GOD 20 n.o.

S achin Ramesh Tendulkar aka God aka Tendlya aka Little Master completed twenty years in office on the 15th November. Playing test match cricket for 20 years is a herculean task by any yardstick that is out there. I mean just imagine the number of hours that he has spent on the field playing, practicing, travelling etc. The average sportsperson has a much shorter ‘active’ lifespan and considering that Sachin started playing at a very tender age this achievement is definitely special. On top of that he also stayed in top form for a very large part of this illustrious period. The records and the achievements on the field are a byproduct when one scales peaks this high.

The man is still a simple middle-class Maharashtrian boy and has his both feet firmly planted on the ground. He is a proud Indian too and that is why I liked his latest salvo at the so called Mumbaikars about Mumbai belonging to India. No airs, no tantrums and no big celebrity histrionics. There have been some controversies both on off the field and he has always answered his critics with his bat. He is absolutely the role model if one is starting his career.

Here is wishing that his dream of winning the World Cup for India gets fulfilled. All the best Sachin and all of us would like to see you keep playing on and on.

David Shepherd RIP

U ndoubtedly one of the most consistent and popular cricket umpire of this generation passed away yesterday fighting a his battle with cancer. It is not very often that you hear players across continents praising a cricket umpire. David was known for his inimitable style of signaling the boundry as if he was caressing ripples on a lake and more commonly he was known for his one legged Nelson when the score reached multiples of 111. His judgment even in the days of technology were spot on and that is probably the reason he was loved by the players. May his soul rest in peace.

Amusing Brits

D uring the Ashes series, I came across some real gems from the CricInfo commentary team. I wanted to share these classics for the sheer British sense of humour, have a read.

On day 1 of the final test, the commentary team announced the as follows.
If you have work to do, children to take to school, groceries to buy or a cat to kick, then you could swallow the loser's pill and do just that. Or, you could be one of life's winners: sack the wife, expel the husband, shoot the boss and eBay your children: this is where you should be for the next five days.

And followed that up on day 2 with
So, we're nearly ready. Put down the brown bag; empty the mind wok and stop your blue-sky thinking. It's Friday - you never work on a Friday - so sit back and refresh like the cricket-crazy thugs you all are.

Finally, the statistical nightmare that I was referring to in my earlier post is nicely captured in the article When the numbers didn't add up.

The Ashes 2009: Final Test @ The Oval – Hats off to England!!

E ngland regained the Ashes by comprehensively defeating the Australians in the last test played at the Oval and they deserve all the accolades and the celebrations. As a unit they stood up and ensured that the test match and the series was won against the form book. More importantly, at the key moments in the game when it called for raising the intensity and creating an opening they were the ones who did that. So Strauss’s role in the victory cannot be underestimated.

This series is a statistician’s nightmare. Consider this. Australia has 8 centuries against 2 for England. The top three wicket takers are all Australians. Yet in the final analysis the Ashes remain with the English team. This is because Australians failed on three key occasions and all of them made a huge difference to the outcome of the series.

First, the final session the first test match. The Australians had the victory in their pocket with the last pair batting. But they did not force the play. They should have used pace and got Monty out, but he hung on and defended the pedestrian spin bowling thrown at him. They lost a golden opportunity to go 1-0 up in the series.

Then at Lord’s it was the magical spell from Freddie that spelt doom for them. That one session was enough for them to lose the test match.

And finally, the Chris Broad’s spell on Day 2 of the final test, provided England a match winning lead. To their credit, England batsmen also batted sensibly in the second innings and put up a total to take ‘win’ out of Australia’s reach.

Apart from these key sessions, I think the English team played with a lot of maturity and purpose. They too had their middle order batting problems, but they managed to create a wall around it. Jonathan Trott is an excellent find and showed lots of commitment and solid temperament. He has a great future ahead of him. It is not easy to make a debut in a high voltage test match like this and that too against the chirpy Australians. England created heroes out of regular players.

Australian selectors made a mess of the team selection and the touring party also failed to read the wickets. The result was that they lacked penetrating bowlers and did not have the usual strong batting lineup that one would expect.

In the aftermath of the analysis, one comment that caught my attention was about the lack multi-racial multi-cultural representation on the Australian team. They must evaluate that option considering what the SA has done successfully. If one also connects this story with the racial attacks on Indian students, somewhere down the back of the mind this also raises a question as to whether the Australian culture is indeed multi-racial.

With that I wrap up this coverage on the Ashes. Watch out for my notes as things develop down under when the post mortem truly begins.

Headingley Fire Alarm Theories

There are some interesting stories around the fire alarm that went off in the England team hotel on the night before the first day. One theory is that an australian supporter staying in the same hotel intentionally set the alarm off to create nuisance. There is also another explanation which mentions that a lady guest staying in the same hotel had washed her lingerie in the wash basin and left it to dry near the light bulb. The heat from the light bulb was sufficient to make the clothes warm enough to generate smoke. Take your pick on which story you want to believe. :)

The Ashes 2009: Fourth Test Headingley

A nnihilation. That is the exact one word that describes the fourth test of this series. Australia came into the match and showed their intent from the very first over while England seemed to have lost the game in their minds before it began. They had no plan, showed no gumption for a fight and were unimaginative.

Partly, I think Strauss had a bit too much on his mind after winning the toss. In the morning there was the mishap involving Matt Prior and that unsettled his concentration and they also had to deal with the absence of Andrew Flintoff. What followed was a quick search for a replacement wicket keeper which was nullified after Prior recovered quickly from the back spasms. So after winning a good toss, when Strauss walked on the crease to open the innings his mind was cluttered. He should have been out on the first ball but was spared by Billy Bowden. But he failed to capitalize on that life and England collapsed for 102 in their first innings. Australia, in reply, were clinical and amassed 445 runs thus gaining a match winning 343 runs lead. As I write this, England are 8 wickets down in their second innings and are looking down the barrel. I think Australia will go into the final test with lots of positives and quite a few players from their team who were struggling have gained in confidence. England on the other hand have no clue with the absence of their biggies like Flintoff and Pietersen. They have nobody to rally around and Strauss looks like a completely detached uninspiring skipper when in this mode.

A couple of notes on Australian team selection. First Stuart Clark has made his presence felt in this match. I think he and Shane Watson are two people who are out of favour with Ponting and he selected both of them very grudgingly. Both of them proved their mettle. Secondly, I think on a dry looking wicket Ponting gambled and selected an all pace attack and that did pay off.

All eyes on the final test now. I had predicted a 2-1 series when it began but did not know which team would win it. I think I do now. It is going to be 2-1 Australia.

The Ashes 2009: Third Test Edgbaston

W eather was the winner in this test match from day one. It had rained heavily prior to the test match and there were theories of spongy pudding like outfield. Ricky Ponting was not going to be fooled by all that talk after the mistake he committed on the last tour here. He decided to look at the pitch and then take the call. Five clear days of good weather were almost impossible and in my mind Ponting should have gambled a bit to wrestle some initiative. He did not and in the end England collected all the brownie points from this test match.

First of all Australia did not play to win if you ask me. Their team selection was almost defensive and short of imagination. Mitchell Johnson is having a wretched form on this tour and this was a perfect opportunity to try and give some match exposure to Stuart Clark. He is steady, does not leak runs and has been taking wickets when fit. But Ponting decided to keep faith in Johnson who again continued to bowl an erratic line. He compounded his woes by picking up an altercation with some English batsmen and that is not going to win him friends on the boundary line. He is going to be targeted by the spectators and it is an uphill task for him to come back on this tour. Ponting gambled and selected Shane Watson and that gamble paid off. He scored valuable runs in both innings. But if you think about it, this is almost a slap in the face for the selectors. They had backed Hughes and not even selected a reserve opening batsman and here you have the captain dropping their trusted opener after 4 innings.

This Australian squad is also very soft in their minds possibly due to the ban on sledging from CA. As Tim de Lisle describes in his article they are England in disguise. A possible reason is that they are themselves not very sure about their chances and that reflects in the on-field behavior. That is why you have Mr. Cricket who is so bloody confused that he leaves a perfect delivery only to be clean bowled. The hay days of their ruthless supremacy seem to be over. Let us wait and watch what happens in the rest of the series. But I would put my money on England for they have shown some courage and have fought well.

PS: There are reports that after he was clean bowled by Swann in the second innings, Ricky Ponting smashed the door in the dressing room.

The Ashes 2009: Second Test at Lord’s

Incredible!! That is the only way one can describe the way England came back into the series and won the second test at Lord’s. This test match truly belonged to Freddie Flintoff who has announced his retirement from test cricket at the end of this series. England had a great start in the first innings and although the middle order frittered away this great start, they had a decent total on the board. Mitchell Johnson who was so successful as the spearhead of the attack in South Africa seemed like he had a bottle of vodka for breakfast. Nothing landed on the proverbial penny or 3 feet on either side of it. Then when Australians came out to bat Jimmy Anderson produced a fine spell of swing bowling to rock Australia back. Once the Australians conceded a 200+ runs lead, their only hope of saving the test match was praying for rain.

But this test will be remembered for the classic British heroics of Andrew Flintoff. This was his last test match at Lord’s and therefore he had to produce some heroics. He did that in the only way he can in his own style. There are lots of articles written about his antics on the final day and some of these are really noteworthy. Peter English titled his article “Flintoff, bloody Flintoff” and Dean Jones commented that he played a great game but the pity was that he is not Australian. I think these gems like Flintoff, Kapil Dev, Botham, Tendulkar, Imran Khan, Graeme Smith have something wired differently in their brain that just gets them to behave abnormally under pressure. That is why all of them are greats. Well played Freddie!!

I thought Strauss did a wise thing by batting despite having the option to enforce the follow on. Chasing 100-150 runs in the fourth innings is not a very good prospect. Also once the target was set at 500+ runs, the Aussies must have realized they cannot win. This ‘not enforcing a follow on’ is a new trend that is emerging these days and I think the captain puts a lot of premium on his bowlers in reaching this decision. Bowling continuously to get 20 wickets on the trot is a herculean task and in a tight schedule you do not want to lose your main frontline bowlers to injuries. You have got to keep them fresh. Plus a quick fire 200 odd runs makes the job of chasing the target that much difficult.

The umpiring in this test match was very pedestrian and almost all the dubious decisions went England’s way. One can live with a few wrong decisions as long as the umpires are consistent about it but here it was a bit inconsistent. Once in a while it is good to see the Australian side on the wrong end of the stick. Be that the lbw/caught dismissal of Ricky Ponting in the first innings or the dismissals of Phil Hughes and Mike Hussey in the second innings. To their credit the Aussies took these blows on their chins and made no mention of this in the post match comments. From what Shane Warne has been telling on the commentary they have some unique methods of showing dissent in the dressing room that is. For example, he mentioned Michael Slater dumping his bat in the toilet, so that he would not use it again would you believe? Broken chairs, broken glass etc must be routine ordinary stuff. I wish there was a gallery of these pictures after some of the most controversial dismissals. Like Ganguly in Sydney.

Emosional Attyachar (with Apology to DevD)

While the Ashes series has generated a lot of excitement, we have the other two series going on in parallel, West Indies vs. Bangladesh (The wooden spoon contest) and Pakistan vs. Sri Lanka. I can only call these matches as emosional attyachar for the players, for the officials and for the fans.

Look at the state of affairs in the West Indies. Their players have been through a lot. First the Allen Stanford fiasco where the players lost a lot of their hard earned money and probably their life’s savings due to bad investment decision. Secondly, they have lost a lot young players to basketball where there seems to be a lot of money. So the team is in shambles, there is a continuous dispute with the board and they play with their second or third string players. How do you expect this team to put up a fight?

The other series has Pakistan which if you ask me needs to go through a thorough rebuilding process if they have to stop these 90 all out and 9 wickets out for 35 runs sort of scores. They are a collection of individual contributors not a team at this stage and the situation at home is not helping them. Sri Lankans on the other hand seem to have recovered rather rapidly from that ghastly attack in Lahore. Their team under Sangakkara is showing a lot of character and they have played some good quality cricket in the T20 championship and in this series too.

So there is the reason for my silence on these two contests.

The Ashes 2009 : First Test at Cardiff

New venue, unknown ground conditions and a series opener. We had all the ingredients for an absorbing game of cricket but barring the last one hour of the final day there was not much to keep people interested. England batted well in the first essay but failed to capitalize on some good starts. Someone should have scored a big hundred and ensured that they would not lose the test match. They posted a middle of the road total and the Australian response was great. Now here is a team that absolutely thrashes the opponent into the ground and ensures that they stay on the ground. They built up a massive lead and put England under pressure. They used the ‘sledge’ hammer too to get the results they wanted. Pietersen was provoked and lost his wicket when the need of the hour was to stay.


The only interesting session was the last session when Collingwood was fighting a lone battle to save the test match and Australians were coming at him with everything. He played a gem of an innings. Once he got out, he left a small window of opportunity for the Aussies to claim the last wicket in about 12 overs. That is when the drama started and Australian skipper Ponting once again showed his ugly side. They claimed catches that did not exist and appealed and put a lot of pressure on the umpires. Monty and James Anderson stuck around and as the number of deliveries kept reducing the Aussies became more frustrated. These scenes were reminiscent of the scenes against India (Sydney) or South Africa. I wonder why Ponting did not use Hilfenhaus or Johnson to claim that last wicket. Aussies are making a habit of having the last pair frustrate them and they need to show the same level of ruthlessness to stop the tail from wagging. In this case it was the difference between 1-0 up in the series and going to Lord’s with a 0-0 score line.

Sunny @ 60

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar turned 60 last weekend. He has been a cricketing hero to a lot of people of my generation who grew up listening to his exploits in the test match cricket. I was in primary school when he went on his first tour of the West Indies and I was quite upset to see a few new names on that tour. Because I did not have their photos in my collection!! Very soon that was to be set right because after that tour he became a household name in Indian cricket.

On that team we had Ajit Wadekar as the captain for the first time. He had become the captain because of a casting vote used by Vijay Merchant. The new players, whose photos I did not have in my album, were Sunil Gavaskar, Rusi Jeejeebhoy(wk), P. Krishnamurthy(wk), Jayantilal Kenia (Opening) and D. Govindraj (medium pace). India returned victorious from that tour and Dileep Sardesai, Eknath Solkar and Sunny along with Ajit Wadekar were responsible to a large extent for that result. Sunny did not play in the first test but in the remaining four tests he scored 774 runs ( 8 innings, 4 hundreds including 1 double) surpassing Sardesai’s 642 runs (8 innings, 3 hunreds including 1 double).

It is very difficult to write anything about Sunny’s records because he has so many of them. I think he brought professionalism into Indian cricket and that to my mind is his single largest contribution other than hundreds of runs he scored. He has carried on with the same professional attitude post his retirement and his comments during the tests are worth a listen. He is a true Indian at heart.

I am sure like in the test matches, Sunny would have taken a fresh guard, reassessed the situation and will go on past the milestone.

Well played Sir, and here is wishing you a great great Century.

The Ashes 2009 - Curtain Raiser

I I have been away for the past couple of months or so primarily for two reasons. Firstly I did not feel motivated enough to cover the India NZ series because it was kind of one sided. The only reason for me to cover that would have been if things had not gone per the form guide. Less interesting series, but I watched it all the same. The second reason is that these past 2-3 months have been completely flooded with the T20 games. We had the IPL-II and then the T20 World Cup. Like to watch those games but that is slam-bang cricket not classic cricket. This time though there was some level of strategy in IPL because the teams had more experience and the choice of venue brought the bowlers in play.

Now Aussies are in England for a revenge series and they would like to retain and defend the Ashes. For Ricky Ponting this will be a personal agenda for he was the captain of the Australian team that handed over the Ashes to the Poms in England last time. That is an unforgivable sin as far as the Australian public is concerned and any captain would not like to be in that situation. Having already committed that sin, the only thing Ponting can do is to comeback and thrash the English team and win the Ashes in a convincing manner. But that is easier said than done. In my opinion both teams have undergone massive changes some planned some unplanned. They are rebuilding and therefore it is going to be an interesting contest. Aussies are a step ahead in their preparation but they are away from home turf and they have the motivation to win. England on the other hand are a bit demoralize after Pieteren fiasco and the happenings on their Windies tour. But they are capable of putting up a fight. Hence I am quite eager to see the start of the first test match.

Finally John Buchanan is in the news again. After his controversial stint with KKR in the IPL he has been chucked out and has been recruited by the English team as a consultant. Now that should bring a smile on Punters face because John will cast one of theories again and will spoil England’s preparations. Some of the old Australian players have already expressed their opinion and I liked the comment from Shane Warne. He said that John will probably conduct a boot-camp and have Freddie and Pietersen with bruised knees. On John Buchanan and his preposterous theories one can only say that the dog’s tail will always curl up.

Champions strike back

What a strong response from the Aussies when everyone thought they would struggle in SA. They have come back strongly and made a statement of sorts to everyone who questioned their superiority. There was that period of uncertainty when the new team had not settled in and the old boys had hung up their boots. If SA had maintained the intensity and hit them hard at that time things would have been different. Now they have a few of their regulars coming back and the confidence can only go up. Hats off to Ricky Ponting too, for surviving this critical period and pulling his team out of the mini crisis.

A sad day for Pakistan Cricket

Today’s events in Lahore will deal a devastating blow to competitive international cricket in Pakistan for a good 2-3 years. The Pakistan government is imminently responsible for letting this happen in broad day light and it was their responsibility to ensure that the visitors were well protected. I get the feeling that the government or the lack of it in Pakistan is letting the militancy grow rather rapidly. They have to take control of their destiny and reinforce some order of law and unless they show some stern actions the country will be ruined.

As cricket lovers all of us are going to miss some genuinely talented and controversial cricketers from this country.

Bucknor decides to retire, Indians celebrate!!

The nemesis of the Indian Test team and Sachin Tendulkar in particular, Steve Bucknor has decided to call it a day after the SA-Australia series. That piece of news must have caused a mini celebration in the Indian camp currently in NZ. Bucknor never embraced the technology and the options available to him to make good decisions but rather stuck to his old fashioned ways of umpiring. As the age caught up with him and the technology improved, his mistakes became glaringly visible. He was not called Silent Death for nothing.

He was instrumental in quite a few dubious decisions against the India team and specifically against Sachin. In my opinion his worst decision was the not out verdict for a caught behind appeal against Symonds in the infamous Sydney test. Then there is another one against Sachin in Pakistan where he ruled him out in fading light when the fielding team also could not have seen the ball. And there is another one where the ball hit Sachin on the shoulder and he was ruled OUT. He also had reported Rahul Dravid for ball tampering. The list goes on and on.

I think the quality of cricket umpiring can only improve with his departure. Also the Indian batsmen can now walk freely to the crease and not have their innings short circuited by Mr. Bucknor.

Windies’ resurrection or England’s hour of gloom

Last week I was pretty surprised by the astonishing turn of events at the Sabina Park oval where England were playing the Windies. What an amazing game, England were 24/7 at one stage in their second essay after both teams scored over 300 runs in the first innings. England lost eventually by an innings when they were bowled out for 51.

Now, according to the form book England have done quite well recently and they played some good cricket while in India before their tour got abruptly shortened by the unfortunate events of 26/11. Then they had that bizarre showdown between the captain and coach resulting in both of them being sacked from their job. There was also some talk about players’ loyalty to either or both. Events such as these can be quite distracting and it demoralizes the team completely. Added to that was the anxiety about the IPL auction for season 2. I also think that Englishmen when they go to tour the Caribeans always get confused between holidays and work days. So they end up partying on work days. Some or all of these factors probably contributed to the amazing turn of events.

I don’t want to take anything away from the West Indies though. They batted really well to overtake the England score and then Jerome Taylor bowled that inspired spell of 9-4-11-5 in the second innings. Gayle and Sarwan scored centuries and were supported by some good batting down the order. Gayle also redeemed himself at the same venue where five years ago Steve Harmison took 7-12 and bowled out the West Indies for 47.

So I really don’t know if we are seeing a resurrection of the West Indies of the past or this is just a bad day at office for England, We will know as the series progresses, but let me tell you I for one will be very happy to see the Windies bounce back.

Ponting Goes?

After the Boxing Day test match I wrote that the blame for the Australian downward spiral lies with Ponting and he must go. Looks like in less than a month after that, Cricket Australia has also come to the same conclusion, but they are calling this “rest” rather than a “sack”. Now I wonder which player worth his salt would like to let go an opportunity to thrash a weak team (NZ) and win some critics back rather than take a leisurely holiday. Secondly, as Steve Waugh said, if from here Michael Clarke wins the series 4-1 then how do the selectors bring back Ponting? Therefore I think this is a subtle message to Ponting to step down. This is the hard Australian “Perform or Perish” policy at work. We have seen how ruthless these guys are and some recent examples are Mark Waugh, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh.

Ponting is still a good batsman and a stellar fielder but the Aussies don’t have the tradition of ex-captains playing as normal players in the team. I think what Ponting also did not have was the true Australian sportsmanlike attitude. He was almost desperate to win at any cost and if that meant a Sydney like affair he would take that path with his eyes closed. He also influenced the players of his generation to play the same way and therefore possibly you have Hayden, Symonds and some others being loathed by other teams.

The other news that came from down under was the exclusion of Symonds from the SA tour. I think it is going to be very difficult for him to make a comeback. He is mentally not a very strong person and hence keeps getting in trouble with the authorities and players on a regular basis. Having talent is one thing and being able to handle the pressure and responsibility that comes with the role is another.

So it looks like a complete rebuilding of the Australian team is on the cards.

Oh no not Sydney Again!!

Almost exactly to the day one year ago, one had a déjà vu feeling of Australians desperately trying to win a test match. Last year it was a win to create a record and this year it was a win to stop a record being created. Both test matches had quite a few elements in common. There was a catch that was claimed incorrectly by Australia in each game. There was drama till the last few overs and there was the Australian win, if one reads only the result column on the score sheet, in the end.

Ricky Ponting yet again displayed his lack of sportsmanship and common sense when he jumped the third umpire and claimed that a catch was taken cleanly. Like Sourav Ganguly last year, it was Jacques Kallis who lobbed a simple leading edge back to the bowler. The bowler dived full length and claimed a catch. The umpires conferred and decided to go upstairs for confirmation. As they were debating, our man Ricky walks up to the umpire with his index finger held up. How stupid is that? From what I saw in the replays one angle did provide enough room to raise some doubts. However, the third umpire ruled in favor of the fielding side in the end.

When the match seemed to be over the last pair played out enough time and when the ninth wicket fell it was enough to force Graeme Smith to discard the cast on his hand and walk out in the field like a wounded gladiator. He got a standing ovation just for walking out in that hastily assembled kit of his. The man did not have the strength to tie his own shoe laces and still he walked to play out the last few overs. (Apparently he used his old trousers, Kallis’s shirt and Harris’s pull over with the hamburger stain. Then Morne Morkel helped him put the pads and shoes on.). What a brave effort. In the end he fell short by 10 deliveries but he won the hearts of millions like me. As the Age described it in the report as “South Africa lost without losing, Australia won without taking a prize. Trite as it sounds, the unconditional winner of yesterday's chewed-to-the-quick nailbiter at the SCG was the game of Test cricket, latterly much scorned as being too slow and passive for its times.”. Peter Roebuck announced in his article Exhilarating performance proves that Test cricket is alive and well. So in the end Australia retain No 1 ranking but just by a whisker. We will soon see what chopping and churning takes place there before the next season.

Finally, I never liked Asoka de Silva as an umpire simply because of the confidence he has in giving a dead wrong decision. Time and again when the bowler least expects to get an LBW decision, our man confidently raises the dreaded finger. He committed similar errors in this match and also allowed a five ball over. This man’s performance needs to be assessed and possibly he needs to be removed from the elite panel. What hurts is the fact that he himself has played Test match cricket.