Scripted Retirement

Scripted Retirement
This is my second blog in the “Scripted” series, I believe you all will enjoy this and Waheguru will bless me for keeping this series in continuation.
Script and Indians are very closely related as our script, what is more popularly called “Destiny” become functional even before our birth on the earth and creates several challenges and problems for facing in a scripted manner.
Indo- Australia test match series is on and in this cricketing land all eyes, from game lovers to selectors, officials of the game to politicians and even the international cricketing scenario is aiming only at the performance of “Prince of Kolkatta” just because Dada already announcement his retirement from the cricket of international level, this series is going to be last opportunity for this great fighter of the game and most successful Indian captain to be representative of motherland on the cricketing field.
There are many talks about the retirement of some senior players from the Indian Cricket team and most people don’t hesitate to say that Sourav Ganguli is the first victim of the policies of BCCI in this regard. Some television news channels have projected this retirement announcement as the scripted retirement under sweet name of “Golden Hand Shake”. There seems to be ample space available for this suspicious happening being a scripted retirement as just 15 days prior to retirement Gaungli was confident of at least two years cricket left with him.
If the retirement of Bengal Tiger is scripted one than surely the script for this start functioning since the Indian tour to Zimbabwe with the dispute between captain and officials. What more can be said about this script, at one time, one of official was reported for saying Ganguli will not be part of Indian team till he is in the selection committee. Country has witness a huge controversy on this issue and finally this great fighter was reselected into Indian squad though not in Captain’s capacity. Things doesn’t stopped here he was kept under such a constant pressure that even though he was getting runs but his confidence and killing attitude, which has made him most successful Indian captain of the history, was missing altogether. All this resulted in making Dada isolated and concentrated within self and look India has suffer all this in the formation of two groups senior and younger in the team. Fortunately or unfortunately meanwhile India went on to win the inaugural Twenty-20 World cup in absence of these five senior players and this almost closed the doors of ODI for these masters of the game. Here I would like to mention that this will be more appropriate to say Pakistan last the match rather than India won. Destiny was on the side of India and was forcing Pakistani players for committing unforced errors. While I am writing this, there is news quoting Ganguli that he was intended to be in the team on his own merits and not on the mercy of others [selectors] and continuously on going humiliating treatment which he was receiving has forced him to announce retirement.
Whatever may be it a scripted or normal retirement but one thing is sure tigers are always path creators and leaders and this great fighting cricketer sourav was, is and will remain known as Bengal tiger. This is certain that retirement announcement of Dada is going to prove a mile stone in the Indian cricket and will prove path indicator for the players for whom age has and will start playing role of all important hurdle.
Time will surly salute Dada for the cricketing skills and making the Indian squad who not only capable of winning the game but successfully takes the war on the fields of opponent and dare to response off ground tactics in the language used by the opponent.

IPL Semi Final Roads

IPL Semi Final Roads

Most of the cricketing experts of the country and even the common cricket follower citizens were considering and rating Jaipur’s Rajasthan Royals [JRR] as one of the weakest team of the IPL at the start of the tournament, surely they will say this is the glorious uncertainty of the game that this Halla Bol squad become the first team to qualify for the semis.

There was nothing wrong with consideration as none of the blasting names like Sachin, sourav, shewag, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Sanath, Symonds, Eshant Sharma, Shoaib Akhtar, Bret Lee and so on was associated with JRR, In fact this is the only team which was unable to find a suitable Indian player from the selective chunk to lead the team and was depending on retired Shane Warne for the purpose.

Besides this our Indian attitude of looking at things and happening with specific economic vision was also responsible for this view towards the JRR by the critics and masses. We Indians have a tendency of establishing a relationship between price and quality, more we pay more we become assured of quality and surely the JRR is the team of players with lower remuneration.

I recall early days or rather the days before the actual start of the tournament, when all the eight teams have finalized their player, my son was discussing about the winner of the tournament. He was not just surprised but eventually was shocked to hear name of JRR from me. As like the most of Indians, three best teams for him were the Kolkatta Knight Riders, Delhi Dare Devils and Mumbai Indians. I was supporting the JRR from the day one just because to me T-20 is the place of exhibiting all round skills and Halla bol squad is composed from many players having this ability. Most of the players included in JRR’s Halla Bol squad have to prove worth of their playing skills from this or that point of view and this attitude was going to make them the most competitive and dangerous team of the tournament.

Individual efforts are the key to team success but surely the clubbed one and not the isolated. Look at the highest run scorer of the tournament, Gautam Gambhir, baring the last match, middle order of Delhi team failed on whatever chances they got and as the result Delhi team is left with option of praying God for the semifinal birth. At the time of writing of this, JRR and Kings XI have qualified and three other teams
Delhi with 15 points from all 14 matches
Chennai 14 points from 13 matches and
Mumbai 12 points from the 12 matches are beetling out for the remaining two semis slots. Eventually Delhi team is on the mercy of performance of rest of two teams. Chennai will go under the “Do or Die” status when tomorrow they will took ground against Hyderabad but before they need to keep a hawk-eye on the match of Mumbai with JRR as defeat in that match for Mumbai will not only almost block the entrance of Mumbai in last four but also bring a respire of relief for the Chennai as their win tomorrow will change the point table to
Chennai 16 points from 14 matches
Delhi 15 points from 14 matches
Mumbai 12 points from 14 matches
If the Chennai and Mumbai both loose their, these matches Delhi will qualify as the third semifinalist and forth one will be decided only after the match of Mumbai and Bangalore. Here Mumbai will under tremendous pressure as they will have to play not just for a win but also need to take care of over all run rates.

All these if’s and but’s will be going to get answer in next 72 odd hours but one thing is sure, last league match of the tournament between Kings XI and JRR, is going to prove the real thriller as both the team are already qualified so they will battled out just for the pride. Once again the Kings will be forced to face the music of Halla Bol.

IPL Broken Images of Cricket

IPL Broken Images of Cricket

The much talked, most awaited and creating records of beyond imagination payments for the cricketers, T-20 championship organized by BCCI, Indian Premier League is reaching to point of completing inaugural session with tremendous media responses.

IPL is unique in many ways this was not only the tournament in which sponsored paid in Lakhs of rupees for every run scored or every ball bowled by the star cricketers. This tournament also provided space for the breaking some of established norms and images of the game and players on and off the field. This was of thought of centuries that cricket is the game of gentleman but can we say the same after the opening biding of cricketers resembling with the slave market of old days?

Cricketing skills were the matter which was meaning most for the game but IPL has changed the vision, now in the cricket it is money that matters most. Look at some of Australian players, for whom India was the country with most discomforts and Indian players were not having value higher than the forest grass, all of them are not only staying for almost two months on this land of most discomforts but also playing in IPL under the leadership of Indian players, who were never looked by them even as human beings, surely the only reason is the monetary benefits. This is the financial influence of IPL which forced PCB to suspend the ban of Rawalpindi express Shoaib Akhtar.

