Three worries

India lost a rain affected match against Sri Lanka yesterday. That, in itself is no cause for worry. India had to lose a match or two in the CB series ( over 11 games, maintaining a clean sheet against the World Champions and the runners up is a huge huge ask). And it is best that we lost a game where we had little control of the variables.

First, no one was quite sure when the game would start and what its length would be. Then, the Indians did not quite figure out how to pace their innings. And when they did reach a competitive score, rains interfered once again - a Twenty over shootout turned the game decisively in Sri Lanka's favor.

That said, India could have done some things better - Sreesanth needs to control his bowling lengths better, India needed to be a little more nimble with their thinking.

But there are 3 concerns that over-ride India's performance and which could have been addressed if India had won yesterday. They are ( in no particular order)

1. Yuvraj Singh's form - 39 runs from 10 innings in Australia is a worry.

2. Lack of batting opportunities for the middle and lower orders - Robin Uthappa on down, the batsmen have had only one hit in the middle in 4 games. While it is a good thing that India has not collapsed spectacularly while batting and hence havent had the opportunity to test their batting, it does not help if half the batting lineup does not get any batting whatsoever during match situations.

3. The bench strength. An India win yesterday could have allowed us to play Raina, Tiwary, Praveen Kumar, Dinesh Karthik and Piyush Chawla over the two games at Adelaide. Instead, India has to now focus on winning the next couple of games to stay in contention - and even if they do, it will be a huge leap of faith to play the bench in the last two games with the finals round the corner (not wanting to disturb a winning combination and all that - something that cost us in the ODI series against England).

Plenty to ponder for India over this week.

A deserved win

and one full of character.. The Sharma boys led the way with the ball and the bat. Everyone in the Indian team chipped in and were well led.

Kudos and enjoy the win, but the job is not yet complete.

Darren Berry on batting

a brilliant piece, reproduced here in full ( I especially liked his take on the impact of Twenty20 on cricketing skills - and I completely agree).

People say that Twenty20 is destroying the future of bowlers in the game. I disagree. This fast-food approach to cricket is destroying batsmen more than bowlers.

A few weeks ago, the Victorian 2nd XI played NSW in Melbourne and lost convincingly. One batsman aside, the rest played without purpose or accountability. After the match, I spoke to the group, but really I was talking to the young batting group about their sub-standard performance. I used the analogy that batting was like driving a car. And said that, like manual gearboxes, tempo batting was sadly becoming a thing of the past.

Batting with any sort of process and logic has been thrown out the window and old-fashioned slogging has become the norm in all forms of the game. A carefree approach of all-out attack has become a disturbing trend across the country.

Victoria has some super-talented young batsmen but the likes of Aiden Blizzard, Robert Quiney and Aaron Finch like only to work in overdrive. They are exciting to watch but rarely go the distance. They are made for the Calder Thunderdome, where speed is the ultimate concern. Put them at Bathurst and they would struggle to navigate the bends, hills and gear changes required to be still going at the end.

Starting your innings should be like starting your car in the morning - it takes some warming up. You must start slowly and proceed with caution during the early stages of your journey. Once the old choke is pushed in you may proceed into second gear. But still, you must watch the wicket, the bowler, the outfield, the field placings and construct an innings accordingly. If you have passed the first set of traffic lights you can slip up into third gear and start playing some controlled shots, accumulating runs as you go. Occasionally, you may get a break in the traffic and can quickly shift up into top gear, cracking a couple through the covers.

When the runs are flowing, this driving caper can suddenly appear pretty easy. Then all of a sudden there's a bowling change, the new bowler is hitting a line and length and, like hitting a red light, you'll need to come down through the gears. Cricket is all about tempo; the smart player obeys the red light and pauses for a moment before accelerating again. Most of the modern players are getting caught by the red-light cameras trying to run the gauntlet on amber.

I'm sure the young players thought I'd lost my marbles as I delivered my driving-the-manual-car story. Most, if not all of them, drive automatics. While handbrake starts on a hill still haunt me, the youth of today wouldn't even know what they are. And nor, it appears, do they worry about starting their innings in first and second gear. They're for old grannies.

Old grannies such as Brad Hodge, Victoria's most experienced player, who showed last Wednesday night at the MCG that to be successful, you must be able to bat through all the gears. Hodge has struggled in recent times with form and footwork. He walked to the middle after the loss of an early wicket - Blizzard, who is running short of demerit points and may soon have his licence suspended.

Hodge was stuck in first gear for ages but he persisted and finally was able to move into cruise control. Hodge was playing his 100th one-day game for Victoria - the first to do so - and showed his class, moving up and down in tempo according to the situation. In the end, he guided Victoria into the grand final with an unbeaten century. His more inexperienced batting partner, Cameron White (who also still prefers the Thunderdome to Bathurst) played equally well and is starting to realise the benefits of working up through the gears.

