Fast Bowlers

The Indian team that has been announced for the Asia Cup to be played in Sri Lanka has only three fast bowlers and again the selectors have presumed that spin would do the trick for them. Contrast this with the Sri Lankan squad which has a battery of pace bowlers and each one of the fast bowlers is treated like  a prized commodity. Seeing the shabby treatment that is being given to the fast bowlers in the country, even Imran Khan, the legendary fast bowler had expressed his anguish. He was categorical enough to say that while spinners may win some matches, it is the fast bowlers who ultimately would be the match winners for all the times to come. After all, they only make the initial assault and numb the senses of the batsmen, and invite the spinners to weave their magic and induce sense of complacency in the batsmen. The relentless assault of the fast bowlers indeed prepares the ground for the spinners to take over.

The manner in which the scenario has panned out for the fast bowlers in India is indeed a matter of concern, as the treatment given to them induces element of self-doubt in the mind of the fast bowlers whether to pursue the career in fast bowling or not?

Ishant Sharma when he had emerged on the Indian horizon had been seen as the lad who would carry the mantle of Indian fast bowling for a long time, but he is now not even a pale shade of him. Here was a lad who had scared the wits of Ricky Ponting and now he does not find a place for himself in the Indian squad. Same is the case with Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, etc. They all are in the wilderness and the mainstay of Indian bowling lies on Ashish Nehra who is already down the hill. There was a lad from Kashmir, who was genuinely quick but has not been able to find a place for himself.

Indian bowling is presently characterized by military medium pace which even a number seven or eight batsmen can clobber around with relative ease. It is high time Ishant Sharma is invested in, and so should the same be done for Munaf Patel as well. Let the advent of IPL not move the focus away from the fast bowlers as they are the ultimate match winners.

By: Suman Rai

ICC World Twenty20

Ravi Shastri is the director of the National Cricket Academy at Bangalore. After the pathetic performance of they Indian team in the ICC World Cup, there are chances that his neck may also be sacrificed. So, to wriggle out of the situation, he has come out with the statement that it is high time “India need to find hungrier and fitter players to play for the country”. Well, if that be so, who is responsible to launch this search? Obviously, by virtue of being the director of the National Cricket Academy, the responsibility starts with him and he can wash it off, by just giving a statement of the kind that he has given.

Ravi Shastri most of the times is to be found traveling around the world commentating and doing the honours of announcing the prizes after a match is over. But is it the job of a director of National Cricket Academy to roam around the world leaving his job aside He is seldom to be found at Bangalore searching and nurturing talent for the country for a bright future. The job seems to have been left to the bunch of officials, and Ravi Shastri is executing his responsibility more by being absent, than being present physically at Bangalore.

If one compares his job performance with his predecessor Sunil Gavaskar, Sunil Gavaskar devoted sufficient time at the academy and he had literally given up on all the assignments and focused on the job at hand. Ravi Shastri seems to relish more on the ground in front of the camera and minting money by commentating than giving a shape to future of cricket in India.

His approach to National Cricket academy is quite casual and therefore Board of Cricket Control in India need to chuck him out and find some worthy successor who does not believe in giving or having media byte as Shastri has the penchant. His job is to be behind the scene and not in front of the camera. One cannot wear multiple hats at a time as Shastri is doing. By doing this, he has spread himself too thin and need of the hour is to replace him.

Let Kapil Dev take the reign. BCCI need to introspect and utilize vast experience of Kapil Dev. After all, when the rebel players have started playing for they country, why leave Kapil Dev out of the planning and strategising process for betterment of cricket in the country?

By: Suman Rai

Cricket

Ian Bishop former fast bowler who has been one of the tormentors of the Indian batsmen during his heydays seems to have gone too far by saying that India is “spineless”. If it is so, what would one say about West Indies? Ian Bishop has also forgotten that his commentating career got a new lease of life only after he associated himself with the broadcasting channels in India!