IPL also broke the image of several established cricketing names, Look at the performance of Ricky Pointing, Shahid Afridi, V V S Laxman, Anil Kumbale and even Rahul Dravid.

Before the IPL the whole world was sounding with the voices of favoring younger generation for this shorter version of the game. Experience and cricketing skills started to be being under shadowed by the physical fitness; surely IPL has succeeded in broking this age myth. Look the best performers of tournament, majority of them are over thirty, till date highest wicket taker Shane Warne is no more representing his country, second fastest century scorer Santh Jayasuriya is of 39 years of age even the fastest century is scored by recently retired Adam Gilchrist. Though Delhi boys are calling “Uncle” to speedster Glem Mac Grath but surely the players who faced him in IPL have a kind of fear in their mind along with respect for this ace bowler. Diving catches of Sourav Ganguli, running back catches by Romesh Pawar and even the reflex ion return catch taken by Shane Warne surely are the practical lessons for youngsters about the fielding excellence.

IPL has also broken the myth of cricketing stars, over the years the game was revolving around the star performers. It was even beyond imagination the current status of Decan Recharges and Rajasthan Royals. At the start of tournament Hyderabad was among the favorites of winners of the tournament and Jaipur was among the weakest teams of tournament. Surely the presence of not so many star cricketers was the reason for considering Jaipur for this status. This surely the planned game of Halla Bol squad which proved once again that cricket is a team game and mutual efforts are more valuable than the star performers. Frankly speaking I am not discarding the star performers, they have their own values, they can win some matches for the team but for a constant good performance by the team they have to perform in tandem. Performance of Knight Riders is lowered after the home return of Maculum but even after the successive failure of middle order Delhi is performing satisfactory with support of their star materials Gautam Gambhir, Shewag and Shikhar Dhawan.

When the concept of T-20 was introduced it was thought that this format of game will prove helpful for increasing the dominance of batsmen and bowlers will be at the suffering end. IPL also proved this though a myth with the performance of Sohail Tanvir, Laxmipati Balaji, Amit Mishra and even the old wine Shane Warne. Till date most of teams have played 9 – 10 matches out of maximum 14 league matches and highest aggregated individual runs scored are just over 300 runs which mean just over 30 runs per match, where as the highest wicket tally is 14 which means 1.4 wickets per match. Here we have to keep this in mind that in every match batsman have chance to bat for all the twenty overs but bowler is restricted to bowl just four overs in a match.

I am concluding this in a very pleasant mood as my favorite IPL team Rajasthan Royals yesterday made almost certain a semi final birth for them by forcing Royal Challengers to bow down before the Hall Bol attitude. Team of the famous wall never looked in position of sustaining or overcoming the Hall Bol cricket played by this desert cricket team leading the point table. I feel sorry for the Delhi team as rain has taken a certain looking win from their hands with yet another defeat at the hands Kings XI.

Killer Last Over

Killer Last Over

This title “Killer Last Over” strikes my mind while watching the IPL match between Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings. This was an important game for both the teams as both have lost their last match, In fact Super Kings were the suffering end in their last two encounters. Neither of them was in mood and in situation to face yet another defeat and looked much desperate to record a win. Especially for Dhoni’s super Kings this was a do or dies game after two successive and humiliating defeats at hands of Rajasthan Royals and Decan recharges.

As usual coin favored lucky fellow Dhoni and he invited home team to exhibit their batting skills, might the last two batting collapse of the team forced Dhoni for this decision otherwise this is almost a set trend of Dhoni to bat first after winning the toss. Delhi openers Shewag and Gambhir were in mood of giving yet another demonstration for their firing start and Delhi went on to score 46 runs with both the openers at the central 22 yards long strip, but before the Dhoni feel guilty of committing a mistake, stamps at the batting crease uprooted twice for the home team.

Fielding side was assuming a relief breeze after these two dismissals but Gambhir and Dhawan made sure non existence of it, as this pair went on to register the highest partnership of the tournament. Delhi went on to finish the allotted 20 overs with formidable total of 187 runs.

Till the end of 19th over of batting of Super King all was demonstrating daring and devilish powers of Delhi as the opponent need to score 15 runs from the last 6 ball of their inning. M.S. Goni went on to stroke the first ball of the over for the maximum and this over proved the Killer one for the Devils as with the last ball Kings made sure the killing of the devils. This was not the first instance as previously one such over, when Rajasthan Royals utilized last six balls to score the required 19 runs for victory and discharge the powers of one of the stronger contestant team of the title. While writing this match of Kolkatta Knight Riders and Royal Challengers went under the same phase of Killer over as Royals challenger were need of scoring 19 runs from last over for a victory. Mark Butcher started the over with hitting Sharma’s first ball across the boundary on ground levels, but this time Eshant was with very rigid frame of mind not to follow Australian Symonds at least for this and made sure a 5 run victory for the Riders.

IPL images & reflections

IPL images & reflections

Cricketing world is under the phase of being redefined under the influence of IPL a T20 cricket tournament, a BCCI organized sponsored competition. Primary image of Indian Premier League [IPL] is a tournament organized to face the challenges created by Indian Cricket League [ICL] organized by a private body of former cricket players lead by Great Kapil Dev Nikhaj, ever first genuine all rounder and most inspiring captain of India and sponsored by Essel group. IPL is also looked as the efforts of BCCI for keeping the undisputed and undivided rights of conducting the game of cricket on Indian land.

Look at the dominance and inflow of money with the IPL. Sponsored have paid approx. Rs. 43 Lakhs for the solitary run scored by star Indian wicket Keeper Mahindera Singh Dhoni in the match against the Rajasthan Royals. Delhi’s speedster Eshant Sharma, playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, is bowling in the tournament at the unbelievable rate of over Rs. 1.3 lakhs per ball. A few Australian players, like Bret Lee, Pointing, Symonds etc. who played in 3-4 matches of IPL and returned back to join their National team for touring to West Indies, have landed on the kangaroo land with money purses heavier even then that of an Australian player might have only after playing for two years for the national team.

Dominance of IPL, which in fun often called as Indian Paisa [Money] League on Indian land, is very much clear from the Shoaib Akhtar episode. This speedster from Pakistan was banned for five years by PCB for misbehavior on and off the field. This fast bowler was supposed neither to represent country nor to play any kind of cricket in the Pakistan, however PCB has allowed him to play cricket in other parts of the globe without representing Pakistan. IPL rules are very clear about the playing of banned players so even being very much eager Kolkatta Knight Riders have denied the participation of this speedster. This is the true reflection for the influence IPL have on the world cricket that PCB has forced to adjourn the ban till 3rd June 2008 so Shoaib can play in IPL. [Earnings of shoaib from IPL is much higher than what many players might earn by playing five years for the national team of Pakistan]. Just consider on one side PCB chief initiating a judicial suit against this fast bowler and on the other side same PCB is making sure for a crystal clear way of participation in IPL by this star speedster.

