Author: Bobji

Srinivasan the cat is out of the bag

Posted on by Bobji

Srinivasan who had been the BCCI president during a large part of Dhoni’s captaincy has recently let the cat out of the bag. He has confessed that it was he who saved and protected Dhoni and that helped Dhoni remain the captain till he resigned voluntarily. It has always been suspected that Srinivasan had a role to play in Dhoni remaining as captain evenafter humiliating losses but it remained just that. Speculation. Now that Srinivasan has confessed, action will have to be taken against him for interfering in something that was not within his confines of power.

A brief look at Dhoni’s captaincy tenure

Dhoni first became the captain of the T20 team on 13 September 2007. This was the period when Dravid, Sachin & Ganguly announced that they will not be playing T20 and withdrew themselves from the team for World T20 in South Africa.

He became the captain of the ODI team in the same month but had to wait for about a year before he took over the Test captaincy from Anil Kumble.

Dhoni in his long career had been the captain for over 60 Tests, around 200 ODIs and more than 50 T20s. He has had some memorable wins during his tenure with the highlight being the 2011 World Cup. On the otherhand, he has also had lots of miserable losses too. The biggest threat to his captaincy came during the team’s miserable away series in 2011-2012. Till then, he had been the captain in South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. He did enjoy mixed success. Infact, till the time the Indian team travelled to England, Dhoni had a much higher wins than losses.

The humiliating England tour

Once the team landed in England, whatever was not supposed to go wrong went wrong. As a result, the team had a horror series and were thrashed 4-0 by England. Remember that India were the top ranked team when we went to England. To lose 4-0 and that too when the team were annihilated in every test was humiliating for the entire nation. We should also remember that in 8 innings, not once did the team cross 300 with the highest being 300. Two of the four tests were lost by an innings.

Agreed that the team were handicapped a little with the absence of Zaheer Khan in the first test. One other bowler and had to play with 3 bowlers in a couple of tests. There were also injuries to Gambhir & Sehwag, a Tendulkar who was more concerned about his 100th hundred. Hence, benefit of doubt can be given to Dhoni for not having had the regular team all the time. However, the next away series was even more humiliating.

The annihilation in Australia

The Indian team went to Australia in the same year with a fully fit, first choice side. Zaheer Khan had given an interview stating that the Indian bowlers will pick up Australia wickets using swing because New Zealand had just defeated Australia in the previous test with swing. Ultimately, the result was disastrous. The team again lost 4-0 and that too to an Australian team that was just a patch on the great side that preceded this team. Ponting was under tremendous pressure and he was about to be dropped but he scored loads of runs in that series. Three of the tests were lost by an innings. Dhoni was unable to do anything. Change the batting order, replace Sachin, Laxman or Sehwag, try a different bowling combination, stick to a different plan. It was like Dhoni was in auto-pilot mode.

Srinivasan’s support to Dhoni

At the end of the series, Dhoni himself should have resigned but he didn’t. No captain would have survived a 8-0 thrashing but Dhoni did. Not only he survived but he went to be the captain for few more years. Now it has emerged that it was Srinivasan who ensured that Dhoni was not replaced as captain. The reason he had given was how to replace a captain for ODI series who had won the World Cup.

Board President’s job description

Be that as it may, does the board president have such power vested in himself to decide whether the selectors should or should not replace a captain who has performed miserably? Common sense will say that no the board president cannot interfere in team related things. The 5 selectors and a chairman of selectors are there for this precise job. It is they and only they who have to decide whether a captain needs to be replaced. The selection committee can decide whether he can be given the benefit of doubt and be allowed to continue. Certainly not the board president. If the board president can dictate to the selectors, he might as well select the entire team, the coach and the support staff without consulting anyone. Why waste money unnecessarily on a bunch of selectors? Why waste their time?

Chapter one under rules and regulations of the memorandum of association of rules & regulations of BCCI and against the alphabet i, states

“CRICKET COMMITTEES” are the Committees as set up in Rule 26 which consist only of former Players and are charged with selection, coaching and evaluation of team performance.

Also under point no. 21 cricketing matters

The management of cricketing matters such as selections, coaching and evaluation of team performance shall be exclusively handled by the Cricket Committees comprising only of Players as set out in Rule 26.

This essentially means that the board president cannot be involved in the matters related to team selection. Neither can the board president interfere in change of captain. The board president cannot interfere in the appointment of a coach. These are the exclusive rights of the cricket committee.

Conclusion

Srinivasan may or may not have knowledge related to cricketing matters. He afterall owns the India Cements Chennai first division team. However, the manner in which he conducted himself as BCCI president by interfering in the exclusive domain of the cricketing committee and dictating to them not to the change the captain, he had certainly failed to perform his duty and failed to live upto the lofty credentials of being the President of BCCI.

Do you think Srinivasan was correct to interfere in selection matters?

Did Dhoni really galvanise a young Indian team?

Posted on by Bobji

I read one article in Wisden that states that Dhoni actually galvanised a young Indian team into world beaters. This article was written in 2007 immediately after India’s World T20 win against Pakistan and reproduced a couple of days ago after Dhoni announced his retirement. Was it really true that Dhoni transformed a young Indian team into world beaters? Is there any semblance of fact in such a statement? Let us try to analyse.

