We miss you Adam

I am watching a gripping day of Test cricket on TV. Pakistan versus Australia at Headingly.

Pakistan have dominated most of this Test Match, almost entirely due to their wonderful fast bowling resources. Australia's fightback in the second innings was rudely halted on the third morning by a wonderful spell from the young Pakistani sensation Mohammed Aamer. Australia 164 for 5, still 6 runs away from making Pakistan bat again, with their backs to the wall. 3 years ago this would have been the perfect setting for Adam Gilchrist to come in and turn the game on its head.

What a player Gilchrist was. I remember the Mumbai Test in the 2000-01 India-Australia series. After having dismissed India for 176, Australia were reeling at 99/5 when Gilchrist walked in. The Indian bowlers were on top. The counterattack Gilchrist launched was typically brutal. He scored a blistering hundred that took the game completely away from India.

We miss you Adam!

How important is fielding ability in cricket?

I have a theory to improve Indian cricket. It is based on my experience while playing for my hostel team in IIT Delhi almost 27 years ago.

Our hostel captain was a guy called Sanjay Savur. Sanjay was a wicketkeeper batsman from Bombay, studied in the Bombay Scottish School and played a lot of his cricket at Shivaji Park. Sanjay's theory was very simple - you played for Kumaon hostel if you were totally committed. And it was fairly easy to assess your commitment to the cause when you were fielding. Therefore Sanjay made sure that he did not pick people who were not totally committed in the field. Sanjay's theory was just fine by me. Fielding was my favourite discipline in cricket, and I loved throwing myself around to save any runs I could. However Sanjay's selection method meant that one or two really good batsmen or bowlers did not make it into the playing eleven due to their fielding. These were not popular decisions, but the message came through loud and clear. We won the inter hostel championship two years running - I do not think it was a coincidence!

I really think that Sanjay was way ahead of his time - he was almost a visionary. If Sanjay's yardstick were to be applied to Indian cricket today, Munaf Patel would never make the team. And judging by what I saw today, Abhimanyu Mithun would not have made his Test debut for India in the Galle Test match.

Selection Madness

The brainlessness of our cricket selection is coming home to roost in the Sri Lanka Test series that has just started. As I said in one of my earlier posts, our cricketers are playing an awful lot of international and IPL cricket these days. Therefore some sort of intelligent partitioning is required to keep our lads fresh and motivated. There is also the difference in approach required for limited overs and Test cricket. All this cries out for creating specialist teams for different forms of the game.

We seem to understand quite well that increasingly attacking forms of batsmanship are required as we move from Test cricket to ODI to T20. For batsmen, we seem to have a reasonably clear understanding of who the specialists for different forms fo the game are. Other than occasional howlers like sticking with Yuvraj in Tests. However we are completely confused when it comes to bowlers.

Once upon a time, Sreesanth and Ishant were wonderful attacking bowlers who were capable of bowling long testing spells in search of wickets. They were occasionally expensive, but would not give up their aggression just because they got carted around for a few boundaries. Whenever these guys bowled well in Tests, we threw them at batsman in ODIs. And very often they got hammered. And lost confidence.

Our current selection committee chairman Krishnamachari Srikkanth was an entertaining batsman. He played the signature innings for India in the finals of the 1983 world cup - fearlessly hooking Andy Roberts for a six, and imperiously smashing him through the covers on his knees. However one thing Srikkanth will never be accused of is thinking and planning. I remember him smashing Dipak Patel straight down the throat of deep-midwicket in the initial overs of a world cup match in 1992. Patel was a Newzealand off-spinner who opened the bowling in that match. The only man outside the circle was deep midwicket, and Srikkanth hit the ball right down his throat.

That brings us right back to the current Test match in Galle. It should come as no surprise to anyone that our bowlers are struggling. The second day getting rained off came as a welcome relief.

The Unflappable South African

Watching Louis Oosthuizen play the last round of the British Open Golf tournament yesterday reminded me of the original unflappable South African - Retief Goosen.

I never saw the great South African Gary Player play golf. He is probably the greatest South African golfer ever - certainly the most famous. However the first South African golfer I became a fan of was Ernie Els. To this day, I cannot fathom how he advances the ball with that silky smooth "easy" swing.

But it was Retief who really captured my imagination in 2004. It was the US Open at Shinnecock Hills. Retief had already won the open a few years ago, and he was leading at the start of the fourth round. I have never seen such clutch golf - until yesterday.

Retief was absolutely sensational during that last round at Shinnecock Hills. He nailed approach shots when he had to. He drained putts when he had to. And not once did he show any emotion, until he won it all. To this day, I try to copy him as far as my demeanour on the golf course is concerned. Even keel. You miss a 2 footer or drain a 50 footer - same expression, same body language, same attitude. Take it in your stride. I wish I could do it half as well as the great man.

