Can Rajasthan Royals wear the crown again?

Rajasthan Royals is playing IPL’09 as a defending champion. In IPL’08, no one had thought, this team would win the tournament. Shane Warne proved to be a lucky charm for desert land.

At the time of auction before IPL’08, all the teams were fighting for players like Dhoni, Hayden and other proven players. Warne was keeping faith on players like Sohail Tanveer, Munaf Patel and Sidharth Trivedi. It was proved, when this team won the tournament without any big name.

All the players of team performed like true champions and as a unit. Dream came true for many players to play with greats like Shane Warne and Graeme Smith. Warne played the role of motivator for all the youngsters than a mere captain. A player, who is from other country and handling a bunch of Indian Youngsters, is not an easy job. This legend spinner did not let his greatness go out of limit at any time of the tournament. He knew very well that a player could not do much single handed in cricket; he kept all the players united, focussed and ready to face any situation.

But, Before IPL’09 begins; Rajasthan Royals axed six of its players from the team and sent back home from South Africa. Team management did not feel necessary to disclose the reason of axing the players. It is the mere assumption of media that these players have been axed due to their performance of in the last IPL season. If this is the reason, why did not management feel axing them before flying to South Africa?

Sources are also saying, franchisee has not enough money to maintain the accommodation of all the players in South Africa as expenditure has increased by more than double to last season. So, they decided to axe some players on the level of performance. This decision of franchisee can affect the performance of remaining players or increase the level of performance.

Will Warne be able to repeat the magic of 2008? Let’s wait till action of IPL gaga gets over.

Dhoni, then and now

Dhoni started his international cricket in 2004 against Srilanka. It was a bad start of the career of this resilient captain, who had misjudged the second ball of Muralidharan and adjudged LBW by umpire. But it was not over for this Jharkhandi boy, who later on, made his own identity in international cricket by showing different class of maturity level in very early cricketing career.

The knock of 148 runs in Vishakhapatnam against Pakistan and 183 runs in Jaipur against Srilanka blew the arrival of new hero in international cricket with containment of different class in batting style. Indian cricket found a new wicketkeeper all rounder, who can do justice in front as well as back of wicket.

With the aim of achieving the status of Gilchrist in international cricket, the man of Ranchi started playing this game. In five years of his cricketing career, Indian cricket has been lucky enough to see the different status of Dhoni. From a long hair boy with zeal to do more to the cool headed captain leading his team from front.

In early days, he used to play attacking cricket without taking any kind of pressure on his shoulder. After playing for a year or two, he started playing the role of a finisher. He and Yuvraj Singh emerged as a threat in one-day cricket for oppositions. At a time, it had become a regular practice for these two to guide the team to victory.
In 2007, when Indian trio of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly had decided not to play first ICC Twenty-20 world cup, Indian selectors were searching for a player, who could guide the team, consist of youngsters. Selectors had no clue because, Virender Sehwag, who was being considered as a future captain, was out of form and fighting for place in the team. Indian team was playing in England, when Selectors announced the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni as captain for Twenty-20 world cup. It was unbelievable news for Dhoni but true.
Indian team won the first Twenty-20 World Cup in South Africa. The captaincy of Dhoni was acclaimed by all the greats of cricketing fraternity.
Indian cricket could not celebrate this win for long as Rahul Dravid, resigned from the captaincy of One-day and Test cricket after England Series. Rumors started flowing in and around the each corner of cities on different names for the prolific post of captain.
Once, Mohammad Azharuddin had compared Indian captaincy with the blade of knife. He had told, Indian captaincy was like a blade of knife where, there was no chance for anyone to make any mistake. After boggling on different names, finally, selectors came up with two names, Anil Kumble as the captain of test cricket and Dhoni for One-day and Twenty-20.
The stature of Dhoni was increasing day and night. Suddenly, he started being seen on each poster hanged on shops and showrooms. Corporate industry took him on their noses. Suddenly, he started demanding more than a crore for one advertisement.
But, it was like a dream came true for this Jharkhandi, who came to know that, none other than little master suggested his name for the post of captain.
Now, Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads Indian Cricket in all three format of game and took team to a different level. Today’s Indian team is a mixture of young as well as experienced. At one point of time, team gets motivation by the presence of Tendulkar then at other time, it learns to fight till last ball by seeing the fighting attitude of Mr. Captain.

