Cover Points : Sachin Tendulkar

The hand that rocks the handle

gchakravarthy — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:44:00 GMT

A 10-year old boy in a cricket coaching camp in Bangalore screams at his teammate who has just finished his batting stint at the nets: "Abe! Bottom hand loose rakh ... ball girega!" [which is Hindi for: "keep your bottom hand loose the next time and the ball will drop right down"].

It might help, at this point, to remind ourselves that for a right-handed batsman, the bottom hand is his (her) right hand).

It is no secret, at least since moving images of cricket matches moved into people's living rooms, which hand plays what role in executing what kind of shot. We still hear (or read) experts rave about the top-handed treat from Dravid or a bottom-handed bombardment by Tendulkar.

But, in a unique case of noise-pollution, the question seems to be relevant: what is it that really makes a batsman top-handed or bottom-handed? Or better still, what is it that makes a shot top-handed or bottom-handed? It seems logical that the top hand should be the dominant one in a cover drive or a straight drive or an on drive. It also seems to be acceptable to assume that the pulls and cuts and hooks and flicks depend more on the bottom hand. So does it follow then that Rahul Dravid can be termed a top-handed batsman? Does it also mean that Adam Gilchrist is a bottom-handed batsman?

Are you thinking ... yes, of course!

How about we toss in another variable ... the position of the batsman's hands on the bat handle (or grip)? If Sachin Tendulkar holds the bat way down and close to the blade on handle, does that make him a bottom-handed batsman? Also, if Adam Gilchrist holds the bat near the top edge of his handle [and hence, grip] should he be called a top-handed batsman?

You have the likes of Virender Sehwag who is as easy on the brain in this regard as he is on the eye when he bats. Simplicity seems to permeate through all aspects of his batting because he holds the bat towards the bottom of the handle and prefers to play strokes which also primarily use the bottom hand.

But then, you also have a batsman who loves to play cuts and pulls which are bottom-handed strokes but whose grip on his bat is top-handed, namely Adam Gilchrist. In fact, he went so far as to use a squash ball inside the glove of his bottom hand to motor his World Cup Final winning knock in Barbados in 2007. Sachin Tendulkar, who executes flawless drives which are top-handed shots does so while his grip itself is bottom-handed, as agreed on by.

Viru: outright bottom-handed batsman.
Gilly: ??
Paaji: ??

Is there a case for brevity here? Well, let us see. What are the facts of the case?

Certain strokes use the top hand more and certain use the bottom hand.
Certain players hold the bat at the top or the handle and yet others at the bottom.

Of these, the one fact that actually warrants the classification of batsmen as top- or bottom-handed is where they hold the bat. Using the type of strokes to do so requires an additional step: the assumption that a batsman "prefers" or "enjoys" certain types of strokes and that makes it ambiguous at best.

And then there's David Gower who thinks what we widely considered to be a right-handed should really be called left-handed! It is one thing to try and be an ambidextrous batsman ... quite another to be an ambiguous one!

Other oft-used cricket terms whose excessive usage has led to more confusion than clarity include: a good length delivery and reverse swing.

One of these days ...

Hindsight is 20-20

gchakravarthy — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:19:00 GMT

Ok ... what just happened?

We all have come to terms with the fact that the 2009 edition of the Indian Premier League is NOT actually being in India. But how many of us were ready for the rest of the topsy-turvy ouctomes in just 2 days of IPL?

All 8 teams have played at least one match each and here's what's happened:

Last year's finalists both lost their first matches.
Last year's champions, in fact, ended up with the lowest total in "IPL history".
Last year's worst 2 teams won their first matches and that too with huge margins.
Last year's champions, in fact, lost to last year's worst team.

As far as individual performances go, the so-called old-timers, the ones who are supposedly "not suited for the shorter game", the "slow movers", the ones who are not considered good enough to be part of their national team, were indeed the stars of the first round:

Rahul Dravid ended up with a 120+ rated 66 to give his team's bowlers a something to defend
Anil Kumble, one of those bowlers, ended up with figures of 3.5 overs 5 wickets for 5 runs!
Sachin Tendulkar held his team's batting order in order and did what Rahul Dravid did for the Royal Challengers.