World Cup squad

It was a 15 member squad that travelled to South Africa. It contained a mixture of experienced and inexperienced players. Sehwag, Yuvaraj, Harbhajan, Gambhir & Agarkar were the experienced members whereas among the inexperienced players was Rohit, Irfan, Yusuf, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Uthappa, Dhoni, Dinesh, Piyush & Joginder. In terms of T20 experience, not only the Indian team but the entire world contained inexperienced players. Dhoni himself was not that experienced in terms of games or in terms of captaincy. It was his first experience as captain.

With a mixture of young and old, experienced and inexperienced, it was indeed a creditable achievement to win the inaugural World T20. Having said that, did Dhoni really transform a young team into world beaters? Well the said truth is that, he didn’t.

What happened to those cricketers after the win?

From that inexperienced lot among the players who won the World Cup, except for Rohit, Dhoni himself and to a certain extent Irfan Pathan, the rest didn’t get to play that many games for India. I do not remember Joginder Sharma being part of the Indian team for too long. In his career he played only a grand total of 4 ODIs and 4 T20s. Dinesh Karthik we all know was tried in various positions in all the formats. Sometimes as an opener. Few other instances in the middle order but he failed to deliver in any of the format. Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan and the rest hardly played consistently for more than 20 games either ODIs or T20s leave alone Tests.

Ganguly the real galvaniser

As for Sehwag, Yuvaraj, Gambhir, Harbhajan & Agarkar, they were already part of the team that Ganguly had built. With half of the World Cup winning team nowhere to be seen within a few years of winning, it is not correct to say that Dhoni developed a team of world beaters. That title must be bestowed on Ganguly and rightly so. It was Ganguly who galvanised a young India into world beaters. Ganguly brought in Sehwag, Yuvaraj, Gambhir & Harbhajan who performed admirably for quite a number of years.

Yuvaraj was instrumental in India winning 2 World Cups. Sehwag proved to be a destructive opener. Gambhir played lot of excellent innings. His runs in New Zealand in 2009 helped India win the test series not to forget his brilliant 97 in the 2011 World Cup finals. The purple patch when he became the top ranked batsman in ICC rankings will always be his crowning glory.

The 2001 series against Australia will forever be known as Harbhajan against Australia. Apart from these players, Ganguly brought the best out of Dravid & Laxman. He inspired Tendulkar to perform much better. He brought in Zaheer Khan who was for a longtime, India’s strike bowler. It was under Ganguly India started to win outside of the country. It is not correct to term that it was Dhoni galvanised a young team into world beaters. Last but not the least, Ganguly never had two consecutive 4-0 losses.

Ganguly’s failure as the board president

Posted on by Bobji

Over the last several months, I have grown from someone who is a very big supporter of Ganguly. One who is convinced that it was Ganguly who transformed the fortunes of the Indian cricket team. Someone who was certain that Ganguly is the Indian cricket’s best captain over the last 40 years. Someone who was more than 100% convinced that Ganguly will lead the board and as a result of that, the Indian cricket team itself to greater heights to someone who is convinced that Ganguly is the worst board president over the last 40 years. Let me try to explain.

Past articles related to Ganguly

I have written a few articles before this one that focusses on some other part of the game or the players but there are passages in those articles that criticises Ganguly as an administrator. This article focusses only on the failure that Ganguly is, as a board president. A few days ago, I read one nice article on the website www.cricbuzz.com written by Aayush Puthran in which he has provided a report card of the 10 months of Ganguly’s tenure as the BCCI president. I tend to agree with him. If not specifically for the reasons he has mentioned but certainly from a cricketing standpoint.

Ganguly has undoubtedly been the most vocal of all the board presidents. I have read Srinivasan’s comments or Dalmiya’s comments but they mostly stick to the functioning of the board. I have never seen them tread onto the cricketing aspect of things. As I write this, it has emerged that it was Srinivasan who saved Dhoni’s job. I will write about that in another article.

Ganguly’s comments and the result

Manjrekar’s experience

Firstly, when Ganguly became the president, he likened that to the time when he took over as the captain. He failed to understand that the board’s functioning was nowhere close to how disastrous the team was when Ganguly took over. Match fixing saga, Tendulkar resigning his captaincy, lack of success outside of India, a team of ridicule from all the foreign commentators of being exceptional in India but lambs abroad etc.

Secondly, he also went onto say that the commentators will be given freedom to express themselves but Manjrekar’s experience will tell you otherwise. Not only was Manjrekar removed from commentating in IPL, he was subsequently removed from the BCCI panel of commentators itself. So much for Ganguly allowing the commentators to express themselves freely. It is emerged that Manjrekar wants to comeback into the commentary team for IPL and subsequently for the international games as well.

Poor Australian tour preparation

More recently, he said that he wanted Kohli and his team to win the series in Australia at the end of this year. However, he went onto schedule IPL till the 10th of November with hardly 20 days before the first test. This will leave the players with practically no time to prepare against a team that is high in confidence. Together with the Covid induced quarantine, the Indian team is ripe to be taken to the cleaners. It is advantage Australia even before a ball is bowled. Thanks to Ganguly and to his lack of foresight.

