Watching Shami Ahmed in the debut of my dreams

I have watched matches at Eden Gardens since 1988. Although I have not been remotely as regular a visitor as some other avid cricket buffs, I have attended enough for Eden to give me a 'home' feeling whenever I arrive there.

It all started in 1988. A 13 year old attended an India West Indies ODI (in whites, those days) with mama. And somewhere down the line when I returned to play at my mohallas I developed this secret dream: of making my Test debut as on opening bowler for at the Eden Gardens. Polished red cherry in hand,  raring to go at the end of my runup decked in sparkling whites. All set to bowl my first delivery in a Test match playing for India.

Of course I didn't chase my impossible dream and it didn't even take shape. But it remained – as my favourite impossible dream.

In all these years, I doubt if I have been on the ground when an Indian quickie has made his Test debut and opened the bowling. Perhaps certainly not. Before yesterday, the only Eden test I attended on opening day was India-vs-England in 1993..and I am pretty certain no Indian quickie made his debut in that match.

On 6^th November we went to the ground on first day of Sachin's 199^th Test. The whole point was to say goodbye to Sachin Tendulkar. That's an entirely different post, and I will not go on about Sachin here.

Takking our seats, we found that Shami Ahmed has been picked in playing eleven. This will be his Test debut. Shami would the bowling along with Bhuvaneswar Kumar, the only other medium pacer in the side.

My impossible dream came rushing back as the Indians took the field. As Shami took the ball and walked up to the end of his run-up I slipped into a trance…as if I was reborn as a spectator on the day of my dream debut..and Shami was me. All decked up in sparking new whites, raring to go with a red cherry in hand.  This was the moment I have repeated visions of, even to this day when I no more follow cricket with any devotion.

I watched him closely when he delivered his first ball. From the slow start of run, to the acceleration, ending in the brisk delivery action which generates decent fast-medium pace. I don't remember what happened after he delivered. I had made my debut and the rest mattered little at that point of time.

"Sapne hona zaroori hai". It is important to have dreams. Coz sometimes you can live them through another person.

A friend of mine had asked me not to give up on this dream, as it will happen one day if I keep on nurturing it. Well, in more ways than one 6th November was my "Joy of giving" day, sort of. I ended up relinquishing my dream to India's newest Test player, Shami Ahmed.

That recurring moment of my dreams has now passed into reality with Shami's debut delivery. I do not see it returning again in my daydreams. Perhaps I shall now be content to die without having bowled a 'real' delivery in my first Test match at Eden.

Update: I guess I should also give up a second, and very lately nurtured, secret hope - to earn tributes like this when I retire : http://pavilionview.blogspot.com/2012/03/dravid-tributes.html?m=1

The Great Indian Team Performance Curve: A Thesis

I read a friend’s Facebook status post, wondering about the changes we are witnessing  in the Indian team’s performance. To be precise, his questions were “how so much” and “how so quickly”.

A while ago, I had read an extremely well-conceived article by Cricinfo’s Siddharth Monga on the contribution of the “system” to India’s Champion’s Trophy win last night. Here it is.

Armed with the thoughts that came while reading Monga’s thoughtful piece, I set about trying to construct a quickfire “thesis” to explain the path charted by the Indian cricket team

Part A: how so much?

Ans: The direction that a cricket team – correction, an Indian cricket team goes can be largely explained by measuring the following areas:

(A)   the leadup to selecting the final 15 who set off for the tour – including resourcefulness, non-compromise and vision,

(B)   Captain’s performance as a player

(C)   The captain-coach duo and their (interpersonal) vibes within the team including handling of individual players as well as coaching staff,

(D)   Form of individual stars in the team, if any; and

(E)    Expectations set by the leadership team from the players, series by series (completely on-field stuff, nothing interpersonal here). This includes flexible thinking.

[A, B & D are extremely version specific; hence same set of people can produce different performance curves in different versions of cricket]

• Ganguly's team, in rebuilding phase of 2000-2003, thrived partly on A & B,  a lot on C & D and little less on E (except uncompromising integrity).

• During the latter parts of Ganguly era (late 2004-2005) the team form dipped due to partial dips in B, C & D.

• In Dravid’s (2005-mid 2007) era the emphasis on A & E became supreme; B was very good too, for most parts. However all of that was completely undone by the then coach Chappell's effect in undermining C - so much so that the huge minus in B led to underperformance in D as well.

• MSD's 1^st era (2007--2010), on the other hand, revived team form almost entirely based on C, D & E. In Tests, B almost did not come into picture, such was the overwhelming effect of D [Big four + Viru + Zaheer]!! A got toned down to moderate – which is fine if D is good.

