Not too many songs for him

As I sit and write this blog another song which could have sung for him gone to Mahela Jayawardene, this is the sum up for the cricketing career of Rahul Dravid. He always been there rock solid for his team, when needed but some one else take away the limelight. Never saw him complaining about it, shows the greatness about his character.

This is not new phenomenon if you ask me. It started right from the very first innings he played for India. India were in some sort of trouble at 202 for 4 with all the big guns returned to the dressing room and he along with his co debutant named Sourav Ganguly were at the crease. They put up partnership of 94 runs and then his partner got out. But he took the team to a respectable score of 419 along with tail lenders and got out. He made gritty 95 and announced his arrival, but all the accolades gone to his co debutant, whose fluent offside play made the home of cricket proud of itself. All the limelight was taken by Ganguly as he was feared to be the spoiled child of Indian cricket and made a come back after five years. Not a problem that can happen it was first time.

But all these years it was happening again and again for Rahul Dravid. Some how I feel he has not got the due from Indian media or public, which he deserves. People may say that he got the highest position possible in Indian cricket and that was his due. But let me tell you even then also he was not on his own. Some “Guru” from down under were calling all the shots, well mostly if not all. I have seen Dravid like this only. He mined his own business and not peep his nose in every thing he sees around him. But he missed the trick when he was captain of India that he needed to call most of the shots then the Guru to achieve the target, for which he was given the reins. India came back home earlier then what entire team thought they will. Some times being too good is also too bad for you. Media gives plenty of columns & programs to Sachin and but Rahul Dravid who is not far from him as far as talent is concerned or number of runs scored, ignored by them, which is rather surprising for me and many in this cricket mad country. Sachin is made for records and he achieves them perhaps every time he walks out, but Dravid, who achieves milestones one after one without making any show offs gets very less attention by the media. Recently when Sachin surpassed 17000 runs in ODIs, you could see the euphoria in Indian media, but nothing of those sorts when Dravid crossed 11000 test runs at Ahmedabad.

Perhaps only one occasion comes in my mind, when he got due credit. That was when India won the first ever test match in Australia after many years in Adelaide. Dravid’s double ton in first innings and 72 not out in the second innings made sure that India crosses the line in time. It was because of his knock India could achieve that feat, no less credit should go to Ajit Agarkar who got vital 6 wickets in the second innings to restrict Australia. Even during last tour of Australia his 93 in the first innings at Perth was invaluable, but again the lime light hogged by the new comer called Ishant Sharma, whos devastating spell against Ponting became talk of the town for few days.




Just yesterday when the boring test match ended in Ahmedabad, I felt that Dravid may sneak in with a Man of the Match award for his match saving first innings 177, Jayawardene snatched it with his 275 runs. Nothing against Jayawardene or his innings, but in the context of the game, I felt Dravid had more challenges then Jayawardene had when he came out to bat.

You will never see cricketers like Rahul Dravid in next generation to come for sure. A generation, who can go for fashion show even between two matches, can not leave a chance to hog the lime light at any cost. Dravid will should be remembered not only for the amount of runs he scored at the international level, but also for his silence to every thing he did. Few silences were not required though, but at least he was consistent about it, like he was with his bat through out his career.

>Hit Wicket!!!

“He played like a God!!”

- Sourav Ganguly, reacting to Dravid’s performance in Adelaide test against Australia in 2003.

Badshah O Badshah!!

“Kurban Badshahkhan” !! Danny Denzongppa chanted these words many times in Amitabh Bachchan’s one of the most disastrous movies, “Khuda Gawah”. Probably people around India must have said the same in India’s disastrous yet close game at Hyderabad the other night. Just like Amitabh Bachchan who gave stand out performance even in that flop movie, the Badshah, in picture, Tendulkar also stood out in this game.

175 is what he got in that match, it will remain in every Indian’s mind fore ever like the other 175 made by another legend. Though this 175 was in loosing cause but it was not less spectacular then the 175 made some 26 years back, perhaps this 175 is more joyful since has electronic evidence.

There are plenty of stories in India about Tendulkar. One is that he plays for himself and when he was given out by Asoka de Silva a match before last one, few people questioned his attitude sighting the same reason. For me, once you are at the top of the mountain, you don’t even have option to be selfish, because there is no one to compete you at the top and you want some one for the company. That night his long term opening partner in ODIs, Sourav Ganguly rightly said, “17 000 runs will come any ways and he doesn’t care for it.” It is like that Jaipur Junction will come any ways when you travel from Ahmedabad to New Delhi. It will come faster if you go by Rajdhani and slower if you go by passenger train.

