Podcast: Thoughts on Cricket - T20, India

After having reviewed India's Olympic performance through a podcast, presenting the second podcast done by the trio of Karthik, Ajay & Yours truly.

Though the discussions went on for long, the podcast has been restricted to less than 20 minutes play duration. 

Among other things we analyse and find why picking Chris Gayle for your T20 team is not a good idea.

A podcast reviewing the World T20, the currently underway CL T20, talking about the IPL and looking forward to India's upcoming series.

01:15 - Thoughts on the World T20 

06:00 - Quick thoughts on Anil Kumble becoming the ICC Cricket Committee Chairman 

07:50 - Champions League T20 Thoughts - Lack of champions, proposed future formats 

10:50 - Proposed changes to CL T20 

12:50 - The IPL, teams being terminated and feasibility 

15:00 - A few thoughts on domestic cricket 

16:45 - India's upcoming calendar and the case of the missing SL series 

18:30 - Closing comments

If you like what you hear, follow us @ajay_prasad @kcgadiyar and @nishantskumar

T20 World Cup - 2012 Review

Apparently a T20 Champions League is currently underway in South Africa. Quite a misnomer given that some of the Champion teams had to play in the qualifying while a 4th place finish gets a direct entry for some one else. BCCI be a little less greedy. Get 4 IPL teams but restrict direct entry to only two.

Also this is a perfect example of cricket overdose, coming as it does close on the heels of the T20 World Cup. I have hardly been following the Champions league. And am sure there are many other ardent fans who are also suffering from this excess.

Now for the main agenda for this post. Here are some thoughts on the T20 World Cup with a little focus on the Indian performance.

West Indies winning was liked all around. They certainly brought joy to all the cricket followers  through the "Gangnam style" cricket. But will this mark a turnaround in their fortunes. I don't think so,  given that most of the current West Indies lot is more interested in performing in one T20 league or the other across the world. Will the likes of Pollard, Gayle, Bravo, Sunil Naraine show the same commitment when matches of West Indies clash with the Big Bash or IPL etc?

Sri Lanka again lost in a major final (4th in last 5 years). But they have certainly been the most consistent of all teams in the limited overs format.

There was a strategic decision by Mahela Jayawardene to handover the captaincy to Kumara Sangakkara to avoid getting a ban. A move which raised a few eyebrows about the slow over-rate rule. Tony Grieg, the Cheerleader-in-chief of Sri Lanka went all gungho hailing this "tactical" move by the Sri Lankan team management. I don't have any issue as all this was not illegal. But what about the "Spirit of Cricket" nonsense which Mr. Grieg had harped on about earlier this year at the MCC lecture. In my opinion, Mr. Greig if this is not hypocrisy, then I wonder what is?

Shane Watson was a deserving Man of the Series. One player who certainly owes a lot to the IPL

A pattern has been observed in the tournament winners. They generally have very bad starts to the tournament. In fact, 3 of them have gone on to win the tournament without even a single win in the first phase. Here are the opening round performances of the 4 winners

• 2007 - India - 1 No result, 1 Tie (win in bowl-out)
• 2009 - Pakistan - 1 loss, 1 win 
• 2010 - England - 1 Loss, 1 No Result 
• 2012 - West Indies - 1 Loss, 1 No Result

ICC needs to review the necessity of a Super Over in League stages. Use it in the knock-outs, but why is required at all in a League game? A tie is after all a perfectly acceptable result in any league format across sports.

England, I am worried about you. If you could make Piyush Chawla look like Shane Warne, then a 4-nil thrashing is in the offing in India. Have to admit that the better players of spin (Pietersen, Cook, Trott, Bell)weren't in the squad. Which begs the question, why weren't they there?

Now for India. The team doesn't give the feeling of a team at all. A few thoughts on the Indian performance.

