Cricket in the 'Burgh - part 7: Surviving the storm

The opinions expressed in this post are solely that of the author who, on occasion, had an out-of-body experience and was able to watch himself play.

Also, in order to keep some suspense about the 2007 season, when I provide a link to a player's page I shall link to the page that shows his 2006 stats.

Game 3: WVUCC versus Hurricanes

Unlike some other teams in the PCA, WVUCC think tank does not tolerate indiscipline. Prior to the game against the Hurricanes, many players opted to skip practice. Consequently, when game day rolled around, the Mountaineers followed the "no practice = no play" rule and dressed only 9 players for the all-important match.

The Hurricanes are a team that came into existence in time for the 2007 season. Two players - Naveen Peiris and Anu Chopra were familiar foes, having played for the Strikers in the 2006 season. Of the two, the Mountaineers were vary of Anu, but truly in awe of Naveen. Easily the most feared batsman in the league, Naveen is a left-hander with a lot of patience. His preferred mode of attack is to flick and pull for sixes while driving in the V for singles when the boundaries are not on offer. Last year he scored nearly 700 runs at a strike rate of almost 150. But his best quality is his unflappable temperament and sportsmanship. Before the day was done the Mountaineers got a first-hand account of just that aspect of his.

Naveen won the toss and put WVUCC into bat. C.S. Manish began in his usual, sedate manner while Arvind Thiruvengadam began like a man whose hair was on fire. For the third straight match he hit the first delivery he faced to the fence. Two more boundaries followed in quick succession but he could not temper his aggression and paid the price, holing out to cover.

Sohail Chaudhry came in, flicked a six and square-cut a boundary, before perishing off Ajay Belambe's bowling. The pattern of the innings was beginning to emerge. Batsman after batsman came in, played a cameo, and departed when set. At one end Old Man River was keeping his end of the bargain, inching his way along with his dabs to third man and fine leg. At the other end, Ashok Varadarajan and Amol Bhavsar both began with sixes and then perished in trying to needlessly repeat the strokes. For all their experience, the two have a distinct weakness against spin bowling as they are often caught between pre-determinedly defending the ball or hitting out, with no medium level of aggression.

When Manish departed, pulling a short ball to the deep midwicket fence, the Mountaineers were in trouble at 81 for 5. Stepping into the fray was Sumanth Dommaraju. In 2006, Sumanth impressed the think tank with his sharp fielding and confident batting. With a typical Hyderabadi-style propensity to flick balls on the off-stump to the leg-side, Sumanth is always a candidate for an LBW but when his head is over the ball, it is almost impossible to dismiss him that way. The Hurricanes found this out the hard way. Steadying the ship and teasing along the strike, Sumanth nurtured the Mountaineer innings past the 100 mark and, as he began to run out of partners (remember WVUCC played with just 9 players), he opened up and found the boundaries (5 fours, and 1 six) at opportune moments.

With his bowlers unable to finish the job, Naveen brought himself on and removed the wickets at the other end. WVUCC ended up with a below-par score of 138 for 8 in less than 20 overs. A little more application by any of the top 5 batsman and the remaining 5 overs could have been milked for many more critical runs.

But a score on the board still has to be chased. A splendid spell of new ball bowling by Sohail (3-1-8-0) was just the pressure-building start that was needed. Harshesh Patel, on debut, was a little more wayward and Amol Bhavsar quickly filled the gap with an outstanding display of bowling (4-1-11-2). With just 7 fielders to man the ground, the think tank decided that Ashok's prowess in the outfield was more valuable than his keeping. Sohail reverted back to his primary job - wicketkeeping - after bowling his opening spell. Standing up to the stumps, Sohail cramped the batsmen's foot movement with the ever-present threat of being stumped off a fast bowling looming over them. (This isn't hyperbole, in the 2006 season, Sohail once stumped an opening batsman while standing up to a fast bowler).

The Hurricanes, wisely, did not look to force the issue and at 36 for no loss they were in the driver's seat with Naveen still to come. The Mountaineers were looking for a crack and when Krish Kalyanaraman mis-hit a ball to be caught and bowled by Amol, the floodgates had been temporarily opened. The Mountaineers quickly went about taking the wickets on offer - one eye on the score and one eye on the big guns to follow. At 56 for 3, Anu and Naveen got together and began a very sensible partnership. Without looking to score boundaries they took the singles when available and bided their time. Sohail pushed the field back, looking to see if the batsman would be willing to take singles all the way to victory.

With less than 60 runs required (and 7 wickets in hand), Sohail tried the wildest of wild cards - the faux off-spin of Manish. Naveen and Anu were not taking any risks against the regular bowlers, so the think tank felt that offering a lamb to the slaughter might induce a mistake. The third ball of the over produced just that when Naveen unwisely tried to play against the turn and lofted the ball towards deep mid-wicket. The ball took the outside part of the bat and hung in the air for a long time. Abishek Muralidharan came running in from long-on, reached the ball, and then dropped it!! To add insult to injury, the next ball, a full toss, was smashed over square-leg for a huge six, easily clearing the trees that protect the trail-walkers on the hillside. Manish's first over went for 13 runs, and with the miss, possibly the match, too.

With both batsmen looking rock solid, something special was needed, and in the next over, when Anu unwisely took off for a run that wasn't there, Arvind collected an accurate throw from Sohail and negated Anu's despairing desperate dive back to the crease, a breach was made. All WVUCC had to do was scuttle the ship around Naveen and they could make a match out of it.

The first ball of the next over needs its own paragraph. Manish, the lamb, came back for one last attempt. Naveen danced down the pitch to meet the ball and Manish pushed it wide down the leg-side. Sohail collected the ball and whipped off the bails even as Naveen was turning back to the crease. As the Mountaineers began rejoicing they realized that the square-leg umpire had not given Naveen out!! Incredulous! Naveen turned to Sohail and asked him if he thought he had completed the stumping in time, and when he received an affirmative reply, he walked off the ground. If it was possible for Naveen to rise in our esteem, it went up even further after this classy act of sportsmanship. 105 for 5 after 15 overs, 34 runs to win in 60 balls, 5 wickets to go.

Having obtained the twin breakthrough's he needed, Sohail went on the offensive, bringing in the fielders, and bringing back his best bowlers. With the pressure mounting after every dot ball (the Hurricanes were constantly reminded about the mounting pressure by the vociferous Mountaineer fielders) the Hurricanes began pressing and crashed spectacularly, losing the next 5 wickets for just 23 runs.

An undermanned WVUCC won by 14 runs. In the 2006-07 seasons, WVUCC played no less than 7 games with fewer than 11 players . The Mountaineers won 6 of those contests! There is something about having missing pieces in the field to cover for that brings out the best in every WVUCC player. With no one to back them up, the players are forced to put a price on their abilities - whether batting, bowling, or fielding - resulting in some sterling performances. This win against the Hurricanes was no different.

Coming up next was a grudge match against the 2006 champions - the PittsPunters - who had never lost to the Mountaineers. There is a lot of bad blood between the two teams to make this more than just a game. The match lived up to its billing...but more on that in my next post.