Aayush’s article

Let us look at the article written by Aayush. I  would like to comment only on a couple of the points. Ganguly promised contracts for the first class players but till date they are not inplace. It is not clear whether the contracts will be implemented anytime soon. The first class players are under tremendous pressure. The ones who go onto represent the country or at the least play for any IPL franchise will be fairly settled but think of the ones who neither played at the international level nor have they played for any franchise. For most of them they do not know anything outside of the game.

Sorry state of affairs of a first class cricketer

They give their entire life to play the game at the Ranji level and retire in about 12-15 years. Once retired, they are clueless what to do after their playing days are over. The classic case of Shri. M. J. Gopalan comes to mind. He delivered the very first ball in Ranji cricket but when he passed away, all he had was just one room which was divided between living and kitchen. Back then, the board wasn’t this rich but now, the board does not have any excuse. The board must ensure that every first class cricketer is well paid and they must be given a clear plan post retirement.

On a question regarding how the board will function, he stated that he wants the board to be the best in the world. After his tenure, is the board even close to being the best in the world? I do not think so. Did the board have highly efficient selectors now that they are well paid? Did he transform the so called NCA? Ganguly, did he appoint any committee to analyse the World Cup debacle or the New Zealand series disaster? The answer for all the questions is a big fat NO.

Ganguly’s international player status unutilised

All of these goes to show that irrespective of whether the president of the board is a distinguished former international cricketer and that too a successful captain of an international team, if your heart is not in the right place, there is absolutely no point in having such a person of repute as the president. The same applies to Ganguly.

I would rather prefer a Srinivasan or a Shanshank Manohar as the president whose only motive is money rather than have someone like Ganguly of whom a lot was expected in terms of good preparation for any away series, better pay structure for the first class players, much freer commentators, selectors based purely on merit and performance and credibility of the team given top priority but absolutely nothing has been achieved.

There are few other points in that article that shows Ganguly in a poor light. Having said all that, it is not just Ganguly but it is the culture of the board that needs a drastic change. I will write about the functioning or the non-functioning of the board in another article.

What is your opinion of Ganguly the board president? Do you think he could have done more?

PIL against Kohli and his responsibility

Posted on by Bobji

It looks like the Indian captain, Virat Kohli is in legal trouble. A Chennai based advocate has filed a petition in the Madras High Court demanding action against Virat Kohli and another film personality, actress Tamannah. The reason being that they are promoting online gambling. The advocate has filed this case after a 19 year old committed suicide attributing his decision to his addiction to online gambling. The advocate is seeking closure of all the online gambling websites and prosecute superstars who are promoting such websites. This is a cricket related blog. I will concentrate on the merits and demerits of Kohli’s action and will not touch upon Tamannah’s credibility.

Superstars responsibility towards the society

Virat Kohli as we all know is an extremely popular cricketer. India is a country where superstars are worshipped rather than admired. The number of commercials on TV where Kohli appears or the billboards throughout the country in which Kohli promotes a lots of products is a testimony to the fact that Kohli is not just a cricket player and the Indian cricket captain but he is a brand. Kohli is not the first to be worshipped nor will he be the last. Before Kohli, Dhoni, Tendulkar and a few others were also worshipped.

The problem of worshipping the stars increased manifold after the advent of satellite television in the 1990s. This essentially means that these superstars are required to conduct themselves on and off the field in a dignified manner. Their actions are copied across the country by a lot of youngsters. Hence, they have a lot of responsibility towards the men, women and children of the country.  

The legacy that these cricketers leave behind is extremely important. Not only are they required to behave responsibly but they are expected to be the perfect role model for the future generation. Probably even for the current generation too. There are so many in this country who will just follow any star’s actions which means it is all the more important for a star to be perfect in the public eye. This is especially true when it comes to public health and public finance. Stars must not promote cigarette brands or alcohol or gambling of any form.

Kohli’s on-field behaviour

Already, Kohli’s on-field behaviour is extraordinarily poor. The obscene words that he utters in every game against every opponent is a testimony to that fact. Witness his abuse of Williamson in the second test in the last series in New Zealand despite India about to lose the game in another few overs. Kohli is extremely lucky that he is the captain of a team whose board is the richest cricket board in the world. Otherwise, by now Kohli would have been banned from playing the game at the international level because of his horrendous, disgusting and horrible behaviour on the cricket field against every opponent in every form of the game.

In the present world, Kohli is the worst behaved cricketer. It is nonsense to justify his actions by stating that that is how Kohli plays. He has even surpassed the worst behaved player ever. It is naïve on our part to expect dignity from such a player and it is precisely because of that he surprised us a few years back with his backing of Mukund.

Abhinav Mukund’s unpleasant experience

A few years ago, when Abhinav made a comeback and played against Australia, a section of the countrymen commented rather unpleasantly about the colour of his skin. It was extremely cheap of those who commented about his colour. He was asked to use beauty products to improve the colour of his skin. It was racist. Certainly, Abhinav would have found such insults hard to digest. If he had felt lonely, he would not have been wrong. I do not think any other Indian cricketer had to endure such insults. It was at that point, Kohli stood up for this teammate. He vowed that he will never ever promote beauty products any longer. It was a principled stand taken by Kohli when it was least expected from him.

