The last frontier or the end of an era?

The Australians are here to play one more test series against India and the two teams will compete for the Border Gavaskar trophy once again in what we hope will rival some of the epic contests in the Australian bid for the final frontier in the recent past. Steve Waugh retired from test cricket without climbing the final frontier while Ricky Ponting who is probably playing his last test series in India was able to climb it vicariously (being sidelined through injury} as Australia won the last time around under the captaincy of Adam Gilchrist. Will this series hold the same thrills and excitement that encounters between the two sides have been arousing in the last few occasions? Will it be the last hurrah or a painful farewell to some of the ageing stars in both sides? We will know soon enough.

Australia who?
Several of the Australians who made their team such a dominant force in world cricket are no longer around. The pugnacious Langer, the metronome McGrath, the legendary Warne, the aggressive Gilchrist and the graceful Martyn, not to forget Jason Gillespie’s who had the unique feat of scoring a double century in his last test, will not be in display this month, making this series likely to be definitely less watch-able than the ones we have witnessed earlier. Only four of the present lot have played test cricket in India and Ricky Ponting has been a real bunny here rather than the raging kangaroo that the rest of the world knows him as. And yet despite the relatively new look to this Australian team, it has its fair share of champions like Hayden who loves Indian curry and Indian conditions, Brett Lee who with his speed and newly acquired reverse swing could upset more than one Indian batsman, not to forget the Husseys and Clarks of the world. Australia as always will compete and for once may savour the underdog status that media is conferring on them.

What about India?
Normally what should have been a cake walk for India against this depleted side is now assuming a fair degree of uncertainty as the fab four as we know them are in their last year of test cricket if not on their last legs .Ganguly is living on borrowed time while Tendulkar’s injuries are always a cause for worry though he has just announced himself fit. Laxman despite his tremendous talent is never a certainty in the side while Dravid seems to be searching for that sublime touch which was his for the asking for years on end though he soldiers on manfully. Kumble too seems to be showing his bowling age. Of course Sehwag is in the form of his life, Gambhir is waiting to explode while Harbhajan (in case he does not lose his head) can run circles around the opposition. Nor can we afford to forget the old head on young shoulders, Dhoni, waiting in the wings for the captaincy of the test side. Yes we have the capability to win despite a new selection committee and lack of co-ordination within the BCCI as one never knows how the pitches will turn out to be.

Preparation the key
One of the key things that one can learn from the Australians is perhaps the seriousness with which they have approached India and the tour. They have come to India a week earlier than originally scheduled, have roped in Greg Chappell and the Rajasthan cricket association even as their A team has just left the shores of this country after winning the tournament. Throw in the IPL experience that people like Shane Watson have got, then one can see that Australia have put their best foot forward and if they are found wanting then it cannot be put down to lack of preparation. Maybe the cash rich BCCI should remember all this when we tour England, Australia or South Africa the next time around. Yet a word of caution is probably relevant here. The series despite all the media hype could turn out to be a damp squib if either of the two teams fails to live up to its potential.

The last hurrah for test cricket?
Rivalry between India and Australia has now assumed enormous proportions and the Australian players compare it with the rivalry of the Ashes which has a rich heritage of over a hundred years. The tests between the two countries have in recent years thrilled audiences in both countries and have had phenomenal viewer ship. Yet the whole environment has gone through a sea change in the last year or so with the increasing attraction of players for IPL which has been India centric. Test cricket may no longer be top dog for players and most certainly for spectators in this part of the world who are hooked on to the shorter version of the game thanks to its brevity and our new found success in it. So in many ways this series can be far more important than merely throwing up a victorious team, it could be a make or break exercise not only for the ageing stalwarts on both sides but for the venerable institution of test cricket. Who will win?
Your guess is as good as mine.

‘’Back to the pack’ in thirteen years

Way back in 1995 Australia the emerging champions dethroned the long time champions West Indies in the Caribbean to annex the Frank Worrell trophy. Last night Ricky Ponting’s Australians beat the West Indies in a series again and proudly held the same Frank Worrell trophy after winning the series 2 -0. The Australian team has been on top of the cricketing heap for so long to the extent of making test cricket boring and one sided. The only teams to have pushed Australia in this period have been India and England in the 2005 Ashes series. Yet this series, just concluded, demonstrates the shift in the balance of power and perhaps signals the end of Australian dominance. If this series was any indication, a lot more teams will certainly be able to draw more matches against Australia, if not actually beat them. Australia without the belligerence of Gilchrist and the bludgeoning of Hayden and the unorthodoxy of Justin Langer not to forget the silken grace of Damien Martyn are struggling to score at the frenetic pace that they used to score in, thereby giving their top flight bowlers enough and more time to take twenty wickets. And while even this is manageable as the batting replacements like Katich have kicked in and people like Hodge and Marsh have not even gotten a look in, the real problem is in the bowling with only Brett Lee and Stuart Clarke being truly effective and the matches have been much closer despite West Indies being currently ranked eighth in the ICC test rankings. All of this led Ricky Ponting to grudgingly accept that his bowling has gone” back to the pack”- some admission from the normally cocky Australian captain.

