Cricket: A Man's Game

Ian Botham had a snide remark to contribute a few years ago about women's cricket for which he had to eventually apologise. Personally, I have always thought women's cricket to be a joke. No, it has nothing to do with being sexist but its just my perception that there is too much testosterone at work in the game. I have romanced leg spin bowling since Warne but have always stuck to bowling pace myself. Again, just a consequence of testosterone. No matter how bad my lower back, no matter how stiff my leg or how sore my shoulder, I have always wanted to bowl fast. When I get a bat in hand in a match situation, I can never control myself from swinging hard no matter how hard I talk myself into 'getting my eye in'. I have always attributed my proclivities on the field to testosterone and have always harbored a quiet resentment towards the so called purists like Gavaskar, Dravid, Boycott and their ilk.

So much so, when my favorite cricketer SRT comes out in a defensive frame of mind, I have always been able to smell his defensiveness. For instance, I was certain during the India vs Srilanka match in WC2007 that Sachin had come in to bat with the fear of failiure tormenting him. You could feel his tension being broadcast through your TV sets and lo and behold, he obliged by being out cheaply. That was not the case in the WC2003 final. He went after McGrath, belted him for four before top-edging the next ball. I was disappointed then but not angry. The point here is: Cricket should be played with a man's mind; in other words, no mind at all. It should be played instinctively, naturally and fluently. There should be naked aggression and brutal domination on display.

Why I am writing this now?....

Because, I saw some primeval cricket today. Yes, I saw Sehwag's innings today at Chennai against South Africa. There was nothing masculine about the Chennai wicket or the South African attack but Sehwag was glorious. He was instinctive; he was a lion ousted by his own pride, out to 'make his bones' and he ended up marauding his way into cricket lore. It was a brutal assault by a quintessential opportunist. It was a predator vs prey opera on the cricket field. Sehwag knew the odds were on his side. Every predator plays on the odds and a successful kill is usually decided by choosing the right odds and then going full throttle. Sehwag's undefeated knock today had that same primitive drive. He knew the conditions were in his favor. Any other batsman would have been content with double hundred in a day but not Sehwag. For this guy, its not the runs but the run-making that is important. He does not care about the century but he does take care to ensure he gets the milestone with a bang and not a nervous single!

Today was his day and he made sure everyone will remember it by being brutal to the core. Mind you, by being brutal, not suicidal, therefore, he is still there!!

Fingers crossed, Brian Lara's quadruple may be under attack on Day 4!

Time for fresh Blood

My previous post was an analysis for managing Dhoni's and Sachin's workload in India colors. Continuing in the same vein, I would like to point out one curious facet in my choice squad of 14 for India's home engagements with South Africa later this month.

My squad of 14 includes the same old, tried and tested 'test' batting line up for India. This choice of mine was followed by a comment by AnandKrishna that it is time to give Badrinath his international test call up. In the light of this comment, let me make it very clear that I have not given my squad of 14 as my favorite test squad. It is a squad which I feel is most likely as well as likeable given the current line of thought of the selectors. I do not think the selectors are even comtemplating infusing new blood in the test squad.

I do not think the selectors will be bold enough to throw in a newbie like S. Badrinath or even Manoj Tiwary for contesting a batting spot with the fab-four of Indian cricket. Mark my words - sooner of later, the selectors will have to look towards youth even in the test team. It would sound too cynical now, but I had fervently told my father during the Aus-Ind test series that Ganguly would fail at Perth and thereon. Dravid never got going in Australia and Laxman and Sachin aren't getting any younger. Clearly, the Indians were out-fielded by the Australians in the test series. Right now, it may not seem decisive, but give it some time and India's lack of athleticism in the field will eventually cost us a test.

India and especially Anil Kumble have big dreams of upstaging Australia from the number one test spot. Kumble however has more realistic aims. He wishes to leave India at number one or withing striking distance by the end of the year. I have a strong feeling he will announce his international retirement after the Ind-Aus test series later this year. That way, he will be doing the greatest service to Indian cricket. He will have shepherded the bowling through the tough 1990s and would have bowed out with the bowling in more than capable hands. What is more, he will be reducing the average age of the test team which invariably means more athletic ability. All in all, Kumble retiring after his last, forthcoming Aussie encounter will be a fantastic ending to a monumental and historic career in Indian as well as world cricket.

What about the fab-four though? Clearly, Ganguly will not make it into any of the top test playing nations as a batsman alone because he is too one-dimensional to be a specialist. He is too much of a liability on the field that a captain has to build strategies around him. Then again, he is not so consistent with the bat that you can back him for at least one century in a series. Laxman has never been too athletic and Dravid has slowed down a wee bit too but both these batsmen are under lesser pressure on the field because their slip fielding is still of the highest quality. Dravid will be under as much pressure as Ganguly because of his famine in run-making in the semi-arid lands down under.

