Fantastic Fantasy!!

      During the recently held IPL, watching the great Wasim Akram on the sidelines got me thinking. What a great asset he would have been to his team in the T20 format. Continuing with the same fantasy, I present to you my Dream 11. 11 players who played in an era when T20 had not yet arrived, and had they been present today, would have been the top picks in the shortest format of the game.


Garfield Sobers: A cricketer who would be the first pick in any Dream 11, Sir Garfield Sobers is cricket's greatest and most complete all rounder. Sobers could bat at any position, bowl orthodox left arm spin or take the new ball and swing it, and was a very good fielder. In T20 cricket, he would have simply been his team's MVP.                

                                                                                             

Andy Flower: T20 teams need wicket-keepers who can bat, and not many have come who did it better than Flower. The former Zimbabwe captain was a fine exponent of the reverse sweep. With spinners opening the bowling regularly in T20s, Flower's wrist play would not have let the spinners keep a stranglehold on the batsmen.

Vivian Richards: Sir Vivian Richards is widely regarded as the best batsmen ever in the shorter format of the game. The constant chewing of the gum, playing without a helmet all through his 17 years of international cricket is symbolic of the typical Viv swagger. While Viv's destructive batting is reason enough to put him in this list, he was also a decent bowler and a very good fielder.

Brian Lara: The holder of the highest individual score in Test cricket, Brian Charles Lara was a player even the opposition loved watching score. With his trademark high backlift, Lara was particularly destructive against the spinners. When in mood, he would make world class bowlers look mediocre.

Jonty Rhodes: Even today, Jonty would be picked up by any T20 team purely on the merits of his fielding. The greatest fielder of all time, Jonty was the ideal team man. Hecould keep the scoreboard ticking in a crisis, or push the accelerator in the death overs. 

Michael Bevan: Nothing was impossible till you had Bevan at the crease. The hero of many a fairy tale run  chases for his Australian team, Bevan's USP was to soak of all the pressure and guide his side home. An unorthodox china man with the ball, Bevan was deceptively quick between the wickets and thus was seldom dismissed via a run-out.

Lance Klusner: Lance 'Zulu' Klusner was a volatile cricketer and an even more volatile personality. A more than handy seam bowler with the ability to bowl cutters, Zulu was more renowned for his explosive lower order hitting. With just 20 overs, Zulu would have also been an ideal floating batsman for his team.

Kapil Dev: India's finest all rounder and World Cup winning captain, Kapil Dev was excellent with the new ball. Other than having the gift to bowl those perfect banana out-swingers in his sleep, Dev was a very aggressive batsman. Even in his era, he maintained a strike rate of 95, which speaks of his attacking mindset.

Wasim Akram: The most complete fast bowler of his generation, Wasim could bowl swing, seam, short or a yorker at will. Akram was lethal with the new and the old ball. To add to it, he was an excellent slip fielder and destructive slog sweeper against the spinners

Waqar Younis: The second of the two W's, Waqar was a viewer's dream with his long run up. This run-up, his slinging action, ability to swing both ways at fierce pace, Waqar Younis was born to simply ball toe crushers. Also not many can boast to be better that him at reverse swing.

Saqlain Mushtaq: In spite of being an orthodox finger spinner, Mustaq was a strike bowler. His greatest contribution to the game was the invention of  'Doosra'. The fastest bowler to reach 200 wickets in ODIs, Saqlain was a confident bowler in the death overs. 

Most of my 11 is restricted to cricketers I have seen play live. You will find 3 exceptions to that, Gary Sobers, Vivian Richards and Kapil Dev. Lara, Bevan and Klusner were part of the Indian Cricket League, but am not considering that as official cricket.

Special mention for Dennis Lilli and  Dean Jones, whom I wanted to but could not include in my 11.

No two people can have the same fantasy, and the same applies here. Who would you have wanted to see play T20 cricket?


