Playing quality spin is an art that needs to be mastered, and that can only happen if we play on surfaces that assist the slow bowlers as well © Getty Images

Dear readers

We have just finished a game against Gujarat in Valsad. So far it has been a disappointing season for Delhi. We've been so close and yet so far. This match, too, followed the familiar script: we field first, the opposition score in the vicinity of 350, we get extremely close, and fail to cross the hurdle. And then they bat till the match is called off before the mandatory overs are bowled. This is the first time in my 11 years in first-class cricket that I have been involved in four consecutive games that have followed much the same pattern. I am not complaining, just contemplating.

Anyhow, this blog was never meant to focus on Delhi alone, so I'll move on. Valsad is a small centre, but hosts at least one first-class game every season. The facilities are not top notch, but they are not bad either. The best thing about the venue is the quality of the track, and that means more to us cricketers more than all the other peripherals. It is made of red soil like most tracks in the West Zone, and it has enough for everyone right through the match. The track for our match had uniform bounce - a bit on the higher side as compared to the tracks in the North - which assisted both the pacers and the spinners. It provided enough lateral movement after pitching, to keep the fast bowlers interested even until the last day, the ball spun appreciably but not dangerously, and diligent batting fetched you runs.

One look at the scorecard at the end of the tame draw that our match was would make you wonder whether it was the same track as the one I just described. The reason for this disparity was that we dropped nearly 10 catches in the first innings, and then consumed far too many overs before getting bowled out 37 runs short of getting that elusive first-innings lead. From there on only one team could have brought about a result. Gujarat, though, chose to shut shop and play for the draw. I won't blame them as their bowlers were in the same boat as every other team’s, and would have bowled far too many overs already. With another match starting in two days, why risk an injury or unnecessary fatigue?

It also boils down to the resources at one's disposal, and the situation one is in at that point in time. Gujarat are third in the table with three games to play, and they know they don’t desperately need a win to qualify for quarter-finals or save themselves from relegation. Hence they can afford to play it safe.

The point system, too, encourages such play, and I will discuss this in greater detail in future blogs. Right now I want to focus on the pitches in India. Firstly, there are different kinds of soils in various parts of the country, and each behaves in its own peculiar manner. For example, the pitches made of red soil always offer more bounce, while the pitches made with black soil tends to stay low, with the ball skidding off the surface. There are also some old and worn-out tracks, which are too painstakingly slow. One can't really change the nature of the way a particular track behaves, but one can definitely make the most of it. It's the staging associations’ responsibility, and not the BCCI's, to prepare the track for every match.

The curator in Hyderabad shaved off every single strand of grass off the pitch for our game, and rolled it so much so as to ensure a batting paradise. Orissa went to the other extreme, leaving more than enough in the track in the recently concluded match against Punjab: they bowled Punjab out for a paltry 60. We might be doing the same for our next game. The venues in the North have a major handicap in terms of bounce, yet there is some lateral movement on offer, and the teams from the North have to bank on that to get a result.

There's a common belief that only the tracks that assist the quicker bowlers are good tracks for cricket. But that's a gross misconception in today's game. Such tracks are good and test the skills of the batsmen, but what about the spinners and the art of playing spin bowling? We're traditionally better players of spin, but that's not because we are born with a talent to read the spin even before it leaves the bowler's hand, instead it is because we play quality spin day in and day out. Playing quality spin is also an art that needs to be mastered, and that can only happen if we play on surfaces that assist the slow bowlers as well.

Hence we must get over this obsession of considering only the green tracks as good for cricket. I am not suggesting that we play on rank turners, but even if that's the case, it isn't too bad once in a while.

I must here also mention the terror strikes that have rocked Mumbai, and have left us terribly despairing. I have been following and tracking all the events, as most of you have been doing as well, and I feel deeply for the victims. It's a time where everything needs to take a back-seat while we aim to drive out terrorism from our country, and make it a safe place to live in. It's a national tragedy, and one that we will never forget. At this time of trouble and distress, we must stand behind the nation and unite to make sure such a living nightmare is never experienced again.

