Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category

Calling the Right Shots: MSD is the Man

Posted: February 4, 2011 by thecognitivenomad in Cricket, India Cricket, Opinion
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Chandrasekhar Jayarama Krishnan

Head of Cricket, CouchExpert

4 February 2011

Indian cricket has hardly been without unpleasant instances of brusque departures of captains: not least when Mohammad Azharuddin was forced to walk out after a tryst with match-fixing, a series of incidents that left the global cricketing community embittered. Zonalism, politics and self-worth are not easily untangled, precisely explaining why mistrust had often been an element within the Indian cricketing scenario.

Captains have also often been known to under utilize players in the squad who they didn’t favor. A captain even as late as Saurav Ganguly was known for his suspected treatment of Sunil Joshi, where in the Karnataka spinner was just given two overs in a game, and also sent up the order against an attack where his batting wouldn’t speak for itself. Naturally, he failed to impress and slowly faded in to the wilderness.

Yet, the current Indian captain is one who trespassed the urge to establish the primacy of Indian cricket over the Imperialists. The T20 world cup victory in South Africa has taken Indian cricket a lot further than anyone could have ever imagined with the IPL being the greatest consequence. A bunch of raw, talented youngsters, under his leadership, proved their worth to bring home the trophy. It is very easy to forget how it all started.

MS Dhoni is a captain of great deeds, but confirmed greatness yet awaits him. He has undoubtedly been one of the better captains around since Stephen Fleming, who, in Shane Warne’s words could have made it to the World XI squad in lieu of his captaincy alone. Yet, Dhoni realizes that all this isn’t enough – not when half the nation looks to bite him over his suspected incorrect moves during various periods over the recently concluded series in South Africa. As the saying goes, when the game bites, it takes a huge chunk.

But that the meager voices in corners of India calling for a change in captaincy – on the old principle that people who live in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones – is easy to gainsay. He’s never tried to reach beyond himself. For one, his penchant for moves from out of the blue – opening with off spinner R Ashwin, throwing the ball to Suresh Raina during a crucial period of play, restricting the Aussies to within 200 in a day on a Nagpur wicket to slow the rate down – are not remotely as ransom as they may seem.

He has always followed his instincts, and more often than not, has backed them up with phenomenal results. Yet, achieving what by far is one of the prouder results from outside the subcontinent, in a land where we have never fared well, goes for a toss. Cynics can be forgiven for disclosing the idle state of their common sense during that period, for I can only see the funny side of it.

In some ways, it is fair to say that Dhoni would have aptly fitted in as a captain during the earlier decades when the team didn’t boast of too many superstars. He’s definitely one of those guys who can portray a team which is significantly greater than the sum of its parts. It takes a shrewd mind to do that, and he is one of the best in the business.

Dhoni’s strokes of genius have often come during periods where India have looked pedestrian, during the course of a test match, after weathering long stretches of ineffectiveness. From out of the blue, a plot is devised, a trap is laid and a pretty scorecard turns its tables. Restricted menace in India’s bowling attacks have often meant that they are likely to be dominated eventually, but clever moves at the apt time have helped India stay way ahead of their game.

These days, the role of a captain is often underplayed. Back then, teams did not have a bunch of analysts with their laptops, cunningly devising a strategy to attack a player’s weakness. The simple and pure art of observation is a lost one, but a rare few have retained it – the subject of the topic being one of them.

Much can be extracted from the current make-up of the Indian squad, but one thought that reassures us every now and then, even if the cynics hate to admit it, is to have the rope tethered around Dhoni. Sure, his batting form hasn’t been the best of late but I’m one of those guys who’d love to believe that he’ll bring the best out of him, and the team, in front of the home crowds during cricket’s biggest event. He did it in South Africa during the inaugural World Cup pertaining to the shortest form of the game – it isn’t hard to imagine him repeating that feat in the upcoming tournament.

Its a shame that great performances alone go noticed in big tournaments, and captaincy is barely a fact that is stressed on. It’d be interesting to see how captains rally their teams this World Cup, for after a very long time, we see no clear favorites in the tournament. If there did exist a Captain of the Tournament award, I’d definitely put my money on MSD.

The thought of looking for an alternative captain, then, is an admission of having a potent weapon on the playing side and a tactically shrewd thinker on the mental side. The question is: is there an alternative? Quite vividly, I see no one. At least, not yet.

