Pearls of wisdom can emanate from the unlikeliest of sources. That's what I realised when I came across this one by Nirmal Shekhar. Usually, I prefer to avoid his articles, simply because I do not want my blood pressure shooting up after reading about Sampras' supposed greatness in the middle of a report on cricket. Anyway, this time around, due to sheer negligence, I started reading this one and and ended up being rewarded (Diligence pays. YES. But now, so does negligence..plus you can be lazy while being negligent!!!)
The whole world has been going ga-ga about THAT MATCH and how it was the greatest one ever played. It definitely was one of the greatest due to the sheer improbability of the scores and the final result. It's a no-brainer actually. While discussing it that day, I stumbled with words to express the awe I felt when I saw the scorecard. Also, I found myself enthusiastically, first explaining cricket and then, the significance of this match to a few individuals (usually, I just wave them off dismissively and affix the label 'childhood kadalai' to those desis that do not know cricket). Eventually, after the euphoria died down, I found my thoughts turning another way.
Here are a couple of scorecards (one, two) from matches belonging to a different era of ODIs. I did not witness either of them. Yet, the records of both these matches used to show up in most of cricket's batting related statistics prior to 1996. After this recent batathon, I found myself thinking about how I was fascinated by the numbers of those matches when I started following cricket. However, now, I find it hard to remember the number of times that India has crossed 350. I think 'Familiarity breeds contempt' explains it. And I have NO DOUBT whatsoever that 10 years down the line, a 400 plus score would be as regular as a 300 is these days....if the current trends of favouring batting persist.
Not that I know what the perfect balance is. Personally, I prefer 225 - 260 thrillers. But I know that this hypothetical optimal score stems from the fact that I grew up to this game seeing such scores. I am sure that an individual who started watching the game in the 70s wouldn't be happy with bowlers being hit for 4 to 5 runs per over or actually, might loathe the one day form of cricket altogether. My only counter to that (I have to counter it since I love ODIs) would be to play the 'audience wants it' card. Which would lead to a breakdown of my entire argument since any cricket-educated individual can fairly point out that we have decades to go before hitting the barrier of 1800 (36 runs per over :D), until which any crisis talk can wait!....STUMPED !!!
Hence, unsure of my own reasoning on this issue, I deliberated and almost gave up. Enter Nirmal Shekhar (of all people!). He says 'A sport can lose its essential greatness over generations without ever losing its mass appeal'.....and I fall to my knees thanking him. I would replace the 'essential greatness' with 'essence' but he captured it right there. As we move to 400 and then 500 scores, where is the contest between ball and bat (which is INARGUABLY the essence of this game)? The convenient 'audience wants it' card does not hold anymore, does it?
The game is thriving at present, so, why bother is a fair reply. Afterall, filling up stadiums is never a problem in the subcontinent (the breeding ground of the very problem that I am discussing) and the money is flowing in like never before. Then again, it should be noted that the 'thriving' refers to the aforementioned and not the quality of the game.
By no means is juggling and balancing the three (quality, spectators, money) an open and shut case. Nevertheless, the lack of intelligent debate on the same is alarming. I hoped and continue to hope that this match sparks off heated discussions and a few radical decisions to ensure that the bowler breed remains in existence. A few players (Barry Richards among them) have spoken about it and supposedly Shaun Pollock of the bowler breed weighed in with a 'great game!......to watch from the pavilion' remark. All I wait for is a gem from Bhogle or Brijnath or if we are all very lucky, from Rahul THE ONE Dravid himelf!
PS: Nirmal Shekhar, In the very unlikely event of you reading this, this should not be misconstrued as a surrender. That would not happen until you can explain the existence of Roger Federer in context of your hundred times repeated 'Sampras is a once in my lifetime player' :D
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20 comments:
Hey da,
Well-written article.. made good reading.. but the match was very thrilling, forget the number of runs, the South African chase was just awesome right? :)
Hey Divi
Thanks for the 'expected' compliments. :)
Match must have been great for sure. I didn't get to watch any of it, but waking up to the scorecard was a special feeling by itself. Missing this one and the Ashes of last year will remain permanent regrets.
btw...Did you actually watch the match? Or is 'the awesome chase' coming from that patented flirty technique of yours?
I felt very much the same, when I woke up and saw the scorecard. I blinked, rubbed my eyes , looked, blinked, looked again and there it was.
Unbelievable.
Now then divi, what did you think of Herschelle Gibbs' ass? :-)
Yeah, it was that sort of a scorecard. I woke up when SA started their innings and felt a wave of pity for them. I then watched the race and went to bed, not caring for this match (SA were 85/1 in 10 overs then). And then I woke up to the result.
Nice one dood! Looks like you have done some research. If I am right, the zim-SL match that you have refered to was world cup opener. At that time both the teams were minnows.
While I throughly enjoyed thi SA-Aus match, in hindsight felt that "strategy" and planning is being taken away with this wild bashing. I feel ICC should introduce few "rules" to make bowling more interesting & effective. Maybe more bouncers per over, increasing min size of cricket grounds, re-look LBW rule when pitched outside off....
