Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the site.

Modest doubt is call’d the beacon of the wise- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

Through this article, I do not have any intention of proving how wise I am as a person. Rather, it should be viewed as an observation from a cricket enthusiast who has been following this beautiful game for the last twenty five years.

Also, please keep in mind that I am not suggesting that every game in IPL is being manipulated or it is only CSK who are being handed special privileges. Somehow over the last two years, this tendency of taking every single match to the last over and trying to create an exciting finish in most matches at times makes me feel circumspect.

As a case in point, let us look at Game No 34 between CSK and SRH that was held yesterday. Chasing 160 to win. Chennai needed 46 runs off the last 4 overs to win, when the last strategic time out was taken. They had 7 wickets in hand and Dhoni and Bravo were at the crease. Now those of us who have followed MSD’s style of play in the last couple of years can easily relate to this kind of a situation. Dhoni likes to get his eye in, and once he is set, he can pull off even stiff targets in the last few overs. There was no surprise in that.

However, there were two things that made the match interesting. First, Bravo was struggling to put bat on ball and he had scored only 4 runs off the 11 deliveries faced till then. Second, Dayle Steyn still had two overs up his sleeve.

Steyn bowled the 17^th and the 19^th over. Now even the best bowler in the world can have an off day and he can be carted all over the park. We also understand that even if he bowls well, he can be taken apart by a player who is widely regarded as one of the best finishers in limited overs cricket. There is no problem with that either.

However. what did surprise me was the intent, or rather the lack of it, that was demonstrated by Steyn. Let me illustrate this with some examples. First, in the 12 balls that he bowled in that spell, he did not even attempt a single yorker. It is one thing not getting it right on a given day, but not even attempting one is surely going to raise questions. Moreover, from the reaction of the fielders and TV commentators it did not even appear that there was heavy dew on the field. So the fear of the ball slipping out of hand and turning into a full toss was not legitimate either. This, from someone whose outswinging yorkers have spelt the death rattle for many batsmen at different stages of the game, all over the world.

And that is not all. In the second delivery of the 19^th over, fielders were inside the ring on the offside. And Steyn bowled a length ball and gave width outside off stump. Dhoni scooped it over the point fielder for a boundary. The fourth delivery in that same over was again short and drifting down the leg side. It was below the chest height of Dhoni. And the fine leg was up in the circle for that delivery! Any proper connection and there was a boundary for the taking, infact even a mis-hit could have easily gone for four with that field setting. However, Mahi picked up the fielder at fine leg and got a single. The penultimate ball was bowled to Jadeja. It was again a length ball and there was plenty of width on offer. There was no protection on the off side this time either. It was a perfect ‘hit me’ ball. It is a different matter that ‘Sir’ Jadeja found the hands of the point fielder with laser sharp precision. The final delivery was yet another length ball to Morris who could not put bat to ball.

This is where seeds of doubt start creeping in. Sunrisers are in a good position in the league table, so it is difficult to buy into the idea that the pressure was just too immense on Steyn. And moreover, even after all those sixes that Dhoni hit, Steyn still had runs in the bag to defend. So it became very difficult to accept that Steyn, the best fast bowler in the world, was so shell shocked that he not only forgot to try a single yorker in the last 2 overs, but also kept pitching the ball in areas that were not in sync with the field that was set for him.

Now comes the tale of the final over. Now even before we get into details, let me acknowledge that Dhoni is good enough to plunder any bowler in the world for 15 runs in the last over. So by no means am I suggesting that had Sammy bowled the last over the outcome of the match would have been different. However, with the choice Cameron White made, it appeared that he was keen on shutting out any hope for victory that remained.

The fact that Ashish Reddy had not bowled (till the 19^th over) in that match is well documented. Along with this, we must also keep in mind that Ashish was not called on to bowl in the last 2 matches for SRH either. He had last bowled on 14^th April against KKR in the middle overs. He was given a total of 2 overs to bowl. So the fact that he is a part-timer is well established. Add to this the fact that he hasn’t had any international exposure, plus the packed house crowd at Chepauk and it is difficult to serve a better recipe for failure. Predictably, he froze and Dhoni put him out of his miseries in just 4 deliveries.

Now some people may argue that he was given the ball because he can take pace off the ball. By that logic, even Sammy has a slower ball up his sleeve. And the fact that his pace can be quite deceptive has been well documented in various international competitions in the last few years. I remember Sammy got the better of Sehwag quite a few times in a Test series one year ago, even after Sehwag had settled down and gone past 50. And with international experience, he could have been expected to handle pressure better.

And yes, there are people who give the Joginder Sharma analogy. First of all, please bear in mind that unlike Ashish Reddy in this case, Joginder had bowled 3 overs, given 13 runs and picked up the wicket of Younis Khan. Moreover, Joginder is a different type of bowler as compared to Harbhajan. In the last over of a match, a skipper may not like a spinner to be bowling to someone like Misbah. And finally, in the 17^th over, Misbah had plundered Harbhajan for 19 runs, including 3 sixes. So if you keep these factors in mind, I don’t think that Dhoni had taken as massive a gamble as we try to portray it as. Even that could have gone wrong, but atleast the line of thinking was not difficult to comprehend. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Cameron White.

In conclusion, I would say that we all know that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. And the unexpected quotient is only expected to go up in T20 format. But in the last couple of years, there have been quite a few instances where many of us have felt that this ‘uncertainty’ quotient has been stretched from time to time by hitherto unforeseen powers. I just decided to illustrate my observations through the example of one match.

I sincerely hope that I am wrong and this is just a figment of my imagination. Cheers to cricket and long live IPL.

Reintegration of rebels is complete: Kapil Dev, the face of the rebel cricket league ICL (funded by Zee Group) is being seen for the first time doing match analysis of the IPL games from the Set Max studios. It may be noted that ICL, in the years of its operations between 2007-2009 was never recognised by either BCCI or ICC. But over the years after ICL shut its operations, the players who took part in that league have been reintegrated in the main stream of Indian cricket, many of them like Manvinder Bisla, Ambati Rayudu, Shalabh Srivastava (the UP cricketer was banned last year after the spot-fixing scandal) playing in the IPL as well. With Kapil’s involvement with the IPL, one can safely say that the reintegration is complete. Kapil Dev has been one of the biggest icons of Indian cricket and hence it’s great to see BCCI and Kapil patching up. Welcome back to Indian cricket Kapil paaji. I am sure he still has a lot to offer to Indian cricket.

Ironic commercial of the title sponsors: Pepsi, the official sponsor of IPL came up with an IPL specific ad to drive home its message ‘Oh yes abhi’. In the ad, we see Ranbir Kapoor as a common man trying to patch up a rift between two fans supporting Punjab and Kolkata. He delivers sermons on how we are all Indians. In the meantime, a little kid comes in the scene and shouts Delhi jeet gayi. Hearing that, Ranbir shows his true colours and starts celebrating Delhi’s victory. Being the advertisement of the title sponsor, this ad kept coming on the screen frequently.

The irony of it all was that in the actual field of play, Delhi found it very difficult to register even their first win. Eventually, in their 7th game of the season against Mumbai Indians on 21st of April, they finally tasted victory. I am sure it brought a huge sigh of relief to not only the Delhi fans but also to the creative team behind this commercial.

When foes turned friends: In the 10th match of the season, played between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils, a very heart warming incident played out live in front of millions of fans who were watching the match. Harbhajan Singh was opening the bowling for Mumbai. Unmukt Chand was facing him. The first ball that Chand faced took the outside edge of his bat as he tried to nudge it towards the leg side and flew towards extra cover. Ricky Ponting pulled off a stunning air-borne catch even at the age of 38. That in itself was a great cricket spectacle.

But what followed was even more special. Ponting and Harbhajan ran towards each other and embraced. Their teammates soon joined in. The bitter feud in which Ponting and Bhajji got involved in 2008 in the ‘monkey-gate’ scandal has been one of the most bitter cricketing moments of the last decade. It was a poignant moment to remind critics that sports is not the continuation of war by other means. And I don’t think we could have witnessed this episode anywhere apart from IPL.

Run-out, but who? Referring to a third umpire to decide on a run-out is pretty common in the world of cricket. But if both the batsmen get stranded at the same end of the pitch, do we still need a third umpire? The answer is yes, if none of the batters refuse to sacrifice his wicket.

This rather funny incident took place at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. The two batsmen were Ambati Rayudu and Harbhajan Singh. Rayudu was at the striker’s end. He tucked the ball away on the leg side and called Bhajji for a run straight away. Harbhajan initially took a couple of steps but then decided against it. By then it was impossible for Rayudu to return. They ended up at the same end. And none of them wanted to leave the crease. It finally took quite a few replays for the third umpire to finally give marching order to Bhajji. What made the matter even more amusing was the fact that at that time, the Mumbai India’s scoreboard read 64/6 (before this dismissal) in the 14th over in a chase of 180. The match was out of Mumbai’s reach already. For a neutral spectator, it was indeed hilarious but I am not sure how the Mumbai fans viewed this.

