Writing about Punter

140, 110,230, 220 memorable scores in the WC finals and in the back to back Test matches against India. Yes, that’s out the famous gesture during the Sydney Test 2008. Blood flow from the face in the 2005 Ashes series. Dissent, and heated argument with Aleem Dar when he realized that the match & the Ashes is flying away, the2010 Ashe.His reserved spats with Harbhajan & Zaheer.  Why I don’t’ know but all these events comes in mind when I think about Ricky Ponting. If there is any player who performed brilliantly through out his career but still remembered for all the wrong reasons that had to be Ricky Ponting.

But  despite all these odds Ricky Ponting was a batsman of his own class. Most of his innings contributed towards the team’s success. Under the reach talent & lethal performers he prevailed as a leader & carried the onus of staying at the top from where Steve Waugh had handed over him the throne. Member of three WC winning team out of which he captained in the two. Lost three Ashes series but succeeded the most difficult task of winning the Test-series in India. That brutal innings in the WC finals 2003 against India, match saving innings of 150 + runs in the third Ashes Test 2005.

His batting was characterized by the cover drive on the front foot (even on the delivery short of a good length) & the hook with complementary pull as strong as the Australian beer. His stance in the crease & approach at the time of bowler’s delivery was like a Scorpio ready for the sting. Most of his hundreds in the Test matches were above 130 . Like most of the other Australians he was unaware (!) of the spirit of the game with the perception that Cricket is a “Punterman’s game.”  

Through out his career he played more controversy than his favourite hook & pull shots, broke more glasses of dressing room than the records, hated Harbhajan more than his enemy. His aggressive approach & behavior against India & England gave tasteful topics to media… A real “Bad-Man” of cricketing field decided to go off line. I thought he would play a good innings on Perth against S. Africa in his last stay on the 22- yard strip, but… it didn’t happen. Don’t’ know about the others but India would be more relived to see that Punter is retired.  

Be prepared for every TEST!

My Boss always says, "If you want to solve a chronic problem, attack on the root cause." He provides us with required training and with that enthusiasm, we take up a project for solving a problem. As the project progresses, we come to know that there are lot of constraints for it and our other work is getting halted by this project. As a temporary measure, we end up with some sort of patch-up action plan for resolving it. But that patch-up doesn’t work for a long and the issue remains as it is.

Similar kind of theory implies to the current situation of Indian cricket. Since we started playing cricket, facing fast bowling has always remained a psychological fear factor in our mind and that “chronic issue” is still haunting us. Every time we do analysis, we find these root causes - “We don’t have fast wickets”, “We don’t  have conditions suitable for fast bowling”, etc. Based on these causes, we suggest the implementation of action plan like prepare fast wickets, nurture the fast bowling talent, etc… Action takes place but lacks consistency and control. We are so afraid of losing the matches that after some time again we come to the starting point and prefer to have slow, lifeless wickets on which our bowlers would get advantage. We win the series and get the satisfaction of All-is-well, but while on a tour abroad, we succumb again to bowler-friendly wickets.
 
Nowadays, our batting line-up has become fragile in Tests. Playing through the line of the ball has become habit due to luxury of comfortable wickets. A small deviation or a little bounce makes it difficult to adjust. Our DTL unit (Dravid, Tendulkar, and Laxman) has taught us how to play on different wickets, but they have finished their work, and it is up to the new Spartans to carry the journey ahead. This new generation is fearless but need to be groomed on a fast wicket battlefield to survive, sustain, and perform on consistent basis. 

Cricket lovers like to watch the battle of interesting Test Cricket. That interest can be aroused if there is equal contest between the bat and the ball, the ball bouncing on the batsman, swinging deliveries from fast bowlers, play and a miss of the batsman, edges caught by slip fielders by diving, batsmen using their feet to spinners, spinners trying to deceive the batsmen. For the sake of maintaining high standard of Test cricket, I think bowler-friendly pitches are a must thing.
 
For the upcoming England series, we are continuing with the patch-up action plan again with Dhoni asking for spin-friendly wickets. Mr. Dhoni, the spi(nner)dermen would be able to do the job for you to spin the web around the Englishmen; but that won’t be a long-term strategy. To stay as a competitive team at higher level, Dhoni should focus on tapping the shortcomings and lacuna in the team, and be prepared for every "Test". Under current scenario, let's see how well D-company tests the Cook...