IPL kicked off

Now, It would be foolish to say, why did not IPL happen in India? Let’s get out of that mode and enjoy all the actions happening in the land of Protease.
Inauguration match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians set the tone of 2nd season of IPL. Chennai Super Kings won the toss and decided to bowl. Decision of Dhoni looked right as Super Kings got rid off Jayasurya early. Shikhar Dhawan also could not do much; he also departed after scoring mere twenty runs. Dhoni’s wings were getting wickets at regular interval but I don’t think Dhoni had done enough analytical study on the technique of little master, who went on and on and returned not out as the inning of Mumbai Indians got over. Once again, Abhishek Nayar proved his skill in shorter format by hitting three big sixes in an over of Andrew Flintoff. Mumbai Indians set the target of 167 runs to win for Chennai Super Kings.
The start of Chennai Super Kings was also not up to the mark, they lost Parthiv Patel and in form Suresh Raina in the first five over of the inning. Mathew Hayden and Andrew Flintoff tried their best to build a good partnership and take the team out of danger.
As Chennai super kings were looking for easy win, Harbhajan Singh striked for Mumbai Indians; he took an easy catch of Andrew Flintoff on his own bowling. Hayden also could not handle the pressure and threw his wicket on the bowling of Jayasurya. From here, Mumbai Indians succeeded to make the pressure on Super Kings, in the result of that, they got wickets at regular interval. Super Kings managed to score only 146. Mumbai Indians won the inauguration match by 19 runs.
Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged “Man of the Match” for his brave 59 runs.

Let the games begin

The countdown for the second season in the IPL has started. Lalit Modi’s sleepless nights are increasing (only helped by the world’s daylight saving time memorandum). In the past two months, Modi had devoted his time juggling and deciding the venues and trying hard to provide security to the players. He panicked when he lost his Rajasthan seat and when the Indian government forced the domestic tournament out of the country; the mercury on his blood pressure monitor would have exploded out of its thin capillary.

If my research holds me in good stead, South Africa too is also holding a national and provincial election for electing a new national assembly on 22nd of April.

In an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN, Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram commented that the tournament could have been organized in two phases in the country. League matches before the elections start and knock out matches after election gets over.
PC has however had obviously not done his homework. The entire cricket playing nation calendar for the next eight months is crowded with players on national duty perpetually. The respected Home Minister and former Finance Minister has avoided considering the monetary expense in organizing matches in two phases.

If this IPL season kick starts in the boisterous mode like its predecessor and is able to draw the attention of cricket lovers in South Africa (and all over the world), it would be a tight slap on the face of the mighty Indian Government, who acted as the villain in shifting the tournament to foreign shores.

Chidambaram, without considering the backlashes, told the world that he would include himself in that ninety eight percent of audiences, who relish watching matches on TV rather than going to the stadium.

I want to remind him of the first IPL season, when people stood in queue for a solitary ticket for more than 10 hours. Before commenting on national television, he should have fitted himself in the shoes of a cricket lover rather than a minister who enjoys Z+ grade security and attending mere sporting events is dangerous to his life.

Indian cricket reached to a new height after IPL’08. A little application and man management would have made IPL-2 possible in the country itself. To the dismay of the common Indian cricket fan, however, messy politics has shoved this mega event, which might turn the face of international cricket as it stands. I think, this might be the first in history when a political party loses its standing due the shifting of a sporting venue. The last time the government tried to alter cricket schedules for the election, the India-Pakistan series in 2004, BJP lost its standing and now sits in the opposition with no political clout left in the country.

India has often fantasized about hosting the football World Cup and may be, even the Olympics in the country, but this dream might soon be a figment of imagination after this move.
Cricket is the only sport, which hogs the limelight internationally, with its players performing wonderfully well. World Cup ’11, however, looks doubtful now. Another event lost after the Commonwealth games and the Hockey World Cup, which had India as one of its hosts.
Now the interesting twist will be the international community embracing the IPL as its own and further increasing the BCCI’s muscle.

