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).