aditya kumar's weblog

From a country so deprived of heroes in the recent past, from a country which has often found solace in the game of Cricket for it has been one of the few things that has gone right throughout the nations history — From Pakistan, two cricketers, one of them an idol to many and a matchwinner on his day, decide to take drugs and get banned for a couple of years.

And then, another man from a land already abundant in sport heroes — this man still manages to lead in his own unique way, commands respect from people in countries like India for his on and off the field activities — From Australia he comes and builds home for the homeless in a land which is not his own.

It is men like these, which eventually make good teams different from bad teams.

Imagine Rahul Dravid can talk to the Indian Batsmen while staying in the pavillion.

It is India vs Australia. India could do with a 20-30 run partnership. That is all that is required and India are sniffing victory.

Mongia is playing with a 50, pretty well set and Ajit Agarkar goes in to bat.

What would Dravid say to Agarkar?

—

RD: Just chip in with a double figure score.

AA: What?

RD: Make double figure. Just reach 10 runs!

AA: Double figure? What does that mean?

RD: Bat, man! BAT!!

AA: Batman?

RD: 10 RUNS!! Make 10 Runs!

AA: Make? You mean with the bat?

RD: Runs yaar! 10 will do!

AA: Oh yeah, I just gave 10 runs in one of my overs while I was bowling. But why mention that now?

RD: BAT yaar! Bat, score, make some runs. (gestures a forward defensive stroke with his arms)

AA: Whew, I have seen that somewhere! what does that mean? Bat?

So yeah, this is what we get when Agarkar, who came into the side as an all-rounder fails to make a double figure score so very often.

He has failed to get into double figures 11 times in the last 15 matches that he got the opportunity to bat in the middle. And within that the highest score? 21 runs.

What is going on? With players like him, how can they even think of playing one batsman less?

In Chennai for a day and I was missing the ongoing DLF Cup in Malaysia, as India took on Australia on a lazy saturday afternoon.

What Australia did to India and what India did to themselves became an altogether different matter though. The same rain gods that were blamed for denying India a victory two days back against the West Indies were thanked, for tonight they saved India the blushes.

Rahul Dravid should not open the innings. These (failed?) experiments have gone too far now. And we have heard so much about Raina and seen so little. Why can’t he be sent up the order? Not a chance worth taking? And why not?

Not taking the credit away from Johnson, Indians played some sloppy cricket. Dravid tried to start the onslaught a bit too early and paid the price. Irfan got out to a beauty that, it appeared, woke him from a sleep. Sehwag, what can be said (Sirjee, why do we get confused?). Yuvraj. He has been living on the edge so long now, he has started giving those to the slip squadron.

Meanwhile in Chennai, met up with Dilip and Kiruba, two people I have admired since long. It was fun to meet up, worth coming all the way from Bangalore.

The weather’s cool by the local standards but hot as ever, for a guy from Bangalore. Tell you what, Bangalores weather pampers you, spoils you.

The last few days have been sad for international cricket. The events that unfolded, Starting with the South African pull out from the tournament in Sri Lanka followed by the uncertainty over the cricket to be played in the island nation ending with the madness that happened in London, at the Oval. It has been a tough week for the Game.

The two hours of madness in The Oval has left the cricketing community and even the media, stunned. What happened there is yet to sink in and for sure there is more to it than what has met the eye so far.

Umpire Hair and The Pakistan team, both, have been involved in a fair amount of controversies in the past. If Darrel Hair has been the most controversial umpire since the 1990s, The Pakistan Cricket team have too had their share of ball tampering stories associated with them. (Remember, Imran Khan and the bottle top?).

As I said, we are yet to know what actually happened in the middle. In the days to come, we shall have experts and their opinions. The players involved will speak up and the media will decipher their quotes. Layer by layer, it will come out.

But there are a few things that are clear and are not jumped upon conclusions.
Umpires like Hair play their own game. We all know, he is not much of a fan of Asian teams (and vice versa). Does it take too much to keep him away from standing in test matches involving the teams he, kind of, loves to hate?

Racist or not, Hair loves controversies. Especially the ones he gets involved in.

Inzamam did what any conscious captain should have. I have often felt, he is just the right man for Pakistan. The PCB has showed tremendous faith in him and one can see why. The captain was well within his rights to protest and what he did was the most obvious thing to do. For a cricketer, that is the only way to protest there and then. But maybe he got a little carried away. Frankly, I don’t blame the Pakistan captain.

There is no denying this fact that things could have been handled better. If not by Inzamam then at least by the ICC. It is surprising, there was no third party involved to settle the dispute that went on for two hours. It was only Hair, Inzamam and the cricket rules book. And who else could this third party be, if not The ICC?

This is bad for cricket. Crowds are booing more often, doesn’t the ICC see that? Twenty20 is coming up and most of the cricket boards have a hard time filling in seats for test match cricket. And then this happens.

It is indeed ironical, that the cricket ground where England played it’s first ever Test more than 120 years ago, had to witness this circus.