To be frank that 17000 mark looked very small to me against score of 175 that night. He was looking to finish it up, he looked destined to make India win that night, but sadly cricket is a team game and it proved that night. No one stood along with the little master and no one stood even after he departed when India was nearly home..

I will never ever forget that sixes he hit in one Hauritz over. For me it was re visiting Sharjah, when he was murdering Damien Fleming and Michael Kasprowicz. Co incidentally Kasparowicz is part of commentary team of Neo, which is covering this series. It was same old Sachin who was fearless yet cool and calm underneath when he was smashing Kangaroos all over the park.

Not long back, I was advocating for him to play only test matches and leave the ODIs. But since New Zealand series he started to change my mind. If this is the Tendulkar we are watching then I would not like to miss a single ball played by him. Though he is best judge of his fitness and I am sure he will take right decision at right time.

As I am writing this, I came to know that he is just 49 runs to reach 30000 international runs. Now this is awesome. No player in this world can think about this in his wildest of dreams. I wonder will there some one in future even come near to this figure ever?

Till then let’s all cheer him by shouting “Kurbaan Badshah Khan” !!

Mogambo isn’t happy

It all started when Mr. Subhash Chandra announced Indian Premier League. Though he had his own interests to start the league but he has send cat among the pigeons for sure. But Mogambo is not happy, why? Because he is feeling that he is going to loose his grip on Indian Cricket if he allows ICL. It doesn’t matter even if Mogambo’s brain child IPL has clones of ICL but Mogambo still is not happy.

Mogambo was thinking that ICL will not last for more then one tournament and the players who joined risking their careers will have no option but to bow down to him and he will re-employ them with more strict conditions. But matter of fact is IPL was started to counter the effect of ICL that means Mogambo was aware that it can affect him, but then why not they agreed with ICL in first place?

In this current era where entire world has become a village, Mogambo is living in past glory. No matter what wasted interests ICL has (earning money and plenty of it is the premier one off course) it is very much the truth that both the leagues can exist at the same time. The first season of ICL was a hit as second one is surely going to be a super hit. Living in Ahmedabad and looking at 35000+ crowed at once deserted to die stadium for not ones but thrice in one week, gives “be positive” signals to the management of ICL from which they can take heart from. My father told me, when he heard that nearly 40 000 people gathered to watch T20 match between the “home team” Ahmedabad Rockets and Lahore Badshahs (both inside and outside the stadium), that people of India like to see cricket, whether provided by ICL or ICC. No wonder his views echoed by Tony Greig in his commentary few minutes later.

I feel Mogambo is worried for nothing. As I have given example above, plus if we add enthusiasm for IPL as well, where will Mogambo going to loose money is out of my imagination? It was Mogambo who pressurized ICL’s sponsors to back out else face the consequences and not ICL. So the money or revenue loss is ICL’s concern and not Mogambo’s. The way Mogambo treated ICL officials in their first ever (probably the last ever) meeting was disgusting. What ever circumstances may have forced ICL to take birth, as a professional unit (though it is hard to explain what professionalism to Mogambo is), the treatment given to ICL by Mogambo was totally uncalled for. I felt great when Mogambo celebrated 25 years of our only world cup victory and called Kapil dev to cheerlead the ’83 team. But it seems that it was just an eye wash. The fiasco at coffee shop in Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai was just the proof that Mogambo is just trying to complete the formalities dictated by his “so called” boss ICC.

Before moving forward my few questions to Mogambo “Sir” and his chamchas. Can you ignore left arm spinner named Ali Murtaza (Delhi Giants) just because he is not playing for you? Can you ignore one of the best talented all rounder in Stuart Binny (Hyderabad Heros), just because he is not playing for you? Can you ignore T20 specialist batsman Ganapathy Vignesh (Chennai Superstars), just because he is not playing for you? Or, can you ignore Bhimarao (Ahmedabad Rockets) who fields ala Jonty Rhodes not only in cover (where Jonty used to field the most) but in “any” fielding position, just because he is not playing for you? How can you waste such talents by not letting them play for India, just because you don’t “authorize” some thing??