Lastly, it would be right, if South African Government organizes a crash course for their Indian counterpart to develop a way to manage election and host a tournament at the same time. Let’s wait and watch, what the IPL and the Lok Sabha election have in store for us. It would be interesting to see, has cricket become bigger than everything else or does democracy still matter to the countrymen? I shall rest my case after the final is played in Johannesburg.

Test Killer

We didn’t expect this ending from West Indies, who played brilliantly in the entire series against England and shown some substance in their batting and bowling department. When Chris Gayle lifted the Wisden Trophy after winning the series, I don’t think, any of Caribbean would have felt proud of his team after seeing this type of performance from team in the last match.
We have been getting the regular comments about the future of test cricket from our cricket experts. It looks true after seeing this type of performance from any team. England set the target of 266 runs in minimum 66 overs, which was easily achievable. More than all, West Indies started its 2nd inning by keeping in the mind to draw the match rather than going for win.
If this type of performance will be coming continuously from a test-playing nation, we can’t expect one team to dream to achieve number one spot in ICC test ranking. One can never get to see this type of performance by Australian team, who has been occupying number one spot for a decade. Australia never starts inning with keeping draw in mind. We have seen so many times in past that if ever, Australia has the lead of 1-0 in the series and one match is remaining, they go for win rather than mere draw. It reflects the supremacy of any team on the international arena.
To save the pure form of cricket is in the hand of all the test playing nations. They have to make it interesting and competitive.

No need of Sachin in One-day Cricket

Hey, why not Sachin stop playing one-day matches? Why do not selectors give chance to youngsters? I think time is up for Sachin Tendulkar. His body does not allow playing aggressive cricket as he used to play in nineties. Team should get habituated to play without this legend.
Indian team has been performing brilliantly for one and half years. Twenty20 world cup in 2007 proved to be foray for the team. Indian team went into a big series like world cup for the first time without this little master. This came after trio of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly denied to participate in Twenty20 world cup held in South Africa in 2007. This transition had given chance to some youths, who were knocking the door of Indian team since long. Lastly, Indian team filled with youths got to believe in themselves, when they returned with the cap of T-20 champion.
More than all, Indian cricket got a new cool-headed captain in the form of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who believes in team game rather than one-man sheep. He made everyone to believe that anyone can be man on his own day. It used not to happen in nineties when Indian team used to solely depend on Sachin Tendulkar to win the matches for the team. But that time is gone. Now, everyone is capable of taking the team to win the matches. Whether, he is Suresh Raina or Yusuf Pathan.
Indian team has been winning matches even in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar. Team has got a good opening combination in the form of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. Presence of Sachin forces Gambhir to come at number three in one-day matches, which is not usual or daily place for this rhythmic player. Sehwag opens the inning with Gambhir in Twent20 and test cricket and he prefers to open the inning with Gambhir in ODI also.
The technique and class of Tendulkar have become past for spectators to see. Spectators have to wait for days to see the old Sachin, who used to believe in dominating bowlers rather than playing defensive game. These days, Opposition bowlers are more afraid of Sehwag than Tendulkar. Now Sachin has started believing in playing the role of anchor in the team and want team to evolve around him. He wants to cover up his slow innings by making the excuses by saying that it is the need of the team. But he forgets that legend like Vivian Richards and Donald Bradman had never changed their style of play in their whole career.
It is good to see Tendulkar playing the role of anchor but it’s not time to play the old fashioned game. Tendulkar concentrating on tests will be more useful for team than playing like an old horse and blocking the place of youths like Badrinath and Pujara.
I hope Tendulkar take some decision at the time team is doing brilliant and boys believe in themselves. Enough is enough