India-South Africa Series Recap: Dhoni’s Captaincy Unimpressive

Posted: January 26, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India Cricket, India in South Africa 2010-11, Opinion, Series
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Srikrishnan Chandrasekaran

Bangalore

26 January 2011

I have been watching cricket over last two decades and am a great fan of Indian cricket. I am sharing my comments on how I look at each game in the last series in SA and what ways we could have improved / done well. There will be definitely other cricket fans who will disagree to my comments, but this is something what I feel they can improve on.

MS Dhoni: Too defensive?

—This was one of India’s better performances on SA soil. In short, India played better cricket than SA in the whole series (Test, ODI, and T20). They gave a very good fight and managed a decent show.

—The top order of Indian team batting line-up failed to show their strength in both ODI and Tests. There had been few notable performances in the bowling department, but they should have done better in their batting. This Test team is one of the best Indian sides in recent years and they had a good opportunity to win the series on SA soil, but their inconsistent batting and inefficient captaincy gave an edge to SA in making it 1-1 easily and also win the ODI series.

—Looking at the each day’s play closer with session-to-session, it was not really as tough a series as expected. India would have outplayed SA if Dhoni had put some effort in being more aggressive with his captaincy. He is not as attacking captain as other Indian captains of yesterday, but one should at least make an attempt to learn something either by experience or looking at the way the past cricket captains’ performances.

Below are some of the highlights where Dhoni should have taken a much better decision than he eventually did

Test Matches:

1. Should have attacked SA batsmen in 1st innings of 1st Test, especially on Harbhajan’s bowling.
2. Should have shown some amount of fighting spirit in the South African 2nd innings of the 3rd Test. By setting a field of 5 fielders outside the ring in a Test match will allow the opponent to play comfortably. At one instance, it given a feel like 3rd test involved some match fixing. Kallis was not comfortable playing, but there is no effort from Dhoni to put pressure on him.
3. When you have bowler with 300+ Test wickets, one should have three fielders round the batsmen irrespective of match condition. Spreading a field will not give any confidence to the bowler. If Dhoni had bothered to set even a 10% attacking field while Boucher-Kallis were batting, I think we would have easily won the Test series
4. It looked at one point, Dhoni was not interested in bowling out the opposition as Indian team would be in trouble if the target was less than 200 with 120+ overs to bat on.

ODIs:

1. As a captain Dhoni should have tried to stay till the end of match in the 3rd ODI. There is much to learn even looking at Botha on how he likes to stay at the crease.
2. In the 4th ODI, he should have brought in front-line bowlers when SA lost 5 wickets for 140-odd. As an outsider, I can very well judge Duminy is good against spinners, it was really bad to see Dhoni bowl the spinners at him till he got settled.
3. In the same game, while chasing their target and there was possible chance of rain later that night, why didn’t the middle-order batsmen try to stay on for some period in the middle when Kohli is playing a superb innings?
4. In the 5th ODI, again after the loss of de Villiers when Duminy walked in, no fast bowler was brought into the attack. If Dhoni is so confident on the spinners, at least he would have tried with pace at one end. Zaheer bowled exceptionally well against left-handers. It was very difficult to understand the strategy of Dhoni in not bringing Zaheer on with the series up for grabs.
5. When everyone clearly knows it’s going to rain heavily during 2nd half of the day, no body in the world will win the toss and elect to field especailly with the D/L method in place. It gives a feel like Dhoni had decided not to win the series when he sent the opponent in after winning the toss.
6. While chasing a mammoth total (also since we didn’t scored more than 225 in the series), one would have tried with pinch hitters especially Harbhajan / Zaheer. These 2 players are sometimes more sensible than the top-order players. No idea why Dhoni came at no. 4 only thrown his wicket.

In short, it is really Dhoni’s incapability of captaining the side that has lost the opportunity of winning both the Test series and ODI series.  In my view, the selectors should think whether Dhoni should continue leading the side. I am unable to recollect if there has been an instance wherein Dhoni has led India to win a series with his captaincy skills alone.

Appreciate your patience on reading this post!

The Irresistible Force Paradox: What Physics can teach the younger crop

Posted: January 11, 2011 by thecognitivenomad in Cricket, Opinion
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Chandrasekhar Jayarama Krishnan

Chennai

11 January 2011

 

What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? The theory notes that the immovable object and the irresistible force are both assumed to be indestructible, and furthermore assumed to be two separate entities.

If there exists an irresistible force, says the theory, there cannot be anything such as an immovable object, and vice-versa. Strangely, I’ve just finished witnessing it.

