batpadgap

Why call a fielder a cheat?

2008-01-28T04:05:00.000-08:00

It is accepted that not walking is not cheating. Fair enough, but why call a fielder a cheat when he takes a bumped catch? The premise is two-fold: the umpires have done in the batsman on occasions when they had not edged and so he is entitled to wait for the umpire’s call. Secondly, the batsman thinks the umpire is in best position to judge when he has edged or not but is often obscured in the fielding exchange and the moral onus lies on the fielder to own up whether it bumped or not.

Right, but what is going in the batsman’s mind when he actually waits: Oops I hope he has not seen or heard the edge; let me not try to look sheepish; is my face passive enough or, am I fidgeting or acting nervous; ooh these bloody fielders are going on with the appeal; hope he doesn’t relent. Phew. That was close. Lucky escape.

Now cut to the situation where the fielder has taken a ‘catch’. In most situations, he is not sure whether it had bumped. Let’s take the Dhoni catch off Pietersen at The Oval in the recent India-England series. Apparently, he thought that the ball dropped on his fingers and rolled up. Michael Clarke, here, must have felt the same.

Now take this catch by Steve Waugh. Did Waugh believe the ball bounded off to his elbow and he picked it up from there?

And lets assume, for argument sake, those situations where the fielder has appealed knowing fully well it had bumped. Now what’s the thought process: Hope he didn’t see the ball had hit the turf; hope my appeal is convincing enough; great these boys are also appealing; yippee… he has given it. Lucky day.

Now is there any difference between this and that of the batsman? The premise of umpiring giving batsmen wrongly holds here also. Many a time, the umpire has not given the batsman out, even after he had edged it. Secondly, as we have seen through the history of cricket, the umpire, even in the so-believed correct position, does make quite a few mistakes that allow the batsmen to get away. In fact the number of times when the batsmen has denied a wicket by ‘cheating’ is easily more than a fielder claiming a false catch. But the batsman is not expected to clear that mistake but the fielder is put on a moral dock. Is it fair?

As Ravi Shastri, the former India batsman, put it bluntly, “The option of players using their conscience to help the umpires is unrealistic. It’s not a case of somebody sitting in the air conditioner summoning his conscience to come out clean. When you are in the heat of battle, with the sun blazing down and five days of your labour coming to nothing, it’s the win you want at all cost.”

The cheating accusation has percolated to gully and backyard cricket too where in many cases there would be no umpires. The batsmen get away but the fielders’ reputation is tarred.

As Martin Williamson wrote, what is it about cricket that it is the only major sport in the world where some people demand that players do the umpires' jobs for them? And more unfairly, why paint only the fielders in the wrong light when they try to capitalise on a human error?

The fielders will appeal and the batsmen will stand his ground. It is human nature at work. The man in white coat will also err with his judgement. So be it. If you want to cut down the errors, try to incorporate a referral system.

The only thing this proves is there is no point in signing up deals to take a fielder’s words as Ponting and Kumble did before the series. It’s a great sentiment but it will be failed by human nature, time and again.

The only jarring point is if and when, post that deal, Ponting appeals knowing well that it had bumped, then and, only then, it smacks off bad taste. And only because they signed a deal saying catches would be decided on fielder’s words. Then you have taken the umpire out of the equation and want to play judge and open yourself for moral persecution. It is not suggested that Ponting did that in Sydney but just assuming a hypothetical situation. But in all fairness, many a time, the fielder is not sure whether it has bumped. Ponting must have felt the he was in control and the catch was deemed completed, and hence legal, before he hit the ground. The deal is error-ridden and cannot stand the pressures of real life.

But the point remains, even if a fielder knows that it had bumped, there is no way you can call him a cheat. Unless you call the batsman, who doesn’t walk, a cheat too. The mirror has to be the same. It’s not quite cricket is a great philosophy but it asks too much of a person. Cricket is just another game. Let’s not demand that players do the umpires' jobs for them. Yes it would be very nice, if they do help out but when they don’t, let’s not malign them. Just take a deep breath, hit a pub and get on with life. It’s just cricket.

One ball. Three runs to get. What do you do?

2007-04-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

Dilhara Fernando with the ball and an inexperienced Ravi Bopara, who had till then carved out a gem of a cameo, with the bat. Nails were spit out, heart beat faster, and some eye-lids shut.

Mahela Jayawardene had a few decisions to make. Should I bring in the fine-leg? Should I have a mid-off or a long-off? Ravi had pedaled one past short-fine-leg fielder earlier and so it was not an easy choice. He opted for mid-off. Over to you Bopara. Now, he must be thinking should I go for an inside-out drive past mid-off. Four runs and a win will await me there. Or should I go straight down the ground or opt for the cow corner?

Meanwhile, Fernando set out his trap. Classic school-boy tactic. He ran in, approached the stumps, the right-arm went up, came down but with the ball, still, in hand. He wanted to see whether the batsman was going to move around. Gamesmanship. Bopara was standing still that time; he had not backed away or charged. Now, surely, the batsman had to do something else. Well, not definitely, but he was made to think.

Bopara fell for it and when Fernando came around for the legal delivery, he backed away to the leg side. Aiming to hit inside-out past that man at mid-off. And it back-fired. It was not a yorker, nor a slower one - Mahela had told Fernando, 'No slower ones, no bouncer, just go for full and fast one- or a bouncer but a length-delivery. But, in doing the shuffle, with the nerves jangling for the last delivery, after all he is a newbie, and in the effort to go inside-out, he missed the ball. Simple as that. Cruel as that. The bat came down in an angle, the ball evaded the waft, the bat met air and the ball met the sticks. It was all over.

That talk of Mahela reminds me of one that the great Frank Worrell gave Wes Hall in the famous Tied Test against Australia in 1960-61. Worrell also gave some advice to Hall. Did Hall follow it? Rather than reading me, hear the legend Hall.

Listen to the audio commentary of the final 13 tense minutes from it. Included a fab speech from Wes Hall. Worth it.

Also, catch some video action from the game here.

Learie Constantine

2007-04-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

Wrote on the West Indian great. Here.

Tendulkar's dismissal

2007-04-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

It's ironic, or is it poignant, that two great Indian batsmen were dismissed in a similar fashion in their last World Cup game?
SMG and SRT. Gavaskar fell inside-edging Phil Defrietas while Tendulkar chopped on Dilhara Fernando.

Watch that left foot. He has landed on the heel and not on the toe. And whenever Tendulkar has done it, he has been in trouble. The balance goes awry, he is just short of the ideal position, the head is not over the ball, and he is searching for the cherry.

Everything else looks so perfect in the picture. The left-elbow is high, eyes on the ball, the bat-face pretty straight but alas... that heel landing has meant he was a trifle late on the defensive stroke. When that happens, the bat gets pushed out a little bit too much in front, a slightl angle is created for the ball to disatrously collide with the edge. Previously he has nicked them to slips and in this, in what could be his last WC
game, he has dragged it on. Pity.

Sehwag's technique

2007-02-18T03:13:00.000-08:00

I have already written two pieces in Cricinfo on his technique before. One 0n his ODI blues and the other on his short-ball woes. He has again changed his technique recently, takes a middle-stump guard now. As usual it is a fascinating topic.

Demons are gunning for Virender Sehwag. In South Africa, they fatally flirted with him outside the off stump and now, on his return, they are jumping at his throat. There are two questions around him; on technique and his position in the batting order. Here I will stick to the technique. Experts tried to lure him out of the fatal attraction by asking him to take a middle-stump guard. The logic was simple. Now he would be close to the line and hence doesn’t have to reach out for deliveries in the corridor of temptation. Simple and effective, you would think. However, one solution has reopened an old wound. The short-ball woes.

In the last ODI, Dilhara Fernando got the ball to burst off the pitch and made it rear at the throat and all Sehwag could offer was an ugly fend as a face-shield and was swallowed. Previously, he still used to have this problem but the bowlers had to take extra effort and aim to ping his body. Bouncers on middle stump or off would be slashed over slips as Sehwag would arch back and help it up and over. Now this middle stump guard has eased the bowler’s burden. The target has come closer and straighter, just bang it in short, on the stumps and pin him on the back foot. Demons move closer.

Also, since he doesn’t move his left foot across, in the line, he used to drill the fullish or inswinging deliveries honing in on the middle or off stump line. He used to stay beside the line of the ball rather than behind it. With this new guard, he will be cramped up when he goes for those smooth swings of the bat through the line of the ball as he might be mostly behind the line. So we might see him playing to the on side more than before. But with the old guard, and it has to be stressed in the recent period only, the problem outside off stump was causing a huge headache, especially when the new ball moved around a touch. So this move will help him on that front. It is going to be mighty interesting to watch how he goes about the task. Will he keep shifting his guard according to the bowlers he faces? Will he simply stick to one thing? It makes for compulsive TV.

The day the music died

2006-12-21T05:27:00.000-08:00

Click here to watch 8 top dismissals from Warne, interspersed with commentary from the magician himself. Orgasmic!

The beauty doesn't just lie in the end result, the ball spinning prodigiously, but it starts right from the start. Shane Warne walking in to bowl is a sight in itself. The wait at the top of the walk, the theatrical look at the batsman, and the transfer of the cherry to the left hand with that beautiful flick of the right hand that only a leg break bowler can produce, all make you shift to the edge of the couch. Initially, the arms are at his side, and then the left hand discreetly transfers the ball to the right, that slow beautiful walk, the eyes gleaming in anticipation of a fooling a batsman, the two hands join again, the left over the right, underneath which, the grip on the ball is finalised and held firmly.

The left hand now withdraws away and the walk turns into a slow jog.And then that small hop, the right hand goes into a circular arc, and ends up with elbow locked in a V shape, the left hand also by this time makes a V, the right feet almost parallel to the crease; then the left hand comes out, forward and down like drawing down a curtain, while the right goes down and then comes up in a circular motion, and
the whole weight is now shifted to the left foot, and the ball is released with a rip, a final flick of the right wrist, launching the ball in its orbit.

The ball whirs in the air, swirls, swerves, dips and if it is Warne's day; it would pitch on the leg stump, the batsman unsure would turn towards it, the ball would then spin sharply, squaring him up , beating the frantic wave of the bat, and triumphantly kissing the off stump, which seems only happy to receive the kiss and would peg
back a little and give a hats off gesture – the bails come off.

What a beauty! If Abdul Qadir's run in was magical, with his hands doing through a myriad but beautiful motions, Warne's walk in is equally beautiful. Roberto Baggio's walk after scoring ‘The goal' is being constantly shown in a commercial but that was the end result of an achievement, a guilt washed away, a sad memory burnt, a
redemption song, but Shane Warne's walk is in anticipation of a triumph, of a dream looked forward to, a painting about to be sketched, a work of a true artist. Unlike Baggio's (no doubt, a wonderful moment) walk, which is a solitary walk in a lifetime, the beauty occurs each and every time, Warne goes in to bowl. Now he has chosen to walk off a cricket ground. Forever. With Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar set to ride off towards the horizon in the near future, the game will miss the magician, the wizard and technical virtuoso. Adios Amigos. I only wonder how tomorrow’s young boys and girls will fall in love with this great game.

How Imran Khan lifted the World Cup

2006-03-24T21:32:00.000-08:00

25th March 1992.The moon was up that night and far down below on the planet earth lakhs of moons were up and dancing; Caught in a flag or a T shirt, the crescent were being waved by thousands of Pakistani men, women and Children. Pakistan had just won the World Cup; a proud & happy Imran Khan was holding aloft the trophy and all heaven had broken loose. It was just early evening in Pakistan; Ramadan and iftari; yet thousands of moons were dancing everywhere; it was a culmination of one man's ambition and a dream of millions.

The ambition was that of Imran Khan, son of a strong and proud woman. Once when Imran at the age of 13 had bribed his way out of trouble with a police man, his mother confronted him as soon as she heard about it. She told him that bribing was a loss of his dignity and that he should have gone to goal instead. When Imran tried to defend
himself by stating the obvious - that the other boys do the same- his mo! ther had just this brief thing to say - 'You are a Pathan'. The lips had uttered those words and her eyes had sparkled with pride and honesty.

