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He will often brag about his self goal, but his cricketing highs far outweigh anything football in the mouth. These were the heady 90s, Tubs in aviators, stubble, the drinks’ boy, bag and pre-mixes in hand and always a good sledge away from you – Birdy on strike, Tubs keeping, but before that, a brief background – Birdy was unemployed, a corporate hippy. Tubs behind the stumps, enquiring about Birdy’s pay-package, how many figures? Do they even pay you? Weak grin from stoned Birdy. Pink slip, salary slip, more slips of the mouth – how does it feel to be unemployed?
Birdy was stoic enough, he never spoke much, more grins. And drinks happen, swigs, Pussy partakes, Freddie, Keith, Bhaskar, Sajith, Kartik did you? One thing’s for certain, Roop did not partake. Those was rummy cricketing days, daze, yeah.
Through Delhi, Bombay, Hyderabad, we talked cricket, dirty, filthy, abusive cricket – Maninder-Saba Karim imitations…kehna parega, Saba; I even mailed Saba Karim, (the only cricketer I’ve ever mailed); years later when I ran into Saba at a bookshop, we finally got closure on that episode, or did we?
Tubs spent most of his adult life imitating Imran Khan, you can hear him Immu away here. It’s in print, but if you listen close enough, you’ll hear him alright. Maybe you can put your ear to the screen.
Phone call, looks like I lost the thread. But we did talk some cricket, which beats writing cricket – Happy Bored Day Tubs.
Once upon a time
Hayden's exit makes oz like the rest of us
by Mohit Tubby Varma (MTV)
Besides the impressive statistics, Hayden was also part of a very potent Aussie test cricket demolition unit. This unit made up of Langer, Ponting, Gilchrist and Hayden himself lifted the Oz batting order a notch above the other sides. The four of them scored big and fast, effectively batting the opposition out of the match. Now with three of the fab four gone, Australia's ability to score fast in a test match - a major reason for their dominance over other sides - is dented. Ponting can still dominate the opposition bowling; but without the three gentleman mentioned above, no longer can Australia crush a bowling side like they used to.
Ricky Ponting is now captaining a side that in both the bowling and batting department is beginning to look a lot like the other sides in the world. In fact, India with Virender Sehwag and South Africa with Graeme Smith, now have the opening batsmen who can do to the Australian bowling, what Aussies batsmen at one time did to bowlers around the world - demolish, demolish, demolish.
In the bowling department as well, India, England and South Africa now have more well rounded bowling attacks, with options in both seam and spin. Australia no longer towers over all the sides in world cricket, because the players who made them tower above everybody else are not going to be replaced easily.
Through some aggressive captaincy, and great players, India and South Africa, successfully pulled themselves up to the bar that had been raised by the Aussies. Dhoni and Smith can relax now. Ponting's Aussies aren't raising the bar anymore. India and South Africa by chasing big totals successfully in the fourth innings are the teams that are now defining the way Test Cricket is played.
It's no wonder that Ponting is so sad about Hayden's retirement. In Hayden he lost a player who could not only win a game, but define the game as well. Goodbye Haydos, the game will miss you, and there's a void in Bhajji's life as well.
