Fielding flaws hamper India’s progress

Clumsy dives over the ball, with a lack of elegance that would make Jürgen Klinsmann cringe. Batsmen marooned in the crease admiring strokes that don’t make it to the boundary. Catches grassed, run-out chances squandered. Made-for-TV throws at the stumps when a simple lob to the wicketkeeper would do. The fielding coach sacked before a game had been played. If India do go on to defeat Australia in the ongoing seven-match one-day series, it’s almost certainly going to be despite their fielding and not because of it. That they’re even considered one of the top teams in the world when nearly half the squad are a liability in the field is a miracle in itself.

 

Some, though, are beginning to lose patience. In his column for the Mumbai Mirror, Suresh Menon, one of India’s most experienced cricket writers, harked back to a forgettable past. “In the early days of Indian cricket, the Maharajahs thought nothing of actually having their servants fielding for them,” he wrote. “Not even a Test captain — the Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram — was above this.

 

You can read the full article here.

When sport doesn’t matter

Around half an hour after the India-Australia series began in Vadodara, Huma Akram passed away in a Chennai hospital. The World Cup final at the MCG apart, Chennai was probably the scene of Wasim Akram’s finest hour, as his Pakistan team won a thrilling Test by 12 runs a decade ago. More important than the result though was the standing ovation that they got from the crowd at Chepauk. There’ll be plenty of people who were in the stands that day who’ll shed a tear for the Pakistan legend today. Australia may have won a close game on Sunday, but it was one of those occasions when sport ceased to matter. Compared to matters of life and death, what’s a game of cricket?

Sloppy India run Australia close

The eventual margin of defeat flattered India. But for Shane Watson’s predictable full tosses outside off stump and Peter Siddle bizarrely opting to go round the wicket, they wouldn’t have got so close, and an undeserved victory would have brushed under the carpet shoddy attention to basics. Credit to Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar for taking India close, but when you make so many mistakes, you don’t deserve to cross the line.

Ishant Sharma showed signs of returning to something like form with a decent spell, but that was offset by pretty awful bowling from Praveen and Harbhajan. At the pace that he bowls, Praveen can’t afford to drop the ball short or stray both sides of the wicket. If he gets carried away thinking that he’s a fast bowler, he’ll get pasted like he did today. When he keeps it tight and full and swings it away, he’s far more of a threat.

Harbhajan could watch how Nathan Hauritz bowled today. On surfaces like this that are full of runs, sticking to the basics is a far better option. Until he went for a few at the end, Hauritz’s first eight overs cost just 21. Most importantly though, India simply must field better to give Australia a game. Some of the outfielding was just wretched, and the trend of batsmen standing back to admire shots instead of running full pelt needs to be addressed immediately. India played out 162 dot balls to Australia’s 139. The role model in that regard was Michael Hussey, whose 54-ball 73 included just nine balls that he didn’t score from.

With Yuvraj Singh due to return, both India’s batting and bowling will improve, and they can take heart from the fact that they got so close despite being so sloppy. On the flip side, Siddle and Brett Lee will surely improve after their Champions League exertions, and Watson’s likely to think twice before floating full tosses outside off stump. It should be an interesting series.

The eventual margin of defeat flattered India. But for Shane Watson’s predictable full tosses outside off stump and Peter Siddle bizarrely opting to go round the wicket, they wouldn’t have got so close, and an undeserved victory would have brushed under the carpet shoddy attention to basics. Credit to Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar for taking India close, but when you make so many mistakes, you don’t deserve to cross the line.

Ishant Sharma showed signs of returning to something like form with a decent spell, but that was offset by pretty awful bowling from Praveen and Harbhajan. At the pace that he bowls, Praveen can’t afford to drop the ball short or stray both sides of the wicket. If he gets carried away thinking that he’s a fast bowler, he’ll get pasted like he did today. When he keeps it tight and full and swings it away, he’s far more of a threat.

Harbhajan could watch how Nathan Hauritz bowled today. On surfaces like this that are full of runs, sticking to the basics is a far better option. Until he went for a few at the end, Hauritz’s first eight overs cost just 21.

Is India all cricketed out?