Ritesh R Kadam
rityakadam@rediffmail.com
090110020015

West Indies - Not only calypso...!

Once upon a time in West Indies, black diamonds ruled - the Richards, Clive Loyd, Kalicharan, Haynes- Greenidge  Holding, Marshal….! Just before the T-20 World Cup, I read and watched few videos of the documentary “Fire in Babylon”, which described how and what West Indies faced in the 70’s era, how they were grovelled by their skin colour, how they were always looked upon as Calypso cricketers of different islands, and how Clive Loyd turned these calypso cricketers into world champions. But after calling it a day by all the champion players of WI, the tag of calypso again haunted them. West Indies remained the scattered team with individual talent. The difference of Island players would be seen in their overall attitude. Lack of strong leader put the detrimental effect on their performance.

What does a team demand?? Good opening players, solid no.3 batsman, good stabilizers in the middle order, a descent wicket keeper, one all-rounder, one spinner, and three pace bowlers to be a balanced team. So Gayle, Charles, Samuels, Pollard, Bravo, Ramadin, Sami, Russel. Two good spinners Badree and Narine, genuinely fast bowlers Ravi Rampaul, Roach, Edwards. Then what was the reason behind this team not performing to their available skill? Answer is casual approach and lack of collective efforts. No one had expected West Indies to lift the cup, but this time they were in a different mood, they did it, they did it in style and showed the world they are not only calypso but also the champions..!

Highlight of this T-20 World Cup was Chris Gayle and his dancing celebration. This is not the first time West Indies celebrated their victory or had such on-field celebration. Seen different varieties from Bravo, Sami,  Roach before. The main inventor Gayle had shown many glimpses of his character. In one of the close match against Australia, his funny and friendly sledging with M. Clarke was hilarious. West Indies are known for enjoying the game and introduction of this new dimension of celebration will definitely bring T-20 cricket closer to the soccer culture.

Not only me, but every cricket lover must have been pleased to see West Indies winning the cup. We would definitely like to see West Indies resurgence in the world cricket. We want to experience the thrill of that glorious past again, we want to see that similar fearless approach shown by Viv Richards again, we are keen to see West Indies terrorizing the world with the fearsome bowling again, the awesome performance which their predecessor had shown the world by remaining invincible for 15 years, we want to see the collision against Australia, against England. We want that calypso dance again. Then and only then there will be “FIRE IN THE BABYLON” again….!


Ritesh R Kadam
rityakadam@rediffmail.com
090110020015.

Chhotu Cricket - “Change the Game”

Innovation in every field always improves the core area. Innovative ideas help to do the things differently. Innovative thinking brings excitement and banishes boredom.  Innovative people make the surrounding atmosphere joyous and enjoying.  Our game of cricket is not an exception to it. No doubt Test cricket had its charm and class flowing till 70’s. But the game lovers, at some corner of their mind, were getting bored due to long and no-result matches. At this point around 1973, official one-day cricket took birth. The concept of World Cup followed within two years, in 1975. It gave new direction to the game of Cricket, Limited over game with 99.99% chances of results.

Kary Paker, the Australian businessman went one… no yaar, ten steps ahead and to everyone’s surprise, introduced night cricket with white ball, colored clothing, and flood lights. Running between the wickets of the cricket really accelerated. Until 1992, night cricket was limited to Australia only. But commercialization and TRP facilitated its existence in every cricket-playing country soon.  50-over matches with field restriction, power plays, player switching, specialist batsmen, opening the bowling with spinners, high class fielding improved cricket looks from retro style to modern era. 

 

But still Cricket was not getting the highs and dynamics of soccer.  In 50-over matches, first 15 overs and last 10 overs were yielding maximum excitement. This time, Mr. Stanford observed it and started the Stanford T-20 league. (Mr. Stuart Robbinson had initiated the concept with ECB). This innovation also started gripping the audience, especially the T- teenagers as the maximum thrill was available in only three-hours game. This format evolved very fast and chasing a target of 180 to 200 runs in 20 overs didn’t look impossible. The specialized T-20 game-changers like Gayle, Mcullum, D. Warner, A.B. Deviliers, David Hussey played with such an ease as if the spectators would believe that you need only bat to hammer the bowler in T-20 matches. The definition of commentary also changed.  Out-swing, in-swing, seam, spin... these words got replaced by tournament sixes, strike rate, switch hit, dot ball. Unlike One-day matches, every T-20 match is promised to be a close encounter, no matter how great Cricket Pandit you are, predicting the result of the match always proved to be a dangerous affair. The chances of tie have got an increasing trend. The Super Over concept resembled to Penalty Shoot-out of Soccer. 

