Field of dreams

On his blog, Harsha Bhogle waxed nostalgic about Fateh Maidan.

(© Getty Images)

Harsha's memories of the stadium are from an insider's perspective, since he had access as a commentator long after he ceased visiting it as a spectator.

The Lal Bahadur Stadium was like that to us, except that nobody called it by that name. It was always the Fateh Maidan or the “stadium”. It was holy, it was the home of cricket, it was ours. I saw my first match there, played on a turf wicket there for the first time and my first commentary session was there too. Do I give the impression that the pillars spoke to me? I might have thought it was so…once.
(...)
Around that time I had first set foot in the commentary box, like the dressing room, a much hyped place made special only by the people within it. All of 19 and wearing a twenty rupee t-shirt, a pair of jeans and rubber slippers, I had done my audition there. It was where Shyam Karwande and HK Srinivas sat and talked about the “Hill Fort End”, Naubat Pahad to everyone else. In my audition I said “Hill Fort End” and felt special too.

It called me back often and I grew to like the little area, only a little bigger than a cubicle with two wide windows we looked through. It was where the first step had been taken, it was mine. 

My memories are more of the Fateh Maidan Club, whose Tandoori chicken and parantha are unmatched in my memory. I guess I was spoiled at a young age - I have never been able to enjoy either of those food items since then as what I have pales in significance with the FMC items. Even after all these years, I  can still taste them, if that makes sense.

I watched a few matches at Fateh Maidan. Two stand out in memory. There was a game against the Australians where RP Singh (the other one) began his international career with a maiden over and little else about his bowling was remarkable. Australia batted first, Bruce Reid read a Sidney Sheldon book (for once I had good seats in a section right next to the Australian players), and a torrential downpour forced the match to be abandoned soon after my hero, Mohammad Azharuddin, came in to bat. I walked home from there as I did not feel like fighting the crowd at the bus stop and I was already soaking wet. Back then it did not seem too far away to walk home. Those of you who know the distance will know it took me a while to do so. And it rained all the way home!

The second one against the Kiwis holds better cricketing memories for me - I got to watch Azharuddin play a sublime innings filled with boundaries, Richard Hadlee found swing where no one else did, and Arshad Ayub pleased the locals with a few wickets. That inning of Azhar's was enough to fill me with a lifetime of good memories and thoughts about the fellow, all his subsequent (alleged) shenanigans notwithstanding.

Sitting at the far end of the ground, diametrically opposite to the FMC end, I did not know then that my life would change in a few months. I have never been to an international match at a stadium since. In hindsight, I am glad that those days at Fateh Maidan remain my last memories of a day spent watching a Test match.

P.S. Here is another recollection of the glory days of Fateh Maidan from former South Zone offspinner V Ramnarayan.

Stomping grounds

From Azhar's Facebook page I came across this oldie-goldie. The photo in and of itself is not that remarkable, except that it jogs a lot of memories in my head. Not for Mohammad Azharuddin and Raj Singh Dungarpur, though that has a lot of connotations with it, but for the backdrop. I spent many days at Fateh Maidan Club and the lawns of Lal Bahadur Stadium that doubles up as the floor of the dining hall. The paranthas and tandoori chicken of FMC remain etched in my mind and I have never found any that have even come close to duplicating them.

My mouth is watering as I type these words.

Aside: The last time I attended a match at LB Stadium, I was fortunate enough to watch Azharuddin and Hadlee in a splendid face-off that was thrilling in every sense of the word.

Having evoked those two greats, let me leave you with two videos. The first is of Richard Hadlee's greatest performance with the ball - 15 wickets (9+6) at the Gabba. He had a chance to get all 10 but unselfishly took a splendid catch for the 9th out. (Aside: Considering the recent troubles that Ricky Ponting is having with the hook/pull shot, it is interesting that in Andrew Hilditch, the current chairman of the selectors, he has a kindred spirit, one who understands the fascination with playing a hook shot.)



Finally, Azharuddin during the most purple patch of his career. Breath-taking stuff.

Collusion via selection

After every announcement of the Indian team by the BCCI's selectorial committee, I wonder about the logic of some of the moves. You think I'd learn my lessons after years and years of pulling at my hair looking for an explanation.

Recently a 16 member squad was announced for a home series against Sri Lanka. The normal course is to pick 14 and, if necessary, fly in replacements. So, why 16?

Let me lean on Prem Panicker to explain. There is so much more than simply naming the 16 best players in the country. No wonder Tendulkar did not want any of it when asked to be captain before Dhoni came in.

a) Panicker explains why there are 16 players in the squad, and also why Murali Vijay is the "back-up batsman" even though S. Badrinath is in the squad, too.