• Dhoni’s 2^nd era (early 2011 to end 2012) saw a virtual disappearance of D, while B did not come up to compensate. This made BIG difference, even as A & E remained very similar and C dipped only marginally compared to Dhoni’s 1^st era. [Not by coincidence, Era-2 was the first days for captain with new coach]

• Dhoni’s 3^rd era is just starting. D is not likely to reach the stratospheric heights of his 1^st era anytime soon (certainly not in Tests). I agree majorly to this article. By accident or by design, Team India's A has shot up in past 3 months, even compensating for seniors' exodus contributing to instability in D (it is also looking up, thanks to performing youngsters).  In fact, A has fared so well that D (at least in Champion’s Trophy) was a factor of A!!   Decisive A has also led to decisiveness in E. Factor C, while still very good, is now so very different from Era 1. These days we see an animated Dhoni who actually tells youngsters what to do…and I believe he is now in sync with India's "new" coach Duncan Fletcher.

Part B: how so quickly?

A & E are the only components that are largely controlled by intent rather than chance. While teams thrive or perish on ‘culture changes’ in either direction it is foregone that culture changes take a lot of time.

A & E can be implemented in a very short time-frame. It is only the start, though. Any major changes in A & E, implemented too quickly, might create a shock-wave in ‘good’ (read ‘comfortable’) times, leading to adverse impact on results. However in THIS case, major changes in A & E were done when the team performance was close to its nadir (i.e. around when Dhoni’s 2^nd era was closing out). Things that would seem to be “upsetting” otherwise...those were perhaps now seen as a “Ray of Hope”.

Everything, absolutely EVERYTHING can happen when people chuck out the resistance and look forward to a change.

That ends my thesis, responding to Shrikant Subramanian’s Facebook question. [wiping brow]

Exciting? Indeed. I was just as excited while force-fitting the pieces of the puzzle. Thanks to you for appreciating. And at this humbling moment of success I would like to thank my…zz-zz-zz-zz

Crappy?? Yippie kay yay…..all theses necessarily are.

IPL-6: Moment of the tournament

THE MOMENT of IPL-6 just came up in today's Eliminator between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Delhi play-offs.
38 yr old "foreign" Brad Hodge finds a little time to use between deliveries of this knock-out match, and walks up to a forever-amused-looking "local" wonderkid (Samson) - less than half Hodge's age - to teach the latter a chapter from the book of stealing singles. 
"Don't hit it boy, work it and get that crucial extra run." The old man gestures, but only after having demonstrated it. 

Priceless. 

Almost justifies the existence of IPL...such moments.

Gains for Team India from 2011 Test series vs West Indies @ home

Gains from WI series:

1) Viru has started getting 2nd innings runs in the 2nd decade of his Test career.

2) Ashwin has stamped his Aussie never say die brand of fighting cricket in Tests too, after T20 and ODIs. What a year for him!

3) Ojha, the other (better) spinner, nearly turns a dead Test into a win on a flat track...in a single sessn. Memories of the 70s & 90s. Dare say Harbhajan needs to unlearn a bit of T20 bowlg and relearn Test bowlg. We need him back.

4) After years (?) we have seen three 140k Indian bowlers bowling at those speeds on Indian tracks (yes, all of them) and...miraculously, finishing the series injury free. 

5) Team selectn in the series was done with an eye on current series and another on future. It was delightful to see Varun Aaron making his debut in 3rd Test instead of Umesh although the latter scalped 7 in 2nd Test. It is better to have them fly to Oz with 1 each under their belts than 2-nil.

6) THE HAPPIEST PART, PERSONALLY SPEAKING. The decisn to keep pushing for a possible win after 6th wkt fall in 2nd inngs on 5th day, even risking a surprise loss in the process, was a sight I have waited to see for last decade plus. 

Thanks for that, Team India. You are my favourites again

[edited from my FB status msg]

Match winner

The customary glance from dinner table at IPL scores on SetMax told me Delhi had set an incredible 230 to Kings XI Punjab..Without looking at the scoreboard, it appears Sehwag has fired. Punjab were decently placed in the chase at 100 odd for 2 in 10 overs but even so the ask looks improbable to achieve.




But then the camera pans to a Delhi Daredevils bowler who was released from 3 years of service to KKR. I could almost hear the entire lot of IPL followers in Punjab whisper in nervous anticipation:

"Hey, this match is far from over!"

Ajit Agarkar, though, was quite oblivious of the hopes he continues to produce in rival camps.


Update: Ajit dearest comes on to bowl 17th over with Punjab needing 72 off last 4 overs. Gives away 15 runs in that over. Agarkaresque if viewed from a distance, it really is decent fare going by the match proceedings.