Another reflective image of IPL lies with creation of new line of difference among the players [though this was in existence with English County Cricket but was not so deeper]. Prior to IPL, players were getting unanimous remuneration for their participation in same tournament representing same team. These unanimous and equal rates of payments are now deposited with history. Look at earning of some of young star performers of IPL like, Virat Kohali, Yusuf Pathan, Sohil Tanvir etc. they are going to earn for playing in whole tournament much lesser than what some of their other team mates might be earning for playing in single match of same tournament and representing same team. Surely this earning difference is working with the psychic of players, deeper this valley of difference of remuneration, more the ups and down in the performance of the team.

Look at team performance of Rajasthan Royals, at the start of tournament team was with the lowest ranking for winning the tournament and today when we are at almost halfway of tournament, this, Halla Bol squad of Rajasthan Royals are leading the point table, just because with this team the money difference valley is narrowest in comparison on other teams.

Last but not the least image of IPL, this tournament has not left anything unturned for making this gentleman game, a racecourse. Starting from the franchise of team to picking the players for the team, nothing was hidden, each and every thing was available for biding and all this was giving the look of crucial olden days of Slave market.

Positive and shining reflection of IPL lies with the performance by the Indian players which is on the way of proving that this is the tournament of dominance by Indians in the cricketing world. Highest Individual inning record is not with an Indian but a musical chair race is on between Rohit sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Shewag for being the highest run scorer of the tournament at present the “Orange cap” is changing hands in succession with them.

Pakitani speedster Sohil Tanvir exposed the magical rabbit under hat by taking record 6 wickets for just 14 runs while playing against the Super Kings but still Indian Irfan Pathan playing for Kings Eleven is the highest wicket taker of the tournament till date. All rounder Yusuf Pathan is miles and miles ahead of well known names from other countries and playing in IPL.

Coming to captaincy, the only foreign captain Shane Warne playing for Rajasthan Royals is on success run and creating new definitions for leading a cricket team but still with the daring decisions MS Dhoni and innovating inspiring game plans Shewag and Yuvraj are the front runners. It will be a genuine treat for cricket lovers from all part of world to be witness for the captaincy tactics, after a long time, of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar as and when he comes out from injury and start leading Mumbai Indians.

Cricketing controversy

Cricketing controversy

It is often said success always try to run into your head and at least at present most of the Indian cricket lovers and former players are of the opinion that success is running into the head of Indian captain M S Dhoni especially after his statement about the inclusion of the senior players into the plating squad for the ODI.

Why there is so much unrest and anguish for the Dhoni? If we look at the history of the game, this is always the captain of the team who is blamed most for the defeat of the team and has to face the criticism, even at some times is forced to leave the captaincy of the team. It is still alive in the memories that not only S. Shrikant [after the defeat in Pakistan] but many more Indian captains have gone under the same situation. In these conditions if a captain is expressing his preferences and priorities about the team composition and asking for selecting team of his choice than what is wrong in it?

We are living in the age of professionalism and killer instant has become the most important aspect of the game for the winning. Every captain is supposed to come out with a definite game plan for the victory. Cricket being the team game one has to depend a lot on the performance of other players of the team as for as winning is concerned. In these conditions it is natural right of the captains to have the players in the team who can be the most suitable for implementing his game plan for the victory.

If we look at Dhoni’s statement in this context nothing will appear abnormal and he can be appreciated for having a clear attitude but one thing which might Dhoni forget and which is causing the evolution of this storm is that we are Indians and we have a great respect, higher than human from any other part of the world, for our elders and heroes. When we talk of senior players like Sachin, Dravid, Sourav Ganguli or Even Laxman all of them have a proven record of serving the game and playing for the pride of nation. There abilities and commitment towards the game is beyond doubts and have given their best years of life for the success of Indian cricket team more ever still their game skills and playing abilities specially of sachin Ganguli are adequate to meet with the modern demands of the game even in the ODI format of the game. Secondly still in our country, sending the old aged parents to old age homes is treated as the mark of failure in fulfilling the responsibilities.

Players like the Sachin and Sourav have done a lot for the game and still they are performing well hence as the mark of respect we must leave it with them when they decided to call it a day for themselves. Here, I would like to quote Ishant sharma, when after returning from successful tour of Australia, he was asked about the experiences there, his reply was the that the most moral boosting thing of the tour was the sharing the thoughts and game plan with the players like Sachin, who had spend years on the cricket grounds almost equal of his age. Surely the physical abilities of human beings are always show a decline with growing age but that doest prove sufficient to mark end for the utility of the person concerned. The age factor has started to work against the fielding capacities of these senior players but still their talent, commitment and experience are compensating their this shortcoming and more importantly they are working for guiding the younger players and helping to build the future team by their presence in the team.

Can Dhoni even dare for dreaming of defeating Australia in Australia if he can keep performance of senior players like Sachin apart? The killing instant and aggression which is shown by the Indian team in the recent one year or so is an overnight developed attitude? Surely not, the present killing instant, zeal of winning and will of raising the performance under the pressures are the result of hard work and dedication of the players like Sachin Sourav and Dravid for over the years, considering all this we cay surely Dhoni has done a thing which doesn’t stands with the moral behavior of Indians.

If we go with the verbal meaning of statement given by Dhoni, This is objectionable at least the timing and way is surely but if we look at this as the attitude it will look a very great vision. Any way it will be more interesting to see reaction of Dhoni for such statement in coming few years. After all players like Sourav Ganguli, the most successful and inspiring captain has been force to leave the space vacant for captaincy by other and same will happen with Dhoni in few years from now. Most probably Dhoni missed that, surely it is the youth who can build the future building but this is to be build on the foundation stone provided by the elderly persons.

Twist of Selecting Indian Cricketers

Twist of Selecting Indian Cricketers

The mighty Australians are still not able to digest the ODI home series defeat at the hands of young Indian team and Indians are willing to keep continue to be in celebration mood for the this victory and winning of under 19 world cup cricket on the same day. As the world witness many sunrises since these two happenings hence the things started to settle down in to history book.

It is often said that every sunrise is bound to bring new hopes and new challenge together. Sunrise of this March 17th is going to bring a genuine challenge for the selectors of Indian cricket team as they have to pick the team for the home test match series against the newly ICC ranked No. 1 team of South Aferica. The twist of selection lies in the untold war of seniors and youngsters and gets more twisted turn with the report of physical trainer about the fitness problem of many players. It is fact that in the recent almost one year dominance of youth has been increased in the Indian team but no one will dare to deny the role played by the seniors in the recent victories of the team.

Forget about the selection committee because they know their job better and Indians are become habituate to bear the shock of one / two unexpected inclusion / exclusion in every selected team. Here we will try to find out the ideal composition of the cricket team.

The ideal composition of team is the five batsmen one wicket keeper batsman and five specialist bowlers with at least one batting all-rounder. Considering the Indian strength over the years with the aspect of batting and spin bowling and recent development of speedsters the ideal composition of team will be six batsman, one wicket keeper and four bowlers.