That is what situation for Mogambo is inside his own jurisdiction, but now things have started to go against his wishes in other countries as well. Few counties in England were furious because they were not allowed to participate in Champions League 2008 despite being in top position in their domestic T20 tournament. Reason? Because few of those counties “allowed” so called rebellions to play for them and earn during off season in their respective countries. The funnier thing happened when Mogambo gagged VVS Laxman not to play for Notts because there are few players playing for ICL originated from Nottinghamshire. Same thing told to Piyush Chawla (for Hampshire) and Ajit Agarkar (Worcestershire). Though VVS can now play for Lancashire. I feel it’s out an out attack on one’s professional life. None of the Indian players were preferring counties to their Indian duty, but still they have to abide by Mogambo and his contract. And what about those Indian players whom you don’t select despite of their good form and want to play for counties and earn money? Few counties have though dared and let all the players from ICL to play for them.

ICC was shell shocked when more then half of Bangladesh side revolted and joined ICL as “Dhaka Worriers”. Bangladesh Cricket is already in poor conditions and this was a body blow to them. Then came Arjuna in the picture, the old war horse from Srilanka. Under his temporary president ship SLC allowed ICL players to play for their clubs for this year. You bet Mogambo is furious. He has decided that bilateral series till 2012 (which was decided by ICC and not by Mogambo) will stand unconfirmed till he feels otherwise. Not only that the bail out package for SLC of USD 40 million will also be not approved.

One can laugh for hours for such foolish diktat by Mogambo. All the countries’ boards were stand united when ICL started Mogambo had sent messengers to every boards to seek help and support on this and now when those boards like Srilanka and Pakistan started to feel that ICL is not bad thing and it’s a professional league which can co-exists, plus they may loose their key players due to this they have started to soften their stands and Mogambo is now showing his true colours. He feels what he did to local players and sponsors he can do the same to other countries’ cricket boards as well. But he is forgetting that when those countries will started to differentiate between their own interests and Mogambo’s, they will not care what Mogambo is thinking and what he can do to them.

Srilankan board will come very hard on Mogambo very soon, one can sense that. Not because of the incident mentioned above but they already co operated IPL and cancelled their tour of England and if Mogambo shows this short mind ness of his it is not going to last for longer period of time. PCB has already started voicing in favour of ICL. The former captain of Pakistan and current captain of Lahore Badshahs, Inzamam-Ul-Haq has already met newly appointed PCB chairman and he has agreed with Inzi, it has learnt. We can expect more fireworks between two three boards even after Diwali is over.

As, I quoted my father in this article, people of India are mad after Cricket, they care hell about tags like “Official” and “Un official”, until and unless they have been offered quality cricket. Both IPL and ICL are offering highest quality of cricket and people of India are happy with it. Let the people (viewer) of India becomes “Mogambo” and not the BCCI. So we can always say “Mogambo Khush Hoova” after each IPL and ICL match is over!!

Stumps!!!

“Should there be only one government school in the country? What if some private schools come up and provide education to few more?”

Kapil Dev gets metaphorical as he argues the case for the ICL

A feast “First Class”

Its like table is full of traditional dishes with some continental food for taste and still there is no taker!! The beginning of fresh Indian cricket season is finding difficult to have similar amount of crowd, which its predecessor had at the end of it. The first IPL season had every thing in it; Indian heroes, foreign players and more importantly the jammed packed crowds, despite there were only fourty overs to be played in three and half hours. The final of the IPL marked the end of Indian cricket season. It was expected by cricket fans like me that now there will be more people to watch the domestic players in action, but if the beginning of this season is any clue to go with then I am sure this year’s Ranji Trophy and Deodhar Trophy will have similar kind of destiny.


BCCI’s committee chaired by great Sunny Gavaskar decided that now all the domestic teams can have not less then four foreign recruits from this season, also added the fuel to my feeling that this year will be full of crowds at Indian cricket grounds. But then other then Baroda Cricket Association no body seems to have taken care of recruiting foreigners. BCA also did not go for hi-fi recruit and satisfied with Dilhara Fernando from Srilanka, who’s IPL stint with Mumbai Indians are more or less forgetful. Similarly Maharashtra Cricket Association had approached even low key player named Inamul Haque Jr. from Bangladesh. The biggies of Indian domestic cricket, likes of Delhi, Mumbai and Karnataka cricket boards dismissed the very idea of having foreign players in their teams, few of them fearing the future of talented local players and few of them had enough strong players to compete well in this year’s season and get desired results. May be the decision of recruiting foreigners came a bit late, actually it came on the very eve of the curtain raiser of this years season. May be next year after expected success of this year’s IPL, local boards may re think and make a strategy to pour in some sponsors and rope in some foreigners in their cricket. Its blessing to have good players from overseas in your team. We will focus on that in my future blogs.


