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India Tour of England: Perspective Visiting Camp

Posted: July 20, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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4

 Goutham Chakravarthi

 2o July 2011 

Bangalore

2011 was always going to be an important year in the annals of Indian test cricket. With tours to South Africa, England and Australia, this year was going to be the judging yardstick for this MS Dhoni’s team. The British media has already billed the summer to be its best cricket-wise since the Ashes summer of 2005. Dhoni’s men recognize this and more. They will look to keep their reputation and ranking intact come 13th of August – and also of not having lost a series to England since 1996.

Zaheer and Ishanth have a huge part to play for India to win

The media hype surrounding the Lord’s test is nothing short of that around the last Harry Potter movie world-wide premier earlier this month. With all the frenzy around Tendulkar’s imminent 100th hundred, India quietly will be confident of doing well. We hear the same stories of Indians struggling with pace and bounce, but this team for all its Asian inadequacies has won tests in Perth, Durban, Johannesburg, Trent Bridge, Kingston and Hamilton in the last five years. If anything, they have proved to be a better batting side than most give them credit for. They weren’t given much chance in South Africa earlier this year but came within a Kallis masterpiece of winning the series there. Also that they have been a settled unit for a number of years means that they have toured a lot and are not alien to English conditions as some would like us to believe. They will know what to expect when Strauss flips the coin on Thursday morning.

Englandhave had a great run under Flower. So have India under Dhoni so much so his win-record at this stage of his career puts him among the game’s elite. Englandwith its seemingly endless pool of fast-bowling riches and a very strong top 7 will test the Indians all round. But it takes only one strong batting performance for theories to be questioned and doubts to creep in. India has a history of batting for long time when they go well which will seriously test England’s four bowler theory at some point or the other over the next four Tests.

Which brings us to pitches. Pitches with life can make this a memorable series. Two strong batting sides playing high-scoring dull draws on flat tracks will be a terrible waste of the skill on display. Anderson and Tremlett will want to put their skills to test with a bit of help from the wicket against the seemingly impenetrable batting techniques of Dravid and Tendulkar. Laxman has had a remarkable last couple of years and will want to leave a mark on this series. He is the man India turns to, to get difficult runs and he seems to relish scoring them when most needed. And on the most difficult of wickets.

The bowling team would also prefer result oriented wickets as it will bring all its bowlers into equation which is largely Zaheer Khan dependent otherwise. It will be series where Ishanth Sharma is expected lend solid support to Zaheer with the new ball following a renaissance of sorts in the Caribbean. The third seamer, like withEngland, is a hard nut to crack. While Munaf would be ideal to follow behind Zaheer and Ishanth with his steady guile, Sreeshanth and Praveen Kumar offer wicket taking options. Indiawill do well not to forget Sreeshanth bowling them to victories in Johannesburg and Durban. And Harbhajan will want to out do Swann.

Even with all the experience India are often caught cold in the first test of a series –Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa in the last few years. They were found wanting in the first Test at Jamaica last month only to be saved the embarrassment by Harbhajan and Rain. Almost tellingly, Charl Willoughby caught them cold at Taunton in the practice game last week. How India fares in the first Test will perhaps play a huge part in the overall outcome of the series.

While cricket will celebrate a huge landmark by turning 2000 test matches old, it is apt that the various skills that make it remarkable will be on display – Rahul Dravid, Trott and Cook with patience; Tendulkar and Pietersen with aggression; Laxman and Bell with grace and flair; Strauss and Gambhir with grit; Dhoni and Morgan with raw power; Anderson and Zaheer with craft and bend, Tremlett and Ishanth with steep bounce; Swann and Harbhajan with loop, guile and deceit. These people have shown that you can be a world beater by doing your deed your own way which is a credit to game of test cricket itself.

Romance of the occasion aside, I pick India to pip England2-1.

English Press’ Summer Obsession

Posted: July 19, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cartoons, Cricket, India in England 2011
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Why India should not win the World Cup

Posted: March 1, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, Opinion, World Cup 2011
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Venkat Vedam

1 March 2011

St. Louis

 

The Cup that Counts. Cricket World Cup 2011, being played in India. And yeah, Bangladesh plays some games in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka plays a few in Sri Lanka.

So, it’s more like a World Cup played in the Indian Subcontinent and the hosts each trying to make sure that they get their fair share of home-advantage – to see their team advance in the Cup and more so to suck-up all the advertising revenue that can be generated by invoking patriotic fervor in the fans of the game. Correction, fans of the cricketers belonging from their part of the world. Cricket is a lowly second priority.