India is emerging as the new champion in the world cricket not of recent wins like the Twenty-20 World cup, beating Australia in Australia and winning the under-19 world but because of the strong bench strength on which Indians seems to be marching ahead of rest of the world.

Though it is said openers are the problems for the Indian team but look at options available for the selection committee
1. Gautam Gambhir
2. Wasim Jaffer
3. Aakash Chopara
4. Virendra Shewag

When we turn to middle order the option range become much more, wider with
1. Rahul Dravid
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Sourav Ganguli
4. V V S Laxman
5. Yuvraj Singh
6. Suresh Raina
7. Robin Uthappa
8. Mohd. Kaif
In the bowling department options available for the selection include the names [Zahir Khan being not fit is excluded from the list]
1. Anil Kumbale
2. Harbhajan Singh
3. Piyush Chawala
4. R. P Singh
5. S. Shreesanth
6. Ishant Sharma
7. Praveen Kumar
8. Murali Kartik
Indian players are facing the pressures of long schedules ahead of them at least till the end of this years they have to play back to back matches and series and surely it will be a true test for them to play the IPCL in famous Indian hot summer of months of April and May though the matches will be played late in the evening and will completed in just three hours but being of twenty 20 format, these three hours will be sufficient to absorb much of water from the fitness ocean of the players. Keeping all this I will pick the following 15 players [in order of batting]

1. Virendra Shewag
2. Gautam Gambhir
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Saurav Ganguli
6. V V S Laxman
7. M S Dhoni
8. Irfan Pathan
9. Anil Kumbale
10. R. P Singh
11. Pravin Kumar
12. Ishant Sharma
13. Yuvraj Singh
14. Robin Uthappa
15. Piyush Chawala

I had preferred to rest Harbhjan just because of long schedule ahead and give yet another go for the young Piyush chawala to prove his worth. Having just one spinner in the playing eleven might also invite criticism from the giants of the game but considering the ability of rolling the arm over of Sachin and Shewag I can justify my selection however picking the playing eleven will be the right of team management who will be in better position to have measures of ground realities on those particular days of match. There is dispute over the fitness of Yuvraj and if he is rule out this ground I will prefer to include Suresh Raina, even S Badrinath who is not included in the options any where might get consideration here.

Cricket Kings

Cricket Kings

At last the test series between Australia and India ended and as per the Australian plans Australia won the series with 2-1 to keep their winning record intact though their image of being the undisputed kings of cricketing fields is not as the same as was prior to this series and even the ground behavior of Australian players and sportsmanship were put under the question mark at several occasion during the series.

This series will be remembered for the disputed umpiring decisions favoring Australia, allegation of so called racial comments by Harbhajan and controversial decision of ICC match referee Mr. Proctor over this issue. The issue sounded to such great extant that at one stage it was threatening a division among the cricketing nations of the world. Thanks to decision of excusing Harbhajan from such serious but base less allegations by the ICC appeal commissioner as neither there was any decisive evidence for supporting so called allegations nor even Andrew Symonds was able to recall the exact words of Harbhajan. However Harbhajan is punished with 50% cut in match fees for using abuse words on the ground in response of controversial exchange of words started by Australian player Symonds.

This is appropriate time to look in to the background of all this. Over the years sledging was the effective weapon of Australian cricketers on the ground and no one from the rest of world was not in competition with them at least in this aspect. Since last one year or so young Indian cricketers not only started to tackle this successfully but also started to answer in the language of Australians. This forced Australia to get exit from semifinal of inaugural T-20 World Cup held in South Africa. The war of supremacy on the sledging grounds was at the peak during the Australian cricket tour to India last year and Andrew Symond, Harbhajan and S Shrisanth were the front runners, unfortunately Australians found themselves on the losing side. Hence this tour by Indian cricketers has been taken as the revenge grounds.

Australian players and media are taking the decision of the ICC appeal commissioner not as the justice but as the victory of money powers of BCCI with blaming the Cricket Australia for bowing down under the pressures of monetary powers. How wrong they are? If the ICC was favoring the Indians was it possible that Harbhjan is punished for responding and Andrew Symonds, who himself admit, who initiated this controversial word exchange will be allowed to escaped from being punished? No dear this is pure justice though Symonds was guilty of taking the initiative but Harbhajan was punished for using abused language. Surely in the present times escaping from the temptations of the money powers is almost impossible. I wish to put a question for all the Australian cricketers, many of them are participating in IPCL a tournament being organized by BCCI in the hot summers of Indian climatic conditions and paying very handsome amounts to players, If the Australians players are thinking they are with the resisting abilities for the powers of money, let it prove by saving self from dehydrating Indian heats and opt to keep self away from this tournament, remember this tournament is not going to be played for the national pride and glory. This is a professional league tournament in which players will play for the city which can bid most for them. It sounds funny that a person available in the market for a bid is blaming others for acting under the pressures of money powers.

Most of the cricketing world is looking this as the end of sledging war between the players of two countries where cricket is much more than just a game. Frankly speaking still some suspecting snakes are on the move in my mind, as S Shrisanth was not part of Indian Test squad and now is in Australia for the tri angular ODI series. In all probabilities Australian players will not leave any space vacant for irritating Shrisanth and warm blood of this young Indian speedster might response on the lines of Harbhjan, after all Shrisanth is more vibrant in expression of aggression on the ground when compared with Harbhajan. There are some chances that might the Harbhajan face some adverse comments from the Australians during the ODI series. Let us hope things will not take the same turn again allowing cricketing lovers from all part of globe to respire with relief and enjoying the game in coming days.

