Simplifying The Daily Existence

So the Chennai Super Kings have won the second edition of the Champions League but I still cannot get my head around the reason for hosting such tournaments. Just looking around, it seems that no one was really interested in whatever happened in South Africa, not at least in my part of the world. The matches had no build-up in terms of team rivalries or anything significant, there were no special players who have emerged from the tournament and apart from Dhoni who seemed pretty happy to add another trophy in 2010, no one really seemed really interested or desperate enough to put-in blood and sweat to win the matches. The regional players of  T20 teams from around the world were overshadowed by the three Indian teams
that participated. That is another question I had in mind: how come three IPL teams get to qualify as against just one each from the rest of cricket-playing nations? Does this mean that IPL teams are superior to the runners-up in the English county league or for that matter, other T20 teams that finished second and third in their respective national leagues?? Just doesn't make any sense to me...well anyways, as Ravi Shastri said recently, in his typically mundane style of commentating that the "sponsors" are beginning to understand the worth of such tournaments....well, that is all that seems to matter in the world of cricket these days. You should confirm that with an individual called Salman Butt!!

 While this may sound unkind and outrightly rude to some folks, the fact is that most people who have been keenly following the game in and around the sub-continent have always believed or at least suspected that running of the game in Pakistan has always been clouded by match-fixers and the betting mafia that is very strong in these parts. It should be noted that the recent string of skeletons that seem to be tumbling out of the Pakistani dressing room are largely because of the kind of investigative media we have these days and not because the match-fixing has suddenly arisen. A few years ago, in Sharjah and in India, when such matters were reported, the technology available to the reporters and the sting journalists
was hardly penetrative as it is now. It was just a matter of time before those involved in making money by fooling the game's followers slipped in their methods and the ever-vigilant media dogs caught them red-handed...don't read too much into what is going to happen to the Pakistani players accused in this scandal...they will be banned for different durations only to be brought together as the World Cup 2011 draws near...again, not because the world cup is a very important tournament but also because it is going to be a big money-spinner for these spinsters.

It is hard to imagine that Strauss, the English captain, can actually adapt to the ODI style of batting but as it turns out, in the current One-day series against Australia, his style of batting is perfectly suited to the kind of pitches that are on display. The ball is seaming around and Strauss' typical style of batting wherein the emphasis is on collecting singles through shoves and pushes seems to be invaluable. And yes, England have won the series now!! This is remarkable considering that they usually struggle to even defeat teams like the WI on their own pitches. What seems to have really worked for the Poms is their recent victory in the T20 World Cup. The team has carried that momentum into the series and the Kangaroos have been surprised without a doubt. Add to this, the presence of useful bowlers like Swann and Broad and the England team does look like a good ODI unit for the first time in probably, the last ten years.

You cannot deny that this is the current situation in the English cricket team. Just take out the South African Kevin Pietersen from their test match performances over the last four years and team would have struggled to even come close to be counted among the top, four test cricket teams in the ICC rankings. Now, it seems that the Irish batsman, Eoin Morgan, is doing a similar act for England in their ODIs against Australia. Just look at the statistics of the first game wherein he scored a century to bail out the English side. Combine this with Morgan’s T20 performances and surely England could not have won the ICC T20 world cup without his services. I hope the immigration rule-markers in England are aware of these facts or may be they are and that is why England seems to gobble-up international players and presents them as its own!!

It was heartening to see that somebody from the WI camp finally decided to bat with some semblance of spirit. As a result, the hosts are now in a position to easily draw the game unless they do something drastically stupid. Once again, the rescue act has been perpetrated by Chanderpaul. He is someone I have often written about on this blog. He appeals to my senses with his ability to succeed despite not having the natural flair that most left-handed batsmen possess or the arrogance that is trademark of the Calypso batsmen. Now, it seems that he has found an able supporter in the form of Nash. This guy is your typical grafter. He doesn't have a stroke of brilliance and if your looking for someone to make TV viewing pleasurable with off-side drives and straight pushes, Nash is not the guy one would like to recommend. He is very much like Chanderpaul, wait-out the bowler's patience and then seize upon the opportunity to score-off the slightly wayward deliveries. Until then, it is all about composure and nudging and pushing for the singles. Anyways, it is widely believed that a player's overall effectivity determines his worth in his team and not his style of performing...I hope, the likes of Sarwan and Yuvraj are listening.

