Number 3

I doubt the Ganguly-Sachin opening combine would be broken just yet. The plan, for all to see, is to drag it on a little longer. So we move on to the number three position.

The number three position though, is far from settled. Even though conventional wisdom points to a batsman settled at this spot, India, over a period stretching even prior to the Chappell years, have approached the spot with some amount of flexibility. Of course, on some occasions such fluidity has been forced on the managment. On others, Dravid and Chappell pursued it aggressively as strategy. Quite surprisingly, it is VVS Laxman who has walked in at the fall of the first wicket, the most number of times since 2003, having done it 28 times. Ever since he was dropped from the squad to South Africa for the '03 World Cup, it was clear that Laxman would never cement his spot in the ODI team. Nevertheless, India kept going back to him. This is just one more instance of muddled Indian selection. Not only has this held up the development of another ODI batsman, it probably affected Laxman's Test batting as well.

Pathan has batted at number three sixteen times, and is second only to Laxman. Surprisingly,
of the 142 matches he has played since 2003, Dravid has batted at this position only thirteen times. Dhoni has done it eleven times, Kaif ten, Sehwag nine, Yuvraj eight, Gambhir seven, Tendulkar five and Uthappa and Raina have each batted there four times. and surely there are a few more.

Contrast this to Australia. Of the 134 ODIs Ricky Ponting has played since 2003, he has batted at number three in 126 of them. I don't want to use this statistic to extol the virtues of a settled number three position. In the 2003 World Cup, Saurav Ganguly batted at number three for all but two matches of the tournament. Even that does not settle the obvious superiority of this approach. Especially for the Indian captain. After all, is he not a product of the flexible approach that allowed him a platform for creative expression?

Now, assuming that the managment stays predictable and opts for Sachin-Saurav Inc to open, we have the following candidates for the spot.

- Gautam Gambhir
- Virender Sehwag
- Robin Uthappa
- Yuvraj Singh
- S Badrinath
- M S Dhoni
- Irfan Pathan
- Rohit Sharma
- Pravin Kumar

And if Dravid is back after two ODIs, then of course, him too.

It would be surprising to see any of the last five at the position. Such a ploy may work, but it won't sustain itself over a series or more. Of the rest, one has to say that all of Sehwag, Gambhir, Uthappa and Yuvraj have a claim on the spot. Yuvraj is used to coming in a little later, but there is no point in worshipping the dharma of youth if the ultra-experienced and uber-talented Yuvraj still does not or is not allowed to take responsibility for the batting. Gambhir is the man riding a purple patch. Sehwag should be given a chance to storm back, and Uthappa has proven just as destructive at the bottom of the lineup. Since this is such a tough choice, one is likely to see more shuffling. A couple of failures could see Sehwag either sit out or move to the lower middle order to make space for Gambhir or Uthappa.

Captain Tendulkar

Some snippets from Tendulkar's previous stint as captain.

29 July 1999
News Roundup: Tendulkar takes over
Peter Deeley
India have sacked Mohammad Azharuddin as captain and replaced him with Sachin Tendulkar for the forthcoming limited-overs matches in Sri Lanka and Singapore.
Tendulkar was the unanimous choice of the Indian selectors and is expected to be named captain for the rest of the season in September.
This will be Tendulkar's second stint as captain. The 26-year-old was first given the job in similar circumstances when Azharuddin was sacked in 1996.
But a collapse in his form led to Azharuddin taking over again a year later.

30 July 1999
Captain Tendulkar meets the Press
Anand Vasu
Sachin Tendulkar ended all speculation by confirming his acceptance to Raj Singh Dungarpur, the president of BCCI.
Mr JY Lele had earlier telephoned Sachin's house, and the good tidings were recorded by Tendulkar's answering machine. The little genius first heard of his appointment when the recorded message duly informed him that, "You have been named captain, congratulations!"

Tendulkar will be back in action soon
Partab Ramchand
September 15, 1999
Surely no part of any cricketer's anatomy has been so analysed, discussed and disected as Sachin Tendulkar's back. Cricket fans have expressed anxiety over how acute the problem is. One national newsmagazine has carried an extensive cover story asking whether Tendulkar's career is finished. Another has a lengthy analytical report.
Ever since the problem first cropped up during his gallant century in a losing cause in the Chennai Test against Pakistan in January, there has been much speculation to the cause and the effect it will have on Tendulkar and Indian cricket itself in the long run. When the problem resurfaced during the camp at Chennai prior to the team's departure for the competitions in Sri Lanka and Singapore, the Indian captain consulted doctors. When the back pain persisted and affected his batting in the two tournaments, Tendulkar, realising the gravity of the situation, lost no time in dropping out of the series in Toronto and hastened to Australia to seek the advice of doctors there. The Chennai based MRF Pace Foundation which has a tie up with the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide helped him make the trip and Tendulkar took along with him Ajit Agarkar for treatment to his hamstring problem. 5

Tendulkar Junior born yesterday
Anand Vasu
September 24, 1999
Amidst all the changes that are happening in the Indian cricket organisational hierarchy and the excitement of India's packed schedule there was some good news for Sachin Tendulkar. The Indian batting genius has become a father for the second time. Anjali, Tendulkar's wife, delivered a healthy baby boy yesterday at the Breach Candy Hospital, in Mumbai.
Anjali was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital yesterday. Tendulkar's first child Sarah, was born in October 1997. Details about what the boy will be named are not yet known. The Tendulkars and the Mehtas, (Tendulkar's in-laws) have been lowkey about all personal matters, and continue to be the same about the birth of Tendulkar's second child.

Tendulkar - confident captain, undisputed leader
Partab Ramchand
October 27, 1999
In the last chapter of my recent book on Indian cricket captains, I have said that Sachin Tendulkar's best could lie ahead. The book was released early this year when Md Azharuddin was still firmly entrenched as India's captain. In analysing Tendulkar's first stint as captain during the period 1996-97, I had said that he was not yet ready for the captaincy and when given a second chance, he could do much better.
The victory at Kanpur gave Tendulkar his first victory in his second stint as captain and his fourth overall, his other three victories having come over Australia at New Delhi in his first match as captain and South Africa (twice) later that season. There is little doubt that this victory will give Tendulkar immense confidence. Already he has many of the qualities that go into the making of a successful captain and all he needed was a result in his favour. Having obtained that, he could go from strength to strength and indeed in future, he could look back on the Green Park triumph as a major turning point in his leadership.
If Tendulkar the batsmen has his critics, Tendulkar the captain also has had his detractors who feel that he is not captaincy material, that he would be better off if left to concentrate on his batting. Tendulkar for one has never lacked confidence in himself. Particularly now when he is older, more mature, more aware of what is going on and when he has been given a greater say in team selection, and matters of strategy. Also, a close relationship between the captain and the coach is very important and he and Kapil Dev, who enjoyed cordial ties as players, have been able to maintain the bond.

Rebuilding process must start in real earnest
Partab Ramchand
January 31, 2000
Even in the long, chequered history of Indian cricket, it is difficult to come across a more disastrous tour made by a team from this country than the just completed trip `Down Under'. Losing all three Tests by margins that brook no argument and winning only one of eight one day games in the Cartlon & United Series was the dismal record of the Indian team that simply went from one humiliating failure to another.

Tendulkar to step down, mystery shrouds decision
Anand Vasu
February 20, 2000
In a move that rocked the Indian cricketing world, Sachin Tendulkar walked to the press box along with the chairman of the selection committee Chandu Borde and Jaywant Lele, Secretary, Board of Control for Cricket in India and before the board officials could announce the team for the first Test against South Africa, the Indian captain walked up to the microphone and began "I have an announcement to make..."
The press waited in anticipation as Tendulkar announced that he would be stepping down as captain of the Indian team after the two Test matches against South Africa.
The Indian captain read out a written statement to that effect. Tendulkar said that "in the beginning of the season when the then chairman of selectors Wadekar met me and offered me the captaincy, I hesitated as I was not mentally prepared at that time. In spite of that I accepted. I took it up as I was most experienced and the selectors thought I was best suited for the job. I went to Australia knowing fully well the difficulty, given their status as current World Champions. But I don't want to make any excuses for our performance in Australia."
In a sentence that was vintage Tendulkar, he went on to explain: "As captain, I accept moral responsibility for our failure and after a lot of thought I have decided to step down as captain after the two Tests against South Africa."

KDK

Does Karthik know he's been dropped for the first two ODIs against Pak? He's piling on the runs, on the back of a good foundation built by Sehwag, Raina and Yadav. Fifty coming from 37 balls, Blues look set for a gigantic total.

Poor KDK. Won't do his confidence any good before he walks in to open the batting in Oz.

Racism - II

(From left) Andrew Symonds, Aussie ODI stud; Predator, pop-culture icon.

Bangar

Sanjay Bangar played 12 Tests for India. He took 7 wickets at 49, scored three fifties and made a hundred not out against Zimbabwe. His batting average ended at 29.37 - modest for a batsman who was asked to open the innings in England. As long as he was in the team, he was considered nothing more exciting than a lucky mascot. India won five and drew one of Bangar's first six Test. Yet, he had a massive impact on one of India's most celbrated victories of the last decade - Headingly '02. The following is an extract from Ralph Dellor at Cricinfo. It may sound like a Bor-a-thon, but as that match progressed, the value of that attritional first morning became quite obvious. Once again, India had to rely on Anil Kumble (6 wickets) and Rahul Dravid to wrestle an overseas victory. Sanjay Bangar took two wickets in England's second innings.


"In such conditions there was the traditional movement for the bowlers, leaving Sehwag and Bangar to perhaps question the wisdom of batting first. They coped well for half an hour before Sehwag got the opportunity to address his captain on the subject in person. He got a ball from Matthew Hoggard that drew him into the drive and he edged to Andrew Flintoff at second slip as it left him.
That was the only punishable indiscretion in the morning, despite the fact that both Hoggard, operating down the hill, and Andrew Caddick probed outside the off-stump with five catchers in an arc from the wicket-keeper. Hoggard bowled a long, controlled spell of ten overs that cost a mere 20 runs despite the attacking fields. Caddick and Alex Tudor maintained the pressure and it says much for the resolve of the batsmen that they were not beaten more often.
Their efforts were all the more valuable in that the ball was not always behaving as expected. After digging out a couple from Tudor that kept low, Dravid was forced to take evasive action as a vicious ball climbed past his gloves and over the wicket-keeper for four byes. That was one of only four occasions when the ball reached the boundary on a morning that would have been anathema to those wanting quick thrills but was fascinating for anyone with an appreciation of proper Test cricket.

