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India Staring At A Whitewash

Posted: August 2, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011, Opinion
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 Srikrishnan Chandrasekaran

 2 August 2011

With players being part of IPL having ruled themselves out stating an injury and it has cost the nation to its no. 1 ranking. As like teaching is a profession, cricket is a profession for players and they look to earn more money and get fame in a short span irrespective of playing longer format of the game. The problem is, in most other professions, the impact is with the person or with the organization, but in a game like cricket, it is a wish for 1.2 billions people and it has harsh impact on their feelings.
When players make their decision to decide which sport to choose from the choices, it will be great / wise if they look from a wider angle rather than from few specific pointers.

India have not put up a fight befitting their ranking so far this series

Engalnd have outplayed India in this series so far. Loss in 2nd test match is primarily on sending Dravid as opener and Laxman at No 3. Not sure who has taken that decision to position these 2 players but not at all a great decision. There have been plenty of occassions where Dravid has had to come in in 1st over itself as no. 3. India would have tried with some lower-order batsmen to open with Mukund even if they last only a single delivery. Laxman should be positioned only at his favorite spot.

Since we are already one down in the series, it is really important to keep our players at the right order as they play freely and confidently at the spot. The Indian batting has looked really odd during these 2 test matches. Even though the conditions here are quite different as there is a lot of bounce and swing, the current team has played lot of cricket (all forms) and they have the ability to cope-up and come stronger, but the way they played is un-imaginable.
Our pace bowlers made a good come back in both innings expect few key areas of improvements. This match is of a huge difference we had to change our batting order which resulted in a loss of the test match on other hand, Bell at no. 3 changed the course of the test match. He set the tone on 3rd morning with his amazing stroke play by punishing all the bad balls to the boundary.
During the last 2 test matches, our bowlers have really struggled against lower order batsmen than the top / middle order. The experienced coach / senior players in the team should have guided the right path for the bowlers as to where to bowl and where not to bowl. It seems like there is no discussion / team cooperation in this regard. On a same ptich, England scored 5 runs per over and Indian team got bowled in less than 2 sessions. The variation in bowling is really missing. They should mix-up deliveries
The non-attacking style of Dhoni needs to be revisited. The approach has now yielded the worlds no. 1 test team to go down to no.2 and will continue to fall further if Dhoni continues the same tactics and doesn’t learn from his mistakes. Even a score of 150 to 175 for India was really going to be difficult to achieve in the 4th innings – we have lost plenty of matches when the score is over 200 on the last innings. Dhoni didn’t have a third-man till the lead went past 275.
On the 3rd morning when Bhajji came to bowl there were only 2 players around the bat, slip and leg slip, but it is not enough on any tracks. If a spinner needs to get wickets there should be at least 3 men around the bat, silly point, short leg and slip. What this makes is, the batsmen have to give respect to bowler by playing soft hand shots. There is a possibility of batsmen making a mistake and end up in either a caught behind, caught at short leg or silly point,  run out,  stumping, slip catch, mishit or sweep popup to the short-fine fieldsman. If there is no one around the bat, there is no risk for the batsmen to get out, the only way the wicket can fall is the batsmen himself doesn’t want to hold his wicket. Even a no. 11 batsmen won’t prefer to do that.
Even if we are going to play to our full strength in next test match, Dhoni should change his approach otherwise it will be definitely 3-0. There has been plenty of Dhoni as the winning captain of world cup, t20 and other tournaments. This is a team game and it is the effort of all the players and not just Dhoni’s alone. Even on the world cup only on the last match Dhoni scored runs. AHe scored only one 50-plus knock through the entire world cup. The selectors should think from that perspective whether he is really fit to be there for both ODI & test cricket. Definitely Dinesh Karthik would have played  much better cricket in both batting and keeping in this series than Dhoni.
All the best to India for the third test match. I’ll feel really happy even if this series ends with 4-0 to England if India can play a fighting come back and lose the match not like what we lost the first 2 test matches.

