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Showing posts with label Krish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Krish. Show all posts
Can You Understand This?
Bhashakale poley aalkarum vyethisthamaanu.
Ee vyethyaasangale manasilakanam, bhahumanikanam.
Sreesanth sadarnakare pole alla.
Sreesanth vyethisthenanu.
Sreesathinte vyethyasangle manasilakanam.
Anneram ningel Sreesanthine bhahumanikum!
Translation:
Like how languages are different, people are different too.
Learn to understand and respect these differences.
Sreesanth is not like regular people.
He is different.
Try to understand Sreesanth's differences.
Then maybe you will learn to respect Sreesanth!
What Needs to Happen for India to Qualify for the Champions Trophy Semi Finals
What is it about Shane Bond
Gaurav saw a post of mine and asked what makes Bond one of my favorite players. Well, first, I always had a thing for right-arm fast bowlers because I started playing cricket as a fast bowler. During those early days, I couldn't even hold a bat properly, so I am more inclined towards those bowlers who are genuine tailenders.
Allan Donald, Curtly Ambrose (though he batted left), Glenn McGrath, etc.
I am not so hot about left-arm fast bowlers. I am not sure why. Maybe because I cannot visualize using that bowling action. Obviously, there are quite a few great bowlers like Wasim Akram in that list.
What also attracts me about Bond and nowadays Vettori is that they are great players in a mediocre team and are one reason why New Zealand is even competitive in cricket today.
Andy Flower was another such person, boasting a 50 average in the worst Test-playing team, which means that he never got free runs for playing against Zimbabwe, unlike some present Test players I know.
We're All BCC!s
But all BCC!s are not the same. There are some BCC!s who, shall we say, are more CC than the rest of us. And so here's a series to celebrate some of them.
Our first BCC! is the NEMOM (Never Ever Missed One Match) BCC! As the name suggests, ever since the NEMOM first tasted the sweetness and sadness of Indian cricket, nothing in the world would prevent him/her from ever missing a single match, or ever admitting that.
Neither classes nor exams at school will stop the NEMOM!
Neither work nor sleep will stop the NEMOM!
Neither load-shedding nor satellite disruptions will stop the NEMOM!
The NEMOM remembers every match, every stroke and every ball ever bowled for the last two decades (since India had TV broadcasts). If the NEMOM is near you, you will never need to fire up Cricinfo because they can tell you the scores and all the mathematical averages that you ever need to know.
Take a bow to the NEMOM!
Why Today's Loss is Good for England
It took three Tests, but finally Australia showed their class and destroyed England in three days. But unlike the 5-0 drubbing they had in Australia last time, this is a good thing for England for the following reasons:
- They have a respected new captain-coach (Strauss-Flower) pair who are there for the long run and can make the necessary adjustments to learn from this debacle.
- People forget that this is the first Test loss for England since their collapse in the second innings of the first match of the West Indies tour. They have come a long way since then.
- Bell and Bopara were never going to be England's saviors. It is high time that they are removed via failures by this and let England test newer blood.
- Broad makes a small step towards replacing Flintoff as the all-rounder in the team. That helps England play 4 bowlers in addition to him.
- If England win the Oval Test, they would have won the series fair and square against an in-form Australian team. No more silly talk of beating a team weakened by whatever.
At the same time, this should not detract from the fact that the Australians are back to their most dangerous form. Except for the Broad-Swann partnership, they hardly put a foot wrong. India and South Africa have their task cut out for them to take the Test crown back.
Short Captains
Is cricket the one game where the captain is usually one of the shorter members of the team? I was thinking this when I saw a photo of Ricky Ponting standing next to Mitchell Johnson. Ponting is 5 feet 10 inches while Johnson is 6 feet 2 inches.
Usually cricket captains are batsmen. Batsmen are generally shorter than the bowlers, especially the fast bowlers. So it does seem that generally cricket captains will not usually be the tallest player in the team.
We have had some very short captains: Sunil Gavaskar (5 ft 5 in) and Sachin Tendulkar (5 ft 5 in). Or take Brian Lara (5 ft 8 in) giving orders to Curtly Ambrose (6 ft 7 in).
Perhaps Napolean Bonaparte (5 ft 7in) may have made a good cricket captain.
World Test Championship
The ICC is proposing to hold a World Test Championship, day/night matches and pink balls to make Test cricket more exciting. I feel that there are many problems with the whole concept.
The first thing is that for most people, matches are only interesting when it is closely fought and their team has a chance of winning. This applies to series and championships too. Any Test Cup would be interesting only if the outcomes are not very predictable.