As I drove home from that second XI game, I wondered, like all coaches do, if I'd lost the boys that day or had I helped them to become better players? As I pulled up at a set of traffic lights, my mobile phone beeped. It was a text message from two of the young players driving home. They were stuck at a level crossing with the boom gates down and texted me to ask, cheekily, what they should do?

I wrote, 'Stay patient and wait for the right time to accelerate with caution'. In other words, take a single, get to the non-strikers end. Alternatively, smash through the boom gates like most of our young batsmen and get cleaned up by the train in the process. I hope they got my message.

A tale of two ODIs

26th November 2006 and 10th February 2008. Two ODIs. Both played in the southern hemisphere. Both featuring India.

Our bowling line up then

Zaheer Khan
Ajit Agarkar
Irfan Pathan
Anil Kumble
Harbhajan Singh
Sachin Tendulkar

Our bowling now

Sreesath
Ishant Sharma
Irfan Pathan
Harbhajan Singh
Virender Sehwag
Yuvraj Singh
Sachin Tendulkar

Our opponents then - South Africa
Our opponents now - Australia

Then, South Africa were 76/6 in the 20th over. Now, Australia were 92/6 in 25.2 overs.

Then, South Africa ended up at 274/7. Now, Australia were all out for 159.

The difference? The captaincy.

Yes, the bowlers bowled well and yes, we held on to our catches.But in the end, it was the captaincy that stood out - MS Dhoni's reading of the game was spot on.

Yes, he may have bowled Sehwag for one over too many and maybe he could have pulled in his field instead of having 3 in the deep when the spinners came on, but his field placings and his bowling rotation was brilliant.

If India go on to win here at Melbourne, the ghost of the Newlands ODI will finally be laid to rest.

Youth and experience

Since we are a young and inexperienced team, here is a suggestion -

India's ODI itinerary for the year 2008 looks like this

Tri-Series in Australia (Aus, Ind & SL) ( min 8, max 11 games)
Tri-Series in Bangladesh (Ban, Ind & SA) ( probable min 6, max 7 games)
The Asia Cup ( min 2, max 6 matches)
versus Zimbabwe ( 3 games)
versus Sri Lanka ( 5 games)
versus England ( 7 games)
versus Pakistan ( 5 games)

Effectively, India plays between 36 and 44 ODIs in the year 2008.If I were Dilip Vengsarkar or MS Dhoni or both, I would persist with the same group of players ( give or take a Yusuf Pathan) that is currently doing duty in Australia through all of these games.

The advantages are two fold

1. The sheer number of games gives us a bigger sample data to make judgments on which players are long term investments versus flashes in the pan.

2. We are playing just about all the cricketing nations in the world, barring New Zealand and the West Indies in this period. Also, we will be playing in all the four countries hosting the World Cup in 2011. By playing in different conditions and against varied opposition over the course of one year, judgments made will be quantifiable and intelligent instead of vague and speculatory.

The tangential advantage I see is that if changes have to be made before the New Zealand tour, the selectors will also have data available from the Ranji Trophy which will have commenced in October/November, thus leading to an informed selection.

Also, this whole youth versus experience debate is nonsensical in my view. What India wants is for two things to happen

1. In the immediate term, identify and groom a team that gives us the best opportunity to lift the World Cup at the Wankhede in 2011

2. In the long term, identify and nurture players who will be the backbone of the Indian lineup and who can make the seamless transition from ODI to Test cricket.

And if we do not start now, 3 years and a bit before the World Cup commences, we will end up repeating history.

And surely,this must have been the biggest lesson learnt from the disaster that was the World Cup 2007.
----
On Yuvraj Singh - if I were the Indian think tank, I would jettison the move of playing him at 4 for the next couple of games atleast. And here's why -

Yuvraj lacks both form and confidence. And the longer time he has at the crease, the more time he has to think about his lack of form . And the more time the opposition has to remind him of his lack of form.

What Yuvraj needs is not time but a dose of confidence. And for that reason, I would not bat him any higher than with 5-7 overs left in the game.

Get out there, swing the willow, connect a few, run hard between the wickets and, through all this, keep the brain in the freezer.

Do this a couple of times and the form and the confidence will be back. And if not, there is always Manoj Tiwary.

Dont quite get it

Channel 9 lists the Indian line up in the following batting order

Tendulkar
Sehwag
Gambhir
Yuvraj
Uthappa
Sharma
Dhoni
Pathan
Harbhajan
Sreesanth
Sharma

Two right handers, followed by 2 left handers, followed by 3 right handers and then a left hander. Two things here

1. Shouldn't the left/right batsmen be staggered a bit more - disrupting the bowlers lines and all that
2. If India get even a half decent start, the last thing India will want is for two left handers fronting up to Murali in the middle overs.