Sanjay

No more the ever Optimist

      The ICC has just helped the Indian selectors. While the Indian selectors are simply not brave enough to drop any of the so called ICONIC players, the ICC has banned Dhoni from the Adelaide Test for slow over-rate. We as all Indian fans should thank them for this much needed favour. Dhoni is simply not skilled enough to bat in overseas conditions. Had he not been the captain of the team, he would not have found a place in the Test squad. Even as a skipper, the lack of fight his team has shown should bother him. He may be a legend of One day cricket, but may be it would serve the nation better if a wicket-keeper who is technically sound replaces him in the longer format of the game.
      Unfortunately the problem does not end there. Sehwag has always played with a sense of freedom, and it did work for him all these years. However now that it is not, it does not seem to bother him and he continues in his same casual approach. He might leep his place in the team because he is a proven match winner, but if he does not turn his form around quickly, that tag could very well become the opposite for him. Gambhir on the other hand should be counting his days in Test cricket. It's been almost 2 years since he last scored a hundred, and his tentative batting is putting the middle order under constant pressure.
      The turnaround in Dravid's form has been both remarkable and shocking. From being the highest run getter in England to letting straight deliveries seek through his defence, Dravid is in danger of surrendering his 'WALL' tag. The fact that he turned 39 on this tour and given is poor form, its time he considers quitting the game rather than embarrass himself and let go his famous reputation. Moving on the other great one, while Sachin has looked in sublime touch in most of his innings, the weight of the 100th 100 is clearly bogging him down. For somebody who has done it so often, this clearly was not expected. Now more for the sake of the team than for himself, he should try and get this milestone away. The 3rd person of this famous trio should immediately quit the game. VVS Laxman was never an athletic person, but now with old age, that has become a serious drawback for him. If not standing in slips, he is a big liability to the team. When he is at the crease, the only way his partner can score is through boundaries. Even if a 100m dash is organized among the  50 something cricket commentators and VVS is asked to compete with them, he would come last. It would be ridiculous if we find him on our next Test squad.
       While the players should take most of the blame, the BCCI should not be spared either. Their scheduling of tours remains ridiculous as always. IPL seems to be the only thing that matters to them. We need good cricketing brains on that board, not people who fight over the Jan Lokpal in the Lok Sabha and then manage the BCCI as a hobby. People like Harsha Bhogle, Saurav Ganguly and Anil Kumble are few names who should occupy those places. Rajiv Shukla says, winning and losing is part and parcel of the game. But Sir, losing and losing is definitely not part of it.
       It's time to take some hard decisions, look at the system(if there is any) and bring in the changes. I was once the ever optimist about Indian Cricket, but for the first time in my life, a sense of pessimism has drawn over me. A turn around has to happen, and it has to happen very soon.

Not Dead, just a Slumber!!

                         

   An International ODI at the iconic Eden Gardens should be a big event. But with less than 10% tickets sold till 15 minutes before the match meant that the public felt otherwise. The just concluded home series against England has helped ease the pain of the horrendous tour of England, but it has raised serious question marks about the popularity of the game in India. Throughout the series, we have witnessed two things consistently, India’s dominance at home, and the public’s lack of interest in this dominance. What could have lead to this lack of interest in the cricket fanatic public of our nation?

   The BCCI could be given some leeway that it was hampered by the absence of the superstars of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan. There is no secret in the fact that the Little Master still has the ability to attract crowds by his mere presence. But a lot of question marks can be raised about the lack of logic and planning by the BCCI with the scheduling of this series.

   India had just returned from a lengthy tour of England, and then facing the same team again on your home soil does not make much sense. The same sets of players have now been competing against each other for almost 3 months. Also the venues for the ODIs were also venues for the IPL earlier in the year. With the ridiculous champion’s league and the tremendously successful World Cup also staging matches at these venues, the stadium going public would have been saturated. If the series was to be conducted, it would have made much more sense to host them at smaller towns. The BCCI’s rigid policy of selecting venues in a round robin manner needs a change. Assuming that the ICC is indeed responsible for the future tour’s programme, surely the governing body could be more sensible in scheduling International tours.

     While this series has highlighted the issue of diminishing interest, this is not completely out of the blue. For some years now the Indian public has shown a complete lack of interest for the domestic cricket. Thus a consistent performer making his debut in International cricket is welcomed with reactions of ‘Yeh Kaun Hai Bhai?’. Ask a common man to differentiate between Ranji, Duleep and Irani Trophy and he would simply say, ‘I don’t Care’. The reason for this is simple, the BCCI itself doesn’t care. Live telecast of Australian and English domestic cricket on Indian television is a big eye-opener. Apart from the fact that their domestic matches are telecast in another country, the huge crowds in the stadiums tell us that cricket after all is not that boring a game. The BCCI might be minting money from the IPL and the Champion’s League (hard to believe I know), but International cricketers are not born in 3 hours of mayhem, they are produced by the grinds of tough first class cricket.

    The BCCI could start off with reviving the domestic cricket scene in India. As a very first step, the quality of pitches could be looked at. Sporty wickets which give equal opportunity to both bat and ball and produce results will generate good cricket. Currently in Ranji cricket, we see sides winning based on first innings lead because 4 days are just not enough to produce 40 wickets. With the huge number of teams, the quality of cricket is not at its best. A league based approach with 10 teams in each league would ensure teams competing at the same level and the battle to avoid relegation adding a new dimension. Also a small percentage of the energy used in the T20 marketing blitzkrieg, if invested towards the less appealing but much more important version of domestic cricket, will generate some much needed interest.

