Column | Deep Backward Point

The Fate of a Pakistan Captain

Returning to my obsession, here is the list of all Pakistan ODI captains since Imran (criteria: captained > 5 ODIs) with their fate. Forgive some oversimplification of facts in favor of brevity:

Javed Miandad (’92-’93): Taken to the 1996 world cup to do nothing of note but break a world record, retired at the end of the WC and came out swinging against the administration.
Saleem Malik (’92-’95): Banned for fixing
Rameez Raja (’92-’97): Largely untarnished legacy
Wasim Akram (’93-’00): Dumped in 2003, subsequently retired.
Waqar Younis (’93-’03): Sacked after 2003 World Cup, subsequently retired. Only two years older than current captain, Misbah-ul-Haq.
Moin Khan (’95-’01): Akmal’ed
Saeed Anwar (’95-’00): Takes a break for his family, returns and then retires.
Aamer Sohail (’96-’98): Match-fixing whistle-blower, suffers the consequences, retired in 2001.
Rashid Latif (’98-’03): Serial whistle-blower, blew the whistle one time too many.
Inzamam-ul-Haq (’02-’07): Post-2007 World Cup, quit the one day game. Left out of test side. Joined ICL.
Mohammad Yusuf (’03-’10): Issues with the PCB, an ICL stint and finally a life ban.
Younis Khan (’05-’09): Sudden resignation in 2006, reinstated later, resignation again. Banned by PCB in 2010.
Shoaib Malik (’07-’09): Banned in 2010
Shahid Afridi (’09-’11): Dropped unceremoniously from captaincy, followed by retirement until Butt’s resignation.
Misbah-ul-Haq (’11-present): No controversies other than batting-speed. So far.

Previously on DeepBackwardPoint.com:

Misbah replaces Afridi as ODI captain (espncricinfo.com)
Afridi pulls out of Ireland ODIs (espncricinfo.com)
Shahid Afridi ‘quits’ international cricket (espncricinfo.com)

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India v. West Indies: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

I know I’ve been harping on this all day, but I have one more thing to add. First, from Cricinfo:

In all, India are without Tendulkar, Dhoni, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Gambhir and Ashish Nehra for the ODIs. They will also have to do without Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir and Pujara for the Tests.

Here’s what I have to say: if India lose to the West Indies, perhaps someone of some importance will start taking this issue seriously.

If India wins against the West Indies, god help us. If India wins, it means two things:

An Indian B-team is good enough to beat the current top West Indies team at home.
No one will take seriously the schedule and conflict of interest issues highlighted by the the top-half of the team sitting this one out.

The year was 1993 and the manager of the Indian cricket team, Ajit Wadekar, had just had a heart attack. Skipper Mohd. Azharuddin was working hard to keep the news from his team. India was about to face the UAE in their international debut. India was returning to Sharjah after a more than two year hiatus, for the first time since Aaqib Javed‘s humiliating hat-trick of LBWs.

More importantly, for the purpose of our little tale, a young man from my childhood home of Baroda was about to make his debut. The word on the street was that the only way he scored runs was in sixes. Atul Bedade brought a fierce reputation from the domestic game. He promised to be Jayasuriya before Jayasuriya, Yusuf Pathan before Yusuf Pathan. He walked in at four down with a few overs to go and left with a whimper.

And so it went with the rest of his career. As he would walk in, the commentary team would inevitably say something like “the bowler should be worried, this man can hit everything out of the park.” Atul Bedade was expected to and tried to hit everything out of the park. In seven months and thirteen matches he hit 158 runs, thirty of which came in sixes. And then he receded in to obscurity.

There were quite a few reasons I started thinking about Bedade recently.

Bedade may have thrived in the IPL. For a season or two, but maybe more.
Afridi’s recent batting career is a classic Bedade. More appropriately, Bedade’s career was like recent Afridi. Not a real comparison, of course– Afridi the bowler, and Afridi the (former) explosive batsman have been terrifying limited over opponents. Alhamdulilah, indeed.
I can only think of three batsmen who have lived up to the kind of hype I addressed above for long innings and a long career: Sehwag, Jayasuriya and Gilchrist. Not coincidentally, all of them have done well in Test cricket.

4 Comments

May 21, 2011

The IPL Cheerleader Controversy: Why the Surprise?

Before I wade in to the Gabriella Pasqualotto story, I would like to say this: I like the Alternative Cricket Almanack, I think the writers have a great sense of humor and they’re generally top-notch. Also, I realize I’m late to this story.

Here’s the background: Alternative found an IPL cheerleader willing to blog about her experiences. She blogged about her experiences, including some remarks about certain cricketers. She was fired from her job.

Outrage ensued.

