Oh Australia!

I long for the metronomic precision of Glenn McGrath. I long for the explosive arrogance of Matt Hayden. I long for the amazing wizardry of Shane Warne. I long for the sheer steel of Steve Waugh. And I long for the brilliance of the gentleman assassin Adam Gilchrist. But most of all I long for the winning attitude of the dominant Aussie cricket team. Just like I long for the mighty Viv Richards, and Gordon Greenidge, and the ferocious West Indies fast bowlers from the seventies and eighties.

One may rejoice in the decline of the great teams and the resulting parity in world cricket, but the cricket world is much poorer without them. These once-in-a-generation teams set the standards that others hope to reach, and they bring in innovations that change how the game is played. Watching the first Ashes Test over the last 5 days, it was sad to see the Aussies struggle to win key moments in the match. Other than the Laxman-Dravid classic, I can't remember an Aussie Test match bowling attack getting systematically ground into the dust, the way Strauss, Cook, and Trott did yesterday. Certainly never in  Australian conditions.

In some ways India aspire to be the new Australia - aggressive, skilled, and a team that will fight to the finish. However they are at least two top-class wicket-taking bowlers away from being right up there.

The Ashes are underway: what's with the moustaches?

The Ashes got underway at Brisbane yesterday, and we have already seen two gripping days of Test Cricket. But what's with the moustaches? Three key guys - Kevin Pietersen, Mitchell Johnson, and Ben Hilfenhaus are all sporting new moustaches. I suppose that is part of putting the game face on for these guys.

From a spectator's point of view, Australia is one of the most exciting places to watch Test Cricket. The wickets are always sporting with something in them for everyone. There is something exciting happening in every session - be it the fall of wickets, great strokeplay, or just a spell of hostile fast bowling. There is decent pace, bounce and occasional swing for the seam bowlers, and the bounce helps quality spinners as well. With the ball coming on to the bat, good batsmen can play strokes and score at a good pace. With extremely good outfields, fielding is also a delight to watch.

The first two days have provided a glimpse of how closely fought this series is likely to be. Hopefully we will see a close series with some great performances.

The Sticky Tail

India has now been the top-ranked Test Cricket nation for almost two years. A dream batting line-up is the most obvious reason for India's ascent to the top, but there are a few less obvious reasons that I believe are equally important.

First of all, an in-your-face attitude that came with Sourav Ganguly. The Indian team is now fearless, and is perhaps the team that provides the best demonstration of controlled aggression in the cricket world. Our frontline bowlers - Zaheer, Sreesanth, and Harbhajan are not just fearless. They are capable of flustering the world's best batsmen with their stares, the occassional spoken word, and the aggressive body language. Move over Australia, Indian bowlers are setting the new standard in aggression.

Then there is the sticky tail. All great teams fight till the finish, hate to lose, and keep their opponents honest. Last time I remember India's tailenders putting up a fight was during Syed Kirmani's time. However the exploits of our 8, 9, 10, 11 over the last two years are unparalleled. Harbhajan Singh has been fabulous with the bat, Zaheer, Ishant, and Ojha have played match winning or match saving roles, and Laxman has been unbelievable in developing partnerships with these guys. Ultimately it is about the attitude to not give up, and the in-your-face approach that is the key.

I think the most frustrating thing in cricket is when ten and jack get together, smash the ball around, and put together an irritating partnership. At Hyderabad Harbhajan and Sreesanth put on 105 for the last wicket, and it could well have been a match winning effort, had our bowling unit been a little more productive.

India's sticky tail has been one of the most defining characteristics of their rise to the top.

God's soft white underbelly

This is the name of an article I read recently. The original article is at:

http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/529232-god-s-soft-white-underbelly

I have been an atheist for most of my life, and have been a huge fan of Richard Dawkins for the last 5 years. Reading this article made me wonder (again) why people continue to believe in God. Here I refer to God as the all knowing, omnipresent, super-being, who watches our every move, dishes out goodies and punishment as he sees appropriate, and in general, is responsible for everything that goes on in the universe. Most of my life I have believed that there is no such being.

Almost everyday I read newspaper reports about bad things happening in the world. What really drives me insane are daily reports of sexual assaults on children. Can anyone in their right minds rationalize these assaults with the existence of a superbeing who has the ability to stop them? And for most of humanity to spend time praying to such a being is something that is beyond my understanding. People who believe in God need to ask some uncomfortable questions of themselves. There are thousands of things we do not understand - how the world around us works, why we exist, how did life begin, and so on. Not knowing should not push us into believing in a hyper being with absolutely no evidence. Not knowing should only make us humble and curious to try and figure things out. 

I have had arguments with believers, including my 15 year old niece. The most common response is: "Believing in God gives me peace of mind, and make me happier".

I don't believe blind faith is a good thing, even if it does not cause any visible harm in the short term.

Preventing an itunes recovery disaster

My friend Tushar gave me a pretty shocking piece of information a couple of days ago. I am an iphone user, and have loaded up the device with lots of music, golf and tennis instructional videos, and several interesting applications. The iphone is now a pretty important part of my life, and I keep it synched with itunes regularly and sleep easy with the knowledge that all is well since I have everything backed up on itunes.

Well Tushar told me that his computer hard drive crashed a few months ago, and as a result he lost the itunes library. Once he recovered his disk, he re-installed itunes, and figured that synching with the iphone would restore the itunes library. Dead wrong! This process erases the entire library from the iphone, since the synch is not a true two-way process!

It is therefore very important for an iphone/ipod user to be able to back up the itunes library and restore it if required. Fortunately there is a way this can be done. with itunes 8.0 and later. You will find it at:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1382

I was able to back up my library to two DVD's, but have not had a chance to do the restore. Given that I am using Apple products, I believe I will be OK.

Ian Chappell - the Super Commentator

Ian Chappell was a very good international cricketer - one of the premier Australian batsmen of his era, and a very astute captain. He was also a typically brash Aussie.

Chappell's no-nonsense style and his deep understanding of the game typify his cricket commentary as well. Chappell and Barry Richards are perhaps the best cricket commentators in the world today. For some reason Richards has disappeared from the scene, but thankfully Chappell continues to do commentary. Chappell is such a great commentator because he shares insights that are not obvious to even the serious cricket fan. When Chappell is doing commentary, I am as interested in listening to his insights as watching the game. In contrast, there are many other "experts" who make me reach for the remote to hit the mute button. Ranjit Fernando is perhaps the worst of the lot, with Navjot Singh Sidhu a close runner up in that department.

Chappell has never been known to be diplomatic or to shun controversy. Thankfully he brings the same insigts and candor to his columns. He writes an opinion piece regularly on Cricinfo and it is always a great read.

Here's his latest piece: http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/485846.html

Keep writing Ian - you are a gift for the serious cricket fan. And if you are listening, please track down Barry Richards, and get him into that commentary box with you!