I have felt the blood drain out of me. I have felt a sense of paralysis and rage. My family and I are safe at home, none of my friends were in the hotels or at the other attack sites; but I am numb, not with fear or personal loss, but something far deeper: a sense of overpowering bleakness"
http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/379988.html
Even though the context is different between the Mumbai attack and this one, there’s a sense of déjà vu about it. If anything the Lahore attack is all the more audacious given the scale of security measures expected to be in place for such an important cricket series. Given the ease with which the terrorists were able to attack and flee the place, serious questions ought to be asked.
Already Murali has raised some critical questions and so have Simon Taufel & Chris Broad. Surely it can’t be so easy. I can’t ride my bike in the surrounding lanes of Chepauk during any international match as part of the security measures, but for a series with so much at stake, whatever the PCB assured as presidential level security was woefully short. Was there some internal help for the terrorists or was it just negligence of the highest order? Hopefully we’ll get an answer soon.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The legend of "D" Stand
There’s something special about watching a test match live in the stadium. It’s a feeling that can never quite be explained in words. You just have to experience it. It is almost irrational that people pay money to go to the stadium to watch cricket from such a long distance where sometimes they can’t figure out if an appeal is for a catch or an LBW! And imagine the alternative of watching it on TV, you can sit on your couch, watch every ball up and close, get to watch replays, Hotspot, Hawkeye, Commentary and what not! And the best part is if your team is not doing well, switch the channel and watch something else. But why do people still go to the stadium? As I said before - Go there and experience it, you will know why.
Since I have come to Chennai, I have not missed a single international match at Chepauk. I believe the most interesting aspect of watching cricket in the stadium is that one gets to connect with the reality of sports. When we watch it on TV, we almost treat sportsmen like some robots who have no right to normal human inadequacy. But there you see them sweat it out live, you understand how tough it’s to play under extreme heat, you see a fielder drop a tough catch and still applaud it for a valiant attempt, you see a fast bowler bowling a long spell without any rewards and you give an ovation at the end of the spell. I wonder if these emotions can ever be experienced in watching on TV.
I have been fortunate to be a resident of the city, which has hosted some of the most amazing test matches witnessed in this part of the world. Chepauk also boasts of by far the most sporting crowd in the country – who could forget that standing ovation given for the victorious Pakistan team in 1999! What more, its also Sachin’s favourite hunting ground! Surely it doesn’t get better than this (maybe a full house Eden Gardens when India is in a dominant position), it’s mouth watering stuff….
If watching live in Chepauk is exhilarating, being in the D Stand section of Chepauk is pure bliss! I have seen matches from every part of the ground but none can match the experience of watching it from D Stand. Why? Because it has the straight view. So is the terrace but it is atleast 5 times more expensive and too dignified an atmosphere for a cricket match. B and C have a great festive atmosphere too but don’t quite have the straight view. And since D Stand tickets are primarily given to TNCA members, a lot of the league cricketers and even first class cricketers sit in this part of the stadium.
So there you go – the best view, affordable, festival atmosphere and the most knowledgeable section of the audience! D stand is simply the best place to watch a cricket match. It has given me so many happy memories that it’s only appropriate that my blog address is Dstand.blogspot.com.
Since I have come to Chennai, I have not missed a single international match at Chepauk. I believe the most interesting aspect of watching cricket in the stadium is that one gets to connect with the reality of sports. When we watch it on TV, we almost treat sportsmen like some robots who have no right to normal human inadequacy. But there you see them sweat it out live, you understand how tough it’s to play under extreme heat, you see a fielder drop a tough catch and still applaud it for a valiant attempt, you see a fast bowler bowling a long spell without any rewards and you give an ovation at the end of the spell. I wonder if these emotions can ever be experienced in watching on TV.
I have been fortunate to be a resident of the city, which has hosted some of the most amazing test matches witnessed in this part of the world. Chepauk also boasts of by far the most sporting crowd in the country – who could forget that standing ovation given for the victorious Pakistan team in 1999! What more, its also Sachin’s favourite hunting ground! Surely it doesn’t get better than this (maybe a full house Eden Gardens when India is in a dominant position), it’s mouth watering stuff….
