Cricket: Quandary Down Under

Another 4 Nil defeat. There should be the change in captains, older players should make way for the new ones, bowling is receptive to dominating batsman, the scheduling, lack of everything agree to. But does BCCI feature in all this? Will the heads roll in BCCI? If the team is doing so badly, surely things are not right with the team but shouldn't the board's “responsibilities” be questioned? Surely BCCi is the big elephant in the room. It has money – the most powerful resource. Is anything ploughed back? I dont know who BCCI works, I am not the only one. I am say for sure people working within BCCI may not know how it works. Should N Srinivas,BCCI Chief raise his hand up, if not relinquish power at least come forth and present his vision for the future after these consecutive debacles.

Three Aces that were

A lot of romance that cricket has generated by three of their generation Indian batsman. They scripted some of the most memorable innings. They remain a legend, hey perhaps are in the best position to know when to go. The people outside can only make guess. The road to repair is long. I am still quite sceptic how Virat would do. Is he is the best batsman going ahead. I wouldn't mind Mohammed Kaif, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma at some stage. There could be more somebody like Rahane, Manoj Tiwari, Venugopal Rao. All remain untested and they may come to replace the great giants of Cricketing History. They have boots the size of oceans to be filled. Their every shot will be dissected.

Simply not worth the hype.

I dont know what a boring series does to movie collection. I hat any movie promotion along the series, It makes for a very bad viewing. I consider my friends opinion more credible for reviews of the movie. At times you read reviews where people write things like “ the store is weak, editing lags, songs are boring but the direction is excellent” I prefer things like “movie fokaat hai, time aur paisa barbaad”. The series was barbaad in equal sense. It is a lesson for the media too, not to hype any Indian series. The world Cup started with very little hype, every Indian fan wanted India to win, but Indians were not the favorites. We barely had the bowling to keep bother batting line ups in check. But some how things fell in match. A shrewd captain on top of his game saw us lift the world cup and make history.

Indian team is not worth the hype. The trumpets that are blown when India wins and te death knolls when they lose is simply stupid (among many things). I am sure they hysteria and the hype adds to the dismay. The consecutive away Test match white washes were no bolt of lightening. There is something surely we see but dont realize or chose to skip for the sake of convenience to our own peril.

The problem is …

It is tough to comprehend. If the batsman are struggling to score runs on bowling friendly pitches, then what are the bowlers doing? Over a billion people still we struggling to find 5 players who have control and consistency to bowl in all condition, control the batsmen if not take wickets. The Indian bowlers were generous to give runs and batsman were miser to score them. In England fitness was the issue, in Australia there could be some other excuse. I mean all the technology and all, dont our batsmen talk to our bowlers what line 7 length to bowl? Do our bowlers lack skill or temperament. India is a huge country cant we decide specific centers to focus on different type of bowling? This series and the previous one is reflective of all that pulls Indian cricket back. The other boards are not so blessed with support of the fans. Indian fans deserves better, the team needs to do more and the board much much more.

Going ahead

The road remains a tough one, there is no test in the near future, till this season ends, cant we invited Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. Whats Tendulkar doing in the ODI team, will he be there in 2015 when we defend the world cup in Australia. Should Sehwag & Co who will take Indian batting ahead need to rethink their batting?Will India take the games to the fifth day when we tour away from the subcontinent next.

Cricket: India trails in the series

Success has many fathers and Failure is loner orphan. If Indian teams have to win abroad they have to literally cross oceans of million miles. The time has come for the troika to make way, in the interest of the team abroad It is also time for people who call the hots in the interest of the team again to be a bit more prudent when it come to preparation. They already have a cash in shed but there are problems aplenty. If u happen to have a bullock cart with both the wheels broken and the bull busy grazing the smartest thing to do is to not take part in a race of amateurs and don't even look towards where professionals are competing. It is surely acceptable that Indian batsman struggle abroad and look totally spell bound. The next glittering stars are still in the quarry and we the fans are still in the quandary. The Indian bowling exudes very little confidence if any.

