The new year marks the death of cricket

The Aussie tour controversy rages on and is gathering steam. I am biased but still not as extreme in my view as some of the Aussies are, specifically Peter Roebuck. Refer the below two articles (The first one contains Roebuck's article in Sydney Herald):

http://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/arrogant-ponting-must-be-fired/2008/01/07/1199554571883.html

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ausvind/content/story/329708.html

I personally agree with Border when he says that most of it is cultural misunderstanding. But that is where my agreement ends. I think Australian team, specifically, Ponting/Clarke/Symonds have failed to recognize that cultural diversity, time and again now. What is worst is the way they are still defending their position. A tragic time for cricket. Thoughts?

Steve Bucknor - Man of the match

Thank you all for helping my hit-count cross thousand. Many more thousands to come. Meanwhile, keep visiting (And comment, if you feel like it:-)).

The day 4 at SCG was filled with edges, almost spectacular catches (but not quite), definite negative play by Australia and incredulously bad upmiring. Before all that, however, Bhajji presented us with another proud occassion - Ponting's wicket within his first over. His celebration was as jubiliant as it was unrehearsed. He has now dismissed Ponting the maximum number of times for any bowler. That is some feat. I still dont like Bhajji, however, who has gotten himself smack in the middle of another racial controversy involving Symonds.

Hayden and Hussey played reasonably ok but not quite the scoring duo that they normally are. Clear negative play by Australia; not something we expected. The natives were also shouting "boring-boring" and it wasnt an exaggeration. Kumbles produced yet another couple of wickets out of nothing. The guy is a fighting machine. However, the man of the match will be Steve Bucknor who gave bad decision on a couple of occassions and one of them, Hussey is still out there (like Symonds was in the first inning). If Bucknor had his way, he would not have given even Clarke out who was caught off an edge at first slip. Clear deflection and noise (the catch was taken at first slip for crying out loud), but Bucknor was caught sleeping. Clarke refused to walk and it was only after a brief commotion where the audience (Aussies/Indians included)were stumped that he was finally given out. Incredulous !!! Mr. Steve finally resorted to bad light to avoid any further embarassment. I think his umpiring days should be over.

Curse lifted

We witnessed Sachin break his 90-jinx on his way to score 150+. It took the four of us to come all the way to Sydney to break that curse but oh my, was it not worth its while!!! I swear I have smudged my life-line short while clapping away to each of his shot.

We have a decent lead and the trick is, as always, to get them out within tomorrow. Lets see.

Last evening, I had the fortune to meet Rishi aka country who gave us quite a download on friendship, how it is formed and maintained. Among various underlying reasons offered for any group's friendship were loyalty, transparency etc. However, we all finally concluded that we are good friends within our group because at the very basic level, we are all idiots which gravitated us towards each other.

Yesterday evening, we also did a bit of shopping. Lal/Ganji have bought pointy shoes, so they will now be the lady-killers on the dance-floor (Literally). I bought some nice pair of jeans for cheap (Stocktake sale) and also bought a t-shirt and a shirt. $200 under. Lal was $600 under (Not including his ever-increasing poker losses)!!

Indians are back again (Sung as Backstreet's back again)

We had an insight yesterday while comparing notes on the local media's coverage of cricket. They are full of respect for Indian team. They think that if there is any team that can stop the Aussie Juggernaut from rewriting the world record of most consecutive test wins, its India. It seems that we have been too harsh on Indian team. Or may be it is just that the standards are harsher in the family.

One thing is for sure, Australia is rewriting the way test-cricket is being played. Take the first inning, for example. They lost six quick wickets but their scoring rate never dipped below four. It is almost saying that losing wickets is a matter of time, so we might as well make the most of the four or five sessions that we get to bat for. It definitely does push for results and it seems to be working for them. I would not talk about fielding intensity which I have covered before.

So, on day 2, we got up pretty late. As hoped, Aussie innining was bundled but for a massive 463 and we could not even get Symonds out. As predicted, Jaffer lost his wicket early on. Laxman was, however, delightful in the way he batted. As we settled onto our seats, we were welcomed by a vintage Laxman batting. He hit four boundaries of a Mitchell Johnson over, just before drinks. As we filed out for a break, we were all unusually silent. After some time, we figured that we were all silently thinking about and admiring his strokes. The best thing was each one of us picked a different stroke to be the best among the lot. Laxman, of course, went on to hit a century.