India outplays Kiwis in the entire department

India played like winner from very first day of this test match. It was really interesting to see the style of approaching the test by India. It became one sided game from very 1st day, when New Zealand was bowled out on 279 runs. New Zealand could not stop Sachin Tendulkar by scoring 42nd ton of his test and 85th ton of his international career. Tendulkar became the first Indian to score more than 600 runs against New Zealand and equaled Dravid’s record of scoring four centuries against New Zealand. More than the batting style of Tendulkar, it was to see the style of Dravid, who batted with more confidence than he did in Srilanka. He could not score much, but his approach was more focused and determined. With the contribution in batting from all the batsmen, Bowlers also stood to the expectation and bowled like true champions. Pace trio of Zaheer, Ishant and Munaf were in full blow and in spin department Harbhajan single handedly distracted the whole batting line ups of Kiwis in the 2nd inning. Harbhajan proved himself by taking six wickets in 2nd inning that it is not necessary to for him to be provided spinning track, he can take wickets and force a batsman to make mistake by bowling on any provided pitch.
Now, it would be interesting to see the approach of Kiwis in 2nd test as they will never want to lose the series on home soil. If India wins the 2nd test match, it would be record win for this Indian side, as none of Indian team could repeat the performance of 1968, when India won test series against New Zealand. Good luck Dhoni.

Dyson is not a right choice

John Dyson loves coaching international side in cricket but unaware of basic rules. Currently he is coach of West Indies team and in the fray of becoming coach of England Cricket team. If we go by statistics, he does not prove himself the right person for English coach. In the first one-day match between West Indies and England, he came out as a villain. West Indies lost by two runs by Duckworth-Lewis method. West Indies needed two more runs to win at the time; he called his batsmen in as he misread the Duckworth- Lewis rule. After he called his batsmen in, both the teams started celebrating, but it could not last long for West Indies as match referee Javagal Srinath declared England as a winner by one run.
I don’t know how much Dyson capable of the post of English coach is, if he can’t understand Duckworth-Lewis method properly? If he was not sure, why did not he discuss with Chris Gayle, who was captaining the side. It was really unfortunate for West Indies to digest the result as they have been performing brilliantly in the entire winter season. On the other side, its breathing win for England as it is their first win in the winter season.
If England is really serious to appoint Dyson as coach for the national team, they have to think hundred times. Right now England needs someone like Gary Kirsten, who is cool headed and takes the team on one note. After Pietersen left the captaincy and Peter Moores was sacked, England team is running through bad phase. Team needs someone to whose decision England team can rely.

Can Pietersen bring fortune for Mallya?

Fortune favours the brave. RCB chief is applying the same proverb on Kevin Pietersen by appointing him as the captain of Royal Challenger team in forthcoming IPL. He has been appointed after so many discussions with team administrative and Rahul Dravid, who was captaining the side in the last IPL edition.
How much this decision will help RCB is not sure as Pietersen will not be available for full time. Jacques Kallis, South African batsman will replace him after he leaves for national duty. Mallya is relying on the same old man like Kallis to bring cup for RCB rather than relying on young gun, Robin Uthappa, who can handle better than Kallis or Pietersen. In the domestic circuit, Robin Uthappa has been captaining Karnataka for while and he knows local players better than anyone else in the team. More than anything else, he can be better prospect for leading this side for long as he is local and proper Bangalorean.
Mallya denied the possibility of Kumble as captaining the side just because of age and now he is relying on Kallis. In any game, communication is very much needed and it would be really difficult for Kallis and Pietersen to communicate with local players. We can’t compare everyone with Shane Warne, who has done tremendous job in the last edition by leading Rajasthan Royals from front as he was captain cum coach and mentor. More than anything else, he was available ate the time of auction and made it sure hat he got his choice of players but it did not happen with Kallis and Pietersen.
If Mallya really wants to see his team on top in this IPL, he will have to stop climbing high without having proper base.

Australia retains No.1 spot

Another frontier taken over

Australia retained number one spot after winning heartbreaking series against South Africa by 2-0. This series has been the revival of Australian team as they have seen some positive performance by some of their players. They have got a positive minded opener batsman in the form of Phil Hughes. Opening slot was looking fussy after the retirement of Mathew Hayden and Justin Langer. More than this, it has got an unmatched pacer in the form of Mitchell Johnson, who has been performing brilliantly in this series. In the absence of Bret Lee, it was difficult task for Johnson to carry the burden of frontline bowler. Now, Australia can depend on Johnson for providing wickets in start of the inning, which was disappeared after the retirement of Mc Grath. Australian can even be proud of Brad Haddin who has been performing truly as an all rounder. He has been performing equally well in batting and behind the wicket.
Australian had seen dump in their performance in last three seasons after retirement of some of their three legends like Mc Grath, Shane Warne, Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden. In this series, they have started looking like a group of performers in the presence of Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Haddin and Johnson. This win was the need of time for this Australian team as they were totally down after the defeat against South Africa and India. They were defeated convincingly in their courtyard by South Africa and India had won Border-Gavaskar trophy in its soil.
Ricky Ponting would be feeling relaxed as he was under tremendous pressure after defeat against India and South Africa. In the presentation after the win of 2nd test, he said, "We played some amazing Test cricket over the last couple of weeks and a level of cricket that everybody outside of our dressing room thought we weren't capable of. That's been the most satisfying thing for me."
Australia got richer by $1.75 million for retaining number spot in ICC test ranking. Now, it has to carry this momentum till last match to do the clean sweep.

