Farewell Zaheer Khan

"The toughest call in a cricketing career is when one has to walk away from the game itself. You almost 'will' yourself and want to push that few, extra miles but then the body, after nearly two decades, decides not to respond."

These were the opening words of the farewell statement by Zaheer Khan, without doubt one of India's greatest fast bowlers and cetainly the best left-hand pacer the country has produced.

The numbers first - 610 wickets in 92 Tests, 200 ODIs, 17 T20Is in a career spanning 14 years. These are numbers to be proud of. And to this add being a member of a World Cup winning XI. But sheer numbers cannot define his contribution. He was the leader of India's pace attack and its de facto bowling captain over a large part of his career. And he left quite a few memories to cherish for the Indian fan. Here are my favorite ones.

1. The yorker to knock out Steve Waugh's stumps in the ICC Knockout event in Kenya in 2000. What a wonderful sight it was to see a yorker delivered by an Indian fast bowler.
2. 4 consecutive sixes off Henry Olonga to end the innings against Zimbabwe. Yet India contrived to lose that game.
3. The jellybean incident against England which riled him up so much that he proceeded to destroy the English batting and take India to a rare away series victory.

The Law of Appreciations

Cricket is a funny game. Famous quote that ‘the game is a great leveller’ isn’t an understatement. Statistics play a vital role in the game, probably more than they do in any other sport. Sooner or later, the perennial ‘law of averages’ catches up with the best of the best in the sport. No one is spared, ironically, not even the greatest of them all, Sir Don Bradman. And along with these averages, the age of a player also catches up with him. The skills don’t leave a sportsperson, but his reflexes, agility and physical and mental strength definitely become weaker with time. It is unrealistic and foolhardy not to expect that. The case of Mahendra Singh Dhoni is also not any different.

After the T20I series loss to South Africa, all the pressure was on Team India, even more on its already burdened captain. His bat has not fired in recent times the way we are used to it. The team’s performance has also been not too good in the limited overs format under him since the World Cup. On top of that, the historic series win in Sri Lanka under young gun Kohli has put Dhoni under more scrutiny, which is kind of implausible rather than sardonic, given the simple fact that we are talking about arguably one of India’s greatest captain, at least statistically (given that I am also a die hard dada fan). The point is not to compare Sourav’s and MSD’s captaincy records or any other captain’s for that matter, it is about the incredible and often improbable set of expectations that we have from our players. 

Chauka : A Cricket Based Startup to Help Amateur Cricketers

Chauka has developed mobile apps along with web version which allows amateur cricketers for the first time to record their matches using smartphones ball by ball and keep it online. It gives each player detailed statistics from the tournament, similar to Cricinfo which lets them analyze their performance over time such as how they are getting out, which bowler is taking his wicket most etc. It is based out of Bangalore, India with the team size of 10 including developers and marketing guys. It’s a way for amateur cricketers to find other players more easily, to play more and get socialize with other cricketers.

Chauka was found in 2012, by Manoj Iragavarapu after he observed most of the tournaments used paper based method to score the matches. Their aim is to have every cricketer(school, college, club or corporate) on a single platform and score every match and every tournament. The app and the platform is free to use and the revenue stream comes from offering customized solutions to cricket clubs, academies and event organizers. Going forward, Chauka also offers each player detailed statistics and chart his or her entire cricketing path.

Currently more than 20,000 cricketers are using our mobile apps to record their matches and many of the cricket tournament organizers are also using Chauka as official scoring tool. Some of the organizers are Dr.D Y Patil Sports Academy of  Mumbai, Houston Cricket League of Texas and Dallas Leather Ball Cricket League. And Chauka has 30,000+ followers on Facebook. In spite of the competitors from other countries, Chauka distinguishes itself with the robust technology backing it’s platform, and the audience has also responded well so far. 

Apps: Android | IOS

Website: chauka.in

The English Turnaround

The matches going on over the past few weeks have provided really interesting and unexpected results. Pakistan securing a seemingly unlikely win over Sri Lanka in Galle; that too after being in a precarious situation on day 4 and more than a day’s play was washed away. Bangladesh finally achieving that elusive series win over their ‘Big Brothers’ India and threatening to white wash the series by winning the dead rubber. But for me, the most fascinating and captivating series on display was England, or rather “New” England defeating the World Cup runners-up New Zealand 3-2 in the recently concluded ODI series at home.

