VVS: Working Class Superhero
Clark Kent: Superman :: VVS: Laxman
Deep Backward Point
Blog against the machine.
August 18, 2012
And So it Goes
Five months ago, when Dravid retired, I wrote an article called And So it Begins:
I left India in 2001, the year of the Kolkata Test. The Australian team from that match has one player left in the team– Ricky Ponting.
India have five– Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan.
That is remarkable.
And now only three remain.
∞
I don’t write much about VVS. I find him dependable, reliable and necessary, but I don’t find him exciting. It’s unfortunate, I know. Like a rocket scientist, he’s worth a lot of money but I wouldn’t pay money to watch him at work.
I suppose this is what people mean when they say he’s underrated, but I don’t think underrated is the right word.
VVS is infrastructure. You can’t get anything done without it, but it’s not the most exciting part of a system.
∞
Goodbye, VVS. You will be missed, because India, as we all know, lacks infrastructure.
August 14, 2012
Why Indian Fans are on KP’s Side
On Twitter, Indian cricket fans (and fans of Indian cricket) are largely on Kevin Pietersen’s side in his battle against the ECB. Here is my theory why.
I want to preface this by saying:
- This is a theory.
- Since it is a theory, and it might hit close to home for many people, I don’t expect everyone to accept this theory as explaining their feelings on this matter. Even if the theory is true. Instinctively– and perhaps reflexively– we may discount this theory purely because it says some uncomfortable things about how our minds work. Having said that, I accept that the theory may be wrong.
In the summer of 2011, England comprehensively beat India over the course of four Test matches and a handful of limited overs engagements. India was significantly disadvantaged through injuries and the unavailability of players, but to be fair, they were also outplayed.
The combination of the English press and the English Cricket Board, however, continued to make the point that the English system for producing a cricket team was, in fact, inherently superior.
Now this may have been true– the truth is, we will never know for sure. However, this was not a message palatable to Indian fans at the time. Especially since the much-maligned Indian system had until recently produced a world-beating team in Tests and One Day Internationals.
In addition, this message was coupled with the common attacks about too much cricket, IPL as devil-incarnate, the lack of preparation for “transitioning” the senior players, your players are fat, with unmanaged injuries and on the other hand–
–Look at the professional, perfectly managed English team that Andy Flower rules with an iron fist and a heart of gold. Marvel at our perfection, for we will be the new dynasty in Australia’s place.
Indian fans did not take kindly to this message. And Indian fans took note of the members of the press most stridently pushing the all-hail-andy-flower-ecb-is-singularity message.
∞
This summer, the ECB is locked in a battle for its relevance against Kevin Pietersen. And the English press has largely fallen in line with the ECB, serving as their mouthpiece, dropping leaked tidbits when requested. You scratch my back, I scratch yours, KP was a Saffer anyways.
Schadenfreude time.
The English establishment– and specifically certain characters we remember well from last summer– has continuously upheld and sold the English system as perfect and “professional”.
In the KP story, we see how and where this is not true. We see how and where the narrative of a perfect English system breaks down.
And we enjoy it.
∞
At the same time, Kevin Pietersen alone among all English Test cricketers plays a brand of cricket that is (sometimes abhorrent-ly) referred to as a “subcontinental” brand of cricket. I say this with no disrespect to English batsmen, but KP is the least English of English batsmen.
His style of play would not stand out so much among say an Indian, Pakistani or Sri Lankan line-up. But among the English, he is positively alien.
And we appreciate this.
Also, KP is an iconoclast. India is a country of one billion iconoclasts. In fact, India as a country is united by one thing and one thing alone– to rail against the man. KP is an honorary Indian.
Sorry, make that Delhi Daredevil.
August 6, 2012
The Open Cricket Manifesto
Here is what I want
1. A regularly updated free, open database of cricket statistics. Let’s unpack that.
- Free: Free as in free beer. No cost.
- Free: Free as in freedom. No strings attached.
- Open: Open as in open source, open standards.
