THE RECURRING ‘F’ IN TEAM INDIA’s REPORT CARD

THE RECURRING ‘F’ IN TEAM INDIA’s REPORT CARD

Imagine an old bridge with wooden planks, stranded on loose ropes and is the only passage from one dangerous point on a mountain to another. Apparently this is the path walked by every Indian pace bowler to remain in the team, each time they step on the field. The unstable fast bowling department of India has been scrutinised now and then for its inconsistency and this is one of the major concerns for the current World Champions, who will be defending their title next year at Australia & New Zealand, where the wickets support pace and bounce more than anywhere else in the world.

MS Dhoni at the press conference after losing the 4th ODI and the series to New Zealand, lashed out at the fast bowlers for under performing. When facilities such as the National Cricket Academy and MRF Pace Foundation are here in the country, What is the reason for these fast bowlers to be ineffective most of the time?

Growing up as a cricketer in India, the one thing that I had to accept was that bowlers were given less importance than the batsmen. This approach where a particular discipline is preferred over the others was etched into the brains of every person involved with this game and is still is. This has given rise to pitches that are batsman friendly and run yielding. The flat wickets that are provided for the local and domestic matches in India are a nightmare for the bowlers, especially fast bowlers. The over abundance of such ‘paata’ wickets (as we call ‘flat’ wickets in cricket slang) all around India has put the fast bowlers here in the defensive mode. Discouraging fast bowling at the grass root level, a bowler when enters the MRF pace foundation or NCA and starts working under giants like McGrath and Lillie, has already developed a style of bowling that will save him from getting thrashed at the wickets available in India. These bowlers when play for India and tour abroad, take time to adapt to the bounce and pace. The shift from defines to attack outside India, makes it hard for them to adjust and just as they are in India on flat wickets, our bowlers look perplexed on pace helping wickets as well.

Let’s talk about the current Indian team now,  

After losing consecutive series in South Africa and now in New Zealand, the Indian team seems to be in disarray mainly because of their weak pace attack that leaks too many runs and fails to curb the same during the death. Ishant Sharma, Jaidev Unadkad, Mohit Sharma, R.Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Zaheer Khan, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohd. Shami and Ishwar Pandey are the 10 quick bowlers who are currently being shuffled in and out of the team to find the best possible combination for the future. Apart from Bhuvaneshwar and Shami, everyone else have been out of the team more than they have been in. 

Injuries, inconsistency and the gradual loss of pace are some of the main dispositions of these pace bowlers. Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and Zaheer Khan are prone to injuries more than the others in the lot. Vinay Kumar started off his career well but his sporadic phases of good form showed him the door quite often. Ishant Sharma has been under the scanner for a long time now, after an abysmal series against Australia he was excluded from the team for the West Indies series but call it his lucky stars, the fast South African wickets required a bowler who can utilise the bounce that was there to be exploited, so a tall Ishant Sharma was the only option left for Team India. He did prove his worth there in the 3rd ODI but his performance in New Zealand will again allow experts around the world to criticise his monotonous bowling. Mohit Sharma is fairly new to the team, though his lack of inexperience at the domestic level was conspicuous at the international level, his initial inclusion into the team was aided by his performance at the IPL last year but exposing a young fast bowler without any experience back fired for him. Jaidev Unadkad has been impressive on the domestic circuit, the left arm fast bowler is quick and has the ability to tie down a batsman, but has squandered the few chances that he has got at the international level and will have to work on his skill when it comes to the bigger level. Ishwar Pandey has been around the domestic circuit for a while and is yet to be tried at the international level.

The two prospects of Indian bowling, Mohd. Shami and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar are currently the ones which stand out from the above lot. Bhuvaneshwar has the ability to swing the ball both ways. Though he becomes ineffective during the death, the introduction of a new ball from both the ends in ODI cricket allows him to take advantage of his strength more. Mohd. Shami on the other hand is a great find for India. He is probably the only fast bowler from the current group who can reverse the ball in death overs. His exceptional ability to swing the ball in sharply into the bowler has been very effective and he is being rewarded for the same as well. Though Zaheer Khan is another bowler who can bowl well in death but his woes with injuries and loss of pace has waned his importance in the team.

