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