Trent Bridge, Day 3: Of Sportsmanship and Spirit Of The Game

Posted: August 1, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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 Goutham Chakravarthi

 1 August 2011


Two remarkable days of Test cricket took a back seat with Vaughan’s supposedly humorous suggestion that Laxman had applied a coat of Vaseline to escape thin edges from detecting on Hot Spot. If that directed all the wrath of Indian supporters towards Vaughan’s twitter feed, the events surrounding Ian Bell run-out threatened to disrupt the entire series.

Ian Bell's run-out that wasn't: the incident that became the talking point of the day

The run-out incident

Spirit of the game is a convenience for some players. Players play by the letter of the law and stick to it and wait for the umpire to put the finger up even after nicking to first slip! Teams appeal for LBW even when they might know that the batsman may have hit it (Harbhajan Singh in India’s first Innings) or when the ball may have pitched outside leg stump. Even fielders sometimes don’t signal boundaries when they know that they were over the boundary while retrieving the ball hoping that camera angles might not be conclusive and they get away with it. Let’s go back to this incident.

Ian Bell, in an interview at the end of the day, did mention that he wasn’t going for the 4th run, but admitted to being naïve on his part to think it was Tea already. But, when asked if he would refrain from repeating it in the future, he only repeated him in being naïve on this instance and would have felt hard done if Indians stuck to their original decision that had him dismissed throughout Tea. But credit to him that he did acknowledge that he was out per the laws of the game and appreciative of his opposition captain and team chose to reverse the decision.

The entire tea session was a soap opera. Shane Warne brought the spirit of the game into discussion and it snowballed from there. Former cricketers were divided in their opinions and a history of such incidents have ensued different decisions from other teams in the past. Let’s look at them:

1. Muttiah Muralitharan in Christchurch (2006-07)

As you will see below, Muralitharan in his haste to congratulate Sangakkara upon completing his hundred, doesn’t wait for the throw to reach the ‘keeper, but turns to congratulate Sangakkara only to have the bails whipped and be given out.

2. Grant Elliott at The Oval (2008)

New Zealand cried foul following this run-out incident where Elliott is given out after colliding with Sidebottom. After the umpires offer Collingwood and England an opportunity to withdraw the appeal, England don’t, resulting in scathing criticism from Vettori and Kiwi players.

3. Collingwood at The Wanderers (2009)

In a bizarre turnaround of events, Collingwood found himself at the receiving end of this run-out against New Zealand in the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa a year later. This time, New Zealand and Vettori withdrew the appeal.

As we can see from the above incidents, India could have stuck to their original decision and the world may not have understood, but would have had no choice but to accept it. As Rahul Dravid put it in his end of day interview, the team would have felt bad had it been one of its own players and they took a unanimous decision to reinstate Ian Bell.

Let’s hope it calls for more honesty from the players for the remainder of this series.

Ian Bell’s Century

Ian Bell looked every inch the supreme player the whole of England touted him to be when he first appeared on the scene. He was decisive in his footwork and delightful in his stroke play. He has been in remarkable form this year and continues to mesmerize opposition with strokes befitting an artist. This has been a hard fought series with England finding that extra when needed – Ian Bell in this innings.

This could well be the innings that finally breaks India’s back in this match and the series and usher a new dawn for England as the no.1 team in the world. England might have found a dominating no.3 in Bell and might want to keep him in that position for he has the game to provide early momentum for England. He is perhaps also their best player of spin and therefore will influence how well England travel in the Indian sub-continent. Increasingly, with Cook, he is becoming their most important batsman for their fortunes in the next few years.

Back-to-back tests telling on Indian bowlers

Praveen Kumar is only into his fifth test match. You can’t fault him if he feels 20 tests old for he has borne the brunt of this attack this English summer. He has shown remarkable ability with the ball and has taken wickets and kept the runs to a trickle. But all the bowling over the last two weeks are telling on him and the rest of the bowlers. With Zaheer breaking down at Lord’s and now Harbhajan rendered redundant with a stomach injury the legs are running out. As well as they may have tried their best, England have had answers this innings and Prior in the evening session ran twos hitting straight to the fielders in the deep.

Prior and England will look to pile on the misery on the fourth morning and inflict scars for the rest of the series. England have broken India’s back. Now, they will look for the kill.

