A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

India do not go to the Asian Games

The International Olympic Committee takes note that the country with the biggest cricket market doesn’t care for such sporting events.

They will realize that there is no guarantee that India will send a team to the Olympics if the sport does become a part of the Olympic program.

Will considerably weaken cricket’s chances of joining the Olympic movement.

If India had gone to the Asian Games

Good TV ratings and attendance figures ( quite possible with India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka participating) would have given cricket’s Olympic chances a boost.

The fringe players get a chance to play an international tournament and that is never a bad thing.

An opportunity to win an Asian Games gold. We usually win only 4-5 of those at every event. So, another one would have meant a lot.

An opportunity for an Olympic medal if cricket was included in the Olympic program. And that would have been a huge deal. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar would’ve willingly agreed to play.

All expenses paid trip for Ratnakar Shetty and other BCCI mandarins for the Asian Games and possibly for the Olympics as well.

A chance to complete cricket’s domination of Indian sports. After all, the Asian Games and the Olympics were the only times when a majority of Indian sports fans paid attention to other sports.

The likes of Shashank Manohar and team would get to work with Suresh Kalmadi. They could share best practises and other trade secrets.

There are a few more but I guess the point has already been made.

Just when everyone else is trying to do whatever it takes to get cricket included in the Olympic program, the BCCI have decided to throw a spanner in the works.

The BCCI does not believe in the Olympic movement but they do seem to have borrowed from the Olympic Motto.

Their motto is Atius, Altius Altius.

Just when you think the BCCI can’t get any worse, they come back to dazzle you with a higher level of ineptness which in turn makes your anger levels go higher.

P.S – The BCCI could damage cricket’s chances further. They should bar any cricketer who plays in the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games or any such event from playing in the IPL. After all, these events like the ICL haven’t been sanctioned by the BCCI.

The writers are subject matter experts and have had first hand experience.

1. ‘The importance of solid openers in one day cricket’ by Sunil Gavaskar. The press release of this book turned ugly because some   journalists wanted to ask questions about an innings Gavaskar played in the first World Cup.

2. ‘Yorkers are the safest delivery when the opposition needs a boundary ball’ by Chetan Sharma. This one comes with a demo video. The video has received the highest number of hits from Pakistan and has been banned in India for causing serious mental anguish to the cricket fans.

3. ‘Great captains – strategies, tactics and getting someone to do the dirty job’ by Greg Chappell and Douglas Jardine. Trevor Chappell and the family of Harold Larwood have filed a suit to claim part of the book’s profits.

4. ‘Batting tips for no 11’s’ by Courtney Walsh and Danny Morrison.

5. ‘The reverse sweep is the safest shot in pressure situations’ by Mike Gatting.

6. ‘Running between wickets’ by Sourav Ganguly and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

7. ‘How to deceive batsmen with your run-up’ by David Johnson.

8. ‘Catches win matches’ by Herschelle Gibbs.

9. ‘Duckworth Lewis simplified for quick calculations’ by Mark Boucher.

10. ‘Winning is everything’ by Courtney Walsh and Gundappa Vishwanath.

11. ‘The umpire’s word is final’ by Mike Gatting. Gatting has dedicated the book to Shakoor Rana.

12. ‘Cricketers should drink within their limits’ by David Boon. This book is in the shape of a Fosters can.

13. ‘A batsman is supposed to hold the bat and not the ball’ by Steve Waugh, Graham Gooch and Mohinder Amarnath.

14. ‘How to take advantage of the new ball’ by Eknath Solkar and ML Jaisimha. This book inspired Venkatesh Prasad to take up fast bowling.

15. ‘A great debut is a sign of greater things to come’ by Bob Massie, Narendra Hirwani, Mathew Sinclair and Reginald Foster.

16. ‘How to face fast bowlers with courage and courage alone’ by Graham Yallop. This book is currently being offered free with cricket helmets.

17. ‘The art of sledging fast bowlers’ by Aamir Sohail.

18. ‘Scoring in boundaries’ by Bill Woodfull and Geoffrey Boycott.

19. ‘The art of restrictive bowling’ by Tilak Raj, Malcolm Nash and Stuart Broad.

20. ‘Batsmen should put a price on their wicket’ by Hemulal Yadav and AJ Harris. The publishers had organized a book signing event but unfortunately, these guys couldn’t make it to the event on time.

