Ravi Shastri is selected in BCCI's three member committee for probing spot fixing.
Hope he can fire on all cylinders and drive some tracer bullets into fixers, make them disappear like huge sixers before the contest goes down to the wire. it's his for the taking, that's what the doctor ordered. However Shaz's greatest achievement would be bringing down the (BCCI) president if he can...he has got good credentials as a 'president shooter' to start with: a three letter initial (same as LHO and JWB) !! That will set the cat among the pigeons...c'mon Shaz, throw caution to the wind and be like greased lightning. The situation is touch and go...it's a pressure cooker, and something's got to give.
Can almost hear him commentate on the findings: "what Indian cricket needs now is a wicket...what Srini needs now is a partnership. Srini is rapped on the pads and the finger goes up....the umpire knew exactly what he was doing there. This decision sets up rest of the enquiry nicely ...now Guru..edggeeed, and should be taken...aah, Delhi police have dropped it. Unbelievable - they will take it ten out of ten times. the atmosphere is electrifying..is there another twist in the tale? One gets a feeling Guru may have injured himself there..."
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.
A relieved Irfan Pathan turned up for a post-match interview after Delhi Daredevils' close win over Pune Warriors in IPLT20. They say Irfan lost confidence in his bowling. But whenever Irfan speaks, I see a confident & communicative young man ready with intelligent & frank responses without having to be prodded. Today I saw that sparkling side of Irfan once again. I even see shades of the current Indian skipper when Irfan is in this mood. Try as I did, I could not match the bubbly guy I saw today with people's general perception of him (and with his own lack of performances in domestic cricket).
If Irfan Pathan shows decent returns in domestic cricket, then with his kind of ability I cannot believe he can EVER be a lesser preference to selectors than Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla and some of the others tried out these days. His middle overs bowling was key to Dhoni's T20 WC final win in 2007. Currently in ODI's the Indian team needs a medium-quick bowling all rounder MORE than spin-bowling ones. Yet here we see Irfan, showing much fluency with the bat at number 3 and speaking brightly in T20 interviews while betraying NO SIGNS of returning to India colours. It would be interesting to see his response had the interviewer thrown that question.
Has Irfan Pathan lost interest in international cricket? Is he happy as he is today? Is he no more keen to come back to Team India? I won't dwell again on the twisted incentives that IPL paychecks present for top T20 players. I have blogged generally on it earlier. He may even be going through genuine form issues. However, I find 'years of bowling form lapse' quite phoney for someone who, 5 years back, only had to turn up at the bowling crease for the ball to start swinging.
The other intriguing aspect about his current IPL stint: inspite of his moderate showing in previous IPL's he fetched a staggering price as an all-rounder, a price that is normally reserved for'guaranteed performers', or in other words the top players in the world who excel in other formats too. There must be something in him that the IPL franchisees are seeing and investing on, but the selectors & Irfan himself seem to be unaware of it!
Strange, the way some truly promising careers shape up in this game...especially now that IPL adds a twist that was not seen till 4 years back.
PS: I have seen and read about the 'Chappell effect' on Irfan's career. I am sure some of you would want to go back there. However I have my reservations in even starting to discuss the argument that a major talent continues to get defocussed 4 years after Chappell has left.
[developed from the note posted on my Facebook profile; cross posted with minor edits on cricketcountry.com ]
Yuvraj is one of those few fascinating cricketers who combine majesty with vulnerability. As a Test player, he has mostly disappointed, the average of 35 that you see in the record book at odds with the left-hand Wally Hammond that you see at the crease. That GraemeFowleresque, ShivSunderDasian figure of 35 is often used by atheists, when set alongside Graeme Smith’s equivalent of 49, as an aesthetic argument that proves the non-existence of god. Even Yuvraj’s distinguished ODI career had taken a pronounced downturn over the preceding 18 months. This tournament, the visual splendour of his stroke play has been matched by its assurance and determination. 57 not outs rarely glow like beacons on scorecards, but in a match that was not merely spell-binding, but presented witchcraft’s top 20 recipes boxed up in a commemorative gold-plated folder, and that was played in the tightest margins between defeat and victory with big players on both sides exerting significant impacts on the drama, Yuvraj decisively broke the Australians.
------------------
I was touched by that note from Andy. This rather special couple of paragraphs, and their perspective, befits a cricket historian like Ramachandra Guha, or a cricket romantic like Neville Cardus.
I always knew all along Yuvraj has been stealing many more hearts with this batting than his stats would ever, EVER suggest.
Like he stole mine 5 years back. First with his performance (blogged hereat the time)... Then with his opulence. Sorry, no blogs on it - for lack of words to make posts on what he makes me feel with that arc of bat swing he paints when he is in unrelento-creato-destructo mode.
We look at the contribution of cricket's genuine ODI all-rounders to matches won by their side. We are silenced in awe. 1) Jayasuriya averaged 41.3 with bat and 27.5 with ball in the 233 ODI's he has played for Sri lanka and ended up on winning side. Essentially he provided an additional player to his skipper: a specialist bowler (it was not occasional partnership breaking spin - he got 222 wickets in those 215 matches) and a specialist attacking batsman
[And inspite of many requests Cricinfo still refuses to show strike rates for modern batsmen in lmited overs cricket - THAT would have revealed his full value]
2) We come to the other great all round contributor of our times: Jacques Kallis.
Batting avg. of 52.8 and bowling average of 26.3 (186 wkts in 201 ODI's) in South African wins during his career...
[Kallis' stats look significantly better than Jayasuriya's, but the reality of the impact made by these two guys is not exactly in line with the figures. Kallis' comparatively slow pace of scoring and inability to accelerate at key situations often makes him an also-ran in those wins, which very rarely happens to Jayasuriya.]
Anyone else coming to YOUR mind to compete with these two - amongst current players or from yesteryears?
Then please propose your man in the comments column....it will help if you add a statsguru summary of the player's filtered stats of batting avg & bowling avg in all matches won by his side during his career. We can discuss the contenders thereafter.
[Min. qualification: 75 matches won over career length of 10 years+]
