Cricket Celebrations

Not to be misled, this post is not about the celebratory status of the game or the cricketers. In fact, it could be quite the opposite.

Watching the intriguing fourth day play of the test match between India and England at Lords, some moments in the days play captured my attention. The way cricketers have come to celebrate mini and major milestones in the course of an innings has evolved over the years as has everything else. A batsman’s raised bat for a half century has now become a much more elaborate affair in recent times. The Australian method of the raised-arm-with-ball for a five wicket haul is setting the standards for the bowlers.

The way Kevin Pietersen celebrated his belligerent hundred, Monty Panesar’s excitement on picking up Tendulkar(is her ever calm after a wicket!) and Dinesh Karthik’s way of acknowledging his half century-these were the moments that caught my attention. A century is still a big deal in test cricket. A five for is also a worthy moment. But what about a half century? In an increasingly batsmen-oriented game, the half century moment needs to be placed with a little more perception. Any thoughts?

New Zealand triumphant against South Africa

NZ came out victorious against the South Africans in the second match of the Champions Trophy 2006. The Brabourne Stadium witnessed a stern contest between the two teams, with the balance of the match swinging between both teams until New Zealand sealed it with an impressive bowling performance.

The pitch has been the talking point all through the tournament so far. It has indeed been surprising to see non-batsmen friendly wickets in India. The pitches have all had some variable bounce, have cracked up sooner than most expected it to thereby making it difficult for the batsmen. Though the initial swing and seam movement we have seen in the games so far, have been encouraging, the slow paced nature is something that is very difficult for the batsmen to adjust to. We saw that hapen yesterday in the first innings when NZ got off to a good start and then were pegged down by the dolly spin bowlers of SA. Robin Peterson will enjoy international cricket more often if he plays on pitches like this and Graeme Smith may be tempted to call himself an all-rounder if he bowls more on thes ekind of wickets. Such was the effect that these two spinners had in the first innings.

On the other hand, Stephen Fleming may well have defined how to bat in the first innings, for all the batsmen in this tournament. A kind of blueprint as Ian Chappell says. He believes that NZ are now good enough to qualify to the semis, and why not, they only have to win one more game.

Looking ahead to todays game, Pakistan find themselves on the backfoot even before setting foot on the field, by the loss of their 2 premier fast bowlers to the Dope test. Really, this must be a great loss and sure does dent their chances of winning this tournament. Pakistan cricket’s volatile nature to the fore again. First he Inzi case and now this….Sri Lanka will be aiming to extend their purple patch and have a good game today.

Another attempt-could this be the revival?

This is yet another attempt at keeping this blog going. I have found myself incapable of getting down to writing some posts, though there has been much to say in the past month or so. This attempt at revival was triggered by an old love. Something very close to my heart and something which is being celebrated by its ardent followers right now. I am talking Cricket, friends.

The ongoing Champions Trophy seems like a time of celebration to me. The entire cricketing world has gathered in India to clash heads for the Champions Trophy. Though the timing of the event, the format, the scheduling and other ingredients have taken some flak, I must say I am very excited at the prospect of the whole tournament. The wide range of international talent, some new and some old and some others rediscovering themselves-all this promises a good 2 weeks ahead.

A tame draw and an exciting win

As was expected, the India-Pakistan test at Lahore ended in a boring draw, but buoy, the game’s second half was made interesting by Sehwag, in the only way he could. Blitzkrieg! 254 of just 248 balls, and yes we are talking test cricket. The Indians would have loved to have a shot at the remaining world records (lots of them were smashed yesterday) and who knows we might have a had a new world record holder for the highest individual score if a whole day’s play was possible.

I wouldnt like to think that either team won any psychological points over the other. Both are aware of their strengths and will be wary of them in the games to come. Yes, I know Akhtar was smased around and Kaneria was dismissed, but so were Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh. The teams will go to Faisalabad(Jan 21-25) pretty evenly matched.

Meanwhile Down under, Sri Lanka scored a convincing victory over South Africa, who had beaten Australia a couple of days back. Meaningful knocks from Sangakkara and Mubarak. This was followed up with some tidy bowling and appaling running between the wickets by the South African batsmen (2 run outs, Gibbs and Rudolph). What was pleasing to see was the way the Sri Lankans were cheered by their supporters. Very colorful and entertaining. The supporters even went one step further and booed and ‘no-balled’ the South African off spinner Johan Botha, whose action has recently been reported for review. Fair call, they’ve been at the receiving end for long enough. This win opens up the VB series and the forthcoming games should be interesting.