It took Srikkanth and his cohorts to find the perfect solution — increase the team strength to 16, simple; and in doing that, ignore the fact that historically 14 players are picked for home series because in the event of injury, it is easy enough to call up replacements.

So the committee first picked the obvious names. With two additional ‘berths’ created in a fashion that reflects the operations of our railway touts, ‘Cheeka’ managed to fill those spaces with two statemates in M Vijay and Badrinath. The curious aspect is that the announcement specified that Vijay would be the reserve batsman — which makes Badrinath the afterthought.

And that is curious in itself because when the BCCI announced its latest round of central contracts, Badri was one of the biggest gainers, moving two slots up from Category D to B, and seeing his annual guaranteed earnings go up from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 40 lakh.

Leave the question of whether Badri deserves a place in the playing eleven aside for the moment — he is probably playing to his best form just now. The fact remains that neither he, nor his fellow TN player, will ever make it to the starting eleven absent a spate of Australia-like injuries.

If you assume that selection committees have a say in who gets contracts and promotions, the piquant situation here is that a player found worthy of being promoted is an afterthought even in the minds of the same selection committee. And that player — players — will tag along with the team, sitting on the bench sharing gossip, when they would be considerably better off emphasizing their claims in the Ranji Trophy season now on.

The problem with that is, if Cheeka and company don’t pick Badri, they cannot make the case for his continuing to get a central contract. And if Vijay is not picked as the first choice batting replacement, they can’t make a case for him to be included when the next round of contracts is given out.

(...)

Oh and incidentally? The contracts were issued in October 2008. They ended September 30, 2009. The board has thus far not had the time to renew/review the contracts. Hence the imperative for the selectors to pick additional players and push into the ranks those they would like to see retain existing contracts or get fresh ones.

(Associated Press 2009)

b) After announcing the team, the media was not allowed to question the selectorial committe on this odd turn of events. Why? Well, the roots of it were laid years ago...

c) During the dark ages of Indian cricket (mercifully a time when I was unable to follow the team except through CricInfo updates) there was a lot of backroom strategizing going on, culminating in the removal of Tendulkar and the reinstatement of Azharuddin as captain. Prem Panicker reported on that in 1998. It is a fascinating account of the lengths that some folks will go to enforce their agenda. All of this is done in plain sight but without tipping their hand except to the ones closest to the action.

It is no secret that the decision to oust Sachin Tendulkar had its seeds not, as is widely propagated, in his loss of batting form or even in India's plummeting cricketing results. Rather, the seeds were sown as early as March 1997, when the then Indian captain made the unpardonable mistake of telling the press that he was dissatisfied with the way the selection committee went about its business.

He did that during the selection of the team to tour the West Indies. When he asked for an off spinner and the request was turned down, Sachin stormed: "If you are not going to listen to me, then why invite me for these meetings and make a farce of it?". Subsequently, at the end of the meeting, he let it be widely known that he disagreed with the team as selected.

From that point on, Sachin had to go -- simply because this selection committee, which operates on principles other than cricketing logic, could not afford an independent-minded captain who would question their decisions.

Waiting to exhale

Here are the ingredients you need for a biopic:

• A humble beginning
• A meteoric rise
• The admiration of millions
• Temptation
• Succumbing to the temptation
• Losing everything
• Fighting for dignity
• Hope for the future

If this was Hollywood, a movie would already have been made by now. But Bollywood is not really a biopic kind of place. Columnists have written about this person, notably this one, but no movie is in the making. Maybe in a few decades, after the dust has settled, someone will.

Who am I talking about? Here's a hint:

Random musings - 1 - updated

(In this column of I shall put forward thoughts that course through my mind - too small to be separate blog posts but too long to be passing fancies).

Why was Aamir Khan's character in Ghajini left-handed? Aamir is not left-handed, and there was no earthly reason for the character to be one, was there? (Check out the footage from the 3:51 mark in this video).

My new cricketing hero is MS Dhoni, especially for his play ever since he became the captain of the ODI team. I am losing count of how many times he has taken India to the finish line during a chase. Next season, I am modeling my game on him, right down to the way he stands while surveying the field.

Would Slumdog Millionaire have been nominated for 10 Oscars if everything had been the same except that the director was Indian? I don't think so. It would have been lucky to even sniff the Best Foreign Film category.

Why do Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals remind me of Stan Humphries and the San Diego Chargers of 1995? I hope the fate of the Cardinals in this year's Super Bowl is entirely different from the one that befell the Chargers in SB XXIX.

Am I the only one who still remembers that when Mohammad Azharuddin "retired" from cricket he was the world record holder for most 50's, most runs, most not-outs, and most catches in ODI history? It boggles the mind to think that after his spectacular debut Test series, the analysts begged for him to never be included in the ODI team as they thought that it would "ruin his technique".