The big bash of Chhotu Cricket “The T-20 World Cup” will commence in few days. In the teams prospective, I think Australia, S.Africa, India and Sri-Lanka would have an upper hand. Pak and NZ could produce the thrust if they manage to keep the consistency. New and lower-ranked teams might spring some surprises. In the battle of batting, the kings of Chhotu format - Warner, Mcullum, Dilshan, Gayle, A.B Devilliers, Yuvraj Singh, Kielsweter would sparkle on the small Lankan grounds. Though the bowlers are on the ground just for serving the batsmen, the likes of Malinga, Zaheer, Michel Starc, Umar Gul, Dale Steyn, plus the spinners Ashwin, Devnarine, Vettori, aging but still effective Brad Hogg can throw challenges towards the batsmen.

Every team is showing the confidence of winning; let’s see who converts the available potential energy into performance and change the game to taste the BARFI of world cup..!

Ritesh Kadam

rityakadam@rediffmail.com

Cell:-09011020015

Ek Tha Laxman...!

"O paalan haare, Nirgun aur nyaare,

Tumhre bin hamraa kauno naahi,

Hamri uljhan, Suljhao 'Laxman'

Tumhre bin hamraa kauno naahi..."

More often than not, Indian dressing room and the Test-cricket-lover would be praying this song in the critical phases of a match when he came to bat. One of the important rangers of the Fantastic-Fours, he is V.V.S. Laxman. It is said that God always gives something special to everyone, we need to identify it. To Laxman, he gave the very very special skill of playing a savior role and long innings. Whenever required, he identified and used it to the great effect for India, by playing classical patient innings. Real character of a Test player is seen prominently in the third or the fourth innings, Laxman showed that character in most of his matches. One more special factor about Laxman’s innings was - the effectiveness ratio. Whenever he scored runs, India either won or salvaged a draw.

Against any top team, Laxman always excelled where others failed. After the descent start against S. Africa in 1996, his career took a big leap in the year 1999 against Australia in Sydney, when he scored 160-odd runs in the third innings. Australian media that time ignored Laxman’s innings by saying, 'The match was already surrendered by India and Steve Waugh had placed attacking field leaving plenty of vacant spaces to score the runs'. Laxman didn’t mind it and played the XXL innings in 2001 Kolkata test that demolished Steve Waugh's dream of winning in India. From there on, his bat spoke (with loudspeaker) most of the time against Australia, which forced Australian media to take note of his contribution. After that innings, they didn’t even try to use the M.D. theory on him during the tour.

Fluency in playing the shots was highlight of Laxman's batting. Crispy in flicks, back-foot cover drive and square drive. He was even used to square-drive the deliveries short just outside the off-stump.

Flicking off the pads through the mid-wicket and driving through the covers off the back-foot was as delicious as the Hyderabadi Biryani. Shane Warne, Stuart Macgill tried their best to trap him in the mid-wicket and cover areas, by bowling round-the-wicket; but could not succeed. In fact, it offered Laxman to score freely. Very few players use their feet to play the spinners, Laxman was one of them.

Playing for India in Test cricket is always a position full of thorns. Laxman sustained these thorns for sixteen years accommodating himself at various positions from opening to number7. Despite playing match-winning/saving innings, his place in the team was always under scrutiny with two to three failures (perfect words in Marathi - “nehmi Gas var hota”). Our half-knowledge media criticized him for his poor footwork against fast bowlers, inconsistent performance, laziness in running between the wicket. But his supporters (I was one of them) and his faith in himself stood strong saying,

“Woh toh hai albela... Hazaaron mein akela,

Sadaa tumne aib dekha, Hunar ko na dekha...”

I had seen the below picture on Facebook which is self-explanatory for the greatness of Laxman. No very very special words or elaboration is required to give him the tribute...

Ritesh R. Kadam

rityakadam@rediffmail.com

09011020015

The Storm has come to Rest…!

