Pakistan cometh

So Pakistan's tour looks extremely likely to take place. Come February 2005, and our new-found buddies will pop across the border- from what should be a tough trip Down Under for them. Much like the prelude to our tour to Pakistan earlier this year. It's great that they'll play here, but I wonder.

I wonder if we will be able to extend to them the same (virtually) unabashed hospitality that they did to us. In March-April 2004, there was nothing but warmth about anything the Pakistanis did, said and (well, for that matter-played!). The cricket face of it was evident enough, with the players' welcomes and security. But stories abound of how the average Pakistani on the street, taxi, restaurant and stadium made a Herculean effort at making the visiting Indians feel comfortable. And we did.

As one of those thousands that went across for the matches, I was constantly struck by how friendly everyone, including strangers, behaved. Most significantly, in the stadium. I was at Lahore for the last two ODIs-both of which, amazingly for me, we won. In Match#4 I was in the Imran Khan enclosure that had at least a 50-50 balance between the Indian and Pakistani fans. If anything, the Pakistanis were probably a little outnumbered. In the final match, I was diametrically opposite, in the Raja Enclosure. The crowd here was a bit different. There was, at best, 20% that was Indian, the rest was a sea of green t-shirts, salwars and paint. I was watching it with one Pakistani friend who I had made all but two days ago. I did stop, for moments in the match, to just notice this. Notice that I was in Pakistan, in Lahore, in Gadaffi stadium, a lonely blue in the midst of overpowering green. Yet, not once did I feel odd. Not once was I intimidated by 'old-enemy' supporters surrounding me. Not once did I wonder if it was ok to jump out of my seat, cheer, and cheer loudly.
I did wonder if we could provide the same atmosphere back home. Instinctively, I doubted it. Now, months later, the doubt returns. I cannot say I am an authority on Indian crowds by any means; I have watched matches at but 2 venues in the country. But I have rarely seen a crowd in India that is sporting to the extent of being exemplary. My impression is that we are a loud, mildy aggressive but overpowering bunch (as fans) whose confidence grows exponentially with numbers, and whose mood deteriorates as quickly in the face of defeat. We don't have to create in ourselves good behaviour, for I believe we are generally speaking capable of that. We do have to create the ability to rise a little. Rise beyond the age old rivalry that will play itself out in front of us, and enjoy watching the match with them.

Oh, another memory. I found myself defending Shoaib to many Pakistanis, who thought he was a hyperbolic showman not capable of doing much! I thought it was a tad crazy- an Indian In Gadaffi Stadium explaining why he thinks Shoaib Akhtar is an important part of the team...to a Pakistan cricket fan! I thought it was bizarre, but I enjoyed its implications. I enjoyed that I could do it, and I hope I can do it again.

I don't believe we are rude, inconsiderate or generally rowdy. What I do doubt is if we can not only maintain our composure, but enhance it. If we can clap when a Pakistani plays a good stroke, smile genially at a green shirt when there is eye contact, smile ruefully at them when we lose a wicket, pat them on the back if they do well, and say 'mubarak ho' if they win. I hope we can, but I don't know if we can.
When the fans troop across (as I assume they will), I hope to make them feel as wonderful as I did. And while I know I am not in the minority on this, when (if!) the proverbial stuff hits the Pavillion roofs and India is not doing well, I hope we can all suppress the passion a little and elevate the khatirdari.
After all, it is also in India that mehmaan bhagwaan samaan hai (a guest is akin to God).

[ On second thoughts, I definitely hope I have to 'defend' Mr Akhtar to a pakistani visitor, because it'll mean we are thrashing him around the park again! ]

Sports Body, or...?

