So all is fine with the cricket blogger folks.

On cricketing aspects, it is the last thing on the public mind right now and the cancellation of the current England tour and the Champions League was welcomed. England is contemplating to return with a possible second string side for the test series and there is a debate going on in their country on it.

To me, it is not worth it… at least not now and certainly not with a second string side. There is no harm in postponing the tour next year, when some clarity will possibly come out in the aftermath of these attacks on security levels. India does need some time to breathe and not be distracted.

Let’s face it. This region is destined to have large scale violence in some form and more terrorist attacks. I don’t see that changing even in ten thousand years when only 5 Sq.ft of this region will perhaps not be under the sea. There is a boon and a bane for being this diverse in ethnicity.

For the ICC, now comes their biggest challenge because India is the key cricket market. The BCCI is rich because the Indian public loves competitive cricket… specifically Indian cricket. With that out of the equation, the ICC is likely to face an issue on sustainability in terms of its central funds pool where the BCCI contributes a staggering 70%. Cricket around the world will be hit to a considerable extent though nothing dramatic will happen along the lines of a total collapse. Or will it.

The biggest loss which is a good probability right now will be the sub-continent loosing the rights to stage the 2011 World Cup. Frankly, I don’t see it happening in the sub-continent. Alternative venues are already being sounded out and interested boards are now working overtime to explore every possibility. 2011 is quite far away but it would only a take yet another bomb to scurry everyone away at the last moment. It might well make better sense to make solid alternative plans or if there are no intentions of these teams to play in these countries whatsoever due to their fear psychosis, might as well come clean now and end this idiocy of a false front.

Relationship of the sub-continental boards:

India-Sri Lanka

A few weeks back, the Sri Lankan board with their leader Ranatunga got me totally puzzled with their disgruntlements and their vision to break away and align with the ECB. My views are quite well documented. Now post-Mumbai, I will be most interested to see Tunga’s approach and conviction to his cause of aligning with the ECB. The effects on cricket from this ghastly incident puts many stark facts to all the Asian boards in a clear perspective, where Sri Lanka will now realize that they need to be equally worried, if not more.

So will Tunga call this off as the biggest bluff he has attempted to pull or will he really have the conviction of going ahead on his plans, one which I see as a total disaster for Sri Lankan cricket.

Bluff or not is what I am interested to seek. I’m waiting to see.

India-Pakistan

Political nemesis but buddies in cricket politics. A fracture here too was attempted with some officials testing the waters on accepting the ICL among them for their self-interest. An equally self-interested threat came from India on suddenly seeing Pakistan a dangerous place to tour, after all these days of campaigning for them to get other countries to tour there :).

Self-interest has dependencies. Both realized that this equilibrium was all so crucial and did not engage in anything nasty for each other. Good for all.

Until this incident.

Politically the two nations are at loggerheads all over again. India is likely to cut the cricketing ties apart from the smaller but significantly important political ones. Frankly to me, cutting cricketing or political ties is bureaucratically idiotic because none of these measures will have any impact or change anything at the ground level, neither has in the past.

Politically too, the best way is to continue the ties, years of what diplomatic hard work has inched forward should not die overnight and work together to eradicate this terrible problem which now ironically is affecting both nations. If Pakistan is ready to co-operate, then India should go ahead and do so engaging in a bi-lateral action to combat this menace even if it bluntly requires a joint military action against these radical groups. There is no other solution I can see other than a joint military action else everything being said will be yet another eyewash. Comfort zones will be tested for both parties.

Cricket tours between these nations may come to a hold for a short while considering both sides need to catch their breath. But it shouldn’t stop.

My mind raced back to the time in the late 80s -early 90s, where neither was India, this financial cricketing power and nor did any of the Sub-continental teams had any clout whatsoever in matters related to the politics of the ICC. There were few tours back then by non-subcontinental nations and the same amount of endless whines whenever one was scheduled. Plenty of matches among these sub-continental teams playing among themselves happened. The people in these nations loved their cricket and especially their cricketers and pretty much made the sub-continent the heart of global cricket.

Life comes a full circle and things will have to be rebuilt again. The question is whether they can put their head down and start all over or have they tasted so much success that to start working from the bottom is too much to digest, making them into men that can only whine on their so-called grieved and beaten western hypocrisy theories.

