Hard Luck Indian Women's team.

I guess, it happened for the first time, that Indians were actually following ball to ball, a women's cricket match. The occasion was the final world cup match between England and India. India was the probable winner. The match went down the wire and one thing that happens pretty much always with us, happened here too. Indian batswomen lost it under pressure.

This was a big occasion. Also an important event, as it probably is the last chance of watching two great players of the game. Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami. I have been following women's cricket partly and these two names have stuck in my mind for a very long time. I remember watching Jhulan's bowling many years ago and felt like she is the Kapil Dev of the Women's cricket.

It was unfortunate to loose the finals. Our players couldn't hold up against the pressure, although there was no real reason to panic. We were cruising fine, until Punam got out LBW. It was a genuine wicket. But what followed after that was unnecessary. There was no need for Veda to try hitting lofted shot. Similar nature of hasty decisions taken by other players. They were hitting into fielder's hand and trying to get a run. I felt like the captain failed to reach upto players and give them direction on how to approach the game. She kind of left it on them to attempt to win the game. This reminded me of a world cup game way back sometime between Westindies and Australia. Westindies were cruising to win and just required some 30 odd runs with as good as 7 wickets in hands and many many overs to bowl. But then just dramatically, Australia managed to get all the wickets and reached the final.

Anyway, it hurt to loose the game and the world cup. But it brought many positives out. Now every one know that India women's team exist and they are too good to forget or ignore. Women's cricket match got viewers to an extent that Lords was full yesterday. I was happy to see the presence of Akshay Kumar in the stadium. Atleast few celebrities follow what they say.

All in all, a good show. Now BCCI should take efforts and make sure that the Indians keep getting some or the other updates of Indian team performance around the year regularly. That will help to get people hitched to Women's cricket automatically.

I wish Indian's Women cricket team and hope they perform even better to beat India's Men's team someday.

Kohli Vs Smith

A very long awaited cricket series is about to begin in a couple of days. Not many competitors make a series interesting as Australia does. Saurav Ganguly said few days, "Virat Kohli is yet to be tested as Captain." While he puts foreign tours to Australia, England, South Africa as the criteria to his real tests, this Australia tour to India, can be one of the biggest barrier to cross for Kohli to prove his mettle.

India Australia series is always seen as competition not just between teams, but also at individual level. Whether it Gavaskar-Border, Tendulkar-Warne, Ganguly-Waugh, Harbhajan-Simond, Zaheer-Gilchrist or any other, but such combinations keep making headlines. The two teams also has a history of few consistent and/or successful captains. These captains have left milestones on their way. And the rivalry between these captains became the face value of the series. From Australian side, while few names like Border, Gilchrist, Ponting, Clarke made it bigger for the team, the Indian counterparts stood tall with names of Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Kumble  and Dhoni.  The stories of how Gavaskar almost made his team to quit series because of bad umpiring, and how Ganguly made  Waugh wait for the toss, to how Kumble strongly showed disappointment in press over the attitude of Australian cricket and supporting umpiring, all of them attempted to make this rivalry look bigger and sold the series to the viewers. At times, people were more interested in knowing, who said what, rather than knowing the scores and performances of the player.

With the rise of Kohli to captains position for the Indian team and a similar rise of Steve Smith at the Australian helm is possibly gearing up for similar long lasting rivalry for the two teams. Both the caprains have reached the peak point at an early stage of their career. The age is on their side. To add to that, they don't seem to find any competitor in near future from their own team. Both the Captains are fearless, read to take on the rival team at any venue. While Smith has supported sledging as an aggressive move, Kohli is mostly seen on the ground with that attitude. Still if compared, Kohli seem to be more stabilized in his captaincy, while Smith probably is still trying to get hold of his team. If he manages to do that soon as Ponting did back in his time, we can witness one more successful rival captain combination emerging in coming years.

