T20 International: Preview

Simply put, T20 is a lottery. It you hit it, you win it. Its the punter's dream, his addiction and his pitfall too! The upcoming India vs Australia T20 is a virtual sellout. Last time I checked, more than 90000 tickets were gone; few remain in the general admission category. Only a few thousand members' tickets still remain. The max. capacity of the G is close to 120,000 so I guess, last minute fans still stand a chance. More pertinently, I am not one of them. I will be enjoying the game in High-Definition at home. Its the first time a sports match is being telecast on Australian national Television in Hi-Def.

So far, so good; now, about the match up itself: this time around, Australia have the definite edge over the world champions!! (Do remember India are the T20 world champs.. hehe!!) The young Indian contingent do not have any match practice in Australian conditions going into the contest. I confidently believe they are under prepared and even a bit nervous. However, the Indian bowling will take care of itself. My five bowlers would be Sreesanth, Irfan, Ishant, Praveen Kumar and Bhajji with Sehwag and Yuvraj bowling an over or two if needed. For once, the Indians will match Australia if not better them on the field. Trust me, this will be an experience to savour!

The batting is the biggest worry for the tourists. The Australian line up is good enough to post a score of 150 and even chase such a score against our bowling at the MCG. The question is whether our batting can match up! Shaun Tait will not be playing by the looks of it which means the Aussie bowling will once again be led by Lee followed by Bracken, Johnson, Hogg and Symmo. They might give Hilfenhaus a run; lets wait and watch. I do not think the Indian batting led by Sehwag, Gambhir, Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Yuvi and the rest will be able to deal with it. If I were Dhoni, I would include Sachin in the team simply because Sachin has been down under for a month. Yuvraj and Sehwag along with Dhoni himself hold the key. One of these guys (and Sachin, if he plays) will have to fire.

India's best chance is to put up a score of 150+ and defend it. If the Aussies bat first and post anything over 160, I must admit, they will win their first T20 against India.

Running in the night: the Narcissist's delight

I am one of the more fortunate people on the planet to live bang opposite an evenly grassed park that accommodates two cricket grounds side by side. In a nutshell, it makes for a 500 metre lap. Given the parsimony in population that Australia revels in, the park is one of the hot spots for joggers and pet owners during the evenings. A few Indians including myself enjoy a game of cricket 4 times a week on the matted pitches adjoining the park. Now why am I writing all this?

No, its not because I am a real estate agent trying to sell a few properties around my home but because I have taken to the park at night-time. Now this is an old habit of mine. I sleep at around 3am hence I occasionally go for a jog in the park at midnight. What I would like to share is the absolute sense of delight as your heart rate increases with each lap in the stillness of the night. The park is desolate with the occasional car passing by the road that makes the only sound. Once you are in the running rhythm, you feel an expansion of the self. One of the most fundamental of human drives seeks to manifest itself. As the body tires with each lap, your senses become sharper. You start to feel like the park itself. You start picking up each flutter, every ripple in the breeze; you even start to feel the grass under your feet respond to your running rhythm. You stop limiting yourself to your body and become the consciousness of your environment. Keeping up the pace is a non-issue. You become aware of your body only when you slow down. It seems so relaxing to keep a steady pace. The quiet of night seems to welcome you into her tresses and you feel peacefully vulnerable to the seduction.

I strongly suspect that an increase in fitness will result in a heightened sense of awareness; and I do not just mean sensory awareness. I want to emphasize the awareness of the self. The understanding that there is no fundamental boundary between the body and the world at large. The limits are set by consciousness alone and these limits are revealed by silence alone.

In other words, running in the night is as much an appreciation of the self as it is the appreciation of the world around. When this boundary between the self and the rest starts to fade, I guess what remains is the ultimate Narcissist who loves everything and everything is the Self!!

90 Overs: An outstanding JOKE!!

If law breakers are to be believed then "Rules are mere guidelines and boundary lines, you can stretch them a bit and even occasionally put a foot on the other side". I guess this is exactly how Mr. Ponting views the 90 overs a day rule in test cricket. Otherwise, he would try to cut down on the camaraderie building chats he decided to have with his bowlers throughout the day.

Consider this: 15 overs a session, 6 hours of play with an added half hour to make up for dawdling Punter(s)! Still our Punter manages to clock 86 overs in 6 and a half hours. I get the feeling he particularly likes to learn the nuances of chinamen bowling in the middle of a test match from Bradley Hogg. I guess he even wants to pick up McGrathesque techniques from Mr Clark. It really beggars belief that the best team in the world cannot bowl the quota of 90 overs with a regular and part-time spinner in their ranks. Either this or one must believe that Ponting thinks he is above the law which can at the most rob him of his match fees. I guess he has made too much money to be bothered by such inanities of life.