21. ‘How fast bowlers can avoid over-stepping the bowling crease’ by Zaid Mir.

22. ‘Making sure you get to your century’ by Michael Slater and Steve Waugh.

23. ‘Best practises for cricket from outside cricket’ by John Buchannan.

24. ‘Sri Lanka – a land of crafty bowlers’ by Darrell Hair. This book was released in Sri Lanka by Arjuna Ranatunga.

25. ‘How to play the Australian bowlers’ by Maninder Singh.

26. ‘An exciting cricketer makes for a witty commentator’ by Rameez Raja and Ravi Shastri. This one comes with a statutory warning – ‘The readers of this book are advised not to get carried away and actually try to listen to the writers’ commentary. This could lead to loss of hair and damage to the television.’

27. ‘How to win age-group tournaments’ – a collection of essays and research papers from the BCCI and the PCB. The forward has been written by the famous former teenager Shahid Afridi.

28. ‘Talent is the currency which matters in cricket’ by Maharaja of Vizianagram aka Vizzy. The author paid to get the book published and  sent free copies to everyone.

Expected a lot better from Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

And I am not just talking about his captaincy, his batting or his wicket-keeping. Will come back to that sometime later, though. Let me also mention here that he was my junior at school and I am a huge fan.

I am talking about his candid, straight talking approach. This has been the most endearing thing about him. We don’t mind someone who loses, as long as he gives in his best, accepts his follies and shortcomings and is gracious in defeat.

MSD is known to do that, although in his case, his win-loss record has ensured that he has rarely been under the cosh.

Now with a second T-20 World Cup debacle behind him, he has let us all down by abandoning his candour and adopting evasiveness – blaming the IPL parties for his team’s lack of energy and vigour. He didn’t blame the matches – probably hoping that he could fool us into believing that the parties were attended by the Indian players only.

Unfortunately for him, this ploy has not worked and the heat is well and truly on him right now. Everyone, including the highly erudite and highly tainted Mohd Azharuddin, has lashed out at him for his lame-duck justification and many have called for his ouster as well.

I am sure the Indian selectors will do better than that but it is disturbing to discover that Dhoni’s forthrightness was probably a veneer – his successful record as captain affording him the freedom to talk straight. And now it’s worn off as soon as the tide turned against him.

And yet, that is not even half the reason why his justification has pissed me off.

It is because it has completely taken the attention away from the real issues. While everyone is talking about the IPL parties, people have simply forgotten about the real reasons why we were unceremoniously knocked out.

Most of them pertain to our inability to have the right squad for the tournament, pick the best eleven, score quickly against short-pitched bowling and make the right decisions on the field. MS Dhoni surely deservers part of the blame but atleast in his defence you can say that his tactics have often done the trick for India and CSK in the past. The teams have benefitted from Dhoni’s willingness to back certain players and his rigid belief in his tactics.

The other guilty party is the BCCI and in their case, the reasons for the dismal showing are off-shoots of a long standing malaise. They have been common knowledge for the longest time but hardly anything has been done about it. Most of us have already stopped pointing them out. And that is why we have taken greater relish in lambasting Dhoni for the ‘IPL parties’ justification rather than go through the fruitless exercise of pointing out the larger issues with Indian cricket.

I will repeat the issues one more time.

We don’t have sporting pitches in the country and hence most of batsmen are unable to score quickly against short pitched bowling (they don’t have a problem playing them. Otherwise we would have never won text matches abroad). BCCI fully responsible.

We select certain players on form and certain players on reputation, depending on what is convenient and often ignore the playing conditions. Still haven’t understood the selection of Piyush Chawla for instance. Also why Murli Vijay was selected and Ambati Rayudu was not. Dhoni will have to take part of the blame but largely it’s the BCCI’s fault.

Dhoni is largely responsible for the playing eleven and the decisions on the field. Especially for playing with atleast one bowler short. But he cannot be blamed for the lack of all-rounders in Indian cricket. You have no choice but to play the likes of Yusuf Pathan and Ravinder Jadeja when they are the closest thing Indian cricket has to an all-rounder. His penchant for all-rounders is well known (His highly successful CSK side is packed with them).

