The Tribe of Indian Fast Bowlers

“Jasprit Bumrah you beauty”, “Mohammad Shami is ripping apart the middle order”, Ishant Sharma is making early breakthroughs”, these are some statements acknowledged by great players sitting in the commentary box and rejoicing to see the Indian Fast bowling hunting in the ground.

From the past two years, there has been a dramatic shift in the overall building of the Indian cricket team. The heavy Indian batting order has always been in talks but that has been overshadowed by the tribe of Indian pace bowlers in recent times. Indian fast bowlers have emerged in the International arena and are making inroads to the world dominance. The biggest addition to this pace attack has been undoubtedly Jasprit Bumrah along with Mohammad Shami & Ishant Sharma in the test format.

In 2018, the Indian pace attack combined took around 172 wickets with 133 wickets accomplished by the trio of Shami-Sharma-Bumrah. They have been phenomenal with their accuracy and have been consistently hitting the 140kmph mark and above. The Indian pace bowlers had the average of 23.72 better than their counterparts like NewZealand, England & Australia.

Boom: Once in a Lifetime Phenomenon !

India have played 550 plus tests till now. We've had history of flickers of good to fabulous bowling overshadowed by humongous runs piled by run machines like Hazare, Merchant, Tiger Pataudi, Vishwanath, Gavaskar, Mohindar, Azharuddin, Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag and Kohli.

Except for a perfect 10 by Kumble, a couple of test hat-tricks and the legendary spin quartet of the yore, Indian Cricket is an enduring story of batsmen lording over barren brown patches and capitulating like greenhorns on greener surfaces. We always lionised our batsmen or condemned them because we never really had a bowling unit that could claim 20 wickets in overseas tests. Ajit Wadeker and Kapil Dev achieved some success in West Indies and England. But consistent success abroad was a mirage for the Indian fans.

Though Ganguly was the first ever captain to dream big and aim for overseas test wins, he never got the bowlers to work as a unit. It was mostly one of them bowling well with others misfiring. That consistent hostility of the West Indies of 1970s and 80s, Pakistan in the Imran Khan to Wasim - Waqar era, Australia in the first decade of new millennium had always remained an elusive dream for Indian Cricket fans.

MSD was a revolutionary Captain in ODI Cricket. But he somehow became a passive spectator in overseas tests as Indian bowlers practically threw in the towel when faced with flat decks. When it comes to Test Cricket, Kohli is a different Captain. He might err with team selection, he may not be quite imaginative in his handling of spinners but he has brought in a hitherto unknown element into Indian Cricket. The consistently aggressive fast bowling unit that can claim 20 wickets in most tests. We aren't talking about the 130kmph variety but those who can keep it above 140 to 150 kmph even in the third session of the day.

World Beyond the Cup - Tete-a-tete with Cricket Bermuda

DHCF: The national team is nicknamed Gombey Warriors. What does it stand for?

BCB:  It is a tradition that began when blacks were first brought from Africa and the Caribbean. “Gombey” is derived from an African word meaning rhythm. They were originally intended to perform only on Boxing Day (December 26) and New Year’s Day – the two days of the year when they were given a rest from their labours. Its a tribute to them. The reference to ‘Warriors’ is the competitive spirit of the national teams, as we are always competing against countries with a much larger population. Read more on it here

DHCF: Bermuda is hosting the ICC WT20 Americas Qualifiers finals. How are preparations going both as a host and as a participant?

BCB: The preparations are going as planned. Our national Senior’ Men’s Coach Mr. Herbie Bascome is having a pool of 30+ players to select from.

DHCF: What is the target of the team with respect to WT20?

BCB: Our target is to qualify as one of the top 2 teams in this competition and advance to the final qualifying round later this year.

DHCF: We noticed Bermuda is still un-ranked in T20I. It must be due to less number of matches played. Does Bermuda plan to play more matches?

BCB:  The challenges all of our national sports groups face is the playing of regular and internationally ranked matches. Due to our geographical location, we are faced with the cost of travel and VISA requirements by visiting teams, via the USA or Canada. Due to the new ICC competition (World Cup Challenge League) structure we will have more frequent matches on a regular basis.