[developed from a note on my Facebook page]

Pak-Ind WC semi final at Mohali: My facebook posts during the Pakistan chase

After Nehra's 1st over:

Nehra - you must come good. You also got swing in 1st over. C'mon

Upon my thoughts going back to Wahab Riaz's deliveries in the Indian innings even when the Pak chase was on:

Wahab Riaz - can't still get over him!! Wonder what he can be if he gets swing both ways regularly.

Upon why I thought India had a good chance of winning, even after making concession of Pakistan being a better bowling side than India:

Pakistan created 15 chances out there (the 9 dismissals + the 6 lives of Sachin including the reviews). We need to create 10 (or 11, keeping cushion for 1 dropped chance)..

comment after further progress of play: we have missed two (Dhoni missed Younus before he was caught 2 balls later, and Yuvi misses running out Umar)..so NOW we have to create 12 chances;-)

While watching Munaf bowl good spells in today's match and remembering his remarkable spell to English midle order in his debut Test, Mohali 2006:

‎5 years back at Mohali, in another March, the fastest bowler (then) in India made his debut against the visiting English team. And decided the match in the 2nd innings with proper fast bowler's wickets. His name: Munaf Patel. History counts for nothing... and today Munaf's pace is unrecognisable. Still it remains the same venue, and the same bowler...

After Yuvi took two important wickets of Pak middle order to compensate for his batting duck:

Punjab ke gaon gaon mein, sarson ke kheton mein ei badi purani kahawat hai:



"You can't keep a good Yuvraj Singh down!"


'Wah - ab' yeh bowler banke inteqam lega.

Finding a familiar favourite batsman lurking behind the frame of Pakistan's Misbah ul Haq as the latter kept failing to get the ball off the square, thus conceding dots:

There's a lot about Misbah ul Haq which reminds me of a Very Special player from Hyderabad, India, someone who is arguably the greatest player NEVER to play in a World Cup. Misbah has the same wide shoulders, same clean-n-strong-jawed face, the same solidity, same age, same calm & solidity..& unfortunately today, also the same struggle in limited overs format to get the ball of the square. Feel for him..

After Munaf took his 2nd wicket:

Munaf & Mohali - made for each other!!!

After Pak reached the close of 40th over will  one set batsman (Misbah) and a willing ally in Wahab:

Pak need 62 off 6 overs, PP3 yet to be taken, Misbah & Wahab Riaz at crease, 3 wkts remaining. Can it get better than this??

After the Indian win, while trying to rub it into the folk that pretend they know EVERTHING better than the national skipper:

For all those who played pundits and thought Dhoni & team mgmt knew less than jhontu's and montu's of the para: have a look at Munaf and Nehra's figures. Sometimes, just sometimes (which is most of the times) Captain Cool knows better. He sees these guys at the nets too..we don't.

Quoting the most interesting personal note I heard in a tele-channel just after completion of the semi final match: Quote of the night when India won against Pak in WC semis:

"Main Mumbai mein hasoonga - 1996 mein main roya tha magar ab hasoonga."

          - Vinod Kambli, on a TV channel.

[This one is for eternity, irrespective of what happens on April 2]

On news pouring in from FB friends in other cities that crackers are being burst:

I cannot hear many crackers being burst: probably Kolkata hangs on, holds its guns for April 2nd..SUPERLIKE!!

comment after learning that crackers are being burst at some parts of Kolkata as well:
CORRECTION: Salk Lake holds its guns for April 2nd

 
Upon seeing bowling figures of Indian bowlers at the end of the semi-final with  Pak:

Zaheer 2, Munaf 2, Nehra 2, Bhaji 2, Yuvi 2....no 6th bowler...talking about pack hunting, HAVE YOU SEEN ANY BETTER THAN THIS?

Sharing a video of the Indian national anthem (recorded in 2009) where India team has Ashish (Nehra) on the screen and the word (ashish) in the song as well:

Time now for some POSITIVE Nehra jokes:



Q: Who is the only cricketer who will have his name pronounced when the Indian national anthem is sung at Wankhede on April 2nd?


A: 'ASHISH' Nehra, of course!!


-------


Check the video below - I shot it before Ind-Pak ICC trophy 2009 match. India lost that one. Then the team had 2 players whose name ...was in Indian national anthem - Dravid had been recalled!!

On the recurrence on 'mis' prefix in Pak's misadventure in the chase:

Wondering if one of the Pak newspaper headlines tomorrow will be:



"MISbah's MISbalanced MIScue ends MISsion"

My subsequent correction to comment: More correctly: "MISbah's MIScalculated innings culminates in MISbalanced MIScue, ends MISsion"

On Sachin: note on 'When desitny begins to wilt and comply to your will':

http://pavilionview.blogspot.com/2011/03/when-destiny-wilts-and-begins-to-comply.html

Amit's noble feat, and its undesirable but certain fallout

I have not seen much of Amit Mishra except in the IPL matches. An inevitable comparison comes up with that other young hope of Indian leg spin bowling, Piyush Chawla. Based on the IPL show (which was hard-fought, top class competitive event), at this stage I rate Amit to be a little ahead of Piyush Chawla. Chawla is talented and can bowl genuine wicket taking deliveries but he can also be profligate. Amit Mishra seems to possess all of Chawla's skills but also gives away very little.