With his win against Andy Roddick in the semifinals of the Australian Open, Roger Federer has added to some already gaudy numbers that he possesses. He became the only man to reach the final at all 4 majors (Australian, French, Wimbledon, and US Open) at least three times. (On the distaff side, Steffi Graff is the only person to have won all four majors at least 4 times apiece!). By beating Roddick in straight sets, Federer has now won 152 out of 156 matches (152-4) when he wins the first set in a major. Tennis history's best front-runner on the games biggest stage, by far. (By the way, just for kicks, as of today Rafael Nadal is 76-1 when he wins the first set in a Grand Slam tournament!).

Last words

2008 is in the books and who better than Sambit Bal to give a comprehensive review of the happenings across the playing fields and beyond. The review is in two pieces - part 1 here, and part 2 here.

Here's his take on MS Dhoni, the golden boy whose captaincy is still in the honeymoon phase. His first hiccup was in not pursuing a 2-0 verdict against England, but that was completely overshadowed by his so-far successful reign as the skipper.

India are lucky to have found Dhoni to take them through a crucial hour of transition. He has shades of Sourav Ganguly's leadership qualities, and on the evidence of his few matches in charge, greater tactical nous. Most of all, he seems immune to the media, which as Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble found, often poses a much greater challenge to Indian captains than opponents on the field. So far, admittedly, he is yet to taste the kind of press that drove Dravid and Kumble to distraction, and he has maintained an aloof, and in fact slightly amused, air about media criticism.

As captain he doesn't seem burdened by precedents or shackled by the fear of consequences. There is a method to his tactics, but he has allowed himself to be guided by his instincts. In some ways he is an old-school captain, not given to over-theorising or over-reliance on the laptop, and guided instead by a cricketer's reading of situations. As a result, his decision-making has come across as uncomplicated and uncluttered. He also seems to possess that intangible thing that all successful captains need: luck.

There will be days when his plans misfire and luck deserts him. That will be his true test. Last year was one in which he could do no wrong. Still, all signs suggest he will be all right.

While on skippers, a man who went from hero to zero (or worse) in the blink of an eye has spent many years on the outside. But, luckily, it appears that the (perceived) sins of the father are not hampering the progress of the sons. Mohammad Azharuddin's older son is being recruited by the IPL. Here's hoping he cares a niche for himself and outdoes his father on the field. Also, the younger son has been spotted, too, and if anything, is a bigger chip off the old block than his elder brother.

Finally, Aakash Chopra was recently shown the door by the BCCI, effectively ending any hope he had of playing for India again. He has gone back to blogging for CricInfo but here and there you can glimpse the pain he feels from not getting a chance to represent the country again.

Now that we're home and with our families, we must make the most of it as we really don't know what the future has in store for us. Though, personally, I wouldn't mind staying away on New Year's Eve with the Indian team once again.

His first book, Beyond the Blues, is releasing this week and I am looking forward to owning a copy soon.

Cricket, cricket, cricket....

This post shall cover some last thoughts on India's historic 2-0 win over Australia, and other articles found while trolling through the web. After this, I shall blog on topics other than cricket (until the next Test series against England next month), I promise.

1) After India drew the first Test match, I was mad at the defensive mindset of the Indians. Back then I had written:

India are the home team, with 5 batsmen who have scored about 40,000 Test runs, with two spinners who have taken more than 900 Test wickets, and three fielders who have collectively taken over 370 catches. The Aussies have one batsman who has scored more than 10,000 runs, another great who has over 6,000 runs. One bowler who has taken more than 100 wickets (Lee has 291), and their lone spinner making his debut. And we are celebrating the fact that we drew the first Test? Seriously, those that are afraid to win are indeed condemned to repeatedly fai

It took a change in captaincy (forced by injury to Kumble) to inject some sense into the team. The Australian team that dominated the world for almost two decades is NOT this motley collection of individuals who came to India. Once the Indians figured this out, they took on a new persona and charged to a series victory. The Fab Four have lots of "experience" but that experience comes with a price - they have tasted lots of defeats, too. When things start to go wrong, they seem to remember those bad days and forget to play their normal, natural, wonderful game. The worst offender, by a country mile, is Sachin Tendulkar. For a batsman who has played so long, he has the deer in the headlights look way too many times. The sad part is that he drags the rest of the team down with him. Luckily, the new breed (dare I say New Age cricketer?) is immune to Tendulkar's fraidy-cat routine. MS Dhoni made a 50+ score in the 4 innings of the two Tests he captained, leading from the front. His attitude rubbed off onto the rest and India won a Test series that, in hindsight, was theirs to win all along. A 2-0 result should not surprise you. The Australians did not take 20 Indian wickets until the last Test, and even when they did, the Indians put on 736 total runs. Pshaw! If the Aussies did not have Michael Hussey in the middle order, they'd have caved to a worse fate than they did. The real test for the Indians will be when they are favored to win, as will be the case henceforth.