Then on the young boy has lived his life with pride, and that March night was one of the highest point in a proud man's life. So how did he lead the team to lift the world cup?

It all started in his mind. As he was groping around for funds for his cancer hospital he realized that a World Cup triumph will pave way for his real dream- the cancer hospital. As he put it in his autobiography - 'I realized that for my hospital project the most important factor would be winning the world cup'

It was as simple as that, he had to win the cup. So the mind, the heart was all keyed up for the event but his body nearly gave up on him. Just two days before the event during a practice session, he felt a pain in his left shoulder and soon he could not even move it. It was his most painful in! jury ever, physically and psychological as well. 'Without saying anything, I just left the nets, dropped the bat and walked back to the Melbourne Hilton. I locked myself in the room and told the operator to not to
put through any more calls and just sat there in complete agony for the next few hours. It was one of those times when everything seemed hopeless.'

So it was in this hopeless state of mind that Imran fell to sleep 2 nights before the world cup. Imagine the despair, the thought of the hospital dream shattered and the resulting agony; it would have been too much for lesser mortals. But Khan was no lesser mortal, he woke up next morning in even more pain but his dark moods had vanished, the despair had gone out of the window, the strong mind had taken over. He
went to a surgeon and the next day, the morning of the match against West Indies, took a cortisone injection. But he felt that he was not still fit to play and also reckoned that Pakistan needed to win only 5 of their 8 matches and they will be through to the semifinals.

But there were to be other hurdles thrown in front of him; it was just not his body. On the morning of the match, as soon as Imran announced that he won't be playing, Salim Malik opened the Pandora's Box and let out his ego flying at the others in the team. Reason?He wanted to be the Captain. He was the vice captain in the pre world cup tour but was replaced with Miandad by the selectors for the world cup. There wa s
anger, hurt, bruised ego, a fight with the manager and as a result lot of confusion in the dressing room. Just imagine, a World Ccup match is about to be played and so much chaos!

I can now easily make that last sentence and put an exclamation mark for dramatic effects but what was Imran thinking at that time?

'What puzzled me was Malik's attitude. He was not concerned about how important this match was to the whole nation, which was in the midst of the world cup fever; all he was worried about was being captain. I am afraid I have always had very little respect for such individualistic players'

Hmmm, You can't argue with that, can you? In fact the question is why then did Imran not drop Malik? He answers that himself -'I would most definitely have dropped him from the team had we had a strong batting line up'

Hence it was no surprise that Pakistan were crushed by the West Indies; they won by 10 wickets. Imran watched all this from beyond the boundary. Next stop was Hobart, 27th feb and the match was against Zimbabwe. Imran had counted this as one of the five wins that he needs and felt that he had to take control of the team and hence play. He didn't bowl nor bat and saw Pakistan winning it comfortably by 53 run
margin. But by playing, he aggravated his injury by bowling in the nets. That meant he was out of the next crucial match against England on March 1st 1992 at Adelaide oval.

More crisis on the match day as Miandad felt pain in his back and wanted to field in the outfield. Fielding closing in was causing him more pain and hence the desire to field in the outfield. He also felt that it would be better if Malik took over the captaincy. So Imran went and asked Salim but Malik declined it. He didn't want it now
after being turned down initially. More drama and chaos in the camp. Whatever confidence that Zimbabwe win gave them had disappeared into that thick fog of bruised egos and utter confusion.

Finally it was Miandad who led the team onto the field of disaster; Pakistan batted first and immediately crumbled to 42 for the loss of 5 wickets but the tail enders took the score to 74 runs; there were 10 extras in that. Then Pakistan went in for lunch and prayed (?); they must have as clouds opened out their blessings and rain poured. A revised target of 64 runs was set for England in 16 overs and they
were on 24 for 1 in 8! overs when rain gods had enough of this nonsense and intervened in to abandon the play. Points were shared and how crucial it was to prove later!

Next encounter was against India. There were no questions in Imran'mind, he had to play. Pain killers went in his body and he went out on to the field. Indian batsmen struggled; consider this, the swashbuckling batsman Srikkanth scored only 4 runs after being in there for 41 minutes for 40 balls. A Young Sachin (54 runs) played a
very matured innings in the company of Kapil (35 runs) and took the score to a respectable 216 runs. Pakistan through Aamir sohail (62) looked well set on the victory path, reaching 105 for the loss of just two wickets. Then Sachin struck as Sohail swung his bat at the ball trying to hit past midwicket, but hit straight but low to Srikkanth at short-midwicket. He stooped low and picked up the catch. Malik and Miandad took the score to 127 when Prabhakar lured Malik into a loose
drive outside off, the edge going to More. 'Careless shot' was how Imran describes that shot in his book. That Malik wicket was the beginning of the fall of Pakistan. 3 runs later Imran was run out and Pakistan soon collapsed to 173 all out.

South Africa was their next opponent (8th March at Brisbane) and more disaster as Miandad didn't feel fit enough to play in that match. South Africans batted first and looked cruising as they reached 98 for the loss of one wicket. Then Imran struck and took successive wickets reducing SA to 110 for 3. Then 2 more wickets fell and SA were at 127 for 5. But Cronje (47) and McMillan (33) helped along with some poor
fielding, took the score ahead and SA ended up with 211 runs.

The wicket was a batting friendly one and Pakistan went along steadily to 70 for 2 when rain intervened. The target was revised; they had to score 194 runs off 36 overs. Also the batting friendly had become a rain affected. But Inzamam showed glimpse of his talent and the storm that he was to unleash later as he batted really well for his 48 runs off 44 balls. Then Rhodes announced himself to the cricketing world and found an entry into million posters and conversations worldwide as
he flew in the air to run Inzamam out. The score was then 135 and Pakistan could only take it to 173.

Now it looked that the Pakistan' cup of dreams was broken. From 23rd Feb to 8th Mar the players had tasted a solitary victory against Zimbabwe and rain had brought them another point. (and they had lost their practice matches against South Africa, Srilanka and even to Tasmania) Also they had lost to India, their arch rivals, the public back home was screaming in anger, the players must have been screaming
in agony caused by disappointment. Of course when disappointment and
agony are around, bickering and blaming others also creep in quickly.

They did; Malik went round telling to anybody who cared to listen that he should be batting at No3. Imran wrote later that it was Malik who had earlier wanted to bat at no 5 in these bouncy Australian tracks. More trouble in the form of a disgruntled Rameez Raja lay ahead for the captain. Imran writes in his autobiography 'Rameez Raja who had not played against India due to a shoulder injury went round telling
people that he was really fit but I had not asked him. In fact in every team meeting all the players were asked to talk about their fitness and the last time I had spoken to him he had clearly stated that he had still little strength in his left shoulder. But this is typical of a team when it is doing badly.'

A losing team has always this unstable edge to it especially when there is so much pressure on these cricketers. They knew that the public back home would be getting very angry and that fear coupled with their own disappointment at failing would take them to the very edge. Men who are mentally strong can cope up with it, others will
flutter, some would start throwing the blame at others, and as a result tempers get frayed, nerves weaken and chaos results. That was the state of the Pakistani camp post that defeat against South Africa. It was in disarray, it needed a jolt from somewhere; something miraculous had to happen, a 'karishma'.

What was Imran Khan thinking? Read his thoughts, 'The pressure on me was multiplied because I realized that if we lost the next match and were out of the World Cup I would not be able to do any fundraising for another six months, maybe a year. I was also aware that our newspapers had begun to write that the reason for the team' failure was that I was not concentrating on cricket but on giving publicity to
my hospital. As a result our fund-raising campaign, which was in process in Pakistan, had completely collapsed'.

They were to face Australia in the next match and if they lost they would have to face a hostile public back home. Imr! an Khan knew he had to win; it was as simple as that. He had got into the world cup because he wanted to raise funds for his hospital, as he himself put it- 'to cash in on the euphoria of a possible world cup win'

The team had now huddled together for a meeting. Tensed and under severe pressure, they must have been a real disappointed lot. Not only their dream of a win looked gone but now they would have to confront the nightmares of public back home. That meeting room must not have been a place to be envied.

Enter Imran Khan.

He had decided to attack at their worst fears and nightmares and make them realize that they were not so bad at all. How? ' I tried to drive home to them that the worst that could happen was we could lose and they need not worry because the blame would come to me'. Also more pep talks on the lines of not being afraid to lose go out their fighting like tigers, there is no shame if we go down fighting etc followed.
Im! ran also told them that he had every faith that they would still win.

Imran had had this gut feel all along that he would be lifting the cup. He had never felt this in the previous world cups. So this faith that he would win helped him and that feeling filtered down to the other players. Imran even quotes from Koran in his book and may be he invoked the same in the dressing room, 'For a Moslem, hopelessness is a sin'.

So now egged on by this faith of their skipper, the team subconsciously now felt that miracle could occur. Didn't the rain come and earn them a point against England? Also they were encouraged by his body language. Imran had this to say on captaincy later'Often it is not the sort of things a captain says in his team meetings that
make a difference but what a captain believes and the way he carries himself. The players look more towards the body language rather than the rhetoric in speeches to the team'.

It of course ! depends on the culture of a society as well; the cues that a particular set of people look to for say deriving confidence can vary. Faith can move some as it did those Pakistani players.

So a under pressure Imran but urged on by his gut feel and powered by his ambition, he walked out to toss confidently. To his side was under pressure Border. Imran wrote 'His face bore the expression of a man who was worried about losing and did not necessarily believe that he could win. I felt that was a crucial difference between our two attitudes'.

Those attitudes were reflected in the results as well as Pakistan won by 48 runs. Sohail had top scored with 76 and Miandad (46) and Rameez(36) helped the team to post 220 runs. Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmad took three wickets each and Imran (dismissed Marsh & Steve Waugh) andAkram took two wickets each and shot out Australia for 172 runs. Salim Malik had gone in No 3 and was bowled for a duck. It paved way for
Imran to go at No 3 in the later matches.

'The win against Australia was the turning point. I was able to tell the players that it was my belief that we were destined to win the World Cup'.

The next game was against Sri Lanka, a team already out of the world cup, so that should mean Imran must have been more relaxed, right? Wrong. Imran was really tensed, the reason- '...the Sri Lankans were already out of the World Cup and hence they had nothing to lose. Moreover after their game against Australia, the team did not look
fired enough against Sri Lanka' In the end Pakistan won by 4 wickets and they moved to New Zealand for their final league match against the home team in Christchurch.

Even now it was not a straight equation; West Indies had to lose to Australia. So was Imran tense? - 'I was fairly relaxed. . West Indies would be under immense pressure as we were against Sri Lanka and the West Indies are known not to play well u! nder pressure.'

A over confident New Zealand team went down to the guile of the man of the match Mushtaq who suffocated them with figures of 18 runs in 10 overs, taking 2 wickets and Akram claimed 4 victims and the Kiwis were bundled out for 166 runs. Rameez hit a fine century and took Pakistan home. As Imran had expected the Windies crumbled under pressure and their crumbling were watched with delight not only by fans of the team
but by the team itself. They had post their match immediately headed for the hotel and watched the Aus-Win match in the television. And when Steve Waugh trapped Benjamin in front of the wicket, celebrations erupted inside the hotel. It was almost as if they had won the Cup!

Now to that semifinal against New Zealand. But before Imran could take the field there was to be more drama off field. On the morning of 21st March 1992, the morning of the match, Inzamam complained of food poisoning & giddiness and wanted to withdraw from the match Imran was adamant that he played and allowed Inzamam to bat lower down the order and finally persuaded him to play.

Meanwhile Imran was himself suffering from the severe shoulder pain, so much so that he could not pick up a glass to drink. More pain killers than the normal dose was taken and he walked in to the arena. Martin Crowe electing to bat led from the front with a brilliant innings of 91 off just 83 balls when he got run out. Rutherford had
also scored a valuable half century. Pakistan was set a target of 263 for a victory.

Now the onus was on the batsman to deliver. Imran and the team felt that since the New Zealand did not have a great bowling attack, if they could preserve wickets earlier on when the ball was moving around, they can go for the shots later. But who is to bell the cat? Who is to play the anchor?