Book Review: True Colours by Adam Gilchrist

Posted: July 31, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Autobiography, Book Review
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Review by Goutham Chakravarthi

When I picked up the 627 page book two weeks ago I thought I’d find all answers to my questions on Gilchrist and Australian cricket during his time. As candid and wonderful the book may be, Gilchrist has chosen to overlook some ugly incidents involving his mates during his time. But, he takes all controversies involving him though and gives his side of the story. Fascinating to read was his hot-and-cold relationship with the likes of Warne and Slater.

Reasons why you should read the book:

1. He paints a wonderful picture of his formative years playing cricket in Lismore keeping wickets to his dad, a leg-spinner, in weekend games. His interaction with his equally sports inclined two brothers Dean and Glenn and sister Jacki makes for good reading.

2. Like with Steve Waugh, Adam finds his life partner in Mel in his high school days and blossoms into a life long partnership. Some of the many incidents involving him and Mel in their High School days are really funny and worth a read.

3. His relationship with his manager Stephen ‘Axe’ Atkinson. He would become a close mate to Adam and is also the god father of Adam’s daughter Annie. I particularly liked the part when Axe defends Gilly on the incident where Gilly is accused by Cricket Australiafor having made a public statement on Shane Warne as having deceived his teammates when he tested positive for drugs on the eve of 2003 World Cup.

4. Adam Gilchrist clears the air surrounding the ugly claim by cricket365.com that Slater had fathered Gilchrist’s first son Harry. At one point he even thinks that everyone, including his teammates, is talking about it behind his back. He genuinely thanks the media which kept the anonymous story under the lid. Cricket365.com was later sued for it.

5. His love-hate relationship with his childhood mate Michael Slater which reached its nadir in the 2001 Ashes in England where a emotionally struggling Slater challenges the standing captain Gilchrist (for Steve Waugh) after missing the team bus before a practice session. As things turned out, it would also be Slater’s last Test for Australia as Steve Waugh, returning for the final Test as captain, along with Gilchrist drop Slater for Justin Langer. Things are sorted out later with the controversy surrounding Gilchrist’s first child.

6. His views on John Buchanan as the coach. Contrary to Warne and MacGill’s opinion, Gilchrist claims Buchanan played a positive role in making Australia the world beaters. He also insists that Buchanan helped them become better individuals as well.

7. The boot camp preparation prior to Ashes 2006/07 takes the entire team out of their comfort zones. While Warne and MacGill, in particular, have been critical, Gilchrist believes that it sowed the seeds for a very successful season where they won the ICC Champions Trophy, Ashes and the ICC World Cup. I loved the portion of the boot camp story where Shane Warne produces 5 packs of Benson and Hedges cigarettes when asked to produce dependent medication by the boot camp coordinator.

8. His special relationship with his Western Australia and Australia mates Tom Moody, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn. It would blossom into many happy on-field performances for Australia and also the WA Warriors.

9. His emotional state as a batsman when Flintoff repeatedly knocked him over from round the stumps through the 2005 Ashes. When Andre Nel repeated the Flintoff performance in South Africa, he seriously thought he wasn’t good enough.

10. Once, he stumps McMillan off McGrath’s bowling, standing up to the stumps in a One Day International. Little does he realize that McGrath is frantically waving at him not to stump him as he doesn’t want a stumping off his bowling!

11. I often wondered if he never thinks of getting his eye in as he generally goes for it from the go. He mentions his unique eye exercise to get his eye in. You have to read the book for it.

12. He openly admits to captaincy being a burden and that he is not a born leader. That he was relieved when Ponting was preferred over him to take the reigns from Steve Waugh is a mere understatement.

13. His days as the villain in Perth for replacing the local legend Tim Zoehrer after moving to WA from NSW and then as the villain knocking Healy out of the Australian One Day side. How he copes with it and his relationship with these two keepers is fascinating.

14. His innumerable attempts to retire prematurely owing to personal failures. That he openly acknowledges them shows how candid he has been in analyzing his state of mind and how his wife Mel, Ponting and Buchanan helped him in making the right decisions.

