King Cricket, on the feast that awaits us:
For the next few weeks, we’re going to get Zaheer Khan one innings and then James Anderson the next. It’s like our metabolism has suddenly allowed us a curry-pizza-curry-pizza diet.
Both sides bat deep, but it’s the bowling that has me salivating as well.
Here is Part 1 of my attempts to feed the trolls in the Cricinfo comments. [part 2]
On Samir Chopra’s inaugural blog post on his new blog The Pitch, Geoff Plumridge comments (UPDATE: it gets better, Mr. Plumridge responds in the comments below too):
The ashes as a pinacle is no myth mate. You other johnny come latelys can only dream of heritage like that. When Billy Midwinter bowled Australia to victory most Indians had never heard of cricket. WE built this international game and the rest of you people only rode on our coat-tails. Remember your place in the history of the game.
∞
Dear Geoff Plumridge,
Thank you for the coattails. To demonstrate their gratitude, the BCCI will allow you to ride their coattails until 2015. In memory of your place in the history of the game, the BCCI will create a museum exhibit honoring you next to the Aztec, Lost City of Atlantis, Titanic and dinosaur exhibits.
Thank you,
Devanshu Mehta
P.S. The Indians had beaten England in an away game around the same time as Billy Midwinter. Have you not heard of the extraordinary late-19th century team of Bhuvan, Mukhiya, Kachra and Lakha?
Nine years ago, today. My favorite one-day of them all:
And at 146 for 5 chasing 326 for victory, with Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid all back in the pavilion, the contest was as good as over. But nobody, it seemed, had bothered to inform Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh (combined age 41).
This was the game that made me believe. Believe that a new era had, indeed, begun. That the ’90s were over. That India could chase. That India could bat deep. That India, who had never made a 300+ score until 1996 (after even Zimbabwe), could make it look easy.
That India could win.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, accused of the first-degree murder of Test Cricket
India took a draw in the third test against West Indies, with less than a run a ball required and seven wickets in hand with 15 overs remaining. All hell broke lose.
For the defense: Kartikeya Date:
The World’s Number 1 Cricket fan did the math.
A 50 over old wicket V A 315 over old wicket,
A heavy outfield V The usual lightning quick ODI outfields,
The lack of any powerplays V The lack of a thirty yard circle,
Very strict interpretation of the wide V A standard Test match interpretation
Free hits for front foot no-balls V No Free hits for front foot no-balls
For the prosecution: Alternative Cricket:
It was cowardly from Dhoni, and showed that his tactical awareness still leaves a lot to be desired. As an aside, it is hard to reconcile this ‘First, Do Not Lose’ attitude from Dhoni with his perceived aura of ‘fearlessness’.
Defense: Subash Jayaraman:
I am not insinuating that the fans shouldn’t question the tactics of their teams but to fundamentally doubt the players’ characters that have brought us wins, trophies and covered us in vicarious glory, is a little extreme.
Prosecution: Samir Chopra:
To be a true champion it is not enough that one sit on top of a numerical ladder of rankings and points; it is necessary the putative champion show the desire and the ability to respond to challenges, to find a way to transcend limitations and rise to the top of the game. [..] As for Test cricket, in such dire times, you need better guardians.
Voice of reason, Homer:
What does dominance achieve anyways? Bragging rights for a few years, an inflated sense of worth, followed by years of scorn and talk of comeuppance. On the other hand, longevity creates a system of sustained excellence. Coupled with the knowledge that the team is fallible, it keeps the team honest. It also allows for constant regeneration – the ambition being simple – win more than you lose.
India’s aim has to be for creating a dynasty, not dominance.
Prosecution: Zaltzmann:
At a time when the five-day format is widely acknowledged to be fighting for its future under sustained assault from various angles, Test cricket has punched itself in the face. Again.
Kartikeya Date, on the attack:
An impulse to make character judgments on the spur of the moment says nothing about any passionate interest in cricket or even in a particular cricket team. It has nothing to do with being a fan. It is simply a lazy, mediocre unwillingness to be a sporting observer. And it will happen again, the next time India suffer a batting collapse or fail to win. We’ll continue to hear the same nonsense about “mindsets” and “attitude” and “courage” (or preening tails that are not between legs!) and “tenacity” and “respect for the fans”. We’ll continue to have armchair coaches and armchair psychotherapists and armchair motivational speakers who will repeatedly turn cricket into some silly testosterone fueled race. Committed peddlers of grievance are a contagious tribe. They peddle only because they care so much. Social networking has merely turbo charged all the concern.
And the last word goes to Jarrod Kimber:
As the Woody Allen of sports [cricket] is far too introspective, manic and more likely to sleep with an adopted daughter than most sports.