Dravid, on the other hand, was a story of pure temperament. He stayed at 18 for over an hour. Towards the end of that hour, there was so much hooting/din for every ball he faced that I cant believe he still didnt flirt with that ball outside off. When he scored his nineteenth run, it was like a thunderclap; he just kept smiling. A commentator said - "They dont call him WALL for nothing. Look out there. There is a wall (The Aussie infield) around him and still nothing is happening."

Its a pity that both of them got out at around the same time. Both of them got a standing ovation and so did the incoming Sachin Tendulkar. You have to give it to the Aussies who love and respect a fighter, be it of any team.

I am hoping for a double from Sachin today. Arent you? I think even some aussies are secretly wishing for that, for the love of the game.

Down in the dumps

Happy new year to you all.

Our new year celebration plan was quite simple, made extraordinary by the rowdy crowd on Sydney streets. We celebrated with Irish (Ganji/Lal talked to a few of them for many minutes and could not understand a single word - To quote Snatch, bloody pikeys), with Indians (They were doing bhangara on the street and were in serious risk of getting beaten up; so we refused to associate ourselves with them)and of course Aussies (Cheers, Mate). We witnessed the "best fireworks since the millenium" but found it quite ordinary and ended the night wishing for a grand new year for Indian cricket team and development of alternate sources of energy (Dont ask!)

The following day was spent roaming around Sydney. We took a monorail and landed up at the Opera House. Like most great architecture, it looks better in person than in photographs. The walk around was positively energizing and I was silently wishing for the sunset to never happen. It, however, did and we moved to Opera bar which offers a great view of the bridge as well as the Opera house. We mocked around there for a while before having a delicious Korean meal. The night consisted of light poker and I lost for the first time (Did I mention first time?).

Sydney cricket ground is a lot smaller and more uptight than MCG (Surprisingly considering the crowd behavior during new year's). One has to sit in alloted seats and there are hardly any "You are a wanker" or "Show us your handcuffs" taunts. The day for Indian cricket, however, could not be any worse. Having taken six wickets for less than 120, we allowed the hometeam to come back from behind and spit in our faces. Andrew Symonds batted beautifully, although he was probably out caught behind off Ishant Sharma in his twenties but Mr. bucknor was as biased as ever. In any case, truth be told, Indian deserved this. The Indian team was a replica of the "Chak-De" hockey team in the first half. There was Yuvraj Singh not joining in team huddles and celebrations and there was Bhajji stomping in disgust at an otherwise decent fielding from Dada. Misfielding galore; catches dropped; overthrows conceded. All-in-all, it was a miracle we even got the early breaks (More out of bad shot selection than anything).

Can Indians beat Australia? Surely, on an off day, that is. They might even win a series due to individual talent aided by a lucky streak. But they are definitely not a team that deserves to beat the world champions. That would not prevent me from hoping that they do, though.

The (In)Tense Indians

Firstly, I offer my apologies for a late posting. I was just recovering from the rather bad display of cricket from India. The first test is wrapped up in less than four days and Ricky Ponting has not even arrived as yet. If I were to analyze it to death (I cant help it; it comes with Indian blood), I would think there are a few basic areas that Australia out-played India;

First and foremost is the Aussie intensity. This is the first time I saw with my own eyes the intensity of Aussie players in field. Whether they are batting, bowling or fielding, they are always busy with one thing or the other. With the day simmering at 40 degrees, and if an Aussie fielder doesn’t get a ball to run after(With India batting, that is a very high likelihood), he will be either stretching at inhuman angles or shining the ball for the bowler or simply erupting in a sprint back and forth. On the contrary, Saurav Ganguly will be asking for a physiotherapist within his first hour of batting. He probably shares his match fees with Dinesh Karthik who is always on in his stead in the field. The rest of the fielders are upto no good either. We do have Yuvraj Singh who is a reasonably decent fielder but that is where the list ends. The only real intense player is probably Anil Kumble who just keeps coming at you irrespective of the hour of the day or the opposition. Australia, on the other hand, has a long list starting with Hayden, Symonds, Ponting, Stuart Clark and even Mitchell Johnson.