A fitting tribute to dad: Ajinkya Rahane has been a regular for the Rajasthan Royals in this season as well as in last one. He has also represented India in a solitary Test and a few ODIs. However, it was only in this season of IPL that his father, Mr. Madhukar Rahane first made it to the stadium to watch his son’s skills. The match was against the star-studded Mumbai Indians. Batting first, Ajinkya held the innings together for Rajasthan Royals by scoring a crucial 68 not out. Rajasthan Royals went on to thrash Mumbai Indians and Ajinkya went on to win Man of the Match award.

In the post match interview, Mr. Rahane(Sr.) was beaming with joy and pride. He profusely thanked Rajasthan Royals owner Mr. Raj Kundra and skipper Rahul Dravid for giving his son a chance to show his mettle. We know that parents have to sacrifice a lot to allow their children to spread their wings and take off in their chosen odyssey towards greatness. So, we can offer our thanks to Mr. Madhukar Rahane for allowing Ajinkya to pursue his passion for cricket. I am sure in the comings years, Indian cricket would be well served by this diminutive right hand batsmen.

These were some of the moments beyond cricket that stood out for me so far in this edition of IPL. I hope in the coming weeks, we get to witness some great cricketing spectacle on the pitch and some memorable moments off it. Long live IPL!

In absolute terms, the IPL may still be a hit, and given below are 5 points that would make this league even more popular in the years to come. The premise that has been kept in mind is that the IPL, at the core, is a cricket tournament, and unless the quality of cricket is top-class, then the presence of film stars, DJs, etc. will not be able to sustain this league in the longer period.

Increase the quota of international players to 6

I know that this particular point has been debated among IPL fans for quite a while, and its merits and demerits are fairly well known. My point is that the IPL, to be successful, has to ensure two things. First, the quality of cricket has to be top class; second, it has to serve as a platform to test the international suitability (at least for the limited overs version) of an Indian domestic player.

I am sure most of us would agree that the presence of more international players in each match would enrich the quality of the cricket that would be on display. For instance, if the Pune Warriors could afford to open with both Tamim Iqbal and Jesse Ryder, and if Kolkata Knight Riders could play both Sunil Narine and Shakib Al-Hasan without excluding Brett Lee, then the quality of cricket was bound to go up. This, in turn would have led to an increase in interest of the spectators (both Indian and international), leading to better TRPs.

However, it might appear that this proposal is at odds with giving an opportunity to an Indian youngster. This perception is not true. There are nine teams playing in IPL. So even if there are 5 Indian players in the playing XI of every franchise in each game, there would be a minimum of 45 Indian players who would get a chance to test their skills in this world class T20 competition. For a single season, selectors tend to look at a pool of 30-odd players, from which they select the national team.

So even if some of the other fringe players miss out, owing to the proposed influx of 2 more international players, I don’t think the Indian national team will stand to lose much. Instead, the domestic players who have a realistic chance of making it to the national side that particular year would benefit from exposure to opposition and teammates of a better quality.

The IPL should be seen as a top-class domestic tournament that gives an opportunity to those who deserve it, and not necessarily a charity tournament through which the BCCI distributes wealth and fame to as many Indian domestic players as possible.

Moreover, as we reach out to more international players, it would be that much easier to convince the other national cricket boards to not schedule international fixtures during the IPL season.

Alter the point system – introduce bonus points

Let there be four points allotted for each game, instead of two. The winner gets 3 points, and the loser has to be content with 1, under normal circumstances. However, if one team manages to chase down the opposition’s target within 16 overs, or restrict the opposition to less than 75% of its score, then the winner will get a bonus point and would be richer by four points instead of three.

In a long drawn out league format, the bonus points earned could prove decisive, and thus, each team would always have the extra incentive to go for the kill, even when victory seems relatively secure. Also, there would be that extra element of competition left for the spectators, even in those matches where the result can be predicted by the halfway stage.

Introduce intra-season player transfer system

The rules and regulations might prove to be a headache for the administrators, but the advantages are such that it is worth taking the trouble.

For instance, let us take the example of Wriddhiman Saha in 2012 season of the IPL. A promising wicket-keeper, second only to Dhoni in the Indian Test hierarchy, was hardly getting a game for the Chennai Super Kings. Even when he did, he hardly got a bat, and did not get a chance to display his prowess as a keeper, which is understandable as Dhoni is bound to be the first choice for any IPL franchise. Saha, incidentally played a crucial role in Bengal’s triumph in Vijay Hazare Trophy, and the East’s victory in the Duleep Trophy last year. A franchise like the Pune Warriors, who had to make do with a makeshift wicket-keeper, would have been more than happy to attain the services of someone like Saha.

A similar case is observed with Iqbal Abdulla, KKR’s talented left-arm spinner who won the Rising Star award during IPL 2011. In 2012, he was overshadowed by two international spinners – Shakib and Sunil Narine. His talent could be weighed in gold for teams struggling to find a quality spinner.

Thus, it would be a win-win scenario for all the stakeholders – the concerned player, the two franchises involved, as well as the spectators – the assumption being that better balanced teams would produce better cricket on the field.

Incentives for quality cricket – bonus runs for maiden overs and towering sixes

While cynics might dismiss T20 as hit-and-miss cricket, a great cricketing moment would always be appreciated across any format. So why not give due encouragement to the same? For instance, a well-timed lofted drive that gets deposited in the third tier of the stands would always be a visual delight as compared to, say a mis-hit pull that just about clears the rope in the third-man region.

Therefore, it might be a good idea to award a bonus run every time a batsman manages to hit a six that goes beyond 90 metres. From all the sixes that I have seen, there aren’t too many mis-hits that have travelled beyond 90 metres. Also, we have witnessed batsmen of different shapes and sizes managing to clear this distance whenever they have made proper connection – ranging from Gayle, to de Villiers, to Ravindra Jadeja. So as the sixes continue to get bigger and better, the excitement of the crowd would also increase.

Similarly, the bowling side should be given a bonus of six runs if one of their bowlers managed to bowl a maiden over. In a format that is designed to be a run-fest, a maiden over is a very special achievement.

So, if a team is defending a target, these six runs would be added to their total. Similarly, if they were bowling first, these bowling runs would be credited to their total when they begun their run chase. The prospects of bonus runs can give rise to interesting scenarios within an over. For instance, if a bowler has bowled four dot balls, then what would the captain do? Would he spread the field, allow a couple of singles and settle for a good over, or take the risk, bring the field up and go for the bonus runs?

While some may argue that these measures would only complicate the game further, I feel that these are added incentives to see some high-quality cricket, case in point being the front-foot no-ball. Ever since the penalty was introduced, the percentage of front-foot no-balls have gone down significantly. The only difference here is that I am advocating for reward rather than penalty.

Cheerleaders & team jerseys

Yes, I admit that this is a not a cricket-related point, but it has become ubiquitous with what can be called the IPL experience. My point is that if we feel that cheerleaders, in their western outfits, are a threat to our culture, then let us do away with them. To make them wear Indian traditional outfits and have them perform bizarre dancing moves looks ridiculous. It’s like going to a famous biryani joint and ordering for pasta.

Similarly, it would be a nice thing if the team owners could apply a little more thought when choosing the colour of their team jersey. For instance, the Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals seem to don identical jerseys. The same is the case with RCB and the Delhi Daredevils. At least they should ensure that they have an alternate kit ready, so that they can be distinguished from the other side, like they do in the football leagues.

These are my proposed changes that would enrich the quality of cricket and viewer experience. Wishing IPL a grand success in 2013 and in the years to come.

‘History repeats itself’ must be the favourite line of the Aussie think-tank. In 2011, they had followed the footsteps of their Ashes rivals to inflict a humiliating defeat on India in their own backyard. So even this time around, they believed that if they followed the English model that was on display just a couple of months ago, they would win the series in India as well.

Their plan seemed to be working perfectly when they played 3 pacers and one off-spinner at Chennai and lost the first Test, just like the English (even their defeat margins were similar). Clarke must have been revelling at the prospect of a series win in India with his young T20, sorry, Test squad. On the morning of the second Test, he repeated the Poms’ actions and included a left-arm-spinner in the playing eleven. But sadly from there on, the script took a cruel twist and so on the eve of the final Test, Clarke and his men find themselves 0-3 down instead of being 2-1 up in the series. In hindsight, the strategy seemed as watertight as Rey Mysterio taking a leaf out of Undertaker’s book and trying to defeat John Cena with a tombstone.

So, here are the five things that the Aussies can look at to prevent India from getting carried away in a wave of ecstasy. Because when the last time that happened in April 2011, it was followed by a nightmare for the next 18 odd months.

It’s the toss, stupid: Ever since the beginning of India’s home season with Tests against New Zealand, it has been demonstrated that except for the first Test of any series, the team that wins the toss in the subsequent matches, loses the match. The trend started with the Kiwis, continued with the Poms and stays unabated with the Kangaroos as well. It seems an unwritten dictum is being followed across all Test venues in India that you either win the toss or the match. Cook got the better end of the deal when he lost the toss and won the match. The only exception to this rule was the fourth Test against England that ended in a draw (I guess the coin that Jai used in Sholay was used in that Test. That can be the only plausible explanation).

