A review Of Tata Neu .

Tata Neupass under Tata Digital is now over two years old. Because I had Taj Inner Circle, Titan and Tanishq memberships, Tata neu came to me from Day Zero. After two years of holding the app based membership, I feel a review is in order. The legacy memberships, especially inner Circle with its membership card was a joy to hold compared to the present app and phone based loyalty programme. I know it covers any number of brands but Brand Loyalty is to a particular brand and not for the holding company.

It is an all encompassing loyalty programme and the cost of running the NeuPass programme must be enormous but on the evidence of two years, I think the neupass is settling down as a mediocre programme.The chances of personalised targetting becomes difficult when you start making a common platform for Big Basket and IHC hotels. While neupass may add to the glitz for Big Basket customers, Zoya or Taj Safari customers may have different needs.

So at this point Neupass is meandering into the middle overs of an ODI match, whereas it needs the buzz of t20 or sedate uniqueness of a Golf or Test match cricket.

The seeds of the Big Three

 It has been forty years since we won the World Cup. Many things have happened in cricket since.Test match attendance have come down.ODIs blossomed and peaked but have now been over taken by t20.There are players who are free agents not often available for their region or country( think Sunil Narine) but visible almost all year round from Port of Spain to Port Elizabeth.And India has lived up to Ashish Nandy's formulation of cricket being an Indian sport accidently discovered in England.Indian viewership largely runs the sport.And the concept of Big three has evolved who have given new vigour to test match rivalry.All this owes to that win at Lord's and another win in a different format in South Africa in 2007.

India wins cricket itself.

 It has been 40 years since that day Mike Brearly handed over the cup to Kapil Dev.Like the day 1953, when football arguably replaced cricket as Engish papers' favourite sport, this day can be ascribed as the day Indian eyeballs started ruling the cricket world.Though it would be a few years before Dalmia made cricket an Indian enterprise, so much so that I would not be surprised if the Indian viewership of the first Ashes Test outstripped the viewership of SKY, Fox and Kayo put together. 

 For those of who had seen India win only one match in the World Cup( vs East Africa in 1975), the win against the West Indies at Manchester itself was a satisfying outcome in a rain delayed match which ended on the second day not without a late scare caused by Roberts and Garner with 30s each.From then we lived match to match.Drubbing against Australia, a five wicket win against Zimbabwe, who had given us a cushion by defeating Australia in first game defending 239.The second round had that 175 not out at Tunbridge Wells.So exhilarating was the win that we almost returned the favour against Australia at Chelmsford, two days later winning by 118 runs.We bought our chicken that day from a place called Essex farms, even as India was playing at the Essex county ground.We did not think of it that way then but thinking today it looks as if we did it by design.After that we thought the performance was good enough for a team which lost more often than win.The two wins and the cup was as joyous as could be and looking back, a paraphrase of Wordsworth's memory of French revolution looks appropriate: Joy it was on that day to be alive and winning was the very heaven.

175 and all that

The trailer of the film based on the 1983 World Cup rekindles a strong memory in those of us who followed the Indian team which began the World Cup as a 66-1 outsider through an unbelievable two weeks in June 1983. The film obviously is not meant for those of us who followed the World Cup on the radio and the last two matches on the TV as well. The trailer looks like it wants the other half who weren't there to know about the event. Sadly, Yashpal is no more but he was instrumental for the turnaround and may be the weather in the opening match helped us a bit as well as the match went into the second day. Those watching the film will think that there was Hindi commentary on TV. In fact, there was no Hindi commentary on the radio either. For the early matches AIR was not covering the matches ball by ball.

While willing suspension of disbelief is fine, pretending as if the 175 match was on live TV is not quite on. On account of the BBC Outdoor broadcast artists being on strike on 18th June, there was no TV coverage of the matches played on that day. Moreover, with the benefit of hindsight, we know that this would not have been a must win game. The one at Chelmsford vs Australia would have been. And was the 66 run defeat a thrashing? May be. The 162 run one was, of course. All in all for those of us who have been through the 27 matches over two exhilarating weeks, this will be a rewind. Those who haven't lived through first three World Cups will not know what a mélange the World Cup was with four matches per day and to us in India following TMS on the World Service of the BBC or even those in the UK following on Radio 4 were getting only a few overs of a match at a time. Radio Pakistan were probably covering the Pakistan matches but I do not recall if I tried the Medium wave stations as the Short wave coverage was good. Farokh Engineer and Ashish Ray were with the TMS that summer for India's game and what contentment one could feel in their voice even at Manchester when India won only its second World Cup game and possibly only its second ODI in the UK. Ashish Ray and Engineer are still around. It would have been wonderful to have fitted them somewhere if they are not there already.

One day internationals were known to us for sometime but India's record till then was so patchy that All India Radio which covered even Rohinton Baria Trophy live did not deem it fit to broadcast live ODI matches even if it was the World Cup. The early good performance of the Indian team meant that by the second round, Indian matches were available on AIR using the BBC feed. So we knew whenever the Radi 4 and World Service listeners joined the India match. And so it was that the match which in a way brought Zimbabwe a following in India was available to us. From the Nevill Ground in Tunbridge Wells, we had a commentary box which had Asish Ray, Farokh Engineer and the Zimbabwean Bob Nixon along with the regular TMS callers( we did not know the usage then or at least I did not).

