In the 'Spot'light

I don’t know why I never wrote about the spot fixing issue. I had accepted the fact that throwing away a match for the sake of a few million dollars was something that the game had to accept – perhaps even legalize. So when I was asked on Twitter why I hadn’t written about the Champion’s League T20, I didn’t know what to say. I told the guy that I’d probably club spot fixing with the tournament and make it some a crazy rant of a frustrated cricket fan.

I remember my brother and I discussing Mohammed Aamir when he played the series in Australia. He was a tall, lanky, teenage kid who could bowl consistently at 90 mph – a sight that is regular in Pakistan cricket. He said that the kid looked excellent. And both of us said that he’ll probably throw some matches away. What we didn’t know was that he’d do it so early in his career.

You look at the Pakistani side and wonder why these guys are a bunch of talented, but directionless kids. They had an Imran, who is probably Pakistan’s greatest captain. But after that, they’ve had nobody. There have been busts of brilliance like they showed in the 1999 World Cup, a few Sharjah tournaments and whenever they’ve played India, but what is the other good that has come out of the side? If there isn’t match fixing, there is division within the team over religious differences.

Now if I drew parallels with the current Indian side, I wouldn’t call most of the players our team the best of role models, but I know one thing is certain: they won’t throw away a match. Not for anything else. Like Sunil Gavaskar said in an article recently, the stakes are too high for an Indian player in case he’s caught. The media will destroy him before the court does; the advertisers will take away his endorsements and his IPL contract will get terminated. The last two, of course, is more money than what the Pakistani cricketer would ever dream of even in a spot fixing case. There could be a one-off player who may be involved, like the recent report suggests, but I wouldn’t think it’s one of the bigger names in the country. It sounds more like a Grade C-level player.

Pakistan’s role in this spot fixing controversy has ‘tarnished the nation’, according to Prime Minister Yusuf Gilani. But still there seems to be no improvement in the situation. Asif is seeking asylum in the United Kingdom; Aamir is being pitied and labeled as the kid who was in wrong company. Initially, I came from that school of thought, but now I feel that if he’s 19 years old, he is an adult and is free to know the difference between who is a good friend and who is not. Bottom like, if he’s guilty, he should be banned. I’d feel sorry that a great talent went to waste.

What I find incredible is that these investigations have brought out a lot of murk about the IPL. It already looked shady when you’d see all the players going for after-match parties. And now, you have this.

So I find it ridiculous that the CL-T20 is even happening. Funnily, unlike the IPL, which I would watch at my old office with other colleagues, I don’t know or care what’s happening here. I’m not reacting to a Mumbai Indians loss or a Chennai Win. I don’t know who is in the XI of each side and only look up things because of a client we operate for at work, which wants Champion’s League quizzes and player profiles.

However, I think I’ll start watching the test series against SA whenever it begins. It should be fun, I hope. 

Rankings and rants

The Dambulla stadium is Sri Lanka's Sharjah

Before the Asia Cup began, Aakash Chopra said that India will be playing Sri Lanka for the millionth time this year. It was casually mentioned on Twitter, but I think it was retweeted several times. And why not?
Right now, I'm bored of watching the Tri-Series. I follow the game on CricInfo, but that is also limited. I'd rather follow the score for the England-Pakistan test match, which looks to be another good game of cricket.
Dambulla has become the Sharjah of Sri Lankan cricket. Every limited over or T20 game played in Sri Lanka seems to be in Dambulla. Again...it's understandable, as it is probably the only sporty wicket Sri Lanka has, considering their rubbish test match wickets.
So how do two teams deal with strategy when they meet each other so often in a year? It eventually comes down to luck on who wins the toss in the shorter version of the game. In the longer version, especially in the subcontinent, you need to bat first, put up a total of 600-plus and play out a draw. Unless of course, you're Virender Sehwag, who decides to make 288 in a day.
The boards need to be criticized for this. They schedule so many matches with the same side during the year, that most of the players find it hard to adjust to alien conditions when they play in countries like Australia and South Africa. India's record abroad has improved over the last few years, but it's still a long way from giving us the Number 1 test ranking. We're good, I agree, but we need to be more consistent.
I tend to agree with Kumara Sangakkara about the ICC rankings. If we play in subcontinent-like conditions throughout the year, barring a series abroad, then on what basis are we judged? India has been doing well in tests, but its ODI and T-20 (which I don't even count as proper cricket), haven't been the best in a while. Yet we're number 2 in the ODI rankings. The biggest tournament that we won in the last three years is the VB Series in Australia, which was three years ago. We haven't reached the semi-final of any major tournament involving all the cricket playing nations in the last two years.
My only theory is that since we play so much cricket, the probability of us winning more matches is greater. It's probably why the BCCI decided to work on the test itinerary for 2010, fearing that India would lose the Number 1 ranking. More matches played means the probability of more wins. Thus the ranking. If that is the case, then the ICC has some serious rethinking and restructuring to do.