Most sports are less likely to declare a major format of theirs dead on a daily basis.
That’s part of cricket’s charm, the worrying mumbling sport in the corner of the room whilst the other sport try and pick up.
It’s not smooth or charming, it’s kind of accidentally vulgar and offensive, but in an intellectual way.
Cricket’s always been like this, the problem is everyone looking back looking for the golden era.
Kimber wins.
That’s my headline. Here is Scyld Berry’s headline for the telegraph: India ready to extend domination of world cricket by proposing rules to allow an ICC president-for-life.
Dravid played a Dravid-esque inning yesterday, and in his honor, I present a single chart to show you his awesomeness.
And Sachin Tendulkar’s even more awesomeness.
In which we demonstrate the awesomeness of Dravid, but mostly Tendulkar, in a single chart
Over at Cricinfo today, Osman Samiuddin makes the case for a Pakistan cricket players association:
There has never been a greater need for one than now. Shahid Afridi’s needless legal battle with the board is only the latest in a burgeoning collection. Shoaib Akhtar’s fight with Nasim Ashraf, the former chairman, went to the Lahore High Court in 2008. Pakistan’s ICL players took the PCB to the Sindh High court as well. These will not be the end.
I would argue that India needs one as well. The current Sri Lankan Premier League dispute is a perfect case. The BCCI has barred Indian players from appearing in the SLPL, saying that the players may find themselves in a bad contract with a private organization with no recourse. This is the kind of dispute a players association should handle. Players must get advice from a body that represents the players. Not the sponsors, or the team owners, or politicians, or hidden agendas, but the players.
This is largely a conflict of interest issue. What is the mandate of the BCCI? The BCCI has multiple interests to look out for– players, broadcasters, “cricket”, sponsors, politicians, money, state associations. So what happens when two or more of these interests are in opposition?
So far, the BCCI has walked a tight-rope quite well. It’s especially difficult when you can simultaneously run the risk of angering Maharashtra supremo Sharad Pawar, and god-to-billions Sachin Tendulkar, and some of the richest men in the country in Ambani and Mallya. Keeping all these interests straight is difficult, if not impossible.
And sooner or later, I predict, there will be a breaking point. Already the injuries to Sehwag and Gambhir, aggravated through the IPL, have brought up significant conflict of interest issues. The ICL was another issue where players could have used collective bargaining and better advice.
∞
India has a players association. Or at least had one. It was launched with much fanfare in 2002, Arun Lal was its secretary and Dravid was pushing for its recognition as late as 2008. Anyone know what became of the Indian Professional Cricketers Association?
Wes has an interview up with the German wicketkeeper, Satya Srinivas. Yes, they have cricket in Germany, shut up, and listen:
The German captain Asif Khan described in an interview how difficult it is to always take a week off from work in order to travel to the international tournaments, how do you personally tackle this problem, is your boss cooperative?
I cannot obviously involve my boss in all this. I am allowed a certain number of holidays in a calendar year and I need to accommodate the cricket tournaments for Germany in this schedule. The people at my company are really appreciative of the fact that I represent a national team. But my first responsibility is obviously towards my job.
But there are people in our team who work as taxi-drivers or work in restaurants, who basically take time off without getting paid during such kind of cricket tournaments for Germany. Everyone basically plays for the passion of the game.
It’s quite an interview. I love this game.
The English players once blanched at being made to shake hands with Robert Mugabe. This Saturday they will be expected to play against a man [Jayasuriya] who is a direct representative of a government accused of war crimes on a horrific scale by the United Nations. The politics of the matter is not outside the ground or behind a metal fence any more. It is right there in the middle of the pitch and it cannot be ignored.
Ouch. As Jarrod Kimber said last week:
No one can bring politics into cricket, they’re already here.
Of course, this guilty-by-association-with-perpetrators-of-alleged-past-crimes logic would leave a lot of people and a lot of countries out of sport. I’m not saying we should ignore it, but just that beware of the standards you set for others. You may not like it when they’re applied uniformly.
I had saved this story away during the World Cup, but never got around to posting it. It’s still funny. A Sri Lankan World Cup song, billed as the “Official National Cheer” for the team, was pulled by broadcasters after their president said it was offensive:
“Come on, come on,” runs the song, urging supporters to raze West Indies coconut trees, break the jaws of sharks in New Zealand, melt the snow on Indian mountains, and feed bird food to kangaroos in Australia.
It promises that the Sri Lankan side will shake the roof of the “English palace” – presumably Queen Elizabeth’s residence – and “will shatter the roof of heaven” with their sixes.
I have a feeling that if all the snow on Indian mountains melted, Sri Lanka would be submerged. Just saying.
Deep Backward Point 