All the three Test Matches being played in South Asia over the last few days produced results.The hosts won at Ahmedabad and Galle and the west Indies showed punk and risk taking abilities to win at Dhaka. The positives inspite of slow and low pitches are that Tests are interesting and watchable. What the Dhaka Test and the opening day at Khulna has also proved is that genuine quick bowlers can be effective on any pitch. Yadav perhaps comes closest South Asian bowler on display to the West Indian quicks  and he proved pretty handful at Motera.

Seeing the discomfiture of Bangladesh batsmen against Best and Edwards, one is reminded of the old days when Indian batsmen, especially lower order ones were literally afraid of fast bowlers from West Indies and Australia. Madanlal at Pert in 1977-78 presented the sight as if he was rabbit facing headlights when batting against Thomson. Madanlal was considerably better in his second coming five years later when helmet had come into vogue and he participated in numerous crucial partnerships in Tests and the 1983 World Cup.Even with the helmets, the Bangladeshis will take time to come to grips against genuine fast bowlers.India took 20 years to win its first Test, that has easily been bettered by Bangladesh who have even won a series against a weakened West Indies in the West Indies.

Mohsin Kamal and Tino Best

As Tino Best scythed through the Bangladesh top order, I was reminded of  Mohsin Kamal doing the same thing more than twenty five years ago,  albeit in a one day match playing for PIA XI against Bangladesh at Dhaka's National Stadium.Bangladesh cricket despite their Test and ODI status acquired since then have yet  to learn the art of holding on in face of high speed bowling.For Bangladesh to become a good test side, they must first learn to play attritional cricket.They must also learn to play to their strength.There is no way they can defeat the West Indies on a batting wicket.What they can hope is to have a turner and then give their spinners adequate time and their batsmen can play Permaul and Narine better than they can play Best. 

On a batting friendly wicket, once runs are scored quick bowling can be dangerous as India found out in 1980-81 against Imran Khan.

Bangladesh deserve credit for putting up a brave fight and Sammy needs to be congratulated for his early declaration which resulted in a close match and a result inspite of the two teams scoring more than Five hundred in the first innings.Bangladesh must learn that scoring at four an over can work against you as that leaves the opposition enough time to change things over the second time.

Test Match cricket appears to  be doing pretty well at the moment.If it had not rained in Brisbane, their would have been a result and England face the prospect of batting over another day and a half to draw and there India's innings must be lesson for Bangladesh. Pujara, Yuvaraj and Aswin were able to slow down the innings so that after scoring 521, prospect of losing becomes remote.

Test Match Time

With so many test matches being played all over the world it looks that the World t20 was played ages ago.The most heartening sight is that of Cheteshwar Pujara strutting his stuff at the Test Match stage with an elan that any thought of him being a Bully of Rajkot is to be dismissed straight away.Pujara coming to Test cricket reminds me of Aishwarya rai at Miss India.She had done commercials with Amir Khan and was a much talked about minor celebrity even before the pageant.She lost to Sushmita Sen, She was the most famous runner up.So was Pujara, well known and talked about when he made his debut and he did not disappoint. INJURY DELAYED HIS FLOWERING BUT THE SECOND COMING has been good.  However, He must be knowing that the real success like the A List success of Aishwarya Rai will only come after scoring runs in South Africa towards the end of next year.Till then he can progress to being a very good batsmen at least in India,not that is not needed.Greatness like Gavaskar, Dravid and Tendulkar can come if he is consistent abroad.If he does so there will perhaps be no 8-0s something which had not happened for almost thirty years.

The home of T20

Psychologist Ashis Nandy once wrote that cricket was an Indian sport accidentally discovered in England.While the jury is still out on that one,the theory can be applied more aptly to t20 format.Like most things in cricket, the twenty20 format was developed in England.So much so that twenty20 with Roman alphabets and Indo Arabic numerals are only used in the UK. But t20 was ingrained into the culture of the various islands of the West Indies by Allan Stanford, an American now in jail for financial misdemeanours. Cricketers from the West Indies play in leagues as afar as Zimbabwe and Newzealand.  Cricketers from the West Indies are widely popular in cricket playing world and several of them make millions from cricket across the World. T20 does appear to be a West Indian format accidentally discovered in England.

Rally Round the West Indies

""One People, One Team, One Goal" said Darren Sammy throughout the World Twenty 20.His team rallied around him and the vanquishing of Australia to dust and a more old fashioned victory over Sri Lanka have once again brought the West Indies at the place where they were in 1975 when Lloyd lifted the World Cup in 1975. It was a hard fought 17 run win over Australia.They were talked of as favourite before the tournament but nearly lost to Pakistan in the group game when a resolute last wicket stand saw them through. They went on to lose disastrously in Australia later that year but by the time of the next World Cup were unanimous favourites and continued in 1983 as well when India spoiled their party.

