In the last two days, I watched for the first time his full repertoire of bowling skills coming all together and you have to imagine how much he has wasted all of his abilities.

Swinging the new ball is alright but he got the old ball to swing and seam either way at ease almost every time. It was as if he had the new ball with him all the time.

Some of the reverse swinging yorkers he bowled would have Waqar Younis extremely proud. It was a pity those deliveries did not yield him the wickets.

If there was anything which Ishanth Sharma should take a leaf out of was on Sreesanth’s brilliant use of the crease and the angles he created. It was not a predictable rut. He came around the wicket, went wide at times, changed his pace, bowled some good short ones, swung the ball both ways viciously and created a variety which removed the aspect of predictability in his bowling. Pray even Munaf Patel should go back and see his own debut test match and ponder on the similarities, reflecting on how badly he has lost his way.

Sreesanth got me fascinated and engaged on to the TV, getting me into his head thinking, attempting to predict and draw logical conclusions on how he is setting up the batsmen. If he brought that to someone sitting in front of a televison set, he pretty much must have been playing in the minds of the Sri Lankan batsmen for sure.

And finally, real fast bowling aggression and not some lame swearing and staring, celebrating with clenched teeth and fists as though his pair of coco-bongos below got hit for a grand home run.

For long, people wished he cut the juvenile melodrama and concentrated harder on his bowling. Those who knew him always said that he was a harmless nice guy off the field and his so-called theatrical aggression on the field was as fake as silicon except it was not half as cute to look at.

For once he actually obliged and it made a huge difference. It should be no-brainer for Sreesanth to figure out why he is less likely to get the long rope of faith during tougher times, which many of his team mates have clinged on for long. Sreesanth may be back to his wayward best in the next match but as long as he keeps out the theatrics, there will always be moments where he will blow the opposition away with his skill.

For now, his image makeover is everything to his career. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

For the memories to be jogged back, you can see the original post on Wall 2.0 here or better move over to The Cricket Watcher’s Journal, Straight Points christened Che chronicles and also on good old bored.

He suffered a serious injury before IPL 2 in South Africa and went under the knife. I was a bit amused when a PR article came out on rediff where Pujara went on praising team owner Shah Rukh Khan on his generosity and concern. Either Pujara was just being nice or indeed SRK was extra special or rather Pujara was completely ignorant of the fact that the team owners are under obligation to provide the best treatment in whichever part of the world it requires. When I first read the piece, it struck me as a PR push by the franchise on an unsuspecting cricketer.

Either way there was no harm done and it was always nice to find domestic cricketer players making the news.

Almost a year on, this year’s domestic season was under way and there was still no sign of Pujara for Saurashtra. A few matches later, a quiet headline sneaked deep into the pages of Cricinfo that caught my eye and it screamed “Pujara double ton drives Saurashtra”.

The boy was back and on the hunt again. Brilliant.

On an another note, recently some of the clueless honchos of the BCCI outlined their thoughts on reforming the domestic league, on the heel of the media bickering on how good the Australian domestic structure was after the recent Champions league and one-day series.

While much of it was rubbish, you can not help but see that the biggest issue is in the structure by itself in terms of the sheer number of teams.
Why would one single state want to float 2 domestic cricket teams in the form of Mumbai, Maharashtra and Gujarat and Saurashtra? Ridiculous but that exactly outlines the bigger geo-political problems and selfish aspirations of many.

The bottom line is that there is way too many teams in the Indian domestic cricket structure and there is too much to manage and more importantly do justice in following their progress and ascertain the quality of the crop, which is the most difficult to ascertain in terms of benchmarking performance.

It makes sense that the number of teams be curtailed and merged. It might not be a bad idea to have 2-tier structure to accommodate the numbers and political aspirations, where the top tier have about 4-6 teams similar to the zonal systems and the premier Ranji trophy tournament can be a battle between these teams.

The players not found good enough for tier 1 and play in tier 2 with a new tournament and format, where they graduate or plunge at this level managed by the local administrators.

While the national selectors could well spend all their time and effort keenly following the Ranji trophy with more competitive and manageable pool that offers the best potential to play for India when a need arises.

Back to Saurashtra , they have done quite decently in the last few years but that has primarily been on the strength of Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja doing the support role. Ravindra Jadeja had Santa Claus visiting early when he was picked too undercooked.