A similar rate of progress was maintained after lunch as the England bowlers toiled and the Indian batsmen picked up the odd run, played and missed or simply left alone. Every over was a test of patience and, even when the sun came out, the ball still swung and the batsmen were still happy to concentrate on survival.
It could be said that the bowlers became intoxicated with the sight of the ball snaking towards the slips instead of risking a faster scoring rate and making the batsmen play more. The batsmen, however, were not to be drawn and were just as watchful against the left-arm spin of Ashley Giles as they had been against the quicker bowlers.
One of the few risks taken was as Bangar went to his fifty with a single into the covers off Tudor. Had Michael Vaughan hit, Bangar would have been some way short. As it was, he reached his personal milestone from 166 balls. Dravid was marginally quicker, taking 153 balls as India added 74 runs in the 32 overs of the afternoon session. "

Racism

From the ICCs Anti-Racism Code:
"Spectators shall not engage in any conduct, act towards or speak to any player, umpire, referee or other official or other spectators in a manner which offends, insults, humiliates, intimidates, threatens, disparages or vilifies that other person on the basis of that other person’s race, religion, colour, national or ethnic origin."

The Oz press has quite rightly exposed Indian double standards when it comes to racism. But the ICC, and the Oz media need to bear in mind that the language of 'race' is quite new in India. Very rarely has a dispute broken out on clearly determinable racial lines. Religion, language and caste and tribal loyalties have been the major drivers of identity politics.

This however, should not be an excuse to stick our collective heads deep in the soil. People in Delhi are not very kind to African students at the Delhi University, and chronic police suspicion of the Nigerian community would shame most Indians. The rest of the country treats their own countrymen and women from the North-East region (who usually have Mongol features) like trash. Forget about caste violence for now. At least we have a law to deal with that.

The problem does not stop with the BCCI. The government needs to legislate (or at least think about) an anti-racism law. Until then, there will be no public debate or awareness about the problem of racism. Whatever the BCCI and the ICC do until then will only be a stop-gap measure. And when the ICC demands that its anti-racism code be enforced, it would do well to realize that the code is quite useless in such a vacuum, and the best it can do is to ensure that its Anti-Racism officers have a good understanding of such local conditions.

Why's everyone taking aim at Dravid?

Many television (and random) commentators still make the mistake of seeing Dravid as a one-dimensional batsman. Perhaps they're still stuck with the image of Dravid as an accumulator, fooled by his nickname into underestimating his run-scoring abilities. Bad form cannot be the reason to spread all kinds of misinformation and lies about players. I am so glad that Sanjay Jagdale decided to stand up for Dravid, reminding everyone of the explosive 92* at Bristol. Coming at three or four down in England, he averaged 37.16 - which is not too bad. The only problem is that Dravid did not play in the T20 World Cup, and now there is a clamour for his removal, forced resignation blah. Dravid, along with Yuvraj and Tendulkar are still India's best ODI batsmen. Uthappa and Gambhir have scarcely promised more than Dravid has delivered.
Patience, is all I can say.

Stating the obvious.

Peter Roebuck is either wrong or states the obvious, and very rarely makes any sense. Sample this. India needs to find a balance between the old and the new, apparently. Ahem. And?

His highly original suggestion, for which he gets paid, is:

"Either put Sachin Tendulkar in charge of everything. Or ask Anil Kumble to serve as Test captain and allow his gloveman to lead young T20 and ODI outfits."

And he ends with the classic:

"Dhoni, Sreesanth and company are not the problem. They are the solution, and with a little help from Sachin and, yes, Sehwag, the future must be built around them."

Wow!

Zaheer needs a rest

Zaheer Khan has been bowling non-stop ever since he started on his comeback mission. Some time during the England tour, he admitted that the rigour of Worcestershir county cricket, where he bowled over after over, practically every day for several months, helped him get his rhythm back. In South Africa and in England, he finally became the spearhead that he had promised so often but had delivered only for a brief period prior to the 2003 World Cup - in West Indies, England and New Zealand.

But for a shocking first morning at Lords this year, Zaheer constantly troubled the English batsmen with some high quality swing bowling with balls old and new. Starting with Grame Smith, and then Andrew Strauss, he has been a handful for a few left hand opening batsmen over the past year.

Take a look at his ODI figures over the last eleven ODIs that he has played in:

- Vadodara (0/23 from 3)
- Chandigarh (0/68 from 9)
- Hyderabad (2/61 from 10)
- Kochi (1/55 from 10)
- Bangalore (1/64 from 10)
- Lords (0/40 from 9)
- Oval (1/43 from 10)
- Leeds (1/44 from 8)
- Manchester (1/45 from 9)
- Birmingham (0/49 from 10)
- Southampton (1/49 from 10)

From absolutely brilliant in England, he was downright mediocre in Chandigarh and Vadodara. It may be a reflection of the quality of the opposition and the pitches, but it needs to be remembered that the ODI series in England was pretty high-scoring.

With a long season ahead including Tests against Pakistan and Australia, India needs its pace spearhead fresh and thinking clear. It is unnecessary that India play him in the last two matches of this series. The Colonel had an opportunity to do more than lip service to the rotation mantra-and this was a case where it might have had some merit.

Left arm seamers

Yesterday, India played three left arm seamers. I don't know when the same three last played for India, but they did play in Karachi in 2006, when Pakistan rose from 39 for 6 on the first day to inflict one of the heaviest defeats on India. Arpy wasn't first choice then, and there were murmurs about how there was a 'sameness' to the attack, that made it easier for the Y Khan blade. Is the same true now? Both Zaheer and Arpy are now adept at coming around the stumps and firing it in, or shaping it away, but in ODIs, variety for variety's sake is occasionally a compelling argument.

And the fact that it is an all left-arm opening attack bowling at two left-arm opening batsmen may make it even more so.

Kartik is back.

Murali Kartik has been picked in place of Romesh Powar for the next few ODIs. This is what the Cricinfo Player Profile has to say:

A left-arm spinner in the classical mould, Murali Kartik has long been on the fringes of the national team. He has a high-arm action straight from the coaching manual, and possesses all the weapons in his armoury - the tantalising loop, the ability to extract sharp turn and bounce, and the subtle variations. But he hasn't always had the breaks, and has regularly played the understudy to Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. Kartik forced his way into the Indian team in 1999-2000 after impressive performances in the domestic games, but didn't seem to enjoy his captain's confidence and was either used as a defensive option or underbowled. He made his mark as a one-day bowler against West Indies in 2002-03, consistently keeping the batsmen in check on pitches where every other bowler got tonked for plenty. However, his best moment clearly came at Mumbai, against Australia in 2004-05. Enjoying the confidence reposed in him by Rahul Dravid, the captain, Kartik ran through the Australian batting on a dustbowl, taking seven wickets in the match to bowl India to a famous win.


Kaushik on dailycric has this to say in a post on India's Test captaincy:

I have seen Laxman captain, in the Challenger series a few years ago, and he was simply outstanding (amongst other things, bringing out the best in the temperamental Murali Kartik through the setting of some wonderful fields, allowing Kartik to emerge as one of the most successful bowlers of that tournament).

Bhajji the prude

Bhajji has complained about 'vulgar' Australians. That's surprising considering it doesn't take a trained lip-reader to figure that the Punjabi equivalent of 'sisterfucker' is always on his lips. Perhaps he could have been more specific. After all, common law has developed for centuries without adequate resolution of the problem of 'obscenity', and detail always helps.

For a minute there, he had me thinking of Priyaranjan Dasmunshi. Apparently our Hon'ble Minister for Information and Broadcasting stays up late at night to make sure no 'obscene' content is being broadcast.

Spin

Why were Harbhajan-Powar not half as good as Hogg-Clarke? Going by talent and pedigree, the Indian duo should have performed better. But they did not. Or did inept Indian batting make the Aussie twinsome look much better than they actually were?

In B'lore and in Kochi, India had Australia in trouble but could not keep them down because our spinners were ineffective. Against the Aussies, it is no good trying to limit the damage. The spinners need to be able to hunt and gather wickets. Yesterday, Powar was only allowed five overs and did not get any wickets. Harbhajan also had barren returns and was almost as expensive. Unlike the English, who were tied down by Powar's subtelty, the Aussies look extremely comfortable. He had an amazing first over maiden at B'lore, but as soon as the batsmen started using their feet, he came under some serious pressure. And like yesterday, did not finish his quota. Harbhajan on the other hand, gives the impression of having kept things tight, but if you look at his figures, the word that springs to mind is "toothless". Quite apparently, there were always singles on offer. All the great spinners will agree that wicket-taking spin bowling is all about the gradual application of pressure, and that can come only with the complete confidence of the captain.

So what next for Harbhajan, Powar and Dhoni? And the injured Piyush Chawla? Powar is returning from a succesful tour of England, and he is immediately saddled with thoroughbred competition for the possibly lone spot for a genuine spinner. Qutie clearly he is not the same bowler. Dhoni should seriously consider the option of picking only one spinner, and perhaps strengthening the batting lineup. If he needs to pick two spinners, he might want to give Pathan the new ball, and rest Zaheer/Sree. Whoever he chooses as spinner must have the freedom to ply his trade. As if Clarke, Symonds and Hayden weren't enough, Powar has to worry about his spot in the side. Similarly, Bhajji needs to worry about cementing a place in the side.

In the long run however, things seem to look fairly rosy. In Bhajji, Powar and Chawla India have three seriously good spinners to pick from when Kumble decides to call it a day. Hopefully the decision will be made on the basis of genuine wicket-taking ability.