But nah… all of this post and all these possibilities being sounded out as the future course of actions that will unfold sounds gloomy, pessimistic and also in many ways improbable. It may not turn out to be this bad.

More importantly, it is not all that bad for the moment, even though it sounds so.

If they stick together, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be back. Those among these three nations that want to fracture away would do only to see at a later stage their big blunder that got them nowhere.

But the stark fact is neither of these nations can move on independently. “Total independence” just doesn’t work. Never has among nations nor has in your married life, neither in your work from home business.

There are and there will always be ‘dependencies’ attached to your independence.

I hope the officials running cricket in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India think well before they act and so should their political counterparts.

Great officers who have dedicated their lives in getting rid of these scum bags have fallen.

My sincere condolences to the families affected by this madness. I also hope that the friends and families of our blogger folks in Mumbai like John, Homer and the rest are safe and sound.

The England tour is off and so should follow the champions league.

Cricket is the last thing in the mind now anyway.

I hope they find these scum bags, castrate them and put their balls on sale in Ebay.

Meanwhile this flag will fly high, no matter what.

I am totally stunned by this young lad from Saurashtra and equally so with the phrase ‘The wall 2.0′ which I cannot quite remember who coined that on Soulberry’s blog.

I remember first reading about him in a discussion in cricket guru’s and Soulberry’s blog. SB revisits Cheteshwar Pujara back then and today Ottayan here reckons that it is time to forget Yuvraj and give Pujara the right to have the first shot in International cricket during the England series.

Pujara first came into the spotlight by hammering 306 not out for Saurashtra in an Under-19 match against Baroda in 2001.

He was 12 years old then when most kids at his age would be more than content with life in their excitement to show their first strands of puberty to their peers.

Puberty aside.

What was stunning about him was the levels of concentration and application he had at that age.

What followed over in his teenage years was the three double hundreds he scored against Maharashtra, Mumbai and England in the junior circuits.

And there were a zillion other performances all the way to the U-19 World cup, where he was the man of the series, to the Afro-Asian cup.

Just before the start of the domestic season this year in India, I was excited at following the proceedings this time around. With some of the great distinguished ones all set to fade into the sunset, it was open season, a window of opportunity for the ones playing in the domestic circuit, one which could really inspire them to prove a point that they belong to the bigger league.

Pujara is now one of the front-runners ramming his way this season with some mind blowing performances. Three triple hundreds! Add to that a 189 and a 176 and no wants to count his fifties.

The popular sentiment among folks around the world was on the notion of how India with a cricket crazy billion number population could never blood a world beating team like what Australia has or the West Indies had. Much of that lied in our complex, wide domestic political system and totally incompetent and nepotist selection ‘poops’ systems that plagued India in the not-so-far distant past. It still does with some marginal improvements.

As a nation which was basically 500 plus individual Kingdoms, comprising of people with such varied commonalities and culture within each of those Kingdoms, it is a miracle by itself that for the last 50 plus years, India stands as one of the largest functioning democracies in the world. Not being a nation that can boast on sheer Sq.ft size, it is daunting to look at India having 28 states with more fractioned states being formed each year due to political aspirations of the wicked.

That representation has naturally spilled on to cricket, where perhaps we have the largest number of state teams playing in a cricketing system, anywhere in the world. I am of the view that the number of state teams be reduced/combined in order that cricket can be managed effectively for India to find the best and managing so many of these micro-systems takes a toll to do justice to the job.

But it is not like it cannot be done with such a large cricketing system in its current format.

If Indian cricket has to function well then, it needs to pump in big money into the domestic circuits for each state and have strong leadership. Big money is there but is not being used. Strong leadership is still being defined.

In the not-so-distant past, selectors had their job done easy by nepotist intentions and their personal affiliations to the zones and states they could follow. It was a daunting task then to follow all and resources, money were few. At least that was the only excuse they had.

The ICL in a way did a world of good by helping them weed the weak.

The biggest welcome change happened during Dilip Vengsarkar’s period, when perhaps for the first time in the history of Indian cricket, the players that got into the national team where the ones who were the top consistent performers in the domestic circuit. The results which came for the national side was more than satisfactory and the least bit surprising.

When boards like Cricket Australia start learning from the Indian boards on marketing, it was a welcome change to see the selectors here try and emulate theirs.