God bless

	Good old days: Pradeep Sangwan, celebrating a wicket last season. This season has been hard for the bowlers, and the tight schedule hasn't helped © Cricinfo Ltd

Dear readers

Please accept my apologies for not having written anything for a while. It's just that I am struggling to keep up with writing regularly because of the grueling schedule this year. I'm glad that I didn't plan to write my book this season: I wouldn’t have been able to complete it.

We've been getting the rough end of the bargain so far. There have been 12 days of first-class cricket so far, and we have fielded for at least some part of 11 of those days. The number of overs that we've spent on the field varies from 15 to 90 per day. Since we've been fielding first [we put Punjab in at the Roshanara, and lost the toss against Hyderabad and Mumbai], we've fielded for 632.2 overs so far - an average of close to 60 overs every fielding day. That means the bowlers have had an exceptionally heavy workload.

We could have lived with it had there been more between the games than the two days we are getting this season. I was always of the opinion that we needed more time between matches, and thus an extended first-class season. Besides giving the players adequate time to recover there are a couple more reasons for my thinking that way. Firstly if someone is having a rough time with his skills, he has the time to go back to some other form of cricket, regain his touch, and make a comeback in the same season. On the other hand, if someone hits a purple patch for a few weeks, just for a few weeks in a year, he would smash all the records, which might not be the true reflection of his talent. Secondly, if someone gets injured, a season that finishes in a few weeks would certainly rule him out for that year. So, even a minor injury might take out a year from his career.

Whether it's the loss of form or picking up an injury - and it can happen to anyone - the player has no way of making a comeback in the same season. Isn't it a little too harsh? Especially when I used to feel that the four-day break we used to have earlier wasn't enough. The schedule this season has just gone from bad to worse. Just consider that we have to fit in our travelling throughout the country in these two or three days.

Getting back to the point I was trying to make in the beginning: we've spent too much time on the field. All the teams are in the same boat, and once they realise that there isn't a realistic chance of forcing a result, they drop anchor and bat out the rest of the game. And some of the decisions, of not trying to make a match of it, are influenced by the physical state of their own bowlers. Unfortunately we have been at the receiving end twice, but even we would have done the same had we been in their shoes. So far, while bowling the second time, which has been the third innings of the match, I have employed my part-time bowlers, and hence the opposition batsmen have had a blast. I'm not trying to take anything away from their first-class centuries, but the fact remains that some of them are easy pickings.

In the past I would have tried to prevent people from scoring easy centuries, but that is the last thing on my mind this season. My primary concern is to ensure that I have 11 fit players for the next game. One could argue that every team should have some bench strength, but that doesn't mean one should be unreasonable on the best people you have at that point. When I see the fatigue on their faces, it's simply not possible to tell them to bowl their hearts out in a dead game. I spoke to a friend of mine who's playing for some other team, and he shared my views. They had the opposition on the mat, but then the bowlers ran out of steam. He said, “I wanted to tell them to go that extra yard, but reconciled with the fact that these fellow cricketers are also human and can only do so much.”

It is getting to the stage of total exhaustion, and every single player that I've spoken to shares my view. No wonder we've already had a fair number of triple- and double-centuries scored in the season, and we have only just finished the third round. If that's the way things are going to be for the rest of the season, the bowlers have all my sympathy.

Cheers

	Why should only foreigners spend time learning about Indian culture? © Getty Images

Hello

Whenever an overseas team tours India we get to hear of how they spend time in getting to know the country, how they learn the different facets of a different culture, and how that helps them go back as better individuals. We also do the same when we travel overseas.

We [the Delhi team] are in Hyderabad for our second-round game, and something made me wonder why we didn't do what most teams from abroad do - try to know the local culture. I just went to a nearby temple, something that I'm getting into the habit of doing daily, and came across a completely different way of offering prayers to the same Gods we worship in north India [Hyderabad is in the south]. The prayers were being offered either in Sanskrit or Telugu, and were music to the ears. The rituals were different, but the goal the same. Even though I couldn't understand a single word, it had a mesmerising effect on me.

