Surf's up: Random musings - 7

a)  So, last night the result of an NFL game was determined by the shoddiness of replacement referees.  Ho-hum.  The debacle could have been avoided had any of the Green Bay Packer defenders followed the first rule of defending Hail Mary passes - KNOCK THE BALL DOWN!

Take a look at the replay - no less than three Green Bay defenders had the chance to ice the game by simply batting the ball away.



Yet, all of them went for glory and tried to intercept the ball.    See for yourself.

Serves you right.  You don't have my sympathies.

b)  VVS Laxman retired a few weeks ago and it hasn't sunk in yet.  I am still not in the mood to write my eulogy but am getting ready for it.  Until then, here are two must-read articles about the good guy of Indian cricket.

First, Peter Roebuck is no longer here to write about VVS, but when he did (in the aftermath of 281) it was fantastic.  Poetry in prose.

As Laxman took guard he found himself surrounded by the din of the crowd and the biting resolution of his gum-chewing, green-capped opponents near at hand. Habitually, he cuts an impressive and impassive figure upon which hostility falls like raindrops upon a bear. He stood his ground.

Laxman was about to play the innings of a lifetime, one of the greatest knocks the game has known. His effort has not shrunk in retrospect for it was not a mere protest against fate but rather a purposeful pursuit of an impossible dream.

Second, check out Siddhartha Vadyanathan's piece, not so much for what he wrote but for some of the videos link to in the comments section.

c)  If you are a famous sportsperson, maybe even the best ever in your sport, winning a match is not the end of your day's work.  Here's Roger Federer's grueling post-match interview schedule.  I used to wish I could play like him.  Now I don't, for I do not want to have to do all the additional things that come with that gift.

d)  Roger Federer is the Most Interesting Man in the World.  Stay thirsty, my friends.

e)  Very rarely do I burst out laughing when I read a straight-forward sports article about how someone can help Tiger Woods get his game back on track.  But this one did.  Johnny Miller is soooo modest, it makes me blush to hear about all the great things he has to say about....himself.

Bonus: Here's Johnny's unvarnished thoughts from a different article:

The drive I hit on the last hole at Oakmont in 1973 at the U.S. Open was special. I'd hit every green that day, and my average birdie putt was about 10 to 12 feet. To this day, I've never seen a major championship round of that precision, with tee shots and iron shots, by anyone. That sounds like bragging, but I've seen a lot of rounds. 

f) If you have a few minutes, take a look at some of the photographs submitted to National Geographic for the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2012.  Which is your favorite one?

g)  And finally, one last look as VVS walks off into the sunset.  A big part of cricket's allure died that day.

(Copyright 2011, AFP)

Last Update: The smiling assassin

Okay, I swear I am done with articles about VVS Laxman and just in time, too, as the next Test is starting in about 24 hours. (See the Last Update below for the latest update).

Last Update: Finally, Harsha Bhogle weighs in on a fellow Hyderabadi. Many years ago, Harsha wrote the only authorized biography of Mohammad Azharuddin. Maybe someday soon he will write one about VVS Laxman. Until then, we'll have to catch snippets of Harsha's views on Laxman through his articles on CricInfo. Here's his latest offering.

For a major part of his career he has batted at No. 6. It means the tail is a stone's throw away. It means the boundary riders are out for him, offering him the single to attack the rest. It means he stays not-out more often; once every sixth innings almost, compared to about one in 10 for Tendulkar and one in nine for Dravid. You might argue it boosts his average but the innings rarely go as far as they might have gone. Hence, only 16 centuries. Hence, too, the change in batting style; from a free-stroking player to someone who must guard his wicket and prolong the innings. Number six is a difficult position to bat in if you are a batsman who doesn't bowl because your numbers rarely look as good as those of the men who precede you.

Down in Australia, they think we are daft but we have never bestowed on him the stature we have with Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, and more lately with Sehwag.

That is why he has had to walk the selection tightrope far too often for a player of his ability. That is why many believe he has been underrated. Down in Australia they think we are daft, but we have never bestowed on him the stature we have on Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, and more lately Sehwag. And so, every time there was a new kid on the block, the attention shifted towards Laxman. And yet in the last two years (from January 1, 2009, to be precise), he has scored a century every four Tests and averages 80.

Update: Two more articles on Laxman's role in the Mohali Test have come up that need mentioning. (There will be one last update tomorrow when Harsha Bhogle's column on CricInfo comes up, too).

Little bits of cricket

1) In 2008, while the rest of the Test-playing nations had many a match to ponder over, the Pakistani team sat at home twiddling thumbs. 2009 does not promise to be much better either. David Furrows has an interesting option for the PCB to explore - play at a neutral venue as a "home team". It is not as far-fetched an idea as it first seems...

The third option is far more compelling because it offers potential entry to the Big Four club. It involves long-term planning to host series in other Test-playing countries, both during the remaining 58 months of Pakistan's existing TV-rights contract and beyond that time. Pakistan could play most of its "home" series in England, scheduling Test matches on days in summer when England is not playing home Tests. There is little cricket overseas at that time of year, and so the boards of the opposing countries are likely to see this as a potential revenue earner. Headingley, Old Trafford and The Oval would offer substantial gate receipts due to the local Pakistani diaspora.

(...) There are now eight Test grounds in the UK, but with Lord's usually hosting two Tests per summer, inevitably two or three counties miss out on hosting an England Test every year. Pakistan's home Tests could be a lucrative consolation for those venues.

2) Peter Roebuck chimes in on Hashim Amla, a key member of South Africa's fast-surging team.

Hashim Amla counts amongst the most serene of cricketers. Nothing seems to ruffle him. Along the way both life and cricket have tried to disturb his tranquility, only to be met with a mild smile and a broad bat. Fast bowlers have pounded him with bumpers. Nothing personal, you understand, just that he was a new kid on the block and his back-foot game was regarded as suspect; mistakenly as it turned out. Refusing to hook, he simply parried the bouncers as he has everything else, and waited for the storm to abate, whereupon he resumed collecting runs in his unflustered way.