My question: why is anyone surprised? This is precisely what I expected the day I saw the first blog post. And the first blog post wasn’t even harmful. The question to ask yourself is this: if you blogged about people you worked with at your job, including details about their personal life, do you think you would get to keep your job? I think not.

Alternative claims that all the IPL administrators had to do was discreetly tell them to take the blog posts down, and that is what would have happened. I’m inclined to believe them, though in my experience when a blogger gets a take-down request like that, their first instinct is to blog about it. So I’m not sure the IPL would have taken that route– bloggers are not known to be discreet. Especially not ones that have been printing details about cheerleaders and cricketers at after-parties.

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May 19, 2011

The 2nd Last Thing I Write About Willow

So it’s been a fascinating couple of days. I’ve spoken with a number of people about the Willow saga, including the CEO of Willow TV, Mr. Vijay Srinivasan. Which leads to make only the following points:

Everything I wrote in my article can be backed up by reputable media sources (and, I’ve been told, independent corroboration by people close to Willow), except for my final leap of logic: that their web site woes were linked to their financial woes. I had two narratives, one of a failing web site and another of a deteriorating financial situation. One began in April, the other ended in April. As I told Mr. Srinivasan, it wasn’t rocket science to make the connection. If I got it wrong, so be it.
I regret one thing in my original post: the title. I tried to be dramatic after spending an entire long article making sure I had all the facts right. It’s something I see in mainstream media all the time, but I thought I was better than that. Sometimes when you think your blog doesn’t have an audience, you do stupid things. Rule #37 of blogging: Always assume the person you are writing about will read your blog and sue you for it. Mr. Vijay Srinivasan is not suing me, of course, but is disappointed. That is the only part of my blog Mr. Srinivasan told me he took issue with. He says they’re doing fine financially.
I was asked why I didn’t get in touch with Willow before posting the story. Simple answer: they don’t put any contact information out in the open other than their support email. And no one answers their support email. I do not understand how a web site can go dead in this day and age. It’s not that hard to put up a simple “Great things coming soon, we’re working on improvements to the back-end” (which is what Mr. Srinivasan said Willow is up to at the moment).
A word of advice for Willow and Mr. Srinivasan: this is the Internet. The only way to beat the bad press is to get your voice out there. If you had a presence on the Internet, either through simple emails to your customers, or a responsive twitter/facebook account, or just old-fashioned updates to your website like they did in the ’90s, you could have avoided all of this.

A final note: I love Willow TV, with all its quirks. They provided the best cricket experience I have ever had– including the 16 years I’ve lived in India. Has anyone ever been able to watch cricket on their phone, and then seamlessly continue on their laptop, and then seamlessly continue on their iPad, and then effortlessly continue on their TV? It was great. Which is what made the subsequent fall even more dissapointing.

I hope I don’t have to write more about Willow. Two days, and I’m mostly sick of it. I hope they just get back to being awesome so I can forget about this business. I don’t want to be known as the blog about financial dealings behind media rights for cricket streaming in America.

It’s just not cricket.

P.S. If you really want to keep track of the sordid story of media rights for cricket, Nikhil Pahwa at Medianama is your man. He’s been doing it much longer and much better than I have.

4 Comments

May 18, 2011

How Lalit Modi and the BCCI (Almost) Killed Willow TV

UPDATE: Willow TV CEO, Vijay Srinivasan, tells me that Willow is alive and well. Willow will broadcast the English summer. Updates to the site are underway. He has disputed the article. Every financial deal I have reported in this article is backed-up by either an article in a reputable news source or an official corporate release. I have simply laid it all out on one page. Perhaps reports of Willow’s death are exaggerated, but to all appearances they have been on life support since March.

I’ve tracked this story for a couple of months now, both as a blogger and as a long-time Willow TV customer, and I finally have a breakthrough. Willow TV was a victim of the BCCI/Modi saga. The details are as follows:

Willow TV— the website that has provided legal live streaming of cricket on the Internet in the United States for 8 years– is on life support. The web site has not been updated since the World Cup. There are no working links to subscribe to their service. Customer support has been non-responsive. The silent masses wonder– what’s up with Willow TV? (see Samir Chopra’s recent woes that inspired my investigation.)

What Happened to Willow?

Willow TV was acquired by a company called Global Cricket Ventures in 2010. Earlier, there had been interest from Anil Ambani, but after that deal fell through, GCV stepped in. GCV had the rights to the Champions League T20 as well as the IPL. Add to that the World Cup rights in 2011, Willow TV seemed destined for greatness. In late 2010, an India-focused private equity firm called Elephant Capital invested $10 million in GCV for a 50% stake. The Willow TV World Cup broadcast, after some initial hiccups, was a success. They streamed the matches to browsers, IPTV devices (PS3, Roku, Wii, etc.), iPhones, Androids and iPads everywhere and even got their own channel on satellite television.