- RG
Actually, like I mentioned, the final scores of both those matches remained in memory. So, the hard work was pulling out the scorecards. Anyway, there is always Cricinfo! And honestly, I DO NOT know about both those matches. However, I dont think that either of them were World Cup matches...
Strategy would be cool. However, overall, I feel that the pitch is the key. If we get a bowler helpful pitch, then the bowlers already have enough in their armour to trouble the batters.
In fact, when I look at the game, I wonder how any batsman can negate good seam bowling on a helpful surface with any measure of confidence. Afterall, once ball skids through, another cuts in and the next moves away, and with different degrees to boot. So, the key is for the bowlers to be able to do all that, IMO.
btw...Could you please expand that RG for me?
Unfortunately Blogger won't let me change the font size on the comments section.
Maybe I could lengthen it?
R G
A quick wit that needs some tuning...that's alright we can work on it. However, I still need ID!
Have you tried the Dept. of Motor Vehicles?
I concur...the pitch can make a world of difference. Only catch is if you want to make it bowler friendly (especially to favor seam movement), it has to play the same way during both innings. Thats quite a challenge. Otherwise, toss becomes quite crucial and often becomes one sided.
I agree with your point, once there is movement in the air and of the surface, no matter how good your foot work is, it is difficult to negotiate. In fact traditional schools of cricket will advice you to leave the ball. But how many balls can you let go especially in todays run feast scenario.
I am too lazy to check cric info, but I am almost certain that the Zim-SL match was a world cup opener. There were two matches on that day and if I remember it right, it was during my board exams.
RG - Rajesh Gopal
hehe...Have to hand it to you. Once you mentioned that you KNEW it because you had board exams that day, I was convinced that it must have been a World Cup match. And sure enough, it was! Congrats!!! You definitely have your priorities in place. Just to convince you that I have mine in place too....I know the exact dates of my engineering entrance exam and will remember it forever.....no small thanks to Sharjah 1998 :D
Regarding pitches...that's a fair point. To prepare a pitch that assists bowling consistently would require a lot of attention and care and is definitely not an easy task. I recall Durban being an 'unbattable under lights' venue during the last world cup....Pak collapsed against ENG and ENG collapsed against us......TWO for us! :) So, yeah, 'Win the toss, win the match' pitfall definitely needs to be avoided.
Overall, we need variety. I missed it in my blog, but there is a definite need for variable playing conditions. That's definitely another of the 'essences' of this game that needs to be maintained.
ohh btw...ID didn't suffice. Now, I need resume...and please don't ask me to go to the Career Development Center, or a HR, for that matter :)
Hi dood!
Not sure if my resume is still floating around. I am a die hard cricket fan and a keen student of the game. Two years your senior :) nope..not from your college though.
Interesting to see your blog focusssed primarily on cricket. Please continue to broach interesting topics of debate on cricket. Would love to see some thing written on dada...me a big big dada fan.
-RG
Me too! Me too! But not blind enough to fail to see that Indian cricket has passed the Dada era. I loved the fight and spunk he showed and instilled in our team. I loved his artlessness. And now, I love the way this Indian team is shaping up under Dravid. I definitely want to compose an ode to Ganguly, but need to find some inspiration for that. Afterall, our Dada deserves a masterpiece :)
btw...you are not my college senior but you know that you are two years senior to me...hmmm. School senior? Anyway, keep the comments coming...
Dood! Looks like dada era is not over yet :) Read some report that there is a good chance dada might make a come back in the on goin series. I am with you that we Indians tend to attach an emotional part of it with selections. I remember the hue and cry when Kapil was dropped. In fact almost every cricketer except for Sunil has been dropped. Here again, while we should not get too emotional about dada and understand that we are close to his era ending, I felt, there is still some fight and cricket left in him. The selectors went too far with this grooming youngsters for world cup and jus look at the way our top order is performing.
What are your thoughts on current series?
- RG
RG
There are just too many rumours flying around at present. And SG might come in sometime, but I hope not! It is crystal clear that the current team management are sound in strategy and planning. And there is no doubt whatsoever that they do not see SG as part of the team. Uthappa replacing Gambhir was a clear message. Using his connections, SG could very well make it. But at what cost? We will see article after article quoting sources within/close to the team that Ganguly and Dravid sat at different tables during breakfast and that Greg and Ganguly shared a laugh during batting practice etc. We do not want to go through all that for sure.
Our top order (Sehwag, Kaif and Gambhir) is struggling at the moment. I haven't been impressed by Gambhir and looks like the management are looking around too. The other two though merit careful treatment. Sehwag beings to the crease an aura besides his average, while Kaif is the undoubted leader of our brilliant fielding efforts. Dropping him could result in disastrous performances in the field. I think back to SA of the 90s and remember the number of brilliant fielders they had. However, when Jonty didn't play, they dropped sitter after sitter. I don't want to see that happening with our team anytime soon. So, for the moment, Kaif too has to stay in. And it looks like Greg has confidence in the both of them.