I have never been a fan of the ‘catch them when they are young’ policy. Fast track has no meaning in International cricket, unless you are exceptional like the Tendulkar’s and the Warners. However, I don’t mind if anyone at the helm of Indian cricket can take a definite policy stand and stick with their convictions.
The Krish Srikanth selection panel at best have been like a bunch of dogs chasing their own tails clockwise and then anti-clockwise. I bet they find it amusing too. The lack of clarity has been damaging for Indian cricket.

It is puzzling to see these guys look everywhere but miss the elephant in the room, making all the 300s and 200s in his short career. If there was anyone I would be tempted to play for the Indian cricket team among the young crop, then it would be Pujara. Strike him off the list of 20-20 cricket… That’s only to spoil him. Test would be the best fit but he has to wait till Rahul hangs his boot and One days could be a good option.

Either way there is some time and am hopefully Cheteshwar Pujara plays for India and meet our expectations.
Someone you get the feeling that it is his destiny.

EDIT: Sorry Folks… The Ranji does have a two -tier system. So this is factually wrong. However, the method of graduating the top tier 2 teams on to the knock-out stages and for next year’s trophy directly into the super group still doesn’t make sense. Besides, the number of teams are way too high. My apologies.

What was so beautiful and fascinating about that innings was the ferocity of his game that turned up after 10 years of stuffing it in deep in his rather large trouser pockets, where his repertoire of strokes, bank passbooks are safely kept. It was the mid-90’s Sachin all over again and it brought me exact memories of the Australian series at Sharjah, where Kasprovich was tearing his head out on Sachin at his peak.

Now where in the world did this ferocity suddenly come from? For 10 years, I was one of those who hoped, cribbed and even complained to see that aggressive side of his batting shown, at least occasionally. All I got to see was totally polished, gracefully, well-constructed n-number of centuries that won India many matches in recent times and provided all the picturesque joy in watching poetry in motion.

Sachin himself had hinted several times that you might not ever see those aspects of his game coming out, as age, injuries, roles and maturity levels silently takes over those raging testosterones of youth.

And one fine day after 10 years, this ferocious anger pops up, as though it just went away for a quiet leak in the subway alleys.

The coincidence was remarkable. Michael Kasprovich, you beauty!

Now serving as a commentator, his mere presence somewhere in the stadium was enough for Sachin to bring out his raging bull horns from the mid 90’s.

A coincidence… Actually not. There is a scientific explanation to this theory relating to chemical imbalance and magnetic force fields that each of us possess and react to. Food, type of materials, magnetic objects, distance all make subtle impact in our moods, thoughts and actions. To simplify all this geeky stuff, I’m sure you would have come across instances where you naturally hate to be anywhere near a particular person and in some cases, even their mere presence would get you a hard on. Right! Now that is how the geeky stuff would relate… Ahem!

Kasprovich seem to possess a set of chemicals or a particular magnetic frequency which reacts with Sachin and gets him all enraged. It could be the tip of the pencil moustache that he has or that voluptuous backside of his. Further research will soon show the specifics.

Bottom line, there is no other explanation to Sachin’s vicious assault last night. It was Sharjah all over again and there is only that one common constant between now and then. You know who it is.

So if any would like Sachin to bat like this in the future tours, you know what to do. Get Kasprovich or better buy a Cricketfizz Michael Kasprovich talisman chain which you can wear around your neck and show it to Sachin like in those horror flicks.

That will get him going and if you are lucky he might sneak in a few ‘maa-ki’s’ too breaking away from the mundane ‘milestone’ or ‘my best innings so far’ quotes.

The flip side though (yes there are side effects) is that India may not win, which brings us to the question of the remaining 10 guys in the team.

I know. Severely imbalanced. 3 runs good grief! I’ll forgive them though. It could have been really humiliating.

Pretty stupid isn’t it?

India’s loss to Pakistan yesterday was well on the cards. The Indian fast bowling attack in recent times is nothing short of being described as totally retarded.  Last night, the slow toddlers also failed and Harbhajan had a bad day and with that went the only saving grace.

Ishanth Sharma, the future stalwart of the Indian bowling attack reminds me of the good old days when cars were on carburetors and contact points for the ignition system. You would need a good 5 minutes to warm up the car on idle before you can even think of engaging it on gear and taking off. Now this is a bowler for the future in the current era of MPFI, CRDI engines and electronic controlled ignition systems.

Ishanth needs a good continuous spell of 5 overs at least before he can somewhat start getting a decent line and length. If the batsman takes him to the cleaners within that 5, he would need another 50 overs just for his brain to assimilate the information that he is actually a fast bowler and that he can use the whole width of the popping crease to create angles, change pace or come around the wicket for left-handers to negate his inability to swing both ways.

