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.

India Domestic Overhaul - 2012

Some interesting development are underway for anyone who follows Indian domestic cricket. The Technical Committee of BCCI (consisiting of former captains like Ganguly & Kumble) have made some major recommendations for overhauling the domestic cricket structure in the country. Quite a few very interesting proposals are here. Here is my take on the recommendations. (These are yet to be ratified and BCCI can just opt for Status Quo)

Ranji Trophy - The current 27 teams are proposed to be divided into 3 groups/tiers with minimum 8 matches guaranteed for all teams. This is to be followed by an 8 team knock-out stage. There are also promotion & relegation involved. 

• I like the idea of having more 1st class games given that the teams in the existing Plate league got only 5 games per season. More 1st class games should certainly help the players. Also a longer season would help in players recovering from injuries/loss of form etc. 
• However a league cum knock-out system with promotion & relegation is a bit confusing to me. Does it mean a team from Group C can hope to win the Ranji Trophy and yet be eligible to play in Group B and not the top tier Group A? 
• There are also concerns that some of the performers in the lower leagues may not get noticed. But this may be a bit unfounded given that quite a few players in the current national team represent the Plate teams (Dhoni, Yadav, Aaron) while none from the two time defending champions Rajasthan are even close to the national cap.
• Having 5 day matches from the Knock-Out stage onwards is also a good idea, giving more chances of outright results rather than just 1st innings leads issues.
• Also, the Under-22 teams will be referred to as A teams with scope of having upto 3 players under-25. Does this mean that these matches also will be given 1st class status? 

Duleep Trophy - Tournament has been shifted to the start of the season. This implies that the zonal teams will be selected on the basis of the previous season's performances? Makes little sense to me. 1st of all given that the zonal system has been removed, why have the Duleep Trophy at all? And if has is to take place, why not hold it after the Ranji league stage at least or after the finals. These would be reward for good performances in the current year. Alternatively, Duleep Trophy might be used as warm-ups for the home Test season. Only if all national players are available. Hardly see this happening as our seniors prefer resting during Tests also.

Irani Trophy - Should have continued as the season opener. Instead has been shifted to the season ender. Given that the domestic season ends with IPL, the concept seems misaligned. As the season opener can act as the one warm-up game for the Indian home Test season.

Vijay Hazare Trophy - Is the tournament to be played in zonal format or in the 3 tier league format? Zonal format would reduce the number of games and the duration of the tournament as well. The winning team getting to play in the Challenger Trophy seems to be an interesting incentive for the winner.

Challenger Trophy - Never understood the concept of this tournament. 3 teams picked without any basis and playing 2/3 games over a 4 day period. Seems more like a warm-up camp than anything else. This time they want one of the 3 teams to be the Vijay Hazare trophy winner while the other teams would be picked from the rest. Seems like an extended 50 over Irani Trophy now.

Deodhar Trophy - Again like Duleep Trophy is an outdated concept. Don't know why it is still being held? If I remember correctly, BCCI once tried to remove the tournament, but had to roll back its decision after threats from certain quarters, as it hurt certain regional "pride".

Mustaq Ali Trophy - The national T20 tournament. And hardly in the limelight. The performers in the inaugural edition of the Mustaq Ali tournament in 2007 were picked for the T20 World Cup which India won. Since then the teams have been picked on the basis of the IPL performances and India has been getting knocked out early. Shows the value of this tournament (Just Kidding!). Also can be used as a good feeder for the IPL teams domestic players. Suggest the tournament be held before the IPL auctions for domestic players in the coming years. Performers will be instantly rewarded.

Other Changes - Uncovered pitches, 12 overs per bowler in the 50 over matches, 2 bouncers per over etc. These are the kind of things one regularly hears. Lets see if the experiments have any positive result on the Limited Overs game as such.

Nice to see the BCCI getting into an overhaul mode of the domestic game, with emphasis on getting more 1st class matches. With the 2 "A" tours (West Indies, New Zealand), an extended rest for the national team and hosting 10 Tests, the board certainly seems to be planning in the right direction. Hopefully we don't go into participating in meaningless ODI series and one-off T20s.

P.S. These are still at proposal stage and yet to be ratified.

IPLV - Jharkhand Review

After having decided to champion the cause of Jharkhand cricket and the cricketers, I thought why not a post on the performance of the players. There weren't many of them, so not too difficult to track. Here we go.