If Clarke sits out of the fourth Test, don’t be gullible enough to believe it is because of some injury. It is only because he has failed to come up with 3 suggestions on how to lose the toss.

Starting problem: Enthused by the gigantic success of a left-handed English opener, the Aussies decided to pack their starting eleven with 4 top-order batsmen, 3 of them being left-handed. But much to their dismay, the ‘openers’ who kept coming in at number 3 and number 4 and faced spin straight away against an older ball, appeared undercooked. And neither did the openers, who actually got to open serve a perfect recipe to defeat the Indians.

The supposedly impregnable strategy failed because Australian batsmen didn’t possess Cook’s determination and skill against the slow bowlers.

Aussies must not play four openers together in the Test beginning tomorrow. A middle order batsman batting in the middle order is more likely to succeed. In either case, he can’t do worse than Hughes.

The perfect guests: While the Aussies have long been scoffed at for their arrogant and ruthless behaviour, the same cannot be said about the current visiting side. On the contrary, their batsmen, irrespective of their batting position, have behaved like the perfect guests invited to an official dinner party. In most cases they came in, occupied the crease for some time and then left without scoring too many runs. Even those who did settle in and seemed to have a good time in the middle, left abruptly the moment they realised that they had stayed back for too long for the comfort of the hosts.

However this is Test cricket and not a dinner party. If the Aussies want to come out on top in the last match, their batsmen have to score the big hundreds like Pietersen’s 186 in Mumbai or Cook’s 190 in Kolkata. Henriques in the first Test and Wade in the second Test got good starts but they failed to hang on with Clarke for enough time, where he could have taken the match away from India’s grasp. In the third Test, 3 batsmen (apart from Starc) got past 70 but then the ‘polite guest’ syndrome struck. At Delhi, they cannot afford that if they are to prevent the whitewash. Two big hundreds propelling the team score to something in excess of 500 in the first innings is usually the way Tests are won in India.

Bowling combo: While the Feroz Shah Kotla track may look like a raging turner, one may be tempted to play 2 spinners (or even 3) against the hosts. However, that temptation can be entertained by only England and Pakistan at the moment. The other team would be Bangladesh, but then they may be tempted to play four left-arm spinners even at Perth. It would be in the best interest of the Kangaroos that they play their four best bowlers who are most likely to pick up 20 wickets. 3 pacers and one spinner seems the best combination for them in this match.

With Starc injured, Johnson, often referred to as ‘leader of the pack’ must get a game before he packs his bag one final time this series. True, he can lose his direction sometimes but with their campaign being fairly directionless so far, it should not be much of a concern. On the positive side, he has experience of playing in India before and can prove to be a match winner on his day.

Siddle, after showing some form in the third Test, should be a no-brainer.

Lyon looked like the only spinner who can pick up wickets even when batsmen are not trying to score quick runs.

And, Pattinson must play because,

a) It is the only way in which we can test whether the speedometer at the Delhi ground works for anything in excess of 140 km/hr.

b) The footmarks created by this strong man would be invaluable to Indian spinners.

c) He looked like the best bowler on show in the first two Tests and is most likely to trouble the Indians.

Either way, Pattinson must play.

Pray: Ever since India’s greatest match winner has made his debut, India has never lost a Test and won 75% of its matches. ‘Sir’ Ravindra Jadeja is all set to play the next Test as well. Clearly, the omens are not good for the Aussies. Only substantial amount of assistance from the rain Gods can be the only way for them to save the Test. So, whatever they did right to invite the rain Gods at Mohali must be done with twice the effort this time around. If that means dropping 8 players and going in with only 9 players in the last Test, it may well be worth it.

“Great men are not born great, they grow great…” - Mario Puzo, The Godfather.

What is true of individuals is true for sporting units as well. Only when a group of talented individuals start achieving feats that are considered to be rare/impossible to achieve, do they start getting recognised as a great team. On the cricket field, the impressive performance of the current South Africa squad has fuelled speculations as to whether they can be mentioned in the same breath as the West Indies from late seventies to early nineties and Australia from 1997-2007.

But it can be quite tricky to distinguish between a good team and an invincible one. Mia Hamm, legendary soccer player of the United States, had once said ‘You can’t just beat a team, you have to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see you again.’ It is this ability to create a lasting impression in the minds of the fans and opposition players that propels a good team to rise a step up and get hailed as a great unit.

It would be unfair to suggest ‘how’ a team should strive towards achieving that lasting impression; indeed each great squad can design its unique imprint, but we can certainly list down ‘what’ a team should achieve to make a strong case for its greatness. These are:

Consistent victories ‘home and away’ against all Test playing nations twice

Test cricket being the pinnacle of cricketing contests, it is imperative that any team that aspires to be labelled as great must be able to assert their supremacy in this format against all opponents and across all conditions for a considerable stretch of time. So in the next five years if the Proteas manage to conquer each of the other eight Test playing nations, twice at home and twice in the opposition’s den, they would take a giant stride towards achieving greatness.

Ruthless domination – try to win every match, not just the series

While winning Test series’ on a consistent basis would earn the respect of the opposition sides, but to generate fear in the opposition’s ranks a great squad has to give the impression that they are on a mission to defeat and humiliate their opponents in every single encounter. Back in 1984, the legendary West Indies squad gave a good example of this indomitable desire to win when on the final day they successfully chased down a target of 344 in just 66 overs at Lords at an astonishing run rate of 5.2. Similarly, Australia between 1997 and 2007, went on to win 16 Test matches in a row twice. And they were able to do it because while batting they maintained a run rate of 4 and above so that their bowlers always had ample time to dismiss their opponents twice. The Saffers would have to display similar aggression and get similar results to make a name for themselves.

Domination in all formats of the game – Tests, ODIs and T20

While Test cricket is a connoisseur’s delight, a truly great team would be able to extend its domination in the limited overs format as well. Australia, for example, in its hey days, was on a thirty-four match unbeaten streak en-route to winning the ODI World Cup thrice in a row. Similarly. the Lloyd-led West Indies squad made three successive entries to the World Cup final, winning twice. The rainbow nation too, would have to develop a penchant for collecting ICC silverwares if they want to enlist their squad as a great one in the minds of cricket experts and followers alike.     

Things they need to do to achieve greatness

Win ICC Events

The pedigree of the South African cricketers has never been doubted ever since they made their re-entry to International cricket in the early nineties. However, triumph in any major ICC event has eluded them. Detractors were quick to attribute this failure to a fragile mindset that fails to handle pressure on the biggest stage. Consequently, they were dubbed  ’chokers’. And the South Africans have done little to get rid of this ignominious tag in the manner in which they have exited from some of the major limited overs tournaments in the past. It is time to change all that.

The next T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, Champions Trophy in England this year and of course the ODI World Cup in 2015 in Australia would give them a great chance to bury this ghost. Given the inherent unpredictability of the shorter formats, it may be difficult to win all three events mentioned above but a team that would want a special mention in the annals of cricket history must be able to win atleast two of these events.

Ability to take wickets with the old ball

While the current squad can boast of one of the finest seam bowling attacks ever, of late it has been observed that their potency decreases considerably once the ball loses its shine and when the pitch does not aid quick bowlers. This is exactly the type of conditions they are likely to encounter when they visit the Asian sub continent.

To be effective there, one of two things needs to be done. First, the fast bowlers need to master the art of reverse swing to telling effects. Second, a wicket taking spinner is inducted in the playing eleven.

Adjust to a team without Kallis

Any team that has an all rounder of Kallis’ pedigree in its arsenal is truly blessed. And the South African cricket establishment has reaped such fortunes over the past fifteen odd years. However, Kallis is past 37 and it would not be pragmatic to expect Kallis to be around for another five years. It would be foolhardy to suggest for Kallis’ ‘replacement’, but how they adjust their squad to fulfil the void left by this all time great would be a deciding factor in South Africa’s odyssey towards immortality in the cricket folklores.

Manage workloads of key players without compromising results

Unlike the earlier generations, the amount of cricket played by individual players in a year has gone up manifold. Apart from the three formats of the game played internationally, the players also take part in different domestic T20 leagues across the globe, most notably the IPL, hosted by BCCI.

While great players can easily get into the mould of any format in terms of mental adjustment, the body may find it more difficult to cope with the physical rigours. It is up to the South Africa team management to keep the key players in prime shape for key encounters. Of particular concern should be A.B. De Villers, specially after he has doubled up as the wicket keeper in Tests, because he also happens to play all formats of the game for South Africa and is a prominent feature of the IPL and Champions League as well. Similarly, Philander, in his brief international stint, has proved to be injury prone.

While rotation seems to be the most likely solution, results can’t be compromised. This is where bench strength would be tested. It would be pertinent to remember at this juncture how Shane Warne had to make a sudden exit from the 2003 World Cup and Hogg, his replacement, was more than impressive on account of his 13 scalps from 9 matches in the premier event. Similarly, McGill was more than an able replacement for Warne in Tests, while players of the calibre of Langer and Katich fought it out to partner Hayden at the top of the batting line up. While good players bring success in the immediate terms, it is the presence of a solid bench that ensures triumph on a consistent basis over a period of time.