Yet another defeat of mind game on the cricketing field

Yet another defeat of mind game on the cricketing field

As it was predicted Adilede test match between India and Australia ended with the assured and planed result by Australian players of draw. Though in the pre lunch session on the fifth and final day Indians scored runs at strike rate of about 4 runs per over but again Australians with slow over rate of just 12-13 over per hour succeeded in keeping India deprived of to be with time for declaring second inning and sufficient time to bowl out Australia in the second inning.
Adilede proved the surface of liking of Ricky Poiting [who criticized Perth pitch for being more supportive for bowlers and Australia lost the test in four days] as here five batsmen succeeded in hitting the knocks of ton, 3 from Australia and Sachin and Shewag from India. The Adilede will be remembered for the Yet another century by master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, 100 test wicket and 1000 test run double by Irfan Pathan and retirement of Australian star wicketkeeper batsman Adam Gilchrist.
Fifth day’s play of cricket was also witness the reintroduction of famous Australian non cricketing tool called “mind game” into the playing arena. The Australians, who are at back foot on the moral grounds and in the fields of sportsmanship, came forward with statement of producing some new evidence in the case of so called racial comments allegation against the Indian off spinner Harbhajan Singh. The new evidence is the transcript of recording by stump camera. I don’t think that ICC match referee Mr. Proctor had ignored this, in the conditions of lack of decisive evidences and even when the ground umpires were not supporting the allegations. Surely Mr. Proctor had gone through this before reaching to decision. As I recall in those this news was in the air that stump camera were unable to record the conversion between Harbhajan and Symonds. So the question is now from where this recording is made available? If the ICC match referee Mr. Proctor in these conditions had ignored this important aspect, surely it will prove more than sufficient for putting a question mark on the reliability and ability of ICC officials.
To me this has nothing to do with evidences; all this was the part of mind game tool of Australians players aiming to disturb Indians players so might like the Sydney test they got out cheaply and Australians will have a go for easy victory target. Unfortunately Indians have started to understand the game plans and non cricketing tactics adopted by the Australians over the period of last 10-15 years with more clarity than past and started to answer in their language, Shewag slow down his game in post lunch session and till tea in the play of 2 hours scored less than 30 runs and make sure that Australian game plan “mind game” ends with failure.
Anyway the test match series is completed but the forthcoming ODI series is still hanging in the atmosphere of speculations and doubts. In the next 48 hours appeal of Harbhjan will get decision from the ICC appeal commissioner. Indians player and BCCI are determined to withdraw from the series in case of adverse decision. Practically also They should be, because there are no decisive evidence supporting allegation, Symonds already admitted that he was the initiator for the disputed conversation between him and Harbhajan, Hyden is unable to recall the words of Symonds, ground umpires are not supporting the allegations and above all the most trusted personality of cricketing world Sachin Tendulkar, who was at pitch with Harbhjan at that time had endorsed Harbhjan’s statement of not using word “Big monkey” for the Symonds.

Let us hope for the justice and lifting of the bam from Harbhjan so the cricketing nations may remain united and should not divide on the racial and regional grounds.

Adilede Cricket of 90 over

Adilede Cricket of 90 over

Will the play of 90 over left in the Adilede test prove adequate for the fall of 19 wickets; this is the question which is bubbling within the minds of most of cricketing lovers through out the world.

If this has been the shorter version [ODI] of the cricket I might the first one to support this but this is traditional test cricket and for this surely even the acute optimism will oppose supporting happening of this tomorrow at oval. Though this is a fact for a result in this test early fall of just 9 Indian wickets is sufficient but considering the attitude shown by the Indian cricketers after the humiliating treatment received by them in Sydney test and the disputed umpiring decisions which forced India to lose this match, will surely prove reason for fall of 19 wickets.

In the present scenario, oval test is with the assured result of draw. Australian might have the satisfaction of going beyond the huge 526 runs scored by India in first inning but the time consumed by them in the process has forced the only possible result “draw” for this test. This test will be memorable for Ricky Pointing, not for scoring 140 runs even when he is running with out of farm, but for the satisfaction that during this inning he didn’t fall victim either to Harbhajan or to Sharma and succeeded in breaking the tandem.

Australians by batting at slowest possible rate of scoring had not only managed to get assured draw result for this test match but also handed over the powers of taking initiatives rested with hands of Indians. At the end of forth day Indians are eventually 8 for loss of Irfan Pathan’s wicket [after deducting first inning lead of 37 runs by Australia]. This is now left with Indian players to turn the final day in to ODI match by score vigorously in the first 50 over of the day and declare their second inning for asking the Australians to go for victory target in the vicinity of 250 in the remaining play of 40 odd over for a victory.

The forth day’s play brought glory for the budding all rounder Irfan Pathan as he become the 7th Indian player with double of 100 test wickets and 1000 runs. It was the same ground where this Indian speedster has taken his first test wicket in 2003 -2004.

There is nothing much considerable to write about as this test mach is heading towards a draw but who know what will happen tomorrow after all cricket is the game of glorious uncertainties.

Cricket for assuring a draw

Cricket for assuring a draw

The title itself is expressive to describe the third day’s play of Adilede test between India and Australia. When the sun rays started to heat the earth surface Australian were at 62 runs with all the ten wickets in hands and after hard work and sweating for whole day manage to score 322 runs for the loss of three wickets that means in the day’s play of 90 over than scored just 260 run, well below the strike rate of 3 runs per over.

The highlights of day for are the two surprises; it is become a hard composition for me to recall when last the Australians were so slow with the bat, since past few years cricket lovers are used to see Australians cricketers scoring runs at the average of nearly 4 runs in an over even in the test matches but today the body language of Australians was suggestive of their attitude of playing for assuring a draw result in this test to keep their record of series win intact.

The other surprise of the day was to watch an Indian speedster persisting with speed in vicinity or almost of 140. Down the memory lines baring the few early day’s of Shreenath, I can’t recall anyone from India can match with the Eshant Sharma’s today’s constant bowling speed. Hyden went on to score 30th knock of ton for self but surely the over all scoring rate of Australians for clinching the match towards a draw.

Yet another surprise is fleshing on my television set as I am writing this, Adam Gilchrist , yesterday only he become the world record holder hunter behind the wicket, announced his retirement from test match at the end of this test match and from ODI after the conclusion of coming tri series between Australia, India and Shri Lanka. I think the decision of Gili had come at most appropriate time for as his form has started to show the signs of decline and before people start asking and talking about his retirement, this was the most suitable time to leave the ground with pride and honor. Contribution of this talented Australian player can be narrated in converting the special slot of wicketkeeper into place of all rounder.

Since the Sydney test Australian cricket seems to be on the decline as still a proper substitute for the Glen Macgraw and Shen Worn is under the search and surely the retirement of this hard hitting wicket keeper and ODI successful opener with strike rate of almost 97, will create a vacuum in the batting line of Australians and might affect adversely their status of world champions of the cricket.

Back to third day the disappointment of the day is surely the Indian off Spinner Harbhjan, who through out the day seems to struggling for landing the red leather circle in the right area and went wicket less at the end of the day. Indian attack was sustaining the absence of injured R. P. Singh and situations were ideal for scoring at brisk rate by Australia as the pitch has become considerably favoring slow for the batting without signs of deteriorating and notable help to spinners, but Australians seems with the mind of slowing down the happenings of the ground.

If the famous forth day of Adilede doesn’t comes to life tomorrow, Australians by their slow scoring rate have almost assured a draw for this test match and win the series with 2-1 lead including the disputed Sydney test.

2nd Cricketing Day at Oval

2nd Cricketing Day at Oval

Just three more allotted days are left for the conclusion of four match test series between India and Australia. Yesterday at the end of the day I had allowed both the team to share the honor of the day but today Australians have kept me deprived of writing the same. The second day of this final round of war belongs to Indians especially to the rear guard action by the bowlers with some beautiful and purposeful batting.

The overnight Indian pair of last recognized batsmen Dhoni and Sachin were out by adding just 8 and 30 runs respectively to their score of previous day and Australians were with the real chance of limiting the Indian first inning under 400 hundred but what you can call it last three Indian bowlers were allowed to score more than 150 runs with the wood in the hand. I know surely a few eye brows were stretched when yesterday I had wrote about the limitation in bowling attack of Australia but today’s play was the evidence for support to my views.