It has clocked 140 km/hr... 145 km... 148 km... 150 km... 152 km... 155 km... till it reached 160 km/hr. That was how Brett Lee used to bowl. A real speed diamond of Australia’s pace mine. If we are to choose top three fast bowlers of last decade, Brett Lee would stand first along with Shoib Akhtar and Dale Steyn. His run-up, approach to the crease, jump, fiery delivery, and the typical celebration by jumping in the air, were always fascinating to watch. Be it a One-day, Test match, or 20-20, we all loved his bowling spell. In fact, watching him bowl against top batsmen like Tendulkar, Lara, Pieterson, gave us the real pleasure of true cricketing contest. In the crowd of senseless matches, we always search for the tussle between a champion bowler and a class batsman. Brett Lee was one of them.

I remember his debut against India in the 1999 tour in Australia. Before that match, Steve Waugh had said, “Be ready to face the fastest bowler in the world!” Indian team was most fragile during that period. It could not handle the fiery spell from this smart young bowler and living to the reputation of succumbing against genuine pace, Indian batsmen opted to put their weapons down. Brett Lee got five wicket haul in his first appearance.

 

Australia’s team was Alexander’s troop with invincible warriors in that reign. So in the initial phase, Brett Lee could not get all the matches to play and he played the secondary role. Mainly characterized by fast out-swingers and late in-swingers, Brett Lee also gave the taste of brutal bouncers to top batsmen. Ask Brandan Macculam who spilled blood when hit by Lee, even after wearing the helmet; ask Chanderpaul who fell on ground after getting hit on the head.

In a cricketing world where all the fast bowlers tend to be arrogant, sledger, and furious, Brett Lee was an exception to large extent. Even his sledging would be friendly and of simple words, most of the times. After trying hard or getting the wicket in critical condition, his celebration would reflect his passion and satisfaction of the job being done. Like every Aussie cricketer, he also played cricket with pride, passion, never-give-up spirit. In the 2011 World Cup quarter final against India, he tried till the end despite getting bruise on his eyebrow. 

 

There are very few cricketers who have other skills apart from their duty. Brett Lee is fond of playing guitar. He loved not only his bowling but also his guitar. His song with Asha Bhosale was a good experiment.

We will always remember him as a big hearted fellow, genuine Speed-diamond, pride of fast bowler’s species. After terrorizing the batsmen for 13 years, Brett Lee - The Storm has come to REST..!


Ritesh R. Kadam
rityakadam@rediffmail.com
Cell: 9011020015

Boucher: An Under-rated Wicket-Keeper

People often speak about difficult aspects of the game called Cricket. Which one is the most difficult task - batting, bowling, or fielding? Batting requires great skill, bowling requires extensive ability, fielding requires the desire and natural skill. But, what about wicket-keeping? Handling the position behind wickets is as difficult as………….! Wicket-keeper is the one who gets first impression of the wicket.  Planning the strategy of match, under sea-saw condition of the match, guessing the batsman’s move and nowadays, taking the judgment on using limited DRS facility, WK plays a very critical role. On a fast track, a good wicket-keeper boosts the confidence of fast bowlers; on a spinning track, the reflexes of wicket-keeper steal the wicket of batsman, even on a narrow margin stumping. He sometimes acts as a catalyst with sledging stuff to disturb the batsman.

Balance of any team depends on two key players, one - genuine all-rounder and two - wicket-keeper batsman (ask India the value of a WK batsman, before they found Dhoni...). All the great teams at their peak, had best wicket-keeper with good batting skills. Pak had Moin Khan; New Zealand had Adam Parore; Aussies had Rodney Marsh, Gilchrist; Zimbabwe had Andy Flower; Sri Lanka had Kaluwitharna, and currently the elegant Sanga; India had Kirmani; England had Alan Knot, Alec Stewart; West Indies had Jeff Dujon; and South Africa had Boucher!

Introduced in 1997 as successor of Dave Richardson, Mark Boucher showed his skills and ability, not only in keeping wickets, but also as a batsman right from the start. In ODI's, he played the role of pinch-hitter to great effect. His characteristic as a batsman was his typical On-Drive and Slog-Sweep. He always added extra and useful runs in coordination with lower order batsmen. South Africa was always rich with bowling all-rounders, so his contribution, most of the time, got sidelined. We discuss about Sachin’s 100th century, records surpassed by the batsman, record number of tests played by a player, maximum wickets taken by a bowler... But Boucher played 147 Tests in 15 years and reached to the record number of dismissals in Tests (555) and ODI's (425), without any bang. Though he was not a high profile cricketer, throughout his career, he kept himself out of any controversy or fame, but KEPT very well behind the wicket in a quiet way.

