CricDigs Blogs

I have not been able to see a lot of these matches (being on vacation for about 10 days with limited internet access) but quite honestly I just love to see all these teams with a fantastic mixture of international stars playing against each other. No one team seems to have lob-sided advantage. They all have reasonable fire power in batting as well as bowling and we should see a very tight finish for semi-final births towards the end.

It is fun and great site to see Dhoni and Michael Hussey batting together, Ponting and Ishant Sharma playing for the same team, Symonds and Afridi representing the same team, Shane Warne and Graem Smith in a huddle and many many more interesting combinations (including Bhajji smacking Sreesanth ).

I hope to catch more of those matches (may be some live ) and hope that IPL continues to flourish.

Flash news saying Indian’s have amassed a formidable total on the board, and when Pakistani’s are pitted against the wall struggling to even save the follow on. It was so obvious that their batsman’s were not too sure how to go about chasing India’s first innings target. At the end of the first session today, with five wickets down not one would have thought that there was a tremendous fight back about to be staged.

Then came the second session. Then came in Kamran Akmal. This little dynamite always promised a lot, but never delivered. Cometh the time, Cometh the man. Today he applied himselves superbly and paired up with the ever solid Misbah and staged a tremendous fightback. From nowhere in the game, suddenly it looks like Pakistani’s are by no means out of this game yet. A Draw is a definite possibility now. A Pakistan victory is not yet out of scope. Indian’s are still in the driver’s seat, but you never know with Cricket. Eden Gardens, hughe first inning deficits also does reminds me of India’s victory against Australlia quite sometime back. Let us keep our fingers crossed and wait to see what happens in the remaining crucial days to come.

Well played Kamran & Misbah. The game is on now!! Indian’s were not at their ultimate best today. They were let down by this tremendous fight back, but its time they lift their game a little better and come back strongly aswell to have a stamping authority over this game. This seems to be developing into a very interesting contest, what say ?

Folks, I can safely say that I have been following Cricket for the past 3 decades or so. I remember listening to the commentary on Radio early in the morning when India used to visit Australia, and now watching it on-line and shouting on cricdigs. In all these years, I have not seen a bowler who was more aggressive, lethal and so fragile at the same time.

I am talking about Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar, the Rawalpindi Express. Though, seeing him struggle through the “act” of bowling in the current India-Pak series is like watching a Train Wreck. His presence on the field is like a Zebra crossing the Zebra-Crossing. “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t”.

In all these appearances and disappearances, what amazes me most is his attitude. He still comes across so cocky, so arrogant. He was mocking Dravid for hopping to play one of his short-pitched delivery, raising hands while in the middle of his run-up to distract Ganguly (who promptly backed-off, making Shoaib go back to his LONG run-up and run back again) and after doing all these “aggressive” actions, running out to get a massage or treatment. We all know that a team is allowed to have a 12th man to substitute for a “hurt” player, but how is that allowed for a player who comes into the match with a suspect fitness and who can not even survive on a field for a session?

Now looking at the Pakistani team selection process, I guess PCB can not get “over” Shoaib despite their numerous ugly “break-ups”. The ones including suspension (for hitting Asif), control-substance issue and general discipline problem.

So my message to Shoaib would be to either get over his fragilities and play like a man or hang up his boots and enroll in some spa for continuing treatments.

He is a Destroyer!! On his day He can tear apart any bowling attack in the world!! He is a match-winner!! and so on….

Believe it or not, these adjectives are showered on none other than Virendra Sehwag. The only thing I remember he destroying recently is India’s hopes of winning a match. Nothing else. Makes you wonder what process is followed in selecting/dropping/re-selecting players and how fair it is.

Take an example of 5th ODI between India and Pakistan. India had won the series, so were giving opportunity to players who had not gotten a chance in the earlier matches. They again played with 4 full-time bowlers with part-timers bearing the responsibility of filling in the GAP.

Here is my analysis of the match.

-Pakistan managed to score 306 partly because they “destroyed” the part-time pair of Sehwag and Yuvraj.

-Newcomer Pravin Kumar bowled quite well for his figures of 10 for 50.

-India were playing additional batsman in Sehwag, so the chase should have been relatively easy, but it was not to be. Sehwag got out cheaply again and in a fashion that has become his trademark, flashing outside the off-stump without moving his feet.