2) A couple of post-series analyses from CricInfo:
First up, the Australians are found wanting in most categories.

Secondly, most of the Indians come out well, except for some surprising names at the bottom of the list.

Sambit Bal sums up the series and its implications, rightly contending that India won more because the Australian standards have dipped and not so much because the Indian standards have gone up.

The battle between two Test giants was played in front of empty stands and the BCCI has to shoulder a large part of the blame. In their haste to make money they ignore the most basic needs - that of the spectators. Chasing after the T20 golden goose has seriously compromised their stance on promoting cricket.

3) The first great to retire was Kumble. Ganguly announced his retirement earlier, but did not retire till later. A week into the retirement, Sharda Ugra found Anil to be at peace with the decision and in a happy frame of mind. A few days later, in Nagpur, he gave a really wonderful speech, thanking his teammates individually, that must be read in its entirety.

4) Sourav Ganguly left on a high, captaining the Indian side for a few overs thanks to a wonderful gesture by MS Dhoni. Along the way, he had the satisfaction of helping beat the Aussies in the very city where the first seeds of discontent with his captaincy were sown. A full circle provided proper closure to his career - one in which he underachieved in the Test arena, made his mark in the ODI stage, and brilliantly overachieved in the captaincy stakes (more for the attitude he brought than just the wins). The tributes have been pouring in and CricInfo does a good job of rounding up some of them here, saving me some time.

Some others that deserve a separate mention are:

Peter Roebuck takes his time and tries to decipher what made him so revered in India.

Sachin Tendulkar talks in depth about his feelings for Ganguly and Kumble.

VVS Laxman talks about Ganguly in an older interview.

Finally, Harsha Bhogle comes out with his assessment of Ganguly's contributions to Indian cricket.

5) At the end of the Nagpur Test, Ricky Ponting came under heavy fire from the media for his seemingly inexplicable decision to let India off the hook on Day 4. Rather than accept that he may have erred in judgment, he has taken the moral high ground and is being supported by his coach. I guess if you repeat something often enough, people will think it is the truth. Finding articles that slam his captaincy are dime a dozen these days, so I;ll let you troll through the web for those on your own. Instead, I shall direct your attention to this nicely written piece by Gideon Haigh where he believes that Ponting deserves a modicum of sympathy from us.

The Nagpur Test was also MS Dhoni's first Test as a full-time captain and he led from the front, and impressed everyone with his acumen. Chloe Saltu admires MS Dhoni for having the guts to be his own man and not back down from criticism for a defensive 8-1 field placement.

Suresh Menon is a lot more effusive in his praises and reaches into the past to find comparisons.

Not surprisingly, some reporter tracked down Dhoni's childhood friends and found out that he has not changed much since then. The article is nice as it provides a lot of insight and background to the BMOC of Indian cricket.

Peter Roebuck is at the top of his game, a fine return to form after a few insipid articles, with this extended description of MS Dhoni.

6) Considering how cliched and, even worse, how predictable the cricket commentary on TV was, re-reading Amit Verma's observations made me realize that I am not alone in my low regard for some of them.

7) And if you are still reading this, here's a treat for VVS Laxman fans:
a) An interview with the Times of India on the eve of his 100th Test match, one that was doubly special because India beat the Aussies in it.

b) Rajan Bala goes back in time and compares Laxman to ML Jaisimha and MA Azharuddin.

c) VVS Laxman lists his top 6 innings. Note how three of them are 50's, and are integral to an Indian victory.

d) Finally, Gautam Gambhir looks to VVS Laxman for a final seal of approval.

"VVS Laxman told me in Sri Lanka that my biggest challenge will be playing against Australia and I need to pass that test. I met him in Nagpur and asked him if did clear that test, he told me, 'you have not only passed the test but passed it with a distinction.' I don't think I need any more approvals from anyone."

The long kiss goodbye

The critical moment of the day for the Australians came when Ricky Ponting called incorrectly to lose the toss. Batting first is such a big advantage in the subcontinent (especially if you make a big score first up) that you could feel a lot of the wind going out of the Aussie sails.

For a brief while the Indians gave them some hope. Brett Lee got Virender Sehwag with a peach of an in-cutter that would have thudded into middle stump had Sehwag's leg not been in the way.

