Congrats England !!!

Though I couldn't follow the last two days at the Oval, the result was good enough to make me happy. Now the world order is settled; a new war for world domination is on. Nothing could be more gratifying.
So, England rejoice for the moment, and please take the one-dayers seriously. New Zealand, start making some runs. India, concentrate on your bowling; you won't be able to make the semi-finals of Champions Trophy if the pacers don't perform well.

Under Cook' & Kat'ch

Why is nobody talking about Cook and Katich? People and Things are helter-skelter over Flintoff’s knee, Pietersen’s Achilles, Hughes’ ouster, Aussies pace-bowlers selection etc etc But they have gone surreptitiously quiet over these guys.

Only things I have heard about them this Ashes are, “Cook has a problem with his footwork, and hence more prone to LBWs. Katich is a sort of ungainly-nudger player who makes other batsmen look good.” The very oft-mentioned phrases about them.

Hello, aren’t they part of the team? Are they scoring runs? Apart from a crisp 95 at Lord’s, Cook has had a very average time in the middle. Katich too after his century in Cardiff has looked uninspiring. But they have just managed to escape the spotlight.

I believe it is time for England to haul up Cook. He is a fantastic player, no better demonstrated by his century in his first test against India. But he has hit mediocrity of late. His technical deficiency apart, he has also started looking awkward on the crease. He has fared no better in getting a start and squandering it than Bell or Bopara. But surprisingly he hasn’t even copped an earful.

Katich on the other hand has reeled off a lot of runs in his last few matches, but still have they been scored when they mattered? I don’t think that he has played well enough on sporting pitches. May be his unattractive play elicits more ungenerous response from everyone, including me, but his efficacy in times of need is open to question.

I hope they come good in the next test, not only for the sake of their teams but also for the spectators. The Oval nevertheless promises to be a mega-stage. What a delight it would be if the match dishes out a fairytale finish in the last over of the match, with England hopefully on the winning side.

The Ashes are here ! Woo..oo..ooh

However distanced he might be, if he watches cricket, he can’t forget the Ashes series of 2005. Even though, it didn’t involve India, that series remains one of the big highlights of my entire cricket viewing career. It was a cricketing emancipator for England, built on the heroic metaphors of sporting gild. Actually, it wasn’t just for England, but for the whole cricket watching world.

Such had been the domination of Australia that it was pure pity to watch teams being flayed by them. Sorry for the Aussies, but if the word ‘schadenfreude’ was ever invented with something/someone in mind, it might have been for them only. Everyone’s second team thus becomes the opponent playing them.

It wasn’t the only reason why that series was so monumental; it was also because of the sheer quality of cricket. Following Mcgrath’s demolition of Poms at Lord’s, nobody could have guessed what was to follow. A badly taken step by the bowler, and things turned topsy-turvy at Edgbaston. England’s first-day total of 407 of only 80 overs was a grand statement, even if they won just by 2 runs, that too arguably by quirk of fate. Ponting’s heroics on the last day in Old Trafford saved the Aussies for later fight. But it was in Trent Bridge that things culminated for me. I was watching England chase just 129 in the fourth innings. But the master spinner, Warne, had gone straight into them. Lee too was generating some much needed speed (Flintoff’s wicket was a gem). But things somehow trudged on for England. When Giles clipped the ball for a couple to secure the victory, we all were jumping in joy at the college TV room. It was a fantastic carnival of sports. Though I couldn’t watch Pieterson’s heroics on the last day in the next Test match at the Oval, I knew it was destiny of triumph which was always written for the Englishmen.

It is so exciting to rewind those moments here. But alas, we get those types of fairytale series only once in a script. If only, that script is extended for this series too. It would be just awesome. Sorry Oz, even if they are much weakened now, England would again be the team to cheer for me and most of us, neutrals. I suspect England just might scrape through, on account of their better bowling attack. If Lee and Johnson don’t fire (ominously Lee has got some of his lethal speed and reverse-swing back), they can’t take 20 wickets soon enough even on a good wicket. But you never know the Poms too. Someone has to just scream, Adelaide, Adelaide, Adelaide. I hope they switch off their ears for this word for the next two months. Go England go, we are all English for the time being.

PS:-

1> Congrats India for winning the one-day series in West Indies, even if they were way off-colour. But leeway must be given to those fatigued souls. Go and have a rest, and blast the Champions Trophy.
2> Much excitement in Pak-SL series too. Mohammad Yousuf’s century was as smooth as the man himself. Low first-innings score, and you have a real interesting match on hand. Kudos to the pitch creator too, after those ultra-nonsensical pitches in Pak earlier this year. My guess: SL victors, again just by a whisker, on account of their better bowling attack.
3> WI- Bangladesh series have a serious threat of being washed away by both other high-profile cricket series and the unfriendly weather deities. Hope Bangladesh put up a good fight, but I expect Gayle-backed WI to outclass them.

Dil Dil Pakistan

I feel like a Pakistani today. And it is quite strange. Such is the power of cricket, you can say. And also its ability to unfailingly align sorrow and joy in equal measure.

In the first edition of T20 World Cup, two teams – India and Pakistan, who had become ridicules after being eliminated from One-Day World Cup earlier in the year, contested a memorable final. This year too, the two finalists – Pakistan and SriLanka, were cases of immense aptness, just for their horrific encounter with wishers of death on that inglorious day. Take into account the ravages going around in the two countries, Pakistan in particular. And it looks purely angelical.