To replace a legendary bowler-cum-skipper like Anil Kumble in a debut Test match must be pressure enough. To do it against Australia would be even more difficult. His teammates did well to compensate for those burdens on the young shoulders by batting first, putting up a good score and then, vitally, knocking of early Australian wickets (including Hayden) before Amit came in for his first spell. But credit goes to him and only him for bowling as well as he has done in the Ist innings and earning 5 wickets from good batsmen using classic leg spinner's guile. The feat shows a wealth of potential lurking beneath his unassuming persona. How about having Lalit Modi to divert some of his time from ICL-beating and ensuring that the boy plays for Rajasthan in the next next season to gain some more knowledge of his trade under the tutelage of Shane Warne?

I can see one fallout of Amit's feat that is as certain as it is unfortunate for him. His 5 wicket spell will be used by the Indian sports media to put more pressure on Anil Kumble when Anil needs it the least - in the middle of a tough series, perhaps the toughest in world cricket today. Kumble is 37, injured, coming from a poor last series and went wicketless for the first time on Indian soil in the series opener. Amit is 25, fit, has played for Kumble and took 5 wickets in his very first innings.

Poor chap Kumble - if I were him I would have nausea today even at the thought of the possible contents in tomorrow's sports coverage in media. And our selectors - how will they react when they select the team for the last 2 Tests?? While they have every reason for resting Kumble and continuing with Amit in the 3rd match, the selectors can also jump the gun and end up sending Kumble out of the team he was leading a match ago.While that is a little unlikely, I would not exactly be stunned if Anil Kumble is deselected, feels humiliated by his non-selection in the last 2 Tests and ends up declaring that he has played his last Test.

Brings another such occasion to my mind. Waugh Jr averaged under 28 in the 10 tests preceding the Australian away series against NZ in March 2000. The last series before that was against Indian visitors. Among middle order batsmen, Ponting was in best form against India. However he got injured (as far as I recall) and had to be replaced by Damien Martyn who (unbelievably) used to the bench those days. Martyn topped the middle order averages in the NZ series while Mark Waugh was the least impressive. While Mark Waugh did quite well to still average 47, many of us from the sub-continent suspected that he was likely to lose his place when Ponting returned. Nothing of that sort happened though. When Australia played their next Test against West Indies they went back to the same middle order that played the last match against India before the Tests in NZ. Martyn went back to the benches.

Mark Waugh was also past 35 & struggling a little at that time. However the selectors thought that Mark still had enough cricket left in him to be considered ahead of a peaking, younger Martyn. And Waugh proved his selectors right by doing well for better part of the next 2 years till he finally lost his touch and quit for good.

Of course Mark's retention in 2000 was helped by the fact that the next Test match against West Indies, which saw Ponting's return, was played 6 months later! How Kumble would have loved his shoulder injury to have deferred itself till the Nagpur Test.

Rolling stock expected to get better tracks

If I remember correctly I had tagged this Siddhartha Vaidyanathan piece, revealing the true magnitude of effort coming from Railways players for annexing THE Ranji Trophy, to an old post on Sanjay Bangar. Perhaps those boys in the pic on that page will now have a silent word of thanks for the organisers of ICL. In addition to the increased match fees and prize money that the BCCI was forced to announce on them players, hopefully they will now get better facilities to do the job, which is where the cricketing impact of ICL begins.

A chunk of credit for that development - in all senses - should go to their big boss, the brilliant Indian Railway Minister Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, , who masterfully announced a semi-dictatorial decision of letting out Railways cricket infrastructure to the ICL when everyone else pretended to be 1000 miles away from the league. It was a micro revolution of sorts and before long others like West Bengal sports minister Subhash Chakraborty, who is quite smart but less so than Lalu, also saw the double bonus of earning some easy money on rentals along with getting a free maintenance / upgradation of facilities in such venues and immediately declared the cricket stadiums of Bengal as Sports Economic Zones.

For Mr. Chakraborty though, there is a third angle yet - he has as massive an axe to grind with the present rulers of Cricket Association of Bengal as he has with BCCI management.

I do not buy nepotism and scams put me off - and yet I will not mind having the ex Bihar CM lead our country for one tenure. He has a rare gift, one that differentiates genius captains from brilliant ones: he sees an advantage where all else sees a handicap. Like all legendary skippers his moves return handsome dividends for his team while furrowing a few brows.