If you asked me, what was the most fascinating cricketing event I’d witnessed over the last year, I wouldn’t shy away from mentioning that I’d seen the irresistible force paradox in motion up and until the end of the recently concluded series between the top two teams in world cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis are far from refraining to the pleasure of playing the sport.

As the paradox would once again question: Can God create records that are so mighty that they cannot be broken, not even by God himself?

People often think of champions as repositories of unique skills, who, by reason of their immense talent can survey things that others cannot. Mortals are inspired by a certain awe, one that is directed towards their ability and stardom, if not for the human being that occupies it.

But it is that very human being within that fights out the battles ranging from the ones within his mind, to the ones penned down by nefarious critics who yell out to those who care to listen. Tendulkar and Kallis have had their share of critics over the years, critics with obnoxious perspectives on the approaches taken by these greats during games when they haven’t been at their best.

If these loudmouths had known better, they’d have been on the field playing in their national colors. But the fact is that they didn’t, for they don’t, and will never possess the repertoire of skills that champions possess – commencing from a sheer work ethic to the ability to outmaneuver opposition in their territory. Alastair Cook and Michael Hussey, who’d endured through a nightmare pre-ashes window, ended up topping the batting charts for their respective teams, with the former even collecting the inaugural Compton-Miller medal.

With stardom often comes a lot of controversies, but these two men have shied away from anything that attracts media glare. A lot of talented sportsmen have come in to the big arena and vanished instantaneously as they couldn’t quite handle their exponential rise to stardom. To sustain one’s star status over a span of more than a decade, or even more, is no doubt a daunting task. Few have managed to sustain thus far.

This moves me towards addressing the focal point of this discussion. The advent of T20 cricket and more so IPL in particular, has enabled the world to witness cricketers who, in some cases, were unheard of. The recently concluded IPL auction does justice to the statement. Although I must admit that personally, tagging players with numbers & running an auction surely is a precarious approach towards hurting the ego of cricketers, but I haven’t seen an alternative that works better – so there ends my displeasure.

Cricketing greats were dwindled to insignificance because of their inability to do a Babe Ruth in cricket. Relatively unknown and unproven players have gone for unimaginable sums of money owing to their ability to bang attacks out of the park. That is what T20 can do to you, yet, when you examine the last few IPLs closely, one can’t hesitate to point out the fact that two men under the scanner in this prose have done exceedingly well to expand their game to adapt to this version of the game.

This certainly calls for the younger crop of players to model their game and approach based on Tendulkar and Kallis to be successful in all forms of the game, and more importantly, not let the idea of stardom get on top of their heads. Rohit Sharma, one with immense talent and from what I gather, one with a poor work ethic, has been lucky to have got the number of chances, after repeated below-average performances, to sport the blue colors of India. I’d be very keen to see how he mends his ways to cement a place in the team, in all formats of the game.

There’s a lot of talent around the globe that needs to be tapped, and tapped with caution. A few young batsmen have caught my eye during the last year or so, and I’m quite sure that the world is going to see a lot more of the likes of Dinesh Chandimal from Sri Lanka, Lendl Simmons from the West Indies, Ajinkya Rahane from India, the lattermost being a heavy run-getter in the domestic and India ‘A’ circuits.  What I like about these lads is their fearless approach towards stroke play at a fairly young age.

Eoin Morgan of England and C Pujara of India have their names carved in the cricketing Rosetta Stone, batsmen destined to achieve greatness, with the former stamping his authority in limited overs & T20 cricket, and the latter proving to be another immovable object in the longer form of the game.

Kemar Roach is a youngster who has been around for a while, and is definitely one of those bowlers from the Caribbean who can bring back memories of the pace bowling armory that they’d once possessed. Suraj Randiv, the spinner from Sri Lanka, seems another impressive talent and with the height he possesses, I’m sure he’s bound to mature and trouble a lot of batsmen around. Mitchell Starc of Australia has looked every bit a potential weapon, from the little that I’ve seen of him.

We’re also seeing a lot of players, who’ve been around for a while, slowly stamping their authority in international cricket and paving their paths towards greatness. Cook and Bell from England definitely seem to have the temperament to carve their names alongside the likes of Boycott and Gower from England, possibly even out-achieve them. AB de Villiers is on his way towards cricketing greatness, and one can only hope that the additional duties as keeper do not have detrimental effects on his batting. Hashim Amla can be bracketed in a similar category with a large section of the South African crowd looking up to him as the man to replace Graeme Smith as captain of the South African team – even though that is quite some time away.