• Batting has become Virat Kohli + support. Only if, just in case, Kohli might have an off day (an increasingly rare occurence), the batting collapses completely. 
• There were some very strange team selections. The presence of Piyush Chawla, absence of Umesh Yadav/Praveen Kumar. Manoj Tiwary being forever benched. Rohit Sharma getting game after game. Irfan Pathan opening when there are 6 other specialist batsmen waiting in the dug-out. Quite logic defying.
• One highlight was the return to fitness, though not complete form of Yuvraj Singh. His return from cancer is certainly more than just cricket.
• Dhoni is looking weary. Its said captains have a shelf life. He seems to be at the end of his. All this non-stop cricket is certainly taking a toll. But no replacement seems to be ready to take over the mantle from him.
• Yet insite of all this, India did win 4 out of the 5 games they played. So there is hope.
• And yes, we continue our DOMINANCE over Pakistan in the World Cups (:D)

So these were my thoughts on the Gangnam style World Cup.

P.S. More than the Champions League, what I have been following is the ongoing Duleep Trophy. To be covered in the next post.

Jharkhand Domestic Schedule: 2012-13 Season

For all followers of Jharkhand team, here is the calendar for the domestic season 2012-13 (Source - cricinfo)

Ranji Trophy - In the domestic first class tournament, Jharkhand is in Group C which will send 2 qualifiers to the quarter-final stage . This being the weakest group does mean that chances of qualifying for the knock-out stage is pretty good. Lets see how the results pan out. Here is the schedule.

1. Nov 2-5, 2012: vs J&K (A)
2. Nov 9-12, 2012: vs Assam (H)
3. Nov 17-20, 2012: vs Goa (H)
4. Nov 24-27, 2012: vs Himachal Pradesh (H)
5. Dec 8-11, 2012: vs Tripura (A)
6. Dec 15-18, 2012: vs Andhra Pradesh (H)
7. Dec 22-25, 2012: vs Kerala (A)
8. Dec 29, 12 - Jan 1,13: vs Services (A)

Vijay Hazare Trophy -  Jharkhand's only silverware till date has come in the 2010-11 edition of the 50 over domestic tournament. The tournament which launched Varun Aaron to stardom. An added incentive is that the winning state goes on to play in the Challenger Trophy. Lets see what the schedule holds for this year.

1. Feb 16, 2013: vs Tripura
2. Feb 18, 213: vs Bengal (the defending champions)
3. Feb 20, 2013: vs Assam
4. Feb 22, 2013: vs Odisha (earlier Orissa)

Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy - May sound surprising to all, but this is the national domestic T20 tournament and not the IPL. Like the Vijay Hazare trophy this is also played on zonal basis. Here is the schedule for the  group stage matches.

1. Mar 18, 2013: vs Tripura
2. Mar 19, 2013: vs Bengal
3. Mar 20, 2013: vs Odisha
4. Mar 21, 2013: vs Assam

So this was the schedule. Lets see what Varun Aaaron, Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem and company achieve this year. Not including Dhoni in the list as he is unlikely to make any domestic appearance given India's hectic schedule.

Wishing the best to my team.

India-New Zealand 2012 Tests Review

The 2012-13 home season began early for India, in fact the earliest till date. New Zealand were not  expected to be more than a warm-up for the tougher challenges coming up in the form of England & Australia. Here is the immediate post-series review.

• If India had been on the receiving end of as many dubious decisions as the Kiwis had, am pretty sure enough hue and cry would have been raised and the umpires would have been removed from officiating in any India matches in the future. But hardly hear the Kiwis complaining.
• For dodgy umpiring there is a very simple solution which for some reason ICC does not want to use. Give review powers to the 3rd umpire. Any "obvious" error can be overturned at the the 1st replay itself. Marginal calls stay with the field umpires.
• The Kiwi bowling lineup of Martin, Bracewell, Boult & Southee can trouble many a batting lineup. But their batting lineup remains worrying.
• India went into the series with 2 gaping holes left by VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid and many questions about the lineup. Unfortunately most questions have still not been answered and some new ones have been created.
• The openers continue their dodgy form. Gambhir and Sehwag are not providing the solid starts that they used to. maybe its time to bring in Rahane and maybe put Sehwag down the order.
• Virat Kohli continues to impress.
• Cheteshwar Pujara's comeback beginnings are good. But he is not the new "Wall" as everyone has started projecting him. As yet.
• Raina at no. 6 is not working out well. Either try out someone new (Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary ?) or bring down Sehwag and put in Rahane at the top.
• Ashwin & Ojha have made a decent spinning pair. Their record, albeit after 5 tests at home against West Indies and Kiwis, is staggering to say the least.
• The slip catching by Sehwag & Kohli was excellent. At least Dravid & Laxman were not missed in that department.
• Sachin Tendulkar has given more ammunition to his critics. But he is needed in this lineup for now especially with Dravid & Laxman gone. Maybe he can let Kohli take over the No. 4 position and drop down the order.

