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DreamCricket Views
June 2011 - Posts
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By Suresh Menon As with all compromises, both sides claim
victory. But that is hardly relevant. The International Cricket Council
might feel its authority has been restored; the Board of Control for
Cricket in India might feel that by rejecting Hawkeye and sticking to
the elements it has no problems with, like Hot Spot, it has made a
point too. The important thing is that cricket umpiring has moved
forward. India’s blanket ban on the Decision Review System has been
lifted. What caused a breach in the BCCI’s stubborn resistance? Was it
the announcement by Sachin Tendulkar that he was no Luddite but all for
technology? Or was it the cricket-lovers and the media back home
indicating that everybody was heartily sick of the BCCI’s grandstanding
and chest-beating? Administrative muscle-flexing is as much a
tradition in cricket as the tea break. When Britannia ruled the waves,
England did the same thing. By accepting the DRS in more than just
principle, the BCCI has shown it is amenable to reason, and that is a
change from its image in recent years. Of course, the Indian board has
not agreed to everything, but it is a step, and any shift from its
usual intransigence must be commended. However badly India might
have articulated their objection to the Decision Review System (best
summed up by: “We don’t like it, so boo to you”), their image as the
bullies of international cricket was bound to get in the way of any
discussion. What effect the acceptance of the DRS by India will have on
other issues, like the Future Tours Programme, will be revealed soon.
The pound of flesh is usually the theme of ICC meetings. As for
the DRS itself, it is not perfect but technological aids certainly
increase the percentage of correct decisions. Stripped of the rhetoric,
that is the essence of the argument. Ball-tracking is tricky, and it
will be a while before India can be convinced about Hawkeye. A
physicist will tell you that any system that is predictive is
inherently flawed because you cannot tell with precision where a free
particle will go when unobstructed. Hawkeye tells you where the ball is
likely to finish up in relation to the stumps. So does the umpire on
the field. The difference is that Hawkeye is more accurate when it
comes to events preceding the rap on the pads – it is certain where the
ball pitched, what its velocity was, and the angle at which it struck
the pads. Hot Spot tells you if the ball took the edge. Over a period,
greater the amount of information fed into these systems, greater will
be the accuracy. Technology will become more sophisticated, more
reliable and cheaper. That is the nature of things. But without India’s
acquiescence, there would be no incentive to research further. The DRS
is an evolving system, and over years will approach perfection (even if
it doesn’t actually get there). The last time India played a
series under DRS was three years ago. The two best-known walkers in the
team, Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid were both shown up on that occasion
for standing their ground when the DRS clearly showed they were out
caught. Just how much of India’s allergy to the system stemmed from
those incidents is difficult to say. In the current series in the
West Indies (where there is no DRS), Indians calculate they had six
decisions that went against them in the first Test. And how do they
know this? Because television told them so. The devil can cite the
scripture for his purpose, as Antonio reminds us in The Merchant of
Venice. The Indian captain did not believe in the DRS but was not
averse to using it to prove his point when his team was at the
receiving end. With India on the same page as everybody else, such contradictions will hopefully be eliminated.
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By Sunil Gavaskar
India’s win in the first test at Sabina Park was a well earned win,
for the pitch was not an easy one to bat on. There was bounce and there
was turn from day one of the game which was unusual but also brought
out the technique and temperament of the batsmen. In circumstances like
these there is no one better than Rahul Dravid who simply relishes the
challenge that such pitches bring on and is at his combative best.
The
reason why test matches show the men from the boys is because it is
such pitches that provide the real examination of a player’s technique
and temperament and how he guts it out is what tells more about him
than any other form of the game. The player’s also know it and so are
keen to do well in Tests because they will be remembered more for their
test deeds than their performances in limited overs cricket. Batting in
Test cricket is different than in limited overs cricket simply because,
unlike in limited overs cricket the bowlers are trying to get you out
every ball.
In limited overs cricket even if the bowler
does not get a batsman out but restricts him to a couple of runs in the
over he and his captain will be satisfied. In test cricket unless you
get the batsman out the team is likely to be fielding for a long time
and however good a fielder a player is he does not relish that
prospect. For the bowlers too it is a test of temperament since he has
to show the ability to come back even after he is hit. He also has to
adapt to the pitch be it one that has bounce and spin or one where the
ball hardly moves. If it is a pitch where there is bounce and spin he
has to curb his excitement and bowl the right length else all the
assistance he is getting from the pitch will come to naught.