Indian fast bowlers have shown a bit of hope, but that hope has never lasted for too long. India, if not no.1, is currently dominating the world cricket in all three formats (in top three) and the predictability shown by these fast bowlers has been a matter of concern for them. If we analyse the report card of Indian team, the only subject that brings the percentage down is this, the recurring ‘F’ in India’s bag.  

A leak that needs a fix

A LEAK THAT NEEDS A FIX

                            By Utsav Chaudhary

The moment India entered South Africa last December, they had not lost any  series in 2013. It has been 40 days since and they have not won even a single match yet. In the process they have even lost the no.1 rankings in ODI cricket.

I, while travelling in a local bus, overheard two “experts” discussing about the current situation of the Indian team.

Expert 1: “304, 359, 304, 295, 350, 326…..”

Expert 2: “Why are you throwing these random numbers at me?”

E1: “211, 289, 263, 358, 280, 301…”

E2: “Okay, stop it, are these some bus numbers or what?”

E1: “292, 271 and thats it. These are the scores of the opposition teams in the last four ODI series against India. Can you believe that we are the number 1 team in the world?.”

E2: “We were the number 1 team and what is this Ishant Sharma doing in this team? He certainly can’t bowl at a pace other fast bowlers around the world bowl and can’t bowl a yorker in the death overs. All he does is bowl short, doesn’t get much bounce and gets hammered around the park. After that beating from Faulkner, I thought he would never return to this team again. But incredible India, I must say.”

E1: “Forget Ishant, have you ever seen Ravi Ashwin bowling well with the white ball ?

E2: “Yes, I clearly remember him destroyi—…Oh sorry that was the IPL.”

E1: “When I see Ashwin bowling in the test matches, I admire him as a bowler. I mean with the variety he has, he can fool any batsman in the world. No wonder he got to 100 wickets in tests faster than anyone else did in 80 years.”

E2: “And when it comes to bowling in ODIs, having too much variety in his arsenal hurts his statistics. When you are bowling on wickets that doesn’t support spin, try bowling on one spot and stop the flow of runs. He tries to bowl every delivery differently, hoping to fetch wickets and leaks runs instead.”

E1: “Speaking of leaks, what do you think should be India’s next move so as to curb its opponents? Clearly this giving away near 300 runs every time has to end.”

E2: “What India really need is a bowler who can reverse swing the ball during the death overs. With Bhuvaneshwar Kumar swinging the new ball both ways, his partner Mohammad Shami complements him by bowling share in-swingers at a fast pace. The third bowler has failed miserably for India, be it Ishant, Vinay Kumar or Mohit Sharma.”

E1: “Zaheer Khan can be the solution to this. With Bhuvi and Shami almost certain, Zak can play the role as a bowler for the death. We know how efficient he is at that point in an innings.”

E2: “Umesh Yadav also deserves more chances than being given to him at present and what does that guy Amit Mishra do? He might have created a record for serving the most number of water bottles in the field.”

E1: “Haha, forget Mishra in New Zealand right now, they have taken Stuart Binny there. Why not try him in place of Ashwin? Ashwin has only taken a single wicket in the last 5 matches, how much harm can Binny cause after that?”

E2: “ Ok so my stop is here, just pray that our team wins the series down under, after all no matter how much we criticise them, it is them winning a game that brings a smile to our face. Bye.”

In a cricket preaching country like ours, people are very aware of the problems our cricket team faces. They even have remedies to those problems as well. With the amount of cricket people of India are exposed to, these expert opinions of them do come in handy when you sit down and write about a particular topic related to cricket.

Expert 1 looks out of the window and sees water coming out of a pipeline by the side of the road and says, “Even this leak needs a fix.”

Suresh Raina : A Never Ending Lean-patch?

SURESH RAINA : A NEVER ENDING LEAN-PATCH?

                              By Utsav Chaudhary

Whenever the name Suresh Raina comes to our mind, the image of an aggressive left handed batsman comes to our mind. A batsman who happens to be an excellent fielder and the most experienced player in the current ODI squad after MS Dhoni. After playing under the aegis of the four stalwarts of Indian Cricket (Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly) for many years, this new Indian team is currently in its re-constructing phase hence the presence of an experienced player in the team becomes a necessity. But Suresh Raina's form over the past year has been a matter of major concern for the team.