Why is Pakistan playing test cricket?

I can picture a scenario where Salman Butt tells his batsman, "Come soon. I'll see you before lunch!"
Right now, the Pakistani batsmen are playing shit.
I don't think there's anything else to describe their game right now.
And the funny thing is that people were after Bangladesh's throats when they would consistently lose to sides all over the world.
Pakistan is doing pretty much the same thing. In fact, they're playing worse than Bangladesh right now. It's ridiculous because James Anderson is taking 10-wicket hauls. That's just wrong.
I'd understand if Graham Swann or Graham Onions did something like that, but Anderson?
Even Broad seems to be bowling well.
For England's sake, I hope they don't take this victory as overconfidence during the Ashes. Although Australia isn't playing their best cricket, it's a home series for them and that will always work in their favour.
But Pakistan? They need a lot of work to do.

Pakistan needs help

Like the Joker, the Pakistani team doesn't
have a plan. It's just plain chaos!

Currently Pakistan is playing like we did in the 90s.
Test cricket is about playing in sessions, they say. Pakistan plays like a team possessed in one session. They have a pace attack which I believe is the best in the world right now. Their bowling today is what Ambrose and Walsh were when West Indies started declining as a side.
But the batting is rubbish. It's even worse than the West Indies batting. At least they had Lara, who could do awesome things sometimes.
But these guys need a lot of working to do. They nearly killed the match against Australia and managed to win by three wickets at the end.
I thought that they would repeat a Sydney or a Sri Lanka in that test match, but they managed to survive.
Not in this one though.
It's sad because you have a side that bowls brilliantly and the batsmen throw their wickets away and make a mess of themselves.
What's different from the way we played and the way Pakistan plays now? At that time, we would play badly in all the sessions of a test match, so the whole world knew that we would invariably lose. Here, there is a shimmer of hope for Pakistan when their bowlers bowl like that. Unfortunately for them, the batting is too weak. Quite the opposite of the present Indian team that has a very impotent bowling lineup.
My brother and I were having a discussion when England collapsed in their first inning. He asked me, "How much do you think Pakistan will make?"
"77!" I said.
He laughed and said that they'll make less than 200
"We were laughing today about how they made less than 250 in the entire match!"
They're in need of help. Maybe Inzy should come out of retirement and take over the middle order.
Pakistani cricket is in shambles. It's crazy and it's retarded.
It's probably why I like watching them play.
They're like the Joker. There is no plan. Only Chaos!

The Murali strikes back

"If Murali doesn't chuck, then show me how to bowl"
"Murali will complete 1000 Test wickets, but they would count as mere run-outs in my eyes"
"He is a Sri Lankan bandit closing in on a dream artist called Shane Warne"
- Bishan Singh Bedi on Muttiah Muralitharan.

"I saw some (of his) bowling of his playing days. He would have been hammered every ball had he played in the modern era." - Muttiah Muralitharan's comeback

Off-the-field battles are interesting sometimes. The football world cup had Maradona and Pele trading insults and nobody actually winning the argument because Brazil and Argentina didn't reach the semis.
The Bedi-Murali fight is going to fizzle out in a couple of days, unless Bedi says something so stupid (which he is perfectly capable of), that it may last a week longer than it should
What I find funny is that everyone is calling Murali immature for saying what he did about Bedi.
Going by that, everyone secretly thinks that Bedi is senile, which I'm sure he is.

