More actions required from ICC

ICC addressed the declining on-field behavior in December 2016. This was very much required and the tough stance will bring back some level of decency to the gentlemen's game.

There are other areas ICC should take up in 2017, which have been waiting for quite a while.These around few specific areas:

1. Follow-on rule -  Since VVS Laxman's epic 281 versus Australia at Eden Gardens, Kolkata 2001, the number of times a team has enforced follow-on despite having a lead of more than 200 has reduced drastically. Maybe the lead of runs should be reduced to 150 ( as is applicable to a four-day match). This will keep the legacy of follow-ons  ( remember Kapil Dev's four sixes off Eddie Hemmings to avoid the follow-on)to continue without putting undue pressure on the bowlers ( having to bowl for consecutive innings).
2. DRS uniformity -Now that India has conducted a complete series with DRS system, it is time the competing nations or ICC take responsibility of DRS  system rather than leave it to the broadcasting companies. This will mean that the features available are same for all countries and tests.
3. LBW for ball pitching outside the leg stump.- An off-spinner pitches the ball outside off but is able to get a LBW in his favor if the ball is deemed to hit the stumps. With DRS in place, it is easy for the umpires to make the judgement. Hence, it is time to allow balls pitched outside leg to be given out as well.This will rule out batsmen kicking out balls pitching outside the leg and eliminate negativity.

With these changes, test cricket can move further and get the much-needed attention over the other formats. The key question is whether ICC is ready to bite the bullet? Time will tell.

World Cup 2011 - Dhoni needs a warm-up

         Captain Cool
Kapil Dev in one of his interview mentioned that the toss could hurt the Indian team - there is so much truth in his statements given in the interview below:

Our strength is batting and I feel we should depend on that and have faith. Luck also plays a part...winning the toss in every match. It will be marginally difficult if we lose the toss and the rival team posts a huge total for us to chase a target of 300 or so. If we get to bat first and make 300 and odd runs, our bowlers could do the rest for us to win each match.

While Dhoni's overall record of win-loss is 78-48 (in all tests, ODIs, T20s), his toss record in the same set of matches is 68-74. Does he have a bad record with the toss? Overall, it does look so.

From the Science site, there is a reference to the toss of a coin and what impacts the result of a toss.

In the physics of coin tossing, the most important parameters are the coin's upward velocity and its rate of spin. When the spin rate is low, the coin acts like a thrown pizza. It's unlikely to turn over, even if it travels a long distance.

What this means that MS Dhoni needs some practice with not just the bat and gloves but also with the toss. This will definitely impact the matches that India play on surfaces that will act funny under lights. Since India are the hosts of the World Cup, he will be spinning the coins most often. Only in the first match against Bangladesh, he might be calling Sakib's toss. Hence, it is imperative that he practices the most in this area - for there is no backup here.

Another option is to ensure that Sehwag (designated vice-captain) is in good form with the toss and send him in place of himself.

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English World Cup for Sachin in 1999

The Indian team went to the 1999 World Cup in England in a positive frame of mind. 16 years after the World Cup win under Kapil Dev, one thought that the same location will inspire the Indians to give their best and bring back the Cup. Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly at the top were giving Sachin Tendulkar enough reasons to think that this would be the year the Indian team will click - look at the partnerships that were forged by the trio during 1999.

But, Sachin would have never dreamt of what happened during the initial stages of the tournament. His father, whom he has admired all his life and still does so, passed away in Mumbai. Tendulkar has credited his father for all the good he has acquired in his life and this loss was shattering.

Anil Kumble couldnt get the same returns as he found in the 1996 World Cup while Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad could not be consistent enough in all the matches. The loss against Zimbabwe would upset the team's morale before the Super Sixes stage where they would further lose to Australia and New Zealand.

