Enough Is Enough

I have been maintaining this blog now for nearly 5 years. At all times I have tried to present my views rationally and tried to take into account all factors before presenting my thoughts.

But today I am going to let my emotions flow. I am going to try and bring out my frustration as an Indian supporter. I don’t care if they are rational, I don’t care if they are unreasonable, illogical and stupid. Because today, I am not disappointed………. I am not depressed……. I am angry. I am very very angry. I have been religiously following the Indian cricket team for close to 25 years now and I have never seen such a pathetic display from a cricket team

Indian Cricket stands at a crossroad. The cricketing world is laughing at us. We have been thrashed and humiliated in the last 8 overseas tests. Forget winning, we have not even competed in these test matches. Our players have been ridiculed for their lack of skill, lack of application and lack of interest in the test game.

India has been let down by a lack of will, lack of planning and lack of preparation in the last few months. It has been let down by the lack of foresight on part of its selectors. It has been let down by a lack of ability to take bold decisions on part of its tour selectors. It has been let down by its three great batsman- who should have taken the high ground and retired after Sydney- certainly Lakshman and Dravid should have. India has been let down by an indifferent captain and an indifferent coach. It been let down by its poor fielding and its poor fitness.

It has been let down by the importance given by its players, supporters and the media to individual landmarks rather than to the achievements of the team. Tendulkar’s hundredth hundred has no relevance now. It is not going to wipe out the hurt and humiliation suffered in England and Australia by the team and its supporters. Kohli’s hundred in Adelaide gave us some hope for the future but apart from that it was of no use.

The IPL has become a convenient scape goat for all of Indian cricket’s problems. Fact of the matter is that the IPL is not responsible for India’s debacle in Australia. The IPL cannot be responsible for Lakshman’s continuous failures since the tour of England. The IPL cannot be held responsible for the technical flaws that have crept up in Rahul Dravid’s game. The IPL cannot be held responsible for Sachin Tendulkar’s inability to handle the pressure generated by the expectations his fanatical supporters in relation to an irrelevant landmark. The IPL cannot be held responsible for Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s poor captaincy. The IPL has plus and minus points but to just blame the IPL for India’s failure is to slaughter the wrong cow.

Bold decisions need to be taken because we cannot have a phase like this again. If we don’t take bold decisions now, we well as might stop playing the game.

Enough is enough. Its time for a change.

Its time for a change

These are very difficult times for Indian Cricket. India left for Australia as firm favorites to win the Test series down under. After eight days of cricket they have been resoundingly defeated in two test matches and have no chance of winning the series.

The defeat at Sydney means that India has now lost six consecutive tests away from home. It is not the fact that the team has lost but the manner in which they have capitulated that hurts. It hurts that our batting stands exposed, it hurts that our bowling has conceded twice over 650 runs, twice over 500 in these test matches. It hurts that we have not looked at any moment like winning any of these six tests inspite of being the world number one team in test cricket prior to the start of the England tour. It hurts that the cricketing world is laughing at us.

When you consider that Indian cricket was on such a high in the first six months of 2011, with the drawn test series in South Africa and the World Cup win at home, it might surprise a few as to how quickly the Indian team has sunk to such lower depths of performance.

India is led by the most overworked cricketer in the world. M.S Dhoni looks tired, jaded, overworked and lacking in idea and inspiration. His captaincy during the tour and particularly at Melbourne was shocking-there were 7 fielders on the boundary to Ben Hilfenhaus when he was on nought in the second innings. India lost the Melbourne test as much due to bad, defensive captaincy as it did due to bad batting. If Indian cricket wants to preserve Dhoni the batsman- and what a wonderful destructive batsman he can be- it is time for to let him go as a captain. Yes he has achieved a lot as a captain and for that Indian cricket will always be indebted to him. But Indian cricket is in desperate need of a new direction.

Who will provide that direction? It is time for Gautam Gambhir to step up. Gambhir is a fine young man, very intense, very passionate but also very competitive and tactically very sound. He has impressed one and all in his brief stints as captain for Delhi and Kolkata Knight Riders. His form of late has been patchy but I have no doubt that the added responsibility of captaincy will make him more focused and ensure that he delivers with the bat as well. I will also go a bit more left field and make Ravichandran Ashwin, another impressive young man, as his deputy. Ashwin has struggled with the ball in Australia but through out his batting and bowling vigils, he has stood out as a competitor. He comes across as a confident person and that together with his combative streak will ensure a bright future for him as an Indian cricket.

