the madness!

Winter at last !

2012-02-13T09:00:00.003Z

After a slow start to the winter snow arrived in February at last. More severe weather in store surely in March or even April as well. This has resulted in me feeling very un-dhileep like in hating to go to the nets because of the bitter freezing cold weather. I cant recall feeling this bad ever and it turned out that my Vit D levels are sub-terranean and probably that has something to blame in my lethargy all thru the last year or so. I am on supplements and hopefully I will be fine soon. One of the other joys this winter has been my heel pain since October which is making me feel like giving up walking, I mean standing up- not that I have ever walked except on the cricket field !

The India- Australia test series was a complete one sided affair like the one against England last summer. India has last 8 out of 8 away test matches and notable tension amongst the senior citizens of the tream (VVS, Dravid and SRT) was palpable all the way thru. The failure of the three collectively in an Australia series has been the first since I have been following for the last 15 years or so. Since the next test match is 8 months away no one needs to decide for now about retiring yet.

The triangular one day series involving SL, AUS and India is under way and already India seem like a better side due to superior fielding abilities due to injection of youth and energy. May be it is time for the old battalion to make way in tests too!

I went on a short trip to India and had a quality time with my ageing mom. She is a busy blogger at 73 ! and is an inspiration for me to continue writing my thoughts.

Another year, Another new beginning!

2011-12-29T14:23:00.002Z

Virender Sehwag scored 219 in a one day match recently, a feat probably will not be repeated again considering the fact that ICC are contemplating on the future of 50 overs game. His success in scoring the 200 in a 50 over game was predicted for some time, It was either him or Gayle but SRT edged them both in 2010 with his 200 against SA and I discussed this here (link below)

http://dhileepmadness.blogspot.com/2010/02/big-deal.html#!/2010/02/big-deal.html

Sehwag’s game is all about simplicity of stroke making; a positive mind set always looking to score runs and near total lack of awe - respecting the ball not the bowler. He is the first successful one with still head and all hands, pretty much completely done away with foot work, and yet manipulating the field to find gaps and scoring runs not only in fours and sixers but a lot of intelligent running as well. His career stats are comparable to Graeme Smith and yet when one compares and contrasts the slightly closed bat of Smith aiming for the V most of the time to the slashed upper cut of Sehwag and the constant feature of charging the first ball of any spinner from Warne to Panesar- the difference couldn’t be stark! … and there in lies the message for any cricketer- the uncluttered mind!

http://dhileepmadness.blogspot.com/2008/08/uncluttered-mind.html#!/2008/08/uncluttered-mind.html

In the Boxing day test, both Tendulkar and Ponting are chasing their elusive hundreds whilst MS Dhoni, his elusive test runs. There is a list of others like Hussey, Kohli, Gambir etc who are under pressure to score runs but there are no expectations on Sehwag or Warner. I think the difference is that of run makers v century makers. At Club cricket level my comparison would be between the grim accumulators v the flashy fifty scorers. More often than not the fifty scorers win games!
I attended the National Umpires meet in November. It was a good turn out of around 400 umpires of varying ages. One of the speakers was Dr.Raj Persaud, the TV psychiatrist turned in to celebrity psychologist and his talk was on psychology of officiating. The invisible Gorilla video stole the limelight but I have seen and used this for my teaching of junior doctors.
Link here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY
Learnt that Hawk eye has a competitor in Eagle eye in Oz and NZ. Had an opportunity to chat with Richard Kettleborough (pic above), the English elite panel umpire, who talked about Virat Kohli’s leg side dismissal in WI in summer and his reaction- One will never know with Kohli if he is grumpy because he got out or he is not happy with the decision! After the replays showed that it was a perfect decision, apparently Duncan Fletcher the Indian coach came to his room and told the umpire that he had a stern word with Kohli and it was a brilliant decision!
Looking back at the year gone there have been too many low scoring tests by major teams. Australia, India, England and South Africa. The reasons for this are many but I think one of the main reasons is the pitch preparation. In their quest to find the balance sometimes the pitch becomes too bowler friendly and more importantly, the batsmen who are fed on flat tracks all their life, suddenly can not adjust quickly enough. However, the move towards a balance between bat and ball in pitch making is to be appreciated.
The winter has started of mild with no snow; Xmas come and gone. New year is upon us- the Olympics year for London. I’m looking forward to an eventful season. Happy New Year to you All !

Cricket in 2111 !

2011-12-05T08:15:00.005Z

Chanced to find this story in an old cricket book published in 1950, given to me by one of my work colleagues who knew I’m cricket mad. This is about a cricket writer in 1870 having watched the first official cricket test between England and Australia, went ahead to guess what cricket must be like in 100 years hence. The more I read this the more I’m fascinated by it.
He has foreseen the use of helmet and bowling machines run by steam to be used in cricket! And the mode of celebration with fan fare and all the noise including gunfire is spot on, when you think of the modern day T20 games.
The wrong guesses are that he thought the grounds will get bigger and spectators will use ‘field glasses’ and hence the teams will have more players- fifteen he thought!
Since the 1970s the use of helmets has grown such that it is norm now at any level of cricket. The bowling machine hasn’t yet reached the middle but I guess with the T20 nullifying the bowling element of the game it is possible that team will bat against a random order of balls delivered by a bowling machine!
He has foreseen the use of binoculars for spectators but largely these days it is being replaced by the giant screens in grounds.
The grounds have become smaller contrary to his prediction since the advent of one day international. He was right in thinking the ‘hitting’ techniques will improve, and it has over the years- tremendously ! – thicker, heavier bats, innovative new shots in to the areas behind the stumps and feet movement to get away from the ball etc etc. The batting has become a dominant part of cricket so much so that a good pitch is one where bowlers are completely negated and all the rules so for have been to give the batsmen that extra edge to dominate.
This has made me think how cricket could change in a hundred years from now... and I'm doubtful whether it could be recognised from the game we play now;In future mankind wont have time to spend 5 days so the test cricket would definitely be gone.My prediction is that it could be an hour's worth played with such rapid bowling and hitting that everything could only be appreciated as a retrospective slow motion blurring the distinction between real and virtual...I don't see umpires in it having been replaced by machines in another 30 years from now.

The Fours !

2011-11-13T11:27:00.004Z

The recent whitewash of the English in India reminded me of the story from Aesop Tales about the fox and the crane each inviting the other for a party and serving food in dishes that suited them. (Pic above). Suddenly the media frenzy has changed sides and Nasser Hussein is not to be heard on the scene! The trouble with commentators is that they have to whip up frenzy to satisfy their employers. Whilst India was getting thumped in India Hussein and Vaughn were heard to say ‘what’s the difference between India and Bangladesh as both offer poor value for the money the spectators pay’! Of course Messers Vaughn and Hussein, Bangladesh will never thump England to 5 nil … ever!

That said India was truly abject in all the three departments in England and many Indians lost faith in them and were looking forward to the series ending! What a turn around!

On the topic of the fabulous Four of Indian cricket and their replacements, for the last three years we have been talking about their retirement and replacements and more has been said about the Indian four than any other team.

After the recent performances of Dravid and Tendulkar it is difficult to imagine how on earth it was thought Tendulkar’s career was over in 2007 and Rahul Dravid’s career was thought to be over in 2008. Ganguly also made a comeback after the Greg Chapple saga. Laxman has been in and out of the team for most of his career that comeback is not a word that could be used to describe his career, more like constant threat of non selection every time he goes out to bat.

That these four has so far put together over 85,000 international runs is not only a testament to their talent; also their perseverance and the ability to bounce back from form slumps consistently.

Of the four, the only one never to be dropped was Tendulkar but he always picked up a convenient injury just when the cries got louder for him to be dropped!

Now in 2011 the only person not playing of the four is Ganguly who is also probably the least technical of the four; Dravid and Laxman lasted that extra bit longer by giving up T20 and one day cricket. But Sachin still plays all three forms- a testimony of his mastery of the art and science of batting.

The mark of the man- in the last year or so he is in prolific form - 50 over 200, T20 hundred, Test match hundreds, averages in IPL, tests and one dayers as good as any youngster in contention.

For some years we have been talking about their replacements too.

Who we thought will replace them a few years ago the likes of Rayudu, Venugopal rao,Badrinath, Kaif, Yuvraj, Raina, Rohit Sharma, Dhinesh Kartik, Cheteshwar Pujara have been naturally selected or deselected as the case may be to leave a handful we got today- Virat Kholi, Raina, Yuvraj competing for the West indies test series. Kohli is the one true natural worthy of the names he is replacing. Others are a hit and miss.

Hierarchy of Talents

2011-10-16T12:12:00.001+01:00

Our cricket season ended a few weeks ago with usual good weather in Spetember. Global warming or not, I have noted that the season has changed over the years. The typical cricket season will start (and end) cold and rainy. In the middle we will have glorious sunshine in July/August where we have even started the matches at 3:30 pm instead of the 2 pm. The last few years April and September have seen good weather and it invariably rained in July. Simon, our Jonathan Trott, happily ended the season with 1100 runs and the weather did help by minimising the cancellations- not that he needed any help what with great powers of concentration and risk minimisation as the essence of his style of play. The off season will see me grumpy and SAD (seasonal affective disorder?) and generally miscerable with weight gain (should I say more than usual miscerableness compared to the summer?!). I watched the one day game at Cardiff that was the end of the tour for Indians. The advantages of having a box seat to the view of the game is that one can understand the logic of the field placement and the thinking of the captain and the batsmen. The idiot box does hinder the appreciation of the finer points of the mental game! The Indians generally looked ready to board the flight home right from the start / warming up like a bunch of old and infirm as in Dad’s Army!Personally watching the match live offers me the umpiring views and a chance to witness the performance of international umpires. Once again I was reassured that even at international level striker’s end umpire did not run around from side to side when there was a right left combination of batsmen.I didn’t watch much of the champions’ trophy that followed in September / October - except for the batsmenship of Virat Kohli and David Warner. However this year the abilities on display has started the discussion about the hierarchy of talents –Are the hitting abilities of T20 any less than the endurance and mental strength of tests? It was interesting to hear this debated by Ian Chappel and Harsha Bhogle.But one thing is for certain, the innovations in batting - the evolution of utilising the V behind the stumps! – and the bowling – slower balls and slow bouncers with the same arm swing have certainly increased the enjoyment of the viewers. When I researched this topic I stumbled upon this story: The two sided bat David Warner used in 2009?
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/cricket/warner-to-wield-double-sided-bat/story-e6frectl-1111118491328
I have heard that when the Kerry Packer revolution started the one day game the same concept was tried in the seventies. A clear example of history repeating itself! Elsewhere in the subcontinent, Azharuddin’s son died of RTA - over speeding with a 1000 cc motorbike in Hyderabad. There is a video in YouTube of Azhar teaching his son at nets. He had high hopes for his son. It is fascinating that none of the sons achieved appreciably in Indian cricket though showed glimpses of the potential they possessed. Gavaskar, Srikkanth, Brijesh Patel, Roger Binny etc etc.So, had to endure the three or four months- generally fill this with activities that interest me- attending the ECBACO meeting in November , a few meetings and probably one or two seminars or lectures - Lets see.

Start the Prozac !

2011-09-13T08:40:00.001+01:00

The cricket season is slowly grinding to a halt with the weather playing havoc for the last 2 weekends.This is denying our star batsman of the club Simon 'aka Trottt' Hodsdon stranded at the moment with 850 runs in his quest for 1000 runs in the season, a feat to my memory has not been achieved since 2001.He has had a fabulous season so for, with such purity of technique in the process accumulating runs minimising risks.Was a treat to watch all season. Hopefully with 2 weekends left, the weather will be kind to him. I have had a useful season with the bat and most pleased with my wicket keeping. The ability to anticipate was good but the movement that should follow hasn't been great always let down by the 'bulk' I carry and the ageing process. Still one must try because fielding is the only thing in your control.Batsman depends on a few things to succeed apart from his ability- the pitch the umpire the non striker etc.The bowler had to depend upon many things, - pitch , umpire, 10 fielders, the ball, weather conditions etc etc. But the fielder relies entirely on his ability to perform and improve and hence my assumption that at any age the one thing anybody can improve is fielding.The other notable thing this season is the emergence of a few teenagers who performed very well all round. Especially Michael Hodsdon who is only twelve but plays with the passion of a seasoned cricketer from the sub continent!- that comes with the full package of kicking the ground, shoulder slumps, head shaking, red face etc etc! But what is unmistakeable is the commitment to the team's cause.Hope we will see more of him in the years to come. Our league season ended with us safely depositing ourselves in the mid table.I did skipper most of the games bar 3 and have some amazing wins and close finishes to remember for my nostalgic trip down the memory lane in the years to come.Elsewhere the India-England tour was a disaster as for as competetiveness was concerned as 9 one day players were out of Indian team with injuries- no doubt sustained or aggravated from IPL season in April- May. The only man standing at the moment is Dhoni but he too, as can be clearly seen from his wicket keeping, carries some finger injuries which hasnt been given time to heal. This has opened up debates in the cricketing media as to the effects of T20 cricket ( I still call that as 'hit ball') on test cricket.The county season is ending with pink balls and flood light cricket as a preamble to the future of first class cricket around the world.I am not convinced or comfortable with the ever pervading pinkness to our lives in the 21st century which has inevitably infiltrated Cricket too! With regards to losing umpiring experience this season I'm not too upset as I think I contributed to our club team better without the umpiring but was still actively seeking to improve my knowledge.

Spirit of Cricket

2011-08-07T11:21:00.002+01:00

As the current series between India and England progresses, it is throwing up more and more controversies by the day. First there was this UDRS- umpire’s decision review system which India didn’t agree at all and just before the start of the series the BCCI reluctantly agreed to use the hotspot but not snicko or the hawk-eye. This meant that players could review decisions about catches but not LBW. This apparently stems from reservations from some of the Indian Stalwarts who are still suspicious of the Hawk-eye’s ability to predict the ‘flight’ path! I have attended workshops on Hawk eye and spoken to Mr Hawkins who invented it and have no doubt that it works. Most importantly the LBW decisions have nearly doubled since the introduction of the Hawk-eye for the TV as umpires are more and more aware of their own reservations about certain aspects of the LBW rules. Let me explain a bit here.
The distance from the impact to the stumps is an important determinant in the guess work of the umpire. The term ‘benefit of doubt’ was much abused in cricket for long and batsmen have benefitted from the doubt in umpires head, but there has never been any attempt to distinguish between, the genuine doubt that exists in spite of best efforts of the umpire to judge, from the doubt due to insecurities and incompetence of the umpire. And hence there has traditionally been ‘not outers’ amongst the umpires even in the international scene and there are tales of captains choosing bowling end of the spinners and pacers depending upon the umpire.
These days, since the whole stadium could see what the ball will do, thanks to Hawk eye, umpires are now put under tremendous pressure and scrutiny and hence the LBW decisions have increased even before the UDRS came in to reckoning. The habitual not outers are the ghosts of the past and only exist in the lower echelons of club cricket. So, for the batsmen, going on the front foot is no longer an LBW saving option. Having said that somebody as tall as Kevin Peterson could actually stand outside the crease and stretch further to negate even the Hawk –eye because Hawk-eye’s limitation is that, beyond 2.5 meters from the stump it is unreliable. (Yesterday I stood about 3 meters from the stumps and let the umpire know at every possible opportunity that I can’t be given LBW. But I still got 3 LBWs this season! )
After a start to the series which was punctuated by wrangling about UDRS and the behaviour of the ‘nouveau riche’ BCCI, even the Indian press received a lot of flak for their polarised reporting. Then VVS wouldn’t walk but hot spot didn’t show an edge and Michael Vaughn insinuated that VVS used Vaseline for the bat edge to cheat the technology! The only player to have used Vaseline to good effect in the history of international cricket my memory says is an English bowler of the seventies, John Lever (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1998404410.cms ).
Earlier Monty Panesar was reprimanded for giving net practise to Sachin, Ian Bell was ‘run out’ and later recalled by MS Dhoni, Rahul Dravid was recalled in to the ODI team after 2 years (hiding behind the Wall?) and he promptly said he has given up ODIs and will retire after this series, Zaheer is out of the series due to Injuries sustained playing IPL (money or Country)….. Still the tour is only half way through.
The weather is pleasant and hopefully holds up in to September, I am planning to watch the ODI at Cardiff. Come On India!