Gambling is banned in the country by lot of state governments

Gambling is a curse in this country. A lot of people have lost their livelihood because of gambling. Some of us have even lost their lives. The problem was so wide spread that lot of state government have banned gambling and other illegal activities.

Kohli’s responsibility

Nothing less than what he showed during the Abhinav Mukund’s episode is expected now from Kohli. He must take a pledge that he will never ever promote anything that can and will ruin the lives of so many youngsters and their families. He must realise that he is not just a cricketer but a role model who is followed religiously by a lot of people. Both young and old in this country. Kohli must also realise his responsibility towards the society and chose his commercial ventures wisely. If Kohli can do that, not only will gambling ran out of business but it will also ensure that the youngsters do not lose their way in life. It not for anyone, Kohli owes this to the millions of his fans throughout the country.

Now the question is, will Kohli stop promoting gambling businesses? Will he realise his responsibility towards the society? Kohli will do well to channel all his energy in the upcoming series about I have written a couple of blogs. Here and here.

Do you think Kohli will have to change himself? Do you think Kohli does not have any problem whatsoever?

Jofra Archer, what is cooking up with him?

Posted on by Bobji

Jofra Archer what is cooking up with him? Jofra Archer is definitely an exciting cricketer. He belongs to the breed that is becoming rather rare. He is an express fast bowler who is capable of rattling even the best batsman. Witness his brute of a delivery to Steve Smith. Though it was unfortunate to observe someone getting hit on the head on a cricket field, that one delivery showcased to the world the real Jofra Archer.

West Indies would have certainly loved for him to play for them but he has opted to play for England. He cannot be faulted for his choice because a sportsman’s life is too short. Any sportsman will probably want to make the most of their playing career. If Archer felt that, with England, he will be able to lead a comfortable life after retirement, so be it. He is perfectly justified to do so.

I do not want to get into his bowling in IPL, BBL and other T20 leagues. I do not even consider them cricket. Test Cricket is the real form of the game followed by ODIs. Hence, I will stick to Archer’s test exploits so far or the lack of it.

Archer’s progress

Archer made his debut against Australia last year. He was and probably is considered a messiah for England’s lack of genuine fast bowlers. True to word, he did bowl exceptionally well in the first couple of tests against Australia. He touched 96MPH which is scorching pace. Even the great Steve Smith struggled to negotiate the extreme pace of Archer. England must have definitely thought and rightly so, that they have found a match winner who can rattle the Australian batsmen in the return series next year.

In partnership with Wood, the entire England team had the opinion that the next Ashes is theirs to lose. After awhile, something strange happened. It is not clear whether he is still influenced by the blow to Smith’ head but definitely, Archer seems to think that it is his and his own decision when to bowl at full pace and when to bowl well within himself.

In the last test against Pakistan, not once did he bowl at 90MPH leave alone bowling at over 90MPH. This despite that fact that the wicket had something for a genuine fast bowler. When confronted with a question about his drop in pace, Archer said that he cannot always bowl at 90MPH and that England fans should not expect that. It is fair enough but what he fails to understand is that this is a team game and there will be situations in every game, especially at the start of the day, when a fast bowler is expected to bowl with good pace. He also said that the Manchester wicket wasn’t one where the bowlers can bend their backs. However, evidence seems to prove the contrary. Pope’s wicket in the second innings is a testimony to that.

Root’s backing

Archer seems to be somewhat self-centred cricketer. Root has defended his trump card in public

“We just need to be very understanding that he’s still very young in his Test career, and that there will be mistakes and lessons to be learnt,” said Root. “But as long as he’s willing to learn from them and to keep looking to improve and get better, we will continue to see very special things from him.”

In reality, he wasn’t given the ball even after Shan Masood and Shadab Khan were involved in a century partnership. It goes onto show that even Root wasn’t pleased with his bowler’s attitude.

One of the great, Holding’s views

It looks like Archer seems to feel that he has a divine right to be playing test cricket for England, performance notwithstanding.

One of the greatest fast bowler the game has ever seen, Michael Holding, says that if any bowler can bowl at 95MPH, he must continue to do so. The batsmen must have sleepless nights thinking about such a bowler and he is correct. He also says that because of the elbow injury that Archer suffered, he subconsciously limits himself from bowling at full tilt. If Archer was injured, he should have been honest and should not have played the test.

Conclusion

Archer is young with lots of exciting years ahead of him but the sooner he realises that the game does not wait for anyone, the better it is for him and for world cricket. It really is hard to see a genuine fast bowler becoming a military medium bowler.

Related to England

In praise of the England cricket team

Ben Stokes

What it means for England in Stokes absence?

Posted on by Bobji

It is now official that Ben Stokes, the magnificent cricketer, will not be part of the remainder of the series against Pakistan. He will have to attend to certain personal tasks and as such will be travelling to New Zealand where his wider family lives. This means that Pakistan have got an incredible opportunity not only to square the series but to win the series as well.