West Indies can build on this victory or fritter it away.As people keep saying cricket needs West Indies.With them on board the cricket World has more than 20 nations playing serious cricket.Twenty Twenty offers the boys in the Carribean opportunity far greater than the NBA.And it offers an opportunity to Darren Bravo as well as Narine.The East Indian West Indian as Naipaul called them are as much integral to the West Indies Team as the Afro Carribeans.

If nothing else, this victory has established that the decline of the West Indies Cricket has at least been arrested if not reversed.

Top Eight in Decent Health

After the Bangalore Test,it can safely be said that NewZealand can put up a fight.The second Test against the West Indies was also similar after a heavy defeat in the first test.They can put up a brave fight and as their drawn series against Australia proved, they cannot be taken lightly.
England fought back after a massive defeat in the first Test against South Africa.The teams are matched up depending on where you play.In India India will be a formidable opponents to England and Australia.Test Matches therefore will be competitive i9n the near future.Only South Africa appear to be matched home and away and their place at the top of the table looks secure.

Two cheers for Akashvani

On the morning of the match at Hyderabad All India Radio came up with an off the tube broadcast where the commentators were describing the weather in Delhi which was humid and had rain written all over it and comparing it with the sunny weather in Hyderabad.Even then as the morning peak audience driving all over the country were aghast with a  home test match being done off the tube some who could accessed live coverage of the Test from the ground with Brian Waddle on NewZealand's Radio Sport Network.

However sometime after that morning better sense prevailed and AIR Hyderabad did broadcast live from the ground with a more enthusiastic bunch of commentators.This was thoughtful as the  provincial ITM Cup kept Brian Waddle off air for long periods.AIR could also make for more engaging commentary by providing  their commentary box with a Television monitor.

Small But Thriving community

New Zealand's resounding defeat at Hyderabad coming on the heals of defeat across formats in the West Indies may on the surface look as if the number eight Test team is in a decline as unlike Bangladesh they do not have a large population and cricket playing pool from which to choose their cricketers. However the other result from Townsville where India defeated Australia to win the under 19 World Cup is an encouraging one if we look at the whole tournament.

NewZealand made it to the semis and the West Indies were the only team to beat the Indian side which eventually won the tournament.The basic talent pool is there which will serve the major countries/regions for well over a decade.The small cricket community of ten full members are in safe hands and will continue to have more teams like afghanistan and Ireland who will want to join the high table.

Indeed British Empire has bequeathed a "common wealth" to the Commonwealth of nations and Cricket more than the English language signifies today the bond which brings the commonwealth together.

Afghanistan is the one big example of inroads made by cricket in a completely post colonial setting with little influence of expats.The team that represents Afghanistan has the core who picked up the game in Peshawar but the joy cricket brings to the troubled nation has virtually reinforced nationhood.That Afghans can take on Australia at almost equal level in an ODI is better than they can do in any other sphere.Cricket has provided Afghanistan with an avenue to find joy and camaraderie within the nation and engage with a larger cricket world on terms which are centered on mutual respect.

Deserving Winner of the mace

South Africa won comprehensively and thereby have become the new Test No.1.This is a commendable experience and also announces the arrival of the new South African Nation to the international arena.Their team is a mix of race and colour and the team selection has moved beyond Affirmative action.The South African bowling combination proved far superior to the West Indies.May be if the West Indies had played with three or four quicks, England would have been challenged even earlier this summer.

The most heartening aspect of the series was that Test matches still have a wide following.Even with the Olympics being played large crowd watched the three Tests.Test Cricket as spectacle has not been diminished even a little.The value has gone up in the manner of Vintage wine.

Narayan! Narayan! Rather Narine! Narine!

Narayan! Narayan! chanted the sage Narada.Narayan looks after the well being of the universe. Now Sammy and the West Indies have three Narayans to look up to.Shivnaraine Chanderpaul,Narsingh Deonarine and Sunil Narine. With these three the West Indies rolled over NewZeaLand the old fashioned way, a clean sweep though in a two test series. A better assessment of the series will be had after New Zealand India series where the batting performance of the visitors will be again tested on slow pitches.If they perform better than in the Carribean  one can agree with Harsha Bhogale that the Indian bowling cupboard is indeed bare.

