Football vs Cricket - Why I don't fancy IPL too much

I remember being a 6 or 7 year old, waking up early in the morning, having a glass of Boost and wasting no time to run into the street nearby where I used to play with my pals and making a long run up to bowl that first ball thinking my pace would have doubled after the drink and that I would hit nothing but the middle stump like that ad that used to show Kapil do that in the Boost ad of the yore! Like any other youngster I was bitten by the cricket bug quite early on. Naturally, I grew up on cricket. I played some serious cricket at club and college levels. I might not have made it big (like it happens with many aspirants in a country of a billion!), but the cricketer in me will always stay alive as long as I will. But of late, I have been bitten by another sport bug. It's called football. I was always prone to such bugs (volleyball, TT, pool, golf have all bitten me at different times!) but this one's been quite strong. I say strong because it's threatening to shake my loyalty for cricket! May be it has already. The biggest culprit, if i may say so, has been Manchester United!

I have been following Man United for sometime now. But the "cultured" following started 4 seasons ago when they were vying to regain the Premier League title from the grasps of Chelsea with a relatively young team. As things panned out, they have been winning title after title since that season and in the process have added me into their growing list of loyal followers (Red Devils!). Thanks to ESPNStar (Have you realized they also seem to have switched loyalties, from cricket to football!), I have been able to watch pretty much all of their games these past few seasons. With time I have to confess I have turned into a real football fanatic. I hate to miss a minute of Man United's games - it doesn't matter whether United are playing one of the big teams or some relegation-fearing side (visit my Man United blog) What more, I sometimes think it's OK to miss a Sachin ton for watching Rooney score a goal. Something (for somebody who's watched most of Sachin's tons) I would have considered an absolute blasphemy few years ago!

Without doubt, Man United's exploits have converted me into a die-hard football fan(atic!). Add to that the emergence of English Premier League as the best in the last few seasons (Please don't tell me it's La Liga now. Don't buy it) and for that matter the perennial appeal of the beautiful game, I have been totally taken into football. It's not as if I stopped watching cricket in the meanwhile. I still very much do. But I am getting more and more selective about it. A Sachin innings here and a Sehwag innings still keep my cricketing side earnest. But nobody would disagree with me if I said that cricket is losing big time of late. No! No! It's not the money it is losing or the following. But it's the purity. Something that can be best summed up using the term "Over-commercialization". And IPL, cricket's latest avataar, is the embodiment of commercialized cricket at it's best (or worst?). IPL is celebrating it's 3rd season now but I am finding it hard to jump into its bandwagon. Perhaps I am not just one of the few who can't bite into it.

This blog can run into pages if I try to discuss everything about commercialized cricket and the consequent ills. So, let me limit myself to just one thing - the reasons why the IPL induced club culture isn't appealing to me:

First of all the very idea of IPL has been a clear attempt to replicate the huge success of the football leagues such as the English Premier League. Cricket to India is what football is to England. The so called franchises are supposed to be equivalent of clubs but they aren't per se. Clubs are supposed to have something called history. They need to have a structure and need to be built from the grass root levels. Name any big football club in the world and they will have something called history. They were all small and humble clubs started by football enthusiasts for the love of playing the 'beautiful game' (for example Man United was started by workers in the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot in the late nineteenth century. See here) The IPL franchises have been a conglomeration of businessmen to cash-in on the highly lucrative brand called cricket in India. They have actually created teams out of nothing (apart from money I mean!). Mind you, cricket has had similar roots and hence similar growth in India like football has had in England. There are hundreds of clubs playing in various state divisions across the country. Pretty much all of them have their own unique history and identity. Except that not many are known to laymen specially to people who don't follow local cricket. In a country where the prestigious Ranji finals are played in front of empty stands, that isn't the most shocking thing! People say we as a country are passionate about cricket. I suggest a correction - We are only passionate about watching the national team play! The IPL franchises could perhaps have bought into the biggest clubs in each region and turned them into their teams. But then that would have been a very crude way of going about the business of making money, I suppose!