Unity and Providence

Master cricket writer Rahul Bhattacharya ends his typically lucid piece on Shiv Chanderpaul's cricket and genes with this observation:

"On the television in Mr Chanderpaul's living room it appears that West Indies have just slipped to defeat against New Zealand, their second loss in three days. The thought, I'm afraid is inescapable: Unity and Providence must come together if West Indies are to win it in Guyana."

'Unity' assumes even greater significance in the upcoming SL-v-WI match tonight if we take into account the open-book West Indian infighting during the past week on team and squad selection issues. It should be a cracking game between 2 teams desperate for a Super 8 win tonight.

Here's a Rahul Bhattacharya profile of Ireland's rising speedster Boyd Rankin. He observes:

"Boyd now averages 23.5 from four matches in the World Cup; before it he was not even a certainty in the XI, just a raw talent who had impressed coaches, including former England seamer Mike Hendrick. Indeed, World Cup preparation had to be mixed with some equally pressing issues.

It is lambing season back home, and things are busy on the family farm in Londonderry in Northern Ireland. "There were a few sheep lambing," he told the Mirror, "so I was doing that whenever I came back from training." It is not quite so casual too. Wake-up time 6am, then a session of farm work, then a driving of 140 miles to practice, then back to farming chores
till midnight."

280 miles of travel each day - all for the love and joy of playing an uncelebrated but beautiful game. And to top it all with a World Cup bowling average of 23.5. That must be getting his 'ranking buoyed'. (Apologies for the two bad puns, Rahul)

Younis and Akmal

I bow to these two Pakistani gentlemen. The climax of the 2nd Test in the ongoing RSA-v-Pak series saw two contrasting characters clinching the final hours of a tense game to keep the series alive for Pakistan.

One is a flamboyant skipper-in-the-making who grows in stature with every passing series, a cheerful yet tough go-getter ready to walk his ‘we will do better than India’ talk all by himself.

The other, Kamran Akmal, is a shy and silent man who, in the early months of each of the past two years, has made sure we listen to the willowy roar of his bat in a keenly fought Test series when we were least expecting it. He scored some unforgettable, invaluable runs against India at Karachi last year and he does it again at Port Elizabeth in 2007.

Inzamam, sure, had ensured through his indescribably cool batting in the first innings that their task was a lot less tough than it could have been. Few people besides the Multan Maahir expected Pakistan to take such a big lead when they had lost six first-innings wickets and for that I bow to Inzy a thousand times. [That is a respectable figure for bows, you will appreciate; nearly as many as reserved for Mohammad Asif who is easily the best fast / fast-medium bowling package in world cricket today. ]

But tough it still was for the subjects of this post to come aboard in the midst of a fourth innings storm at ninety something for 5 with a hundred odd runs still to get, steady the ship first and then steer it to safety.

Make no mistake; Younis Khan and Kamran Akmal did it when their team was well on its way down from a position of some supremacy. Even the present South African bowling attack is more than a handful in their backyard and a sub continental tail, in those conditions, often amounts to little without a top order batsman making it wag.

The two batsmen (Akmal may average moderately with the bat but I refuse to refer to a batsman of his ability as anything but a ‘batsman’) chose to be the last men standing between the aggressive Africans and an easy series win ahead of the World Cup. Eventually the pair scripted an unbeaten comeback partnership in style to level the series and set up a live 3rd Test.

From a regional supremacy point of view, together they have ensured that the crown of ‘best team in the sub continent’ stays with them for now, safe from the valiant snatching attempts of the Lankan tigers.

The Karthik perspective: choosing the second way, all the way

Imagine yourself preparing to sit out the final decisive Test match of an open series and then being told on the last day to prepare to pad up in place of the injured 1st choice keeper. You would be taken aback by the development. The 1st way of reacting to it – the easier way, that is - would be a spontaneous complaint of not getting enough time. But perhaps you are different. You take the surprise in your stride as a good tiding and look forward to this unexpected outing on the morrow.

You are aware that you rank amongst the best keepers in your land. That would give you some confidence, as would the knowledge that people would automatically expect less batting from your avatar as the new no.7.

Now comes the testing part: you are told that you may have to open with the bat if your team gets to bat first. This was more than you ever bargained for. Once again there is more than one way of looking at that.

You could either perceive that arrangement as a way to find a scapegoat in order to accommodate and shield a struggling opening batsman down the order; or you could react the second way - spot the best chance you ever had to show your calibre and to play an unforgettable cameo role in a golden chapter in your country’s cricketing history that may just get scripted on the back of your success in this new role.

Wait, there’s a third way. You simply close your eyes, say a curt ‘yes’, and start praying like a madman that your team gets to bats second (that more or less eliminates the possibility of your getting an opening role with the bat unless your skipper has sinister plans of dehydrating you to death).