Philip Hughes : an uncalled death

A sad demise of a Cricketer on field. Philip Hughes died because of a head injury during a domestic cricket match in Australia. A full blown bouncer was thrown towards him, and his misjudgement in reading the ball costed him his life. 

Such incidences some time make us think, how much of aggression is necessary in games. Isn't it said that games are meant for recreation. It is this this aggression which makes a bowler ball a bloody bouncer, or an athlete take drug doses to go that little extra faster than all others, or even make a racial attack, just to tone down the confidence of the opponent.

Few years one of the Indian players "Raman Lamba" lost his life in a similar incident, when he got little aggressive and tried fielding very close to the batsman. And now this incidence is added to that list. I have always thought about games as a sincere effort to play the game in such a fashion that all can enjoy the game. 

I have seen people getting hurt while playing such games Cricket, Football, Hockey and at times it brings a halt to one's life, just like what happened to Philip Hughes or Raman Lamba. What is the use of playing such a game. I have totally stopped playing all such games where unnecessary aggression comes into picture. My intention is always to enjoy the game. I never found a reason for bowlers to ball bouncers. I was a medium pacer and believe me I was very economic. I have been  hit for only one six in over hundreds of overs I might have bowled. That is my record. And I was always cautious that my ball should not only not touch batsman's bat but also it is safely away from the batsman too. But that was my way  to play cricket. 

And as obvious, that is not the way the world plays it. 

People would suggest that if good quality safety kits are used, then, such incidences can be avoided. In a way, yes, that is possible, but you never know when would your safety guards give up and unknowingly expose you to life threatening situation. Besides, I wonder if Philips was using a low grade quality helmet which can not save him from deadly Australian bouncers.

It remains a question to argue, but mistake if  I become ICC chief, I will put condition. Either remove situations like deadly bouncers or sign  a contract where you are responsible for your life. I will declare games like Cricket as action sports which are dangerous for ones health.

Sachhin.... Sachin

The "God of Cricket" as it is called in India for Sachin Tendulkar retired yesterday.

I barely got a chance to watch the match and so could not savor all the moments that are a part of history now.

But I did managed to witness him scoring his last 50. He was fabulous. The way he was playing must have made every body think, why is he actually retiring when there is so much of cricket left in him, The way he was handling spin as well as bouncers was awesome. I remember the way all the spectators were reacting on each one of his shot. If he missed a ball,which might go for LBW appeal, every body;s reaction was worth watching. I haven't seen such reaction towards any players except for some legendary Tennis players playing Wimbledon. Unfortunately I missed the match we he got out. I also missed yesterday's whole match which was his last day on the ground.

I checked all the videos later on. His last speech that tried to cover almost every body. The guard of honour given to him by Team India and his last walk to the pitch to say final good bye. It was all touching. People made it a grand procession all because of their love towards him.

And the ultimate news came that he will receive Bharat Ratna along with the renowned and most famous Indian Scientist C. N. R. Rao.

I think Sachin;s retirement has indeed created a big void. Actually the void had started opening long back with the retirement of Saurav Ganguly and Kumble that become bigger when Dravid and Laxman retired and now it has become deeper with the final episode of retirement of Sachin Tendulkar. His retirement has in real sense ended an era. People like us who grew up along with Tendulkar watching him  growing will actually feel this void more. Somewhere we will find it difficult and less interesting to watch Cricket with out any of our heroes in action. 

Today's new age players are doing a great work and they will definitely  keep Indian flag high, but they are the idols of new age kids who will grow up watching them playing. I wonder this new generation players will be consistent enough to keep a place in Indian team for long time as any of the famous five players did. Will they be able to make a fan base any where closer to what the retired players. The spectators who will shed tears on their success and failures. I have doubts about that.

Indian Cricket has changed. It has become more professional. It doesn't show signs of strong connectivity with players as it was seen with Kumble, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar. Tendulkar's retirement brings an end to such kind of attachment to the Cricket and players. And that is the most hurting thing that happened yesterday.