Dhoni also needs to think long and hard strategically. Four bowlers or five? Has Pathan done enough with the bat to qualify as an all-rounder? Two spinners or one? If he decides to go with the lone spinner, do we have the resources in Tendulkar, Yuvraj and Sehwag (I hope it is only a question of when he gets picked.) to back him up?

Very Very Strange

I got damn excited when hours before the T20 finals, I noticed that a certain VVS Laxman was batting at 54 off 54 balls, for Lancashire in the fourth innings, chasing a county record 489 to win against Surrey and keep their title hopes alive. For a while there, the clash with Pakistan was not at the top of my mind. Sitting in office, all I could think of was VVS, imperious at the Oval. He eventually made a run-a-ball hundred which went a long way in denting that imposing total - but it was not enough. Lancashire fell short by 24 runs.

I will admint that I have a fondness for VVS Laxman, that borders on the insane - and I am probably never objective enough when discussing him. It is not a complex relationship. Just one of blind idolatry. Very simply, there is no other batsman in the world (now that Lara is out) that I'd rather watch make a hundred. There are similarly gifted people, of course, and Mohammed Yousuf and Jayawardene are almost in the same league, and perhaps Michael Clarke and Ashraful too, but as far as I am concerned, there is only one Laxman. He has his critics too, and I have never listened to them.

He has a modest Test batting average of 42.71. It is not so bad, considering that he has played 37 of his 83 Test matches at number 6, and only recently has there been the fairly decent buffer of MS Dhoni between Laxman and the tail. Three hundreds and thirteen fifties from this uneviable position is really not a bad record, if you have to go by numbers alone, and in Laxman's case, numbers don't come close to doing justice. He has remarkable records against the best team of his generation, and I will never regret having slipped away from home three days before my Std XII exams to watch him make the epic innings, whose burden he is forever destined to carry, every time the team is in trouble.

A consummate team man, Laxman has always batted at whichever psotition has suited the management of the day. Even as late as last year's tour of Pakistan, he was asked to open the innings. It was nothing new for Laxman. He has opened the innings without complaint on 25 occasions, never compalining even though his average drops to 29. Opening the innings in a losing cause in a dead rubber in sydney in '99, he scored one of the majestic Indian innings' of the last decade against a fire-breathing Lee and co, making 167 in a team score of 261. Laxman was the emperor on the burning deck.

Over the last couple of years, the penchant of scoring massively seems to have petered out, but he has contributed handsomely in some famous Test victories. On a minefield in Mumbai, he earned India a consolation win against the Aussies with a superbly executed 69. In the home series against Sri Lanka that followed, he made a 69 and a 104 in the second and third Tests, both of which we won. In the Jo'burg Test, he was the highest scorer in the second innings, propping India to a comfortable 236 to set up the win. In the historic series win in England, he continued on his recent trend of being more safe than spectacular, collecting two fifties on the way. Of late, he has played his part in some tough fought drawn matches too. Facing defeat at the hands of the Windies in St Kitts, he made 100 and 63, batting at number 3 in both innings.

He has played in 83 Test matches and has represented India with distinction, and unless the selectors decide to play spoilsport, should be around to shepherd the younger generation of Uthappa, Sharma, Gambhir, Tiwary etc. even after the Big Three (phttth!!) retire. For some reason, he has a Grade B contract. Perhaps his omission from ODIs is the reason, in which case, I guess it is fair. But if the reason is that his spot in the Test team is not as certain as Ganguly or Dhoni (!!), then I think he is entitled to be angry. Like me. But perhaps this will produce from him the kind of heroics we saw from Zaheer to earn a propulsion from C to A.

To me, he also looks an automatic candidate for Test captaincy. Experienced and a usually attacking batsman, the only problem is that he is no longer an automatic choice in the team when India play five batsmen. But then is Dhoni assured of a spot? Don't we have two keepers in the team already and another (Parthiv) with a Grade D contract?

Easy on the chest-thumping, says Premachandran

Dileep Premachandran is probably my favourite cricket writer. Of late, he has been writing for the Guardian and in this article, cautions against all the chest-thumping. There's also a snipe at ToI, which I just loved.

Delirium

In the end, what transpired, was the stuff of India-Pakistan matches only. It was always going to be down to who held their nerve best after Dhoni called right and chose right. I will remember Misbah getting out just like I remember Sohail and Prasad, Sachin's lone hand and Akram's lap of honour at Chennai, Sachin against Shoaib, Miandad and Chetan Sharma, Jadega and Waqar, Miandad and More, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Anil Kumble getting pumelled in Chennai, Ijaz Ahmed on a rampage, ten wickets in an innings, Sachin's debut, Akthar bowling into Ganguly's ribs... and the several other pearls that pepper conversations.


Poor Misbah. The brave lone act that brought his team to the brink - certainly not unique in the history of Indo-Pak cricket: he did the same thing just a fortnight ago. But it was difficult to feel sorry for too long. Shock had taken over.


It was an Indian win, and I was shell-shocked until very late into the night, while crackers, dancing, alcohol, rowdiness - general happiness, I guess, embraced New Delhi. Phone calls from across the country certified that similar scenes were being xeroxed all over. That photo on top is a scene from India Gate, way past midnight. I was there among the sweaty men, milking the "Chak De" song for all it was worth. Nobody cared enough to notice my disapproval of the anti-Pakistan slogans, "Pakistan ki maa ki ..." interspersing the "Bharat mata ki jai".

What a match!! What excitement! What pressure! Robin dropped Misbah and I thought it had come full circle, but then Sreesanth held on, didn't he? Dhoni again went with Joginder for the climactic over, and a charmed choice it turned out to be yet again, Pakistan falling five short of a target that Misbah had all but dragged into the Pakistan dugout. A see-saw from the very first over, Yousuf Pathan striking a clean six, then a stumble, then the repair act by Gambhir, and finally a little eruption from Mister Rohit Sharma - all adding to a score that seemed less-than-competetive. But nobody - nobody but my ever confident friend Baban - wanted to make a call on the outcome of the match. Context was everything, and there was a history of pressure-cooker accidents.

And then after the break, the tension really started to mount and mount till something had to give every now and then. RP Singh, you beauty, you made the match competetive. And honestly, I am still surprised at what an amazing bowler you've become, capable bowling at 140 plus, mixing it up with some bhaiyya guile, and looking threatening on the flattest of pitches. You're a hero today, and people will remember you as a champion. And Irfan!! Haven't you put our selectors in a bit of a pickle? The third left-arm seamer to have a great season, and what an astounding performance to wrench the game back after Younis seemed quite likely to win the match with his dabs to third man! And then there were the others. Joginder Sharma, the unlikely man who wanted to bowl the last over again, Sreesanth - the man who took the catch with just a few billion people breathing down his neck, Yousuf Pathan - who walked in to open the innings with a swagger, Bhajji - whose tight bowling in his first 2 overs contributed to Pathan's wickets. People stepped up to be counted. Or more, like Yuvraj. Time and again. Debutante or experienced, here was a team that played absolutely fearless cricket. Only a captain without fear would nonchalantly open with Yousuf Pathan, or throw Joginder Sharma the ball when the cauldron was bubbling over, or know exactly what to do in the event of a bowl-out, or look beyond the storm during a particularly average spell of bowling from Sreesanth.

Cheers all of you. I don't know when we'll see that again. But last night, it really paid off being a crazy fan of Indian cricket.

Dhoni, take a bow.

And you too, Yuvraj, Sreesanth, Arpee, Bhajji, Uthappa and Joginder

Even though I will be delirious if India win tonight, I just cannot be bitter. Shorn of the weight of experience and reputation, Dhoni and his men in blue had already pulled off the impossible, by the time they made it to the semis. Of course, the benefit of hindsight means that many experts have mysteriously pulled out a few I-told-you-so's from their hats. Now, Nasser Hussain cannot stop talking about how this format of the game is most suited for subcontinental cricketers who started life with the see ball-hit ball sort of cricket. I just don't think it is as simple as that, Nasser. South Africa possesses some of the cleanest hitters in Gibbs, Boucher and Pollock; and Pietersen, Luke Wright and Dmitri were capable of the same as well. Why is it so difficult to believe, Nasser, that this Indian team was not only talented, they were also led astutely by a captain who backed the strengths of this team? Such an explanation also blinds one to some of the most intelligent bowling from Harbhajan and Arpee. And certainly, Sreesanth's spell to Australia and Gul's to the Kiwis, you cannot pin that on the street can you? Or is "street" a euphemism for oriental sorcery, just like the days when Waqar and Wasim were vilified to death in the English press?

Tonight's key battle: Yuvraj Singh versus Umar Gul. It looks like Shoaib Malik is comfortable leaving Gul with three overs - overs 15, 17 and 19. And if Yuvraj Singh is still batting through these overs, it will probably decide the tournament. Super performers, both of them, throughout the tournament.

And finally a word on a tournament that captured my fancy from the first match itself! I never thought I'd give into Twenty20 that easily. But now, a wonderful tournament, that has displayed cricket of the highest quality, has made me think again. I am closer to concluding that Twenty2o is as much about skill and pressure as Test cricket is - maybe different skills are required in either format, and different pressures may come into play as well. Don't pooh-pooh it on the basis of some hypothetical "soul-of-cricket" principle, Mr Soumya Bhattacharya!

Was that India playing out there?

It was a performance too clinical to believe, one worthy of India's next opponents - the Aussies. Recovering well from a stumble on a lively pitch against the quality bowling of Pollock, Morkel and Ntini, they bowled and fielded with an intensity that not only got them through, but in an amazing reversal of fortunes, the knocked out the previously unbeaten South Africans. A young Indian team, under its young captain, posted a comprehensive victory without its best player. And that is far more significant than the Aussies thumping the Lankans without Ponting.

Anyway, Arpy again. What a bowler he is turning out to be! After a three-over first spell when he showed Sreesanth the virtues of bowling the new ball on a tight line and length, he returned to fire in yorkers and bouncers in a last over where he clocked 143 kmph. Pietersen certainly wasn't lying when he called him a "highly skilled swing bowler".