It was a great pleasure and gave US viewers a taste of a possible future where cricket was available all the time on any device of their choosing.

Enter: Lalit Modi

I don’t have all the details, but here is what I know: GCV sub-licensed the IPL on-line and mobile broadcast rights from World Sports Group (WSG). Last June, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) scrapped the agreements for global media rights with WSG. The reason? An alleged improper facilitation fee of $90 million paid by broadcast firm by Multi-Screen Media (MSM, owners of Set MAX TV Channel) to WSG. The BCCI claimed that former IPL chief Lalit Modi had struck the deal independently without prior knowledge of the board.

Coup de grâce? Lalit Modi is the father-in-law of Gaurav Burman, one of the directors of Elephant Capital.

So, suddenly, WSG->GCV->Willow TV was left without rights to the IPL and CLT20. This time the IPL online rights went to Indiatimes. And everything went further downhill.

In March 2011, Elephant Capital decided to pull their investment out of GCV and since then all their online properties have gone silent. It appears they have no more money to run the operations.

WSG went to court after being stripped of the TV rights, and it seems the court has instructed them to settle with BCCI in a civil court. The BCCI, for its part, is in no mood to do business with anyone from the Lalit Modi era.

And that’s what happened to Willow TV. They were at their peak, offering a great service across a range of devices when the rug got pulled from under them. Their only crime was that they were acquired by a company who was in bed with a company who allegedly did a shady deal with Lalit Modi.

[Of course, this doesn’t excuse the fact that they are unresponsive, opaque and apparently, giving people a hard time when they want to cancel their subscription.]

Epilogue

Yet– hope springs eternal. If you have a working subscription, the current Pakistan tour of West Indies works just fine in a browser, though they’ve dropped IPTV device, phones and tablet support. And I did get a mysterious email from them a month ago about IPL streaming that made me very happy for a couple of weeks. But mostly, it’s a near-dead web site and a service on life support. Indiatimes streams IPL in the US with a three hour delay. A three hour delay for an IPL game. I have no words.

For a few weeks in 2011, Willow TV showed us a glimpse of a possible tomorrow. Cricket available where you want it, when you want it. I miss it already. Read the rest of this entry »

9 Comments

May 7, 2011

Strauss

England Move in to an Era of Better Hair

English Cricket Enters an Era of Better Hair

While the world worries about a three captain strategy, what worried me even more was the unceremonious limited overs retirement of Andrew Strauss.

As an India fan, this has been especially perplexing. A few weeks ago, Strauss played the 2nd-most devastating knock of the World Cup, after Taylor’s decimation of Pakistan. And now he retires.

While his 2011 hasn’t been great, 2010 was the best year of his career. In 14 innings, he scored at an average of almost 58, a strike rate near 100 with two 100s and eight 50s. In 2010, he had more 50s, more 100s, more 4s, more 6s, a higher average, a higher strike rate and more runs than any other year in his career.

It’s not as though England are having a terrific ODI run, where they can afford to lose their top performer.

∞

Alastair Cook is a fine batsman, made the cover of Wisden, has great hair and went to the right schools but– it’s been said a billion times– but why would you name an ODI captain who couldn’t even make the 15 of your World Cup squad? Pietersen, Broad and Shahzad were sent back home injured from the World Cup, and even then, Cook was not invited, which means effectively he is not in the top 18 picks for the England ODI team.

At least he won’t replace someone who actually deserved to be in the squad on cricketing merit. He’ll replacing the retiring Strauss.

England name Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad as new captains (independent.co.uk)

April 27, 2011

The Kirsten Era: In Numbers

The Duncan Fletcher era is upon us. The Gary Kirsten era in Indian cricket has been quite something to watch. Especially when coupled with Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Here are some highlights, as I’ve been combing through the statistics of the past few years:

Test record:

India played 33 tests under Kirsten, won 16, lost 6, drawn 11.
In the previous 3 years, India won 11, lost 6 drawn 13.
Basically, India learned how to convert potential draws to wins. What Australia learned under Steve Waugh.
At home: 10 wins, 2 losses, 7 draws. Away: 6 wins, 4 losses, 4 draws.
Sri Lanka and South Africa are the only test teams to have beaten India in the Kirsten era.
Only 1 out of 12 series was lost (Sri Lanka in ’08). No test series have been lost under Dhoni.
In the previous 3 years, 3 out of 11 series were lost.

One Day record:

India played 93 ODIs under Kirsten, won 59, lost 29 and tied 1.
In the previous 3 years, India won 48 and lost 42. The win percentage has gone up dramatically.
India won 14 out of 21 ODI series, including the World Cup.
Home: 24 wins, 7 losses, 1 tied. Away: 35 wins, 22 losses.
In the previous 3 years, India lost more away ODIs than they won. This is where their improvement has been most obvious.