Mind blowing performances of Stokes

Stokes’s performance over the last 15 months has been nothing short of a miracle. His recent performances in South Africa is still very much fresh in the minds of anyone who watched those tests. The 70odd that he scored at Cape Town was a brilliant innings by any standard.

England had levelled the 4 match series in the previous game and were looking to take the lead with a win in this test but they were desperately running short of time because of Denly’s and Sibley’s rather slow batting. Stokes came in and scored at such a rate that England were able to declare with the next 10 overs. Not only that. Stokes came back with the ball and picked up 3 wickets to enable England take the lead in the series. He followed that with a brilliant 120 in the next test and help England win the series 3-1. Root definitely would have lost his captaincy if not for Stokes.

Probably his most memorable performances were very well known. World Cup win, Ashes 135 with only Leach to support, the marathon 20 overs in the same series, the 248 against South Africa, the match winning bowling against India in Birmingham in 2018. The list goes on and on. He is 29 years old and surely has another 6 years at the top. He may not surpass any individual record for batting or for bowling but he definitely will end up winning lot more games for England. How New Zealand would love to have Stokes playing for them instead of England.

Crater sized hole in the England team

It is an understatement to say that Ben Stokes’s absence has left a crater sized hole in the England team. It is definitely more than that. Stokes is someone who can effortlessly transform his innings. If required, he can bat for 40-50 overs and score a slow and laborious hundred as he showed against the West Indies or he can completely switch to beast mode and score a quick fire hundred. Root usually turns to Stokes as the last resort.

This could be because Root feels Stokes is an allrounder and a rare commodity and must be used judiciously. Ultimately, Stokes ends up bowling almost equal to the main bowlers. He was supposed to play the first test against Pakistan as a batsman because of an injury but he came to bowl in the second innings and picked up the vital wicket of Rizwan when Pakistan were threatening to build a substantial lead. Stokes’s fielding is another aspect through which he has contributed to the England team’s success.

What does this mean for Pakistan?

For Pakistan, this is a huge advantage. If they fail to take advantage of this, they will not be able to win any of the tests. Yes Stokes failed in the first test but history tells us that whenever Stokes has failed, he has comeback with a telling contribution in the next game. Something that will change the game decisively in favour of England. India only know that too well. It was Stokes’s dismissal of Kohli in the first test in 2018 with only 48 to win, that tilted the scales firmly in favour of England. Pakistan will have to realise the massive stroke of luck that they have been handed over. England without Stokes is like a fish out of water, notwithstanding the twin innings of Butler & Woakes. Stokes is the one who keeps the England team in the game all the time.

Stokes’s legacy

It is probably too early to bracket Stokes alongwith the likes of Kallis or Sobers, two of the greatest allrounders the game has ever seen. Both of them were exceptional in batting and quite good with the ball. Both of them average over 50 with the bat and have more than 200 wickets. If Stokes continues in the same vein, he will surely be ranked favourably but probably a level below the two greats.

Other post. In praise of the England cricket teamhttps://icricketcritique.com/in-praise-of-the-england-cricket-team/

Pant vs Saha who is the preferred keeper?

Posted on by Bobji

Pant vs Saha who is the preferred keeper? This is a topic that a lot of fans are debating about. Probably, this debate will go on forever until Saha retires. Both the players have their own merits and demerits to be in the team. One is quite aggressive whereas the other is somewhat circumspect. Let us examine through statistics and through the impact both the keepers have created to arrive at a conclusion. This comparison is only for Test Cricket and not for the short formats because Saha has hardly played ODIs for a fair comparison.

Saha Statistics

Saha made his debut in Nagpur against South Africa in 2010. The South Africans were at the absolute best during that period. They were the undisputed No. 1 in the world. In Dale Steyn they had a premier fast bowler who comfortably slots in among the league of greatest fast bowlers ever to have played the game. It was a game the Indians will do well to forget. South Africa amassed over 500 hundred runs and in response, India, with couple of hundreds over two innings folded up meekly. Steyn was at his devastating best. Saha, in such a tough introduction to Test Cricket, did no harm to himself with a decent enough 30odd in the second innings and kept admirably well throughout the game.

Saha is averaging just over 30 with three hundreds in 50 innings. An average of 30 for a keeper is not so bad but in the post Gilchrist world, a keeper is expected to have a healthy average to go with competent wicket keeping. Except for West Indies and Sri Lanka, Saha’s average is nothing to write about in Australia, England or even in India.

Saha’s best performances

In the West Indies, I played a very good innings of 104 when India were in a spot of bother having lost 5 wickets for 126. Saha alongwith Ashwin took the team to a respectable total from where the Indian team were able to dictate the game. In a way, Saha did play a match winning innings. His couple of other noteworthy performances came against Australia at home. In the second test in Bangalore, Saha score a vital 20 with only the tail to support and added a vital 30 runs with the tail. In the ultimate analysis, this proved a vital innings when Australia had to chase just over 185.  

His best performance came in the very next test. Saha scored a brilliant hundred to enable the team gain a lead of over 150 runs.

Saha’s real impact

However, when it comes to Saha, it is not the runs that he scores but it is the manner of his keeping that adds lot of value to the team. He goes for catches down the legside or offside that other keepers, atleast the ones before in the Indian team will think twice before diving. The confidence that gives the bowlers, especially, the spinners on any kind of wicket, be it spinning, bouncy or plain flat wicket, is what enables the bowlers to bowl flat out.