Its really a poignant fact but on the face of it, Sachin still seems to be the most athletic of the fab-four after 18 years of international cricket and this truth is vindicated by the fact that even Dhoni sees Sachin as fit to play in the ODI format. Still, Sachin is on the brink of an injury. If he is not careful in choosing which games to play and which to pass, I reckon his international career is in for some rough weather (more like a hurricane ending!!).

All in all, it is time to look beyond the fab-four and Kumble. It is time to put a date on Piyush Chawla's test re-entry. It is time to give Yuvraj a kick up his backside and ask him to start taking his test spot seriously. And finally, endorsing Anand Krishna's view, it is time to start bleeding some new talent who have promised at the domestic level.

The time is ripe for picking India's next test batting generation.

Dhoni and Sachin need to be rested ...

The whole of India and expats around the world are slowly adjusting to the high of beating the Aussies in their own den. This high will wane in effect over the next few days but it will only truly come down when the next series with South Africa starts in India at the end of this month.

There have been a few words of caution especially for the U-19 world-cup winning team to not go overboard with success. I reckon a word of caution is in order for the senior team too. No, I do not think the senior team are under threat of becoming complacent or loose but I do think the senior team are under threat of overwork. Just as the Australians looked jaded towards the end of the CB series, the long summmer seemed to be taking toll of the visitors too. Sachin was definitely struggling and if it had been anyone but Sachin, he would have cracked in the finals. Yuvraj is still in recovery and is at least a month away from full match fitness. Most of all, Dhoni is ignoring a few niggles that are beginning to crop up. It is a bad habit he is falling into - Ignoring these niggles will only lead to an injury over an entire season or two. Given Dhoni's workload, he must be well managed by the selectors.

It is ideal that the selectors had the farsight to deny Dhoni the test captaincy for the time being. To prove their worth, they must manage his playing commitments too especially with the BCCI coming up with new events like the IPL. For starters, they should look to use the reserve keeper in Dinesh Karthik wisely. For one thing, it will keep Dhoni on his toes because, I do not consider him, at present, to be an automatic selection in the test eleven. He has still to prove himself as a batting all-rounder. Secondly, it is an ideal chance to keep a reserve keeper match-fit, ready and raring to go.

Ideally, the selectors should inform Dhoni about resting him for the first two tests of the Ind vs SA series. Karthik could play as a opener and wicket-keeper and partner Sehwag at the top. It would allow Kumble to play Yuvraj who I suppose will be fully fit by the end of this month. It would give Ganguly and Dravid time to prove their test form and the selectors will not be blamed for not giving these two giants a last chance to prove their test-worthiness. I reckon Dravid will be back with a bang but Ganguly will struggle with the pace and lift of the South African attack; then again, I would be the happiest person if Ganguly proves me wrong yet again!

Then, in the last test, the selectors must give Sachin a break. He must not be put through the grind of three back to back tests so soon after the summer down under. Come on folks, Sachin is special; AGREED: but he is not superhuman!!

My squad of 14 for the first two tests would be:

Kumble (c), Sehwag, Karthik (wk), Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Zaheer, RP Singh, Ishant, IK Pathan, Sreesanth.

In case RP or Ishant are injured, VRV Singh must be given a chance given his recent domestic performances. Depending on pitch conditions, Chawla may be given a spot replacing a paceman. It is unlikely that India will play three spinners. Gone are the days of the dust bowls; Indian cricket has finally come of age!!!

A Tale of Two Captains

If truth be told, I do not want to analyze India's CB Series triumph. I just want to enjoy it. I want to write an ode to my favorite cricketer - Sachin Tendulkar. I have waited for a long time since that fateful sand-storm in Sharjah to boast the fact that Sachin does deliver when it matters. I have argued many a hour with fellow cricket crazies that Sachin does not seem to score when it matters because "whenever he scores cricket seems to be too simple a game to matter at all". However there have always been doubters and I am sure there will be a few still lingering around with stats and sarcasm waiting to pounce after Sachin's next cheap dismissal. I would request such souls to cast away their cynicism and rejoice in a true master of the art that is batsmanship.

Unfortunately, my critical urge takes over at this very moment and I need to lay aside my art appreciation and look at the crucial difference between India and Australia especially in the finals of the CB series. As I admitted in my last post, I was surprised Dhoni played Piyush Chawla at Sydney but it was a punt taken on pure cricketing logic. He deserves a lot of praise for his punt to play Chawla and open the bowling with Praveen Kumar. Brisbane threw up new challenges to Dhoni while choosing the final playing eleven. Ishant was iffy and Sachin was struggling with his groin strain. Again Dhoni made the call based on pure cricketing logic.