How
often have we seen on bouncy pitches fast bowlers wasting their energy
and the new ball by bowling it short when a fuller length would have
helped them take advantage of the pitch and, how many times we have
seen how on a spinning pitch bowlers have bowled too flat and thus
dropped the ball short and allowed the batsmen to negotiate them from
the back-foot. It was here that the Indian spin bowlers
missed out. They not only bowled short of good length which let the
batsmen play them off the back-foot, they also bowled a line that was
restrictive than destructive. As a batsman I can tell you that it is
far more difficult to change a shot when one is on the front foot than
on the back-foot where the extra foot or so helps you in making any
adjustments to counter the deviation of the ball.
Devendra
Bishoo who is relatively new to international cricket bowled fuller and
tossed the ball up and though he went for a few boundaries he picked up
wickets. The Indian spinners having played plenty of limited overs
cricket bowled a flatter quicker trajectory that did not help them
exploit the wicket as well as Bishoo did. Still it is early days and
with the experience they have they should be able to come back in the
remaining tests. What the Sabina Park pitch did was also show the
young Indian batsmen that there is a world of a difference between Test
cricket and one-day cricket. Abhinav Mukund, Virat Kohli have scored
plenty of runs on pitches where all they have to do is get onto the
front foot but in tests where pitches have a little more bounce they
have to play on the back-foot and play around their ribcages which is
not the hand movement and balance they are used to and thus the
difficulty in playing those deliveries. They may not have got runs but
both showed gumption and that is a plus and as they play more of such
type of bowling and on such pitches the better they will become at it.
They would have learnt a lot watching how Dravid batted and how he
slowed his bat speed to ensure that he had the time to play the quick’s
and ensures that even if the bounce caught him by surprise the bat
speed would ensure that the ball didn’t lob up in the air. As it
seems to happen in Jamaica whenever there is cricket there is rain and
the rains did come but late in the evening of the fourth day well after
the match was over. That brought memories of India’s tour in 2002 when
the rains came barely few minutes after India had lost their last
wicket and with it the series 1-2. So hard was the rainfall that the
presentation of the awards had to be done indoors and the rains didn’t
stop for the next five days and the two one-dayer’s in Jamaica had to
be abandoned. If only the tail-enders had stuck around for a couple of
overs the series would have been shared. of course this is not an
attempt to point a finger at the tail when the top order also had not
done much but that last morning it was clear that with such a heavy
cloud cover the rains were round the corner and all it needed was the
tail to try and hang in there instead of going for the big shots.
That
was then and the Indian tails has improved considerably and are no
longer pushovers and that's why the 2006 and 2011 matches at Sabina
Park have gone in India’s favour.
Let us hope that the team
does not relax as they did after the one day series was won and let the
West Indians narrow the margin. It’s not often that India wins all the
tests but this series does give a golden opportunity to do so.
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By Partab Ramchand
There will be a tendency to dismiss the Indian victory in the first Test at Kingston as routine. The Indians have been notching up victories abroad at regular intervals and this could well be on the face of it just another win. After all in the last five years the team has registered victories in West Indies, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Australia and South Africa besides emerging triumphant in the Test series in West Indies, England and New Zealand. Moreover the Indians are No 1 and the West Indians No 7 in the ICC rankings. Everyone is aware of how emaciated the West Indies are with palpable weaknesses in batting, bowling and fielding. Also these are not happy times for the West Indies on and off the field.
Be that as it may one important fact should not be overlooked. The Indians are not at full strength. The likes of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan were missing from the starting line-up at Kingston. A lot has been said and written of the Indian bench strength and it was felt that the tour of the Caribbean would give them the perfect opportunity in the absence of the stars to prove their worth. To an extent this has been proved right and from this viewpoint the Kingston win can be termed as a significant victory and the series could well be a historic, path breaking one if the youngsters all perform in keeping with their growing reputation.
Unfortunately this was true only to a point. Murali Vijay and Abhivan Mukund had a glorious chance to show that they belonged in a higher category in the absence of Sehwag and Gambhir but they don’t look ready to take over from a highly successful opening pair. Neither did Virat Kohli exactly cover himself with glory. The absence of Tendulkar gave him the opportunity to show that he could make the transition from limited overs cricket to the game’s traditional format but he could not have strengthened his case with scores of four and 15. The No 6 slot is really up for grabs with Yuvraj, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Cheteswar Pujara being the contenders. Raina showed why he should still be a serious candidate with his dazzling first innings knock which had an enormous influence on the ultimate outcome.