Imran was not in great batting form and hence asked whether Inzamam would like to go in at no3.! Inzamam still had not recovered completely and felt more comfortable going down the order. So Imran walked in at the fall of Sohail and the score at 30. Imran was hopelessly out of any hitting form and was only able to stay out there
and occupy the crease. The wickets were not falling but neither was the asking rate. Miandad joined Imran and he was trying to get acclimatized to the pitch, meanwhile the asking rate and the heart beat of millions of Pakistanis were going up.

Imran tried to hit out but couldn't, and finally got out scoring 44 runs off 93 balls. Malik fell for just one run. The asking rate was over 8 runs an over and it looked now that the gut feel of Imran was all wrong. Surely an ailing and a weak Inzamam could not pull off any miracle and what can Miandad do alone out there?

Even Imran felt that for the first time during the tournament they were not going to make it. But miracles do happen and Inzamam under the guidance of that ! great Pakistani batsman Miandad enacted his own script out there in the middle. What a time to reveal one's genius, talent. A cricketer is not going to get a greater arena than the World Cup to declare himself and Inzamam went on to do exactly that as he
went on to score 60 thrilling runs of just 37 balls with the help of 7 fours and 1 six. His talent was on display for 48 minutes and every nano second of it was thrilling. The old pro, Miandad guiding, urging the young talent home, it was sensational stuff. Inzamam got run out but Miandad went on to score 57 not out. Pakistan had reached the final.

To add further fuel to the fire of faith engulfing Imran and his men,rain came down just half an hour after the completion of the game. 'I knew that God was on our side when it began to rain. Had the rain come an hour earlier it would have been goodbye to tour World Cup chances'.

Imran wanted one more favor from his god; he wanted the toss to come down in his favor. The rain and the history of world cup where chasers have found it difficult (Sri Lanka was to rewrite this history in the next edition) meant Imran was convinced that half the battle would be won if the toss is won. Of course toss was his and he
promptly decided to bat on the 25th march, 1992.

None of the Pakistani players could sleep on the night before the final, the excitement was too much for them, Sleeping pills were administered and only then did they sleep. So Imran did not have to create further excitement and tension in their mind trying to motivate them. He simply asked them to enjoy themselves as this could be their only final; it was Imran's solitary World Cup final in a career
spanning 21 years.

One thing remained to be decided. Who is going to bat at no3? Imran had a miserable time in the semifinal almost ruining Pakistan's chances but then nobody else had fared any better in that vital position. Imran took the extremely bold move of putting himself at no3. It was a brave move from a proud man. Imran wrote later 'How
could I ask anyone else to go in then if I was not prepared to do so myself?' The pressure must have been tremendous, he had just failed with the bat in the previous game and as he himself put it 'I knew that I would have been lynched had we lost the semi final because I would have been blamed for slow batting'.

And the captain courageous was required very quickly to go in on that evening. Sohail got out when the score was at 20 and Imran walked in. Four runs later, Rameez fell and Miandad walked in. The ball was moving around, pringle being the chief tormentor. Imran and Miandad knew that one more wicket and they could all be gone as the rest of
the batsmen did not have the necessary skill or experience to tackle the moving ball. So they decided to stay put out there. Miandad survived a close lbw call off Pringle and by the end of the 15th over they were at 32/2. Soon Imran got a reprieve; Gooch dropped him when he was at 20. Captain and his deputy now started to accelerate and
runs started to come by at faster rate. Both of them reached their half centuries and when the score was at 163, Miandad (58 off 98 balls) fell trying to reverse sweep. He had called a runner to run for him when he was 53 and 5 runs later he was out.

'Javed got out at the right time as I knew he was tired and had started to become a liability' - Imran. Imran soon departed for a valuable 72 off 110 balls. Then Inzamam(42 off 35 balls, 4 fours) and Akram (33 off 19 balls, 4 fours) took over and exploded into the English attack. 51 runs came in the last six overs, Pakistan finished with 249.

England was reduced to 69 for 4 as Mushtaq took two quick wickets. Akram had earlier removed the potentially dangerous Botham for just one run. A partnership between Lamb and Fairbrother took the score to 141 when Akram struck twice in an over. That over of course part of folk lore all around the cricketing world. Pace, Swing and guile had removed Lamb and a bewildered Lewis. They were balls of fire, balls out of a dream, two screaming swingers and they were gone. The rest was inevitable; however Imran was to have one final moment of glory on field.

He bowled that last wicket taking delivery in that World Cup, he ran in for the last time in his international career and jumped into that final wonderful leap of his, a leap to stardom, to fame, to his dreams and what can Richard Illingworth do in front of all that? He was mere pawn, a part of a great ambition, of a dream of millions and he played his part. He sent the ball into the sky and Rameez accepted with glee
as the ball and the Cup came down Pakistan' ways.

Pakistan had won the World Cup; Imran had achieved his ambition. He received with joy that crystal bowl, and lifted it to the skies. It was his cup of joy, Pakistan' cup ! of dreams and in that moment of ecstasy he made one slip. In his victory speech there were no words for his team, it was all about his dream, the hospital. Imran was to
write later 'I know in an emotional state at the end of the final, I didn't thank the team for their tremendous performances but it was not because I didn't appreciate them. For a start I felt that the team and me were one and the same thing and thanking the team would have meant thanking myself'

Just one final image from that day and this is the image of the day and in fact, for the tournament for me. As Imran was walking back off the field, somebody tapped him on his back. Imran turned back to find his old colleague Javed Miandad. Four retinas widened in joy, two hearts were on fire; In the euphoria of a triumph, all old ill
feelings (if any) had disappeared and they both hugged each other.Then Miandad draped a Pakistan flag around their shoulders and the two great cricketers walked off the ! field.

On that flag, the crescent moon was dancing.

Turning to the talisman

2006-03-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday it was a personal milestone; today it was all about the team. Anil Kumble charged India to a position of great strength, with an allround effort, snatching a valuable lead and then spinning a web around the bewildered English batsmen to leave India with a great chance of taking a 1-0 lead in the series.

As Mike Atherton wrote, England had entered this series with a plan to tackle Kumble. Push forward, make contact in front of the pad and look to score through the on side. It worked in the spinless Nagpur but this Mohali track offered Kumble his twin friends: turn and bounce and he exploited it and how.

A freakish dismissal opened the gates for him. Andrew Strauss, increasingly edgy as the minutes trickled by, swept hard at Kumble. The edge rebounded off the boot and popped up to Dhoni. Almost immediately, Harbhajan Singh, with a little bit of help from Darrel Hair, removed Kevin Pietersen to leave England wounded and Kumble smelt blood. Switching to a higher gear, he probed, hustled, teased and tormented Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood. He bowled round arm to get conventional legbreak, spun out a few googlies with his two-fingered grip, and of course, slipped in quite a few topspinners and sliders. The bounce disconcerted the batsmen, the spin confounded them, the pace hurried them and slowly they were transformed into puppets in the master’s hands. Having bowled at Ian Bell a few deliveries at a slower pace, he slipped in a quicker one: it fizzed off the track and trapped Ian Bell at front. But Simon Taufel gave Bell a second lease of life. Kumble didn’t droop nor sulk; he kept coming hard at the batters. Paul Collingwood pushed at a leg break, but the chance was grassed in the slips, a hard chance, but it exposed his weakness and Kumble swooped in for the kill. He slided a few in, and then suddenly, threw one on the offstump, turning away. An unsure Collingwood poked at it and was swallowed in the slips.

Then came a magical passage of play that reduced the Ashes hero Andrew Flintoff, who had tackled Shane Warne with aplomb, to a mere mortal. He kept pushing forward, bat in front of the pad as he played for the one sliding in, but Kumble kept taking it away, beating him three times in an over. The sight unnerved the man standing on the other end. Ian Bell, who had nudged and dabbed his way around,then pushed at what appeared a harmless ball, short of length and turning away ever so slightly, and the nervous poke resulted in a fatal edge. Kumble had broken Bell’s resistance and probably that of England.

Light of Eden

2006-02-27T04:09:00.000-08:00

(Excerpted from Wisden Asia cricket 2004 issue)
It was the third Test of the 1978-79 series in Calcutta between ALvin Kallicharran's West Indies and India. West Indies were set to chase 335 in the final innings and were battling for a draw. Kallicharan and David Murray the wicketkeeper, shared a vital partnership, but a mini collapse followed. and at 183 for 8 India had a great chance to wrap it up However, with the light fading fast at the Eden Gardens and Sew
Shivnarine playing a stubborn innings at one end, West Indies still had some hope of saving the game.

Unlike today, the batsmen had to appeal to the umpires if they felt the light wasn't good enough. That's what they did then, and India would ahve fallen short by two wickets if the appeal had been upheld. However the crowd at the ground, nearly 70,000 were not going to give up easily. They had brought along hand-held fire torches, originally meant for the celebrations and decided to light them at taht point.

It was a great sight to see almost everyone in the stadium clutching a torch and the light generated was enough to make the umpires decide to resume the game. Floodlights were not too common in those days and the sight of all those lit torches was absolutely unbelivable. Just when the West Indians thought they had done enough to draw, they had to bat out another 15 odd minutes with flames burning all around the ground.

One more wicket fell and the tension was simpy unbearable. The last wicket pair, Sylvester clarke and Shivnarine, hung on grimly however, appealed for light again and were lucky to get away with a draw. It is often said that the crowds are as much a part of a sporting spectacle as the players and it was never more true than on this occasion.

Glenn and Jane McGrath

2006-02-05T04:30:00.000-08:00

Glenn McGrath will not play in the VB Series finals, choosing instead to spend time with his family after his wife Jane had a relapse of cancer

McGrath and his wife had appeared in the Enough Rope show in 2004.

Glenn and Jane McGrath, seven years ago, had everything - international acclaim, success, true love - everything you could possibly hope for in life. And then something else happened to them that threw it all into perspective - cancer. How they dealt with it, what it's meant to them, where they are now, well, it's the stuff of life.

SRT n SMG

2006-02-01T01:17:00.000-08:00

SRT has caught up with another Gavaskar landmark. Nah, runs not involved this time but dismissal, in particular, occasions when he was cleaned up.

Gavaskar was bowled 33 times in his 125 match career and SRT reached that mark in his 128th Test when Mohammad Asif cleaned him up with a slightly low-kept delivery in the second innings. And interestingly guess how many times Brian Lara has got out, bowled? 33

Where do the rest of the Indian fab four stand? Rahul Dravid has been bowled 26 times, Laxman 24 times and Sourav Ganguly 20 times.

The underarm odour

2006-01-31T19:50:00.000-08:00

From Cricinfo's 'All Today's yesterdays'
February 1 1981

A one-day final, and the opponents need six off the last ball just to tie. If you were an Australian, you'd back yourself to win, wouldn't you? Greg Chappell didn't. He was so scared of New Zealand's Brian McKechnie (one-day career: 54 runs in 14 matches) that he ordered his bowler - who just happened to be his brother, Trevor - to bowl the last ball underarm. It did the trick and Australia won the match. But they lost a lot of friends at the same time - the tactic caused much consternation and was quickly banned. Ian Chappell, brother of Trevor and Greg, was commentating at the time and said: "No Greg, you can't do that."

Video
Click here to see a video of that delivery.

The Repercussions

From Wisden 1982

"Not surprisingly this prompted widespread charges of poor sportsmanship. The
Australian Cricket Board, "meeting" by telephone hook up. at once agreed that the playing conditions should be changed "to prohibit the use of underarm bowling in the remaining matches of the competition". They also decided that, as no existing rule had been infringed, the Melbourne result,however regrettably achieved, must stand."

"Mr P.L. Ridings, chairman of the Australian board, said his board 'deplored Greg Chappell's action' and had 'advised him of their strong feelings on the matter and of his responsibility as Australia's captain to uphold the spirit of the game at all times'. Chappell said himself it was something he would not do again. Even the Prime Ministers of the two countries had things to say,Australia's Mr Malcolm Fraser claiming that Chappell had 'made a serious mistake, contrary to the spirit of the game'. New Zealand's Mr Robert Muldoon was more outspoken, describing the underarm delivery as 'an act of cowardice'. It was appropriate, he said, that the Australian team should have been dressed in yellow, a reference to the coloured strip favoured by Australia in these one-day matches."