Champions Trophy: Summary

Congratulations India on winning probably the last of its kind Champions Trophy. India deserved to win this tournament and so did they.

My impression about this whole tournament has been odd. First thing I felt was there should be a big "NO" to any big tournaments in England. England is synonymous with rains. You can not imagine any tournament happening there with out rain interruption. More than half of the matches were rain interrupted and their results were decided by the funny Duckworth-Lewis rules to such an extent that I renamed the trophy to Duckworth-Lewis trophy. 

Most of the matches in the tournament were reduced to around 20 overs match. Even yesterday's Final had to be reduced to 20 over a side match. It is absolutely ridiculous to decide about a one-day  match in 20 overs match. The difference between a One day Cricket match and 20:20 match is the kind of temperament required in one day match to stay on the wicket for 50 overs and still score runs at a quick rate. If you are reducing the match to 20 overs, there is no room to judge that temperament. With the outcome of such a match of reduced over you can not justify the selection of a one day match Champion. The ICC even don't wanted to allot an extra day to play Finals had their been no chance of play on Sunday. I started wondering why they took so much efforts of organizing the tournament. They could have just rolled dice and decided the Champion. The matches in this tournament were actually no different than that.

In spite of all the facts, I felt India was the only team that deserved to win and yes, England was the only team that deserved to appear in Finals along with India. I was wondering if rest of the Countries sent their secondary team for this tournament. Teams of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Pakistan were nothing but pathetic. I blame D/L rules for allowing South Africa to be in Semi Finals. They were not that good. West Indies should have made it to Semis. I am pretty sure they would have given better fight to England and might even have made it to Finals. But thanks to D/L rules, England got easy way.

Indian team stood out of the league. They looked too good to be with other teams. The way they won their league matches and Semi Finals, not to forget the practice matches, they looked in better shape. Except for New Zealand they played and defeated all the teams. They defeated England in the Finals yesterday in reduced 20:20 over match. I am not sure if the result would have been the same had it been a complete match. But India surely looked a better team than England and that's why it was the Favorite to win the Trophy.

I did not enjoyed the tournament. A tournament like this should be played to the full extent before declaring a Champion. But what the hell, India is probably the last Champions Trophy Winner. Congratulations India.

IPL6 - Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad is the latest team which got knocked of the competition for IPL cup. In yesterday's eliminator match, Rajasthan Royals some how managed keep their challenge going by defeating Sunrisers in a low scoring match.

Sunrisers Hyderabad is a new name in the competition. But the team is old. Its just the earlier Deccan Chargers team with a new owner from Sun group.

Deccan Charger was the second team to win IPL cup in season 2. Gilchrist brought the team together after a poor show in season I. Since then team has pretty much performed badly to an extent that the management decided not to retain any player and go for complete make over. In recent days, its either Sangakkara or Cameron White who represent the team. This season as Sunrisers, the team actually turned out to be a good and quiet team who slowly kept performing with out making anyhateadlines and sneaked into top four teams. 

Sangakkara played in few initial matches but later on it was White who represented the team. I really wonder what makes Sanga feel  he should not be among playing 11. He is a good player, with a potential to play according to the requirement of the situation. In contrast I don't really feel White is a Captain material. He plays once  in a while great inning but other wise I feel he fails to impress his team mates.

The team has found a good opening pair in the form of Dhawan and Parthiv. They really tried their best to give a good start to the team. Other than these, the team had Thesera Perrera who made himself useful every now and then. Rest of the batting squad was disappointing.

The team on the other hand had a very strong Bowling squad. In the Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma, the team got a very good opening bowling pair. They really managed to put an incredible pressure on the opponent batsmen. The team had a strong spin attack with Amit Mishra as their trump card. Its just a bad luck that Sunrisers could not go beyond position four in the season. But the way the team pulled up and managed to reach top four in their first ever attempt is a big success. I believe if they decide to go ahead with pretty much same team squad, they will surely make it big in coming seasons.