16.15pm IST
The BCCI presidential elections have got some serious coverage- in all sections of the media. With the involvement of the Left, Soniaji and other miscellaneous Congress influences, it sounds like anything but an election in the premier sporting body in the country. There is no talk of any of the candidates' involvement with the game at any point in their lives, or with administering it. It is only about the numbers, the camps and the predictions. It's not a good feeling, this. At least Mahendra has been involved with running the game for 30 years. Pawar's been politicking, bickering, and generally looking corrupt.

oh, and also. The current selection committee's tenure is over tomorrow. So the team for the Test series, to be selected on Oct 2, will be handled by a new set of guys. At any rate, the BCCI did not think it relevant or necessary to send any of the selectors (or anyone) to watch the current match between India Seniors and India A. In which, of course, the Seniors have just gotten all out for 213. Oh boy. And I notice that Nehra retired hurt fromthe A side's batting and hasn't bowled. Here we go again. Zaheer and Pathan for the tests, I would think. Backed up by the spinners, but what about Karthik? And if the elections are postponed to tomorrow, as looks likely, then who will watch the Mumbai match with the Aussies? The selectors will walk in and pick a team that very day...?
Does no one think of all this?

So it begins

The mind games have begun. Dravid has been Warned (couldn't resist that!), Laxman by Lee. They are all great batsmen, they say. Warne insists Tendulkar will play in the first test. What makes him the expert, I can't imagine.
Oh, and this time, its not baked beans. Spaghetti, protein shakes and cereal for Warne.
Hope Mommy did not give any of those.

Neutrality II

It is a feeling the average Indian cricket fan will know little, if at all. (Or that's what I think, though maybe I am being unfair on the lot).
The feeling, that is, of watching a game of cricket that does not involve the Indian cricket team, and has no bearing whatsoever on it's team's fate. As I see it, most cricket fans in India (and I am talking about the population as a whole) will watch the India games. Go over the moon if we win, and turn away in disgust if the team is losing. This is where you see the passion factor, which ensures that cricket is so emotional for people here, (me not excluded). In that surfeit of emotion however, lies the fact that very often the game for its own sake is not appreciated. Or even noticed.

For me, it started of with utter neutrality. When I had seen England beat Australia I wanted England to go all the way. The eternal bridesmaids would have made romantic winners. When Pakistan lost in the semis, I thought too that it would be great for the West Indies to lift the cup. In the end, the Windies win was much the more romantic one. The baggage they've carried into this tournament, much like in most tournaments they have played in in the last few years, was so significant that winning despite it made it all the more romantic.
Why, even during the final I swung between supporting the home side and the Calypso artistes; cushioned by large spells of not really caring who won, as such. I followed part of the Windies reply on the radio in the car, and could almost see the English summer crowned by a big trophy. By the time I returned to the telly and saw the two Bs struggling to stay in the match, it looked all but over. But when they had fought back to reach within 50 runs of the target, I knew these guys had to be the ones I would be happiest to see victors. And so it was. The sheer delight, the dancing, the relief, the emotion on all their faces was some sight. I felt good especially for Lara, who has been under some serious (and overdone) fire of late. I hope this win really is, as they have said, a a new beginning.
(If only it were that straightforward).
But lets savour a classic West Indian win, for now.

Neutrality

Ah, the pleasures of watching a cricket match as a neutral.

A few days

5:15pm, IST
Have been out if it for a few days now, and :
Pakistan beat India to reach the semis
England beat Australia(!) to reach the finals
the BCCI cancelled the tender rewarded to Zee
Dalmiya may just be standing for Chairman of thew BCCI, as might Sharad Pawar
Real's lost their coach and got a new one
Europe thrashed USA in the Ryder Cup

a few days in sport, and there's so much thats happened.

For me England's win yesterday was great. I somehow found myself (almost) rooting for them. It just seemed that world cricket needed this. We needed to see the Australians beaten, we needed them to look vulnerable, we needed to know it can be done, and with no unbelievable magic or miraculous feat. The Aussie jusggernaut winning another tournament would have made the Champions Trophy possibly even duller in hindsight, than it was in it's first week! I did not watch too much of the match, but it seemed that England played some good, solid, sensible cricket with just the dash of aggression to shake up the old enemy. Especially the batting, which was steady yet assertive. Vaughan's assault on Lee was significant. Coming from a man who has had next to no one-day form and is under serious pressure to prove himself in this form of the game, it was a statement of purpose that said 'I am the captain; my team and I aren't going to give this one away easily...and I don't care if you are the Australians.'
I missed most of the Australian batting and did not see the wickets too much, but the way the team looked off the boil throughout, I wonder if it was a mild attack of complacency that opened the door for the Poms. What was especially strange was the virtual lack of fight. Ok, it was a 280 pitch and they were 20-30 runs short, but had Ponting and his boys got even 220, you would have backed them to at least make a genuine match of it. If I look back on it, England was always winning this one. In my mind I kept thinking that Punter'll pull something out of the hat yet, and the match will be close, but in reality the Englishmen were always in control. And they didn't even have to rely on that beefy lad of theirs. Good stuff.

