Season's Greetings

First off the bat, A Happy New Year to all of you good people out there. Having binged on the food and the drink and the cricket in India,I had very little time to blog - there is only so much a man can do in a day ( especially if u factor in long hours of siesta to go with the food and the drink !).

2007 ended the way 2007 began - with a crawl.

Then, it was Newlands. Now, it was Melbourne. And in between, there were plenty of lows to make 2007 the "annus horribilis" for Indian cricket.
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India was fun.. I nearly went to see the last day's play of the Mumbai - Saurashtra game. Mercifully, I was detained with work (who knew!) and so I caught the game on TV. And saw Ramesh Powar and Vinayak Samant play the most horrendous of forehand cross court overheads that basically gave the game away to Saurashtra.

For a team to collapse from 378/3 to 463 all out chasing 484 is criminal. At home, even more so. Against a team that you used to beat for fun; unpardonable.
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Had an interesting conversation with an uncle of mine on the apparent "demise" of cricket in Mumbai. Club cricket, he said, is on the wane in Mumbai. The Kanga League and the Times Shield are no longer the marquee tournaments on the cricketing calender. The Gymkhana system is on the decline with Dadar Union or Shivaji Park Gymkhanas not quite what they were in the 80s. And offices do not recruit cricketers anymore.

The only thing going about is age group cricket.

And the problem with age group cricket is that all of the kids in the age group level are roughly the same age. And because of this, there is no "mentoring" a la club cricket wherein a 40 year old grizzled veteran of many a skirmish would be around to guide a 16 year old colt on the intricacies and vagaries of the game.

And because the "mentoring" no longer exists, there is a lot less cricketing savvy on display - kids have all the skills coaching can get you but implementing those skills and thinking about the game is a whole different story altogether.
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Played some cricket myself while in India..Was an experience.

Here I was with a bunch of 15 year olds who played schools cricket. Every single one of them was coached. And, as with every kid in today's day and age, each one of them was privy to television and the nuances of the game ( batting, bowling and fielding) that the visual medium exposes.

And , to a man, they did exactly what we uncoached neanderthals did when we were young - the fielding was abysmal, there was no thinking when it came to the batting or bowling. Fielders stood on their heels, no one backed up the ball, the batting approach was unplanned and the bowling was about putting the ball there and there abouts...

Some things never change !
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Having spent the 1st of January on the plane and being jet lagged, I missed all of the first day's play between India and Australia at Sydney.

But, I did read all about it in the newspapers and blogs ( thank you!).

I am amazed the term "Bucknored" has not entered the cricketing lexicon as yet.. It could be the 12th mode of dismissal you know.. After the run outs and the caught behinds and the LBWs, there is the "Bucknored". :)
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There has been a lot of talk of using more technology in cricket to minimize umpiring decision. On the face of it, sounds like a plan. But, and here is the catch, technology is not fool proof. And can be tampered with.

I remember reading during one of India's tour to South Africa that SABC had not provided all the camera angles for line decisions involving the South Africans, making the third umpire's job doubly difficult.

And then there was the Scott Muller "Cant bat, cant bowl" comment that was attributed to Shane Warne but was by a Channel 9 cameraman and which was telecast world wide.

Which raises the question of integrity and malice.

What if some overzealous production team decides the home team must get the benefit every time - what is to prevent video or audio tampering?

And can the ICC standardize the tools and the camera angles production companies must make available for umpires?Should "Hot Spot" be a standard? What about "Tracker"? And "Super Slo mo"?

And what of the cost? And what about innovation if production houses are boxed into providing only "X" number of tools to the umpires?

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Saw the Rahul Dravid - VVS Laxman duet in its entirety. And for the first time in a very long time, Rahul Dravid looked in control. Bangalore had been a disaster as had Melbourne.. Even during the 50 against Pakistan, Rahul Dravid did not look in control of the proceedings and his game.

Maybe it was the way he left the ball or maybe it was the forward defense. Maybe it was the desire to run the quick single.. Maybe it was just me.. Whatever it was, the Rahul Dravid innings augurs well for him and India for the rest of the series. Somewhat like the second innings at Brisbane in 2003.

And here is Peter Roebuck on the Very Very Special innings.
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And finally, remember this sledge?

I was reminded of this while watching Dwayne Bravo's heroics against South Africa.. Three years later, there is one guy playing to win against the Proteas while the other is nursing a bruised ankle when he is not busy nursing a drink.

Wonder what Freddie makes of it!