Batsmen were supposed to take everything the away bowlers and into the stands:

Anil Kumble has already been mentioned above
Ojha and Vettori did exceptionally well for the Chargers

You heard it ... this IS South Africa we are talking about and it is spinning like a top and the top spinners are out to hunt.

Captains were swapped around:

Gilly for VVS
KP for the Wall
Paaji for Bhajji (even though Bhajji did it since Sachin was out due to injury the last time around)
McCullum for Dada

One thing that stayed in line with expectations was the importance of an all rounder. This was illustrated in the match up between Kolkata and Deccan which staged quite a first in that it had or captains 2 players who were truly all rounders. McCullum and Gilchrist are each wicket-keeping batsmen, openers at that, AND captains of their respective star-studded teams.

It was quite intereting to note that South Africans refer to their kids who attend school as learners and not students. So even as Lalit Modi hands over a cheque for ZAR100,000 to a South African school and thier learners jump up in joy, one can't but wonder what the older but equally keen and astute learners of cricket will be learning from the benefit of their hindsight from the first IPL season. Those IPL "leader caps" might exchange very strange hands this time around.

The T20 format might not have too much of a history, but has enough for cliches to have come out already. "All it takes is one over for the match to turn completely" anyone?

Well, looks like all it takes is one season for some seasoned cricketers to turn their limited overs career around.

Banking on culture

dcsiva — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:50:00 GMT

Brett Lee says that playing in the IPL has resulted in the Aussies gaining a greater understanding of Indian culture:

HARBHAJAN SINGH is not the only one to have said he will turn over a new leaf. The leader of the Australian attack, Brett Lee, last night pledged the Australian team will be on its best behaviour for the sequel to last summer's explosive Bollyline series.

In a concerted attempt to consign the acrimony between the Australian and Indian teams to history before the series begins, Lee said many of his teammates had benefited from experiencing their opponents' culture in the Indian Premier League.

Is that really true? Or even possible? Perhaps cricket is now only about money, or are these entirely false opposites? Meanwhile the money at stake certainly keeps on increasing. The Royal Bank of Scotland have signed up Sachin Tendulkar as a brand ambassador and sponsored the Twenty20 cricket in Pakistan (no security scares for them, I guess):

The PCB recently launched the Royal Bank of Scotland 20-20 Cup that will kick off on 4th October in Lahore.

Finally some cricket!

Who would have thought that the global financial crisis would affect cricket in Pakistan.

ABN Amro has sponsored domestic cricket in Pakisan for the last 3 years, however with its take over by RBS, all cricket in Pakistan will now be sponsored by them.

Royal Bank of Scotland sponsoring cricket in Pakistan. That sounds strange doesn't it?

And, finally, Neo Sports expect to make Rs 285 crores this year, with RBS a leading purchaser:

The sports broadcaster has managed to lock in 70% of its advertising inventory for the season. A deal has been finalised with telecom company Airtel which would be the co-presenting sponsor for both the India-Australia and India-England series.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Toyota have also come on board as associate sponsors. Fosters is the third associate/beverage partner, but will not get the same benefits as the other two associate sponsors.

They will utilise the partnership to popularise the brand on ground. The deal was closed by the World Sports Group (WSG), the ground right holders for an estimated Rs 3.3 crore per match. India and Australia will clash in a four-match series beginning October 9 in Bangalore.

This is RBS’ first investment in cricket and the bank is using cricket as its launch vehicle in India. Toyota on the other hand is using cricket as a platform to market and advertise its latest launch, the Corolla Altis.

Fab Four not over yet

dcsiva — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:04:00 GMT

Straight Point recently wrote about the Fab Four for those who might be sleeping. And there has been a chorus of disapproval of their recent lack of runs.

I too am wary of statistics. What is the value of a statistical analysis? Or, even simpler, just the numbers themselves as a record of achievement? I simply don't know.

When the IPL started there was a lot of discussion about the value of numbers in evaluating performance. See the following old post by David Barry for an account of sabermetrics and cricket. Barry's excellent most recent post looks at bowlers' performance over time, asking if they get better with experience.

