Action Replay: Cricket in 2012 - Part 2

Here comes the day 2 of the Test Match called ‘Cricket in 2012’. The day is just about full tosses, full length deliveries and sixers (meaning lengthy article).

So, how did cricket fare in 2012? What did it want to say and was it conveyed? What was cricket all about in 2012? Here you go…

Corruption, Commercialism and Clashes

Though cricket produced many highlights to remember on-field, these backstage drama took the spotlight. The ‘Mankading’ rule created unrest and spot fixing spread to every corner of the game. Adding to that, was the never ending debate on DRS.

It is unhealthy for cricket to even think of it but it happened in reality. Six umpires (Nadeem Ghauri and Anees Siddiqui of Pakistan, Nadir Shah of Bangladesh, Gamini Dissanayake, Maurice Winston and Sagara Gallage of Sri Lanka) were shown in the TV sting, willing to fix matches. The ICC enforced a ban; no more follow-ups, no more involvement. The ban was the best thing the ICC could think of because from cricket’s point of view, a ban from the game is equivalent to a death sentence. But are players and officials serious about it? Can ICC create an anti-corruption clause and get everybody to sign it before every match and promote this clause rather than trying to make member boards accept the anti-doping clause and the DRS?

A full strength Indian squad went to Johannesburg and on March 30, 2012 played a T20I match in which India didn’t lose a wicket, everyone other than the wicket keeper and the openers bowled a few overs but still India lost the match as rain and D/L played spoilsport. Nothing was lost here but what was gained from of this out-of-nowhere scheduled match? And we blame IPL for excess of cricket.

Talking of IPL, Shah Rukh Khan comes into picture automatically. But what was that argument with the Wankhede authorities all about? When Lalit Modi was banned, those extras (his bodyguards) who he brought to the game should also be made void. When only the players, match officials and the coaching staff are allowed to get into the playing field, such unwanted incidents should not happen. Did Shahid Afridi by any chance, take this too seriously? He slapped a fan at Karachi airport on his return from winning the Asia Cup, because his daughter was pushed to the ground.

But alas, nothing can be done about things that happen outside the field. I’m not talking about Dan Christian breaking dressing rooms here. Lalit Modi was to pay Chris Cairns 75,000 pounds for saying that Cairns was involved in match-fixing. ‘It is obvious that an allegation that a professional cricketer is a match-fixer goes to the core attributes of his personality and, if true, entirely destroys his reputation for integrity’ was the statement given by the judge and he increased the compensation to 90,000 pounds. Words should be used cautiously.

Corruption is posing a bigger threat to the integrity of the gentlemen’s game and some visible steps have to be taken to not disappoint the fans. Cricket Cries!

Retirements, Records, Rules and Rifts

Well, yes. Rahul Dravid, Andrew Strauss, VVS Laxman, Mark Boucher, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Hussey – all announced their retirements. Did I miss someone? Simon Taufel or Haroon Lorgat? They too retired.

The number of retirements itself make for the records. But there were some pretty serious records that were created, especially by batsmen. Top of that was the most anticipated 100^th international 100. It was finally achieved. It was a surprise that it turned out to be the first against Bangladesh for Tendulkar.

Captains led from the front for most teams – Clarke, Smith, Dhoni (in the final match of the year), Cook, Sammy (in Bangladesh) and Hafeez. Left arm spinners were back last year – Herath and Panesar being in spotlight. Records are not just about batting and bowling. They’re about the final result of the match too. Every team created records in some way. South Africa was purely outstanding when they won the mace from England and then continued their dominance in Australia. England, after their awful defeat against Pakistan, pulled up their socks and won a series in India after 28 years. There were also many nail-biting draws witnessed.

The ICC continues to play around with the ODI rules. Two new balls, field placements during power plays and 2 bouncers per over. Why are the rules often tweaked? What have ODIs done to fall in a no-man’s land so often? Does anyone understand what benefits these rules will bring about and do the players have any clue what they should do next time they take the field? Already there are lots of confusions when shifting from one format to other in quick time and now to make the matters worse, the sudden changes in rules.