No Comments

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is being criticized all over world for the incidence of 3rd March happened in Lahore. Srilanka Cricket Team got to know how unsafe it was to tour Pakistan, when the bullet of terrorist hit five of their players.
These all got normal after a day or two, when Srilanka team reached Colombo safely. But suddenly PCB got thunder from World’s best umpire Simon Taufel, when he criticized PCB for not providing security equal to the level of players. He raised many questions against PCB. But, was it right way to raise questions? If Simon Taufel knew that Pakistan was not safe to tour, why did he tour? If he toured, why didn’t he ask for high level of security at the start of tour?
Question didn’t stop with Simon Taufell. Chris Broad also raised question on security status in Pakistan, who was doing the job of Match Referee in that test series. The issue of Chris Broad went much deeper, when Ijaz Butt, PCB chairman complained against referee with International Cricket Council for making the issue public. Chris Broad in his statement given to media told that "We were promised high level security and in our hour of need that security vanished and they left us to be sitting ducks." These all statement seemed like building castles in the air.
Can any umpire or referee deny touring any country? It is not there in the rules and regulation of the ICC. But, it is clearly mentioned in section 1.1(c) of code and conduct for umpires that no umpire can give any statement in public in which two member countries of ICC are playing match. Simon Taufell violated the code of Conduct and ICC for this kind of behavior must give him notice.
Now, it depends on ICC, what steps it takes in next executive board meeting going to be held in the month of April.

20-20 CRICKET? NO PLEASE

In a world where money talks, cricket has been marketed exceedingly well by its advisories. What is forgotten in all the hype and the noise is the strain and pressures a player undergoes each time he steps onto the field.
Modern day cricket is all about hype and pressure a player has to undergo – He has to be very resilient and adapt like a superman (he needs to be cool as a cucumber, ensure he is not injury prone and not let the adulation and money get the better of him).

It was thought - A two-hour football game is more gripping and pressure worse than a pressure cooker – Players succumbing to heart attacks were witnessed on the field. The Reason being Pressure. In two hours, you have violent fans screaming and rooting their players to perform. Pulsating moment for the body and the mind in those two hours.

Now, cricket with its Twenty-20 (T-20) format will push players into performing like super humans. Especially in India a country known for its love for cricket – the players have to scale up and satiate the cricket crazy populace OR perish. We will soon witness many cricketers clutching his chest and slumping in the field.
But the saying "Be a Roman while in Rome" applies well here. In a nation seized by cricketing frenzy where people literally worship mortals, ordinary cricketers are made to feel like super heroes. It is, in some way, the duty of cricketers to entertain the masses. The world has changed, too. Heavy-duty bikes and cars have been replaced by lighter, faster ones similarly; the game has to change with the taste and higher expectation of the audiences. The players of today need more skills than technique, more guts than patience, more nerve than stamina.

Players have started earning more money than before. Cricket is spreading in different parts of the world with the initiative of the International Cricket Council and other cricket boards. Spectators have started enjoying the game more than before. However, the question remains the same: is T-20 an evolution of real cricket or gulley cricket, where the batsmen are expected to dispatch every ball onto the boundary? In the international arena, Test cricket is still considered real cricket, where technique and the temperament of batsmen and bowlers are tested at various levels. People who prefer Test cricket to the limited-over forms of the game are often called purists. They are very few compared to the cricket crazy masses that enjoy the slam- bam variety.