No captain must risk a fast bowler in an ODI. If he breaks down, the game is lost then and there. The captain loses the tactical advantage of playing 5 frontline bowlers if one of them breaks down. It does not matter if they go for runs but breaking down is a totally different story. It upsets the captain's rhythm, the team's rhythm and results in a scramble on the field to finish 50 overs. Dhoni was too smart to risk Ishant Sharma. He called up Sreesanth. Sachin was a different matter because batting is a different matter. A batsman can play at 70-80 % fitness especially when he is in form and the captain does not want to risk upsetting his top order. And if that batsman is Sachin, the captain does think twice before replacing him when he has scripted the side's last win.

The final and biggest decision Dhoni had to make and the one that eventually was the difference between the two captains was Piyush Chawla's inclusion. There was a lot of talk about the bounce and carry at the Gabba and Ponting fell for it. He replaced Hogg with Clark and 2 overs into the Indian batting, I remarked to my friend that it was a wrong move. The first two overs proved the slow nature of the wicket as well as the low bounce. Eventually, Ponting must have realised his error when he used Michael Clarke and Symonds to bowl more than 10 overs between them. When Yuvraj got going, Ponting must have definitely been ruing the fact that he hadn't given Hogg his last hurrah at the Gabba. Again, Dhoni proved the smarter captain. He made the call to play the leggie especially since the Gabba is a venue where Warne has enjoyed a lot of success in ODI's. This fact makes Ponting look more stupid leaving out Hogg who is a wrist spinner too.

One needn't look too far to see why Dhoni has been making the right calls on team selection than Ponting. The reason is Dhoni is a captain in form. He is at the top of his own game which allows him the clear head to make calls before and during the game. Ponting on the other hand has struggled for form throughout the summer. It has affected his captaincy and it has had a telling effect on the result of the ODI series. In the past I have seen Australia win a few series just because their captain was in top form. He seemed to magically pull them out of trouble from his pivotal number three position. Now, we can look back and realize how important a captain's form is to his captaincy.

Dhoni has always down-played the value of good captaincy. He has always maintained that captains are made to look good when their charges return the trust the captain places in them. However, when you contrast the captains' decisions in the finals of the CB series, you do realize that a captain does make some sound choices and some unsound ones irrespective of how these choices pan out. Moreover, the soundness of a captain's choices are mirrored in the captain's own performance and form.

Sachin's Masterclass and Dhoni's Masterstroke

Admittedly, I am a Sachin connoisseur. It was as if I had written the script in my last post and Sachin decided to read it and deliver a critic's dream performance. Pity the Academy awards were done and dusted last week else, I guess, Sachin's batting today would have been a contender. At the very least, it has been a slap in the face to all his eternal doubters. Enough said about him; my generation has grown up watching Sachin and if anything, I have always wanted him to be in a world cup winning squad. Then again, that's just me!!

A more pertinent accolade must go to the firebrand Dhoni. I was pretty disappointed he did not play a fully fit Piyush Chawla until the final. In fact, I had rued the fact in my last post. What I didn't expect was to see Dhoni field his trump card at the deep end! It was always a given that Chawla would be more than useful in Sydney and Adelaide if not at the other venues. However, if Chawla had been taken to the cleaners today, I am sure there would have been a fair amount of tabloid space dedicated to some Dhoni bashing. That would have been quite unfair. I guess Dhoni's line of thought would have been something like this - "I have got a bits and pieces bowler in Praveen Kumar and I have got two bowlers struggling for some form in Munaf and Sreesanth. Why don't I punt on my reserve leggie kid who had a good time on the most unhelpful pitches in Ireland and England?". The worst that could have happened was that Piyush Chawla might have gone for a few runs but then Munaf and Sreesanth couldn't have been backed for anything better. Therefore, I consider Dhoni's call to play Piyush as one backed by sound cricketing logic and hence a masterstroke.

Then again, there is that small matter of Dhoni's masterstroke paying off with Bhajji and Piyush suffocating the Aussies in the middle overs. Dhoni has a presence even in press conferences. He comes across as a captain who does not take the post match presentation as a formality. He treats it as just another chat and his words are pertinent and natural. His rider for caution and intensity for the remaining games was well received. Here is a leader of men whose words will not be lost on his charges. I hope he is able to back it up with results and in the very short term I hope he is able to finish his business down under at the Gabba!

Good Luck India, May the fours be with you ...... always !!