And Rohit Sharma. Eased into international cricket with four off his first fourteen deliveries, and then caught the South Africans napping with some sensational driving and cutting. A deserving man-of-the-match, he also got a crucial run out of Justin Kemp to cap a sensational night for the young batsman. He seems to have the attacking technique and temprament to make it at the highest level in all forms of the game. Quite significantly, his first international effort has come on a fresh pitch at one of India's least favourite grounds, when the chips were stacked high against him.

What of MS Dhoni? His batting in this series has been a revelation. I know that many will disagree and say that captaincy has made his eschew his customary hammer-and-tongs approach, but I have four words for them. Proof of the pudding. Especially at a time when our line-up is filled to the brim with lovely shotmakers, it is not a sin, even in T20, to have someone around to shepherd the innings. And the fact that he has done so quite a few times in this series, speaks highly of his thinking - someone capable of looking beyond the immediate.

Against Australia though, India's traditional failings might stand exposed. Today India were placed in a situation where Rohit Sharma absolutely had to fire. Giving the Aussies an opportunity like that would be akin to suicide. Similarly, the Aussies would certainly make the several extra deliveries bowled by India count. Sreesanth has to be careful.

Method in the madness

That was almost perfect limited-overs batting from India. An almost old-fashioned assault on English bowling, it was an exhibition of how, when batting first, wickets in hand can be converted into runs on the board. Top marks to Sehwag, Gambhir, and of course, the man of the moment, Yuvraj Singh for a clinical batting display. Of course, we could crib over how Uthappa was foolish to lose his wicket, but the 21 year old has hopefully learnt his lesson.

Sreesanth hasn't learnt anything! Of course I could keep heaping blame on Prasad, but if Sreesanth cannot clean up his act now, there is real danger that he could be the next Agarkar. Agarkar has been the one constant in India's fast bowling over the last decade. Nehra, Mohanty, Tinu Yohannan, Harvinder Singh, T Kumaran, Balaji et al have all come and gone. He has bowled alongside Srinath and also with Pathan. A man of immense promise like Agarkar, he will always be on the fringes of national selection, because of an athletic disposition that makes him less likely to get injured - like Agarkar. Going on with the comparison, both of them had dream starts to their careers, Agarkar becoming the fastest ever bowler to reach fifty wickets. Sreesanth had a sensational tour of South Africa. However, very early on their careers, both of them also displayed an inability to stick to a plan. Neither seems to believe in the notion that when things are not going your way, drying up runs can produce wickets. It comes as no surprise then that Agarkar's golden run in Australia in 2003, was a result of fantastic attacking bowling, built on a foundation of simple line-and-length. He was the most economical and also the only one among himself, Zaheer, Nehra and Pathan to play all four Test matches and that says a story.

Sreesanth has a lot to learn from Agarkar's career. For a person on the selection radar for ten years now, Agarkar has only played 26 Test matches. In contrast, an injury and inconsistency-ridden Steve Harmison, has already played 54 in the six years that he has been around. And for those who think Harmison is not an appropriate comparison, Mohammed Sami who had a glittering start to his career in 2001, has played 30 Test matches. Irfan Pathan, despite being in the wilderness for a year, has played 25 Tests since his debut in 2003.

And finally a word on a man who I have always looked at suspiciously. I never thought he looked the sort of bowler who could cut it at the international level. Arpy Singh did really well to pull the Indian bowling back into some kind of rhythm yesterday, continuing an impressive run over the last couple of months. Hopefully he can remain fit, and continue bowling with the same sort of accuracy. It is always useful to have more than four fast bowlers to pick from.

Biting the bullet.

The selectors have made the tough decision. This signals a new era in Indian cricket. India is going to be captained by a "small town" boy. It is also pretty clear now that an Indian ODI team will never again be led on to the field by Sachin or Saurav or Dravid - and that is momentous. They have not gone for the safe harbour of Sachin/Saurav. Instead, they have thrown Dhoni into the deep end of the pool. His first assignment? Seven ODIs at home against the Aussies.

It is no secret that many in the establishment believed that Dhoni did not have the necessary experience to take on the mantle, and I would tend to agree with that. But now that they have decided to go ahead with him, it is important that he be given a reasonable period to prove himself. And as far as captaining the Indian ODI team is concerned, nothing less than a year is good enough to make our assessment. The selectors - not to mention the cricket fan - should be patient with the results that Dhoni will bring home.

In time, Dhoni will probably need to choose between captaincy and wicketkeeping. However, it is for him to decide, and it should not be forced on him on the basis of some mythical "burden". But since he is a certainty with the bat in the ODI line-up and he can afford to do so, particularly since both Karthik and Parthiv Patel are legitimate contenders for a middle-order berth in ODIs.

Prasad needs to take some of the blame.

So far, I ve managed to keep my high expectations from Venkatesh Prasad intact. For the first time ever, we toured England with a bowling attack that looked capable of taking twenty wickets in a Test match. But since the memorable Test series, where Zaheer and Arpee were exceptional, and Sreesanth brilliant in spurts, the ODIs and now the T20 WC have left Prasad open for attack. Why does India suffer from what seems to be a chronic inability to dam the flow of runs at the death? Why is the vastly experienced Agarkar bowling length on off stump? Where is the yorker, the well-disguised slower ball? For all his other talents, Sreesanth's slower delivery will seem quite obvious for an international batsman. Yesterday, McMillan slapped one straight past him.

If there are bowlers who can consistently get the yorker going, should they not be preferred over Agarkar at the death? The bowling coach will also need to examine Sreesanth's decision to go around the stumps every now and then. As of now, it seems that such decisions are made at random, leaving poor Dhoni with very limited time to make adequate fielding changes. Confusion reigns, and Dhoni I had a brain explosion when he preferred to bowl Yuvraj Singh when Pathan had two overs in the bag.

And what of team selection? Should we have Chawla come in place of Agarkar. This will mean we have a wonderfully varied bowling attack - two left arm swing bowlers, one right arm swing bowler, one off-spinner and a leg-spinner.

Wow!

Last night, there was a chance that the last fifteen minutes spoilt what was forty overs of riveting, edge-of-the-seat stuff. We could've done without the comical bowlout, especially since there was no need for it, given that both teams had found themselves in the next round. Quite foolish, especially when cricket fans have lived with the idea that it is possible for a cricket match to not have a winner, for more than a century. By all means, please devise a method to decide crucial knock-out encounters that end in a tie, and perhaps a bowlout might actually be the fairest that the imaginative administrators could think of - so let it be.

This match had as many twists and turns as a compelling Test match - all rolled into three hours, and proved the conventional wisdom that the best cricket is played on tracks with a little in it for the bowlers - no matter which form of the game it is. What this match has also done is that it has ensured that the most financially important fan bases for the game at the moment, are hooked on to the shortened version - for life, perhaps. The match had everything you may expect from a classic India-Pakistan encounter. Poor top-order batting against good guality swing and seam, excellent rearguards from both teams, bowlers losing their cool and some bowlers keeping their cool.

Asif, Pathan, Arpee, Sohail Tanvir, Harbhajan, Sreesanth, Uthappa, Misbah, Dhoni - all put their hands up at different points in the match, and both teams fielded a couple of notches above what we have seen them do in recent times. The biggest plus for India however, was undoubtedly the relaxed return of Irfan Pathan, and credit to Dhoni for handling the situation well.

Dravid resigns from captaincy

Has Rahul Dravid resigned from captaincy? CNN-IBN has just carried a headline saying exactly that. More on that soon, I guess.

***

Well it's confirmed. He has asked to be relieved prior to the arrival of the Aussies. The only reason that Dravid has cited in his letter to the BCCI is that he wants to concentrate on his batting. He has also pledged complete support to his successor.

Under Dravid, India won eight Tests. However, his ODI record was patchy. He began on a winning streak, where India set a record for 16 consecutive successful chases. However, this was a man who captained India through a very tricky phase. He had to handle a team that was being eaten from inside by a rift between senior players and coach. At the end it also has to be said that he handled Ganguly's tricky return to the team very well. Given all these, it is remarkable that he led us to Test series victories in West Indies, Pakistan and England, and also one of our greatest ever Test wins, when we knocked South Africa down in their Jo'burg citadel. His captaincy will also be remembered for the fall-from-grace of three pillars of the Ganguly era: Sehwag, Harbhajan and Zaheer - the third of whom also made a sensational comeback under Dravid. Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, S Sreesanth and M S Dhoni were fairly consistent performers during this all-too-brief period.

But it was also clear that captaincy was taking its toll on Dravid the batsman. The tours of South Africa and England earned him mixed returns which were well below the standards that he set himself as a professional. With a tough tour to Australia looming, India needed Dravid the batsman to be firing, and so perhaps it is just as well.

It is also quite typical of Dravid the person that he realized earlier than anyone else that his time at the helm, and in the team, would soon come to a close, and decided to make way in an understated manner.

Zimbabwe on course...

Two teams with heaps of domestic T20 experience: West Indies and England. The former has been booted out by Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe is giving England a run for their money. And England have to face an angry Australia tomorow.

For a brief period today, Bangladesh showed glimpses of the role that spinners could potentially play in this format. Most teams though, seem to favour loading the side with medium pacers. And just to emphasize the point Dmitri Mascarenhas has just done what none of Broad, Anderson or Flintoff could do: threewickets down for Zim, all of a sudden.

And India will play their first match today, against Scotland. The World Cup rout still fresh in their minds, Dhoni will want to put his best foot forward today. Also helping India's case is that the team is crtain to be filled with batsmen who are crying out for a spot in the regular side. Hopefully the batting will thrive in an atmosphere of internal competition: Sehwag, Gambhir, Uthappa, Karthik and Rohit Sharma. The trouble however is with the bowling. Neither Agarkar nor Sreesanth are miserly customers in ODIs at the best of times. Both have a reputation for taking important wickets, though, and I'll be happy if both of them together can manage 8 overs for 60-70, if they take at least three wickets. The lefties, Pathan and Arpee, the former an unknown quantity, the latter on the back of an English tour where he has shown a surprising capacity for economical wickets. I say surprising, because he can look really tame at times.
Now comes the biggest decisions that Dhoni'll need to make. I don't see him keeping Harbhajan out of the side. Chawla though, is an intriguing question. And as I write this, Schofield, the English leg-spinner has taken two wickets off four balls. Wow.