Fringe players must step up

A team should always be more than sum of all its parts. While some of the parts (read: players) are truly exceptional, there are others who still have to prove that they belong to this team. Case in point can be Alviro Petersen. This diminutive opener averages less than 40 after his first 23 Tests. While that does not imply that he is bad, it only suggests that he has to step up his game by a few notches to fit in a side that has the potential to become great. Similarly, there are others like Du Plessis, Dean Elgar and Robin Peterson who must prove themselves to be champions in their own rights, because an invincible squad cannot appear to have chink in its armour.

South Africa has been a wonderful addition to the cricket fraternity since their readmission in the early nineties. They have played a wonderful brand of tough competitive cricket in the last two decades, have gifted several superstars to World Cricket and proved themselves to be wonderful hosts in several ICC events. But somehow greatness has proved to be elusive. The next five years may change that.

Gautam Gambhir is one such corner stone for India. Apart from being the highest scorer in the finals of both our successful World Cup campaigns, the platform that he and Sehwag lent to India’s batting at the top was described as one of the key reasons that catapulted India to the top of Test Cricket. Sadly those days are a thing of the past and Gambhir’s Test credentials have been steadily on the wane for the last couple of years.

His ODI performances however, elicit mixed response from fans. While some opine that his ODI exploits have remained satisfactory, others believe that even in this domain Gambhir’s decline is palpable. To separate facts from perceptions, I took recourse to hard data. The truth, as it happens so often, lay somewhere in the middle.

I divided Gambhir’s ODI career into two zones. First zone involved the phase from January 2007 to December 2010, which is portrayed as Gambhir’s hey days. The second one is from January 2011 to January 2013, a period that is considered by some as his period of struggle. The table below throws up some interesting numbers.

 While there has been a marginal dip in the average over the last two years, it hardly indicates any significant drop in form. However it is the last two columns that yield more significant insights. We see Gauti scored in excess of 50, 28 times out of 85 attempts between 2007-2010. This implies that on an average, in every 3 innings (approximate) he has batted, he has gone on to score a half century or more once. In the next phase the southpaw has actually managed to better that by scoring in excess of a half century once in every 2.53 innings (15 times out of 38 attempts). Hardly the sign of a man whose skills are on decline.

However from this chart it is also evident that this diminutive opener has struggled to convert his useful contributions to match defining/altering performances in the last two years. While in the first phase Gambhir converted 8 of his 28 fifty plus scores into three figures (1 century every 3.5 50+ score) the numbers have been drastically lower in the second phase when he has scored a century in only two of the fifteen instances in which he has gone past the half century (1 in every 7.5 fifty plus score). To put things in perspective, Sachin Tendulkar has scored a century in every 2.95 times he has reached the halfway mark (49/145) while his long term opening partner Sourav Ganguly converted one out of every 4.27 half centuries into three figures (22/94).

Now looking at these figures one may be tempted to dismiss them saying as long as he continues to perform why should we get obsessed with whether he is scoring a century or not, which in essence is nothing but a piece of statistics. To probe that I started looking at each of the half centuries and centuries that he has scored between 2011 and 2013. Compiled below are six of Gauti’s best performances in the last two years and how it reflected on India’s position when he got out and the final result.

 If we look at the table mentioned above we can see that while most of his significant contributions have resulted in India’s triumph but when he got out the victory was not guaranteed. In simpler words Gambhir had failed to finish the game off. Even when India was setting a target Gauti was absent during the slog overs when he, as a set batsman could have accelerated India’s innings.

What would perhaps irk him even more is the fact that out of the fifteen times in which he crossed 50 during this phase, he has been run out five times! That is why it is plausible that in the minds of the fans these innings did not register as match winning ones and consequently they felt that the southpaw is not the same force as he used to be between 2007 to 2010; a period in which we witnessed him notching scores like 150*, 138*, 126*, 107* while chasing and even scores like 150 when batting first.

Owing to the Little Master’s exit from limited overs arena and Sehwag’s absence on account of his indifferent form, India’s top order sports a new look. Also it appears that law of averages is finally catching up with Kohli. All of this implies that if India hopes to put on a consistent show with the bat in the near future, Gambhir has to lead the way from the top with some match defining innings.

England is having India ki izzat ka faaluda for Lunch.

This comment appearing in a leading satirical website best summed up India’s ongoing ordeal in this test match. While the track appeared to have been spitting venom when India was batting, it appeared to be behaving in the most docile manner when the Englishmen came into bat. Intrigued by this apparent split personality of the 22 yards at Eden Gardens, I switched on the television to get a first-hand account of the proceedings.

I watched the third session of play. England were already ahead by 65 runs and KP and Bell were at the crease. Given below are my observations of all the Indian bowlers and fielders in that session.

Pragyan Ojha: Bowled in two spells in this session. In the first spell he was attacked by Pietersen and was taken off after 2 overs. However he was even more disappointing in the second spell.

He had a packed off side field, bowling to Patel. He then bowled a loosener down the leg side and that was helped on its way for a boundary. He bowled yet another short ball that was duly cut away by Patel as well. He did get Patel’s wicket in that very over, but that was a short ball outside the off stump. It just bounced a little more after gripping the surface and that proved to be Samit’s undoing. This trend of sending down at least one rubbish delivery every single over continued throughout the spell.

But that was not all. Even the field settings were quite bizarre. Ojha, a left arm spinner, was bowling over the wicket to Prior with a fine leg! And Prior, during his course of stay at the crease in this innings, had only swept in front of the wicket. The only plausible explanation can be that Dhoni feared that in every single over Ojha would send down a couple of loose deliveries on the leg side that could run away for four. Well, that speaks volumes about the bowler and his skipper’s faith in him.

Did he get turn from the track? Of course he did. In fact there was one delivery that beat the defensive prod of Swann and went into the hands of the first slip. But to get a wicket one needed to bowl at the right areas consistently. Sadly, that never happened.

Ravichandran Ashwin: He gave one an impression that he had no clue what he was doing. He began bowling to Patel with a silly point and a slip. But his line of attack was middle stump!! It took almost two full overs of bowling for the skipper and bowler to figure out that with his line of attack those two men should be at short leg and leg slip. And even after that, the batsman had no problem in flicking the ball between these two fielders owing to the short length of the delivery.

There were rough patches outside the off stump. And every time he gave the ball some air and allowed it to pitch in the rough, he got both turn and bounce. But every time the batsman came down the pitch or even swept him from outside off stump, he quickly went back to bowling faster with a flatter trajectory that gave him little purchase from the deck.

Ishant Sharma: Normally, if an Indian fan is asked about their first impression of Ishant, they are most likely to answer ‘An honest trier but he does not look like taking wickets’.

That’s exactly what it looked like even today. He ran in hard and bowled reasonably quick, with quite a few deliveries going above 140 kmph. He also bowled to his field, which earned him a maiden over against Pietersen, who was threatening to go on a rampage. However, with his inability to take the old ball away from the right hander and his reluctance to try the yorker, it looked unlikely that he would pick up a wicket. But when he was bowling, quite a few deliveries kept really low, and the Indian batters will do well to keep that in mind when they take strike tomorrow.

Zaheer Khan: The only Indian bowler who looked potent. He tried hard to make something happen. He kept changing the angles by going over the wicket and around the wicket. He bowled well directed  short balls to Samit Patel with plenty of catching men on the leg side. Bud sadly for him, he has lost quite a few yards of pace and was bowling in the early 130 kmph mark. At that pace the batsman was able to negotiate the bouncer, and Zaheer was not able to extract much reverse swing. He did not try the yorker either. That he continues to be India’s premier bowler across all formats reflects very poorly on India’s bowling reserves.

If the bowling was bad, the fielding was worse. The kind of misfields that Pujara and Gambhir had in this session reflected very poorly on their athleticism. One understands that the morale of the team is down, but the match is not even halfway complete. The outfield at the Eden Gardens is good and the weather at this point of time is neither hot nor humid. Such lethargic fielding under these circumstances gives the impression that the team has already conceded a defeat.

Dhoni has a lot to say in press conferences these days regarding pitches. This pitch may not have been a dustbowl, but it surely had something in it for bowlers, as was illustrated by Englishmen on day one, and even in fits and starts by Indian bowlers on day three.

It is the collective performance of Team India that has been, to use Dhoni’s words, UGLY. The sooner he realises that, the better.

For an Indian cricket fan growing up in the 1990s and idolizing Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting was the super villain (although he earned the tag in the first decade of the 21^st century, or more specifically between 1999-2006). So what made Ricky the super villain? After all, he was only a great batsman who was hailed as equal or better than Sachin at different times in their career. The names that instantly come to mind are Saeed Anwar, Mark Waugh and of course, Brian Lara. But Ponting stood out for four main reasons:

His arrogance: Of the many tributes and eulogies that are being attributed to Punter at the moment, I have noticed that many fans have mistaken his arrogance as self-belief. Some have even gone on to state that unless one is brash they cannot ascend to the pinnacle of success and they have claimed the word ‘arrogant’ has been labelled against him by fans who cannot tolerate his success. But nothing can be further than the truth. Let us look at Jacques Kallis. As an Indian, one might be awed by his achievements and even jealous of the fact that the Proteas have such an ace all-rounder in their ranks, but no one would say that Kallis is arrogant. Similarly, if we look at other sports, Roger Federer and Lionel Messi are torch bearers in their respective domain without compromising their sportsman spirit.