Moments to remember from an Indian perspective

• The inexplicable batting by Sourav Ganguly in the first match against South Africa. Though he had made a decent score, he did not kick on to score more aggressively at the end of the innings in pursuit of his individual century. He failed to do both - get his century as well as getting a winning score. Only 5 wickets were lost by the Indians but the score of 253 was overtaken by the Proteas with 16 balls to spare.
• The fall against Zimbabwe - Sachin had to make a dash to India to attend to the final rites of his dad. In his absence, the Indians lost in a collapse against the determined bowling of the minnow nations. This would be one of the worst defeats for an Indian team in the World Cup until 2007. The match was also critical as it cost the Indian team two points for the next stage.
• Sachin back against Kenya - After completing the rituals, Tendulkar played the next match against Kenya - what an emotional moment it was, when the Master scored his century in the company of Rahul Dravid. Though the opposition was not strong, it showed the true character of the champion.
• Carnage against Sri Lanka - The match against Sri Lanka in Taunton witnessed one of the cleanest six-hitting by an Indian - Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid blasted the lankan attack on a relatively smaller ground to post a total of 373. All the bowlers, including Mutthiah Muralitharan, were mauled badly.
• Win against Pakistan - India kept up the traidition of defeating their arch-rivals in the World Cup by defeating them by 47 runs. Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad were the stars of the match, taking the initiative away from the Pakistan team.

Sachin was determined to continue playing the World Cup despite his personal loss but a lean patch from him after the Kenya match contributed in its own way to the decline of the Indian performance in the Super Sixes. They joined Zimbabwe as the other team to be knocked out of the Super Sixes stage. Yet another disastrous performance by the Indian team at the World Cup, providing very few moments of delight for Indian fans.

It would be the last World Cups for players like Ajay Jadeja, Mohammed Azharuddin, Nayan Mongia, Robin Singh. Jadeja played well to support the trio of Sourav, Sachin and Rahul but could not make the difference good enough to make the semi-finals. He was also involved in match-fixing charges but later was cleared of any wrong-doings and is now a television analyst.

Azharuddin has won the local elections and become the Member of Indian Parliament, again after clearing himself of fixing claims. Robin Singh picked up a five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in the league stage and played for some more time before the selectors started thinking he was old to be in the playing eleven (even though he was among the fittest in the entire country). He became the fielding coach for the Indian national team before getting associated with IPL as a coach.

Nayan Mongia retired in 2004 after being dropped from the team after dissent and allegations of match-fixing. Incredible to see three players in this team accused of match-fixing!! Debashis Mohanty and Sadagopan Ramesh also played their only World Cup with few good performances in this Cup.

Next is 2003 World Cup in South Africa

Sachin vs Kenya


Ganguly & Dravid against SL


India vs Pakistan in 1999 World Cup

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What the 2011 World Cup means to Sachin Tendulkar - 1992 World Cup

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.

Next post is on 1996 World Cup in the Sub-continent.

Javed Miandad and Kiran More

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India and Sri Lanka down the years

Image via Wikipedia

SriLanka and India have played test matches against each other for less than 30 years - all of it noticeably present in my memory all those years.

The last 2 series each home and away has resulted in same victory margins for the home team (2-1 for Sri Lanka and 2-0 for India). Will it be any different this time?

The first series was in Chennai where the Indians escaped defeat in the very first test that Sri Lanka played. Duleep Mendis scored centuries in both innings and the Indians were probably complacent in their attitude against the debutants. No winner in the first series between the two teams then.

India toured Lanka next under the captaincy of Kapil Dev - the matches were more famous for the biased umpiring decisions made by the Lankan umpires (neutral umpires were not in vogue then). The current Chairman of Selectors, Srikkanth, bore the brunt of most of the decisions. The Lankans won their first series 1-0 leading the Indian captain to announce that the Lankans will find it difficult to win outside their home soil for some time.

Sri Lanka travelled to India twice in 86/87 and 90/91 for 4 matches, losing 3 of them to the guile of the Indian spinners. The terror situation in the Island also prevented many matches to be conducted there. Again in 93/94, the Indians made a clean sweep of the test series, winning all the 3 test matches.

In between, Azharuddin's team to the Isle won a series for the first time in the history. This was majorly due to centuries by Vinod Kambli, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sachin Tendulkar as well as the bowling performances of Kumble, Prabhakar and Srinath.

Sourav Ganguly masterminded a successful chase in 2001 but lost the other 2 test matches thanks to the guile of Murali, the magician. Similarly, Mendis and Murali bagged handful of wickets on the last trip in 2008 despite Sehwag and Gambhir's pyrotechnics. The series also saw the introduction of the UDRS system (which is missing this series).

The Indians clearly have a hold on the Lankans but at home, the Islanders gain strength in a very invisible manner - mediocre batsmen tend to become Bradmen and run-of-the-mill bowlers gain fangs!! The Indians have their tasks cut out to regain their No.1 position.