Tribute to “Bouch” for his contribution to the game and cricket S. Africa!


Ritesh R. Kadam
rityakadam@rediffmail.com
Cell:- 9011020015

Toota Toota Ek Parinda Aise Toota...

Wessel Johannes Cronje… Yes, very well known as Hansie Cronje... I hope all the die-hard cricket fans and people who watch the game of cricket, surely remember this person. Very well equipped, instrumental, cooler than ice and a clever captain South Africa had during its Golden Era. He and his team taught the world how to play professional cricket. I think South Africa was the first team under Hansie Cronje which brought the term “Professional cricket”.  After the famous World Cup Semi-final 1992, South African team was not performing that well. I remember during 1994-95 series, South Africa was losing back-to-back matches despite having bunch of good all-rounder, fast bowlers and fine batsmen. Hansie Cronje rose during that period as a good batsman and an effective clever medium pacer. His gentle medium-pace bowling with nagging line and a little bit of swing always proved worthy and hard to tackle.

After Clive Rice and ageing Andrew Kirsten, South Africa desperately needed a leader who could convert the good talent into performance. Hansie was the best choice. In World Cup of 1996, South Africa was flooded with rich talent under Cronje’s captainship. They won all the group matches with fluent performance before the ailing West Indies, who lost to Kenya in league round, jumped back and put their best performance against S. Africa to win the quarter-final. (Bad luck in second consecutive time in WC.) Cronje’s captaincy journey had taken high pace in 1996. His team was winning almost every match and there was no one stopping them. Characteristic of Cronje’s captaincy was that he would extract the best out of his players with innovative field placing, handling the crunch situation to better effect and bringing the brain before mind to take the decisions. When he came with his troops to India in 1995-96 to play on more than batting friendly pitches, he adopted different strategies to tackle with India. He put Fannie Devilliers  and Greig Mathews before Donald to bowl to Sachin Tendulkar. Fannie Devilliers  fished Sachin three times with slower deliveries.

During that period, the battle between Australia and South Africa was always intriguing. Australia, by nature, was always attacking and believed in crushing the opposition team. And South Africa would act like slow poison on opposition team. Given a choice, any cricket-lover would opt to see the battle between Steve Waugh and Hansie Cronje. Australian team at that period was playing strong cricket and S. African team, too, had matching caliber. Steve Waugh was blessed with legendary bowlers in the likes of Macgrath, Flemming, and Warne. Contrary, Cronje had Champion bowler Donald with fresh and enthusiastic Pollock, Kallis, and Klusener. Steve Waugh would give the ball to any one of his bowlers and the return was as guaranteed as a Post Office Savings Scheme and as high as market returns. Hansie Cronje against Australia required to invest his bowlers according to the condition, to gain higher returns. He did it with good effect. I always liked Cronje than Steve Waugh as a captain. Although he could not win many matches against the champion team Australia, he always gave close fight to them.

All was going well for Hansie before he struck with match-fixing in 2000 series against India. He won the test series in India, but lost the suspicious one-day series. It was April 2000 when Mumbai Police brought the match fixing tape to media, and for the first time it was proved that matches were getting tampered for some handsome money. It was Cronje who got trapped in the net. He didn’t deny the charges and confessed saying, “Yes, I was guilty of match-fixing” despite knowing that his cricketing career would end after this. Perturbed by his acceptance, the cricketing world could not believe that a player like Cronje who was well respected not only by his teammates but also by other cricketers all over the world, would get tempted to such thing. The saga ended on 5th June 2002 when he died in a plane crash.

Only one song summarizes his tragedy...

टुटा टुटा एक परिंदा ऐसे टुटा के फिर जुड़ ना पाया,
लुटा लुटा किसने उसको ऐसे लुटा के फिर उड़ ना पाया...!

IPL :- Entertainment Entertainment & Entertainment…!

When the first season of IPL event was about to undergo in two days time, me and my dear friend Rahul were discussing about the success, effects, and impact of the format on the players and International cricket.