    Cricket needs its fans as much as they need it. Having said that, the game of cricket will probably never die in this country, but as with most things in life, taking anything for granted can be dangerous. Small measures would ensure the crowds come back to the stadiums in huge numbers and again be the 12^th man they can be. The gentleman’s game is not yet dead, it’s just entered a slumber and we need to awaken it from it!!

Die hard Indian, will not let the game die!!
Sanjay

Game of Life!!

              Cricket is my passion. Playing and watching cricket, as well as reading and writing on it gives me a high. Cricket is my life. But then is my life cricket? Being a huge cricket fanatic, I could not help but notice the similarities between my life’s journeys so far and the batting innings of a 50 over ODI match. Yes like most Indians, even here I prefer batting over bowling.
              The beginning 20 years of my life( most of which unfortunately were spent surrounded by books) seem very similar to the initial 10 overs of the mandatory powerplay. Just as initially a batsman can take his time to settle into the innings, I took my own time realising how good academics are essential for a better life ahead. You feel you are doing good, but then you look at the scoreboard(Happy Realization it screams). The poor runrate hurts you. You also know this being the powerplay you need to take charge of the proceedings. Risks need to be taken. You feel the pressure. Yup, even I felt I was doing good, but only till my  SSC results were out(Here my parents, Ruia and Ruparel College screamed, Happy Realization) . My results hurt me. But then I knew, if I concentrate hard for the next few years( atleast that's what I thought and said then) things would be back on track. Engineering gives you plenty of risk taking opputunities(or should I say, we made them risky), and I can vouch for that fact since I touched scores of 7 out of the 10 mathematically possible 40's.
             When the batting powerplay is done away with, the batsman feels its time to cut down on the risks, go steady. He starts accumalating runs for a good total in the end. At the same time, the bowling captain takes this oppurtunity to get through his overs quickly, ensuring that the run rate is under check. More often than not, both get what they desire and the game moves at a dull pace. My life seems to have entered a similar phase(it has to, otherwise this post would be incomplete). Post graduation, happy with my job, life seems good the way it is. The pressure of exams is no longer there, the need to take risks minimal. On the other hand, even life seems content in dishing out the same boredum week in, week out.
            But then, not all batsmen like the slow boring middle overs. With the option of the batting powerplay in hand, there is always that temptation to take it early. Risks are involved no doubt, but if things work out, it ensures a better end to the innings. Sometimes the bowling captain could enforce the bowling powerplay, thus forcing the batsmen to take risks, hoping to get wickets in return. I get the feeling that now even am not liking these slow middle overs of my life. The urge to take a risk is greater than ever before. The question that I need to answer is, should I take my Life's Batting Powerplay, or wait for life to enforce its Bowling Powerplay on my Life?

Vande Mataram!!!

          The census results on thursday pegged India's population at 1.21 billion. On Saturday night, each of those 1.21 billion Indians witnessed the moment of their lifetimes. 11 Indians, filled with passion, wearing their heart on their sleeves, overcame a very formidable opposition to win the World Cup.
          The emotion displayed by the team after the match showed how much it meant to them. The frenzy celebrations in the middle of the night showed how much it meant to the entire nation. A moist eyed Yuvraj Singh hugged his skipper MS Dhoni post the winning blow. Moist eyed Indians hugged each other wherever they were, they hugged strangers, they hugged Indians.
          The victory becomes even more special as a certain Indian was attempting glory at IT for the sixth time, on most of those previous 5 occasions fighting a lone battle. This time he had a team of supreme class to fight alongwith him, a team that wanted to win the Cup for him. Sachin Tendulkar had to wait for 21 years to experiece the proudest moment of his life, but even he would admit, It's Worth It!!!
          The moment of the winning six will give goosebumps for days to come, the memory of the Indian team lifting the trophy will get us high on emotions for months to come, this victory will remain with us for years to come. I proud to be an INDIAN!!!

Vande Mataram!!!!

