Where has the passion gone?

In the ‘series’ against New Zealand, India lost the lone T20 match by 1 run. I did not watch the match as I was not aware of its schedule and when I read in espncricinfo about India’s narrow defeat, my reaction was like, “Oh, India lost the match by one run; hmm… what should I have for breakfast – eggs or cereals?”  

There is nothing special about the reaction. Millions of Indians don’t have time or inclination to take an interest in cricket. But such a reaction coming from me was surprising as I have always been an ardent cricket fan. I used to know each and every detail of all the cricket matches taking place, at least those involving India. I used to know who opened the innings, who came at number 4, who scored a century and in how many balls, which batting records were created, which bowling records broken and so on.  No detail was too small to look into, no number too big to memorize. In fact one time during my college days I watched every ball of an ODI cricket match involving Kenya and Bangladesh!  That is why when I look back on my reaction to India’s T20 defeat I am surprised at the utter lack of emotions evoked by the defeat. Neither was I disappointed at the loss nor did I discuss the match with any of my friends. I couldn’t care less.

What is the reason for this apparent lack of emotions? Is it just that I have lost interest in cricket or is there something wrong with cricket these days? I would like to lean towards the latter as even as recently as last month I was keenly following the England-SA test series; I watched most of the last Ashes series and when India were routed 0-8 in their tours of England and Australia I was utterly disappointed and did feel that I have been betrayed by the Indian team on whom I had so many expectations (I am leaving out the World cup 2011 victory from the list as you don’t need to be a cricket fan to celebrate the victory).  The reason all the above matches evoked strong interest was because they were all competitive matches played between two good teams and more importantly, had a context – the England-SA series determined the new No.1 Test side, India’s tours to England and Australia put their no. 1 Test ranking through a litmus test (which unfortunately India failed to pass) and the Ashes always have a sense of history associated with it. On the other hand the T20 between India and New Zealand was an orphan match. There was a feeling that the administrators, fans and even the players themselves did not care who won the match as long as they had some fun.

Meaningless matches like these not only serve no purpose but risk alienating committed fans like me in the long run. Unless and until a victory doesn’t enthrall and a defeat doesn’t shatter the fans, the match doesn’t deserve to be played and unfortunately the number of such matches are only increasing these days.

Any sport, especially cricket as it is played in only a handful of countries, needs passionate fans for survival and if the passion is taken away, slowly but surely, the fan too will go away.

Why blame Sachin ?

The Indian cricket team for the Sri Lankan tour was announced last week and a name conspicuous by its absence was that of the great Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar, as he told in an interview, wants to spend 'quality time' with his family and hence decided to skip the tour.
A lot of cricket commentators are criticizing this move with some even bringing up the club vs country debate to the fore asking why couldn't Sachin spend his 'quality time' during IPL.
In my opinion there is nothing wrong in the desire to spend 'quality time' with the family. Everybody wants to do that. If, like me, you work in a office where you have a limited number of leaves in a year you would want to utilize the leaves to the maximum extent. But what if I ask my boss that I want to take an additional month of leave after I have exhausted my annual quota? Will the boss indulge me ? Or, will he put his foot down and tell me in clear terms that no more leaves are available ? My boss' response will depend on how much I contribute to the company on a day to day basis. If he thinks that even after an additional month of absence I can come back and not only finish off the work allocated to me but even help my team members with their work and that on a whole I will have a positive impact on the team he might grant me my wish. However, if he thinks an additional absence of a month is going to negatively impact the organization he might not allow me the luxury of more leaves.

In either case, I cannot be blamed for asking additional leaves as everybody has a right to look after their own personal interests. Then why is Sachin being blamed for asking to be rested for the Sri Lankan tour ? If the boss - in this case the selectors - think that the 'pick and choose' style of Tendulkar is harming the balance of the team and that it makes the younger players more insecure about their future , then they should have a straight talk with Tendulkar and let him know their predicament. On the other hand, if they think that even if Sachin picks and chooses the tournaments, overall the team will benefit from his experience and expertise then they should clearly communicate their plans so that there is no confusion regarding Sachin's inclusion in the team.