If a rolling five match Test bowling average is good enough for him, it's good enough for me. Here, more precisely, are graphs of each of the Fab Four's rolling 10 innings Test averages (edit: click on the images to see the full graph):

I defy anyone to pick out any kind of meaningful pattern here. For example, one might be tempted to say: "Look at Dravid's numbers over the last year...they're consistently hopeless...he ought to be dropped immediately." Well then just glance at Tendulkar's graph instead and note the low 10 innings average in 2006. Would dropping him then have been a sensible thing to do? Second guessing your way through all of this noise is a bad idea.

Here's the average of the rolling 10 innings average of the Fab Four (gulp!):

There have been very very few times that the average of the each of the Fab Four's rolling ten innings average has dipped well below 40. The last time in fact was at the tail end of 2000. That is, just after India doing very badly in Australia, before some easy Tests against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and then the epic battle with Australia in that series.

If there's any value at all in looking at past performances, these graphs suggest that there is no long term decline in Fab Four efforts. Let them figure out when to retire by themselves. Or am I not awake yet?

Lanka progress and Fab Four decline

dcsiva — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:57:00 GMT

As England wrap up a final Test win against South Africa, with that cynical little man back in action, Sri Lanka win the series against India. Straight Point breaks out a statistics analysis against sleepy Fab Four supporters to argue that the Fab Four are in permanent decline not just in a temporary dip:

i wanted to put stats of other two (sehwag and gambirs) but i dropped the idea coz figures were embarrassing to compare...

if you further break it series per series basis...i.e. starting from Oz series to SA to SL series or breaking it from last 20 innings to last 15 to last 10 to even last 5 innings...

whichever way you wanna look at it...i am sure that...the decline will appear more continuously downwards...almost like a pattern...indicating that the fall in form is not temporary...or sudden...as we are being made to believe...

I'm not sure I'm awake yet. Mohan meanwhile sees a silver lining in Tendulkar getting injured---Badrinath gets a recall. But as Ottayan points out, the Vir-Gati opening combination that Tendulkar would have disrupted means that Badrinath is unlikely to play.

Lastly, a quiz from Patrick Kidd to help wake me up.

Losing the Fab Four

dcsiva — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 10:32:00 GMT

As Kevin Pietersen is setting up England for a consoling win against South Africa, both because of his century and the players' responses to him being made captain, Sangakkara is pulling Lanka back into the game against India.

But the really big news has to do with the Famous Fab Four. Start here with Straight Point, then have a look at VM's response on Dhoni getting the Khel Ratna, before shifting to back to Straight Point on "Vir-Gati". And, finally, onto to Ottayan on strategies for getting rid of the Fab Four.

I think the way forward is clear with everyone except Tendulkar. And even he has started losing sponsorships. The end is near for the Indian middle-order of the last decade and more. But we'll be clamouring for the good old days soon enough.

The Mendis carrom ball

dcsiva — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:58:00 GMT

India take on Sri Lanka in a one month series, containing 3 Tests and 5 ODIs. The big draw is, of course, Ajantha Mendis. Here's Mohan on the Indian squad:

The major surprise is that Virender Sehwag is vice-captain of the Test team!
After his comments on the idiocy of back-to-back games in the Asia Cup and after his comment that he was “running on reserve”, not unexpectedly, M. S. Dhoni, Team India Test vice-captain, has opted out of the Tests citing fatigue.

Also, Irfan has been dropped and Ojha included. Ottayan has the stats on all the hard work Dhoni has been putting in for the team.

Ducking Beamers has a post on that mystery of a bowler, Mendis, and his carrom ball. Meanwhile the really shocking news has been Pepsi's non-renewal of Tendulkar's contract. "Insider trading" on his retirement, perhaps?

Indian labour laws and cricket accountability

dcsiva — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:43:00 GMT

Tarun writes about Vijay Mallya's sacking of Charu Sharma from a labour law perspective:

But the point is that corporatization is rearing its very ugly head in cricket and an out of form player is now under the same kind of threat as any other employee in India - the very real threat of being fired and losing out on 'maximizing' income during playing days. As a lawyer, it irks me that the same kind of labour legislations that protect each of us employed in India from complete arbitrariness and high handedness does not appear to protect the sons of Indian cricket.