Rahul Dravid is in the phase of his career where old methods are not producing the results they once used to. So, in trying to change slightly, he is overdoing it. He was out, once again, to a wide ball from Johnson that the Dravid of old, unmindful of the sharpening knives of the media, would have left well alone. Instead he found the bucket-like hands of Matthew Hayden at first slip.

After that we were treated to a glorious period of batting as Sachin Tendulkar turned back the clock. Unfurling his patented back-foot punches and flourishing flicks, Tendulkar looked good for a big, big one when the onset of tea put him into the negative mindset that has been his downfall in the 2000's. Playing out for a break is not something that Sehwag does and you'd think a seasoned campaigner like Sachin, who professes to play every ball on its merit, would not worry about such trifles, and take his cue from the opener. Anyway, a tentative prod found the edge through to the keeper and the end result was a splendid 68 that was at least 200 less than he could have made on this track.

By this time Gautam Gambhir was well-settled, motoring along splendidly in a type of innings unique to Test cricket - the sigmoidal curve-like pattern of accumulation. At the other end, VVS Laxman picked up from where Tendulkar left off. This was a typical Laxman innings - an initial flourish into the 30's where his tensile wrists found gaps frequently enough to disperse the field followed by a patient accumulation of singles. Sanjay Manjrekar once described Laxman as an aggressive batsman with the temperament of a defensive player. Which means that Laxman is capable of playing through long periods of defensive cricket without letting it affect his ability to pick up and hit the juicy offerings when they do come along. (Tendulkar will do well to learn a little more of this from Laxman). For a batsman who has scored almost 60% of his runs in boundaries over his career, hitting 53 with just 3 fours must have been a strange experience.

But his presence at the crease was enough for Gambhir to relax and continue through the 60's and 70's and the Delhi-ite raced through the double digits till he found himself on 99 and a defensive prod followed by a scything square-cut should have signaled a 100. Instead Michael Hussey, at point, cut off a sure boundary. As an aside, Hussey has to rank up there with the great point fielders in the game. Anyway, Gambhir turned to Plan B as Ricky Ponting brought everyone into the close-in circle. The bowler was Shane Watson, who bowls in the 140-145 kmph range. As Watson delivered the ball, Gambhir took the two-step forward step usually reserved for spinners and, with a clean swing of the bat, deposited the ball into the stands beyond long-on. Just like that was was on 105 and continued the trend of improving on his score with every inning in this Test series (21, 29, 67, 104, and now 149 not out).

Tomorrow, the key will be to reach lunch without losing any wickets. After that the afternoon and evening sessions will be there for the taking. If India manage that, then the Aussies will be fighting for survival, not something conducive to taking the Indians down in a home Test.

I am going to keep my fingers crossed that Laxman can pass Mohammad Azharuddin's Test tally of runs. To do that, he needs 161 runs in this innings. If he manages it, then India will definitely have found themselves in the drivers seat. Good luck, Laxman, I'll be rooting for you, crossed fingers and bitten nails at the ready!

My pages are numbered

As many of you know, I like to read. Books, magazines, newspapers, coupons, posters, billboards, brochures, and (in the absence of anything else to read) notices on walls. Of this lot, books take up the most time and it is only rarely that I can read a whole book in one sitting. In the past few years only books by Rowling and Child have moved me such that I read the book in one sitting. Over the years, I have been gifted numerous bookmarks by friends and relatives. But I rarely use these bookmarks for I have my own, possibly unique, way of remembering what page I stopped at the last time I put down the book.

It is simple really, and it merges my book-reading with my first love - cricket. The page numbers remind me of some score made in the past by some batsman or team. All I have to do is remember which player (or team) and the events associated with it. Sometime, I find it hard to remember a number so I associate that number with the nearest one to it of significance, in the process finding another number that fits the difference between the two.