2. An open data format for the interchange of cricket statistical data among fans, companies, software and web services.
3. A set of software tools to help create awesome visualizations of the data, and powerful search interfaces in to the data.
What statistics would this contain?
Insofar as they are available, such a resource would have:
- The outcome of every ball of every international match ever played.
- In aggregate, this would provide the career statistics and match records of every international match ever played.
Why?
Cricket statistics are not legally owned by media companies, but this is effectively the situation we find ourselves in today. Sure there is Cricinfo’s StatsGuru. And there are independent purveyors of statistical databases (built in MS Access, don’t get me started). But if we ever want to jump-start an academic, amateur or fandom analysis of the game, we need better data and better tools (see retrosheet).
With that in mind, I hereby announce the Open Cricket Project. Details to follow. If you would like to contribute, post a comment below, on twitter, or email deepbackwardpoint@galaxyfaraway.com.
Prior Art
June 27, 2012
Conservation of Outrage
Cricket-writers, tweeters and general fanatic fans of the world:
I propose a conservation of OUTRAGE. Some day something truly outrageous will happen. It likely won’t be a spirited lecture, or a deadline-driven editorial, or an off-hand tweet. It will be something that threatens to change the very nature of the game that you love.
And nobody will take you seriously, because you’re default mode is outrage. “You know the twitterati,” they’ll say. “Those rabid bloggers, always outraged about everything. Pay no attention.”
∞
Amitabh Bachchan played Azaad in Main Azaad Hoon, the Hindi adaptation of Capra’s Meet John Doe. He gives a speech as the mysterious Azaad to much applause. And then he doesn’t want to give any more speeches, or play the made-up character of Azaad. And a journalist tells him, “How could you walk away? Didn’t you hear the applause?”
“Taaliyon ka kya hai, ai? Taaliyan to log sadak par bandar ke khel par bhi bajaate hain,” says Azaad.
Translation: What’s the big deal with applause? People even clap for monkey side-shows on the street.
∞
“What’s the big deal with internet outrage?” they’ll say.
So conserve your outrage, dear empowered social media users. By giving it away too freely, you give those in power a reason to ignore you.
—
Prior Art:
Link | June 25, 2012
Diversity
Everything that needs to be said about the debate on “saving” Test cricket from a T20 future in one line from Mukul Kesavan:
“It’s useful to think of Test cricket as a tropical rain forest that nurtures a diversity of things bred out of the monoculture of limited-overs cricket. Diversity escapes the balance sheets of money men, but it is, as ecologists have taught us, invaluable.”
Unfortunately, it follows 1500 other words on the subject.
∞
If I was to get pedantic for a second, diversification forms the bedrock of balance sheets of money men. But then I’d slap myself for getting in the way of such a great metaphor. And if I was to get pedantic for another second, it’s actually a simile. Not a metaphor.
May 23, 2012
My Team
I wanted to tell you about my team. I have two of them.
Maybe you have a team too. In fact, I’m pretty sure you do.
I’m not talking about the team you follow. Sure “India” is my team, but this is not what I mean. “India”, as a cricket team, is an amorphous concept stretched across time and space1.
When I say my team, I mean a specific team, from a specific point in time that will always be my team.
Like I said, I have two.
∞
During the 2003 World Cup, it seemed like destiny that India would win. That they should win. Of course, we hadn’t considered the competing destiny of the Australians, but at the time, if there was ever an Indian team that could have won a World Cup, this was it.
The batting lineup: Tendulkar, Sehwag, Ganguly, Dravid and Yuvraj.
The bowling lineup: Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, and Srinath.
This was a championship team. Unfortunately, so was Australia.
This was also my team. And it wasn’t my team because they were good. It was my team because I had watched this team grow up, as I grew up. Every player on the team debuted after I started following cricket. This really was my team. Nine years later, my fondest cricket memories are of this group.
And one other.