In all, India won the series but questions remain unanswered.

P.S. Suggested lineup for the England tests - Gambhir, Rahane, Pujara, Kohli, Sachin, Sehwag, Dhoni, Ashwin, Zaheer, Yadav, Ojha.

Very Very Special

Its been a couple of days since VVS Laxman announced his retirement with "immediate effect" from international cricket. Millions of blog posts have already been written about the man in the interim. Here is one more tribute to the man who made Indian fans believe in miracles.

I have actually seen him bat. That was in 1998. It was a Ranji Trophy match between Bihar & Hyderabad played in Keenan Stadium. To be honest it wasn't VVS whom I had gone to watch. It was the 2nd or 3rd day of the game. Hyderabad was batting. VVS and Venkatpathy Raju were the batsman. But I was more interested in getting a glimpse of my then idol, Mohammed Azharuddin, who would occasionally wander into the pavilion balcony and receive loads of cheers. That I got to see a triple hundred from VVS was a small sideshow at that time.

I was too young to probably realise it at that time. But that certainly was an example of how a beautiful innings is constructed. I am no master of words. And hence won't be able to do any justice to the artist that was VVS Laxman. "Lazy Elegance" must have been a phrase coined to describe VVS Laxman. The elegant wristwork, the flicks, the cuts. An inninigs could be built at a great tempo without the man even breaking into a sweat. An example of a great innings when all was lost was Sydney, 2000. India staring at a 3rd consecutive defeat while Laxman pulling off one shot after another to get to his maiden century which included 100+ runs in a single session of play.

Probably that was the innings which set up his love affair with the Aussie bowling attack. Guess that explains why the first cricketer to comment about VVS's retirement was the Aussie Captain Michael Clarke :). Jokes apart I doubt there has been any innings greater than the 281 at Eden Gardens. It was a freakish innings and had a Dravid special to complement it. An innings which has changed the way captains worldwide have perceived the follow-on. Enforcing the follow-on has become more and more debatable amonst captains worldwide.

A look at the Greatest Innings of Modern times.

If Laxman hadn't done anything else he would still have been remembered for that 281. But of course he isn't called Very Very Special for nothing. There were a sequence of 4th innings chases. The Aussies were sick of him. There was a case where Laxman got a big score and Australia lost even though they were playing in different continents.

Its a question often asked about geniuses. Individually brilliant, but was he a team-man? Well, all I can say is he refused the marquee player status in the 1st IPL and let Deccan Chargers pick him at a much lower price than he would have got otherwise (15% higher than the highest bought DC player). All this to ensure that limited money is spent wisely. That his team failed him is a different matter altogether.

With the retirement of Laxman coming soon after that of his most-oft partner-in-crime, the Indian Test batting order will bear a totally different look. Their retirements have been much discussed. But now that the reality is here, how the replacements will perform is still to be seen. And it is not just the batting lineup which will become different. There is big void created in the slip cordon. No Dravid at 1st slip and no VVS at 2nd. Who will be the replacements to fill in these legendary boots? Pretty tough to fathom.

In the end, thank you VVS Laxman for giving endless hope to the Indian fan. After all till you were at the crease, miracles did happen.

Cricket & Olympics

The Olympics are over. The India-New Zealand Test series is still 10 days away. And there is no India-Sri Lanka series to fill in the vacuum that has been created.

