Time for BCCI to bite the bullet and take hard decisions

The previous edition’s loss was considered an aberration. It has become a norm this year. The cynics had said after their 2009 Super Eights’ exit, post three successive losses, it cannot go worse for the Indian team in this particular format of the game. Ironically, it has probably not gone worse, but the side continued to remain in the same boat and lost all their three games in the Super Eight again!

In the previous year’s loss, one could feel that Team India were a tad complacent, still living in their first World T20 triumph and under false impressions of IPL being the magic potion to assist them to win the World T20 as well. This time, however, it was clear that the other sides were way better; India did not want to win and to go with that, did not possess the personnel to win.

Desperate situations need radical measures. The question that the fans must realistically ask themselves is, will the IPL go? A multi-billion brand, with millions expended by the big guys of India, there cannot be a lot of chance of that happening. So, the next question is whether the Indian players can be ‘disallowed’ from playing in the tournament? Again, realistically, you cannot think of that happening either. This will invariably mean that the team would always end up being on the go, playing a tournament, taking a flight, practicing and featuring in another one.

This will lead to the guys like MS Dhoni, and some of the others, to shoulder a lot of the burden; Dhoni bats, keeps and captains in all the three formats, and this is apart from the three departments for the Chennai Super Kings. Then, there are some of the others like Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who are already feeling the heat with their injury and performance issues, and so is Zaheer Khan, all of whom feature in all the three formats to go with the IPL. And that leads me to conclude that the time is right for the Indians to start building a separate side for the T20Is; to enable the aforementioned players to remain fit for the other and important formats of the sport.

Ricky Ponting realised that after the second edition of the World T20, but one may argue that he is 35 and counting down his time in the game. Yet, there cannot be too much doubt that these current cricketers will never be able to play till 35 in the Tests if they continue to use their bodies in the current manner. The constant play, travel, ad-shoots, media interactions and parties does get to you in the end, and that could ensure that the India side remains bereft of any such talent in a not-too-distant future.

The time is right for a strategic revamp; establish those who will probably not feature in all the Test matches in the near future, like the Rainas, Kohlis and the Uthappas of the world, and get them into the T20 side. So would someone like a Piyush Chawla and R Ashwin, and allow them a long reign in the T20Is, while allowing the senior side to rest out those games. It just needs the Board to bite the bullet and take that decision.

It was an exhausting IPL for the players. And the audience.

Suneer Chowdhary

The circus has thankfully ended. The players can move on to the more sane things in life. And in cricket, like the ICC World T20.

No, I am not being cynical here, and no, lest one thinks that it is out of a mere habit of picking on the IPL, or that this is an ideal rant. But as a fan, there cannot be too much doubt that this edition of the IPL tested my nerves and my patience to the fullest.

Cricket is a good product. It sells well in this country of India, and in all probabilities, any kind of marketing of this product could easily be termed as over-marketing; that is the kind of demand it has.

But, in the end, it is a simple mechanism of demand and supply as well. By using the concept of push-marketing, the demand can probably be increased a couple of notches, but anything more, and there is a big enough danger that the brand value could erode. Andrew Symonds said this in as subtle a statement as he possibly could, and one can be rest assured that there are many others who would have kept quiet for the fear of being marginalised.

As a viewer, let us picture this. We wake up to cricket in the newspapers, and then proceed to the news channels which has nothing but the IPL plastered all over it. The advertisements have T20 innuendos and then begins the rather long and winding barrage of experts fitting in their comments between advertisements before the games finally begin.

From this edition, there were the IPL parties and games shown in the movie halls as well, which meant that for those six weeks, not even the music channels provided any respite to the viewers! Talking of the numbers, this was only 60 in the six weeks. It will only get worse in the next season, as the two new sides increase the number of games to 94 in seven weeks! That is an average of two games a day. Currently, only the weekends have a double header, by next season, the weekends will have three games, probably one after the other. (with some games starting at 12 noon? Poor, poor players!)

Will this allow the format to survive? My guess is that even before the players start falling like a pack of flies due to the injuries caused due to exhaustion, it will be the audiences who will start running away due to that very reason. Exhaustion. Fatigue. Monotony.

And do you know who will follow these people sprinting?

The sponsors.