As a patriot cricket lover, I had objection on some of the points:-

The player’s auction by the franchisee and it’s owner. This process is harmful for the game. It would deviate the players to give priority over National commitment. As the players are owned by the franchisee, most of them are big industrialists and Bollywood charms and the amount of money they had invested, it could give rise to match tampering. Core of the game “The Test Cricket would get affected”. Apart from it, the players who are already susceptible to injury due to excess cricket would get more reasons to get injured.

My friend had different opinion. He said that to make any event successful, marketing is the biggest funda and cricket is a big market in India. If International cricket gets such a big audience and glamour then why not the same international players of different countries playing together in a bunch of teams would get the same attraction in the exciting format of T-20. Add to it the golden bollywood ring plus the Tadka of item events. Perfect three hour recipe for the audience who has great appetite for the entertainment.

As long as national commitment is considered, the players themselves have to decide whether to play for the passion of the game or for the money. If we look at the brighter side of the aspect, players from the domestic circuit of different countries have gained not only recognition but also the handful amount of money for their talent.

After four seasons of the IPL, it is evident that Cricket crazy audience have given the verdict “IPL is here to stay”… no, IPL is here to “RULE”. The promotional activities, advertising and marketing have made target audience become fetish towards the IPL. At international level of cricket, there are strict rules for players and restriction for the interaction with bodies other than team officials. But in IPL event, there is perfect cast between the cricketers and the bollywood stalwarts. It would not be exaggeration if we call it as a three hours live crick-movie filled with suspense, drama, thrill, emotions, and “Cheer girls”.

After all,

Filmein teen cheezon ki wajah se toh chalti hain :-

“Entertainment, Entertainment, aur Entertainment!!!”

Hope this time also the IPL event will be a blockbuster Crick-Movie.

Ritesh R Kadam

rityakadam@rediffmail.com

हम इंतजार करेंगे...!

हम इंतजार करेंगे...
हम इंतजार करेंगे तेरा कयामत तक,
खुदा करेके कयामत हो और तू आये....!

गेले आठ महिने सचिनच्या महाशतकाची वाट पाहताना हेच गाणे आता तोंडावर येते. तो प्रत्येकवेळी खेळायला आल्यावर (गावठी) शॅम्पेनची बाटली घेऊन आम्ही मित्र बसलेलो असतो की आज होणार साला सेन्चुरी. पण प्रत्येकवेळी आनंदाने आणलेली ती बाटली दुःख पचवण्यासाठी मोकळी केली जाते. आजकाल ९९ हा आकडा नावडता झाला आहे. असो. प्रत्येकाची जवळ-जवळ हीच अवस्था आहे. सचिन पेक्षा त्याच्या फॅन्सना आणि मीडियाला त्याच्या शतकाची जास्त चिंता आहे. टिपिकल लोकल मिडियावाले सतत गोल्डन सेन्चुरीविषयी तासन्‌तास चर्चा करत असतात. "क्या लगता है आपको सचिन दबाव नही झेल पा रहे अपने माइलस्टोन का? या फिर कुछ ज्यादाही सोच रहे है अपनी सेन्चुरी के बारेमे? कैसे खेलना चाहिये उनको? क्या उनके तकनीक में कुछ खराबी है? सवाल अभी बहोत है... आप कहीं मत जाइये, लौटेंगे एक ब्रेक के बाद.....!"