1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings) - Team Captain - 19 matches, 357 runs (SR 128), 12 Catches, 2 Stumpings. Not a great IPL by his standards. Played a few crucial knocks and his famed luck returned and CSK went to the play-offs. Some of his famous helicopter shots were back in action.
2. Saurabh Tiwary (Royal Challengers Bangalore) -  15 matches, 191 runs (SR 112), 3 catches. One of the more expensive buys in last year's auction. Shift from Mumbai Indians has not done him much good. Why he came to bat before de Villiers is a mystery. Hit one match winning six of the last ball though. On current indifferent form doesn't look like adding to his 3 India caps soon. (Aside - RCB not playing Pujara more frequently was another mystery)
3. Varun Aaron (Delhi Daredevils) - 8 matches, 1 run, 8 wickets (ER - 8.74), 1 catch. Missed the initial games due to injury which had caused him to miss the Australia tour as well. Along with Morne Morkel & Umesh Yadav formed part of the fastest pace attack in IPL. May have gone for a few runs but likely to keep rattling the batsmen with sheer pace. (Aside - Should have been touring West Indies with the A Team)
4. Shahbaz Nadeem (Delhi Daredevils) - 12 matches, 8 wickets (ER - 7.06), 3 catches. One of the finds of the tournament. Bowled economically, opened the bowling, held up one end while the Daredevils' extreme pace attack took care of the other. Got the Player of the match on 2 occasions. Why he wasn't played at the later stages of the game specially in the 2nd eliminator is still a mystery to me.
5. Ishank Jaggi (Deccan Chargers) - 3 matches, 15 runs (SR 71), 1 catch. A very ordinary start saw Jaggi being dropped from an under-performing Deccan team (not that it improved the team much). And he didn't get a chance after that.
6. Rahul Shukla (Mumbai Indians) - 1 match, no wickets (ER 10.33). Just one game in which he got hit for a few runs. Chances very hard to come by in a team like Mumbai Indians.
7. Sunny Gupta (Delhi Daredevils) - 1 match, no runs, no wickets (ER15.67). Technically not a Jharkhand player. He was earlier part of the Jharkhand team, now playing for Tamil Nadu. Shock selection ahead of Nadeem in the 2nd eliminator. Daredevils in an attempt to catch CSK by surprise ended up shocking themselves with this selection.

So 7 (including Sunny) players from Jharkhand in IPLV of which 4 were regulars. Nadeem was the standout performer amongst them. Hopefully next edition will seem more players emerging from Jharkhand.

Arbit Statistics - 16

This headline caught the eye after the IPL final.

IPL1 Final - 2008 - Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings 

IPL5 Final - 2012 - Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings 

Only common player in both winning elevens - Yusuf Pathan (Lots of common losers though in the CSK sides)

So Yusuf Pathan becomes the 1st player to be in the winning XI in the final for 2 different teams.

Laxmipathy Balaji is the only other 2 team winner but wasn't in the playing XI.

Ravindra Jadeja in the mean time becomes a winner for RR (2008) & runner-up for CSK (2012). Achievement shared with Dwayne Bravo (runner-up (2010, MI) & winner (2011, CSK).

Headline worth an arbit stat.

IPL5 - Post 4 - Qualifier2 Thoughts

Hadn't planned on writing much during the IPL. And a single match review was certainly out of the question. But the way the events in the 2nd Qualifier between Delhi Daredevils & Chennai Super Kings unfolded have left quite a few uncomfortable questions in my mind.

Chennai played extremely well. After losing the toss and being asked to bat first, their entire batting line-up came good while Delhi's bowling failed. The score of 222 was highly unlikely to be chased down and Delhi imploded in the run chase. Nothing much to be read out in the way the game played out. A one-sided game in the knock-outs is nothing unusual and in itself shouldn't warrant any suspicion except in some nutcases. But there were quite a few events which lead to lets just say, doubts in the mind.

• Morne Morkel not in the playing XI. Why? No cricketing logic can explain the absence of the lead wicket-taker of the tournament in a knock-out game. And if he was injured then why aren't Delhi open about it.
• Shahbaz Nadeem had a good start to the tournament, winning 2 Man of the Match awards.. Then later on was dropped in favor of Pawan Negi (maybe because of Negi's better batting abilities). But still did not return for the eliminator. Instead a newcomer Sunny Gupta was handed an IPL debut. Logic of playing Sunny & omitting Nadeem, if any exist, are not easy to figure out.
• Murali Vijay, who was a bit out of form steps down the track to loft Sunny Gupta's first ball for a boundary. The confidence probably coming out of a sense of familiarity. After all, Sunny plays Ranji Trophy for Tamil Nadu. But why was he handed the first over. As a shock weapon?
• Some fielding mishaps. Happens. Not much should be read in here.
• Now for the chase. Sehwag, for the first time ever in IPL does not come out to open the innings. The logic looks quite dodgy given that he is the best bet to chase down the target.

So a series of strategic(???) decisions which Delhi took backfired badly on them. And CSK romped home in a pretty convincing fashion. But for the neutral viewer, all the events taken together make it look really fishy. Its hard not to jump on to the "scripted" conclusion. And N. Srinivasan's conflict of interests (BCCI & CSK head) makes the jump even easier. 

I hope the match was clean. But there has been a seed of doubt sown in the mind. (And not just mine, my facebook & twitter feed also has similar views). 

IPLV: Post 3 - More Scandals & Less Cricket

IPL becoming less about cricket and more about drama.