I don't have an issue with 20-20 cricket being made the official version for IPL. The reduction of time was something that was a necessity for popularizing cricket anyway. And I don't think it's going to kill the game of cricket either. Even if a purist argues it might take away the test cricketers out of our youngsters, I feel it's only going to provide an addede challenge to modern day cricketers in terms of adaptability to different forms. My issues are the various changes the IPL organizers try to bring-in in the name of making the game interesting. The strategy break is one thing I think has been brought in for pure commercial reasons. Last year they tried the long 10-15 break. This time they've introduced mini breaks in between. It's just laughable. Everybody knows cricket isn't a game where all the players are on the field at the same time, specially for the batting team. Time-outs are an absolute necessity in certain sports like basketball. But not cricket. If the batsmen need a message to be provided, you can always send your 12th man with the drinks. That's always been allowed! Even the bowling side needs just the bowlers and captain to huddle, if at all they need to strategise. The fact is these strategy breaks are just a way to sneak in more commercials during the telecast. As if there was a lack of time to show ads between overs! The recent trend of showing ads when a bowler is taking a long run-up is disgusting to say the least. I guess, IPL will in future encourage spin bowlers to take longer run-ups. Will help them bowl deceptive slower deliveries, surely! These guys need to watch football telecasts to understand how the sanctity of game is protected without resorting to unnecessary commercials. You will never see a commercial between the opening and final whistle of a Half. Not even when there is a horrible injury and a player needs 5 minutes to be stretchered off!

Commercials apart, the organizers have been coming up with ingenious ways to help their sponsors rake in more attention for their brands. I have been fed up of hearing things like "Citi moment of success", "DLF maximum", "xyz strategy break", "abc kamaal catch", blah blah blah. Give me a break people! How much more do you want to commercialize the game and kill it's integrity. I am surprised seasoned cricketers and commentators have no issues uttering them again and again. Sometimes I seem to enjoy watching cricket with the mute ON!

How many times do you get to see Preity Zinta during a game involving the Kings XI Punjab? 10? 15? 20? Nobody would have an issue with seeing her pretty face but it invariably gets me confused into thinking she could be the team manager! I can understand the owners being concerned about their teams. But why can't IPL say No to teams having their owners in the dug-out? One of those things that tells me IPL is never going to be as professional as let's say the Champions League football.

I know IPL is being sold on the theme of cricket marrying entertainment. The cheerleaders, the DJ stuff, having movie stars come over and watch the games, anchors with bollywood credentials and so on. But really, if you are a purist like I am, all of this looks very messy! Just distractions, if anything.

I've heard so many say that IPL is overcooking it. Too much cricket crammed into too short a period and what have you, an overdose! The English premier league has 38 games played over a season spanning 10 months. With football being essentially a 2 hour affair and a highly demanding physical game, even that is known to tire players and lead to injuries specially when teams play twice a week. What about IPL? We have teams playing 15+ games in a month's window. Even if cricket isn't as exacting as football, isn't it a clear reflection of teams being forced to play in the shortest time possible. Alright! I know the whole organization thing needs to be centralized, like having ICC have a control over the whole cricketing calendar including IPL. But let me tell you, it's going to take ages before such a thing can happen. Until then this overkill is only going to reflect badly on the whole institution called cricket.

Another thing about overkill. After the last IPL, which was played in SA, India were one of the favourites to lift the T20 World Cup. Yet, our performance was so poor we couldn't muster a semi-final spot. I definitely think the overdose of cricket showed on our cricketers in the form of tiredness (I can't remember if we were greatly hit by injuries) and importantly the lack of desire.

Looking at the length this blog has gotten and still feeling I haven't covered everything I had to write, I feel there are too many things about IPL I don't enjoy. That doesn't mean it's a total mayhem. IPL certainly provides a lot of entertainment in the form of big hits, some great innings (like the one Yousuf Pathan played the other day) and real nail-biting finishes. It's good that many people go out to watch cricket matches that last only a few hours and support their local teams. It's also great to see so many youngsters given chances to learn and shine playing with the big names in cricket. But all the other things I have spoken about above definitely are making fans like me worried, if not anxious about the future of cricket. And I don't feel very optimistic things are going to change very rapidly!