The same however, cannot be said about the former Australian skipper. We distinctly remember his misbehavior with Sharad Pawar during the prize distribution ceremony of Champions Trophy in 2006. And of course, his unethical behavior during India’s tour Down Under in 2007-08 is still etched fresh in the memories of cricket fans. However, his misdemeanor wasn’t reserved for only the Indian team. Even as late as the end of 2010 (Ashes), a period by which Ponting as a person had mellowed down, we remember how he got involved in a lengthy confrontation with on-field umpires after the third umpire did not find any ground to overturn the on-field umpire’s decision. A highly motivated sportsperson is always expected to be aggressive on the field, but there is a fine line between aggression and arrogance that should not be crossed.

Part of an all-conquering Aussie squad: His reign at the top of the batting chart coincided with an Australian era of supremacy. That gave him the aura of invincibility. So he was not only scoring tons of runs, but his runs were also instrumental in winning matches, thanks to the combined depth of batting, bowling and fielding that the Aussie squad possessed. Or in other words, the Kangaroos had the capability of turning every special innings of Punter into a memorable win, seldom did his efforts go down the drain. So it comes as no surprise that Ponting as a player, had featured in more number of Tests won than any other player in the history of the game. That is a privilege that the Sachins and Laras of the world did not enjoy and it made fans like us all the more jealous of Ricky.

His age and period of play: If one looks at other illustrious batting legends who had not been out dazzled by the Indian little Master in the last two decades, we will realize that most of them were senior to Sachin by five or more years. For an average Sachin fan, this age game seemed like a safety valve and the logic was that as long as Tendulkar can keep up with these greats during their playing days, he can always surge ahead afterwards.

The only exception to that was once again, Ricky Ponting. He was not only a couple of years junior to the Indian little master, but also a better athlete. So conventional wisdom indicated that Ponting would outlast Sachin. And by the end of 2008, most of us resigned to the fact that it was just a matter of time before the Tasmanian usurped our Tendlya from the throne reserved for the batsman with most number of Test centuries. Surely no other batsman had given us a scare as massive as this man did.

Ponting-specials against India: While it is inevitable that from time to time one’s favorite team would be at the receiving end of a legend’s willow; the occasions that the Punter chose hurt the most. One of them was of course, the World Cup final in 2003. The ease with which he demolished the Indian attack completely demoralized the entire squad and the Indians were in no position to make a match out of it when their innings resumed. The other one had to be the classic double century that he dished out in 2003 in the Melbourne Test; this after Sehwag had raised hopes of an Indian victory with a scintillating 195 on the opening day of the Test. Even earlier this year, when he was supposed to be struggling for form, he made it distinctly clear that he still relished every opportunity to tear apart Indian bowlers.

The Things that we learnt from Ricky:

In the beginning of the article I had mentioned how the super-villains help us to understand our heroes better. Ricky Ponting did exactly the same thing to Sachin loyalists. For a long time, a century was just another number that we took as granted from Sachin. It was as if Sachin is so good that all he had to do was just turn up for five innings and a century would inevitably follow. Punter, with his subsequent dip in form post 2008, showed us that it is never that easy. In fact, it never was and will never be. From then onward, one was in a much better position to appreciate every single century that the little Master scored.

Similarly, the way Ponting’s career graph tailed off in the last couple of years served as a real life example of just how difficult it is for any superstar to regain his yesteryear glories towards the twilight of one’s career. That Sachin was able to do that at the age of 37 provided further testimony to the unparalleled determination the man possessed. Until then we had taken the phrase ‘form is temporary and class is permanent’ too loosely and had taken for granted that every great batsman is automatically bound to come back to form sooner than later.

Probably these lessons could have been learnt from other cricketers’ life cycle as well. But the truth is, we had not followed their journey as closely as we did in case of Ponting. Even in the midst of all the jealousy, hatred and heartbreak, that is the amount of respect this man commanded. And it is only fair that we offer him a sincere note of thanks for providing us with these insights of batsmanship.

Debates will never cease as to who (Sachin or Ricky) achieved more on the cricketing field under the different circumstances in which they played. But one thing is for sure that, cricket as a game benefited greatly by the simultaneous presence of these two legends in the last two decades.

Thanks Ricky, thanks for all the entertainment.

With Umesh Yadav set to miss the second Test against England, the Indian fans would desperately hope that in this ‘one more test’ Ishant Sharma would finally come good and live up to his billing of being one of the most promising fast bowlers in India. Ishant, the tall lanky fast bowler, has been through the full cycle of the journey of an international fast bowler.

His superb spell to Ricky Ponting in the second innings at Perth in the  2007-08 is the stuff of folklore. He continued to have an excellent debut year with strong performances against South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia. But sadly for India, Ishant hasn’t been able to live up to those expectations in the next four years. By this time, his fans have chastened, and most seem to have resigned to the fact that Ishant Sharma would be yet another talented fast bowler from India who did not do justice to his potential.

However, I still believe that Ishant still remains one of the guys who will lead India’s pace attack in the years to come due to the following reasons:

His Work Ethic: Almost all the players and support staff who have worked with Ishant have maintained that this boy from Delhi is extremely hard working and is keen on improving at all times- be it Eric Simons to Zaheer Khan to Dhoni. For fast bowlers from India, who are going to play a lion’s share of international cricket on slow lifeless tracks, it is imperative that they are willing to toil and persevere that much longer to get fruit for their hard work. And this guy is ready to do that.

A case in point is the last Test he played for India in January this year at Adelaide. The track was docile. India had already lost the series. He had bowled a probing line on the first day of that tTst which got him quite a few nicks, numerous beats and a few LBW shouts. Yet he had nothing to show in the wickets tally. But that did not dither him from trying equally hard in the last session of the day. He did produce the edge, but there was no slip fielder to grab the opportunity. It is this attitude of never giving up that was praised by both Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, and the latter went on to add that he has actually improved as a bowler, although in that particular series, he did not have the numbers to show for it.

His bowling action: Ishant is quite a tall player by Indian standards, standing at 1.92 metres. This, coupled with his high arm action, ensures that his point of release of his deliveries would be much higher than other Indian seamers. This, in turn will always give the Indian side more variety in its bowling arsenal.

His Pace: Ishant is one of the few Indian bowlers who can consistently clock more than 140 kmph on the speedometer. In fact, in his last tour Down Under, he did bowl spells in excess of 150 kmph, a fact that did not go unnoticed to even Michael Hussey. While we do know that pace alone does not guarantee success, we have also witnessed several instances when the lack of pace has rendered useful swing bowlers ineffective on docile surfaces. India needs bowlers like Umesh and Ishant, who can make the ball deviate of the surface at fairly lively pace, should they harbour dreams of doing well on foreign shores in the years to come.

Intent with the bat: While a bowler will always be picked in the squad to pick up wickets, international cricketing environment also demands him to show some prowess with the bat as well. While Ishant may not boast of a batting talent like R. Ashwin, he certainly knows how to hang in there and give company to the more established batsman at the other end. Most importantly, he does not throw away his wicket, it has to be earned.

Ground Realities of India’s Fast Bowling Options: India, as a country, does not produce fast bowlers in scores. We have all witnessed how Munaf Patel metamorphosed from a fast hostile bowler to someone bowling line and length at military medium speed. Similarly, Varun Aaron has broken down even before he can give wings to his dream of playing a Test for India.

At least Ishant still runs in hard and bowls reasonably quick with a high arm action. According to most experts, including Courtney Walsh, Ishant has to bowl a touch fuller. That will make the difference between the misses and the edges. While it is easier said than done, one feels that it is certainly doable. Especially when Ishant already possesses an excellent work ethic. And happens to be just 24 years old.

We have witnessed how the Peter Siddles and Jimmy Andersons of the world had scripted a wonderful resurrection to their once faltering career. Let’s hope our Ishant scripts an even more illustrious turnaround.

“I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It’s so heroic.”  ― George Carlin

Triumph against odds has always fascinated us. That is why in movies we invariably root for the underdog who is able to defy all odds and prove to be a winner. We hail him as a hero. Perhaps we are able to relate to such characters. Their tale of resilience in the face of adversities of seemingly insurmountable proportion gives us the belief that if they can do it, so can we.

When we come across such individuals in real life, we start idolising them. Their personality and aura transcends their achievement in a particular field or particular domain. For Bengalis, Sourav Ganguly is one such hero.

I have observed that most of my friends outside Bengal have struggled to fathom the reason that gave Ganguly the cult status that he enjoyed at Eden Gardens. The two most notable incidents of such mass hysteria being the ODI against South Africa, in which the entire Eden Gardens rooted for the Proteas, and the recent IPL encounter between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sourav-led Pune Warriors.