Some memorable numbers for me are:
22 - the number of centuries by Azharuddin in Tests.
38 - K. Srikanth's score, the highest by a batsman, in the '83 Prudential Cup final.
45 - the score that Sehwag seems to lose his concentration at most frequently in ODI's (any number in the 40's would do, really!).
51 - VVS Laxman's score on Test debut versus South Africa.
58 - the number of 50's by Azhar in ODI's, a record when he "retired".
83 - for 1983 and Kapil's Devils.
87 - the number most feared by the Aussies (13 short of a 100).
93 - score made by Azhar in his first ODI outside India (in Australia).
99 - 101 short of a double century (a nod to AV).
100 - naturally!
114 - GR Viswanath's match-winning score in the Melbourne Test of 1981.
123 - K Srikkanth's highest score in Tests and ODIs.
130 - Sehwag's highest score in an underachieving ODI career, so far.
135 - Number of Graeme Hick's first-class centuries. This changes with time!137 - GR Viswanath's score on Test debut (with 25 fours!).
140 - Laxman's score against Zimbabwe, the aftermath of which changed Indian cricket.
148 - Laxman's score in THAT Adelaide Test match.
158 - Kevin Pietersen's favourite score, it seems.
163 - Kapil Dev's highest Test score.
175 - what else, Kapil Dev, Tunbridge Wells - 1983.
178 - Laxman (and Tendulkar) ruin Steve Waugh's memories of his final Test match.
183 - Highest score ever made in the second innings of an ODI (and, of course, 1983).
186 - Sachin Tendulkar's highest ODI score.
194 - Dravid's declaration with Tendulkar at this score causes a furore.
195 - Sehwag's Melbourne massacre.
201 - Jason Gillespie's highest score in his LAST Test - the best by a nightwatchman.
204 - Adam Gilchrist's highest Test score - the fastest 200 at that time.
222 - GR Viswanath's highest score in Tests.
227 - Vinod Kambli's highest score. So much promise...
233 - Rahul Dravid's magnum opus in Adelaide.
236 - Sunil Gavaskar's highest score - now surpassed by 5 Indian batsmen.
239 - Sourav Ganguly's highest score and first double hundred.
241 - Tendulkar's lesson in self-denial at Sydney (scroll down the page to the run-scoring chart) .
242 - Ricky Ponting's effort at Adelaide (the highest score in a losing cause).
248 - Tendulkar's highest score in Tests (and shockingly, in first-class cricket, too).
254 - Sehwag's third-highest score.
267 - Aravinda de Silva's highest score (overshadowed by 299).
270 - Rahul Dravid's highest score.
274 - Zaheer Abbas - the highest score outside the Indian subcontinent by an Asian player.
281 - really...do you even have to ask?
299 - Martin Crowe chokes (as AV would say, he has to score 299 runs all over again just to get to 300).
309 - Virender Sehwag breaks a barrier - for the first time.
310 - John Edrich's highest score - most boundaries (52 fours, 5 sixes) in a Test innings.
317 - Chris Gayle shows that he is not always a mindless biffer of the cricket ball.
319 - Virender Sehwag is at it again!
333 - Graham Gooch thrashes India at Lords.
334 - Mark Taylor and Don Bradman are inexorably linked forever.
340 - Sanath Jayasuriya lays down a marker.
353 - the higher of VVS Laxman's two first-class triple centuries.
365 - Sir Garfield Sobers's first century was his biggest one.
375 - Brian Lara, part I.
380 - Matty Hayden rightly surmises that people will not remember who the opposition was.
400 - Brian Lara - the sequel.
405 - Graeme Hick, my hero, announces himself to the world with a 6 to get to 405 (check out the next highest score in the entire match).
443 - BB Nimbalkar's tryst with glory was cut short by petulant opponents.
452 - the highest score in the storied career of the Don.
499 - Hanif Mohammad falls short, and then achieves, cricketing immortality.
501 - Brain Lara completes his trilogy.

Virtual tour

After a long hiatus, I am back to blogging, so I shall start by taking you through some of the stories that have caught my fancy in the past few weeks.

1) Greg Maddux was in pursuit of win number 350, which he has managed but has not won a game since then. David Pinto breaks down Maddux's feat into smaller numbers and finds that Mad Dog's achievement is more astounding the deeper you dig into it.

2) While many others were following the launch of the 20-20 league, I was following the progress of Graeme Hick. Typical Hick results so far...3 catches each in both innings, blasting a century with 15 fours, while setting up a total for the other team to chase. May he churn those runs all season.....135 centuries and counting. By the way, if he continues in this vein for another two years, he will become the most prolific run-scorer in the entire history of cricket. No joke. (More on that in another blog post later on).

3) In the time since I started watching cricket on TV, only two fast bowlers have evoked fear in me (for the plight of the batsmen, mostly Indian) - Imran Khan and Malcolm Marshall. Imran Khan terrorised the Indians to the tune of 42 wickets in the 1982 series, ensuring that GR Viswanath's career came to an abrupt end. Malcolm Marshall then took revenge for the loss of the World Cup by scaring everyone in the Indian team in the 1984 series, going on to become one of the most feared fast bowler the game has ever seen. On what would have been his 50th birthday,Pat Symes writes a moving piece on the man with the angular run-up who left us long before we had a chance to properly say goodbye. Somewhere among the clouds, I can still see him shining the new ball and coming in to bowl. I hope the angels facing him have good protective gear...

