aditya kumar's weblog

Never before has the spirit of the game been captured in such an entirety, in such a wholesome state.

England has won the Ashes after 17 years.

It all went down the wire in the end. Ultimately it was Kevin Pietersen’s mighty willow blade that prevailed over the seam of the likes of McGrath, Lee and the Great Warne. Before lunch, there was a good chance of an Aussie comeback with England reeling at 126/5 and Flintoff, the hero of the series, back in the pavilion. In normal circumstances one would have thought it was all a matter of how long the England tail wags.

But this group of Englishmen, in more ways than one, have been different than their predecessors and this was not just another game.

At lunch time, an Aussie comeback could be imagined for the kind of cricket we have been treated to this English summer, anything could be possible and predicting a winner would almost be a sin.

Kevin Pietersen, as it turned out, had other ideas. Playing in his first test series and riding on a lucky horse that refused to bog down, Pietersen hit a flamboyant 158. Flamboyant because in a game so tense, he unleashed an array of boundaries, 22 in total and 7 out of them which directly landed over the boundary rope- and then we all came to know, Pietersen has more to style than his weird hair color. His partnership with Ashley Giles ultimately proved to be the deciding factor of this exciting game.

Giles’s time at the crease was well spent and his innings out there in the park could only be compared to his gutsy and, eventually proving decisive, batting in the Trent Bridge match which made England lead 2-1 in the series.

One should not take the credit away from Australia- they have been praiseworthy all this while. They have lost to a better opposition, a deserving team led by a highly capable leader in Vaughan. If it was not because of the Australians, we would have witnessed one sided cricket and truth be told, there is a lot that can be learnt by watching the Australians go down- the spirit they play with, the hunger for success and the undying fight they put up. I dare say, these attributes are new found for the English team but it seems every Australian cricketer is born with them.

On a personal note, our Indian Cricket Team can’t win like the Aussies- but if they start losing like them, it would be less grieving for us fans.

And who can forget the Great Shane Warne. Playing his last test on the English soil- the same soil on which he bowled the “ball of the century”, 12 years ago, it was an irony he ended up in the losing side. Though claiming 12 wickets in the match and bowling his heart out in the middle- in the end it was just not enough.

The Ashes is back with England. But perhaps more importantly, the cricket fever, the cricket euphoria that England has been so deprived of in the last two decades is back there, where it belongs.

I say again, never before has the spirit of the game been captured in such an entirety, in such a wholesome state.

[Above: Flintoff and Geraint Jones exult as the umpires remove the bails, marking an End to the Ashes Series. Image from The BBC.]

After I saw Iqbal, I thought I could very well update my last post on the movie since I think it is a well made movie. I have always believed in Kukunoor’s abilities as a director and this time too, I was not disappointed. The best thing about the movie was that unlike other movies that are based on a theme like this, this movie does not evoke emotions because our Hero is deaf and mute. In fact, chances are that while watching the movie you might forget, for once, that he is handicapped at all.

The reason why I did not update my last post on Iqbal and am writing a new post here is because I thought there could be a connection drawn between Kukunoor’s magnificent movie and Anand Vasu’s excellent and thought provoking article on the state of Indian Cricket Selection process here. The author is Cricinfo’s assistant editor.

Mr Vasu’s article proves that cricket is not just a mere sport in my country. More than a sport, and not only a religion, I think it is an industry. There is more to it than what meets the eye. I urge you to read it here.

A cricket tournament involving India is going on but no match scheduled for the weekend.

Thankfully.

Because if there was one, my mind would have hung in balance. I can imagine one side of my brain not giving a damn to the cricket proceedings after witnessing the way we lost to New Zealand the other day. And the other side, questioning my faith in this cricket team of ours while tempting me to spend my weekend watching the 12 men in blue, (including the super-sub: so what if he gets out on a duck?) all in the hope that things will change. I must also tell you, that it is this other side of the brain which makes the audiences come back to watch cricket time after time.

I was, of course, spared of this dilemma this weekend.

Instead, trust the Ashes to give you that adrenaline rush while it revives Test Cricket. My dear readers, I have just witnessed the England-Australia encounter at Trent Bridge and trust me, it makes me wish you have witnessed it too. For if you have not I hope that you do not follow cricket at all- such was the intensity of the game. Riveting, spellbinding and all the ingredients of a classic test match thriller you could possibly think of.

