They say that the best way to enjoy a match is to watch it live in the stadium. I bought it. I also bought tickets for the first IPL-3 match in Delhi. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if I hadn’t been spoiled by the comforts of radio commentary booths. I wanted to get a feel of being amidst the cricket-crazy crowd and watch the home team take on Mumbai Indians. It did turn out to be crazy, besides being a replay of the usual whenever the two states meet each other for domestic cricket.

It was a stand-up show. Throughout the match people would stand-up after every 30 seconds and the guy in the front row would show his jockey. It was the pattern every time the ball left the bat or a player came close to the boundary or a cheer girl raised a pompom. IPL is indeed a thrilling package. In such frenzy it is as impossible to remain seated as keeping your eyes open while sneezing. Don’t even try, your eyes will pop out!

The organizers must’ve anticipated the irrelevance of seats because they sold twice as many tickets as the stadium capacity. It felt like being in a local bus where ‘capacity’ is indicative of the number of people that can stand inside the vehicle. And in just the same way as we learn how to adjust in public transport, I learnt the art of watching a match through the rise and fall of butts. By the first strategic time out I figured that I must submit to the wave and jump along with everyone if I wanted to keep an eye on the ball.

And then I was in the groove. It indeed is fun to watch a match from the stands. I think I can just sum it up the dilli way – “feel aagayi!” (meaning: that felt awesome!)

This post was published on my blog HOOKed! at Cricket Aakash

A classical shot from Sachin Tendulkar is no big deal. He is expected to do so, all the time. Poor performance from such experts hurts like criminal offence – “Oh damn! How could he do this!” However it becomes a big deal when someone who isn’t expected to face any balls stands through overs and even scores runs – “Wow man! How could he do this!” A tailender could make you feel as happy as a dog is when it is wagging its tail. Interestingly these days tails wag quite often.

Well, this doesn’t have to be a tongue twister of a read. It is a simple observation that lower order batsmen are no more afraid of being at the crease. This courage could be because of the T20 culture which has brought out the pinch hitter in the likes of Harbhajan Singh. The cheekiest remark that he has made in the press was before last year’s India-Australia series – “watch out for my batting” is what he had to say to his favorite rivals. He almost pulled it off along with Praveen Kumar in a recent match.

Praveen Kumar doesn’t only swing the ball both ways but he swings himself too, between the ball and bat I mean. He has been an all rounder for Uttar Pradesh. If I was collecting only Indian specimen then choicest of the current lot would be Amit Mishra for redefining the role of a night watchman. On both the occasions that he has been sent for this task he has batted like a true batsman with some classic shots in his armor. I once asked an old veteran bowler how it feels to be assigned the task to bat ahead of specialist batsmen, to which he replied that only the players with some batting capacity would be sent in as a night watchman and thus it becomes a good opportunity for them to score. Of course no one would’ve asked Courtney Walsh to do so. No matter how entertaining it could’ve been.

Nowadays even the eleventh man doesn’t put up a dramatic display of nerves, except for a little fumble by someone like Ashish Nehra. I think I once saw him take a sigh of relief when he took a single to rotate strike. However in the previous India-South Africa ODI he put up a brave show. Sadly he gave away the runs he scored while defending.

These are just a few instances of substantial efforts by tailenders, that too from recent Indian matches. This makes me question how many of these have translated into wins for their teams. I can’t think of any such scenarios. Contribution of tailenders is at best a bonus for the team’s score. Sometimes it could be a saving grace, but it is far from being the case of a tail that can wag the dog.

This post was published on my blog HOOKed! at Cricket Aakash

We never considered Bangladesh as competition, and another set of contests with Sri Lanka right after their Indian tour couldn’t have been a much awaited event. But the Indian fan doesn’t mind this overdose. Cricket is like phenergan syrup – addictive, has heavy sedative effects, and is available over the counter.

However India-Bangladesh tests have acted like B-complex tablets for Bangladesh. While the matches gave them valuable experience, Sehwag’s remark effused spirit of challenge in the team. If this helps improve the lowest ranked test team then it in turn enhances the overall quality of test cricket. I hope other star teams would also do their bit and not series with Bangladesh.

Continuing with the thoughts on promoting test cricket, I believe that the upcoming South Africa visit is a significant one. The cricketing world would look forward to the contest where the top ranked teams take on each other and settle the ongoing debate over the numero uno position.

Ever since Indian team achieved number one ranking many critics have doubted whether they would stay at the top for too long. When someone said that the team doesn’t have it in them – ‘it’ being the bowling attack – Zaheer Khan earned “Man of the Series” award. When someone said that India isn’t playing enough tests, the cricket board promptly planned two matches with South Africa, that too at the cost of two ODIs.

If there are anymore criteria to be satisfied then I hope that they are expressed very soon. Because now is the time for all of it to be duly taken care of. This can prove to be a golden era for the test format if India takes it on them to maintain the number one position. I don’t think that the captain would now repeat his diplomatic remarks about not considering rankings while playing. For once they should stick their neck out and say that they are out to silence the critics and camp at the peak for a good while. After all this feat is not just a matter of pride for the country but it could also prove to be a big boom in the falling market value of test cricket.

This post was published on my blog HOOKed! at Cricket Aakash

You’ve already met my friend Buffy. Of course that is not his real name. I don’t think parents can do this to their children. It was us friends who nicknamed him so. But he doesn’t mind because it reminds him of Beefy – Sir Ian Botham. And, Sir Botham is quite a legend. He was a genuine all-rounder who maintained an intimidating reputation with his bowling throughout his career. Infact there were quite a few gentlemen in his league, some even better than him. I’ve to begin the non-comprehensive list with fast bowlers from West Indies. Do you remember or have you heard of the era when names like Malcolm Marshall and Courtney Ambrose used to inspire fear? They were giants who could make the batsmen look like pygmies.

Then there were charismatic heroes like Imran Khan. On this side of the border we had Kapil Dev who could counter him. The next crop also had its stars. There was Shaun Pollock who inherited brilliance in cricket. Recently there was news that he was being considered for the role of India’s bowling coach. I was hoping that it was true and would materialize. Then, there were Shane Warne and Brett Lee at the helm of Australia’s formidable bowling attack. Shane Warne still exhibits his stuff in IPL and Brett Lee is still around but there is something amiss. They are not the same terror they were once. After Imran Khan there were few more Pundits from Pakistan, of which I’ve watched Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. I wonder if there would be another bowler from Pakistan who would recreate the terror that these two could. Shoaib Akhtar did seem to fit the bill before his career went over the fence.

In India the last precise killer was Anil Kumble. No other bowler in the current lot has been able to maintain such consistency. There are impressive bowlers but there is no one who is consistently fearsome. All of them have had their records punched by free flowing hits. There are bowlers who started off their career with bangs. But be it Muttiah Muralidharan or Ajantha Mendis, they have all been undone.

The breed of fearsome bowlers seems to be nearing its extinction. This decade has been declared as the decade of runs. They say that fans like it when lots of runs are scored. But do people enjoy one-sided games? Doesn’t the contest between bat and ball becoming one such game? In such a scenario how long will cricket boast of glorious uncertainties? If cricket is a batsmen’s game then why are bowlers still playing?

This post was published on my blog HOOKed! at Cricket Aakash

UPDATE 12th Jan, 2010: Ian Chappell said on Cricinfo’s talk show that India will need a couple of champion bowlers to stay as Test #1