The Grandson's Question: A Short Story

14 July 2059, Dublin, Ireland: It's festive atmosphere at Morgan's Cottage in quaint downtown Dublin. Well dressed men and gorgeous women of varying ages walking in with flowers, bouquets and antique gifts. The ambience is calm yet cheerful. Senior Mr. Morgan is receiving people with Mrs. Tara, his long time companion accompanying him.

Suddenly five year old grandson rushes in with his toy-gun and starts shooting his grandpa. Jovial grandpa fakes the act of taking bullets and falls back on the sofa. Grandson comes near Mr. Morgan and asks, "Grandpa, are you dead or alive ?" Grandpa opens his eyes, hugs the grandson and says, "I'm alive my boy, I'm alive, as alive as I was forty years ago !"

Grandson is curious at the festivities and asks, "But Grandpa, is it your birthday today? Why so many people are here congratulating you?" Grandpa replies, "Oh, it isn't my birthday Dear Trent, it is much bigger. Much more bigger than any birthday." The curious little Trent is even more curious now. "Really?" He asks, "Much bigger than birthday? What could be bigger than that Grandpa?"

Mr. Morgan replies proudly, "Oh, exactly forty years ago, we won the Cricket World Cup on this day and you know what? I was the Captain of the winning team !" The grandson is a sharp kid, "Come on Grandpa don't bluff. Ireland has never won the Cricket World Cup !"

The Rule of Rules

OK. So I am not able to understand the furore over the result of the final..Cricket is losing out over other sports (even in England)...So much so that they had to broadcast it free to air today...Today's game is a great example to promote our game in Latin America and countries who don't play cricket, as they would correlate with the tie breaker rule...Yes, I know, it is tough...It's more like a heart breaker 😞 to see Guptil today, crying and broken, was a tough sight... A BIG SALUTE TO THE GUY, WHO CARRIES ON, EVEN WITH JUST TWO TOES IN HIS ONE FOOT! A LEGEND! A MOTIVATION!
But so is Roger Federer, who faced another heart wrenching tie-breaker defeat today😖 why no one saying that he should have been declared joint winner? Same is in football - one clear winner!
The thing is, cricket is a complex sport, with lots of nuances and intricate details...The game is being evolved each day, but also this is game which cannot keep on going on and on...The result has to be decided at some stage, and as today showed, in future also, there will be flaws with those new rules..

I Would have been most happy if trophy was shared today! NZ so deserved to win! Hats off! But luck favoured England, and they played well too... Commiseration to NZ and congratulations to England!

But I feel many people are just not happy coz they personally dislike England, for whatever reason! This has nothing to do with the brand of cricket shown by England in past 4 years, the way they totally revamped their style, culture and strategy! And they were no.1 side in the world before the tournament started.

Hare and Tortoise: Version 2019

It was decided to hold the much discussed Hare and Tortoise race once again. The hare felt it was cheated on earlier occasions. It believed it deserved to win the trophy because racing was invented by Harekind. All the supporters of hare said, "Give the trophy to the hare." Thus the race began.

Old habits die hard. Hare continued to hop and pop in fits and bursts. Tortoise continued with single minded dedication. After an eight and a half hour marathon, Tortoise crossed the finish line. But wait, by hopping and sliding through some lucky slopes, the hare too had crossed the line, exactly at the same time. It was a photo finish.

It was decided to hold a tie breaker. A shorter 10 minutes super race was conducted. Once again, Tortoise went ahead with same calm and composure and hare strutted toward finish line. Once again, the hare and tortoise finished over the line in an exact photo finish. After close to 9 hours of running, there was no difference between the hare and the tortoise. They had run the same distance twice over, finishing exactly in same time in both races.

"Enough is enough," said the International Clowns Council (ICC in short) that conducted the race and formulated the rules, "We've had enough evidence to say the hare is the winner." The agonised supporters of the tortoise asked, "But how ? Both of them ran same distance and covered it in same time twice over. Then how can one be declared a winner ? That is unfair! "