Indian cricket also needs to look at the fact that in the last 12 innings India has crossed 300 only once. That is a depressing statistic and perhaps the fact that its regular opening pair has missed a lot of test cricket this year has contributed to this. But the chief contributing factor to this statistic has been the very very inconsistent form of its famed middle order. The famed fabulous three of Indian batting have their own issues to deal with- one is weighed down by unbelievable hype and frenzy surrounding a landmark. The other has had a fabulous year at the test level but increasingly looks tired and out of place on the cricket field. And the third has produced the odd good innings this year but frankly looks totally spent and physically unfit.

I am a great VVS Lakshman fan but he averages 20 in his last 12 innings and has scored only one test hundred since his match winning efforts at Galle in August 2010. His footwork against quality fast bowling is increasingly looking very uncertain and his fielding, when he is out of the slips is shocking. Irrespective of how he plays in the next two tests- and Sanjay Manjrekar India’s finest commentator has suggested that he should not even be given those opportunities now-the selectors need to have a quiet word with him at the end of the series and chalk out a farewell plan. VVS will be sorely missed but I want to remember him as a player who pulled and flicked fast bowlers at will, not as someone who struggled to score his next run against him.

Rahul Dravid is an interesting case. He has had a remarkable 2011 when he was clearly India’s best batsman in test cricket. His innings in Melbourne suggests that there is still some form there but one should take note that he is dropping a lot of catches at slip and getting bowled very often. Often this is a sign that eyesight is not as good as it once was. Dravid should at the most play the series against England in October and then another farewell plan should be prepared for him.

What does one say about Sachin Tendulkar? Every comment made by anyone on Tendulkar evokes emotion. “You can’t write about Indian Cricket without critising Tendulkar”, some one said to me the other day. I am, like many others, a big Tendulkar fan but to say that he is immune to criticism just because of his achievements is ridiculous. The very fact there is so much discussion and debate around Tendulkar shows that something is amiss. Critics will point that he has gone almost 12 months without an international hundred. Incidentally his last test hundred was an absolute master class against a rampaging Dale Steyn at Cape Town. Tendulkar batted freely without a care in the world in that innings. Contrast that with way he played on the third afternoon at Sydney or the way he played against Clarke and you can sense the difference. It seems that Tendulkar is weighed down by this unreasonable hysteria surrounding his next hundred. However, notwithstanding this hype, the signs are very clear that the end is very near for the Bombay Bomber. Tendulkar, who used to be one of India’s finest and most committed fielders, is a liability on the field on most days. The numbers of misfields are increasing. His batting form may suggest that he has some cricket still left, however the lack of big innings suggest that age is catching up. A farewell plan has to be chartered out soon for him as well.

It will be unreal, say 12 months from now to look at an Indian team sheet and see the names of these three fine cricketers missing. But as ace writer Gaurav Kalra mentioned in his blog “permanence in sport is nothing. Succession is inevitable.” It is time for Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara to occupy the Indian Middle order. It is also time for a new Indian team to emerge.

13 years ago India went through similar horrors when it was whitewashed in Australia in 1999. That was followed by South Africa clean sweeping us at home. A new Indian team under the captaincy of Saurav Ganguly emerged. Ganguly’s era saw the emergence of Lakshman, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Sehwag and Yuvraj. Tendulkar and Dravid flourished and a golden chapter of Indian cricket was written. If this Australian debacle lays down the path for another golden chapter of Indian cricket then all the hurt will be worthwhile.

Who is the real Bharat Ratna?