Consistency in the time of chaos

It's been a while since I've written anything.
During this period, Murali took his 800th, Pakistan managed to finally beat Australia, Sachin and Uncle J-Rod have plans to release books filled with blood and semen and Mohammad Azharuddin is reportedly banging some badminton player who is half his age.
Suddenly cricket seems more interesting than the football world cup
Now, I wrote my last piece a few days before the first test match and since then, so much has happened, which makes the cricketing world chaotic once again.
In two weeks of cricket, despite having so much chaos, there is one thing that has been consistent.
That is India's fast bowling problem.
We have two guys: one a relatively new guy and the other, who is bowling shit. The rest of the crop are injured or learning how to bowl.
How on earth can a country, whose general population multiply like rabbits, not produce a single fast bowler, who can consistently bowl fast without getting injured?
The fastest bowler we've had till date is Srinath and he has bowled at 90 mph on a consistent basis.
The guys today find it difficult to touch 85 mph.
Okay, speed isn't everything, but these guys are bowling like a bunch of retards. It's like Intakab Alam's comments should be used on the Indian bowlers, now that Pakistan has beaten Australia
And we're the number 1 side in the world?
I agree with Sangakkara and Harsha Bhogle. What do we have to show to be the best side in the world. For a better part of the 90s, we depended on one guy. In the early part of the 21st century we depended on 2 guys batting well abroad and one guy bowling well at home.
If we win this match, it'll be a miracle. The best we can do is draw it, unless Sehwag does something maniacal like he did in the Mumbai test match and win it for us.
That will bring some chaos to a pretty consistent performance by India.

Muralitharan End of an era

My parents tell me an interesting tale. When I was a kid, my father worked for the State Trading Corporation (STC). During his stint with STC, he (which means him and the family) were transferred to the UK. We stayed there between 1986 and 1989. We came back when I was six years old.

We stayed in an area called Corinium Close in London. From what I remember, there were seven large houses and each of them was occupied by someone from the subcontinent. We had these immediate neighbours, who were from Sri Lanka. But at that time, I didn’t even know what Sri Lanka was. Only recently, when I was having a chat with my father, did he tell me that they were from Eelam.

Recently I read an essay by historian and cricket lover Ramachandra Guha about the Eelam struggle going to western Europe and how several refugees over there had played an important role in trying to attain ‘freedom’ from Sri Lanka. Guha then spoke about V Prabhakaran the founder of the LTTE and the reasons why several Sri Lankan Tamils joined his cause, which at the end of the day, after nearly 25-30 years of rebelling, has proved to be futile. Prabhakaran died last year and Sri Lanka can only worry about local leaders and the opposition for the time being.

In the late 90s and for the much of the earlier part of the 21st century another Sri Lankan Tamil gained a lot of fame. Unlike Prabhakaran, who resorted to killing and blasting people, this man destroyed batsmen with his guile. He never spoke much, but let his talent and hard work do most of the talking. It is this dedication to the game of cricket that has made Muttaiah Muralitharan the greatest off-spinner in the modern era. People will question his action and whether it was legitimate or not, but there’s no question that Sri Lanka will never find a better ambassador than Murali.

Murali is a once in a lifetime cricketer. Never again, I believe, will you find a guy who uses his wrist to bowl off-spin. As Harsha Bhogle put it in his tribute to Murali, “If it was the action alone, a clone would have produced at least 300 by now, there would have been kids in the streets bowling like him. Surely they must have tried; that they couldn't is a tribute to his uniqueness.”

I do a parallel comparison between Prabhakaran and Muralitharan and when you read this piece you’ll understand why. Both Sri Lankan Tamils, but one’s choice made his country proud and the other’s made him a wanted man.  Murali never spoke of the Tamil Tigers and what his opinion was about the liberation. He just went on doing what he was supposed to do and that was take wickets for his country. He never said anything when people questioned his action. He just went through a biomechanic test to prove that it wasn’t illegal.

He’ll be playing his last test match against India soon and the tributes have come from all over. And at the end of the day, whether you like him or hate him, you can’t question his commitment to the game. He probably has a better average than Shane Warne because of the number of test matches he’s played against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, but they’re wickets nonetheless. He’s taken criticism well (except when Bishan Singh Bedi called him a dacoit, which was completely uncalled for). Most of all, he’s taken Sri Lankan cricket to an all-new high. Without him, the side will miss a match winner.

For someone, who has loved watching the game, irrespective of the opposition, Murali is one guy I will miss. The action, the wide eyes and the smile of a silent assassin will slowly go away from the cricketing world. And nobody like him will appear for the next 100 years