But to blame Sachin is completely unfair. Sachin is blamed when he scores a century, Sachin is blamed when he gets out for a duck, Sachin is blamed when India wins and Sachin is blamed when India loses. But again, it is probably a price he pays for being considered a demi-god in India. His fans and the media demand a higher standard of morality from him compared to the rest.

In my opinion the real culprit in this case are the selectors who lack the courage to take on the great man. The objective of the national selectors, who are paid handsomely by the way, is to take decisions which take Indian cricket in the right direction, even if they have to defy the GOD.

Lets not put the burden of the selector's cowardice on Sachin's shoulders. The burden of a billion people is heavy enough.

BCCI renames Test cricket

BCCI secretary N Srinivasan conducted a press conference yesterday to address media queries on the 0-4 drubbing of the Indian test team in England.

Moderator: You may start asking questions now.

Question: All cricket experts are unanimous in saying that lack of preparation for the England tour did India in. Do you agree with that ?
Srinivasan: Not at all. I completely disagree with that ! In fact I think BCCI should be lauded for the extensive planning and preparation it did for the tour. The Indian team's sponsors for the tour were decided about a year back. The revenue sharing model between ECB and BCCI was finalized well ahead of schedule. In fact not only for this tour, but in general BCCI has been very active in planning. The television broadcast rights for all the matches to be held in India till 2014 have already been auctioned. What else do you expect from BCCI? 
(followed by a sigh and a slight shake of the head)


Question: Fitness was a major concern for India in the test series, which was exemplified by the way R.P Singh bowled in the Oval test. What do you have to say of that?
Srinivasan: WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? By all accounts, R.P bowled fantastically. In fact we are planning to confer him the mohinder amarnath award for the most spectacular comeback. RP bowled 34 overs and gave only 118 runs - an economy of 3.47. Do you know how good that economy rate is ? For a T20 match that comes around 14 runs in 4 overs, which is match-winning.
(smiling and obviously pleased with his cricketing acumen)


Question: Experts are saying that IPL is the root cause for the pathetic state in which the Indian cricket finds itself now. What will you say to the critics of IPL?
Srinivasan: You guys blame IPL for every ill that infects cricket in the country. I personally think IPL is the best thing that has happened to Indian cricket.It has made me famous across the world;  by owning Chennai super kings I have increased my net worth many-folds; I wield enormous influence on all the cricketing matters in the country and none of these things could have happened without the IPL.
(it took some time for people in the room to realize that Srinivasan was using the words 'Indian Cricket' and 'me/I' interchangeably ! )

Question:Many cricket experts and former players are lamenting the lack of importance given to Test cricket in India. How is the BCCI trying to set this right?
Srinivasan: You have raised a very valid point. It is indeed sad that youngsters are concentrating more on T20s and not giving much importance to Test cricket. It really saddens me when I see this. To tackle this, BCCI has come up with an innovative solution, which I believe will appeal to everyone - the players, the administrators and the businessmen - alike.
We have decided to rename T20 to Test. From now on, DLF IPL will be called DLF IPL Test championship and all T20 matches will be called Test matches. This way we will be able to maintain the primacy of Test cricket!!!
(No comments !)


Moderator : Okay, one last question please.
Question : There are conflict of interests everywhere in BCCI - people hold prominent positions in BCCI but also own IPL teams; commentators hired by the television channels work directly for the BCCI and so on. What have you decided to do in this case?

Moderator: Yes, any more questions ?
Question: As I was telling, conflict of interest in Indian cricket......

Moderator: Okay, so no more questions? Thank you everyone for attending the CITI-Moment-Of-Success press conference..


Disclaimer : Of course, the press conference described above is purely a product of my imagination and the facts / figures mentioned in the post may or may not be correct

The return of the comeback King

The comeback king has done it again!!!

But this time his comeback is not getting the kind of universal support he got when he made his famous comeback to the Indian team. A lot of voices are asking the question – Why? Why he wants to play in IPL so desperately? What is the point in playing for a team which needs to win all its remaining matches to even qualify for the semis? And finally,the question which is being asked the most - Why can’t he retire gracefully?