Majority of them believed that match (on 5^th of May) between Sourav’s side (Pune Warriors India) and Kolkata (Kolkata Knight Riders) was overhyped. The nature of IPL is such that in many instances a local favourite might be representing a franchisee from a different city. Harbhajan Singh, Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir have led their adopted franchise against their home city team in this very edition of IPL. So why so much hype, so much discussion on one man?

It can partly be attributed to the emotional nature of Bengalis but it was more than just that. Listed below are certain factors that have given Sourav a cult image in his region.

No other famed cricketer from the city: This is perhaps the most obvious reason that even readers from other parts of the country also comprehend. While Rahul Dravid might be the favourite son of Bangalore, they were also blessed to call Anil Kumble, Srinath and Prasad as their own sons. Similarly, Delhi had Sehwag, Gambhir and to a certain extent Akash Chopra representing them at the national level. But for Bengal there was the one and only Sourav Ganguly.

Bengal, over the years, has had a culture of being sports aficionados. And Football and Cricket happens to be the most loved sports. In football, Bengal’s dominance has been pretty consistent. Being champions on 29 occasions (and runners up 11 times) out of the fifty five editions of Santosh Trophy provides ample testimony to that. However the same cannot be said about our cricketing triumphs. And neither did Bengal have a legacy of producing world class players in the only game where India competes at the international stage with some distinction.

Sourav Ganguly fulfilled that latent desire of entire Bengal of being a truly world class player. And ironically many believe that it was his stint as the captain of the national squad that started transforming India from just a bunch of quality players to a quality team.

Void of local heroes in the 90s: If we look back at Bengal’s history, it has always been graced by illustrated dignitaries who have been the vanguards in their respective fields at the national level. Personalities whom the entire country would look up to. So if Rammohan Roy and Vidyasagar were pioneers in modernizing Hindu Society, the likes of S. N. Banerjee, B.C.Pal, M.N. Roy and S.C. Bose were stalwarts of the Indian freedom movement. Post independence Bengal was blessed to have eminent film and music luminaries like Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Kishore Kumar, and the father son duo of Sachin Dev Burman and Rahul Dev Burman.  And Satyajit Ray.

If we look at the period between 1990 to 2010, a lot has happened in India. Our economy was opened up. We became a nuclear power country. IT revolution swept the whole country. Our economy took giant steps en-route becoming the fourth largest economy in the world. New heroes emerged. Dr. Manmohan Singh, Dr. Abdul Kalam, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Narayan Murty are some of the most prominent examples of the same. However amidst all these hype, Bengal somewhere down the line got left behind. It did not open itself to the IT wave in the 1990s and in the 2000s, was left to do the catching up job. Similarly owing to the perception of poor work culture, even its economy and job creation could not keep pace with the likes of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. It was a far cry from the days of Tilak who had once stated ‘What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow’ and even the days of 1960s when maximum number of companies in India used to have their registered office/head office in Kolkata.

The only notable exception was the field of cricket. In the summer of 1996 a certain bespectacled Sourav Ganguly announced his arrival at the world stage by scoring a debut century at the hallowed portals of Lords. Subsequently, he not only went on to represent India in over a hundred tests and 300 ODIs, he also went on to become one of the best captains India has ever produced. Not only does he still hold the distinction of winning most number of matches as the Indian Skipper, the players who emerged during his tenure played a stellar role in India’s triumph in the World Cup in 2011. Thus Sourav emerged as the only figure in these two decades whom Bengalis can feel proud of. Somebody who served as an apt reminder to the rest of the country, that Bengal still exists.

Perceived sense of injustice: In 2009, before the Lok Sabha elections when Sitaram Yechury visited Kolkata for campaigning, he had told in a media conference that only if a third front government comes to power will we witness a Bengali Prime Minister. Through this statement he took a dig at Congress for not supporting the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee, as the Prime Minister of the country. This perception of injustice or being left out is quite deep rooted in the psyche of Bengalis and it is not restricted to only the dirty world of politics.

The most notable instance of this is of course Subhas Chandra Bose. Such was his acceptance within the Congress that he was able to defeat a Gandhi-nominated candidate and become the president for a second successive year in the late 1930s. However the Gandhi faction refused to cooperate with Bose, as a result of which he had to leave Congress in the early 1940s. Thereafter he formed his own party, formed a pan India army that was not divided along regional lines, included women in his troops and his leadership qualities came in for praise from even Adolf Hitler. But a leader of this magnitude is sadly forgotten in India. While Gandhi and Nehru’s birthday is celebrated across the length and breadth of the country, Bose’s birthday is feted in only West Bengal and Punjab.

Cut to the world of cricket. Anil Kumble had once remarked that Venkatpathy Raju was the best spinner among his contemporaries in the Indian National Team. If you compare Raju’s career with another left arm spinner of the same era, it could make for some interesting stats. The player in contention is Utpal Chatterjee. Both Raju and Chatterjee had played over a hundred first class matches for their respective team and both of them took over five hundred wickets. However Chatterjee has decisively a better strike rate and better bowling average than Raju in both first class and List A Matches. Also, they both played in the same era against same oppositions and the pitches in Kolkata and Hyderabad are very similar (as has been testified by both Laxman and Md. Azharuddin), which I guess do a fair job in portraying the guile and capability of these two left arm spinners. Throw in the fact that Chatterjee was a more accomplished batsman than Raju (a better batting average and a first class century) and I guess Utpal Chatterjee and the whole of Bengal has reasons to believe that he was hard done by the selectors. For the records, Raju featured in 28 tests and 53 ODIs while Chatterjee had to be content with 3 ODI appearances.

Similarly, Sunil Gavaskar had mentioned in one of his books that Gopal Bose deserved a chance to don the national cap. Sadly the selectors felt otherwise; in an era when India struggled to find a suitable opening partner for Gavaskar.

Sourav Ganguly was also destined for neglect. He was overlooked for a period of 5 years after failing in a solitary ODI. But he fought his way back in the team and went on to become one of the greatest players for India. Then again he fought back his place in the side in the mid 2000s when the team management looked determined to write his obituary. It is this refusal to cow down in the face of adversity that made Sourav special; he served as the real life example of Rambo in the Rocky series and once again his sphere of influence was not restricted to the cricket crazy people of Bengal.

Ganguly, the individual:  As much as all the circumstantial factors were responsible, there is no denying the fact that Ganguly himself did no harm to establish the cult status that he enjoys. In the tour of England back in 1996, his selection itself came in for a lot of criticism from different corners, ranging from Pataudi to Bishan Singh Bedi.  They snubbed his selection as an outcome of regional bias in team selection and urged the selectors to show more national commitment while selecting  a side that is meant to represent the country. How well did Ganguly reply to all his detractors by scoring two back to back centuries in his first two tests, the first one being at the Mecca of Cricket. Surely, the man knew a thing or two about timing.

And it is this gift of timing that stood him in good stead for a period that encompassed a decade – a time frame in which he went on to become the second most prolific run getter of India after Sachin Tendulkar in ODIs, both in term of the runs scored and centuries made. In the same vein, he went on to represent India in more than 100 tests and scored more than seven thousand runs in that format as well. After he was dropped in mid 2000s, he made a strong comeback and played a very decisive part in India’s triumph in England in 2007. Even in his last series against Australia he scored a century.  His last innings score was identical to that of the legend Don Bradman. Has anyone scored a more glorified duck? Surely his feats as a batsman were savoured by his fans from all across the globe.

But perhaps what out-dazzled Sourav the batsman was Sourav the Captain. He took over the mantle of captaincy at a time when India had lost 5 tests in a row, including a series in India. Dark clouds of match fixing were hovering in the horizon and the future of Indian cricket looked gloomy. But this man proved once again that he loved challenges and thrived under pressure. India started winning test matches abroad with some degree of consistency. Even when we were not winning them, we were always putting up a strong fight. He taught Indians to look in the eyes of the opposition and to trade blow for blow on the cricket field. His bare bodied chest thumping celebrations have become a part of Indian cricket folklore. Most importantly, he taught Indian players to play as a team; the coinage ‘Team India’ acquired a certain degree of credibility when he was at the helm of affairs.

It is difficult for any ethnic group to not feel proud of a son as unique as Sourav. And Bengal was no exception.  Every time the ball hit the middle of his bat, the sound of his willow echoed the voice of 9 crore Bengalis. His triumphant run after picking up a wicket gave the people of his region an opportunity to bask in glory in an era when they had little to celebrate.  And his phoenix-like ability to stage a comeback every time gave a fillip of hope to his entire region that it is never too late to turn things around. Needless to say that his bands of followers are not restricted by any geographical border, but for a region that was going through particularly difficult times, his feats were that much more special.

And that is what caused the dilemma to an average Kolkatan on 5^th of May- whether to support the city they loved or whether to support the man who made them love the city.

The Little Master Blaster.

First: Is Sachin the equivalent of a cricketing God? No.

Rather, I would say conferring the status of God would be doing injustice to the man. Of course he was blessed with talent, but more than that, Sachin loved cricket more than anyone else. And it was this love and enthusiasm for the game that drove him to strive for that little extra, both in terms of physical fitness and mental discipline, which in turn enabled him to be on top of his game for more than two decades.