Test cricket is the real McCoy

India in particular and the world in general had been sucked into the glitz and glamour that the IPL provided .The IPL had gotten in a new breed of viewers who admired the shortened format and perhaps the attendant entertainment in the grounds. Some even predicted the death of test cricket. At Bridgetown, the West Indies made a gallant effort at chasing down 475.They fell 87 runs short, but the match and the series made for excellent viewing even if some of the grounds were empty .Shivnarine Chanderpaul demonstrated what a difficult batsman he is to dislodge and not surprisingly was the man of the series even as the slightly stodgy Simon Katich scored two centuries and conceded sportingly that he may not have a place in the Australian team once Hayden returns for the Bangalore test against India. What an embarrassment of batting riches and how enormously frustrating for people waiting in the wings like Watson and Marsh who had such a fantastic IPL season. But the bowling is where replacements are harder to get and this is where the once mighty Australians are suffering and this is where the rest of the world can take heart from and actually capitalize .The next test match that Australia will play will be here at Bangalore at the lion’s den and the “last frontier” that Steve Waugh never conquered. This could well be the beginning of the end for Australia. Mind you it will not be a quick demise like the one in the eighties when Marsh, Lillee and Greg Chappell retired in one go. Australia will move from flamboyance to percentage cricket, which will make them a lot less attractive to watch if not easier to beat. Teams will gain confidence from what the lowly ranked West Indies showed the rest of the world. While the ranking may not do justice to the West Indies’ current ability, there is no going away from the fact that they are still ranked eighth. Teams no longer to have play the reputation of the Australian team, they just have to play the team and beat it.
Will we show the way to the rest of the world or get caught in our own hype?

Let's make an example of Harbhajan

Way back in February 2008, this writer had the temerity to be critical of Harbhajan, when the whole of India and the Indian media were unqualified in his support and thought he was being singled out unfairly in the racism row by the whole of Australia and their media. The reason for that was simple. As someone who has watched cricket for years and has seen the ill-mannered Indian continue to live on the edge, it seemed apparent to me that Harbhajan was not lily white in this case and has never been.

Harbhajan continued to behave obnoxiously on the Australian tour, emboldened perhaps by the unqualified support of the board, the media and the whole of India. Soon after the judgement, in the match against Sri Lanka, after getting Sangakkara out, he jumped up and down and thrust his tongue out, reminding us of the animal that had caused all the tension at Sydney, cocking a snook at the racism charge and telling the whole world how he got away with a mere rap on the knuckles.

Harbhajan, this time around, has gone just a little too far by slapping Sreesanth who, it must be conceded, refuses to grow up and probably deserved a kick up his backside from one of his family members and not a slap from the provoked Sardar in view of a television camera.

A few lessons
Let us go back in time to the Australian tour where we all closed ranks against Australia and leading the support was none other than Sachin Tendulkar. In fact, Sachin’s role in protecting Harbhajan was crucial as he has a reputation that any sportsman would give an arm and a leg for. An admirable sportsman and a gentleman who reserves his aggression for the opposing bowlers. A role model for young India to follow, even Sachin seems to have limited impact on the behaviour of his erring teammates.

Sachin also had a key role to play in getting Harbhajan into the Mumbai Indians team at a fantastic price and must have had a say in his being nominated captain in his absence. It was hardly Harbhajan’s fault that the poorly-selected Mumbai Indian team has lost all its four games, though a minor consolation could be that the biggest defeat came when Shaun Pollock was the captain, in Harbhajan’s absence.

Harbhajan is a competitor and the succession of defeats must have rankled him. It is not clear what Sreesanth said though I am hardly inclined to be sympathetic to this maverick whose theatrics so far seem to overshadow his ability. Having said all that, I think the person most affected by Harbhajan’s moment of madness must be Sachin. Clearly he has been let down and will think twice before putting his reputation on the line for his teammates if they do not deserve it. Harbhajan would do well to reflect on this when he sits at home over the next few weeks.

It is not only the money
Harbhajan has been banned for 11 matches of the IPL which means that he may not participate in the tournament at all. As on current form, one does not see the Mumbai Indians making it to the semifinals. If they do, Harbhajan could get a chance to play. So it does seem like a serious penalty as he will lose a lot of money. While it can be argued that it is an adequate punishment, I beg to differ. This offence of his is no different from the obnoxious behaviour of Shoaib Akhtar to his teammate, Mohamed Asif, a few months ago. Many of us believe that Shoaib, with some more serious offences, has no place in the cricket field, perhaps because he is from a different country. Harbhajan is giving Shoaib a run for his money by his thoughtless actions and must be giving the BCCI sleepless nights as well.

But merely restricting the punishment to banning Harbhajan for 11 IPL games seems inadequate and will certainly send a wrong signal to the rest of the cricketing world.

All eyes on BCCI
The rest of the cricketing world does not like India. Maybe the rest of the world resents the eyeballs we command or the single-minded following that the game has in this country, which enables the BCCI to call the shots. It has not been averse to showing its financial muscle or the clout and has often gone to the media with its loud voice and threats. It is common knowledge that the other cricketing nations are straining at the leash and resent the shift in the balance of power.

While the shift in the balance of power is not necessarily a bad thing, some of the BCCI’s actions and statements are not necessarily in good taste and run the risk of dividing the cricketing world in two. The BCCI has conceptualised, sold and is organising the IPL as a showpiece event of a magnitude, scale and stature that no other cricketing tournament has attained.

This tournament has now been cast under a cloud, because of Harbhajan’s irresponsibility. The BCCI should demonstrate to the rest of the world that it is a body that is concerned about the spirit of the game and can think of things other than money. They should ban Harbhajan for a year at least from international cricket so that it serves as a lesson to youngsters and also sends out a strong signal to the rest of the world that India can run the game globally and run it efficiently and without bias even if it has encountered a hiccup just now.

(Ramanujan Sridhar is the Chief Executive Officer of Brand Comm)

Indian cricket team getting there but not yet there

We Indians are a wonderful race, but believe in extremes. We are either in a state of total and misplaced euphoria or are down in the depths of depression. We do not know the middle path or refuse to recognize it even if it hits us in the solar plexus. This wonderful (!) quality applies equally to the cricket fan and the writers who contribute on this subject. The fan that was getting ready to attack the houses of the Indian team after their poor showing in the West Indies at this time last year, is now proclaiming that this is the best team ever and the media uses headlines like ‘world beaters’ without bothering to think carefully about whether this is really justified right now. Yet in the midst of all the jubilation, I think it is perhaps relevant to sound a word of caution, even if that may not go down well with the average cricket fan, if such a person exists in India. Make no mistake, this young Indian team has significant achievements already - winners of the Twenty-twenty world cup in South Africa and winning the recently concluded Commonwealth bank tri-series. Not very long ago the older version of the Indian team won a Test match in South Africa, won a series against England in England after ages and won a test match at Perth in Australia for the first time ever. Yes all the indications are there that this young team has a great time ahead of it but it still has a few frontiers to conquer before it is labeled as a world beating team.