If truth be told, captains all over the world have regarded the 90 over rule as more of a guideline and they have started taking the extra half hour as the official close of play. Ponting rules the roost in this regard. I wonder if the match referee will see this disgression kindly. If "alleged" racial slurs are enough to threaten a player with hearings and bans, such an open mockery of the rules of cricket in consecutive tests must not go unpunished. The worst advertisement for test cricket is a captain who doesn't take its rules seriously. In this series itself, Ponting has gone from appealing for a grounded catch to violating the required quota of overs to be bowled.

In Perth, Ponting could be excused for having a four pronged pace attack coupled with more than warm playing conditions. However in Adelaide, under pressure of a fine in the previous test and with 2 spinning options used to bowl overs on a pleasant day, he decided to flout the rules by enjoying jaunts to the bowler's end. Ian Chappel made a remark that the slow over should not be blamed on the bowlers but on Ponting's frequent trips to them.

The match referee and the ICC need to look at this as a serious violation especially given the precedent. Ponting is undoubtedly one of the best run getters of all time but he must not allow such transgressions to tarnish his image. He must remember that he is not merely a great batsman; he is not only a ambassador for australian cricket but a sport icon in many parts of the world.

Dada & Dravid: Que Sera Sera

Let's all be honest, no serious cricket follower would expect Laxman to fit in the ODI format. Therefore, I would like to look at the decision by the Indian cricket selectors to drop Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid for the Commonwealth Bank series down under.

Consider Dravid: he was in the squad for a few matches in the Ind-Pak ODI series, yet he wasn't selected for a few games. Its obvious that he is no longer an automatic selection in the playing ODI Indian eleven. Therefore his axing should not come as a total surprise. A senior pro should not be in the national squad if he is not an automatic selection especially when he is a specialist (batsman or bowler). Dravid was a 2 dimensional cricketer in ODI's a few years ago. He was in top form and very handy with the gloves. Now, he is not able to sustain the intensity that his contemporaries like Ponting are quite comfortable with. This is a hard fact that every Dravid fan must accept. He was never an explosive ODI batsman but he did make up by building from slow starts. Now he has lost his zip on the field. He is still an automatic choice in the test team especially with his slip fielding. My guess is that he will be able to play at test intensity levels for 3 more years. Lets see how it goes.

Sourav Ganguly would have been a trickier decision for the selectors and by trickier, I do not mean 'for cricketing reasons alone'. He has always had passionate support from Bengal and whenever he is not selected, the river of passion overflows to inundate inappropriate areas! Personally, I had predicted that he would fail at Perth. Well, he did. Yet, I must admit, he is in good (not great) batting form therefore an automatic choice in the test team as a specialist.

In ODI's however, he is a liability on the field. Now, his die-hard fans would jump up and say that athleticism in fielding and especially Ganguly's lack of it are often over-exaggerated. This is absolute rubbish. Let me elaborate: an un-athletic presence on the field not only results in shoddy, unproductive dives but they bring down the entire team's intensity on the field. You get the typical cross-eyed glares from your team-mates and you end up putting extra pressure on yourself to perform in your area of expertise which is Ganguly's case is his batting. This is where we come to the crux of the matter. In Australia, Ganguly's part-time out swingers are not going to be of any use. Therefore, he has one and only one department to prove his worth: his batting. Given that he holds on to the opening spot for dear life, he is under extreme pressure to get the team off to a good start every time he steps out into the centre. Again, his poor athleticism means he never is a candidate for quick singles (Even Monty Panesar ran him out, remember!!). If you notice his recent dip in form in ODIs you will notice a pattern: He could never get off strike quickly enough and was always looking for the boundary. His partner Sachin on the other hand is still fit enough and athletic enough to play in ODI mode. Ganguly not only puts pressure on himself to score but affects his partner too. If Sachin gets out or is not playing, the standby opener Gautam Gambhir or the younger Robin Uthappa coming one-drop is either shut out from the strike or entrusted with the complete responsibility of blazing away.

Inevitably, Sachin's dismissal or unavailability has meant a poor batting display. Without Ganguly, the younger brigade along with Sehwag, Yuvraj and the rest will not be under so much pressure to keep finding the boundary. This is the nature of the new Indian team. We now have fitter and younger players who do look for singles to rotate strike in addition to being good boundary hitters. Simply put, the younger brigade has set a higher fitness and athletic standard and only those senior pros able to match up to it or at least not be over exposed by it can find a place in the playing eleven. Sachin passes these basic standards and in addition, is in good batting form.

Look, for players like SG, RD, VVS and SRT, form is something temporary. Batting form is so fuzzy a concept that if other things are going well, their batting will take care of itself; they are simply awesome batsmen, all of them. Therefore, it is the selectors' and captain's job to make sure they fit the bill in all other accessory requirements. If not, they must not be included as excess baggage within the squad. That will only create more problems in the dressing room. Right now, Sachin alone passes these addition requirements of ODI fitness and ODI athleticism therefore, he is rightfully still in the ODI squad and will be in the ODI playing eleven.