4) No player - past or present - moved me as much as Mohammad Azharuddin did. It helped that I watched him start his career along with my grandfather. Dadu did not praise players easily, but when he saw Azhar score 8 runs (yes, 8 runs) in a rain-affected day on Test debut he told me to watch out for the lad. 15 minutes of watching Azhar bat were enough for him to find out what took me years to figure out - Azhar seemed to have some extra time to play the ball. Not surprisingly, super-fast bowling reduced that reaction time and made him jumpy. People forget that when his career ended abruptly, he was the world record holder for most 50's and most runs in ODI's. Also, he is one of a select few batsmen who have scored centuries in their first and last Test. Rohit Brijnath wrote a pretty good piece on Azhar examining the enigma that Azhar was and still is.

5) The 1983 World Cup did as much for cricket in India as the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup triumph did for the BCCI's coffers. Indians did not care for One Day Internationals back then. Yes, India was one of the last countries to play one day internationals and it took a World Cup triumph to change the face of the game. Notice any parallels with Twenty20? June 25th, 2008, marks the 25th anniversary of that tumultuous day in England when Kapil Dev's team successfully defended a total of 183 runs in 60 (yes, sixty) overs. With the cash registers still ringing in their heads from the IPL, the BCCI honchos have decided that the 1983 World Cup team is old news and not worthy of honouring. Funny, since the Under-19 World Cup winning team was treated to a ticker-tape parade and given money that could run a small nation for a few days.

6) As a cricketer of very limited skills, one area where I was able to hold my own (until age and fading eyesight came into play) was as a fielder. I wish I had been able to read these interesting fielding tips by Trevor Penney, a very successful fielding coach.

7) Along with Greg Maddux my favourite baseball player is Frank Thomas. On his 40th birthday ESPN.com came up with a list of 40 things to cheer about the man nicknamed the Big Hurt.

In his footsteps

I thought my days of watching a willowy Hyderabadi elegantly flick bowlers to the fence were in the past. But, as a profile by my namesake reveals, there is still hope for me as a son steps into the huge void left behind by his father. I hope the boy succeeds where so many other famous sons have failed.

The List - per Jaunty

In a continuation of my previous post, I now present the top 10 Test innings by an Indian batsman (post-1980), according to me.

10. VVS Laxman's 75 in Brisbane against Australia in 2003. This was more important than his two centuries in the series. He not only stayed in there but calmed Ganguly down in the early part of the captain's innings. When he got out playing a cut shot to point off MacGill, it taught him a lesson that held him in good stead for the rest of the series and helped India hold its ground against the Australians - every time he crossed 50 after that, he scored a century, 5 in all (2 in Tests and 3 in one-dayers).

9. Mohinder Amarnath's 91 at Bridgetown against the West Indies in 1982 (out of a team score of 209). Of all his innings I remember this one the most. He got hit on the face, spat out blood, stayed in, and kept batting bravely. The bowling attack in the Test….Roberts, Holding, Marshall, and Garner represent, arguably, the greatest collection of 4 fast bowlers in one Test side!!

8. Mohammad Azharuddin 109 at Faisalabad against Pakistan in 1989. This changed the face of Indian cricket for the next decade. Why? Because he was dropped for the Test and made it in only because Raman Lamba was sick and could not play. He was out first ball in the first innings and appeared headed for obscurity. In the second innings he gloriously counter-attacked and, amazingly, two Tests later he was captaining the Indian team in New Zealand, and then resurrected India’s home fortunes with an unlikely troika of Kumble, Chauhan and Raju!

7. Sachin Tendulkar 122 in Birmingham against England in 1996. Important because the next highest score was 18, and it was in the 2nd innings of the Test match. Unfortunately, the others did not support him and we lost the match. Much more significantly, because of this batting debacle the selectors decided that Tendulkar desperately needed help from other batsmen. Their solution would alter the course of Indian cricket history. Two new batsmen made their debuts in the next Test at Lords – Ganguly and Dravid.

6. Sachin Tendulkar 114 at Perth against Australia in 1992. He was just 19 years old, playing on the bounciest pitch in Australia against a team determined to crush him. He had scored a century in an earlier Test in the series at Sydney, too, but this is the one that Richie Benaud often brings up when he reminisces about Tendulkar. Coming in at 69 for 2 he was 9th out at 240.

5. Sachin Tendulkar's 241 at Sydney against Australia in 2003. He was in the worst TEST slump of his career, and responded by grinding out an innings that Geoff Bocott would have been proud to claim as his own. He wore down the Aussies, and did so without hitting a SINGLE cover drive in the whole innings. Amazing restraint for him, and later on when historians try to figure out the innings that changed the master blaster into the master accumulator, they will point to this one. His Test hunger has changed colours – now he no longer looks to dominate attacks but rather to simply score off them, and this one showed even Tendulkar that he could do it sucessfully.