Other names that hit the top of my mind include Angelo Matthews, Cameron White (a potential Australian captain in my mind –he needs to work on his approach in the longer format of the game), Adrian Barath, Craig Kieswetter, and Tim Paine. Unstoppable and Immovable can be the echelon adjectives for greatness for all these men. Can they defy physics? Only time will tell.

On the other hand, I was forced to exclude a few Pakistani bowlers, as they’ve had their share of defying mathematics to bowl from 18 yards, instead of 22. One can only hope, for the betterment of the game, that they’re cleared or eradicated.

Either ways, I’ll definitely miss watching Mohd. Ameer’s rise to stardom in case the stars don’t favor him.

Youngsters For The Future

Posted: January 10, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India Cricket, Opinion
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Prasad Moyarath

Bangalore

10 January 2011
The recent popularity of Test matches has put the one-day and Twenty20 cricket enthusiasts who predicted the death of Test cricket after the advent of Twenty20 cricket in a conundrum. They are forced to agree to the mantra of Test cricket aficionados, “Test cricket is the actual cricket and it tests the technique and patience of a cricketer and separates the strong hearted from the rest”. Tendulkar’s batting against Pakistan in Chennai with acute back pain, Kumble’s spell in West Indies with a bandaged broken jaw, Graeme Smith going out to bat with a broken hand and the recent Kallis’s innings against India fighting acute pain due to side strain are some of the instances of bravery shown in a cricket field in Test matches.

The Australian strategy of fielding separate set of players for one-day and Test cricket was seen with suspicion by many, but the failure of some of the best one-day players like Michael Beaven, Shahid Afridi and Yuvaraj Singh in Test arena has forced them to accept that there is indeed some difference between Test cricketers and the rest.

Indian Test team had the best four batsmen – Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman – in the middle-order and it was almost impossible for any new youngster to get into the middle-order unless any of these four were injured. Indian selectors never nurtured any new batsmen to take over from them and the fact that Ganguly’s replacement has still not cemented his place in the team is a testimony for that.

With Sachin, Dravid and Laxman in the late thirties, Indian middle order will need replacement for these players soon. Indian selectors have already identified Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara and it is their duty to persist with them. I would suggest two more names to fill the void that is going to be created when these greats decide to hang their boots.

Parthiv Patel, the 25 year old Gujarat captain is a Test discard for many. He came in as a 17 year old wicket-keeper with very little first-class cricket experience and played 20 Test matches out of which the majority was outside India. Not many knew that he was the under 19 Indian cricket team captain at that time and that he had got the Border-Gavaskar scholarship for the best talented youngster in the country. Parthiv’s batting ability was never doubted and his compact technique against Brett Lee in Australia, Shoaib Akthar in Pakistan and Harmison in England was applauded even by his critics. Inexperience in keeping wickets in different surfaces against Kumble led to his downfall. Much water has flown under the bridge and Parthiv is an experienced player with a lot of centuries in first class cricket. He has improved his keeping and is the captain of Gujarat.

Dhoni will have to give up wicket keeping soon and concentrate more on batting and the presence of Parthiv in the team will make his work easy. Parthiv can play as an opener, middle order batsman or a wicket-keeper batsman. A batsman coming back after being discarded by selectors is nothing new for Indian cricket considering the history of Siddhu and Ganguly. I will stick my neck out and say that if properly nurtured, Parthiv Patel will be an asset for the Indian Test team.

Virat Kohli is the new find for the Indian One day team for many. For some, he is the former captain of the Indian under-19 team that won the World Cup. But for me, he is the hero of a story which appeared on the newspapers in December 2006. Delhi was playing against Karnataka in a Ranji Trophy match. An 18 year-old Delhi batsman hit a chanceless 90 and saved Delhi from a certain follow-on. When he fell in a dubious manner, instead of celebrating, the Karnataka players applauded his effort. You may wonder what is so special in that innings. Kohli lost his beloved father that morning but decided to continue batting from his overnight 40 and took Delhi to safety. He left for his father’s funeral after his innings.

It is no wonder that Kohli who showed maturity beyond age at such a young age is scoring in tons in Indian first-class cricket and in one-day internationals. More than his runs, it is his attitude towards batting that makes him different. Selectors should spare no time in inducting this youngster to the Indian Test team.