Ashraful is the man!

Mohammed Ashraful is the most exciting young batting talent in the world at the moment. A scoop from outside off, over the top of fine-leg for six, followed by a thumping straight drive: just two from the array he unleashed today.
With a whole generation of superstar batsmen saying goodbye, the man who is already Bangladesh captain will be one to watch out for.

Zimbabwe stun us, and Australia

I don't want to write too much on T20 because I really haven't seen enough of the format to even come cloase to understanding it. Do good Test batsmen remain good T20 batsmen? Will the minnows find it easier to topple an established Test outfit? Two days into the tournament, there is a flurry of results that refuse to show up any "trend". But Zimbabwe and Taylor, that was awesome. Cricket fans everywhere bar Australia rejoiced with you.

And to continue the focus on the future Indian ODI team..

Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina was the poster-boy when Chappell was still Guru Greg. Prodigiously talented and reminiscent of the young Yuvraj Singh, at nineteen he was toasted by many as the "next big thing" when he calmly walked in at five wickets down for under a hundred, and proceeded to polish off a large total against England with crisp and elegant shotmaking. Raina was also one of the exciting young fielders that formed part of a creditable offside cordon that also contained Yuvraj and Kaif. However, the same notions of "flexibility" that showcased the versatility of a deep Indian batting line-up, returned to haunt Raina. Shuttled up and down the batting order, he became a confused shell of his former self, and that was severely exploited by bowlers in the Champions Trophy. In his last seventeen ODIs, he did not cross fifty once and was pretty much a big hole in the Indian batting line-up, averaging under twenty for that period. The horrow finally culminated in his axing prior to the World Cup, and he joined compatriot Mohd. Kaif in the domestic circuit. An injury to his knee also ensured that unlike other international discards Sehwag, Pathan and Harbhajan, he was not on the team to South Africa for the Twenty20 World Cup. Raina was as much a victim of his early success as bad man-management. Making it back to the team will not be easy given that Kaif, Rohit Sharma, Sehwag, Karthik and Uthappa can all legitimately lay a claim on limited middle-order positions. But if he does, he will have learnt that inner demons have no place in international cricket.

After the anti-climax

The last match proved India the weaker one-day side in an anti-climax of a match, a certain let-down after the firecracker at the Oval. Notably, the Indian media has not been too critical, and for a change, most reporters were keen to admit that this was a team that had won a Test series in England, and so one should not be too hard on the boys. I hope this climate of tolerating mediocrity in the one-day format can continue for a year. For that is how long India will need at a minimum to rebuild itself into a competetive one-day outfit. The ingredients are all there, floating around in Twenty20 World Cup or random domestic tournaments, but for them to coalesce into a whole, is the challenge. Starting today, I will profile the few who I feel could comprise the Indian ODI team of the future.

Mohammed Kaif has always been unfairly treated by selectors and fans alike. His ungainly batting technique is probably the reason why we have refused to let his runs - mostly scored in crucial circusmtances, do the talking. Once rumoured to have been in the reckoning for a future captaincy, the 27 year old has been out of reckoning since November 2006. Even though people tend to remember his fielding at cover or his sensational batting at Lords in the NatWest final, there were other nuggets that fans and media have not given the same kind of respect. His 91 at Nagpur, scored in the company of the doughty Anil Kumble, in a drawn Test match against England was one such. At the same time, one needs only to look at his overall statistics to note that he has not made the most of his opportunities. In 125 matches, he has an average of 32. Batting away from home, this modest figure plummets to 26.5 from 52 matches, and the 87 not out at Lords remains his highest. Only against England and Bangladesh does he average over 40, while it is abysmal against Sri Lanka (9 matches) and New Zealand (7 matches).
A furious runner between the wickets who places a high price on his wicket, he could be a top-order batsman for the future. However, there are deficiencies in his ability to clear the ropes consistently which will need to be addressed before he cements a place in the team.

And by the way, let the games begin!

ODI cricket regains some sheen

After a lacklustre World Cup, ODI cricket as a format needed a shot in the arm. And it was delivered - with all the drama, skills and emotion that sport is about. Oval 2007 will be remembered by Indian fans. Like Lords 2002, and the Sharjah '98 Double Bill still are.

On the back of a dismal World Cup campaign, something extraordinary was necessary to win the whimsical Indian cricket fan back, and Tendulkar, Ganguly and Uthappa delivered it yesterday.

Four bowlers or five?

Was it the extra padding at the lower end of the batting order that allowed Sachin and Saurav to play with more freedom? I am sure there have been occasions in the past where the two have gone after the bowling even when the batting wasn't too deep. But does it make sense to do the same even on a ground where the average score of the team batting first has been 234, and has been known to assist spin? This may a good occasion to back Yuvraj, Sachin and Saurav.

I am not a great fan of the "four bowlers as formula" approach. Flexibility is required in composing the bowling attack, and five bowlers can be really handy on a subcontinental belter. I also have the feeling that Dravid would be ready to stick to the four-bowlers strategy even on shirtfronts, if only he had the services of Sehwag too.

Sachin

I hope some people I know watched him bat yesterday. If they did, they would shut up about the whole "retirement" thing.

India is still the weaker team in the tournament. Despite Ganguly's success as a bowler at Headingly, he is less than a good fifth bowler, and desperately needs helpful conditions (Toronto!) to be succesful. And Sachin's tendency to leak runs in between good balls is also hurting us. Collingwood on the other hand, has bowled very well, and England have not had to rely too much on Bopara, Pietersen or Mascarenhas. Fielding and catching was still below par, and it was only superior batting and wicket-keeping that won us the match, apart from some probing overs from Zaheer and Powar.

Karthik should be dropped.

I am a big fan of Karthik. So much so that if it came down to a Karthik-Dhoni showdown for a place in the Test team, I would pick Karthik. And my guess is that Dravid is also a big fan of the pugnacious Tamil Nadu 'keeper. But it is time for some tough love. He has proven awkward at one-down, and unnecessary below Dhoni. The only way Karthik can be valuable in this one-day batting line-up is when one or more of the Big Three start leaving. As things stand now, not only will his confidence get dented, there is a good chance that an air of purposelesness may creep into his game - the pointless waft outside offstump in Bristol (?) was a symptom. He is better off spending time batting with one of the counties or in Indian domestic cricket, preparing for the Pakistan challenge. Uthappa, with the ability to do a demolition act at the top of the order, is the best available option - considering neither Dravid nor Yuvraj will come one-down.

Broadside!

India got beaten by a very good English team. Since 1992, England - but for a brief spell under Adam Hollioake with Thorpe batting like a god, has never been able to produce sustained spells of good one-day cricket.
On the evidence of their performance yesterday, they seem to have a formulaic one-day team, capable of evolving into a champion side. Take a look.

- Two quick opening bowlers who look like they have a cool head on their shoulders. They will need it when they travel to the subcontinent. In this series, the nature of the track has not seemed to bother them, they have hit the deck hard anyway.
- Talismanic bowling all-rounder
- A one-down who looks capable of growing into a batsman who can accelerate and consolidate with equal ease (like Dravid, who inexplicably, is not batting at one-down!)
- Deep, really deep batting line-up, with a number 9 capable of taking the game away with his batting. When Pathan, Dhoni and Raina were winning matches for India, such an attribute was true for India as well, but not now.
- Few lower middle order batsmen who can chip in with a few overs.
- Decent fielders and runners, all of them, with some exceptional brilliance thrown in for good measure.
- A captain who likes the one-day cauldron, and is always trying to stay one step ahead of the game.

Dravid needs to make at least one tough decision. Is Karthik actually better than Utappa? And deciding that is just the start!

I do not foresee much success for India in one-day cricket at least until the end of 2008. Hopefully, by then, the likes of Sehwag, Kaif, Raina, Pathan, Harbhajan, Sreesanth, Uthappa, Gambhir and Rohit Sharma will have a greater claim for a spot in the side. Fresher, faster, hungrier cricketers are needed to supplement Yuvraj, Dhoni and Zaheer, and that will take time. The Indian fan will just have to be patient.

One down is the key

I won't focus on the fielding or the running between the wickets. With this team, we should assume that we start out with a 50-run deficit against England. Maybe 35 at Bristol because it is a much smaller ground than the Rosebowl. Even then, the Indian batting is touted to be far too good to be outbatted by an England batting lineup that was till very recently, pathetic. Anything less than 300 is a score that the batting should be able to chase down anywhere and against any bowling. And that is why they carry seven batsmen, hoping to chase down any target that the opposition is able to set. Which should make us wonder: why did India lose a match by a hundred runs? After it looked like India did well to restrict England to 288 especially after the kind of platform they had? Bad batting. If we need to criticize the strategy of playing four bowlers, we cannot do so on the evidence of one match. And not so long back, during the dream ODI run, when Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Dhoni were winning us matches, nobody had too many complaints.

This is where an in-form Irfan Pathan could have been handy. But until such time as he manages to break down the door to the national team, I have a feeling that Dravid is comfortable leaving ten overs to Yuvraj, Tendulkar and Ganguy.

In my opinion, the only major selection question that Dravid should ask himself is: who should bat at one down? Apart from thinking of Gambhir, Uthappa and Karthik, Dravid should also think about Rohit Sharma. Uthappa may replace Gambhir at the top of the order. Or Karthik can come up the order and Rohit Sharma can bring up the rear. There is also the conventional wisdom of palying one of the best batsmen at one-down, which could mean that Yuvraj could come in.

For all we know, Dravid may even go with five bowlers, and draft in either Powar (two spinners, small ground = big risk) or Munaf, in place of Gambir.

Read Nagraj Gollapudi's article on Cricinfo about the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

Why the Indian legal system is so slow.