If I can recall correctly nearly every player that England have looked upon to deliver them from their poor record against Australia over the last decade has disappointed to a large extent. Yes, there have been some exception like Pietersen and Flintoff who flourished briefly before becoming vulnerable to personal and fitness-related issues. I still remember how gung-ho the English media was about players like Ronnie Irani, Ealham and Mark Alleyne, hoping that these players will be able to perform since their county records were supposedly great. Now, with the Ashes coming close, the English cricket media seems obsessed with Steven Finn and believe that he is another McGrath in the making. Whether this is due to over-optimism or simply because Finn releases the ball in a matter akin to the great Aussie bowler or due to a combination of both these factors, is beyond me. However, what still surprises me is that how the media in England starts hailing any new find as a potential Ashes winner. If you remember, Matthew Hoggard was placed on a same pedestal and was suppose to swing-out the Aussie batsmen but nothing of the sort happened, at least over a sustained period. There isn't a single English player in the last decade who has an Ashes record as consistent and significant as that of some Aussie players like Hayden, McGrath and Shane Warne. At best, some cricketers from the UK have surfaced from time to time and delivered brilliantly in small patches that simply cannot be equaled to records of these Aussie greats.....but then, reality isn't everyone's cup of tea, is it?

This seems to be the theme for nearly every team participating in what is being billed as the battle for supremacy in Asian cricket. For starters, both India and Pakistan have come to this edition of the Asia Cup with players who are finding their feet in international cricket after a brief spell of being rested or dropped, for various reasons. While Pakistan aims to fight its most usual nemesis, i.e. the threat of mutiny in its ranks, India is trying to establish what could be their probable line-up for the forthcoming World Cup. Sri Lanka too are looking beyond the usual players like Jayasuriya who have delivered in the past and the onus could well be on the likes of Malinga, Herath and Angelo Mathews to stake claims not just as potential match-winners but the core of the team that is going to try and bring back the world cup to Sri Lanka. While the persistence with Muralitharan at this juncture seems a bits surprising, it is not secret that Lankans are trying to find a permanent solution to their number five, six and seven slots that seem to have been changed with unwanted regularity in the recent past.

Yes, it might seem a bit premature but the fact remains that Sri Lanka are pretty much unbeatable at home. Their record in both, the ODIs and the test matches is so good that it is hard to believe that any of the other teams would be able to beat them in the league matches. Further, what makes the Lankans such a potent force is that their bowling is well-suited to the prevalent conditions. For starters, the likes of Kulusekera can bowl slow, medium-pacers that are the best option for the slightly sluggish pitch conditions here in Dambulla and the neighboring venues. On the other hand, young spinners in the side, led by Murali will ensure that the batsmen aren't able to take much liberties during the middle overs. Even the fill-up bowlers like Angelo Matthews have showed in yesterday's match against Pakistan that these Lankan bowlers know how to manipulate the conditions to their advantage. In comparison, Pakistan's bowling line-up seems full of comeback bowlers while India just doesn't have a semblance of a pace battery or a spin attack.

After losing two successive matches to a Zimbabwean side that is devoid of even one truly internationally-accomplished player, the Indian selectors should seriously consider resigning from their posts, ensured that their families have enough life insurance or medical insurance supplies and then jumping from the top of the buildings in which they reside and make us believe, they work in those chambers for the improvement of Indian cricket. For starters, it still escapes the mind that what they were thinking sending five or six new, greenhorn bowlers when not even one of them appears to be capable of running through a side in either an ODI or a test match. All the bowlers put together have looked pedestrian at best and then to actually believe that these guys were going to whitewash the Zims just because they are ranked at the bottom of world rankings is the kind of thinking that only the politically-inclined men working at the BCCI are capable of....my bet is that the India A squad at the moment has more skills than the Raina-led team, even though it consists of many players with far lesser experience.

International cricket certainly isn't going to go score many points for equality of the genders. For starters, there is little that the ICC has done for the female cricketers in terms of scheduling tournaments across the world. Secondly, the broadcast of women’s matches for something as important as the world cup were done so shabbily that not many people even realized that just when their teams were fighting out for a semi-final berth in the West Indies, the women counterparts of the men’s teams were also sweating it out to make a point, both in terms of engaging attention towards their skills and winning an ICC tournament. I still don’t get it—the viewership for T20 World Cup itself wasn’t too encouraging and further the spectator interest in island nations was also abysmal, then how scheduling women’s cricket matches in the same stadium really helps the cause of women’s cricket?