Gandhian approach adopted by the Indian captain Anil Kumbale, at the issue of Braid Hog at Perth is looking like to pay the rich dividend as the body language of the Australians was for below the standards set by them. It might be the criticism from all part of own country and pressures of media over the ground behavior of the cricket team after the Sydney Test, also forced Australian players to try to be more gentleman and in this effort process they last their natural sting. This was not the same Australian team on the field for which I am used since years to watch, so many catches were dropped and even the lower order batsmen were allowed to score runs freely at will. It was not the success of Australian bowlers but in fact failure of Harbhajan Sing and Anil Kumbale for raising their batting talent for scoring knocks of tons. The killing instant, which had made Australians world champion since so many years was missing all together through out these two days. Though Australian opening pair is intact but the runs scored in 20 odd over are not matching with the famous Australian striking rate.

For India, failure of star wicketkeeper Dhoni is surely proving a corner of concern; this hard hitting batsman seems to forget that wood in his hands is for hitting the leather and not for protecting the self body. This is the series of failure for the Dhoni in the games away from the lands of subcontinent. England tour of India last year and even the Twenty-20 world cup [India won this] in South Africa are the stories of failure with bat for him. Today Dhoni manage to get 8 runs from the 10 balls faced by him before being caught in deep but surely 14 runs from 64 balls are putting a question mark on his ability for playing on the pitches overseas. Neither the oval strip was adding evil to action of leather circle nor the Australian bowlers were at their best of known temperament, the situations were very much ideal for batting, but Dhoni fail to utilize this by showing the lack of application and dedication as shown by the spinner duo of Harbhajan and Kumbale. If this trend of failure is kept in continuation by Dhoni in the coming ODI tri series, surely the Indian cricket selectors will start thinking in terms of coming with two options for the slot of wicketkeeper batsman in the team and might come forward with the two options, on the terms of two separate captains for test matches and shorter versions of the game, Dhoni for the matches in the subcontinent and some one else for the overseas tours of Indian cricket team.

Indian Cricket: Crises of Opening

Indian Cricket: Crises of Opening

Indians were with yet another opening option at Adelaide oval, this time Irfan Pathan was asked to move up in batting line to open with the Shewag. If we look at the changing opening pairs, tried by India, ever since, their last tour to Australia [2003-2004] the number goes in to double figure. In fact during the last tour Indians were without this problem of opening pair, as in the course of that series Aakash Chopara and Shewag opened the inning and starting from this were done that for 8 matches. In the 15 innings of these 8 matches pair was able to score 672 runs at the average of 44.8 including three century partnerships. Aakash Chopara was dropped from the side for the 2004 Nagpur Test match against the Australia and ever since than he is still struggling to find a place in Indian team.

India is unable to solve this problem ever since the retirement of Sunil Gavaskar almost 20 years back and always preferred to experiment with this important batting slot either for the lack of availability or for adjusting some one into playing eleven, most of the times this player is Stylish batsman Yuvraj Singh, as seen in the first two test matches of current series where Rahul was forced to open with Jaffar, In the third test Shewag was opening with Jafar.

Gautam Gtambhir also patterned with Shewag for opening the Indian inning in 12 matches and duo scored 1002 runs at average of 55.66 in 19 innings, but again to adjust the Yuvraj, Gambhir was dropped during the match against the Pakistan in the year 2006. Mean while even Laxman was asked to open with Dravid during the Indian tour to Pakistan.

This is the third time that Irfan went into ground as the opener for India the previous two occasions were in the 2006 against the touring Shrilanka at Delhi, in second inning he was partner of Gambhir and scored a good 93 runs, the next was in the same year at Nagpur against touring England though this time his partner was Jaffar.

India with positive cricketing move

India with positive cricketing move

Once again the supremacy wars are resumed at Adilade in Australia between the existing champions and emerging champions.
India knowing the fact that, a draw here will not solve the purpose of regaining the pride lost by the disputed umpiring decisions at Sydney. A win here will not only help to level the series at 2-2 but will also work as the moral booster for the younger Indian players who will take the top two teams of last ODI world cup in a triangular contest.
Though I was with mind of not commenting on the behavior of Indian cricket selectors but forced to right, as they wish to give time to selected player to be prepared mentally for this tour. My question is that is it affordable to allow new players time for getting mentally prepared at the price of disturbing the mental status of players in the ongoing series. It will be surely a painful and humiliating for Rahul and Sourav to learn that they are not part of ODI squad and surely this will play with their mental health.

India has come with a positive mind of frame by selecting five bowlers in the playing eleven and on the day one at lunch were satisfactory progressed to 90 odd runs in 26 over for lost of Irfan and Dravid.

Playing with five specialist bowlers is a clear message to Australians that Indians are going with the mental status of going all out for repeating the Perth result and keeping the hopes of leveling the series alive.

Australian cricket in retrospect of WACA defeat

Australian cricket in retrospect of WACA defeat

World champions of cricket were beaten by touring Indians comprehensively at WACA on Saturday; the defeat is more painful and humiliating because of being under the favorable ground conditions for the home team and that too on the track with fame of being one among the fastest track of the world in the presence of four topmost speedsters from the Australia. Surely the doubtable LBW umpiring decision went against the Andrew Symonds in second inning will find a place in defeat analysis of Australian team management but baring this and decision of giving out to Sachin Tendular in the first inning, umpiring standards in this match were good hence all this will be considered as the human mistakes of umpiring and surely ignore during the serious analysis.

Sydney storm was proving a cause of precaution for Australian cricketers for opting use of their famous non gaming tool sledging and defeat has proved how effective this tool is for the Australian wins.

Aggressive and grouped appealing, yet another tested Australian winning tool was on the hold during this match because of the fear that umpiring disputes of Sydney might force ICC match officials to go harsh with Australian players in this aspect and come forward with decision of ban for Australian captain or few players. Yet another and more important reason for keeping this tool on hold was the question mark on the sportsmanship and compatibility of Australians for playing the game in its true spirit.

In absence of these two non gaming skills Australian cricketers seemed hampered to such great extend that team was forced to pay the price in the form of defeat. In fact all the time during this time Australians were looked as without answer for the calculated aggression and calm body postures of Indians.

Including the forth speedsters in the playing eleven proved yet another nail in defeat coffin of Australia. Look at the result Australians are facing a punishment for slow over rate in the form of 10% cut in match fees [captain 20%] but more importantly on the day 3, when Indians were struggling by loosing five wickets in the pre lunch session in the second inning, Australian captain was forced to choose the part time bowlers to boost the over rate and those 21 over proved sufficient for Indian recovery, set an almost impossible victory target of 413 runs for the home team. This was the last nail in the defeat coffin of Australians.