"Mr Bob Vance, chairman of the New Zealand Cricket Council, described it as'the worst sporting action' he had ever seen. 'Victory at this cost', he said. 'was at the sacrifice of Australia's tremendously proud cricket heritage'. Sir Donald Bradman 'totally disapproved' of what had happened. Richie Benaud referred to a 'disgraceful happening . . . one of the worst things I have seen on a cricket field'. Harold Larwood, aged 77 and living in retirement in Sydney, said it was 'a bloody stupid thing to do', adding that 'no-one in my time would have done anything like that'. A Sydney radio station said that several callers had urged that Australia's ambassador to New Zealand be recalled as an expression of national shame. There were charges, too, that the substantial prize money was changing players' attitudes."

And Greg Chappell on the infamous incident. Extracted from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/sportsf/stories/s1034248.htm

Greg Chappell: The underarm was on a Sunday, the 1st February, 1981 I seem to remember. The following Saturday, so the 7th February, was to be the start of the final Test match against India. We had another final to play in the one-day series on the Tuesday against New Zealand. If we won that, then we wouldn’t have to play another one on the Thursday. So the end of the season, long season, I was pretty well worn out physically and mentally. A number of our senior players, Dennis and Rod in particular, had niggles that they were carrying. We were starting to feel the pinch, I was certainly feeling the pinch. I’d been having meetings for at least two seasons, on a regular basis with Australian Cricket, who claimed they couldn’t do anything about conditions at the MCG, so they would take us to meetings with Victorian Cricket, who claimed that it was out of their control. So we had meetings with the Melbourne Cricket Club, who claimed that there wasn’t a problem anyway, that what did it matter, the wicket was the same for both teams, which missed the point completely. And the fact that we played at the MCG twice as often as anyone else meant that it wasn’t the same for all teams.

All of the things that were wrong with the programming, all of the things that were wrong with the playing conditions, all of the things that were a problem with the new system, was impacting much more on the Australian team than it was on anyone else. And nobody either seemed to care or could do anything about it, or claimed they could do anything about it. And on that day, there’d been an incident earlier in the day where a catch had been claimed in the outfield by Martin Snedden, and I have no doubt that he felt that he’d caught the ball. From where I was, I couldn’t tell, so I wasn’t going to go unless the umpires gave me out. The umpires decided not to give me out, so that was quite a controversy in the morning session. I think I’d made 90-odd or something, 94, 96 or something in our innings. It had been a particularly hot day, I’d bowled my 10 overs in the bowling innings as I always did. And it was a particularly tight match. Bruce Edgar, John Wright, but Bruce Edgar in particular, Bruce Edgar I think made it 100 for New Zealand on that day and had batted beautifully. And New Zealand probably should have won the game.

I brought Trevor on to bowl late in the game to bowl out the last overs which generally it was me who bowled in the last 10 overs, but because it was a tight game and I’d come in to bowl my first spell in the middle overs, and was bowling reasonably well, I decided to keep bowling out my 10 overs because I knew I had Trevor up my sleeve to bowl the last few overs.

The wicket was so low and slow and so uneven, that someone like Dennis Lillee was the worst bowler from our point of view, to bowl in those last overs, because he got normal bounce and came onto the bat. Blokes who were military medium, like myself and Trevor, and didn’t bounce very much, were much more difficult to get away. It was always intended that Trevor was going to bowl those last overs.

Trevor did such a good job in the last overs that he picked up three or four wickets that actually brought us back into the game. And he’d picked up at least one wicket in that last over.

At that stage, we’d fielded particularly poorly in that session as well, we’d mis-fielded quite a few balls, and in those last couple of overs, there’d been a number of mis-fields that had really got to me, and I wasn’t fit, I mean I was mentally wrung out, I was physically wrung out, and I was fed up with the whole system. Things that seemed to be just closing in on us, and I suppose in my own case I felt they were closing in on me, and it was a cry for help. I was sitting on the ground at deep mid-on, Brian McKechnie came in to bat, I’d never seen him before. He’d come over as a replacement player. All I knew about him was that he was a Rugby Union player, he’d represented New Zealand, he was an All Black Rugby player, he’s a big strapping boy. The fact that he was batting No. 11 probably suggested he wasn’t that good. But at that stage, I didn’t really care. I hadn’t thought about it before looking up and seeing him walk through the gate, and I thought, I’ve had a gutful of this, and this is what I think of it. And I walked up to Trevor and I said, How are you bowling your underarms? And he said, I don’t know. And I said, Well you’re just about to find out. And with that I turned to the umpire at the bowler’s end and told him, who I’m reliably told, I mean when I told Trevor that he was bowling underarm, his eyes rolled back in his head. When I turned to the umpire at the bowler’s end, his eyes rolled back in his head, and I’m reliably informed that when he told the umpire at square leg, the same thing happened. So they were all taken aback by it, but there was nothing they could do about it. It was legal. I had conformed with all the requirements of informing the umpires, who then informed the batsmen, and I wandered back to deep mid-on knowing that it wouldn’t be all that well received, but probably unaware of the furore that was just about to unleash. And at that moment, I couldn’t have cared less.

The Art of Sehwag

2006-01-29T22:43:00.000-08:00

Comp probs have meant that I haven't been updating the blog regulary. From here on, I plan to post often, infact daily. Lets see... Here is a writeup on Virender Sehwag. Sometime back I had written on his one day blues. Here I have tried to concentrate on his technique.

The Art of Sehwag

"My standout shot was off Rana Naved, when he hit a perfect good length ball for a straight drive. It went like a bullet to the fence and nobody, including Sehwag, moved"- Imran Khan on Virender Sehwag.

It was quite a sight. Even as the ball rose from the dust, Sehwag's back lift had reached its apogee and his back foot moved a little behind - straight back as opposed to back and across- and as the red cherry sped towards him, down came the flashing blade in a smooth downswing and met the ball flush in the middle. All this while, his head was still, absolutely still.

Greg Chappell has credited Sehwag's brilliance to an uncluttered mind and its product- an uncomplicated technique. It's worth analyzing his technique in detail. Although he modeled his game on his idol Sachin Tendulkar, his game depends more on eye-hand coordination. The back lift is higher; there is more of the wrist-cock which results in high bat speed that brings it down in a flurry and imparts momentum to the ball at the point of contact. And the movement of the feet or the almost lack of it is the most crucial one. His head is absolutely still and there is no movement of the feet till the ball is delivered. Then depending on his swift perception of the length of the ball, he moves or prefer to stays rooted. If it's short, he goes back, his back foot usually moves almost straight back as opposed to conventional back and across which is the vital element in his technique. That leaves him beside the line of the ball – some batsmen prefer getting behind the line - and his square-on position creates room, where none exists, for even a ball at stumps. If it bounces, he just sways back, balancing his weight to his right foot and uses his wrists for his dashing fierce upper-cuts and slashes. And if that short ball is on the stumps, even on the middle, he brings his bat almost parallel to the ground, bat face open towards the ball and uses his arms and firms his wrists to punch it over the slips.

The judicious movement of the feet, allied of course with his quick eye, allows him even to hit the good length balls on the up. Tendulkar moves towards the ball with a minimal back-lift and it's the fierce punch at the moment of the impact which allows him to drive on-the-up. Sehwag on the other hand, doesn't hurry his movements towards the ball, rather waits on his crease, with a little movement back and since he never gets his left feet across his downwards backswing comes down unimpeded and smoothly like a golf swing. This generates tremendous bat speed and transfers furious kinetic energy to the ball.

His uncluttered footwork also helps him negotiate the reverse swing adeptly. His left foot –the front foot - never comes across, as it does for many batsmen, and so he is never cramped when the final blast of in swing starts and the bat comes down unimpeded. The swing finishes its late movement and red cherry goes past his front foot and when about to pass the back foot, his blade crashes against its head and a fluent drive results.

If he treated the pacers nonchalantly against spin he is at his explosive best. Danish Kaneria, who Pakistan wisely held back for the second Test to prevent Sehwag denting his confidence, was merrily attacked in his short spell at Lahore. Three men prowled behind a silly point on the offside ring and Kaneria threw it up on the off and middle stump, turning it away, occasionally spinning back in but Sehwag scorched the area between cover and long off. Against the spinners there is an initial front foot movement as he mostly transfers his weight to the left foot and if it's in his driving range, the bat will crash through the line of the ball. If it dips and falls short of his perceived length, he will slog sweep it over on the onside or just go through the line of the ball and on most occasions his extravagant flourish will take it over the infield easily. If it's of shortish length, he will rock back to cut.

Only the fast, short pitched stuff aimed at his ribs disconcerts him. I was witness to an Irani Trophy game in 2003 – involving Mumbai and Rest of India – in Chennai. Tendulkar, who captained Mumbai, pitted his wits against Sehwag. He placed a leg slip, a man behind square and another just in front and with a man prowling at long leg and instructed Ajit Agarkar to operate round the wickets and pitch it short at Sehwag's ribs. Alas Agarkar couldn't quite get his radar right but couple of balls were on target; Sehwag jumped and shut his eye, thrusting his bat out. The balls popped up but just fell short of the waiting men. The West Indians first hit upon it, in a series in India, as their bowlers dug a few into his ribs and found to their immense delight Sehwag just tamely pushing out a weak swivel-pulled catches to backward short leg or square-leg. He however has worked on it a lot – with plastic and synthetic balls- and although he still doesn't possess a proper pull, his swivel shots are not that weak and he manages to use his wrists to get the ball down, even if he looks a bit ungainly while doing that. That still is his weak area but one needs express pace and accuracy- something seen rarely in the cricketing world today- to target and exploit. It would be fascinating to watch if Shoaib Akhtar manages to get his radar right in the second Test at Faisalabad where hopefully a sporting track awaits us.

There is an interesting story - on footwork - that I should mention here. Not on Sehwag but that involving Majid Khan, the stylish former Pakistan batsman, told by his Glamorgan colleague Peter Walker in his fantastic book Cricket Conversations. The incident occurred during a nets session after a game against Sussex where Jim Parks jr had put the Glamorgan bowlers – including Don Sheperd - to sword. Majid Khan's team-mates reckoned it was the speed and precision of Park Jr's that helped him bled their attack. Majid, a silent spectator to the discussion, spoke at the end, "You don't need any footwork in batting, just hands and eye". That astonishing statement was contested hotly and his team-mates demanded him to prove it on field. Over to Walker: "Within fifteen minutes, three of our front-line bowlers, including Sheperd, lined up in a net outside with Majid padded up at the other end about to have his theory demolished. For twenty minutes, on a rough, unprepared, and quite-impossible-to-bat-on wicket where the ball flew, shot, seamed and turned, Majid Khan stood absolutely motionless, parrying the ball as it lifted, cutting or hooking unerringly if it were wide, driving with frightening power if over pitched and swaying out of harm's way when it lifted unexpectedly. Unless he allowed it, not a single ball passed his bat, not a chance was given, not a false stroke made. The bowlers were at full throttle, yet by our own reckoning afterwards that twenty-minute session must have yielded the young Pakistani around 75 runs! He had just defied every known textbook instruction, improvised strokes that just did not exist and, without uttering a word, had emphatically made his point. In the presence of genius, no rules apply."

Sehwag is similarly gifted, not just a butcher, and his footwork is not a lackadaisical or absolutely non-existent. He knows his game so well that all he looks for with his foot movement, as any batsman should, is to maintain a perfect balance that helps with his style of play. It would be however very interesting to see him operate once his quick eye slows up a bit but for that we have to wait a few years, till then we can relax back in our couch and enjoy the fabulous Sehwag show.

Amit Varma's Pakistan tour diary

2006-01-09T03:06:00.000-08:00

Amit Varma, the Interactive editor of Cricinfo and an avid blogger, is currently touring Pakistan to cover the cricket series for The Guardian. His tour diary can be read at his blog India Uncut Keep visiting that blog.