Oosthuizen was absolutely clutch yesterday. The toothy grin was on right through the day, and so were the clutch shots. As Paul Casey said, he didn't flinch at all. Louis was mentored by Ernie Els, but I am glad he has a little bit of Retief in him. The unflappable South African.

Horses for Courses

Lately our cricket selectors have been a really confused bunch. They have had trouble picking the right teams for the different formats of the game and have cause a lot of grief to the players and the followers of the sport.

Yuvraj Singh is a good example. Yuvraj is a good limited overs player, thanks to his attacking batting, great fielding, and useful bowling. However he does not belong in our Test side. Never has. Test cricket is about technique and tenacity, not flair and flash alone. For the life of me, I do not understand why we keep selecting him again and again for Test matches.

Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma are good attacking fast bowlers. They are the kind of bowlers who will take wickets when they bowl with attacking fields and pitch the ball up. However limited overs cricket demands accuracy, and these bowlers are not going to be accurate enough over 10 overs from match to match. The moment they show some results in Test cricket, we automatically assume that as in-form bowlers we need to pick them for ODI and T20 cricket as well. Wrong. Limited overs cricket places a different set of demands on bowlers, and these guys end up getting punished, and then dropped from Test cricket as well!

The latest guy to become a victim of this selection circus is Cheteshwar Pujara. Pujara is a technically correct batsman in the classical mould. He should be a certainty in our Test side, but cannot play because the selectors do not have the courage to drop Yuvraj Singh. When Yuvraj is hurt, these jokers pick Dinesh Karthik, a talented batsman, who is neither here not there - certainly not a patch on Pujara in terms of technique and staying power. However Pujara is playing plenty of T20 cricket in the IPL! If we do not put him in our Test side soon, we are likely to lose one of our most promising Test players in a long long time.

Tomas Berdych

I had picked the big Czech Tomas Berdych to win the French Open this year, but he lost a close 5-setter to Robin Soderling in the semi-finals.

For Wimbledon this year, I had picked Soderling or Berdych to win. Soderling is out, dismissed by Rafa, but I think Berdych has a real chance against Rafa in the finals. When Rafa is free from injury, he is extremely difficult to beat. To beat him, his opponent has to be HOT for 3 sets, and hope that Rafa will make some crucial mistakes. Berdych is playing extremely well, and it wouldn't surprise me if he is hot in the finals. The only question is whether Rafa will make some mistakes - all I can say is that he is due.

It promises to be a gripping final - Go Thunder Berd!

Virender Sehwag - The Mystery

Why on earth does Virender Sehwag make runs by the truckload in Test cricket, and play such ordinary cricket in the limited overs formats? Obviously he plays the occassional brilliant innings in the limited overs formats as well - with his incredible talent he is bound to. However his impact in Test cricket is clearly an order of magnitude higher than in the limited overs formats. The way he plays his cricket would suggest that he is likely to be more successful in the shorter formats. What the hell is going on?

In the answer to this enigma is perhaps the clue for Test teams to get this modern day Bradman under control.

Sehwag seldom gets out playing a defensive shot. In fact he seldom plays a defensive shot! Therefore conventional Test match fields are generally ineffective for him. Three slips, a gulley, and a short leg are not the areas that Sehwag is likely to be caught at, unless the conditions are overcast and aiding swing. Typically he will play the ball high over point or third man, drive it through the vacant extra cover or mid-off region, or flick it between square leg and midwicket. His edges are likely to fly high over the slips or gulley and go to the boundary.

Sehwag scores so quickly in Test matches that by the time the opposing captain considers a more defensive approach, he is already approaching a double hundred. No wonder he crosses 150 with such ease, and so often.

Sehwag's performances in the limited overs formats provides a clue on how to deal with him in Test cricket. As an opposing captain, you have to think as if you are playing a 50-over game when Sehwag is on strike. Only five men inside the circle, only one slip, an attacking third-man, two points (one short, and one deep), and a short square leg. Curtail the boundaries, invite him to pierce the field, and he is likely to give his wicket away going for his shots.

However there is one problem the fielding captain needs to deal with while following this approach. He will need to make wholesale field changes for the batsman at the other end. I believe this can be done, by following a strictly limited overs approach with Sehwag, and a semi-attacking approach with the batsman at the other end.

Obviously this is a nice theory, which may or may not work. Given Sehwag's genius, he will perhaps find another way. However his less than stellar record in the limited overs formats over a period of time suggests that there is a better than even chance of getting him under control with a different mindset.

Triple Bagels

I was watching a very one-sided match on the first day of the French Open tennis tournament yesterday. Robin Soderling was thrashing a French qualifier and was up 6-0, 3-0. The thought crossed my mind if I was watching a triple-bagel in the making. Soderling eventually dropped four games before walking away with a convincing win, but the triple-bagel stayed in my mind.