Luckily for the BCCI mandarins, MS Dhoni has ensured that everyone has stopped talking about the faulty squad selection or short-pitched bowling or lack of all-rounders. In fact the ‘IPL parties’ statement has given people a chance to take another swipe at the man who was responsible for starting them – Lalit Modi.

MSD had a bad tournament (Do we realize that his innings against Sri Lanka – 23 not out off 19 balls does a world of good for his average and strike rate but in the circumstances it was a BAD performance). He could have easily done what he always does – own up to the performance and talk about the real issues – and moved on. We would have still continued to love him. Instead he has shocked us with a laughable excuse, sullying a reputation he had so painstakingly built. And even worse is the favour he has done to the BCCI.

It was amusing when he called a red traffic light a red light area and we had all laughed. This time the only people laughing are the big bosses of the BCCI.

Wonder if these guys ever talk about improving the Ranji Trophy?

The BCCI wants India to play as many international fixtures to possible because these matches net them a lot of money. Subsequently the heavy international calendar ensures that the tired Indian internationals rarely play in the domestic tournaments like the Ranji trophy, unless they have been dropped and are looking to prove a point. This reduces the star quotient of the domestic circuit and dilutes the quality of the cricketing fare and the intensity of the competition. A combination of these reasons ensures that the fans stay away and as a result the state associations and the BCCI make very little money from these games. As a result these bodies take very little active interest in these games. No effort is made to improve the state of these domestic tournaments.

The players who play in these tournaments have a million reasons to feel dispirited. They play in front of nonexistent crowds. They get paid poorly. And realistically speaking they don’t have a great opportunity to make a case for themselves, thanks to the poor quality of the pitches and the lack of quality competition. Runs scored and wickets taken are always taken with a pinch of salt. Players are rarely put in situations which test their mental fortitude and help them mature as cricketers. Most of the players who shine and get a chance to play at the next level are not well prepared to handle the rarefied air of international cricket. And not because they didn’t have the ability but because they have no experience or practise of having played on sporting pitches or against quality opposition or having been in tough situations. 99% of people reading this will not be able to name the top scorer and the top wicket- taker in last season’s Ranji trophy . If you can then may god bless you.

So is it wrong if players are ready to give an arm and a leg to play in the IPL?

The money is important but there are many other reasons why domestic players would be ready to forego the entire Ranji Trophy season to play a couple of IPL games

Prof Ratnakar Shetty and the BCCI are worried about the charms of the IPL but are they doing anything to make the Ranji Trophy exciting.

The Ranji format is flawed and fundamentally prone to produce defensive boring cricket. Borrowing a few ideas from Australia and South Africa will address that problem. But Mr Shetty and gang either find high scoring draws exciting or they schedule their discussions on domestic cricket during the IPL’s 10 minute strategic timeouts.

Seriously , is it absolutely impossible to market the Ranji Trophy in a cricket crazy country like ours?

Will it be difficult to draw crowds and attract sponsors if UP’s pace battery of RP Singh, Pravin Kumar and Sudeep Tyagi took on the might of Gambhir and Sehwag on a bouncy track with both sides playing to win. A few foreign players could be thrown in to add to the competitive intensity and the star power.

Will this lead to revenue generation from the Ranji Trophy and a better lot of players coming out of domestic cricket.

Yes

Is that in the best interests of the BCCI, the state associations, future India aspirants as well as Indian cricket in general

Yes

Does the BCCI control all the variables that are required to make this happen?

Yes, unless they are being blackmailed by someone from another cricketing nation who has a video of the entire board involved in a gay orgy in the middle of the Wankhede

Shame on you, you poster child of nepotism

Arjun Yadav is a part of the India Blues side for the ongoing NKP Salve Challenger trophy. I would assume that he has been given a chance by the selectors on the basis of his strong domestic performances. They haven’t shared with us what they saw, so let’s go and find for ourselves.

I last remember him playing in the IPL for the Deccan Chargers. The Chargers stunk as a whole – surely Arjun must have stood out as a shining star. But the stats show something quite on the contrary. Arjun was 12th best in the worst side in the IPL with a total of 49 runs at an average of 9.80 in 8 games. Even Nuwan Zoysa was better

Surely, Arjun wasn’t selected on the basis of his IPL performance. Then I guess the selectors would have been buoyed by his Ranji performance. After all 20-20 is tamasha cricket and the four day game is a true test of batsman’s ability

Let’s check Arjun’s performance in the last Ranji season

Arjun scored 370 runs in 6 games at an average of 33.46. His state mate DB Ravi Teja on the other hand scored 653 runs at an average of 59.36. And Ravi Teja isn’t playing in the challengers

And how good was Arjun’s performance on an all India level.