Let’s look at the current world champions
However unpalatable it may be, the fact of the matter is that Australia has dominated world cricket since 1995. While they have been beaten comprehensively by us in the tri-series we need to remember that England too did that last year around and where are they now? There have been instances when other teams have run it close and even pipped it like South Africa which was ranked no.1 at the beginning of the world cup last year but for a very short time. It is likely to be ranked no.1 again after its triumph in Bangladesh. Notwithstanding their status they were found wanting in their first big game of the World Cup at St. Kitts against Australia and lost. They were also found wanting in the semi finals where they were pitted against the same team and were defeated quite comprehensively if not disgraced. South Africa have promised much and threatened more particularly in media conferences without having delivered. Now they must be fancying their chances of being the top team in the world again this time for a longer duration, but I have my doubts about their ability on the big occasion or on the big stage. Significantly India will be playing South Africa at home at the end of the month for a three match test series which should have far more significance than a mere three match series. It could in a sense determine which direction the cricketing world’s future leadership would point.

Consistency the key
If we go back to 2005 and the Ashes, we had England beating Australia in a memorable series. Since then England has regressed, having lost the Ashes 0-5 in 2007 and is now struggling with New Zealand having lost the first test, though it is New Zealand that is playing inconsistently in the second. To be world beaters in the true sense of the term we need to be consistent in all forms of the game, in all conditions and against all opposition. We are the reigning champions in the twenty-twenty format and we can expect to be well prepared for the future in this with so much cricket happening on the IPL format. We have a young team in the one day version of the game with Sachin the only senior around. But boy has he contributed! The test team has our senior gang but we need to remember that they may not be around for much longer. But there is an enormous amount of talent in the cupboard which has forced Dilip Vengsarkar to quickly change his opinion. He was the bright forecaster who said that there is hardly any talent in the pipe line after the dismal loss in the world cup. Our current plan of different teams for tests and one-days seems to be working for us. Ironical that Australia which first mooted this concept and took great credit for it has 9 of the same players in both teams and it was hardly surprising that they seemed tired and jaded after a long and controversial summer. So clearly a lot of the indications are positive for us. Yet there are a few realities that we need to remember. The pitches at home are quite different from Australia, England and South Africa where our recent victories have happened and we might well struggle to get twenty wickets regularly on our dust bowls. Strangely the BCCI is talking to Les Burdett the renowned curator from Australia for the IPL. I wonder why they never thought of him or other curators earlier for test matches. The BCCI is throwing money left, right and centre at cricketers of all ages and all countries which can actually prevent the development of youth. When someone asked Virat Kohli the captain of the under 19 team what he would do with the 15 lakhs he had earned because of his teams victory, his answer was honest enough “I will buy that Honda city”. We have enough instances of youngsters losing their way and the BCCI is just making things more difficult for today’s talent by providing distractions in hordes by way of money and the consequent media attention.

Patience the key for the Indian cricket fan
The war is not yet over though we have won the first few important battles particularly with Australia who even if they are not our oldest enemy are certainly the most vicious. India is rising and I am sure the fans must be patient. We shall prevail but it will not be as simple as some of us would like to believe. But whatever happens remember that this is our team. We have a young team. We are a young country and have enormous talent and cricket is the number one game in the country. We will be number one and soon and till that we must be wary of calling this team “world beaters”.

Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm and the author of “One land, one billion minds”.

Young India signals the end of an Australian Era

Some time ago when Australia toured South Africa and demolished them, the South Africans said openly that they could not wait to see them leave the country as they were so demoralized by the rampaging Australians. This tired, stressed and sorry Australian team after a long and bitter series must be relieved to see the Indian team leave their shores with the Commonwealth Bank trophy. This tour has been one of the most acrimonious ones in recent times and knowledgeable and older critics liken it to the same angst that was part of the bodyline series. But it has been a major disappointment for Australia who was nowhere near its best and yet made it to the finals in a canter. Still there were a few worrying signs on the way. They lost a low scoring game to India and could not chase a moderate score against Sri Lanka in the match preceding the finals. In the first finals they came across Tendulkar who played a once in a life time innings. The second final was no different as Tendulkar again made things count with a fantastic yet restrained innings of 91 that was still enough. What a farewell for the little master in a country that just idolizes him! In fact it would not be an exaggeration to say that Tendulkar has easily been the most admired international player above Worrell and even Lara. And he has entertained the doting Australian public and showed them what a great human being he is, surrounded as he is by lesser mortals. I speak of the beamer bowled by Brett Lee at the great man. Despite prodding by media the great man brushed it aside saying he had a lot of regard for the bowler and it must have slipped. I am certain, Brendon McCullum would not have agreed. Imagine the chaos that could have happened had he, as he was well within his rights to have done, complained. A reminder from the humble champion that cricket is still a game.

So what ails Australia?
Over the last twelve years, Australia and its team have built an aura of invincibility around themselves as they beat every team in sight at every venue. They did not lose a World Cup game in two successive World Cups in 2003 and 2007 and recently even won the Champions trophy that had eluded them for quite some time. When Australia lost a game it was news, though in the last few weeks the news is being made a lot more frequently than they would like. The problem has been that a lot of Australia’s success has been built around the amazing success, consistency and dominance of Ricky Ponting as a batsman who has delivered big time on the big stage. Remember Johannesburg and the World Cup final? This season, both in the tests and the one-dayers, Ricky Ponting has had an eminently forgettable season. I admire Ponting, but I do not like him, which is why he does not have my sympathy. But this tour has drained him more than anyone else and throw in some unplayable balls early on in the tour, accusations, hearings, media manipulations, complaints by his team mates, calls for his sacking... He has not had a moment of peace and will be waiting to take a break from the game. To Ponting’s poor form add the poor batting of Andrew Symonds, the sporadic brilliance of Gilchrist who was busy offering good byes, the scratchy form of Mathew Hayden and a below par performance by Michael Hussey who seems a far cry from the Mr. Cricket that he was a couple of seasons ago. The Australian bowlers have come to the party right through the summer and covered up for the poor performance of the illustrious batsmen. But in some defense of the Australian batsmen, they have had to cope with pitches that have not been their usual belters even in the one-dayers.