Reclaiming their spot on the High Table

After a convincing victory over New Zealand, the West Indies can a tleast reclaim their place on the high Table of test Match teams.Only the West Indies have been beaten in a Test series by Bangladesh among the first eight full members,although with a depleted side. Subsequently they have won in Bangladesh and blown them to smithereens at Dhaka in the World Cup.This 2-0 win which has followed convincing wins in t20 and ODIs have established the fact that the West Indies are at least a fighting unit across formats.They climb to number 7 position in the ICC Test rankings and have a few years in which to find a few top class batsmen.Bowlers, they already have both pace and spin.With the riches in spin in the West Indies, may be we have applicants for Indian  citizenship from  T&T and Guyana as a place in the Indian team for a spinner may be easier. 

The Wasted Years

Through the seventies India had a reasonably good cricket side.They won series away in the West Indies and England in 1971 and played a close series against Australia albeit Packer depleted in 1978.They also played a few memorable series at home winning against England in 1972-73 and running West Indies close in 1974-75.Players like Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Mohinder Amarnath, Mansoor Ali Khan,Prasanna, Chandrasekhar, Bedi, Venkatraghavan,Engineer and Kirmani formed the core.They were good and performed well and India lost more often than not.All the while everyone was looking for a fast bowler.Till Kapil Dev arrived in 1978, the search was always on.Generally one medium pacer was picked and a batsman who could bowl opened with him. Even though the seventies did not witness the ridiculous incident of a wicketkeeper sharing the new ball, things were bad.Solkar often opened the bowling and even Gavaskar bowled afew overs with the new ball.

The Indian side was often comprising of three spinners if not four and a medium pacer like Abid Ali who could bat.All these Years India had two competent medium pacers: Madan Lal and Karsan Ghavri.However in deference to our famed spin quartet, they never played together for any length of time. Medium pacers who opened with Andy Roberts in the 1974-75 series between West Indies and India in India included Julien and Boyce who have fewer wickets than either Ghavri and Madan Lal.Hoever in that series the two played only two tests together.India  won both of those tests,though they bowled less than 15 overs between them without taking wickets in the fourt test when India drew level.They had bowled with spunk and taken five wickets at Calcutta in the test before this one.

Madan Lal and Ghavri alternated against England in 1975-76 at home and in Australia in 1977-78.In Australia, the left armer Ghavri took eleven wickets in three and Madan Lal took nine in two including a five for.The series was close and if two spinners and two medium pacers backed by Amarnath had played,the team would have been more balanced and could have possibly won five zero, so close were the three  tests that India lost.The seventies, therefore were wasted years when Indian selectors kept looking for Lillee and Thomson ignoring their own versions of Walker and Gilmour.

The overall performance would have been better.

Four teams from two hemispheres

Teams from the two hemispheres are again pitted against each other in the Northern hemisphere at Leeds and Kingston,Hedingley and Sabina Park to be more precise.Even as the world is caught up in the Olympics, cricketers are playing for the top slot at hedingley and perhaps the bottom one at Kingston leaving Zimbabwe and Bangladesh out of the equation.
Poor performance at international level has dogged the West Indies for some time.However, what is surprising is not that the West Indies have remained the bottom team for so long but how the West Indies sank to the abyss with a team that had Ambrose, Walsh,Lara, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Hooper.The problem was something more than cricket. West Indies now appear to have atleast gone beyond the fear of cricket losing popularity and NBA attracting talented youngsters and has already launched an offensive by playing a home t20 series in the USA.Newzealand Cricket has a stake in that enterprise and cricket is trying to enter a bigger market. IPL and the Indian eyeballs have seen to it that not only will cricket not become irrelevant in the West Indies but anywhere in the World.
Cricket will make some noise at Hedingley, even as London 2012 grabs more attention at the Olympic Games.

Steyn and Roach

Steyn and Roach in two recent tests at the Oval and North Sound have resoundingly proved why fast bowling is so vital to cricket. Newzealand and England earlier had some hopes of drawing the tests but Steyn and Roach had other ideas. The West Indies were at their best and it must have been after a long time that they had a double century first wicket stand. In Narine, they have a very aggressive spinner but it is their third seamer spot which leaves a lot to be desired.Sammy may be a good captain but he is hardly in Brearly class and even if he is he should play as a batsman who can bowl. After all unless he is better than  Taylor,Edwards and Russell, there can be little justification for him in the bowling line up. Russell as a bowling all rounder will bring more value to the attack., 

Another Challenge

Last year when the series in England promised a cracker,all we got was one where India were pummeled 4-0, from which they are still to recover.South Africa England test series promises to be a competitive one to attract some attention even with the Olympics round the corner. Whoever will win  the series will be ICC No.1 and listeners and viewers in India have a prime time evening viewing of at least an hour or so each evening to look forward to.
The two other formats of cricket on TV or radio can never match this: prime time soap live on TV with contours changing from day one to Five.