The second area would definitely be the batting. I think our bowling was pretty disciplined, the pitch was fairly neutral and we lost this match because of our mediocre batting. This is when we have four of the world’s top batsmen in our team. But they simply could not be bothered. Only batsmen who played better, relatively that is, are Laxman, Sachin and Ganguly. Any talks about revitalizing Indian team with fresh blood can go for a heavenly toss; Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni could not bat if their lives depended upon it.

The third area will be the captaincy. Anil Kumble has simply not been able to galvanize the team into action. He just hasn’t been able to influence, be it the idiotic batting order, or simply the lack of his match-winning ability (He is a talented player but he cannot win us matches). I also have serious concerns about a bowler being a successful captain. We actually thought about all kinds of bowler-captains and could not think of a single guy who was really successful. Unfortunately, our two lead contestants are a bowler and a wicket keeper, hardly much of a choice.

The 29th night was an interesting night where I came face to face with the legend Erinc Ilkehan. His stories have been doing rounds in Singapore for ages now with some aftersparks in Malaysia as well. Funny and full of life, he showed us some of the night life in Melbourne more of which is covered at footnotesonpage4.

We are now in Sydney for the second test and of course the new years eve. Before heading out, we spent a nice afternoon playing Beach Cricket in Melbourne. I surprised the folks and myself with some nice bowling. Ganji claimed I was chucking. I pointed out the similarity between myself and the world's greatest bowler (arguably) which disappointed a few Srilankans into whacking me for big sixes. That was the end of my rather short-lived bowling career.

The new year beckons and offers a clean slate yet again. Lets see what India does about it. We have the tickets to a nice party close-by and are looking forward to it. To all of you folks, Happy Days.

Aussie ki Tehsi: Day 2 and part 3

Well, well, well. Except Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, nobody else looked like scoring much. Ganguly/Dravid did show some tough and gritty work out there, but it didnt come up to much good, proving my theory to be a bunch of crap. Well, what good is an Indian cricket fan, if he is brought down by failure of his theories. Afterall, he continues to be at the height of "bouncebackability" even with India continuing to disappoint him through the entire time that he has come to know and love cricket. On day 2, the session count became 2-4 with Australia dominating four out of six sessions. As I write this, Australia has set India a target of 499 with more than half the test time remaining. Is that arrogance or well-founded professionalism? We will sure find out today and tomorrow. India has survived the second session and as they toil for the third, we are heading out to take a look at the Chapell Street. Being true fans, we cant possible survive a live viewing without a heart-attack or two. Plus, if we are away, India seems to stand a better chance.

I will repeat myself when I say that the result is very much in the offing. We can play to draw; that choice has been snatched away from us. The only way out is to play to win. If we survive today with at least eight wickets to spare, then we should be looking to close the deal within tomorrow. On the other hand, we may just be bundled out by noon tomorrow.

Well, all the best to Indian team and to us.

Aussie ki Tehsi: Day 1

Predictable as we were, we could not make it in time for the train journey and were in serious risk of missing the first ball of the Boxing Day test match. We ended up driving to the stadium, were hit by the bad news of Ricky Ponting winning the toss yet again and electing to bat (whatever happened to the principles of greater good). Having reached the stadium, we wasted some more time talking to a group of boisterous Aussie blokes making their breakfast on the grill right outside. We exchanged some witty comments about India’s chances of winning. In the end, thankfully, we made it in time for the first ball.

And what an atmosphere it was. All my adjectives have already been used up by commentators and in a bid for being authentic, I would just have to say that you have to be there to believe it. Among chants for Aussie,Aussie,Aussie: Oi, Oi, Oi, there were enough Swamy Armies out there to match the decibel levels. Folks were drinking beer as soon as 10:30 in the morning when the very first of India were just waking up to hot cups of tea. We were sitting at the top of the stadium and the view was breath-taking. Ganji, our unofficial photographer (the official photographer – Lal proved to be upto no good) took some really cool pics; check one on the left.