With Krish Srikanth and his team in this period, we can only hope now that they continue that policy and not go back to the dark ages. The selection meeting leak did not inspire too much confidence.

In context to the above with that of Pujara, when he performed brilliantly in the u19 test series against England, he was so-called rewarded with a six-week stay and training at Griffith University’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, on the annual Border-Gavaskar scholarship.

R.P. Singh was also chosen.

At Griffith, since he was a minor travelling, they could only allow him if a guardian accompanies him.

This so-called cash rich BCCI, the Saurashtra Cricket Association and National Cricket Academy refused to spend money on a plane ticket and accommodation for his guardian for a mere 6 weeks period.

Here he is now knocking on the doors of the Indian team.

The Wall 2.0 and I’m excited.

]]> http://www.cricketfizz.com/cricketblog/the-wall-20/feed http://www.cricketfizz.com/cricketblog/icl-vs-ipl http://www.cricketfizz.com/cricketblog/icl-vs-ipl#comments Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:46:13 +0000 scorpicity http://www.cricketfizz.com/cricketblog/?p=273 Our friend Wasim has put up an elaborate and detailed post on the rather difficult issue of the ICL, its role and the way forward.

http://cricketfiles.com/2008/11/21/lift-the-bans/

Hope we could all join in for a discussion over there on the way forward.

Cheers

For the first time in this series, the game became very competitive in the match between England and India, going down ‘almost’ to the wire and bad light stopped play. Yeah I know… it was like getting close to an ejaculation and then being asked to make your next move in Chess.

Out came the officials with their rather favorite and complicated Duckworth & Lewis African mumbo jumbo.

You ever wondered why these officials like the D&L mumbo jumbo so much.

One, It makes them look important.

Seriously it does… imagine all the sniggers they get from their family friends on how they get paid so much just to do some aerobic exercises wearing a silly hat and baggy pants with pockets filled with un-mentionables.

Imagine the jibes they get on how their only excitable moment on the field is their desperate attempts to awkwardly protect their crown jewels, when a ball is hit hard towards them. Look ma! No hands… giggle giggle.

Prodding around like two pregnant ladies between overs is a bonus thrown in.

This make them look important. It makes them look like they are doing some ‘real work’ with all those papers. Yeah… like what most of us do. It makes them feel good. 20 mins of uninterrupted camera spotlight… that too on prime time TV.

Second, the other officials have paid enough money to buy out a country called “Swakazhasistan” for that D/L formula. So they have to use it. Philip Kotler will explain more.

Coming to the point,

The rule did not allow the use of lights. How ironic for a one-day game. See this is the problem with all these rules which snooty-nosed officials are all so gung-ho about it. First of all they are often so ill-constructed and then they end up so much into it, that they lose all traces of the quality called common sense. In this scenario, the phrase ‘what about the fans’ have no bearing whatsoever.

Having lights but not using it is one thing… whatever may be their scientific reasons which is best translated to the laziness to write ten more rules and hence crammed up all in one simplified rule.

But can anybody explain, why then there is a freaking white cricket ball being used in this day-fixture when lights are not supposed to be used? Isn’t the red one any day better?

Ian Botham said that the person who made those rules should get an another job.

Am afraid Ian, he already did. He became the president of USA… George W.hose daddy is it’ Bush.

The umpire hands out his signal.

Butterflies flutter around crazily searching for their ex’s.

Buffaloes run free in the city streets grunting in orgasmic excitement.

The coaches choke on their network cables.

The 12th man swallows his bracelets.

You get it. Everyone wakes up from their peaceful slumber through the dreadfully boring middle overs that one has to endure in an one-day international fixture.

England was prodding around with two of their best strikers and then they decide to give out a few hits at their powerplay choice. The captain looked confused with the change in plans. The chest thumping spinner who had them entwined like a python started growing pale. First ball… gone was the flight, flat and hard and it was dispatched merrily. By the end of the over, that strike bowler went away looking like a cat soaked under the shower. The team suddenly did not know what to do… blank as a dodo. Then there were further twists with the attackers getting beheaded in the process… 5 overs of total chaos.

I love it.

It saved what could have become a dreadfully boring match.

After watching two matches where this version of the powerplay came into effect, it is a thumbs-up for me, because it could well make one-days more exciting.