The match that we were taking for granted actually came to life even as we were settling in for the afternoon of cricket in a South Delhi neighbourhood. And the rest as they is history.

 T20 is a short format. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that it is seeing a major churn early in its international competitive form. One would think it would be all about hitting but bowlers have done reasonably well. The early stars are fading and people like Kohli and Eoin Morgan are having ordinary tournament.

 Mahesh Pandey had retired as a senior civil servant. He had headed the Administration of his state and over the years had seen the less educated politicians make the better qualified bureaucrats dance to their tune. There were times when Pandeyji felt frustrated and felt that he was wasting his time. The quest of joining civil service and changing his own fate and fate of other deprived people in the most backward of states remained a constant reminder. Not that this quest remained unfulfilled in its entirety. He had usually lived in big houses, drove in decent motor cars and had a retinue of helps at home and underlings in office.

The cricketing Codes Beyond Rules

Ikram Alikhil is young.He has played in the World Cup.He also has played Test cricket.He is a capable batsman and a wicket keeper. Yet aspects of cricket keep unfolding as mysteries being decoded.In Lucknow yesterday, he rushed out to congratulate Rahmat Sah, the batsman on the other end on reaching his half century.A natural response from an excitable young man but the ball was still in play and he was run out.Many years ago in early 1974, Bernard Julien patted down the last ball of the day in a test match and the non striker Alvin Kallicharan walked away only to see Tony Greig fielding at silly point knock down the stumps and appeal for a run out.As stumps had not been called, umpire Douglass Sang Hue gave him out.A furore erupted.What to speak of Alikhil in whose country hardly any cricket was then played, even Shai Hope who claimed the run out may not have heard of the incident. Yet at moments like these there are unwritten codes which as a cricketer you can follow as Walsh did in the 1987 World Cup, Vishwanath followed in the Centenary Test by recalling a batsman and India went on to lose a test but Vishwanath went up several notches in fans' esteem.

India Pakistan rivalry will soon be history like cricket's oldest rivalry.

The followers of cricket in the 70s started the decade with an embargo on cricketing ties with Pakistan.In the interim Pakistan were doing well and playing reasonably well overseas.Indians were excited when cricketing ties were restored.Even then, England and Australian cricketers did not consider India at par and Indian fans were reasonably pleased with series where treatment was at par.Economy in Pakistan was ok and Indians still were pleased to wait 10 years for a scooter.Things changed more after 1991(PVN) and 1996(JMD).Now Pakistan is passed.Australia and India are new marquee teams with significant economy and cricket following which is wide enough to support a competitive bilateral series.Mainly the media tries to revive India Pakistan rivalry but it is even less talked about by young person's as Liverpool vs Tootenham Hotspur.Media Moghuls may like to smell their coffee and not flog a dying horse.

Cricket's oldest rivalry is not Australia vs England but Canada vs USA. However not only is this rivalry dead but cricket has lost any serious importance in North America.So please resist temptation  to think India vs Pakistan is anything special.Every World Cup game is special.Cricket can be uncertain. India does poorly in bilateral series because of various reasons including ennui vs hype in opposition.

For all those like me who were young in 1975, the World Cup was a novelty.India had played not more than two ODIs, which in any case was a new concept at international level.There had been one day tournaments in three formats in England but international One Day matches were few and far between.Amidst this  the Prudential Cup was introduced.

     The Prudential Cup was new even to aficionados who followed test matches around the World.One such introduced me to the World Cup.And India vs England was a classical match which should have been an advertisement for its non popularity.SUNIL Gavaskar remained 36 not out in 60 overs.We were not even sure whether this was good or bad.

Gavaskar and Vishwanath, Tendulkar and Dravid and Hopefully Pujara and Kohli

Nearly three years back, I had wondered who would be our batting mainstays. Virat Kohli, then was already exceptional in ODIs and establishing himself in tests.Pujara was having poor series away from South Asia.Finally, it apperas the duo of Koh;li and Pujara have established themselves and several series win at home and two away have cemented this.

Taking a look at overseas performance of India since1932, two distinct pattern seems to emerge.One between 1971-1982 and one between 1996-2008.During this period while India managed to do well in India, it was competitive abroad winning series in England, West Indies and Pakistan, often for the first time.Both these phases saw India having two very  good batsmen, Gavaskar and Vishwanath in the first phase and Tendulkar and Dravid in the second.There was a decent support cast and good bowlers but the bulwark of two competent world class batsmen kept the team afloat.the decline of the second pair and now lacking any pair with similar capabilities, India finds itself in a situation where overseas visits often end with defeats and inconsistent performance.

There have been away series with bowlers led by Kapil Dev helping India make winning forays, home and away.There have been batsmen like Amarnath, Vengsarkar,Azharuddin and Sehwag who have shone and in Sehwag's case dazzled but the confidence the two pairs brought were unmatched.The present has Kohli, definitely the best ODI batsman today but who else?