A Question of Cricket

I’ve got back into “A Question of Sport” recently. For any readers outside of the UK who at this point are saying “WTF”, QofS is basically a sporting quiz on the BBC that features famous sportsmen and women past and present. It’s a little bit kooky and with Phil Tufnell on the panel it can even border on “zany” occasionally.

On Monday night, Jonathan Trott was a guest on the show. The guy is a fricken genius. He knew the answers to every sport: rugby, motor racing, football the lot.

It reminded me that he and his England colleagues are finally on a little break from playing cricket, as he cosied up to Matt Dawson et al. He’s been playing cricket solidly for months and months. A rest and an appearance on QofS is just what the doctor ordered.

A little rest and relaxation can do wonders for professional sportsmen, just ask Carlos Tevez.

Not all cricketers are chillaxing right now though, with Australia currently touring South Africa and India playing host to the West Indies. Sri Lanka are also concluding their series against Pakistan with a round of One Day Internationals.

The crowds for all these series have been disappointing though, and in the case of the India vs West Indies series they’ve been atrocious. Less than 1000 people turned up for the opening day of the second test at cricketing institution Eden Gardens, even with the chance of Sachin Tendulkar scoring his hundredth test hundred in the offing.

But can you blame the good people of Kolkata? It’s only a couple of weeks since England played India in back-to-back One Day and T20 international matches there.

Sure, when your national cricket team rock into town it’s a big deal, particularly when it’s your national sport as cricket is in India, but buying 3 lots of tickets for international matches within a couple of weeks of each other is going to stretch anyones purse strings.

Not only that, but the first day of the second test match was on a Monday. Now call me an old stick-in-the-mud but people do need to work occasionally, especially if they are paying exorbitant prices for, amongst other things, going to cricket matches.

Its clear that international cricket is being scheduled around TV stations nowadays, so we shouldn’t be surprised. Despite the miles between India and South Africa, their games have seemingly been scheduled so that they don’t overlap each other, meaning global TV audiences can enjoy both matches without missing a moment (if of course you are that keen to watch both series that is!)

The speed at which wickets have fallen in both series thus far though, notwithstanding India’s gargantuan 631/7 declared in the second test at Eden Gardens means the schedulers need not have worried so, but that’s another issue.

The point is, with the emphasis so obviously on TV schedules and not on the paying public actually going to the ground, is there any wonder Eden Gardens looked like a “morgue” on Monday, as Tony Greig put it?

And it was. And it was horrible to see. But the ICC and the cricket boards (and the TV companies) that schedule these tours only have themselves to blame.

We all love seeing cricket, but let’s keep it sacred. Saturating the market never did anyone any favours.

A lot of people watch cricket on TV and I don’t have a problem with that. It’s a global sport, and the TV companies do a great job in allowing us all to watch cricket wherever it is taking place in the world.

But seeing the empty stands at Eden Gardens yesterday and to a lesser extent Newlands in Cape Town last week, which wasn’t full either – amazing for such a high-profile series, is going to have a negative impact on the game in the long run.

A Question of Sport is, in truth, a little bit dull, but it’s good to have a little rest-bite from the things we love. Less cricket might, for the players as well as the paying public might just do us all a favour.

Tom Huelin for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Tom on Twitter @tomhue1

The Australian Collapse: Has It Been Worse?

It was the early hours of the morning when I was tuned into the forever reliable cricinfo.com text commentary for the South Africa vs Australia test match. Fresh off (what I thought then) a career defining 151 from Michael Clarke, I witnessed the (what I thought then) underrated Shane Watson produce a record breaking five wicket haul and a typical South African choke. At 96 all out at nearly 2am in the morning, sleep took quick preference over this supposedly dead test match.

But alas!
In the car on the way to work, and the good folk on talk-back radio were going bananas the next morning. I remember distinctly thinking that 96 all out is a bad effort, but nothing to be flipping upside-down about, what’s all this excited chatter? Then I realized they weren’t even talking about them, the king of chokers were out choked themselves. Repeat after me, 47 all out, Australia. Forty Seven. All Out.

No? Try this one for size, 9 for 21. Nine Australian wickets, 21 runs. Hasn’t quite sunk in yet? Me neither. The most ridiculous result since these two teams produced the 438 run chase.

The first thoughts for everyone were how can a team as good as Australia be quite so abysmal.