With India touring England, Australia and West Indies after the World Cup, the Indian selectors have got a golden opportunity to test these future stars of Indian cricket. I have no doubt that Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli have it in them to pass this litmus test.

Captaincy Debate: Graeme Smith Will Go When He Has To

Posted: January 9, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, Opinion, South Africa Cricket
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Goutham Chakravarthi

Bangalore

9 January 2011
Much has been written about the captaincy of Graeme Smith in the Newlands Test. Questions have been raised about the defensive tactics and if he’d missed a trick by not inserting India at the fag end of the 4th day’s play. Smith is still the same impressive man that took over from Pollock following a disastrous world cup at home in 2003. A South African team still in the doldrums post Cronje-gate turned to him. He impressed with his freshness in approach. He impressed with his performance and leadership. He had never met Hansie Cronje and therefore lay to rest any lingering doubts of his influence on him and his leadership. He said he had hoped to be a captain of his country someday and was expecting it. No politically correct answers, but plain straight talking. That showed in his leadership and his batting. South Africa had found the right man to represent it.

Two double-hundreds followed in his first series as captain. His field placings and reading of the game and tactics reflected a shrewd mind. He showcased an ability to inspire a team of elderly statesmen of the caliber of Gary Kirsten, Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher, Makhaya Ntini and Lance Klusener. Just like that, at 22, Smith became the leader.

Some controversy followed when he didn’t shy away from calling Klusener overweight and later when he told the media what the Aussies had called him on his first tour there. Inevitably it wasn’t received well, and was seen as soft and a tell-tale by the Australians especially. Soft, he had never been. His courage was never in doubt. His start to the innings in the chase of 434 in Johannesburg showed the Australians that he was not merely a man of talk and that he backed it with deed. He was a fighter and he finally won over Australia when he walked out to bat with a broken hand in Sydney. He needn’t have and the world would have understood for the series was already won. But he strode out to the middle to support a team that showed admirable courage battling a rapid Mitchell Johnson to save the Test. He didn’t want to let down his mates who’d fought so admiringly to save the Test. A nation that saw him as a bully saw him as a fighter and gave him a standing ovation when he walked out to bat.

Along the way he has managed not to fall in the trap of stereotypes and it has showed why his team has been more competitive in India than either Australia or England. He has been shrewd to play two spinners and tie-up Australians in their backyard in one-day games and bombard Asian teams with quick and impact players when playing in Asia. Not that he has never shown ill judgment or never crossed the line. Sportsmen are allowed to lose their cool once in a while – it is inevitable when the tussle is taut and a bad decision here or a bad stroke there can bring efforts carefully structured over sessions to a nought. He has largely been controversy free and has spent less time with the match-referee than most of the captains.

Though South Africa have travelled impressively and often been successful, a major title has eluded it. Agreed that it has briefly claimed the top Test spot and has won an ICC event (inaugural Champions Trophy in Dhaka back in 1998), but is still seen as a unit that can crumble under the weight of expectation. On the back of a historic series win in Australia two summers ago, it was expected to win the return leg at home, but lost tamely to a young but resurgent Australian side. That Australia would go on to lose in England almost straight after would have disappointed Smith and his boys immensely. They were largely seen as the team to take over from Australia post that series, but it wasn’t to be.

The last two home seasons have been disappointing in that regard. They were unable to bowl out a determined English lower order twice last summer. Nor was his team able to match words with deed against the visiting Indians over the last three weeks. His tussle with Sreesanth and Zaheer affected him and showed on his captaincy in Newlands when he was defensive and perhaps missed the chance of declaring early and push for a victory.

Also South Africa have been shown to be in slight in the world cups (both T20 and ODI) over the last 4 years. Sometimes, failures can prey more on the minds. Personnel changes have be sought and tried with little success in major tournaments.

Smith has been smart enough to sense this and has called time on his one-day captaincy post this year’s one-day world cup. It is a smart move considering that he has been at the helm for eight years and captaincy and ideas last only that long. He might want to give-up captaincy to a younger man and concentrate on his batting alone. He will be 30 shortly and perhaps the next three years will be his best as a batsman.

Smith and team will try its best to win the world cup no doubt. His team stands as good a chance as any of the other leading teams and will enter it as one of the favourites. They might go on to win it. That he has already relinquished captaincy post the tournament shows that he may have recognized that he is coming to the end of the road as a captain. Smith has never been the one to shy away from reality. He will go when he knows that he no longer is the right man for the job.

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