3) Sriram Veera watches Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar at a nets session in Sri Lanka and comes away impressed by the maverick. I really wish I could have his job!

And he (Sehwag) constantly teases the bowlers. "Patha nahi chal raha hai na, kidhar daaloon, kya karoon? (Struggling to find where to bowl, eh?), he asks one of the spinners. Both the bowler and the batsman laugh. Sehwag keeps watching Tendulkar bat, passing comments, “Shot Master! Wah ji Wah! (bravo).” He also pulls Tendulkar's leg now and then by praising the bowler who has got the better of him. Tendulkar simply laughs.

4) The ICL has been trying to get the ICC's attention as a legitimate enterprise. The ICC, kowtowing to the needs of the BCCI, has been putting things off. A January 31st meeting of the ICC was supposed to have discussed the issue. Not surprisingly they have, in the manner of most obtuse committees around the world, simply put off the decision-making till a later date. I think it is time the ICL called their bluff and took them to court.

The status of the ICL is still in limbo, with the ICC board having deferred considering the Indian Twenty20 league's application for approval pending further discussions between the BCCI, ICL and the ICC.

It takes a village-r

India chased down a daunting total to win the first Test against England. The win was engineered by the trigger-happy Virender Sehwag. MS Dhoni admitted as much in the post-match interview when he said that had Sehwag not fired, India would have played for a draw. Yet, the rest of the fine folks who report on the game seem to think that the entire team shared Sehwag's will to win. I hope I am wrong in thinking so, but there is only one uncluttered mind in the Indian dressing room and he plunders his runs from the opener's spot.

(Incidentally, South Africa is in a similar predicament in their Test against Australia but they do not seem to have the belief that they can win).

Here are some of the items caught my eye in the aftermath of the famous win in Chennai.
a) Sambit Bal, fast becoming one of my favorite cricket writers, thinks that the only team that believed it could win, did so.

b) Sachin Tendulkar's history of disappearing in the crunch was put to the test and this time he came through for what may end up being the signature century of his glittering career. Afterwards, he spoke about the moment and what it meant to him and millions of other folks.

c) The Englishmen were left to look for slender positives from the game. Simply showing up to play has to considered a win for them.

d) Sanjay Manjrekar provides the Indian viewpoint, as only he can.

e) The elephant in the room that no one wanted to talk about was not the failure of Rahul Dravid to score any runs, but rather the failure of the premier spinner on either side to fair well on a pitch that should have supported them immensely. The boy named Mudhsuden is the one that copped the most flak, but the person who deserved more criticism for his non-show was the Turbanator, Harbhajan Singh. Michael Atherton brings this up in his match review.

After England's defeat, the spotlight has been trained on Monty Panesar, but before he is condemned to the gallows in the rush to promote Adil Rashid, it might be instructive to compare him with India's spinners. Harbhajan has played 73 Test matches to Panesar's 34 and he has taken 193 more wickets than Panesar. He was also in the groove, having played a Test series against Australia and a one-day series against England. Panesar, bedevilled by bad luck and his non-selection in England's one-day team, had not twitched his index finger competitively for the best part of four months.

Even though Harbhajan was in form, bowling at a ground he knows well and at batsmen short of match practice, he made little impression. I am not entirely sure that Harbhajan is the bowler he used to be, now that an overextended use of the doosra - the ball that spins to the off - has affected his ability to drift and spin his stock ball, the off spinner. Nevertheless, England, and Andrew Strauss in particular, played him superbly well.

f) Peter Roebuck, who is more engrossed in the Australia-South Africa, does find the time to talk about the Chennai Test in his distinctive style.

Judging from their responses to his vivid innings, England had not previously seen Virender Sehwag at his most audacious. Bear in mind that 12 months ago he had lost his place in the side. Australians, on the other hand, are well aware of his powers. Now he caused such disarray in the opposing ranks that in a trice fieldsmen were running hither and thither, most of them ever further from the bat. Yet Sehwag is no mere thrasher. Rather, he is an intelligent and consistent batsman who has managed to remain instinctive and creative. It is a most unusual combination. He is not remotely as barmy as he seems. Although he was removed before stumps, he had given the Indian innings its momentum and caused a furrowing of brows in the England camp.

g) To me, the best of them all was this extensive piece by Prem Panicker who, when his mind is focused on cricket, still cranks out well-thought out pieces that should be circulated to the cricket teams he dissects so well.

In the second innings, the team starts strong, but then two determined batsmen take the game away with controlled performances. At close on the third day the opposition is 247 ahead with seven wickets in hand; at lunch on day four that lead has been stretched to 319, seven still remaining in the hut.

Even occasional followers of Indian cricket will effortlessly recall dozens of such instances; they will recall, too, the inevitable denouement: India falls back on ‘defence’, which in context means spreading the field out and protecting the boundaries [‘They won’t mind the singles too much, it is the boundaries that will hurt’, commentators invariably say at such moments]. The result: the lead mounts, the home team’s hangdog air of oh shoot, we stuffed this up, let’s somehow get the misery over and done with, tomorrow is another day and another Test becomes more pronounced, and fans give up the ghost and go off to see if they can get tickets to Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

Not this time. For the second time in four Tests as captain, MS Dhoni employs his own version of active defence, packing one side of the field with placements aimed to make a monumental struggle out of every single taken. The bowlers all read from the same page, unwaveringly bowling the lines scripted by the think tank and operating with the fields set. The result – momentum snatched away [23 overs, 57 runs, 5 wickets] at just that precise point in the game when, in earlier times, the opposition tended to run berserk and bat India entirely out of the game.