Being bageled in a tennis match is to lose a set 6-0. I first heard the term being used several years ago by one of the famous Bryan brothers while he was a commentator during a US open. A double bagel is a 6-0, 6-0 win while a triple bagel is used to describe a 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 result. I remember watching a French open final a couple of decades ago, where Steffi Graf had blanked Natalia Zvereva 6-0, 6-0.

In the fiercely competitive world of men's professional tennis, a triple-bagel has to be an extremely rare result, particularly at a Grand Slam event. Sure enough, when I googled for instances of triple bagels at a Grand Slam event, I found that there have been only 5 such instances in the open era. The list can be found at http://www.tennis28.com/slams/shortest_matches.html. Nikola Spear, Karel Novacek, Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl, and Sergi Bruguera are the men to have finished on the winning side of these remarkable performances.

While the Steffi Graf double-bagel over Natalia Zvereva in the French Open final is well documented, the closest a man has come to a triple bagel in a Grand Slam final is Jimmy Connors, who won 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 in the 1974 US Open final. Even more amazing is who he beat in that match - Ken Rosewall!

Who cares for the cricket fan in India?

When the Pune franchise for the Indian Premier League was announced recently, I felt a chill go up my spine. The chill was a result of the memories of my visit to the Nehru Stadium in Pune several years ago to watch a one day international cricket match between India and Australia. The bad feeling had nothing to do with the result of the match, which was won by Australia in a canter, thanks to a magnificient Mark Waugh hundred. The chill originated from how shabbily the paying cricket public was treated at the stadium that day.

Cricket is big in India, which is without any doubt the commercial hub of world cricket. At the root of this tremendous commercial success of cricket in India is the huge fan following enjoyed by the sport. Over the years this fan following has been exploited brilliantly by the BCCI and the media and they have managed to squeeze just about every rupee from the sport. And then the IPL came along and made this money-making machine an order of magnitude bigger. However somewhere the paying cricket fan at the stadiums has been forgotten. Which brings me back to my experience at the Nehru Stadium in Pune.

I had purchased an expensive ticket that day, and fully expected to have a great view of proceedings. When I entered the enclosure in the stadium it was a shock. Makeshift chairs were lined up in the enclosure. We were going to watch the game from the point/straight midwicket area - not the greatest of views. I was told that most of the prime seats were given away to MCA/BCCI and other officials. Our enclosure had one small entrance only which allowed maybe 2-3 people to pass through at one time. I shuddered to think what would happen if there was an emergency and people had to be evacuated - a stampede at the narrow gate was the most likely scenario.

And here is the clincher. At some point in time during the match I needed to go to the washroom. When I made my way outside, and found a run down part of the building that housed the washrooms, to my horror the place had a big padlock on the door. The washrooms were under maintenance! When I asked one of the stadium guards where the other washrooms were, he told me that my only option was to go to the street outside to relieve myself! This was the state of affairs at an international match being played in a country that is the commercial hub of the sport. Even though we now have some modern stadia like the one at Mohali, I suspect that the above state of affairs still exists at most cricket venues in the country.

I promised myself that winter morning that I will never again go to a venue to watch a cricket match in India again.

And that brings me back to the new Pune IPL franchise. There is a new cricket stadium being built outside Pune that is likely to be used for the home games of the franchise. I know it may be too much to ask, but do hope that the paying public is at the top of the stakeholder list for the stadium.

The Power of Dreams

I am not much of a movie watcher, but thanks to my children I watched two outstanding movies during the past week. Both these movies are well made, have powerful scripts, and have a wonderful message, delivered with amazing clarity.

The first one is a Hollywood movie called "Rudy". It is based on a true story of an American boy called Rudy, who by all accounts, was a complete misfit for the sport of American Football. He was small, with limited athletic ability. Size, strength, and great athletic ability are almost mandatory to be able to play this brutal sport at any level. However what no one saw was the size of Rudy's heart. He was determined to play college football for Notre Dame - a college reverred for its football program, and a household name in all of the US. His dream was laughable, and almost everyone around him did laugh at him.

Rudy's story is absolutely unbelievable. So much so that I searched the Internet after watching the movie to verify if it was indeed a true story. It is, and it almost made my cry. And it taught me a great deal.

The second outstanding movie I watched with my kids was "Rock On!". Bollywood movies are usually nothing to write home about. However "Rock On!" is different. A touching story, told well, and with a great deal of sensitivity, backed by superb performances. It is the story of a young rock band that breaks up, and then comes together again after the four young men had gone their own separate ways. Again, the key message of the movie is - Follow your dreams, it is never easy, but can be extremely rewarding.

Great movies to watch with your kids. I highly recommend them.