With much delight, if I can think about the catch that Saha took to dismiss Peter Handscomb when he threatened to carry Australia all the way, will always remain a beautiful memory. I was there in the stadium to witness that stunning catch. More recently, during the World Test Championship, against South Africa and Bangladesh, Saha was thought to be the unofficial player of the series.

Pant’s top performances

As for Rishabh Pant, the sample is extremely limited. He has only played 13 tests albeit evenly spread across multiple continents. Having said that, he has played a couple of extraordinary innings. It includes the first ever hundred by an Indian keeper in Australia. There was one other hundred in England but it came at a time when the series was lost and the test itself was lost. He proved that he can stand upright against when he scored a pair of 30s in Perth that the team lost.

Pant’s loss of confidence

Despite the good performances from time to time, Pant’s failures are frequent which is accentuated by his failures in ODIs and T20s. Ofcourse the team management will also have to share the fault for Pant’s failure not least the fact that he was considered as the No. 4 batsman that too in the World Cup. Pant definitely is not No. 4 at the international level in any format. It probably dented his confidence that eventually led to his multiple failures.

Pant’s achilles heel

The one area where Pant will have to improve his skill is undoubtedly keeping. In a stark contrast to Saha, the bowlers can never trust the keeper behind the stump. This severely affects the confidence of the bowlers because they realise that there is not a reliable hand behind the wicket. It will have a huge impact on the bowlers at a subconscious level. It is impossible to forget the pressure Pant was under a year back because of his keeping or lack of it.

Pant is young. He still has lots of time to improve his keeping drastically. Coupled with his audacious batting, he can be an asset along the lines of the great Adam Gilchrist. However, that is sometime away.

Conclusion

Having said all of the above, Pant because of his destructive batting will be the keeper in Australia and South Africa where the chances of the ball swinging or the ball turning is less exaggerated than in the rest of the nations. Everywhere else, Saha will be the keeper. As for the upcoming tour, Pant must be the first choice keeper.

Whom among Pant & Saha will make a better keeper? Is there anyone else who will be much better than either of them? Leave your comments.

Vivo will not sponsor IPL

Posted on by Bobji

Vivo will not sponsor IPL. Now, when I read this header, I really felt quite pleased because our board has gone on and did the correct thing of banning a Chinese company from sponsoring an Indian event. I felt that the board which is the prime reason for all the ills the game faces in the country have for once was not worried about money and cared about the prevailing mood in the country and banned Vivo from sponsoring IPL. Alas, I was wrong. Within the next 10 minutes, I was completely let down by the board. Let me try to explain

Yes, Vivo will not sponsor IPL but that is only for 2020. In other words, if the scenario between India and China improves or even if there is a slight change in the mood of the people of the country, the board will not for a moment hesitate to bring back Vivo as the title sponsor.

Vivo’s contract with the BCCI

Vivo’s title sponsor contract is between 2018 & 2022. It is over a 5 years period. Apart from 2020, they still have two more years remaining. By leaving the door open for Vivo, the BCCI will ensure that Vivo is back for their remaining period of their contract if there is even a slight improvement in the bi-lateral relations between the two countries.

The prevailing mood in the country

If not the whole country, a majority of the countrymen and women are very much angry towards the Chinese aggression. The anger has only increase after 20 of our soldiers were killed by the Chinese. It was in a gruesome manner that is not the hallmark of a nation’s army. The Chinese army behaved like a group of thugs. It is a different story that the Chinese lost more men than us but certainly the Indians are in no mood to forgive and forget the Chinese because of the uncalled for violence and killing.

Various measures to stop importing Chinese products

The government is trying their best to punish the Chinese through various methods. More than 60 Chinese apps are already banned. A lot of Chinese exports to the country stands banned. A lot are waiting at various harbours throughout the country for inspection. Quite a few vendors have taken a huge risk and have banned imports from China. They are prepared to accept the loss because they want to standby our soldiers and send a message to China. Other vendors are taking steps to stop importing crackers for Deepavali, the traditional festival most revered by the Hindus throughout the world.  Indian vendors used to import rakhi’s, the traditional festival that shows a sister’s affection towards her brother, worth 4000 crores from China. This year that was stopped. If reports are to be believed, the Chinese companies have been affected severely and have incurred enormous amount of loss.

At a time when most of the country is standing united against China, in one way or the other, the BCCI, instead of banning a Chinese company from sponsoring any event, have banned, probably I should not use the word banned, postponed Vivo’s sponsorship by just ONE year. This is so petty of the BCCI and shows how cheap the board and its members are.

Request to the government

I wish the government will not give the board permission to go ahead with the tournament even in the UAE because of the board’s reluctance to drop Vivo for the remaining period. It is perhaps time that the government gets strict with the board. The BCCI is the most self-centred board that is being run by a group of self-profiting individuals.

Ganguly disappoints, once again

Ganguly is again and again proving that he is a useless president. Also, he keeps proving that he is not different from the previous presidents. He is after money and only money and he does not seem to care about the game, the players and the country.