In a way, this is merely a continuation of the 21st century revolution.

Fletcher named as new coach of India (guardian.co.uk)

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April 12, 2011

How to Become an IPL Team Fan in Four Easy Steps

Ducking Beamers* wonders how to become a fan of an IPL team– the teams changed drastically year-over-year, there are only weak city-based ties and some teams are just plain bad:

This is my major problem with the IPL: why should I support one franchise over another?

In my opinion, it’s easy to pick a team. Here are my steps:

STEP #1: Never root against Sachin Tendulkar.
STEP #2: Make a list of all the players you love to watch. It doesn’t matter why you love to watch them. Maybe they swear a lot. Maybe they are good-looking. Maybe they slapped a player you hate. Maybe they actually play decent cricket. It does not matter. This is the IPL; the Filmfare Awards of cricket. It’s your license to be absurd.
STEP #3: Remove all the bowlers from your list. IPL is a batsman’s game. Nobody likes watching the bowlers. Nobody.
STEP #4: Find the team that has the most players on your list. The IPL is a cult-of-personality event, treat it as such. For me, that team is Kolkata Knight Riders, because it has Shakib, Eoin, tenDo and Yusuf. Kallis and Gambhir are just icing on the cake.

Now you have a team to root for! Wasn’t that easy?

And remember: the IPL is a Twenty20 tournament. Twenty20 is a fickle format, so be a fickle fan. If your team starts to falter, shift your allegiance to a team that actually plays well.

But until you know which team is playing well this year, my four-step program is fool-proof!

* I make it a point to attribute links to the individual who wrote the article, not their institution or company or blog (e.g. Bhogle instead of Cricinfo, Jarrod instead of Cricket with Balls, etc.). Ducking Beamers is not the name of a person, as far as I know. But I don’t know his real name.

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April 11, 2011

The Day I Was Dhoni

The year was 1996. Sachin Tendulkar was already a legend. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not even a ticket collector. The school Sports Day was approaching. There was only one question on everyone’s mind:

Would Vinay House remain the laughing stock of the school?

∞

Let’s back up for a second.

Now that Harry Potter has taken over the world, even the gringos are probably familiar with the “house” system that divides schools across the commonwealth into groups that compete in everything from football to quiz competitions.

I wish I could tell you that my house– the mauve hued Vinay House– was the Gryffindor of our school. Frankly, I would have settled for Ravenclaw.

No, sadly, we were the Hufflepuff of our school. We were the nice guys who finished last. You know all the kids Grace said adored Ferris Bueller? Yeah, they were in Vinay House.

∞

Enough with the pop culture analogies. For now.

Sports Day began with each house marching past the flag, the audience and the chief guest. The chief guest would be some local politician, or local sports star (Kiran More!), or, one time, when the real celeb canceled, it was my father. No, my father is not famous, unless you are a cancer cell. In which case, you’d know him like assassination-victims knew Jason Bourne.

Vinay House would march past doing a Three Stooges routine, followed by the rest of the houses in perfect rhythm to the drum beat. This would be followed by a few track and field events, the final tally of the points and the chief guest would hand out the trophies.

Yes, my father once handed me a trophy in front of the entire school. It was awkward.

∞

Before we got to this day, every sporting event had to be complete, the scores tallied, the points allotted. Which brings us to the fateful cricket match.

Vinay House had already lost their first game, and were now in a battle for 3rd place. I was in the team. I was neither a bowler, nor a batsman, a sort of Darren Sammy without the captaincy. I came in at #10, with eight wickets down and some 12 runs yet to be chased.

And then we lost the 9th wicket. At #11, in walked a friend I had known for ten years, and neither of us were what you could call a Kevin O’Brien with the bat. Or even a Rizwan Cheema. Or even a Venkatpathy Raju.

It came down to the last few balls. I was on strike. 4-ish runs remained. One wicket in hand. One of my closest friends was bowling.

The ball was straight, and a little short, and I swung my Slazenger.

∞

Let’s back up for a second.

Ok, sorry, let’s not.

∞

Me "playing" cricket

I swung my Slazenger and the ball flew over Long On as the crowd rushed in. Six runs. Vinay House was not #4. On that day, at least.

Very quickly I was surrounded by my closest friends.

∞

I did it for Sachin.

∞

No, not really. Though I would have if he’d asked.

∞

Notes:

The bowler and I are still close friends. Not sure if you could say the same about Dhoni and Nuwan Kulasekara.
One of the people who surrounded me after I hit that six is now my wife.
After that day, I announced my retirement from cricket. It was time to let in a new generation.
Also, they didn’t select me for the team the next year. So in a sense, you could say I also pulled a Ponting. “You can’t fire me, I quit!”

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Deep Backward Point

Category: Column

May 31, 2011