4. Rahul Dravid's 180 at Kolkotta against Australia in 2001. Not many people give it the credit it deserves. Laxman’s innings would have ended up being like his 167, a desperately brilliant one. It reached epic proportions because of Dravid’s stay at the crease with him. Also, Dravid continued on after Laxman was out, scoring some more runs that proved vital in the end.

3. Rahul Dravid's 233 at Adelaide against Australia in 2003 set up a monumental win by sheer will and perseverance, combined with a great technique against the Aussie bowling (which in hindsight, barring Gillespie, was not-so-great).

2. Gundappa Viswanath's 114 at Melbourne against Australia 1981. Set the stage for Kapil’s heroics with the ball and an away win in Australia. And also, the only century of Vishwanath’s that I can recall vividly, though I was at school when he scored the runs and my elder brother holds me responsible for him getting out.

1. VVS Laxman's 281 at Kolkatta against Australia in 2001. This is the innings by which his whole career will probably been defined, but it also represents a “turning point” innings not only for him, but also for Indian cricket. It is a testament to his drive that the 281 will be remembered by me as ONE of his great innings. I may be biased because he is from my home town but I think we have not heard the last of this Hyderabadi's exploits in the Test arena.

The List - per Buck

A couple of years ago, Buck and I decided to come up with our top 10 Test innings by an Indian batsman (individual). The criteria were simple - they had to be innings that were more than just numbers; they had to be innings that were enhanced by the context and their influence on the fortunes of the Indian team (and its future) and, a final caveat, these would have to be innings that we either heard/watched/read about by us as they occurred (therefore, innings played pre-1980 were not included).

We each came up with a list of 10 innings and did not know of the other's choices till we had both made ours. I went through my list recently and realized that my feelings were still the same and the many Indian innings that have followed since then have not (as of yet) displaced any on that list (some by Sehwag and Dravid have come close but did not quite displace the ones I picked).

Here are Buck's top 10 with his views on some of them (I have linked to the Tests should you wish to see the scorecard for those innings).

10. Sachin Tendulkar's 169 for a lost cause in South Africa in 1997 (when he did one of the important things required of a good innings - he was the last man out after adding 19 for the last wicket with a tailender who made 2).

9. Mohammad Azharuddin's breathtaking 109 of 70-odd ball s at Eden Gardens against South Africa in 1996 in a lost cause - barely makes it to this list because he did not adjust his batting once it became apparent he had a worthwhile partner in Kumble who was last out at 88.

8. VVS Laxman's 75 in Brisbane - prefer it to the pair of centuries he had later in this series and the 167 in the prior series (in terms of breathtaking innings for a lost cause, the 167 ranks behind Azhar's knock above and also his crazy 115 of 110 balls in S Africa in 1997 when he overshadowed skipper Tendulkar completely before being run out of all things ).

7. Gundappa Viswanath's 114 at Melbourne against Australia 1981.

6. Dilip Vengsarkar's 102 at Headingley (Leeds), vs England 1986 - I remember this as a superior innings to a century he made at Lords in the same series, but of course Lords being Lords, that one has received more play over the years...

5. Sachin Tendulkar's 241 at Sydney in 2003 v/s Australia - especially like the fact that he did not get out finally.

4. Sachin Tendulkar's 114 at Perth in 1992 v/s Australia (India lost this game but this is, in my opinion, his greatest test innings to date - even more than his double century) - fastest wicket in the world, young Sachin, etc...

3. Mohammad Azharuddin's 163 at Kanpur in December 1996 gainst South Africa.

2. Rahul Dravid's 233 at Adelaide v/s Australia - long innings that won a test - also his greatest test double century in my opinion (poor guy - so many of his great knocks ended up with him playing second fiddle that it detracts from him a bit. I was tempted to include the 91* in a later Test in the series but this is a greater innings).

1. VVS Laxman's 281 - enough said.

My list shall follow in the next post. As always, I will be interested in your opinions (and maybe your top 10, too. You will find that these lists are harder to make than you'd think).

Dancing too close to the flames

His first 5 scores in Test cricket were: 110, 48, 105, 122, and 54 not out. His last score was 102. In between somewhere, according to a CBI report, he was lured to the dark side. Accused of fixing matches, he was tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion and by the BCCI, though Mohammad Azharuddin has insisted ever since that he is innocent.

I do not know what the truth is. What I do know is that since my grandfather first pointed him out to me as a batsman to watch out for, he was a source of joy for the next 15 years or so on the cricket field. A magician with a bat in his hand, and a superb fielder with a trademark prowl - he ignited an interest in cricket that has not waned since then. In my wallet I still carry a small card in which he wrote, "Best wishes", and signed his name.

To me he shall always be the person because of whom I fell in love with the game of cricket.