India is at the pinnacle of ODI cricket at the moment and the one disposition that is common for the members of such team is their consistency in performance. Suresh Raina on the other hand has not scored a half century against any of the major ODI teams last year. His 83 against England on 27th January 2013 at Dharamsala remains his last. After that, though he has scored one fifty in 2013 but that was against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo which will not help his case if we were to indict him for not performing. 

During the 1st ODI against New Zealand at Napier, when Raina got out hooking to a short and fast delivery of Adam Milne, the same old question about his inability to play the short ball was hurled at him, again. It was during  the 2009 T20 world cup in England that made this weakness of Raina's conspicuous. Since then teams around the world have been bowling short to him and he has been falling prey to that. If a player who is in the team as a main middle order batsman and has not scored 100 in 4 years casts serious doubts in his inclusion in the team as a regular member. During the series with Australia at home in late 2013, Raina was promoted up the order to number 4, but again he failed there as well. 

When in form players like Cheteswar Pujara and Ambati Rayadu are still waiting for their chance to get into this ODI team, Suresh Raina is been given too many matches to get back into form. It is said that a team, when winning, should continue with the winning combination, but India's abysmal performance in South Africa and now losing the 1st ODI in New Zealand should make them re-think their strategy of playing an out of form Raina.

Since his inception in the team in 2005, Raina has been a regular member of the team. He has played important innings at crucial points in many matches to help India win matches, but when a bad patch is stretched too long for a batsman it is time for him to go back into domestic cricket and make his way back into the team. For there are 4 more ODIs left in this series, I hope Raina gains his form back and proves his critics otherwise.   

Impact of Graeme Swann's retirement on the world of spin bowling

GRAEME SWANN's RETIREMENT : Its impact on the world of spin

                               

Shortly after Australia regained 'The Ashes' on 17 december 2013 by Defeating England in the 3rd test at Perth, England's star spinner Graeme Swann announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket. The news shocked the cricket enthusiasts around the world as it was the second blow to the English team, which was defending the urn down under, since their most experienced top order batsman Johnathan Trott left the tour midway, before the start of the 2nd test, citing stress. The already horrifying series for the visitors continued to haunt them till the very end as their abysmal performance led them to a 5-0 defeat to the Aussies, who were seen as the underdogs before the start of the series.

Graeme Swann's retirement is a big blow not only to English cricket but also to the world of spin. With Swann's exit from world cricket the quality of spin bowlers from outside the sub-continent has plummeted further and the onus of improving the reputation of such bowlers is now on bowlers, like Nathan Lyon (Australia), Robin Peterson (SA), Sunil Narine (WI), Monty Panesar (England) etc, who themselves are unstable in their respective teams. 

The 34 year old off spinner from Northampton made his Test debut in 2008 and has been an integral part of the English team since as he played an instrumental role in its success and the concomitant reward that saw England usurping the throne from India as the number 1 test team in August 2011. In 2012, when Swann reached 194 test wickets, he became the most successful spinner ever to have spun the cricket ball for England beating Jim Laker's 193 wickets, a record set up way back in 1959. Swann retired with 255 wickets in 60 tests.

Swann was ranked among the top bowlers for the 6 years that he played international cricket. What made this spinner, from a place where fast bowlers are preferred over spinners, leave his marks on the world of spin over a short span of 6 years?

Greame Swann was more of an orthodox spinner who did not have variety of deliveries up his sleeve while the spinners around the world relied more on those varieties than on anything else. Swann's success was in the variation of pace in his deliveries and his arm ball that he bowled occasionally. His ability to drift the ball in the air apart from the spin that it would attain after pitching was exemplary and that led to the accolades that he has received around the world. If we look at the trend, the top spinners of the world relied more on their variation deliveries than their stock balls. Muralidharan was far away from being called an orthodox bowler, Shane Warne had the ability to bowl 6 different types of deliveries. Saqlain Mushtaq (the inventor of doosra) and Harbhajan Singh relied more on the ball that spun away from the batsman. The current best spinner in the world, Saeed Ajmal is famous for bowling his doosras and now the teesra as well. Graeme Swann preferred bowling the stock deliveries i.e the orthodox off spin and winning matches while bowling text book off spin had put this bowler in line with one of the best from this field. The best for England at least. 