Despite of what I have said above, there is still few mouth watering domestic matches we have either experienced or still going to have in next few days. It all started with Australia-A tour of India. Though the second unofficial test was a wash out but the first one has star studded international line up. Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Mohammad Kaif, Subramaniam Badrinath, Piyush Chawla and Virat Kohli were part of India A team where as Australia A were represented by Simon Katich, Doug Bollinger and Bryce McGain who are going to be part of their test team which is going to play four tests in India in October. It was a draw match but not before some tough batting by Kaif and Kohli in particular. These A tours are certainly good for future of Indian Cricket. Once the seniors get retired the players who are going to replace them will not be unknown quantity and ready for international cricket for sure. Similarly they also know their opponents because they have already played against them. If that was not enough there is a Tri nation tournament currently going on with New Zealand A is latest addition. David Hussey and Cameroon White joined that Australian A team and Peter Fulton, Michael Masson, James Marshall were part of New Zealand A team. Badrinath and Yusuf Pathan showed their class in India A’s success, where David Hussey and Cameroon White were big contributors in their side’s victories. Sadly in New Zealand will have to go home with out getting birth in finals.


There was another tournament went unnoticed by many fans. It was “Mohammad Nissar Trophy”, which was inaugurated last year with Mumbai winning it at National Stadium, Karachi. This time it was played at Delhi’s Firozshah Kotla ground against Sui Gas Pipeline Ltd the winners of Pakistan’s domestic tournament “Kaid-e-Azam Trophy”. Here also Delhi team was captained by Virender Sehwag and was well companied by Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma. Where Sui Gas line up was having Mohammad Hafeez as captain along with Misbah Ul Haq. Though Delhi lost on the basis of conceding first inning’s lead, Aakash Chopra and Virat Kohli just missed their double centuries in second innings. But again they were not able pull big crowds.



If this is not enough, we going have mouth watering Irani Trophy this year. As Australian tour is coming up, selectors have chosen virtual Indian side to play for Rest of India against Ranji Winners Delhi team. Delhi team will have all those names played against Sui Gas Pipeline team where as ROI will play sans Tendulkar and Ganguly. The authorities of Reliance Stadium at Baroda, who is going to host this match has make this match open for all. So at least this time we can expect crowd in big numbers. All eleven players from Indian test team will be playing for the either side. The monsoon had its last showers in Gujarat last week so we can expect full five days of great cricket. Players will also test their arms and will shape them for the big one “Border Gavaskar Trophy”. There is another good match in prospect; Australians probably will be playing against Board President’s XI at Jaipur from 2nd October. Let’s hope that BPXI will also have few internationals in their side. Indian cricket probably having this feast after many years, since the international schedule is so tight. Thanks to postponement of Champions Trophy this year, Indian public can see their international cricketers playing domestic cricket. Even the “free bird” Sourav Ganguly is playing Club level tournament going on at Mohali. If we complain that because international players are not playing domestic tournaments like their counterparts play in England or Australia, our stadiums remain empty, then probably this complain has no base in it looking at this year’s attendance during “A” tests, tri series and Mohammad Nissar Trophy. Hope the “Open for all” invitation at Baroda will pull sizable crowds. Barodians are known for their enthusiasm and huge participation during Garbas but they don’t have any excuse as Navratri still has week to start.



Did I forget to mention that ICL is also going to start from 10th of October??? !!!!


Stumps!!!


"I don't think he understood me, and I certainly didn't understand him."
Murray Goodwin explains there were some communication issues with Mohammad Sami during their match-winning stand in the Pro40

Yardstick!

Definition

Noun[C]
a fact or standard by which you can judge the success or value of something:

So, the day of reckoning has come for one of the finest left handers India has ever produced. Well at least for media persons from India it has. But for me it’s bit too late for “Dada” to sum up his decision on whether to stretch his career or not. For me it came early this year only when he was dropped from Indian ODI team despite making more then 1000 runs previous year in the same format of the game as well as in the other form of the game as well, which we call “real cricket”.