If watching live in Chepauk is exhilarating, being in the D Stand section of Chepauk is pure bliss! I have seen matches from every part of the ground but none can match the experience of watching it from D Stand. Why? Because it has the straight view. So is the terrace but it is atleast 5 times more expensive and too dignified an atmosphere for a cricket match. B and C have a great festive atmosphere too but don’t quite have the straight view. And since D Stand tickets are primarily given to TNCA members, a lot of the league cricketers and even first class cricketers sit in this part of the stadium.
So there you go – the best view, affordable, festival atmosphere and the most knowledgeable section of the audience! D stand is simply the best place to watch a cricket match. It has given me so many happy memories that it’s only appropriate that my blog address is Dstand.blogspot.com.
Friday, February 27, 2009
A humdinger awaits….
Australia is down but to count them out would be foolish. The year 2008 might have been their annus horribilis, but that is only relative to their recent history. They lost to India in India, which except for one series in 2004 (that too with extraordinary help from Nagpur Cricket Association and weather gods in Chennai) has been the way for more than 3 decades now. Of course, they lost a home series in almost 2 decades against South Africa. But the series was a very closely fought contest, with South Africa producing some excellent cricket during the critical moments. Let us not forget that until the 4th innings miracle in Perth, Australia always had their noses ahead in that test. In Melbourne, it was the spirited partnership between Dale Steyn and Duminy that tilted the scales in South Africa’s favor. And in Sydney South Africa might have won the hearts, but lets not forget that Australia won the match.
To sing the death knell for Australian cricket based on this evidence would be myopic. Of course, they will not be the dominant team that they were in world cricket for sometime to come. Not only are they feeling the pain of large scale retirements of some of the all-time greats, they are also confronted with the rise of South Africa and India as a test team. Test Cricket has not been so healthy in a long long time. South Africa has the best fast bowling attack in the world, a high quality batting line up, a confident captain to go with it. India might look the best team in the world right now because of their all round strength but the real test will come when Sachin, Dravid and Laxman decide to hang up the boots. Moreover, Australia for all its fall from peak is still a very competitive team. Their batting has the firepower to produce consistently high scores, bowling would be very effective if Bret Lee can rediscover his form and Stuart Clark can rediscover his fitness. The battle for No.1 is going to be very exciting indeed.
Part of that battle has already begun in South Africa and Australia is fighting every inch to restore their lost supremacy albeit their not so supreme resources. This is the going to be the real test for South Africa; they are the favorites to win this series especially at home. Anything less would be disappointing. This is what separates champions from challengers; this is what Australia consistently achieved for more than a decade. How do you motivate yourself when the best that you could achieve is taken for granted! Now that is South Africa’s biggest challenge, If they win the series it would be more of a relief than a celebration. South Africa, welcome to the Champions’ prison of identity! Graeme Smith might do well to take some tips from Roger Federer on life in that prison…
To sing the death knell for Australian cricket based on this evidence would be myopic. Of course, they will not be the dominant team that they were in world cricket for sometime to come. Not only are they feeling the pain of large scale retirements of some of the all-time greats, they are also confronted with the rise of South Africa and India as a test team. Test Cricket has not been so healthy in a long long time. South Africa has the best fast bowling attack in the world, a high quality batting line up, a confident captain to go with it. India might look the best team in the world right now because of their all round strength but the real test will come when Sachin, Dravid and Laxman decide to hang up the boots. Moreover, Australia for all its fall from peak is still a very competitive team. Their batting has the firepower to produce consistently high scores, bowling would be very effective if Bret Lee can rediscover his form and Stuart Clark can rediscover his fitness. The battle for No.1 is going to be very exciting indeed.
