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Session-dashboard - Tracking Test Matches as they progress.
Tracking T20 run-chases in an innovative manner - See here.
The BCCI, based on recommendation of the Cricket Committee, has renewed the contract of the coaching staff till the T20 World Cup. Each of the staff member has provided their own perspective to the Indian team. Let me try to dissect them:
Ravi Shastri - from the quiet Duncan Fletcher to the outspoken Ravi Shastri, BCCI could not have asked for a better man at the helm, purely from the angle of interaction with media. Ravi is always ready with his comments that the media enjoys - the criticism of the Indian team has reduced quite drastically post the appointment of Shastri. Also, within the dressing room, Ravi's Indian-ness and his rapport with the team looks good. The youngsters, who are not so well-versed with English, might face it easy talking Hindi with Shastri.
B Arun - the bowlers have been picking wickets regularly. In World Cup, we all knew how many wickets they took throughout the tournament. Similarly, in Sri Lanka, the bowlers picked up 60 wickets. Is this good proof for Arun's capability? Maybe not all is to his credit but he has been doing things in the right direction. Maybe he can bring the bowlers better direction sense? The spinners seem to be performing well again, at least in the subcontinental pitches. Good selection again.
Sanjay Bangar - Bangar has been the perfect foil to Shastri's aggression. Bangar has been always cool as a cucumber and goes about his way in the most effective way as possible. The batsmen have improved, not just due to the tough overseas tour but also due to the fact that Bangar has been able to provide the much-needed advise on their weaknesses and possible solutions to their problems. Great team-man.
R Sridhar - the fielding coach must share some credit to Rahane's world record. The close-in fielding was superb in the Sri Lanka series (even though there were few drops too). What has been really appreciable is the fact that the slip cordon has stepped up to receive catches rather than standing back even when balls were pitching short. This shows great presence of mind and Sridhar's back-room drills has made an impact here.
Overall, a good team for the Indian team at the current juncture. The South African tour will give more insights of the team's progress and whether this team is good enough for the long run. Let us wait for the Proteans then.
Two off-field incidents made news in the second test between India and England - one obviously was the decision by MS Dhoni to recall Ian Bell after he was run out by the Indian team in the second innings. This led to a huge discussion all around the world whether it was right or not. The Indian ex-players also joined the noise-bytes made over the decision - Anil Kumble and GR Viswanath being two ex-captains from the state of Karnataka who praised Dhoni's decision. Nobody spoke about Viswanath's decision to recall Bob Taylor in the Golden Jubilee test between India and England - a pity that such a decision was not given the right advertisement.
The other incident was about the tweet given by ex-English captain Michael Vaughan. Vaughan suggested that VVS Laxman might have used Vaseline to cheat the HotSpot machine. Obviously, this led to players like Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar to voice strong opinions on Vaughan - in fact, Sunny Bhai even went to the extent of asking VVS to consult his lawyers!! Vaseline too had an earlier connection between India and England test matches - ask John Lever about it. Tony Greig gives a good spin over the incident but this only goes to prove that the English media has very short memory about incidents that do not show their team in a poor situation.
One common thread between these two incidents and the second test match was that England won the matches concerned!
Sachin Tendulkar has gone back to India early from South Africa, because of a hamstring injury. Even though it might not be as serious as the one that is troubling Michael Hussey of Australia, the legend wants to ensure that he takes ample rest to keep himself fit for the six weeks during the World Cup. There is no doubt that Sachin will recover in time - he will even play matches on crutches, if it comes to that! This will be his last chance to play in a World Cup and a fitting farewell for him will be a resounding victory for his home team in his backyard, Mumbai. What a dream run that will be?
Sachin will join Javed Miandad as the only player to play six World Cups in its history so far. There are many who have played five but no one else has lasted long enough to enjoy one more. Sachin, in fact, must consider himself unfortunate that he had to wait for three long years after his debut to play in a World Cup (1992). But for this wait, he might have beaten Miandad's record also - what a record of longevity that would have been! Let us go through each edition that Sachin has played along with players who have gone on to occupy higher positions in other areas. This post will be about the first World Cup that Sachin played - 1992.
Sachin played the 1992 World Cup under Azharuddin in the Australasian Continent right after the disastrous test series. Sachin had shown enough glimpses of his talent to the world in the series - remember the century scored on the fast Perth pitch against the mighty Aussie attack. The morale of the team was low - they didnt have the self-belief that they could make a difference, forget win the tournament. There was rain in the air that contributed to shortened matches and the famous D/L method came into use at various games. Azhar, Sachin with the bat and Prabhakar with the ball were the consistent performers in this Cup that the Indians would love to forget.
What one can remember from this World Cup were very few nuggets, not all positive ones from an Indian perspective:
India-Australia match that ended with a 1-run win for the hosts. Javagal Srinath and Venkatapathy Raju were the batsmen at the crease facing Tom Moody while David Boon was keeping wickets. Srinath thought that he had hit a six when in fact it was a catch to the outfield. The catch was missed but the batsman was run-out resulting in a win for the Oz. The India-Australia match in the previous World Cup (1987) was also a close encounter with Maninder Singh and Steve Waugh involved.