Even if VVS Laxman failed the selectors’ insistence of staying with the established stars was vindicated by Rahul Dravid’s performance. Following his recent indifferent form in Tests abroad question marks were being raised as to whether Dravid too like Tendulkar and Laxman does not have too much to offer Indian cricket. Now one thing is clear. Even if Tendulkar and Laxman for the sake of argument do not have too much to contribute to the Indian team in the near future no such arguments can be made out against Dravid. At 38 and after exactly 15 years of Test cricket he can still be counted upon to play the rescue act to perfection. More than any other single performance it was Dravid’s hundred on a difficult track that shaped India’s victory. The Indian batting then continues to be an ideal blend of youth and experience.
How will the Indian bowling perform without the presence of Zaheer was the question being asked on the eve of the series. Well, actually the quartet exceeded expectations. Let’s not forget that this was not supposed to be the starting line-up, that under normal circumstances it should have been Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel opening the bowling. The injury to Munaf opened the doors for Parveen Kumar and the experts reckoned that he could be a force to reckon with only in English conditions with his banana outswing. The stout hearted medium pace bowler from Uttar Pradesh however proved that he could be successful on any surface even slightly helpful. But for being banished from the bowling crease in the first innings thanks to the unforgivable offence of repeatedly running on to the danger area it is conceivable to imagine that he would have ended up with more than six wickets for the match. With the tall Ishant predictably relishing the conditions it is clear now that Munaf has to fight to regain his place and healthy competition is always a good augury.
One was however somewhat disappointed by the show of the spin duo. Amit Mishra’s confidence should have been sky high after his splendid performance in the ODIs and one thought that he had permanently moved ahead of Pragyan Ojha and Piyush Chawla in the choice of second spinner. But he was wayward in his length and line and whenever he tried something different he was collared. But there is no doubt that he has some skills and for the moment should be persevered. As for Harbhajan Singh even after almost three years in his role of senior spinner it appears he still has to come to terms with his responsibilities. One wonders whether he being just four wickets away from the 400-mark is not weighing on his head for he appears too anxious to take wickets. There is a palpable fall in his strike rate and average.
Looking ahead to the second Test starting on Tuesday there is very little the Indians need to do. Too much chopping and changing is undesirable and it is but fair that the failures should be given another chance to redeem themselves. This West Indian side has too many chinks in their armour and if the Indians play up to their potential there is every reason to believe that they can wrap up the series at Bridgetown even granting the fact that the visitors have lost seven out of eight Tests played at this venue.
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By Suresh Menon Till Adam Parore broke the barrier, so to
speak, by becoming the first international cricketer to climb Mount
Everest, the most significant achievement in the field was that of Bob
Crisp, a South African fast bowler whose centenary fell in May, the
same month that Parore reached the top of the world. Crisp was
picked to tour England in 1935, soon after he had climbed Mount
Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, and must rate as one of the
most fascinating characters to have played the game. He had an
‘attention span’ problem, possibly a medical term for someone who got
bored easily. He was a War hero, and duly recognised as such, but he rubbed too many
people the wrong way including General Montgomery who downgraded his
honours. How he ever found time to play cricket in the midst of his
many activities remains a mystery.
Asked by the King if his War injury would affect his bowling, he is reported to have said, “No sire, I was hit in the head.” He remains the only bowler to have twice taken four wickets in four balls. In
South Africa, Crisp started a paper for blacks, Drum. In England, he
tried mink farming and wrote two accounts of his war exploits.
Diagnosed with cancer, he spent a year walking round Crete, selling
accounts to newspapers. He died with a copy of Sporting Life on his
lap, reportedly having just lost a £20 bet. Crisp's 276 wickets cost
19.88, but, as Wisden notes in its obituary, “statistics are absurd for
such a man.” Statistics do sound absurd for those who have gone
beyond them. Adam Parore, for example, made two centuries in 78 Tests,
but will he want to be known as an Everest-tamer who made international
hundreds or a cricketer who climbed the tallest peak in the world?