Don’t send cricket to Malaysia or exhibit it in the Americas. ICC has work to do in places like England, the home of the game.

For all we know, the ICC could be the weakest sports body on this planet. Only under ICC can the viewers of the game get to wait for a good two hours in a state of bewilderment, confusion and chaos. And when it happens in football crazy England, you know which way the cricket game is heading to.

The Oval, with a urdu sign that says, “Do not enter the field” — Image from Cricinfo.com)

(This article, cross-posted at desicritics.org)

During the last India-Pakistan series that conlcuded in Pakistan a few months ago, Ten Sports came up with a studio show called “Straight Drive. It had an impressive lineup of experts, the great Imran Khan and Nasser Hussain to name a few. They both are great thinkers of the game, an attribute that they must have inherited from their cricket playing skills coupled by the experience. So things like good, valid arguments, reading the fine print etc could be expected and so it was. In particular, Imran Khan’s argument about Irfan Pathan’s bowling stance (and the position of his thumb at the point of delivery) turned out to be a valid one, an observation even the best of the experts would go on to acknowledge as one of the finest ever made from the media.

Another thing that Imran Khan stated, reinstating it throughout, was for Younis Khan to bat higher in the order. Younis had been in great form and treated Indian bowlers like they were club players. It made no sense to bring him lower down the order. Furthermore, it was important that the experienced players take up responsibility and face the heat, rather than sending the “young studs”, up the order to face the likes of Irfan Pathan and Anil Kumble. The argument fell on deaf ears, invariably, till the end of the series. When they implemented what the great pathan had said, the results changed for the better.

In fact, such was the influence of Imran’s words that coach Greg Chappell, in an interview, acknowledged Imran’s suggestions/tips as something that could be substituted for a bowling coach! He may have said it lightly but to even mention it in that manner shows the worth of Imran Khan’s comments.

All said and done, I think, it would have been fair to expect a never before insight of the game. When Imran Khan talks the world listens. It has to. But it was Sanjay Manjrekar, at least to me, who was the surprise in the show.

But Sanjay? The former Indian middle order batsman who once was expected to lead the Indian team has been a terrific host. He does not put his own little piece of greatness in the talk show, he does not have his own theories. Basically, he doesn’t act smart. On the contrary, he accepts where he can’t argue. Sometimes he even listens like a student. He doesn’t fake his accent or try to use complicated words. In fact, a couple of days back he did something that prompted me to write this post. After the pitch report of the first day of the ongoing test match against West Indies, the first ever to happen at the newly constructed St.Kitts cricket ground, our host, with a grin accepted that he failed to understand a few english words! They “bounced” over him, he admitted. One word, in particular, was something he did not understand at all. One of the experts on the show, Ian Chappell, repeated the word (it was “perambulate”, its meaning here) and explained the meaning, on the show. When was the last time you witnessed a host like that on Indian television?

Meanwhile, as I write this, the Indian team has just put life in a test match that looked a drag. They have just given the opposition a lead of 219 runs. There it goes.

I am in Goa to watch India play England in the 3rd ODI. As the airport is a stone’s throw from where I live in Goa, I thought it made more sense to get into the arrivals lounge and try to meet our cricketers.

And meet I did. First came Chappell. Then Sehwag (No matter how much he advertises for Reliance CDMA, he uses Airtel) To follow him, Kaif, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla, Dravid, Gambhir, RP Singh and Agarkar. Yes, I talked with a few, clicked a lot of photographs, took a *lot* of autographs. One thing I would like to mention though, Dravid is a class apart. I mean, there is certainly an air of calmness he carries around with him. Totally composed. And he is very generous, did not refuse anyone an autograph. Maybe it was his way to thank his fans for where he is today.

Then of course, came the Englishmen or the ‘poms’ as many call them. Freddie Flintoff is tall and expects people to stay away. Pietersen could almost pass as an Irish rock star. Anderson is smart and Hoggard seems like he has just woken up from a tight sleep and/or is drunk. But unlike their Indian counterparts, they did not oblige us. They sat their in the lounge for a longer duration of time, yet preferred to stay away. But it’s understandable. Afterall they have won the ashes. (If you think success has gone to their head, umm..too late)

Pictures soon!

Here it is, the testimonial of my travelling and some experiences during the past year and a half in Bangalore!

I must mention here, a couple of pictures have not been taken by me. I wish to thank those who have let these photos be a part of my diary of experiences. They know who they are.

It was wonderful to witness the following images ‘in real’. Capturing these pictures was a magnificent experience. Every single one of them.

Travelling through Maharashtra


The puppy in Kasauli


Out there in Andhra


Above the clouds: Mahabaleshwar


More Mahabaleshwar


The Church in Goa


The Blessing of Pondicherry!


Bullet the Blue Sky: SuryaKirans in formation: AeroIndia Bangalore 2005


Colouring the sky with the tricolor: SuryaKirans in formation: AeroIndia Bangalore 2005


Blending Colors: India versus Pakistan, March 2005, Bangalore


And the best: To have the honour of photographing the Little Master!