Cricket is the game of diversified abilities and skills; you can’t emerge as winner by concentrating on just one aspect of the game. Look at the Indian attack of medium pacers, no one of them was considered for anything heroic and nor any of them performed in the manner but 2-3 wickets by each of them accumulated the reason of collapse of famous strong batting line up Australians have. Absence of Hyden and non performance with fame by Roger can also be considered as the reason for this failure.

Don’t assume that I am ignoring the talent and skills Australians have but the proper implementation of these was surely lacking at WACA. Might the defeat has been avoided if the any of 1-2 top order batsman had shown the aggression shown by the Jhonson towards the dying moments of the game, because in those situations it was quite possible that famous nervousness and Indian attitude of being relaxed at regular intervals had helped Australians to clinch an impossible looking victory.

As for as the Indian team is concerned, this is yet another among several lessons for them since the famous overseas win against the mighty West Indians under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar, playing like the single unit is always bringing victory for the team and glory for the nation. Surely all the four playing days Indians were appearing more coagulated unit in compare of Australian players. It can be said fortunate for Indians that their famous relaxing attitude after taking eight second inning Australians wicket did not proved price paying factor, other wise there were chances that night those two additional over for search of a paid wicket bowled by captain Anil Kumbale might resulted in an Indian defeat. Similarly during the ninth wicket partnership famous Indian nervousness was there Indians were seem running without ideas, they started to set the field according to play of lower order Australian players.

War of supremacy between world champions and emerging world champions will resume at Adilade in few days from now. A good cricketing show is ahead, hope the Indians will keep the Sydney humiliation alive, which resulted as their win at WACA and Australians will leave nothing unturned for bouncing back from the defeat shadows.

Excluding Sourav Ganguli from ODI cricket team

Excluding Sourav Ganguli from ODI cricket team

It seems that controversies and selection of Indian teams are running on the parallel lines. Can you recall a single selection without producing a controversy? It seems that Indian selectors are running with the habit of having the surprise element in every of their mutual decision during their gathering for the selection of the team.

Every time the selection committee comes out with one two strange and not standing to reason decisions over the inclusion or excluding some of the players. Today Indian selectors announce the team for the ODI tri nation series being held in Australia in next month. It is good to see many youngsters are getting chance to prove their worth and represent the country but surprisingly the player scoring most runs in the ODI format of the game during the year 2007 was missing the place in the list of selected team for the first tournament of the year 2008.

Sourav Ganguli might be wondering about this because during the year 2007 he had scored over 1200 runs with 12 half centuries in 32 ODI matches but all this ignored by the selectors. Will this decision boost the moral of Ganguli for giving more than 100% during the Adilade test which going to prove a question of do or die for the Indian team in Australia? Here in India news channels are playing a movie song “Hum se Kiya Bhuli Hui Jiski Saza Humko Mili” [what is my sin for which I am being punished] with the news of excluding Sourav from the ODI squad. There is difference of opinion even among the selectors over this issue and every one seems to have own reasons of excluding the Bengal Tiger from the team. The probable reaction of sourav surely will be “Not Again”.

In my opinion selectors are gambling with youth Indian brigade though the experiment at Twenty -20 world cup was successful but surely the ground realities at Australia are very much different from the South Africa and top two teams of 2007 ODI World cup will in different mood so this is going to prove an acid test for the Indians. Nothing is better than exposure for gaining the experience but surely this is not allowing any one to play with career of inform player with proven track record. Sourav Ganguli is capable of place in the team even ahead of youngsters like the suresh Raina and Yuvraj. The selected sixteen are:

1. M.S. Dhoni [Captain]
2. Yuvraj Singh [Vice captain]
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. Virendra Shewag
5. Gautam Gambhir
6. Dinesh Kartik
7. Suresh Raina
8. Robin Uttappa
9. Irfan Pathan
10. R.P. singh
11. S Shrisanth
12. Eshant Sharma
13. Praveenkumar
14. Rohit Sharma
15. Harbhajan singh
16. Piyush Chawala

Heated Perth set to enter into History

Heated Perth set to enter into History

All is set for the start of yet another time journey towards the destination of history when the first ray of sun will touch the kangaroo land at Perth on the forth morning of third cricket test match between India and Australia.

Whatever may be the result, whoever may win the beetle but surely a page is going to be included with cricketing history. Australians will come all out for 17th straight test win where as the Indian tigers will not leave a single cricketing tactics unused for being the first team from the Indian subcontinent with a test win at WACA.

The saga of probable win by Indian team seems to be started even in the pre lunch session of the third morning though Australians succeeded in sending the three Indian stars Sachin, Saurav and Ganguli before they prove much trouble for the scoring sheet writing person but at the lunch night watchman Irfan Pathan was not out at 45. After the lunch this was Australia’s favorite V V S [very very special] Laxman, proved once again thorn in the flesh as this stylish Indian batsman not only scored almost a three quarters of century runs for self but also with the help of bowlers like R.P. Singh succeeded in stretching the Indian lead to cross the 400 mark which surely will unsettle the mental status of Australians, who were asked to chase an uphill target of 413 runs for the victory.

This time Australians were got the chance to start the victory run chase at the comparatively batsman favoring time under which yesterday Indians went to get a good start of 52 for 1 from the eleven hours but it seems that psychological barrier of the target over the 400 runs prove much stronger than the favorable conditions because when umpires call it a day Australians were struggling at 65 for the loss of two wickets and are still have to score almost three and half centuries, runs higher what is not done by any team since few decade at WACA.

Ricky Pointing escaped from the very strong LBW appeal, might be the line of contact between the ball and pad, slightest away from the stump line run into umpires mind and proved life saving for the Australian captain who once again proved fortunate in the fading lights of the day when the Kumable’s sharply turning and bouncing ball went just over the stumps excluding the bat of Ricky Pointing. Hussy seems to be encircled with the dual mind status go for run or play the role of sheath anchor.

The forth morning is set to bring the acid test for the famous long Australian batting line and zeal for the win as the play of the third day will replayed on their minds and surely will keep them restless before the judgment day. Indians are just 8 steps or good wicket taking balls away from once again being the hurdle for the Australian’s world record of straight test wins. Indians are aware of the situation of “Now or Never” for the win at the Perth hence surely every player will take the fielding position with boosted attitude. Presence of Sourav Ganguli, who captained India at Kolkatta, when Indians stopped the victory chariot of straight test wins by Australia, will surely inspire the younger players of the team for repeating the result.

It is a fact that India is in good command, but Australians will also come out with their famous never die spirit, there minds will be heated more the mercury of 39 of yesterday at Perth. Surely if the Indians can get rid of their famous attitude of being relaxed at regular intervals, start the day with the killing instant and can keep it alive till the dismissal of last Australian wicket, than there will nothing between them and first team from the Indian subcontinent winning a test match at WACA. Hope to see you all on the other side of the day with the news of Indian win.