Later this year, former England captain Michael Vaughan hopes to trek
the Great Wall of China. At the time of writing, Munaf Patel has no
plans to swim the English Channel, and if Jesse Ryder is planning to
drive a tractor to the South Pole, it is a well-kept secret. Cricketers
are not usually adventurous. They might occasionally flash outside the
off stump or dive headlong onto the boundary boards to save a boundary,
but generally they prefer to leave mountain-climbing and trekking to
the experts. If Parore’s achievement was treated with less than
the awe it deserved, it might have had something to do with his own
reaction that followed. “I just wanted to come back,” he was
quoted as saying. “I had great plans on what I should do and how I
might feel but in the end it was a bit of an anti-climax. I just wanted
to get down and live. You can see the end of the world. It's just a
shame that you’re so out of it you don’t know what you’re looking at.” Honest,
but too casual and no talk of world peace. His countryman Edmund
Hillary’s reaction when he (and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay) became the first
men to step onto Everest was quite dramatic. “We have knocked the
*** off!” he exclaimed. If Hillary thought it was an anti-climax,
he kept the thought to himself. Parore is 40, and in his
international days, he was one of the fittest players on the circuit.
He often jogged home after a day’s work on the field! He hopes to raise
at least a hundred thousand dollars for charity as a result of the
climb. Perhaps he will inspire a few willow-and-leather men to follow
in his footsteps too.
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By Partab Ramchand
The lack of killer instinct has almost always been a flaw in the approach of Indian cricketers. A sense of complacency and being all too easily satisfied has been one of the lamentable traits over the years. And even though there has been improvement in this regard of late old habits as they say die hard and vestitages of this flawed approach are seen now and then.
The just concluded ODI series against West Indies is a case in point. Even a second string Indian team seemed to be too strong for a weak home side and by winning the first three matches the visitors put themselves in line for a 5-0 clean sweep. This would have boosted their confidence level for the three-Test series starting on June 20. Instead we had a re-run of the old failing as the Indians seemed to take things lightly in the last two games and the result was that the West Indies by winning both have in fact boosted their morale before the Test series.
These are not happy times for West Indian cricket on and off the field and this was the time for the Indians to display the killer instinct. When your opponent is down, keep him pinned there and do not allow him a second chance, an avenue to get up. That is the essence of the great sides which have kept winning. But however good this Indian squad is it is not a great outfit. Even with the return of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni for the Test series it is not a certainty that the Indians will emerge victorious and repeat the feats notched up by Ajit Wadekar’s team in 1971 and Dravid’s squad five years ago. Despite unhappy events off the field and the West Indies currently occupying the No 7 slot in the ICC rankings there are indications that the home team’s fortunes are on the upswing. After all they just shared a two-Test series with Pakistan and Darren Sammy’s men would like to believe that they can pull off something similar against the Indians even without Chris Gayle in their ranks. For that matter the left handed opener did not play in the series against Pakistan either.
The point I am trying to make out is that the Indians have given the West Indies more than a ray of hope in the Test series thanks to their inability to make a clean sweep of the series which they could well have had they not taken things lightly. Perhaps symbolic of the Indians’ approach were the four dismissals of the captain Suresh Raina in the ODI series. Loose or irresponsible shots restricted his contribution to just 82 runs in five matches. There were other failures too with the bat in S Badrinath, Manoj Tiwari and Shikhar Dhawan leaving too much responsibility on the shoulders of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Indian cricket is fortunate to have these two around - surely the two best young batsmen in the country – and more will undoubtedly be heard of them in future. Rohit unfortunately is not part of the Test squad though I have always maintained that he is solid material for cricket’s traditional format. But of course he has the happy
knack of adjusting his game to all three formats.
Yusuf Pathan is fast outliving his reputation of a utility player. It is time he learnt that he cannot every ball while his bowling is innocuous. Under the circumstances with the rapid strides that Ravichandran Ashwin is making it is better to give the Tamil Nadu off spinner the opportunities to develop as the next utility man. Ashwin is no mug with the bat having got two first class hundreds and a highest score of 38 in his fledgling ODI career.
The Indian bowling was seen in slightly better light with Amit Mishra being the star and Munaf Patel not very far behind. Harbhjajan Singh, Parveen Kumar and Ashwin too had their moments but the over dependence on part time bowlers did not help matters. Kohli, Raina and Yusuf – he is more a part timer these days – besides going for runs did not help very much in the matter of taking wickets. Perhaps the time has come to go in with six batsmen and five bowlers but keeping in mind the safe and conventional thinking of the think tank I don’t see any change from the seven batsmen and four bowler policy with the part timers again given the responsibility of turning their arms over for ten overs.
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By Suresh Menon
Not always in Indian cricket has a vice captain automatically become
captain. It is unlikely that either Harbhajan Singh or V V S Laxman,
who have the job in the West Indies in the shorter and longer forms of
the game respectively, will do so. Vice captains, like Vice Presidents
of the country, come into prominence only when the man at the top is no
longer in charge. Yet the list of those who have been vice captain of
the national side but never led is an interesting one.