It also complicates things for cricket.

Compared to the ODIs, the 20-20 format is far more exciting, spectator friendly and also leverages it to bearable comfort levels for an average spectator, whereas the one-day format has passages of boring play in the middle under long hours of spectator discomfort, where batsmen knock the ball and ‘walk’ to the other end for their single with their sorry big ass… just does not cut it.

However this new powerplay rule changes everything and could well make an entire day of play totally enjoyable and this format is likely to be embraced further.

Now this makes the current cricket scenario even more turbulent for those cricket administrators in their bid to find the right balance and relationship between the three formats, when it could have been a simple choice of replacing ODIs with 20-20s.

Either they love to complicate their existing problem areas or they presume they are smart enough to tie all the three cows and milk them in one giant milkfest.

Right now it is heading to some sort of vague milkshake with the two shorter formats, almost competing with each other and the line that differentiates both are getting more blurred.

And then nothing happened… No action was taken… Let off lightly.

Ball tampering of any nature is a serious charge and all cricketers across nations playing even at the state level know the drill on what to do and what not to do. There is no excuse here…. right, we hear this so often.

If there was any leather sticking out, you bring it to the umpires, who puts their hand in their marvelous goody bag pockets, tossing out DVD players, egg blenders, some dirty photos, a half-eaten donut, a used condom, a few nuts & bolts and aha!

A pair of scissors that would just do the trick. All in their mysterious pockets.

Of course, White of all people will certainly know what to and what not with a ball, having being a state captain who had once gone through the hearing, evidences, footages and all the associated ruckus when his team mate Michael Lewis was involved in a ball tampering probe.

In this test match,

He was seen. He was recorded. The law was clear.

My mind raced back to that ill-fated incident when Pakistan played against England. The celebrity umpire Darrell Hair declared Pakistan as cheats.

That… He without seeing. He without asking the Referee to check on cameras about his suspicion. Nothing but out of thin air. The subsequent probe even declared that the ball was in good shape!

A rash totally illogical action done by a highly prejudiced umpire, one who did not have the decency to even apologize for his moment of unfair rashness.

That prejudice had largely got to do with the ‘fan’ in him. All fans across every nation are prejudiced.

The only logical reason for his action may be that like all of us, being a cricket fan by heart moved by events surrounding it with all the popular prejudices but has to clip all those while being an umpire, took over him that day where he ceased to be just an umpire.

Cut back, here was Aleem Dar, a Pakistani national, an umpire and also a Pakistani cricket fan by heart.

I wondered what Aleem Dar could possibly be thinking.

Would he have been equally angry like many in Pakistan with the way Hair handled his favorite team? Would he be angry about the pressure that those respective boards put to defend Hair? Would he be mad as hell to see charges on ball tampering being constantly slurred upon on Pakistan since its history? Would he be mad at the fact that the Australians are playing In India instead of Pakistan when bombs are going everywhere in India?

Would there be some part of him as a fan that would want to reek havoc and get even with anything Australian?

White was there like a dressed up turkey and all that was left was the thanksgiving mutterings from happy Indian and Pakistani fans.

Did the fan part of him tempt him to go for a vindictive kill.

No,

He did the right thing. As much as many won’t like it in these parts, he followed the spirit of the law rather than the letter. White was let-off with a whimpering warning, after all there did not seem to be any genuine cheating intentions and yet there was an equal opportunity to get him canned by the law which many ICC officials rather easily misuse by following the letter with their well supported ‘discretion’ for their political needs.

An arrogantly prejudiced ‘fan-umpire’ like Darrel Hair becomes a hero for that incident, so called sticking up against the BCCI and its allies. He becomes the poster boy… the one where fans recounted how they cried watching Hair officiate again. How many believed he was right? Apparently a lot.

In contrast, Aleem Dar just remains plain ordinary… no hero… one just doing his job right, as best as he could.

]]> http://www.cricketfizz.com/cricketblog/inside-aleem-dar/feed http://www.cricketfizz.com/cricketblog/chin-up-crazy-krejza http://www.cricketfizz.com/cricketblog/chin-up-crazy-krejza#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:24:01 +0000 scorpicity http://www.cricketfizz.com/cricketblog/?p=255 Today’s play of cricket was remarkable.

