India v Ireland : Match #34

I feel bad for Ireland. They are tragic heroes. With their last 2 games against a clinical India firing on all cylinders and a resurgent Pakistan, their chances of qualifying are low. This after a good Worldcup so far.

It seems like Ireland have a problem blooding new players, and this team is no longer young. The young, powerful Kevin O'Brien who demolished England in 2011 at Bangalore is now 30 and somewhat subdued. The tyro Dockerell of 2011 is now a wiser 24. Niall O'Brien, the most corageous batsman I have seen in the past 8 years, now has a tire around his waist and playing his last Worldcup. He will be 37 by the time it is played again. Mooney looks perpetually angry. Porterfield and Joyce are consummate professionals who are well aware that their best batsman is the captain of a miserable English team, and their best fast bowler is unavailable to them because simply to retain the status of an England reject he must give up the right to play for his mother nation. One gets the sense that this core group of players who have been together through their 3rd world cup feels somewhat hard done by at the hands of the exclusive ICC members club.

There is a strong feeling from all the media coverage that this group feels that all that is required to prove themselves has been done and yet they get no respect. India do not play them at all. England has played them a few times but nowhere as frequently as they need to. South Africa does not and Australia does not. That is the varsity of International cricket, and Ireland can not get a game against any of them unless it is an ICC tournament.

They have not asked for any favors. Even before today's game the media asked him if he wished India would do them a favor, he said he did not expect any favors from India. Ireland need to win one of their final two games to ensure qualification.

They must have fancied their chances against India today after the first 5-6 overs of their innings. But after the first bad start by his seamers in the Worldcup, Dhoni realized that he needed to take the pace of the ball coming so nicely on to the bats of the Irish openers. Spin was introduced and the Irish were suddenly all at sea. Stirling, playing magnificently until then, was the first to go, and then the Innings suddenly derailed. Runs dried up and the Irish put themselves under pressure.

In the end anything short of 300 was going to impossible to defend against this marauding Indian top order. Rohit Sharma is the only one who has missed out so far. Dhawan has one century already and so does Kohli and Rahane as well. This Irish team, for all its spirit, does not have the bowling firepower to stop this kind of batsman. They have never before seen such batsmen. Watching them on TV and actually being at the receiving end of such an array of all round shots are two very different experiences.

The last time they played India was at a world cup. It is just sad. They are a great team, and really honest and courageous players who back themselves to win. It is impossibly cruel that Morgan and Rankin are not allowed to play for Ireland anymore. With those two in its ranks, this team could have seriously challenged. Maybe one of the giants could have been brought down, even. Sad that we will never know.

What is remarkable is that they still play as hard as ever, old or not, and play with smiles on their faces, wronged or not. 

This Irish team is one of the main reasons I feel no love lost for the English team. They simply do not have the quality to play International Cricket anymore, if confined to pick players from purely English players. They have poached the best talent from Zimbabwe, South Africa, West Indies, Scotland, and Ireland, and made stupid visa rules to create a virtual captive labor market for themselves. The best players of these countries are forced to give up their own country for the privilege of being considered for English selection, as if that is a privilege to be earned by years of struggle. This, when the "English" players on this team are of the quality of Bell, Cook, Buttler, Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Moeen Ali. Not exactly fantasy favorites with their dour deliberately boring style of play.

These countries at least have enough Cricket talent to support this artificial system of colonialism. Ireland can not afford to lose the players of the quality of Morgan and Rankin, and remain competitive.  That is also the biggest worry for Ireland. Is there another core group coming through the ranks to replace this fantastic generation. The middle order rock called Niall O'Brien will be gone in the next Worldcup. So will Porterfield, as well as Joyce, and Mooney and Stirling. Who si replacing all these guys. Is there enough first class cricket of a high enough class to produce another crop of players of similar or better quality. Or, will their frustration at being denied Test status and being deprived of resources as well as opportunity lead to a premature end to the Irish cricket experiment. I hope not.

I think that West Indies and Zimbabwe have made a case for demotion, and should be replaced with Ireland and Afghanistan immediately. I think the ICC can afford to be generous and "sponsor" two more teams fully, and two more at 50%. The deal should be to grow the game over 10 years in their country to break even on the ICC investment. The ICC has sufficient funds to do this, but the problem is not financial.