Firstly, to schedule IPL till the 10th of November itself is height of stupidity. India have an important tour coming up in December for which the players require adequate preparation. In this Corona induced social distancing and various other precautions that touring teams are expected to undertake, the players will be in quarantine for 14 days in Australia which means by the time the first test starts on December 3rd, the players will be ZERO prepared and will promptly go onto lose the first and second tests. I can only hope that with insane administrators managing the game, we are not annihilated in Australia.

Secondly, by refusing to ban Vivo from sponsoring IPL forever, he has let down the country completely. This is nothing short of blasphemy.

I genuinely wish that a person who cares about the performance of the team, who cares about the well-being of all the players in the country, a patriot, will one day, run the BCCI. Alas, this probably will never ever happen.

Shouldn’t the BCCI be prevented from having a Chinese company as their sponsor? Comment below.

Lokesh Rahul, is he required for Tests?

Posted on by Bobji

Lokesh Rahul, is he required for Tests? Merely to state that Lokesh Rahul is an unfulfilled talent is stating the obvious. He is someone with loads of talent capable of scoring at will. He does not have any glaring technical weakness against pace or spin. Rahul is perfectly capable of scoring against the greatest bowler and fail against the also ran bowlers. There is a growing school of thought that if Rahul had played the New Zealand series instead of Shaw or Agarwal, especially, after Rohit Sharma left, India would have fared much better. Is it really the case?

Rahul’s debut

Anyone who had seen Rahul’s debut innings will remember it pretty well. He came in down the order in the first innings and in the second, he played an ugly hoick across the line to get out. At that point, most of us would have thought that Rahul is an excellent player at the Ranji level but not that good at the international level. However, he proved that these were nothing but nerves that anyone will have when playing their first game for the country and that in a hostile land with a well-constructed hundred.

Rahul’s career

Thereafter, he scored three hundreds including a 199 in the span of 16 innings but it was laced with more than a few acceptable scores less than 25. He had a true purple patch in that series against Australia in 2017 where he may not have got a single hundred but lot of 50s which proved to be series winning efforts. His twin fifties in the second test in Bangalore proved to be the difference between the teams. It was a fabulous effort on a difficult pitch. He scored another pair of fifties in the last test at Dharmshala that ensured that India won the series. A series that India were expected to wallop the Australians, we somehow scrambled to 2-1 win. The contribution of Rahul can never be underestimated.

Fall from heights

From such an excellent series, Rahul has had a horror run over the next 19 tests & 32 innings. Simply put, Rahul during this period was so horrible that he was considered a misfit in the entire team. His string of poor scores in England and Australia during this period, contributed to some of the defeats that the Indian team endured. If only he had scored, India would have won a couple of tests in England and thereby the series. His horror ended only after he was dropped from the last two tests in Australia. A total of 32 innings is decent enough chances in a country where there are sufficient number of players for every position though the quality may not be good.

Rahul’s predicament

Rahul seems to be confused in how he wants to bat. He is either too aggressive or too defensive. He does not know what shot to play and when to play. There was one innings in Australia where he scored a quick 40 and played one shot too many and got out. Maybe just maybe, he is not a natural opener at all. His position in the team is in the middle order, after Kohli. If at all he has to play Test Cricket, Rahul will have to bat at no. 5 or no. 6 and definitely not as an opener.

Rahul short format performance

However, I firmly believe that Rahul future lies in the short format and not in test cricket. Even in the short formats, it is in the middle order. His ideal position is No. 5 in the short formats and combined with keeping wickets, he will be an asset to the team. He can play his shots freely in that position without having to worry about occupying the crease.

Over the last year in ODIs and T20s, Rahul has been exceptional. Not only was he consistent but he scored quickly and authoritatively. Most of them from No. 5. The manner by which he scored those runs, any opponent team will be demoralised. That is something the team dearly needs. After Rohit, Kohli and to a certain extent Shreyas, if Rahul walks in, the team and the rest of the country will be much relieved. Again, his place is in the middle order. Even in the shorter formats because if he goes back to opening the innings, he will again be confused whether to play defensively and support Rohit Sharma or play aggressively and destroy the bowlers. Witness his uncluttered mind at number 5 in the last World Cup and his laborious innings as an opener after Dhawan was injured.

Conclusion

Rahul must forget about Test Cricket. He must concentrate on the shorter formats and improve his keeping, he can easily be one of the most important player in the team. He will definitely score lot of runs and finish the game for the team. I will say this once again that Lokesh Rahul is not a good fit in Test Cricket but a potential great in the short formats. Also, playing Rahul as the wicket keeper will not only lengthen the batting but will also allow the team to play 2 spinners.

The board must resist the temptation to bring him back for tests however well he performs in limited overs. Otherwise, Rahul will not be clear in the method that he wants to adopt and will not be able to adapt between the formats. The team will run the risk of losing Rahul permanently from all forms of the game. The board must treat him in much the same way the Australian board dealt with Bevan. Bevan only played ODIs and became an extraordinary one-day player and he never played test cricket again.

Do you think Rahul must be persisted with in Tests? Will he be able to realise his potential, finally? On the otherhand, is it good enough only for the shorter formats?