Ajay Jadeja's catch in the outfield to dismiss Allan Border in the same match. This was one of the highlight of the Indian fielding throughout the World Cup. This catch can be recollected by all Indian fans even to this day. Jadeja had clearly made a mark as an outstanding fielder in the Indian team.
Kiran More and Javed Miandad getting into an argument in the Indo-Pak match. More was known for his excessive appealing. When you have him keep wickets close to the combustible Miandad, there were bound to be fireworks. Miandad imitated More in a manner only he can. Watch the video below for more details!
Sachin's fifty against arch-rivals Pakistan and his partnership with Kapil Dev. After a slow start, the Indian innings came to life from a cameo by the Young Master, who came together with the veteran all-rounder to restore some respectability to the Indian score.
Kapil Dev promoted to open the batting in one of the matches! Due to the frequent rain interruptions, the Indians went to the extent of changing the batting order and requested Kapil Dev to partner Srikkanth in one of the match. The experiment did not last long however.
The team had Praveen Amre (from the same school of Sachin Tendulkar) who started with a bang - century overseas against South Africa on his debut in a situation that called for action from heros. Amre later faded away from the scene and eventually became the coach of the Mumbai cricket team.
Another player from the same school played in this World Cup (as well as the 1996 one) but his exploits were more off the field than on it. Vinod Kambli had famously stated that he took the staircase to success when Sachin took the elevator. He is part of the list of players who have a test average of more than fifty. His troubles against the short ball were well-documented and he was targeted by bowlers all around the world. Of late, there were reports that he had opened a Sports Academy in Mumbai. He tried to contest in the local elections but lost badly.
This was also the last World Cups for Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Krishnamachari Srikkanth who were all part of the 1983 winning team. Kapil would go on to be the coach of the Indian cricket team before associated with the now-defunct ICL. Shastri got in and continued to be involved with commentary on television and later the IPL bandwagon. Srikkanth is currently the Chief Selector of the Indian cricket team as well as the Brand Ambassador for CSK in the IPL.
Kiran More also bid good-bye to this stage after his antics with Javed Miandad during the high-voltage match. He became the Chairman of the Selection Committee in 2002 before joining the rebel ICL league. Subroto Banerjee was another then-youngster who played in his only World Cup - he made his test debut in the same match that Shane Warne did but his name rings very few bells.
This performance must have brought a lot of discontent to the young Sachin Tendulkar and he must have sworn vengeance on all the bowlers in the subsequent World Cups. From the dismal performance put up by the Indian team, things were going to go in one direction only, up.
All of us cricket-followers must have come across the offering from EA Sports - Cricket 07 at some point of time, if not played it. I am not sure if Lalit Modi has seen this. If he has, he will get a lot more ideas from this game.
Obviously, one would be to get into a partnership with a gaming company to create a Gaming eco-system around IPL. But, that is not my main suggestion for IPL (and LKM).
If you notice the commentary in the matches played in the game, the wonderful voices of Richie Benaud and other prominent commentators can be heard. Of course, the key sentences like 'A great over' or 'Wonderful shot to get a boundary' are recorded in the voices which are played whenever required.
From what we have seen in this year's IPL3, the commentators are more focused on giving the details of the sponsors rather than the happenings of the game - 'DLF Maximum', 'Karbonn Kamaal Catch', 'Max Mobile Timeout', 'Citi Moment of Success' are phrases more heard than the actual commentary. This will get worse next year if LKM is successful in getting the sponsors of the Orange Cap and Purple Cap (this year the deal did not fall through apparently).
These statements can be recorded in the voices of Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar and others. They can be played by the TV producers whenever required in the game. What happens between balls? They can be used to show more ads (further potential to make more money) - every ball can be preceded and succeeded by 1-2 ads. Optimal utilization of time at the best. All the travel/hotel costs of the commentators can be reduced this way. The match can be actually covered by the low-cost television anchors who cost way less than the ex-cricketers.
What do you say Mr. Modi? Will you follow this route next year?
The first time when Indian viewers got to see live matches with colored clothing. India had a sort-of dull blue color. The match starts used to be early and I remember getting early to watch these matches. India played wonderfully and if I am right, they got all their opponents all-out in all their matches except the Final against Pakistan, which they won convincingly. Shastri and Srikkanth opened in the matches and played great cricket. Shastri managed to edge out Srikkanth to get the Champion of Champions because of his additional bowling skills.
People still remember the Indian team going around on top of the Audi car that was given to Ravi Shastri as the Champion of Champions...Gavaskar was the captain for this tournament and he bowed out on a "high" - His appointment followed matches where he and Kapil Dev were alternated as captains.
But, overall, this Indian team won this tournament in a way no other Indian team won in the history of Indian cricket. No losses at all throughout the tournament. The Indians were clear-cut winners!!! I guess it will be some more time before we get such an allround ODI Indian team with such good batsmen, bowlers and great fielders.
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