It includes Vijay Merchant and Mohinder Amarnath. Others like Chandu
Borde, Pankaj Roy, even Ravi Shastri led only (one Test each) because
the captains at the time were injured.
Indian selectors have often had a problem with the vice captain.
During one phase the convention was that no vice captain would be named
for a home series. It often led to ridiculous situations. When skipper
Pataudi had to leave the field during a Test against the West Indies in
Bangalore, the team which included future captains Venkatraghavan,
Sunil Gavaskar and G R Vishwanath didn’t know who was to be in charge.
Then substitute Rajinder Goel ran onto the field to inform the players
that Gavaskar would take over.
Traditionally, vice captains were of two types. The young, promising
future leader who was chosen to serve a period of apprenticeship under
a captain expected to carry on for a few seasons. Or a young captain
was given a senior man as his deputy.
Thus it was that a 21-year-old Pataudi was given the job when almost
the entire team was senior to him. Nari Contractor, 28 then, was struck
on the head by a Charlie Griffith delivery in Barbados on that 1962
tour and never played again. Pataudi took over.
On Pataudi’s first two tours, he had as vice captain Chandu Borde,
senior to him by seven years, and expected to be the voice of wisdom
and experience.
Harbhajan Singh is the second type of vice captain; older, more
experienced than Suresh Raina, and expected to provide the stability
and advice. Raina has led an Indian team before – to Zimbabwe, without
the leading players – but the West Indies tour is a different kettle of
fish. He probably welcomed Harbhajan’s presence as vice captain.
Yet, even here the selectors were repeating a move they made (of
course it was a different set then) some three decades ago when, with
two bowlers competing for the same slot, they made one of them vice
captain. This was on the 1971 tours of West Indies and England and
subsequent tours when the younger Venkatraghavan was named Ajit
Wadekar’s deputy leaving the more experienced Erapalli Prasanna out in
the cold.
In the West Indies, there might have been a tussle for the off
spinner’s slot between Harbhajan and Ravichander Ashwin, but at least
in this case it was the senior man who was made vice captain. With the
success of leg spinner Amit Mishra, it is difficult to see India play
both the offies in the same game. It could lead to embarrassment.
The appointment of V V S Laxman as vice captain to M S Dhoni in the
Test series is illogical. It is a tribute perhaps to a third reason for
such appointments – a way of honouring a senior player. With Dhoni well
established in his job, it would have been the ideal opportunity to
pick a younger man, a future captain. A case could be made for Raina
himself, but he is yet to cement his place in the middle order despite
his century on debut. This tour could be the making of him. Or it could
have been Virat Kohli, who has shown a combativeness and understanding
of the job that bodes well for India.
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By Sunil Gavaskar The recent FIFA
elections have predictably raised a storm about bribery and corruption
in the organization and once again brought attention to an organization
that has been beset with these allegations for some time now. It is not
just the FIFA but the international Olympic council that comes in for
such allegations especially, at the time of allotting the games to a
country and invariably the countries that lose out accuse the
organization of corruption and bribery. Sepp Blatter has been in the
eye of this storm from day one of his presidency yet he keeps getting
re-elected as President which shows the influence he has and the clout
that he wields.
This is being written from Trinidad the country from where Jack
Warner comes. Warner as you may recall is the President of Concacaf and
was the Vice President of FIFA till he was suspended along with
Mohammad Bin Hammam from Qatar who was contesting for the presidency of
the FIFA. Hammam withdrew from the contest and so Blatter was elected
unopposed but, Warner after being suspended promised to unleash a
tsunami that would sweep away the FIFA.
On his return to
Trinidad he went back on the promise saying that he had received legal
advice not to release the emails which showed Blatter was a party to
some of the mischief going on in the FIFA. The biggest accusers of
Blatter and the FIFA are the British newspapers and they are getting
increasingly angry that their allegations are not getting the attention
from Blatter and FIFA that they feel it deserves. Blatter has accepted
to have an ethics committee look into the allegations but is not
forthcoming about the whistle blower who has the so called proof of
corruption in awarding the 2018 and especially the 2022 Football World
Cup to Qatar.
Qatar is accused of using its money muscle to
win over votes that swung the verdict in their favour and they deny it.
Warner is the one who is being accused of asking the Caribbean nations
to give their votes in return for the funds that Qatar would give to
develop the game in their countries.