This is the list of top 50 batsmen (in terms of average) in the Ranji Trophy in 2007-08. And surprise surprise, Arjun is not on this list. So he wasn’t even one of the fifty best batsmen in the Ranji trophy. In fact he was way behind the last guy on this list – SS Das with an average of 39.40

So Arjun sucked in the Ranji also. Then he must have surely been on fire in the Vijay Hazare trophy. After all it is the domestic one-day competition and is the perfect tournament for selecting players for the Challenger Trophy.

Here are the lists of the top fifty batsmen by average and the top fifty batmen by run scored in the 2007-08 Vijay Hazare Trophy. Surely Arjun must be near the top of both lists. But no – he is actually missing from both lists. The cut off for the first list was 48.33 and for the second list it was 176 runs. So where is Arjun?

Arjun is way back with an average of 26.20 and a total haul of 131 runs. He is fifth on the Hyderabad list. In fact two of his state mates – SA Pai and A Shinde have better averages and more runs. And they are also not playing in the Challenger.

So what has Arjun Yadav done to deserve a chance in the Challengers? Why is a batsman who has fared poorly in the IPL, the Ranji Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy being given such a golden opportunity? Is it fair to all the guys who missed out? All the others present in the top fifty lists. Or has he been given a chance just because he is former selector Shivlal Yadav’s son. Is it just a coincidence that Arjun’s father is the Director of the National Cricket Academy. Is there a more blatant case of nepotism – at such a high level?

This comes after the nepotistic policies of the Hyderabad cricket board led by Shivlal Yadav forced most of their talented players to risk their careers and join the ICL.

Will Mr Pawar, Mr Shashank Manohar and Mr Srikkanth please tell us why Arjun Yadav is playing in the Challengers?

The cricket fans of this country deserve to get an answer

Dear Mr Dilip Vengsarkar

I was a huge fan of yours. I thought you were one of the better administrators that we had in the game. I was actually pretty upset with the way you treated Sourav Ganguly by dropping him for the Irani Tropy match. But then I ignored it in light of all the other good work that you did – I dismissed it as one bad call on your part.

But now that you have responded to Sourav Ganguly’s criticism of the selection committee and declared that you will give him “more than what he asked for”, at the end of India’s series against Australia, I have also decided to throw you a challenge.

You better have a good explanation for this

Coz dropping Sourav Ganguly was so bad that even Mr Gavaskar was forced to come down from his high horse and make a statement in favour of Dada.

Your waiting for the series to get over so that there is no discord in the team while the matches are on is nothing but a cheap trick to buy yourself some time. You can have all the time in the world but when you do give Sourav Ganguly “more than what he asked for” just make sure you stick to the cricket –related stuff and nothing else. Please care to define your yardstick and timeline for performance objectively. And remember to justify the inclusion of the other members of the ‘Fab Four’ based on the same yardstick and timeline. And that goes for Sachin Tendulkar as well. And if you can’t do that then you are as bad as a card-carrying member of the Maharashtra Navnirman Seva.

Also don’t resort to the tactic of sending a letter to Mr Manohar or to the de-facto BCCI president (Mr Pawar) and explaining your actions. Or doing what Sreesanth and Harbhajan did – that it is our personal matter and we have had a private discussion and sorted things out. I can totally trust the BCCI to do a cover-up job like that. They will wait for the matter to cool down, offer you and Ganguly a carrot each and ask both of you to just shut up. And the matter will be swept under the carpet.

So let me tell you this. This is not a personal matter. This is about Indian cricket and cricket fans need to know what you have to say in your defence. So please don’t take the carrot and call for a press conference whenever you are ready. And then give Sourav Ganguly “more than what he asked for” in front of the whole world in very objective terms. If you can’t do that then you’d better apologize. Either ways we are all waiting

It just keeps getting better for the ICL. Immediately after making a major inroad into Bangladesh, the league has now won new friends in SriLanka. The Lankan board has agreed to allow players aligned with the rebel Indian Cricket League to compete in the country’s domestic tournaments. Sri Lanka thus becomes the second country after England to do so – more will follow and the clamour for lifting the international ban will also gain a stronger voice. Additionally the ICL gains a new audience – which will create more cash flows and significantly improve the League’s financial health.