T: wanna bet on the match?
3:06 PM me: not the result.
3:07 PM something else.
T: which is an English vivtory?
me: Indian victory, I say.
T: then we can bet ont he reuslt?
me: we can.
3:08 PM T: what?
whats up jon?
havent seen u in ages
3:09 PM me: ya, man! i miss you. now, how much do we bet?
T: u tell me
1,000 bucks?
3:10 PM me: fuck off. not worth it.
T: u give figure
me: 300 bucks.
T: how about a bottle of alcohol to be shared
by both of us
me: ok, wait. listen..
T: and aid for by the loser
me: exactly.
T: that way no one loses
3:11 PM me: we'll bet 3 bottles of beer each on each match of this series.
it need not be on the result.
by the end, we would have bet 42 bottles.
3:12 PM or is that too ambitious?
3:13 PM ok. winner taks three bottles. so the eventual bet is only 21.
fine?
3:15 PM hello?
3:18 PM T: yeah
sounds good
brb
dont go away
lets discuss the structure for this

Lights on... Camera.. And Action!

Attitudes toward cricket under lights seem to have undergone some kind of shift since India last toured these shores. Correct me if I am wrong, but I cannot remember India having played a single match under lights in England. But this series features as many as three!
If this is what Twenty20 cricket did to England, then I am all for it, boss. But other than that, can anyone shed some light on this? What happened to the English fear of floodlights?

Spot on or not on?

Well Cricinfo (Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, actually)has rated Karthik above Dhoni and Tendulkar. But for the catching, even I may have marked Karthik higher. And they also seem to appreciate Jaffer more than I have. And clearly they have been swayed by the role that he played in building a foundation from where Ganguly, Sachin & co pushed on. However, I really felt that on a couple of occasions, Jaffer was guilty of giving it away when well set, playing irresponsible shots. Jaffer has a wealth of experience playing cricket, even though not at the highest level, and is well known for the tenacity with which he builds huge knocks. In my book, he did not pull his weight. In fact, I may have forgiven him easier had he perished more without getting set (like at the Oval). Anyway, getting starts is not such a huge flaw.
This is exactly the reason why both Sehwag and Gambhir are essential in the frame of things. Both Jaffer and Karthik need to be on their toes, and they need to know that despite a historic series victory, the opening spots are not theirs forever. They need to continue justifying their spots in the team - as specialist openers.

Finale

A fitting finale, for a series that has been on edge since Day 1. And like much that went before, the final day too would jerk itself into life whenever the match threatened to retreat into sleep. And so there was a stunning catch from VVS, a crucial drop from the captain, some fiery spells from Sreesanth, Kumble asking question after question and Tendulkar producing some of the big turners ever seen at the Oval.
1-0 is how we will remember this series in a few months time. Ten years from now, we will remember Dravid as the inheritor of Kapil's 21-year old legacy and not for a decision that sealed the fate of this series.
Cricinfo usually prepares a report card for players once the series is over. Here is a vague prediction:

High scores: 8/10 to 10/10
Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Dhoni

Medium : 5/10 to 7/10
VVS Laxman, Dinesh Karthik (could've scored higher without the dropped catches), Anil Kumble (somehow all the talk about Kumble on the fourth innings at the Oval just didn't come through), Rahul Dravid (gets additional marks for some good captaincy throughout)

Low: 3/10 to 4/10
Wasim Jaffer (though he played some crucial knocks, he never played to his potential for scoring huge hundreds) , Sreesanth (for all his antics, he did come through in the final innings at the Oval!)

Very low: 0/10 to 2/10
No one. And that is why this team remained unchanged over three matches.

Fourth day of the Third Test

It was a compelling day of cricket, made intriguing by a tough decision from captain Rahul Dravid. He decided not to enforce a follow-on. Roundly criticized on television as a defensive move, one had to say that at the end of the day, it is difficult to make a comment either way. As someone (Imran Khan, I think) said about cricket a long time back, the more nuanced your understanding of the game, the less certain your criticism is. Dravid knew a bit more that he let on, and Zaheer finally showed visible sympoms of the injury he'd been carrying for a while. Even Kumble, on a fourth day pitch would have needed some support to keep England down to manageable proportions.
Okay, so the decision meant that India lost out on the best bowling conditions in this Test match. But so what? All India needed to do was to put the match absolutely beyond England's reach - about a 150 runs. Credit must go to Ganguly for continuing with a fantastic series. Again he played a knock of such silken aggression that England never realized they were getting bullied, till he got out.
Today, the last day of an incredible Test series, Ganguly will need to break partnerships, and so will Sachin. Kumble will keep bowling from the Pavillion End. Sreesanth needs to stand up and be counted. RP and Zaheer have already done their bit for the series. You can trust RP to put in another good spell, but if India need to win this Test without Zaheer, then Sree and RP need to bowl out of their skins.

Jumbo's Test?

All of Test cricket's theatre of irony came together in a few seconds. Anil Kumble, a veteran of 117 matches, three wickets shy of overtaking Glenn McGrath, and number eight batsman. The genial Bangalorean was at the crease on 97, having already overtaken Dhoni in a batting symphony where every batsman went into double figures and five had already made fifties. He comes down the track, looking ungainly as usual, nicks the ball through Prior's legs and reaches 100. England will lose a series at home. The only question is whether they will lose it 1-0 or 2-0.

Laxman was magestic, Tendulkar was patience personified and Dhoni was clinical in dismantling the English bowling attack. And along came Kumble, rubbing it in as he started off with rotating the strike, but building an innings of great quality after Dhoni left in an entertaining blaze. And then there was the 75 run last wicket stand, that helped Kumble to his hundred with Sreesanth helping himself to some Anderson lollies.

Now Kumble has given himself three days to bowl England out twice. Despite all the bytes coming out of the English camp, the batsmen will be intent on face-saving survival. How can Peter Moores seriously believe that all three results are still possible? Anyway, a defensive English mindset will suit Kumble just fine! Hopefully Zaheer, Sreesanth and RP can keep pegging away at the other end.

Glaring errors

Howell's howler could yet be a significant point of this Test match. There was a thick (yo edge so thick, that.... ) edge on to the pad, and given out leg before. So what can we do about such umpiring errors that are so bad, that significant numbers of viewers on TV could see that it was wrong, without the benefit of a replay.
Ian Chappell made a sensible suggestion on air yesterday, that cricket move to a back-foot no-ball rule so that the umpire has more time to look at the batsman.

Taking the argument a little further, why are the on-field umpires being bothered with line calls any more? Where a determination needs to be made about whether someone's foot was inside or outside the line, why are we still relying on the naked eye, when the alternative is faster and less error prone? And one would think the umpires would only be happy to not bother with those irksome no-balls, and stumpings and run-outs. A system of appeals from the on-field umpire to the third umpire just takes too long. Instead, divest the umpires of all discretion in these dismissals.The third-umpire makes the decision as soon as the fielder's appeal for a run out or a stumping, or as soon as the bowler oversteps.

Oval

India have not lost a Test match at The Oval in god-knows-how-long. It is also the location of one of India's most celbrated triumphs - one that apparently convinced the Indian sports fan that his team need not always get whipped. Occasionally it could whip as well, and B S Chandrasekhar in a magnificient spell, showed them it could be done. The last time that India was there, rain and sublime batting from Vaughan and Dravid played out a draw.

India returns to there to play a Test match, whose significance in the context of Indian cricket cannot be overstated. A series victory over England is a treasure, and the golden generation of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and Kumble have not experienced it. True, that thanks to their efforts over the last five years, India can no longer be called bad tourists, but a series victory has continued to elude them because they caved in when it was there for the taking. Melbourne, Karachi, Bridgetown and most recently Cape Town, are just the most glaring examples.

Where India have a record to erase, England have a proud record to protect: a long streak of remaining unbeaten at home. And England will come hard. It will try and forget the frailities in the batting: outside of Vaughan and Pietersen, everyone has a question mark over their form. But there is no questioning the ability of Cook, Strauss, Collingwood and Bell. India will need to bowl superbly again, and this time, with the bounce available at the Oval, both Kumble and Sree Santh will need to punch their weight. As far as batting goes, the Fab Four seem to have got their act in order though Laxman's double failure against Lanka A could be a cause for concern. Hopefully, the openers will continue to grow into a solid pair. It will also be interesting to see how Dhoni reacts to the conditions, given that the Oval is not known to heavily favour movement.

It has been a very keenly contested series so far. Despite Lords, the series has stood on a knife-edge all along, and it looks set to be a fitting culmination. If India bat to the weight of their reputation, they should not lose. And that will be very sweet indeed.

Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become the first small-town cricketer to captain an Indian team. With Dravid, Sachin and Saurav dropping out of the team, and Yuvraj Singh no longer seen as the next in line, there are few who can argue with the choice. Even though the fighting rise of Dinesh Kaarthick may have made his spot in the Test team a little less secure, he is probably the first name down of the team sheet as far as Twenty20 is concerned. Hopefully he will carry captaincy with confidence, because that will have a cascading effect on his batting - and the world has only started to notice how a mature Dhoni can add a lot of punch to the Indian Test lower order.

Being selected for the Twenty20 squad has also enabled Pathan, Harbhajan and Sehwag to get a foot in the door. But not too fast either as all three have been overlooked for the ODIs against England. More joy for the Pathan family as Yusuf Pathan, described as an offie who is a useful lower order bat, has also been included in the Twenty20 squad. Not very surprisingly, Sreesanth has been dropped from the ODI team. Munaf makes a return in his place.
inexplicably, the pace bowling cupboard continues to promise. India now have Zaheer, R P Singh, Pathan, Sreesanth, Munaf and Ajit Agarkar to choose from, depending on form and requirement.

Atherton

Michael Atherton has recommended in the Sunday Telegraph that Dravid drop Sree Santh for the Oval Test.
The point he makes is that a beamer has no place in cricket. Capable of taking a batsman's head clean off, it deserves to be condemned, irrespective of whether it was accidental or whether the bowler apologized. Of course, the bowler is going to apologize, and of course he will claim that it was accidental, and so there is no way out but to ban the errant bowler.