We do try to learn a few words of the local language, but there could be a lot more to learn from different cultures within the country than just the language.

India is a huge country with diverse cultures, and we must not restrict ourselves to making that extra effort to know the local culture only when we're overseas. Sometimes, that way, we get to know other countries better than our own, which is diverse and beautiful. We're blessed to be in a profession that allows us to travel so much and interact. While the gruelling schedule and the little time in between the games seldom gives us the opportunity to explore the city, I still feel that making the extra effort is most certainly worth it.

Cheers

	Boring last days in drawn matches lead to such scenes © Cricinfo Ltd

A lot of teams choose to be more conservative in their first few games just to get their bearings right. And it reflects in the way they prepare the track for the game, their approach, and intent especially while batting. We have seen, in the ongoing India-Australia series, that the pitch plays an important role in deciding the outcome even if the bowling attacks have enough quality to take 20 wickets. The batting has been of high quality, but the pitches have played their role in the draws.

That is never the case in domestic cricket. Each side has only about a couple of genuine wicket-taking bowlers. It takes more than two such bowlers to take 20 wickets, including help from the track.

Another interesting factor during the first round was the scoring-rates. We all keep a close eye on how the other teams are faring, especially the ones in our group. The scores were almost identical, with the scoring-rate hovering around three an over.

Our game – against Punjab – was no different. Since we had already played a couple of games this season and our team has a settled look, we tried to produce a result-oriented pitch with a lot of grass on the surface. The idea was to give enough to the quicker bowlers to make an impact. With Punjab also relying heavily on their seam bowling, it was a gamble. With our strong batting line-up, we were ready to punt.

Unfortunately the pitch didn't offer half as much as we'd expected. After the first hour or so, it turned out to be a rather good batting surface. The scoring-rate never went past three an over, and on a good batting surface with a quick outfield, it made for some not-so-pleasant viewing. I would give the batsmen the benefit of doubt since it's the first match of the season, and they are just being more cautious, which is only to be expected.

The approach also depends on how you are placed in the team. If you are trying to make a mark and cement your place, your approach is more risk-free, and if your place is certain and your feet are moving well, you play with aggression and flair.

Punjab, like most teams would, just batted and batted without actually doing the damage in terms of runs, or at least not in the same proportion to the amount of time spent at the crease. They never shifted gears, and not once did they even attempt to dominate the attack, even when their batsmen were well set.

Once the team has batted nearly 140 overs in a four-day game, the other team must bat very badly to produce an outright result. And we didn’t bat badly, so the draw was inevitable. Even though we maintained a healthy run-rate of about four throughout our innings, there was never enough time to force a result.

The last day of the game was just a formality, and it makes me wonder if we could do away with this kind of boring last days. Only the batsmen stand to benefit from that phase of play. They might just get a first-class century, which would add up to their season's tally, but those figures are often misleading. More importantly there shouldn't be an easy first-class century for anyone. With nothing to play for on the last day, I wouldn't blame the bowlers for not putting in the desired effort. I tried as many as eight bowlers in order to give my main bowlers much-needed rest: the next game starts in three days’ time.

Perhaps the next round will produce more entertaining cricket, and with that more results.

Before I finish, I would like to add something: I was a little amused to see the reaction to my last post. So I thought I should communicate to my readers the reasons for writing what I wrote, and feeling for what I felt.

For a moment please forget it was me or my Delhi team-mates who didn't get the tickets. Take the case of a 65-year-old ex-cricketer living on a modest pension in the outskirts of Delhi, say Najafgarh. He happens to be an avid follower of the game, and is waiting for his ticket so that he can go to the ground and watch the game. For all we know, he may not have the money or the means to go to the nearest ticket counter to buy the ticket. The less we talk about the money cricketers used to get those days the better.

Should he be needed to do what a lot of people suggested me to do - buy a ticket and watch the game? The man in his 60s served his state and the game for years. So what did he play for? My guess is the love of the game, and the special brotherhood and community that we all share.

I'll leave the decision to you.

Cheers