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Mumbai win the Ranji but who cares

Mumbai won the Ranji Trophy today to win the title for the 39th time. It was one of the interesting matches (let alone domestic) in recent history. Two factors was very evident here - the crowd support in the Tier-2 centre, the sporting pitch on offer. These two ensured that the match was interesting on all days. Only if the BCCI were sporting enough to pre-pone the match to allow Rahul Dravid play the match!!! The last match that I remembered was the one where Haryana defeated Bombay in the final - Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar being the rival players who made the match memorable.

Manish Pandey has proved himself in the IPL by being the only Indian to score a century. He took couple of seasons in the domestic championship to display his wares. This season he is the leading run-getter for the country but his innings in the Final was proof enough that there is hope for the future Indian team. The teenager has so much of time to spare at the crease and approached the target with a very calculated approach. Only after his dismissal did Mumbai have any visions of victory. Surely a talent to watch in the coming days.

The Karnataka team had the bowlers with the highest number of wickets in the competition as well as the highest run-getter. They had not lost the first innings lead in any of the matches until the final. The young team displayed enough gumption to prove their mettle as runners-up.

But, the way Mumbai performed in this match (with their attitude) does not make them worthy winners. The way their senior bowlers - Ajit Agarkar and Dhawal Kulkarni behaved was disgusting to say the least - this from the players of Sunil Gavaskar's backyard was not expected. The lip-service that was given to the young Karnataka players was visible on national television for everyone to see - I am not sure how the BCCI has allowed such behavior to carry on in their domestic structure. The behavior carried on during the third day when the captain Robin Uthappa was given a colorful send-off. Competition is good but when combined with such a disgusting show of character, it does not befit the champion status.

Catch of the match - The star of the match, Manish Pandey, took a stunner on the field to dismiss Nayar.

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Kapil's F O U R sixes

July 1990 - India under the captaincy of Mohd. Azharuddin and coaching of Bishen Bedi went to England for their 3-test tour. This turned out to be the tour where Graham Gooch had nothing going wrong.

First Test at Lords - India or Azhar put England into bat after winning the toss (Bedi would later distance himself from the decision!!!). Gooch went on a rampage after Kiran More, the Chairman of selectors of India, dropped him of the bowling of Manoj Prabhakar when he was less than 50 surely, scoring a high of 333!!!



This was the 6th highest ever test score; the Gooch/Lamb partnership of 308 was the highest England partnership v India and finally, England's total of 653-4 was the highest score against India!!! Lamb and Robin Smith also scored centuries for England.



This meant that India had to score a high of 454 to avoid the follow-on!!! Shastri and Azhar scored centuries in the reply but the middle-order (including Tendulkar) couldnt score much. Azharuddin's century is also spoken of in great delight from the sports pundits, but that is not the focus of this blog.The situation came to a point where the score was 430 for 9 with Kapil Dev and Narendra Hirwani at the crease. Hirwani was known not to contribute much with the bat. Hence, there was additional pressure on Kapil.

The over started from Eddie Hemmings (he was an old man by then as is typical with English spinners then) with Kapil on strike. In fact, Kapils mini-battle with Hemmings was the highlight of this series.The field was set in such a way that the singles could be taken easily, if required. The first 2 balls were defensively played by Kapil with no runs given away. The pressure was rising on the follow-on to be averted. Kapil, on the 3rd ball, jumped out and hit it over long-off for a six. Same followed on the 4th ball also. The 5th was more straighter six compared to the earlier 2. The last ball, Kapil just had made his decision to hit it for a 6. Hence, he pulled it away for a huge six thereby avoiding the follow-on with a 6. The importance of this was reflected in the fact that Hirwani was out in the very next over (since Kapil had not managed to retain the strike because of the sixes).

In his own words, Kapil mentioned ‘‘I wanted to deceive Hemmings, so played out the first two deliveries. He tossed up the next two, which I met on the full and hit over the top. The fifth ball, I was looking for a single, but when I danced down the track, I saw it was of fullish length and made a split second decision to loft it. The last was simply a slog. It was a very tense situation, but also great fun.’’

India went on to lose the match but it was Kapil's moments of Glory that stands out in the match that India lost. England won by 247 runs and the series 1-0.