Cricket Poetry

Victory Calypso

At Lord’s in 1950, West Indies defeated England in England for the first time. Egbert Moore, who sang under the pseudonym Lord Beginner, composed the most famous of cricketing calypsos to celebrate the occasion. He was accompanied by Calypso Rhythm Kings, ’supervision’ by Denis Preston. It was recorded on the ‘Melodisc’ (1133) label (MEL 20)

The Victory Calypso also immortalized the spin bowling pair of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine. The calypso begins thus

Cricket lovely Cricket,
At Lord’s where I saw it;
Cricket lovely Cricket,
At Lord’s where I saw it;
Yardley tried his best
But Goddard won the test.
They gave the crowd plenty fun;
Second Test and West Indies won.

Chorus: With those two little pals of mine

Ramadhin and Valentine.

West Indian Cricketer Alf Valentine pased away last year. More here.

Gavaskar Calypso

Lord Relator (born Willard Harris) wrote the ‘Gavaskar Calypso’ to celebrate Gavaskar’s first Test series, in West Indies in 1970-71. This was voted at No. 68 at a ‘Calypso of the Century’ poll (Victory Calypso didn’t feature in the list). [4] The most famous part of the Gavaskar Calypso is the one that describes how he batted like a wall :

Little Desmond Lewis
Also charlie Davis
These boys could real play cricket
On any kind of wicket
But the best of them all was
Gavaskar
The real master
Just like a wall
The West Indies couldn’t out Gavaskar at all
Not at all
Not at all
The West Indies couldn’t out Gavaskar at all.

The lines about Gavaskar are well known in India as well, though hardly anyone there has heard the calypso itself.

The biased aussie policy

In recent times, Australia have been pioneers in Sport Administration, more importantly in Cricket Administration. Due to this effective administration, they have been rightly called leaders in Sporting arena.

A lot of advancements have taken place in Australia Cricket. The Australian Cricket Board(ACB) changed to Cricket Australia, Central Contracts were given to their players and much more. This post is about Cricket Australia’s policy of terminating careers when the players are at the twilight of their careers. Steve Waugh’s one day career was ended by Cricket Australia(so was Mark Waugh’s) after the twins were blasted off by Shane bond during the 2001/02 VB Series, Down Under. More recently, Michael Bevan(arguably the best one-day batsman ever) saw his career being terminated after a lean patch. His consistent scores in their domestic competitions haven’t been enough for him to knock the selection door again. Darren Lehmann has also been sidelined after a poor series against NZ. Its difficult to imagine him come back either.

Now, the same policy doesnt seem to hold water for the bowlers. Yes, both McGrath and Warne had memorable comebacks, after their injury and ban, respectively. But when do they put up their boots? If the australian selectors do not do something about strengthening their bowling attack, it may be too late. All of a sudden the McGraths, Warnes, Kaspers will come to a shuddering halt.

Just what do they expect from this Genius?

I was angered after i read this article. I read the headline : ” Jacobs slams selfish Lara” and I was hoping it wasn’t Ridley Jacobs, but to my surprise it was indeed the West Indian wicket keeper Ridley Jacobs.

Jacobs, having retired from all forms of the game recently lashed out at his ex team mate and skipper Brian Lara, accusing him of being a self centered batsman. Jacobs had a good beginning to his career. He was the one player who could have been satisfied with his performance during West Indies tour of South Africa. The West Indians were routed 5-0, in the test and 6-1 in the one dayers. All under Lara’s captaincy.

Agreed, Lara hasn’t been the best of captains that West Indies have seen, but accusing him of being selfish is something that I cannot accept. All through his career, he has placed the teams ‘interest ahead of his and even his consistent accumulation of big hundreds, double hundreds, triple hundreds and hell, even the quadruple have not helped the West Indies salvage some pride. West Indies’ incapability to win matches could be associated with Lara’s bad captaincy or on the lack of their bowling strength. But never on Lara’s so called selfish approach to score runs for himself. Lara isn’t a selfish batsman; when you score a quarter of the team’s runs and still finish on the losing side regularly, making big scores is called pragmatism not parsimony.

It’s unacceptable to see his former team mates and administrators lash out on him this way, and one cannot help but feel that this genius’ cricketing legacy is being tarnished a great extent by such talk. Sorry state!