सचिनसाठी शंभरावी सेन्चुरी काही क्षणांसाठी स्पेशल असेल. नंतर तो फक्त एक आकडा होईल. इतकी वर्षे खेळून झाल्यानंतर सचिनलाही ठाऊक आहे की जेव्हा जेव्हा तो खेळायला उतरेल तेव्हा-तेव्हा काही ना काही रेकॉर्ड्स होत राहणार आहेत आणि त्याच्या झोळीत नवनवीन कीर्तिमान पडत राहणार आहेत. सचिन जेव्हा सोळाव्या वर्षी क्रिकेट खेळायला आला तेव्हा अब्दुल कादिरच्या "गो होम अ‍ॅण्ड ड्रिंक मिल्क" या टोमण्याला त्याने पुढे सरसावून सिक्स मारून उत्तर दिले, ऑस्ट्रेलिया मध्ये पर्थ ग्राउंडवर मर्व हुजेसच्या स्लेजिंगला सेन्चुरीने उत्तर दिले. सचिन नेहमीच व्हिव रिचर्ड्सच्या आक्रमक खेळीवर फिदा होता आणि त्यांच्या स्टाइलनुसार खेळला. 'बॅड पॅच' दरम्यान बॅट आणि म्युझिक हेच त्याचे बेस्ट फ्रेंड होते. सचिनची पहिली टेस्ट सेन्चुरी जरी पदार्पणाच्या पहिल्या सिरीजमध्ये झाली असली तरी वन-डे मधल्या सेन्चुरीसाठी त्याला १९९४ पर्यंत वाट पहावी लागली (त्याच्या प्रिय संघाविरुद्ध... ऑस्ट्रेलिया विरुद्ध!). जवळ-जवळ दहा वेळा तो सेन्चुरीच्या समीप आला होता, पण कधी दुष्ट बॉलर्सनी तर कधी अम्पायर्सनी त्याला भेटू दिलं नाही. इंग्लंड दौर्‍यापासून सेन्चुरी त्याला हुलकावणी देत आहे ती पार ऑस्ट्रेलिया दौरा संपला तरी रुसून बसली आहे. कधी गिब्सन कधी चॅपल बंधू, कधी कपिल, तर कधी स्टीव वॉ सांगत आहेत की तेंडुलकर गोल्डन सेन्चुरीचे दडपण झेलू शकत नाहीये.

...९९ सेन्चुरींपर्यंत जो नेहमी दडपण झेलत आणि खेळत आला आहे, तो एका सेन्चुरीसाठी दडपणाला दाद देणार आहे का? बिचार्‍या दडपणाला पण कधी-कधी सचिनचं दडपण येत असेल!

आम्ही क्रिकेटप्रेमी आशा करतो की आमची लोकल शॅम्पेनची बाटली सचिनच्या 'गोल्डन सेन्चुरी'साठी लवकर ओपन होईल. तोपर्यंत...

हम इंतजार करेंगे...
हम इंतजार करेंगे तेरा कयामत तक...

The end of a defiance era....!

Atlast Rahul Dravi decided to call it a day after carrying the tag The Wall meaningfully for 16 years. He arrived on the scene against Sri Lanka in 1996 one day tri series just after the World cup. Dravid & Ganguly made the test debut on the Lord's the later got his century in that match but Rahul missed it just by 5 runs. After Sunil Gavaskar he was the one who looked always sure about his off stump leaving the ball without any ambiguous mind adding to the frustration of fast bowlers.  He was kind of a batsman who always played a secondary role of  keeping the wicket & steadying the team's ship.

It was the tour of S.Africa in the 96-97 series & later the West indies tour that earned him the name The Wall for his immaculate defense, scoring the runs on fast tracks & preserving his wicket. Team India always relied on him in Test matches played abroad to play long innings& he didn't disappoint the team's faith in him. Through out his career he never looked giving importance to personal milestones. Even after scoring century his joy, or  waving the bat was more of a satisfaction of putting the team in good condition. Rahul Dravid who made debut & today’s Rahul Dravid there is no change in terms of his behavior, way of playing or his physique.

He was never in a limelight for the records, number of runs or number of centuries, he never involved in so called sledging, indiscipline behavior. In 1997 in the final of tri series against South Africa Dravid hit a huge six over long- on against Allan Donald, The furious fast bowler then bowled a fiery bouncer to Dravid & confronted him with some abusive language. But Dravid did not respond  & just gave him a long stare. After the match Donald met him & explained that it was just the reaction of a typical fast bowler, but Dravid didn’t entertain him at that time. He was a kind of a person who would take pride of his batting.

To me as a cricket lover statistics of a player should not be the judgment for his greatness. But just for explaining the profile:- he scored more than 10,000+ runs in one day & 13,000+  runs in Test cricket.

There was a period when Rahul David’s one day career was a bit shaky. His playing style was causing the slow run rate for the team. In the death over he was not able to slog the bowlers & score quick runs. With other youngsters around having innovative batting style and scoring quick runs Dravid’s place in the team was not giving the required balance. To accommodate Dravid in the team he was asked to keep the wickets. To the team’s interest he didn’t deny & kept the wickets successfully. In the tests also when we were struggling to find even a descent opening batsman Dravid was asked “Will you open the innings?” , the gentleman played in the opening slot for the team’s interest again.

As for the records he has good runs on the foreign pitches than on the Indian tracks, he could achieve it because of his strong technique & heart to face the fast bowling. Before the last series against England, out of his 33 test centuries India has just lost one test..! Other 32 being drawn or in winning cause. It shows how much his runs were important for the Team India.