So a beamer needs to be made into a strict liability offence? That is his solution?? That the beamer be elevated to the status of a drug or terrorist offence, and to assume that every beamer has murderous intent behind it? That is such bull shit. Umpires are adequately empowered to deal with beamers, and I believe there is a warning system that is already in place. If anyone knows more on how an umpire may deal with a fast bowler who lets rip, two consecutive beamers, do leave a note.

What's eating Sree Santh, or what did Sree Santh eat

He blew it, didn't he? Gone and put himself under avoidable pressure for the Third Test in what was already a pressure cooker of a series. The second Test was a great opportunity for Mr Santh: perfect conditions for swing bowling and two left arm seamers hunting alongside, spitting fire. Instead of playing the role of the stock seamer who keep things tight at the other end, Sree wanted a piece of the action, and as anyone who has spent time watching cricket would say, "tried too hard." Even amidst all the trash that he was bowling, there were some genuine gems. But what good are they, when they are so few and far apart? It's not like Dravid really needed any more of the "surprise factor"! The second Test touched a new low when, consumed by emotion, he committed a couple of extremely 'suspicious' looking errors. And that was after the very public and humiliating loss of rhythm when he ended up looking like Kapil Dev one ball, and Kumble the next.

Is he a victim of the "greatness" tag attached to him too early in life? He had a fair bit of good press after a remarkable display in South Africa. The obvious underlying danger was that he would go the way of similarly talented youngsters: Kambli, L Siva and Sadanad Viswanath are names that come easily to mind and certainly there must be more. More recently, many youngsters have promised much and then dropped off: Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina for instance, but it is too early to write them off. Anyway...

The good thing is, Sree seems to be making the right noises. And the way he comes out in the next match (if Dravid would be so kind as to pick him) will let us know a bit more into the workings of this deep-fried brain. He should have known that somebody like Bose would step and make some noise or take a five-for or something like that. As I said before, completely unnecessary pressure.

Beautiful.

Everything was just the way it should be. England showed just enough resistance to make me sit up and take notice, but not nearly enough to make me fret. Vaughan showed the world once again, why he was such a highly regarded batsman. If Ganguly was the artist on the third day, here was Vaughan - determined to sculpt a masterpiece. Strokes flowing freely from his bat, he dominated Anil Kumble through the day, and it was only a moment of charecteristic cricketing fortune that got Vaughan out. The scoresheet will say bowled, Zaheer Khan. And he deserved it too, all nine of those wickets, bowling such taut swing bowling. What a remarkable comeback it has been for this man, a far cry from his extremely wayward days hardly a couple of seasons ago! And he had to work hard for it too. Strauss and Collingwood did hang around, and it would not have been too tough to give it all up. To India's credit, both Zaheer and RP were spot on through the day, and Sreesanth had his usual quota of dangerous deliveries too. RP picked up two crucial wickets, both with screaming inswingers delivered from around the stumps: Kevin Pietersen thrust his pad out, while Prior had his middle stump uprooted with a ball that is going to see many many television replays.
Contentment is already here. Now for the Indian victory. It wont be too late.

Third day of the second Test

It was the best batting that Ganguly and Tendulkar had shown in years. In fact, to look for the last time that Ganguly played a knock of such beauty, not to mention value, we'd have to go way back to 2003 and the Gabba. Something similar could be said of Sachin too. And the amazing part was that, Ganguly, Sachin and Laxman scored runs against some very good bowling - particularly from Sidebottom and Tremlett. True, Anderson was off his radar and probably Panesar too, but Sachin had to bat out of his skin to survive Sidebottom before he could take out some tools from the cupboard of memories. Pleasure to watch.

What was painful to watch was Sree Santh's bowling. Needless to say, it was a humiliating loss of rhythm. The manner in which he comes back to bowl today morning will tell us a lot more about this National Breakdancing Champ.

First Test Blues?

India's famous middle order kneeled before the rawest of swing bowling attacks. Not for the first time. On India'a last tour here, only Ajit Agarkar had the courage to stick his bat out between India and defeat at Lords in an attack that was missing Gough and Caddick. Much like this time, where the unheralded had to bat India out of trouble - namely Kaartick, Jaffer and Dhoni.
After being worked over by Anderson in the first innings, like he were a toddler, Dhoni needs to be congragulated in the manner in which he recovered from such humiliation.
Several things went wrong with the batting, not least among them the reluctance to go down the wicket to spin. Monty Panesar is a beautifully balanced bowler, but his threat is compounded by playing him from the crease. Also, a certain nervousness with the footwork against the swingers - never completely forward, never completely back.
Anyway, let us hope that the lessons of the first Test are imbibed well. If they do, a few cracking batting displays similar to 2002 cannot be ruled out. The 2002 series started an (all-too-short) golden run for Indian cricket. But make no mistake. This is a batting line-up in decay, and a more than Herculean mental effort would be required to revive the glory days of Edbagston and Adelaide.

Wayward bowling

Granted it was a great pitch, but man, was it some bad bowling from the Indians in the first session. Having lost the new-ball advantage, the seamers and Kumble did try some tight stuff in the second session, but Strauss and Vaughan were just too good to give way their hard-fought advantage. Not all the Sreesanth-talk in the world....

The drunk, the lampost and a guy named Bhutia

"Like a drunk and a lampost, statistics are used is more for support than illumination".

As Sachin returns to England again, the same issue has been picked up from newspaper clippings: how many times has Sachin contributed in a winning cause? Mike Selvey in the Guardian has used the same statistics used by pretty much everyone else to support the simple point: it is true, outside of Bangladesh, only seven of Sachin's Test hundreds have come in winning causes.

Someone known as Bhutia posted the following riposte. I loved it.


114 vs Australia,Perth, 92 - took India from 159/8 to 272 - on the fastest track in the world - played a series of incredible back foot punches - if that was not courage and self-expression,what was it?

169 vs South Africa, Capetown, 96 - it was Sachin's fault that other than Azhar who also scored a memorable century, not a single other batsman reached double figure and the bowlers let SA score 529 in the first innings.

122 vs England, Edgbaston, 96 - out of a total of 219- Again, the second highest score was 18. The absence of a good third seamer allowed england to escape from 229 for 8 to 314. Not suprisingly, we lost.

177 vs Australia, Bangalore, 98 - where he took India to 400 by first drinks on 2nd day -it was yet again his failings that we collapsed from 400 for 4 to 424 and went on to lose the test match by 8 wickets

113 vs NZ, Hamilton, 98 - erased a deficit of 144 in the first innings to take India to position of strenth of lead by 180 with 6 wickets in hand. We collapsed to 356 and then having NZ at 73 for 5, could not defend a 4th innings target of 213.

136 vs Pakistan at Chennai, 99 has already been cited - 17 to win - 4 wickets in hand - we lost by 12 runs

155 vs SA at Bloemfontein, 2001 - takes India to 373 for 7 from 68 for 4 - a base from which we could have pressured SA in the 4th innings when the ball was expected to turn. Instead, we collapse to 376 - The match gets over in 4 days. SA had only 54 for to chase in the 4th innings. Kumble took the only wicket.

148* vs Australia, Sydney, 92 - Draw - Indian bowlers could not bowl out Australia after having them at 129 for 7 with 50 runs deficit in a rain curtailed match - Merv Hughes scored 20 - Guess who finally bagged his wicket?

111 vs SA at Wanderers, 1992 - out of a total of 227 - next highest 25 - Match drawn - of course, we could not win that match because of sachin's weaknesses as a batsman

148 vs SL, Mumbai, 1997 - We could not bowl out Sri Lanka on a turning wicket in 1 entire day - SL escaped with 166 for 8

217 vs NZ, Ahmedabad, 1999 - We reach 583 by tea on 2nd Day. We do not enforce follow-on - Match Drawn

Harmison out too

Deja vu, as India will take on England at Lords. Just like 2002, two of England's first-choice pacers, miss out due to injury. In 2002 at Lords, only Laxman and Ajit Agarkar stood up to the raw attack, but as the series progressed Rahul Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly came into their own and plundered runs. This time round, only Hoggard remains of the famed pace quartret that was able to restrain Australia in 2005. And this time too, both sides seem to have a bowling attach that is ripe for an ass-kicking.

There are danger men on both sides. Both Sreesanth and Zaheer had fantastic tours of South Africa. Stuart Broad is a 6 ft 6 inch beanpole who sounds just like the kind of bowler that can run through an Indian batting line-up. Sidebottom and Hoggard will be expected to keep things tight so that Monty strikes at the other end. Same with R P Singh when Kumble will keep bowling from one end.

The Jaffer question

And as the Indian top order comes apart before the Lions, the time is ripe to ask: should we open with Jaffer at Lords? Many critics have pointed out, it is not that Jaffer keeps getting out, it is the way he gets out, ever late in coming forward. Today he was struck on the pads before he could get the bat around. This technical glitch, they say, will result in a horror run of opening partnerships throughout the series. It is not something a good batting coach can iron out in an hour.
He, however, is a batsman capable of huge scores with tremendous experience at the first class level. Remember that he capped off a disaster run in South Africa with some great batting in the third test - yes, the one we lost. I think Dravid should give Jaffer a chance at Lords.

Two spinners?

Let's be honest. On the basis of the evidence so far on the England tour, neither Bose nor Ishant Sharma deserve a place in the team for the Lords Test. So when we can use both Ganguly and Tendulkar as back-up seaming options, why not go with two spinners? Admittedly it is a little unorthodox, but it is certainly not stupid. In the last match, Bose looked tamer than a pussycat. In the words of whoever it was that was doing the ball-by-ball on Cricinfo, "when he got it straight it didn't swing, and when he got it to swing it was too wide to matter". Ishant Sharma already sent down nine no balls today, the first day of the tour match against the England Lions. Problems galore clearly, in the heads of these rookies, and Lords is not the place to throw them into the deep end. R P Singh has a proven ability to be predictable. A little more zip in his bowling, and he would move from 'predictable' to 'metronomic'. But in any case, a second left-armer will lend a certain sameness to the attack, which a captain certainly does not want. (Remember the Karachi Test?) Powar gets my vote.