• To begin with a so-called sting operation from a 3rd grade TV channel. They had good material exposing the underhand dealings for domestic players & franchisees. Instead attempted to turn it into a more sensational "fixing" scandal. Haven't seen much worse journalism. But then can't expect much more from a channel whose primary content is showing aliens abducting cows and similar stuff.
• Then some team owner vs stadicum fracas. Don't give a damn.
• One player arrested. Charges very serious. But its for the player to handle. Dear Media, don't blame IPL for this.
• Politicians calling IPL corrupt (Perfect example of pot, kettle, black etc.). One ex-cricketer turned MP goes on fast against IPL (Annaji, see what have you done to the country).

Now over to the real stuff, the cricket

• Chris Gayle - redefining T20 standards. I can only redirect to a far better write on the subject (The Old Batsman)
• Rajasthan Royals crash out. Every neutrals favorite team couldn't make it to the play-offs. Just wondering - Is Sunday going to be the last innings for the Wall. Will Dravid return next year? (Want to see him play, dont want him to do be gone like Dada)
• KKR have finally started winning. Good to see them being on top. Some toned down egos probably doing the team a world of good.
• Its not too late. Parvinder Awana should be fast-tracked into the India A squad for West Indies.
• The least likeable team. On current on-field behaviour has to be the Mumbai Indians.
• Indian death bowling - only one conclusion can be drawn. It does not exist.

IPL5 - Post2

Not following the IPL much this time around. Sign of cricketing overdose. But still switch on to SET Max every night because it is the best thing on air. Random observations on the IPL so far.

• Too many last over finishes making things seem a bit fishy.
• Add the messed up points table where almost every team except the Chargers is near to the top of the table. Things become fishier
• Indian performances going backwards compared to the foreign contingent. Not good signs for the future. Where is this year's Paul Valthaty or Manish Pandey? Shahbaz Nadeem is the only domestic player who has made some name for himself.
• Saurav Ganguly still HAS the passion. And thats why he keeps coming back. And thats why I admire him.
• IPL 5 certainly seems to be the last time we will be we seeing Gilchrist and Murali. 
• Dravid & Rahane - what an elegant combo. Period.
• Wondering if the drama & hoopla behind IPL will last longer with the sponsors reducing (most of the ads are for Sony SIX, MIX, MAX & PIX and Indian Idol), owners in trouble (Mallya's airlines), and stars fading away.

IPL5

IPL5 has started, with presumably much less interest than the earlier editions. (I know why my following has been reduced). But still have managed to catch a few glimpses of the games going on so far. A few random observations on the events so far.

• I get to see the retired fellows again. Rahul Dravid batting & Dada's captaincy are good  enough reasons  to follow IPL
• Is there a more "elegant" T20 batsman than Ajinkya Rahane? He is making even Dravid look a bit ugly. (Aside - Have declared Rahane as Dravid's successor in the Indian team)
• How does Rajasthan Royals put up such a fight with hardly any big names?
• How does KKR continue to find itself near to the bottom of the heap even after picking proven & effective T20 performers.
• Why Mumbai Indians wasting so many talented players in the reserves?
• West Indies cricket is the biggest loser in IPL

Just a few thoughts to open this season of IPL.

Farewell - Rahul Dravid

To the Nice Guy Who Finished First,

Thanks for all the wonderful memories.

Farewell

Regards

A Fan

Just Another Loss...

Since the World Cup 2011, the Indian team has been on a downward spiral. And just when you thought they couldn't go down any further, they prove you wrong. 

The Post World Cup record speaks for itself. 

• Barely won in West Indies (1-nil in Tests, & 3-2 in ODIs). Excuse - bunch of new players sent. But no excuse can cover up abandoning the chase in Dominica (86 required in 15 overs with 7 wickets in hand).
• Hammered in England (Tests 4-0, T20s 1-0, ODIs 3-0 with 1 tied). Excuse - Lots & lots of injuries. 
• Whitewashed England at home. The sole high of the last one year.
• At home beat West Indies 2-0 with 1 test tied draw. 4-1 win in ODIs. 
• 4-nil hammering in Australia. The Aussie team itself was in a state of transition (They lost a home test to new Zealand). And yet we lost. Excuse - none
• A couple of fighting wins in the initial 2 rounds of the CB series, before the hammering starts again.  And we hurtled from one defeat to another. Excuse - none.

A truly miserable record. The personnel havent changed much over the last one year. Harbhajan Singh is the only key change in the playing unit. How come all the others have lost their form together. Has Gary Kirsten's departure affected the team so much?

The team needs a drastic overhaul. But do the selectors have the guts to make the changes. Can some of the big guys be given the Harbhajan treatment? 

P.S. About the mankading, obstructing the field. handling the ball incidents. All I can say is this "Spirit of Cricket" business is pure hypocrisy, which shouldn't be existing in professional sport.

P.P.S. Brilliant time for other sports to make a mark in the national consciousness. The hockey team just did that too qualifying for the Olympic finals with a thumping 8-1 win over France.

P.P.P.S. This might just end being the last post here. I hope it doesn't though.