There was a time when sports (here cricket) was dearth of money while times have moved on cricket has dug up a gold mine while other sports languish even for spectators. The class of politicians sitting on either side of the parliament make sure that this goose continues to stay fit and well nourished and continues to lay golden goose. These very class of politicians have a termite effect on other sports. Its the defeat that often test the character often. The present generation of cricketers have least to worry about what would happen next as a decent state player worth his salt would do well is he plays couple of seasons of IPL. You know success to often comes with its own set of challenges, one of them begin able to keep their feet on the ground. I am not saying that our players are snobbish. I am suggesting that players dont have to worry about their lives beyond cricket all the more reason for them to work hard and do well for the club, state franchisee or country.

Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman have done well, really well. There deeds on the field and demeanour of it is praise-worthy and al it worth to emulate for all of us fans. But its time to move on to next set of players. Laxman who purposefully played all his career under the Damocles sword may come good with a century in next few matches (if he plays). Dravid getting bowled due to lack of bounce or misjudgment Tendulkar not really looking 100 percent. The performance of the bowlers should also come in scrutiny. There has been Zaheer, Yadav did take wickets, Ishant is off the radar and hasnt done much damage. Indian batsman struggle to bat on bounce pitches but Indian bowlers struggle with lengths as well. The basic of test matches is also not seemingly put into practice. The crease has to be occupied, percentage shots with favorable returns (here runs) have to be played. There has been only one Sehwag in all the history of the game who can score with the strike rate of 80.

Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar, couple of years of Zaheer, who would be the next star. How will they perform abroad The pitches at home need to be looked into. I mean at least on the first class level. Why cant we have dedicated venues for fast, seeming bouncy pitches. Mumbai has always been a bit faster and bouncier, Chennai is always rank turners. If there is an inclination of BCCI to do well, they dont have the dearth of resources. The question which begs to be asked is if there is any will to do it?

Adelaide test will be hopefully a different story. I wish the batsman occupy the crease for more than 4 sessions and avoid the blues. I think Dhoni has to give up captaincy in one form of the game. He should play test as a batsman. The selectors shoulw offer him captaincy of two formats and keeping in the other two formats. If he is keeping in test Sehwag aur gambhir should be given the captaincy. The domestic setup may need a fine tuning as well. Can the BCCI get some young Under 21 exposure to the country circuit etc it helps they say – hint Zaheer Khan.

The time is right to overhaul if not re-build Indian cricket..

Blog: Odds & Even 2012

It is here and here to stay for some time.364 days more. You, me and everybody have jumped on a leap year, 2012. The thought of leap year get Olympics to mind. So it is the spirit of the Olympic its pageantry and celebration of human triumph that makes this year different from previous years. The Olympic motto - Citius, Altius, Fortius which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger”. If you looking for inspiration to be one with Olympic spirit this year it could be one of your motto. An odd day in the even month makes it such a unique year.

I am not too good with resolutions. I explore my life for change – change in thoughts, breakfast menus, drinks, clothes – things to specific not souls. I want to see a few changes among many things change of attitude towards life. I want to worry less and spend that time preparing and doing what is needed to resolves few complexities in life. Life complicates us and we return the favour each successive day. I had this enormous desire to buy HTC wildfire S, it's a cute phone. I know I can buy it right now but then I want to celebrate the event of buying the phone. The massive challenge is to focus on must do and not et carried away on impulse of must do. A pinch of self criticism helps the feet on the ground. I want to write more, but dont want to do it because of the sake of doing it. I think over the last year blogging sparingly simply because of tweeting tendency. I hope this one is in check now. There are things waiting to happen in life but then I will cross the bridge when I get to the river. My blog when updated at times makes me happy. I think I can say that without any sense of Narcissism.

I want to blog on more on politics and current affairs the problem is my source is the Net. There are so many thing you can do with technology is you decide not to be enslaved by it. I want to read more as well, read couple of books, it was another joy. I have almost given up on newspapers. I feel there is just too much blanch flavour to it. They print something sensational the first day. There are reactions to it the next day, then there is a denial then there is a reaction to the denial then there are theories thicker than final year engineering project reports. I dont think it takes you anywhere. TV and newspaper were supposed to entertain and inform they are reduced to war cry like hysteria and repulsive sensationalism. As if there isn't much of that in daily life.

I have my fingers crossed for 2012. I wish everyone all the best. :)