Rahane: One Good Thing For India on England Tour 2011

In all fairness the India tour of England 2011 is nothing short of a complete disaster. The main players have struggled as wells as the youngsters and every time the opportunity came for the big names to deliver, expectations were nipped in the bud by carelessness. Yes, reasons such as excessive cricket and tiredness have been floating around with the skipper, MS Dhoni, himself expressing views that seem to underline the demanding schedule that this Indian team has. However, one question remains to be answered: would the same questions be raised had the Indian team won or at least, drawn the test series against England and still retained their number one spot in ICC test rankings 2011?


Most probably not and this is exactly what I want to put forth-the Indian cricket board and Dhoni too seem to offer the seemingly rightful explanations only when a problem arises. What happened to sticking to the same logic even if the team is managing to win?

Usually, honesty does not seem to be most people's cup of tea as long as the going is less than tough. Coming back to the debacle of the Indian team touring England, one small speck of brightness has come forward in the form of Rahane. This man has shown the temperament, class and to some extent, the technique as well, at least in the two games he has played so far on the England Tour 2011.

Firstly, he is not apprehensive about the short ball and secondly, his ability to play well against pace and seam along with his stance, make him a more than useful opener. Rahane seems to be manufactured for the opening slot, as if he has emerged from a cricket academy's blueprint for the opening batsmen. How far will he go, how many runs he can score and whether he can help India win the 2011 ODI series against England remain to be seen but in Rahane, the Indian team has found one small, but significant, reason to smile. 

Copeland Bowling: Aussie Back to the Adam Dale Era?

Just looking at Day 2 of the test match between Sri Lanka and Australia, I could not help but notice that the newly capped player in the Aussie line-up, i.e. Copeland, is quite similar in his bowling mannerisms to what Adam Dale used to do nearly a decade back. Some of you might not recall Dale but he was a bit of an odd streak in the world of fast bowling, i.e. if you could call him a fast bowler. Dale never had the pace or the aura of a typical Aussie bowler. For starters, he was a bit vertically challenged, didn't have broad shoulders and never bowled with any real, frightening sort of pace. So, how did he manage to get into the Australian time you ask? Well, Adam Dale was the epitome of a nagging sort of bowler.
He would merely keep bowling outside the off-stump day and night, until the batsmen lost their composure and played a short that led to their dismissal, courtesy of the excellent slip fielders that the Aussies have always had. On pitches that were a bit bouncy or those that were a bit sluggish scoring-off somebody like an Adam Dale was nearly impossible at times. Now, Copeland is quite similar, hardly bowling beyond 125 km/hr but still he does not leak runs at any stage and is excellent for keeping the over-dominant test batsmen that we find today.

Are We Actually Surprise With India's Test Failures in England?

By now, a lot would have been set about the manner in which a seemingly world champion side like India meekly surrendered to the English bowlers and how India's supposedly handy seam attack was made to look pedestrian. However, I would like to raise just one question, are we really surprised by the end result? Yes, nobody would have said that India would get a spanking like this, being whipped 4-0 in a test series after being crowned the World Champions is a bit too much too digest but just look at how these players have been working since their World Cup 2011 success. It just does not make sense
to play with the same bunch of players in all three formats of the game and that too at a time when you have the core of your test team well over the 35-year mark. It still remains to be seen what kind of explanations are put forth by the BCCI but for all those who are concerned about Indian cricket, don't fret too much...just a couple of wins in a few one day matches and all that has happened will be soon forgotten. Those who are being crucified right now will be worshiped again and all the "reforms" that the likes of Gavaskar talk about will be amicably forgotten...this just about sums-up the manner in which Indian cricket rolls.

World Cup 2011: The IRISH are definitely impressive!