• Was it the pitch? Nope, as Amla and Smith showed us with glee.
• Was it the pressure? Not with a huge first innings lead.
• Was it amazing bowling? It was solid at best, but no demolition job.

Excuses nil, it was just bad batting. Exceptionally and inexplicably bad batting. The question I put to you dear reader is, has it ever been this bad? Has a test team of this quality ever been ripped away in such a manner? The Cricket Musings aims to find out (at least for the last decade or so), along with a grading of possible excuses.
Case 1: India Fail. New Zealand Epic Fail
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64021.html
India were the laughing stock of the world after Shane Bond finished them off the in first test of this series. A series famous for is green tops that made Daryll Tuffey and Andre Adams menacing (!), things were no better as India slumped to a pathetic 99 all out after another inept display. But the real laugh arrived when New Zealand themselves were blown away for 94 all out, three innings in one day. Too bad that India couldn’t capitalize and gave New Zealand a poor 160 as the successfully chased down fourth innings target, but it was nonetheless a harsh lesson for a team only slightly worse than the tourists.

Pitch Quality: D
Bowling Quality: B
Stupidity: B


Case 2: Australia Squander 107
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64102.html

Having already crashed India’s party at home by bowling them out for 104 with a 2:0 lead in the series, Australia were left to chase 107 after a manic Indian third innings saw Laxman and Tendulkar manage important 50s and Michael Clarke take bowling figures of 6 for 9. Michael Clarke successes are a bad omen it seems, as Australia were bundled out for 93 on what was a dodgy Mumbai minefield. When was the last time Bhajji ran through a line-up? This was probably it.
Pitch Quality: D
Bowling Quality: B
Stupidity: B


Case 3: West Indies Destroy England
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/63639.html
It was a rare and beautiful thing to see the Ambrose and Walsh machine fire on both cylinders, and when it does happen only devastation is left in its wake. England were the unfortunate victims this time, forget the entirely achievable target of 194 because when you get the greatest fast bowling partnership of our generation, almost nothing is achievable. Given the bowling quality, it seems a miracle they even got to 46.
Pitch Quality: B
Bowling Quality: A+
Stupidity: not applicable

Don't even bother turning around son. © PA Photos

Case 4: West Indies Destroy England – Deja Vu
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/352661.html
Fast forward fifteen years later and we have a strong English unit and a generally woeful West Indies. The poms were looking to wipe away the first innings lead the West Indies had, a measly 73 runs. Too bad then that they didn’t even get that far, as Jerome Taylor in a career one-off performance, smashed England to bits as they succumbed to 51 all out. Those old skeletons of 1994 were back in their glory. England recovered and this wasn’t the defining turning point for West Indies cricket, but what a great piece of nostalgia it was.
Pitch Quality: B
Bowling Quality: A
Stupidity: not applicable

Case 5: The Adelaide Ashes Choke
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ausveng/engine/match/249223.html
Not so long ago England were fodder, and this match was ample proof of it. Having met Australia eye to eye in this important 2nd test, England were faced with one day to play out the draw. They met an inspired Shane Warne instead who helped demolish them for 129 all out in 73 overs of truly aimless batting giving the Australians a target of 168, accepted with glee at more than 5 runs an over. It set the tone for a famous 5-0 whitewash, the most damaging thing being that one of the Glenn McGrath predictions actually came true.
Pitch Quality: A
Bowling Quality: A
Stupidity: A

Case 6: The Fawad Alam Debut From Hell

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/403368.html
Poor Fawad Alam. Ignored by the selectors now, he produced a classy 168 on debut and that too in Colombo. With no Murali around Pakistan were cruising along at 285-2 with a nice healthy lead and their sights on a fourth innings target touching the 300 mark. Wrong, chaos ensued.

2-285 (Younis Khan, 78.1 ov), 3-294 (Mohammad Yousuf, 81.2 ov),4-303 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 86.5 ov),
5-303 (Fawad Alam, 87.2 ov), 6-306 (Kamran Akmal, 88.3 ov), 7-312 (Shoaib Malik, 89.2 ov),
8-316 (Abdur Rauf, 90.2 ov),9-319 (Umar Gul, 95.4 ov), 10-320 (Saeed Ajmal, 96.4 ov)

It all started with Younis Khan attempting and failing a dumb reverse sweep. Sri Lanka knocked off the eventual target of 171, losing nine wickets for 35 in a true definition of losing the plot.