The Myth of the Nightwatchman

2005-12-29T23:19:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from Charles Davis's book The Best of the Best. It shows how the tactic fails more often than it succeeds. There is also a short piece on partnerships: do wickets fall in pairs after long partnerships?

Click here to read the article

Packer is dead

2005-12-27T00:48:00.000-08:00

Kerry Packer, the media moghul who changed the face of cricket, is dead

Click here for a ABC Radio Sports Factor special on the world-series cricket that Packer started. Gideon Haigh, Keith Stackpole discuss.

SRT's consistency

2005-12-23T01:06:00.000-08:00

Gokul Chakravarthy, a great mate of mine, writes a stats-based article analysing SRT's consistency and where he ranks among the big stars in the history. The result is interesting

While Rohit Brijnath, that wonderful writer, shares his thoughts on the man

Too much and too long we go on about Tendulkar's batting style these days, should he play demonically or austerely, a debate hurled back and forth with no finish line in sight, but it's not this minor matter that has changed that is relevant, but what has stayed mostly unchanged. Him.

India is not what it was since Tendulkar took his initial Test stance. Political parties have changed places, new states have sprung up, riots have asked questions of our values, a middle-class has grown wealthy, war and peace has been found with Pakistan, nature and man have had their cruel say. It is an India unrecognisable from 1989. But he is the same. He is an adult, he is a father, he is a husband, of course, but he is still unspoilt, still honourable, still self-effacing. He is an advertisement for the best in sport.

Let us get this out of the way quickly. He was silly for asking for duty on his Ferrari to be waived. He was indicted for ball tampering but that was a joke, this man is no cheat. Perhaps, too, there is the odd other complaint. Of course, he is no perfect man, no saint in virginal white, but in 16 years are these the only blemishes we can find?

A song against Googly bowlers

2005-12-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

Ranjit Shinde sent me, rather pasted on a desk at work, a song against googly bowlers. It was penned by EC Holt, after GK Chesterton and was published in The Cricketer, August 6, 1921.

God made the googly bowler
with ominous design,
That men might see the dreadful fate
Of those who drink no wine,
Of calculating scientists
Who stop at home and think,
While decent-minded citizens
Are ordering a drink.

The googly bowler googles
With leg-breaks from the off,
And other things that would disgust,
A self-respecting toff.
His wild appeals for leg-before
Create an awful din,
And when he gets the batsman out
He gives a horrid grin.

Let googly bowlers tremble,
For I will eat my hat
Unless I show these cricket-men
The proper way to bat.
Oh, I will bash their googly tricks,
And loudly will proclaim
That only those who drink the wine
Can hope to play the game!

The googly men from South Africa

2005-12-05T03:30:00.000-08:00

Cricket owes this deadly weapon to another sport and one man's ingenuity. It 's a fascinating tale worth quoting the words of its inventor, Bosanquet."Somewhere about the year 1897 I was playing a game with a tennis ball, known as `Twisti-Twosti.' The object was to bounce the ball on a table so that your opponent sitting opposite could not catch it... After a little experimenting I managed to pitch the ball which broke in a certain direction; then with more or less the same delivery make the next ball go in the opposite direction! I practised the same thing with a soft ball at `Stump-cricket.' From this I progressed to the cricket ball...I devoted a great deal of time to practicing the googly at the nets, occasionally in unimportant matches. The first public recognition we obtained was in July, 1900, for Middlesex v. Leicestershire at Lord's. An unfortunate individual [Coe, the left-hander] had made 98 when he was stumped off a fine specimen which bounced four
times -- This small beginning marked the start of what came to be termed a revolution in bowling..."

This mysterious delivery foxed and enraged the leading batsmen like Arthur Shrewsbury who condemned it. When asked whether it was an illegal delivery, Bosanquet replied, "Not unfair chaps, only immoral.” But Bosanquet, who bowled the legendary Victor Trumper off the very first googly bowled in Australia in March 1903, couldn't quite tame his wild creation. That was left to South Africans spinners. Playing alongside Bosanquet in the Middlesex team was Reggie Schwartz, a batsman who bowled medium pace, who was quite fascinated by the 'Bosie' and took keen interest in the Englishman's experiments with this strange weapon. However, at the end of 1901 season he emigrated to South Africa. Schwartz got a chance in 1904 to reacquaint his friendship with Bosanquet and his creation when he was selected to play for South Africa on a tour of England. He ran straight into the wiles of Bosanquet in the very first match of the tour, the googly bowler picking up nine wickets for MCC. That Art is truly international was proved when an eager disciple in Schwartz found a willing guru in Bosenquet who passed on the secrets of the wrong'un. By the time the fourth match started against Oxford, Reggie was amusing his team-mates by practicing the delivery in nets and then to their amazement, in the second innings of the match, he grabbed five wickets for 27 runs in just over five overs. By the end of the tour, he went on to top the bowling averages, scalping 96 bewildered victims at 14.81.

Schwartz then spread the gospel. Albert 'Ernie' Vogler, the legspinner, Gordon White, South Africa's premier batsman, and Aubrey Faulkner, an allrounder, were his disciples and soon, on the matting wickets of South Africa, they deceived hapless batsmen with bounce, turn and the break-back. The fab four way-laid the Englishmen who toured under Plum Warner in 1905 and demolished them when South Africa toured England in 1907 - Schwartz with his googlies, Vogler with his legbreaks mixed with surprise wrong'uns and a slow yorker with which he dismissed CB Fry twice in Test matches, Faulkner with his faster breaks and White with well- concealed googlies.

Ranji Hordern, called Ranji due to his swarthy complexion was probably the first Australian who bowled googly. Hordern, who studied to become a doctor in USA, was spotted by Warren Bardsley, the former Australian player who as selector of New South Wales picked him up for NSW and Hordern soon graduated to play against England in 1911, grabbing 12 wickets. In the Test series against England in 1911-12 he bagged 32 wickets.

Post the WWI, South Africa introduced turf wickets, a surface not conductive to spin bowling and spin slowly died away from that country. The googly developed further down under.

Bosanquet, the creator, lost his way as a bowler, fading out of the scene. Vogler, whom RE Foster rated in 1908 as "the greatest bowler playing cricket in either hemisphere at the present time", strangely, did little after those heady days of 1907.

Aubrey Faulkner, a supreme allrounder with a strange batting grip, and who in the words of AA Thomson, "seemed to be able to do everything he wished and to do it serenely ... Over a period of years [he] was almost in a position on to toss up in any given game whether he wished to be regarded as South Africa's most brilliant batsman or most deadly bowler". Sometimes even he found his match, once in particular, in Jack Hobbs. Herbert Strudwick, the former England wicketkeeper, tells a delightful anecdote on the two. "I remember G. A. Faulkner after an England tour in South Africa, saying to Jack: I only bowled you one googly." "Why," said Jack, "I didn't know you bowled one." Faulkner said: "You hit the first one I bowled for four. If you didn't know it, how did you know it would turn from the off?"

"I didn't" answered Jack. "I watched it off the pitch."

Faulkner went on to become a very good coach and started a cricket school - Ian Peebles, KS Duleepsinhji were his among his famous pupils. However, he was prone to manic depression and on September 10 1930, he locked himself in the storeroom of his cricket school and turned on the gas leaving behind a poignant note - "I am off to another world via the bat room".

Reggie Schwartz, the man responsible for the spread of the googly, served in WWI and died of influenza, one week after the armistice ending the war was signed .Gordon White died of wounds in the war, again tragically, just one month before the signing of the armistice.

It's ironic, against this backdrop of Vogler and his pupils who tamed the wild googly that the South Africans, currently toured India with a lone spinner, who converted from bowling fast to spin just a few months back. However, the South Africans might point out that Reggie Schwartz himself was a convert from pace to spin or for that matter the inventor himself in his oxford days used to bowl medium pace. Ah!

Thoughts on Balaji

2005-11-30T01:27:00.000-08:00

Balaaaji! Zara dheere chalo! The cry was heard around the stadiums in Pakistan during the historic Indian tour. His big smile, swarthy complexion, and some banana outswingers had warmed him to the Pakistani people. He came back home a hero only to lose his way in the ODIs and now has vanished from the scene. Gone…just like that.
Lots of tinkering with his action, quite a few ‘niggling’ injuries has meant a relegation to sidelines and once you are out of an Indian’s sight, you are out of his mind. The selectors have relegated him to domestic cricket.

A fully fit Balaji who is in control of his bowling would add teeth to the Indian bowling lineup dominated by left arm bowlers, even, and especially in, Indian conditions where swing dies after few overs and one needs either pace to hustle or seam movement to create nuisance. Balaji started out as a wide-of-the-crease bowler with a big incutter but a yearning not to be a one-trick pony set him on a pursuit of a ball that goes away. It was in England during the India A tour in 2003, although he got only 12 wickets in six first-class matches, that he got a few to swing it away. "I focussed on my follow through and release. During my run up, my arm was away from the body. Now it is closer,” Balaji had revealed then. The changes have been constant, frequent features in his bowling. And in the Irani Trophy 2003 at MA Chidambaram stadium, playing for Rest of India against Mumbai, he straightened a few, moved it away and then did Wasim Jaffer as he shouldered arms to a ball that nipped back in. The transformation while still not complete was on its way. If he hadn’t made few of the deliveries to straighten and hold its line, Jaffer wouldn’t have tricked to let the fatal one to go. Still there was much work needed to be done: Apart from a need for a smoother run-up, he had to learn how to use the non-bowling left arm before release that would prevent his head from falling. And that came under the tutelage of Bruce Reid in the Indian tour of Australia in 2004.

At the tour game in Hobart he ran in closer to the stumps than before, stopped falling towards his left shoulder as alarmingly as he did before, his cocked up wrist action got more straighter, head while not yet still, got into much better position. He still had his nip-backers, removed Martin Love with a one such beauty. In the ODIs in Australia, he started to get his outswingers going but they started from well outside off stump as his right hand, at the point of release, was more closer to the left shoulder. It was always like that for him: he would deliver from the extreme width of the crease and have that angled cocked up wrist action and would send across the nip-backer. Those who have played gully cricket would know, how we used to lean towards the left, move the throwing right arm towards left shoulder and then with a cocked up wrist release it, hoping it would be a huge nip backer. Of course the slogger at the other end would have just stood there and smashed it over deep mid-wicket!

Back to Balaji. He had changed the wrist position ideal for an outswinger but his bowling arm was still close to his left shoulder. A young Courtney Walsh used to do this, chest on action and right arm inclined more to left shoulder. Balaji then worked on increasing his pace, apart from a smoother run up, he tried getting his upper body arch back just prior to the release, and also tried to get into a semi-side on posture. All his efforts have been geared towards achieving two things- outswingers and pace, two necessary weapons in bowler’s armoury but also maybe he had fallen in love with the outswingers so much that he nearly shun his old stock weapon, the big incutter. Walsh never lost it even as he adjusted his action to get the ball to straighten. Indian cricket followers would remember Aashish Nehra going through a similar crisis- burst onto the scene, in Zimbabwe, with some sensational outswinger to left-hand batsmen that would seam back in to the right hand batsmen cutting them into half. He felt he need to get that one that goes away from the right-hand bat and in going for it lost his original weapon. Of course the injuries had also forced Nehra to switch to a semi-open release action from the previous side-on but also the pursuit of the delivery that slants away had also played its role.

Its important to for any bowler to have a complete control over his stock weapon, that at any point of time he can fall back upon it. Balaji is not a swing bowler, rather was not one, and the attempt to widen the armoury has meant the old weapons in quiver have lost sharpness. Balaji in trying to create a new identity has ended up tinkering with his action too many times. Instead he would do well to get back to his basics and slowly crystallize his action and work on his fitness. Being neglected by the selectors offers him a chance to sweat it out in the domestics doing exactly that. His future lies not only in his wrist but between his ears.

Different strokes

2005-11-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

It's fascinating to watch the techniques of different batsmen. Let me concentrate on the unorthodox ones- Sehwag, Gayle or a Smith.

