Captaincy: a recipe

The interview with Tiger pataudi (‘Talking Cricket’, March 2002) is a revelation on what a captain needs to be. A captain should be a visionary leader. He needs to have the nerve of a gambler, the understanding of a psychologist and the patience of a saint. We haven’t had such a captain in the last four decades. Indian cricket has suffered because of pataudi’s aversion to pacemen, Gavaskar’s negative approach, Azharuddin’s arrogance and Ganguly’s on-field temperament.

No Clubs, please

I don’t agree with Mr. Santosh Reddy when he says (Express Delivery, March 2002) That cricket should adopt the club system like in football. Mr Reddy gave the example of Michael Owen playing 65 matches a year. But Owen has played hardly 10 international matches for England. India played 14 Test and three one-day triangular series last year and they didn’t get a three-month summer break like footballers do. The amount of cricket played took its toll: Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan and rahul dravid were all injured during the last season.
Players are retiring early enough as it is and if you have a club system they will retire even earlier. Young allrounders will become a rare breed as it is already very demanding, physically, to do both, bat and bowl successfully on a regular basis.
It is the quality of cricket that matters not the quantity.

Er… you forgot these

The effort to shortlist the top ODI innings (‘Viv on top of the world’, March,2002) is novel, but I do think that Wisden has either under-rated or ignored entirely a few performances. For instance:

1 Sourav Ganguly’s 124 V. Pakistan at Dhaka in the Independence Cup in 1998.
2 Robin Singh’s efforts in the same match.
3 Sachin’s 143 at Sharjah against the Aussies That helped Indians qualify for the finals.
4 chris cairns’s 102 not out against South Africa in the VB series.
5 michael Bevan’s unbeaten century in the same series which kept Australia’s title hopes alive.

For country, not century

I agree with sourav Ganguly’s game plan about playing sachin Tendulkar in the middle order (straight bat, March, 2002) especially now that we have an attacking new opener in Virender sehwag.



Personally thought, I think Sachin will mind playing at No. 4 or 5. Over the last two years I have observed that Sachin plays for his centuries rather than for his centuries rather than for his country. He always goes slow once he reaches the eighties and nineties, no matter which over is being bowled. This is why his figures as an individual player are so good.
But what about our team? Afer playing so much cricket we are still struggling in both forms of the game. On the other hand, the Australians are doing great in both Test and ODIs thanks to their team efforts.

Good on you, ICC

Mukul kesavan is right on the money in pointing out how the one-day game in its present form is wholly forgettable (‘rethinking one-day cricket’, March 2002). But I believe the problem lies not so much in the rules but in the insignificance of the matches played. Who would want to remember the seven games between England and south Africa in 1996, even if they were as exciting as they come? The solution would be to make every match count, similar to what the ICC Test Championship has tried to do with Test cricket.

In this context, the much-ridiculed ICC seems to have got something right, at last. By changing the format of the ICC knockout Trophy they have taken a step in the right direction. The 12 participating teams have been divided into four pools of three teams each with only the top teams going on to the semi-finals. This format is much better than the knockout one which puts too much emphasis on luck and form on a given day.

For shame, Mr Bedi

I have always been a fan of Bishan Bedi, but I have reason to believe that he has been speaking through his turban (Broadside, March 2002).

Sourav Ganguly is not the singularly unsuccessful leader Bedi makes him out to be. His captaincy record in Tests (nine Won, five lost, three drawn) is better than those of most former captain; better by far than MAK pataudi – regarded as india’s best captain of all time – who lost 19 Tests and won nine, and even Bedi, who won six and lost 11.

Ganguly has scored over 3000 Test runs at an average of more than 40.His one-day record is surpassed by few. He has won us matches in Zimbabwe, where we had not won before, and in Sri Lanka, in the absence of the likes of Sachin, Laxman, Srinath and kumble. As far as his lean patch as a batsman is concerned, I think his bat has done the talking in the recent one-dayers against England and the Tests against Zimbabwe.

It is depressing to note that Bishan Bedi, who was himself a victim of racism in cricket, has played into the hands of the white brigade who have found pleasure in deriding Muttiah Muralitharan. The ICC is the right forum to decide whether Murali’s action is legal or not. People like Bedi are only losing their own reputations by raising doubts where none should exist. If Bedi believes that there is something wrong with the working of the ICC, he should take steps to reform that process. Does one see a plot in this attempt to discredit Murali when he is on the verge of crossing shane warne as the most successful spinner in Test Cricket?

Where have the bowlers gone?

It’s been a month of breathless action. Runs have not so much flowed as they have cascaded; teams have not merely chased down fourth-innings targets, but blazed away at them; and batsmen have blasted double- centuries as if these were out of fashion The figures say it all: 6749 Test runs have been scored in 1909 .1 over at 3.54 per over in the last six Test. Is this the beginning of a golden age in cricket? It’s tempting to ask.

The trouble is that we often tend to equate cricket with batting. It’s not unnatural. Cart wheeling stumps, the sight of the ball flying at the batsman’s ribcage or a blinding catch may occasionally spur the crowd, but people essentially come to watch the leather being belted Considering Test match are producing more result than over before , it is understandable that the sheer abundance of runs – and the exhilarating pace at which they are being scored –is being construed as prosperity and good health for cricket.

Spare a look at the other side and you will see absolute impoverishment. It isn’t a mere coincidence that this spectacular massacre of bowlers is taking place at a time when Test bowling standards are art an abysmal low Many great bowlers are on the wane : Allan Donald is gone wasim akram is struggling to stay fit, waqar younis has lost pace and sting and Anil Kumble has done nothing to prove that he can be match winner outside India . The current crop of West Indian fast bowlers is an insult to the memory of its predecessors; Health Streak bowls more half-volleys than outs wingers and, not so long ago, Andrew Flintoff was England’s best bowler.

Barring Australia, Who have two great bowlers – shane Warne and Glenn McGrath – and two very good ones – Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee, there are no great bowling sides in the world today. Though Chaminda vass has been incisive recently, Muttiah Muralitharan is still the sole matchwinner for sri Lanka and Shaun Pollock virtually carries the south African bowling all by himself. If a World XI were to be chosen today to take on Australia, Murali and Pollock would be the only automatic choices, whereas there would be a struggle over who to leave out of the batting line-up. Australia’s continuing rise is directly proportionate to the gradual fall of everyone else. Watching loads of runs being scored is fun, but no-contests are a killjoy.