And then the final, most welcome change: The team and its coach talk not of “saving the game” and “taking it session by session and seeing where we are” but of winning the game. Its buccaneer in residence then walks out to play an innings that would have attracted comment in a one-day situation, and was downright implausible in context of a Test match.

h) Finally, as the 5th day was playing out, Prem Panicker blogged about it, leading off with a brilliant treatise on the man who could be the king of them all if he (Sehwag) is able to duplicate the feats of the first half of his career. He provides a lesson from the past to shed some light on cricket's last gunslinger.

To call Sehwag’s batting “instinctive” – that is, an atavistic response to a situation that is not based on thought or prior experience and do not depend on prior learning – is to call it wrong: Sehwag’s secret is not that he does not think, but that he has cleared the clutter and reduced thought to its barest, most necessary essentials.

In his connection, I always think of one particular example – and it relates to when England came touring under Nasser Hussain. Sehwag, then batting low down the order, was sitting in the dressing room, fretting at the sight of his senior colleagues “tackling” Ashley Giles’ round the wicket, wide of leg stump line with their pads, butts and other parts of the anatomy.

In course of an eruption of profanity of which saala is the only quotable word, Sehwag blasted his mates and, in précis, said wait till I get out there, I’ll teach that &#%%$ a lesson.

Sure enough, his chance came. He greeted Giles with a murderous mow that almost decapitated short square leg, followed it up with a clinical reverse sweep, ran down the wicket to loft him over midwicket, charged down again to hit inside out over extra cover – and in the space of three overs, forced Hussain to take Giles out of the attack.

That was not “instinctive”, as the dictionary defines “instinct”. Rather, it was the result of Sehwag reducing the game to its essence: There was, he realized, no percentage in standing there watching the balls go by. Nor, given that line, was there the danger of his getting out bowled or leg before. That left “caught” – and reduced it to a straight contest between a bowler clearly unsure of his ability to effectively bowl the more attacking lines, against a batsman confident of his own mastery of the grammar of batsmanship.

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."

Remembering the titan

Anil Kumble announced his retirement (from Test cricket, mind you, not all cricket) with minimal fanfare, and a lap of honor around the Kotla. Compliments have been pouring in from all quarters since then. All of them justified and apt.

Some words are common to almost all of them - dignity, respect, hard-working, gentle, giant, leg-spinner who did not turn the ball, broken jaw, Brian Lara, match-winner, greatest, timely retirement, captain, quiet, unassuming.....

But the word that comes up in all of them, either overtly or covertly, is underrated. If everyone thinks someone is underrated, then is that person really underrated? I don't know. I always thought that opposing teams respected Kumble's presence in the team more than any other Indian bowler's. (There were periods here and there where someone like Harbhajan broke through, but not in a sustained way). How does that make him underrated? Methinks that may have been the case in the early 90's, but not any more. Give the man his due. He was India's greatest and most reliable match-winner. Bar none.

Anyway, as previously promised, here are some of the better written tributes to Kumble. For each one I shall highlight the points in the article that stood out for me. (Click on the author's name to access the article).

1) First and foremost, the person who has probably spent the most time with him on a cricket field - Rahul Dravid. (This is an older, very well-written article, pubished soon after Kumble crossed Kapil Dev's mark of 434 wickets in Tests):

Anil is tough and I like that about him. He is the essential 100-per-cent cricketer, every day, every over, every ball, bringing great energy to the contest, facing every challenge with his jaw sternly set - or even broken for that matter!

2) Next up, Sanjay Manjrekar:

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on management issues connected with cricket; we were about four or five speakers there, and one of them was Kumble. His preparations were so hectic; he was working hard on his speech that he was going to give to the corporates next morning. I could see the same kind of effort and discipline going into his preparations for his speech that he would put into his preparations for a Test.

3) A statistical break down of Kumble's career by CricInfo's S. Rajesh and Matthew Verghese:

Where Kumble stands head and shoulders above the other Indian bowlers is in his contribution to team wins. He took 288 wickets in the 43 Tests India won - an average of 6.70 wickets per Test. The average was a remarkable 18.75, at a strike rate of 44.4 deliveries per wicket.

4) A sampling of former players and selectors by Nagraj Gollapudi of CrinInfo:

Vijay Bharadwaj , former Karnataka and India team-mate:
It was my first day as Karnataka coach back in the 2006-07 season and we were playing Mumbai at the Wankhede stadium. Both Anil and Rahul [Dravid] were available for the first couple of games. They were pulling my leg saying, "Vijay has already retired, Venky [Venkatesh Prasad] has already retired, and both of them are coaches now but we are still playing." On our return to Bangalore, before our second game, Anil called up to check if it was fine to get a 16-year-old legspinner as a net bowler. I just laughed. I told him he didn't need to call me to get permission. But he knew the coach was important and didn't want to break protocol, so he wanted to check. He could've straightaway taken the decision himself because of his stature. He is a guy who gave importance to each and every detail.

5) The CricInfo staff puts in another high-quality effort:

Bowden went up to him, handed him his cap and shook his hand again. Ditto Hayden. Amit Mishra came up to hug him; the baton was perhaps being passed. And then he was swarmed by his team-mates. Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan lifted him and after a while it was clear he was not comfortable with all that. Dravid and VVS Laxman tried it again before Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the strongest man in the team, took over the job alone and lifted Kumble on his shoulders. But Kumble was not happy; he wanted to walk on his favourite turf, soak it in one last time.

Not a person in the ground could stay seated through the farewell; they could sense a very important part of their lives going away. Kumble would have felt the same but, save a few emotional moments, he handled it with dignity and with equanimity. It was so like Anil Kumble.