So the rules regarding the criteria for the Bharat Ratna Awards have now been modified to include people from all fields. Immediately news channels are calling for awarding this highest civilian honour to Sachin Tendulkar. Infact one leading news channel had a headline which said that the road had been cleared for Sachin to get the Bharat Ratna award.
Does Sachin deserve the Bharat Ratna? Undoubtedly he is one of the greats of modern cricket. Undoubtedly he is living icon and perhaps the most popular sportsman in the country. Undoubtedly his contribution to Indian cricket is immense. But is all this enough to get a Bharat Ratna? For there are other sportsman in this country who can perhaps meet all the above criteria’s.
What about Vishwanathan Anand who is the only Indian to win a world championship four times? What about Leander Paes, perhaps the greatest Indian sports man of the 90’s, having been responsible for winning India its first individual Olympic medal in 44 years and winner of many doubles grand slam titles. What about Malleshwari, brilliant woman weightlifter and winner of an Olympic medal? What about Prakash Padukone and Gopichand, winners of the prestigious All England open? Abhinav Bindra and Rajvardhan Rathore play a sport which is not really television friendly. But it is important to note that they are Olympic gold and silver medal winners respectively.
It is important to note that sportsman like Anand, Gopichand and Malleshwari have been numero unos in a sport that is played by millions in every country of the world. Leander Paes has achieved success in one of the most popular sport in the world in which it is very very difficult to break into the top 500. Whether we can compare their achievements with those of Tensdulkar’s is a debatable point. I am a huge cricket fan but it is important to note that the world of cricket is relatively small arena.
Even within the game of cricket, can Tendulkar skip before Kapil Dev- an outstanding all rounder and more importantly a successful captain and a leader who led India to a world cup victory, something which Tendulkar failed at. What about Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid- two great Indian batsman who in their own ways have contributed to the glorious history of Indian batting?
Without a shadow of doubt Tendulkar is a true great, perhaps the best batsman of this generation though fans of Ponting, Lara and Kallis might have reasons to dispute that. Perhaps he is the greatest Indian Batsman of all time though fans of Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid might have something to say about that. Statistically he is the greatest batsman off all time but many experts have rated Viv Richards above him.
The most infuriating thing about the recent hype about Sachin is this recent trend by some media agencies and some writers/columnists to refer to him as the god of cricket. Tendulkar, the great cricketer that he is, is no GOD. His career graph is like any other successful sportsman, showing lots of upward movement and some downward trends too. Tendulkar has achieved his greatness through shear hard work and commitment and by referring to him as “God” you are belittling and insulting his hard work passion and commitment.
The Tendulkar obsession in this country is going to insane proportions. It is almost becoming a crime to say anything against the master. If you write a book which has something negative about Tendulkar, the book runs into trouble. If you write an article critising Tendulkar you are supposed to be irrational. If a former cricketer says something about Tendulkar, he is either supposed to be jealous of Sachin or seeking publicity. And if an English or Australian does not acknowledge Sachin’s greatness he is supposed to be racists.

But this blog is not disputing Tendulkar’s greatness. What it is trying to say is that Tendulkar is not the be all and end all Of Indian cricket and definitely not of Indian sports. He is a definitely a “ratna” but in our obsession towards him we shall not ignore other “ratnas”.

A Tiger among men

I always had this burning desire to meet Tiger Pataudi. In a perfect and ideal world that I often dreamt and fantasized about, Tiger Patuadi was one gentleman with whom I wanted to talk cricket about. Just a two minute conversation about cricket and that would have been everything for me.

Unfortunately I never could meet Tiger. Unfortunately I never saw him play. Unfortunately and frustratingly, he never did much commentary in the last thirty years or so for me to regularly hear his views. But having read so much about him, having him heard him on the odd occasion that he decided to air his views, I have no doubt to admit that Mansur Ali Khan Patuadi was one of my heroes.

For many people of my age the name Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi does not mean much. But for people of the previous generation, Tiger Pataudi was the ultimate cricketing superstar. Mukul Kesavan has described his perfectly calling him a “a republic prince”. He indeed was a prince under whom Indian cricket flourished. But he was no autocrat and definitely no dictator.

There are certain crickets who should not be judged by statistics. Pataudi should be on top of the list. To understand Tiger Patuadi, you need to understand the history of Indian cricket prior to him becoming the captain. India lost regularly at home and were regularly hammered abroad. Patuadi made the team believe in itself. Patuadi gave Indian cricket Bedi, Prassana, Chandra and Venkat. He gave Indian cricket Vishwanath, Hanumant Singh and Farook Engineer. He gave India its first overseas win. He gave Indian cricket an identity and self respect.