Pitch Quality: B
Bowling Quality: C
Stupidity: A

How about that sprinting career then? © AFP

Case 7: Pakistan’s 50s… In The Same Match
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64002.html
Arguably the worst performance by a batting team in test match history. Pakistan needn’t have bothered turning up as they registered their lowest score in test history, folding for 59 all out. Not content with that, they lowered their own mark in the same match with a second innings response of 53 all out. The match was over in two days, and in the wise words of Steve Waugh ”You expect to have to fight a bit harder than that to win a Test match”.

Pitch Quality: B
Bowling Quality: A
Stupidity: A+

The bottom line: Australia, you were not alone. Rest a little easier.

Contributed by : Varun Prasad
Varun’s blog : The Cricket Musings

Hang on; The Show goes on !

Cricket is a strange game where amusing things keep happening. So it is neigh say impossible to remain away from Cricket for long; even when India play Sri Lanka in a 21 match bilateral ODI series soon after the IPL. So much fun on the run and how could SPun Doctor miss all the pun ?

So here is my 11 for the week that was or almost.

1] Run Gauty Run: First of all Gautam’s running between wickets has become a Gambhir problem for India. Every time he sets out for a run, he seems to run out of ideas. He needs to contact Abhishek Bachchan immediately to get an idea. GG is just 2G he needs to upgrade to “What an !dea 3G”

2] Limited Sehwagging: Virendar Sehwag probably needs to be reminded of a Test match being played over 5 days and not 20 overs. He last played competitive Cricket for Delhi Daredevils and since then hasn’t seen the 21st over yet. He also has become the most stumped player of all times.

3] No Es-Cape Town: South Africa and Australia collectively lost 20 wickets for 143 runs at one stage during the first test in mildly testing conditions at Cape Town. Australian collapse looked more like West Indian. And short little Raina and other Indian batsmen are supposed to be weak against pace and short pitched bowling.

4] Taylor for the minnows: Zimbabwe on the other hand have shown tremendous guts in their come back to test Cricket. The last day of the Bulawayo test was a great day for Test Cricket in spite of the fact that the underdog lost. It was a Taylor made chase till Brendon lasted. All stitches fell off after his fall.

Taylor played Captain's knock !

5] Capital Punishment: India have been quite benevolent all these years allowing the likes of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru to live luxuriously at our expenditure and going on postponing the gallows. But for once, Team India escaped from Capital punishment at the national Capital thanks to meek capitulation by West Indies and some special bowling by Ravichandran Ashwin. Conceding 95 runs on first innings against stronger teams would have meant a fifth straight test defeat for Dhoni and Co.

6] Royal British Certificate of Merit: We the Indians somehow need the British to certify our products and prodigies even six decades after they left the shores. It was the Surrey Manager Chris Adams’ certificate that gave Ojha a new lifeline and he has done well to hang on. But has the hangman’s noose fallen elsewhere on a certain Turbanator’s career ? 

7] Complete Retirement Plans: Shahid Afridi has made a awesome welcome back to international Cricket at the tender yet ripe age of 25. When he decides to retire this time, he promises to retire completely ! And until he retires completely, we should not consider his retirement as full and final. We hope he will join Mohammed Yusuf in the retirement home once he does so finally. Or will he ? 

8] Down with the Count Down: Sachinists all over India, abroad and on the Mars should remember one thing. He has managed to score the hundredth run ninety nine times in the past two decades. He can as well do it the hundredth time sooner than  later. But to do so, he needs to score those ninety nine runs first. At least keep peace till he enters nineties. So can we please relax and let him relax too ? And for TENdulkar’s sake, can we begin the count down from Ten rather than Hundred ? 

9] Spots Fixed Butt there still is an appeal: While the Pakistani troika of Butt, Asif and Amer have been fixed to their spots in the UK prison by stringent laws, Pakistan have steamrolled a much stronger on paper Sri Lanka in their home series being played abroad. Pakistan Cricket never runs out of surprises, while the shamed trio is busy making a different kind of appeal ! 

10] Cricket Bravery award of the year:  Siddle and Lyon for saving Aussies from the ignominy of equaling the lowest ever score in a Test innings and also for more than doubling the score from where they came together. So shocked were the South Africans by the Australian batting display that even Morkel failed bowl a single no ball or a wide ball.

11] A Cricket Trivia question: How many times has a number 11 batsman top scored for his team in a Test innings ? Australia achieved the distinction at Cape Town. While the former greats lose sleep, the haloed Baggy Green ain’t green no more !