∞
I’ve written about this before briefly, but in the early ’80s, as a kid growing up in Chicago, I didn’t know much about cricket. What I did know was that my father and his friends would talk politics on Sunday, and then suit up for a friendly game of cricket. And then we’d all go for Indian food.
That was before Gavaskar came to town. Some time around the year 1985, a team of Indian international players fresh off their World Cup win, came to Chicago to play an exhibition game. That evening, there was a meet-and-greet with the players over dinner. My father told me about Sunil Gavaskar, the greatest that had ever played the game. And then I met him.
In late 1985, we moved to India. I spent eight months watching cricket and playing cricket before I started school. This is, literally, all I did. My cousins were Shastri devotees. Yes, kids. In 1985, much of India was devoted to Shastri. With good reason.
The 1986 Indian tour of England is my earliest memory of international cricket, and it mostly stems from a poster from Sportstar magazine of Vengsarkar at Lord’s2. Vengsarkar was my new favorite player in the world, replacing Gavaskar3.
That batting lineup had Gavaskar, Srikkanth (Anirudha’s father), Amarnath, Azhar, Vengsarkar, Kapil, Shastri.
The bowling lineup had… err.. Kapil, Amarnath, Maninder, Chetan Sharma, Binny (Stuart’s father), Madan Lal and Shastri.
Ok, so the bowling wasn’t one for the ages, but we beat England 2-0, so there.
In any case, this was my first team in any sport, ever.
∞
And 2003 may have been my last team.
Sure I love the current Indian team but these kids will always be… kids.
Some day, I’ll tell my kid about Tendulkar. And we’ll start all over again with her.
1I’d argue India as a country is also an amorphous concept stretched across time and space. But that’s a topic for another time, and another blog.^^
2SportStar was better than SportsWorld, because SportsWorld wrote too much about non-cricket sports, and SportStar had better posters. But in a pinch, either would do.^^
3In the pre-Tendulkar era, my favorite cricketer would change every few months. Some players who have been on the list: Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma, Azharudin, Srikkanth, Shastri.^^
2SportStar was better than SportsWorld, because SportsWorld wrote too much about non-cricket sports, and SportStar had better posters. But in a pinch, either would do.^^
3In the pre-Tendulkar era, my favorite cricketer would change every few months. Some players who have been on the list: Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma, Azharudin, Srikkanth, Shastri.^^
May 17, 2012
The New Cricinfo is Very Different from the Old Cricinfo
I’m not complaining, in many ways I like the recent editorial changes at Cricinfo. But you have to admit, this is new:
Just saying.
April 18, 2012
Introducing: Teesra.com
So here it is, teesra.com.
First off, I’m proud to own a five six-letter domain.
Second off, I’m proud to now run a fake cricket news web site that I built from the ground-up. I love to write humor, I love The Onion, and even though there is a lot of competition in cricket-humor space, I really don’t care. It’s what I like to write, and god knows there’s always enough material in the cricketing world.
For opening day, I chose the following articles to start with:
- US Drones Discover Fast-Bowler Manufacturing Facility in Pakistan
- Some Team Will Play Some Other Team in the IPL Today
- And a video
I’m not sure if the video will be a regular feature. It was fun and quick to make. I’ve included it below. Read the rest of this entry »
April 17, 2012
Pointless Statistics
Pointless statistics. I’m guilty of them too. Here’s how they break down, courtesy of a tweet from (the truly awesome, sorry to pick on him on this one occasion) Mohandas Menon:
Nathan Lyon (5/68) – the only 2nd Aussie off-spinner after Ian Johnson (7/44 at Georgetown Apr 1955) to take a 5-wkt haul in the Caribbean
AWESOME RECORD 5-wicket haul!
Or is it?
About 50% of the words in that sentence are caveats.
- Caveat #1: the 2nd
- Caveat #2: Aussie
- Caveat #3: off-spinner
- Caveat #4: in the Caribbean
Like being the tallest midget, who also happens to be the fattest thin man in the world.
Deep Backward Point 