Wow. Here, Pakistan is reeling at 125/9. I cannot believe they won the toss and chose to bat. That smacks of defensive tactics, and it is surprising given Woolmer's presence. Sure, from the looks of it it's not more than 200-220 wicket, but this is apalling. Afridi is still trying to lash out, but he is right up there in the list of cricketers with very little between the ears.
There! As I wrote that, He's gotten himself stumped. Absolutely nothing upstairs, afridi ol' chap. Nothing at all. Man, he's frustrating. If you're a Paki supporter I guess.
I'm not!

But the Indian loss on Sunday was sad. I saw most of what I saw of the macth (about 60-70%) on mute, but that didn't change anything. Our batting was woeful. We fought back in the first innings, and how, but 200 was way too little to play with. Really. Pushing it to 225 may have given us a slightly better chance, but this was too little for the bowlers to defend. Sigh. We don't look in particularly good shape for the Auusie tour in a couple of weeks time, and SRT is still looking pretty unlikely for the first test. That may just solve the problem of choosing Akash Chopra/Yuvi.

So much for that England win. It's shocking, the state of fan support in that country. That too when they had the best chance of beating arch rivals for the first time in well over 4 years. Ugh.

Flintoff magic

4:14pm IST
Just saw a brilliant innings from Mr Flintoff. He is starting to look really really exceptional. He reminds me a little of Klusener- not so much in his batting style, but the way the innings is approached- slow and steady. He has so much confidence in his ability to up the tempo at some point that he plays prety slowly. In this case, it wasnt till the 45th over that he looked anything more than just awake. But then he decided to launch into the Lankan attack, and then they'd had it. If I'm not mistaken they were 173 after 45 overs and the commentators were still talking about 210, and how 230 would be a winnign score but hey, England must reach 210. They scored 78 runs in the remaining overs, and impossibly Flintoff reached his century. 104 off 91, and some of the shots were absolutley stunning. He somehow seems to be able to get under the most pitched up of balls, even yorkers. And once he is under them they go far far away.
I can't think of too many others right now hitting the ball the way he does, with the exception of Andrew Symonds. Gilchirst hasn't done it in a while, Sehwag is woefully out of form, Jayasuriya is fading, and while Gayle is up there somewhere, he's nothing like Flintoff. He's started scoring tons at no.5 so easily, and most people hardly get centuries in that poistions.

"At the ICC Champions Trophy, one-day cricket has become one-way cricket."
Simon Briggs in the Daily Telegraph after Australia's match against New Zealand was almost as one-sided as all the previous games.
That's pretty funny, really. As is this reaction to the minnows being able to learn from these thrashings.
"I hope they can learn something - but I am not sure that they will."
Ricky Ponting questions the inclusion of USA in the Champions Trophy

The Arjuna Awards fiasco is just that- another fiasco where the common man really doesn't bother too much about the awards anymore. Why in heaven's name would they decide to give Bhajji an Arjuna award? An ignore Arjun Atwal, Bobby Aloysius and others? Apparently" there was only Yuvraj and Harbhajan shortlisted, so we felt that Harbhajan had done much more". But is it necessary that every year there has to be at least one cricketer in the list?

Day 8

4:25pm IST
England 79/3 and they just dropped Freddie Flintoff. A sitter. Jayawardane, a sitter at wide slip. Gosh I think he's going to make them pay.
Ooh, and that's a real close stumping chance. Arjuna Ranatunga, predictably thought it was out, but the third umpire had to give that to the batsman. In by a whisker. Lets see if Sri Lanka rue this. Its been some good crikcet till now.

the other set of Champions

I couldn't manage to see a minute of any of it, but the Matchday 1 of the Champion's League just happened. I don't follow fottball like I do cricket, so there's just some stuff I have noticed.
Real Madrid lost 3-0 (3-0!) to Leverkuesen. ManU drew with Lyon away. The AS Roma crowd injured referee Frisk and the match was abandoned (whoa). Nothing much else out of the ordinary. Oh, Liverpool beat Monaco. wow.
No great insight, but just thought I would let the lonely bits and bytes in my blogspace know a little about the CLeague as well. Will read up more, maybe.