You take a deep breath. You are incapable of seeing things in any but the second way inspite of your moderate performances since landing in this continent. You nod and smile.

Your skipper wins the toss, comes back into the dressing room and puts his thumb up at you with a wink. You pad up for a strange future you never prepared yourself for.

Imagine how fulfilling it must be when you come back quite a few hours later after providing a do-or-die opening partnership that was not just the best your team has managed on this tour but also started getting close to your team’s last innings aggregate!

You hardly care that even this effort of yours will never get even half the newspaper footage as your ex-skipper’s inspirational return managed. For you did all this even after being virtually certain of sitting out the next Test match your side will play quite a few months later as the first choice keeper will be back in business well before that.

If you are Dinesh Karthik of India then you did all that for the team. Little gems like today's effort of his often help rewriting a bit of sporting history. Reminds me of another honest trier. Sanjay Bangar did it for his team (opening in daunting circumstances, that is) at Headingley 2002 to trigger off an unprecedented 2 years when India hardly put a foot wrong even after leaving their shores. [For the record, India won that Headingley Test by an innings.]

Bangar was not there in Australia 2003-04, Pakistan 2004 or even World Cup 2003 (which was not too distantly separated in time from Headingley). By the looks of it, young Dinesh Karthik too is destined to have an in-and-out stint with the national side owing to the towering Dhoni. It makes his job of keeping focus tougher – like Damien Martyn’s was before he sealed a place in the Australian middle order.

But now we know that as long as he is not given a raw deal Dinesh Karthik will not be complaining about or backing off from his destiny. We have been getting glimpses of his temperament over this tour; we saw a whole lot more of it here in the past 24 hours.

There’s some reassurance for the future of Indian cricket in that the temperament is quite the same as what we thought it to be when he accompanied Dravid in a critical second innings partnership in the Eden Gardens win against Pakistan in early 2005 - and quite the opposite of what some of us thought when he called wrongly and apparently turned his back to run Kaif out in one of the recent one-dayers!

Deep and his Dada

As speculations of Sourav Ganguly's return to international cricket reach a crescendo Deep Dasgupta, his successor to Bengal captaincy, says:

"Ganguly`s presence would have made a difference to us with both the bat and the ball. But as a Bengali and a fellow cricketer I will be happy if he is selected for the South Africa tour."

I hope the BCCI wakes up from a slumber and sends an urgent fax to him that goes:

*****

Hi Deep

We all are happy with that show of camaraderie from you. But we would be happier if you could get yourself prepared and in shape to come along with him as a specialist opener. We are not joking, Deep. You are one of the only three or four Indian batsmen to have represented India in the last decade who do not poke at outside-off-stump deliveries on bouncy pitches.

One - Rahul Dravid - is already there; the second, Akash Chopra seems to have gone out of the radars of some of us. Sanjay Bangar, the third, is too inconsistent to be awarded a return to Test cricket. That leaves you as our only option as a second opener, just in case Wasim Jaffer is unable to cure himself of his off-stump wafts by the time the 3-day tour game draws to a close.

We wish you to go easy on your Bengal Ranji skipper's duties for a while and align your thoughts and batting game for joining your Dada in the very near future. We hope you can repeat your doughty acts in the same land during the 2001 tour.

Yours truly

xxxxxx
BCCI

PS: If you are picked, you shall play only as a specialist opening batsman. No keeping job shall be assigned to you on this tour.

******

Just as I am putting that wish to words, the second big news of the day arrives (1st one: Mohammad Yousuf breaking Viv Richards' 30 year old record for most test runs in a calendar year). Here's an excerpt from a Zee News report:

National selectors on Thursday recalled Ganguly for the Indian Test team to play against South Africa. Sourav last played for India in the Karachi Test against Pakistan in early 2006. .....VVS Laxman has been made the vice captain in place of Sehwag.

Sixteen member team for SA Test series: Rahul Dravid(C), VVS Laxman(VC), V Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, M S Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Dinesh Karthick, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, VRV Singh, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble.

A thought on Mufambisi

There's a saying in some language: every person has a replica in this world. You may have heard of that. There's another saying that you never heard of: even though you love a game, some matches can be so bad that you fail to live through them. I do not know the speaker of the first quote but you know who said the second.

The first time I saw Zimbabwe opener Tafadzwa Mufambisi was in the 6th over of today's non-match. He played a ball from Ian Bradshaw in a familiar fashion.

I was already expecting the match to be one-sided (just like you, and those fellows chattering behind your back, and the person who got a verbal pasting from you last week, and your grandma). The words 'precious' and 'few' often go hand in hand and today as a cricket viewer I was feeling like a shining million year old piece of carbon by the time 6th over started. I know you understand how rare a feeling that must be in this cricket mad country...