An overhaul in equations

One of the pre-series promos for the Indian series down under on Star Cricket featured a few Australian cricketers saying something that went like this - "Every ball that would be bowled down under...will be a total ripper". Well after all that we have been privileged/unfortunate to see during the series, you can easily say the whole tour did live up to it's billing on all counts of entertainment value. It was such a roller-coaster ride for everybody: the players, the supporters and the media on either side of the hemisphere.

I am of the opinion that the whole tour had enough number of eventful occasions that could leave quite a few equations in cricket changed/reversed.

Aussies are beatable at home - tests or one-dayers
So what if the Aussies ended up winning the test series 2-1. It wasn't achieved by them convincingly enough to say they are invincible. Excepting the first test, they looked to be in trouble in all the other 3 tests. Had it not to be for some shocking umpiring decisions (I do agree test cricket are full of umpiring errors but what happened in the second test was hardly acceptable) and the sensational collapse of India on the last day of the Sydney test, India could well have come up trumps. Remember we had fallen just 2 wickets short the last time around. Given these Indian performances, there should be a general understanding around the world as to what kind of combination teams touring Down Under should have to have a real chance of achieving the so called unachievable feat of beating the Aussies.

Now lets look at the one day series. When was the last time, since Australia began their domination after the 99 World Cup triumph, that Australia looked so vulnerable? My mind dates back to a few years back when the Kiwis, led by speedster Shane Bond seemed to have a measure of them - but they didn't go on to win the series. England did achieve the feat in the last series - but England didn't get their due because they had struggled in the league fixtures and it was seen to be a flash in the pan more than anything else. The recently concluded series was probably the first time Australia seemed to be under pressure all throughout. Right from the time India beat them in the early stage Australia looked uncomfortable, even while playing the Lankans. So when India went into the finals, Australians weren't exactly the favourites. And the outcome is there for all of us to see!


Youth is the name of the game
One of the fall-outs of the Australian loss the hovering axe around old men in the Aussie camp. There is a realization for the need to build a younger side and they are now trying to revamp the team in favour of more youngsters. Everybody's been complaining about the amount of cricket that is being played. In fact, I was unhappy about the amount of cricket the Indian team had been playing going into the tour. They had just one preparation match to start with! But how did India end up winning? It has to be down to what lot of people thought would turn out to be their problem - picking many youngsters in the side. Now that India has succeeded with such a young side, the focus in world cricket is bound to move towards picking younger cricketers - stressing on fresh legs and fearless minds. Such is the impact the Indian team's victory down under will have. Most modern day sports have tended to go the youth way - football, tennis, F1 and cricket is no exception.

The clout called BCCI
It's unmistakable! BCCI with its huge influence backed by it's money is going to have it's say in matters its thinks are important to it's interests. And the racism-row was the perfect example for it. No matter what the ICC had to say to downplay the role of BCCI in getting it's favoured judgment, there's no doubt the Indian cricket board is turning out to be the big brother of world cricket. The introduction of IPL and the display of huge bucks involved is another thing that' clinches the issue in BCCI's favour. Watch out, IPL could be the next big thing in cricket!

Umpires can't go scot-free
Bad umpiring has been a bane of Test cricket. But the ICC has been playing down the issue with the excuse of human error. It isn't always easy to stomach it. When things got worse in the Sydney test, BCCI again showed it's clout to get Bucknor out of the whole series - probably for the first time ever. Even if you attribute it to the clout of the BCCI, it does send a strong signal to erring umpires and to the ICC itself about the importance of bringing in more technology into umpiring decisions. It also brings up another point - the best umpires should be allowed to stand in the most important matches. So Simon Touffel - the best umpire at this point in time shouldn't be prevented from standing in an Aus Vs India match just because of his nationality.

