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...