It is greed, pure and simple. India has the money, and Cricket is India centric. Ireland enjoys no special relationship with India. Their players are unknown, and with such limited opportunities, they have no way of getting better at their game and participate more fully in the global Cricket revenue stream. They stay poor and for no lack of skill, talent or desire. Morgan is the only Irish player in the IPL, and he had to become and English player for that privilege. I sincerely feel that Eoin Morgan is more comfortable as a Kolkata Knight Ryder than in the English dressing room which seems to be a horrible workplace by any description.

The Indian batsmen, none of whom were what have now become the last time these two teams played, have sliced up the Irish bowling like nobody probably does to them normally. This level of batting is so different from the English Cricket system in which most of these players make a living. 

This global system of exploitation to keep the vampire English Cricket system alive, by drinking the fresh lifeblood of other nations, has got to stop. If BCCI can pull off this change to finally break the shackles of Empire, it would have done the world of Cricket a good turn. Sachin Tendulkar's call for a 25 team world cup next time has got to be a jolt to the governing body. He is their Worldcup ambassador, and he has gone off message very publicly to call for an expansion rather than a contraction of international Cricket.

I feel sad for the Irish, but happy that they are still around. Hope they win over Pakistan and get a spot in the playoffs, although with Pakistan looking like they are finally begining to work out the balance of their side, that seems unlikely. This is not 2007, and while Pakistan are not much improved from then, this Irish team that slew that dragon so famously, is now an older force with diminished firepower. May they win.

This world cup was designed for the batsmen. The pitches are true and bouncy, with little lateral movement in Australia, and the ball comes nicely on to the bat. The troublesome spinners hve been clinically removed by the ICC, giving the batsmen additional relief from the guiles of Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine, to name just the top 2. Pakistan and West Indies have cause to feel hard done by - both bowlers are very capable of turning matches on their own.

In a tournament where nearly 300 sixes have already been hit, only one spinner has 5 wickets in an innings. The balance is clearly in favor of batting, and all the best batters have been enjoying themselves. We have already seen some fantastic innings, with the top billed stars all living up to their billing.

For India, Virat Kohli had a fantastic 100 against arch-rivals Pakistan. Dhawan is having a nice run after a dry spell.  Rahane played a gem of an innings against South Africa after Raina's heroic 60+ against Pakistan. Dhoni made a near half century under pressure against a West Indies attack for once bowling at international class.

Misbah has hit 2-3 more 50s while looking determined not to break his record of ever making 100. Sangakkara has hit 3 hundreds back to back, and looking indestructible.

For South Africa, AB DeVilliers had that awe inspiring 160+ score against the West Indies. He is on a different plane by himself right now. He plays shots that other batsmen can not even imagine, and he makes it look easy. Hashim Amla is simply amazing, like a Rolls Royce, and every time he bats, his team win. The rest of SA order is yet to fire, but they will at some point soon. Roussow's 60 the other day was a sign of what could happen.

Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams for Zimbabwe have been sublime with more than 250 each in the tournament so far, and they are going home! Such is the quality of batsmanship on display that a team with more than 500 runs from just 2 of their batsmen has been eliminated. 

The crazy Afghan Samiullah Shenwari has been playing a fantastic rear guard against nearly every team, and led his team to its first win against Scotland.

Scotland had that astounding innings from Coetzer, and still lost to Bangladesh.

For England, Joe Root has been playing Cricket while the rest have been soaking up the sun and holidaying. There have been serious calls in the media to "Bring the boys back home."

For Australia, Warner has been explosive at the top, while Maxwell has been explosive at the death of the innings. Maxi's 100 today was unbelievable. Steve Smith is alright, and so is Michael Clarke with his fun 50 today.

Chris Gayle's 200 was superbly entertaining while seeming effortless. The most astounding fact about his 200 was not that the first 100 came off 105 balls, but that when the score crossed 200, the number of deliveries read 138. Gayle went from 100 to 200 in 33 balls. Talk about fastest hundreds. Samuels, Sammy, Holder and Russell have solidity at the death for the West Indies to get to competitive totals despite repeated top order collapses.

Ireland had a century the other day, from Ed Joyce, and Niall O'Brien's batting against the West Indies in that famous win was breath taking.

Even the UAE brought a remarkable talent in Shaiman Anwar who has batted beautifully against everyone and looked capable of walking into other top teams.