What is the trigger then, for Bishop to air such opinion about India? One primary reason that seems to be evident is that he has not been given an opportunity to be a part of the circle commentating team in the IPL extravaganza till date, though he may be having more experience on the field than other commentators who have been drafted into the commentating pool.

Let’s compare the track record of India vs. West Indies as also the players that have rise and acquired cult status by comparing the players between these two countries. But for a Brian Lara who has hung his boots, the West Indian turf is parched. Should Chris Gayle or Pollard be included among the greats, well Gayle has his sparks in fits and spurts while Pollard has to prove his merit and he cannot be considered to be a great as he has just begun his international cricketing career.

Ian Bishop belongs to an era when West Indian cricket was at its peak and everything that it touched became gold. Once the decline of West Indian cricket began, the downward slide continues to manifest.

Now let’s analyze Indian position. India is the top test playing nation in the world and is a force to reckon with in One day internationals as also a mighty power in the T-20 version of game, whole West Indies is not among the top performing teams in either of these genres.

Criticizing India at this juncture as “spineless”only makes Ian Bishop a laughing stock and nothing else as his comment should be treated with contempt and derision. Whole of the cricketing world looks to India these days, as India is now a tour de force on account of its financial muscle in the world of cricket. The successful hosting of the IPL matches in India and in South Africa has provided India a reputation that would be difficult to achieve inspite of the taint that the IPL has suffered recently. May be, Bishop should hang his boots from public life.

By: Suman Rai

The terminology of chin music was coined probably during the time when Sourav Ganguly had led the Indian team to Australia and had to face the short pitch bouncers from Glen McGrath, Jason Gillespie, and Brett Lee etc., all. From that time onwards the octaves of the music have further evolved and the music players in the form of bowlers have further honed their skills, while the aficionados, the Indian batsmen continue to be floored, lock stock and barrel, by the whishing sound of the ball passing whiff away from the nose, giving a glimpse of the aroma of sweat, soil etc., to the batsman.

Sourav Ganguly had to an extent given direction to this music been it against Australia or South Africa, along with Dravid, against the pace of the likes of Allen Donald and Shaun Pollock. To a certain extent Virender Sehwag also was able to dominate it, but the new breed of batsmen has woefully failed against the onslaught of chin music.

But the moot point is the chin music is all a mind’s game, when a dread of ball rising and hitting the batsman on the face or anywhere else looms like a monster then the bowl is not cited properly, or else the batsman tries to hit without reaching to the line of the ball and invariably it balloons into the sky. This, in short, has been the story of Indian cricket teams’ recent sojourn in the ICC World Cup.

Even the likes of Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja, who were supposedly god hookers of the short bowl, have failed miserably in the Caribbean country. But are the batsmen only to blame for the failure in the ICC World Cup? Is not the authority of cricket which has the mandate to prepare the pitch to share the blame as well? Last time when it had happened in the test series against West Indies, it was decided that India would prepare fast pitches in the country to prepare the batsmen for short and rising deliveries. However the idea was swept under the carpet as when the batsman is not able to score in short variety of game and the bowler is allowed to dominate the proceedings; the spectator does not appreciate it. It is a question of economics versus long term team building, and the short sighted policy would again dominate the game of cricket in India characterized by dead pitches where the batsmen would murder the bowlers and spectators would throng the stands in droves and the organizers would go all the way laughing to the bank. But Indian cricket would continue to flounder.

By: Suman Rai

IPL Twenty20

One of the singular achievements of the IPL has been that the communication companies that were on the fringe have chosen the platform of IPL to create awareness about their brand in a big way and they could not have got a much better platform to do so.

When the government banned the Chinese mobiles that did not have the sixteen digits IMIE numbers, it led to proliferation of numerous Indian mobile companies that are majorly using the Chinese equipments. There effort to create awareness about the products was not coordinated till the advent of the IPL in the third season.