The rules are becoming a burden and added to that, rifts inside the team are making it more difficult for the captains. Apart from Pietersen’s case, there was yet another case of Dhoni. It was Dhoni vs Sehwag, Dhoni vs Gambhir, Dhoni vs Seniors, Dhoni vs Mohinder Amarnath vs BCCI. West Indies should not be forgotten here. Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Gayle settled their disputes and won their cases against their respective boards. The latest rift was between Ross Taylor and the New Zealand selectors on captaincy. It’s understood that such rifts are common during any player’s playing career but what has Greg Chappell achieved in revealing that Dravid’s captaincy wasn’t enjoyed and some team members worked against him? This confession is as worthy of attention as Hashan Tillekeratne’s allegations on match fixing.

Injuries, ICC and the IPL

Shane Watson was in and out of the team and Patrick Cummins’ injury forced Australia to form a defensive approach in using their fast bowlers. Mitchell Starc was rested for the Boxing Day Test match. Players who are left out due to injury get a re-entry only after a fruitful first class match. But such decisions definitely can’t be applied to Sehwag and Zaheer. Can they?

Cricket Australia followed the Argus review report. ICC did think of such reviews to make cricket a better sport. They formed special teams, conducted special conference with former players and even made sure umpires are well trained. But all they could do was leave out Saeed Ajmal from the nominations to the ICC awards. They accepted that it was a mistake but didn’t rectify saying the Pakistan Board raised their concern after the last date. Nothing can be done other than question how Graeme Swann was added the previous year.

It was not just Ajmal, Sangakkara winning in 3 categories raised eye-brows too. His 2011 Cowdrey lecture did play a part. That talk was just out of his heart, a memorable one.

Not just the awards, the ICC were clueless on one more issue causing uproar – the switch-hit. How can the rules be set for this when the right-handed batsmen suddenly turns into a left-hander. LBW decisions are the most affected. And why, out of all, a dead ball has been chosen when the bowler hits the stumps on his run-up? It costed NZ their victory in the match against England in the T20I World Cup. It should be the bowler who should be penalized and not the batting team.

Barring the Ajmal incident and certain awkward rules, the ICC is really making efforts to spread cricket on the globe and keep cricket clean. Kudos! A bigger controversy was avoided by ICC by not taking IPL up as their responsibility. Praise should be shared with BCCI also as they didn’t push for a window for IPL in the FTP. Apart from few off-field incidents, the IPL was a hit this year. Discussing about the dark side of the IPL 2012 will bring in ugly feelings. We fans are not bothered about what happens around but only what happens on field; only quality cricket. It was good to see most international stars being available for most part of the tournament and at the same time, bad to think that IPL played a part in many stars ending their international career.

Comebacks, Captaincy, Coach and Controversies

Yuvraj Singh made a comeback – a moment to cherish for every cricket lover. Straight into a T20I match, he showed signs of ‘can do’, a first class beginning to a first class career. It was followed by having a go at the Test level and he got an opportunity to prove himself in the single home ODI game of 2012. He did this at the age of 31. Not a surprise. But when a 41 year old tries the same? Brad Hogg made a comeback err… debuted in a Twenty20 game for Australia and showed promise of becoming a match winner. Did that prompt Shane Warne to say that his comeback to Tests is just a phone call away from Clarke? If Kevin Pietersen and Shahid Afridi can come out of retirement often, can’t the legend try it just once?

Being an Indian Cricket fan, it always surprises me when the opponent captain plays a match winning role because none of the Indian captains had bettered their batting/bowling after taking up captaincy. Andrew Strauss did that and Graeme Smith is still going strong. Ricky Ponting won most matches because he had such great match winners. But that can’t be the case with Michael Clarke and Alastair Cook. Clarke is said to be leading a team which can boast of abundant talents but nil experience. But he never showed those worries when batting. He started the year with a triple century and continued his dominance in the Test arena. Cook took captaincy after a disastrous tour against Pakistan and knocked 5 centuries back to back. He continued his form against South Africa and Sri Lanka. Has the split captaincy theory really worked? That is maybe why England is trying out the split coach theory.