Mind over matter

2011-07-28T00:03:00.004+01:00

The Lord’s test ended in India losing blaming the injury to their main strike bowler Zaheer and Tendulkar’s flu. This betrays over reliance on individuals and the best teams do not give excuses. However it was impressive seeing Dhoni bowling seamers at close to 80 miles per hour exchanging his wicket keeping role with Rahul Dravid who is definitely the unsung hero of this team scoring a hundred he missed in 1996 during his debut here. There have been numerous hypotheses as to why great batsmen like Ponting, Lara and Gavaskar have failed at Lord’s. The fact that these are all short men and hence might find it difficult to pick the ball from a tall bowler’s hand because of the height of the sight screen and the seating arrangement directly above it, to me sounds like codswallop! The answer I think is the bit between the ears. The fear of failure then drives things forward perpetuating the myth.
I watched the fourth day’s play on Sunday and the contrast in fielding between the teams was stark. It suddenly seemed like one team is full of giants who just had to take four or five steps and slide and soon double and triple runs became non-existent. I saw Wridhiman Saha who is probably only slightly taller than the stumps substituting for Sachin take about 30 paces to stop a boundary but similar distance only took 6 paces for Tremlett, who indeed is a giant at 6 foot 7 inches! Probably India will keep the dubious distinction of being the worst fielding side to be at number one position for this long in the history of the game.

After starting the season well our league side has been struggling and most probably stay in the same division. My batting similarly has been stagnant with there being not many opportunities for me to bat and lo and behold the confidence has vanished! Form for some is such a transient thing! As per statistics there is no better saying than ‘your average will find you out sooner than later’. In contrast my wicket keeping is still OK with occasional catches and run outs. Weather is keeping everyone guessing but warmer than June. Looking forward to rest of the season which incidentally is only 8 weekend’s worth.

Sun is Shining, the weather is sweet!

2011-06-28T00:31:00.004+01:00

As per usual in the last few years, the advent of July brings sunshine and lightens the mood. With it brings some meterological records and the fear about hose pipe ban.The cricket pitches and outfield slowly turn yellow from bright green if not careful and most improtantly batting again becomes easy. One witnesses a lot of high scoring games.Last weekend one of our younger players (Jo Sayer) scored his first hundred for the club.I must admit, I was feeling a bit jealous and felt missed out as I watched him take the opposition bowling attack to cleaners whilst I was umpiring. The bowling was less testing than the saturday league - I opened the batting on saturday and struggled to 30 runs when the outfield was wet after early morning rain.But by sunday the temperature was 30degree c and there was much value for the shots! I havent scored a hundred ever and my highest has been 78. I still hope that one day it will happen- for these little challenges are the ones that keep me going.

I have decided to suspend my umpiring for this season (or probably for a few more years) as it was getting difficult to play as well as umpire on saturday where I am expected to work as well from time to time. I thought the sensible thing would be to play whilst the body is willing and who knows in a few years time what awaits. The creaking joints,spasms and cramps are as much part of the season nowadays and the pain is pretty much inseperable from the pleasure. Along the way a good leg side take, a sharp catch, a diving stop, a straight drive or some such thing somehow lessens the pain !

My friend Murali hit a personal low a few weeks ago when he scored three ducks in a row- one of which was a golden one. I have written about him in this blog a few times-he is one of those gifted cricketers whose batting is a sight to behold. This lack of form has disturbed him so much that he was pretty much resigned to welcoming his retirement. (For the records, he is 10 years older than me and at least 10 times fitter than me!) So we exchanged our bats in an attempt to ward of the spirits and break the jinx.... and it has worked ! He has scored two successive 50s and rescued his team from tight situations and he thanked me for the magic! That cricketers are the most superstitious breed of all the sportsmen is indeed true!

I am awaiting the Indian team's arrival to England for the summer series especially looking forward to analysing the performance of the younger brigade who are the future of Indian cricket- who are going to replace SRT, Dravid and VVS! I am watching a teast match and an ODI. Come on India!

Raining its raining!

2011-06-13T10:32:00.004+01:00

Sunny April and May was followed by cloudy, rainy cold June so for. Playing cricket is no fun when the weather conditions are miserable.Almost any sport can be played in rain if you choose but cricket is impossible to play still we manage to play through drizzle and sometimes torrents in the hope of getting a result.
The league games are challenging- both in finding a team of able bodied men and to compete at even basal level! Misfiledings by the 'non-bendings', dropped catches by everyone, bowling on either side of the wicket and either side of the good length etc etc. I have been captaining due to absence of some start players and it has been testing my patience lately. Keeping wickets is an additional burden but it is best to be a keeper if you are a skipper because you get to know many things otherwise you wouldn't know if you field at any other position. The bowler's 'sell by date', the batsmen's strength and weakness, the fielder who drifts from where you wanted him to be, the scared fielder who keep moving back until he is near the boundary giving away easy singles, where to hide a fielder and when to, the batsmen's grip and the area he is going to hit and when he is going to have a swing, the lonely fielder on the boundary line thinking about his evening meal, etc etc.
I still have a decent record of 3 wins 2 losses and a winning draw so for. Most leagues keep the option of draw as a possibility as it has been the tradition here in this country for a long time.Even the Surrey championship plays majority of the games in this format. The overs format is more hectic and enjoyable as it produces a result but sometimes the team batting second doesn't have much to do if they lose early wickets and the game becomes a meaningless exercise.
On a personal note my batting has been good as I am playing with no expectation most of the time and trying hard to be in the 'present'. They call this being in the 'zone' when you can do this for a long period of time. That is not worrying about the past or future - your form, average, how unfit you are, where all you have injuries, the glove is not a perfect fit, the bat probably has a crack, what will happen if I mishit, the fielder at square leg looks like he can catch and throw hard, somebody is going to move behind the bowler, Is my pad going to get loose etc etc. I walk to fine leg look at the grass and come back to my guard and say to myself 'this ball'. It seem to work so for.May be too early to say this will last! My keeping has improved considerably ever since I lost weight a few years ago and I am able to move and anticipate better.I am now able to stand up to most medium pacers.
Elsewhere on the international scene, England managed a tremendous win beating SriLanka in the first test by bowing them out in the last innings under 25 overs. The Indian second eleven is beating the West Indies, may be I should say thumping with considerable ease! There has been a film released about the seventies WI team and it is about time these guys had a look at that.
Hoping that the weather will become sunny and my form will continue; fat chance for both I guess!

Sprung !

2011-05-09T20:04:00.002+01:00

It has been a good start to the season in bright weather. April has been pretty warm and May seems to be even warmer. I don’t have any complaint against global warming during the cricket season; it can always cool appropriately in winter can’t it?
Scored some runs including a 75 in a run chase which was marred by the familiar ‘WVCC wobble’ in the end- as many as 7 wickets falling for 13 runs!
But the league season has started off well with an incredible win defending just 114 runs. At any level low scoring matches make up for the most interesting results. No, let me correct, low scoring matches ‘between evenly matched sides’, that is. At our village level, both teams competed for ordinariness and we marginally edged the opposition!
But there was nothing ordinary about my friend Mohan who took a brilliantly anticipated catch at first slip, that truly gave the confidence to me, as the skipper and keeper that we could win. Slip catches are all about anticipation and the good catchers have the two essential qualities- the enthusiasm to ‘will’ every ball to come to them and once anticipated the ability to react as late as possible with soft hands. Mohan has caught some spectacular catches at slip and gully in the past few years. Long may this continue!
Uncovered pitches are the norm at our level and this game saw one of the slowest pitches I have ever played with variable bounce to make life difficult. Our home pitch used to be like this when I started 8 years ago and anything more than 100 would be defendable. It made up for some inflated bowling figures for ordinary bowlers over the years. I have taken 5 wickets in an innings twice!!! Lies, damn lies and statistics!
Elsewhere at the world stage, I am slowly losing interest in T20 cricket and this is only the fourth season of IPL! I now follow the progress of Chennai and watch only the batting of Tendulkar and Rayidu that too only if I can. The rest do not inspire me any more. Looking forward to the Tests this summer, the calm and quite of a maiden over or two, perhaps!

WorldCup winners!

2011-04-18T10:58:00.004+01:00

The picture above was taken at the newly built New Delhi Airport ;There is new money evident everywherein India. The cricket madness spreading to the nation's every corner and cricket revenue makes BCCI the bully it is in World stage and World cup was a huge success unsurprisingly!

I watched the world cup final with my brother in Dehradun, a small town in North India close to Ganges and the Himalayas. As a 16 year old in 1983, I listened to the BBC commentary of the final between India and West Indies with my brother, lost faith at halfway and went to a movie in my village.We returned home at 9 pm to find that India were winning and I still remember the optimism of Tony Cozier, the commentator who described Mohinder Amarnath’s run up as ‘apologetic’ only to find him take three wickets in a hurry and win the man of the match award.

This time around we didn’t lose faith and watched the finals together; complete happenstance that I was around at his place on the day of the final but it brought back old memories! Dhoni played well to win the game for India but to think that the second ball he faced, he charged out to the spinner and missed the line but Sangakkara missed the ball too, it would have been a different story otherwise but many a heroic innings are built upon such costly lapses!

Also witnessed Sachin scoring a hundred-‘What's new?’ you might ask but this is in the T20 format in the IPL. It was thouroughly enjoyable to watch – deft touches, muscled pulls and slog sweeps of fast bowlers …everything… But the most amazing shot of that innings was his helicopter shot- patented by Dhoni and used in adverts all over India and Sachin played it to hit a boundary

Link here: Dhoni’s version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yOhij37j-Q

Sachin’s version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Be19ulCgE

To think that at the age of 38 he has learnt, mastered and played effectively a new shot is simply stunning- Brian Lara once said 'we are mere mortals' when compared to Sachin Tendulkar- another proof why this is a fact and not empty praise! I think he can walk in to any T20 international team!

India trip was hectic but went well and we are now back in the Blighty.(incidenatally Wikipedia reliably? informs me that Blighty is a slang derived from a Hindhi word 'velayaty' meaning province) The country is getting ready for the royal wedding, I am getting ready for the season and still haven’t lost weight; at least spring is here, weather is good and the tulips are out!

Billion men with PMT !

2011-04-01T13:39:00.003+01:00

It has been a few months since I updated this blog due to various reasons. For a start we are planning on a house move and it is said that in this country the second most stressful thing is buying a house next only to getting married! My computer is hijacked by my son for his home work and that is another reason. But over and above it is my laziness which is the prime reason. Distractions have always been there but making time to blog is easy if you have the motivation. In a way it is like batting- an issue of mental strength and discipline, aided a little by technical adequacy. The willingness to work hard is the basis for many a successful innings. The blog innings has stuttered a bit for a few months but I will try hard to avoid the paucity in my mental strength.

The club is gearing itself for the start of the coming season. We are hoping that things will fall in to place once the season starts. I am faced with the dilemma once again as to how to allocate my weekend time between umpiring and playing and of course the additional monetary pressures of working extra time in view of the house move. At the moment I am thinking about playing but one bad innings one bad day at the filed and I will want to umpire more! The fickleness of the mind again…

The world cup has been a mixed bag for most teams except Srilanka. The top order batsmen have scored most of the runs for them and this could be the deciding factor in the finals against India. The untested middle order of Samaraweera, Chamara Silva and Kapugedera are no match for Yuvraj, Dhoni & Raina. Otherwise the sides are pretty evenly matched for the finals. The phenomenon of batting power play has proved to be a problem to tackle for most of the teams. Most teams avoiding until it is inevitable in the last 5 overs of the innings! The pressure to go over the in filed to score runs has been the undoing of most batsmen from all the teams. This has worked in favour of the fielding sides even in seemingly lost cause.

Elsewhere, the ICC has tried again with the day and night test format in Abu Dhabi with Pink balls and Rahul Dravid has been supporting this move. The sanctity of the test matches is going to be lost forever very soon. Imagine watching test matches at 10 in the night except that they are not highlights but live versions!

Looking forward to the season after returning from a trip to India. Hope India wins the world cup for Sachin’s sake, the guy deserves it and this team can do it, but then again… Will the mind win over the small matter of the stage (world cup final in Mumbai) and the pressures (from a billion men with PMT- pre match tension)! The India-Pakistan semi-final was a poor spectacle as for as cricketing standards are concerned but nevertheless riveting to watch. Speculations are abound with the Pakistani loss (that the Indian bookies paid Pakistanis to prevent them from entering Mumbai- a scene of terror strike in 2009 from across the border). The cruel joke circulating the face book is that the Indian cricket team achieved what the Indian intelligence couldn’t-preventing the Pakistani’s from entering Mumbai! The picture above tells a different story !

Season's Greetings !

2010-12-31T21:15:00.003Z

It has been a particularly cold winter with snow falls in November and December. Sure it disrupted life here in UK because as a country we are least prepared to deal with once a year occurrence. Planning for such an event is financially non viable. As it is, they find it very difficult to cope with the falling leaves in Autumn, let alone the unexpected snowfall! Missed the second snow, however by clever planning making a trip to Cuba in December- photo above. Cuba is one of the Caribbean nations untouched by cricket. Went Scuba diving which in my case amounted to being dragged by somebody along the seabed with me breathing for dear life ! - ''Fish? what Fish!''

I have been enoying the Indian sojourn near the top of the ranks for the last year or so, but the recent India series against New Zealand was a hard fought one for the Indians. On home soil they struggled to a solitary win and hence I wasn’t too hopeful for the SA away series. Surprisingly they have done well in South Africa so for. Much of this is owed to the medium pacers and VVS. VVS is truly the unsung hero of the Indian team. There is an element of ‘languid charm’ which was a term used to be used in the eighties to describe the batting of David Gower. Laxman is totally unflustered whatever the situation. He has been in supreme form for the last few years. The light is always brighter before it passes out; he is close to 39 and will be retiring soon. Even if his batting continues to be good he can’t be hidden anywhere else but in the slips these days. Despite the growing optimism due to India maintaining the number one test side status for the last year or so, the Indian side is the least athletic set up. In that context it has been an achievement to remain on top for this long , much of this is because Australia are plunging new depths in mediocrity. The recent Ashes thrashings has given renewed optimism to English fans that theirs could be a side that can reach number one test status. Whatever the development, 2011 promises to be a good year for Tests with at least 4 teams competing for the top, a welcome relief from the monotonous days of Aussie domination!

Looking forward to the winter nets that start in a few weeks time, got to loose the flab that somehow creeps up every winter, this one has everything to do with the ‘all inclusive’ deal in the Cuban hotels and resorts. Happy new year to everyone! ‘2011, here I come’’

November blues!

2010-11-06T17:17:00.011Z

The cricket season ended in September with the usual weather interruptions. It got cold towards the end but no game was lost to the rain. The best moment of the month for me was the 200 run partnership, my first ever, I had with my friend Murali. I contributed a grand total of 50 runs whilst he made 143. Murali works with me at the hospital and is a gifted batsman. He had played cricket of higher quality in his younger days that even well past 50, his batting is still a sight to behold. The head still at the point of playing the stroke, feet and body getting into position that much earlier than most batsmen and playing the shot a shade late… all giving an impression that batting is the easiest thing to do in cricket.

I have batted with him a few times before but somehow never had a century partnership with him. It was nice to bat with him for 30 overs and all I had to do was to take a single and watch him do his stuff from the other end. Looking forward to many more such occasions before we both stop playing cricket.