Like in cricket, the
Caribbean countries are short of funds to promote and develop the sport
and are often reliant on the largesse of other wealthier foot balling
nations to help them out. Not being a football person, I am not sure of
what exactly has happened but certain happenings prompt one to wonder
whether it is only cash incentives that constitute bribery or other
incentives too? For example England which was a contender for getting
the 2018 World Cup had offered free hospitality for the 2012 London
Olympics to the members of the FIFA.
The FIFA members
would have got hotels stays and chauffeur driven cars to ferry them to
and from the Olympic venues and most crucially the best seats in the
house for the premium events like the athletics. This offer was
withdrawn the moment England lost out to Russia. Of course the excuse
given was that the vote was lost because of bribery and so the
hospitality was being withdrawn. But isn’t the offering of the
hospitality before the vote itself bribery of sorts and it being
withdrawn immediately after England lost the vote pretty much confirms
it.
Not only that but the football association also went out
of its way to play a friendly against Trinidad before the vote to not
only help Trinidad generate some funds but also with the unstated
proviso that Trinidad would vote for it and because of the power Jack
Warner has over the Caribbean football countries he would get them also
to vote for England. In the event England despite having Prince William
and the prime minister Dave Cameron in its delegation ended up getting
only two votes and thus were out of the bidding process in the first
round itself. Rather than blaming concacaf what England should be doing
is to examine why the rest of Europe did not offer support to them.
Surely there cannot be any bribery where only two votes have been
secured.
Unfortunately England has always felt that it
deserves special consideration in everything and gets upset when it
isn’t forthcoming and the next step is to accuse others of being
corrupt. I am not sure since I am not a
football person but while there are elections for the other
vice-presidents posts in FIFA, England is a permanent vice president.
Is there a reason why and would that have been accepted if there was
another country which had a permanent vice president's post for them?
England
may have invented football and is a truly passionate country about the
game but there are others too particularly in South America who loves
the sport like a religion but there are not permanent posts for them.
Sepp
Blatter has got another four year term and has hinted that he will not
contest another term but that is four years away and plenty can happen
in that time for him to change his mind. it is extremely tough to give
up position of power but as the world changes one has to make way for
others whether one likes it or not. Unfortunately England not only does
not like it but is not prepared to accept that it is no longer the
force it was.
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By Partab Ramchand
As a facts and figures man it has never failed to amaze me how so many top class English batsmen over the years have ended their careers with their average in the 40s. Oh sure, there are the legends like Jack Hobbs, Len Hutton, Walter Hammond, Denis Compton and Ken Barrington who all have averages in the fifties while the famous opener Herbert Sutcliffe averages 60. But there is no other country which has so many players with a 40 plus average.
A cursory glance will reveal that the names include such famous batsmen as Peter May, Colin Cowdrey, Tom Graveney, Graham Gooch, David Gower, Ted Dexter, Geoff Boycott, John Edrich, Robin Smith, Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan and Graham Thorpe. Among the current crop Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen belong in this category while Jonathan Trott has gone well ahead averaging 64 after 20 Tests. Before Trott out of some 35 batsmen who average over 50 (minimum qualification 30 innings) only six were Englishmen.
With all due credit to Trott the one man who gives the impression of being, in racing parlance, a stayer and not a sprinter is Cook. In fact he has already been around for five years but looks good enough to be around for more than just another five years. By that time he should have run up a record that may well have taken him past Graham Gooch, currently England’s highest run getter and past Hammond, Cowdrey and Boycott as the leading century maker. And he could also become the only England batsman to average 50 after figuring in over 100 Tests.
It could be mighty dangerous to be making such predictions but where Cook is concerned one is prepared to stick his neck out. After all the Essex left hander has been destined for great things from a very early age. Prodigies do not always live up to expectations but in Cook’s case he has so far performed up to potential and there is every reason to believe that he will not flounder and fall from his exalted status in the future. Indeed he could well go from strength to strength.
Record breaking has been Cook’s forte ever since he made his Test debut a memorable one. It was in Bangalore against India and one recalls that he not only got a hundred but he also received a marriage proposal – on a placard from a pretty girl in the stands. Not unexpectedly for the tall Cook cuts a handsome figure on the field with his chiseled features. Before 2006 had run out Cook had added two more hundreds making him the only English batsman to score three hundreds before attaining the age of 22 putting him ahead of a greats like Len Hutton, Denis Compton and David Gower who had each got two hundreds before that age.