The day goes on

So What's with Australia kicking so much of the proverbial rump? Wasn't New Zealand supposed to be the team that always rises to the occassion? After their showing at the Natwest Trophy tri-series earlier (in England itself)- albeit not against the top one day sides in the world- you would have thought that they'd give the Aussies a run for their cents, at the very least. I may be jumping the gun here with only half of the first innings done, but look at the score. Yes, Australia won the toss. Yes, that's a plus in England. But yes, its a bloody sunny day out at The Oval, and yes, the pitch didnt really do that much. McGrath was just starting to look like he should have been sitting out instead of Lee, when he decided to take three wickets. I thought Styris's shot was really loose, Cairns's front foot seemed stuck (though the lbw did look to be going high to me the one time I saw it), and the run out...surprising, coming from the Kiwis.

It begs the question- does everyone just assume that Australia are as unbeatable as they seem? I mean, do teams out there believe they can beat Australia when they go into a match with them? I would like to think that some do. But that doesn't seem to stop them from getting a little ...well, overawed by the opponents. Too many teams end up trying too hard sometimes, I think.

Reid slams Zaheer a bit, I doubt if he is far from the truth.
Amit Varma's manages to put in interesting stuff from others' posts or other blogs in his own, like the bit about Attitude Inflation in this one. So Amit, what do you think about Rakshanda Khan then?...:)

(the actual)Champions Trophy

Day 7, and the newest member of the MAX jamboree appears.
Rakshanda Khan, soap star and minor glamour girl is their 'Roving Reporter' (no credit given to Wisden for the term). She appears for the first time with Michael Slats Slater, out on the pitch, and (God help me for saying this) I thought she wasn't too bad. High on energy, passable flirting between the two of them....and suddenly when you cut back to the downer that was Mandira in the studio, she seemed all the better. It is a pity that Charu and his able-Bedied co presenter are so mediocre, because in other aspects, Max seems to be thinking well. Pieces on the making of cricket equipment (like the SG factory in Meerut making pads, gloves and balls today) are interesting. A few days ago they had a piece on this lassi bar in Haridwar that was handing out coupons for each match win for India (with more and more coupons for each match). That's interesting stuff... it is the sort of stuff that brings out the madness that cricket is in this country. Their actual roving reporter piece was on Britain's 'new national dish', the Chicken Tikka. Not bad. But then everytime you come back to the doofus-ness that is the studio presentation, and you smile/sigh/switch channels. Besides, what really matters is the way the match is presented, and thats the area where they are still too far behind. The commentary is largely dull, sometimes comic and mostly average. Their stats backup is not special, and neither are their graphics.
And to think we are likely to have another novice telecasting most of Indian cricket over the next 4 years...steady, ol heart.
In the cricket, Afridi now has the best bowling figures in any Champions Trophy match! What will happen next. "My captain helped...Moin bhai told me to bowl wicket to wicket". If he hadn't told you that, you would have bowled where exactly, Shahid? Aus-NZ start in a few minutes and (tarot card reading aside), Australia look good to go through of course. But NZ has a habit of challenging them, so I hope that happens.

4.25pm (IST)
80 for 6. Kasprowicsz just missed his hat-trick. So much for this being the first match that was going to be a cracker.

Champ' trophy day 6

Pakistan skittle Kenya for 94. So much for an upset. Afridi took 5 for 11 which should ensure his place in the team a while. How long he has been the unfulfilled talent of Pakistan cricket, we have all forgotten. Their bowling looks in good shape, though. With no exceptional weather (to aid bowling) I wonder what the captain winning the toss will do on Sunday. Arun Lal's belief remains that in England "you should be blindfolded and made to bowl first on winning the toss".

The telecast tries real hard to make a match involving the minnows interesting, but its a tough ask. Apparently, 15000 people have come into the grounds as of yesterday, and 12000 of them have been in the India-Kenya match. Phew!