It started with the men in green defeating the English side and continued with the spirited Irish reply to the challenge put forth by the Indians but the fact remains that the Irish team has established itself as the real surprise package of the tournament. These are players who aren't fully profesional cricketers, many of them doing odd jobs for a few months in the year and a couple who play in the B-grade English leagues. However, most of them have presented themselves as rather worthy of playing on the big stage. If they could just defeat one more of the major teams, it would seriously enhance their
reputation of being the real dark horses of the World Cup, a title that was supposed to be that of Bangladesh who in fact, have played rather poorly. The islander cricketers had said a lot about the home pitches playing to their strengths but they seem to lack the stomach to put it past the the bigger sides. One factor that is missing sorely in the progress of Irish cricket is that they are not receiving invitations for cricket haves like India and Australia where such emerging teams should be invited to play in the state or league matches. This will give the Irish players to get accustomed to varying pitch conditions and get a more realistic idea about their shortcomings.

ODI’s ‘25x4’ Format has A Distinct T20 Flavoring To It!

It would be an understatement to say that the contemporary format of ODIs is fighting hard for its existence. The constant criticism that it faces, seems to be echoing louder with every passing day. Among all the suggested alternatives to make the format more appealing, only one proposition has found favors among the ICC’s conservative hierarchy and many ex-cricketers. It was the maestro, Sachin Tendulkar, who suggested that the ODI game should be reinvented by introducing four innings instead of the current trend of every side having once chance to bat. According to him, each innings should be of 25 overs only.

This essentially means that each side would be batting and balling in two, separate installments. The proposal has already caught the attention of many ICC bosses and some of them are willing to give it a go-ahead by introducing it in the English county circuit. Some purists say that this format would be a bit too confusing, since most viewers would find it difficult to keep a tally of the scores over four innings in a single day. However, I really don’t think this argument makes much sense. In our times, having access to information on a 24x7 basis is no longer a challenge and hence, any concerns about viewers getting confused are unfounded. In fact, trying to read into the scoreline after each innings might just be an added incentive for people to check upon the match’s progress.

So is there anything wrong with the suggestion?

My personal opinion is that it tampers with the current format too extensively. We have already seen what the T20 game is doing to the game. Teams are constantly on the lookout for players who can score a quickfire, 20-30 runs, seldom batting with any elegance. Considering this, ODIs still breed batsmen that have some basic batting technique and the bowlers’ mettle isn't tested on the grounds of being able to contain runs only. If the 100 overs are split into four installments of 25 overs each, aren't the players being indirectly told to treat a one-dayer like a couple of back-to-back T20 games? I have no doubt that an excess of five overs in this suggested alternative won't be able to stop the madness of T20 seeping into the ODIs and changing its very essence.

Yes, there are advantages such as reducing the impact of weather conditions that often render teams at the mercy of the toss. The recently concluded tri-series in Sri Lanka is ample proof that the ground conditions could pre-decide the fate of the match — every team that batted second in this tournament, lost. Therefore, splitting the 100 overs between the two teams in an alternating format would distribute the weather-related implications. However, it is still bound to change the ODIs beyond recognition. The ongoing one–day series is proof enough that every current form of the game is absolutely different from one another — Aussies who lost the Ashes rather comprehensively have whitewashed the English team, leading the seven-match series, 5 to nil and these variations is worth preserving. Introduction of changes based upon Tendulkar’s perspective would mean making the ODI game considerably similar to the T20 format and hence, slowly eradicating the fundamental nature of one-dayers.

I am not against introducing changes but they should complement the fundamentals of ODIs rather than trying to eliminate them. Perhaps the ICC should try to correct its own mistakes that initiated the downfall of the ODI game, i.e. making the game bend too much in the favor of batsmen by allowing games on dead, lifeless pitches that don’t offer anything to the bowlers. Had this issue been dealt with in time, the aura of ODIs with the game constantly seesawing between the bowlers & batsmen would have sustained viewer interest and the present fiasco would have never emerged. I guess self-introspection is a lot tougher and the ICC is no different. The easy solution obviously lies in hosting numerous ‘meetings’ in plush resorts and five star offices to suggest wholesome, unwanted changes and you don’t have to be an ODI enthusiast or discriminator to understand this.