T20 is not only a young man’s game

It was only a matter of time before those so-called seniors got amidst the nuances of the latest format of the game. The first season of the IPL saw the likes of Jacques Kallis and even, to an extent Sachin Tendulkar, ridiculed for struggling in the T20 version of the game, and an year or so on, the two are involved in a squabble for the Orange Cap.

One has often heard of the saying in cricket; form is rarely permanent, but class is. And when one talks of guys like Tendulkar, Kallis and even a Dravid who has yet to get going in this tournament, one cannot write them off. The sheer existence of experience that these guys possess would be enough to take them out of harm’s way.

And one mustn’t forget that they have managed to survive all these years with some supreme fitness. While they may not dive around too much, or smash every ball in the over for a six, they would still end up with strike-rates more than most of the rest.

Take the example of Tendulkar. Currently, he lies at the second position in the runs table, and yet, in a tournament that has seen a deluge of sixes, has had a contribution of only one ‘DLF Maximum’. Just one! And in case you needed to know, his strike-rate is more than 140.

The issue of seniority does not stop at batting alone. Chaminda Vaas, written off by many a critic even before the IPL had begun, was instrumental in Deccan Chargers’ excellent performances in the first couple of games. He has continued to remain his excellence-personified self with eight wickets at an average of 15 – the best average for those who have taken at least three wickets – and an economy rate of less than 7.

You would be tempted to ask about the current Purple Catch holder as well. It is another oldie. Muthiah Muralitharan. 11 wickets at an average of 18 and an economy of 6.15! Another senior statesman, Anil Kumble, has conceded 5.28 runs per over in the near-30 overs that he has bowled, even as the rest of them have struggled to control the run-flow with their pace or swing or spin.

Then, there is a question of captaincy. Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist are all on the side of 30 when every birthday makes it anything but a happy one. Yet, there is no denying the fact, that they have led the side as admirably as anyone could have expected them to.

While it is only natural to write off somebody, given that it is a natural human tendency, one needs to look at the pedigree of the players in question before passing judgement and crucifying the future.
Then, the format of the game does not matter. Then, the pitch does not matter. Then the situation of the game does not matter. It is the player making the necessary adaptations to his game and getting on with it.