15. Of course, the whole deal of him being a walker. He says it was ghost that would come back to haunt him in case things got wrong for him – like in Sydney 2008. He compares himself with the ‘selective walker’ Lara and ‘not-walking-against-Australia’ Dhoni. He believes it was his way of leaving the game in a better state than when he took to it. I for one bought that.

I am disappointed the he has chosen to ignore a few things.

1. The McGrath – Sarwan row involving McGrath’s wife. He doesn’t refer to this at all though he mentions Windies’ record 4th innings chase in that match which involved this incident.

2. He keeps the controversy of the India-Australia Sydney Test 2008 to the racism row and his catch dismissing Dravid and Steve Bucknor. It is unbelievable that the decisions involving Ganguly and particularly the catch claimed by Ponting after flooring the ball of Dhoni’s pad are either forgotten or swept under the carpet. That he still sees it as a great Test victory given he claims to have seen Australia on TV while sitting out in a few One Dayers earlier and thinking them to be over the top with sledging, whingeing and bad body language was setting a poor example for the kids!

3. He claims to be a close mate of Damien Martyn, but still can’t explain the reasons for Martin’s many mysterious disappearances between tours or like after he announced his retirement post the second Test of 2006/07 Ashes. He acknowledges that it might have been motivated by the row between Martyn and Hayden during their victory celebrations post the second Test. But nothing more!

Outside of these there are various other interesting things to the book. Like how a natural worrier he is and expects things to go wrong all the time and his various tiffs with administrators and journalists. He mentions of Pakistan being a favoured touring destination by many Australians of yore. He mentions of the great respect he has for the talents of sub continental cricketers and the tough unyielding spirit of the South Africans. His first time in England as a seventeen year old in 1989 is what he says prepared him for big time cricket. He even had to put on an English accent and pretend to be a Pom in a game after his captain figures out that overseas players aren’t allowed to be playing in that game! There you go, he’s even been a Pom for a day!

Book Review: Out Of The Box by Harsha Bhogle

Posted: July 31, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Book Review, Collection of Works
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Review by Goutham Chakravarthi

This book is promoted as a collection of the best of Harsha Bhogle’s articles for Indian Express. It is more a selection of Harsha Bhogle’s works for the Indian Express in the last 5 years. I picked it up in a hope to read some of his earlier articles as he has often admitted to being influenced by Peter Roebuck and even tried to write like him in his early days. Though I had read many of the articles over the years, to have them all together in a single book is a treat – like Neville Cardus’ Cardus On Cricket and Peter Roebuck’s It Takes All Sorts.

I often wondered as to how he manages to shuffle between radio, television and print media so effortlessly. I even concluded sometime back that if you were good in one medium, you would be good in the other mediums as well. Through personal experience I have learned over the years that you should be able to say what you have to say in 20 words in 15 seconds on a television programme which you would describe over 500 words in the next day column space. Through some of his works I have been able to acknowledge that different mediums require different skills.

He has a wonderful style of writing. He uses expressions like ‘titration’ and ‘inference’ and ‘concentrated solution’ often to emphasize his points of view. Perhaps it has got to do with him holding a degree in Chemical Engineering. Often he uses terms like ‘sensex of batting’ and ‘blue chip stocks’ as a reminder of his IIM-A days. But really, what he says is more important than how he says it. His take on Indian cricket and the BCCI as a true reflection of the state of affairs in Indian cricket. Not for nothing is he called the Richie Benaud of India, and I would agree with that.

Of course, it doesn’t mean I agree with everything he has to say. I do believe that he gets it wrong at times. But you can’t deny the love he has for the game and Indian cricket. He has a sane and balanced view on how and why Indian cricket is the way it is and I gladly concur with him on how and why Australian ways of playing cricket doesn’t necessarily work in India. He has for long been a huge fan of Australian ways of playing sport and in one piece even dissects why Greg Chappell’s ways didn’t work out with the Indian system and why Hayden wasn’t off the mark when he said Indians play for personal records and not for the team. It is a remarkable piece of work and the book is worth a buy for that article alone.