And please remember, he played 40 odd test matches with one eye. He scored all those runs with one eye. He made that brilliant hundred at headingly in 1967 with one eye.But the loss of that eye did not deter him. As he once famously said “I lost the sight in my eye but I did not lose the sight of my ambitions”. That one statement summed up Tiger Pataudi.

Ian Chapell had once said that “Tiger talks a lot less but whatever talk’s makes a lot of sense”. But perhaps it is appropriate to quote Mukul Kesavan who writes “death finds him happily embalmed in fond radio memories: still tigerish in the covers, still a prince amongst men.”

There never will be a Tiger Pataudi again.

Don't shoot the messenger

I was looking forward to this English summer for a long long time. An Indian tour is always a special event in England but this time India arrived in England as world champions and as the number one team in test match cricket. Everyone in England was looking forward to the test summer. Watch India play well in England, read the English press go gaga over them, listen to Aggers and Boycott on TMS were some of the things that I was looking forward to.

Alas that was not to be. Everything that had to go wrong has gone wrong for India on this tour. India have been terrible on this tour and have been ridiculed by all and sundry. Aggers and Boycott have often wondered on TMS whether this really was the Indian team or was it Bangladesh in disguise. My summer was totally spoiled, at the end of the series I could barely listen to TMS or read the British Papers.

There have been many reasons for this debacle. Lack of preparation certainly, lack of fitness certainly but fatigue? I don’t buy that. How can Gambhir be fatigued? He was coming back after a two month break. How can Tendulkar be tired? He missed the West Indies tour and went on a holiday. How can Lakshman and Dravid be tired. They hardly played any cricket after January. How can Zaheer and Sreesanth be tired. Only three cricketers could be excused for reasons of fatigue- Dhoni, Harbhajan and Raina. They were playing non stop cricket and had absolutely no break. The majority of the team were unfit, unprepared and largely unprofessional.

Ideally the BCCI should have a review for this tour and try to rectify the reasons for this debacle. But instead of doing that, the BCCI is involved in trying to ensure that they do not come under the RTI and trying to set up discussions with the English Cricket Board with respect to Naseer Hussain’s comments on the Indian fielders. The entire exercise I should say is needless.

Hussain along with Michael Atherton is perhaps the finest commentator going around. He is definitely one of my favorites. He has the right to express his opinion. Perhaps it was offensive, perhaps it was strong, and perhaps it should not have been said. But he said it in a context. We use various terms for cricketers of different types. Khadoos, slow pokes, plodders, scooter, are terms used very often by different commentators. If we start getting offended by all the terms used we well as might stop listening to any cricket commentary.

I think we are as a country growing increasingly insensitive and intolerant. This was aptly reflected during the Anna Hazare movement. People who did not agree with Hazare’s ideas were considered traitors, corrupt and what not. The basis of any democracy is the fundamental right to express one’s own opinion. If you want the right to express an opinion, you have an obligation to respect someone’s opinion as well.

In cricket particularly, the Indian media has had a tendency to project someone’s opinions and then create needless controversy’s about them. Every individual covering the game has a right to state what he feels. If we disagree with that, we should stop listening to that individual rather than projecting and debating those comments.

And what about the comments that we in India make. A few years ago Star News ran a show called ‘Match ka Mujrim’ in which at the end of each show an Indian cricketer was declared a ‘Mujrim’. Was that not offensive? Saurav Ganguly called Michael Vaughn mad a few days back after certain comments made by the former England captain. Was that not offensive? During the whole Mike Dennesse episode, the Indian media used a whole lot of adjectives to describe Dennesse. Was that not offensive.

If we are frank, we should admit that the Indian fielding on this tour has been an embarrassment. It was terrible to watch them at certain times during the test series. As suggested by some critics our anger should not be at Hussain but at the fact that our team has possibly some of the worst fielders ever. Let us not shoot the messenger please.

While I did not watch much of the IPL, I followed with keen interest the different debates that were taking place regarding the injury suffered by Gautam Gambhir. Different opinions were given by different people. Bishen Bedi suggested that this was the classic example of financial power taking over the world of cricket. Kapil Dev suggested that at the end of the day it was the players own choice. Arun Lal suggested that this was a sign of the times that we were living in. Times Now ran a campaign for three days which virtually projected that Gautam Gambhir had committed an act of treason.