We can’t read the mind of the BCCI on such split theory but we know they will go to any extent to get what they want. Last year, after signing a new broadcaster, BCCI turned their attention towards copyrighting every captured moment of the match. Photo agencies boycotted some home matches of India’s but looks like things have been settled after all. There were also controversies regarding the pitch. First, Down Under when the ground officials at Perth were accused of a beer party on the pitch before the match and then during later part of the year, we saw Dhoni requesting a pitch of his own liking which went down badly at Eden Gardens.

One and Only Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen was in headlines for the most part of 2012 – “I’m retiring. No I’m not. My board is jealous. I tweet and message. Oh sorry, I shouldn’t have. It’s tough being me. I want to get back. Truce.” That pretty much sums up KP in 2012. Pietersen is a match-winner which any team would dream to have. His century in the series levelling Test against Sri Lanka speaks volumes of his capability but he sometimes forgets that he is a role model for many kids. The row over the text messages and his affection to IPL were ruining his English career. Now that a truce has been called, KP should put his international career over his personal interests.

Emotion and Entertainment

Ponting’s last walk in whites. It was a very emotional moment. The South Africa team giving a guard of honour was emotional for Ponting himself and fittingly, the last hand shake was from Kallis. Now, this is definitely going to be a tradition whenever any player is to retire.

No more square cuts or straight drives from Dravid, no more pull shots from Ponting, no more attempt at the 1000^th catch behind wickets for Boucher, no more working with the tail for Laxman and no more of Tendulkar in blue. 2012 – the most emotional cricketing year. Good that you are gone, 2012.

What, other than watching a perfect day of cricket, can be called as an entertainment for the audience? But it’s life for the players. One can be sledged by the opponents but not by the spectators. The player can blast the bowler for a boundary or get bowled but if the opponent is the spectator, what else can be done other than showing the middle finger, a la Virat Kohli?

Technology, T20 World Cup and Tendulkar

Technology in cricket these days mean ‘DRS’. With Dhoni trying to go for a review in the only home ODI last year, it’s evident that Indian players do respect its usage. Rather than bashing BCCI here, I personally don’t support DRS usage. The hot spot may be used to spot those bat-pad catches which the umpires are bound to miss after a long day of Test matches but why should the ball tracking technology be used when it’s not cent percent fool-proof. Whether the call for LBW is correct or not can be determined best only by the on-field umpires, with an understanding that the umpires know the behaviour of the pitch. They consider the wind movement, the swing etc. which all determine the ball’s movement. In the last Test match between India and England, the final Indian wicket, that of Ojha, was ‘bowled’. Even after several slow motion replays, for the naked eye it looked like the bail was dislodged because of the air and not by the ball. If this is accepted as a genuine dismissal, then the decision of not using hawk-eye for LBW’s is also acceptable. The best option to make all countries accept DRS will be the compulsory usage of hot spot (not detecting faint edges is pardonable) and not use hawk-eye for LBW decisions unless it is ‘plumb’ (the umpires should be getting this right).

The good thing about 2012 was West Indies winning the T20 World Cup. Their optimism before the tournament and their celebration post victory are highlights worth savouring. Scheduling of the tournament though was awkward. Sri Lanka, being the home side, was made to travel miles to an unknown land named Hambantota just to attract crowds and popularize the new stadium. Only the Sri Lankan board can tell if the travel was worth it. Zimbabwe’s fortune was known even before all teams started with their first game. Hope ICC has something to ponder when scheduling next time. And, did I mention anywhere that India U-19 won the World Cup down under?

‘T’ in cricket has always been Tendulkar. Then there were the ‘B’s. I’m not talking about Bradman, but Boult and Bracewell who made even Tendulkar angry. That image of Tendulkar trying to whack the ground with his bat, which he immediately realized and withdrew, after losing his stumps often during that New Zealand series, is etched in all the fans’ memory. 100^th international 100 was the only moment which Tendulkar can cherish in 2012. Otherwise, it was a disastrous year for Team India and Tendulkar. He may have retired from the ODI format, which he made his own, but all that fans now want is Tendulkar retiring on a high in Tests. Sachin, you are the only reason for many to start watching a cricket match. Miss you and Love you Sachin!

Read Part 1 Here