Yes, Cricket is not important. Home team winning the games is important. And the organizers (ICC and the boards working for the corporations which paid millions of dollars) know that. Curators stick to the formula too. So, we have a bunch of grounds with dead-flat sponge mats disguised as cricket pitches. That’s nothing new to cricket, specially the shorter versions. But this is ridiculous. Hoping to win the ‘World’ cup through home advantage.

One of my favorite experiences watching an ODI is to see fast bowlers let it rip in the first few overs and the openers battling it out with sheer talent or just plain luck: scoring runs maniacally in boundaries like Jayasuirya, Sehwag, Matt Hayden or scoring runs cleverly by manipulating the field and taking advantage of fielding restrictions like Sachin Tendulkar, Hashim Amla or Inzamam ul Haq or consolidating if wickets were lost like The Wall Rahul Dravid, Younis Khan or Steve Waugh. And the batting teams which would come out of this phase unscathed or as victors would be best placed to dictate the remainder of the innings. And then enter spinners, to slow the things down and use their guile to tie the batsmen down – good batsmen milk the spinners, bad ones wilt and mediocre ones meander towards the slog overs.

And the rubbish pitches for the games played till now in the world cup, have prompted the teams to open bowling with their spinners. West Indies, once an evergreen factory of fast bowlers – opened bowling with their spinner Benn. So did South Africa, opening with Johan Botha when they had players like Steyn and Morkel, arguably the best pace-bowling pair in the world cricket now.

For the last decade, ever since India started taking over as the leading revenue-generator for the World Cricket and thus the financial power house of cricket, cricket has been gravitating towards being a game featuring batsmen-vs-bowling-machines. And the least useful of those bowling machines are the type called fast bowlers. The grounds have been made artificially smaller by bringing the ropes in, fielding restrictions have been extended, mandatory ball change has been introduced – to ensure teams have a newer cricket ball after 34 overs to prepare for the final assault on the already demoralized bowlers.

This fundamental shift towards a batting-only cricket is due to the way cricket is enjoyed in India. Everybody wants to bat. Bowling is not so important. Fielding is a waste of time. This mindset is alike in Gully cricket (alley cricket), school and college-level cricket, club cricket and Ranji Trophy – and carries over to the national team. And the same mindset is cultivated by the fans of the game. I mean fans of a few cricketers from their respective parts of the country. No wonder India has so many batting sensations/legends and just about a handful of world-class bowlers, much less legends.

India is a high-quality Test team – if the pitch offers some swing and bounce or if the pitch deteriorates so much by the end of the 3rd/4th day that the spinners run through the opposition. It has great batters who can handle spin of any kind and on most surfaces. Otherwise, they are only a decent bowling team. And in the shorter formats where the opposition attacks the bowlers, they degrade to a mediocre team. They’re a team of great batsmen and one good fast bowler, one spinner and a bunch of sloppy amateurs. And the one good fast bowler, is known to blow hot and cold. More cold than hot in crunch situations.

And so, the groundsmen will try their best to prepare ugly, flat, spongy surfaces to somehow make sure bowling is out of the equation altogether. Home teams trying to maximize on their advantage is nothing new. But a side so hopelessly short on bowling resources, a fan-base so carelessly ignorant about the one-sidedness of the team they support and administration trying to convert a world-stage to an exhibition of batting skills by the host team, is a shame.

Not that the Indian supporters care. I feel it’s a misconception that there is huge following for cricket in India. No, we’re not bothered about cricket. Cricket is one way of supplying ‘stars’. Like movies. Sachin is God. Ganguly “Dada” is the prince of Kolkata (and we boo other players from his team, if required). Harbhajan is a star not because he’s a good bowler, but because he’s aggressive and arrogant at times. Sreesanth is famous for being Appam Chutiya and the slap-gate and less for his rare bowling-exploits. Dhoni and Yuvraj are famous more for their fashions and the women they date than the cricketing value they contribute.

Sure, there is always a patriotic feeling attached to wanting your country to win. But more so, the idea is to see these ‘batting legends’ and ‘stars’ win. We can care less about the cricket.

We don’t have quality fast bowlers!?

OK – lets have a few spinners in the team and a LOT of Star batsmen and let us prepare flat wickets.

Hmmm – but our players are slow and can’t field well.

OK – don’t worry. Our star batsmen will score a few more runs and the stars can win.

Well, other teams have good bowlers and great fielders.

OK – don’t worry. We’ll bring the ropes in and our star batsmen will hit out of the ground, so that they cant field.