Part of that battle has already begun in South Africa and Australia is fighting every inch to restore their lost supremacy albeit their not so supreme resources. This is the going to be the real test for South Africa; they are the favorites to win this series especially at home. Anything less would be disappointing. This is what separates champions from challengers; this is what Australia consistently achieved for more than a decade. How do you motivate yourself when the best that you could achieve is taken for granted! Now that is South Africa’s biggest challenge, If they win the series it would be more of a relief than a celebration. South Africa, welcome to the Champions’ prison of identity! Graeme Smith might do well to take some tips from Roger Federer on life in that prison…
BCCI at it again!
If you thought untouchability is a thing of the past, think again! BCCI has launched it all over again in a new avatar. Anyone who has got anything to do with ICL be barred from any contact with the outside ICL world. I am glad Lalit Modi hasn’t gone to court asking the ICL cricketers’ wives to be divorced from them. In a country where a proven match-fixer joins the ruling party without any hassles, we are treating professionals who made democratic choices seem like traitors.
Not so long ago, VVS Laxman wasn’t allowed to play for Nottingham because the county had ICL players in its ranks. Now, the god of all gods Sachin cannot play for a NZCPA’s XI because of the presence of Hamish Marshal in the team. Surely, it cannot get more juvenile than this. And the weird part is that even without any of BCCI’s hostility towards it, ICL is a far cry from the standard of cricket witnessed in IPL. Add that to all the non-sense that BCCI has been heaping on ICL, there is no way out for them.
Infact the surest way of suppressing ICL would have been to let it be. After the stupendous success of the first edition of IPL, very few players in ICL would have resisted the temptation to join IPL. In addition, the fact that IPL franchises have fatter wallets to spend on would have ensured that the best of ICL players would have been picked up by IPL franchises. That would have left ICL with no choice but to shut shop.
What would have been a simple market solution has now become a big, messy political and legal affair. ICC is caught in a no man’s land with neither the conviction to support ICL players nor the courage to oppose BCCI! And the respective cricket boards don’t have the backbone to support their own players at the expense of being in the wrong books of BCCI. Also, Subash Chandra hasn’t been particularly smart in striking a bargain with BCCI when the opportunity presented itself. It is a pity that some fine cricketers are lost in this utterly meaningless conflict. How I miss the sight of Shane Bond running in and delivering thunderbolts in test cricket…
Not so long ago, VVS Laxman wasn’t allowed to play for Nottingham because the county had ICL players in its ranks. Now, the god of all gods Sachin cannot play for a NZCPA’s XI because of the presence of Hamish Marshal in the team. Surely, it cannot get more juvenile than this. And the weird part is that even without any of BCCI’s hostility towards it, ICL is a far cry from the standard of cricket witnessed in IPL. Add that to all the non-sense that BCCI has been heaping on ICL, there is no way out for them.
Infact the surest way of suppressing ICL would have been to let it be. After the stupendous success of the first edition of IPL, very few players in ICL would have resisted the temptation to join IPL. In addition, the fact that IPL franchises have fatter wallets to spend on would have ensured that the best of ICL players would have been picked up by IPL franchises. That would have left ICL with no choice but to shut shop.
What would have been a simple market solution has now become a big, messy political and legal affair. ICC is caught in a no man’s land with neither the conviction to support ICL players nor the courage to oppose BCCI! And the respective cricket boards don’t have the backbone to support their own players at the expense of being in the wrong books of BCCI. Also, Subash Chandra hasn’t been particularly smart in striking a bargain with BCCI when the opportunity presented itself. It is a pity that some fine cricketers are lost in this utterly meaningless conflict. How I miss the sight of Shane Bond running in and delivering thunderbolts in test cricket…
Nothing like Cricket......
Finally, I convinced myself to start a blog specifically for cricket. Hopefully that should make me blog more frequently. I have always been skeptic about writing on cricket because it’s meant so much to me that it’s difficult to put in words. But the fact that I have been leading such a mundane life of late, I’ll be happy to do anything to turn my life back to those days when there was nothing but cricket. Gone are the days where we used to spend days on admiring a Sachin’s straight drive and weeks on admiring the way Rohit Brijnath admires the same! Hopefully through this blog, I’ll be able to rediscover that obsession………..
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