One of the worst moment of the season also happened in September when I lost my cool as a captain in a kerfuffle about sharp practice by the opposition umpire. Village cricket doesn’t have the luxury of neutral umpires and members of the batting team take their turn to umpire when not batting. It is sometimes very difficult for them to give the captain out when he gets out to a full toss and screams at you to give a no ball for height! Of course this season I have witnessed this kind of bad umpiring in league games, though not sure how much of these were bad decision making and how much of these were purposeful. But to do this on a Sunday friendly was un acceptable to me and hence I was huffing and puffing for a long time until one of the senior members of our team pointed out that I am setting a bad example to the youngsters in our team. My defence was I was actually learning the antics and tantrums from them!
At the club we have had our mandatory committee meetings to plan for the winter and the next year. The club dinners and AGM are to be planned and the issues with the foot ball team and the grounds man need to be addressed amongst other trivial matters arising out of communication gaps and hurt egos that invariably go with holding such highly strenuous positions in the committee!
I attended the umpires meeting of the league where I umpired this season and was given the feedback from captains. I noted that the feedback and marks were good from winning captains and always poor from the losing captains! This along with the fact that they mark immediately after the match makes this system of feedback completely useless but along the way there were some useful comments about my ‘control’ of the game which hopefully will help me improve my umpiring in the coming years. – One of the three ‘C’s of good umpiring as told by many a top level umpires- Control of the game, Consistency and Correctness of decisions. The commonest gripe is about the number of LBWs and I was once told by a senior umpire that if one wants to get good feedback from captains and hence improve one’s ranking in this league it is better to limit the number of LBW decisions! Though at the time I thought it was a daft idea, after this feedback I am inclined to agree with this line of thinking. The MCC has made amendments to some of the cricket laws this October and here is the link if you are so inclined to know.
http://www.lords.org/latest-news/news-archive/mcc-announce-eight-law-changes,1735,NS.html
The winter is here for good, the leaves have fallen, the evenings are darker and another few months to endure … as usual planning on a holiday to escape this at least for a few weeks.

Gloomy August!

2010-09-13T10:31:00.006+01:00

It has been busy few months and I haven’t visited this blog for a while. Work got busy as it always does around August time and I was playing both days of the weekend for an extended period, so between work and pleasure I couldn’t find time to update the blog. There it is… with the excuses out of the way I can write about cricket in the last 2 months.
The rain and sleet didn’t arrive though it rained apologetically for a few weeks just about enough to complain but not really threatening village cricket! The league team as expected got relegated one division down and the mood was a bit low for a few weeks leading up to the last game. Along the way we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory a few times (like when we couldn’t chase 101 once and got out for 97).
Mostly we didn’t ‘arrive’ for the last few games- just turning up to make up numbers. This means that we would be ‘competing’ in a division slightly easier for us and that makes the players like me who make up the ‘village’ component of our village club happy at the thought, though some of the more able and willing youngsters will find the non-competition a bit boring. At a personal level my batting and fielding has been good and I even bowled 10 overs non stop in a friendly game.
I played a friendly game at Dorchester near Oxford, for a friend of mine , Steve -never leave- Sheldon an ex club member who runs a team of musicians called B# ( at least that’s how it started, full of musicians with a few ringers thrown in). I have played with some old and famous names like Richard Thompson ( http://www.richardthompson-music.com/ ) and Danny Thompson who are famous guitar players of the past. This time around I took Viggy with me but unfortunately there was no ‘music’ in B#. Steve always gives me bowling and I bowled so tidily that he kept me on for 10 overs in pouring rain. With two dropped catches and one wicket to show I consider it the best spell I have ever bowled. (In case you are wondering about Steve's middle name, he once decided to move to Yorkshire and we gave him a big send off and still he was playing for us for the next two or three seasons!)
Elsewhere in the international scene, there were a few ‘last ball’ incidents which were interesting. Sehwag was denied a century by a deliberate no ball and the bowler was suspended for a few games. In another incident the injured striker ran after hitting the winning run forgetting that he had a runner and was found outside the crease at the non striker’s end but every one thought the game is over because they didn’t know the rule. The umpires waited for a while and called ‘time’. Later the fielding captain said he didn’t know the rule. My take on this is that the wicket keeper is the person who should be alerting the team bout the injured striker out of the crease. This is elementary lesson that the wicket keepers learn and I ran somebody out like this whilst keeping this season and later called back the injured striker (so that the youngster learns not to run again) as it was a friendly Sunday game. I was really surprised that the wicket keeper in question was an international (Keiswetter) and the fielding captain was Trescothick who has played many international games. The most recent scandal to hit was fixing spread betting by Pakistanis. Hmmm……tell me something new! The only surprise was that this scandal didn’t start an India Pakistan war as the ICC chief is Sharad Pawar.
My shoulders hurt, back complains when I bend down, the knees creak and only a handful of games left…. still couldn’t help but hope for a good end to the season.

Summer in full swing!

2010-07-13T00:02:00.002+01:00

The summer is truly here this time as temperatures are consistently crossing 25 degree Celsius and sometimes it is too hot for comfort. The season is underway in full swing and we had our President’s day game which marks the halfway mark. Another dozen weekends or so to go and we can sure expect some rain and sleet soon!
My season has been going OK with me scoring some important runs now and then. The league team is sure to go down one division and this is causing a lot of disquiet amongst the ranks and heartache for our non- playing club captain.
I received my level 2 umpiring certificate last week and it is with satisfaction I look back at the past few years of struggle to accommodate the schedule for umpiring. I have umpired a few games in the Surrey Championship with positive feedbacks but my further progress is merely a question of my commitment and ability to make time for umpiring! So in a sense my struggle is over but the battle begins only now!
Watched an one day international between Aussies and England at Brit Oval with Nishant, a twelve year old, with enormous interest in all things statistical about cricket! For me it was reassuring to see Umpire Kettleburrow miscount a 5 ball over in spite of huge screen and scoreboard! And also the fact that Aleem Dar the ‘numero secondo’ of the umpiring world didn’t change sides for a left hander.
Let me elaborate on this, it is common practise that umpires run from side to side if there is a left hand- right hand batting combination and it is generally encouraged at lower levels of umpiring as a proper thing to do. Recently the MCC issued us some directives regarding this. So it is reassuring to see an international umpire in an one day international match not switching sides for a left hander (I am reassured because I am simply too lazy to move around and any excuse will do!)

Batting for the batsmen!

2010-06-22T19:45:00.005+01:00

The MCC has changed the Laws relating to double bounce deliveries this week. The story goes like this, the advent of T20 means that the bowlers have to do their bit in restricting the free scoring batsmen as they invent newer and more adventurous shots like the scoop and the switch hit. A record number of sixers were hit in these games, methinks,the total number of sixers that were hit in all forms of international matches in the past 100 years were hit (or probably exceeded) in the last 4 to 5 years of T20 history! This lead to one bowler announcing his mastery over deliberate double bounce balls to prevent the batsman hitting sixers, news link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8694650.stm
County cricket was going to adopt this in this season. I can see the logic of this, it is an attempt to redress the balance between the bat and the ball, the laws far too long have favoured the bat. But the cricketing fraternity always believed that the batsman is to be treated kindly as he only had to make one mistake for him to get out whereas the bowler can get away with more than a few. So historically every attempt by the bowler to wrest the initiative is thwarted by the law making bodies. Bouncer gave the edge to the tall fast Caribbean bowlers in the seventies, lo and behold, the 'not more than two an over' rule came in the eighties - these days even further restricted to only one bouncer an over. Once a bouncer is bowled in an over then batsman can charge down and hoick merrily!
Bowling wide of the batsman to restrict scoring is spoilt by the stricter wide rules for one day matches. On top of this, there are so many penalties to cripple the bowler- no balls, wide balls, free hits, fielding restrictions, short boundaries, mandatory ball changes (old ball is hard to hit), no ball for height, etc etc. Add to these the batting innovations that go without checking, switch hit and reverse hits where the 'off and leg sides' are determined at the time of the bowler starting his run up and not when he delivered the ball.
Let me elaborate on the last point: The right handed batsman switches stance at the last minute and bats as a left handed batsman changing batting grip and all. The wide rules still apply as for a right handed batsman and if the ball passes the leg stump (which is now his off stump as a left hander) it still is a wide! Cruelly, if the ball pitches outside his leg stump (which now is his off stump) he can’t be given LBW.
Against this back drop it is interesting to note that within a month of the latest ‘innovation’ to curb scoring, the MCC / ECB passes the amendment that double pitch ball is a no ball! I pity the bowlers!
http://www.cricinfo.com/countycricket2010/content/story/462564.html
By the way as a foot note I want to add that half of my wickets would have to be discredited if this rule is applied retrospectively at my club and this has really reduced severely my effectiveness as a slow bowler!!!
Our league games are starting to get interesting as we managed our first draw and first win in the last two weeks. I managed to score some useful runs and am very pleased with my wicket keeping. I have realised that there is an optimum body weight which makes me better at keeping; more than that I am too slow, the flesh does not want to will as the spirit does, and lower than that I am too enthusiastic and over shoot!!
It was good to see one of our regulars from yesteryears make the pilgrimage again from farther pastures to score some runs last Sunday (there you go David Anderson, I have mentioned you) and what a pleasure it was to bat together. Hope he finds life and love closer to home so that he can be a regular again especially considering our league struggles!
( The bowler in the picture above going past me (the umpire !) is an ex county bowler who until last season played for Northants and Leicestershire.)

Early Summer?

2010-05-26T21:15:00.003+01:00

The season has gone on well so for with the weather playing a sensible hand. Last weekend it got a bit over the top with temperatures close to 30 degree C! Our league team seem to have met their match this year and with no victory in sight the youngsters are getting despondent. I have not done badly myself scoring some runs whenever I get the opportunity but most satisfyingly my keeping has improved with better hand eye co-ordination which has been noted and appreciated by club members. This to me is the direct result of the hard work staying off the sweets and fatty food over the last few months. Batting is a mixture of luck and determination in equal measure.Sometime I believe in luck much more than I should and hence I am superstitious like many are in cricket.I went to bat with my old bat which was heavily bandaged with various plasters of differing colours ; I am sentimentally attached to it over the years and my friend didn’t let me down with a healthy average bordering 30 so for. Alas, the moment I took a new bat last Sunday I got a brain malfunction and got out for a duck. No more new bat ever again this season!!
Talking of the weather, it has been completely unpredictable so for. I umpired in a Surrey Championship match earlier this month in completely freezing weather with temperatures bordering 8 degree C but felt more like 3 degrees as it was drizzling constantly. Since we made a technical decision to start in rain we continued on and at one point I was huffing and puffing and desperate for some respite! My colleague at the other end was much pleased with my umpiring and had some encouraging words for me; not sure if he was sympathetic seeing me shivering uncontrollably! My professional discussion, which is the VIVA equivalent for my level two umpiring certification will be happening in June and I am slightly nervous about it.

Last night I attended a lecture / discussion on Hawk Eye at the Lord’s in London with my friend Ravi. The main attractions included Boycott and Billy Bowden in the panel. I was a bit surprised and disappointed to find that Billy Bowden is probably slightly taller than me and he does not have crooked finger at all! But he posed for photos with the audience freely displaying his crooked finger.(picture above) Jonathon Agnew was the compere and Boycott was his usual self trying to be controversial by being forthright.
The main focus was whether / how much the umpire decision review undermines the umpire's authority and it wasn’t surprising to hear Bowden say that he wants the review to be initiated by the on field umpires rather than the players' challenge.I don't think this is good because no umpire worth his salt will ever doubt that he made a mistake.

Where are the dancing girls?

2010-04-28T20:15:00.005+01:00

The cricket season has started in glorious sun shine. It was reasonably warm and bright that some of our players played shots which they would play in August and got out. I made a good start with some runs and most importantly warded off some hip and back niggle. Carrying additional weight even a few pounds makes a big difference to the eagerness of the body parts to fall apart! Still standing and kept wickets last weekend without breaking down. My friend Mohan made a few runs last weekend and feels good and ready for the league season. It was a good close game which we won thanks to some useful partnerships with our main batsmen. We successfully chased 250 in 40 overs and everyone had some part to play.
Our innings was largely based on two league players with immense ability and poise with a lot of experience (both past 50). Some of the aspects of the batting like patience, concentration, shot selection and determination are for everyone to observe and follow though one can’t match their body balance and timing. I quite enjoyed batting with one of them for 10 overs making 60 odd runs. Partnership is an overused word in cricket but I feel that it can’t be overused enough. Rotating the strike and running between the wickets are as much part of any version of the game.
The IPL finished yesterday amidst a lot of controversies regarding financial wheeling and dealing in the stakes of the company. Tell me what’s changed in Indian cricket?! Tendulkar’s phenomenal success with the bat and as a captain ended as his team lost to Dhoni’s Chennai which was the team I supported.
The IPL has indeed grown immensely over the last three years and Nasser Hussain terms it a 'monster' out to eat the game of 'cricket'.He cant be far off from the truth but these days 20-20 is the only way children are lured in to watching cricket.If children are tomorrow's players and followers, then 20-20 and particularly the IPL has done its share of promoting this new found interest.
To this extent it was hilarious when Mohan's six year old son who came to watch us play last Sunday and when he saw a boundary was hit he looked around and with a sense of disappointment asked me 'Where are the dancing girls, Dhileep uncle' ?!! Such is the power of the visual medium on growing minds!

Why Forefeit the Soul?

2010-04-09T22:31:00.007+01:00

The IPL is in full swing now and I have been watching pretty much every match thanks to the decision to make it free in the UK, being televised on ITV. Whilst so much could have been made out of selling the TV rights, making it free to view both on telly and on the net (on you tube) is slightly puzzling, coming from that man, who can make money out of cricketer’s kitbag mud, Mr Lalit Modi. I sense a slight apprehension that this IPL may not attract as much viewership which could have led to this decision. Or may be there are other moves afoot- may be a small price for a bigger gain, who knows. Whatever the reasons this is good or not good as the case may be depending upon one’s views whether IPL kills cricket. I, having watched it all of last 10 days nearly, can say that I am still unsure about this form of ‘hit’ cricket. The future of the ‘bowler’ is at stake.
One of the good things that has happened is the batting successes of Tendulkar, Kallis, Ganguly and Vijay- all batsmen of the ‘proper 90s’ mould. Especially Tendulkar, the way he has evolved and defined the route to success for a ‘purist’ in this form of the game is truly amazing. Deft touches, unstoppable ability to find precise gaps and using the proper cricketing shots to score in unusual areas… a treat to watch!
On the other hand Dravid is yet to refine and adjust his game at this format as evidenced by one ugly almighty slog to midwicket for a sixer in one of the very few games he got to bat this season- everything wrong about this shot from the perspective of the ‘Rahul Dravid book of batting coaching’. The pick up was from point, bat horizontal even before the ball was delivered, front foot facing square leg, ball swatted from a few meters outside the off stump and not really hitting the middle of the bat and still he has practised his bat swing so much that it went over the line- or may be the boundary was very short and he knew that. The saddest thing is Sunil Gavaskar described this as ‘Fabulous’! To me, this was the cricketting equivalent of "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?’’. It is indeed depressing to see the death of Dravid’s and cricket’s soul!
Elsewhere, the club cricket dinner went ahead with the highest attendance for the AGM this side of the World War II! We have one last fund raising event before the season to boost the coffers which are pretty much empty after the purchase of a ‘Rolls Royce’ of a roller (picture above).
I am eagerly awaiting the finishing discussions for my level 2 umpiring this season and have been accepted in to the Surrey Championship which is a better league and hopefully an avenue for progress. It is interesting (and daunting) to note that mine is among only three Asian names in the list of 50 odd umpires and yet I am sure the games will be played between teams with loads of Asians! Let me see how far this dream of mine takes me.
With regards to my playing cricket, I have put on a bit of weight after an operation to remove my gall bladder last winter due mainly to over eating I should say. And I am not actually looking forward to running around- so mainly throwing the bat around when batting, stand and bowl long hops and full tosses when bowling and stand at slip and definitely not wicket keeping - should be the recipe for the coming season! I will update my progress as the season gets underway.

The big deal

2010-02-28T16:57:00.002Z

When Viggy and my wife wondered why no one has scored 200 in 50 over matches, referring to the recent double hundred by Sachin Tendulkar last week and when I tried explaining the 35 years of history and the significance behind this ascent of cricket’s mount Everest, I got the topic for this blog.
In the 70s when the limited overs matches started it was a 60 overs a side affair and it would have been much easier to score the double hundred then but unfortunately the test cricket those days were dull and drab encounters that scoring over 3 runs was thought to be entertaining and at any rate, 5 or more an over was considered assured victory in these matches. Hence the batting approach was to keep the wickets for the final ‘slog overs’. This continued on into the 80s when the overs were reduced to 50 a side. The perseverance of this approach was the reason why England never imposed themselves as a one day side on the world stage despite having had a number of useful players and good sides over the years.
This led to people switching off after the initial few overs where wickets might fall and tuning only to the slog overs when something might happen. This ‘boring sameness’ brought about loss of gate revenue and television audiences which forced changes in the nineties- the fielding restrictions (now called power plays), shorter boundaries (to prevent injuries? but honestly fours and sixes are what spectators want to see and hence it is a no brainer to make the ground smaller), heavier bats, mindset change (teams aiming for over 6 an over and sometimes even 8 runs an over!) The arrival of T20 also helped the attitude to scoring.
To illustrate this point there are 58 incidence of individual scores above150 (only 8 were before 1990) and 46 incidences of team scores above 350 and only one of these was before 1990!
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/content/records/216972.html
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/content/records/211599.html
So the game of one day cricket has changed in the last 20 years. The openers have a free reign because of the fielding restrictions. This trend was started by Jayasuriya of Srilanka and exploited well later by Tendulkar and Ganguly (incidentally all the three have scored more than 11000 runs). (one might remember the fight to open the Indian innings between Tendulkar and Ganguly when Sehwag appeared on the scene in 2002!) http://www.cricinfo.com/india/content/story/139205.html
A strike rate of above 100 (that is more than run a ball) was becoming easy if you are playing thru the field restriction. In that sense one can question the legitimacy of comparison between say Tendulkar or Ganguly who for the majority of their careers played as an opener and someone like Brian Lara or Inzamam ul Haq who played at number 4 or later in the batting order.
The late order slog was now helped by the flexible five overs of batting power play which invariably was taken after the mandatory ball change at 34 overs to a ‘firmer’ ball which will come on to the bat well and travel without much fuss!
That leads on nicely to the ball factors; the advent of day night game has seen a change in ball (white ball) that swings less with the seam less pronounced which favours the batsman especially the openers.
Add to these the quick draining and quick drying outfield in the recent years(no amount of money is spared in getting a game of one day cricket going even in poorer countries- Cricket Zimbabwe commissioning army helicopters to dry the outfield!!) meant that you get full value for your shots.
The technical changes in batsmanship introduced new dimensions to scoring. A long time ago when Ranji introduced the leg glance and included the area behind square leg as a scoring option he was termed a rebel and a genius. Now new shots are the norm with the arrival of T20. The area behind the wicket keeper is one such example- years ago an unknown Zimbabwean called Douglas Mariller was the champion of the now famous Dhilshan scoop; in those days it was known as the ‘Dougie shot’. Unlike Dhilshan who made a lot of runs- and money in equal measure thru the IPL, Mariller had to return to real estate business after failing to secure even a minor county spot in English seasons!
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/118630.html
The Tendulkar variation to score behind the keeper is the paddle sweep- imagine a shot more like the hitting the ball on the head on top of its bounce in front of your left pad to direct it directly behind thewickets. He practices this hard and executes it so well and so does Dhoni for that matter.
Having said this as a batsman you have only to make one error; hence many things are to go right for you to make 200. For a start one has to be an opening batsman and should face at least half the number of balls (150 balls) to stand a chance of scoring 200.
The pace of the modern day 50 overs match dictates that one scores quickly exploiting the fielding restrictions in the first 20 overs – say probably one has to be at least 80 runs of 60 balls. There are hundreds of batsmen who could do this at the moment, Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh is a very good example. One can add the Shewag’s, the Smiths, the Gayles, the Watsons etc etc.
The next 20 overs or so goes quietly without any field restrictions and older ball which might reverse swing and spinners on view with the emphasis on control. In this phase one has to consolidate the good start, without throwing away the wicket and yet score at least at run a ball for (typically 60 balls at least to face in 20 overs, so 150 runs at 40 overs. Note there are only 55 such incidences in world cricket since the beginning of one day cricket.)
Then the third phase of power hitting of the last 10 overs - 30 balls to make 60 runs may be using 5 overs of power play. One has to have reserve energy to make this happen .There are less than 10 who have managed to go past 180 and only 2 past 190.
All this either without making a mistake or alternatively have lady luck on your side!
In this context it is interesting to note that Sachin’s 200 was a chanceless, perfectly paced innings with brute strength to clear the straight boundary or slog over midwicket at appropriate times and at the same time deft touch employed whenever he was tired, to tickle the ball past fine leg or square leg, and an astonishing 160 runs that were obtained by running between the wickets.
All this tremendous concentration all the way thru is what makes this a significant achievement and I am sure someone will break it in years to come. Such is his recent form and fitness that one can’t help but ask this blasphemous question-esp. considering that he suffered no cramps this time around- Is his fitness drug enhanced?

Come what may; Winter nets!

2010-02-07T13:39:00.012Z

These pictures depict the passion for cricket that I have been talking about in this blog!The one on the left was taken on the top of a hill station in the Himalayan mountain range- a small touristy town where the boys working in the shops were playing cricket on the street-temperature probably was about 1 or 2 degree Celsius which was not all that different from the second one taken when some of the boys from our club decided to have outdoor nets in our grounds during the snow painstakingly clearing the snow enough to have a visible surface to land the ball!? One cant help but admire their enthusiasm.

The weather actually is getting milder as February advances. The winter indoor nets started last week and I am glad to say that we all had a good session without breaking down; though climbing stairs was a pain 2 days later. I don’t know why this happens but it is always the second day that it hurts the most. I went back to work on Monday thinking I have coped well with this but on Tuesday it was agony. But as I mentioned before the idea of the nets is not to collapse on the first match of the season which starts in April.
The mandatory committee meetings happen at intervals during the off season and we have done well with the fund raising that we decided to buy a brand new roller for the square instead of the original modest plan of buying a reconditioned old one at one third of the cost. The ground was subjected to the adverse weather conditions during the snow and the freeze but the grass looks good after the last season’s repairs in September.
Elsewhere in the cricketing world, the abundance of cricket is making even this hardened fanatic crave for some rest! Why don’t they all take a break for a few months! I guess if you only follow one team then there are breaks in the calendar where you can switch off but since I am passionate about cricket as a whole I don’t just follow India’s games. I am sure I watch with more of an interest and bias when India plays but I can be equally interested in the finer points of the game even if Kenya plays Ireland.For e.g. I noted that umpire Nigel Llong signed no ball followed by leg bye at least twice in one of the inconsequential tests and I am itching to discuss this with someone knowledgeable as No ball signal can only be followed by bye signal.That reminds me,due to various reasons my umpiring assessment for the end of the season in 2009 had to be postponed and I am yet to have the final discussions. I will know sometime this season.

I went on a short holiday to North India to see my brother and it was a great experience to see the blue/green Ganges at Rishikesh before it becomes dark and brown with mud and debris as it flows along to the sea. Tajmahal is still a sight to behold even after years of insult due to industrial pollution.

A trip down the memory lane!

2010-01-03T23:16:00.002Z

The arrival of the new year made me think about doing a review of the past decade from my perspective as everyone does, but instead I started inescapably slipping down the memory lane thinking of how I got bitten by the cricket bug. Upon tracing the origins of my 'condition'!,my earliest memories of cricket are playing in our backyard with uncles and cousins using a cardboard for stumps and tennis ball and the only 'proper' cricket bat that was passed down the generations. ( My grand father once told me, he played with the ‘English men’ in his days and my guess is that these were Scottish as my grand father often corrected everyone to pronounce ‘world’ and ‘girl’ with a pronounced ‘r’.)
Coming to the bat, this was a hand made harrow size bat heavily strapped with tapes and sticky plasters with the cane handle threatening to come off in places! Once in High school we played with ‘thread’ ball – a nucleus of Tar and sand covered with loom thread from one of the players, whose father owned hand and power loom factory, the process taking many hard hours of toiling and the thread would slowly come off with each hit to the boundary fence and towards the end of the day the ball would have reduced in circumference and in dire need of a top up!
Later we upgraded to a proper ‘eleven’ matches between villages - usually only one village nearby where we could find enthusiastic – read gullible- youths who went to the ‘college’ in the nearby town. These matches were played with hockey balls made of ‘cork’- with useful bounce even on sandy pitches-, the above said bat and single pad which will be shared by the entire team! The games were always played in our ground; I still remember persuading the PE teacher and the school management to 'construct' the pitch and rolling the pitch on the weekends until it was level! These matches were one sided - we were under 5 foot school boys pitted against the might of big and burly college students who came for the fun of thrashing us. But in our minds every run scored and every boundary hit was equal to the winning runs for the country in test matches! My cousin Venkat was a constant companion in these games and together we formed the official machinery of our team- raising a team in a poor village predominated by lower middle class workers and teachers and half the population below poverty line, was a difficult task and I can write a book on this art alone!
That reminds me, these were the pre -‘one day international’ and pre-‘television’ era. As a kid I was completely enthralled by the prose of the commentary by such stalwarts like Tony Cozier ( who I imagined to be tall, black and handsome like Clive Lloyd - to my utter horror, I saw a semi white balding man with a ponch when I first saw him on the telly years later- there in lies the limitless beauty of imagination!), Richie Benaud, Tony Lewis and the like- except that I didn’t know them to be stalwarts. The Indian side of the commentary was filled by, at various times, Suresh Saraiya, Ramamoorthy, Balu Alagannan, Lala Amarnath ,Narootham Poori, Sushil Dhoshi (in Hindhi) and Abdul Jabbar (in Tamil- yes I have listened to commentaries in Tamil, Telegu, Kannada and even Sinhalese tuning in to Srilanka broadcasting corporation’s English channel ! Since cricket was not big in Kerala, I couldn’t get an opportunity to hear the Malayalam version of the commentary!) My best memories of Tamil cricket commentary was the monumental 300 run partnership between GR Vishwanath and Yashpal Sharma in Chennai against the visiting English team in 1981. I still remember the excitement of that Pongal day when the English bowling comprising of Willis, Botham, Underwood and Dilley couldn’t dislodge them and buoyed by this, I went out the next day to play against our usual village team and scored 8 runs including an edged boundary!
At variable time periods I have listened to the commentaries when Viv Richards first toured India and was flummoxed by Chandrasekhar for the first few tests and later scoring a rampaging 150+ (I was probably 8 then and couldn’t understand most of what the commentators were saying , for I started learning English only when I was 7 years old! But I know the numbers and can add up and courtesy of my elder brother who taught me the filed positions I can guess where the ball would have travelled from the shot described! These were the days when ‘uppish’ was a bad word to describe a shot- only Kirmani, Bedi and Abid Ali played them!
Bedi’s fifty, Surinder Amarnath’s ( Mohinder’s brother) debut century, Chandrashekar’s 10 not out!!, Venkat’s ‘fifth’ ball mystery- my brother Kumar said he always had something up his sleeves for the fifth ball and as I noticed, most of his wickets fell to fifth ball of the over!, the day when Sunil Gavaskar’s bat pushed back and he got bowled by the pace of Malcolm Marshall at 19 years of age on his debut tour, Vishwanath’s late cut which he cut inches in front of the wicket keeper’s gloves, Brijesh Patel’s cover fielding, - the only Indian to hit the stumps accurately after Pataudi , but I dreamed of having a moustache like him one day, Parthasarathi sharma’a debut, Pranob Roy’s pain staking 60 in a dead match at a strike rate of 30 and his 6 in the first innings of nearly 60 balls!, Yajurvendra Singh’s debut catching record- my friend Mohan said recently that he worked with him at Shell! And what excitement when Kapil Dev arrived on the scene with a bang- the original ‘milk drinking’ country boy before Dhoni!
I can go on and on if I start talking about domestic cricket- Roger Binny’s record opening partnership of 450 with Sanjay Desai in a Ranji match, Sunil Gavaskar playing left handed against Raguram Bhat in an inconsequential Ranji Final, and names like Michael Dalvi, Hari Gidwani, and Avadhoot Zarapkar are etched in my memory but I don’t know if they did anything great in their careers – probably not, but I can still remember their names!
The last big match I listened to was the prudential world cup final in 1983 when a near suicidal Tony Cozier lambasting the collapse of West Indies to some innocuous bowling by Amarnath with his apologetic run up! Later joining the medical school left me with very little opportunity to listen and the imagination of the nation was robbed by the arrival of the television. I still listen to test match special whenever I can and find Boycott v Agnew tussles interesting and hilarious sometimes!
By the way I reluctantly returned from my short India trip to a freezing land of Tundra!The picture above is that of the southern most tip of India -Kanyakumari - which incidentally was affected by the Tsunami exactly 3 years before our visit.

Incompetent innovations!

2009-12-09T20:32:00.011Z

Winter is still to get bitter and at the moment having spent the last few weeks at home I don’t really feel that bad. Enjoying my time watching cricket on telly and yet to get bored as the cricket is of better quality these days in tests and one dayers. But I cant say the same about the 20-20 which can realistically be called as ‘hit ball’ or ‘smash ball’ and if that is the only form that survives in the next 20 years then the bowler will become an extinct breed and will be replaced by a machine!
I wrote about Sehwag earlier in this blog ‘uncluttered mind’. (http://dhileepmadness.blogspot.com/2008/08/uncluttered-mind.html )
More of that innate ability to always be ‘present in the present’ and never in the past or future whilst the ball is delivered (otherwise called as being in the ‘zone’ ) was in evidence when he scored 293 runs against Srilanka recently. I note that he has been elevated to God status and a religion started in his name by a few non-Indians fully illustrated with the Ten Virendments and witty observation! It sure makes for some hilarious reading. Try the link here: http://www.cricketwithballs.com/sehwagology/
By the way Sachin Tendulkar’s 20 years have been done to death by the media and there are many bloggers who write about their experience with SRT much like discussing God in an evangelical television channel! I am going to join the band wagon with a slight twist; instead of narrating all the wonderful innings he has batted, I can probably recount my hate moments - the times he made unknown bowlers look like world beaters by struggling to play normally and eventually getting out awkwardly. There are many of them but my pet hates are the following:
Michael Vaughn in 2002- bowled thru the gate when on 92!
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63998.html
Later in 2006 he bacame Monty Panesar’s first test Victim. Picture this; a rookie left arm spinner from England with no variation what so ever ( his bowling could be as bland as blanched okra ) bowling to ‘The ultimate batting God’ with every single record under the sun to his name, on one of India’s flattest tracks and what does Tendulkar do? Play him as though each ball is going to detonate, before eventually missing the line!
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/239025.html
So in 2006 I was so mad that I got rid of all the traces of Tendulkar from my MRF bat Logo. It took me 3 days but it was well worth the catharsis!
One should also mention his bizarre struggle against Paul Harris of South Africa were inexplicable - where is he now? - after Sachin made him look like the worlds best unplayable left arm spinner in 2006/7.
http://www.cricinfo.com/rsavind/engine/current/match/249217.html
The truth is South Africa has never been known for spinners. It is a country of spin haters and if you really want to ruin your budding cricket career you choose to bowl spin. Almost all spinners that SA produces are all - average or above average- batsmen in disguise – including Kevin Pieterson when he started out as an off spinner who can bat!
The unfathomable thing is many of these bowlers went on to have a very short career, career built around the fact that they got Sachin but nothing much to show as for talent and they disappear in to oblivion soon. Another interesting fact is that every other average batsman in those matches had no difficulty what so ever negotiating these spinners! Inexplicable indeed!
We had a little debate about innovative shots last season whilst discussing KP’s switch hit and concluded probably it has reached the point there are no areas in the cricket field’s 360 degree angle that could be exploited by another innovative shot. And then, there comes along Dilshan with his 'scoop' over the wicket keeper!

Pictures above illustrate the Dilshan scoop and Dhileep scoop on the right. I have been playing this shot (clumsily as ever) for sometime now especially to the 'Donkey drops' or the 'Moon Balls' that are chucked at from time to time. The idea is to hit the ball behind the wicket keeper above his head but often my over ambitious attempts at playing this shot finer than I could, have resulted in me hitting the ball over the second slip with me ending up facing the wicket keeper. Above is one such attempt during this season. For me, this is village cricket in all its glory- my absolute gracelessness and lack of poise and balance epitomises the typical, mediocre village cricketer. Also take a look at the wicket keeper trying to collect the ball in front of the stumps with stiff hands and rigid elbows and the absolute disinterest of the square leg umpire who is perched in his stool no where in line wiht the stumps or popping crease!

I am visiting India for a short holiday and am glad to escape some of the festive eating- mainly the provocative abundance of sweets and cakes every which way you turn during the Christmas period. But sadly this will only be replaced by the tempting fried fatty food of south India! One has to compromise somewhere!

Autumnal Arm chair analyses!

2009-11-10T20:15:00.004Z

I don’t get tired of this…. The weather is turning cold and I don’t like it one bit! This year it feels like the winter has started early because of the early finish to the season. The pitch repair work has gone on well and as a committee we have managed to make some decisions in a democratic way regarding purchase of equipment etc. The fund raising events are on earnestly and this week end we have a quiz night scheduled. My plans of an October holiday were scuppered by various things and so essentially the softening of the blow with respect to the weather transition didn’t happen this time around.
But I got a lot of opportunity to watch the India Aus one day matches on telly. The maturity of MS Dhoni has been the hall mark of Indian approach. And there is this whirlwind knock of 175 by SRT. Talking about Dhoni’s transformation from Kapil Dev to Rahul Dravid (and the subsequent easy transition of gears whenever he liked), I noticed this change around India’s visit to England in 2007. Earlier in 2006 when England visited India Dhoni was this swashbuckling long haired heart throb more in the mould of Shahid Afridi who didn’t care about the team but more about his strike rate and the number of sixers he hit. This was evident in the Bombay test (when India couldn’t bat out the last day) when Dhoni was dropped by Monty only to loft again towards him within a few balls later; this time Monty hung on and Dhoni returned to pavilion as if it is none of his concern to look after the team’s interest.
(Link here : http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/238187.html )
But in 2007 he batted out to save the Lord’s test in rain and you could see he has cut out more than just his long hair- the risky airy shots as well! He talked about hitting very hard along the ground to long on and long off for just mere singles because he wanted the ball to get old quicker so that it will stop swinging!
(Link here: http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/258468.html )
In the ODI series that followed he played all the powerful shots that are his trade mark but every single one of them so hard on to the ground that some of them would bounce over the top of the close in fielders for boundaries! His transformation is complete now to Mr Reliable- previously held by Dravid . I still think India needs the likes of Badrinath to cushion the risky shot making of Yuvraj and Shewag.
As for Mr Tendulkar, what can one say; I have always been fascinated by the mind games he plays with the bowlers rather than the artistry of shot making or the perfect timing of his shots. This 175 gave ample account of this on many an instance. The ability to make the bowler bowl where he wants it or guess what the bowler is thinking and move accordingly are some of this rare genius that I enjoy watching. I have already started counting down as he will probably play about 50 ODIs before the 2011 world cup, I wouldn’t want to miss many of them!

By the way, the pictures you see above were taken when I visited Lords cricket ground for the National Umpires and scorer's meeting organised by the ECB. The old buliding is where the ICC used to reside before the sub continental money started pouring in and now they have transferred the office to Dubai! The statue is that of WG Grace but I feel they could have chosen a better shot; look at the ugly balance and playing so for in front of his body and that too uppishly over the on side. The BBC series about the history of cricket informs me that the gentle men played on the off side and only the players played leg side strokes ! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00l16vk

End of another season!

2009-10-07T22:41:00.003+01:00

Our cricket season has ended abruptly 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Over years of neglect the pitch has deteriorated to an extent that it has become dangerous on a couple of occasions this season. After much deliberation, we at the club committee, have decided that this important work must commence immediately and hence the games were cancelled for the last two weekends of the season to enable the repair work to start- which incidentally has not started until October!
As it happens, when such important financial decisions are to be made, individuals start valuing their ideas much more than what they are worth and start defending their corners vigorously resulting inevitably in personality and ego clashes. Added to this some drastic poor communication and arrogant self importance and one gets the recipe for much deliberation and time wasting! I am learning a lot about the workings of the human mind in the committee dealings than in the NHS!
My final umpiring assessment went well and I am expecting sign off by this month end. One of the criticisms was that I don’t move very fast, which is an understatement, given my size! And the other is that I am ball watching rather than observing the over all picture. This is a hard thing to do for me as some one who is still playing and I do sometimes admire a fantastic shot or a superb fielding and forget to get into the right position to judge run out etc. I will improve as I umpire more in the coming seasons, I hope. Incidentally I have been advised to umpire in a higher league which tests my loyalty to this league. I will have to slowly wriggle out.
The last game I played this season was for an orthopaedic team which was played to fairly mediocre standards. Last year I remember playing a much more competitive game and hence I took my friend Mohan with me, but he did get to bowl and took wickets so it is not that bad after all. I did score some runs though and it is better to finish the season this way than a couple of run outs!

Went to Madrid on a short holiday (picture above).Viggy is progressing slowly but steadily in his scoring correspondence course. I am planning to attend the umpires meet in October at Lord’s where I am hoping to get tested against the Hawkeye in a workshop.
The weather has turned grey and gloomy with liberal sprinkling from time to time. Last few days have been pretty miserable and I will have to look for ways to avoid the gloom.

Opening the account

2009-08-31T13:46:00.005+01:00

After the last season’s debacle with ducks, I am pleased to stay off ducks this season so for! I have now understood and executed well the trick of running that first run very quickly within the few balls I face. The traditional teaching is that your first run always come from a push in front or a leg glance behind square leg or angle towards third man – all the shots all along the ground with minimal risk whatever the length or line of the ball is. In other words even if you are fed with a lollipop full toss you push it in to the gap and run your first run and avoid a duck. I am afraid I have realised this a little bit late for last season (7 ducks!) but this season I have been doing exactly that. Instead I seem to have a curse on four; I have got out at four runs 7 times instead. I play sensibly and then the first big shot I play I get out!

The picture above was taken during July and I have definitely lost weight since,by abstaining from sugar and sweets and eating healthily. I have become lighter by 10 kg and am much happier for that. I am slightly more mobile than before but still it is a job to change directions quickly! It makes a change to dive around in the outfield making me seem vaguely athletic! Running between the wickets has improved but being a bit overconfident I have got out twice last weekend going for suicidal non existent runs; the tortoise cup is mine for next year!

The final umpiring assessment is still due but the ECB is still not sure as to the paperwork and documentation we need to complete this level of umpiring. I have been part of these ‘vertical, unidirectional’ changes and reforms in medical education and I can sympathise with my mentor when he is frustrated with the whole palaver! I will update this later in September.

Our league team has won the division and are progressing to the next level up. There are all round enthusiasm and cheer in the club at all levels of membership, playing and non-playing. We had a customary committee meeting to discuss various issues as per norm!

September is upon us and the season is drawing to a rapid close. The days are shorter and chillier, the sun makes occasional appearance and one thinks about a jacket or a sweater when walking out in the evening, the general mood is getting gloomy and I am reaching out for my happy pill! May be a game or two to cheer myself up and get ready for the long depressing cricket-less days ahead!

Progressing

2009-08-14T14:48:00.002+01:00

A few hectic weeks have passed since the last posting. I have been assessed by my umpiring mentor and given a reasonably good grade. Now I am going to be assessed by another who is the editor of the book on Laws of cricket (the cricketing Bible) and understandably I am a bit nervous about it. Incidentally he is also an office bearer in the ICC committee and a well learned and well respected man.
The season has gone on well so for without any interruption on the weather front. The league is ‘hot’ting up near the top of the table and another 3 games or so to make the impression. Meanwhile the repercussions from the dubious pitch we had a few weeks ago are that we had to have a meeting with the grounds men who are a company who prepare wickets in surrey for many clubs. The upshot of it is that we need to invest in infra structure like roller, cover etc and that means the fundraising for this should go on for many years! And that means more of our committee meetings to ponder the situation. The Joy!
Another interesting development for me (and an annoying one for my wife) is that I had to step in to take over the role of team secretary. This is due to the fact that the present incumbent has thrown in the towel after years of toil. The job in a simplistic sense is to liaise with players, know the availabilities and put up teams for the weekend. But in reality this is met with a lot of difficulties as not everyone is gifted with the sense of efficient communication and the result is many phone calls and wasted efforts and frustration with every wife and girlfriend of the players hating your phone call! And hence the withdrawal midway thru the season. I have agreed to do this for the rest of the season (6 weeks to go) and we need to decide on a gullible candidate for the future!
Elsewhere, the Ashes are getting a bit nerve wrecking for the English fans after seemingly in a strong position England managed to lose the 4th test to level the score. The final one at Oval is going to be watched with anticipation by everyone but frankly the form of a couple of English middle order batsmen meant that they are looking to the Old (Ramprakash) and the infirm (Trescothick) to fill in the breach! Sad indeed. My friend Anderson at the club thinks that the number three spot is his!

Injuries!

2009-07-29T22:39:00.006+01:00

Last saturday's match was marred by a devilish pitch which looked like a battlefield after a few overs with the top surface coming off with every ball.The awkward bounce was a bit disconcerting but not dangerous so we played on.It was a relief no one was injured. Injuries are topical in this Ashes, with key English players featuring prominently in that list.It is hard to escape the inevitability of injury affecting or limiting careers of international cricketers and Flintoff and KP are going thru that phase now. Tendulkar, to my memory has always carried an injury or two thru out the later half of his career. The trouble playing high standard of cricket at that level is that various reasons force a player to play thru pain like pride, patriotism etc but the most obvious one is the substantial revenue that is to be had by the sponsor if the player plays. This could be the reason Sourav wanted to extend his international career for as long as he can until rudely cut short by Greg Chappel and this could very well be the reason Sachin do not want to give up any form of international cricket yet.
At a village level, injuries are usually hilarious and bring about a laugh rather than sympathy, for, the injuries are usually a result of clumsiness and hence every injury has a comical potential. I have seen a few of these and have been personally ‘been there and done that’ and lets not explore the gory details! However, the most entertaining injury always involves an abdominal guard (or lack of it in unfortunate circumstances!) and a writhing wincing batsman and a bunch of fielders (and the non striker included) standing around giggling! Why it should evoke this response even in very sensible of the players is a mystery to me.
With so much of protective equipment available these days, injuries at club level are thankfully reducing; our club manager Dion, with his ‘50 pushing 70’ looks, went out to bat as number 11 last Saturday with chest guard, thigh protector and reinforced gloves etc (but without his helmet funnily enough!) and thwarted an over of hostile bowling to save the match. Yet in the same match I saw an opposition batsman walk out without batting gloves and whack the ball around like a baseball player. It probably reflected the lack of venom in our bowling and definitely the good fortune of the batsman that he didn’t have ‘poppadum’ fingers! Talking of fingers to date I have reduced and put back 8 dislocated fingers and all of them are a result of clumsy catching. I have reduced a shoulder (habitual) dislocation once.
One of our GP friends, Jamin, a very useful fast bowler broke his collar bone a couple of seasons ago. We have a few doctors in our club; a couple of GPs, an endocrinologist, a few anaesthetists and a few surgeons from time to time. One of the general surgeons (Ravi Bhate) who used to play for us a few years ago, sadly, had to return back to India and it was a pleasant surprise to get an email from him last week. Amidst his busy private practise in India he still remembers our club and he described the cricketing days with us as the best period of his Life! Personally, we have shared a few century partnerships and it is good that he still has time to think about the club.

Summer in full flow!

2009-07-20T12:25:00.004+01:00

The extended period of glorious weather continues here barring a few showers. The last couple of years have seen the wettest June/ July and submerged playing fields all thru southern England and it is indeed a change to play on hard wickets and rapid outfields this year. We are winning most of our league games and progressed to the top of the table from the bottom half in May. The icing surely was the comprehensive win last Saturday of the table toppers by 140 runs! I captained one of the matches in the absence of star players and managed to pull off a fabulous win and am much pleased about that!

We had our President's day festivities last weekend, this year marking the 75th year at the club. The picture you see above shows one such event in 1960s when Brian Close one of the former England test cricketers played at the grounds. These days the best we get is an old Ranji player from Rajasthan or someone similar!
As for my umpiring, the adventure continues and I have since met my mentor and am deciding on the days of my on field examinations! It is going to be fun I am sure. I have enrolled Viggy on to a scorer’s course (by correspondence!?) and he is keen to enhance his CV. With my family away in India I had a few weeks of guilt free cricketing which was new to me!
The Ashes are here and marked by what is now a traditional formality of score line predictions by McGrath (saying 5 – nil as usual!).England escaped by a whisker at Cardiff batting out a draw. The Lords test is currently going on with Australia chasing an improbable 520 runs in the fourth innings. Ashes at full swing; It is indeed living up to its hype. One would be fooled in to thinking that test cricket in very good health seeing the attendance at these venues. But outside Australia and England the grounds are empty. This dichotomy is to be addressed apparently by playing test cricket in the evening with pink balls?! I can’t see the logic in it but we shall see how this takes off next year.
Looking forward to the rest of the season.

Cruel game for a batsman!

2009-06-21T10:19:00.004+01:00

The last couple of weeks have been hectic both on field and off field. I have been umpiring in the Surrey cricket league at the premier division working towards my umpiring assessment. The games have been highly competitive, superior in quality to many of the games I have played or witnessed at village level and close. I am learning a lot about myself as an adjudicator and arbitrator in tricky situation. I have been allocated an umpiring mentor who is pleased with my progress and I am planning on having the assessment in August.
Things at WVCC are going well after the return of star players and we are winning our league matches regularly now. I have been playing in some of them and the team spirit has been good. I was very pleased for my friend Mohan who made a valuable contribution in a winning chase last week with 39 well made runs. Just a couple of weeks earlier he was questioning the point of playing cricket at all .When you are a batsman the game is very cruel sometimes. One mistake, one unlucky decision either you make or the umpires make and you are looking at 7 days wait to get another chance to prove and repeated poor show becomes a confidence breaker. So though the game is viewed as heavily loaded in favour of the batsman, methinks, ‘rightly so’. Having said that 2 more bad games and he is thinking what is the point again!! This cycle of elation and depression, the mood changes with fluctuating fortunes is part of every village cricketer’s average season. I have been there and done that and I am afraid still doing precisely that!
Meanwhile Viggy is playing in our Sunday friendlies more regularly and is enjoying the challenge. I am also pleased that he is reading Tom Smith’s cricket laws ardently.I am trying to interest him in enrolling for the scoring course at ECB so that it enhances his CV!?
Elsewhere, there has been an overdose of 20-20s on view on the telly that I have become bored of watching. The money making machinery and the establishment has successfully reduced this passionate cricket fanatic to losing interest, well done you lot!!
One of the funny recollections of the past few weeks is David Lloyd exclaiming after Yuvraj’s consistent power hitting that what he wields is not a bat and probably he should need a license! Amongst the moronic repetitions of Sivaramakrishnan and Sanjay Manjrekar there are characters like Bumble and Harsha Bogle to make listening to commentary worthwhile even on telly.
So on the day of the ICC 20-20 finals I am actually playing cricket than watching and actually looking forward to playing with Viggy on the Father’s day, may be we would bat together today, weather permitting.

(By the way, the picture above was taken by the opposition last sunday me trying a leg side stumping of Viggy's bowling and it was given not out, in case if you are wondering what happened.)

Sunny Summer time

2009-05-26T21:49:00.001+01:00

The weather has been brilliant for the last week and today they say is the hottest day so for- see previous blog about weather records. It is nice to play in the sun but sometimes it is too warm for comfort though originating from warmer pastures myself.

The league season has started off badly with lack of star players and the resultant losing streak. The morale is a bit low at this point and we need to win a few games to get back to enjoying. Meanwhile the Sundays are usual mixture of mad scramble for players until just before the start of the game but enjoyable outings for most of the players.
Viggy played with me a few games so for and it was a pleasure batting with him adding 25 runs, this is the first time we bat together! Later we combined to get a wicket – stumped Dhileepan bowled Dhileepan. I take great pleasure in this sort of silly sentimental moments in village cricket. I probably- in a way - play cricket for such moments.
Meanwhile we at the committee are trying to implement the ECB recommendations for safe guarding children.- a set of stringent regulations directed at a misguided few but causing outrage and anxiety to many an honest players and officials. We deliberated for a few years, criticised the ‘nanny state’ for a few more years and decided to bite the bullet in a ‘follow it if we can’t beat it’ approach this season. Presently this is causing apprehension amongst a few of our members because of procedural uncertainty of ECB. Me as the honorary Secretary is trying to liaise with the officials at the Surrey Cricket to get the necessary machinery in place so that we can get on playing cricket as usual.
I have decided to take umpiring seriously this season and I am going to officiate in the Surrey Cricket league. I am hoping that the standard would be good and hopefully there wont be silly appealing. Let me see.Looking forward to a summer of sunny cricketing!

Season begins at last!

2009-04-29T22:39:00.008+01:00

The start of the season has been blessed by the weather gods. Sunshine arrived just in time for the weekend, preceded by rainy weekdays, and for once the weather got the mix right! There were some scares about the pitch being a bit soggy but we decided to play come what may. The two Sunday games so for have been good games in which everyone had something to do. Small boundary on one side (as we played on the edge of the square to save the centre for the league games) meant that there were some big scores - over 200 last Sunday- with fast outfield and a reliable bounce. The square is completely green from end to end; we have come a long way from the moss covered black bald pitches of my first season with the club 6 years ago when anything more than 100 was a defendable total!
In many ways the struggles are the same, getting a team out for the games-we have cancelled two Saturdays for lack of interest, the organisational issues, the rough outfield on the pavilion half of the ground with variable bounce thanks to football team, getting the occasional players to play and make them feel valued, etc. Personally, I had to deal with many issues - captaincy worries having to deal with players of variable abilities and keep all of them interested for the whole game, my mobility with the expanded waist line and the few extra pounds I am carrying - feels like a few stones?, to keep or not to keep wickets, to push Viggy to play or not, and so on.
On the positives, Viggy ran some one out with a direct throw and felt good about it, I kept wickets successfully without breaking down, (climbing down stairs is a struggle for 2 days, but hey, one got to do what he got to do!) though on the batting front, scoring runs is a distant memory!
The trip to Barcelona (see pictures) was enjoyable with sunshine most of the time (we took the weather with us- thunderstorms and hail stones on two occasions) It was reassuring to see the Indian corner shops there too and so, we managed to have uninterrupted supply of Indian snacks! The twisted architecture of Gaudi was interesting. Had a funny thought about Gaudi umpiring and giving signals like Billy Bowden and designing the Lords pavilion in his style!

The outdoor nets

2009-04-13T10:44:00.003+01:00

After years of struggle we have at last managed an out door nets session at the Glebe. The incessant cajoling and canvassing done by the fundraising committee of the club had to be appreciated. The funds were collected over 2 years and the matting pitch was done this winter and the poles went up last month. And on a sunny April Saturday a team of enthusiastic club members both old and the young alike worked hard to get the nets up as well as clean up the pavilion. The fruit of this long hard labour is what you see up in the photograph.
It is interesting to mention here that this was not without its battles; the football pitch is nearby and the erection of posts for the nets caused problems in as much as the fact that it is near the boundary. There is this theory that footballers might run past the field and get injured and hence we shouldn’t put up the nets until the football season has ended – which by the way is still going on well into April due to one week of snow in Feb! Our club committee members tried different things to appease the football club by padding up the said culprit (the pole that is) but still the football club would have none of this. Hence the delay in putting up the nets.
So on ward we march in to this season probably undercooked but full of enthusiasm and comfortable in the knowledge that we do have outdoor nets in the club now. This alone should make us perform better!
IPL in South Africa is like having Wimbledon tennis championship in Barcelona! Indian by name and Indian by venue it should be! Talking about Barcelona I am taking a short holiday there to escape the obligatory rainy week before the cricket season in England; it could be sunny and hot like Mediterranean in April but come the third weekend of April, the rains will suddenly appear from nowhere just in time for the start of the cricket season! Such is the predictable unpredictability of playing cricket!

Sledge man

2009-03-30T21:57:00.003+01:00

I attended the ECB level 2 umpiring course a couple of weeks ago. Whilst it was centred on field craft and man management skills needed as an umpire, the whole principle was based on adult learning. Small group discussions and reflective learning were emphasised as part of personal development. There were practical bits too in the form of simulated cricket scenarios (which have similarities with medical simulation).
For e.g. there were facilitators acting as fielders and indulging in foul play so as to test us on the appropriate handling of such scenarios.
We have ‘sim-man’ in medical simulation which is actually a manikin which can simulate a few things like talking, breathing etc. It was funny to find that they were trying to create a ‘sledge man’ for the cricket simulation except that it is a real person doing the sledging! I see a marketing potential here; we could have a ‘sledge man’ wicket keeper who repeatedly hurls abuses at the batsman. We could have a fielder manikin who bumps into the batsman whenever he tries to take a single. Or a bowling machine which shouts at the batsman and gives him a send off and so on. Any takers? After all we have a responsibility to train cricketers of the future better equipped to deal with this form of ‘field craft’, don’t we?

Our Cricket Club pre season dinner went ahead very well. As promised, I ended up with the coveted duck cup. I did rehearse the acceptance speech where I thanked the umpire for the LBWs and a few of the team mates for the run outs without facing a ball! I chickened out at the last minute from doing a Danny Boyle impression (of ‘Donald duck’ quacking) and Kate Winslet impression (‘I would be lying if I said I didn’t rehearse for this occasion; as a school cricketer I have rehearsed this acceptance speech many a times in front of the mirror-with the bath tub Duck, but I have a real one now!!’)
The India –NZ series is interesting but causing a lot of problems for me with regards to the timing- test match starting at 10 pm! I have been working like a zombie for a few weeks. Hopefully the end of the test series next week would give me a chance to set my biological clock back to normal mode!
The season is threateningly near but I am a bit uncertain. I will have to start umpiring for the completion of the level 2 umpiring –I need to umpire in leagues for at least 10 matches and in 2 of these I will be observed by county appointed umpires for the practical testing! I will have to start preparing for this. It is one thing playing cricket and entirely different thing getting out of the player mode and start umpiring. I will have to try harder. Back to books time- bring on the Tom Smith!

Spring’s nearly here!

2009-03-15T23:42:00.005Z

There is nothing much more quintessentially springtime than daffodils and playing cricket outdoors is such a prospect to look forward to! The temperature is a welcome 15 degree C and one could venture out and play cricket outdoors without freezing over. Yet this could all be early days as it is not unusual for it to snow around the bank holiday weekend in April so let’s not jump to conclusions yet!

Meanwhile the happenings in the subcontinent with regards to the terrorist attacks have struck a discordant note in an otherwise enjoyable winter of cricket watching.
Australians are no longer the dominant ones and the arrival of India to compete with South Africa for the top spot has added a new interest in test cricket viewing. Some spirited fourth innings chases over the winter and good contest between bat and ball have delighted us over the past few months. And suddenly to be woken up rudely to the fact that cricketers are not beyond the reach of these terrorists has in fact been the nasty surprise, not only to the viewing public but to the cricketers themselves. These terrorists should have been playing cricket wrote one Pakistani cricket writer which sums up the deterioration of the societal values in that country. Normally a teenager in the subcontinent would be expected to be playing or watching cricket when test cricket visits the city but not walk around with Kalashnikov’s and shoot foreign test cricketers. It would seem clear that the purpose of the attack is not to kill but maim, terrorise the cricket loving country and demoralise the cricket establishment. Whether or not they succeeded in this would be soon known once the ramifications for the future of cricket travel to these parts are assessed. Whatever the immediate political posturing and gamesmanship from the sub continental countries and the ICC in general, the impact of this attack would be felt for a long time.
Meanwhile, my winter ‘netting’ adventures are not up to speed and am suffering from the lack of proper net practice. The out door nets at the ground couldn’t be used as yet due to clash with the over running of the football season - due to the snow and weather conditions affecting their fixtures earlier this winter. The committee meetings and the AGM went ahead uneventfully (cant be any other way as there are only a handful of members; at one point we were discussing the legality of passing resolutions in the AGM without the requisite numbers attending) And the solution suggested was moving the meetings to other weekdays, since Fridays are testing the younger members’ social calendar what with pole dancing and stag do’s to attend!!) Cricket- whether it is playing in the summer or running it in the off season- is a problem for personal lives of youngsters and the older ones alike!
The count down to the season and the long wait for some cricketing action on the park enters the final lap once the British summer time starts on the last weekend of March. Suddenly the days are longer and the weather seems warmer and you start changing the bat grips and washing the whites again! Here’s looking forward to the start of the cricket season soon!

Let it snow!

2009-02-08T11:42:00.002Z

The last week has been slightly difficult and frustrating for parts of southern England due to weather conditions. Siberia apparently has decided to be friendly with UK and has sent a few envoys of snow showers and blizzards and they have not been welcomed with open arms by the hosts!
I returned home from my first cricket nets last Sunday (which I survived without breaking down or hurting myself) and parked the car in perfect conditions. I woke up to find a mountain of snow covering the neighbourhood on Monday. It does indeed snow in Feb and March from time to time but that is like ‘excuses, silly me, sorry for this inconvenience’ kind of apologetic snowing for a few hours which will melt before the kids decide to go out to play in the snow. Over the years some kids get lucky enough to make snowman with cap, shawl and carrot nose et al.!
But this one is the mother of all snows to hit London - 22 cm and counting on the first day. After a week we still have the snow in my garden and drive.
The downside is that routine life gets disrupted big time and it is frustrating for many- esp. if you have a bunch of kids and the entire network of London schools close for a few days.
I think the hardest hits are the average parents of London. Imagine the plight of all the dads who were looking forward to a relaxing Monday morning in their offices, and instead had to drag the children out in the cold with make shift sledges and shovels. The mums would have to make food for the 3 meals of the day instead of settling in front of the telly with big brother or something with the chocolate drinks and mars bars! It also means that there is more than usual time to have ‘domestics’ and that is, if you ask me, frankly unnecessary in this weather!
So I didn’t go to work and watched some cricket on the telly mostly to do with the plummeting of the OZ. The joys of seeing the Aussie lose to everyone- the latest is the NZ joining the list of Aussie beaters- and Ponting scratching his head and pulling his hair out in desperation has made dealing with this extreme weather a little bit easier!
And then there was the chaos of the referral system in the England WI series and some healthy debates around this. Heard Geoffrey Boycott’s uninhibited style of commentary the other day defending the third umpire and in the bargain ridiculing Jonathon Agnew to stop waffling on and abruptly both of them were replaced by the next batch of commentators! Jonathon didn’t sound very amused at all! It was a first for me listening to Test Match special over the years – two commentators fighting on air. Boycott is setting new standards and reaching milestones! In my opinion he is up there among the very best next only to Prince Philip in terms of entertainment value!
Our committee meeting and the fundraising quiz night both had to be postponed because of the weather. We in England suffer from chronic ‘cant copitis’ and any alteration in our living standards would drive us to paralysis. This probably is the only country to stop daily life for heat in summer- hose pipe ban for water shortage, rains in spring- flash floods and road blockage, Autumn problems- leaves on train tracks- and snow in winter…. Seriously, falling leaves is a natural phenomenon known to mankind since stone ages and UK haven’t got to grips with it still!

New Years Resolution

2009-01-15T23:34:00.002Z

After a long break I am returning to blogging. Went on trips to Egypt and India in December and returned to a freezing England and I do not like it at all!
This winter our indoor nets have not been organised due to loss making ventures in the yester years. Traditionally our club manager used to book indoor nets in a school for 14 weeks expecting enough number of club members to turn up, after variable coaxing, to break even the booking costs. But, we invariably ended up with the same number of gullible few and their friends. Moreover, his last season venture of providing a coach with immense wisdom (with such pearls like ‘watch the ball on to the bat’ to the best batsman of the season!!) for an additional cost of a few hundred pounds did not improve things! Consequently he is a wounded man with his ego hurt badly and decided not to bother this time around; can’t blame him.
Meanwhile my attempts at booking a bowling machine are not fruitful as of yet and so this season I may be seriously under prepared for the start of the league games- as my friend Dilo used to say, the purpose of the nets is to make sure that we dont die of exhaustion or Heart attack, the first game we play in April. I might try the outdoor nets – newly installed in our club- in April, possibly.
My travels over the last few months have resulted in considerable weight gain and have given a rounded finish to my waist line and a need for furnishing the wardrobe with clothes that fit! Buffet breakfast is such a bad idea esp. in US and I will have to starve for a few months – may be most of the year- to shed at least a few pounds, let’s see. I seriously think that I may have something in common with the bears. We have a bear god in the famous epic Ramayana who as per geography of Rama’s search for his abducted wife, lived in the southern India along with the monkey god. Now I think, there might have been a link to my ancestry because I feel that I have this common trait I share with the bears – of piling on weight before winter; only difference being that I don’t shed it by not eating and hibernating- What a shame! I would very much like to hibernate for the next three months and lose some weight. May be I should try ‘not eating’ and ‘moving more’ for a start!
The international cricket has witnessed some joyous Aussie thrashing and I bet the English are looking forward to the depleted team arriving for the Ashes; minus Haydon as of yesterday. The bowling looks delicious even for Bangladeshis and the nearly empty spin cup board- what have they been doing for the last 15 years when Warne was ruling the world, aren’t there any youngsters good enough to take up the mantle?- makes them vulnerable even to that spinner’s bunny-Yuvraj Singh! And Ponting is sooo susceptible to the off cutter that cuts sharply that every time he tentatively prods on the front foot even our club captain Barny would be licking his lips! Bring on the Aussies, I say!!!

Moderate sledging but defenitley Ban Abuse !

2008-11-19T21:04:00.003Z

It is a pleasure to see Aussies lose; don’t know why!!! It is only as pleasurable as seeing India win and to see both happen when India thrashed the Aussies two nil in the recently concluded test series was really satisfying.
Not because Australia are the best team in the world, not because they are really talented and winning against them is like a gold standard to aspire for, not even because one ends up getting bored watching them beat all and sundry and it makes a refreshing change to see them lose.
It is because, I think, they are one ugly bunch of sledgers who personally abuse every cricketer who could be rattled. Also because, of late, they start crying foul when someone gives it back.(Remember the McGrath Sarwan incident!) Innocent honest bowler trying his mental disintegration routine in earnest, erstwhile practitioners of the craft of sledging going on about their business close to the ears of the batsmen, and how dare they give it back!!!
We had some great definition of acceptability in the previous Indo-Australian cricket tour- that is – its alright to abuse somebody’s mother but not his appearance.(thank God monkey is such a convenient word to manipulate)
In the present series Ghambir elbowed Watson and copped a test match ban and missed out on a man of the series award. The picture above depicts another such occasion where things could have got out of hand but for the 'presence' of umpire Billy Bowden!I wonder what was the provocation, what was said by Watson or Katich to make Ghambir lose it!
It is not easy to be patient when you bat for hours to make 200 runs having to put up with incessant personal abuse about certain part of your anatomy or sexual reference to your mother or sister or wife... from every close in fielder the wicket keeper and the bowler ... constantly and for you to still try and concentrate on batting… difficult indeed.
Sledging in its benign form can be entertaining and sometimes even funny (remember Freddie's 'Mind the windows Tino' and Tino Best trying to break the pavilion windows and getting stumped in the bargain!)But personal abuse of Aussie standards is completely unacceptable and should be banned, no doubt.
In any other walk of life in a working environment even a single use of such terms would end careers and loss of jobs. If cricket is played by a group of highly paid professionals why should there be an exception to these general rules of engagement and why should we expect self governance? I welcome the yellow and red card system they are going to pilot in county circuit next year.

Winter is here!

2008-11-02T11:44:00.003Z

A month’s gone by since the end of season and the weather has slowly but surely turned into cold and miserable polar proportions (at least for southern UK standards). I am frequently asked as to how I spend the winter months where cricket can’t be played outdoors. But it still can be watched in the comforts of your living room warmth in front of the fire place and none better than the present series between India and Australia. The Stanford 20-20-20-the third twenty is for the price money in millions of US dollars!!- adding to the excitement of the British media here.
As I write this the millionaire Sir Stanford has issued apologies for flirting with English players’ wives, including one that was pregnant- God, whatever happened to Cricket? By the way, why 20-20 should be called cricket at all, when the bowlers are dissed and batting is nothing but disintegrated and deranged hitting with non existent footwork or any such niceties of the copy book. And most importantly if it is going to involve dancing women, cheerleaders and loud music? I invent the name ‘hit-ball’ or ‘bash-ball’, what do you think?
The Indian bowlers are doing very well against the Aussies in the first two games and teaching a lesson or two in use of the new and the old ball to the Australians - considering the batting quality on display- the famous five from India, Ponting, Haydon, Hussey and Clarke make up for a colossal batting spectacle and hence the importance of clever bowling in deciding the series.
The first test ended in a draw and my workmate and fellow cricketer Murali termed it ‘the great Indian escape trick’! The second test was so comprehensively won by India that even Ponting agreed that they were outplayed in every department. I think that included captaincy department as well- which is surprising considering that Dhoni is a rookie. This rekindles the argument that Ponting is an overrated captain- the moment there are a few average players he struggles to win whereas Dhoni’s bowling changes and field placements have been inventive, intuitive and most importantly effective, which is the bottom line when assessing the captaincy methods.
Sachin’s batting has been vintage and carefree esp. after he overtook one Brian Charles Lara’s test record of nearly 12,000 test runs. The longevity and the duration of his final chapter depend upon injuries and fitness, though I guess he has been playing with / thru pains (back, elbow etc) for the last 5 years. I think he has at least another year if not more.
Gambir is interesting, for such a short and small made man he picks up rows with big bullies like Watson and ends up penalised for ‘elbowing’. The other interesting bit is the speed with which the Aussies complain about these incidents having provoked in the first place. My friend Mohan’s three year old son Gusty behaves better than them!!
On matters close to home, our club has now a new outdoor nets installed after a lot of hard work fundraising. We go thru the customary committee meeting or five before the next season! We run repairs and refurbishments as appropriate. We plead for the subscription to be paid and later name and shame to collect it! Sometimes this includes captains and officials. In our yearly reports we still have an outstanding payment for match fees from one of our past club captains from many years ago. We plan for the annual pre season dinner and try to have the end of season dinner before this!! We plan our fixtures and winter nets….. In general we tend to be as busy in winter as the summer.
I tried to make up for the summer’s absence by taking a family holiday; Grand Canyon by helicopter was unforgettable experience (picture above) in an otherwise cricket-less land of the USA! I try to contact all the friends I missed during the season. And from time to time I still reminisce the best bits of the previous seasons and dream that the next one will be good! A hopeless fanatic…as ever!!

Glorious end to the season!

2008-09-30T23:30:00.002+01:00

The last two weekends in September have seen better sunshine than say July or June. The matches have been entertaining with one or two closely fought games where every result a possibility going into the final few overs. The lads showed good team spirit and fight to pull off some upset wins.
For me personally it has been my ‘annus horribilis’ this season with me in contention for the two most unwanted cups in our club- the duck and the tortoise. The former is given for … yes, you guessed it... for the highest number of ducks and I have set a WVCC record at 7 this year! The tortoise is for run outs.
I understand that batting is a cruel game and one can get out due to many a reason. Sometimes it is the Good ball, which no batsman would have a gripe about; I for one would applaud the bowler and walk off gladly. And a duck happens when you get the good ball early on in your batting and it is tough luck.
But on the 7 occasions I failed to score this season, twice I was run out as a non striker without facing a ball, twice I was LBW, twice the ball rolled under my bat and once I cut hard over point and a 6’2’’ fielder caught it with alarming reflex, over his head! So tough luck for sure…!
But more often than not, you get out to a bad shot. I believe, one can practise in the nets and cut out the bad shots and play a percentage game to score and improve average and it is possible even when you are old.
The third factor is bad pitch conditions-either too bouncy or it keeps low, sometimes the ball rolls under the bat. The uncovered pitches are sometime a disaster and they are out to get you especially if there has been some rain the previous week.
All of the above are still understandable and you can curse under pursed lips and grin and bear it and vent your anger at the changing room. But the last and most annoying is the umpire factor. Majority of the time it is your mates who are umpiring whose judgement you disagree. LBW, caught behind and close run outs are friendship breakers in cricket! The trouble is you have to quietly get back to the pavilion without showing much displeasure and will have to feign memory loss to the incident later on in the pub!
But in reality I don’t forget that easily my failures. For e.g I know who gave me LBW the 13 times I have been out this way in the last 5 years! And also how I got run out 7 times so for. Having said that the LBWs this season have been due to my poor foot work and I would have to work hard on my stance in the nets. I have subconsciously opened my stance in my nervousness to put bat on ball to get off the mark and my front foot has become more straight than outside the off stump! …. Or in simple English, I am rubbish and using technical jargon to hide my rubbishness!
I have scored 2516 runs for WVCC so for in 146 innings at an average of 18(It has slipped from 20 + because of this season’s grand average of 12!!). In the non-cricketing winter months I shall reminisce some of the pleasurable experience from the season gone and get by the winter blues! Anyways I will have a beaked friend and a shelled mate for company!

The return of the sun!

2008-09-20T12:06:00.002+01:00

After a few ridiculous weekends of rain and dampness, it was indeed a welcome relief to see the sun at last! Thank the Lord for fixing the weather and hope He will continue the good work for a few more weeks!
The weekend was indeed eventful and entertaining.On Saturday our full strength team beat the opposition …just about … by 2 runs!It was exciting finish to a low scoring game where everyone contributed to some degree.
Sunday’s game was very satisfactory for me as I scored some runs after a long time. I played for a orthopaedic consultant friend of mine who runs a cricket team of orthopaedic surgeons, south of the river and they were playing against a similar team from the North Thames. Naturally I was expecting a low standard of cricket lower than our village Sunday games. To my pleasant surprise they were pretty militant about victory and it was played with a reasonable competitiveness and skills to match. I was asked to open which I gladly agreed as I get the pace of the ball to work with. I was involved in an opening partnership of 80 runs in 18 overs and it was a decent effort as the bowling was really good. It felt good to drive of the front foot and find the middle of the bat too! That too at the fag end of the season marred by rain. The down side is that one had to run for everything. The wormholes and the mud stopping anything other than a lofted shot from reaching the boundary!
I hate April and September as one doesn’t get any respite and had to run for everything; be it a fielder or a batsman. As my opening partner was a bit circumspect about me calling (a very asian defect- we believe in telepathy and cosmic understanding and moreover we don’t want to upset the fielder by calling!) and didn’t really fancy getting run out, and hence I didn’t have to run 3 at anytime which was a relief!
But there was a reasonable amount of chatting- chirping, sledging or whatever name you want to call the ‘art of mental disintegration’ as coined by Steve Waugh…
Their wicket keeper gave a long account of how unsettled and nervous I was feeling to face this excellent bowling ….and I turned around and said ‘Thought you are an orthopod,so, do I send the bill to your home address or to your office’ (for the Psychiatric assessment) which he didn’t get . So on another occasion I went, ‘Gee, it really is spooky, I have been struggling for 40 years to understand myself and in 10 minutes you have summed me up, I should meet you on the couch’
So a bit of chat could be entertaining if used properly! By the way I saw a real fat guy turn like Queen Mary when running between the wickets that day. Starting of on the offside and go round to leg side and finishing in fineleg…! And felt reassured about my running between the wickets!

Rain Rain Go Away!

2008-09-10T00:02:00.003+01:00

The picture you see above was taken at my workplace as I didn't have an opportunity to click anything cricket-y because of the bloody rain!
The onset of August has spurned on the rain gods and the heavens have opened and emptied the skies over the British Isles….more precisely on the cricket grounds of Surrey and annoyingly over the weekend- unerringly! …And the misery continues into September. Wettest few weeks since records began…!! I wonder when these records actually began - may be 1970’s? It is funny to imagine someone- someone really anally retentive at the weather office - after a few weeks since the records began, going ‘hottest April since records began…. average temperature 12.7 degree Celsius!’’ And may be ever since the same man is inventing a lot of records -since records began…!
Coming to the point, cricket suffers if the weather is not good. One might think it is unfair to complain about rain in September. ..For that matter April, May, June, July, and August….Could someone kindly fix the weather please and we shall have a good honest game of cricket without having to dry the ball with tea towels or trip and fall down on the run up or turning for the second run. Talking of turning around…it doesn’t affect me as much, since I am the official ‘Queen Mary’ of the team and don’t do turning around quickly…!
We are one of very few clubs who have a full fixture running deep into September and even overshoot to October! I remember a pretty average game played on October 1st in glorious sunshine when the temperature was 18 degree C!!(Probably the warmest October first in southern Surrey … since records began!) Talking of Records, the clubs records for the league are in order and there you see, the fruits of my labour, meticulously entering every week’s score sheet on to our club website. - much to the irritation of my wife.. & probably Aston, my anaesthetic colleague, but let me tell you there is something therapeutic about filling unfilled sheets of cricket score sheet! Or for that matter any unfilled form is good for the mind… As I did today,sitting in a stupid course where forms after forms were dished out to be filled…Yippee!
But, Aston, it is as good as filling the anaesthetic records by hand for a loooong operation, like plastic surgery and the like. And when you survey your work at the end by looking at the anaesthetic record, sometimes even after a few years perchance, it gives you immense satisfaction…doesn’t it... about a job well done!(May be Murali would agree with me). I do exactly the same with the cricket scorebook… God knows how long I can go on though... but I will try and suffer this as much as I do playing cricket … suffering badly but gladly!!
I think if everyone is made to fill endless number of forms, especially the trouble makers, I think the crime rate will come down in the country!

The point of it all....!

2008-08-31T12:31:00.004+01:00

The trip to South Harting was a great entertainment as is usually the case with cricket tours. The hosts were so polite and accommodating. They fed and watered us well including a ploughman’s lunch before departure on a bank holiday Monday. Overall their hospitality is to be remembered and reciprocated.
We started well on the Sunday with a 35 overs match which we won easily. I captained a very young team, which is unusual for me as I am used to captaining a Sunday team in which the slip cordon is 5 strong simply because you cant place them anywhere else for the fear of injury! The bating went well with useful contributions from many. The bowling was a revelation with James Dunn and David Anderson bowling well, later joined by John and Barny with spin. The fielding was of a high standard; my wicket keeping was not but it was adequate with 2 stumpings and a run out. The highlight personally was the photograph above, one I can show my grandchildren in years to come!
But matters on the cricketing front were not so good on the bank holiday. A worse for wear team, which could barely stand upright without going down with cramp and another bout of stomach emptying, was made to play a 20-20,a fast and furious version of the modern cricket with emphasis on agility and fielding, that too on a field which was wet and soggy,with 2 of our sober players out with injury and we were captained by the semi-metallic octagenarian club manager! Undisguised Disaster! Disaster it was; with the hosts packing their side with league players scoring 170 in 20 overs. After the fall of the occasional wicket, (instead of celebrating) every one would be on the ground, horizontal, uttering swearwords describing the pain and the stupidity of playing cricket in rain and blizzard! The reply was never really on but thanks to James sobering up in time to score a career best 70 to take the total to a respectable 120 in our allotted 20 overs. We were happy to return home without further damage!
Our league cricket on the other hand, ended on a high note last Saturday with us extending the winning streak to 13 wins out of 16.There has been many positives to take to the next division, mainly the team spirit. There has been as many as 25 players who played the 16 games but most of the time, the captain could be proud that everyone gave 100%. There is a sense of pride which only a winning team can provide to the players- irrespective of their own personal contributions. Barny, the captain who is such a good bat did not get to bat on 8 occasions! Hamilton who could be a very useful bat and normally scores 300 runs a season batted for the second time this season last Saturday! But everyone got to bowl as we invariably bowled at least 40 overs at the opposition.
The fielding was excellent but for the odd patch of inconsistent and overexuberent throwing. Of course there is this inescapable ‘non-bending’ performance from the select few who at the point of the ball travelling towards their directions stand with the back so straight, a Buckingham palace guard would be proud of (!) and the startled look in their faces saying ‘God, Not to me please’ -with the end result of the ball slipping thru their feet or even their body!
There has been some memorable and breathtaking catches we have witnessed in this league; some by David Anderson, James Dunn and Nick Fanthorpe but Rob Tozer at east Horsley was the one that still lingers in my memory-the unbeatable lazy elegance - nonchalance.
There has been some funny moments too; like at East Horsley Rob T going at the irritating bowler -who was habitually giving obscene send offs - ‘you want a fight mate?’, The Capel captain telling me ‘you do the batting Shakespeare and leave the talking to us’ and Horsley & send top scorer (with 11 runs!) advising how our grounds man is useless as their team was bundled out for 35, perceivably due to doctored pitch!. But the first price goes to Hamilton for shouting ‘what is the point of that’ when I threw wide at the bowler’s end and gave 2 overthrows in the match against Capel- with full animation et al! Such was the intensity of the league which we played that even the ice cool Hamilton lost it on a few occasions! Hopefully everyone who played and watched including Mr Ed Annan who umpired every single match, would have enjoyed the league matches in spite of the fact that we probably belonged two divisions above!

Sledging the Bard and another tied score!

2008-08-19T22:07:00.001+01:00

It was an eventful weekend of cricket for me. We won yet another easy game against the second placed team in our division of the league. It is no exaggeration when I say it was such a mismatch that it was a non-match! They made 63 in 35+ overs and it was chased down in 15 overs for the loss of my wicket. I hope that there would be better competition when we play the next division next year.
The interesting part of this match was the sledging.Or rather a vague attempt at getting on my nerve… which they nearly did, but as I am not the brightest in understanding clues it took me a while to understand the reference to Shakespeare was me!Shakespeare?! Here,I need to explain at this point how I got to be nick named (among other things) Shakespeare. The previous match we played against this opposition at their grounds a few months ago was such a dull and boring draw that I wrote a match report, which even after the fifth draft was still scathing in its criticism
(Link here: http://woldinghamvillage.play-cricket.com/content/view.asp?id=10196641&cid=218&tid=14&referer=&fixture=&team=10058392 )
As you can see we put on 250 and gave them 48 overs to go for it but they started to defend it from ball one. When their opener got out in the 35th over he had made a whopping 14 runs … yes …fourteen runs. And their team total at that juncture was 47 runs. So justifiably everyone was so peeved at this negative line of thinking which was such a drag!
I gave vent to my feelings and rewrote and rewrote a few times and uploaded the match report. I understood that this would cause (and has caused, as I learnt it later!) upset within the opposition team who chance to read this but no official protest followed -I am glad to say. Dion our club manager had a discussion with the league organisers to lament about this negative line of play. This had a great impact on our thinking and ever since we have put the opposition in and bundled them out and successfully chased, in at least 7 games after this experience. This strategy has ensured our entry to the next division. In that regard we had to thank them!
Coming to the match on Saturday, when I entered to bat there were references to Shakespeare and it took me at least 2 overs to realise that it is an attempt at annoying me. More comments followed about my abilities and the batting which I was able to deal with. Later on after the match the opposition skipper had a quite word explaining why they gave me a tough time and I said I understood this and I probably deserved this for my writing. But I still stand by the words as they are genuinely how we, as a team felt, as I heard it from everyone including Mr Ed Annan who was unfortunate enough to umpire the match. Later on at the village institute, I bought the opposition a round of drinks as a goodwill gesture and apologised for the hurt I may have caused by my match report and all was well that ended well.
All of this gave me the idea to write this match report differently.
(Link here: http://woldinghamvillage.play-cricket.com/content/view.asp?id=10210574&cid=218 ) Hope this makes a few people chuckle and there endeth the matter. (May be until I face them next year in the next division!!)
The Sunday match against a wandering team called ‘the wind and the willow’ was every bit exciting; a complete contrast to many of the league games I played this season. Two teams with lot of flaws were found to be evenly matched in the end as the game ended in a tied score (though not a ‘tie’ as Mr Barton points out because the opposition didn’t get all out). Dropped catches, wild, wide deliveries and swings and misses were interspersed with excellent catching, reflex fielding and powerful throwing and all in all, made for a very good game of ‘village cricket’,which Viggy subsequently said was the best match he has played 'ever'- 'ever' in his case is a total of 10 matches!I think this match has gone a long way in covincing him to play cricket with enthusiasm. Masud captained very well and I wish him better luck with runs for the reminder of the season! The find for us was the youngster Will, who opened the bowling with such raw pace that edges were flying thru and over the slip cordon for sure boundaries. Hope he plays for us regularly. Andrew Barton played with such gay abandon, I have never seen in the past years, clouting anything and everything; later on bowled superbly to get 3 wickets. He is my WVCC Idol! David Anderson who never gets to bowl on Saturdays bowled superbly. He is a genuine ‘Freddie’ style all rounder! Hope he doesn’t move out of London for his Job. We are developing Dan Smee into a wicket keeper and he is shaping to be a good one. My only wish is that the Sunday game remains this entertaining and there forms a settled core of youth and experienced players- to enjoy this friendly cricket at the Glebe.