Noticed how Smith plays his shots on the on side? Those sharp, short, violent jabs?
Unlike a more conventional way of bringing the face of the bat down on the ball and ,using the wrist to turn the face of the bat just on contact to flick it or on drive, Smith uses his arms more. He brings his bat down from say gully region, to meet the ball, like a straight drive played to midwicket, bat face straight.

Fleming, the Kiwi skipper, has a similar way of playing the strokes to midwicket albeit his back-lift is higher and follow throughs more. Used to get lbw or inside edge and start lookin ugly. instead of getting the bat straight down as he does for his special on drive (stands tall, elegant , great sight to watch),and then use his wrists to turn the ball towards midwicket,he would bring that bat from almost point and as a result at times runs into problems.

Shall follow up on this later

Cardus on his marriage

2005-11-26T01:28:00.000-08:00

"There are many things about cricket, apart from the skill and the score. There is, first of all, the leisure to do something else. Cricket, like music, has its slow movements, especially when my native county of Lancashire is batting. I married the good companion who is my wife during a Lancashire innings. The event occurred in June, 1921; I went as usual to Old Trafford, stayed for a while and saw Hallows and Makepeace come forth to bat. As usual they opened with care. Then I had to leave, had to take a taxi to Manchester, there to be joined in wedlock at the registry office. Then I - that is, we - returned to Old Trafford. While I had been away from the match and committed the most responsible and irrevocable act in mortal manâ€™s life, Lancashire had increased their total by exactly seventeen - Makepeace 5,Hallows 11, and one leg-bye."

The first black man to play Test cricket

2005-11-19T06:21:00.000-08:00

With the West Indies now engaged in a Test match in Tasmania for the first time, it's timely to revive our memories about Sam Morris, the first West Indian and the first black man of any nation to play Test cricket. Morris, incidentally, was born in Tasmania. Ian Woodward tells his story

How the most elegant stroke in cricket was born

2005-11-15T03:01:00.000-08:00

The left leg quietly put across the right to a break-back from Mold, then lo! the ball was going to the fine leg boundary, not with the weight or ponderousness of material object, but as a ray of energy out of 'Ranji's' sinuous blade.
- Neville Cardus

The origin of this much celebrated stroke is a rather interesting tale. Below, read AA Thomson's writeup on how it was 'born under hardship, adversity and a self-imposed handicap'.

'..Ranji gained an introduction to Fenner's and there was bowled to by relays of professionals, some of them the finest bowlers ofthe day, who tried to rid him of his worst faults. In practice he was tireless (C.B.Fry told me that one February day at Cambridge he saw Ranji, in fur gloves, bat two hours before, and two hours after, lunch to four first class bowlers.)

In trying to teach him to make sound defensive strokes (which he hated)Dan Hayward, the leading professional, took the drastic step of pegging down Ranji's right leg. Thus, as they say, is history born. Instead of playing a defensive shot, as his mentor had intended, Ranji inclined his sinuous body, flicked his supple wrists, and the ball went like a flash to fine leg.

Thus the most elegant stroke known to cricket was born under hardship, adversity and a self-imposed handicap.

About twenty years later, when he was less slim. less supple and far past his glorious best, I sat as near as I could to sight screen behind the bowler's arm at Lord's to watch if I could discover how this historic stroke was made. The bowler, and undeservedly forgotten man named Mignon, was bowling fast, but Ranji's leg glance was quicker- quick enough, it seemed, to decieve the human eye. There was that uncanny flick of wrists and the ball hit the pavilion rails at fine leg like a tracer bullet. He did not appear to have hit it hard; it was almost as if he had struck a match on it as it went by. It was not a chancy deflection or a sneaky 'tickling down the corner'. The full blade of the bat met the ball every time. It happened again and again.I was dazzled. I still am.

Five Aussie googly merchants

2005-11-10T04:48:00.000-08:00

Ram Guha writes on the googly bowlers from down under. Mailey, Grimmett, O'Reilly, Benaud, Warne. Click here

But the first Aussie bowler to perfect the googly was probably, Ranji Hordern (Called Ranji because of his dark skinned color). A doctor who returned from his studies in USA and spotted and picked by Warren Bardsley, the former Australian batsman then acting as the sole selectorfor New South Wales. The national selectors picked him up for the tests and he took 12 wickets in his first Test against England and that against a side including Hobbs, George Gunn, Rhodes, Mead, Hearne, Foster, Woolley and Douglas.

However, after Bosenquet,the creator of googly, it was the South African quartret who brought the wild googly under some control during 1905-1910 - the golden age of spin in SA. (Hordern made his debut in 1911) However, sadly, the world war II which resulted in loss of two spinners and then the subsequent change to turf wickets played its part in the decline of spin in South Africa.

The googly men - South Africa's role in the development of the wrong'un

2005-11-09T04:22:00.000-08:00

What is not widely known today is the role that South Africa played in the original development of the art of googly bowling and of its introduction into test cricket, says Brian as he takes us through the history of the wrong'un. The googly men- R.O. Schwartz, A.E.E. Volgar, G.A.Faulkner and G.C. White. How Reggie Schwarz learnt the art from Bosanquet and passed it on his springbok mates makes for an interesting tale.

The bizzare superstition of Victor Trumper

2005-11-02T01:21:00.000-08:00

VictorTrumper, the legendary Australian batsman from the golden era, had a bizarre superstition. While bowlers held no terrors for Victor, the sight of a clergyman wearing a "dog collar" worried the life out of him. Once the great S.F. Barnes got Trumper early in his innings and Vic said: "I knew I would not score with all those clergyman about…"
Source: A speech by Asley Mallett

Which reminds me about superstition of another cricketer. Amar Singh from India.

Ram Guhawrote about it.

Amar Singh died in May 1940, six months short of his 30th birthday. (He was consumed by a mysterious fever: indeed, a month before he passed away he had been playing cricket). Even while he lived, however, he was obsessed with the idea of death. One who knew of this obsession was the great all-rounder, Learie Constantine, his colleague and rival in the Lancashire League. When Learie's club, Nelson, played
Amar Singh's team, Colne, the West Indian would come to the ground dressed in black. Naturally the Indian would ask what had happened, and Constantine would answer that he had just attended the funeral of a friend. This ruse was intended to put his opponent off his game, to so disturb him psychologically that he might not give of his best. Perhaps of all the tributes that ever came Amar Singh's way this was the most remarkable; that Constantine, a supremely gifted all-rounder himself, could not trust solely to his cricketing skills when playing against him.

The Ronins

2005-10-27T05:57:00.000-07:00

The great calypso music that once used to reverberate across the cricket stadiums has turned into a dirge. I won’t go into the complacency of the authorities in assuming there would always be an assembly line of pace bowlers to replace the former greats or that the boys taking a dip in the beach will walk onto the grassy fields with a bat in hand and conquer the world. That we know. Neither is any point in going over the crisis in player contracts, sponsorship conflicts, board mismanagement. That we have read. There has been collapse all round; public sector failure, the board mismanagement; the greed of private enterprise, holding the players to ransom. What now- as a group of player’s troop onto the Australian stadiums- is the question.

Chanderpaul, a captain by default, Brian Lara, with more shades in character than spots on a leopard, and group of talented young batsmen are in Australia. There seems to be no passionate group ideal to enable these men to bind together and march. There is no use comparing them to the players in the past. Those great West Indian teams were glued by the race issue. As CLR James wrote, race played a positive role in the development of West Indies cricket; black power and fight against the colonialists propelled the players from different countries to stay united and march triumphantly across the grassy cricket fields world over. Make us grovel? Yeah right, we shall show who will be crawling on the knees. In the West Indian case, the race had supplanted the nationalist feeling that fuels other cricket teams.

Now the society has changed, there has been structural adjustment; West Indies has been economically, politically and socially dislocated. Those bricks of anti-colonialism that held the wall of solidarity among people have fallen. Basketball is eating into cricket, rap is silencing calypso, Kentucky and French fries are munched more by the youth, cable TV has ushered in a cultural invasion. Xenophobia is out and with that patriotism also is on the wane; there is an element of jingoism behind patriotic sporting feeling anyways.

Lara gave a hint of a West Indian captain's troubles when he told Shaun Pollock and Graeme Smith, who led the respective World teams in the recent Super Series against Australia, that "they now have a little understanding of what it is like to captain a team whose players come from different countries. In the West Indies, you have guys with different passports and cultures and you have to try to bring them together over a three-month period. I know you can say the West Indies teams of the 1970s and 1980s did that but times have changed. If you were in Brisbane when the West Indies team arrived you would have seen the Jamaicans heading to dinner in one group, the Guyanese all together in another group".

The way forward for the team lies via the individual salvation. As Tony Cozier wrote recently on the West Indies tour of Australia, "it could be individual self interest that strengthens the team ethic on this tour and beyond"

Lara, the most celebrated loser in cricketing history, will like to taste the champagne after victory; Chanderpaul, who has stood at the other end to Lara many a time to grieve a defeat will probably like to etch his name in history as the captain who led them out of dark shadows of defeat; Ramnaresh Sarwan, would probably like his headband to soak more in the sweat of a win, and score runs and push for the captaincy spot.

As the definition of nation state changes in the shrinking global order, the passions that fuel the people residing within an archaic boundary, and hence, it’s sporting stars, will also change. Us v them catalyst might become impotent to move the heart of people, as who forms ‘us’? And in this age of rootless amnesiac culture, it might well have to be a collection of individual disparate dreams, men coming together not under a flag or race but as ronins, even in sporting fields. West Indies cricket might well head that way.

Sehwag’s one-day blues

2005-10-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

Like in Tests,he should treat each ball as a separate event

A writeup by me on the issue.

What am I out for? You've been there long enough

2005-10-19T03:17:00.000-07:00

October 19: Bill Ponsford's birthday. Ray Robinson, the famous Australian writer, had hailed him as 'founder of total batting'

Haresh Pandya' dwelt at length on Ponsford in his appreciation peice in The Hindu

Until Bradman appeared on the scene and stamped his authority with his phenomenal batsmanship, Ponsford was the biggest draw down under.When Victoria was to play New South Wales (NSW) in Sydney in January 1928, big banners hit the city and suburbs right in the eye. They proclaimed: ``Bill Ponsford in the town. Come to the cricket ground and see the world's greatest batsman.''
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One day in 1943, a British MP declared in the House of Commons: "We have got Ponsford out cheaply but Bradman is still batting." To what was he referring? Mussolini had been deposed; Hitler, however, was still around

Source: B. Johnston, Rain Stops Play

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Over the next few years, Bill Ponsford became reknowned for his astronomical scoring: he is still the only man to have passed 400 twice in first-class cricket. When no bowler seemed capable of taming him, it took former Victorian all-rounder Allie Lampard to re-establish the status quo.

Lampard had been a St Kilda teammate of Ponsford through the Saints' glory reign. In a charity match he was a relieving umpire. `Maybe another Ponsford 100 would have suited the crowd,' he said, `but it would have made the game one sided. I told the bowler Charles Winning: `If you hit his legs I'll give him out'.

`The bat was always there, though, so in an undertone I prompted the bowler to appeal for a ball that Ponny had let pass well off the wicket when he was 40.'

Ponsford : `What am I out for?' Lampard : `You've been there long enough.'

Ken Piesse, Cricketer, November 1979, p19
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Between Wickets (Robinson)
EYES FRONT
Although Ponsford's faculties always seemed superhuman, Ray Robinson subsequently discovered that his eyesight was sub-par. After all that had been said about Ponsford's wonderful sight, the doctor that examined him when he volunteered for the airforce was astonished to find that he was colour blind; he could not distinguish
between red and green. A dialogue like this followed:

Dr : What colour did the new ball look to you?
Ponsford : Red.
Dr : What colour did it look after it became worn?
Ponsford : I never noticed its colour then, only its size.
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So how did he get 'Merchant' in his name?

2005-10-17T04:08:00.000-07:00

How did 'Merchant' come into Vijay's name? He is from the Thackersay family who owned Textile mills in Bombay.