My loyalties lie with England on this. An automatic choice since though I respect the Australians, I think while they have won almost every series (in the last decade or so) that has come their way, it has only rendered cricket predictable and boring. England and India have been the only countries who have raised their game to such a level that has made the Australians rethink their plans.

This series has had it’s funny side too. The Australians celebrated the draw at Old Trafford. That is a rare sight, Aussies celebrating a draw. And in this test match, the outbursts of Captain Ricky Ponting and Simon Katich when they got out in the second innings. We haven’t seen the Australians do that lately, have we? Mind you, this is not sledging. I think it is only happening because this current Aussie lot is yet to learn lessons on handling defeat. Steve Waugh, in this regard was a much decent man. You will notice, people in India have a lot of respect for him. Ricky Ponting’s case is just the opposite. Obviously, he doesn’t care.

Meanwhile, it celebration time at Trent Bridge. As I write this, Cricinfo screams “England hold their nerve in yet another thriller”. I have been also told the Manchester Uniteds, Liverpools and the Chealseas will have to be content with the smaller columns in tomorrow’s newspapers. For now, it’s just Vaughan, Trescothick, Freddie Flintoff and co. For now, it’s just cricket.

I can see this test match doing a world of good to cricket in the original Country of the game- which lately, like India, has been so much deprived of quality Cricket.

By the way, if England wins this Ashes, I say, grant Knighthood to all of them.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has been in news for quite a while and for all the wrong reasons. First came out the fact that BCCI is not controlled by the Government of India. So it is like team India plays for a club. No, it is not a national team. It is just a fact but alarming it is. The team which represents Indian cricket at the international level has nothing to do, at least officially, with the Government of India.

Second and most alarming- Till 2 days back, there was no official television coverage for the much awaited India Australia Test series. ESPN- Star bid with Zee and BCCI decided something else while Zee cried foul in the end. And Sony took away the rights. It is so strange that in a country where Cricket is followed next to religion, the telecast rights are controversial and the interests of the common man watching this game are given the least priority. Why have all this controversy? I know why. Because BCCI wants to earn loads and loads of money. Because at one time, this BCCI was a cash starved entity and now that it has tasted money, thanks to these so called television rights, the focus point is money.

I have a better idea. BCCI has enough money to start its own channel, exclusively for India matches. Why not do it? This way, you keep the rights, you earn from the channel sponsors and you pay the cricketers and do what you do anyway with your money. At least we wont have to face blackouts while Dravid has hit the ball in the air or when Agarkar has dropped that crucial catch.

Recently Mr Gavaskar was invited to deliver the Colin Cowdrey lecture. Surprising as it was, it came into account that he was very much irritated and disappointed by the sledging going on in the game. Surprising because, Mr Gavaskar himself admits, it was only once or maybe twice that he had actually experienced this bitter truth of modern day cricket. But a topic like this, I feel, could only be put up by someone as bold as Mr Gavaskar. South Africans, Australians, Kiwis or the Eglishmen would never raise the issue. The reason is simple. Because they do it themselves.

Though the little master originally blamed Australia as the only side using it, I think sledging certainly goes beyond the aussies. Later, rightly so, Mr Gavaskar agreed that it was even the Indian team that had been sledging and putting up verbal abuse. But I think the Indians (read Asians, or better, blacks i.e, India, Pakistan and Srilanka) do not have any further options to counter it. Pleading against the worlds greatest cricket authority, ICC has never been fruitful, however good and justified the reason may be. If the asians do it, they get fined but if the whites do it, its in the rule. Descrimination goes on, till this day. And the irony is, that most of the revenue generated by cricket is from the three big cricketing giants of Asia. No, not Australia and not even England. Sledging will go on, with or without Steven Waugh telling his players to try and stop it. Steve is one of the very few cricketers I have huge respect for. I know, if it were all in Steve’s hands this would not have been going on. But now that the australians have made sledging a part of the game, I think the asians have no other option than to start listening to Eminem songs and jot down the insults to keep themselves updated on this core issue. And in Saurav Ganguly, it seems, we have a perfectly capable leader to do so. (remember the shirt-off-look-at-my-chest-and-the-so-many-gold-chains scene in the Natwest final? )

All the best boys. And well done Mr Gavaskar. I had never seen you bat on the ground. But yes, off the ground you are a gem.