I will come to the “retire gracefully” part first. I always find it strange when people ask great players why they are not retiring. In fact, there is a clichéd saying in cricket that players should retire when they are being asked why, rather than why not. To be frank, I find this a piece of bull s***. One of the greatest qualities of any sportsman, apart from talent, is the never-say-die spirit, the ability to fight back from any situation. Ganguly has that in abundance. When he took over the captaincy, Indian cricket was in shambles, thanks to the match fixing controversy. It was his fighting spirit that enabled him to fight against all odds and build a team which made it to the 2003 world cup final. It was his fighting sprit which enabled him to make a comeback into the national team when most so-called experts thought his playing days were over. When we so much admired his never-say-die attitude then, how can we expect it to suddenly vanish? If he was to “retire gracefully” now, he would have never built a world class team; he would have never made the glorious comeback to the Indian team; he would have never become one of the fines Indian captains of all time.

It would be naïve for anyone to think that Ganguly is doing all this for money. With the kind of respect and stature he has, I am sure he can easily earn much more money through other means. He is desperate to play in IPL as he has a point to prove. Kolkata Knight Riders have been the laughing stock of IPL for the past couple of years and as captain and a senior player in the team, a fair share of blame must go to Ganguly. Ganguly wants to set right the things. He wants to show his critics that he still has the firepower to hit those sixes over long on and long off; he can still find gaps in offside no matter how heavily guarded it is; as a leader of the team, if not the captain, he can still inspire youngsters to give their 110%.

At 38, I don’t know if Ganguly can still weave his magic, but what a moment it will be if he can. After all, isn’t it what sports is all about? To continuously challenge oneself without the fear of failure.

Why should I support RCB ?

Here is a question. In the Formula one championship if Karun Chandok is on the racing track, whom will you rather support? Karun Chandok or the team Force India (Owned by Vijay Mallaya)? I would rather go with Chandok than supporting a supposedly Indian team without any Indian drivers.

I have a similar dilemma with the IPL. For the last three years I was a die-hard fan of RCB. RCB had some of the stalwarts from Karnataka in Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid along with promising players like Robin Uthappa, Vinay Kumar, A Mithun and Manish Pandey, all of whom played for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy. Having these players in RCB gave me a reason to support the franchisee. The support to RCB was almost natural as there was continuity in supporting Karnataka and RCB.

Now that none of the above mentioned players are in the team except Mithun ( Kumble as a ‘mentor’ doesn’t count), I am finding it difficult to support my ‘home’ team. In fact, in RCB’s first match against Kochi, when Vinay kumar got Virat Kohli’s wicket, it made me happier.

So, the question comes, why should I support RCB? Is it because it has ‘Bangalore’ in the team name or because it plays all its ‘home’ matches in Bangalore or because its owner is based in Bangalore? Frankly speaking, none of these reasons excite me enough to support RCB.

It is not possible for any of the Franchisees to have all the players from the local region, but if at least 4-5 players are from the local team, it is easier to build a fan base and gain support.

Come April 19th and the match between Rajasthan Royals and the RCB and I might just support the Royals.

The art of taking power plays

In the second ODI between India and South Africa at Wanderers, South Africa required 46 runs from 19 overs at a rate of 2.42 with 7 wickets still intact,when they opted for batting powerplay. 5 overs later they had lost 3 more wickets, while scoring runs at a rate of 4 per over and the match was back in balance. India went on to win the nail-biter by 1 run.

Whether South Africa would have won the match if they did not opt for the powerplay is a hypothetical question which is anybody's guess; but the fact of the matter is that opting for the batting powerplay is a decision which most of the teams find tricky, especially during a run chase. There are so many variables attached to the decision that it becomes clear only in hindsight whether the decision to opt for the powerplay was a correct one or not. Consider the ODI between India and SA; if Smith and Miller had managed to score some runs by hitting over the infield, losing at most one wicket, taking the powerplay would have been hailed as a master stroke, with the argument that it allowed the batsmen to break free from the pressure created by the bowlers. Alas, that was not the case and South Africa lost their way during the powerplay.