Laxman made his case for inclusion, scoring 95 against Sussex. Mukul Kesavan blogs in Cricinfo that Dravid need not necessarily be faced with an either/or situation concerning Laxman and Yuvraj. He argues that with Kaarthik almost a certainty, dropping Dhoni to play both Laxman and Yuvraj might be the more prudent approach. Not only does Yuvraj provide all the firepower options of a Dhoni, there is also Yuvraj's left-arm spin option available.

The reason that this may not sit well with Dravid is that asking Kaartick to open the innings soon after keeping wickets for two days could be taking things a bit too far. Of course, Sangakkara often walks in very early on in a Sri Lankan innings after keeping wickets, but to be sure, no team is quite prepared to place such a burden on a 'keeper.

As of now, the top seven are likely to be: Jaffer, Kaartick, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly and Dhoni. Dravid has said that the match against the Lions would see the best Indian batting line-up.

"The greatest cricketer of the modern era, was a smoker."Michael Atherton walks down memory lane in the Sunday Telegraph.

Zaheer in England

Zaheer put up an inspired display for Worcestershire in 2006, and was along with Ganguly's return and Sreesanth's seam position, one of the stories of the South Africa tour. He had Grame Smith's number for most of the series, and was constantly on the lookout for wickets until the patience of Ashwell Prince thwarted him.
Zaheer returns to England to play a Test match, after almost six years. The last time around, it was a lacklustre display. In four matches he had a haul of eleven wickets. To be fair, Ajit Agarkar fared even worse while Ashish Nehra picked up five wickets from two matches. This time, Zaheer is expected to show leadership at the head of the pace bowling pack. With Strauss and Alistair Cook - the mature head on a young body, a left-handed opening pair, Zaheer has a proven ability to make an impression at the top of the order, swining the ball bothways. After almost eight years in the international scene (not counting the break when he was dropped shortly after the 2003 World Cup) he is by far the most experienced of our pacemen in England. If India are to win, he will need to use his extensive experience with playing in damp, overcast conditions to effectively mentor Sreesanth, Ranadeep Bose and Ishant Sharma. And this is turning out to be a much wetter late summer than we hoped for.

The Laxman-Yuvraj problem. Again!

Has Ganguly cemented his place in the Test squad? With a memorable display in the tour to South Africa, one would be inclined to think he would be given a few more chances. If that is the case, Jaffer, Kaarthick, Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dhoni have confirmed spots in the batting line-up. Assuming that we play four bowlers, (probably Sreesanth, Zaheer, Ishant Sharma and Kumble), that leaves the spot open for one batsman. And once again, the choice is between Yuvraj Singh and VVS Laxman.
Yuvraj has made an emphatic case for his inclusion, grafting and exploding his way to a series defining performance. Laxman cannot be ignored easily either. Laxman's batting was crucial to the victory at Johannesburg. His batting in the tour to the West Indies would also be remembered more, were it not for the phenomenal efforts of Rahul Dravid. However, Laxman's subsequent failures in South Africa contributed to the series loss from a winning position.
Even if we ignore immediate performances, bith players have enough reason to feel wronged.
Laxman's ODI career was unceremoniously set aside: the rise of more athletic and powerful players like Yuvraj Singh was certainly a factor. Laxman has also been moved up and down the order whenever the interests of "team balance" dictated such a move. Equally, Yuvraj - despite being able to hold a place in the one-day squad consistently for the last seven years, has never been given too many chances to perform in the Test arena. Both started out as classy attacking batsmen, leaving fans drooling at their talent. The compulsions of international cricket have forced both to learn the art of staying at the wicket. In the one-day version of the game, Yuvraj is now seen as "one of the best finishers" of the game - someone who can accumulate, accelerate and change gears easily. Laxman's substantial innings over the past two years have been achieved through a fierce determination to stay at the wicket. The trademark audacious drives and flicks have been reined in substantially.
We are no closer to where we were at the beginning. How will Dravid n' Borde pick between these two without being unfair to one?

Sardesai moves on..

Time, reportage and vedio film have done a bad job of recreating Sardesai for our generation. After he has moved on, the praise flows effortlessly. "A man so good he could open and play in the middle order with equal ease", "The best player of spin India ever had", "A man who surprisingly never cemented a spot in the squad", and the most heard, "The man who took India to the pinnacle of world cricket", having along with the young Gavaskar, sculpted India's first ever series victory in the West Indies. Sardesai's double hundred to bail India out of trouble a second time, is a tale that deserves to be repeated much more.

The Yuvraj Singh show

Sachin was right in sharing his MoS award with Yuvraj Singh. Quite cute really, this "all for one" business. Ganguly did not seem so "aloof" and it almost seemed like the Natwest false dawn all over again. Thankfully, Dravid did not want to take his shirt off.
And hopefully, this will not obscure the tougher challenges that lay ahead: namely Steve Harmison, Mathew Hoggard, Pieterson and Monty Panesar.

An English Swansong?

This is where the world first sat up and took notice of a precocious tiny fifteen-year old with tight curly hair who had just saved his team the blushes with a superb hundred. And as he returns to the island nation of seam and bloody bad weather, one can be certain that thoughts of the karmic circle, mortality and retirement are not too far away. After all, his idol Viv Richards too walked into the sunset after an English summer.

Yesterday, Sachin scored the second of his consecutive nineties against the South African visitors. And what a knock it was, distinct from the touch n' feel nature of the first, and far removed from the trudging nature of his innings' in Bangladesh. Cut, pull, hook, crunching drive, quick single: all the elements that made him the pre-eminent batsman of the late nineties and early 00s. If this is to be his swansong, and he has given us no indication that it will be, then England better watch out.

75

Seventy-five years of Test cricket. Here's to seven hundred more.

Protecting a great Indian from Indians

Shashi Tharoor has written a particularly hard-hitting essay in the Times of India about the constructed "Bharatiya Sanskar" and the violence carried out in the name of all Indians. The focus is on M F Hussain. Read it while you take a break from the cricket.

Void Contract?

Sreesanth, Zaheer and Laxman have reason to be disgusted. While Laxman has been demoted to Grade B, both Sreesanth and Zaheer are in Grade C. Of the two Test victories of consequence in the last 8 months, these three were largely responsible. The Jo'burg victory would not have been possible without their heroics. If I were Dravid, I would be very worried that there were three players in the squad to England who are seriously demoralized. Two of them are fast bowlers, whose bodies can find it very easy to give up on them if the mind is not willing.

Shiv!

I used to be an irrational Chanderpaul hater, repeatedly lampooning him as talentless and undeserving of a spot in a batting line-up that included Lara. And for years, in the face of mounting evidence, I clutched at straws to push my argument. And now finally, I am admitting defeat: any batsman who can survive (yeah, just surviving will do) for eighteen hours at the crease in between dismissals is a good batsman. And in a lineup full of pretenders, he is the only hope. He might not represent the wizardry that the West Indian game symbolises, but right now, he means much more to the team that the more talented Gayle and Samuels.

Now please, think again

Ha ha ha, is all I'd like to tell the BCCI. I guess the BCCI ethic was too far removed from the professionalism and vision of Kent, for Ford to care too much. At least now, contemplate a systematic, reasoned approach. But first, wipe that egg off your face.

The Harbhajan tragedy

With nineteen five wicket hauls in 57 Test matches, his ability is hardly in doubt. A reading of his stats since 2005 does not make for very happy reading.
His average over this period (37.40) is significantly higher than his career bowling average (29.86). During this period, he has gone through three wicketless Test matches, and barring a sterling effort in the last home series against the Lankans, he has not had any significant impact on the outcome of a series. He also had a truly horrific series in Pakistan: no wickets at an economy rate of 4.38. This was followed by an unconvincing series against England at home, averaging 48. The tour of the Caribbean saw what could be a return to normal service: two five wicket hauls and a series average of 24.

Since then, he has not played in too many matches with Anil Kumble making a return as the spinner of choice where there is not enough room for two. Prior to the Bangladesh tour, it was made clear that Harbhajan was being dropped: not 'rested' like Sachin and Saurav.

Harbhajan's travails over the past few years are the true tragedy of the Chappell reign. The bright part is that he is still only 26, and just entering that phase of a spinner's life - as popular wisdom would have it, when he matures like fine wine, finding new subtleties where previously there were none. What he needs now is a truly supportive coach: someone who will permit him the freedom of the whole range of his artistry.

What more?

The lack of transparency in cricket administration has been an almost permanent rant among the sensible fans of Indian cricket. Transparency, the right to information and voluntary disclosure are all part of the corporate governance brouhaha and even six year olds know they breed accountability.
Yesterday, when asked about why Whatmore was no longer in contention for the coach's job, Niranjan Shah refused an aswer. In an ideal world, the media should never have had to ask that question. But making a reasoned decision has never been the BCCI's forte.

It'll have to be Ford, won't it?

A flawed selection process has ensured that the Indian team will most likely be coached by Ford. Actually flawed doesn't even begin to describe it. Try stupid, maybe archaic. To begin with, no one has any clue who wants the job. So instead of evaluating the merits of candidates, we went through a ridiculous foreigner versus Indian debate: something that our economic policy started discarding fifteen years back. And then there were random names picked out of a hat - John Emburey, Ranatunga: and no one, least of all the BCCI had any idea about their availability. In the same meeting, the former frontrunner Whatmore was discarded and the public still has no idea why - except rumours of how Gavaskar believes he lacked tactical acumen.
Anyway, the good thing is at least now we know there are two candidates for the job. The value of "player's opinion" though, means that its a one-horse race.

Kaif

"It's been a strange journey for Kaif, a man often dubbed a future India captain till recently — not just because of an ability to keep a steady head on his shoulders in pressure-cooker situations and win matches for India coming in at a difficult No. 7, but also because he showed none of the off-field quirks of character or unsteadiness that some of his contemporaries displayed. "

Read the full text of an interaction with Mohammed Kaif, that appeared in the Hindustan Times.