6) Dileep Premachandran calls him one of the two pillars of Indian cricket:

As he walked off the square for the final time, Anil Kumble got a pat on the back from the only man who has been playing international cricket even longer than he has. Kumble's first Test, at Old Trafford in August 1990, was Sachin Tendulkar's ninth, and in the decade that followed they would be the twin pillars of a team that sought to establish itself as a big player on the world stage. Over time, they would be joined by other great players, a nucleus that would allow India to challenge Australia on a consistent basis, but the mind-boggling durability of the two main men remained a source of wonder.
(...)
After all was said and done and the match called off, he came back out to be chaired around the ground, part of the way on the shoulders of the man who will succeed him as captain. For someone who scaled the greatest heights, it was one of the very few occasions during the 18 years when his feet actually left the ground.

7) Suresh Menon uses that word in the title:

He played 41 Tests fewer than Kapil Dev to go past Kapil's Indian record of 434 wickets; he bowled India to more victories than the entire spin quartet of the 1970s, yet he was condemned to being defined by negatives. The pundits told us he did not spin the ball, that he did not have the classic legspinner's loop, that he did not bowl slowly enough to get the ball to bite. Kumble was described by what he did not do rather than by what he did.

8) Snippets from the press conference where he made his formal announcement:

"Thank you all for all the support I have received right through my career. I've built some great friendships and met some fantastic people along the way. You'll probably start calling me from tomorrow for quotes about somebody else. Give me a break for a couple of days and I'll certainly take all your calls." Like he has unfailingly answered the Indian team's calls for the last 18 years.

9) The scene in the Indian dressing room was how we'd imagine it to be, knowing what we have been told about the man:

In between, there was time for some humour as well. A player turned to Mahendra Singh Dhoni and quipped: “You have two empty seats now” (the Nagpur Test will be Sourav Ganguly’s last). But for those who are familiar with Dhoni’s style, the gist of his instantaneous reply did not come as a surprise: “Nobody can replace those two”.

10) Ian Chappell thinks the timing of the decision was right:

The defining moment for me and it encapsulated the career of Anil Kumble was his last wicket in Tests. He had been angered by the young legspinner, misjudging a catch in the outfield and the very next ball he took off after a skied catch off his own bowling, charged back even with his bad hand, took the catch and turned around and fired the ball back at the stumps as if to say to the young man, who will take over his role as a legspinner in the Indian team, that is the sort of the effort that you've got to put in every day if you want to be at the top of the game.

11) Rob Smyth of the Guardian talks about some of the high notes of Kumble's career:

Rarely has there been a sportsman who has combined flintiness and dignity so adeptly. He was hard, really hard, but utterly fair. Kumble forever walked the line, but rarely if ever crossed it. This was a fiercely proud man.

12) Peter Roebuck chips in from Australia:

He never gave up, and with unyielding will and high intelligence, made the most of his abilities. He scored a Test hundred and never let his side down. A thousand pities the Australians did not speak to him in Sydney. Throughout he has retained his dignity, it has been an immense contribution, and he did not outstay his welcome by a single day. Even in his retirement he served the side and Indian cricket.

13) Prem Panicker says goodbye:

And so he went. Not at the end of the series, or the end of the year, but now, when the arguments for his going were only as strong as, not stronger than, those for his continuing—and that, perhaps more than anything he has done on the field in course of an extraordinarily distinguished 19-year career, sums up all there is to know about Kumble the human being.

The more long-lived of Indian cricketers have invariably been players of extraordinary skills. They have had one other thing in common: they have all, without exception, undersold themselves; their accomplishments have been less than their promise.

Anil alone has been the converse: man who consistently rose above the sum of his own parts; almost, you could call him the Glenn McGrath of spin bowlers.

14) G. Rajaraman pays tribute to the Smiling Assasin:

A couple of years ago he joined world billiards champion Geet Sethi, former Test cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar and Olympian sprinter Ashwini Nachappa in conducting a management workshop for corporates. And I had the opportunity of watching him prepare his presentation on resilience. He spoke at length about developing the ability to bounce back – citing examples from his own career – but more than his oration, the quality of his preparation left me stunned and gave me an insight into how seriously he took any task.

15) Kadambari Murali has some inside stuff on the man:

Eight months ago, sitting under a lovely afternoon sun outside Kreeda, his elegant Bangalore bungalow, Anil Kumble casually said he didn’t think he would last out the year, career wise. “I’m hoping to make it to the Australian series this October,” he added, equally casually, “but it depends on my body”.
(...)
That Bangalore day, he grinned as wife Chethana disapprovingly commented, “He needs to think about himself”. “She’s being a wife,” he quipped, smiling at the woman he dubbed his “support system” and “partner in everything”. And then the smile became more wry. “What do I do?” he asked. “I’m exhausted. The last tour was very tough, mentally and physically and though I desperately want to play, I have to see how much I can take. I’ll know when it’s time to say goodbye.”

16) From the archives, an article by Anand Vasu, written soon after Kumble had crossed the 600 wicket mark in Tests:

Anil will not like this piece on him, though it is meant to be a tribute. He does not let his personal life become public and he would probably have preferred that what happened to him in England stayed private. He will be irritated that this mentions the time in 2004 when the Supreme Court of India granted sole custody of a child from an earlier marriage to the woman who is his wife, and was carrying his child at the time. “The Supreme Court cannot trace any deception in Kumble,” screamed the headlines. Justices Shivraj V. Patil and DM Adhikari never faced Kumble’s bowling, clearly.

17) To round it off, Harsha Bhogle uses almost all the words I mentioned above, and more:

The announcement itself was typical of the man: no grandstanding, no ostentation, no farewell tour. Anything else would have jarred, it wouldn’t have been Kumble. One of the greatest team-men the game has known did his job and said good-bye. In his last Test match, he had eleven stitches and was under general anesthesia for half a day. When the numbness vanished, when the body was over-ruled once more, he returned to take three more wickets.

Two pack

While waiting for the third Test match to start, I found two contrasting articles by good cricket writers.

Peter Roebuck profiles Harbhajan Singh. This is vintage Roebuck, writing in a style all his own and engaging from first word to last.

Mukul Kesavan writes about MS Dhoni, focusing on his demeanor and contemplates what makes MS such a good fit for captaincy. However, this is not one of Kesavan's better efforts. He meanders around and ends on a note that rings a little too hyperbolic for my liking.

The set up

Reports of the demise of the Australian juggernaut are premature. Extremely premature. Ricky Ponting has won 33 of the 46 Tests he has helmed. Think about that again. Only Steve Waugh with 41 wins (57 Tests) and Clive Lloyd with 36 wins (74 Tests) have been more successful in the entire history of Test cricket.

True, this Indian team does not seem to be as intimated by the Aussies as some of the other squads are, but it would be foolish to suggest that the Aussies are done. Peter Roebuck writes that the Indians have passed the Aussies, and there is some truth to his arguments.

India are better balanced and stronger at the top of the order and from seven to 11. The great players are the weak point. It is quite a thought.

The problem with historic wins (of the 320-run kind) is that they distort one's perspective. Let's not forget that just 6 Test-playing days ago, the question on everyone's lips was whether India could survive the last day of the Bengaluru Test without collapsing to another defeat. Five days of domination should not swing the balance in the other direction.

Here's a sobering thought. Dhoni felt that he needed more than 500 runs to feel safe that the Aussies would not chase it down. Targets in excess of 400 runs have been chased successfully only 3 times in almost 1900 Tests. Surely, 500 runs were an excessive luxury (I am repeating myself for emphasis). I suspect that the Indian team knows best how strong the Australian team, sans all those greats (McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist, Langer, Martyn, etc.) still is. As long as Hayden, Ponting, Hussey and Clarke put on their pads, the batting is still strong.

It is the bowling that is weaker. Brett Lee does not even seem like swinging the ball except for a ball or two to start the innings. What happened to that brilliant out-swinger that surprised everyone, including me, when he threw it down at such a blistering pace? Mitchell Johnson is consistently bowling faster than Lee. There is something wrong about that. They lack that brilliant spinner, but then so does every other team except Sri Lanka and India. (With due apologies, Vettori and Panesar are more restrictive, than incisive, spinners).

Yes, the Aussies are down, but they are certainly not out of it. The Indian team was in a similar predicament before it went to Perth earlier this year. Australia had just won it's 16th Test in a row, and all signs pointed to an annihilation of India on the bounciest wicket in the world. Cast your mind back to that Test. India went in with a bowling attack that read - RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma (playing in his 4th Test) and Kumble. The fast bowlers took 14 of the 20 wickets to fall, and out-bowled the Aussies on their turf (Shaun Tait was so demoralized he even left the game briefly). Unheralded players can produce results given the right set of circumstances. Remember Shaun Udal?

Underestimate the heart of a champion at your own peril. I am sure that Australia will lose the series - India is, pound for pound, a far superior side - but I don't think it is a done deal as some people believe it is. I just hope that the members of the Indian team (yes, Harbhajan, especially you) do not start believing tales of their own superiority.

Luckily, India has two captains - Kumble and Dhoni - who are pragmatic and sensible. That, in the end, will determine the course of this series.

(Harsha Bhogle chimes in with a similar thesis in his column).

Cometh the hour, cometh the man

MS Dhoni's ascendancy to the top of Indian cricket's totem pole is as surprising as it is uplifting. All kinds of articles have been written about the boy from the backwaters of Jharkhand making it to the Indian team and it is not going to abate any time soon. When he first came on the scene the long, streaked hair put me off and I dismissed him as a senseless slogger (so much for never judging a book by it's cover).

Then he scored 183, always referred to as the highest score made by a wicket-keeper batsman in an ODI. I remember it for something even more significant, but under-appreciated - it is the highest score ever made by a batsman while chasing a target in an ODI. However, I began to sit up and take notice when, in the very next match, he showed me that he was more than just a slam-bang type of player. He scored 45 not out in 43 balls with 1 four and 2 sixes, taking India to an easy victory over the Sri Lankans. But the numbers lie. Take a look at the way he scored the runs in the innings. The last two balls were hit for a six, with 12 runs required to win. Until then, he was patient, farming the strike and ensuring that there was no collapse. A thinking batsman hid behind the flashy exterior.

After that innings, I started keeping track of his batting, especially during chases. (I have previously blogged about it here and, in an earlier post, here). He has gone from strength to strength and is, currently, the #1 ranked batsmen in ODI's. I was surprised at his failures in Test matches and was hoping that he played them the way he played ODI's - looking to farm the strike and then opening up once the bowlers had lost some confidence. Based on the way he batted (and then later spoke about it) in the second Test, I believe he has come to the same realization. Bowlers everywhere - beware!

The CricInfo staff wrote a drool-worthy piece (especially for Dhoni fans) about the OCD of Indian cricket.

Anand Vasu, a fine writer who, in my opinion, does not write often enough, puts forth his views on the two Indian Test captains - Kumble and Dhoni.

On a similar note, Peter Roebuck chimes in, determined not to be left behind in the Dhoni bandwagon stakes, with a nicely written piece (no surprise there) comparing the Aussie skipper to the stop-gap Indian captain.

Continuing on this theme, Prem Panicker takes the CricInfo article referred to above, and continues on with his impressions of Dhoni.

This, too, is a personality trait that is yet to be tested under real fire—but this other thing? A calm, collected public demeanor? That’s for real, and that’s likely in the long run to prove to be his single biggest asset. Consider these two clips from the Cricinfo piece:

His 100% win record is safe but Dhoni isn’t shouting triumphantly from the rooftops just yet. “Playing [just] one Test and hitting a half century, you get an average of 50. So is the case if you hit a 100,” Dhoni said, moments after securing India’s biggest victory in terms of runs. “Your performance is counted over a longer duration of the game. I got my chance here but it was a team effort.”