Why Batting Powerplays don't work

Most of the time when a batting team opts for the powerplay, it is as if they are obliged to score runs quickly and quite surprisingly, they try to do so by slogging. Even batsmen with good techniques go for the horizontal bat shots and play across the line. Some times they do succeed, but most of the times they falter.

Another reason why powerplays don't work is the unreasonably high expectation teams have from them. Consider a scenario where a team is, say, 220-1 after 35 overs with two well-settled batsmen. The team aims for a minimum of 50-60 runs from the powerplay as the batsmen are well settled. On most occasions , the over-ambitious batsmen lose their wicket.

Sometimes the powerplay breaks the batting team's momentum. The batsmen would be scoring largely in singles and twos till the start of the powerplay and suddenly they find that the gaps in the field are plugged. One or two quite overs and the momentum shifts to the bowling side. This is not the case with the first powerplay, which coincides with the start of the innings or with the bowling powerplay, which most teams take right after the first one ( on a side note, its a surprise that there haven't been any innovative use of the bowling powerplay).

There are exceptions, though

However, sometimes the batting power play does work out for good. I remember the last ODI series between Australia and South Africa, where South Africa chased big totals in couple of tight games with the help of batting powerplay. Albie Morkel utilized them to perfection and scored some heavy runs during the powerplay which eventually won South Africa the matches. But again, such instances are quite rare.


Since there are so many pitfalls in taking a batting powerplay out of turn, most teams take it after the 40th over when batting first, preferably from 44th to 49th over. There is very little chance for things to go wrong at that stage of the innings. The decision is trickier when the team is chasing. No team or captain has mastered the art of taking the batting powerplay at the right time during a stiff chase. The ability of the captains to utilize the powerplays to their advantage ( or at least prevent it from being a spoiler) might just be the deciding factor in the world cup.

The curious case of Saurav Ganguly

So finally, no one bid for Saurav Ganguly. A great career coming to an unfairly ignominious end. Why did the franchisees choose not to bid for a player of Ganguly's caliber? The following could be the reasons:

Performance - In the 26 matches that he has played in IPL, Ganguly has a strike rate of 104.67. Compared to this, batsmen like Dravid, Wasim Jaffer and Laxman, who have a reputation of being slow scorers, have strike rates of 120.68, 107.44 and 105.45 respectively. Whichever angle you see it, Ganguly's batting performance was a big let down in the last 3 IPLs. This simple fact was perhaps drowned by his reputation.

Captaincy - Ganguly was one of the best captains India has ever had. There is no question about it. He had a keen eye for talent and had the guts to back it all the way. That is why the team he built had some talented young players like Sehwag, Yuvraj and Zaheer, all of whom he backed to the hilt. But given a team, which did not necessarily have the advantage of being more talented than the other teams, the important question was - Can he bring the team together and inspire them to punch above their weight, a la Shane Warne? Sadly, the answer was a big no. In the first and the third edition of the tournament, where he captained KKR, in spite of having a decent team he was not able to take KKR to the semi-finals.

Reputation - Saurav Ganguly has always had a reputation of someone who is a difficult person to handle. Right from the time when as a 19 year old he refused to carry drinks (something which he denies doing) to his altercation with Greg Chappell, he has been controversy's child. In a tournament like IPL, where players from across the world come together for a very short duration of time, the ability to get along with the players and coaches count for a lot.

Base price - The combination of the aforementioned three points makes it very difficult for any of the franchisees to bid for him. Add to it the base price of $400,000, it becomes impossible. Perhaps, Ganguly would have found few takers at $200,000, which was his initial base price.

It will be interesting to see how the Kolkata crowd reacts to Ganguly's omission from the IPL. Having seen the fanatic support Ganguly commands in whole of Bengal, I would be surprised if KKR gets any support from the crowd. But that is still some time away. The IPL auction has shown one thing for sure - stature counts for little in this big bad world of cricketainment.