With the best interests of cricket at heart I tried a novel way to internally generate interest in the contest; an important ICC event like this should not lose valuable audience this early in the tournament. "I'll try handing out a quick rating on the form and quality of this guy taking strike from the first shot I see," I thought. After the shot: "....I think he will be good attacking player with decisive footwork, while his defensive technique needs work."

While West Indian bowler Ian Bradshaw returned back to his mark, this Zim opener's game (that is, whatever I boast to have seen of it in all of one ball) continued to half-remind me of another young player. However I could not pinpoint who that was. Both showed decisive and fluent forward footwork and natural stroking ability with the bat while the defence needed a few more layers. So which player was young Mufambisi a replica of?

Fortunately I did not have to rack my brains for too long - the answer came in the next (or was it next-to-next) ball when Mufambisi cut Bradshaw to point and an alert fielder swooped down on it in a flash. Dwayne Bravo it was indeed.

Unfortunately that was the end of my new one-ball game of replica hunting; I was forced to switch channels soon with a heavy heart as proceedings became increasingly insufferable.

Sanjay Bangar

Some cricketers have all the luck.

They get extra chances, extra facilities, extra media attention, extra fan following and the utterly forgettable resultant - extra sponsorship deals.

You can bet that dour and gritty ex-India player and Railways all-rounder Sanjay Bangar never got to play those extraaa shots. He is your regular no-nonsense bits-and-pieces guy, born to do everyday jobs of far less national importance than making people flock to stadia just to watch him play.

So what kind of jobs do the Bangars do? Leading an unfancied Railways side to Ranji trophy triumph, for example. Or setting little big examples of solidarity that help alleviate perennial woes of his railway mates making do with a non-existent support system. And helping bind his bunch of men-on-wheels together to make this team perform wondrously better than the sum of its parts.

Unfortunately the options of extra chances, extra facilities and extra attention fly extra quick out through of the window when a blue collar guy enters the scene. That brings us to another question: what does a Bangar get back for his contributions? Let us explore.

A Test batting average of 47.85 at home. Hmm, that is a steady start. That figure is 18 points more than his overall Test average, something he can mention to his grandchildren with a 'been there done that' nod. Pity Bangar the bowler could never back it up and remained wicketless in his six home Tests, or he could be a rather handy all-round horse for the Indian course. Let’s see what more we have in the Bangar baggage of collections.

OMG, he is the guy with the most unforgettable ‘only fifty-plus Test score on foreign soil’ on earth! Wow, wonder how this most temporary of openers had the audacity to partner Dravid in exorcising the resident evil ‘genie of away losses’ out of its permanent abode, the Team India bottle, on that crucial first day of the 2002 Headingley Test.

It seems he did have some luck in making himself a name.

“Aw c’mon, look at the stinking ODI stats of this all-rounder…”

Truth hits you hard and snaps you back to reality with a batting avg of 13.84 and bowling avg of 54.85. That batting average is a full two points less than Agarkar’s! I’m afraid the fairytale has ended and we have no more knots to unravel inside Bangar's backpack…he will now have to walk away into the horizon clasping his pedestrian record close to heart. Sadly the bag is all empty now. But at least Bangar has been guaranteed of some applause along his exit route after showing off those extraa bits of his.

Hold on a second, what of that only ODI fifty of his in 15 matches? Scoring 57 off 41 balls at five down with 96-to-win in a fifty-over–match enroute an overhaul of West Indies ‘ 325 in India was surely no joke. There there, even his only 50-plus knock in ODI’s threw a punch worth remembering. Dravid was again the partner watching from the other end.

Given that Sanjay Bangar played so few matches for India and did not exactly set the stage on fire in those, it is unusual that we remember almost every notable performance he put up in India colours. Some people have all the luck indeed. Perhaps they deserve no less.

A few extraa claps for Sanjay Bangar please.

Sada - for ever

On occasions that are getting rarer by the day, I find time to turn over the pages of Sunil Gavaskar's 'One day Wonders' and the one thought that inevitably comes back to me each time is: "What exactly happened to that audacious nut of a keeper called Sadanand Viswanath?"

Pre-Ganguly, chirpy players were a rare breed in India and Sadanand Viswanath is absolutely the earliest bird of that feather that I can remember (naturally, as I started cricket viewing in 1985). His mannerisms and energy are amongst the few remaining memories of that victorious 1985 World Series Cup campaign by India.

The mid eighties was a strange time for Indian Cricket. Quite a few young cricketers with obvious calibre gatecrashed into the Indian cricket team with remarkable initial success but then almost all of them disappeared from the scene just as quickly. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan the leggie (and brilliant fielder), Maninder Singh the left arm spinner (and brilliant fielder), Narendra Hirwani the leggie (not as great a fielder, perhaps). The quickest of those shock demises that set Indian cricket by a few years must have been Sadanand Viswanath's.