Let’s also put another fact in perspective. Australian and world batsmen are not comfortable with the moving ball. England won back the Ashes in 2005 after 17 long years thanks to the new ball and reverse swing that Mathew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones produced. One of the reasons for India’s success has been the phenomenal bowling of Ishant Sharma who seems to have rattled the Australians and Praveen Kumar’s bowling in the finals has been a revelation. With Gilchrist and the under-recognized Brad Hogg deciding to move on, Australia will be hard pressed to regain their dominance as they have certainly lost it, after this series, against the Indians who were hardly fancied. The climb to the top again may not happen for some time, in my view at least.

Lets focus on the future Champions
Now that we have knocked the world champions off their perch, it is easy to believe that we are the world champions. Sadly it is not as simple as all that as the ICC rankings are far more complex and we need to be consistent. We have a long and challenging home season with South Africa who have a couple of feisty fast bowlers and some stodgy but high scoring batsmen who will fancy our tracks. But clearly this team is on its way up. It has a mature test leader in Anil Kumble who led the team wonderfully in a hostile and challenging environment and deserved a far better score line. Unlike Australia where Ricky Ponting had to take the pressure in both forms of the game, we had a younger and more charismatic leader in Dhoni for the one-dayers whose captaincy and savoir faire have been wonderful to watch and relish. Clearly India is on to a good thing with this team and a lot of young talent seems to be on evidence in the under 19 World Cup winners as well. Yet it is worthwhile to remember that it has been by and large our bowling that has been winning us matches recently on pitches that have been quite unlike our own. Our bowlers could well struggle at home. But let’s just savour this moment without worrying too much about the future. Yes we have toppled Australia, at their den. This is a supreme moment for Indian cricket.

Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm and the author of “One land, one billion minds”.

Finally a place under the sun

India thrashed a hapless Sri Lanka at the Bellerive Oval at Hobart and took its rightful place in the finals and will not have to wait for or worry about a now meaningless league tie between Australia and Sri Lanka that will be played on Friday. Significantly India is making it to a final in Australia after the World Series of Cricket in 1986 that many of us saw live for the first time on our newly bought colour televisions. Make no mistake; this is a really competitive Indian team that could make history again in a week’s time. It is being led with flair by Dhoni who despite all the smiles is hard as steel and showing some of his batsmen at least, what it means to bat responsibly. It has one outstanding fast bowler in Ishant Sharma who has troubled the best and spearheaded the bowling. It has an emerging talent in Gautam Gambhir who has demonstrated a quality that is so rare amongst Indian batsmen – consistency. In Yuvraj, it has a batsman who can dismantle most bowling attacks, even if he has not yet done that on this tour of Australia. In Rohit Sharma it has a player of great promise. In Uthappa it has a bold stroke maker whose press pronouncements seem more potent than his current batting. More than anything else it has the confidence of being the T20 champions of the world and more critically in the context of this series, this team does not seem to have any scars of previous Australian defeats unlike other world teams and Australia seem to have less of a swagger against this team than they seem to have in with the rest of the world.

Aggression that could make us lose focus
This tour has been marred by controversies - some real and some imagined- but almost all fuelled and clouded by media. As someone who has watched the tests and one days ball by ball, I must confess that India have hardly been lily white. Symonds now claims that he was complimenting Ishant after being bowled which seems a little hard to stomach. But equally hard to comprehend was Ishant letting forth a volley of abuse that was obvious to see even if our networks never showed that vulgar display again and kept focusing on Symonds. Ishant can complain till the cows come home about how Symonds provoked him but the offences that have been booked are against his name and they all add up even if the ICC conveniently misplaces offence records. And I was shocked to see Ishant sending off the veteran Jayasuriya last week in a similar fashion. Jayasuriya is one of the mildest cricketers that one has had the privilege to watch over the years however explosive his batting may be and he has probably been playing international cricket even before Ishant was born. Clearly this amazingly talented lad must be reined in. And speaking of bad behaviour, how can one not speak of our worst ambassador on the playing field Harbhajan whose behaviour continues to shock me. In the same match against Sri Lanka he jumped up and down and thrust his tongue out after he got Sangakkara out, reminding us of an animal that had caused all the tension at Sydney. Sangakkara, another decent cricketer with an outstanding record did not deserve this. Clearly we are not even discriminatory in our bad behaviour and do not reserve it for Australia. Harbhajan is a rotten apple who has no place in this young, emerging, motivated team and clearly his bowling is pedestrian. I am sure we can find a better spinner and most certainly a better human being. India has done enough for him, perhaps far more than he deserves and the time to move on is now. My worry too is that aggression is better demonstrated by hitting the stumps, carting the ball over the fence or holding a spectacular catch. That will hurt Australia more than this volley of abuse and complaints about how they are starting things. They have been doing it, are doing it now and will continue to do it in future as well. The trick is not to get side tracked or lose focus but stay with our game plan and our strategy. I remember Zaheer Khan’s needless aggression in the World Cup finals of 2003 and the disastrous first over which led the way to a humiliating defeat.