Zahir Khan and Ruddar bowled really well in the first hour; the scoreline at 48/0 in 12 overs, however, didn’t do any justice to that. By 11:30, we were all pretty dismal and we decided to shake up the cosmos by doing something different in a bid to help Indian cause. For perspective, whenever myself/Lal have watched a game together, India has lost in the most depressing manner possible. So, we decided to get out of the stadium and check out the Great Ocean Drive (Couple of hours away). As we were walking, we saw the very first wicket fall and as a gesture of immense sacrifice for Team India, we kept walking. Why change something that seems to be working.

During the drive, we listened to a combination of local commentary (The best I have heard, delivered in a Seinfeld manner) and Ponna’s choicest swearing directed to whoever attempted to thwart our way. Karthik Bangalore slept for the most part while we listened to the fall of wickets, one after the other. A part of our heart was missing the live action at the stadium while the other was happy with the way we had unshackled India from the mysterious way the Cosmos operated. In the end, our team broke down and myself/Lal were blamed for the inept decision of leaving the stadium. We took it like men who had done the right thing for the greater good.

The great ocean drive wasn’t bad. Ganji got some pretty decent shots. I am publishing the left over pics, the best ones are available at his blog. See some on the left(Full of vanity as you will notice):


Towards the end of the drive, Ponna miraculously remembered that the BMW had an in-built TV and after a brief period of Ponna-bashing, we stopped the car and turned on the TV. Australia were 8-wickets down by then. We watched Mitchell Johnson clearly caught by yuvraj Singh off Anil Kumble which was not given out; thereby justifying our decision not to watch the match. We turned the TV off and drove off and were instantaneously rewarded with the fall of ninth wicket. Lal was so moved that he went to the extent of suggesting that we don’t watch the match the next day as well so as not to disturb the favorable forces, but after a thorough discussion about the pros/cons lasting a tick or two, we decided against it. Towards the evening, We were told off by Uncle Ponna for deserting Indian team. He said that inspite of being a Srilankan, he was a bigger fan, having watched every ball of the match.

About cricket, the day was great for India but 350+ (which is what they may eventually score) keeps the match pretty much evenly balanced. What has worked for India is Kumble and possibly increasing pace of the wicket as time passes by. What has not worked for India is bad fielding and Australian tail-enders. Looking at the profile of who has scored today, they have all made gritty runs (Matthew Hayden scored just nine boundaries in his century). The ones who have failed are the ones who are otherwise class-act to watch but have failed today while playing flashy shots against a reasonably disciplined bowling. It seems to me that the gritty ones (Dravid/ Ganguly and possible Dhoni) will survive and they will have to dig even deeper because Australian bowling attack promises to be much more disciplined than ours.

With the Australian inning almost wrapped up within the day, a result is in the offing. I just hope that our team realizes it and plays to win.

Aussie ki Tehsi: The night before the DAY

After a hupsh flight comprising of insomnia, three movies interrupted by slightly noisy cuddling couple in the next seats and intermittent bad French wine, we finally landed early morning (by my standards) in Melbourne. Well, at least for Lal and myself, it was still a direct flight as opposed to our other partner in crime and cheap Ganji who had taken a four-hour stop-over at Perth in the dead hours of night. He, infact, started two hours before us and arrived two hours after.

I was looking forward to some authentic Aussie welcome but was utterly disappointed in the warm and friendly people at the airport. The guys even helped me carry my luggage in small snippets off and on the conveyer belt. The airport was small but people were big, really big. I spent the next couple of hours waiting for Ponna and used it to make small talks with Lal and later, having exhausted that possibility, moved on to read the Melbourne tourist booklet. The city is worth coming to, even without cricket. But that is not what this trip is about now, is it.