I do not think Sachin will last long in ODIs. His body simply does not allow him to play the long innings. That is one reason he gets out in the 90s so often nowadays or he usually gets cramps around the 90s. I do not think he will allow himself to be dropped by the selectors; I desperately hope he will retire from ODIs of his own accord within this year or the next.

If the younger brigade along with Sachin, Sehwag and the rest do well in Australia, all else will be forgotten. The selectors will be hailed as people building for the future; if India do not manage to make it to the finals, the knives will be sharpened again. All in all, I would like to see this move by the selectors to drop VVS, SG and RD as a positive, brave and hopeful move. In fact, I am so surprised the selectors were brave enough to drop SG that I am sure, they will recall him into the squad in a few days saying it was a communication error!!

However, I will be extremely unhappy if SG or VVS or RD complains of not being treated with respect in relation to this axing. I desperately hope the selectors or the administration had the courtesy to internally explain their decision to these senior pros. Knowing the BCCI, I know this is wishful thinking. I feel we have too many bloated egos within the BCCI that makes it impossible for senior players to leave the game ceremoniously. If the BCCI is trying to make sure Indian cricket catches up with Australian cricket, they must first ensure their own handling of the players matches up to the standards of the ACB.

Again, I know this is wishful thinking. The BCCI has too many non-cricketers to make sure they are never part of an outfit that has cricket's best interests at heart. Usually the BCCI has its annual turnover closest to its heart and a lot of skeletons locked up in undisclosed closets!!

That Be-Witching Hour!

Whew, India finally managed to win a test in this series! It is a great achievement but given the talent in this team, its a win too late. Of course, one could come up with a lot of thoughts on why India were denied a win till now in this series but .... the hurt is still the same.

I know that the atmosphere back home would be joyous given that this win came in Perth which has in the past proven to be a death-knell for most touring teams. Yet, I expected the series to be alive till now. Thanks to Bucknor, Ponting and our tail, this is not quite the case. However, this is not the time to cry over spilt milk; now is the time to sit back and savour not just the win but a particular passage of play that put India on course for today's win.

That bewitching hour was beyond national loyalties; it was beyond winning and losing; it was just exceptional interplay between bat and ball. One of the greatest batsmen of all time was wielding the willow - Ricky Ponting - and he was up against a 19-year old tyro by the name of Ishant Sharma. If I hadn't seen his 9-over spell today, I would never have believed that an Indian seamer had Ponting in trouble with pace and bounce and nip over an hour. I have never seen an Indian fast bowler bowl such a sustained and long spell of quality bowling to a player of Ponting's class. The best facet of the spell was it did not seem like Sharma was pulling out something special for Ponting (Such bursts are usually short-lived); he wasn't bowling just one good over; he was just bowling his best in his short career. The hard work in training to achieve the super spell was evident. It was sustained excellence. At the end of it, you were almost imploring Kumble from your living room to give the rookie one more over. Well, it seems Sehwag had the same idea too!

Let me put things straight here. Over the last decade, I have had this silly perception that wickets taken by the Indian pacers are bonus wickets. Yes, there have been special deliveries, there have been bowlers coming good in a match only to let you down in the next. It has been my firm belief that India will struggle to take 20 wickets in a test after Kumble retires. Yet, from time to time, India throws up raw talents to question my belief. Munaf Patel burst on the scene, so did Balaji and Sreesanth. RP Singh and Zaheer have been steady performers and there have been a few disappointments like VRV Singh. There is a pattern here: it seems the newbies put in everything in their first six months of international cricket to cement their place in the side. They start their international career at 140kph only to slow down to the early 130's six months later. Be it injuries or complacency, it reeks of incompetency and lack of challenge at the domestic level.

In spite of all my reservations about India's ability to produce genuine fast bowlers, today was a golden day. It remains to be seen if Ishant is a one night stand or one worthy of a longer commitment to Indian cricket. He has had his debut at the right age. He has time to grow in international cricket. The challenges will be consistently tougher than toiling at the domestic level and the rewards will be worth the effort. He just has to keep improving without compromising on pace and lift. He must not come up in six months and do a 'Munaf' who said "I am concentrating on line and length" and ended up bowling dobblers at 130kph. Ishant claims Glenn McGrath to be his idol. However I hope he adds Brett Lee too. He would do well to remember Lee's words two years ago: "I don't see any reason why I can't bowl faster"!! Today Lee has improved his control without compromising on pace and is now a worthy successor to McGrath in leading the Australian attack.