Dhoni, however, has the Midas touch and it was summed up best when he asked the debutant Amit Mishra to go round the stumps in the last over of the second day. Mishra bowled an accurate wrong’un to trap Michael Clarke in front and one was reminded of the ploy to give Joginder Sharma the final over of the World Twenty20 final. But Dhoni, to the amusement of all present, only said, “Fluke tha yaar [It was a fluke].”

An ability to take the game seriously without taking himself seriously is invaluable.

On a final note, I just love this ad featuring Dhoni and Shah Rukh Khan!

Cricket links

1) Suresh Menon delves into the mystique of Sourav Ganguly in great depth in this well-written piece.

2) Here's an explanation for the 2nd Test defeat from an Aussie point of view, tongue firmly in cheek.

3) Peter Roebuck, who seems to get excited and write more frequently whenever an India-Australia Test series comes around, has his very simple, but eloquent take on the reason the Aussies lost. Look no further than the title of his article for the answer. I doubt that Ponting and Roebuck are the thickest of friends.

4) Andy Bull, on The Guardian's Sports Blog, discusses the balance of power at the top of the Test table and uncovers an interesting nugget that augers well for the future of Indian cricket.

More impressive still is the record of India's Under-19 team, which, almost unnoticed, have accrued a phenomenal string of results in recent years. Since 2003, in fact, India's Under-19s have won 57 out of 64 one-day matches and lost just one Test in 15.

5) Finally, the best piece of news I have had since the Indian win is this one concerning VVS Laxman's plans for next summer.

Reading day

While waiting for the second Test match in Mohali to start, here are some of the links I have found interesting, of late.

1) Roger Ebert is, arguably, the most widely read/regarded movie critic in America. I regularly visit his blog and movie review page and have not found anyone else who writes a more coherent and thoughtful review than he does. We have differed in opinion a few times (notably for "The Ghost and the Darkness") but I tend to enjoy reading his reviews, sometimes more than the movies themselves. He has suffered a great deal in the past two years and this article documents what keeps him going in the face of such physical adversity.

2) A few days ago, before the India-Australia Test series began, Rohit Brijnath wrote what he called an elegy for the Indian veterans. I am not sure whether to call it an elegy or a eulogy. Either way, I think that tales of their demise are definitely premature. And why on earth is VVS Laxman being lumped into that category?

3) Harsha Bhogle talks about the merits and demerits of a Voluntary Retirement System for long-serving players.

4) I know, I know, I said that I would not bring up this topic again, but I cannot resist. Here's Simon Hughes talking about Graeme Hick's legacy.

5) The most fearsome fast bowlers I have ever seen (naturally on TV) were Malcolm Marshall and Imran Khan (circa 1982). Marshall is tormenting the angels with his wicked bowling while the Pathan is now a retired cricketer and active politician. In an extensive interview Imran Khan talks about cricket and politics. Articulate and not afraid to voice his opinion, this interview is a must-read. I wish more interviewees were as candid as Imran is in answering questions.

6) Peter Roebuck weighs in on the premier batsman of the last 20 years (and more), Sachin Tendulkar, as he sits on the verge of having his nose ahead of everyone else in the international run-scoring department. (The title of the article made me think of William Brown's lisping friend, Violet-Elizabeth Bott. By the way, I did not know until today that Richmal Crompton was a lady!!)

7) And finally, Prem Panicker wonders whether the lady (Anil Kumble) doth protest too much. I think he does.

Colossus of different roads

The key batsmen in the upcoming Indo-Australia Test series will be the ones at the top of the order - Virender Sehwag and Matthew Hayden.

Hayden brings to the table an imposing physique and the tendency to dominate attacks even though he spends a big portion of his innings on the defensive. But even in defense he looks like he is attacking, simply because when he goes on the offensive there are very few batsman who can belt the ball harder than he does.  I am more scared of his batting than I am Ponting's.  If the Indian bowlers do not get him quickly, I fear we are in for a long series.  The last time the two teams played each other, he scored three centuries in three Tests.  

Virender Sehwag is the ultimate trump card - just as likely to get out caught at third man as he is to reach a triple century with a six. Not surprisingly, his career strike rate (runs per 100 balls) is a mind-boggling 77.45 in Tests (99.14 in ODI's). (Frame of reference: Sourav Ganguly's strike rate in ODI's is 73.70!!). Ironically, his slower innings have been the ones that have yielded less than 100 runs. Once he is set, Sehwag tends to motor along at well over run a ball. (For instance, his second triple century in Tests was scored off just 278 balls). Slammed by many foroften "throwing" his wicket away, Sehwag impresses me as the one player on the Indian team who plays to his strengths all the time. He is easily the Indian batsman most feared by the opposition today. And that is saying something when the others are Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, and Ganguly!

Peter Roebuck echoes similar sentiments in his latest column.

Catching up

While I was away from the blogsphere these were some of the articles that caught my eye.

a) Who is (statistically) the greatest all-rounder in the history of Test cricket? The answer is someone who has very quietly put together a very formidable career. Get this: he is the only man to have scored over 9,000 runs, taken more than 200 wickets, and snagged at least 100 catches in BOTH Tests and ODI's.

b) Jamie Alter describes Virender Sehwag's approach to the Sri Lankan bowlers, especially Mendis, en route to a coruscating double century in the second Test against Sri Lanka. A must read.

c) Yuvraj Singh really has nice parents. After hearing from his mother, it is now the father's turn to talk about his son. Of particular interest is this snippet (I will let the comment speak for itself)...