Almost remarkable a story that could be tagged with legends. But this ain’t no legend.

This may be a folklore in the future in Australia, when young kids go through a tough patch in life and their parents would go “Chin up, Haven’t you heard the story of Crazy Krejza”

And the kids will go “Tell me mommy”

That remarkable.

Armed with only a fancy name, Jason Krejza set foot in India as the second choice spinner… one with much debate on his selection because his performance in the domestic circuit did not warrant one, not even a free ticket to the game.

He bowled in a warm-up match and was total horse crap. Mercilessly beaten by the A-string batting line-up. It was over… he was indeed complete rubbish and the laughing stock.

They kept him on the tour but never got him to play. He may have even wondered why not go back home and watch over a beer Stanford finger the pommies wags.

Not him though… He kept his chin up…always… And what a mighty chin that is… one that would make him an automatic choice of playing the role of “Ming” in Flash Gordon… that extended chin that never went down.

Here he is standing tall looking at the sky… looking at his own chin in all his pride. Because he did something incredible… 8 wickets in a match on debut… making the legend of Mendis look like a small ball of goat shit.

And the kid went “How is that remarkable mommy?”

Because…”Self-belief, perseverance and listening to good advice”

And what a good advice that was!

During the tour, White told the media that the trick is to bowl fast here on the sub-continent and hurry the batsmen to not get under you.

Ah uh… WRONG!

And then “Bishen “The world’s greatest shot-putter” quote Bedi” told Krejza…

“Bowl slow, you are way too fast”

“Toss it up, pitch it up”

“Don’t be afraid to be hit… never”

And he listened, practiced and delivered..

8/215… sounds like a Zimbabwe scorecard right. 8 wickets on debut and a cartload of runs given by the process. He didn’t budge and did what he was told.

And what a reward on debut.

Sutherland dubbed the legendary Shane Warne as a freak… He was right because only a freak with great bowling talent and a smart cricketing brain could end up being  photographed with his pants down among 40 year old English women.

Jason Krejza ain’t no legend. May not even become one. Certainly no freak… he has his pants on. If he wore shorts, they will mistake him for Zidane.

But if he bowls like this at most times, he will be very successful.

And who would have thought I would write so much about Krejza one day… not even me… the cruel ironies of life which I have to endure as a cricket blogger.

New age cricket went out of the window, the slips were back and so were the pants.

India continued the way it has played with some good batting but this time around, the bowlers looked tired. Laxman and Gautam offered good batting lessons and the Australians finally saw sense in their approach which they missed in Mohali. How costly was that sense will be known in a few days time.

Now it all leads to a so-called newly laid ‘dead-rubber’ pitch. Why does Nagpur keep featuring in test fixtures so often I wonder? Maybe it is those oranges… cannot be the babes may I dare say nor the climate. That curator I suppose got canned. Just don’t get it.

Though the result may have been a dull draw after India tried to shut shop with Ishanth Sharma as the night watchmen BUT…

They still got under their skin by directing some comments on defensive play.  The old pro’s are getting better in mind games, I say!

Can’t say the same about the younger lot though, who seem to be growing stupider by the day. Yeah I know, MTV and Maa TV.

Then there were these many funny incidents that happened.

Shane Watson suckered Gautam Gambhir. With almost a ‘bradmanesque’ precision of 99.94 cms, he avoided physical contact. See that’s how the real pro’s do it unlike ‘wannabie’ sledgers like the Indians who I bet have not read the ICC code of conduct even once, forget memorizing it like the real pro’s. At the moment, the news from Australia is that Andrew Symonds has successfully finished memorizing ‘Chapter 1 - level 1′. He should be there next summer when he is through ‘Level 10′, which knowing the ICC should be something as silly as ‘not molesting the ball boys’.

In return Gambhir did what all eight grade school boys from the Delhi Public school do. Stick your elbow and run hard on the pretext of an accident. The only difference is that in School, the one who sticks it don’t run to the other end of the wicket and stop but all the way through the school gate into the safety of their homes, with the entire opposition team running behind with stumps and dried coconuts.

Watson got away light on the ‘percentage’ aspects in terms of the fine and Gambhir was lucky as hell to get away with just a 1 test ban, when he deserved perhaps 2.