Cricket's involvement in the Olympics has been bare minimum. It was part of the Paris Olympics in 1900, with Great Britain beating the Gentlemen of France (?) to win the Gold. Silver went to the French team. And there was no other participant due to withdrawal of cricketing powerhouses like Belgium & Netherlands. Easiest medalists ever in my opinion.

There have been a few cricketers involved in Olympics through other sports e.g. Johnny Douglas, The Nawab of Pataudi Sr. etc. But still cricket has such hasn't had much to do with the Olympic movement as such.

This time around there was a big involvement. Though not many would have noted that. And I am not talking about Lord's the home of cricket being used as an archery range. It was the England-South Africa 2nd Test at Leeds underway at the same time. Olympic movement has had quite a few sports as Demonstration sports which are not counted in the final tally going on in parallel with the main event. Though ICC or IOC may not be acknowledging it, but this was a perfect example of a Demonstration Sport as a sideshow to the Games.

India-Sri Lanka - July-Aug 2012 edition

So while the whole world, including yours truly was busy watching the Olympics, the Indian cricket team came out of  hibernation by playing against their familiar opponents, Sri Lanka. Here are a few thoughts on the series went by.

• The India-Sri Lanka series reminds you of your boyhood days. Every evening you went out into the ground with the same bunch of kids and played cricket. And returned the next day to play some more. Thanks to the mandarins at BCCI & Cricket Sri Lanka for making us relive those old days.
• This was "supposed" to be a Test series. Then why was it converted into an ODI series with one meaningless T20 thrown in? Just maybe, Tony Grieg was right (:P)
• If the idea is to prepare for the T20 world cup coming up in Sri Lanka, then why play just 1 T20 and not more instead of the ODIs.
• Did we learn anything new from this series? From an India perspective - nothing. Except that Rohit Sharma has some very very powerful backing in the squad. Performances & recent form certainly don't justify his continued place in the squad.
• The others were usual - Virat Kohli continues his astounding run, Gautam Gambhir continues to give the occasional good century, Suresh Raina is a very good batsman on subcontinental pitches, Manoj Tiwary still does not get a chance and performs on occasion. And the bowling lineup continues to be dodgy.
• Irfan Pathan - the mystery continues. He has become a bits and pieces player rather than a specialist bowler. The bowling towards the end of the series was good. But the questions still remain. He is a more than capable 5th bowler, but a place amongst the 4 lead bowlers remains a question mark.
• India for some odd reason doesn't know how to handle left-arm spinners. Pragyan Ojha's entries and exits continue to confound.
• Lasith Malinga over 10 overs is much easier to handle than over 4 overs.
• And the last query - Is Sehwag interested in playing any more? Maybe he was bored of another Sri Lanka series, but how long do we go with his maverick nature.
• Just hate it when product placements are done during commentary. Where is the "spirit of cricket" business here?

So thats it. One more meaningless series over and we learn nothing new.

P.S. Looking forward to the Test series against the Kiwis. After all someone has to come up to replace Rahul Dravid. Who will raise his hand to do that?

Arbit Statistics - 17: Farewell Mark Boucher

South African wicket-keeper Mark Boucher announced his retirement from all international cricket following an eye injury caused by a bail. A great fighter, he was always up for the challenge. A more dogged fighter there weren't many others. Over 5500 runs & 550 dismissals in Tests showed his class. And he is still only 35. The untimely eye injury has certainly robbed him a couple of years of international cricket at least. 

For the statistically minded (and which cricket fan is not) there were a couple of landmarks which have been taken away as well. A chance to be playing his 150th Test at Lords later in the English summer. And a chance to be the 1st wicket keeper to complete 1000 international dismissals. (Current tally stands at 999).

Just wondering, Will Mark Boucher's 999 international dismissals be the wicket-keeping equivalent of 99.94?

P.S. Helmets should be made compulsory for all wicket-keepers standing up and praying for a quick recovery.

Timeless Steel

An absolutely apt name for a book on a legend.