Hypocrite

"Cricket has had three attempts to deal with alleged racial abuse of the same player and has failed on every occasion," he told Cricinfo. "In the latest instance a player held an honest and reasonable belief that he had been racially abused. It does not matter if he may have been mistaken, the fact is, he held an honest and reasonable belief that he had been racially abused. For this, he has been portrayed as a villain.

"The priorities of each board have been misdirected at best - one hell bent on protecting its image and the other hell bent on protecting its revenues. Allegations of intimidation, interference and some good old 'backroom bullying' have unfortunately been all too prevalent in this issue and other issues.

says Tim May, Chief Executive of the FICA, the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations. He goes on to add

"Racism is a sensitive and very serious issue within our respective communities. The boards have failed in their responsibility to uphold their respect for this issue. They have failed the players, they have failed both the ICC's Code of Conduct and the ICC's Anti Racism Code, and they have failed the communities where racism is a real, live issue.

"After this latest episode and seeing how cricket handles this type of issue, why would any player possibly think about reporting any further instances of racism?" May asked. "You will be hounded by the press, you will be directly or indirectly will be intimidated by cricket officials and you will be hung out there to dry and be painted as the bad guy. Players should be approaching such matters with confidence that the system will support and protect you, not decimate and discredit you.

"It's the ICC's duty to protect the integrity of their Code. I am confident that the ICC will launch a thorough investigation into the alleged actions of both boards and key officials - there are serious allegations of intimidation and interference of those involved in this hearing -and such allegations must be dealt with swiftly and decisively.

all of which would be perfectly fine, if the above words were expressed by Darren Lehmann, President of the Australian Cricketers Association.

However, for the Chief Executive of the FICA, whose purported objective is

The Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) was established in 1998 to co-ordinate the activities of all national players’ associations which protect the interests of professional cricketers throughout the world. It brings together all of the world’s cricketers, regardless of nationality, religion, political persuasion or race, under an international body which will focus on matters of general interest to the game and its players

this comes across as rich, if not hypocritical.

If protecting the interests of the players, regardless of nationality, is the stated objective of the FICA, where was Mr. May when Mr. Proctor dispensed his verdict in contravention of all known rules of due process and natural justice ?

And where was Mr May when Mr Proctor justified his verdict by stating categorically that "only one party was telling the truth"? Weren't player interests hurt then?

And since Mr May is so very concerned about the ICC Code of Conduct and the ICC Racism code and upholding the integrity of the same, how does he reconcile with this

Furthermore the note kept of the four hour hearing in front of Mr Procter is a mixture of pr�cis and direct speech of parts of the proceedings, testimony and submissions that were noted down. The first page records appearances and the rest of a four hour hearing occupies less than five and a half pages. Given the informal nature of the hearing and the circumstances pertaining to it this is not surprising and is not a criticism. However, it seems to me in future that particularly for more serious offences under Level 3 and Level 4, it would be better if the referees were able to record a full transcript of the hearing in front of them. But what it meant was that the record was inadequate for the purposes of this hearing which is why I heard evidence from all parties.

Bashing the Cricket Boards is fine and dandy, but what of his own dereliction of duty?

Hypocrite.

The Judgement of Justice John Henson

in full.

Marvellous!

Uncle J blogged about them and here they are

The Rivalry

Great sporting rivalries can’t be manufactured by administrators, they need to be fuelled by arrogance, cheating, choking, cockiness, sh1t hot performances and twats.

What would Walter think?

The last of the major rivalries is the one that will eventually take over the world. The current superpower vs. the next superpower, India. I’m not just talking cricket, I’m talking politically, media wise and everything else that matters in cricket.

The recent Australian tour to Indian was the sign of things to come. Sledging, send offs, racism, media storms, great innings, and all sorts of other great stuff that get us excited about cricket. There were so many blogging arguments about an unimportant one-day series and monkeys.

us verus dem bastardos

Uncle J had penned these prophetic words prior to the start of the India Australia series.

And in case anyone doubted that India and Australia are the next great sporting rivalry, the current series has laid those doubts to rest.

And I am not talking of the quality of cricket alone. That was never in doubt ever since the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was launched in 1996.

Boorish behavior, racism charges, bad blood and a feeling of victimization on both sides of the divide have done enough to ensure that this is the rivalry for the future.

India cannot forget Sydney. Australia wont forget the racism charges.

October cant come soon enough.

Dear oh dear!!

The scars inflicted by John Buchanan on Shane Warne must run deep. What else explains this broadside in a signed eulogy on Adam Gilchrist's achievements?