Sanjay has an entirely different take on the same subject, highlighting the money and accountability link:

But these stories highlight the thing that BCCI never did. How many times have the BCCI pulled up its players for non performance? How many times have team selection blunders been ignored? How many times have prejudices and biases dominated team selection without anyone questioning or raising the issue?

If a team can send players home because they may never get a piece of the action, why can’t the BCCI stop sending huge contingents of officials on paid holidays?

Meanwhile, Fershad insists that he hasn't checked personally but breaks the news that Sachin's groin is ready for the rigours of the IPL. And Q appears to be quite anxious about whether the IPL is "reliant on Aussie Power? Or rather are the Aussies the backbone of the IPL?" Finally, Nestaquin previews the upcoming Test series between England and New Zealand.

In a rich man's world

dcsiva — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:55:00 GMT

A report has come out from Frontier Economics, a consultancy firm, offering up a regression on performance stats and IPL auction values. Batsmen are undervalued, for example.

Homer digs deep into the money question, quoting from Indranil Basu's article on IPL revenue models and an interview with some of the key money-bag men of IPL cricket. Meanwhile, The Atheist clearly has strong feelings about Allen Stanford getting involved with English cricket:

Anyway, this state or anger was topped today when I discovered that Allen “Call Me Sir” Stanford is planning to bank-roll an expanded English twenty20 competition to rival the IPL. Why we would want to do such a thing is unclear, but Stanford is only prepared to organise such a useless tournament if he receives assurances from the ECB that they’ll guarantee his investment plus returns.

What marks batsmen as truly great? The best opposition concoct plans to dismiss them. And have to change them again and again as they adjust to one another:

"He is in the same league as Lara, but I've always felt Sachin has a tighter technique. Because he's so solid, our bowlers have had to work hard to get him out," said Ponting.
"At different times, we've worked out different plans, but Sachin comes up with something to combat them ... the sign of a truly class player."

Team India, politics and protesting Tendulkar

dcsiva — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:38:00 GMT

Samir Chopra writes thoughtfully about the relationship between "ICL India" and "BCCI India" in a post on the conventions of community belonging:

For as long as we've known cricket in India, it was assumed that there was only one 'Indian' team. And the BCCI was its lord and master. This India XI, for trademark reasons, I'm sure, is called the "ICL India XI" and not just the "India XI", but its an India XI as much as the BCCI's XI is.

Cricketing View examines sport and politics. Should they mix? More to the point, should Tendulkar carry the Olympic flame?

Something to think about...... for all of us. A great sportsman like Tendulkar should know better than to carry the Olympic torch when others like Kiran Bedi have refused to do so. We can blame the politics of it all, but the simple point is, that it is our Government, and it is our character which is revealed. We ought not to sacrifice it at the altar of "interest".

And In the Name of Cricket takes raises an altogether different question about Tendulkar, fitness, and the long careers:

This leaves team India at his mercy. The public has been conned to such an extent that from now on when Sachin declares himself fit, the selectors will have to select him and similarly when he declares he is unfit they will have to drop him. Otherwise, India will go up in flames and the selectors and cricketers will have to face angry mobs wherever they go.
The pity is the organisation that should have seen through Sachin's ploy is hand in glove with him. It is obvious that Sachin has only his interest at heart.

West Indian victory

dcsiva — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:24:00 GMT

Brian Carpenter celebrates a West Indian victory. Vaneisa Baksh connects cricket and culture. CaribbeanCricket points the way to Atherton on Lara.

Tendulkar will miss the third Test, but don't worry he'll be ready for the IPL. Q celebrates the ICL. Patrick Kidd likes the ICL and Twenty20, but thinks that draws are exciting.

King Cricket looks at the best fast bowling team in the world at the moment. And Rogers defects to Victoria.

Post-mortems and film clubs

dcsiva — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:01:00 GMT

Homer writes a post-mortem on the India--South Africa Test. Geeta fumes about AB de Villiers getting the Man of the Match award. Irfan Pathan is in danger of being dropped, argues the Times of India. A Cricketing View blames all the bowlers. Has Sachin been ruled out of the next Test? Never mind, this might be his first ever TV interview.

Not just using film stars to promote the Chennai Super Kings, but modelling cricket club supporters on the film clubs in Tamil Nadu?

And Will takes his eyes off Sri Lanka, but Samaraweera comes to the rescue.