Ponna arrived, followed by Ganji an hour later and we were immediately off to a marathon luncheon lasting a good three hours. Held at Ponna’s family friend and attended by the Who’s who of overseas Srilankan community (One of whom offered us his BMW during our stay which we gladly took up), it was a pleasant atmosphere and at any other time, it would have been an awesome welcome. Just that, all three of us had not slept for the past 24-30 hours and were really zonked out accompanied by temporary attention deficit disorder. The food was awesome and the prayer administered before the food, touching. Just before zoning out to dreamland, we helped a friend patch up a rocky relationship in the true American Pie fashion and be done with the good deed of the day.

Rejuvenated with a three hour sleeping session (Somehow, I slept like a log even with Ganji sleeping right next in a bed the size of which will embarrass hobbits), we finally got to meet Karthik Bangalore. The stage is set for an adventurous trip with all riders uniquely equipped (with the exception of yours truly). It turns out that Kartik is an avid sports freak with his databank and strong opinions spread from baseball to rugby, an ideal guy to chip away at during a moment of dullness (which will be hard to come by, in the first place).

The evening was spent in warm debate with Uncle Ponna over topics ranging from Srilankan cricket to firing employees to spotting stars in southern light and with Auntie Ponna over chick-flicks/Bodyline TV series, the background made colorful by masala chai, homemade cake and “You have got mail” aired on TV.

We are all united in our view that Indians should win the toss and bat first. Since the latter is the key objective, we pondered over writing a petition to Ricky Ponting for letting India bat for the greater good, in the event that he wins the toss, but somehow, the odds didn’t seem right.

Tomorrow is D-day and I am still up at 3.30AM local time. I just hope that I get up in time for the train journey that promises to be such a cultural event full of racial taunts. I am looking forward to it.

For an alternate view, refer Footnotes on page 4. Typed at around the same time, no notes compared.

Aussie ki Tehsi: Prefeed

Folks,

I have embarked on a trip of a lifetime - Watching Boxing day test match between India and Australia at the MCC. This will also roughly be the time that my entire generation of cricketers (Sachin Tendulkar/ Rahul Dravid/ Saurav Ganguly/ VVS Laxman/Anil Kumble) will make way for the next. I have grown up and loved to watch cricket with these players; sometimes, they have messmerized me with their exquisite display of skills, at other times, they have left me disgusted with utterly impossibly infant-like disregard for winning. Heck, they are no different from anybody out there who has seen similar mix of jubiliant successes and miserable failures. And I still love them.

I arrived in Singapore last evening from KL, Malaysia. I covered 401 KMs in exactly 3:47 hours, door to door which includes immigration and a ten minute stopover for refuelling. I touched a top speed of 240 km/hour; all thanks to a wonderful 2.0L 200hp Volkswagen Golf GTI (the one that was featured in Bourne Ultimatum - after I bought it, by the way) and awesome music (I spent the previous weekend burning CDs with the best music that I could think of). With the stage set for the upcoming trip, I am restless like the teenage guy the night before his first date.

And what a series it promises to be. The five cricketers, I mentioned before are almost sure never to visit down-under as players in future. Down-under is also the last frontier for most cricket playing nations. India is also the only team to have come closest to winning the series here the last time, in 2002-03 which ended in a draw. The team has the same unforgetting foursome of Dravid/Laxman/Ganguly/Tendulkar combined with the young and aggressive Yuvraj/Dhoni. The current bowling attack is better than the last one but relatively speaking Aussie bowling attack is nowhere close to what it was back then, what with Warne/Mcgrath out of picture. Not taking anything away from Australia who kicked the heck out of us just recently and at home; if it can ever happen, Indians stand the best chance now.

I will be flying out to Melbourne alongwith three other guys from the same generation, Sharad J. Lal/Nitin Gajaria/Kartik Bangalore (And I thought only blacks had fancy names, no racism intended) and we will be hosted by none other than Eshan Ponnadurai (I am looking forward to the barbeque on the boxing day eve at his home). This will be followed by new year's celebration at Sydney and of course the second test at sydney. Savvy?

Over the course of next fortnight or so, you can expect daily updates on the test-series on this blog from the eyes of an average cricket fan posted right from the stadium stand. I will try to be biased but my respect for good cricket might come in the way. You can be the judge.

PS - For non-curry folks, Aussie ki tehsi loosely translates as "To hell with the Aussies"