A disappointing finish

Having watched the India-Australia match over the last four days, two days at the M A Chidambaram Stadium, cant hel but feel disappointed at the final result. The rains were going to come sometime or the other as was feared all along. But, one didn’t expect the rains to have the final laugh. The game was very intiguingly poised for the last day, with India pushing for a series-levelling victory. If it was any indication, the last shot on day 4 by Sehwag gave a hint to the approach the Indians would have adopted on day 5. And, what a day it would have been. Though history did not favor India’s chances (the highest score made on the 5th day at Chepauk was 155, in that epic India-Australia series in 2001) this new look Indian team might have made it. Not without a tough time, mind you. The aussies would have come hard and stromg and i personally expected Kasprowicz to have the biggest impact, with Gillespie drying the runs from the other end. Sad, we will now have to wait for the Nagpur test to see which way this series may go.

The Nagpur wicket is a batsman’s paradise. This doesn’t read too well for the Indians. If India are to effect a victory in Nagpur, they’ll have to bat first, pile on runs, runs and more runs and then dismiss the aussies twice. Tough ask. This leaves us with Hyderabad for the last test. Frankly, no one can determine the final outcome of this series for sure, at the moment.

The importance of this last day’s play(now washed out) at Madras is not meagre. Had India pulled off a win the momentum would have been with them, their confidence back, series levelled, the team settling as a unit and so on. These things have eluded India recently. But now, we are back to Australis leading the test series 1-0. The Madras test will be forgotten and the aussies will be attempting to wrap up things at Nagpur.

The beauty of this test has been that each of the five days, rather four, have served an interesting proposition. Each of us, a group of friends felt that the next day would be the deciding day, it went that way till the end, with the last day being anybodys! Now that’s the most we can expect of a test match. I thorougly enjoyed the opening stand of Haydos-Langie in the first innings, followed by the ‘Jumbo’ effort of Kumble, Warnie’s record, Martyn’s patient ton and the excitement of watching all this live! Would have loved it if Australia could have wrapped it up though…:-)!!

Champions Trophy winners-West Indies

“Truth crushed to the ground rises again.” This saying is applicable to the West Indies cricket team led by Brian Lara. They were vilified and chastised by their own Caribbean journalists, former cricketers and the ordinary West Indian folks also joined in the chorus of criticism and condemnation of Brian Lara and his team.

Not too long ago, former West Indies fast bowler Colin Croft called for Lara to be fired as West Indies captain. Yet another former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding made it publicly known on the eve of a Test match that he was “not a fan of Brian Lara.” The negatives of Tony Cozier against Lara and his team are well documented. Even Viv Richards, a former captain who, as chairman of the West Indies selectors was accused of cursing players in the dressing room also joined in the call for Lara’s head.

What is amazing is that none of the critics took time to analyse where West Indies cricket was at, in relation to the causes for the rough patch they were going through. It was blows left, right and centre for Lara and his team. However, there were no such comments from the dignified Clive Lloyd and his former deputy Deryck Murray. In fact, when I interviewed Deryck Murray at the recent Great Race at Crown Point, he was emphatic that Lara was not to be blamed for the present state of West Indies cricket. He made it clear that Brian Lara was the most capable individual to lead West Indies at this time.

As fate would have it, Brian Lara and his young team defied all the odds and scored one of the most compelling victories in the history of One-day cricket when they crushed the now mighty English team in the final of the ICC one-day tournament last week Saturday in England.

As they say, “what in the dark must come to light”, and as if guided by a divine force Lara and his Caribbean men fought in the cold and the dark to bring pride and joy to the people of a region battered and bruised by Mother Nature.

As the late, great African-American soul singer Sam Cook once sang, “Nobody loves you when you are down and out”. There were many who showed no love for Lara and his team when things were not going their way. For some it was pure hate, but how things have changed. As we now enjoy the happiness the team has brought to the region, let us remember that in Brian Lara we have a genius and such individuals are a rarity among mankind. It was a former national cricketer and now administrator Richard De Souza who once said: “In Brian Lara we have a gift from God, let’s not destroy it (him)”. Geniuses inspire ordinary men and women to great achievements, and when Lara took that extraordinary catch to remove the English danger man Andrew Flintoff, the tone was set for what was to be the final outcome of the game.

For a team whom their own Caribbean commentators described as “spineless”, “gutless”, “pathetic” and not being worthy of the great West Indies teams of the past, their achievement is even more significant. However, as we move forward, I am in full support of Deryck Murray for the West Indies Cricket Board to rethink its position on the hiring of a foreign coach for the West Indies cricket team. We have got to face the reality that world sport has a lot to do with world power and what guarantee do we have to suggest that a foreign coach will be totally committed to the goal of West Indies being the dominant force in world cricket. What may be good for other countries may not be in our best interest.

Thanks to Brian Lara and the West Indies team and keep on keeping on despite whatever the odds. So hail Lara’s West Indies!

The above article appeared in the Tobagonews website.