All said and done, today was a special day for Indian fast bowling. It was one of my special days as a spectator. Ponting's struggle reminded me of Sachin struggling against quality fast bowling. I said to myself "Tonight Sachin will definitely thank Ishant for giving back a fraction of the quality he has handled in his 18 years of international cricket". It is one of the marvels of cricket to see a batting great being challenged. That's precisely entertainment for the cricket connoisseur.

Tata Nano: World's envy, India's pride

Greatness engenders envy, envy engenders hate and hate fosters gossip. Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter (Book 6) says something similar! The truth is indeed true, no matter who utters it and in what context.

Do not be put off. This is indeed a post about Tata's newest brainchild, the Tata Nano. It is refreshing to know about a CEO who delivers on a promise. One who keeps his word and delivers the first car for Rs 1 Lakh. Being an engineer myself, I can imagine the rate of innovation to launch a hitherto unknown product. If you have seen the number of patents filed during the development of the A380, you would get the picture: Invention and Innovation go hand in hand. Knowledge and knowhow are generated only through enterprise. Of course, the A380 will ply far above the clouds but the spirit is the same in the Tata Nano project. Yet, I wonder why the international media is bent on bashing the Nano. Why does everyone from the BBC to the CNN all the way down under to Channel 9 cover the purported flipside of the Nano. Why doesn't the world stand up and salute an inspired innovater.

Flashback to the late 1930's. Hitler had arrived and so had the German nation. The nation needed a people's car. It was the Volkswagen (lit. people's car). In spite of the lack of the internet, the Volkswagen wasn't greeted with uniform hostility; and look what Hitler did thereafter! 80 years later, an Indian innovation is being dubbed Hitleresque for the environment. With so much media space dedicated to the auto industry, I wonder why every major tabloid fails to acknowledge the achievement.

Rest assured, the Nano is here to stay. In India and across a lot of the alleged 3rd world the family car segment still lies wide open to cost reduction. Technically and economically, the Nano fits the bill. It will irrevocably improve the standard of living across a significant section of the world population. Undeniably, it will impact 2-wheeler sales thereby balancing out the purported environmental Armageddon. Anyone who has witnessed rural families travel in India will remember a family of four on a bicycle or motorcycle. Let me add: the motorcycle sometimes runs on kerosene. Such practices and their underlying mindsets are bound to change due to this "people's car" of the 21st century.

Despite everything, the international media labors to bash the Nano. Even the US tried to delay the inevitable before giving a grudging thumbs-up. The Australian media surpassed its own naivette. I have witnessed a lot of bilge cooked up to ape CNN on Australian networks. When it came to the Nano, they did a thorough job of surpassing their own ineptitude. Channel 9 reported that the Nano is available for $800. Australian or American, this figure is downright 'BullS***'. Then they took to harping the environmental line painting an impending doomsday.

Is it envy, is it a superiority complex or is it a warped fear of failiure? Australia, as a nation doesn't mind living on cheap Chinese-made consumables: from 'Made in China' Treadmills to 'Made in China' toilet paper. Yet, the nation is plied with media bilge that a billion Indians with a billion cars are going to usher the Day of Judgement.

No, its neither envy nor hate, it is mere IGNORANCE!

New year, Old Aussie!

After a mini hiatus over Christmas and new year, I was hoping to turn over a new leaf in terms of my blog topics. Unfortunately, the age-old Aussie approach to cricket in the recently concluded SCG test is torturing me to add my word on the test match, the series and beyond. For starters, look the image of Ponting claiming a clearly grounded catch. Someone should show Ponting this pic in private and plead with him: "Grow up, Mr. Ponting, PLEASE!!!"

My previous post titled "Sunny Days..." turned out to be more of a damp squib. India's unpreparedness in the first test was clearly exposed by a ruthless Australian attack. Personally, I expected India to bounce back at the SCG. Being an ardent follower of the game, I must say, my expectation was vindicated. Yesterday, we had a not so cool discussion at the university about the 2nd test. One of my Australian-born colleagues remarked, "A fair result would have been a draw but the Aussies changed it with some horrible sporting spirit". I couldn't hold back my retort: 'A fair result would have been an outright Indian victory on the 4th day if Symmo a.k.a the mon**y, had been given out on Day 1'. Hold on.....

Do not call me racist. I am only stating what Symmonds would love to be called! Thats why he jumps around trying to catch every other person about him calling him that name. Well, that is what I could make out of the theatrics over the monkey-calling issue. Either that or I am afraid, Ponting is so bamboozled by Bhajji that he wants to see him off at Perth, one way or another.

All in all, no words can express my disappointment after the 2nd test match. Two things really hurt. It was sickening to see Ponting go to any length to equal Steve Waugh's record and it was heartbreaking to see a fantastic series being killed off at the halfway point by forces that just were NOT CRICKET.