We all know how thoroughly the master prepares himself for each series and against each bowler, and how he remembers each of his dismissals. Thus, while his achievements may seem surreal to us, the process applied to reach there is certainly not. So accepting him as a mere mortal, like each one of us, would be the perfect acknowledgement to the sheer hard work and dedication that he has put in all these years to achieve such phenomenal results over the years.

Also when we accept him as one of us, in a way we allow ourselves the opportunity of setting our goals much higher than perhaps we would have allowed ourselves otherwise. So please, let us not embrace escapism and attribute our hero’s success to sheer divine power.

Second: Should Sachin Receive Bharat Ratna? Yes he should.

Before dwelling in to the reasons, I would like to clarify that I do not endorse the view that Sachin is the only sportsperson who deserves the Bharat Ratna, nor am I suggesting that he should be the first sportsperson to receive the same.

Ability to entertain: Cricket as a game is extremely popular in our country because most of us are cricket literates. So unlike other sports, like say chess, we do not merely follow the result; we understand how the result was achieved. It is because of these reasons we Indians can connect to everything that a cricketer does on field, be it good or bad. And that is where Sachin, being the cricket super hero of this country, edges out his compatriots from other disciplines like Vishwanathan Anand or Pankaj Advani in terms of his sheer ability to bring joy and happiness to fellow Indians.

Cricket Legend on the field: Sachin Tendulkar has been a role model in the way he has conducted himself both on and off the field. His unparalleled cricketing exploits have been matched with equal grace, in the way he has conducted himself on field in the last twenty three years, the two only exceptions being the frivolous ball tampering allegation in South Africa, and the monkey gate scandal in Australia. It is because of this reason Tendulkar receives a standing ovation anywhere across the world whenever he comes in to bat. He is the greatest cricket role model across the world. The ‘Order of Australia’ being the most recent recognition of the same.

Sachin is equally revered by the players themselves. We have read and seen many interviews of different batsmen across the globe who have considered Sachin to be the ultimate benchmark of batting. Similarly, every time Sachin’s wicket is scalped, the spontaneous celebration that is evoked among bowlers of the highest pedigree gives a very honest insight into the stature of Sachin Tendulkar in their minds. In short, the genius of Sachin the cricketer has transcended national borders, and he is hailed as one of the greatest cricket icons of all times.

Role Model off the field: For a cricket crazy nation, its greatest star of the last two decades was a much grounded person. Of course, one can argue that had he not remained grounded, he wouldn’t have reached the highs that he eventually did. The master blaster is a real life representation of an ideal middle class (not in terms of finances but in terms of values imbibed) Indian; a successful professional who always gave due credit and importance to his entire family. Also, as a cricket star, right from his early twenties, he had never endorsed any tobacco or alcohol brand, because he was well aware of his fan following among young children and teenagers. Similarly, he had once requested a soft drink giant to modify their advertising campaign that he felt portrayed him as larger than the game itself.

Tendulkar bats during day four of the Second Test Match between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground on January 6, 2012.

Add to that his fight against his own body, as there are very few parts of Sachin’s body that have not gone under the scalp of a surgeon. Some of his injuries were deemed to be career threatening. But the little big man came up triumphant every single time, and nothing was able to stop him from pursuing his passion. The entire country saw how every obstacle can be overcome through sheer determination and hard work.

These actions and gestures shaped the millions of teens who grew up in the nineties in India. And it did augur well for them that they had a role model like Sachin to look up to.

So to sum it up, his ability to entertain millions, inspire people across geographical boundaries and reach hitherto unimaginable highs in his discipline makes him a worthy candidate for the highest civilian award in the country.

Third: Should Sachin Retire? Of course he should and he will, but only when he deems it fit.

There are critics who opine that Sachin is blocking the chance of a youngster in the Indian middle order in Tests. If that is indeed the reason, then the selectors are well within their rights to drop him and select a batsman who they feel will add more value to the Indian squad. Please don’t say that the selectors will be unable to do it because of the pressure from fans. The selectors are esteemed people who are, these days, also paid to do a job. Don’t expect someone else to do it for them.

But Sachin’s retirement should be strictly his personal decision, as he is the best judge of his body and mind.

Personally, I feel that the Indian batting is going through a transition phase with the No. 3 and No. 5 slot being recently vacated by two stalwarts. We are yet to zero in on our No. 6. At this juncture, a veteran pro like Sachin can add immense value to the team in two high profile series against England and Australia, both on the field as well as in the dressing room.

Anyways, Sachin has revealed in a recent television interview that he is taking it series by series. So the legend’s unparalleled story has perhaps reached its last chapter. Let us enjoy the show while it lasts, and let us hope that the conclusion befits the man who has given us so much to cheer in the last two decades.

Captaincy is 90 percent luck and 10 percent skill. But don’t try it without the 10 per cent.

Whenever we try to analyse the captaincy skills of any individual, I guess it is nice to keep the above mentioned quote of Richie Benaud in mind.

India’s recent debacle, this time at the T20 World Cup being played in the familiar terrains of Sri Lanka, has set the rumour mills buzzing whether it is time to hand over the captaincy reigns to someone else.

But results alone should not lead to the axing of a skipper – after all it is a team game and the captain is as good as the team he has. Also, some may rant of sufficient statistics to prove that Dhoni is by far the best captain that we have ever had and perhaps he is being made a victim of over expectation from the fans as well as cricket administrators.

In this article we will try to look objectively at his performance as a captain in the last 18 odd months and see if there is indeed something to suggest that our captain cool’s leadership has indeed turned cold.

To do that, we will first have a look at some of the things that made him special in the first place.  

4^th April 2005: 148 off 123 balls against Pakistan at Vizag in only his second ODI made the world look up and take notice. His style quotient with long mane and caveman like built was equally venerable.

31^st October 2005: 183* against Sri Lanka, proved the first century was not flash in the pan. Indian fans heaved a sigh of relief that finally we have unearthed a quality wicket keeper batsman.

September 2007: Mahi was entrusted to lead a very young and inexperienced side for the edition of T20 World Cup at South Africa. The scars of being knocked out in the very first round of the 50 over World Cup earlier that year weighed heavily on the minds of the Indian fans.

September 14, 2007: India defeats Pakistan via bowl out after the match ended in a tie. Dhoni’s captaincy was highly praised as in the bowl out he opted for spinners and part timers. He reasoned that part timers would be under lesser pressure as opposed to regular bowlers  and for slow bowlers it is easier to simply roll their arm over and hit the stumps. Sehwag, Bhajji and Uthappa vindicated Dhoni’s decision by securing a 3-0 victory. We realised that Dhoni had a sound cricketing brain as well.

24^th September 2007: All the good work that the team did in the fifteen odd days at South Africa resulted in India’s triumph in the first edition of World T20. The final, against Pakistan was an extremely tight affair and Dhoni was duly credited for keeping a cool head under extreme pressure. He soon became India’s captain cool.

October 2008: India won two tests against Australia when Dhoni took over the mantle due to Kumble’s injury. His smart and attacking field settings were applauded by fans and critics.

IPL Specials:  Two further instances of Dhoni’s brilliant captaincy that has remained itched in the minds of Indian cricket followers happened in IPL. The first was in May 2010 when in the finals against Mumbai Indians, Keiron Pollard seemed on his way to ruin Dhoni’s party by plundering Doug Bollinger for more than 20 runs in an over. In the next over Dhoni came with a master plan. He got Albie Morkel to bowl and he kept a fielder at both mid off as well as long off, one behind the other. This plan paid instant dividend as in that very over Pollard who was always looking to hit straight was hold out at mid off.

Similarly in the inaugural match of the 4^th Edition of IPL, Dhoni’s Super Kings were up against Gambhir’s Knight Riders. The match went down the wire and KKR needed 4 runs of the last ball. Tim Southee had the ball in his hand. Realising the fact that the KKR batsmen were unlikely to get a boundary in the conventional way Dhoni took care to ensure they did not get a boundary of either an inside edge or outside edge. Later in the post match conference Mahi stated that since it was impossible to have a fielder in all corners of the park he concentrated on having the fielders were batsmen were most likely to score runs from.

April 2,2011 World Cup victory: Perhaps the most prominent feather in the skipper’s hat. After a long hiatus of 28 years India triumphed in the fifty overs World Cup. Captain courageous was once again in the limelight as he led from the front in the final, scoring 91 unbeaten runs at more than run a ball.

Thus we can see that Dhoni’s Midas touch as a skipper was also well supported by an astute cricket brain that also managed to keep its nerve under pressure.

However post the back to back triumph in World Cup and IPL in 2011 Dhoni’s magic as a skipper have also seemed to wane off. 

July 2011 Backing off from a winning position: India, the number one test team in the world was locked in a fight against the lowly placed West Indies at Dominica in the third test. Surprisingly Dhoni decided to abort the run chase on the fifth day when India needed a further 86 runs of 90 balls to win with 7 wickets in hand. Granted, the pitch was deteriorating but with India opting for seven batsmen and old warhorse Dravid and Laxman still at the crease, this decision was baffling to the world cricket audience.