Seems like there have already been more 100s and more 150+ scores at this world cup than in any previous world cups, and scored at a faster clip. 4 150+ scores already, and against quality bowling. The strike rates on display this tournament are just unbelievable. The batsmen are scoring like runs are running out.

The variety in styles is also amazing. Baz just hits through the line with unbelievable power. AB DeVilliers hits shots everywhere on the ground. Maxwell uses his wrists to hit sixes. Sanga, Dilshan carve the field with the precision of surgeons, bestowing death by a thousand cuts. Gayle hits sixes only in the zone between square leg and mid-on with unbelievable power. Kohli, Smith, Root, are inventive strokeplayers capable of dismantling any plans made to get them out. Amla is smooth and sharp. Misbah has thick skin and looks to run fast and bludgeon any bad balls. Dhoni is the same, with 50% more power and speed. They each score in their unique ways, and they score heavily and fast.

The best of them have multiple gears. They are capable of biding time before exploding, and only Baz and Maxwell have looked like they have no need to get their eye in.

The cup is getting to its knock out stage soon, and it should be interesting to see how the batsmen fare as the pitches get old and the Australian summer draws to a close. Its raining sixes this summer.

Match #23 : Pakistan v Zimbabwe

Pak 17-2

As I watch in some dismay and subconscious satisfaction, the Pakistani batsmen make trouble for themselves yet again for the 3rd consecutive time in this World Cup, I am aware that this is not good for Cricket.

The problem is twofold. After India's 1.2 Billion, Pakistan's 180 Million people are the second biggest population following Cricket as their most popular sport. Bangladesh is the 3rd with its 160 Million, but whereas the incompetence of the Bangladeshi Cricket team makes them perennial no-hopers, Pakistan is actually an original superpower of the game. If they are knocked out of the tournament without even reaching the Quarter final, it will mean hundreds of millions of TV screens switched off all over the world where the Pakistani diaspora follow their team. This would mean a huge financial challenge for Cricket. Even more serious however would be the potential impact on the game itself in Pakistan.

Pakistan is perhaps the greatest fast bowling nation in Cricket, and the only one to rival the mighty West Indies teams of the 70s, 80s and 90s in terms of fast bowling firepower. Even now, when the West Indian stables are empty, Pakistan keeps throwing up rustic lads with the trademark hairstyle sprinting in and flinging the Cricket ball at extreme speed with no thought to the pain it causes the human body. Pakistani Cricket is a story of courage, style, flair, and fearlessness, if not consistency.

An early exit from the World cup would mean further undermining of the sport in a country already troubled by the loss of international Cricket within its borders. No other nation except Afghanistan plays 100% of its international Cricket outside its borders. While Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are the best places to live in Pakistan, and provide fantastic Cricket facilities probably more modern and better maintained than in Pakistan itself, these grounds cannot compare to Qaddafi stadium or National Stadium, or even Multan or Peshawar, where the beating heart of Pakistan Cricket really lives.

Pakistani fans represent more than 10% of the global following of the sport, and its players represent a unique, rich and undoubtedly great tradition. The loss of both would do incalculable damage to World Cricket. There are fans at Brisbane today holding up a sign saying the miracle of 1992 will be repeated, but there are 3 question marks on that sign, as there must be in the hearts of every Pakistani fan hoping against hope now as their team's chances recede further. For their sake, I hope that Afridi's retirement does not coincide with the beginning of the end for Cricket in Pakistan. Hope that it does not come to pass that the only memory of Pakistan Cricket will be its bastard step-child the Afghan Cricket team.

Pak 127-4
Yet another time that U Akmal gets out in the 30s. The best thing that can be said about U Akmal is that he is not K Akmal.  Afridi walks in.

Pak 127-5
Afridi walks out. No addition to the score board. Way to draw down the curtain on a 20 year career glittering with great promise, flashes of mad brilliance and little else. Feel Waseem bhai's pain in the commentary box. This must hurt.