He has strong views on the structure of First Class cricket. He says a country of 27 First Class teams is a recipe for disaster and calls for reduction in the number of teams in order to create a ‘concentrated’ group of teams resulting in high quality players which has merit. Perhaps his views on franchise system being the way forward even for First Class cricket calls for attention of those running the game here.

He argues that BCCI’s two fold agenda involves filling its coffers and then seek the votes every Annual General Meeting. Whilst BCCI wants to be the superpower off the field it successfully manages to do that given the following for the game and the money that India is willing to pump in. India’s on-field performance suffers as a result as the parent that runs the sport thinks that its responsibilities are over by appointing the best tutor to take care of its rich kid. Worse still, it believes the responsibility of the kid is also over the moment it appoints the best tutor!

All my non-Indian friends should grab a copy of this book to understand the chaotic ways of how cricket is run in India, how and why Indian players and spectators have a love for centuries and statistics, and how with so many hundreds of thousands playing the game it is still not the best cricket team in the world.

And for budding sports writers it makes sense you read one of the best. For all the media hype and over-the-top fan fare, India still produces some of the better cricket writers in the world. I do know that most of what is written in newspapers is biased, even foul at times, but in Nirmal Shekar, Ramachandra Guha, Harsha Bhogle, Rohit Brijnath, Sharda Ugra, Mukul Kesavan, Suresh Menon, Rahul Bhattacharya we have some of the finest and brightest and sanest sports writers in the world.

Cricket, they say, reveals the character of the man playing it. I say read Harsha Bhogle and you’ll get to know everything Indian.

Trent Bridge, Day 1: Spiteful Pitch Makes For An Enthralling Contest

Posted: July 30, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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 Goutham Chakravarthi

 30 July 2011


A green pitch and an overcast day covered with wet clouds greeted the two sides at the toss which both captains didn’t want to lose for it wasn’t the pitch even Dr. W.G. Grace would stick his thumb into and say, ‘A hundred for me lads’. With injuries plaguing his team and with an unsettled batting order, Dhoni was relieved to win his second toss in a row and insert England.

Sreesanth made a fine come back by picking three English top-order wickets

It can be difficult to assess bowling performances in helpful conditions. Largely, Praveen Kumar settled into a good line and swung it both ways with magical control. Ishant, buoyed by his performance in the second innings of the Lord’s test, galloped to the wickets and hurled tough questions at the English openers. Between Praveen Kumar, Kevin Pietersen and Marias Erasmus, they ensured the news channels got enough fodder for the evening bulletin. Tantalizing cricket was played where fortunes oscillated between bat and ball when stumps were drawn for lunch.

The afternoon session warmed many Indian hearts as their bowlers ripped through the English middle order with great skill and discipline. They could have got more as the bowling had the batsmen in a fix: batsmen were drawn to play away from the body with the bat aslant from the swing of the ball. The pitch offered the ball more than what the bowler offered the ball when hurled to the pitch, and as a result, a tough and fine middle order was left to lick its wounds for the second time in successive innings. Sreesanth, his omission from the first test and his late swing, was debated at length in the Sky commentary box.

The test erupted into life in the final session with two free spirited locals deciding to take the attack to the enemy camp. A dumbstruck opposition recoiled and let the game drift. In a most entertaining hour post tea, Swann and Broad smashed a hitherto impressive Indian attack to smithereens. And till the maverick Praveen Kumar got one to spit on Swann and almost broke his left hand, the show looked impressive to carry on for a while longer. Broad continued in his merry way in producing a sparkling half-century in front of his home crowd, an innings that could prove to be vital in the final analysis of the match if England manage to sneak ahead with a lead after the completion of the Indian first innings.

Dravid and Laxman, key to India overhauling England’s 221, survived a testing spell of skillful bowling from Broad and Anderson. They showed their skill in encountering a difficult pitch with movement and unpredictable bounce. They took body blows and survived close shaves. Lucky as they were, they showed how to survive on this wicket. They, with Tendulkar, will be crucial for India’s chances now in this Test.

England will fancy their chances on the second morning.

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