Here's a long-awaited chat with 'Sada' (as we all referred to him back in our household and neighbourhood during his glory days) that Sportstar has thankfully managed to come up with. He shares a few memories of his honour and his misfortune in the tete-a-tete.

Robin

He was the quintessential bits and pieces man - a lower middle order power wielder with the bat who could roll his arm over adequately and field like there was no tomorrow. If I were to name one man from the large pool of India's international cricketers who received less recognition than they deserved for their efforts (if not substantial contributions) then it must be Ravindra Ramnarain Singh or 'Robin'. Although he played a few one-dayers for India unsuccessfully in the late eighties, people identify him more as a late-90's player because he was drafted into the side for good only during the tri-nation Titan Cup in 1996, a tournament that India miraculously won beating two great sides.

Robin was 33 years young at the time and only Azharuddin in the side was older than him. 4 years and many ice-nerved finishing acts later, Robin was dropped after an ICC trophy campaign that gave Indian supporters hope and Sourav Ganguly's nascent leadership some more time. He was perhaps still the fittest person in that squad, rivalled on that count only by an 18 year old debutante named Yuvraj Singh.

Robin struggled during that 2000 ICC trophy tournament and in all fairness he did not have the backup of steady performances to see him through the extended lean trot. He was perhaps nearing the end of his international career as a player and the decision to discard him seemed logical. Robin refused to take his omission as a natural consequence though and held it as a manouevre by the team management, if reports are to be believed.

Those were speculations; after all it is rare for an omitted ex-cricketer to be enquired if he is upset and get flashed on the headlines unless you are an ex-captain that died in harness. Part of reports about his disenchantment seemed to be true during the sponsorship row before 2002 ICC trophy when some key international players almost did not go to Sri Lanka. Robin at that time responded positively to the Board's request to get prepared as cover instead of 'showing solidarity with the senior team and refusing'.

But fruitless emotions are no good preventing someone like Robin Singh from being a contributor to the team cause. After a hiatus he was back to his destined duty as a valuable worker bee in the hive of Indian cricket. This time Robin found a role to play beyond the playing arena and assumed charge as the coach of Indian A team. He continues in that capacity to this date and true to form, he does his duties with acceptable end results.

Robin must get overshadowed by other bigger fish in his new trade, once again. I mean, no one was ever heard referring to Robin as the 'guru' of A-team or his wards as members of 'Team Robin'! But malice is never a constituent of people in his mould. This piece about Trescothick could easily be reworded to describe this invaluable Caribbean import of Indian cricket during his playing days. Men such as these think nothing of never getting worshipped like some more fortunate mates for doing their best. They are prepared to smile through hardworking days that lead to obscurity of backpages, all for the crime of not being flashy.

For the moment, the man is in action and has a purpose that is greatly relevant to cricket in his beloved adopted country, and from what we know of him that is all that he cares about in this world.

A Prince of no frills

Ashwell Prince has generally projected himself well on most outings since the first we saw of him. He was initiated to international cricket in a much-awaited Test series in 2001-02 when South Africa were nightmarishly hammered at home by Adam Gilchrist and Australia. Amid the rubble of demolished reputations Prince managed to stay up for the part of this doughty newcomer not born with the silver spoon of phenomenal talent yet prepared to take the hard route to the next level.

Since that debut of his, Prince has done only moderate justice to the opportunities offered to him by the UCBSA. He has looked a better batsman than his average of 32 in Test cricket suggests. His batsmanship, though, is quite a loud shout away from that other Prince of world cricket, Brian Lara. Ashwell is, in some ways, a fill-in for the retired Gary Kirsten at another batting position. An analogy with the pre-2001 Justin Langer would perhaps be as appropriate.

Prince has been shaping up rather well in one-day internationals. The ODI average of 44 appears distinctly healthy if his more-than-fair share of not-outs are discounted. Ashwell's crisp fielding efforts inside the circle helps restore competitive edge to the traditionally supreme South African fielding unit that, in the recent past, took a retrograde step from the unearthly 90's regime of Jonty Rhodes Inc.

The big scores against leading teams were yet to come off Ashwell's blade in the Tests though. Quite unsurprising - he hardly ever played a Test against a top side since his debut series. In the current clash Down Under Prince completes a full circle on his spiral way up to the upper tiers. He is back facing the same world beating adversaries and, going by his response to calamity at a key juncture of the Sydney Test, making a stepping stone out of it - in their backyard.

Not too bad a feat by the gritty batsman notwithstanding the oddity that Warne, after scalping Prince nine times in the eleven innings that the South African has played against Australia, will continue to perceive him as a walking wicket of the Cullinan variety.

[cross posted at Different Strokes]