Its a lovely little story. Apparently, at school, where he and his brother uday went, the headmaster- a british gentleman- wanted his surname. Vijay didnt know, maybe didnt have one. Exasperated, the headmaster asked their father's profession, to which vijay replied "we are merchants, sir". And thus the Merchant tag struck!

Who was the first great Indian batsman?

2005-10-14T04:35:00.000-07:00

So was Vijay Merchant the first great Indian batsman? It would certainly appear so, for Ranjitsinghji can't be included in the Indian list; he was a Englishman by heart, also played cricket for the empire. CK Nayudu? hmm? Well Ram Guha wonders on the same issue and throws up a name- Palwankar Vithal.

As an aside, Vithal was the younger brother of the great Chamaar cricketer Palwankar Baloo. Baloo came from an untouchable caste, who by his skill as a left-arm spinner- true predecessor of Bishen Singh Bedi- left lasting influence beyond the boundary as well. Baloo was one of the early heroes of BR Ambedkar,the great dalit leader for whom Baloo brokered the Poona pact with Gandhi! Its a fascinating tale (I will go into it someday).

Vijay Merchant

2005-10-12T04:03:00.000-07:00

October 12: The birth of the legendary Indian batsman, Vijay Merchant

Raju Bharatan recollected a conversation he had with Merchant which sheds light on the man.

"When I asked Merchant how he felt about rating second only to Bradman in the world at 71.64, there was a gleam in Vijay's eye. But only fleetingly. In the very next minute, Vijay Merchant came back with: ``Please never again mention my name in the same breath as Sir Donald Bradman, it's sacrilege to do so! It's your runs in Test matches that really count. And, here, from 18 innings in 10 Tests, I fell short of even 1000 by as many as 141 runs! Our own Sunil Gavaskar is miles ahead of me by now, so where is there any question of your equating me
with Sir Donald Bradman?'' '

John Arlott wrote about Merchant when India toured England in 1946.

+++ Arlott

His 148 at Lord's was not Vijay Merchant's highest innings of the tour, but it was his richest. The air held rain and little of the sun, yet, English as the setting was, this Indian batsman showed
us there his best. I knew how anxious he was to make a hundred that day and I was amazed to see his stroke-play flowering under his anxiety.

Merchant's physical quality is neither the massive might nor the whipcord leanness of other great batsmen. There is something softly feline about him -- at the wicket, shirt and sweater heavy to wrists, thick white muffler at his throat, blue-capped, he moves pad-footed -- but the stroke, for all its control, is flash-fast because, ignoring the bowler's hand, he plays every ball strictly "off the pitch." An innings by Merchant grows; it sprouts no exotic blooms but its construction is perfect to the last detail. No chance, no ball which beats the bat, no brutishness of the wicket, no pace or spin or swing can disconcert him.

Like Herbert Sutcliffe, until he is finally and definitely out, Merchant is the batsman in possession, intent upon tending his, and his team's, score. Day after day, season-long, I watched
him, notching off each hour with thirty runs and marking the meal intervals with his cap -- when the peak is directly over his right ear, it is time for lunch or tea or close of play. Not only was he the mainstay of the team's batting in terms of the runs he made himself, but often he nursed the start of a big innings by Modi or Mankad or Hazare, each of whom batted better in his company. Merchant's batting technique is never violent, he seems to have an unvarying system of ball-evaluation which controls his batting reflexes. Bowl an over of balls two feet short of a
length and he will hit you for six certain fours to mid-wicket on the leg side; bowl a good-length over on the middle stump and he will play you back a maiden, and this holds good whether his
score is 0 or 100. But it is not to say that he cannot, or does not, adjust his batting to the state of the game. If the state of the wicket reasonably permits it, he will start to cut when he
has made about 50, and his cut is the finest in first-class cricket today. More rarely he will use a whip-lash cover-drive.

Merchant's soundness is vividly illustrated by his methods of dismissal during the tour. He was most frequently dismissed LBW, the in-swinger which straightened off the pitch. That ball was
the one for which the seam bowler prays -- he can but pray, for no man alive can bowl it at will; that rare, providential delivery came to be regarded as Merchant's weakness -- since no
deliberately contrived ball could be relied upon consistently to worry him. Merchant, as batsman, captain and man, is well pictured in an incident in the match against the South of England at the Hastings Festival. He was captain of the side, in the absence of Pataudi. On the third day he was in considerable pain from strained stomach-muscles. Believing that changes in the batting order often unsettle batsmen, he decided to go in first as usual, but to get out fairly quickly. Once at the crease he scored at twice his usual pace, but by the same strokes. His
deeply absorbed batting-sense allowed him to take a risk only in making the ball into a punishable one, but not in playing it. On his dismissal he returned to the pavillion in increased pain to shake his head sadly at his inability to sacrifice his wicket.

Soft-footed at the crease, Merchant appears heavy-footed in the outfield, but he always chases the ball to the last hope; often over-anxious about a catch, he was yet safer than many of the
team in the deep field. As the tour wore on he improved as a close-to-the-wicket field and, if not in the first class there, his short-leg catch to dismiss T.N. Pierce at Southend was memorable. As a captain he took few risks; he maintained discipline by his good manners, unaffected dignity and genuine consideration for his players.

It is impossible not to like Vijay Merchant; his manners are polished to the last degree, his consideration for others impeccable -- and he looks you in the face when he talks to you.
His honesty is unmistakable -- he speaks out the truth, but never crudely. His charm, like his cricket, has its roots in a tranquility which runs deeper than the level of "temperament."

+++

Extract from:
INDIAN SUMMER
An Account of the Cricket Tour in England 1946

by John Arlott

That's all very well, Mr Douglas, but what am I 'ere for?

2005-10-07T04:54:00.000-07:00

Barnes was supposed to be a 'difficult' sort of person. Leonard Tim Hector takes up the cudgel on his behalf in a article below. Also John Arlott on Barnes and below that a extract from 'SF Barnes - His Life and Times' by Andrew Searle.

Leonard Tim Hector:

In the time of S.F. Barnes "The players had no union to protect them, so that they were more or less compelled to accept whatever wage their counties thought reasonable, and the counties were governed by autocratic amateurs who treated the professionals with the kindly condescension that they reserved for their domestic servants, gardeners and local tradesmen. And it was this that made S.F. Barnes see red. His trouble, at root, was that he demanded equality of opportunity and the abolition of class distinctions, fifty or sixty years before the country, and at a time when the lot of the vast majority was docile servitude."

S.F. Barnes, a child of an empire, on which it was said the sun would never set, like me, came from a game where docile servitude prevailed, in the case of my society, for more than 300 years. It gave way, in the end, producing that kindly condescension of autocratic rulers, and known in history as patronage. In political independence, the ruling autocrats, in the dictatorship of Cabinet, dispense patronage as a cover for their own corruption. And, for the maintenance of power. S.F. Barnes, on the cricket field used his great gifts to rebel against that system. He belongs in that special category, the lonely rebel – with a cause. His lonely example, would spark similar passions in others who came after, who did not even know of him.

Not infrequently and again in rare moments when the partisans of docility, patronage and corruption, of either side here, are baying at my heels I am reminded by S.F. Barnes, that the common people will not abide domination, from multinational, transnationals, or home-grown autocrats dispensing patronage under the umbrella of corruption. S.F. Barnes enlarges and sharpens my philosophical frame from which I see the world, in general, and in particular.

S.F. Barnes, would in no circumstances accept a pay cut, to make corruption more corrupt. No way José. S.F. Barnes, in such circumstances refused to play for club, for county, or for England. For he knew the difference between oppression and the patriotism that rulers appealed to, to keep the old oppression going, if not intensifying.

(just scroll down in the page that the above url leads to get to the relevant part on Barnes)

+++ Andrew Searle on Barnes +++

"JWHT Douglas was the type of gentleman captain whose decision whether to bat or bowl on the morning of a game was not based on any scientific analysis of the wicket, nor on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the opposition, but rather on his own predilection either to hit a few balls or to turn his arm over a few times.Sydney Barnes, as one of the most experienced players on the team, was soon to disabuse him of this preposterously amateur notion. For, when Douglas led out the England team for his first Test match on that sunny Sydney morning on December 15th 1911, he decided - much to the horror and amazement of Sydney Barnes - to partner his fellow amateur Frank Foster in England's new ball attack. Barnes' riposte was to give Douglas his first lesson in the Divine Right of Barnes: 'That's all very well, Mr Douglas, but what am I 'ere for?'

"If any of quotes can be said to sum up the man it is this ostensibly quizzical remark. Sydney Barnes, the experienced professional, was nonplussed by his captain's lack of grasp of the obvious: that he, the master bowler, was the only player capable of using that new ball with the ultimate goal of winning the Ashes. And he was unafraid to tell his supposed better this self-evident truth. When one looks at old photographs of that 1911/12 touring team one sees a different Sydney Barnes from those of the early 1900's when he was a regular county cricketer with Lancashire. Gone is the fierce moustache and the permanent scowl, a product no doubt of the under-paid and cynical professional cricketer's life. Instead, it is a relaxed glare; arms and legs folded, right over left. He is seated at the end of the front row alongside his colleague and equal Wilfred Rhodes - previously the sole preserve of the gentleman amateur. It is a confident pose; the pose of a man who knows his rightful place in society; the bearing of the newly-enfranchised and represented labour aristocracy: a great man at peace with the world in which he was a first among equals."

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John Arlott on Barnes
So often the batsman could not even edge a catch. Hence the classic Sydney Barnes story of the day when two tail-enders were playing at him and missing or, occasionally, snicking, and he stalked away at the end of the over with the comment `They aren't batting well enough to get out.' ...No batsman even dared to claim that he was Barnes's master. Asked which of them he found most difficult he answers `Victor Trumper'. Who next? `No one else ever troubled me.'

The great bowling of Syd Barnes

2005-10-06T02:28:00.000-07:00

Lets stick on to Barnes today as well. ALthough he is regarded as probably the greatest bowler ever, his bowling style is a bit of mystery to some of the fans. I ran into Jack Fingleton's peice on him which sheds more light on it. Here is a short extract from Fingo's essay.

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".... Barnes learnt a lot about swing bowling from Noble. Barnes began, as most bowlers do, as a fast bowler, but he soon learned that there was more to the business than sheer speed.. He experimented with finger-spin, both off and leg, and it was as a mediu-paced spinner that he was singled out for the Australian tour by MacLaren.

... Barnes not only wanted off-breaks and leg-breaks from the pitch. He wanted movement in the air as well, and in England he studied the great English left-hander, George Hirst. The normal swing of a right hand bowler to a right-hand batsman with the new ball is from leg to off. Similarly a left-hand bowler will swing in from off to leg-- as Hirst did.

Barnes practised with his leg-break allied to a certain body action at the moment of delivery and hey presto! he found movement in the air similar to Hirst's natural swing. But observe these important differences in the technique of Barnes and let me illustrate them by referring to Maurice Tate, one of the greatest of all bowlers. Tate was a glorious mover of the new ball, mostly from the leg and with tremendous whip off the pitch. His swing (as distinct from swerve, which comes from spin) was gained by holding the ball in the normal fashing with the line of stitches facing the batsman. This swing comes late in the ball's flight, and the ball, off the pitch, continues on in the direction of the swing- that is, towards the slips. A nightmare of a ball, too!

When Barnes swung in the air from the leg, by spin, the ball turned back from the off. When he swung in from the off, with his leg-break action, the ball gripeed the pitch with its spin and turned from the leg. In the case of Hirst- and Alec Bedser, with his in-swing, being a right hander- the ball, on hitting the pitch, continues out towards the leg-slips. Thus Barnes's swerves broke from the pitch in directions different from the normal swings.

'At the time I was able to bowl these,' Barnes recently told me by letter, ' I thought I was at a disadvantage in having to spin the ball when I could see bowlers doing the same by simply placing the ball in thier hand and letting go; but I soon learned that the advantage was with me because by spinning the ball, if the wicket would take spin, the ball would come back against the swing... I may say I did not bowl a ball but that I had to spin, and that is, to my way of thinking, the reason for what success I attained.'