England Test Series: It was a nightmare series for India. Everything that could have gone wrong, did. Injury to key players, lack of form of others. However what really hurt the Indian fans was the lack of fight shown by the team. It was one thing to be dominated by a superior team it is another to see the sign of surrender even before the team has taken the field. Dhoni had to take a share of the blame as well as barring the third test, his batting and keeping looked insipid throughout.

Australia Series: Yet another away series in which Dhoni’s willow was silent. Worse was the manner of his dismissals which betrayed his resolve to at least put up a fight. Reserve wicket keeper Saha’s gritty innings in Adelaide highlighted it even more. Even his leadership was under the scanner as despite successive failures in both England and Australia, Mahi refused to introduce any new faces in the starting line up. Later on during the ODIs, there seemed to be a communication gap within the team that played its part in India’s below par performance in the ODIs as well.

Inability to rein in the seniors: However these debacles are not the only thing. In the last couple of years we have seen Sehwag throw away his starts. When the slow bowlers are on, his penchant for sending every ball to the stands has brought a premature end to his innings numerous number of times in the recent past. Granted that Sehwag is a special player with loads of experience but as a captain one has to gently remind Viru the fine line between a breathtaking shot and a reckless one. Sadly, that communication has never seemed to take place.

Similarly Zaheer’s attitude with the bat in hand and in the field has been extremely disappointing. Case in point can be the 3rd test against West Indies in Mumbai. Ashwin was nearing a memorable century and he needed someone to stay put at the other end. But the way Zaheer threw his wicket away seemed to suggest that he couldn’t care less. Such attitude can have a very negative impact on the morale of the entire squad. Unfortunately our skipper has done precious little to address that either.

Disinclination to win: The final nail to the coffin was hit in the final match of the Super Eight stage of the recently concluded T20 World Cup. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s reluctance in even trying to win a place in the knock out stages seems to have perplexed the fans and experts alike. At the end of the match he seemed quite content with India’s overall performance and put the blame of failing to make the semi finals on the rain intervention in the match against Australia!

Handling the expectations of more than a billion fans throughout the year must be taxing. Somewhere down the line, as the incidents above show our Captain cool has lost his zeal and desire to win at any cost. His failure with the bat hasn’t helped either.

Dhoni himself had hinted that by the end of 2013 he may choose to retire from one form of the game. So it is a good time to start looking for his successor and thank Mahi for all the joys that he has given to the Indian cricket fans.

There is an old proverb in Hindi: “galiti tumhari nahin par tum nirdosh bhi nahi”; which, when translated, would be ‘it’s not your mistake but you aren’t innocent either.‘

This proverb would aptly sum up India’s performance in the crucial encounter against the Proteas in which they did manage to win against a quality opponent, but still fell short of making the cut for the last four.

Here are some critical strategic errors that cost India in the end:

Team Selection: Dhoni’s decision of going in with one specialist spinner was baffling. In the previous encounter on the same turf, we saw how Pakistan reaped the dividends for bowling 18 overs of spin. One understands going in with one extra medium pacer against any subcontinent team, like against Pakistan in the last game, but surely against a team like South Africa, a second specialist spinner was the need of the hour.

Sending Rohit at No 4: By the time Rohit came in, we were at the end of 5 overs and the first spell of Steyn and Morkel was over. Under these circumstances, Dhoni could have been the ideal man to get his eye in and then take the attack to the opposition. While Rohit’s ability is never doubted, he hasn’t been in the best of touches in the recent past and that was evident in the way in which he went about scoring runs. Yes, it is not about slogging every single ball but I guess 25 off 27 balls, which included the overs of part timers like Duminy and du Plessis and spinners, was way too slow and it may have costed India around 10-15 runs in the end.

Continuing with Pathan in the 6^th Over: Zaheer and Irfan are bowlers of similar style, the former’s better pedigree notwithstanding. So when Dhoni saw du Plessis bat with the kind of comfort he did against Zaheer in the fifth over (in which he scored 11 runs), it was imperative of Dhoni to make a bowling change at the other end, especially because du Plessis was again on strike. But Dhoni didn’t and Pathan was plundered for fourteen runs that swung the momentum in South Africa’s favour.

Holding back Ashwin till the 10^th over: Once Yuvraj got the prized scalp of De Villers in the 7^th over, India needed to bring on their best bowler and build the pressure on South Africa. Instead, we saw Rohit Sharma getting the nod ahead of Ashwin and the Proteas plundered him for 13 runs. By the time Ashwin was introduced, the partnership was worth 22 runs off 17 balls and they needed 54 runs off 66 balls to knock India out of the competition.

Defensive field setting: When du Plessis was finally dismissed, India still had a remote chance of qualifying. For that, we had to restrict them to 26 or less runs in the remaining 44 balls. Common sense tells us that the only way to do that would be to pick up wickets in a clutter. However, Dhoni continued to have only four men in the ring and watched the Proteas milk away the remaining runs.

Bringing back Zaheer only after India was knocked out: This decision was as inexplicable as the defensive field set. He is India’s best bowler along with Ashwin. He bowled an excellent opening spell where he gave 19 runs in 3 overs and picked up the wicket of Amla. Yet he was not even brought on between the overs 14-17 when India were still in with a bit of a chance. Ironically, when he did come on to bowl in the 18^th over, he conceded just 3 runs and picked up two wickets. But by then, for all practical purposes, the match was over.

The last two factors would especially hurt the Indian fans as it gave a clear indication that Dhoni had already resigned to the fact that India will not qualify for the knock out stages of the tournament and therefore he opted to play for the feel-good win.

Cricket is supposed to be a game of glorious uncertainties and its level of unpredictability seems to have gone up by a notch in its most fast-paced avatar, called the T20.

So it comes as no surprise that it is hard to pick a side or two as overwhelming favourites in the 2012 T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.

However despite the fickle nature of this format India’s chances in this edition looks quite slim owing primarily to its extremely lacklustre bowling unit. The batting form of some of the key performers has not helped its cause either.

To be a serious contender India has to play smart and make the best use of the resources at its disposal. Given below are some suggestions that can enhance their performance in this World Cup:

Team Structure: This is the first point that needs to be addressed. Right from the early days of the new millennium we have fielded a 7-4 combination, with reasonable success. However, in this particular World Cup the cushion of 7^th batsman is not applicable because:

a) T20 format: In an ODI a specialist 7^th batsman can make a difference because he gets to bat for atleast 10-odd overs. A case in point can be Raina’s performance against Australia in the quarterfinals of the 2011 World Cup. However, in the T20 format he is most likely to come in to bat after 17 overs, and all that the team needs at that time is a few hefty blows and acceleration towards the finishing line.

b) Location: The tournament is taking place in Sri Lanka. The changed pitch conditions notwithstanding, it is virtually equivalent to playing at home for Indian batsmen. That makes it unlikely that our top-six batsmen will cave in within say, 12 overs, and a specialist 7^th batsman will be the need of the hour.

Pathan and Ashwin are quite capable with the bat as well, having proved it in the IPL as well as in the international scenario.

c) Bowling: Our bowling is our Achilles heel. If any of our four front line bowlers take a beating, then it is always better to have the cushion of a fifth specialist bowler. Also, if an opposition batsman gets going, the more we are able to rotate our bowlers, the better it is. Hence, a specialist fifth bowler, even if he bowls two overs, can be more useful to the team than the seventh specialist batsman who comes in to bat in the last over.

Open with Kohli: The next aspect of playing smart would be to open with Kohli. T20 as a format gives more credence to the form than reputation or class of a particular team or individual. Kohli is the man in form. So it is imperative to give him the maximum possible opportunity to stamp his authority on the match. He did excel in the recent T20 match against New Zealand as an opener.

Flexible batting order: We should send in batsmen depending on the overs left and the match situation. For example, Rohit/ Gambhir can come in to bat if a wicket falls early. However if the opening pair is able to see out the Power Play overs, then Dhoni should come in at number three. Our skipper’s strike rate is one of the lowest (for players who have scored more than 500 runs in T20). It can be said then that his batting is not conducive lower down the order, when he is expected to strike big from the very first ball. It is interesting to note that in the practice T20 against Srilanka, where he scored more than 50 runs at a strike rate of more than 130, he had scored only 14 runs of the first 28 balls he faced.

5^th bowler: Since we cannot claim to have a pacer of the pedigree of either a Malinga or Steyn, playing three spinners might make sense. Piyush Chawla seems the most logical decision, as in Ashwin and Yuvraj we already have an offspinner and a left arm tweaker in the eleven. However, Harbhajan has a much better economy rate than Chawla, which can prove decisive. So the final call has to be taken keeping the opponents and the current form of the players in mind.

Bowling pattern: If indeed Harbhajan is given the nod, then Ashwin can bowl in the Power Play overs, while Bhajji can operate during the middle overs. Similarly, we should try giving Zaheer the fullest opportunity to bowl against left handers. Finally we should take a call on whether to play Balaji or Dinda, as the latter’s ability to bowl yorkers at the end could prove invaluable.