The few lovers of Test cricket are the real connoisseurs and think of it as the classical form. It is classical because it is a cultivated form of the game, distinct from both local, popular, primitive forms of bat-and-ball games as well as modern abridged variants such as One Day Internationals (ODIs) and T-20.

More than Test cricket, the ICC is now focusing on 50-50 and 20-20 cricket. Some players feel that one-day cricket can now replace Test cricket, as T-20 becomes the new one-day. All cricket boards have started organizing tournaments mostly aimed at making money rather than developing the game. Gone are the days, when in a series, more Test matches were played than one-dayers. In the current scenario, a series usually has a couple of T-20 matches thrown in to make the tournament exciting. This means that the length and width of the grounds are reduced to help cricketers hit fours and sixes with ease and pitches made more batsmen friendly, to help them score more than 300 runs. All this are being done with an eye to phase out Test cricket. The players, however, are not willing to accept this truth.

Going by business angle – T-20 is the best bet – Cricket crazy masses far outnumber the purists.
"It is just weird and a hard thing to get your head around." Pietersen, Former England Captain says.

It would be fair to say the T-20 is a lop-sided game. The so-called new rules favor the batsmen. The bowlers are just queued up as lambs to a slaughter house. No-Ball rule is a shocker. A free hit awarded in favor of the batsmen (double whammy) everything going in for the batsmen and very demoralizing for the bowler, it is simply not fair when a game murders an entire community in the name of entertainment! Genocide is more like it.

However, cricket is not pure entertainment; sadly, it has been made out to be so throughout the world, more so in India. It is not a movie that you go to, expecting 100 per cent entertainment. It is a game by mortals with flesh and blood like you and me playing to earn a living. Even in a movie, there are parts, which, by them, are not entertaining but contribute to the overall enjoyment. Similarly, while cricket is expected to entertain, it needs to provide players the opportunity to use the skills they have learnt, to apply the tactics they have discussed, and to plot brilliant ploys for the opponents. The climax, of course, will be entertaining.
However, in a T-20 match, this beautiful phase where minds battle and skill is tested has no space. It all boils down to mindless hitting from the time they say start to the time they scream STOP! STOP (similar to crazy school boys swinging their bat aimlessly).

Players need to stand up and fight for Test cricket. Agreed, it has to be made more lively and interesting to win more spectators. Five days of play should produce better results than mere draws. Authorities, too, need to be serious about cricket. They have been entrusted with a lot more than merely the job of lining their pockets. Long live cricket!

Good and Bad time

Pakistan Cricket Board appointed Younis Khan as a captain to bring out some changes and fortune for the team. He did to some extent by leading Pakistan from front in the first test match against Srilanka by scoring double century. Was it enough for Pakistan cricket to celebrate? I don’t know but terrorist thinks so. After the attack on Srilanka players, its undeceiving moment for us to think that Where is Pakistan cricket heading? Its really black day for not only Pakistani cricket but for all the cricketing body.

Pakistan has become epicenter for terrorist. Firstly, they tried to destabilize Pakistan cricket by attacking New Zealand Cricket team in 2001, later on, they tried by killing former Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer. Now, they attacked Srilanka cricket team, who had shown courage by touring Pakistan not once but twice.

Is it the end of Pakistan cricket, Chris Broad, who was match referee for the test series thinks so. In the interview given to BBC, he mentioned that now it would be very difficult for other teams to decide about touring Pakistan to play any tournament.

But, why sports? Sports have been doing the fabulous work in bringing harmony and peace among countries. There is live example of India and Pakistan, New Zealand and Australia. Sports, especially cricket is worshipped in South Asian countries.

People of Pakistan love to watch their players performing well on international arena. Chacha, a Pakistani fan has been traveling all over world to cheer his team. Former president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf was a great fan of this game. He always used to follow Pakistan cricket. He never tried to miss any chance to witness any cricket match. His great words for Dhoni (Indian Captain) to not to take hair cut were a special one. Are all these things not enough to prove passion of Pakistani people for the game of cricket?

More than all these things, it is high time for all the cricketing body to be united and take a unanimous decision to do some good for Pakistan cricket. We can’t do injustice by seeing Pakistan as a separate nation. Pakistan has always toured India, even if there is tension between two countries. So, is it not right to say that India should help Pakistan in this crisis time rather than taking step against them?