the t20 specialists

The West Indies Cricket Team have amidst all despondent comments about them performed creditably in limited overs game more so in t20.They were combative even on the English team, displaying a fighting skill greater than perhaps even than the Australians who are currently touring England.Now they have beaten New Zealand to pulp in the USA.It is an early pointer to the t20 World Cup.This form of cricket is flourishing in the Carribean.The shortest format is actually the game's oldest format except restrictions on number of overs bowled.If t20 keeps West Indian players in business so be it.If Test matches cannot be marketed, it would still be better than say Kabddi in terms of following.May be Test matches could become an amateur pursuit where individuals with jobs other than cricket can play over a short period taking leave of absence.May be in India's case there is a need of state and National association for cricket outside the BCCI and ICC regime.BCCI selects its own team and so is comfortable with the fact that while Gujarat has three teams playing in Ranji Trophy,Chattisgarh and even more populous Bihar has none.This kind of  inequity can only be followed when pleasure of playing is not the main purpose of sport.There is very little evidence of BCCI having done anything at all for those who want to play cricket for fun.An alternate platform for participative and non commercial cricket could be a way out with the Test Cricket set up being handed over to this body as the crown jewel.

What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?

I have been reminded of C L R James' question every time I read that Test Match Cricket needs to be protected and made attractive and so on.While a Test Match played over five days in the peak working hours especially in India does pose a problem, what really surprised me was Harsha Bhogle's distinction between those who follow Test cricket and those who watch it.Those who follow Test cricket are generally the universe from which will emerge those who will watch Test cricket.That universe may be small but is surely as big as the following of Golf or Tennis.Test Match cricket has been around for over a century and thirty years and has been adapting with the times.Mukul Kesavan recently wrote about the Test Match lovers being put on notice by the band of writers and commentators who are benefitting from IPL ant T20 formats.However,Test Matches have little or no competition to flourish as a minority sport but it is the Formats of cricket which require attention span ranging 4 to 8 hours that are at the peril of the TV driven popularity.

And the notice coming loud and clear from Poland and Ukraine and the TV watching kids is that India will soon be a football loving and following country.IPL and the ODIs will have to compete for the same eye balls.I would shudder what would happen to our mediocre cricket team if our foot ball team breaks into the top 50 or so. Leagues like IPL will not know what hit them when the I league starts attracting some of the leading players.Imagine Rooney or a Ronaldo, even five years from now plying their ware at Yuba Bharti Krirangan. would Eden Gardens be able to get a full house for IPL? A test match will still attract 10000 or so and that would be enough for the Test Match economy. Those who follow will follow it on the Smartphone or in the news and some will venture to the ground as well.

Things will change to the extent that a cricketer playing Test matches may be paid significantly less.May be none at all.May be Test Matches will make it  a sport for Universty Cricketers who are gainfully employed in occupations ranging from Finance to Medicene and  will take a few weeks off to play test Cricket.May be a three Day First Class structure with matches beginning only on Saturdays or Fridays will be needed.Those who fear for Tests need to be reminded that Test Cricket has survived two World wars, the decline and fall of the largest empire of all times and will survive the onslaught of limited overs cricket as well.

Rally round the WEST INDIES.

As the west Indies make another attempt to retain the respect gained in AUSTRALIA in 1960_61,it looks like a lost cause.I have been following them giving the IPL A MISS BUT Shannon Gabriel disinterested with hands in pockets as the bowler is bowling is hardly inspiring.The work ethic has all gone.A debutant at Lord's on the second morning should be perked up. It does not lok to be inconsistent why a host of players are in India when they should be in ENGLAND.The commitment is missing and it is convenientthat IPL is available to them.Playing for the regional team is hardly a priority for many as they hardly bring in money or make them a brand which the selection for the Indoan team does ad in India.So much so that not havong played for Indoa keeps ypu as journeymsn in the IPL. The saving grace is that the IPL and smaller t20 leagues will keep people playing cricket in the Wesy Indies.

Cricket in Kabul

Afghanistan has not only beaten Netherlands in an ODI sson after I thought they needed more ODIs, they also defeated them in a First Class match.Afghanistan are perhaps the only team to have little British heritage or presence of expats from cricket playing countries and yet become a decent cricket team.Of course, they learnt their cricket from Pakistanis in Pakistan and have brought the game back to their homeland.Still Cricket is richer by this accident and it lends to delightful fancy where NRI kids living in Europe can lead India into a footballing era.