It is such a circumstantial, and in that respect, unfortunate time that we have to pronounce these human-spirit-raiser rhetorics, rather than actual cricket, to savour the game. But somehow now every aspect of life has become interlinked. So, right from the day, India got eliminated, and Pakistan got into the semi-finals, I became a tacit but virtuous supporter of Pakistan.

I missed most of the final match today, but could watch the defining last few overs. Afridi has never been rated as highly by outsiders as done by his countrymen, but today he was a limelight. In fact, he has been throughout the tournament. But the biggest credit should go to the bowlers- the quintessential Pakistani breed. Umar Gul looked like an incarnation of Wasim-Waqar era, and watching Ajmal bowl often generated a vicarious feeling about Saqlain. In short, it was awesome to watch the unpredictability of Pakistan, and that in itself, means Pakistan cricket is healthy. If only, they can carry on this mercurial ethos. Sometime later, sanity will return in Pakistan mainland too- I am sure, but they will have much to thank to this team and time to act as a beacon in this pallidness of gloom.

India - favourites for World T20 Cup?

I don’t think so. No team can be favourite in a Twenty 20 Cup. Never mind their last unexpected victory in ICC T20 World Cup in South Africa; they will have to bring both luck and pluck to do an encore. They might run out of both in this edition.

The favourite tag doesn’t suit the Indians. There haven’t been many occasions either. The last one I remember is at Asia Cup, 2004, where they bungled big time. Also, the team doesn’t look to be in cohesive and full force. Somewhere there is a hollow. Captain has started losing his cool (first noticed in IPL). Veeru is rendered hors de combat. Gambhir seems to have slowed off. But the most noticeable loophole is the bowling. Never a great force, the bowling looks even weaker, read floggable, in this format. Irfan Pathan is an apple pie thrower to even the dunce. The fielding is OK, read better than Pakistan’s, but that too can explode on any big day. So, how can they win?

But if they do win, that will be a feat bravura. Australia’s three successive ODI World Cup triumphs too might look smaller then. But will it happen? Let me ponder more on it with the India-Ireland match that is due to start now after the rain-delay.

Dragged IPL, revamped England

This IPL is so long that it has extracted boredom out of very cricket. Nothing about it excites me now. I just watch the final scorecard, analyzing which team won and which still has a chance to make the semi-finals.

The biggest distracting force has been the lack of association with any team. Out of forced volition, I have chosen Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings because of Sachin and Dhoni respectively. But still their win or loss doesn’t evoke any response worth moving. Club or franchise cricket doesn’t have the same mojo.

I liked the Test match between England and West Indies. The latter is everyone’s second team, but I was rooting for England this time around. They need to find some form to take on the Aussies. If only they become good enough to produce even half the magic of Ashes 2005, then this support will become worthwhile.

IPL moves abroad

Since the moment I read this news in the morning, I have had bouts of thinking going inside. This is indeed a big one, putting to dross the actual cricket news items - a convincing victory by South Africa over Australia, the one-dayer between England and West Indies after that farcical Duckworth Lewis drama in the first game, and even the generally high-falutin and lasting euphoria over any victory, especially abroad, by the Indians.

After many re-jigs of thoughts, I still don’t know or can’t gauge the reasons or impacts of it. In fact, nobody at the moment can. That’s why we have so many reactions coming. Some think it is a gimmick by the BCCI to bring the government to its drawing board, while some are giving the conciliatory or exploratory response.

My first reaction is indeed the very obvious and cynical one. This latest move is going to undermine India’s credibility a lot. However one may deny, IPL is or can become a showcase of India. It has the potential to rival the biggest of sporting leagues in the world. So, if it is not secure in its home country, how can it be trusted to prosper? The move will bring India’s security into focus that sharply now, and it is bound to impact the other aspects – tourism, economy, international opinion, and the most relevant of all, the future international sporting events. India will be hosting a lot of international credible competitions– the Champions League and World Cup in Cricket, World Cup in Hockey, and the Commonwealth Games in the next 24 months. A precedent has been laid, and soon it can become a pattern.

But on the same note, when I think the worst – some untoward incident happening during the course of the tournament in India, I find the decision reasonably and soundly chalked out. Nobody can deny, we have problems with security back home, and hence the attention should be on the bigger thing, the elections. Ideally we should have been able to pull off both, but alas, we don’t live in such a world. Moving on to the positive outlook, the move can actually be the biggest stroke to give the tournament the sought-after global reach and popularity. The stadiums abroad might remain empty, but the news and print media would certainly carry a mention of it to the otherwise oblivious people. The foreign, now local, player participation can bring in the staging nation’s interest. It is all the more reason to allow Pakistani players to participate and increase the number of foreign players’ representation in a team’s playing eleven to five. Similarly, the franchises can create a sub-related area for their base locations. How about linking Hove with Hyderabad or Durban with Delhi?

There are actually a plethora of possibilities and also ifs, buts, whats, whens etc. But buoy, hasn’t this always been the hallmark of the competition? The first one, as elucidated by me too, had a similar rough ride, but came out prized at the end. Hopefully the second edition too meets the same fate, unpredictable but successful.