Did you notice any similarities in Tendulkar’s Recent Record-Breaking Moments?

This might have come to your attention if you are a keen cricket follower. Recently, Tendulkar has created two records that would be hard-to-beat any time in the near future. These include his 200+ score in one day internationals and his compilation of 50 test centuries. However, there is an amazing set of similarities when he achieved these two feats: Firstly, his batting partner on each occasion was MS Dhoni—the Indian skipper. 
Secondly, both times, the bowling opposition was that of South Africa. What is amazing is that none of the News channels seem to have covered this aspect when the record was first reported. It was only the next day that some media coverage highlighted this aspect and then, the rest followed. Further, the Protea bowlers never managed to or every tried to bounce Tendulkar. This seemed true for the ODI inning that was played on a very placid pitch but in SA itself, the non-use of neck-high bouncers against the Little Master does seem a bit strange.

Ashes First Test: Australian Bowling Exposed Beyond Redemption!

We all knew that Australia would struggle to a large extent to dismiss the England batsmen on a consistent basis. The Aussies don’t have a single spinner who is capable of turning the ball to an alarming or even an average degree. Further, their pace bowlers are too predictable, making it rather difficult to dismiss a side that has someone like Stuart Broad batting at number eight. However, no one was prepared for the mauling that the Aussie bowlers are getting as I write this blog.

They have been literally massacred, reduced to looking like a bunch of school boy bowlers who have no idea what hit them...and it did hit them...I mean, each of the English batsmen has got a century or even more, making it clear to everyone that the Australian bowlers simply don’t have the firepower to dismiss a side like England twice in a test match. How the Australians plan to win the Ashes 2010 is still a mystery to me and you have a Ponting screaming out his lungs that they are going to whitewash the England side 5-0!!!

How come Kiwi players are always hurting?

It seems to be a pattern that no cricket follower in New Zealand would like to acknowledge. Despite not playing too much cricket and being gifted with naturally impressive physiques, it seem that the kiwi bunch of cricketers are most prone to injuries. Take the case of Chris Cairns who at one point was regarded as the leading all-rounder in the game but succumbed to multiple injuries. The same thing happened to Dion Nash who probably wasn’t as good as Cairns but was a very useful swing bowler. The same thing happened to Geoff Allot,
the unsung kiwi hero from the 99 world cup and the latest crop of bowlers from the nation located at the deepest end of the southern hemisphere, including Kyle Mills and Daryl Tuffey. Now, it seems that the virus of getting injured without actually doing too much is spread among the New Zealand batsmen. Just take a look at the current state of the test match between NZ and India being played at Nagpur. Jesse Ryder is hobbling all over the 22 yards and Brendon McCullum can hardly bend! What is with all these players—is there some injury-engaging element in their DNAs?

Against the Spin » Twenty20: Cricket’s great equalizer

Against the Spin » Twenty20: Cricket’s great equalizer

I seriously disagree with this view. T20 does not create a level playing field. It only lowers the benchmarks needed to win the game to such an extent that the chances of mediocre teams rising to the fore and winning games increases exponentially. Just because some major teams have struggled T20 does not mean that T20 is a leveler....test cricket is a leveler because it does not allow any scope to hide your weaknesses and only the better team can win.

Laxman Again Proves: Age Argument Doesn’t Exist In Test Cricket

VVS Laxman is truly team India’s saviour when it comes to bailing out the team from seemingly hopeless situations. However, not many people realize that he is also pushing 36 in terms of his ‘calendar’ age and yet, his batting aggregate in the last 15 or so test matches is close to 66!! In fact, it seems like Laxman has discovered the most consistent patch of his career. Further, he seems to have aborted all questions about age being a factor, i.e. at least in test cricket. Steve Waugh, Shane Warne and Glen McGrath were the others who proved that age has nothing to do with test cricket and even Tendulkar seems to be championing the same cause.