Before the start of the series, no one would have given a chance to the English team. Although they had managed to level the test series at a match a piece, New Zealand in ODI format are a really formidable side, in any conditions. The English team had many new faces, in a possible bid to form a team for the next world cup, after a horrendous performance in this year’s quadrennial event. The plague faced by the English team was known by all; there was a light year’s gap between their approach to the ODI game and other top teams. This mindset had not changed for the English side which in recent years had become more focused on its approach in the test matches. The fact that they became the top test team in the world even furthered their perception that the same approach will prove to be successful in the shorter formats as well. A grave mistake, as they all would now agree in hindsight.

After their dismal exit from the world cup league stage and sacking of coach Peter Moores, English team had became the butt of many jokes. Voices supporting the reinstating of flamboyant Kevin Pietersen were gaining strength. After all, he had also in many public and social platforms voiced his keen desire to don the English colours again. In a bid to earn his place back, Pietersen even let go of his lucrative IPL contract with the Sunrisers Hydrabad and went back to county circuit. As luck would have it, Andrew Strauss was appointed the new Director of Cricket for ECB. The same Strauss, about whom Pietersen had forwarded insulting remarks to the visiting South African team players. Since then, there was no love lost between the two.

Ashes Promo - "We Didn't Start the Fire"

The Ashes maybe nearly a month away. And both England and Australia have to complete other tours before they take on each other in the latest edition of one of the oldest rivalries in international sport. While we wait, Sky Sports has come up with this promo. 

They have reworded Billy Joel’s lyrics of “We didn’t start the fire” and giving voice are the likely series commentators Holding, Atherton, Hussain, Warne, Lloyd. The whole montage is brimming with Ashes history. 

Here are the lyrics 

Donald Bradman, Peter May, At The Oval, Final Day,

Little Urn, Bob's perm, W G Grace

Walter Hammond, Mitchell Johnson, At The Gabba, Big Decision

Chris Broad, Ponsford, Riiiiiiiiiichie Benaud

Larwood's Bodyline, Athers slips on 99

Laker, Jones' dive, Gower flying in the sky

Baggy Greens, swing/seam, Warnie's ball in '93

Ricky Ponting, Pratty gets him, Freddie makes the bails fly!

We didn't start the fire... 

10, 11 whitewash, Nasser and that toss

Tubby Taylor, Sher-minator, Brigadier-block

Swansongs, follow-ons, Headingley '81

Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh, Harmy's shocking first ball

Brett Lee, on his knees, Aussies got a winning team

Davy Warner, third man, Andy Flower's England

John Snow, final Test, Manchester, yes, Chef!

Thommo, Lillee, fierce pace, Bumble smacked in that place...

We didn't start the fire... 

Benaud - The Voice of Cricket

10th April 2015 was possibly the saddest day for the world of Cricket in my memory with the passing away of Richie Benaud- a cricketer par excellence, a commentator in a class of his own , a true gentleman and a superb human being. He was the Bob Hope of cricket - loved and adored by all, no one had a bad word to say about him. He loved cricket and having been involved with the game for over six decades, was able to adjust himself almost nonchalantly to the changes and ups and downs of the game.

Although his main recognition came as a broadcaster, he also stands out as an exceptional cricketer in the record books being the first cricketer to score 2000 runs and take 200 wickets. He was an extremely useful all-rounder, bringing wrist style leg spin bowling into fashion. He excelled as a captain never having lost a series and winning the Ashes three times bringing a distinctive style of aggression into the game not hitherto heard of. However, he came into his own behind the microphone and created a style of commentary which could not be imitated. His tremendous knowledge, deep insight into the game and choice of words made his commentary a unique experience and an enjoyment for the listeners which was so abstract it could not be put into words.Even his silence spoke volumes. He certainly knew when to speak and when not to. He never had to use words like 'you know', 'I mean' , 'tragedy'  and 'disaster' and so on. We never heard him describe a shot by a batsman as a 'great cricket shot' so frequently mentioned by other commentators. After all it is cricket and not football !! When one of his fellow commentators described a dropped catch as a