Mandatory misunderstanding!

2008-08-15T20:27:00.000+01:00

We had a walkover last week in our Saturday league and I played a friendly Sunday game after a long time. There is something good about playing a game to ‘give everyone a game’. We drew the game in the end with a wicket to spare but the opposition were not pleased about our interpretation of the 20 mandatory overs. The crux of the matter is that we took it for ‘what it says on the tin’ that is 20 mandatory overs replacing the last hour. The ideal interpretation should be that 20 overs or one hour whichever happens later. They finished 20 overs in 50 minutes and wanted to play on for a further 10 minutes which we didn’t want to, considering that we have lost 8 wickets with only Viggy padded up. Ravi played a stellar innings (6 runs of 90 balls!!) to ensure a draw. It reminds me of the batsman in the past, who used to play so slowly that the only way of appreciating anything he does is to count the number of balls and clap his 100th ball and not unusually he wouldn’t have entered double figures!!!
On a personal note I caught three and stumped one, standing behind the wickets. It is a personal satisfaction to stump to Viggy’s bowling, a dream come true - to keep it all in the family (stumped Dhileepan bowled Dhileepan)! I wish one day I could convince my wife to come and watch us play; but as it is I am really glad that I am allowed to play without too much of aggro at home inspite of facial injuries every other year needing dental treatment! To that extent, it was really surprising to see our opposition Downham and Bellingham arrive with their families for the match (push chairs, prams, bottles and all!). What a good way to enjoy a Sunday.
On matters far away, the India Sri Lanka test series has ended predictably and justifiably 2-1 in favour of Lanka. They were the superior side in every aspect; batting was good with 5 hundreds and 6 fifties from Lankans compared to 1 hundred and 7 fifties by Indian batsmen. Superb fielding by the young Lankan team compared to some oldies in he Indian side that are ‘non-bendy’! Most importantly as the saying goes - you got to take 20 wickets to win a test- the total wickets taken by the teams (India’s 38 in comparison with Lanka’s 58) tells the whole story. This series was lost by the batsmen on superficial perusal, but deep down it is the inability of the seamers to provide the breakthrough and Kumble’s ineffectiveness aided by some ordinary wicket keeping and catching that cost Indians.
I don’t think this will be the end of the ‘fab four’ as the media calls it, namely Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman. There is still some life left in the old trees before bringing them down. My personal opinion would be to drop Dravid as he is the easiest to replace. Next in line would be Ganguly. It will be difficult to find replacements (Like for like, that is) for Tendulkar and Laxman as the technical acumen of the former and the classical wristiness of the later couldn’t be matched by any of the ‘Bench Warmers’ in the Indian team.
I see a cynicism in the Indian Press these days about the ‘ordinariness’ of Tendulkar and the convenience of Injury to bail him out whenever the shout for dropping him from the team gathers noise! This time it is the Elbow. In the past the back, shoulder hand toe etc etc have come to his rescue whenever he faced the imaginary chop from the cynics. But in reality, his image is such that he will never be dropped; only injured or rested! Unlike Steve Waugh he will be bowing out in his own terms. He did well in England and Australia recently, including the one-dayers. I think he is good for another year or two or until his next injury!!!
Dravid’s case is a real pity; he has been struggling for sometime now. Accepting that ‘class is permanent’ I still want him to change his game plan or get out of the rut by some means, It is really painful to see him suffer like this. The trouble with ‘gatherers’ like him is that once your form deserts you, you cant hit your way to a quick 50 and feel good about yourself and banish all your self doubts. At that level mindset is everything; Doubt about your own ability is the killer and to that extent only a handful of batsman (Sehwag is one) who have been blessed with tremendous self belief and confidence that you can still play the same way to get out of poor form. I read that he is one man in the Indian balcony constantly shouting ‘that’s a four gone, that’s a six wasted’ whenever the batsman leaves a ball outside the off stump!Barny does that for us at Woldingham!

Fairwell Tony!

2008-08-04T19:35:00.000+01:00

Tony Seal's Funeral was the first I attended in UK as I have dodged a few in the last 15 years! Jhonny Glover made a very good speech encapsulating the life of Tony in well chosen words,written by his daughters.We observed a minute’s silence in honour of Tony Seal before the commencement of the last weekend’s game. It was indeed a serene moment, when on a cloudy gloomy Saturday afternoon 24 people of differing age groups stood in a rough circle, head bowed, on a cricket pitch in complete silence- when all you can hear is the water streaming down the drain near the wicket and some distant song birds!
Regards to our club, we are surging forward on our way to escaping to the next division with another win last Saturday. With draw as a possibility in this league, captains have to get inventive in finding ways to dislodge stubborn batsmen who would play the ‘leaving’ game! One such instant in the last game saw my captain throw the ball to me in an attempt to make the batsman come out of their shell and hence amenable / susceptible to good balls. In other words when good balls failed he was turning to me to bowl filth, and filth I delivered! Those were probably my most enjoyable 32 deliveries (including 2 no balls) I bowled in my career so for! Donkey drops, long hops, full tosses, leg breaks (which actually turned and beat!) and off breaks- you name it, I tried everything. And I am proud to say that I created 4 opportunities including 2 dropped catches! Job well done. On the batting front though, I am not doing too good and in spite of middling the ball I am not keeping them down. Forever hoping that some day I am going to score big!
On a different but altogether much overused topic in cricket-Footwork- which was such an integral part of me growing up in India, exaggerated gestures and strokes of either foot was the norm when I played cricket in India. When you went forward you nearly fell prostrate on the ground and smothered the ball! And when you went back to cut or pull, you very nearly stepped on the stumps, using the depths of the crease, as they say!
With age and bulk hindering movement I can’t move decisively as I did 25 years ago- however hard I try in the nets! So it is with a certain sense of satisfaction I see the modern batsmen at every level, give two fingers to footwork and rely heavily on ‘hand- eye’ co-ordination ( as the Aussie and Kiwi commentators say ‘ he has got good ‘Hands’). Another important thing these days is bat speed; which has replaced ‘timing’ of the past. In the last Aussie series against Sri Lanka, I was gobsmacked to see a Lankan opener top edge an intended flick to leg side and the ball ballooned over extra cover and …. go for a six! Even considering the railway sleepers they use instead of bats these days, this one was definitely beyond belief!
And another observation is the fact that youngsters these days want to move away from the ball and ‘create room to carve it over’’ the infield. Gone are the days when coaches taught youngsters to get behind the line of the ball on either feet and play along the ground ‘close to the body’ or ‘under your nose’. These days, the advent of 20-20 makes it that you are not inconvenienced by such niceties! Tony Seal once told me how he was coached to taking cricket seriously by an Anglo-Indian Coach in the 1940’s Woldingham. Seeing the matches from the 70’s on ESPN classics is such a treat or bore depending upon which side of the 1970’s you are born!
So, to me, the art of 21st century batting relies on the following:
A good hand-eye co-ordination, heavy bat, big forearms and shoulders to generate bat speed, always getting beside the ball and never behind, the only essential footwork of course is getting your front foot out of the way of the ball …. And swing your way to glory!

The uncluttered mind!

2008-08-04T19:23:00.001+01:00

The second test between Srilanka and India saw the continuation of the same batting debacle for the Indian batsmen- the inability to pick Mendis and Murali- except for one man who backed his guts and didn’t consider anything else! Sehwag!! What an innings! But for the last few overs in the first innings nearing his double hundred,he was never in any doubt as to what to do with the ball. It is a rare genius to possess the strength of the uncluttered mind, absolutely empty at the millisecond the bowler delivers and do what comes most naturally to him, uncomplicated attack, that is! He has converted the last 11 hundreds into 150+ scores! What a man!
They said he hasn’t got the technique; he smashed a hundred in South Africa to start with, outscoring Tendulkar! They said his feet don’t move; he stood and delivered, single handedly changing the perception of Indians about footwork (which in my opinion is overrated and overstated by the experts) They said he cant play long with this attacking attitude; he scored a triple century, first Indian to do so, and then for good measure to remove any luck factor- scored one more again!
The one innings which stood out for me, was the one he played against the visiting England team under Nasser Hussein,
(Link here: http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/statsguru/engine/match/63963.html )
when Ashley Giles was reduced to a farce by the skipper and asked to bowl wide outside the leg stump to check the run rate, whilst Flintoff bowled wide outside the off stump at the other end! This was as cunning as the body line bowling but I would blame this game for the poor attendance at Bangalore for test matches ever since!! Tendulkar after speeding his way to a fifty was forced to pad out over after over of this trash. The mere pointlessness of this farce, is amply evidenced, when you look at Giles figures (18 maidens!?) and Dravid’s strike rate( 3 runs of 70 balls). Then, out strolled Sehwag and a breath of fresh air. He charged Giles moving three steps outside the leg stump and played inside out over cover time after time and put Sachin into shame. When Giles checked his line closer to him trying to beat, he cut him to pieces. Later Tendulkar did play some of these shots as if inspired and reached 90 before getting out stumped (incidentally his first and only time in his test career). I think that was an innings of rare confidence and simplicity.
Last week,I saw Kevin Pieterson deal with similar trash from Harris, in his own special way- switch hitting him for 2 boundaries and made him come round the wicket. Genius! But he lost all the advantage by charging him trying to reach his century with a six!The cluttered mind hinders more than any technical defeciency!

the week that was!

2008-07-29T11:39:00.000+01:00

Our village club won another Saturday game in the Surrey Downs league. The batting was good in the absence of the regular heavy weights. The catching was of the usual WVCC standards but the ground fielding was reasonable barring a few of the ‘non-bending’ slips thru the legs. The new recruits batted well to win the game, Karthi and Crowther, two left handers playing their first match together, of contrasting styles, one an orthodox well groomed batsman and other fearlessly swinging thru the line, and were very effective against a team which was slowly losing control and grip of the match in fading light; typical stuff that village matches are made of; Exciting!
Personally it was satisfactory for me for two reasons; firstly I drove one off the middle of my bat, straight past the tall bowler who was evading in a hurry. But for the uppishness of the shot, this could have been my moment of perfect ending. I always reckon that driving an over pitched one straight past the bowler along the ground with the strength and timing of Rob Tozer, and my cricketing career is done; then and there, shake hands, thank everyone and pack the bags for good! This was about 70 % nearer!
The second was when I decided to walk after a faintest of the feathers down the leg side to the keeper. As I was walking back, the opposition skipper put his hand on my shoulder and half asked, half exclaimed in astonishment, ‘you are walking, batsman?’ I said ‘no, I am bursting, prostate’s playing up!’I always complain about the lack of honesty and truthfulness that is slowly changing the present day cricket- including, at the village level. So the more opportunities I get to do this sort of thing the more it cements the idea within me. There is a saying in Tamil ‘Than nenjarivadhu poyyarka!’ ‘Be truthful to your heart’- about the virtues of conscientiousness.
On a less serious note, I witnessed the first ‘handled the ball’ of my umpiring. John Tozer stopping the ball from going on to the stumps with his hand; probably it would have missed the stumps!
Elsewhere,following the first test between SriLanka and India, I couldn’t help wondering if the batting ‘gods’ of India have lost the plot! The bowlers have conceded an impossible first innings total to Lankans, 600 is never going to be easy, but surely with the rain and bad light likely to influence the duration of the match, the sensible thing would be to bat out session after session rather than be aggressive.
Sachin, Sourav and Laxman were guilty of trying to dominate whilst Dravid, the Wall, was clueless against Mendis in both innings. I agree this guy is difficult to pick of the hand and it is often too quick of the pitch to play late. Still the four batsmen we are talking about have together scored about 34,000 test runs and about 35000 one day runs. Surely they would know a thing or two about batting!
Sachin had the strategy of playing him of the front foot well in front of him to make him bowl slightly short of a length and read him of the pitch. And it worked in negotiating Mendis. Unfortunately his problems of dealing with right arm off spin remain (he has got out to even Michael Vaughn, even club off spinners would fancy their chances!) and Murali got the better of him both times. Ganguly, the best test batsman since his comeback was trying his best but lack of cricket showed.
Laxman was the most comfortable of the four, playing positively and with the wrist like Federer and reflexes still intact; he could play off the pitch and still keep the ball safe.He is India’s best bet to drawing the next one and should bat at number four.

Tony is Dead.....

2008-07-24T00:05:00.000+01:00

...Yes Tony seal is dead today.he is... no ..was a good friend of mine,nice character,amiable person, well mannered and good humoured,friendly,jolly,healthy,loved his wine...and women they say....and most importantly played cricket for our club.
I need to say at this point that I suffer from cricket very badly but gladly,though! and i play for a village cricket club in Surrey...a pretty village small and picturesque and a nice cricket ground to go with,too.I was introduced to the club a few years ago and since then I learnt of my inner suffering and the void that could never be filled which make me go for more.... every weekend of the summer in the hope of achieving something but without knowing what!
Tony was the past president and I succeeded him as the Honorary secretary after he has been diagnosed... Normally,indigestion and bloated feeling could usually go away with a gaviscon except when your luck runs out and when you live in the western world with all the medical advances.. which invariably results in investigations and the diagnosis.... and Last October Tony's luck ran out.
Hip replacement and CABG were a stroll in the park and he could still dive to his left to stop or catch at 75!(''The trick is in the timing...of the collapse'' he would say!) as a wicket keeper I have seen some of his astonishing ''calculated collapses'' to come up with the ball in the hand.)
They say that in America a healthy man is an undiagnosed man and people no longer die ;they arrest.Even though medical profession has prepared me for shocks in my own life and generally benumbed... to various diagnoses of people I know and care about!, seeing Tony thru various stops on the road to death was a bit upsetting! But he kept his spirits up all the time,no question! and he would just say the chemo was a bugger or the oncologist was a nuisance nothing more than that.
When I saw him in November and had a chat with the medics at the hospital ( their''aggressive tumour and liver mets'' vs Tony's ''it is only a slight obstruction,I will be fine for the next season'' ) there was this dilemma as to how much should Tony know.
It is a disgusting feeling when modern medicine actually predicts accurately;it is as upsetting to me like the rain predictions by the weather man for the week end comes true to the hour...esp on a day I am itching to get out there.
Tony's family knew and informed me that he knew what was happening.He told me that it couldn't be worse than the heart bypass.I said 'of course Tony, you will bounce back;moreover we cant replace the specialist gully and obdurate number eleven' .....but the surgical colleague at work ,telling me that a median survival of 12 months with chemo, left me wondering if he will last till the end of the season and sure as hell he didn't !
Another one bites the Dust!