-Gautam Gambhir failed again in ODIs.

-Rohit Sharma batted very well for his 52 in 61 balls.

-Pathan provided a lower order fightback.

So looking at all the above, the team selection decision should be very straight forward, right? Here is what needs to happen.

-Sehwag must be sent back until he does something that warrants his comeback. Just the mythical statements I have presented at the top of the blog are not enought, because there is not current evidence that we are talking about the same player and please note, a four or a six every now and then is not enough. He has been given ample opportunities to earn his place in the team, but at least to my eye, he has shown no sincerity, application or focus telling me that he knows what’s on the line. Sehwag has to go and for a while!!

-Gambhir still needs to stay on the bench, most of the time.

-Ganguly would continue to open with Sachin.

-Dravid needs to be brought back in the squad.

-If Pathan is in the team then India should/can play with 5 bowlers.

-Rohit Sharma needs to get more opportunities to play.

-The possible team composition could be

Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Uthappa, Pathan, RP Singh, Zaheer, Bhajji, Sreesanth, Rohit Sharma, Murali Karthik, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Sambhir.

Makes sense?

None cuts a sadder a figure in international cricket than Shoaib Akhtar. First there were mild accusations of indiscipline. Then the complains came with increasing frequency. Then came the drug use charges. Even then the Pakistan board protected him. But he let every body down with repeated display of gross indiscipline.

It appears Shoaib Akhtar never had anything except drug inflated muscles. Now that the drugs have been taken away he is finding it tough to stay in the team. He invents novel ways to get himself thrown out of the team. Sometimes he doesn’t report for practice and at other times he hits his team mate with the bat.

Now the brand Shoaib Akhtar has become defunct. Nobody cares for his reputation as a bowler. His career as a bowler is over. At a time when he should have peaked he is gone.

The name Shoaib Akhtar inspired awe five/six years back. But even then players like Ajay Jadeja had no fear for his bowling. Jadeja has gone on record terming Shoaib a pehlwan with a ball in his hand. Nothing more. Now the pehlwan from Pakistan is thrown out of the team. And it’s unlikely that he would ever come back to play.

Moral of the Story: Its easier to be a playboy than a boy that plays well.

Why is that Pakistan produces the best against India always in cricket?

No doubt that they are a very talented bunch of cricketers. Pakistan has produced some of the finest batsmen and the best bowlers in the world. But when playing against India they suddenly seem to acquire a new zeal and audacity. While India suddenly gets cowed down, Pakistan gets revved up.

Half of their batting line up would be out of form for months before the series against India. Suddenly they would start coming to form in the first innings or the second innings of the first test. Their second string Bowlers like Aquib Javed, Sami, Razaqq would bowl devastating spells.

Why is that even after losing first two matches decisively Pakistan bounces back to win the series 4-2 against India?

This is true not in cricket alone. Even in Hockey when India and Pakistan would be fighting out for the last two positions after losing to many countries, Pakistan would beat India and allow it to take the honors of getting ranked at the bottom of the tournament standings.

Something similar happened in the recently concluded Volleyball tests in Visakhapatnam. India won the first test by 3sets-2 sets. In the second test, played on the next day, India were up by a set when Pakistan came back strong and took the second set and the next two sets too, to level the series. It looked as though we were going to drub the Pakistanis for first half an hour of the second test.

In cricket there are many such incidents where the Pakistanis snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The famous of them being the huge six of Javed Miandad off Chetan Sharma in the last ball to register a sensational and historical win.

What could be the possible reason?

Shoaib Akhtar does not like to bowl a single ball these days. It seems he is more keen on having a ball off the ground.

With smoking and partying he had detoriated his career before getting hit with a number of injuries a few years ago. After that the drug use charge, camouflaged as fitness problems, prevented him from playing for quite sometime causing him to miss out on the World Cup. And recently the knee surgery took a few vital months from his cricket career.

After his return, Shoaib was whacked all around the ground in a Twenty20 match. He conceded 44 runs in 4 overs and left the field in a huff complaining of dehydration. Then he did not report for the team practice sessions.

The PCB has correctly fined him a whopping Rs300,000. Serves him right.