There was just no looking back for Cook after this heady start. By 2007 he was in exalted company – only Don Bradman, Javed Miandad and Sachin Tendulkar had previously scored seven hundreds before their 23rd birthday. He achieved this with a steadfast innings of 118 at Galle, England’s sole century in the series against Sri Lanka. It was clear by now that he was going to be England’s opening batsman for long – and a future captain as well. The latter thought was not exactly a surprise for Cook had captained England in the Under-19 World Cup in 2004. Now of course things are moving as ordained for he has been appointed Andrew Strauss’ successor as captain of the ODI team. It is surely only a matter of time before he succeeds Strauss as the Test captain too. Even that will not be a new experience for he has already stood in for Strauss on the tour of Bangladesh last year. In storybook fashion England won both Tests and Cook got hundreds in both.
The runs will undoubtedly flow for Cook – and at a faster rate if his burgeoning average is something to go by. During his memorable tour of Australia last winter when he scored an incredible 766 runs in seven innings to star in England’s first series win in Australia in 24 years Cook went past 5000 runs having turned 26 on Christmas Day - the second youngest batsman to reach the landmark after Tendulkar. Only Hammond with 905 runs in 1928-29 has scored more runs for England in a series against Australia.
Handsome is as handsome does and Cook combines style and substance. There have been instances when he has looked vulnerable outside the off stump or while playing across. But Cook is a deep thinker of the game, keen on ironing out his weaknesses and emerging as a complete player. Mentally very strong Cook is a difficult batsman to dismiss when settled for his concentration is already legendary, his technique water tight and his ability to get big scores makes him a feared opponent. A tally of 18 hundreds in 67 Tests with a highest score of 235 not out says it all. And yes his average (49.23) is fast approaching fifty – further proof if any is needed that Cook is on his way to becoming an all time English great.
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By Suresh Menon
For those above a certain age, the West Indies have represented the finest in cricket; their players so naturally gifted and so charmingly laidback that they seemed to play the game without a thought to winning, but merely expressing themselves. Not even the harsh realities of bones broken and international careers brought to an end by their fearsome fast bowlers has quite erased that excessively romantic picture. There was a time in the 1960s when the tiny island of Barbados (about a third the size of Gurgaon) could have beaten most Test-playing countries.
An all-time Barbados XI might read (in batting order): Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Frank Worrell (capt), Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott, Garry Sobers, John Goddard, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Wes Hall, Sylvester Clarke. That would leave no room for Conrad Hunte, Seymour Nurse, Charlie Griffith, Wayne Daniel, Fidel Edwards and many others.
The current West Indies team would give anything to have players of that calibre. From 1976 to 1991 they won 59 and lost only 16 of 122 Tests played. From such heights have they fallen. The true lover of cricket will be saddened by their decline. Today Bangladesh is the only team below them in world rankings in both forms of the game. “When there is rubbish at the top you will get rubbish at the bottom,” said Michael Holding recently, summing it up.
There has been talk of the ‘West Indies’, the only Test team which is not a single nation, breaking up into Jamaica and Trinidad and Barbados or worse, collapsing as a cricket unit altogether.
Although "the West Indies" is a single cricketing unit, the Trinidadians, the Bajans, the Jamaicans and so on are distinctive, as Alec Waugh commented in his book on the West Indies, A Family of Islands. "I have come to recognize their separate identities," he wrote of the islands. "When I began to write their history, I felt I was engaged upon a family saga that covered a succession of generations; I was tracing the fortunes of the various branches of that family, with first one branch in the ascendant, then another."
Just how much of all this is common knowledge among Suresh Raina’s men now touring those islands is difficult to tell. Few modern cricketers prepare for a tour by reading about the country they are about to visit. Nor will too many be conscious of the historical cricketing ties with India. The West Indies were the first team to tour independent India and but for an umpire’s stupid mistake India might have squared that 1948-49 series.
The first three Tests were drawn, the West Indies won the fourth by an innings. At one stage in the decider, India, chasing 361 to win, looked so threatening that the rival skipper John Goddard resorted to leg theory bowling. Vijay Hazare made 122, and India came within six runs of a win with seven balls remaining when the umpire, caught up in the excitement, called ‘over’, and also the end of play. India had to wait till 1971 to record their first win.
A whole generation in India has grown up in the years when the West Indies no longer ruled world cricket. Raina, born three years after India’s first World Cup victory played a crucial role in their second a couple of months ago. Neither he nor his teammates will carry the kind of baggage into a West Indies tour that some of the earlier tourists did.
