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June 23, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/23/2006 in India
Wicket keeping must be the big daddy of all Indian catching worries. Since the safe days of Mongia, India have hurtled from one disastrous wicket keeping experiment to another. Syed Saba Karim was the first keeper to succeed Mongia in Tests, and the first of a series of keepers who were better with the bat than with gloves.
A freakish eye injury Karim received from a Kumble delivery in Bangladesh's 1st ever Test match unfortunately ended his career in late 2000. That incident also triggered off a never ending procession of keeping prospects. They came, they kept, and they kept changing.
Continue reading "Indian Catching-7: Wicket Keeping"
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June 22, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/22/2006 in India
Dearth of dependable catchers engenders a dilemma for the Indian Test skipper with more rookie bowlers bowling for India now than ever before. The skipper would like to spend more time with them at mid-off / mid-on and talk them into bowling to his plan. This is all the more imperative in a team with no senior pace bowler in the side.
But for skipper Dravid that results in removing the only trustworthy catcher from the slip cordon. So the skipper often helplessly leaves VRV, Sreesanth and Patel to their own methods. That partly explains the blow-hot-blow-cold performances of Munaf Patel, Vikram Singh and S Sresanth.
Continue reading "Indian Catching-6: The Skipper's Catch-22"
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June 21, 2006
Posted by Ken Tinker on 06/21/2006 in Ashes Series 2006/07
Unlike when the presale began, today when the MCG Ashes tickets sale got underway, I was in pole position. I had awoken early to beat any possible crowds, and made my way down to the Ticketmaster office. I had started a queue at 8:20am, 40 minutes before opening time. Living in Newcastle, some 10 hours drive from Melbourne, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised about being the only person there. Pulling out a list of questions, I waited for someone else to show up.
Continue reading "Round 2"
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Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/21/2006 in India
The omission of opening batsman Akash Chopra from the Indian scheme of things is a cause for lament. His contributions were perhaps bigger than the physical count of his runs and his absence feels like this little spare falling off a big equipment that consequently runs with lots of noise and leak. A player in the Chopra mould had something to add to Indian long term prospects on the wickets of Eng/Aus/RSA.
Continue reading "Indian Catching-5: Remembering Akash Chopra"
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June 20, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/20/2006 in India
Coming to that 1990's Australian side, they had some truly great catching fieldsmen supporting Taylor - Junior, Warne and Punter immediately come to mind. The Ponting that leads their 2006 team is still right up there but Tubby & Junior are gone and Warne is ageing. The others, Hayden and Martyn, are pretty decent but not in the class of their predecessors. And they are nearly 35. What's more worrisome for Australia, the people designated to replace them may even struggle to match them.
With most Australian batsmen today making debut at the fag end of their 3rd decades in life, reason tells us not to expect Australian catching to reach any new highs in the immediate future. In a way the Australians are also feeling the pangs of fielding succession, albeit to a lesser degree than the Indians under Rahul Dravid.
[next: Remembering Akash Chopra]
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June 19, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/19/2006 in India
Right now India have two brilliant infielders from the one-day side Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif playing in Tests. "Wow - Yuvi and Kaifu? India must be having a great time pouching half chances!" Not quite! The principal areas of concern with Yuvraj and Kaif are highlighted in this post of Jagadish.
The two young men are indeed jumpy i.e. they fail to stay still and low till the last possible time, flaws that define the line between ordinary and great catchers that have prowled near the bat. They are still on the learning curve but their fumbles stand out in a setup that offers little cover for them.
Continue reading "Indian Catching-3: The present"
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June 18, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/18/2006 in India
Let's not go into the divine era featuring Solkar-Yajurvendra-Brijesh-Kirmani-Kapil-Sunny and just take a passing look at the Indian Test side of late 1990's. Even that generation of Indian cricket had two world class close-in fielders in Azharuddin and Dravid. Both were excellent at more than one position. They were good at forward short leg, silly point, short midwicket, covers and certainly at slip.
The two were ably supported by a young Sachin, often seen doing 1st slip duties those days. The team also had a naturally gifted keeper, Nayan Mongia. Mongia was as comfortable keeping to Kumble on Indian tracks as he was neat collecting Cronje's leg side nick to Srinath's fast rib-cager at Capetown 1997.
Continue reading "Indian Catching-2:The recent past"
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June 17, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/17/2006 in India
The deteriorating Indian standards of catching in Test matches have prompted a number of written and verbal screams from the cricket fraternity.
A young-ish Indian team was under considerable pressure during most of the recent England series, and a few misses were expected from inexperienced hands. Most hoped to see improvements in the ongoing series in Caribbean but the lapses have continued even with the team in driver's seat, suggesting a deeper malady.
Continue reading "Indian Catching-1: Intro"
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June 15, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/15/2006 in Miscellaneous
The other day I sent this interesting excerpt from a cricinfo throwback to a friend:
"David Gower was certainly not in the same league as any of the others on this list - indeed, it could be argued that he was one of the worst bowlers ever to have been unleashed on Test cricket. Nevertheless, he became the eighth person - and second Englishman - to be no-balled for throwing in a Test. He had few complaints. With New Zealand needing one to win in the second Test at Trent Bridge in 1986, Gower came on and openly threw his first ball which Martin Crowe smacked for four to end the game. But Ken Palmer at square leg called a no-ball, and so Gower ended with the figures 0-0-4-0."
Continue reading "When elegance went on a holiday"
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June 6, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/06/2006 in Miscellaneous
You strut into a home Test series as skipper of the overwhelming favourites to win the series.
You start your 1st day on that note but then ...
Your opponents shock you with a fighting display least expected of them. They make you slog over a drawn opening match. It is a moral victory for them, assuming any such victories exist.
You come back strongly and win the 2nd convincingly. Everybody expects you to hammer the final nail in the coffin but...
Continue reading "Taking the Sting with the Ring"
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June 5, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 06/05/2006 in The Players
It is infuriating when you come to another city with some urgent business and find that the other party is going to be very late for the rendezvous. Every place is not a cricket field though, and sometimes discretion asks you to look the other way till you have digested the green stuff instead of letting it out.
Finding little else to do in the silly free time, I cross the road and stroll into a nearby internet cafe, where I am writing this post....
Okay, okay, I'm coming to the cricket fast.
Continue reading "Samba Cricket"
Comments (2)
June 3, 2006
Posted by Zainub Razvi on 06/03/2006 in Bowling
It was reported several days ago that when Shoaib Akhtar finally decided to turn up at the conditioning camp going on in Lahore he twisted his ankle. Whilst Cricinfo mentioned this latest injury was not serious enough to rule him out of the England tour completely, I'm really not sure if that says a lot.
Continue reading "Throwing out the stigma"
Comments (8)
June 1, 2006
Posted by Ken Tinker on 06/01/2006 in Ashes Series 2006/07
Australia remembers watching the last Ashes series like it was yesterday. We remember Ricky Ponting bleeding on the Lord's pitch, Dizzy Gillespie's plummet from grace, Flintoff's domination of Gilchrist, the tireless efforts of Shane Warne, and the unending arrogance of Pietersen.
Today, June the 1st, at 9am, Australia showed just how much we all remembered, when tickets for the Ashes went on sale to Australian Cricket Family members. Well, almost all of us...
Continue reading "The (almost)unforgettable series."
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