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!

Golden Girls

Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Chidananda Akkunji and Mandeep Kaur were not exactly household names in India until recently. Neither were Krishna Punia, Harwant Kaur, and Seema Antil. But their performances in the just concluded Commonwealth Games have changed that.

For many people like me, the CWG were not that big a deal. The sporting super powers of the world are not present in these games, and some of the superstars from the Commonwealth countries decided to stay away due to well publicised reasons. Therefore the competition was somewhat limited, and therefore my interest in the games was fairly lukewarm. Until a friend sent me this video clip of the 4x400 women's relay that Manjeet and team won in fabulous fashion.

I watched the video, and ended up with tears in my eyes. I wondered why.

The fact that we had not won a track and field gold medal even in the Commonwealth Games since Milkha Singh in the 60's shows how far behind we are in these sports. Lack of infrastructure, incompetent sports federations, lack of good coaches & trainers, and many other factors contribute to us being so far behind in this area. Even limited success at the highest level is the result of incredible tenacity and personal sacrifice. And the challenges are multiplied many-fold if you are a young girl from a middle class family trying to excel in a sport.

As I watched the video, I could not take my eyes off the screen and at the back of my mind were all the challenges these girls must have overcome to be where they are today. Even though I knew the result I could feel an adrenalin rush inside me, to egg them on to cross the finish line first.

I hope these Golden Girls are harbingers of change in Indian sport and society.

Kohli comes of age

After two washouts and a solitary win, India completed the first ODI series win over Australia on Indian soil in more than 20 years. Although the series win was less than emphatic due to the washouts, there were some positives that emerged for India from the win in Kochi.

Virat Kohli burst on the scene after he captained a very talented India Under-19 team to a world cup victory a few years ago. The Under-19 team included a number of very promising youngsters, but Kohli was the first one to graduate to the next level, playing ODI cricket for India. I was never a great fan of Kohli in spite of his allround skills. His batting lacks a certain elegance that one associates with successful Indian batsman, his medium pace bowling looks pretty pedestrian, and he seems to have a questionable attitude. He did well for India in the initial period before slipping into mediocrity for a brief period of time.

However his match winning innings in the Kochi ODI has made me a believer in his ability. He played a very mature innings, and pretty much guided India to victory in a tough chase, after they were in early trouble. It was an innings of substance, perfectly paced, and played in a difficult situation. I like fighters, and I saw fight in this young man. He also brings to the table that rare ability - an Indian batsman who can bowl seam-up, which can be quite handy in England and New Zealand. We have not had this luxury since Ganguly retired. I think this young man will do well for India in the limited overs game.

The other huge positive was the affirmation of Raina's class. Raina has truly arrived as a finisher for India in the limited overs format. He is fearless, and he has the ability to scare the opposition. The Aussies have had a lot of trouble with him lately, and his confidence bodes well for India.

Of course, death-bowling continues to be an achilles heel for the Indian side, and for some reason our bowlers are unable to bowl the yorker consistently. This problem requires urgent attention, and has the potential to be the chink in our armour that could cost us the world cup.

Told you so!

It is always a good feeling to say "Told you so"!

India's 2-0 win in the Test series against Australia was as much a result of Australia's decline, as due to the selection of the best available Indian test players for the series. I have been arguing for the inclusion of Pujara, Ishant, and Sreesanth for a long time now. Pujara and Ishant made match winning contributions, and I think Sreesanth is moving in the right direction after the long layoff.

The biggest surprise of the series in my opinion was Pragyan Ojha. He bowled tight, got turn right through, and troubled almost all Australian batsman. Ojha's emergence was all the more welcome given Harbhajan's drop in form. Big kudos to the selectors for retaining their faith in this young man.

However the job is only half done. To remain a champion side, India needs another solid batsman for the middle order, a quality spinner and a fourth seamer. I really believe that Suresh Raina will struggle in England, New Zealand, and South Africa. Obviously he is a prodigiously talented batsman, and could prove me wrong, but I believe that his game is better suited for the shorter versions. Therefore another solid batsman in the middle order would be handy in the long run; particularly with Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman in the twilight of their careers.

We need a quality attacking leg-spinner. Mishra and Chawla have shown promise, but both have been extremely inconsistent. Perhaps hiring Kumble or Shane Warne for a year to work excusively with these two leggies would not be a bad investment. A crore or two should do it. Mishra and Chawla are also extremely handy lower order batsmen, and good fielders. And yes, while they are being groomed for Test cricket, keep them out of T-20.

Finding a good attacking Test match seam bowler may be harder - but this is perhaps most important for our team to win consistently overseas.

I am encouraged by recent happenings and will keep my fingers crossed that we are moving in the right direction in Test Cricket. However the moment I see Ishant or Sreesanth in the ODI team, or Pujara playing T-20, or even Yuvraj making a comeback to the Test side, I will know that my optimism was misplaced!

Two Nail-biters in two days!

Graeme McDowell is short for an Irishman. He is strongly built with a full head of hair, and facial hair somewhere in-between a stubble and a full beard. He also happens to be one of the best professional golfers in the world.

McDowell methodically won his singles match against the American Hunter Mahan to complete one of the closest ever Ryder Cup wins for Europe against the USA. Those who think of golf as an individual sport would surely have changed their mind after watching this absolutely fabulous tournament.

After almost 4 days of competition Europe and America were tied with 13.5 points each. And it all came down to McDowell's match. He was calm, he was focused, and he was relentless. The putt he nailed to win the 16th hole will become part of Ryder Cup folklore. In all this euphoria, it was important to remember that it was the European team that won the cup, not McDowell the individual. McDowell was the finisher, the final blow. But it was equally important that the Molinari brothers salvaged the half point on the 18th in their four-ball match. The 46-year old Jiminez won his singles game, Luke Donald scored 3 points overall, and Colin Montgomerie marshalled his troops well.

6,500 miles away in Mohali, another nail-biter unfolded less than 24 hours later. This time it was two very good cricket teams battling it out to win a Test Match. In a match that had fluctuated like the Sensex, India were down and out on the last day at 124 for 8, with 92 more runs required for an almost impossible win. At the crease were two injured men, both on pain-killers. VVS Laxman was struggling with back-spasms, and Ishant Sharma had a bum knee. What unfolded in the next few hours will be remembered for a long, long time. Laxman and Sharma battled hard, and played smartly. They fashioned an unlikely 81 run partnership that turned the tables on Australia, and enabled India to win by one wicket. Laxman was absolutely relentless till the very end. What a match!

Again, in this hoopla, it is important to remember that the team won. Without Zaheer and Ojha's bowling and the four Indian half centuries in the first innings, Ishant Sharma's three wicket burst in the Aussie second innings, Raina's run out of Ponting, and many other such small things, India may not have won.

For me, it once again reinforces the notion that winning is not an event, it is a process. Winning is about being relentless. Someone once told me on the golf course: Never give up, and never let up.

These two nail-biting finishes in the last couple of days have only reinforced that principle.