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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 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"
Comments (2)
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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May 30, 2006
Posted by Lahar Appaiah on 05/30/2006 in India
I've been having serious misgivings about The Strongest Batting Line Up In The World™ for some time now. Yes, we've been doing fairly well in One-Dayers (present month excluded), yes, we have some of the best batting brands in the world, but the present Indian team has got me rather worried, what with the Windies Tests due to start in less than a week...
So, here's how I predict each player will fare. Let's see, in one month, how right I was.
Continue reading "Cute Little Prediction"
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May 26, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 05/26/2006 in India
As Ajit Agarkar sent down a thrilling fast yorker to an ominous looking Imran Farhat during the 1st DLF Cup match to shatter his stumps, an unusual vision presented itself. Unusual mainly in that such instances of glory for an Indian quickie, besides being rare, have never featured this nippy underachiever in eight long years since those phenomenal first few months following his international debut.
Continue reading "The Fall Guy"
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May 10, 2006
Posted by Gaurav Sabnis on 05/10/2006 in Socio-Cricket Issues
The optimistic buzz surrounding Abid Nabi, the young paceman from Jammu & Kashmir set me thinking about a topic not many are comfortable discussing - Indian Muslims and Indian cricket.
A few weeks back, when demands were made from certain quarters that a survey be carried out to ascertain the percentage of Muslims in the Indian Army, there was a lot of dust kicked up. Some said any such survey would be tantamount to colouring the Army communally. Others said such a survey would be very important in showing how well or poorly represented Muslims are in one of India's most respected institutions.
Continue reading "Abid Nabi and Muslims in Indian Cricket"
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April 29, 2006
Posted by Chandrahas Choudhury on 04/29/2006 in India
A few days ago I was at morning cricket nets at the Oval Maidan in Bombay, a weekly affair where we exercise our two-bit skills with high seriousness and fidelity to ritual. Not far from where we were playing a bespectacled young man, clad in a tracksuit and a cap, was conducting some summer cricket coaching with a dozen boys in whites.
Caught up in the mechanics of bowling that outswinger that looks so simple but proves so vexing, I soon became oblivious to them. But a little later, while chasing down a hit, I happened to witness a little scene - a standard fielding drill. The man had lined all his wards up, and was hitting balls towards them; they were supposed to run up one by one, field the ball and throw it back, and return to the back of the line.
Continue reading "Some thoughts on playing cricket at the Oval"
Comments (2)
April 23, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 04/23/2006 in India
I like Mahendra Singh Dhoni much, and wish him the very best in life and career. In fact I am a fan of him. If I were to be sealed off in a remote island for 3 months and then be asked to guess ‘the world’s best ODI batsman now’, Adam Gilchrist and Dhoni must be two of the first names that would occur to me. The ICC ODI world #1 ranking for his batting, as such, is an expected return that no one should grudge him.
But incidentally I have been watching cricket for the last three months, and there are two one-day players today who seem to be batting on the 3rd floor while all others, Dhoni included, are fighting it out on the 1st to win a ticket to the 2nd. The Australian skipper and #2 batsman Ricky Ponting is one. The other is Dhoni’s team mate and winner of three consecutive man-of-the-series awards, Yuvraj Singh. He is ranked number 10 though.
Continue reading "How do we judge the number one batsman?"
Comments (7)
April 17, 2006
Posted by Krishna Kumar on 04/17/2006 in India
Why am I writing this? My biggest motivation is, there seems to be somewhere along the line, a lack of perspective in judging our cricket.
What are the facts? India has won a lot of one-dayers (mostly at home or at least on the sub-continent) recently, and a majority of them very convincingly. We have been average in tests.
We are looking for reasons for this seeming disparity. Which is fine. Are we to presume however, that the upswing in one-day form is solely or majorly a result of exceedingly good, current cricketing management? This would naturally imply that the former management was somehow vastly different from the present one and was to be blamed for the slump that occurred at the time.
Continue reading "Bringing some perspective"
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April 6, 2006
Posted by Chandrahas Choudhury on 04/06/2006 in India
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Suresh Raina: the magic is in the feet
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A great many batting artists of our age - Virender Sehwag, Damien Martyn, VVS Laxman - bat in a way that makes us admire the work of their hands rather than their feet. Batting was traditionally was thought to begin with, and indeed rest upon, a batsman's footwork. But the thickness and striking force of modern-day bats sometimes makes precise footwork redundant. Where ten years ago a batsman would push a good-length ball on the front foot to cover, he now stays put and flays the ball through point; even tail-enders now routinely manage this. It has been a pleasure, then, to watch the two splendid half-centuries made over the last week at Faridabad and at Goa by young Suresh Raina, and to observe how much his batting owes to his supremely light feet.