Memories from The Majestic Melbourne Cricket Ground

The day before a football match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground I could always here the sound of the siren, which signaled the start and end of quarters in a Australian football game, from the living room of my apartment in Richmond, an inner Melbourne suburb, as groundsmen tested its volume.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground or as the locals refer to it, the MCG or just the G, was virtually in my backyard. I lived about a mile from the stadium and would walk past it every day on my way to work through Yarra Park and into the city.
There was never a day that I walked by without thinking how important the MCG is to sport in Australia and the cricket playing world. And at night as I walked home before a football or cricket match, I would gaze at the stadium as it seemed to sleep in the darkness and say to myself: Tomorrow that place will be jumping with excitement. And it was.
It is such a majestic stadium and a never to be forgotten sight when it is filled to capacity with the multi colors of clothing that fans wear. But there was also something about the G even when only a few thousand would watch a Shield match, yes, even when it was near empty it did not lose its magic.
At the end of a Test match, some of the crowd would swarm to look and touch the wicket and admire how some batsmen could make big scores when the pitch was beginning to crack.
Even to athletes, the MCG, which hosted the 1956 Olympics, 1992 cricket World Cup final and the Commonwealth Games, is considered special.
Kevin Sheedy, a spin bowler in grade cricket who played in three winning football grand finals with Richmond and then coached Essendon to four championships, would sometimes visit the empty arena the day before a grand final and just sit there contemplating what might happen the next day.
The new stadium, which was completed four years ago, now has a capacity of 100,000. The old one held a record 121,696 for the 1970 football grand final between Carlton and Collingwood.
Massive crowds come hand in hand with the MCG. For example, in 1961, 90,800 set a world Test cricket crowd at the time to watch a day’s play when the Richie Benaud led Australia played the West Indies, captained by Sir Frank Worrell. In 1973, 120,000 went to the MCG for the Fourth Eucharistic Conference and 130,000 listened to evangelist Billy Graham speak in 1959.
Queen Elizabeth 11 has stepped on the hallowed grass of the stadium on a number of occasion, Pope John Paul 11 said Mass there in 1986 and the following day returned to celebrate with the Polish community.
Australian Prime Ministers for years have been at the G to watch Test matches and football grand finals, but none more than Sir Robert Menzies, who loved his cricket and his beloved Carlton football team.
For more than 100 years some of the world’s greatest cricketers have played at the MCG. Outside the stadium there is a parade of champions with Sir Donald Bradman, Bill Ponsford, Keith Miller and Dennis Lillee representing cricket.
When I worked in Melbourne, I covered Sheffield Shield cricket for several years and football and was a ghost writer for former Australian vice captain Keith Stackpole, who wrote a column for The Sun News Pictorial (now the Herald Sun) newspaper. I was lucky enough to cover and watch some of the great Australian cricketers, including Lillee, Ian and Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh, Doug Walters, Max Walker, Jeff Thomson, Ian Redpath, Bill Lawry, Stackpole and Paul Sheahan.
The MCG oozes in tradition, establishment and history. Thousands visit the stadium every year just to say they have watched a football or cricket match at the famous venue, which is situated within a 20-minute walk from the heart of the city.
Right now there are at least 45 days of cricket and no less than 45 football games a year at the G, which attracts around 3.5 million spectators annually and is acknowledged as the eighth largest stadium in the world.
Old timers still talk about the day when 90,800 watched Australia and the West Indies on the Saturday of the Fifth Test in 1961 at the G in what was a memorable series, which included the unforgettable First Test tie and Australia’s all-rounder Ken Mackay and spinner Lindsay Kline held out the West Indies for a draw in the Fourth Test in Adelaide.
Australia won the series 2-1, but the Australian public fell in love with the West Indies’ aggressive and willingness played in the true spirit of the game to win all their matches that they were given a farewell parade through the city of Melbourne after the Fifth Test.
In that series, the West Indies had the great Worrell, Sir Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Lance Gibbs and Wes Hall while the Australians boasted Benaud, Neil Harvey, Norman O’Neill, ‘keeper Wally Grout, Bob Simpson and Alan Davidson.
Others talk in awe about the success of the 1977 Centenary Test between Australia and England when at the time 218 of the surviving 224 players who represented both countries in Tests against each other assembled at the MCG.
It was a memorable Test with Lillee taking 11 wickets, Marsh scored a century, England’s Derek Randall made 174 and David Hookes struck five successive boundaries off England captain Tony Greig.
For the record, Australia won the Test by 45 runs, the same result as the first Test 100 years earlier.
The Boxing Day (day after Christmas) Test matches are immensely popular as Melburnians and visitors swarm to the MCG to watch the first day’s play.
There have also been some controversies at the G. In the 1961 Australia-West Indies Test series, the crowd felt for the West Indies when Joe Solomon was given out after his cap fell onto the stumps and dislodged a bail after he faced a ball from Benaud.
Another was when Australian captain Greg Chappell told his younger brother, Trevor, to bowl an underarm on the last ball of a one day international against New Zealand. Australia had a lead of six runs and Chappell despite protests from some senior teammates did not want to give NZ any chance of tying the contest and forcing another game.
The NZ team and the country as a whole were angered by the lack of sportsmanship and so were many Australians.
And, of course, there was the old Bay 13 crowd, which made visiting players the focal point of their barbs and jokes. The jovial and popular Max Walker was a favorite of the Bay 13 inhabitants and many times enjoyed a cold fruit juice on a hot day out in the field.
For the people of Melbourne and the state of Victoria, the MCG is considered the spiritual home of Australian sport and rightly so.

Motera-like pitches contributing to dying breed of quick bowling

Motera-like pitches contributing to dying breed of quick bowling

Never since the concept of the ‘Timeless Tests’ was abolished by the law-makers, and since the run-machine by the name of Sir Don Bradman retired from international cricket, has the going been so difficult for the breed of bowlers. Ball after ball, over by over and day after day, the cricket bats have been turned into battering rams on the hapless bowlers, for whom the smallest blade of the green on the track, or the slightest sight of a purported crevice on the wicket is sign enough to spark off a celebration within their clique. And the things have got to such a pass, if there was ever a need for the formation of a Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Bowlers, it has to be as urgent as today. Even as soon as now.