A breath of fresh air
Amidst all these allegations, counter allegations, complaints, whining and controversy there have been some moments of sanity. Dhoni, like Kumble before him, has been pragmatic and restrained without being weak. Gilchrist continues to walk and Lee has been making conciliatory statements though the cynic might well say that he knows which side his bread is buttered in. But the most special act and words came from VVS Lakshman who in my book at least is India’s best batsman in and against Australia. He declined his iconic status and accepted a much lower fee for the IPL than youngsters who are just making their debuts, for the interest of his team and came out openly to say that Symonds was his friend and had been his friend for years now. Courage! a rare commodity in today’s mercenary and sycophantic world.

The game’s charm has been lost
The finals could be gripping as India could come firing, what with Hayden just calling Harbhajan an “obnoxious little weed”. If Australia wins again as they have done in the past it could be just another trophy in their already bulging cabinet. If India wins, we will not forget it in a hurry, nor will we let them forget it. But for me the regret is that this entire summer which had some fantastic cricket will be remembered for the wrong reasons. Between Ponting, Hayden, Clarke, Symonds, Harbhajan and the BCCI with its threats, Sunil Gavaskar and Harsha Bhogle who kept fuelling the fire and incompetent and self serving television channels in India and rags in Australia that published bilge they have ensured that I watch less and less cricket however absorbing and fascinating it is. And believe me you; we did have some outstanding cricket on view this Indian summer in Australia.

(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds)

Mid Series Crisis Down Under

We are half way through the Common Wealth bank series and it seems quite different and bizarre even when compared to the ones that we have been watching earlier in the same country. Australia have played well below par, a sign of their distraction or the fact that they are slowly going down hill as a team, or are tired and jaded at the end of a long, challenging and controversial summer. Be that as it may, but here are some of the things that have happened to the Australian team over the last few weeks. Australia have been bowled out for 159 in 43 overs against India and for 203 on a good wicket at Adelaide again against India. Andrew Symonds who a few months ago, was being called the best one day player in the world has scored 38 runs from 5 innings. Ricky Ponting the premier batsman in the world for the last three years has eked out 53 runs from 5 innings and Hayden easily the most dominant batsman in world cricket has only done slightly better managing 84 runs in 4 outings. Australia have dropped more catches this summer and in this series than one can recall. And yet Australia have won three of their last four completed matches, getting bonus points in all the three matches that they have won and that to my mind is the most worrying part of this whole series. Remember Sri Lanka was the losing finalist at the World Cup in March 2007 and India clearly has been the team that has troubled Australia most in recent times and yet Australia who are playing at 70 per cent of their ability are so far ahead in points if not in superiority. The best thing that can happen to world cricket will be when other teams start beating Australia regularly. That will certainly make cricket more watchable.

The new young India
Ishant Sharma is doing what Shane Bond did to Australia six years ago, if my memory serves me right. He has made the Aussies jump and be on edge in more ways on one. But back to the past. The other two teams in the tri-series of six years ago were quite-strong New Zealand and South Africa, both these teams made it to the finals and Australia and Steve Waugh struggled. Australia did not make it to the finals and Steve Waugh lost his one day captaincy to Ricky Ponting who is struggling now, just like his predecessor was. The only difference is that Australia seems to have made it to the finals already despite their poor showing this summer so Ricky Ponting might get to keep his job after all despite whatever Peter Roebuck recommended! But to return to our own young team that Dhoni leads so masterfully. He wanted a young team and perhaps had a lot to do with the removal of Dravid and Ganguly. This Indian team has top flight bowlers and young legs in the field. The team also lends credence to the fact that it is bowlers who win matches as Warne and McGrath did for Australia over the years. It is also ironical that India will probably win far more significant matches, events and titles than in the last ten years when the big three of Indian cricket Sachin, Saurav and Rahul scored so many thousand runs between them. Yet I do feel that India missed a trick and the experience of Saurav, Rahul and the timing of Lakshman in the one day games. I cannot imagine those seniors struggling to make 203 runs on a good batting wicket at Adelaide, or conceding a bonus point. After all it can be argued that the World Cup is in 2011 and there is enough time to build the team. But a series victory when the competing teams are Australia and Sri Lanka should gain precedence over our plans for the future. Yet the young Indian team has managed a significant win at Adelaide over Sri Lanka just yesterday and now seems well placed to make it to the finals and I do believe that on current form India has a greater opportunity to beat Australia than Sri Lanka who somehow have been found wanting against the Aussies particularly in recent times.

So what's the crisis?
To my mind the biggest crisis that Indian cricket is facing is from the much hyped IPL. It is a marketing coup, it is media hype, it is “camera, lights, auction” as a columnist mentioned but to my mind this is something that has the capability to divide the cricket world as it is an opportunity for the BCCI to only again cock a snook at the rest of the world and for us to indulge in more chest thumping about our money power and also remind them about the Harbhajan incident and the posturing that we did. But more seriously the fact that world cricketers who complain so bitterly about the work load should drop everything to earn some, (actually a lot of money) makes one wonder if this is really the game that one grew up loving. Now there is talk of the Australian tour to Pakistan likely to be shortened if not cancelled to accommodate this charade. Maybe it is the ramblings of an old man but I am really enjoying the tri-series for a couple of reasons. For once the ball has dominated the bat, the matches have been tight and not one sided and Australia has struggled. Who knows how many more national contests we are likely to see with such intensity with all this talk of regional teams with Australian players with huge contracts slugging it out in twenty-twenty for teams that they care a fig about.

Monkey off the backs of the men in blue?

A couple of days before our historic one day win at the MCG Veerendra Sehwag was handling a media conference in Australia as he is known to handle bowlers. Sehawag has an astute cricketing brain, though one wonders whether he leaves it behind in the dressing room when he goes out to bat on occasion. He certainly made ripples in the conference saying that India is the only team that can beat Australia and that if we won at Melbourne we are through to the finals! Of course he was partly right as India beat Australia at the MCG after 22 years and even if they are not already in the finals, they have made strong strides forward. The Indian cricket fan though went through every possible emotion in watching a low scoring game that we should have won by a mile but ended up winning with just a couple of overs to spare.