Unusually, the swiftness of Raina's footwork is visible less in his play to his spinners - although he is good here - than in two or three of his strokes to the quicker bowlers.
Continue reading "The supremely light feet of Suresh Raina"
Comments (10)
March 23, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 03/23/2006 in India
A young fast bowler (YFB) enters an interview hall. YOS, off-spinning mate from his state team, crosses him at the door. Some batsmen are seen exchanging heated words with security personnel at the gate. A banner outside the hall reads "Recruitment of bowlers for Indian Test team". A few good men (FGM) are waiting. They stop shaking their heads and face him.
FGM-1: I must say that you look impressive, boy. Tell us what you can do for the team.
Continue reading "The Gold Rush"
Comments (1)
March 22, 2006
Posted by Gaurav Sabnis on 03/22/2006 in India
No it is not a typo. It is not meant to be Godot, but GOTOT.
Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett about two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, waiting for someone named Godot. Who exactly Godot is, why they want to meet him, etc is never revealed. The repititive plot just has the two tramps conversing, and waiting for Godot, who incidentally, never turns up.
Waiting for GOTOT is a "play" that has been in progress for almost 17 years now. GOTOT stands for "Grand Outstanding Tendulkar-Owned Test".
Continue reading "Waiting for GOTOT"
Comments (19)
March 21, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 03/21/2006 in India
A player making his 100th Test appearance can expect a few lines to be written in praise of him. Rahul Dravid already got more than his fair share of it. I saw no harm in doing the ‘in’ thing and put up a piece about his current assignment as Indian skipper. That was a sucker and I got completely off the topic thereon. On second thoughts the current duscussion on one of his major concerns befits the occasion better than a retrospect of past laurels of a man who never finds the time or inclination to rest on them.
The Indian top order collapse in the Nagpur Test was alarming - less for the occurrence and more for its familiarity. We have now seen one such in all but one of the Test matches since Dravid took over - and that includes the 1st Test of the Sri Lanka series where play started on 4th day. Stats will tell you that India have lost only one of the eight Tests (the ongoing one is excluded) but fortunately for Dravid his team has pulled off more rearguards in the past three series than skipper Tendulkar had seen in the two tenures he served at the helm.
Continue reading "Bring the left handers up the order"
Comments (1)
January 24, 2006
Posted by Arun Kumar on 01/24/2006 in India
Ladies and Gentlemen: For those of you, who are wondering what all this ruckus about India’s new found importance in the Cricket world and its consequences are, this is what it translates into: As soon as the news was out, Kevin Pietersen applied for an Indian citizenship!, not to be left behind his Hampshire teammate & captain, Shane Warne was asking around for the mobile number of an Indian nurse!, The South African cricket board approached the Indian high commission and offered to turn over Gibbs & Boje if India included them in the cartel! And and…after the win over Sri Lanka today, Graeme Smith without battling an eyelid said “India is a one man team & that the pressure is on India”!
Continue reading "Welcome to the new world order!"
Comments (3)
January 22, 2006
Posted by Krishna Kumar on 01/22/2006 in India
They say sport is a great teacher. So then, what is it that strikes you most when you look at the current Indian middle order? From a purely cricketing sense, there is the stoic artistry of Dravid, the measured genius of Tendulkar, and the wispy, dreamy rhythms of VVS. This, bookended by the remorseless aggression of Sehwag, and the moody, feisty strokeplay of Ganguly or at times the muscular timing and presence of Yuvraj. We'll focus on the middle three for now, because they happen to share very similar personality traits. And, that's more or less the topic at hand.
Continue reading "A middle order nicety"
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January 17, 2006
Posted by Anantha on 01/17/2006 in India
Jamie Alter's piece on India's sorry trend of making the most unlikely of batsmen open the innings kinda set me off today. A couple of weeks ago, when the Indian team to Pakistan was to be announced, I wondered whether the possible exclusion of Gambhir from the squad was going to be another notch in the "drop them like a hot brick" attitude that seems to have plagued the Indian selectors. And using Cricinfo's Statsguru as a reference, I came up with this analysis.
Continue reading "Opening for India"
Comments (11)
January 6, 2006
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 01/06/2006 in India
If an avid follower of cricket were to be asked to sum up 2005 in the context of Indian cricket he would perhaps look into the distance for a few moments, tautly curved eyebrows accentuating his silence, and return with an honest answer: “Hard work.” The reasons require no further elaboration. Uneasiness surrounds the cricket lovers in this country who have been suddenly split into a number of camps. And this time it is an unprecedented split, quite unlike the ‘who’s right between Kapil & Sunil’ or ‘who’s better between Ganguly & Dravid’ squabbles from the past.