Perth: Proving ground for Indian cricketers

Perth: Proving ground for Indian cricketers

Third test between India and Australia is to commence in less than 24 hours from now. All is set for a pace attack by the Australia as the WACA pitch is set to favor the pace battery since so many years and with the fame of proving a grave yard for the batsmen from all corners of the world. The beauty of life and game lies with the constant flow and Indians have to forget the happenings, controversial umpiring decisions, and non sporting behavior of Australian team at and during the Sydney test. Though the fetch of the series is already decided with 2-0 unbeatable lead in four test match series by Australia but still battle is on as Australia will go all out for a straight 17th test win and India will fight it for regaining the pride and honor by winning the rest of two test matches of the series.

As this is the all out, do or die situation for the Indians, needs to prove it was not the defeat of skills and talent of Indians at the Sydney but the umpiring was the reason of defeat hence for India the only option left is “Offence is the best defense” . India needs to come out with sheer aggression and attacking the Australians all the way when the team will take the field at WACA tomorrow. Every Indian player need to adopt the causal and not bothering about opponent attitude of Dhoni, shown during the Twenty-20 world championship in South Africa and get inspired from the success run of sourav after the come back to team, experience of Sachin of playing at WACA will be there to help and if the Indian team members decide to concentrate on the role play of self, Indian victory will not be a miracle for me.

Ever since the first foot landing on the Kangaroo land, Indians are facing the problem with the settling of famous bating line up. Failure of in form batsman, of recently conclude home series against Pakistan, Wasim Jaffar is proving itching of wound for the Indians. In these situations I will select the following playing eleven for Perth Test, in order of batting
1. Virendra shewag
2. M.S. Dhoni
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Sourav Ganguli
6. V V S Laxman
7. Captain’s Option
8. Irfan Pathan
9. Anil Kumbale
10. Eshan Sharma
11. R. P. Sing


For the captain’s option I will come with two names to choose from Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Kartik. If the Yuvraj is chosen by the captain he will play at number seven but if Kartik [ To whom I am including for his performance at Canberra and to provide a little bit relaxation for Dhoni with availability of another wicket keeping option in the playing eleven, as this might help Dhoni to concentrate on batting and return back to his normal game of hitting hard to red leather] gets favor from the captain, I will prefer him to see at opening slot with Shewag and Dhoni at his normal position of six down. Sachin and Yuvi [if included] will fill the gap in the spin attack created by excluding Harbhajan, Rolling the arms by the Saurav will not only help the speedsters to change the ends but also will add a different variety in the Indian attack.

We will play with more sportsmanship

We will play with more sportsmanship

Under the series of efforts for digging out the cricket from the Sydney storm ICC chief match referee Mr. Ranjan Mudgale asked to both the captains Anil Kumbale and Ricky Pointing for having a talk before the Perth test match. Reports say that before the meeting of two captains Ranjan went on to have individual talk with each of them. Look the statements of two captains after this meeting Indian captain anil Kumbale came out with words “We will forget what had happen” while the Australian captain Ricky Pointing said “ We will with more sportsmanship” though neither of them talked about the incidents and happening of the Sydney test but every body can understand the reference of the statements.

In a surprised move Indians have withdraw the charges of abuse worlds against the Braid Hogg just after this meeting of two captain though it is said that decision is taken in favor of betterment of the game and creating a better cricketing atmosphere among the two teams but surely Indians will not be free from the blame of framing the charge as the reciprocal action of allegations against the Indian spinner Harbhajan.

Yesterday night my son was asking me about the fate of Harbhjan, as the issue is still alive with the electronic media of the country. I told him whatever may be said or done but in my views Harbhajan is not going to come out spotless from this issue of racial comments. At the most he will get freedom from the charge of racial comments but surely either will get a worming or face a suspended sentence for being part of words of war though this will be amazingly surprising that the other player involve in the exchange of words will have neither to face the match referee nor have any punishment.

In my views withdrawing the charges against the Hogg is going to work against the Indians and surely will prove a question mark on the reliability of Indian players in the future. I can’t understand how the BCCI and Indians have forgotten “Sustaining an action of Non Justice is not lesser than doing a Non Justice.” As reports say Indian captain acted as per the instructions issued by the BCCI in respect of issue related with Hogg.

Divided Cricketing World

Divided Cricketing World

In India there is a saying meaning never try to cross the limits, you never no your which of your slightest mistake might going to prove the blinder one and may cause the question of life and death. Cricketing world is presently going through the same phase of existence over the issues of storms generated from the disputes over the Sydney test match between India and Australia and turn of situations taken place there after.

One thing is sure umpiring standards at the Sydney were the ever worst and partial ever since the history of the game. In my previous blog post I had already wrote that neither Australia won nor India lost the Sydney test but umpires allotted this test to Australia so the Ricky Pointings team may equalizes the Australian recode of 16 successive test victory and move to Perth, where the ground situations are comparatively more favorable for the Australian team, to go on creating new world record of successive test match wins. All of this was going on smooth roads but might the successive dismissal by the Indian spinner Harbhajan was playing with the mind of Australian captain Ricky Pointing or might the thought process of Andrew Symonds went on to see this as the most appropriate time for taking revenge of harsh treatment given to Australian all rounder at Mumbai by the cricket lover during the last tour of Australia to India. Recall the statements of the player just after the Australian tour to India was ended, in Australian press for requesting the Australian people not come with reciprocal action during the tour of India to Australia. Any way charges of racial comments were framed against the Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh and series of mistakes ends when the South African match referee Mr. Proctor banned Bhaji for three test matches. India which has a proven record of opposing racialism reacted with natural hard stand over the issue. A cloud of suspect created over the smooth conduction of the remaining part of the Indian tour to Australia.

ICC was forced to appear in the dispute and for settlement of high tensions created, came forward with withdrawing the participation of disputed umpire Steev Buckner and suspended, not given the clean chit, orders of match referee against Harbhajan. British media, West Indian Cricket board and some others are blaming ICC for bowing down before the economic powers of Indians [ India contributes almost 70% of ICC revenue] and deciding the issue in favor of Indian team. Here I will love to include two things first I will salute to Australian citizens and press for taking the true sportsmanship over the issue even though the mistake coming players were representing their own country. Second I would love to see the reaction of British media or the West Indian cricket board if instead of India might the English or West Indian was playing in the Sydney test against the Australia, here I am leaving apart the issue of charges of racial comments.

As for as my cricketing knowledge suggest, Australian players were the first to bring the sledging in the game of cricket and implement it successfully against the opponents over the years under the sweet name of mind game tactics. Surely it is amazing even to listen that Australians players are complaining about the reciprocal action from the irritated opponent. In my view the true racial behavior is this and not the reaction of Indian spinner, I am sure Harbhajan has not reacted in the manner in which he reported by the Australian players. I wish to say to Australian players to remember this neither the love nor the war, where everything will be treated fair. This is the game of cricket, an exhibition ground of skills and talent; learn the lesson from the Sydney and stop so called mind game of sledging opponents, other wise the cricketing world will under go many such occasions of reaching to dangerous dead end of division.