The highs and the lows
When Ishant Sharma got Ricky Ponting (again) our feelings were of exaltation, when India crawled in the middle our feelings were of despondency which had been preceded by overconfidence, when Sachin was batting and we thought our bonus point was assured and finally the feeling was just pure relief when Symonds bowled a wide! Beating Australia has not been easy for us, more so in important games .In 1996 we lost to Australia narrowly in a world cup match at Bombay, and if my memory serves me right the margin was one run .In 1999 Australia beat us comfortably at the Oval as we did not make it to the semi finals of the World Cup. In 2003 at South Africa we played wonderfully well till the finals where we again ran into Australia and lost by a mile. In 2007 at the West Indies we played so badly that we did not even get a chance to play Australia. Although we have won the odd Champions trophy game against Australia, last time around they won that too even as they shoved Sharad Pawar off the stage. In fact we have not won a major final or tournament against Australia recently in the one day version of the game .Our win now must and should pave the way for getting the monkey off the backs of the men in blue once and for all, as what would be better than winning the tri series final in Australia against Australia. In this tri- series we seem to have a funny situation amongst the three teams. Sri Lanka has been consistently psyched against Australia over the last several games and Australia too seems to be psyched by India to a lesser extent maybe. The match between Sri Lanka and India did not reveal too much and the one at Canberra on Tuesday could well hold the future to the finals.

Too early to celebrate
Let us not get carried away by our success though it is historic enough .Australia started badly thanks to Rudi Koertzen who if he continues the way he is presently doing should be penciled down for all India matches! Poor Gilly had a baffled look on his face as he was given out leg before after a huge inside edge. Gilly continued to have a baffled look as his confident appeal for a caught behind against Sachin was turned down. Sachin seemed bothered about that as he played distractedly after that and eventually got out. In a close match all these might have mattered but Ponting played it down in the media interaction saying it was the rub of the green something that our Indian commentators might wish to reflect on. I was just wondering what might have been the reaction of Gavaskar if Sachin had been given out wrongly in the first over as Gilly was! But it was wonderful to see Simon Taufel officiating wonderfully in the same game. His positioning of himself for a run out appeal was amazing and his judging brilliant.What a pity that India Australia test matches will never have him and will only have the likes of Steve Bucknor and Rudy Koertzen! But back to the game, while we have two fast bowlers who are bowling brilliantly in conditions that suit them much better than our dust bowls, our batting is still suspect. It was agonizing to watch the chase and Yuvaraj is going through the horrors much as Ricky Ponting is, though Ponting is facing much better bowling. Dhoni is like a rock guiding this team through thick and thin and keeping brilliantly as well, but what about the rest and when will Dinesh Kartick and Suresh Raina ever get a look in?

On to the finals
I do not have the same unreasonable optimism of Sehawag though I am quite confident that we can make it. Australia will be hard pressed to chase any total against us, the way they are batting now. Sri Lanka, however, are a very unpredictable team and must be smarting at the lack of attention their team is getting and their own indifferent start to the series. Yes we have some great contests at hand over the next few weeks and I hope that our form and fitness can once and for all rid the Australian monkey off our backs!

(The author is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds.)

I am sixteen and will stay on sixteen!

The last week of 2007 and the first fortnight of 2008 were eminently forgettable for the Indian cricket team and the Indian cricket fan as first the underdone Indian touring team lost the Boxing day test badly and was hit by atrocious umpiring at Sydney and an Australian team that reneged on its pre-tour catching agreement, a racism controversy and a slur, a threat to pull out of the tour midway, calls for the Australian captain’s head…Thankfully the focus shifted back to Perth which in the seventies and eighties certainly was the bounciest track in the world. And when a beleaguered and harassed Indian team went to Perth it was greeted with media reports of a track that was reminiscent of its earlier fire, Australia was on the verge of a record 17 consecutive test match wins and had announced a four man pace attack …but what happened? A resurgent Indian team under an amazing captain stopped Australia in its tracks and won at Perth today gladdening the hearts of a billion Indians and millions of people from other nations too I am sure who must have been sick and tired of the one sided nature of world cricket. A victory as unexpected and as sweet as our victory in Calcutta when we stopped Steve Waugh’s team on number sixteen as well.

What a game of cricket!
India’s winning of the T20 world cup might have made us enormously proud, got record television audiences and been a marketing triumph and yet die hard cricket followers like me believe that it can never replace the intensity, the tension and the twists and turns that a five day (or a four day) test match like the Perth game provided. I crave your indulgence as I am fifty five years old and have been watching and earlier, listening to test cricket for over 4 decades now. Let us savour the Perth triumph a little more. The last time Australia lost a match here was in 1997 and the last time Australia lost a test match in their own country was in 2004 and then too we were the country which architected that defeat. Australia may have been test and one day champions of the world for the past decade, but India has perhaps been the only team that has run them close on occasion. None of the other teams including South Africa, who have enjoyed a better reputation and a better ICC ranking, have run the champion team as close as we have. At Perth we out-batted, out-bowled and out-thought the fancied Australian team (who were on surprisingly good behaviour) and went on to win the match convincingly if not easily. Ricky Ponting accepted that his team had been outplayed and that he was all at sea against Ishant Sharma. And believe you me, the feeling of joy that I for one felt was complete. Snaring the kangaroo at its own den, let’s drink to that!