Khushi Ke Aasun :)

         50 years down the line, when my grandchilren would be sitting on my lap, eager to listen to my stories, the day of the India vs Pakistan encounter would be my most repeated memory. In a day filled with passion, tension and innumerable mood swings, I finally realised what it means when people say 'Khushi Ke Aasun'.
         You knew the Indian team was up for the challenge when you consider some of efforts it put in. Sachin Tendulkar displayed tremendous grit while contructing one of his ugliest knocks, a knock in which he was lucky on no more than 6 occasions. What Tendulkar's knock also did was ensured that post his successful review of a LBW verdict against him, Indians who so far did not accept the UDRS are now in love with it. The ever casual Munaf Patel displayed his rare aggresive side on the field. The selection of Nehra in the 11 was criticised by all. However the same Nehra who could not bowl a yorker against South Africa, bowled with trememdous discipline and accuracy and was the best Indian bowler on display. Infact this Indian team does not wilt under pressure but thrives on it, never surrenders when faced with challenges but overcomes then with their hunger and detemination, and the semi-final was a prime example of it.
             One aspect of the game of this Indian team that needs special mentioning is the fielding. The standard of ground fielding has gone up several notches courtesy the youthful energy Raina and Kohli bring to the plate. No catch is an easy catch in a high pressure game, and the Indians have done very well to keep the buttery fingers at bay. Munaf Patel has found a spring in his step in the knockout games and his speed behind and towards the ball is defying of his body structure. Yuvraj Singh is back fielding in the point region and the full length dives are back, not worrying about its effect on his body. Even the man who has spent 21 years in international cricket is seen giving it all, running behind the ball like a school kid. Like always even here Sachin defies his age. One man who goes unnoticed in this is MS Dhoni. MS Dhoni is consistently clean behind the stumps, and his ability to whip the bails out in a flash stands out. Also as a captain, he is always switched on, knowing which fielder to place where and when.
            Now with the Mohali frontier crossed, the moment everyone had been waiting for has arrived. For the man sitting on 99 hundreds, it could not have been scripted better. If given a choice Sachin Tendulkar would willingly exchange all his 99 hundreds for the World Cup title he so longs for. Even though he's the favourite son of every Indian, playing the final in Mumbai must be even more special for the Almighty. With Ashish Nehra injured, Ravichandra Ashwin looks certain to replace him. Ashwin adds a lot of variety to this Indian attack. He has a Doosra and a Carrom ball which complement his stock ball, the conventional off-break, very well. However the quality that stands out in him is his tremendous self-belief. For a spinner to willingly take the new ball, bowl in the batting powerplay and also when the slog is on in the death overs is no mean feat. MS Dhoni sure has his critics, but he should be given credit for having the biggest hand in the development of this man from Chennai.
           A victory on Saturday would propel the Indian Team to the top of the ICC ODI rankings and will put to rest all debate on whether this team is the best in the world. Every team plays to win, but this Indian team has that winning habit. Thriving in pressure situations, unwilling to accept defeat combined with each player's desire to contribute to the team cause has got them so far, and will help them overcome the formidable Lankans.
                                      "Ab Hawaon ka rukh tay karenge roshni ke Faisley,
                                       Jis Diye mein Jaan hogi woh diya rah Jayega"
         Come Saturday night, Hindustaan ke diye mein Jaan hogi. The wait till that moment is painful, but the anticipation of a positive result is also there. The nation waits for its Warriors to take the the field and do us proud. The nation waits for the dream to become reality. The nation waits to experience again, Khushi Ke Aasun :)
        
        

Let's Bleed Blue!!

          Manmohan Singh, Gilani, Sonia Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, Ambani Brothers, Aamir Khan will be mere spectators in Mohali. It's the 11 Indians who take the field to represent our country who matter. In a match billed as the mother of all clashes, tipped to garner the highest viewership of all time, victory will be decided by nerves not skill, by temperament not talent and in the end the brave will taste success.
          The match has assumed added meaning in many eyes as this happens to be the Little Master's last attempt at World Cup glory,  and him being placed on 99 International hundreds. However the true team man that he is, all he would desire is a victory against the arch rivals, not any personal milestones.
         One man who seems determined to make it happen for his 'Paaji' is the man from Punjab-Yuvraj Singh. He is the very same Yuvi, whom critics wanted out of the Indian team, questions were raised about his fitness, his growing waistline attracted more media attention than his match-winning knocks ever did, and his advertisement for 'Revital' was spoofed to mock him. But such has been the Revival of this southpaw, that he's now being considered by the very same critics as the key to India's success. With 4 man of the match awards to his credit, he has been the Man of the Tournament thus far. Infact he has carried that confidence to his bowling which is clearly visible in his trademark swagger combined with a classical spinner's loop.
        Since the disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign, this Indian team has come a long way. The numero uno postion already in their grasp in the longer form of the game, their march to supremacy would be complete if they lift the cup at the Wankhede. For that to happen, the Gladiators in their Blue must play like there is no tomorrow against a team they have never lost a World Cup game to.
         The pulses are racing, the wait is painful now. This die hard Indian is already nervous, but also quietly confident of his nation's victory against it's neighbours.

Let's BLEED BLUE!!!!