This ODI series is working out good, isn't it? We are developing further and further and we see how talk translates to action whic in turn has thus far translated to winning performance. So, hopefully, we keep fighting our guts out every single time and let the results take care of themselves.
Actually, in the euphoria of recent results, I hadn't quite realised that we have been playing all our matches in familiar subcontinental conditions. Someone pointed that out to me recently, which is when it hit me. So, while our performances are praiseworthy due to the strong opposition that we have sene of (SL, ENG, SA), we need to remember that the performance curve wouldn't be as smooth when we start touring later this year. However, it is totally upto us, to be patient with this team and look to the future.
Hi...
On SG I partly concur. Traditionally we Indians put this "emotion" part ahead of performance, and no wonder every time an icon cricketer like Kapil Dev or Vishwanath was dropped, there was so much hue cry. The selection formula should be more like the aussie way....they dropped a Beven and a Mark Waugh while any another nation would have been proud to have them in their line up. However, I felt SG should have been given one more series. Any ways..thats a never ending debate and we can probably have that a later time :)
On current team, I am personally not very impressed. Like you mentioned, it was always lingering in my mind that we have been winning in our backyard and more so against under prepared opponents.
Whiel I agree that Kaif is an amazing fielder and this enthusiasm rubs in to others, I am not sure if you can have him in the team just for his fielding abilities. Even without going into statistics, I am sure he needs a break and this would only benefit him in coming back strongly.
On Sehwag, I disagree with most that he is out of form; whats happening is, the Englishmen have learnt how to bowl to him. If you look at some of the shots he plays, it does not look like coming out from the willon of an out of form batsman. The guys have learnt how to bowl him out. Lets not even hide that fact that Sehwag has a glaring weakness, the moving ball and also a short ball directed close to the wickets. Of course, same short ball with some room he comfortably clears it over third man for a six.
To me this Indian side seems to have a lotta potential but still very raw. I am sure if tested, they will struggle, how they cope up when they fail regularly would make or break the team.
Sorry for the longish writing. and btw..ya..I am Divi's friend and my last name is not Kalyan :)
- RG
Rather than being 'not impressed', I hope that you are just 'not euphoric' as yet. Coz, they have done what has been asked of them so far (in ODIs). And I am not sure about why you refer to our recent opponents as underprepared. SL, when it came here, had a very healthy reputation. And I think that if we had won, 4-3 instead of 6-1, we would have felt that we faced quality opposition. Similarly, when the series against Pak started, everybody (including me) remembered the previous series where Pak won 4 straight. But we did a fantastic job against them (I know Akthar and Afridi weren't around, but still, they seemed stronger on paper). And very importantly, our bowlers did an awesome job. Each match of our series against SA, seemed to be decided by the toss. So, can't read much into it, except that again, we did what we could.
At the moment, looking at our batting, I think that we have a wake-up call coming up in SA. If the wake-up call comes sooner in WI, then, that would be devastating. But even then, we (fans) need to maintain sanity and trust these guys. Coz, the management, so far, seems to be walking the talk. No one has gone around parading a series win. They have spoken about 'processes' before the series and they continue to talk about it after the series is won. So, while we easily accept the talk now, it would be interesting to see how that talk is handled when we have our share of 'losses'.
Neither Kaif nor Sehwag or for that matter anybody have a permanent slot in the team. I just feel that these two merit more chances than someone like Gambhir, since they are proven customers (Sehwag more than Kaif). However, worryingly, the Englishmen seem to have worked out Sehwag. Even in the last match, when tried something that resembled a hook, it caught the top edge and then fell between third man and the square leg. Anyway, the tours coming up could make or break him. And the mgmt might actually move him back to a middle order position if they can find an opener. Interesting times....
Expected truth finally coming out. Good. All that you did was delay receiving a CONGRATULATIONS for your marriage.
Hi...
Thanks dood!
nah! would take a lot to get my euphoric! Last time I was eupdoric was when SA beat aus in the run feast match.
After reading your response, I did a retrospect and analyzed the matches against SL, SA and Eng. Not to take away a very goood show by the Indians, but all the three teams were not their best in terms of performance and the playing eleven; especially SL, I think they had almost every one fit (maybe not Atapattu, cant remember), but they had an indifferent form and that continued in their tri series against SA and Aus.
Any ways, even I am hoping that the impression I have is not quite right. Right now watching the minnows Bangladesh scare the mighy aussies.My feeling is the Bangladeshis have an unfair advantage because of their height :)There is hardly any bounce in the wicket. ciao..
-RG
hmmm...SL reached the finals of the tri-series in AUS. And they won the first match of the final! Like I said, I felt that we got to them early on in the series and got them mentally down. Rather than thinking retrospectively, think about the preview to that series. I recall reading an article about how Greg and Moody had taken up their coaching assignments at similar times, and how lucky Moody was to have inherited a top team blah blah.
hehehe...is that so? obviously, I havent watched a ball of that match. But if the pitch is going to disintegrate, then, Bdesh might as well bat them out of the match. At the moment of speaking though, Gilly and Gillespie are performing a rescue operation. Lets see how things go..
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