It was therefore very interesting to note that not many people said anything when Sachin Tendulkar decided to skip the entire West Indies tour to be with his family. Now Tendulkar has done admirable service for the country for the last twenty years and if anybody deserves a break it should be him. But he could have had his break from April 2 to May 28 when India was not playing any cricket. Instead he opted to play for Mumbai Indians, a franchise owned by the biggest corporate house in India which to which he is contracted for a large sum of money.

There is a big difference Gambhir’s case and Tendulkar’s case. Gautam Gambhir is injured and has been advised 6 weeks rest by the physio. Tendulkar is completely fit. If Gambhir was not injured, he would have played the IPL and gone to the West Indies. Tendulkar irrespective of injury or not was going to play in the IPL and never going to go to the West Indies.

People might turn around and say that Tendulkar has given his all for the country for the last twenty years and he deserves to given some leeway. Absolutely. No problem in that. But if he needed to take a break why not take a break when you are supposed to be playing for the Mumbai Indians? Why play in a domestic t20 tournament for 8 weeks and then skip test matches. The way I see it is that Tendulkar after a very hectic season, decided to play for the Mumbai Indians with a view of going on a holiday when the Indian team was going to play.

There is also a bigger question of the double standards of the Indian media. It seems that the Indian media judges different people with different standards. Tendulkar seems to be immune to all criticism. Moreover anybody who dares to criticize him is castigated. A few years ago when Sanjay Manjrekar suggested that Tendulkar’s fitness levels had dropped, he was absolutely torn by the media. Some former players called him selfish while other said that he was jealous of Tendulkar’s success. Manjrekar may have been right or may have been totally wrong but surely he was entitled to his opinion. And after the 2007 World Cup, when Ian Chapell said that Tendulkar need to change his outlook towards the game or retire, one of world’s finest cricket analysts was pilloried in the Indian media.

To my mind if the BCCI is unhappy about Gautam Gambhir opting out of the tour due to injury, then it should also be unhappy about Tendulkar’s decision. No matter how great a player is, the rules should be the same for everyone.

1992-93 was a landmark year for Maharashtra Cricket. It had been 44 years since Maharashtra had last won the Ranji trophy and in 1992-93 it finally it seemed the drought would end. Santosh Jedhe had a sensational season and Shantanu Sugwekar played a tremendous innings in the semi finals against the two best fast bowlers in the country then ( Ashish Winston Zaidi and Obaid Kamal- they never played for the country but that’s a different story.) It was widely believed that Maharashtra would win the finals but Punjab piped them to the post. The drought has still not ended and perhaps never will.

But that run to final did a lot of good things for Maharashtra cricket. It brought Jedhe, Iqbal Siddique and Sugwekar to the National reckoning. Maharashtra cricket was recognized around the country (at least for some time) and youngsters like me were genuinely inspired.

Why am I writing this? Because a while back someone asked me if I was following the Pune Sahara warriors in the IPL. I have actually never enjoyed watching the IPL as much as I enjoy watching Test, one day or even Ranji Trophy cricket. I have been fortunate and privileged to witness live some great test matches over the last few years. But I have never watched nor desired till today to watch an IPL game. Of course that might change in the future. And ofcourse I recognize that if you keep aside the non- sense about bollywood, cheergirls, SRK, Preity etc etc, it is a pretty decent tournament. Its just that too much importance is given to matters other than cricket and that absolutely pisses me off.

Now coming back to the Pune team. Why should I support this team? It is owned by a corporate house from Lucknow. I have not seen a single Maharashtra based player play a single game for it. It is captained by a Punjabi middle order batsman and its coach is an Australian. It plays all its home games in Navi Mumbai. If the Pune team does win the IPL, it does not benefit the young players of my city, it does not help in developing the cricket infrastructure of my state. Quite frankly this team does not represent my state or my city. It represents a corporate house and I have no affiliation towards that corporate house.

Were Maharashtra to win the Rnji trophy next year or the year after that, it would bring a big smile to my face. Were Pune to win or lose the IPL, I am not sure it would matter that much to me.