Aussies can get "mentally disintegrated" after all
Well this is a case of one's medicine turning into his own poison. Aussies are well known to sledge to gain a mental upper hand over opponents. But this time around, when they're sportsmanship was rightly questioned and in fact criticized widely by their own media, it got to them. Ponting was under pressure right through the series and his loss of form - from the best batsman in the world to being a 19-year old's bunny is the testimony to the fact that the pressure tactics had backfired on him. Andrew Symonds and Matty Hayden, two men who seemed to have issues with Harbhajan were both out in both the final matches to Harbhajan himself - while perhaps trying to prove a point or two.

Captaincy doesn't need you to be experienced if you can be aggressive
Quite a few eye-brows were raised when Dhoni was selected as the 20-20 captain. But it paid off in the best possible way. Yet Dhoni's accession to the hot-seat of Indian one-day side wasn't seen as something that would come through easily. Yet Dhoni showed that he could pass the litmus test in a series as tough as this with, flying colours - through sheer audacity and maturity. He's showed that he could play a sheet-anchor's role to perfection as well as his typical flamboyant game. His ability to make instinctive decisions and bold ones at that has been quite a revelation as far as I am concerned - for example he was prepared to go with Praveen Kumar instead of an experienced Sehwag and how well that paid off!

Sachin is Sachin anywhere, anytime!
This tour possibly was the last Australian tour for Sachin. And how well he played to make it a memorable one! His test match form had been good since the England series and he took it a few notches higher with the performances at Sydney and Adelaide. It was amazing to see him attack bowlers, specially Brad Hogg - very reminiscent of his scathing attack on Warne in India a few years back when he single handedly won us the series while showing Bradmansque form.
Sachin's test performance notwithstanding, when he failed to bat at his usual best in the one-dayers, his detractors were back at it again calling him a failure specially while chasing runs. And has Sachin silenced these critics forever with those finals' performances! May be they (read Indian detractors) should take a leaf out of the Aussie media and learn to give the great man all his due respect. Rest assured, all his doomsday naysayers can now sit back, with mouths taped and watch the master walk into his dusk as gloriously as he rose in his dawn. Sanjay Manjrekar, are you listening?

Much ado about nothing

So it took the materialization of IPL for people to realize that there is huge money in cricket. But the funny part is that the high-profile player auction has been seen as a dirty money-game so much so that the main reaction to the event has been from quarters in the country who are crying foul over the clout of the haves and talking about disparities in the country. I was surprised to see Medha Patkar talking in a news programme which focussed on the IPL and the big money on CNN-IBN. I guess she said something to the effect that the display of money would depress people who live in poverty. And Even the Shiv Sena supremo had something to say against the overt commercialization of cricket. Is it really that 'dirty' to see so much money poured into IPL? The answer from my side is an emphatic No.

Firstly, people who are reacting so cynically do not understand the strength of sports in attracting big money. They should have a look at how much moolah there is in football, specially in the UK which probably has the most commercialized football league - the English Premier League. The biggest transfer that happened for this season was that of Fernando Torres to Liverpool at a whopping $50million or so - effectively he would get a payment of close to $200,000 a week. That would make it close to 10million a year. And what is the highest grossing Mahendra Singh Dhone getting paid? A mere $1.5 million and that too for a 3 year contract. Now after reading that tell me if you still thinking that it's a dirty money game or beginning to wonder if cricketers could be under-paid.
Whichever way you look at it, the fact of the matter is that it's all about market forces controlling the stakes. It's about where the game is being played and what value the player would bring to the owning teams. India happens to be a cricket crazy nation and at the same time, the second fastest growing big economy with a huge consumer base. The maximum saleability of cricket among the cricket playing nations is in India. So in such a scenario, if the BCCI thinks that cricket could do a football in terms of entertainability and comes up with the IPL it's nothing but profit maximization - the basis of any business. Business heads in India readily saw that as a oppurtunity to cash-in and hence all this so called frenzy for buying players.

I guess the high profile fashion in which the bidding was carried out for capturing players' services acted as a trigger for people to react to the whole event the way they have. I have to say it's more or less the same way that players are brought by football clubs. But really these guys seriously need to do a rethink about what they are objecting to. What is their problem? Display of big money?
But tell me if an Ishanth Sharma, who's only playing only his first away tour get a few crores, why should anybody think that the money he's making is dirty? Isn't it absolutely amazing to see talent getting rewarded. Wouldn't that be an added inspiration for youngsters to give it a real go in trying to make a career out of cricket? In a country of a billion, where the youth invariably start off playing cricket in their backyard and aspire to play at the highest level, wouldn't this scenario prevent parents from discouraging their children from taking cricket too seriously.
Actually if you look at it, these guys have to be happy that merit (read talent) can make one rich - no matter where a player comes from. And what better way to see wealth distribution in a country that is plagued by huge disparities in income distribution.

To look at the cricketing part of the whole saga, you can't quite say that the quality of cricket could take a hit. Sports world-wide change due to commercial reasons and more often than not, these changes only auger well for the quality of the sport in question. Look at the English Premier League, with more influx of money, the quality has gone up so high that the Champions League is seeing a increasing domination of the English clubs (3 of the 4 semifinalists last year were English). Look at women's tennis, has increased glamourisation done anything bad? No, instead women's tennis has gotten intensely competitive and full of power! It's going to be the same with cricket too. More money will mean more pressure on teams to win. When there is pressure to perform, only the best will be picked to play and so quality will always get the precedence. May be ICL, even if it hasn't been that successful, needs some patting on the back for coming up with idea of club culture in modern cricket. At the end of the day it's we the spectators who're going to be entertained watching the best play in our backyards. So what is there to be worried about? Sit back and enjoy the sixes!

The most amazing victory ever!

You might wonder if it's really appropriate for me to call India's victory at Perth as the most memorable victory ever for India. Well, I have my reasons for thinking in the affirmative and those reasons are quite overwhelming.

Going into the series, The Aussie record-chasing run notwithstanding, India had realistic chances of overpowering the Aussies. It's not that I am saying this as a typical "over-optimistic" Indian cricket fan, I'm saying it because India were just 2 wickets away from achieving the feat the last time around. And knowing that India went in the best batting line-up in the world right now, it wasn't entirely unreasonable to think about a series victory down-under.
With Australia winning the first test very convincingly India could very easily have clawed back into contention at Sydney had it not been for those unfortunate things that conspired there. Sydney Test was an absolute fiasco to say the least. The gravity of damage done by the incidents around that test can be felt by the fact that it is being compared with the Bodyline series - the worst advertisement for cricket if there was any! India could so easily have let their guard down after having lost that match and with that the prospect of winning the series. They could very well have let their interest slip by sympathizing with themselves especially as a vast majority of cricket followers around the world had acknowledged they had got a raw deal .

What makes Australia such a difficult country to travel to is the sheer fact that they have some of the fastest and bounciest tracks around. Perth is easily the worst wicket for a touring side to bat on. The wicket at WACA is generally tailor-made for Aussie fast bowlers to dismantle the opposition batting through sheer intimidation. It is bound to be more difficult for the sub-continental sides and it's a fact that no side from Asia had won at Perth before this test! The idea of Australia bringing in Shaun Tait to replace a fairly successful Brad Hogg was a testimony to the fact that they were leaving no stone unturned in keeping their record streak going. With the fast and furious Bret Lee and Stuart Clark, who bowls with a Mcgrath-like accuracy, Australia were easily the favourites going into the match.