Now the strategic time out during the matches is known as the Maxx mobile time out moment, there is a Karbon kamaal catch or even Aircel, which was a service provider, has stepped into the handset category using its brand ambassador Mahinder Singh Dhoni to market the new initiative.

IPL after all is a programme that is based on the initiative to communicate and what better way to do it, than use the platform of IPL! So we have an Akshay Kumar who is so engrossed in playing the game that he spills over whole of the kitchen but continues to be hooked to the handset.

Samsung that underwent deconstruction and came up with a cheap handset, a distinguishing feature of all these new initiatives is that the handsets are being positioned as devices for mass consumption and are not targeted towards the elite category, came up with the recent campaign featuring Aamir harping on the son-mother relationship and it has indeed touched the chord of the viewers somewhere.

With Karishma Kapoor stepping into the arena with her campaign for new Sony Ericsson handset the campaign during the IPL matches would indeed get its dosage of glamour as well, as it is only the quotient that is lacking from the campaigns so far.

As India is gravitating to a platform where mobile handsets are being positioned as the device for all kind of development initiatives, mobile markets more so the handset markets is going to experience a major boom in coming months. The process of creation of awareness would not have been done in any better manner than by using the platform of IPL as the various manufacturers do it. Communication is no more going to be the stumbling block in the process of development and entertainment.

By: Suman Rai

IPL Twenty20

The team that stood in top four in first IPL, Punjab was not able to stop them after making a devastating total of 203; the team which won IPL, Rajasthan surrendered to them completely; the team in-form, Men-in-blue Mumbai failed to block their way; the team that stood in the top four for both the IPL seasons gave them a way to success; But Delhi was able to stop the carnival of Bangalore after four straight wins and proved that no one could match them on their day.

Even though Delhi made a huge total of 183 the match stood in favour of Bangalore as the team has already chased a massive total of 203 with the same line-up. Bangalore openers gave a good start of 71 runs in 9 overs and the duo got out as they tried to open themselves. The Delhi bowlers surprised the openers as they got some bounce of the flat pitch.

And it was Mishy, who turned the match to Delhi’s side. The situation for Bangalore is make or break and Kallis got bowled in the bowling of Mishra as he tried to go for a wild slog. Mishra was also successful in removing the man-in-form Uthappa as he got a leading edge trying an unnecessary reverse sweep.

With wickets falling regularly the chances of Bangalore winning the match tended towards zero. A little fight from Kohli was not enough to bring their side home. AB de Villiers is one of the best fielders, everyone knows that, and to add further strength to that argument, he took a blinder to send Praveen Kumar back to pavilion.

The Delhi bowlers produced a disciplined performance, but it was their batsmen who set up the game. Their inning can be divided into three phases of play- an explosive start by Warner, a serene partnership in the middle-overs between AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik, and a fiery finish provided by Jadhav.

Though Jadhav played an award-winning innings the Delhi’s innings was mostly capitalized on the solid start given by Warner. He hit the ball with ease and the RCB bowlers worried as they saw Warner smashing the ball. But Warner faced the difficulty of playing against two bowlers, one who bowls at 120 and the other who bowls at 150. He mistimed a pull shot in the bowling of Steyn and was caught by Vinay at the covers.

Dashing opener Sehwag got out cheaply and it was AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik to get back the momentum. de Villiers and Karthik preferred to deal in singles as they nudged and drove their way around. The period wasn’t without its shares of thrills, with de Villiers pulling and Karthik sweeping Kumble for boundaries but it was definitely a lot quieter than at the start.

It threatened to get grimmer for Delhi when Karthik and de Villiers got run out – Karthik backed up too far at the non-striker’s end and de Villiers was caught short by a direct hit from Eoin Morgan at backward point – but Jadhav, an unknown commodity for many of the Bangalore bowlers, connected with a few big hits to push Delhi towards a strong total.

The Maharashtra cricketer sent the ball to the ropes easily and a few good hits over the rope. His cameo ended Delhi’s innings as they were able to manage a huge score of 183.