Shoaib Akhtar should realize that he is just a player belonging to a team. He cannot come and go as per his sweet will. If he fails to attend the team’s conditioning camp, at least he can infrom about it. Not even caring to inform the PCB about the reason of his absence, speaks volumes about the callousness of the player.

The Rawalpindi Express has become a passenger train halting at many stations without schedule. In the past few years he has been more in the news for cricket related matters but not for his exploits in the game. Whatever little career he has been left with, looks to end humiliatingly rather than gloriously.

I know it might sound as if as an Indian Cricket fan I am looking for excuses for a possible quick exit by an Indian team from WC’07. But I am not talking just about India here. See what happened to Pakistan!! I am sure you will all agree with me that Pakistan would beat Ireland 99 out of 100 times. So, won’t you call this a fluke now that Ireland might be heading to the Super 8s while Pakistan is packing their bags to go back home? It is quite clear that if Ireland makes it to Super 8s, they will not win any more matches. Nor fair I say. Now in case of India, it was put in the same group as Bangladesh because at some point in time it was #7 or #8 team, but as per current form and ranking it is #5. Bangladesh is a test playing nation so according to ICC it is a “real” cricketing team. Bad deal for India….
There is no doubt that if Indian team played up to their potential they would be much superior to Bangladesh and if Bangladesh makes it to Super 8s they most likely will not win any more matches. So what is being achieved by setting a format in place whereby one upset is causing 2 really powerful sides to crash out of World Cup? I know as I write this, India is not totally out yet, but still facing elimination hinging on their match against Sri Lanka.
Now in my mind this is the most interesting part in this whole thing. When a team reaches super 8s, it will play 6 matches each before 4 teams get selected from 8, but only have 3 matches to get selected as one of the 2 teams from a group of 4. In the previous World Cups there used be a schedule where 2 teams played with each other twice in order to eliminate the luck/fluke factor and give opportunity for good teams to go thru to next level of competition. These are the teams that have been preparing for last 4 years for the World Cup and need to stay in it for it to be interesting.
Hope I am not coming across as some disgruntled fan but as someone who is genuinely unhappy about the tournament format.

The rivalry between Australia and England may be the oldest in cricket, but nothing compares to the intensity and fierceness of the rivalry in cricket between India and Pakistan. So it is only natural that the people of both these countries rate the contest between these two countries as the greatest contest in cricket, even more than the Ashes.

But unlike the England - Australia rivalry, this cricket rivalry did not start because of any cricketing reason. It has roots in the political situation that has existed between the two countries right from 1947, when the countries were partitioned. For this reason, matches between these two countries are many times termed as wars. More often than not, this is more of a media created hype than what the teams or fans actually feel, but sometimes it does go beyond that.

The two countries began their cricketing relations in 1952, 5 years after independence, with a five match test series in India. The series was keenly contested, but India emerged victorious with a 2-1 margin. For almost 50 years until the turn of the century, Pakistan had enjoyed the upper hand in most of the contests. This phenomenon was more pronounced in the one dayers. Only in the last few matches, the competition has been almost neck and neck, with India being slightly ahead.

It is said that one of the reasons why Pakistan has always enjoyed an upper hand in the contests is because they see it as more than just a game and give it that much more. Pakistan, being the smaller country, has always felt the disadvantage in almost all other aspects of relations with India. So excelling in cricket is considered a matter of national pride, which in turn results in performing with more intensity. Over the years, Indian cricketers have been blamed of being too soft and not having the drive to win against their cross-border counterparts. The interesting thing is that even though Pakistan has a better record against India in ODIs, India has beaten Pakistan in all the 4 matches in the World Cups, one each in 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2003. While in 1992 Pakistan went on to win the World Cup, losses to India in 1996 and 2003 directly resulted in their elimination from those World Cups.

For many years in between, the two countries did not play cricket because of political tensions as a result of multiple wars between them. The players of both countries as well as both the cricket boards have always tried to maintain that they want to keep the game separate from politics. But whatever the players may say, one can be sure that Miandad’s last ball sixer, Aaquib’s hattrick, Sehwag’s 309 and Tendulkar’s match winning 98 including the six over point off Shoaib taste that much more sweeter because they have come against their biggest rivals. The fans, on their part, increase the stakes by expecting more than a hundred percent effort from the players in every India-Pakistan contest. For most of them, a loss is just not an option!