With such odds against his side, Kumble's decision to bat first was looked at as being naive by most people. But that was a bold statement to say the least. And add to that, the idea of going with Sehwag, the dasher at the top clearly showed aggressive intentions. I had the feeling India had missed a big trick by keeping Sehwag out of the first two tests. And though Sehwag didn't go all guns blazing, he did give an idea what he brings to the table. A quick start of 40-50 runs with no loss can make huge difference and that's what was achieved by him at the top. Sachin, Dravid and Laxman did their bit with the bat through the match which is expected of seasoned men like them. But the victory was made possible by the young and probably the most inexperienced pace attack in the world right now. Irfan Pathan was back to his swinging best. What a reversal of fortunes for him since the 20-20 WC! RP Singh was not easy to counter. And Ishanth Sharma was such a revelation - though he didn't take too many wickets, the role he played was vital - getting rid of Ricky Ponting in the 2nd Innings, which was my turning point of the match.

India have gone from poor travelers in the last decade to successful ones mainly in this decade. They have won series in WI, England, Pakistan. But those victories had not been achieved in such sensationally charged atmosphere. Today India have beaten the World Champions at their home, quite convincingly. They have once again come in the way of the Aussie dream of a record-breaking streak. They've risen like a Phoenix in defying all the off-field distractions and achieved a near impossible feat. History apart, it's a victory that will be relished by all those who were left with a bitter taste in their mouths post Sydney test. Indians have one again shown they do have that killer spirit in them. Well done guys! Take a bow!

Shambolic! Disgraceful!! Cheap!!!

What is happening down under??? Is it the gentleman's game that we are witnessing there? Ahh...whatever is happening is just not cricket at all.

India went down meekly to Australia in the first test. That was more or less expected given India had no time to prepare nor the energy after a series against Pakistan. Fair enough, Australia went up 1-0 on the strength of their own expoits.
Come the second test and we see that everything that can possibly go against India making a comeback has happened.

Day one, Australia are reduced to 134/6 by a beleaguered Indian attack in the absence of their strike bowler Zaheer Khan. India looked set to level the series and what do we see? Symonds gets a thick edge which only the old ears of Steve Bucknor couldn't hear. Later, even the third umpire, assisted by all the possible technology, didn't think Symonds was out stumped when his leg was clearly in the air. Ricky Ponting wasn't given out either when he'd edged to Dhoni. And the result, Australia post a very good score. All the wise men of the yesteryears come out to give their suggestions as to how the technology could be improved. In the end, it was just "one of those days" and life was supposed to move on.
India did put up a fight in the first innings, courtesy the class of Laxman and Sachin. What's more, even Bajji came to the party and showed he's got a few shots for test cricket and threatened to put India in the front. And the cheap Aussie attitude comes to the fore - sledging! Symonds provokes Harbhajan and they have a chat. It looked like the most innocuous chat that you'd see on a cricket field with everything seeming to settle down in the end of it. And yet, at the end of the day, you see Ricky Ponting accusing Harbhajan of making racist taunts at Symonds.

I was like, Dear me! of all people, the Aussies are incriminating their "known to be sober" Indian counterparts. It was a level 3 charge that would keep everybody following the series more interested in the hearing than the outcome of the game. Misbehaviour apart, India still had a huge task of saving the game on the last day. 333 to score in 70 overs on a turning SCG wicket. Always a tough bet to go with India in the fourth innings and yet we knew there would be a fight to watch out for. Dravid, one guy who you'd count to keep India in the hunt in such scenarios, is given out by, yet again, the age-old Steve Bucknor. It clearly looked to have come off his pads. I wonder why this guy is even in the elite panel of umpires when he makes so many mistakes. Does he know anything called benefit of the doubt? Sure, he was one of the best. But those days are gone. And you're forced to think he could be running some kind of vendetta against Indian team - remember the Indians have never been happy with the quality of his umpiring and he's been complained against many a times.

And the worst was yet to come, this time a howler by umpire Benson. Ganguly is keeping the Indian ship sailing and suddenly he edges one to third slip. My first thought was that it wasn't taken cleanly. Ganguly seemed to think the same an stayed his ground. And what does Mr. Benson do? He doesn't ask the square-leg umpire, doesn't refer it to the third umpire but asks Ricky Ponting, the opposition captain who's "very confident" it was clean. Ans so, he's given out.
Television replays and you see it was not out, on two counts - one, it bounced before being taken and two, Micheal Clarke, the catcher, touched the ball to the ground while completing the catch.
Even the normally controlled Sunil Gavaskar let his ire out on the umpire, on air. Any person would. Here you are supporting your team playing the best team in the world at their backyard and making a match of it and how can you take all non-sense that is on exhibition? I'm sure every Indian's blood would have been boiling when Ganguly was given out and because of that India were looking down the barrel, facing defeat. Though, as I write this piece, Dhoni and Kumble are battling it out, irrespective of the outcome, what we have witnessed here at SCG , in terms of umpiring decisions and behaviour is not a good advertizement for cricket. We as fans are getting more and more impatient about the way cricket is becoming more and more unfair for players and teams.

Well, while Dhoni and Kumble had been fighting it out, I had taken a break from writing this blog and as I try to resume now, the news is that India have been beaten! As far as I am concerned, I am totally shattered. India, as acknowledged all around, was the only team which looked like beating Australia in Australia. Whats more, this is more or less the last tour to Australia for the famed combination of Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Kumble and Laxman. They came close to achieving this seemingly impossible task the last time around. And going by what they did in the first innings at SCG, a historic series was in the offing. But the cricketing world has been robbed of all the excitement just by poor umpiring.

It feels so bitter in the mouth that this has happened. The attitude of the Australian team is even more deplorable. I am just flabbergasted they want to be the best team in the world with such an abysmal attitude and no respect for the game. When Sunil Gavaskar was explaining how wrong umpire Benson was in taking Ponting's word while adjudicating Ganguly out, they showed how poor the Aussie team has been in it's conduct. Micheal Clarke didn't walk after gloving the ball to the slips. He had to be asked to go. He would surely have known he hadn't taken the catch of Ganguly and yet he celebrated as if it was the cleanest catch ever taken. Ricky Ponting claiming a catch after taking a diving catch but with clear indication that he had grounded the ball, was nothing but shameless from the Australian captain. That apart, the Australian team have accused Harbhajan of racist comments. I just hope they have concrete evidence to back it up. If they are found to have wrongly accused Bajji, I hope they're punished for the simple reason that they have brought the game to disrepute and more so an individual. Whatever the outcome is going to be, it's gone too far beyond repair.

With India losing today, I've just decided not to follow the series any more. If anything, I'd only be watching Sachin bat for this is his last trip to the place which could be called his second home. I'm sure cricket would have lost a number of fans today. Congrats ICC!

Of Grit and Guts

Take a bow Mr Ganguly, you deserve it!
A year or so ago, I would never have imagined this day. Saurav Ganguly being the pillar of Indian batting. There was so much happening behind the scenes. The most "successful" captain of India was having a torrid time with the bat. His relationship with Greg Chappell had fallen apart and that had cost him his place in the side and almost cost him his career, as most people had imagined then. He was out of favour with the board officials as well. I even thought that the Pepsi ad featuring him, talking about making a comeback as a bit of a joke, I really did at that point in time. And how well has this man silenced his critics - surely a fairy tale comeback. And that's why this tribute!

I remember when he was out of favour with the Indian selectors and most of the India supporters, which was quite inevitable for he had been going through a very bad form, every first class innings of his was scrutinized. Every small failure of his was reported to justify his exclusion from the side. Most people thought the board was right in dumping the "Prince of Calcutta" for Greg, the Guru and India cricket was ready to move on from their personal dual. But that wasn't the way it was destined to be. Greg was too much of an outsider for Indian cricket. The so called "new direction" that he was supposed to give to Indian cricket was non-existent. On the whole, the Greg episode turned into a retrograde step to Indian cricket. Perhaps we were being too ambitious in thinking he would take India to a new level because cricket just doesn't give such a scope to a coach and Greg always seemed to cross the line.

Coming back into the Indian team Ganguly was a quiet man, he gave no emotion away. He was only prepared to do the talking when the bat was in his hand, quite a departure from the no-frills attitude he had shown as captain. When he played that comeback innings in South Africa, he looked so determined. I was absolutely surprised with what I saw Ganguly doing. He had been in poor form for more than a year before being dumped. His technique, which was never perfect, seemed to have deserted him. He looked so susceptible playing the short-pitched stuff. And yet, making the comeback Ganguly looked so much at ease, getting his timing back and very decisive in his foot-work. The same continued in England. His footwork only seemed to get better. And his timing looked as good as it was when he made that famous debut in that very land. He's never looked back from there and has carried on with such panache. He's been one of the most prolific scorers in the last 12 months, specially in the longer version. The double-century today perhaps rounds off a complete comeback for the man from Kolkata. I think, more than anything it has been a victory to his personality - his attitude right from the point he was called back into the team to this date has been just spot on. He's stayed off controversies showing very well that he's learnt a thing or two about how to stay off them! Perhaps the best example of that was the way he handled poor umpiring decisions in England when he was given out dubiously on successive occasions.

He's been enjoying his cricket, looks very happy playing for and with the team. You could see how happy he was for Yuvraj when the latter brought up his century at Bangalore.
To sum it all up, it has been a display of grit, courage and character from Ganguly and he deserves all the plaudits that are coming his way. We can probably look forward to a memorable trip down under.

Keep it going Sachin

When was the last time you saw Sachin walking away victorious after a Test match with 50 or more runs to his name? Tough one that! In fact, even after being one of the most ardent of Sachin's fans, I can't gather one from my memory. Well, honestly that's one aspect of his game that I have not understood much about- finishing games. And try to remember how many times he's got out with a victory asking to be snatched away by his genius - plenty of them, sadly.
I wasn't an outright Sachin fan to start with. I was too young to appreciate what he had been achieving as a precocious youngster. Moreover I was too loyal to the likes of Srikkanth and Kambli while growing up. But ever since I started liking his batting, I have grown as a fan of the modern day "Little Master" to the point where, Sachin's feats with the bat are important to me than India's results.

There have never been any doubts about Sachin's temperament, his technique, his hunger for runs and success. To me he's the best of this era and I'm sure most people would have agreed with me even before this millennium dawned. But if he's been found wanting, it has to be with playing under the pressure of chasing. Even the statistics show (I'm restricting my discussion to Test cricket here!) that his second innings average isn't great, in fact chasing runs, his average is a modest 34.43. But I wouldn't be as foolishly critical as most others are when discussing this already much-debated topic. Lot of the critics are guilty of taking it too far.

Lets try and define what "playing under pressure" is. Pressure according to me is a very relative term. Most people wrongly assume that a bastsman is under pressure only in the fourth innings, while chasing a big score or in the second innings when half your team is back in the pavilion and you need to get the team to safety. Well, pressure will be on a batsman at all the time, because test matches are won and lost in sessions, much like tennis is played in sets. Obviously it is maximum when you're chasing as it leads to the climax, but the importance of other sessions should never be under-estimated. If you look at it that way, Sachin's always played when the team has lost quick wickets, specially because India has not even had a modest opening pair in tests during most of Sachin's tenure. But he's always delivered runs, specially abroad when he's been the mainstay of the team struggling under hostile conditions. And the pressure of a "billion expectations" is no mean pressure. Make no mistake, test matches can be won and lost as easily on the first day as much as on the last. Sachin's always come to the team's rescue when wickets have been tumbling. So do you think Sachin's never played under pressure?

Second innings averages of most players would be low, barring a few stubbornly resilient players like Steve Waugh and Dravid, and Sachin is no exception. And that's why average winning totals on all grounds around the world are very low compared to the first innings' averages. There is no denying that Sachin has failed on many occasions to take the team to victories, but and it isn't as bad as people make it look and certainly doesn't deserve to be termed as one that can't play under pressure.

To be continued...