It was very rare but in twenty20 it is common to see runouts and there were a total of five runouts throughout the match. These proved to be crucial match turners as de Villiers and Karthik’s run out’s.

Rajasthan Royals got a win that proves out to be critical as the team get the momentum back. Their batting was empowered by the blazing innings of Adam Voges and Faiz Fazal and it was followed by clinical bowling performance as they got a 31-run win to push them to a joint-fourth in the points table.

Punjab got a perfect start as their skipper made 29 runs of just 13 balls. This short cameo was followed by a fiery cameo by Bisla. This young Haryana player had many chances to prove his talent but he was not able to meet their expectations and this time he utilized it perfectly. He struck the ball all around the ground and he punished every bowler who bowled to him. He didn’t leave the magical spinner Warne also as he struck a four and a six in his over.

And its revenge time for Warne as he take this danger batsman out with a beautiful top-spinner.  With a kind of start these two gave and with a strong middle-order that has experienced batsman like Jayawardene and dashing batsman Yuvraj Singh, Punjab is expected to chase down the total with ease.  But clever variations from seamers Siddharth Trivedi and Munaf Patel, and some uninspiring batting from the rest of the line-up, cut short what was gearing up to be a more exciting fixture.

The conditions at Mohali were supporting fast bowling and Punjab bowlers with the Punjab opening bowlers beating the outside edge on more than one occasion, and Shaun Tait doing the same during the chase. Tait, who had a poor start to the IPL, bowled a couple of excellent outswingers at Ravi Bopara but suffered an onslaught from Sangakkara, whose frequent hits to the boundary were as much a consequence of good fortune as the batsman’s conviction.

Yuvraj Singh, who looked like a man in-form in a thrilling chase against Chennai, and looked to continue that when he smacked a straight six off Warne. But his poor-timed shot off Trivedi, having been dropped two balls earlier, marked the beginning of the collapse that squandered a healthy position of 107 for 2 in the 11th over.

When Irfan Pathan was run-out brilliantly by Abhishek Jhunjhunwala in the 13th over, and Mohammad Kaif trapped in front by Yusuf Pathan 11 balls later, Punjab had lost four batsmen for 19 runs in 23 balls and the team finally fall 31 runs short of their target.

Even during the first innings, Rajasthan had the upper hand as their batsmen completely overplayed Punjab bowlers. On a pitch that supported to fast bowlers, it was a poor show by Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth and Shalab Srivatsava as none of them troubled the batsmen.

After woeful starts in the previous matches, Lumb gave Rajasthan a kind of start that will keep him fixed in the team. Lumb and his aggressive partner Ojha gave a good start to Rajasthan for the first time in this tournament. After the fall of openers in the first eight overs, it was the responsibility of the middle-order to make some defendable total and the batsmen succeded in accomplishing their job.

Adam Voges and Yusuf started to take charge after their openers fall. Yusuf was unsuccessful in capitalizing upon the life his brother gave to him and Irfan took the wicket of his brother in 11th over. But as Fazal joined Voges, and this duo started taking charge of Punjab bowlers. The spaces on either side, between long-on and deep midwicket and long-off and deep extra cover, were exploited, as Yuvraj, Piyush Chawla and Irfan were taken for two fours and a six in consecutive overs.

Fazal, too, began fluently but ceded the floor to Yusuf and then Voges before opening up. He seized on length deliveries to dispatch four boundaries in successive overs off Irfan and Rusty Theron in the death overs; his 60-run stand with Voges, off 37 balls, gave Rajasthan a formidable total, one that thwarted Sangakkara’s plans at the toss to limit them to under 150 and handed their team another morale-boosting win.

By: Ganta Rakesh

Ending the dramatic conditions going in Pakistan cricket, PCB announced that their team is going to be led by senior cricketer Shahid Afridi in the T20 world cup being held in the Carribean.  This will be second time Afridi is going to handle the top jobs after he led the team when Younis Khan stepped away from this format.