That makes him rubbish for all short formats of the game and leaves him in the hope of making it count in test cricket. You keep hearing about him from the commies on why criticism should not be meted out to him and that he is young and will learn with exposure.

Yeah. They are right. Except, is the International stage the place for anyone to learn the basics? What in the world is the domestic cricket circuit then there for? Horticulture?

Nehra can somewhat be spared but if you take into account his experience, he shouldn’t. There are not much options now available and that is his saving grace. R.P. Singh has been baffling with hot and cold and what has gone missing is that streak of street smartness that often got him back on track during a match.

Dhoni and the team management on the composition has actually been the biggest culprit. On flat, slow pitches in Sri Lanka, they opted for three fast bowlers in rubbish form and barely scrapped through. Yesterday, on a similar type of pitch in South Africa, they leave out Amit Mishra, a quality leggie.

I hope now for the future they would

• Drop one of the fast bowlers preferably ishanth or draw straws. They are all the same.
• Bring in Mishra. For google’s sake, he bats way better than R.P. or Ishanth. He has the capability to get 10 decent overs out. Besides, an attack with 2 fast bowlers, 2 quality spinners and a pie chucker makes a balanced diet.
• Don’t mess with Raina and his batting position. Unlike Dhoni, he has the balls to lay it thick and thin in the number 3 position. In flat sub-continental wickets, you could watch Dhoni not have the courage to walk in at number 3 when the first wicket goes down with the new ball. Considering he is now making a good career prodding around and stealing runs rather than shoveling his way, it should have been his stable position. No, not Dhoni. He will run away from the new ball whether it swings or not and in South Africa, there are no marks for even guessing.
• Give Abhishek Nayar a few games. At least, he doesn’t wear hideous sun glasses.

300 could have been chased on that track and they nearly pulled it off as against what the scorecard margins suggest. Virat made a rash mistake and I pray not to hear any sound bytes in the media on “That’s how I play and that is my natural game” a la Rohit Sharma. I would have to pull out the chaos of the pineapple campaign from the closet again. Virat comes across as a sensible kid and hope he puts this in his bucket list.

Rahul Dravid was frankly disappointing. While this might sound harsh, it has to be asked what exactly  is the concept of the role of a well-set batsman.

He took his time to get set at the start and that was perfect. Mid-way and at the closing stages, the run-rate was going up and the need of the hour was to take calculated risks mixed with risk-free cricket to be in line of striking distance of the required rate.

A new batsman walks in and therefore logically the well-set batsmen who is seeing the ball well takes the role of those calculated risky scoring shots.

But no, not Dravid. He had to leave that to the new inexperienced batsmen while he continued prodding.

I miss V.V.S. Laxman.

Back to the fast bowlers, Gary was right. They should indeed ‘go solo’.

Wankers, all of them.

Part 1 -

Part 2 -

There is a wealth of information about the ones taking up the sport and more importantly, you get to hear a few inside stories on what happens in the field and a bit in his head.

He tends to brag a bit but that’s Sehwag, maybe a touch annoying at times but brutally frank.

Quite hilarious I say.

To watch India’s bowling and fielding in the last few matches would be like that of an episode of ‘Teletubbies’. Seriously Painful!

After so many years of having a full-time fielding coach, physical conditioner trainers, mental shampoo specialists and other what not’s, the most glaring aspect of their fielding and catching abilities has been the complete lack in technique. Just what exactly has been the tangible change over the years? Previously, it was the sight of  fielders in the deep who could almost never reach down to collect the ball on time, only to let the ball sneak in between their legs to the boundary and now they manage to reach down and knock it to another part of the field and concede the same amount of runs.

It would be of some acceptance if one sees the players adopt a sound technique though clumsy in implementation due to lack of practice or it being new to them but as it stands, it is ridiculous watching the Indian fielders attempting to stop a ball using the closest protruding part of their body to the ball, be it their head, belly or other unmentionables.

Robin Singh has always been a soft spoken and hard working cricketer, who kept himself fit from his playing days to his current stint as coach. Either due to his soft-spokenness, the players are not taking him seriously or he simply doesn’t possess the capabilities of teaching the technique and enforcing the players to comply. Robin had great success as the U19 coach, over the last few years before joining the Indian team. Some of the players during his stint as coach are by chance or by his design, India’s best fielders today. Yet none can be compared to the levels displayed by teams like Australia and South Africa.