The sub-continental pitches are the hotbeds of a bowler’s career-breaker. Of course, it is the not the surface alone. There are hardly any laws governing the mass of the bat, many more guarding those who wield the bat against the bowlers, and the modern-day equipment has ensured that there are not too many with the cherry in their hands who can generate the kind of fear some of those from the yester-years could. Contrastingly, the bowlers have had the pitches covered and the extra bouncer or two taken away from them, and with no signs of the ICC giving a second glance towards the acceptably radical solution provided by Allan Donald of allowing the bowlers to ‘prepare the ball’, the times are just right for any nine-year old cricket aspirant to opt for the bat and give up on the cherry. And this phenomenon is not only restricted to the sub-continent, as slowly, and steadily, the tracks world over have begun to allow the batsmen to get away with more than just the proverbial murder.

Fortunately for the cricket boards around the world, the aforementioned advantages that the batsmen have garnered over the bowlers have not only culminated in the runs being scored at a faster clip than ever before, but also, as a direct consequence, the quicker run-rates are allowing ordinary-looking tracks to get away with results. The sub-continent has usually been known to be a fast bowler’s graveyard, but over years, it has slowly changed its nature to being a guillotine and a dumping-ground-post-execution in one.

The worry is then not restricted solely to how the broadcaster is affected in the long run – without realising it – by the run-glut. The bowling department is fast turning out to be the most shunned place to be, by those kids who have been enchanted enough by this sport to take it up as a full-time profession. And why anyone sane enough to distinguish between the two ends of a bat want to take up bowling as a profession in this day and age, unless being held to a gun-point is beyond me. Take the current scenario for instance. There are four concurrent series going on in the cricketing world, and the manner in which quick bowlers have fallen like flies in the past one month or so has been revealing.

Sri Lanka lost Thilan Thushara before he managed to put a decent ball across a batsman in a game, whereas Dammika Prasad limped off after one game. England wasn’t spared either as they had missed the services of Stuart Broad for most part of the ODI series against South Africa and had James Anderson participate in it on crutches through the end. Dale Steyn was half as effective with his fitness woes and was finally rested as South Africa “did not want to risk him”. Two of the man-of-the-match award winners in first tests of the series missed the second game of the series in Ben Hilfenhaus and Shane Bond, whereas Jerome Taylor’s hip would now be resting in the Caribbean after he pulled out in the middle of the first test match against Australia. The Aussies have already said that they will be ‘standing by’ Peter Siddle despite his injury, and that would probably have been prompted by the fact that even Brett Lee’s elbow injury has made life miserable for him and the Aussies.

It cannot be a mere coincidence that the aforementioned list seems to be growing by the day and exhibiting alarming signs. How else does one explain that out of 28 occasions in which more than 1500 runs have been scored in the history of test match cricket since it begun in 1877 – except the ten times during a Timeless Test match – eight have been witnessed in the previous five years!

Already Jacob Oram and Bond are contemplating retirements – one more seriously than the other – and Andrew Flintoff has already put in his papers from one format of the game. It may not be too far when there will be others who will follow suit. And this problem would become more prevalent amongst the bowling department, something that can be attributed to not only the cricket excesses, but also the manner in which the tracks have ceased to respond to much of the back-breaking efforts by the bowlers.

Public memory is short and the surprising nature in which the surfaces at Kanpur and Mumbai behaved in the recently concluded test series between India and Sri Lanka would have erased the collective groans that the cricket fans from across the world would have exhaled in Ahmedabad. 1600 runs for a collective loss of only 21 wickets spread over five days of cricket which can be deemed as entertaining only by those who suffer from an excessive bout of sadism against the bowlers.

Commentators have jokingly – or otherwise – alluded to cricket being a batsman’s game, but all that is currently left to be done is to tie the bowlers’ hands to their back and still expect them to bowl oppositions out.

While it is only understandable that the curator’s job is hardly easy, what cannot be fathomed is whether the ICC’s decision to allow the situation to get to a point where it rests currently. It looks to be based on a surmise – cannot be a premise! – that test match cricket, like the other pornographic forms of the game relies on the fans following it for the sheer magnum of runs smacked around in the game. If that is indeed the case, then it could not have been less out of place than what the Lankans were in this series.

Thankfully, from some of the suggestions that have been made in the latest technical committee meeting of the ICC, there have been recommendations to allow some of the bowlers to send down 12 overs in an ODI, and have two different balls operated in the innings. A step in the right direction alright, but whether it will turn into that giant leap for the ‘bowler-kind’ remains to be seen!

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