But, the other teams have good batters too and what if they take advantage of the flat pitches and small grounds?

….. SH*T

Cricket world cup should be about cricket. Leave patriotism to espionage and wars.

Cricket world cup should be about batting, bowling and fielding.

Cricket world cup should be about good all-rounded teams and not about stars, even if they’re gods or fading legends.

Two last pieces of evidence before I end this:

1. During the game between England and India, Sachin hit a SIX against Swan and even before the ball landed beyond the boundary, the camera landed on Deepika Padukone, a Bollywood actor. And later at different points during the game, the camera focused on Business Tycoons, random movie actors, Politicians and a lot of Unknown Importants.

2. After the game was over, one great Indian Cricket Fan commented on his twitter feed:

‘Between Rahul Bose and Siddharth Malya, someone shoud F*ck Deepika tonight. India deserves this’

It’s not about cricket. It’s about stars. Some Sachin, some Dhoni, some Deepika and some Kingfisher.

This India doesn’t bother cricket. If the team doesn’t win, they’ll pelt stones at the cricketers houses and sling the proverbial mud and then get back to following their ‘stars’. After all, IPL starts within a week after the World Cup.

But, it might at least enlighten a smaller percentage of the followers of the game in the country, if the team doesn’t win the World Cup. In fact, the team doesnt deserve to reach semi-finals – surely, they aren’t among the top 4 sides in the world cricket. At least the team they selected for this event. They don’t deserve to win.

South Africa has the right mix to go all the way

Posted: February 22, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, World Cup 2011
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John van der Westhuizen

Johannesburg

22 February 2011

The South African squad selection for the CWC 2011 was not without controversy. Albie Morkel, Mark Boucher and David Miller were just 3 of the notable omissions. That all 3 of them are considered valuable lower-order hitters has raised special concern though, with Johan Botha now poised to bat a position higher than I think any Proteas fan would like him to. AB de Villiers taking the gloves is in theory meant to free up a batting space, Albie Morkel as an all-rounder has leaked way too many runs off his bowling in the last 18 months, and David Miller did not do enough in the India series to warrant leaving any of the selected players out. It is what it is, as they say – and barring any injuries, SA will have to do without them.

To focus on the players that were indeed selected, is to notice almost immediately the number of tweakers in the line-up. With Johan Botha, Robin Peterson and Imran Tahir as frontline spinners, and the part-time yet useful skills of Duminy and Faf du Plessis, it is clear that the selectors have already stepped out of their comfort zone. In the past SA has been reluctant to veer too far away from almost total reliance on their seam attack. Since 1992, this has resulted in ZERO World Cup trophies. It was Albert Einstein who said “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results each time round is the very definition of insanity”. This fresh approach to the make-up of the SA attack can, to the optimistic Proteas fan, make it seem like we are in for a fresh, as yet unachieved result. First Round? Done that (2003). Quarters? Done that (1996). Semis? Done that (1992, 1999, and 2007). I am of the opinion that if SA make the final and lose, the squad would have done the nation proud. They would have conquered a new frontier, taken us further than ever before. If SA lost in the final it would obviously take 12 months to get over the heartache before coming to so rational a conclusion out loud, but I am preparing the emotional hedge, getting my mental affairs in order, just in case I have to deal with so tragic a scenario.

Of the 3 specialist spinners in the squad, I would expect to see at least 2 of them employed in every game, along with the 2 part-timers. On wickets that have shown a tendency towards taking more turn than usual though, it would not surprise me to see 3 specialist spinners picked, with Steyn, Morkel and Kallis bowling seam-up for the variety. Imagine a South African seam bowler picked for the purposes of providing variety? What has this world come to? Peterson has shown good form getting 6 wickets in the 2 warm up games against India and Australia. Tahir too has been among the wickets. Botha has proven himself to be SA’s premier spinner in this format. While Tahir is more of a strike bowler, the other 2 are more than capable of doing a holding job. Of the part timers, Duminy would most likely try to keep an end tidy while du Plessis would be more attacking. The balance on paper is frighteningly good. Throw into the mix Tsotsobe (leading wicket taker in the SA/IND series, ranked 10 in the world), Morne Morkel (ranked No. 2 ODI bowler) and Steyn (ranked No.1 Test bowler, ranked No. 8 ODI bowler) and it becomes clear that this attack is not the worst ever to wear SA colours in a World Cup.