The West Indies cliché was established early. In 1950, they beat England at Lord’s and as the last English wicket fell, “there was a rush of West Indies supporters, one armed with an instrument of the guitar family,” wrote Times. The guitar man was Lord Kitchener, the calypsonian from Trinidad whose words and music, according to Brian Stoddart “led the celebrations in honour of a new cricketing power. (Soon), the name ‘West Indies’ began to evoke images of rum, calypso and exciting play.”
The rum remains, as does the calypso. But exciting play has been missing for a while. My generation weeps.
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By Sunil Gavaskar
Last week saw two former New Zealand players in the news for different reasons. Martin Crowe announced that he was getting back to first class cricket because he needed some sort of a challenge to motivate himself. Crowe is 48 years old and if we remember that Sir Jack Hobbs played first class cricket and was reeling off centuries on uncovered pitches till he was about the same age then maybe Crowe would also be able to do so in New Zealand cricket.
From what was seen of the New Zealand bowling when they were in India late last year for a three Test and five one-day match series, it was apparent that they had a big problem getting 10 wickets, leave alone 20, in a Test match. When they came over for the ICC World Cup earlier this year it was again seen that there was hardly any improvement on the bowling front though they batted and fielded with admirable passion to get to the semi-finals.
So Martin Crowe has a great chance of doing well in his comeback even at his current age. He was one of the best of New Zealand’s cricketers with a fine record and along with Glen Turner, could well be New Zealand’s finest ever batsmen. He is also known as a bit of an out of the box thinker like Greg Chappell and some of his theories about the game have had a spirited, though not always positive, response from others. Crowe and Chappell were the ones who promoted the 8-a-side cricket after the early success of the 6-a-side cricket. This they did with some new rules like the ‘V’ in front of the sight screen pretty much like the box in football in front of the goal which was an area marked in black and if the batsman hit the ball in that area he got twice the runs be it a four, six or even a single which would be doubled if the ball went in that black area. This was apparently done to encourage batsmen to play straight. When this version of the game came out it was accepted by the authorities so much so that they even tried to scuttle the extremely popular Hong Kong Sixes event by not giving it the dates that they were used to.
The Hong Kong Sixes event had taken off in the late 80s and by early 90s it was a much looked forward to event by most internationals since the prize money was attractive, the hospitality was wonderful and it was a tournament where top players could mingle without the tensions of an international match. Hong Kong also is a lovely place for a weekend or so and the players loved the tournament. Unfortunately in trying to promote the 8-a-side tournament there was hardly a subtle attempt to browbeat the Hong Kong organisers and once the tournament lost its usual date of the last weekend of September when the English season would be over and the Southern hemisphere season was still to begin the main players could not participate and so the tournament lost its sheen and the sponsors also slowly started abandoning the event.
The Hong Kong Sixes is still there simply because the players still love the tournament and all that it brings with it although in a far more lower profile than its earlier heydays, but the 8-a-side tournament is dead and gone and nobody even talks about it. The old saying that you can keep a good man down but not knock him out applies to the Hong Kong Sixes.
The other former New Zealand player to make waves is Adam Parore who climbed Mount Everest. He said after he came down that he was disoriented when on top and all that he wanted to do was breathe and he almost died but it was his determination that took him to the top of the world. “You can see the end of the world but it’s just a shame that you don’t know it” was his quote when he came down.
One of the things that differentiate the men from the boys in international sport is temperament and Parore has been one of the fiercest competitors that New Zealand has had and in climbing the Mount Everest he has added to his legend for sure. When he was playing he was often in the gossip columns but his conquest of Mount Everest will certainly make the Kiwis look at him differently and in a much more appreciative light than when he was playing for New Zealand. It was a tremendous feat and hopefully it will inspire many other just retired internationals from all sports to try something challenging that will get the adrenalin pumping once again. Well done Adam.
It’s also time to say well done to the Indian Premier League as it nears the end of edition 4. Sure it was not as bubbly as the earlier ones but that could be put down to the ICC World Cup which was played just before the IPL started and that too in India. The cricket lovers were thus a little tired and of course India’s win would have been the ultimate for most of them. The T20 format is purely an entertainment one where the bowlers simply have no chance and so it is loaded in favour of the batsmen and that makes for an uneven contest. The connoisseur thus stays away from the ultra short version while the younger lot wanting the quick action and excitement, love it and frequent it.
It has been a long season indeed and while the Indian season will come to a close with the IPL, the Indian team will continue with tours to West Indies and England which will help the team in keeping its number one status in the rankings. The excitement will now give way to anticipation.
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