Unfortunately, that is not the case now. In Test cricket, the gaps between some teams is too wide, even between teams that are closely placed in the rankings. For example, New Zealand would easily thrash Bangladesh, even though they are just one step above them. Australia easily whips most teams, except India and South Africa in recent times.
Test cricket is designed to minimize the element of luck. That is why there are two innings so that one bad effort by the team doesn't get punished - it has to fail twice. The artificial pressure of time is much less than in limited overs cricket. So by design, Test cricket ensures that there are more crushing victories than close matches or upsets.
In a Twenty20 match, the underdog always have a chance by taking risks or by fluke wickets. That is seldom going to happen in Test cricket. Unless, of course, you are going to tamper with things, such as the rules or pitch conditions and so forth.
Test cricket will be better served by reducing Test matches between mismatched teams. Also, there should be Best-of-3 and Best-of-5 contests so that there are no more dead rubber matches and whitewashes. That would improve the quality of cricket being played.
Cheering the Underdogs
In the recent discussions on BCC!, there was a debate about which team to cheer on - your country of origin or your country of residence. A lot of bytes have been spent on the conversation and I am not going to waste any more! :-)
Instead, I will ask you to ponder on which team you would cheer when two teams (neither of which is your primary team) is playing. For example, if you are an Indian (living in India), who do you cheer when Sri Lanka takes on Bangladesh, or if & when Nepal play against Bhutan.
For me, the answer is usually: Support the underdog. I "know" sport is supposed to be about "swifter, higher, stronger" and cricket, particularly Test cricket, is the most unforgiving game for poor talent. But when a match is going on, my heart is with the underdog team.I am trying to understand why this is. And I believe this is because sport is never really about skill or competition. It is about passion and feelings.
For example, when India is playing, I don't really care if India (such as in the 2007T20 World Cup) has a bunch of untested youngsters and the other team has experienced great batsmen and bowlers. I want India to win. If India lose by 1 run, it sucks, even if it was a great match. From the "objective" part of my brain, I can appreciate the closeness of the match and the tight competition, but my heart is weary and sad.
When it comes to a neutral match, the victory of a David is always sweeter than that of a Goliath, even if the latter has stupendous batting and bowling performances. Why? Because there is that element of surprise that is missing in any Goliath victory. It is inspirational to watch the underdog win. It uplifts us in a way that a clean victory by a superstar team can never do.
Do you remember the 16 record Test victories that Australia had, or the Test where they were stopped by Dravid and Laxman. Or why Australia's 1999 back-from-the-dead win seems more meaningful than their 2003 and 2007 World Cup victories? Ditto with India 1983 and Pakistan 1992. And how the Sri Lankans grew from no-hopers to world beaters in a few years.
What do you think?
by Krish
Does the West Indies Tour Matter?
The Indian team have made a trip to the Caribbean for a tour of four one-day internationals. I suppose the cricket powers-that-be have some reason to conduct this one-day series, but it does seem to be a throwaway series.
India is playing without a few key members. Sehwag and Raina are the obvious ones to miss out, while in-and-out Tendulkar is also missing. With the shrunken team already cooked solid after the 6-week IPL and the World Twenty20, will they have any motivation to perform well? The same goes for the West Indians who have played against England at home, then some in the IPL, then in the Tests, one-dayers and World Twenty20 in England. But they do have the home advantage while the Indians are traveling.
Luckily for India, it is a 4-match series, likely to end 2-2 so that no harm done to either team. Problem is, if you lose, you lose 3-1 which sounds like a drubbing. I don't see the West Indians losing that way, but with this low-strength Indian team, it is a high possibility.
So the $53,456 dollar question: Considering the high-risk, low-benefit situation, should Dhoni incur a self-inflicted injury and crash out?
by Krish
What next for India and MS Dhoni?
There is some anger at MS Dhoni and India for a few tactics that backfired, leading to India's exit from the tournament. Some of it is manufactured by the media and a few of the outbursts like burning effigies is uncalled for. Once the anger subsides, though, let us look at the present and future.
India has a young and talented team. They had been winning quite a lot recently and this win may help them learn and improve themselves. Some of the youngsters will lose their complacency and be better next time round.
At this moment, Dhoni is irreplaceable. Can you think of anybody in the current team who can act as captain? Hopefully, he will now learn to lead a team of favorites instead of thinking that he is still leading no-hopers.
2003 and 2007 were the only time in the past 25 years that we reached the finals of a World Cup. So this is not a disaster. Australia left in the first round. So while disappointing, it is not a humiliation.
Finally, we have a Twenty20 World Cup again next year. The frequency of the tournaments necessarily devalue the tournament. We need to focus on more important stuff (Test series and the ODI World Cup)
by Krish
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