Yograj doesn’t sound too happy with all the pampering that Yuvi has got from his mother Shabnam. He emphatically states, “A mother can give birth and maintain a house. But she can never show the right path to the child. It’s a man’s job. I have ruled my family with an iron hand.”

d) Two fellows - Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash - who made their debut in the same Test, underachieved at the highest level, and then forged a formidable career in the English County scene are linked forever as members of one of cricket's most exclusive clubs - the hundred 100's club. Simon Hattenstone pays glowing tribute to the ageless warriors.

e) In all the years of Test cricket, only 9 times has a batsman batted more than 1,000 minutes in Tests without being dismissed. Astonishingly, one man has done it on 4 different occasions, the latest being earlier this year. I will give you a dozen chances to guess who that might be, but I can bet that only a few of you will get it right. Not surprisingly, this dude also gives among the most boring interviews around, filled with banal observations and very little insight into the way he really thinks. Or maybe that's the secret of his success - he is really a very simple person!

f) Dileep Premachandran wrote about the declining fortunes of the Indian middle order after they failed miserably in the first innings of the Third Test match. After the series was done, he expanded on his thoughts and discussed the state of India's cricketing cupboard.

g) One of my favourite cricket-writers is Peter Roebuck. While it is probably too soon in his career for such fawning pieces to be written about him, it voices many of my sentiments.

h) And finally, Sambit Bal reviews the process of challenging an umpire's decision that was unveiled during the just-concluded Indo-Sri Lanka series. A tentative thumb's up is his final verdict, with the emphasis on the word tentative.

It was meant to get rid of obvious umpiring mistakes - the kind in the Sydney Test that threatened to derail India's tour of Australia - but it has ended up ruling on marginal calls.

And so it ends...

When the IPL began in India I had decided not to follow it (reasons detailed here).

CricInfo decided that the game of cricket was far superior to the (not-so) hidden agendas of the BCCI head honchos and covered the event as best as it could. Their motivation, as eloquently described by Sambit Bal, the editor, can be summed up in this paragraph from the article:

We will live with the restrictions. You may keep us out of cricket grounds, but you can't take cricket out of us. Boycotting the IPL is not an option for us. Our commitment to cover cricket is absolute, as is our obligation to you. We are not blind to the significance of the IPL, which could be a seminal event in cricket, for better or worse. We will try to bring you every game with the same rigour and depth you have come to expect from us. Please bear with us if some matters like photographs are beyond us.

No one is bigger than the game. Administrators will come and go, but as long as cricket is around, Cricinfo will be here to cover it. That's a promise.

I did not follow the IPL for most of its duration, except to read about it in articles by columnists that I follow regularly (notably Peter Roebuck and Harsha Bhogle). One article that caught my attention was by Michael Atherton, the erstwhile captain of England. He touched upon the potential connection between Major League Baseball and the IPL.

Are Rajasthan Royals the Oakland A's of cricket? Devotees of excellent sporting literature will need no introduction to Moneyball, a terrific yarn about how the A's, a relatively low-budget baseball team ($41million - about £22million - to spend on players counts as low budget in American sport), consistently outperformed their more illustrious and wealthier rivals by dint of the unorthodox coaching methods of Billy Beane, their general manager.

Having read Moneyball, I can see where Atherton was going with this article. But the Rajasthan Royals differ from the Oakland A's in one BIG way - they won the championship. For all the success that Billy Beane has had over the years, maximizing the talents of his lowly-paid team, he has not been able to continue the success into the playoffs. In the playoffs, possibly because the "stars" are more immune to the increased pressure, the big guns win it all. Occasionally, a smaller-market team pulls it off, but rarely does that team sustain its success.

A lot of credit will go towards Shane Warne (it will get increasingly romanticized with time) as it must, but had they lost the final (which they barely won off the last ball, mind you) then the highest-paid player in the league - MS Dhoni - would have walked off with the crown.

There is, indeed, a fine line between being the GOAT and the goat.

Spring cleaning

Spring is in the air, and closets are being swept out! Over the past few months, while trolling the web, I picked up articles that I thought were very interesting or informative. The following links will give you an idea of what I do when I am not watching the riveting action on the screen.

1) Sanjay Bangar describes the role played by the 12th man in a squad. Methinks that some of the things they have to do is really menial and degrading, for want of a better word.

2) Paras Mhambrey gives us a very revealing inside look of the dressing rooms, a view that very few people get to see.

3) R. Ashwin talks about cricket as a professional sport in India and how it compares to Australia.

4) Anand Vasu interviews Sourav Ganguly. Like Anand, I have changed my opinion about Ganguly, too, having written him off as a Test player not too long ago.

5) When the umpires for the India-Australia 2007-08 Test series were announced, DSC and I had had a long discussion about the persons chosen and I remember agonizing over the choice of Steve Bucknor. Unfortunately, I never put it down in writing so I can't really claim the "I-told-you-so" high ground, though I did feel he was going to be responsible for a ruckus even then. Amit Verma, in his own way, talks about Bucknor and what can be done to assist fellows like him and prevent them from destroying matches.

6) Of all the fluff pieces that came out after Anil Kumble crossed the 600 Test wicket threshold, this article by Anand Vasu was the best one I read.

7) Another fine writer, Sambit Bal, interviews Anil Kumble after the dust has settled on the India-Australia Test series.

8) Peter Roebuck, in his inimitable style, pays tribute to Adam Gilchrist - one of my favourite cricketers ever. Strange to think that a guy younger than me has retired from his profession, while I am just starting in mine!

9) And while on Peter Roebuck, here is an article he wrote in 1991 predicting the 7 players who represented the future of Australian cricket. Pretty prescient of him, I must say.

10) You say potatoes, I say potatoes. Here are two contrasting views that were gleaned from the same basic interview that MS Dhoni gave to the press. The Aussie view highlights how Dhoni promises to keep on sledging, while the Indian view is that Dhoni is criticizing the Aussies for their sledging. You say tomatoes, I say tomatoes.