Cricket in the 'Burgh - part 6: Inching to a big win

The opinions expressed in this post are solely that of the author who, on occasion, had an out-of-body experience and was able to watch himself play.

Also, in order to keep some suspense about the 2007 season, when I provide a link to a player's page I shall link to the page that shows his 2006 stats.

Game 2: WVUCC versus Gladiators

After the loss to the SteelZags in the season opener, the resolve of the Mountaineers was tested. Next up were the Gladiators, led by Zeeshan Babar. The Mountaineers had not-so-fond memories of Zeeshan's prowess from the previous season. Zeeshan is a good fast bowler who tends to get discouraged if he does not get a wicket in his first couple of overs. As a batsman he bats like Shahid Afridi, swinging his bat like there is no tomorrow. The Gladiators are a very experienced team but take some time getting into the swing of things. The strategy against them was simple - when bowling, attack with our best bowlers up front and, when batting, preserve wickets to frustrate the bowlers even if it means the run rate takes a hit.

The Gladiators played into WVUCC's hands by opting to bat upon winning the toss. In the morning the ball does not travel as quickly over the outfield as it is still damp from the dew and the fielders are fresh and able to run harder for longer periods of time. Ahmad Choudhary (Ahmad bhai to everyone at WVUCC) could not get going and was cleaned up by Avinash Manivannan. By the time Avinash and Sohail Chaudhry finished their opening spells, the Gladiators were 24 for 4 in 8 overs. The stage was set for Amol Bhavsar to take charge and he did just that. With his disarming two-step run-up, Amol speared the ball on the good length spot and let his speed and movement (predominantly outswing) do the rest. A spell of 5 overs, 4 for 17 by Amol ensured that the Gladiators were primed for Sohail and Ajay Nayak to come back and dismiss them for 96.

The PCA league adopts a bonus point system. Every win is worth 4 points, a tie or washout worth 2. If the winning team gets to the target in less than 20 overs (the games are 25 overs) or restricts the losing team to less than 80% of its total, then an additional bonus point will be accrued.

97 runs in 25 overs. Step one was to prevent an early collapse, and who better to do the job than C.S. Manish. If you had to pick a batsman in the PCA league to bat for a whole day without scoring a run, most people would blindly pick Manish. The onus of frustrating Zeeshan was placed on him and he did just that, carefully watching out the increasingly frustrated captain while Arvind Thiruvengadam tried to pick off the single's and two's at the other end. The Manish-Arvind opening pair are superb between the wickets and pride themselves on taking two runs with a dab to the square-leg umpire.

After seeing off the opening thrust, Arvind departed with the team score at 28, dismissed by the very impressive left-hander Usman Lone. The stage was set for Sohail to take off. Content in the knowledge that the other end was secure Sohail did what he does best, nonchalantly flicking and square-driving sixes. 35 runs in 15 balls with 1 four and 4 sixes pretty much describes his impact and the march to victory was a mere formality after that. The strategy of holding back paid off and WVUCC got to the target in 19 overs to also secure the all-important bonus point.

After two matches, WVUCC's record was 1-1 and up next was a team that was new to the PCA - the Hurricanes - but was led by the most feared batsman in the league - Naveen Peiris.

Cricket in the 'Burgh - part 5: And so it begins...

The opinions expressed in this post are solely that of the author who, on occasion, had an out-of-body experience and was able to watch himself play.

Also, in order to keep some suspense about the 2007 season, when I provide a link to a player's page I shall link to the page that shows his 2006 stats.

Game 1: WVUCC versus SteelZags

The opening game of the 2007 was a doozy, pitting the two teams that led the league in 2006 - SteelZags and WVUCC.

The SteelZags are led by Ram Paluri, a very correct left-handed batsman who plays in straight lines, except when he gets short-pitched balls that he likes to deposit beyond the brook at midwicket. WVUCC identified this as his one big weakness. The normal good length ball outside the off-stump would not do, as he was classy enough to simply hit through the line and loft it over cover. Instead a trap was set to give him a short ball outside the off-stump and let his cross-batted instincts take over. And take over they did! He predictably went across the line and ended up lofting a catch off the splice to be caught at mid-off and was gone.

The SteelZags bat well as a team - apart from Ram they do not really have a prolific scorer - and focus primarily on stitching together partnerships, chipping away at the opposition's plans. As the innings progressed they batted efficiently, hitting boundaries when the opportunities presented themselves, but mostly content to bide their time and take the extras on offer. Not surprisingly, this being the first game of the season, the bowlers had a tough time controlling the ball, giving up 10 no-balls, 27 wides. (In all fairness, the SteelZags returned the favour when their turn came but the effect of chasing 170 on the board is different from chasing 140).

The SteelZags finished at 169 for 7 in 25 overs. A word about Edgebrook Field (click here for a picture) will put the total into perspective. The ground is basically a soccer field with extended yardage on the longer sides. It is surrounded on the two longer sides by a trail, which marks the boundary. On one side of the trail flows a bubbling brook, on the opposite side is a dense woodlot. The long boundaries on either side are flanked by parking lots. The square boundaries are quite short (about a decent lob wedge distance) and wreck havoc on the bowlers analyses if they err even a little bit.

In general, a score of 150 should be considered par. Anything up to 175-180 is gettable. Beyond 180 the balance shifts towards the bowling side. So 170 was on the cusp. Gettable but still a tough one.

WVUCC began with a bang, taking 16 runs from the first over. Arvind Thiruvengadam hit the first ball of his season handsomely over cover for a 6. Disaster struck in the second over when C.S. Manish overextended after completing a first run and was caught napping, run out at the non-strikers end. 17 for 1 quickly became 40 for 5, until Ashok Varadarajan and Abishek Muralidharan steadied the ship and settled everyone's nerves with a good partnership, bringing up the 100 without being unduly troubled by any of the bowlers. WVUCC reached 135 for 5, needing just 34 runs with 5 wickets left when Krishna Konduru, who gave up those 16 runs in the first over exacted his revenge, scything through the batting. In the proverbial blink of an eye WVUCC was all out for 150, with three overs still left in the bag.

With that loss, WVUCC continued a dismal trend against the SteelZags. This was their 4th game against the 'Zags over the course of two seasons and they had yet to beat them. (Things would only get worse the next time the two teams faced off later in the year).

But the season had begun and WVUCC had something tangible to work on in the practices ahead of the next game against the Gladiators.

Cricket in the 'Burgh - part 4: Think tank strategies

The opinions expressed in this post are solely that of the author who, on occasion, had an out-of-body experience and was able to watch himself play.

Before the season started Sohail, Manish, Ashok, Abishek and Arvind sat down and charted some of the strategies and goals for the season.

The team would always be selected by a consensus opinion of the five. Once the team was decided, all the players would be encouraged to give inputs at any time, but the final on-field decisions on bowling changes, batting orders, and field placement would come from one man - Sohail.

Each player would be told what his role in the team was and practices would be set up such that their roles would be reinforced. Practices would simulate match conditions and at all times all the players would be on the bubble. Of course, missing practices automatically disqualified a player from playing in matches.

By far, the biggest emphasis was on team discipline. Under no circumstances would indiscipline be tolerated. WVUCC would play less than 11 members , but would not compromise on this point.

So, dear friends, if you are still reading these posts, the stage has been set and the 2007 season is about to begin. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Cricket in the 'Burgh - part 3: Dramatis personæ

The opinions expressed in this post are solely that of the author who, on occasion, had an out-of-body experience and was able to watch himself play.

Before we get to the season, here are some of the major characters we shall be hearing from as the season progresses:

Captain: Sohail Chaudhry
Someone once said that the WVUCC was a "one-man team". We beg to differ - WVUCC is a 3-man team. Sohail is the leading run-scorer, the leading wicket-taker, and his primary skill is actually that of a wicket-keeper. He is the rock of the team and the calmest person in the biggest of storms.

Vice-Captain and opening batsman: C.S. Manish
A stodgy, cautious fellow at the crease (in 2006 he had the lowest strike rate of any batsman who scored at least 100 runs in the PCA at a little over 65 runs per 100 balls), Manish more than makes it up with his mouth. Until the emergence of Arvind, many an opposing team had to endure a constant stream of mindless chatter from him.

Opening batsman: Arvind Thiruvengadam
Thin, wiry and articulate, Arvind likes hitting in the V and the cover region. Fielding at cover-point keeps him really close to the batsman and he does not miss a single opportunity to remind the batsmen of the enormity of the task ahead of him. In addition, he is turning into a very reliable bowler in the death.

Middle-order pillar: Abishek Muralidharan
Tall and upright in his stance, Abishek is one of the best looking batsmen in the league (and he himself is not bad-looking either) but 2006 was a series of Laxman-ish cameos. What he is missing is one long innings to show him what he is capable of. Once that key turns in the lock, the bowlers of the league better watch out.

Wicket-keeper: Ashok Varadarajan
By a far, far, far, margin Ashok is the best fielder I have ever played with, be it close to the wicket or out at the boundary. The safest of catchers, in the 4 years I have seen him play I can count on my fingers the number of catches I have seen him drop. And I am even counting the ones during our practice sessions! With the wicket-keeping spot opening up, Ashok volunteered and took to it as if he was born to do just that.

First change bowler: Amol Bhavsar
Bowling from a 2-step run up, when in song, Amol uses his huge shoulders to rate amongst the fastest bowlers in the league. A very good fielder off his own bowling, he probably holds the WVUCC record for the most caught-and-bowled dismissals. When he puts his head down, he can also be an effective late-order slugger.

Middle-order batsman: Sumanth Dommaraju
The quietest guy in the team, the last time someone officially heard Sumanth say anything on the cricket field, Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India. As an infielder, he gives Ashok a run for his money and possesses a flat throw that is the envy of many a player.

These are some of the players who have already played for the team in the 2006 season. As the 2007 season progresses more players will be introduced to you. As that happens they shall be providing their own descriptions with their deeds.

Cricket in the 'Burgh - part 2: Off-season blues

The opinions expressed in this post are solely that of the author who, on occasion, had an out-of-body experience and was able to watch himself play.

Every off-season for WVUCC is filled with apprehension. All the players in the team are students and when they graduate and move on, the team composition changes. Members of the WVUCC committee never know if they will have enough new recruits to start the next season! Old-timers like Sohail Chaudhry, Ashok Varadarajan, Amol Bhavsar, and C.S. Manish, among others, experience this tension every year.

The 2006 edition was one of the strongest bowling WVUCC sides ever assembled (Karthik Venkatasubramianiam and Hari Menon formed the most awesome opening pair) and replacing them was the key to a successful 2007 season. The secondary concern was strengthening the batting order but, with a year or two under their belts, Arvind Thiruvengadam, Abishek Muralidharan, and Ashok were ready to step up to the plate.

A preliminary team meeting was held early in 2007 and with great anticipation St Francis Field was booked. By tapping on the shoulders of former players WVUCC was able to marshall enough money for much-needed equipment purchase. By the end of the season, WVUCC had a very comprehensive kit and eased the perpetual worries of the players.

On the first day of practice, no less than 22 players showed up!

and the 2007 season was well on its way!

Cricket in the 'Burgh - part 1: A new season begins

The opinions expressed in this post are solely that of the author who, on occasion, had an out-of-body experience and was able to watch himself play.

In the 2006 season, West Virginia University Cricket Club (WVUCC) joined the Pittsburgh Cricket Association (PCA) after a many years in the Midwest Cricket League (you can go find the links to that league yourself, if interested!)

Led from the front by Sohail Chaudhry, it did not take long for WVUCC to establish itself in the league as one of the better teams. A total of 7 teams played each other three times (for a total of 18 regular season games). In a quirky season WVUCC finished runners-up in the regular season standings without ever defeating the Steelzags or the PittPunters in three chances each (click here for the 2006 season scoreboards).

Unfortunately, the lack of success against the elite teams in the league caught up to WVUCC in the semi-finals when the PittPunters steamrolled past them, eventually going on to win the championship.

Here are a couple of photographs of the team members during a practice session at St. Francis Field in Morgantown, WV (I blogged about it here last year).

The loss to the PittPunters rankled all off-season and when 2007 began a revamped WVUCC approached the new campaign with a firmer resolve...

Breaking rules

The first cardinal rule of my blog has been to never refer to anyone by their full name in a post. The second rule has been to never show people's faces in photographs.

In the next few days I am going to break those two rules for a specific set of posts that I want to do about the exploits of the West Virginia University Cricket Club, in particular focusing on their 2007 season as a member of the Pittsburgh Cricket Association.

Being prepared is half the battle

On the cricket team I "coached" we had a very good batsman (AM) who had one major flaw. When he was the non-striker he would not take a start. Consequently, he would be in his crease even after the batsman had played a shot and, more often than not, watch where the ball was going before taking off for a run. It took a lot of goading on my part before he changed his ways.

Naturally, towards the end of the season, in a crucial game he was run out when a straight drive by the batsman ricocheted off the bowler's arm onto the stumps with him too far out of the crease! Nevertheless, in exchange for that one freak dismissal, AM was able to score umpteen runs for the team and finished the season as our leading run-scorer.

Chasing after the ball, running quickly even when you pop up an easy catch so in the very least you cross-over, throwing to the keeper every time you get the ball, running after the ball in pairs just in case the first person fumbles, running the first run hard when the ball rolls towards the fielders in the deep - these are all some of the attributes of our team. And it paid huge dividends in our matches. (More on that in the next few days, I promise).

When a team of rank amateurs like us know these fundamental things, why is it so hard for a team of professionals like the Indian cricket team to understand them? Next time you watch the Indian team look out for how often the fielders in the deep wait for the ball to come to them as opposed to charging forward to meet it closer to the 30-yard circle. By charging forward they achieve two things - the tired batsman cannot simply amble across for a single, and the throw the fielder has to make is shortened, therefore he can throw it to either end, if necessary. Another example - Sourav Ganguly at the non-strikers end is a lesson is how not to back up. He stands with his bat inside the crease even after the ball has been delivered. The number of runs he could have scored would have been greater if only he ran with more purpose when the ball is hit because he would have been on strike a lot more.

There are many other similar things that come to mind, but Sambit Bal does a better job of talking about it here, while providing reasons for a 4-2 defeat that could easily have been 3-3, or even 2-4, in India's favour.

Selectorial shenanigans and name games

The only absolute truism in Indian cricket is that your selection to the team depends a lot more on who you know....no, let me rephrase it...it depends on who knows you rather than any on-field talent that you may possess.

Read this fine piece by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan regarding how the teams were selected for the ongoing Challenger series and you will understand what I mean. The absolute kicker for me is that a player with just 2 first-class centuries (yes, just TWO) is a shoe-in for all the prestigious sub-Test teams simply because of who his father is.

Shakespeare probably did not factor in nepotism when he wrote about roses being roses and smelling just as sweet. The stench here is definitely not rosy.

Skipping to glory

Long-time followers of this blog know that one of the greatest pleasures for me is to skip stones on a lake. In the past I have written about some stone skipping stories here and here.

I did not know skipping stones was a serious enterprise - a friend sent me an article that talks about a guy in Pennsylvania who recently set a world record in skipping stones!

Paradigm shift

Here is India's only chance of beating the Aussies - make bowler-friendly wickets.

We will not be able to out-bat the Aussies. The reason is simple - in the current Indian team only Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni are playing without fear of failure. Everyone else has one eye on the scoreboard and the other on their place in the team.

Unless we reduce the Aussie score to a number that does not require multiple batsmen firing on all cylinders, we will not beat them. Simple as that. Here is my prediction for the remaining 4 games of the series. India will not win a game if they do not score more than 325 batting first. And India will not chase a total of more than 240 successfully.

So there.

Just say no

The Indian cricket team is being shellacked by the detemined Aussies in the ODI series. The current team could give the Aussies a run for their money, IF the playing fields were level.

Check out this article that describes the the type of off-field pressure the Indian team has to deal with. A lot of it is of their doing, but I sense this is the norm not the exception. No wonder they appear jaded.

Measured maniac

What I have seen of MS Dhoni has impressed me. He has a reputation of being a slogger, but I have seen that he is not a mindless slogger (I can think of only one occasion when he slogged without heed to the situation). His innings are crafted based upon the situation and he makes up for a lack of a purist's technique by inventing shots of his own.

I think he is right person to lead India in the ODI's and the Twenty20's. (For Tests, I am still hoping VVS Laxman gets chosen as the captain). Right now he is enjoying his honeymoon phase. In the coming weeks he will realize how fickle the media is in their quest for TRP's and sales.

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan describes the man of the moment, and finds attributes that will hold him in good stead when the inevitable storm approaches (pardon the pun). Not to be outdone, Dileep Premachandran has a little to say, too, after MSD led India to the championship.

Speed gun

The fastest bowler in the world is an Indian. No this is not a typo. On top of it, this person is also the recipient of this year's ICC Cricketer of the Year award.

But no parades were arranged, no meetings convened, to celebrate this achievement, lending further credence to my notion that Indian fans are not cricket-crazy, they are Indian men's cricket (when-they-are-doing-well) crazy.

Graceless under pressure

Justin Henin defeated Serena Williams at the US Open. But judging from Serena's response, it would appear that Henin did not have to do anything special to defeat her. For a woman, who appears to depend so much on being in the limelight, she definitely has very poor manners. This is not an aberration. This is a common sight at press conferences after losses. I hope her sponsors pull out of their deals with her. Maybe then she would learn to acknowledge that the opponent across the net may have had something to do with it.

Specifically, this is what she had to say about Justine Henin's performance: "I just think she made a lot of lucky shots."

Contrast her responses with how Novak Djokovic talked about Roger Federer after the men's final, specifically in response to a loaded question where he was asked:

Q. You're talking about you being unlucky. Yesterday Davydenko said of Roger when asked, what's the one thing Roger does best, he said, Lucky. There were a couple of set points of his that the ball literally landed on the line. Were you feeling, Wow, this guy really is lucky?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: As I was saying before, next to all those elements, all the positive strengths you have in your game, in your mind, you need a bit of luck. I cannot say that he is No. 1 player of the world because he's lucky (laughter). You know, that's a bit strange to say. You know, he's a big worker, very talented, a great player. That's why he deserves to be there where he is. But, of course, he is lucky and he gets these lines and lucky shots, I can say, because he's going for them. He's not trying to play safe. He's really being aggressive.

Djokovic is just 20 years old and had just lost in his first Grand Slam final after holding numerous opportunities in a match that he dominated for extended periods of time. Yet, not an ounce of bitterness exuded from him. You can read the entire transcript of his interview here.

Serena should be made to read that interview. Maybe she will learn something from it.

Clean transportation

In San Jose, I came across a Toyota Prius. Nothing great since a hybrid car is more likely to be found there than anywhere else. What was interesting was that it was a taxicab!

It inspires me to go and buy one for myself. If a cabbie can care about the environment, so can I.

Maggi Noodle Review: 3:10 to Yuma

Riding high

After the disappointment that I had last week, I stumbled onto a gem of a movie this week.

I walked into the theatre to watch "3:10 to Yuma" because of the two stars in the movie - Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. And boy, did they deliver?! Ram Gopal Varma should be hogtied and made to watch this movie to learn how to take a very simple story, let the actors talk (yes, the characters talk a lot more than they shoot), and build the tension and excitement.

Crowe plays a wanted bandit, who is captured and has to be transported to a town where he can be put on the train to Yuma, to be tried, and subsequently hung, for his offences. Bale plays a down-on-his-luck rancher, who desperately needs the money he will get for accompanying the men who will help transport Crowe. Lying in wait are Crowe's henchmen, hell-bent on retrieving their boss, regardless of personal loss or consequences.

Along the way Crowe and Bale elevate the movie from a simple shoot-em-up to something more engrossing. In a time where explosions and 3 second shots are supposed to reflect the attention span and intellect of the audience, it is great to see a director pan his camera slowly to catch the action and let the dialogues substitute for thrills.

Don't get me wrong - there is a lot of shooting, features one or two seemingly improbable gun battles, lots of folks die, and in many different ways. But through it all it somehow does not seem contrived. There are genuine moments of tension, anxiety, tenderness, and a whole lot of other emotions that you would not expect.

I'd write a lot more but I shall let the movie do its own talking. I hope this movie manages to do well at the box office. But I fear for its fate in this day and age when teeny-bopper slasher movies are the rage.

It is one of the best Westerns I have ever seen. Watch it and tell me what you think.

Maggi Noodle Review: RGV's Aag

Severely burnt toast

This past weekend I was walking around Manhattan (well, sort of), when I wandered into a movie theatre (check out the "pun"ny name of the theatre) to watch Ram Gopal Varma's ode to Sholay - the grand-daddy of contemporary Indian movies .


His movie is very humbly titled "Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag".

I have seen some bad movies in my life. In my opinion, the worst I had ever seen was Battlefield Earth. I think I have found a competitor.

The star cast is fairly talented - Amitabh Bachchan, Mohanlal, Ajay Devgan, Sushmita Sen, Rajpal Yadav, Sushant Singh, and (in guest appearances) Urmila Matondkar and Abishek Bachchan. (Don't worry if I just ruined a "surprise" - it is a "blink-and-you-miss-it" cameo).

Just a few years ago RGV made a great adaptation of the Godfather, called Sarkar. While keeping the basic premise of the story he diverged greatly from the script, retained the tautness and the tension, and got great performances from his cast. I thought he'd do something similar with this one. Not so.

The biggest problem with the movie is also its draw card - Amitabh Bachchan. He plays Babban Khan as a growling, brooding, dark, Darth Vader-like character, unfortunately without the corresponding aura. In an attempt to be different from Amjad Khan's portrayal, Amitabh hogs the camera and does not let it go for hours at a time. You can see what he wants to say but the character takes so long you wonder why so many people still work for such a dimwit like him. Not once in the movie does he do anything to inspire fear or awe amongst the people that work for or against him. At least with Gabbar you could see why the other dacoits would want to hang out with him. With Babban Singh, all that his henchmen get for their troubles is an unnaturally dark room, heavy breathing, horse-hooved boots, a dry cough that is actually supposed to be a laugh, and lines that would make the victim kill himself to avoid the agony of listening to him any more. The only time in the movie Babban is menacing is when he leads into the scene that mirrors the "Ye haath mujhe dede, Thakur" scene from Sholay.

Mohanlal is a fine actor. But he is horribly miscast, his distinctly thick South Indian accent working against him. It was absolutely fine in Company where he played a similar role, but here it distracts, especially as he is the character with the most plot-critical dialogues. I have two words for you RGV - Boman Irani.

Ajay Devgan is terrible, sleepwalking through a role that he probably signed on for without looking at a script. Sushmita Sen spends the whole movie either crying or trying to act all serious and gambhir. Did I already use the word miscast?

The two relative newbies are the rickshaw-driver girlfriend of Devgan and Devgan's sidekick Raj. The girl cannot act. I looked at her profile on IMDB.com and was shocked to see that she is appearing or has appeared in 7 RGV connected films, out of the 11 in her career. I'd have thought one screen test would have sifted her out. Apparently not. She must really ace those screen tests. What else could explain RGV's infatuation, I mean admiration, of her acting skills?

As for Devgan's sidekick, he does not have much of a role and no memorable lines. His idea of becoming serious is to frown. Otherwise he has a bland expression - like a guy who has not yet made up his mind, waiting in line to order a pizza.

It all comes down to RGV. His camera work is shoddy. He needs to fire the guy that did the background score. Moreover, he needs to go back and watch his own movies to learn how to use silence as a way of communicating fear. In the first half-hour I thought (sincerely) that the movie was a parody of the original. Later on it gets so heavy with its seriousness that it is clear the director thought he was improving on the original. Yikes!

Oh yes, I think he forgot to pay his electricity bill on time. The whole movie is so dark, I swear it could have been filmed in the prehistoric ages and not a single scene would have changed. If anything, the flickering flames (pun intended) would have probably improved the movie.

Somewhere, Ramesh Sippy is cackling in delight. His movie's legendary reputation has further been enhanced by this abomination.

Swallowing bullets

Let's say you are a member of an army that is under attack. Lets also assume that both armies have identical reserves of ammunition at their disposal. When the battle commences, your army decides to not utilize the small-bore ammunition, in fact using it so little that almost 50 - 60% of your ammunition is not utilized at all. In essence, your army is banking on the fact that the big weapons will carry the day, even as your enemy relishes in bombarding you with a flurry of small bullets that are at their disposal, injuring you repeatedly as they do so.

What would you say to a strategy like that? It is easy enough to see where it would take you. When your big weapons hit sensitive areas (and you need most of them to be accurate) you will win in a spectacular manner, but if the big guns do not work, you do not have any more ammunition to fall back upon.

Does such a strategy make any sense?

Then why, oh why, does the Indian cricket team treat their ODI batting in such a foolhardy manner? One simple stat will suffice. Lets's lok at the number of dot balls and the number of runs that they have scored by actually running between the wickets (i.e. excluding boundary hits - only 1's, 2's, and 3's). In the ongoing England-India ODI series:

Game 1: 209 dot balls and 106 runs
Game 2: 160 dot balls and 123 runs
Game 3: 193 dot balls and 100 runs
Game 4: 170 dot balls and 110 runs

The team gets a total of 300 legal balls in a match. Out of which the Indian team blithely avoids scoring on an average about 183 balls per match (which translates to a little over 30 overs!). So basically they are trying to outscore England in the remaining 20 overs. They indulge in an all-or-nothing approach while batting that is totally bemusing. And it starts at the top - in the series, Sourav Ganguly has played out 123 dot balls and taken just 43 runs. Sachin Tendulkar has played out 170 dot balls, and taken just 72 runs. So between the two of them they have played about 50 overs and and not scored a single run!! Two batsmen, themselves, have not scored a single run in 1/4th of the overs that the entire team has had at its disposal.

It is, therefore, not surprising that when they fail to get the boundaries the team loses. The one time this series that they managed to hit the fence they actually tried to manufacture shots by stepping around the crease. One success and then they went back into their shell. How long can India continue to be blinded by a combined 26,000 ODI runs every time they come out to bat? You'd think, by now, they would have learnt the art of placing the ball and milking singles.

I am a lousy batsman and I know how to do it. Why can't they?

A rose by any other name

How do you explain this?

A batsman, in a career of 51 matches (a huge sample size), has scored less than 2400 runs at an average of 28.51 with just 2 centuries and 13 50's to show for it.

Yet, today he finds himself in the India "A" team, indicating that the national selectors feel he is good enough to be on the verge of playing for India, should some vacancies open up. They have already called him up as a back-up once in June this year when an emergency came up.

Hmmm, what has the player done to merit such a rise? It is not as if he is a great bowler (he has taken just 12 wickets in 51 matches). It is not as if he is a great fielder (he has 13 catches in 51 matches...though catches, I admit, are not the best indicator of fielding ability). Could it be because his father is the head honcho of the Hyderabad Cricket Association? I think we have a winner!! The player is Arjun Shivlal Yadav. And he is deemed to be a better candidate for the team than any number of players with better credentials. Bah!

Nepotism is a wonderful thing, especially if you are shameless about profiting from it. Seriously, how does he sleep at night?

Dada-isms

Here is a fairly detailed interview with Sourav Ganguly. Most of the recent ones with him tend to be spun one way or the other, depending upon the interviewee's POV. The reason I like this one is that it is presented in a more dignified manner, as befits the man.

Flame out

A fellow blogger-cricketer, RJ, has this hilarious and ironic anecdote on his blog.

Sometimes, being speechless is also saying too much!!

Mad Dog and glory

In continuing with what seems to be the theme of some recent blog posts – another of my all-time favourites – Greg Maddux – continues to simply go about his job with a minimum of fuss and notches up another milestone.

This milestone, becoming the first player to win at least 10 games in 20 consecutive MLB seasons, is a testament not only to his longevity but also his ability to keep up a high standard year after year. Oh, by the way, he is on pace to win a 17th Gold Glove award.

And not only that, there are many other less-heralded achievements of his that are starting to get noticed. My favourite bit in the article is this:

Maddux has made up five career wins on Clemens this year, and now trails him by 10 (353-343). It's not difficult to imagine Maddux pitching like this for two more seasons. So it's entirely possible that Maddux can supplant Clemens as The Winningest Pitcher Alive. And that's a title that will be held by either man for a long, long, long time.

Confluence

Once in a blue moon comes along a game, insignificant to almost everyone else not involved with tthe two teams, but monumental to me. A few days ago, in the 40-over championships in England (called the Pro40 championships), Worcestershire defeated Lancashire. Oddly, I had been looking forward to this game for some time now, ever since I found out that VVS Laxman was going to spend the rest of the summer in England.

This match featured two of my favourite cricketers ever - VVS Laxman and Graeme Hick. Both are no longer picked for their country's one day squad though both could probably still serve them with distinction (before you laugh at this, check out Graeme Hick's stats, especially in the shorter version of the game, these past few years. He is the only batsman I know who has scored multiple centuries in Twenty20 cricket!). Both scored undefeated half-centuries for their teams - Laxman made 80-odd and Hick 50-odd - with Hick's being the decisive score.

And quietly flows the (county) Don

Graeme Hick continues to pile up runs in County cricket and, to my delight, has re-signed for another year at Worcestershire. The quiet giant is trying to make every innings count.

Watching Kevin Peitersen's remarkable ascendancy to the top echelon of Test cricket, I often wondered what Hick would have achieved if he had some of Pietersen's iron will and flair for the dramatic. Surely more than 6 Test centuries in 65 Tests. Luckily, better writers than I echo similar sentiments.

The exodus

The Indian Cricket League is gaining steam in India. The latest news is that quite a few prominent Hyderabadi cricketers have possibly joined the league. The biggest coup for the ICL, as of now, has got to be AT Rayudu. Here is a player, in his early 20's with tremendous upside potential, giving away a chance to play for India (should the BCCI continue with its pettiness) to showcase his talents on a different scale. (Prem Panicker discusses the topic with some eye-opening anecdotes thrown in).

Many years ago, DSC suggested that VVS Laxman should have emigrated to Australia, played state cricket, and made it to the Australian team where his contributions would be better appreciated. I think AT Rayudu should actually consider doing this. What does he have to lose? With Shivlal Yadav and his cronies out to destroy this guy's career, I see no way he will be playing for India anytime soon. More's the pity since not long ago he was captaining the India Under-19 team with such distinction.

Elusive star-dom

I waited till sunset today to venture out for a drive. My sole intention was to wander around until the sun set and the stars came out. So I left town, went south, then west and drove and drove for an hour.

I was hoping to see a watered-down (but still impressive) facsimile of this. (I had previously blogged about that amazing photograph here).

Instead all I got to see were the bottoms of some wispy, but certainly opaque, clouds. Thwarted by condensed moisture, my visions of seeing the Milky Way will have to wait for another night. Next time I shall go armed with a blanket and find a spot where I can lay down and see the sky.

I am sure it will be worth the wait...

Last line of Casablanca

And so I got onto the plane again, this time trading the hills of West Virginia....

...for the flatlands of the Midwest. I am partly nervous and mostly excited. The future is now.

The king is dead! Long live the king!

Sin City

Las Vegas takes its reputation as a city of excesses really seriously. During a stopover at the airport I noticed how the whole place and the people there were playing on the greed of the migrant public. The obvious examples being the slot machines near the boarding gates.

The not so obvious ones being where the airline counters had personnel who would highlight how much money you could make by subscribing to various deals with them, tactics usually reserved for telemarketing phone calls. The overall emphasis was always around money - how much you coud win, how much you could save, how much you could spend. Funnily enough, for a guy who was "trying to make sure I make the most money I can" the hawker refused to let me take a photograph of him and his booth.

Truly, I guess, what happens in Vegas does stay in Vegas.

Gold rush

I recently spent some time in California. I suffer from earthquake-o-phobia (no one has invented a term for that yet, as far as Google can tell me) and for the entire duration of the trip there I could detect a tension in me. When the plane took off from San Jose airport, I was relieved to be off the ground.

But while I was there I did find time to wander around with some friends and see the sights when I wasn't attending talks or meetings.

The most surprising thing about San Jose was the total lack of rush hour traffic of any sort. We are so used to seeing overhead shots of clogged freeways that I assumed it would be the same here. Walking around town was a very pleasant experience.

Moving on

I am no longer in Morgantown. I moved to the Midwest a few days ago.

It is amazing how a few weeks of turmoil and activity can get condensed into short, bland sentences. In reality, I did not know head from toe while all the upheaval was going on. I packed all my belongings, more than I thought I had and less than what most people collect after 10 years in one place. All the stuff of value to me fit into a 11'x9'x6' space.


Yes, the biggest space-taker turned out to be boxes of books - all 29 of them! Unpacking them should be fun.

Words worth

A few years ago I was suffering from a mild case of writer's block and gave up on writing poems. A friend recognized this and left me a note that said:

What do pesky friends
know how a verse ends?
You see even I
want to try
to write (like thee)
with a bit of symmetry.
So isn't it time
to sharpen your quill and write and rhyme?

Having absconded from this blog for months, I am (once again) inspired by these words to resume my writing. I have transitioned away from Morgantown, with a heavy heart, and am in the heartland of America. The distances to familiar places may have increased but the scope to explore new areas has many advantages. Suddenly, like the Midwest, the possibilities seem endless.

Opening gambit

My favourite cricketer-writer (as opposed to cricket writer), Aakash Chopra, talks about what it takes to be a successful opener, particularly in England. If I were Wasim Jaffer, I read this article till I had it memorized. Or better still, I'd contact Aakash and talk to him.

At the rate at which he is failing, Jaffer may end up watching Chopra open in the Third Test.

Here's Johnny!!!

I took a long, self-imposed, break from this blog. I was not too far away but needed to get some other things in order. Now things are better and I am back. So watch this space...there's more to come in the future...

A 1000 cringe-inducing words

The slogan for the state of West Virginia used to be "Wild and Wonderful". The mind boggles at the PR department that thought up this new slogan to replace that one. You know something is amiss when people start using throwaway scenes in summer blockbuster movies to demonstrate the aptness/success of such slogans.

Bearing down

One fine day, as I was driving along the highway I saw this coming right at me (or so it seemed).