With a lot more Cricket coming up, SPun Doctor hopes to ‘come back’ with more pun on the run. That honestly doesn’t mean retirement and come back.

Govind Raj Shenoy aka SPun Doctor for DieHard Cricket Fans

Imran Tahir and the Best Test Debut Ever!

Cleaned Up! Tahir on test Debut

The test match going on at Newlands, Cape Town at the moment will be remembered for many things, but being Imran Tahir’s test debut for South Africa is unlikely to be one of them, unless South Africa lose 8 more wickets on day 3 and the former Hampshire spinner is required to score the winning runs.

Unlikely, but hell, crazier shit has happened today!

Australia resumed on day two with captain Michael Clarke a ton to the good and his side in a position to pass 250, the minimum Clarke had deemed as acceptable at stumps on day one.

Clarke took Australia to 285 all out and seemingly “in the match”.

Tahir bowled a handful of tidy enough overs but it was other debutant, Vernon Philander who took the plaudits taking three wickets whilst Dale Steyn’s ferocious fast bowling had the hyperbole-merchants going into overdrive with his figures of 4/55.

What came next was borderline farce. First South Africa capitulated for 96 all out before Australia went one “better”, in the lunacy stakes, by scoring a hundred-year worst of 47 all out, yes, ALL OUT, in their second innings.

18 wickets fell for just 68 runs in the afternoon session in what was a quite unbelievable day of test cricket.

And it was needed, even if you’re an Australia fan. After the negative headlines of the spot fixing trial and the poor attendances of last weeks India vs West Indies test match in Delhi, this scintillating battle has resonated all around the world, confirming what many of us have known for a long time – that at its best, nothing beats test cricket.

South Africa put on 81/1 in their second innings before stumps at the end of day two, needing 155 to win with 9 wickets still in hand and they’ll fancy their chances. It is quite unbelievable that, going into day 3, we are already talking about a 4th innings chase – it’s been a surreal, incredible game of test cricket.

But what of our man Tahir? Well, he might not have much more to do in this game, sadly for him. A dozen or so inoffensive overs, no wickets and two runs with the bat, but I think he might just remember his first game in test cricket rather fondly, if the Proteas seal the deal tomorrow.

Tom Huelin for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Tom on Twitter @tomhue1

New Stars in Making?

Diwali: Over. England: Gone. F1: Done: Metallica: Finished

What’s next??? For a cricket fan its West Indies next.

Bring on the white’s is what I would say. Before discussing what’s next, I would like to discuss what India got from the just concluded ODI Series against England.

After a disastrous England tour specially a forgettable test series in England, this ODI series was very important for India, it was a chance to try out young talent and check bench strength and it was also a chance to win back their lost morale and confidence and also win the fan’s confidence who have doubted the team. In India fans forget the wins and achievements of the team but never forget the loss and poor performances. Which I feel is very disheartening as I feel we should support the more even more if they are down and out. So coming back to the England ODI series, performance of the team have been nothing short of brilliant. India have outplayed England in all the departments of the game be it fielding, batting and bowling most heartening being the fielding as we are considered to be a little poor in that department.

After the poor England tour the selectors were brave enough to rest and drop a few of the seniors which proved that even the selectors are looking at the future and looking for better options. The most important outcome for me from this series was 2 young bowlers who have the ability to bowl at 145 KMPH consistently, they have been the 2 bright spots of this series and look like the future stars, What they have got to this Indian team is Pace which was never there, the two are Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav. At last all the prayers for a real quick bowler from Indian’s have been answered, inform of Yadav and Aaron. Fast bowlers in India are endangered species. Either there are not any quick bowlers in India, the reasons for not having enough fast bowlers in Indian domestic cricket would require another post which I will discuss some other time and 2^nd reason being the amount of cricket they play at international level make them military medium pace, Munaf Patel being the prime example of it, he burst onto the international circuit as a tear away fast bowler but he is only a medium pacer now. We have seen many a games been turned around with just genuine pace, West Indies did it in the 70s and 80s and did it consistently, even Pakistani team have been doing it since a long time, they have been the breeding house for real quick bowlers since a long time.  I wish Aaron and Yadav continue to bowl fast and not sacrifice pace. Another aspect about both of them which is very heartening is that they both are supremely fit and athletic, so it does not look like they would sacrifice their pace for line and length and would continue to remain fit for International circuit. It’s not that pace is very important but you do need a little bit of pace to ruffle the batsmen and specially the tailenders, they find it most difficult to face genuine pace.

In 4^th ODI at Mumbai it was so heartening to see when Aaron who was brought back in final over’s to rattle the tail and dismiss England tail for low score, haven’t ever seen a Indian fast bowler do this to oppositions, it’s always been India at the receiving India of such lethal bowling, one delivery that I still remember bowled by Aaron is the one when he  clean bowled Alistair Cook in 5^th ODI at Kolkata, the delivery isn’t anything special its pitched outside the off stump coming into the left hander with the angle, he was clearly beaten with pace, this is what genuine pace get to the table, even in 1^st ODI at Hyderabad Yadav was made to bowl in the death over’s to dismiss the tail and he did it very well by dismissing the tail quickly. This is the benefit of pace, which Indian cricket have never had. Sometimes there’s nothing of the pitch and the conditions isn’t favoring the swing at that time genuine pace comes in and helps the bowling team. This is where these 2 will benefit and serve India for the time to come.

It will be considered too early to talk about them, but I feel the next series that they play would be the acid test for them, as they will be judged according to their follow up performance until then everyone would believe and they would fear that they would sacrifice their pace for line and length. I just wish Indian cricket nurtures this natural talent and looks after them, as I feel fast bowlers require special care and attention, which Indian cricket should provide them. But honestly Indian cricket isn’t used to taking care of fast bowlers as they have not had any real quick bowlers, it’s very important for Indian officials to find right people and correct balance to take care about them, fast bowlers require right people to help and advice. Just wish these 2 serve Indian cricket for a long time to come and bring a lot of smiles on fans of Indian cricket.

Other players who have also contributed to this fantastic performance are: R Ashwin, Virat Kohli, R.Jadeja and A.Rahane.

Just wish that these players continue the good work done by their seniors over the years.

Indian Cricket looks safe in the hands of these Youngsters.

Ricky Singh for DieHard Cricket Fans

The Spotfixing Verdict

August 21, 2010 – The day the cricketing world was shaken up with following edition of the “News of the World” paper.

In the immediate aftermath of the Lords Test, the trio of Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir was dropped from the Pakistan team and later banned by the ICC. But this wasn’t the worse to come for the trio as an year later a jury found them guilty and gave them prison terms of varying lengths.

The first thought on hearing of the outcome of the case was that just punishment had been meted out to the guilty party. The spot fixing scam had left a sense of betrayal. It was weird to imagine to what extent people were going to make money. For the players it must have been an easy option. Take money on the side, bowl a couple of no-balls (which aren’t an oddity by themselves) at fixed points. During this they could still be giving their best for the country as well. I wondered there were people who actually bet on this kind of stuff. And the sums were large enough to be able to buy off the players. All this is still beyond belief.

The whole sequence of events is full of ironies

The whole saga was brought to light not by any anti-corruption agencies, ICC or government bodies but by a now-defunct newspaper which had to be closed down due its unethical ways of getting information.

Mohammed Amir actually bowled one of the better fast bowling spells in recent times. His no-ball was part of a spell in which he took the wickets of Cook, Pietersen, Collingwood, Morgan, Prior and Swann. Showing that except for the no ball he bowled his best for his country.

Salman Butt captained Pakistan to 2 test victories including the first one against Australia in around 15 years. It seemed Pakistan had found some stability when the scandal broke out. The irony of life that his son was born the day he was handed a prison sentence.

Mohammed Asif was the one who had talent, and has taken extra-ordinary measures to blow it away. Drugs scandal, physical fights with team mates and finally the spot-fixing case. Also it turns out that he was paid more than others to ensure that he doesn’t change over to a rival spot-fixing gang.

The verdict has made a few things clear.

• If you are caught fixing you are not just banned from the game, you are jailed as well. At least in England. Hopefully this would set some deterrent.
• There are more names involved here which haven’t yet come out. Comments regarding Asif certainly seem to suggest that.

Hopefully cricket is cleaner now, at least I would like to believe so, though the eveidence may suggest otherwise. But this is only the tip. Every allegation has to be thoroughly investigated. And the concerned should have immediate life bans set on them. Otherwise any odd incident would be looked at it in a different light.

Nishant Kumar for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Nishant on Twitter @NishantSKumar