And there is more. A strong bitterness is brewing against the BCCI in New Zealand as well. Glenn Turner’s recent interview clearly echoes the sentiments of his country’s cricketing fraternity.

The key excerpts from the interview:

Drifting to a different topic, how do you see the current crisis in New Zealand cricket?
Yes, with the emergence of the Indian Cricket League, we have lost some of our top players. Our provincial cricket is getting weakened and it is getting reflected in our performances in the international circuit. I think it’s time the ICL affiliated players are allowed to play international cricket.

Is the NZC putting the issue forward to the ICC?
I don’t know about that, but what I don’t like is that it’s the Indian board which is calling all the shots in the matter. If somebody’s ego and the power of the mighty dollar are put ahead of the game, cricket is bound to get a beating.

Here’s a list of ICC member countries who would be quite relieved to see the ICL win (a victory means official recognition and an end to losing players to a rebel league) or the IPL lose (emergence of a strong rival league to seriously diminish the BCCI‘s clout in world cricket) – England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. That’s quite a list – The BCCI is either making a lot of enemies or losing a lot of friends. Either ways Subhash Chandra isn’t complaining.

Just when everyone thought the ICL was done for and Subhash Chandra and gang were ready to pack their bags and leave, India’s first professional cricket league is back and not just literally speaking.

They have been pushed to the background by IPL but have continued to do the various small things, which ICL fans’ hope, will ensure the league’s survival for this year and beyond

They needed to expand to newer centres in the country and they have done just that by expanding to Ahmedabad. This expansion has come at the cost of a 10 crore investment towards the development of the stadium. They have quite clearly stuck to their commitment of doing their bit for the development of the game at the grassroots and reaped a few benefits in return. In addition to the expansion, they will also have a much better stadium to play in this time round.

The absence of any quotas or restrictions is the League’s major advantage. They have gone ahead and used it to their advantage by recruiting half the Bangladesh national side. The ICL is fast becoming a haven for those international cricketers who have missed out on the riches of the IPL – and this is quite a list – Mohd Yusuf is close to being the most high profile member of this club. The ICL will benefit from this disgruntled bunch to substantially improve its player quality. While it may not match the IPL, it will have just enough star power to be in business.

Consisting largely of internationally ‘banned’ cricketers, except for those playing in England, the ICL has their players at their disposal for the full year – which is huge advantage. The BCCI and other boards are already having trouble finding a window to stage the IPL on a regular basis. As a consequence of the conflict of interest – like in the case of the next IPL clashing with Sri Lanka’s proposed tour of England, the BCCI continues to invoke the wrath of other boards like the ECB, who, are none too pleased at the gaps appearing in their international calendar.

The signing of the Bangladesh players like in the case of the Pakistanis last year has two more advantages for the ICL. One it opens up a huge international market in Bangladesh – the population of that country will be quite keen to watch their home grown stars – which is almost like an alternate national side perform in the ICL. The ICL might not be able to compete with the IPL in India, but can surely give them a run for the eyeballs in Bangladesh. A case in point being ICL’s popularity in Pakistan – where matches of last edition where shown live on their biggest broadcaster Geo TV.

Additionally, it hurts the Bangladesh Cricket Board who lost some key players. They will have good reason to support the ban being lifted from the ICL players – they have nothing to gain from the IPL-BCCI-ICL fracas and only important players to lose. They will also be sore that the beneficiaries of the ban – the BCCI haven’t lost any national players to the ICL. And not that they are alone – NZL and Pakistan are also peeved. And then there is the ECB. This small bunch can soon gain enough critical mass – enough to influence the ICC. The international body is still struggling to find an answer to ICL’s petition and if pressurized enough by the victimized boards, will surely succumb.

But when is the question. It will be a huge victory for the ICL. But till then they continue to lose money and just about survive. The IPL hopes the moment will never come and even if it does comes late enough, so that the ICL is crippled by its losses and has to close before the salvation happens. At the moment it continues to be a battle of attrition between the Essel group and the BCCI. The ICL though just gained a small but significant victory.