A few seconds (and a prudent lane change) later, the mystery was solved and I survived to share this with you.

Said and done

I was going to rave and rant about the World Cup, in general, and the final, in particular. But a couple of writers, much more proficient and poetic than I, beat me to the punch and I agree with all that they have to say:

It was a shoddy tournament from start to finish and I am not just talking about the actual cricket on display.

How horrible is it that the players know more about the rules and the spirit of the rules than the guys who impose them? Commercial interests have taken over cricket and unless the two find a happy medium the long-term lure of the sport will be severely damaged.

To quote FG, "And that is all I have to say about that."

Get connected

The World Cup is over (or rather the ICC World Cup West Indies 2007 - to give its offically-sanctioned name).

My thoughts on the farcical nature of the tournament may be material for a later blog post, but for now here are a few must-read links:

I watched this innings (except from 95 to 119 when I stepped out for just a few minutes to pick up lunch). I enjoyed every ball. The pitch was not a great one to bat on. One look at how the rest of the batsmen scored will tell something about its true nature. Adam Gilchrist relies more on hand-eye coordination than technique, so as SC pointed out to me yesterday, the type of pitch does not matter to him, how the bowler bowls does. Chaminda Vaas was taken to the cleaners early on and the tone was set for the blitzkrieg.

Glenn McGrath exited the stage with the lights shining very brightly on him. In the future when people talk about people who timed their retirements perfectly, Glenn McGrath has to be on top. Not near the top but on top of the list. How do you top winning the Ashes 5-0 with the last wicket and then signing off a 3rd ODI World Cup on the trot with the Player of the Tournament honours and a wicket with the second-last ball of your career? Year in and year out, for more than a decade, he has been one of the pillars of his team. A couple of years ago, I wrote about him on my blog. He has only enhanced my impression of him in the interim.

Take a bow, McGrath, and thanks for the memories.

Rowing up a creek?

First the basics:
A new, independent cricket league is going to be formed soon in India called the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

In typical BCCI fashion, the members promise to take their time assessing the threat and taking appropriate action against it.

For an overall description of the implications and fallout's of this announcement read this article by Jayaditya Gupta.

Finally, to round it off, for a detailed description for the inspiration (no doubt) and the confidence behind this move read this article by Gideon Haigh on Kerry Packer and his rebel league in the 1970's.

My take on this:
The ICL will not succeed in India, not in these times, at least. Would I like them to? Yes, if only for the fact that the BCCI runs cricket (not just Indian cricket) like a kingdom, bowing only (and repeatedly) to the clout of money. The BCCI is the richest board in the world and it is this fact that will undermine the ICL, which is trying to market itself as an ancillary rather than a breakaway league.

To be successful the ICL needs to have players who are in their prime, playing excellent cricket, and capable of representing India on behalf of the BCCI. By joining the ICL the players will have signed away their chances of playing for India. The International Cricket Council (ICC) will recognize only one cricket board per nation and they will not slay their golden goose by cutting ties with it. So in the absence of any "official" status the ICL will only function as a private venture where the biggest carrot that can be dangled in front of the players is money. Unfortunately, market economics being what they are currently, players who represent India (or rather the BCCI) are enormously rich. Joining the ICL will not enhance their income. If anything their income will decline appreciably, especially if endorsement deals do not follow.

Kerry Packer succeeded because the money he paid was more than the players would make otherwise, the television product Channel 9 put out was ahead of its time, and the quality of play was far superior to the one the viewers got to see in the traditional ICC-sanctioned tours. The ICL may try to corner the Twenty20 market but the real money is in ODI's and Tests. In fact, Test cricket would have died a slow death had it not been for the fact that television companies can show ads, periodically interspersed with cricket, for 5 whole days as opposed to just one. So how exactly is the ICL expected to survive in the current scenario?

Some of my friends have said that the Indian fan is tired of the shenanigans of the BCCI and the players and will gladly watch a rebel league. I don't think so. I have already blogged about how fickle I think these "fans" are. Trust me, the Indian team will visit Bangladesh in a few weeks, a couple of players will gorge on the bowling (remember there are no run rates to worry about so they can bat as slowly as they want to), reclaim demi-god status, and the BCCI will go back to its money-minded ways while the ICL will drum up some initial support by harnessing has-been's (such as Jadeja, Mongia, Sriram), and could-have-been's (such as Powar, Ratra, Chopra), and stumble through a season or two. Then the BCCI and the ICL "will come to an agreement" to merge and more mega-bucks will be negotiated with Zee Sports for a TV contract and the golden goose will go on laying eggs. The rabid Indian fan will be oblivious to the bits of egg splattered all over his face and will go back to rooting for the team on a good day and burning effigies on a bad one.

I would love to eat my words but, sadly, I just do not see that happening.

Speaking his mind

Greg Chappell has probably never met a microphone he did not like. One of his best qualities is also his worst one - the man likes to talk about what he does and why he wants to do it. Consequently, he is everyone's favourite whipping horse these days.

He talks in great detail in this interview on a variety of issues (the interview is on three pages so click on the links at the bottom of the page to get to the other two pages). He has this interesting tidbit to share about Suresh Raina:

He is a complete package, for god's sake. You guys didn't do him a good turn by comparing him with Sachin Tendulkar after he had played one or two brilliant knocks. However, if you look at Sachin's record in his first 30-35 ODIs and compare it with Raina's you will not find much difference.

So is that true, you ask?

Well, I did some research and found that after 30 and then 36 ODI's (which is how many Raina has played so far) this is how the two stack up:

After 30 matches:
29 innings, 825 runs, 77 highest score, 31.73 average, 7 50's.
23 innings, 553 runs, 81* highest score, 30.72 average, 3 50's.

After 36 matches:
34 innings, 1075 runs, 81 highest score, 35.83 average, 10 50's.
28 innings, 612 runs, 81* highest score, 26.60 average 3 50's.

We do know that Raina slumped towards the end of his tenure with the Indian team, but otherwise his stats do seem to match Chappell's claims.

Bhogle's musings

Harsha Bhogle raises some pertinent points and suggests a solution for the ills that plague Indian cricket at the moment. I do wish he had gone beyond speaking in generalities and actually named the person he feels can lead Indian cricket towards some semblance of normalcy.

And here he talks about the six issues that must be addressed before that afore-mentioned person can show us the light (I guess).

Runs in ruins

Do you know the real reason why India lost the World Cup?

For the best answer, click here. Statistics sometime do tell the real tale of the tape.

Fan frenzy

Most Indians do not really care about cricket. Deluding ourselves into believing that cricket is akin to a religion in India is just not worth it. I doubt that the Blue Billion is really a notion except in some ad campaign manager's imagination. More realistically, the really avid fans comprise a few (hundred) million, at best. Among these few million, the actual cricket fans are even fewer. If Indians really cared about cricket the Ranji trophy would be played in front of packed houses and people like Yashpal Singh would be household names.