Sanjay Manjrekar and IPL Commentary

Posted on by Bobji

There was a news item that was published recently about Sanjay Manjrekar and him wanting to be back into the commentary team for the IPL. If we can remember, Manjrekar was removed from the BCCI commentary team in the month of March. There were lot of comments that he aired during his stint as a commentator. All of those comments seems to have rubbed the recipient the wrong way. Probably some of the comments were tasteless. Does he as a commentator has a right to pass such comments and that too on-air? Let us analyse.

What were some of those comments?

During the 2019 World Cup, Manjrekar called Ravindra Jadeja a bits and pieces cricketer. This led to a lot of public outcry over his comments. Jadeja did not hold back either. He went onto comment that he has played twice the number of games that Manjrekar has played.

Manjrekar also criticised Kieron Pollard. He went onto comment that Pollard does not have the brains to play early in the innings.

Another episode of Manjrekar was against his fellow commentator Harsha Bhogle. He seems to have hinted that because of Bhogle’s lack of international experience, Bhogle’s comments may not have much value. Manjrekar did apologise to the producers and to Bhogle immediately.

Comment about Harsha Bhogle

The last one is definitely not in good taste. Harsha Bhogle may not have played international cricket but he definitely is one whose comments are much respected throughout the cricketing world. Bhogle has proved that he is more than an efficient commentator and can easily hold his own against commentators of the calibre of Ian Chappell, Nasser Hussain, Gavaskar, Atherton, David Lloyd, Warne, Holding to mention a few. Anyone who has heard Bhogle, will vouch for the standard of English, the articulation, the clarity of thought and the spontaneous flow. He also has a decent insight into the game. This is a gift not everyone from a non-English speaking country has. Among the Indian commentators, Harsha is behind only the unassailable Sunil Gavaskar.

Kieron Pollard

I don’t even want to talk about Pollard. He is extremely lucky to be playing even in IPL. I struggle to recall even a single innings of his that made a difference. Hence, I will skip writing about Pollard.

Ravindra Jadeja

Coming to the Ravindra Jadeja, where Manjrekar called him a bits and pieces cricketer, I do not think that the comments were off the mark. The only thing that Manjrekar should have done is that he should have used better words to convey his impression about the player.

Jadeja’s role in the team

In the case of Jadeja, he has played 49 tests, 49 T20s and more than 150 ODIs. This is  high enough games to form an opinion about a player. First of all, lets decide what type of cricketer Jadeja is. I would prefer to think of Jadeja as a bowler because his batting statistics is not that flattering. He is averaging a modest 35 with the bat helped by 17 not-outs in Test Cricket. In ODIs, around 32 with a strike rate of 86. His batting has improved over the recent months but that does mean he can be considered a batsman.

With his bowling, he has performed way better. He averages around 24 and has taken more than 210 wickets in 49 tests. It is an impressive 4 wickets per test. However, when this is further drilled down, the end result is somewhat disappointing. More than 80% of his wickets were in India in about 31 tests. His overseas performance is not something that will make someone to take note off. I agree that he has played less number of games and he was never considered automatic when India plays outside the subcontinent. Having said that, even in the limited opportunities, if we have to analyse whether he created any impact in those opportunities, the answer is negative.

Jadeja’s Impact

In couple of series in New Zealand, spread across 4 years, he didn’t make any impact in 2014 and in the last series he took a couple of wickets which had a decent impact but didn’t do much with the bat. The story in Australia, South Africa and England are not that impressive either. I expected Jadeja’s limited overs statistics to be much better but I am left completely disappointed. Not just the average, even the strike rate is negligible. I can remember a couple of games clearly. The Champions Trophy finals and the World T20 Semis when the Pakistani batsmen and the West Indian batsmen hit him wherever they wanted to.

This takes us back to the question. Was Manjrekar correct to call Jadeja bits and pieces player? His statistics might agree with Manjrekar.

BCCI and their restrictions

It is a known fact that the Indian board ( I do not have much respect for a self-centred body )has lot of restrictions on the commentators. They are not allowed to comment about the team selection, administration, criticise players to name just a few. This is outrageous. No wonder all the Indian commentators are lame and they do not have much to talk about. They repeat the same thing every now. They are treated as the lackeys of the board. Ravi Shastri’s comments are legendary. Basically, he has become the laughing stock of the commentating world.

Once a commentator is contracted by the production company, he must be free to express himself and not be restricted by some stupid board. If the commentator is not doing justice to his job, he is actually betraying the public. He is withholding information from the public who are depended on the experts to understand the match happenings. The great commentator Ian Chappell once refused to commentate in one of the India vs Australia series because he did not want to be restricted in his views. He is someone who stands by his principal. I have listened to Nasser, Atherton, David, Warne, Holding and I felt absolutely privileged. They are all so clear and if they felt something is not correct they said so. It is the beauty of commentary. Especially, all of them are former players who has much more insight into the game than the average cricket fan.

Conclusion

I do not think Manjrekar must accept the sorry state of affairs and he must try his chance with English or Australian or South African or New Zealand commentary teams. He will probably be able to express himself much more freely but he may want to choose his words carefully.

If you think Manjrekar must be allowed to express himself, albeit without insulting others, leave your comment.