Rising to the occasion
While the entire Indian team combined brilliantly and fought like tigers to record a famous win we must mention a few individually brilliant achievements. The Australians continue to be amazed at how we Indians (or is it our selectors) constantly question Lakshman’s place in the test XI! Lakshman played superbly in the second innings and in my opinion we could not have won without his fluency and elegance. Sachin and Dravid too in the first innings demonstrated why we and the rest of the world view them so highly. Yet being the churlish Indian who always expects too much from his heroes, I did feel a twinge of regret that the “big three” failed in the second innings. But thankfully today India has others. The two comeback artists Pathan and Sehwag came to the party. Sehwag demonstrated his value at the top of the order as only he can. But watching Sehwag bat can be injurious to one’s health as he either drives exquisitely or swishes airily. Even as Australia was on the defensive we had our hearts in our mouths. And it looks like we have more excitement in our midst for the month of February as Sehwag has made it to the one day team. Sadly Saurav, Dravid and Lakshman have been left out just three days before the all important Adelaide test but I am not going to let even the absolute idiocy of the BCCI spoil my moment of happiness and promise to write about that again but let us stay with Perth.

Two captains with a difference
The series has seen two captains with widely contrasting styles and backgrounds being pitted against each other in the setting of a very competitive test series and against the backdrop of some over the top media reporting, not the least of all from Peter Roebuck, but more of that later. Kumble has come across as a mature individual looking for a solution to a tricky problem while Ponting has come across as the problem. Yet somehow I feel that we expect too much from our sportsmen. We want them to take catches, score centuries, bowl the opposition out, be part of racism hearings and also handle the media with the aplomb of a Richard Branson. Kumble perhaps because of his education and upbringing has come out smelling the roses while Ponting has struggled with the bat and in front of the microphone as well. We immediately classify Ricky Ponting as a poor ambassador for the game. Mind you I am a great admirer of Ponting’s ability as a cricketer and yet am aware of his failings as a possible role model but feel that he and the Australian team have got the short end of the stick for poorly disguised intensity. But back to Kumble, what a leader! And the crisis has brought out the best in him and the BCCI has ensured that he has one more crisis on his plate by leaving out senior players for the one dayers, just a few days before the all important Adelaide test. But he will be equal to the task and India will prevail.
But for now lets celebrate our success and also admire the Australian team for having won 16 matches in a row against all kinds of opposition on all sorts of wickets and also tell them “tough luck mate this is all you will ever get as long as we play cricket” !

(Ramanujam Sridhar is the CEO of brand-comm and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds).

To play or not to play

Not even the most rabid Australian fan could have celebrated after Australia’s record-equaling 16 match win. It is a shame really because Laksman’s enthralling batting, Sachin’s fantastic elegance, Kumble’s courage, Bhajji’s celebratory dance after getting his bunny Ponting, Symond’s amazing if fortuitous batting ,Lee’s belligerence, the tactics of Gilchrist standing up to Sachin and inducing him to play on ,Michael Clarke’s match winning bowling have all been drowned in the controversy of what has been arguably the worst umpiring of all time and even that has been overshadowed by the racist charge on Harbhajan and the consequent three match ban. In fact like the comedian in the Hindi film one is inclined to ask “Ye kya hora hai”?

What a game we almost had
There have been critics of test cricket and they have been justified in their criticism of the game for some time, used as they are to so many dull draws. However despite all the negatives that one can so easily say about the Australian cricket team one must concede that they have been positive and do not take a backward step even in the face of adversity as their mascot depicts. Even at Sydney, they kept playing positively despite the fact that wickets kept falling, as probably they had inside information about how Bucknor and Benson would give decisions! But seriously the match was amazing in its interest levels and standard of play and held our sustained attention till the very last ball was bowled, sadly at times for the wrong reasons.

Umpiring goof ups with a capital G
When I was young the words “Australian umpire” would evoke smirks from the rest of the world. Local umpires, not always competent or just tended to colour, our views on the performance of some of their greats at home. Yes they were good but… Now we have neutral umpires, which certainly removes bias from the equation but mistakes abound. Of course people like Sunil Gavaskar (who despite his numerous accomplishments does not have a positive view on anything in life, are adding fuel to the fire and making an already difficult situation impossible), have always maintained that umpires favour dominant teams and Australia certainly has been a dominant team for the last 12 years. Suddenly the views of people like Shivnarain Chanderpaul on the subject have become popular. My question remains “Would all our comments, criticism been as loud or as crude if we had been the beneficiaries?” Again let me go back to the point of “Umpire management” that I am fond of talking about. After ensuring that because he had a bad game, Steve Bucknor never officiates in an India game, we are ensuring that every umpire who has the “good fortune” of being the umpire for an India game wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat lest his effigy be burnt and lest he make it to the front pages of every Indian newspaper for some errors that might happen. Clearly he and Benson had a bad game, clearly Bucknor is way past his sell by date, but surely there is a better way of dealing with incompetence instead of publicly humiliating him and making him out to be someone out to get our country. The BCCI continues to show its monetary muscle in crises but where is the long term plan to make India a major force in cricket. We may have the money but how are we using all this to further the game in the country and our own standing with the international cricketing community? We are someone who jockeys, threatens and funds. Merely having the financial clout will only take us some distance. There has to be a smarter way which has some level of long range planning.

Racism, something else altogether
As though we did not have enough excitement for one week the Aussies, complained about Harbhajan and testified against him and he now has a three match ban. Has it gone beyond sledging? Imagine the “bad apple” in the class sneaking to the class teacher about another student and getting him expelled. This is exactly what Australia has done and somehow it seems incomprehensible that a country that has sledged right, left and centre suddenly is taking the moral high ground. And I really cannot understand what chip Symonds is carrying on his broad shoulders. Once again there is an opportunity for India to demonstrate how strong it is. Irrespective of what has happened I am sure the ban will be reversed and maybe even Procter too might get a rap on his knuckles. All of this makes one wonder if cricket is really worth watching from 5 in the morning if the activities on the field are going to be overshadowed by such bizarre events like these.