“It’s a challenge for me and I accept it,” Afridi said. “We are going to the West Indies with only one aim and that is to defend our title.”

He was named as the skipper only for this tournament and this limit appears to be a result of the disciplinary action Afridi has faced since he was found guilty of biting the ball repeatedly in an ODI in Perth where he was captain. Until then, Pakistan had settled on Afridi as the Twenty20 captain till the World Cup and potentially as an ODI leader as well. But after that incident Afridi’s stock fell considerably.

He was banned by the ICC for two T20Is under ball-tampering act, which led to Shoaib Malik taking over the skipper’s jobs. Then, the board punished him with Rs 3 million ($35,000) fine for the same incident, as well as placing him under probation for six months. Any further breaches, the message is clear, and punishment could be harsher.

The board took the unusual step of announcing a 15-man squad for the tournament without naming a captain earlier this month. Since then, and despite his punishments, Afridi was the clear frontrunner among a limited pool of alternatives. He met the chairman Ijaz Butt once in that period. He is flying in to Lahore today, having collected a presidential award during the day in Karachi.

There were many others like Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq and Salman Butt to be in the race for captaincy as well, but Afridi’s record in the format – he is among the most influential all-round players in the world – and a naturally aggressive streak has made the choice an easier one.

Afridi has already led his country in three T20Is and won all of them, with little outward detriment to his own individual impact. The decision to announce the captain so late does leave open the charge, however, that neither captain nor coach – the recently-appointed Waqar Younis – had any say in the team they will be in charge of in the Caribbean.

Pakistan will be without the services of Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, both banned by the PCB, as well as the injured Sohail Tanvir. Afridi said their absences from the Caribbean campaign were unfortunate. “Rana, Malik and Tanvir could have been in my playing eleven because they had performed well in the past,” he said.

By: Ganta Rakesh

Uthappa’s 68 of 38 balls rescued Bangalore’s innings after they lost three key wickets before half of their innings got over. Uthappa’s blitz helped his team recover from a shaky start and sluggish middle overs, after which Bangalore’s bowlers throttled Chennai Super Kings to move to the top of the points table.

Match looked to be in control of Chennai as they bound the Bangalore in-form batsmen with strict bowling. But it was the final 19 deliveries of Bangalore’s innings, where Uthappa blazed away, that made the difference. Dropped on 5 and 25, Uthappa helped Bangalore take 52 runs off them, lifting his team from 119 after 17 overs to 171 for 5, when at one stage 150 looked difficult.

The shots played by Uthappa mostly came out of brute power and sensible improvisation. Take a bow to “THE WALKING ASSASSIN” for his enormous hitting that shifted the course of match. The speed of scoring was so interesting that he got his last 39 runs of just 10 balls. He ripped the bowling of Balaji as he struck a four followed by three biggies which were sixes in any stadium. Boucher joined this assassination as he struck a six in the last four followed by a six by Uthappa.

Until that explosion, Bangalore had struggled to face the decent Chennai attack. From the time their talisman opener Jacques Kallis was bowled for 19 in 4.4 overs, ending a splendid run of four unbeaten innings, the home side failed to overcome Chennai’s bowlers. On a wet surface, an eagerly-awaited contest began with Chennai’s new-ball duo wondering just what was needed to make a breakthrough. They thought they had success in the first over, when a peach of a delivery from Albie Morkel appeared to shave the outer edge of Kallis’ bat, but the umpire turned it down.

The openers rode his luck, as Manish Pandey got an inside-edged four to fine leg with a top edge that dropped between two fielders, and then Kallis charged Morkel, slashing a thick outside edge that was lost in the lights by L Balaji at third man. Off the very next delivery, Kallis edged Morkel wide of a diving slip for four more.    

Once Kallis was out for 19, Bangalore lost a anchor to their innings. Though Pandey looked dangerous on one side, Rahul Dravid tried to unleash himself. Most of the balls, he was not able to connect to the ball properly. But as he struck two fours of Balaji, it looked like he got into the momentum. He struck a brilliant four in the bowling of Muralitharan but a wicket followed the four as he failed to read the topspinner by Murali.