11) I judge a batsman's true worth not by the runs he scores or the average he maintains (though those are useful indicators) but by the partnerships he is involved in. A very revealing statistical study by CricInfo separates the show ponies from the real players. Note how many 100+ and 50+ partnerships Rahul Dravid has been involved in!

12) Peter Roebuck once again. In my estimate, he is one of the top 3 or 4 cricket-writers in the world. He gives his views on the rising fortunes of Indian cricket.

13) The richest cricketing Board in the world, the BCCI, has a very pathetic, non-functional excuse for a website. Compare that with the excellent offerings of the rebel Indian Cricket League. Shameful. It can't be that hard to set one up. Even MS Dhoni, that boy from Ranchi, has his own official website. What about the Indian Premier League, you say? Well, here's their official website - better but it still leaves a lot to be desired. Just for fun, click on the tab for the Tournament rules. The players have been bought, (ahem) auctioned, but there are no rules in place, it appears, on what to do with them or what they will do!!

14) While writers outside India (and some within) have been slamming the IPL, and all the money that is being flouted, Amit Verma tells us why the IPL is a good thing. I just wish (hope? pray? beg?) that the IPL honchos leave the ICL players alone rather than continue with their current efforts to treat them like pariahs. After all, there are a limited number of players who can play in the IPL. Why not let the ICL be a source of income or an avenue for the fringe players to display their talents? I think the IPL and the ICL can coexist, but it will never happen as long as the current set of administrators rules the roost in the BCCI and the ICL. There is too much pride at stake now, and too much mud that has been slung.

15) Mukul Kesavan bemoans that something Sachin Tendulkar said recently may have been an indication that Test cricket is dying. I don't share his pessimistic view but I am concerned, nevertheless. Give me the attritional swings of fortune during a Test match over the slam-bang, whim-wham, of an ODI or T20, any day of the week and then twice on Sunday.

16) Siddhartha Vaidyanathan explores the schedule of cricket's busiest player and wonders when the body will give in to the strain. Watching Dhoni collect the ball with one hand during the 2nd final of the VB Series was very disconcerting. Judging from the "appearances" he is making on a daily basis, ranging from hectic visits to temples to opening motorbike stores, I wonder if he is really getting the rest he needs before the series against South Africa.

16) And finally, in his own words, Daniel Vettori describes the only time he ever asked for an autograph from a cricketer. It is not who you think it would be. It is very revealing that in a testimonial match for Sir Richard Hadlee, he took someone else's autograph!

The Agony and the Anguish

Peter Roebuck is one of my favourite writers - cricket or otherwise. His latest column is filled with hurt and anger and is, surprisingly for someone who relies on contacts for his living, very hard-hitting and blunt.

I am not going to place excerpts of that article here as I feel it should be read in its entirety or else the message will be get lost in the text. It is said that the best way to highlight an issue is to propose an extreme solution, and by getting others to refute it, engender a discussion that previously was not even contemplated. Maybe that is what Roebuck is trying to do here.

Either way it is time to wake up and smell the roses, as decayed as they may be.

Switching to success

Peter Roebuck writes well, needless to say, but he also knows how to drive home his point. Here, he discusses semi-ambidexterous cricketers.

Like all good writers, he drives home his point (pun intended) with his last paragraph. 'Nuff said.

A Somerset man's view

Peter Roebuck puts forward his thoughts on the current Indian ODI team. I have been a fan of his writing style for some time now and this article reinforces why.

The final word

In the movie "Saajan", the two heroes (Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt) are in love with the same girl - Madhuri Dixit. Once they both realize this, they go to great lengths to try to "step out of the way" of their friend's love, eventually reaching a climax where Madhuri, finally, catches on to this. And she says (liberally paraphrasing and condensing her teary, voluminous rant), "All this sacrificing each other's love is well and good, but has either of you considered, even for a second, whom do I want to be with?"

Why was I reminded of "Saajan"? The vox populi has been that Ganguly deserved a more ceremonial exit. Further, that he should have been allowed to announce his exit himself, rather than be dropped. To which I would like to ask - Has anyone asked Ganguly if he even wants to exit? The man has been almost vehement in repeatedly stating that he has a few good years left in him. So if the selectors were to have gone up to him and said that the Ahmedabad Test would be his last, would Ganguly have then agreed with them and gracefully exited the stage? I don't think so. Therefore, one must wonder what ulterior motives all these politicians have, so much so that the Indian Parliament is going to discuss this. Discuss what? Will they, after the discussion, pass a law that forbids the BCCI from dropping anyone until they have had a chance to leave on their own terms? Don't these people have more pressing matters to attend to? As I was pondering this, I came across an article that wrote about this and other related points.

I am tired of thinking and reading any further about Sourav Ganguly and the merits/demerits of his inclusion/exclusion from the Indian cricket team. As a parting shot - here is an article by Peter Roebuck, a foreign voice making some very valid points that the mudslingers would be well-advised to read. And with that, on this blog, I shall not discuss this issue any further.

The menacing metronome

As the years have gone by, one bowler who has risen sharply in my esteem is Glenn McGrath. Having followed his initial career through scorecards and match reports I had built an image of a metronomic bowler who invariably won the battle of attrition. In the past few years I have had a chance to see him bowl in many different settings and realized that he is much more than a metronome, he actually hunts with a plan.

Slowly and silently (though sadly, he does occasionally resort to ugly verbal volleys) he sets up the batsman and lulls him into a false sense of security. And when the batsman lets his guard down - in a flash the man strikes again.

And lest you think he feeds on meek tailenders - he is at his best when bowling to the top order. In fact he is better at prising out top batsmen than any other fast bowler in the game's history (among those who have taken at least 300 Test wickets).

And how vital is he to the Aussie team? In the recent Ashes series, he did not play 2 Test matches and Australia lost both of them. In the 3 Tests he played, Australia won 1 and drew two.

When McGrath claimed his 500th Test victim, Peter Roebuck wrote this ode to him.