CWC 15 Match #17: Afghanistan v Scotland

What a game yesterday. Afghanistan had Scotland 8 down at 142, but the Scots tail wagged and stretched it to 210. Still, it seemed Afghanistan's day. Watched them until 85 for 2, seemed like smooth sailing so took a break. Come back 30 minutes later it is 95 for 7!!!!! How did that happen? Thought it is all over and switched off in the living room, but something did not feel right so switched on the bedroom TV and watched again, and stayed watching until the end!! What an end! Oh Shenwari!! Oh Hamid Hassan! Just kept plugging away. 76 from 85, 72 from 72, chipping away, Shenwari turning down easy singles to stay on strike and shield Hassan until with 40 more to get from 30, Hassan started to ask for singles. What fantastic fielding by the Scots!! Best I have seen thus far in the tournament. Berrington, Evans, McLeod, Coetzer!! Every hard hit was stopped, 4s converted to singles, singles converted to zeros. Then THAT over. Shenwari takes 19 off Majid Haq and its 19 from 19. But oh no!! Shenwari hits one right into the hands of Berrington in cow corner, and it is just one wicket remaining. Shapoor!! The Zadran! So cool, while Hassan was visibly nervous. 19 from 18, 18 from 16, 13 from 11, 10 from 8, the Afghans hanging on by a thread. Last over, 5 from 6, 4 from 4. And finally the Scots blinked. One bad ball, played off the hips by Shapoor for a 4 and its over. What a match!

CWC 15 Match #18: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka

Bangladesh are a blot. If their play matched their imagination of how they play, they would be better than Clive Lloyd's West Indies. In reality, they make Jason Holder's West Indies look like Ponting's Australia. At the moment they are sitting on Ireland's spot at the ICC full member's table, and doing it without any shame or remorse. They have been at the top level long enough to actually now show something for it, but they have nothing. No Asia cup, no ICC event semifinals even, no Test wins away from home against the top 8 teams. Forget the results, they do not look like they will win anything. Their players, generation after generation, look stylish and attractive, but can not summon up the maturity and consistency or even simple grit to win. Afghanistan wins, often wins ugly. Ireland wins, sometimes wins ugly. Bangladesh have perfected the art of looking good while losing. Useless.

Umesh Yadav needs to play with a broken finger

I'm just kidding. Apparently around the same time yesterday when I was calling for an extended run for Yadav in ODIs, he split the webbing in his bowling hand while fielding and is now out for the next 2 games. In their infinite wisdon the selection committee immediately replaced him with another Karnataka "Pace" bowler, Abhimanyu Mithun. This Mithun should not be confused with Mithun of Bollywood fame who was famous for his hip-pumping dance moves in the 80s and 90s. This Mithun is nothing like that Mithun. In fact, this Mithun is about as exciting as a boiled Idli, without chutney. Not one of the 3 Karnataka "pace" bowlers on the current India team can break 135 at their fiery best. They can barely break 130 Kmph on consecutive balls on good days. They are that uniquely Indian invention - a bowler who trundles in from a long run up and bowls serviceable military medium pace and gets wickets through "line and length" - a mix of swing and changes of pace, and takes mortal offense if you call them medium pace or anything other than "fast".

Not all India pace bowlers are born like this. There are several who have started off bowling in the region of 138-142 kmph, with an occasional delivery touching 144. Munaf, Irfan, RP, and even Sreesanth originally bowled in this range. Through flawed coaching and fear of being dropped they adjusted their game to a point where they all now bowl at 125 kmph and struggle to break 130. Contrary to public sentiment, I do not think any of these is a great loss to Indian Cricket, except Irfan Pathan. He was a once in a generation natural talent with real potential, and he lost the plot so badly that everyone who handled him should be fired and disbarred from talking to an Indian team player forever.

Despite all his success, I hold Zaheer responsible for this fiasco. He was the role model for this generation of fast bowlers, and as he dropped in pace and continued to grow in success, these young men followed, to their doom. Zak has prospered, because he was intelligent enough to learn his game and maximize his pluses in the county circuit after being dropped from the India team. He has not bowled 2 consecutive deliveries faster than 138 Kmph since 2005, and yet he gets upset if you call him anything other than a fast bowler. Andy Roberts laughed in his face. Michael Holding, otherwise acerbic, is too polite to call him an idiot on TV.

Bottomline, it will be a huge tragedy if India play Mithun instead of Varun Aaron in the remaining two games in the series. Mithun has played before, and laid a huge egg. Aaron has not had a game yet, and in a dead rubber, in the face of an English team eager to salvage some pride, it is the perfect situation for this young man to make his debut and see how international Cricket suits him.

Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron deserve an extended run

India needs bowlers who can bowl 6 consecutive deliveries over 87-88mph in a spell of at least 5-7 overs. We have only two of those - Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron. I do not believe in Abu Nechim - he shows every sign of turning into the next Irfan. Dinda was a good prospect early on, but has "worked" with too many Indian trainers and is nowhere now. Nechim and Dinda can be backups. The other two should get an extended run in ODIs to polish their craft, AND most importantly, they should be hidden from Venkatesh Prasad or any other south Indian former "fast" bowler, or anybody who has received training at the ironically named MRF Pace Academy, or even anyone who can spell MRF correctly for that matter. That institution has done so much damage to the cause of pace bowling, I am convinced it is a secret CA project to sabotage the possibility of India ever developing a genuine quick. I have never heard of any other "Pace Academy" where they take in teenagers who already bowl at 140-142 kph, and when they are done with them, the kids are unable to break 135 ever again.

Just let the quicks be quick. Imran Khan has written how when he first started as a youngster, he just tried to bowl as quick as he could without any control, just spraying the ball all over the place. As he played more, he learned from observing his seniors and analyzing his own game, how to control the ball. We have to do the same with these boys, with the added challenge that we do not have seniors to provide guidance to them. I would keep Zaheer away from them if it were up to me. Venkatesh Prasad was way overrated as a bowler, and is a total disaster as a bowling coach. I'd let Ishant Sharma be the only 'senior' for them to talk to. He has an excellent work ethic by all accounts, and that is something these boys would do well to learn. Fast bowling is a man's job and you do not do it well by not training hard.

I would assign a sports medicine specialist to work with them as a dedicated physio, to manage their bodies and look after injuries, but never mention things like 'biomechanics' or 'line and length' within their hearing. I would make them sign a contract to the effect that they would eat 5-6000 calories a day for the rest of their playing days, with a diet composed nearly entirely of red meat and good carbs, without any fried food or oil/ghee in sight, and god forbid they should ever even think about eating curd-rice.

I would lock them up in a camp,  4-6 weeks before every test series, and work them up to peak fitness so they can last for 25 days of the highest level of international cricket, where they may need to bowl up to 150-200 overs each, without breaking down.

The one other thing I would do right away, and this I have advocated in the past too - please somebody move the NCA from Bangalore to somewhere in the hills. Since that will not happen, at least let us set up a fast bowling institute in the hills somewhere - maybe Shimla, Dharamshala, Kasauli or even Darjeeling for that matter. Somewhere above 3-4000 meters, where the air is clear and unpolluted to build stamina like a Sherpa; where its nice and cool so they can bowl long spells; and where there is green grass instead of brown dust for the quicks to learn about bounce and the correct lengths to bowl on green pitches. If we are serious about fast bowling, we have to start leveraging the highest mountains in the world being in our backyard. The hills would provide the added advantage of less distractions - no fashion shows or store ribbon cutting or night clubs.

Most importantly, they need to play matches, as many as they can, preferably together so they can learn to work as a unit, from both ends. In the current series we have Umesh Yadav and Vinay Kumar. That is a horrible combination. Fast bowlers need to hunt in pairs. A sustained barrage of 140+ kph from both ends wears down any batsman, and if you replace a hard charging Umesh at the other end with an Idli chucking Vinay Kumar, the batsmen have no reason to take any risks against Umesh. I do not care if they go for runs in the first six to twelve months. They need to learn on the job, because frankly our trainers suck. They need a hyper extended leash and a long uninterrupted run of play, where the captain, the team management, the board and the fickle public need to be behind this effort as a project - to support the first true Indian fast bowling pair after independence, and he first true Indian fast bowling pair ever since Nissar went mohajir on our asses and Amar Singh killed himself unable to bear the pain of separation.Above all, we have to make a commitment that we will play 2 quicks in every game, regardless of pitch conditions etc. and that we will not, under any circumstances, unless the 2 quicks are unable to walk, every play a medium pacer as an opening bowler - regardless of whether he is PK, RP, Irfan, Vinay Kumar, Tyagi, Unadkat or any other kat. Just say NO!! If your top speed is 132 and you rely on 'guile' and movment and changes of pace, you belong in the bowling middle order, not as an innings starter.