When the strategic time-out rolled around – that’s the pace at which the innings panned out – Chennai had restricted Bangalore to their poorest start yet, 61 for 2. That soon became 63 for 3 when Pandey slogged Murali and was held by Suresh Raina at mid-on. However, Chennai proceeded to reprieve Uthappa and conceded substantial ground.

With Uthappa providing a solid total to defend, the bowlers bowled upto their expectations. They got a perfect start as Praveen Kumar got the crucial break through by sending “Chota Hayden” Parthiv back to the pavilion.

Chennai struggled during the Powerplay, finishing the six-over block on 29 for 1. Matthew Hayden called for the Mongoose immediately after and hit Kallis for three consecutive fours, but he and George Bailey were unable to get the old fox Anil Kumble away. Mixing flippers and googlies exceptionally, Kumble kept a check on runs and the pressure resulted in Hayden being run out by Rahul Dravid’s underarm hit.

They got another breakthrough as R Vinay Kumar’s perfect seam position dismissed Bailey for a woeful 18 from 27 balls. Vinay struck a bigger blow in his next over when he got Suresh Raina to slash to Kallis at third man, and then Kumble sent back M Vijay. The innings never recovered after four wickets had fallen for 17 runs. Vinay went for a few runs but finished with a four-wicket haul to help Bangalore to lead the table pushing Mumbai Indians to second position.

By: Ganta Rakesh

After the long wait, the announcement has finally been made – the Indian Premier League is to expand to 10 franchises with the addition of the Pune and Kochi franchises from the 2011 season onwards. The financial might of the IPL was on display again on Sunday when Pune and Kochi became the league’s two new franchises, being sold for a value in excess of the original eight franchises combined.

Sahara group which has been sponsoring Team India for the past 15 years successfully won the Pune franchise after they bid the highest amount of US $370 million (Rs 1702 crore), while the Kochi team was won by a consortium, Rendezvous Sports World Limited, for a whopping amount of $333 million (Rs 1533.33 crore), for a period of ten years.

“There were five qualified bids and the bidding was extremely tough,” Modi said. Adani Entreprises and Videocon, the only two bidders at the last auction, which was cancelled by the IPL and fresh tenders, were issued on March 7, lost out this time.

Sahara had highest bids for three cities — Ahmedabad, Pune and Nagpur — but eventually they chose Pune as their franchise.  “When we considered the cities, in terms of infrastructure and logistics, Pune came first,” Abhijit Sarkar, the head of Sahara’s corporate communications, said. “Ït is also close to Mumbai – the commercial capital of India – and Aamby Valley (an upmarket township owned by the Sahara group).”

While Sahara has a long history of sports sponsorship and are a high-profile corporate group, little is known about the winners of the Kochi franchise. It is a consortium with five partners – the Rendezvous group, Parini developers, Anand Shah Estate, Anchor Earth Private Limited and Film Waves. Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor was involved in bringing the group together, but has no stake in the franchise.

“Tharoor was involved in facilitating and trying to get a team for the state,” Modi confirmed. “He is an ardent fan of cricket and he has been trying to get people from Kochi to bid for it. I think his involvement ends there.”

Speaking to reporters, Shailendra Gaikwad of Rendezvous World Sport said, “We have closely been following every development within the IPL, right from the inaugural year. Today, I am very happy for our consortium of Rendezvous World Sport and the people of Kochi as we finally have a team to call our own in this amazing city-based sports franchise.”

The IPL will now feature 10 teams and – if the current format is retained – a total of 94 games, from the existing 60. After the first season in 2008, the league has already expanded its reach to other centres such as Cuttack, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Dharamsala.

The franchise auction process was to have been completed on March 7 but was postponed by two weeks after the bidders and the BCCI objected to stiff financial clauses.

By: Ganta Rakesh