Anybody who watched the recent U19 world cup, couldn’t possibly fail to notice how amazing the South African side were on the field. These were mostly 16-17 year old kids and were well-oiled machines on the field. No real chaos or hot and cold mediocrity displayed in contrast by the Asian teams. It was an example of how seriously South Africa over the years has taken the art of fielding to be nurtured and hard-wired into their junior cricket circuit.

The problem with India has been their obsession for predominately cultivating the batting department alone at the junior level. Over the last decade, significant in-roads in the development of pace bowling in the country took shape through the opening of world class academies and yet the nature of pitches offered in the domestic circuit does not in particular give credence to put to practice different methodologies that would shape the bowlers to adapt to different kinds of conditions. The positive side is the change that is taking place in domestic cricket though very slow, with variety in pitches and conditions being offered in the recent years.

What India really needs today is a proper fielding academy importing help from other nations where the art of fielding has been cultivated into an important and well-thought out process right at the junior level.

To start with… Dear BCCI, the richest board, how about some nice grass on our grounds? After all there are no shortages of cows on the roads to trim them. What a pleasant sight, the outfield in the grounds in many of the non-Asian countries offer. You almost want to get down there and roll in the grass in complete glee.

Secondly, we need fielding reforms starting right from the junior levels. You have the cash but do you have the vision? Oh, Let me guess… Sweep it under the carpet but remember, once upon a time the 8 inch floppy ruled the world and now it serves in most offices as a good coffee mat.

Speaking about cups and cup sizes, the digital trophy is a nice idea, where the winning captain can plug the gizmo in his cabinet and watch photos, videos and all the memorable moments of the series. I wonder if there is also a private viewing mode to fit in those “what happens in tours, stays in tours” moments too.

The fun part will be when the winning captain starts getting promotional spam for their products in a few months and as usual, the gizmo will traditionally conk out just a day after its warranty period, only for him to then face the true wrath of customer support, who would give him loads of incident ID’s after ID’s, that he would need another digital trophy just to store them.

Apart from the setbacks in the T20’s, Sri Lanka is surely but slowly fitting in all the pieces to form a good team with a consistent line-up slowly falling in. Dilshan is fitting into a perfect Sehwagish role scooping away runs merrily and getting out at times like a dodo. If he wasn’t on a cricket field, he probably will be making babies all night… Such is his form.

Finally a potential classical all-rounder in the Sri Lankan team. The new kid on the block Angelo Mathews has sure been growling for attention with some of his recent performances.

Could Angelo Mathews be as sweet to Sri Lankan cricket, as Angela’s voice in Arch Enemy? That’s one crazy voice isn’t it? But then Angelo is one tough kid too.

If only he could bowl as good as the Jedi master, Vaas and then throw in another good, highly under-rated potential all-rounder, Maharoof, it would well complete what was missing all these years in the batting line-up. Strong low order finishers and scrapers.

Cricket’s original Chenghis Khan and now the legendary Grandpa of Sri Lanka cricket, Sanath Jayasuriya is sadly well past his use-by date. His love for the Indian bowling attack might prolong his career further but he ought to be now giving opportunities for the new gen.

In recent times, New Zealand have done well in T20 cricket and been a total disaster in tests. Vettori may well feel like one of the Russian commanders in the movie “Enemy at the gates”, shouting through a loudspeaker on the battle field.

“One out of two gets a bat.
The one with the bat scores.
The one without follows him.
When the one with the bat gets killed,
the one who is following picks up the bat and scores!”

“One out of two gets a bat.
The one with the bat scores.
The one without follows him.
When the one with the bat gets killed,
the one who is following…
7 WICKETS DOWN ALREADY!!! GET ME THE FREAKING BAT!”

As for the Indian superstars/brats, they kept themselves busy cribbing about WADA and scaring peasants in the countryside with their new Hummers. Virat Kohli’s omission was a let down considering he came up with some fine performances in the Emerging Players tournament but he has the time. While Nayar did quite well, it didn’t fit the logic on having both Nayar and Yousuf Pathan in the squad. Ideally the trade-off should have been with either of these two in the utility all-rounder/finisher role and Virat Kohli drafted in.

With Dravid truly making a miraculous come-back in terms of selection recognition, the ideal scenario should have been the choice of featuring Dravid or Kohli in the middle order. With Kohli not in the squad, it makes a compulsory fit for Dravid to be featured and so no further opportunities given for Dhoni to fumble about under the media gossip scanner. As for the ones like Badrinath, it might well be too late and at the end of the road.

And yes, no sign yet of our secret weapon “Che Pujara”.

Gideon Haigh on how Gayle spake as he saw