As far as the batters go, on current form Smith is the weak link in the top order. Amla and de Villiers are ranked 1 and 2 in the world. Their prolific form in the last 18 months has been well documented elsewhere and long may it continue. Duminy has averaged 61 in ODI’s in since Jan 2010. And then we have Kallis. Someone who should know a bit about cricket, a certain Kevin Pietersen, recently described Kallis as “the greatest player ever”. For the purposes of this insert, I’ll take that as a valid remark. I will mention though, that in his last 20 ODIs, JK averages 52.5 – so he does have a vague idea how to hold a bat.

Now for the ‘weak link’: Apart from Faf du Plessis, SA appears to have no recognised finishers or big hitters for the latter stages of the innings. If the opposition get 5 wickets, the SA batting line-up appears to offer very little in the way of players capable of scoring 10-12 runs an over in the last 5-10 overs. The SA tail is exposed a little earlier than would normally have been the case in past world cups, with players like Klusener and Pollock coming in at 8 and 9 and making the closing overs count. I would be happy to be proven wrong, but as good as the trundlers mentioned earlier are at their chosen craft, they have yet to scare international teams with bat in hand.

The approach will most likely be one of seeing off the new ball, while making at least 50 in the first 10 overs, and then setting the stall for the accumulators to do their thing. Duminy and du Plessis should be able to add good runs more often than not at the end, but wickets will need to be preserved. I would imagine that at any given stage, 1 of the 2 batsmen at the crease will be tasked with batting through.

That’s the theory, all wrapped up. The skills are there, the support is there. What could possibly go wrong?

Let’s just get the squad to stick to a liquid diet in the play-offs, avoid solids completely – and please, pretty please: I hope they’ve all had training in basic first aid. Knowing the Heimlich Manoeuvre could come in handy.

Retirements are players’ own business

Posted: February 13, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, Opinion, World Cup 2011
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Goutham Chakravarthi

13 February 2011

Bangalore

World cup brings with it many things. Inevitably each edition plays host one last time to a group of great cricketers performing on cricket’s biggest stage in the hope of going out on a high. Expectations, invariably, sky-rocket from loyal supporters. Heroes are made of performing stars and winning teams are immortalized. Inglorious exits are met with wrath and burning effigies. Heads roll and scars linger till the next significant victory is achieved. Only a blessed few get to go out as world champs. Others walk into sunset alone and hurt.

When a player should retire is his own business. Image: Deccan Chronicle

It is a strange thing this retirement. Young men in the prime of their life otherwise are asked to leave just because a younger and stronger cricketer promises to deliver. A performer of grandeur, excellence and one of mass adulation and worship is replaced with the tone of a has-been. A retiring rock star on the other hand perhaps goes on a world tour for a couple of months one last time. Yes, Test retirements sometimes are on that scale (Steve Waugh, anyone?), but how many of the great theatre artists or pop-singers are asked to terminate their profession abruptly?

Still world cups are different. Passions reach fever pitch and average ex-cricketers find the temerity to question colossal giants. Media fuel exits with the same exaggerated care they would a triumph with inane debates and over-the-top obituaries. Fans and media move on with the next game and the next victory but a great career is ended.

Cricket, with its changing fortunes and the many twists and turns, the highs and the lows, heart burns and unbridled joy – often in the same match – is rightly compared to life and its vicissitudes. Retirement is anything but life like. A routine retirement is an occasion where friends and family collate to celebrate the career. Contributions are acknowledged by grateful peers and bosses. In cricket, retirement is often demanded following a high profile exit. Whilst selection is merit oriented and at the discretion of the cricket board, retirement is the individual’s choice. Often, cricketers are pushed into it. Some give in and some retire only to be back very soon after. And some others retire in installments. Whatever the means, it is best left unto the individual.

As with this world cup, this will be the last time truly modern day giants like Tendulkar, Kallis, Muralitharan, Ponting, Jayawardene, Chanderpaul will play in a world cup. All of them would want to go out as world beaters and nothing less. As it might turn out, none of them might be around when it is the finals time on April 2nd. It would hardly count as failure as it is players like them who make cricket invigorating and such a pleasure that you and I worship every minute of it. Their biggest contribution is in leaving the game having inspired millions of others to take to it.

As the world cup gears itself perhaps for its own future in a few days’ time, these great set of players will put on their best performances in the hope of scaling the summit one last time. Cricket will go on with or without them as it should and invariably will. Some won’t get picked after this world cup and selectors and captains are entitled to their judgment. But retirement should be left unto the players themselves. May be, some might announce it a year later from their last competitive game like Sampras did. May be, some won’t. In either case, it is none of our business.

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