As there is one phrase in English “missed the bus” he certainly missed the bus in early 2008 on two counts. One is to recognize that current captain and the selectors are now looking beyond him and have a vision for next world cup and he has achieved every thing in One day cricket and he is sitting next to the “Great” Sachin Tendulkar when you talk about Indian ODI cricket. The second count on what he missed the bus was that had he call it a day and not waited this long and had came with definite statement that now he wants to concentrate on test cricket only where he lacks few runs and century, I feel he would certainly have been picked for this years Border Gavaskar Trophy, regardless of his poor form in last series. So by waiting for his chance to play in Champions Trophy, even after he was not even considered, he has not only lost his ODI place but perhaps he has lost chance to play “any” international cricket from now onwards. Or he has only chance to play if one or two of remaining of seniors play very poorly or get injured in near future. It feels sad for a fan of Dada, like me to see him in this position. For a guy who always believed in his own abilities to make come backs not only once but twice, has to rely on other’s luck.

There is always an other side of the coin, off course if that coin is not from the all time block buster “Sholay”! As per BCCI’s newly paid employees, Dada has been dropped because of his form or lack of it during last tour of Sri Lanka. Then a simple question comes in every cricket fan’s mind, that if he was having disastrous form then who was in form? We only have to exclude Sehwag and Gambhir and to some extent Laxman.. Else, I don’t see any one has “cracked” form. The other two main stay of the team, Tendulkar and Dravid also struggled. Dravid totaled 148 runs which are 52 runs more then Ganguly and Tendulkar made 95 runs which is one run less then Ganguly. They may suggest that Dravid was looking good to come back in the form. Well if you say this that looking good coming back to form a month or so before all important BGT then we all can laugh and clap. As far as Tendulkar is concerned, he can’t be dropped because he is “Tendulkar” and just “few runs” behind to overhaul Brian Charles Lara. So, who remain? Dada. Because they want to drop some senior to bring “fresh legs” in to the team.

They also say that he is a liability on the field. But has any one of them observed our test captain’s fielding? Who waves his hands in the air when some one midfields on the ground but shy away from the bowler on whose bowling he misfiled the ball? Or the second best catcher in the world who missed few important catches in last series which could have turned the balance in neutral if not in our favour? Dada has always been poor fielder when it comes to chasing the ball during his entire career, but I have perhaps never seen him dropping sitters, he is good catcher if not the best and safe one as well.

Leave all the performances who excelled and who have not in Srilankan series and who has fielded well and who has not , even then for me Dada deserved his place in this test team, at least for first two tests. To support my views I got one small statistic for you. Since January 2007 when he made a come back to test team few months back in South Africa, he has played 6 test matches in India, with 11 innings and has made 745 runs with whopping average of 74.50 with 3 fifties one hundred and one double hundred (his maiden). Why can’t our selectors think with the logic that the series is going to play in India and thus Dada has strong case? If they can re call Mohammad Kaif for his performance in “domestic cricket”, then Dada has played against one of the better international quality attacks. So, if a player has played well against domestic attack can deserve a place, then why not an international cricketer with such enviable average in home conditions can be ignored? Only because that guy is young and having “fresh legs”? Then what about that tons of experience Dada is loaded with?

So, the definition of “Yardstick” as I have quoted at the start of my post, from Cambridge Dictionary, has no relevance with thinking of our selectors. Things may change with new set of selectors arrive. They may not even change and India made good results out of this team and may retain BGT, who knows? But one thing is also sure that BCCI has still not learnt unlike their counter parts in Pakistan to give fitted adieu to their cricketers, who has given their team many success not only in India but also abroad. If they can’t respect arguably the best captain of India has ever seen, then there is less chance that they will respect other cricketers. But there are always some exceptions.

It was shocking moment for me when I read the breaking news on T.V. channels about his exclusion from Irani Trophy team. I certainly expect him to take retirement from International cricket, if he is still been ignored from new bunch of selectors (I have avoid to write jokers). But even if he does that, I will still say that he has again missed the bus, because he will not be retiring with head high, retiring on his peak. Because people will always remember him for the last series his played.

All the best Dadi! May god give you the strength to take one of the most avaited decisions of your cricket career.

Stumps:

"Boycott can say what he wants. He once batted the whole day and hit just one four"

Virender Sehwag takes recourse to history to hit back after Geoff Boycott referred to him as "talented but brainless"