And yet..
Feelings in India are at all time high and emotions are at fever pitch. India is now very different from the way it was thirty or forty years ago. We were poor, bad travelers and the country that other cricketing teams hated to come to, or sent their second elevens. Today all that has changed. We are a vibrant economy with 1.3 billion people, many of whom are avid cricket watchers. Actually the word avid is perhaps an understatement and the right word is cricket mad and herein lies the problem. This nation can be easily swayed by the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and the numerous TV anchors who are playing to the gallery and giving a completely new twist to the sordid episode. Yes Australia won thanks to poor umpiring. It benefited them enormously. But what could they have done about it? If India had got the same largesse would we have declined it? Yes Australia did something unforgivable in ganging up against Harbhajan. Clearly the Sardar has got under their skin. But do we call off the tour for this? Isn’t it an extreme reaction of someone who has suddenly become very rich and powerful and will not let his neighbours forget it.

Calm heads the need of the hour
These are crazy times to live in, work in and watch cricket in. Passions ride high and patience is low. Yet it is not body line we are talking about, just poor umpiring. In any case Bucknor is finished and Procter almost on his way out. So let’s do what Kumble spoke about yesterday. Let’s focus on cricket.

And as for the average cricket fan, my suggestion to you is be calm if such a thing is possible and do not look for skeletons in every cupboard. And as for Star Cricket, just alternate the twenty minute commentary slots between the ones Australians see and the ones we see. That will give us a more balanced view .And finally quickly find replacements for Sunil Gavaskar and Harsha Bhogle otherwise India and Australia will soon become like India and Pakistan.

(Ramanujam Sridhar is the CEO of brand-comm and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds).

A Twist in the Tail

Today was a special day not only in the history of Indian Cricket but also in the history of World Cricket as Australia was dominated at home, at the Sydney Cricket Ground, by a visiting team even as their Prime Minister was watching. India did something that no other team has done to Australia for the last 2 years (when they lost the Ashes) and what other teams have not been able to do in Australia for quite some time now. Leading the rampage was Sachin Tendulkar scoring his 38th century, remaining unbeaten at the end with a mind-boggling average of 328, ably assisted by the tail. Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh and Ishant Sharma all played in a manner that must have made Dhoni and Yuvaraj wonder whether they had batted on the same surface against the same team as so ill at ease were they. But back to the script, India is 56 ahead at the close of day three and there are just two days left. If Australia is to win its 16th test match in a row, it has to do all the running, throw in the uncertain weather and we could be in for some tension as well. Well I am not a betting man but I think India is ahead at this point in time and yet in the same breath we do know that Australia does not give up easily and our fourth innings is rarely our best.

Where are Warne and McGrath?
Today I think for the first time since their retirement, Australia must have been yearning for its past greats as India too scored at close to four runs an over and made over 500 and Australia bled runs very much like we did yesterday. Alarm bells must be ringing in the Aussie camp, as Brett Lee seems to be carrying too much on his broad shoulders. He has risen to the occasion both at Melbourne and at Sydney and even earlier against Sri Lanka at Brisbane and Hobart but Australia for large parts of the day were wondering where their next wicket was going to come from and Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark were found wanting. As for the rest of the world, India has shown the way and in a sense this is a landmark day not only for India but for the rest of the cricket playing and cricket watching world and one just hopes that other teams will take heart and challenge Australia in the weeks and months ahead.

What about the match?
For once we have a test match in Australia where no one knows where the match is going at the end of day three. Till now all the debate has been whether the match would go on to the fifth day. While we are ahead by over 50 runs still, we must bat last and Hogg still seems to surprise some of our batsman at least. I do hope that India is positive and tries to win, as Sydney is our best chance. Too often we are satisfied with draws but remember we are already one down and the reputation of Perth, if not the actual pitch, may get to our batsmen. So as my friend Ramsubramani would say, set that alarm for 5 am tomorrow and cheer our team every inch of the way.

(Ramanujam Sridhar is the CEO of brand-comm and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds).

A game in the balance

The whole of today could only have been about poor umpiring and how the two umpires in the field and the one in the box were probably the worst combination that India has ever come across and how Steve Bucknor must clearly be the most pig headed umpire in the circuit as he refuses to go to the third umpire even when he had the option…. Oh what a field day we had about how the whole world is against us and how India gets the worst of umpires and umpiring decisions. Luckily VVS Lakshman played an extraordinary innings that took all our minds away from the negativity that we could have so easily succumbed to. Thank you VVS for an innings that we will not forget in a hurry and thank you for doing it again against Australia, a country that has humbled many a reputation.

Dravid the martyr
It was not pleasant to watch Dravid bat today. Here is a batsman who has left the captaincy and is going through the worst patch of his batting career and who is being asked to open against what is perhaps the most lethal fast bowling combination in the world. But he was equal to the task, took the booing with great humour and actually smiled when he got a single and a roar from the crowd. Rahul Dravid may not be having the form of his life but there is no denying the fact that he is an amazing competitor and a human being beyond reproach. I just hope Indian cricketing history recognizes this wonderful person and his selfless sacrifice for the country. And mind you batting for four hours today was extremely crucial, as he was the perfect foil to an ebullient Lakshman.

Gilly drops a few
Whilst India had its fair share of misfortune with the umpiring, it had some good luck as well. Gilchrist kept dropping catches, Hussey took a catch that the umpires actually had the good sense to go to a third umpire for, Dravid was caught off a no ball and Ponting had the courage to say he had not caught Dravid cleanly. Instantly I got a message from my brother which read “What a change from Ponting, couldn’t believe it from an Aussie”. Yes while lots of unbelievable stuff happened today at the SCG nothing was more unbelievable than Lakshman’s innings.

The first session tomorrow
It has been two fantastic days of test cricket. Runs being scored at a furious pace, wickets at odd times, tail enders playing brilliantly and almost all of these nearly marred by the men in white. The first session tomorrow will determine the course of the game, what with the second new ball due in a some time as well. One just hopes that the umpires do not have a field day and further ruin what promises to be an amazing cricket match. And I do have a private wish. I hope the men in white makes lots of mistakes favouring Sachin and Saurav and I wonder if our commentators’ criticism would be as strident! Yes an amazing game in prospect.

(Ramanujam Sridhar is the CEO of brand-comm and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds).