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.