As a captain he didn’t enjoy a long tenure. He captained team India in 25 tests with a ratio of 8- wins, 6 –losses. & in 79 one day - 42 wins & 33 losses.

The memorable performances in tests were  always against top teams. Score of 180 against Aus. in Kolkata test 2001, double century in Adelaide test 2003-4, 270 in Pakistan, 145 against South  Africa in 97, 144 against England on lively Headingly pitch 2002 series.  He was also involved in 300 runs partnership more than 5 occasions, & also has highest number of century partnerships.

When Gavaskar retired he said that his foot movement was not getting to the requirement & the reflexes were not matching to the standards. In just concluded Australia series Dravid’s defense got drilled more often than not. For a high standard player like Dravid it was the sign of age affecting his batting. & I am sure the same thought would have creped in his mind.  Despite knowing this he didn’t give any indication or statement of his retirement to avoid the distraction of the team from the matches which was performing very poorly. 

From all cricket lovers we give tribute to Dravid for his dedicated efforts & contribution to the Cricket.

Its' an end of a defiance era....

Ritesh R Kadam.

rityakadam@rediffmail.com

Cell:-09011020015

The Battle lost within....!!!!

Just confused from where & how to start to explain why India played such a poor & heart breaking cricket in Australia.. The cricket lovers thought the young & enthusiastic team India would turn around the fortunes in  T-20, &  One day series  after  veterans failed to show their colors in the test series. We had all the required material to make this series remarkable & intriguing. Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Dhoni,  the high profile & attacking batsmen, Kohli, Raina, Rohit  Sharma the exciting future prospects of Team India, R. Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Irfan Pathan the  one day all-rounder,  Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar the swing bowlers, & the real quick  Umesh  yadav … What else captain would ask for to write down the success story.  Yes two more things which are more important than the individual record, caliber, & greatness those are commitment and team spirit which were missing.  The way we were getting thrashed in the test series the senior members & the core players of the team should definitely have shown some maturity leading to limited over cricket. Players need to understand that they are representing Team India & not the franchisee owned team where all this drama can be publicized to make the event more interesting. 

It is said that when Going gets tough, tough gets going. Sehwag not understanding the team’s need, Gambhir giving needless comment in the after match presentation , Dhoni termed as man with less emotions until the series started doubting his own player’s  abilities in the media. Did all this help to improve the team’s morale, or raise in the on field performance.  The coach is there to bind the team & keep it  focused on the ultimate target to win. Duncan Fletcher our team coach(?) reminds me the PM Manmohan Singh who appears mute faced in every circumstances & let the things happen as they are bound to happen.

Playing against Australia in Australia is not like the IPL matches where you can thrash the bowlers at any part of the ground at will. It’s a challenge, you need to plan your innings, your defense, opposition bowler’s flaws & waiting for the opportunity. Dhoni managed to do it to some extent. Such is the strength of Australian team despite  having  the new bunch they have the ability to turn the match around by keeping the pressure all the time with the committed efforts. The positive competition in the team keeps the players always alert for performing to the best of their ability. The fresh example is not far despite scoring the century & double century  in the test series and even being excellent fielder Ricky Ponting could not find his place in the playing eleven after just four failures. 

All of our players are so used to the batsman friendly pitches, even the ball one foot outside the off stump can easily be dispatched to the fence to third man or square off  the wicket without any foot movement. In Australia or the pitch having some assistant to the fast bowler the good length ball with just hint of movement can take edge & rest in the hands of hungry slip fielder. The likes of Jadeja, Raina, Rohit Sharma regarded as future  middle order have the talent but their casual approach is causing the detrimental effect not only to/ on Team India but also to/on their career. These players need to understand that it’s their performance and temperament   not the captain’s favor that will decide the place in Team India if they are serious about their cricket.  

If any individual pretends that there place in the team is granted & his only efforts can alone win the matches for team India, this scorching series is enough for him to come down on earth & walk with the team & it’s plan. And those who are dreaming to lead team India should better think again.

It’s not as easy as scoring centuries against mediocre team, it’s “A Shiv Dhanush “ first prepare to be competent  by playing with responsibility and then dream to think about it.

Ritesh Kadam
rityakadam@rediffmail.com
Cell:-09011020015