And I got my copy (This blog post is meant for showing off only)

Even more impressively, my copy was delivered on July 3rd, a whole day before the official release on July 4th. All this, thanks to the efficient folks at Flipkart (see free endorsement done, where is my royalty now :P)

P.S. Review coming soon.

MCC Lecture - 2012 & Tony Greig's India Obsession

The annual Colin Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket Lecture was held on June 26. After a highly impressive oration by Kumara Sangakkara last year, I had begun to look forward to the annual Spirit of Cricket Lecture. On learning that Tony Greig had been asked to deliver the lecture, was certain that somehow BCCI and IPL would be mentioned in his speech as being responsible for all the evil in the world. And he certainly did not disappoint. Where did I get this surety? From following his twitter account. Mr. Greig never misses any chance to take potshots at the Indian board in the limited to 140 characters medium and to provoke caustic remarks from Indian followers. And he certainly wasn't going to miss this hour long opportunity.

To his credit, he has acknowledged the financial power of BCCI and the good use which has been put through it (e.g. the one-time benefit package to past cricketers, bonanza for boards hosting India, Indian TV viewership rights etc.). However at the same time he is saying that BCCI is taking the spirit out of cricket. Well, to be honest, BCCI is not the only wrong-doer in this regard. And for the "Spirit of Cricket" business, in my humble opinion, it is a concept without any actual basis, based purely on an individual's judgement and applied arbitrarily as and when required. So lets not tread into such waters.

Tony Grieg makes a point about BCCI having sold off part of cricket to private investors. Point taken but   hasn't all sporting activity been funded through private investors for their entertainment. I mean if there hadn't been private investors, how would anyone make a living playing any sport. Ignoring this global point, lets say BCCI commited this crime. But does selling off franchisees in IPL compare to selling off your entire T20 tournament to a private investor (West Indies & Alan Stanford). Given that the West Indies board is poor, they didn't have any option, what about the English board who got swayed by the sight of Stanford landing in Lords with suitcases full of dollars? Greed is present everywhere, why just blame BCCI?

Then he has an issue of BCCI promoting T20s over Tests. I can only say one thing. Come to your sense Mr. Greig. Check India's schedule and compare it with any other Test playing country. You will find that India plays the least number of T20 matches. And they have the most heavy international schedule. Post 2011 World Cup, India has played 14 Tests and 6 T20s. For the 2012-13 home season 10 Tests are scheduled. Does it show lower priority for Tests? Even the domestic calendar is being revamped with emphasis on getting more first class matches for the state teams. Yes there is a 2 month long IPL, but beyond that there is hardly any T20 participation from Indian players.

IPL is referred to as the main killer of the "spirit of cricket". Players are not choosing to play for IPL franchisees over their countries. Fair enough, everyone would want to have more and easy money, thats just human nature. Mr. Greig himself did the same when he went to Packer's side, which he was very honest about in acknowledging.. And when he chose to be part of the now-defunct Indian Cricket League, was it for any "Spirit of Cricket" business or just money?

Tony Grieg takes on his favorite point of beating BCCI by raising the DRS issue. I do not support BCCI's stand of opposing the DRS implementation. With different models of DRS operating in different series, it gets weird for the watching fan. Uniformity should be there across. However, I would leave the DRS to umpires and not to the players. Let 3rd umpires have a more pro-active role and review howlers rather than the challenge coming from the players. Guess would be better for the so called "spirit of cricket". Wonder why none of the esteemed commentators including Tony Greig raises this point.

Tony Greig does put some interesting ideas like expanding IPL into an Asian Premier League with teams from Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka (Hangover of ICL which had Lahore & Dhaka teams???). SImilarly including the Kiwis in the Big Bash, having an African League & a European one with West Indies included. But will this not be contrary to his own statements on Tests getting less and less priority.

In short, to sum up my understanding of Tony Greig's speech. "BCCI, we want the money you bring to the game. But we do not want you to control the game". Mr. Grieg Sir, Is that even possible?

Lets see what all, if anything comes out of this speech.