Spot fixing revealed again : Are players really this dumb?

I was planning to write on some different topic today but the news flashing on TV at the moment compelled me to change it.  Since I have been actively writing about IPL, it is must for me to make a point on this. As the news are appearing on TV, three players of Rajasthan Royals  including Sreesanth have been arrested for Spot fixing. As is mentioned in the news, the police have very strong evidence to support the arrest of these players and there might be some more players including International ones who are involved in this crime.

Worst and most unexpected part of the news is that the three players involved belong to Rajasthan Royals headed by one of the sincere and decent players in Cricket, Rahul Dravid. Rajasthan Royals other wise have been among the top teams in the list of Fair play awards. These arrests have totally shattered their image in audience's eyes.

What makes me write this post is a question, whether players are really this dumb to get involved in such rackets or they are forced to do so probably by Underworld. After what happened recently with the three Pakistani players that finished the Cricket Career of involved players, I wonder how these upcoming players don't learn any lesson. What could be the reasons that make these players involved in such rackets. From where I stand I can see three reasons:

1) A greed to make some quick bucks with out taking any extra efforts.

2) Considering a probable end of their Cricket career, they try to make the best out of any opportunity they get.

3) Coming under pressure from Underworld trying to get a control over games.

If it is either of first two reasons, then I will call the player a real dumb. As the news suggest, Police has evidence of their communication on mobile and land line with these bookies and transaction details in their respective bank accounts. Really, are you this much dumb to leave such clear evidence behind? It only suggests that all upcoming players whether of Cricket or for any other game need to made aware not only of such threats around and also the ways it can be tracked. So, the players can either get smart enough not to get involved in these rackets or they better know that their crimes will ultimately be revealed at some point of the time.

If it is third reason, then I do not know how can it be sorted out. Big players can probably avoid this but these new and upcoming are really vulnerable. BCCI might have made arrangements to curb this problem but it might not be enough to protect these new and other wise inexperienced players.

Among the three names revealed, Sreesanth is a known name. He has represented India in many games. He comes with so much aggression on the field, that not only the opponent, but even his team mates get frustrated while controlling him. I wonder how he got involved in this fixing. Was it a fear of probably finishing Cricket career that made him take this erratic step or some other  reason. As news reveal, this issue finds connection with Underworld from Dubai and Karachi. So, there is a probability of such acts done under pressure.Other two players doesn't have experience have international cricket and probably its their inexperience that brought them to the doors of bookies.

I feel sorry for these players and for all those players who in some or other way are involved in such activities. I just hope other players now learn some lesson and this turn out be the last non sense act by players.

IPL6 teams: Delhi Dare Devils

At present this team stands at eighth position in IPL-6. Nobody would have expected such a poor performance from this team. It has performed much better in earlier seasons of IPL. If I remember correct, this team stood among top four teams in some of the earlier seasons of IPL. So, this times run is little surprising for me. 

There are four strong pillars of this team. Sehwag, Pietersen, Jayawardhane and Warner. All these players are capable of turning the game on their own on their day. Pietersen unfortunately has not been active this season due to injury. Sehwag has kind of lost his touch completely. There used to be a kind of aura around him that itself was enough to reduce bowler's confidence to half even before the game begins. He was in the league of Gayle and Dhoni. But that is not the case any more. He seems too easy for any bowler now  a days. It seems sometimes as if he is doing the duty of visiting the pitch and throw some shots here and there. Except one knock of 95 he has not shown any glimpse of real Sehwag we know  in this season. Jaywardhane on the other hand is known to be steady player who anchors the inning and drives it till the end. Well he is not that off from his character even this season, but some how he looses it some where half way and it is not enough. I am not sure about what Warner is up to. His presence on pitch is pretty much negligible and I don't remember him contributing. Is he even in team in all the outings? I am not sure.