The world of spin bowling is bifurcated, where all the spinners from the sub-continent are on one side while the ones from outside the sub-continent are on the other. Since sub-continent pitches are spin-friendly, the former group dominates the world of spin. Shane Warne for a long time waged a lone battle against this domination by the sub-continent spinners and succeeded. In 2007, when Shane Warne retired from international cricket the baton of spin bowling had to be passed on to someone. Spin bowlers in countries outside the sub-continent have failed to find a permanent spot in their respective sides. They have been in and out of the team and forced to quit rather than retiring on their own volition. Shane Warne, Daniel Vettori and now Graeme Swann are some exceptions to this. Currently Graeme Swann was the only spinner from outside the sub-continent to feature in the top rankings of 2013. Now that he has announced his retirement, Nathan Lyon becomes the highest ranked spinner from outside the sub-continent, ranked at 18th. 

Graeme Swann's retirement would have more impact on the world of spin outside the sub-continent than it would on the world of spin as a whole. England after a long time found a quality spinner in the name of Swann but his untimely retirement would certainly cause instability in the team. Swann showed the world that modern day cricket can be played and excelled by orthodox measures and I wish him all the best for his life off the field. 

Perception Of Sex In India

Perception of Sex in India

A Delhi court recently said that pre-marital sex is immoral according to the tenets of religion while it passed a judgement where consensual sex on the false promises of marriage will not be considered as rape. 

On one hand, people welcomed the judgement while on the other hand, the comment on pre-marital sex caused dissent among people. 

Indian courts have been known for these bizarre comments and judgements when it comes to sex. But aren't these ambiguous takes on sex by the courts resonate the deep rooted problem that our country is facing regarding the lack of sex education?

I tried to unfold the brouhaha around this word 'SEX' and tried to put forth what I perceive as the perception of sex in India.

Let's start with some irony, India is the second most populated country in the world. Yet our people refrain from talking about sex. Sex here is a sin, a paap. The topic of sex is brushed under the covers as soon as it arrives. But why? 

Schools teach children to write, to read but even the education system in India prefers to leave sex education at an individual's own peril. Parents feel embarrassed to talk about sex with their children.

A normal child starts developing urges towards sex during the early teens, at an age when we are curious to know the changes we are going through, we are kept oblivious to the details we should know.

We are groomed so as to have an overall development but with sex kept aside, is it really overall?

Moving on, in our society promiscuity and pre-marital sex are sins as well. Promiscuity is having casual physical relationships with multiple people while pre-marital sex is having sex before marriage(can be with 1 person and later marry that same person or with multiple partners). Now according to religions sex is sacred, it should be done with that one person you will marry. For a moment I might agree on this just to say that our country values the sanctity of religions but then the way people practice this is a blasphemy to those religions itself. A promiscuous girl is considered to be the one without any moral character, we have different derogatory names for girls like these while the same does not hold true for a promiscuous boy.

Virginity is another topic that is linked with hypocrisy in our society. It is somewhat necessary for a girl to be a virgin before her marriage while it is irrelevant for a boy, why???

What have we deduced till now, sex in India is a sin yet we have an ever increasing population, promiscuity & pre-marital sex is ok for boys but unacceptable for girls and a girl has to preserve her virginity while a boy is free to use his volition.

Everything comes down to sex education. Sex is not a mere method of reproduction but much more than that. People here need to know that. Sex is an act of love not an act of labour. 

Thinking about sex and its relation with India reminds me of Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series, 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. Everyone knew he existed but no one really talked about him.  

If talking about sex is wrong because the whole act is a sin then why don't people stop doing it. If it is worth doing then it is worth talking as well.

The infrastructure of education needs a remodelling when it comes to sex education because everyone has a right to know.

This brings me to the comment of the Delhi court which termed pre-marital sex as immoral, according to me this comment resonated the thoughts of the masses. Many of us disagree with it but we are a small faction of people, dealing with issues pragmatically and not the mass.

Sex is something which is there since the inception of mankind, it the reason why the human race still exists, brushing it under the carpets when it comes to talking about it just doesn't sound right then. If this 'sex is a sin' concept continues to exist then these courts will continue to dictate the morality of actions that we perform inside the rooms with our own bodies.

I will end with a quote from John Lennon, "We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad day light".