Assuming (1) the average Indian cricket fan to reserve an opinion on each of the six key characters – Ganguly, Dravid, Chappell, Kiran More, Dalmiya and Pawar - in the drama unfolding since appointment of the new Indian cricket coach, and (2) three types of opinions to be possible against each name (‘he is right’, ‘he is wrong’ and ‘he is not party to this’), the mad statistician can jolly well claim a possible 729 opinion sets resulting on the issue.
Continue reading "The importance of being Rahul Dravid: part one"
Comments (1)
December 28, 2005
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 12/28/2005 in India
India are not the top team in the official ICC rankings for Tests and ODIs. Nor are Sri Lanka for that matter. Yet a huge wave of near-spontaneous publicity flooded the media when these two teams clashed in a recent one-day series. An appreciable level of popular interest surrounded the outcome of the remaining matches even after India had wrapped up the series in the first four.
The recently completed Test series between the same sides was decidedly more competitive to begin with. After the Lankan dominance in that drawn 1st Test at Chennai the least I was expecting was an appetising publicity across the media for the remaining Tests. I didn’t see much of that, ocular soundness notwithstanding. Test cricket once again got a go-slow from the BCCI.
Continue reading "Marketing first class cricket: BCCI should adopt two-pronged approach"
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December 15, 2005
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 12/15/2005 in India
“Run aggregates and averages are not everything,” I keyed in indignantly, “They have to be seen in perspective. Think of the opposition that conceded them and the lack of assurance with which they were earned.” It was the day’s typical quota of e-argument amongst us college friends on Sourav Ganguly’s exclusion from Indian cricket team for the Sri Lanka ODI series a month or so back.
The above-mentioned selection may have had its share of dark secrets, primarily regarding the non-selection of Sourav Ganguly. We'll never know of them. The allegations at that time were largely unsubstantiated. Also the ‘daredevil’ selectors apparently deserved some benefit of doubt in view of the lighter moments generated during that phase and the support Sourav still enjoyed from the ruling BCCI supremo. That was an interesting first reel of what would essentially end as a sordid saga this week.
Continue reading "Thus spake Chief Selector: A Chronicle"
Comments (2)
Posted by Gaurav Sabnis on 12/15/2005 in India
As you can guess from the title, I am drawing inevitable historic-literary parallels. It would be hard to not think of Ganguly as Caesar and Dravid as Brutus. And it is in this parallel that lies a big lesson for Rahul Dravid.
Brutus, addressing the people of Rome for the first time after caesar's murder said,
If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say, that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: --Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his ambition.
Dravid too may well give this defence....it is not that he loved Ganguly less, for the two started their careers together, fought many battles together, as did Brutus and caesar, and were good friends for a long period of time. Yet, there came a stage where Ganguly's leadership degraded enough to cause serious problems for the team. For the sake of the well-being of Team India, Ganguly had to go. Dravid can thus plead, that he loved the team more. He could ask, had you rather Ganguly was playing and India be a weak team, than that Ganguly were dropped, and India do well?
Continue reading " "Dravid is an honourable man" or "Beware of the Ides of December""
Comments (30)
December 14, 2005
Posted by Angshuman Hazra on 12/14/2005 in India
13th Dec, 2005
First I would like you to take a look at a few figures:
79*, 0*, 103, 4*, 53, 49 - aggregate 288, average 96.
Of course this is a sequence of scores handpicked by me to showcase a purple patch. The selection could hardly be any more partisan. But a search for the last six scores of Yuvraj Singh in ODI's will give you the source.
Continue reading "Dear Yuvraj Singh haters (my old friends)"
Comments (4)
December 9, 2005
Posted by Chandrahas Choudhury on 12/09/2005 in India
Some questions in cricket are subjective, allowing for perfectly good arguments both sides, such as whether Bradman’s Invincibles were a greater team than Steve Waugh's side, or whether Sunil Gavaskar possessed a better defensive technique than Geoffrey Boycott. In such cases the pleasure lies in the give-and-take of conversation, in the marshalling of evidence and the subtlety of the details one summons – it’s a way of keeping one’s cricket brain in good nick.
And even when some perfectly absurd point of view turns up, such as the recent case made by least three wise men of Indian cricket that Sourav Ganguly was not just a batsman but a batting allrounder and would add balance to the Test side with his seamers, the good cricket fan mops up the coffee he has spilt in surprise at the breakfast table, and, swallowing his initial derision, begins to think how one might best argue this case. (eg. Not only did our good Dada take a number of wickets in this year’s Duleep Trophy, but he also topped the bowling averages for India in his debut series in 1996; bowled a corker of an opening spell when given the new ball against Australia at Kolkata in 1998, not so long ago; and only last year beat and bowled the tiresomely immovable Jacques Kallis in a Test match, again in Kolkata.)
Continue reading "The man who rolled Tendulkar over"
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