No, most Indian cricket fans are just followers of cricketers, most of them spoonfed by the media (click here for Amit Verma's take on this). And even within the cricket team, the glamour boys are the Indian batsmen. That's it. Anil Kumble is shunted in and out of the team but no one even murmurs that the greatest wicket-taker in Indian cricket history - ODI or Tests - has been given a raw deal. But drop a Virender Sehwag and people will remind you of the glorious 309 he hit to defeat our arch-rivals.

But to say that Indians are the only ones who are like this would be a mistake. Today, when a bowler gives less than 50 runs in a 10 over spell he is considered to have done his job. That should tell you a lot about the priorities of the ICC in terms of making sporting wickets. People want to see sixers and fours, they say. Really? I think they have made people believe that they want to see fours and sixers.

Sunil Gavaskar would not have been able to maintain his place for long in the current set up. He would have been considered too slow. Ironically, Bapu Nadkarni would have been revered as a hero, even though he is a bowler.

Ah! If you do not know why Bapu Nadkarni would have been revered but do know who Gavaskar is then you probably have been following cricket spoonfed to you in this "golden age of batting".

I rest my case.

Sports Guy talk

Bill Simmons, the self-proclaimed Sports Guy, has a regular column on ESPN.com. You can read his entires as they appear on the webpage but to access them after the fact, in the past you'd have had to subscribe to the network itself, something I never did.

(If you have never heard of the Sports Guy or are unaware of his style of writing be prepared for some over-the-top comparisons and mind-boggling statements. If it is not your cup of tea I would recommend you don't spend much time on his site).

But now all of his old columns, rants, and mailbag sessions are available in a comprehensive archive.

My favourite mailbag of his has to be the time he debated whether Al Pacino or Robert DeNiro was the most influential and important actor of the last 30 years (scroll to the very end of the mailbag and you will find the elaborate breakdown).

Along the same lines is his debate on whether Cheers or Seinfeld was the better sitcom.

Paper trail

On a less serious note, Google is offering a new service to all Gmail users - mailing you paper print-outs of your emails right to your doorstep.

Before you debate the merits or demerits of this service, do note that they first offered this service on the first Sunday of the month in 2007, two days ago!

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.

The iconic Swede

I never really got to see Bjorn Borg play at his prime until recently (thanks to YouTube.com) but his name has always conjured up images of icy-steel nerves and tremendous mental reserves, ironic in a man who could not take the pressure any more and retired at 26. His biggest contribution to me was how he popularized the sport in Europe, leading to the Swedish invasion (Stefan Edberg in particular). So when I come across an article that discusses him in detail I can't help but smile and post the link to it here.

By the way, the most impressive stat for me is that he was 33-0 in Davis Cup singles matches! Talk about playing for your country. Some of the Indian cricketers could learn from this.

In the month of madness

A long time ago, I had blogged that we have unrealistic expectations of the Indian cricket team. In that post I had written: The Indian team is not a great team that frequently underachieves. Rather it is a merely good team that occasionally overachieves. I am not surprised that they team is back in India and the players are waiting for the axe to drop.

When talking about Indian cricket these days the name of the game is to find a scapegoat, someone to blame for the early exit from the World Cup. Instead the key question should be why we lost. Until we sit and think about it there will be a lot of finger-pointing, pointless effigy-burning, character assassinations, and free-flowing advice (on the lines of it being time for people to retire).

Mud-slinging is not something new and sadly the main reason for all the melodrama is to obfuscate the main issue. Prem Panicker, on his blog, has an extended discourse on how this is achieved and what it has done for the people involved in the mess.

Elsewhere, Mukul Kesavan, writes about it in some detail here. Here is an excerpt that rings really true.

No one will ever agree on why we got eliminated because every interested party will set his causal explanation in a different time frame.

Mangling metaphors?

SD recently told me about a school teacher of her's who would ask his students to help improve the ventillation of the classroom during really hot days. I have rarely heard a mangling of the English language that still conveyed the message so artistically.

"Open the doors of the window and let the atmosphere in. I am feeling summer."

Outside the box

When you travel by train in India you sometimes get to open the door and get a clearer view of the countryside. This trick should not be attemped by children or adults incapable of balancing themselves on two feet. Full disclosure - I did not venture anywhere near the open door. I let my stunt double do all the dangerous work!

And then you get to take some nice photographs. Like this, for instance.

Or this one, which happens to be one of my favourite ones.

That's tenacity!

Look closely at this photograph. The tree is actually clinging to the rock, somehow being able to find enough traction and nutrients to keep growing. What looks like a white stream of water is actually its root!

Speechless

Sometimes photographs speak for themselves and saying anything would just spoil the impact. Here are some examples from my recent visit to India.

Fading glory

A few days have passed since India got knocked out of the World Cup. In the days since then the biggest point that rankles me is that the much touted "experience" factor is what led them down.

The flip side to experience is that you also carry with you the feeling of failure and how hard it can be to swallow. The experienced batting line-up showed this in every innings India played.

a) Dravid inexplicably let the situation get to him, dropping himself in the batting order when he would have been just the man to carry India through every time the opening wicket fell quickly (I will not even go into how many times I had said that VVS could have been more useful in this 1-down spot in the World Cup than Sehwag or Uthappa).

b) Ganguly occupied the crease for long periods only to throw it away and did not even remotely look like he was playing to give strike to anyone but himself. Two points that underscore this - go back and look at the number of times the man took a single off the last ball of the over and secondly, if you think I am being blasphemous, look at Hayden's innings today - he did not score off the first 16 balls he faced. Think about that. He reached a 100 in 110 balls and when he got out he had scored 158 in 143 balls, getting out in the 48th over. Now that is how you stitch together an innings even after you start like a tortoise.

c) Which brings us to Tendulkar. 14,000+ runs will be bandied about many times in the next few weeks. Ad nauseam. But that is besides the point. The man is scared of failing. I cannot think of any other explanation for the exaggerated (and I mean predetermined) defensive posture he adopts when he comes to the crease these days. He should be made to sit in a room and watch Ponting's batting. Even the defensive shots that Ponting hits are thumped. The bat is held positively, always looking out for runs. When Tendulkar defends these days he holds it limply and it is not surprising that he inner-edges the ball when it does not hit the middle. Maybe his elbow still hurts, preventing him from gripping the bat tightly, and he is not publicly admitting it. Either way it is time for him to surf on Youtube.com and see some of the clips of his heyday and try to restore his batting to some semblance of that or just follow the Don and let his last international innings be a memorable duck.

I will not go into the bowling debacle. The blame game is easy to play but I feel the three afore-mentioned players cost India a shot at the Cup and I am not going to be convinced otherwise. What I wanted from them was a refined form of the devil-may-care attitude that Aftab Ahmad brings to the crease every time he bats. Watch this Bangladeshi guy and you will know what I mean. He rarely sticks around long enough to post a huge score but as long as he is there you know that he is giving it his all.

At least now I will be able to watch some cricket, good cricket at that, and enjoy the strategies being adopted by various teams, and not pull my hair out the next time I see new batsmen being greeted by only 4 men inside the circle.