In Barnes's first Test innings against Australia, Charlie Macartney was at the bowler's end when Barnes clean bowled Trumper. 'The ball was fast on the leg stump,' said Mccartney, 'but just before it pitched it swung suddenly to the off. 'Then it pitched, broke back, and took Vic's leg stump. It was the sort of ball a man might see if he was dreaming or drunk.'
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Barnes v Constantine by CLR James

2005-10-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today a vintage piece of writing from a marvellous writer- CLR James. The subject of his essay is another illustrious personality- Sydney Barnes, probably the greatest bowler this game has ever seen. I have transcribed it from a book. Enjoy.

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Barnes v Constantine

Sydney Barnes is generally admitted to be the greatest bowler cricket has yet seen. I had a glimpse of him the other day in action. He is fifty nine years of age ( the date of his birth given in Wisden is incorrect). Yet the man is still a fine bowler. It was an experience to watch him.
To begin with, Barnes not only is fifty-nine but looks it. Some cricketers at fifty-nine look and move like men in their thirties. Not so Barnes. You can almost hear the old bones creaking. He is tall and thin, well over six feet, with strong features . It is rather a remarkable face in its way, and could belong to a great lawyer, or a statesman without incongruity. He holds his head well back, with the rather long chin lifted. He looks like a man who has seen as much of the world as he wants to see.
I saw him first before the match began, bowling to one of his own side without wickets. He carried his arm over as straight as a post, spinning a leg break in the orthodox way. Then he had a knock himself. But although the distance was only a dozen yards and the ball was being bowled at a very slow pace. Barnes put a glove on. He was not going to run the risk of those precious fingers being struck by the ball. When the preliminary practice stopped he walked in, by himself, with his head in the air, a man intent on his own affairs.

His own side, Rawtenstall, took the field to get Nelson out. League sides will sometimes treat the new ball with Saturday- afternoon carelessness: not so Rawtenstall. Ten of them played about with an old ball: Barnes held the new. He fixed his field, two slips close in and the old- fashioned point, close in. Mid-off was rather wide. When every man was placed to the nearest centimetre Barnes walked back and set the old machinery in motion. As he forced himself to the crease you could see every year of the fifty-nine; but the arm swung over gallantly, high and straight. The wicket was slow, but a ball whipped hot from the pitch in the first over, and second slip took a neat catch. When the over was finished he walked a certain number of steps and took up his position in the slips. He stood as straight as his right arm, with his hands behind his back. The bowler began his run - a long run- Barnes still immovable. Just as the ball was about to be delivered Barnes bent forward slightly with his hands ready in front of him. to go right down as a normal slip fieldsman goes was for him, obviously, a physical impossibility. But he looked alert, and I get the impression that whatever went into his hands stayed there. As the ball reached the wicket keeper' hands or was played by the batsman, Barnes straightened himself and again put his hands behind his back. THat was his procedure in the field right through the afternoon. Now and then by way of variety he would move a leg an inch or two and point it on the toe for a second or two. Apart from that, he husbanded his strength.

He took 7 wickets for about 30 runs, and it is impossible to imagine better bowling of its kind. The batsmen opposed to him were not high rank, most of them, but good bowing is good bowling whoever plays it. Armistead, a sound batsman, was obviously on his mettle. Barnes kept him playing; then be bowled one of his most dangerous balls-- a flighted one, dropping feet shorter without any change of action and what is much more dangerous, pitching on the middle wicket and missing the off. Armistead, magnetized into playing forward, had the good sense to keep his right toe firm. The wicketkeeper observed Armistead' toe regretfully and threw the ball back to Barnes. Up to this time, Armistead had relied almost entirely on the back stroke. It had carried him to where he was without mishap. A forward stroke had imperilled his innings. Behold there the elements of a tragedy, obvious, no doubt but as Mr Desmond McCarthy says, the obvious is the crowning glory of art. Armistead played back to the next ball. But he couldn't get his bat to it in time. Barnes hit him hard on the pads with a straight ball and the pads were in front of the wicket.
He went from triumph to triumph, aided, no doubt, by the terror of his name. When Constantine came in I looked for a duel. Constantine was not going to be drawn into playing forward. Barnes was not going to bowl short to be hooked over the pavilion; or over pitch to be hit to the football field. Constantine also was not going to chance it. For on that turning wicket, to such accurate bowling who chanced it was lost.

Constantine jumped to him once, and a long field picked the ball up from the ground, where it had been from the time it left the bat. Barnes bowled a slow one, that might almost be called short. It pitched on the leg stump. Constantine shaped for the forcing back stroke. The field was open. But even as he raised himself for the stroke he held his hand, and wisely. The ball popped up and turned many inches. Another ball or two and again Barnes dropped another on the same spot. It was sore temptation. Constantine shaped again for his stroke, his own stroke and again he held his hand, wisely for the ball broke and popped up again. So the pair watched one another like two fencers sparring for an opening. The crowd sat tense. Was this recitative suddenly to burst into the melody of fours and sixes to all parts of the field? The Nelson crowd at least hoped so. But it was not to be. Some insignificant trundler at the other end who bowled mediocre balls bowled Constantine with one of them.

After that it was a case of boa constrictor and the rabbits, the only matter of interest being how long he would take to dispose them. But, nevertheless old campaigner as he is, Barnes took no chances. Slips would stand on the exact spot where the bowler wanted him, there and nowhere else. When a batsman who had once hit him for two or three fours came in, Barnes put two men out immediately, As soon as a single was made, hte outfieldsmen were drawn in again and carefully fixed in their original positions, although th score might be about 50 for 8 or something of the kind. Barnes had lived long enough i n the world of cricket to know that there at at any rate it does not pay to give anything away. Nelson failed to reach 70. As the Rawtenstall tam came in, the crowd applauded his fine bowling, mightily, Barnes walked through it intent on his own affairs. He had had much of that all his life.

Constantine running seventeen yards and hurling the ball violently through the air, began sending back the Rawtenstall batsmen. One, two, three wickets and bails flying every time. Forth from the pavilion came Barnes. He faced the West Indian fast bowler. He was older than Constantine' father and the wicket was faster now. Barnes got behind the ball, the pitched up ball, and played it back along the pitch to the bowler. He judged the ball quickly and so got there in time. He kept his left shoulder forward and that kept the bat straight. He played the slower bowlers with equal skill, and whenever there was a single to be taken he took it. He never lost one, and he was in difficulties to get into his crease once only. 'Yes' and 'No' he said decisively in a deep voice which could be heard all over the ground. His bones were too stiff to force the ball away. But his bat swing true to the drive and he got over the short ball to cut. He stayed there for some 40 minutes for 10, and as long as he was there his side was winning. But Constantine bowled him behind his back. Barnes satisfied himself that he was out, and then he left his crease. He came in slowly amid the plaudits of the Nelson crowd, applauding his innings and their satisfaction at his having been dismissed. Courtesy acknowledged the applause. For the rest he continued as he had begun, a man unconsciously scornful of his milieu. After he left, Rawtenstall collapsed.

Since then, Barnes has taken 5 for a few, and startled Lancahisre a few days ago by taking 9 for 20. In the years to come. it will be something to say that we have seen him.

The D'Oliveira affair

2005-10-04T03:39:00.000-07:00

Basil D'Oliveira, the man who was the centre of the infamous controversy christened ' The D'Oliveira affair', was born today.

Lets take a look at the man, courtesy the wonderful writer Frank Keating.

It was the second of those five centuries which engraved his name into history's permanence. Basil's epic, enriching, 158 in the final Ashes Test against the 1968 Australians at the Oval was scored on the eve of England's winter tour to, of all benighted places, South Africa. "The D'Oliveira Affair" was born. Before he strode out to bat, he rang Naomi: "Pull up a chair, love, put on the telly and enjoy it; I'm going to be at the crease all day." When he ran the single to complete his 50, the bowler's end umpire Charlie Elliott muttered to Basil: "Well done but by golly, lad, you're really scaring those buggers at Lord's." When he completed his century and Kennington rose to cheer, Elliott added: "Brilliant, m'boy, but, oh dear, you've set the cat among the ruddy pigeons now."

Princely Patrons

2005-10-03T02:41:00.000-07:00

Today a story from Ram Guha on Princely players, the early patrons of the game in India. Guha also picks his all-time Princes eleven in this writeup.

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The contrast between the two kinds of cricketing princes is beautifully captured in a story set in Ajmer's Mayo College sometime in the 1960s. Here, sitting next to each other at lunch, were the Maharaja of Kashmir and the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar. Both were patrons of a school meant to make English gentlemen of the sons of the Rajput nobility. "Ranji, apne Kabhi anda banaya," asked the Maharaja. ("Ranji, have you ever scored a duck.")

"Bahut baar (very often)," answered the great batsman.

"Maine kabhi nahin banaya: (I have never scored a duck)," responded Kashmir.

Silence prevailed, but then the enormity of his achievement hit the unvanquished soul. Summoning the Principal to his table, he announced: "Aaj school bund kar do aur baccho ko chutti de do (close down the school today and give all the kids a holiday)."
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Gandhi and Cricket

2005-10-02T06:16:00.000-07:00

Starting today, apart from my scribblings on the game, I will post a daily nugget from web which will act as a flashback to past. With so many matches played, much of our focus is on the immediate, here and now. I intend to throw in a url which would talk of past cricketers, incident and a look at beyond the boundary impact of this wonderful game.

Today is Gandhi Jayanti day. That begs the question was he ever interested in this game, did he have any sort of involvement with it? Ramachandra Guha provides us the answer in this article of his.

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When Gandhi first went to England as a student, in 1889, one of the three letters of introduction he carried was to his fellow Kathiawari, Prince Ranjitsinhji.
..."I can understand matches between Colleges and Institutions," remarked Gandhi, "but I have never understood the reason for having Hindu, Parsi, Muslim and other communal Elevens. I should have thought that such unsportsmanlike divisions would be considered taboo in sporting language and sporting manners."

The Magician: Shane Warne

2005-10-01T00:56:00.000-07:00

'Cricket is at first and foremost a dramatic spectacle. It belongs
with the theatre, ballet, opera and the dance' - CLR James

CLR James never got a chance to see Warne bowl, if he had, he would have proclaimed Warne's bowling to be the greatest argument clincher for his statement.

The beauty of warne's bowling doesn’t just lie in the end result- the ball spinning- but it starts right from the start. Shane Warne walking in to bowl is a sight in itself. First, the wait at the top of the walk, the theatrical glare at the batsman, then the ball is transferred to the left palm with the beautiful flick of the right wrist that only a leg spinner can produce. The left hand discreetly transfers the ball to the right as that slow beautiful walk begins; eyes gleaming in anticipation of the illusion to be weaved. The two hands join again, the left over the right, underneath which, the grip on the ball is finalised and held firmly. The left hand now withdraws away; the walk turns into a slow jog, and then, that small hop as the right hand draws a circular arc ending up with elbow locked in a V shape. The left hand also by this time has made a V; the right feet almost parallel to the crease, then the left hand comes out, forward and down like drawing down a curtain, while the right goes down and up in a circular motion; the whole weight is now shifted to the left foot, and the ball is released with a rip- a final flick of the powerful right wrist- launching the ball in its orbit.

The ball whirs in the air, floats, swerves, loops, dips, grips and if it is Warne's day, it would land outside the leg stump and the batsman playing his part in the great drama would turn towards it, the ball would then spin sharply, squaring up the batsman, beating his frantic wave of the bat, and triumphantly kiss the off stump.

What a beauty! If Abdul Qadir's run in was magical- with his arms going through a myriad different & beautiful motions- Warne's walk is equally memorable. Roberto Baggio's walk after scoring 'The goal' features in a commercial but that was the end result of an achievement, a guilt washed away, a sad memory burnt, a redemption song, but Shane Warne's walk is in anticipation of a triumph, of a dream looked forward to, a painting about to be sketched; a work of a true artist. Unlike Baggio's -no doubt, a wonderful moment- solitary walk in a lifetime, the beauty occurs each and every time Warne goes in to bowl.