Other than these four big names, there are some other known names linked to the team. Like Irfan Pathan. I guess he is trying his best to give good performance both as a bowler as well as a batsman. He is paying back every penny Daredevils spent on him. I am glad he got his swing back though on speed clock he still seem to be struggling. But doesn't matter, he is proving quite economical and also a wicket taker at the same time. His inclusion in the Indian squad is a good sign.

Another name that is famous around is Unmukt Chand. I am not sure if he deserves this much fame for so little performance he has given. Other than captaining the under 19  team that made every body aware of him, I have not seen any real performance by him. But he is in every another ad, taunting seniors, picking Pietersen's girl and what not.  

Their Bowling squad is also good. With the likes of Umesh Yadav and Morkel, they should actually be controlling the game. But that doesn't seem to be the case. And sometimes I am not sure what makes them tilt in favor of Ashish Nehra. He has been in lot more of outings than I expect for him.

Overall Delhi Daredevils is a good team which actually deserves to be in the league of winners. But this time with all the players off color, it appears like a bunch of big names with intention of making no impression. Among all, I feel bad about Sehwag, who seems to be on his way to retirement. I hope he comes out of this bad patch and start showing his true colors. 

IPL Teams: Pune Warriors

IPL season 6 is half way through. All the team have played around 8 matches by now. This year I tried following some of the matches. I viewed one or the other match of every team. Since for the first time I closely followed IPL matches, all different teams made a kind of impression on me. Nothing serious  about it, but I unknowingly tried to weigh different teams and made some conclusions. Through my posts I will share these impressions of different teams one by one. 

Since I come from Pune, obviously Pune Warriors automatically becomes my home team. PW is the most recent entry in the IPL race. Now there are few things intriguing and interesting and surprising I feel about this team.

First, it is the most costliest team among all the teams and team made doesn't seem worth.

I was very happy when Saurav Ganguly was included as a part of the team. That made it one more reason for me to favor this team.Unfortunately, even Pune Warriors management also started following the same footsteps as KKR and rumors about Saurav not playing some of the later part of IPL5 matches started emerging. But Saurav is Saurav.  He is one of those people whose presence or absence make equal and loud sound. His dramatic run after taking a wicket and leading PW to win that match reminded every body of Lord's Shirt swinging moment once and it turned out to be one of the memorable sights of IPL5.

PW has been unfortunate with the foreign players. They tried to bring big names for the team but nothing ever clicked for them. I am not sure who make suggestions to PW but the names that connect with PW surely do not carry that aura of 20:20 expert with them. May then it be Graham Smith from SA, Michael Clarke from  Australia or any body else. They don't have Mr. Dependable.

The bowling attack is very weak. I wonder if it even exists. Except for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, there is no sensible bowler. Taking Donald as Bowling coach is not going to help if he has nobody good to groom and teach.

One of the most talked about player in 20:20 format, Yuvraj Singh is a part of PW squad. Last year unfortunately, he could not play because of his ailment. This year he did joined, but has not been able to make a mark he is known for. Plus there has been some issue surrounding him regarding Captaincy that has been surfacing again and again.

One of the major drawbacks with PW is the Captaincy issue. This year they have already tried three different captains in eight matches. The situation is so worse that even a one game hero and otherwise hardly known Finch is rewarded Captaincy and favored over other better and experienced players like Ross Taylor and Angelo Mathews

When IPL started, one thing that was advertised prominently was it will help to groom some local talent as they will get a chance to share the dressing room with big-wig players and learn from them. I see almost all the other teams except PW following it. They all have at least one to two local players. But I don't any such thing with PW. How does one consider it as a representative of Pune or rest of Maharashtra then. Guess PW team is purely professional without any sentimental connection with the Pune city it is representing.

Well these are just some impressions I made over the time. They are bound to be temporary and might change totally as the season progresses. So, do not take them seriously.

In the next post I will talk about another team participating in the series.