Zee decides to let the battle with Espn-Star enter the court full fledged, which is not good news for ESPN, the BCCI or the Australian series. They might as well decide that the October series be telecast on DD. For me though, its a dilution of quality (at least in perception)if the rights go to Zee- which seems most likely.

Peter Roebuck seems to think Laxman is more special than we thought. Captain? I dont know... And somehow, the column doesnt feel like Roebuck to me...

Oh, the other part of the great SET MAX Cricket telecast circus ( besides Mandira Body) is 'Chikka' Srikkanth, whose commentary swings from cracking me up and making me reach for the mute button. The only missing link from the World Cup is Venky 'Cuddle' Prasad (that was his description of the post-wicket GIH*)

Great. The tennis elbow is the 'worst injury of his career', says Andrew Leipus. So SRT may miss the Bangalore Test (test#1). Shite. This is so not good. And it would seem it was healing a bit in Holland when a bouncer from that steamy speedster Agarkar hit him on the elbow in the nets and worsened it. Ajit, just try and do that stuff in real match situations instead, no?

*GIH=Great Indian Huddle

Champions Trophy Day 5

Tony Greig(stadium): "Mundeera, do you have all your Net Run Rate calculations ready, (for the match between Pak and Kenya)?"
Mandira(studio) : " Tony, I wanted to ask you- how does one calculate Net Run Rate?"
If they want Mandira to ask the questions non cricket enthusiasts would ask (why would they ask?), they should at least ensure that her questions are taken seriosuly. The panelists usually smile (sometimes indulgently) and talk of something more sensible. Sigh, Mandira...

Ayaz Menon suggests that if the Ken-Pak match (now to be played tomorrow, hopefully) ends up being a 20 over game, Kenya could upset the Pakis. Sure, Ayaz.
Sri Lanka take on (or is that only 'show up against') Zimbabwe. Mark Nicholas confirms his faith in the latter's abilities: "If Zimbabwe could pick their 11 from any cricketer in the entire world, how low down the pecking order would (opener)Brendan Taylor be?...A club cricketer?"

Prem Panicker's big query is "Can I wear my shoes to the match?"
The oddest things is why the hell is this not more of an issue?!

In India, the BCCI goes through a radical change. An era is coming to an end, with Dalmiya having to step down fom the President's post after 3 years running, as per the rules.
[Dalmiya: "Era? End? Sheesh, what children..."] Every problem has a simple solution.
["Observe and learn, novices."]

Sep 13

Ugh.
66 all out, the USA. Was expecting a thrashing, but this was a bit much. Ponting wonders what they (USA) learnt from the outing. Good question, punter. Ganguly and Pathan are ambushed. tata indicom has gone ahead and telecast their commercials with the two anyway. The ICC is seeing red, that should be the colour of their marketing dept.
Federer won the US open. He has a certain charm about him. And his game, whatever little I have seen of it. SO the guy at the presentation says, "in the tv box we talk about your forehand, your backhand, your volleys, your serve...what else do we talk about". Smiling almost boyishly, the champion says "Thats all I got."
Its enough for now, ol chap.

Champions Trophy kicks off

...and I had almost forgotten how infuriating, irritating and quite simply, bad, Mandira Bedi was. Time had actually softened my view of her. Alas, it was an illusion. She is back to haunt us. Do women actually tune in because of her? Do more men tune in beause of her? Is there perpetual sunshine in England? Is Australia on the decline?...

No balls called by the third umpire. It could, they say, take the slghtest advantage away from the batsman who will not be able to change his shot at the last moment. It could, also, cause the third umpire to slip into a coma as he stares at a monitor showing the locked side on camera on the popping crease for about600 deliveries.
But I have a thought. Its the last ball of the second innings. The batting side needs two runs to win. One wicket in hand. The batsman drops the ball, scampers for a run and is run out. A no ball is (belatedly) called. The batting team gets a run, but are all out and cannot face the extra ball, the match is tied. In the old scenario, they would not have risked the single- keeping, instead their last wicket intact to face the last ball with only one to get off it, and possibly won.
Am I missing somethng?