And when John Buchanan was in charge . . . let me tell you, we needed as much common sense around as we could, because I believe the coach had none. Speaking of the ex-coach, he should thank Gilly and the captain Ricky Ponting for an extension of his contract, because they were the only two who wanted him to stay.

Everyone else asked said: "No, let him go. He's had his time."

Gilly supported the coach. I say good on him for standing up for what he believed to be best for the team.

Come again?

"BCCI president says introducing new evidence is unfair" reads the title of the link of the CricInfo website. And I am like, why do the BCCI honchos open their mouths before they have perused through the new "evidence".. This was before I read the actual article, which is reproduced below, in full.

BCCI president says introducing new evidence is unfair

Stump microphone transcripts are ok, says Harbhajan counsel

Cricinfo staff

January 28, 2008

Harbhajan Singh's counsel VR Manohar is confident the present evidence against his client is "innocuous". © Getty Images

A day before Justice John Hansen begins hearing Harbhajan Singh's appeal in the racism case, the counsel for the Indian side, VR Manohar, said he would not oppose the use of additional evidence like the transcript of the stump microphone but would object to any embellished improvised material, which he said was "fishy" evidence.

In Australia, meanwhile, members of the Indian team were wondering why the additional evidence had come so late, three weeks after the conclusion of the Sydney Test at which the incident occurred.

Justice Hansen said on Monday the appeal would be a re-hearing, with evidence being given by all of the witnesses who gave evidence to Mike Procter in the original hearing; he also spoke of "additional evidence, such as the transcript available from the stump microphone," being made available.

"I have nothing against the stump microphone evidence being used as long as it is not tampered with," Manohar told Cricinfo from Mumbai. "What I will object to is a scenario where a player who said he didn't hear Harbhajan use the monkey word during the first hearing turns around and says he did hear that word. That would be termed as "fishy". If the players decide to add to what they have stated in the tribunal, and if that contradicts their initial stance, that would be objectionable."

"If there have been any suspicious changes to the material recorded during Procter investigation, I would term it as fishy or embellished improvised material. That said, I am not against using stump microphone transcripts or some thing new like that."

Manohar, whose son Shashank is the Indian board's president-elect, will participate in the hearing via a video link from Mumbai. He has not travelled to Australia, citing his age - he is 74 - and his confidence that the present "innocuous" evidence was enough to prove Harbhajan's innocence.

Cricinfo, meanwhile, has learnt that the evidence provided by the stump transcripts is inconclusive - what Harbhajan says is indecipherable - and is expected to neither jeopardise nor help his case.

However, the BCCI has said that introducing new evidence at this stage was not a normal court practice. "Our lawyer has said that whatever comes to the fore in the lower court is discussed or heard by the appellate commissioner, bringing new evidence is against the rule," BCCI president Sharad Pawar told reporters in New Delhi.

The original hearing was played out under the shadow of India's threat to pull out of the tour unless the racism charge was withdrawn. There was some speculation that the threat still held, and Lalit Modi, the board's vice-president, said as much on Monday. "If the racism charge against Harbhajan is not taken back, then the Indian board has taken a decision that the team will come back to India," Modi was quoted by PTI.

Malicious journalism anyone?

Awww look, shutup!

Now that the Test series is done and dusted, Ricky Ponting (henceforth referred to as Pricky Ranting) has questioned the validity of India being worthy challengers to Australia's #1 spot.

"Even though they are No. 2 ranked team they are probably not now. They are going to lose probably four or five of their best players by the time we next play them," said Ponting, lauding the seamless transition of opener Phil Jaques and Michael Hussey into the Test XI.

"They are going through a similar phase to what we have gone through over the past 12 months. It will be interesting to see how their team backs up from that. They have some rebuilding to go through."

Yeah well, you need not bother Pricky. Because the team is going to be as is when you come a visiting our shores in October.

And by the time we come to your shores, you will probably be in retirement, racing greyhounds around Oz.

And in the meantime, you could direct your concerns on

a) beating Pakistan in Pakistan
b) finding a replacement for Gilly
c) Trying your hand at spin because your current lot wont make it in our district levels.

Goodbye Gilly

You achieved what no captain since Bill Lawry had achieved - you were the man spearheading the assault on the Final Frontier.

And to your credit, you succeeded where others had failed.

It couldn't have happened to a nicer man.

Thanks for the memories!

Disappointed

with India's approach in the final innings of the Adelaide test. 20 odd overs with over 200 runs to get and the Indians thought it better to send Ishant Sharma out rather than declare.

What were we afraid of?

We just fed into the “Oz is great” myth.. This, after we ran all over them at Perth.. If THAT does not give us confidence, what legacy is Kumble talking about?

This was timid cricket. If we cant trust our boys to deliver, who can we trust? This is bad captaincy by Kumble.. I am disappointed..