He has even appealed the case after pleading guilty. All to get the much needed time in manipulating the system to play the crucial Nagpur test. At the hearing:

Judge: Plead you case

GB: I am guilty

Judge: WTF? You flew me all the way from South Africa for this. 2 test matches ban!

Two weeks later, the media headline reports

“England clinch series 2-0”

“Laxman has to retire – Sourav”

“NRIs commit mass suicide at Ikea showroom, after India lose”

Why? Why? The future is scary if we lose to England… believe me.

But the man of this test match was undoubtedly… Simon Katich.

When news of Shaun Marsh being inducted in the squad broke, Katich first outscores Hayden comprehensively, then gets into some phenomenal dives to save runs, all of a sudden, starts bowling, spitting venom with all the turn to show he is their best spinner in the squad after all and finally to complete the all-Australian trademark, threw in a few cool sledges too!

Then that incident with Gambhir…

A barrage of foul words poured in from these two guys. Billy Bowden even quietly sneaked in a few.

But I must say the best moment was when all was resolved, Michael Clarke lead a dazed Katich who looked like  he had just seen Whoopie Goldberg’s crack.

And to finally not mention a huge name in Indian cricket may well be for that name deserves a separate post.

Especially a dignified post… unlike this one. Adios!

To wake up at 2:00AM in the morning and watch this exhibition match, cricket’s first true ‘reality TV’ show was never on my agenda but I caught some glimpses of some of the matches during the highlights thrown in during the day.

When the idea of this tournament first came in, the English press which largely few months back were hostile on the financial throwaways in the form of the IPL, started ironically spreading the word on how 20 million could go on to help impoverished English cricketers. The other half of the world in the sub-continent could only let out a smile where moral propaganda on nourishing impoverished cricketers of their own kind, could change their stance in a matter of months.

Duncan Fletcher once said “From our point of view the people criticizing now are the ones who run with the foxes and hunt with the hounds. All we can do is run with the fox.” Though his quote was on the issue of selections, it may well aptly describe all the see-saw reactions, leading back to the hostility on Stanford.

Let’s face it… the single biggest reason for the ECB to enter into an agreement with Sir Allen Stanford for this tournament was not just big money but also that it went strongly hand-in-hand in the world of ugly board politics, in the attempt to check the financial clout and power of the BCCI, flouting their IPL money-spinning yarn.

Somewhere quietly in the news, Arjuna Ranatunga is having a field day with England, on his outbursts on the IPL’s “instant-noodles” cricket brand and professing a hardly convincing romantic love for test cricket, which seem to be now the latest  fad word. Ironically, they are at this moment in talks with the ECB, in participating for next year’s Standford! The only thing which is stopping them is settling on ‘how much’.

The stupidity of the very purpose of this tournament is shocking. Ego-boosting political maneuvers is not the biggest question from the point of cricket by itself but the basic need to ask how such a tournament with a dubious format totally away from the very basic spirit of anything sport but entertainment be endorsed with an official stamp of authority by a country with such a legacy in cricket.

From the purpose of meeting the needs of impoverished cricketers to selling the soul of cricket, there has been strong see-saw reactions. While I see this tournament nothing more than a stupid but innovative way of advertising the ‘Brand Stanford’, it is indeed a far cry from what Stanford’s actions have been in real life helping cricket in more ways than one could imagine. Sure enough, Brand Stanford miserably failed but that shouldn’t take away his achievements in the development of cricket in the West Indies, especially at the all-important ‘grassroots’ levels, which in comparison, the ICC has hardly done anything noteworthy.

To rubbish him off like a plague would not be right and it now becomes all the more important considering apart from the ICL, IPL, the world will soon see APL, EPL, PPL, SPL and a thousand other ‘3-letter’ 20-20 leagues, bringing in an overdose of cricket, which in a matter of a few years, these same board officials, would be left pondering on what went wrong when the cricket fan gave them the boot.

The need of the hour and the way forward is consolidation and the officials who make a genuine attempt now will be the ones being talked about years down the line. To start with, after honoring the Champions trophy in Pakistan, the ICC could very well scrap it, as by far, it is the most pointless cricket tournaments being played. It could well offer the opportunity for stakeholders including the private businessmen varieties, to get into something more meaningful during this window, where benefits can be reaped by all, without loosing any dignity.