Once they know that they’re driving you to a cricket ground, cabbies in India can be loquacious company, some with views so trenchant that they’d make the loons on the 606 phone-ins blush. Over the last fortnight, though, there’s been barely any cricket chat, despite the stadiums in Delhi and Hyderabad being far from the madding crowd.

One cabbie in Delhi even asked if I was going to watch India play Australia [there is a one-day game on 31 October]. When I told him I was about to watch the Daredevils, he just shook his head. At the next traffic light, he turned to me and said: “How can you watch these games? The [Indian] players are all split up. I wouldn’t even know who to cheer for.”

Unlike many fellow journalists who see the event as an unwelcome addition to an overcrowded calendar, I’m not a Champions League cynic. I’ve watched more than a dozen matches live, and seen some great performances.

You can read the full article here.

Are baggage-handlers treated this shabbily?

A little over a week ago, in an interview with a news magazine, Manoj Prabhakar referred to Venkatesh Prasad, India’s bowling coach, as a baggage handler. He blamed Prasad for the downturn in fortunes of India’s pace bowlers, especially Ishant Sharma.

Now, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has sacked Prasad, and Robin Singh, the fielding coach. There was no courtesy call first to inform either man. Prasad got the news from the media. Baggage-handler, eh? I bet they aren’t treated so shabbily after two and a half years of service.

As for young bowlers losing the plot, maybe the board would do well to listen to one of their own. “One of the senior players called up after the Champions Trophy and said other players [youngsters] did not feel it [the loss as much as him], said Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer in a recent interview with PTI. “He said there was no feeling whether we won or not. There is no sadness [after losing].”

“You can see the change in attitude and focus which seems to have gone to things other than cricket. They are attracted by the different style of entertainment that is part of these events. This is worrisome. Some of these youngsters have become very big. Some of them feel that playing in Ranji Trophy is not as important as playing in the IPL.”

Didn’t anyone see this coming, when young men with not even one consistent season behind them went for twice the money that Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne did? As you sow…

A little over a week ago, in an interview with a news magazine, Manoj Prabhakar referred to Venkatesh Prasad, India’s bowling coach, as a baggage handler. He blamed Prasad for the downturn in fortunes of India’s pace bowlers, especially Ishant Sharma.

Now, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has sacked Prasad, and Robin Singh, the fielding coach. There was no courtesy call first to inform either man. Prasad got the news from the media. Baggage-handler, eh? I bet they aren’t treated so shabbily after two and a half years of service.

As for young bowlers losing the plot, maybe the board would do well to listen to one of their own.

Reality check for IPL Galacticos

The Champions League needed a Super Over as much as an old roué needs Viagra. For almost a week, games not involving the Indian Premier League sides had been played out in front of largely empty stands, curtain-raisers to the main event. It didn’t help that the marquee names – the Royal Challengers, the Delhi Daredevils and the Deccan Chargers – all belly-flopped badly at the first time of asking, beaten by teams operating on a fraction of their budgets.

Like the boy Pepe in the Asterix comics who goes red in the face, the franchise owners sat short of breath in their ivory-tower boxes, contemplating the vast investments that had led to such humiliation. For the neutral who abhors the Real Madrid-Manchester City model and what it has done to sport, those were moments to savour, with the Cape Cobras and Somerset the equivalent of an AEK Athens or Standard Liège.

You can read the full article here.

Play tape-ball, not corporate cricket

A facile win, a washout and a demoralising defeat. On the outside looking on enviously as Australia, ever-mercurial Pakistan and two alleged no-hopers contest the semi-finals. That’s the summary of India’s Champions Trophy campaign. It wasn’t the disaster that some Indian media will make it out to be, but it’s clearly a big step backwards for a team with pretensions to being the best in the game.

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Spare a thought for Smith the Colossus

Perhaps, South Africa shouldn’t host another tournament in the near future. This 22-run defeat against England completed an unwelcome hat-trick. The 2003 World Cup, the World Twenty20 in 2007 and now the Champions Trophy. Three global events on home turf, and not even a semi-final place to show for it. And yet, with the little support for the magnificent Graeme Smith, it could all have been so very different.

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Pakistan the pick of the Asian bunch

I might have changed my mind after Sri Lanka’s masterclass on Wednesday though. They certainly caught South Africa cold.

You can read the column here.

Afridi’s growing pains

How Shahid Afridi got his groove back.