From Captain Marvel to Captain Zero...

Entire media is after Dhoni's blood after 6 consecutive test defeats overseas. The same media which called Dhoni ' The Captain Marvel' or 'Captain with Midas Touch' or 'Captain Cool' is now projecting the him as a villain and zero. What a turnaround this has been for Dhoni. But this is the cruelty of life. Faster you climb up the stairs of success, eventually come down at double speed. Dhoni, man who made Indian team World T20 Champion, World Champion in ODIs and also made Indian team No.1 in Test cricket has become the biggest threat for Indian cricket nowadays, according to media.

But I must say this has not happened overnight. It all started with the transformation in the mindset of Dhoni some two years back when he changed his batting style from offensive to defensive and similarly that mindset also affected his captaincy. Dhoni won matches in last 2 years but more with luck and not because of his captaincy skills. I wrote this in my earlier posts as well, that although Dhoni is winning matches but he has become defensive captain and lacks vision. But the damage has been done and now situation is such that if India lose next two test matches down-under then that will end the Dhoni's career as captain.

Team India won many matches under Dhoni's captaincy but he failed to win test series in England, South Africa and Australia. India only won test series outside sub-continent was one in West Indies and another in New Zealand and everybody know that both, West Indies and New Zealand are bottom ranked teams in world cricket. So Dhoni has not done anything special overseas in his captaincy stint so far. We won in England and West indies under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid. But failed to win series in England under the captaincy of Dhoni last summer and lost the test series in shameless manner where England white-washed Team India. We drew the series in Australia under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly but there is no possibility of winning or draw in ongoing series against Australia under the captaincy of Dhoni. So I don't think that Dhoni is extraordinary captain as he made out to be by media and he has become villain overnight for same media. But fact is that zing and buzz we used to see in Sourav's captaincy is completely missing in Dhoni.

There is no denying that India won the World Cup of ODI under his captaincy, also won the inaugural T20 World Cup and became No.1 team in Test matches but one should not forget that the team through which Dhoni achieved these success were built by Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid. So giving full credit to Dhoni for these successes will not do justice with former captains whose blood and sweat involved in building this Indian team. Dhoni also lacks the sight of picking up talent. Sourav Ganguly was excellent in picking up talent. If we look at Dhoni's captaincy stint, we will fined that none of the players picked up by Dhoni. Players, whom selectors found suitable got into the team which was not the case with Sourav Ganguly who gave us fabulous players like Zaheer Khan. VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra and list continues. 

I still believe Dhoni lacks leadership qualities and I think Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble were far better captain and man-managers than Dhoni. End of captain Dhoni has already begun. 

Purest form of Cricket is Real Cricket.....Test is Best

 

Since last two years there is lot of concern spread among the cricket fraternity and media about the survival of test cricket which is also know as purest form of cricket. Cricket experts feel test cricket is losing its popularity and too an extent they are correct as well because spectators are not turning up for the test matches at the venues where it is played. But I must say still people love test cricket and there is audience which watch the test cricket as well but on television and on Internet.  So it is too early to say that test cricket is vanishing. According to me purest form of cricket is still test cricket, only thing require is to promote this format of the game aggressively and intelligently.

The first officially recognized Test match commenced on 15 March 1877, contested by England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground(MCG), where Australia won by 45 runs. England won the second ever match (also at the MCG) by four wickets, thus drawing the series 1–1. From this first test series in 1877, more than 2000 test matches have been played in a period spanning over a century, so it is not correct to say that test cricket is vanishing. It has survived for more than century which itself shows that people love the longer format of cricket.

It's hard to believe that Test cricket is in trouble, especially as India and England play out the first of their clashes to be the top-ranked Test nation in front of packed stands at Lord's. But the possible demise of the sport's oldest, most testing, most complex and most loved format has been a talking point for some time. Ongoing series between India and West Indies is drawing very few people to the venue but one has to remember that West Indies is not the same team as it was in 70s and 80s. So lack of contest is solely responsible for less crowd. I think BCCI must take test cricket out of the metros and play it at smaller venues where till date people have been deprived of live test cricket. Live test cricket will definitely become novelty for the people of smaller cities and will definitely go and watch the test match and this way it will get more popular and its reach will become more wider.

As International Cricket Council Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat pointed out last week, Test cricket has never been marketed as aggressively or cohesively as ODIs and T20s. That's partly because, with its endless bilateral series, the only outcome of which is to move up or down a ranking decided by an complex mathematical formula. Test cricket lacks the sort of focal point provided by the World Cup or World Twenty20. The solution is the World Test Championship, recently confirmed for England in 2013, where the four top-ranked teams at the time, right now, it would be India, South Africa, England and Sri Lanka will battle it out to be the first ever official champion of Test cricket.

It's a good idea, but cricket has never done anything like this before and inevitably there are complications. One is that the sport would have three different world title-holders but then, with the rankings, it sort of does already. A bigger problem is that the Test format has never lent itself to knock-out competitions as it involves a lot of draws, and obviously people don't want joint world champions, and audience certainly don’t entertain drawn semifinal. But I think for semi-finals rules can be changed and which every team scores more runs in entire test match must be declared winner and this way draw can be avoided. Same rule can be  applied for the final as well.

Timeless test match is also an good option to fetch the result and I think, the way batsmen play aggressive cricket, timeless test will not last long more than 6 days. So timeless test is also a very good option to be looked at. Apart from this audience must be treated like VIPs at the venues and ticket rates must be slashed, so that common man can afford it. I think creating picnic like atmosphere at ground will certainly popularise the test cricket. I must say test cricket is  still the best format and recently we witnessed one of the best test match of this decade between South Africa and Australia at Capetown which eventually won by South Africa even after conceding the lead of 188 runs and lot of spectators thronged to ground to watch this interesting test match, so it is really hard to believe that test cricket is vanishing. If it is played between two competitive sides than it will certainly attract the crowds to the venue.

I think ICC also have to take initiative in promoting its  associate countries to play test cricket. According to me, ICC have to make a pool of 8 team each. One pool will have ICC ranked Top 8 team and another pool will have ICC ranked Bottom 8 teams. ICC have to promote 6 good associate nations like Ireland, Netherlands, etc. to play test cricket. This will definitely increase the interest among the people of associate nations in test cricket.

The team which tops the Bottom 8 group over the period of one year will automatically qualify for the Top 8 group and team which ends last in Top 8 group will automatically gets demoted to the Bottom 8 group. This fear and happiness of going up and down in the pool will certainly increase the competitiveness and quality of test cricket as Bottom 8  group teams will look to get promotion and Top 8 group teams will certainly try to avoid the demotion and this will definitely make the spectator happy. test cricket will get more teams with this formula and become very exciting as well.

So there is way forward for test cricket and I am sure test cricket will never die.As a cricket lover I don’t want it to die, no matter any number of shorter formats introduced, test cricket will always remain closer to my heart.

Fans, Cricket and Lathi Charge in the name of World Cup

Sad incident happened yesterday outside  Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru where thousands of fans were beaten brutally by the police just  because those fans gathered there to get the ticket of India-England ODI which will going to be played on Sunday.

We say we are democratic country but I believe we still live in British Raj. Story is the same as it was in British Raj, people were beaten in that era by British police and people are beaten in this era as well. But actually it is fault of the people that they went to Chinnaswamy Stadium in a hope to get the few tickets for the match as we Indians consider cricket as religion and players as GODS. In British Raj, ‘Indians and Dogs’ were not allowed for any big occasion or in specific places in their own country and now poor and middle-class Indians without contacts and money are not allowed. What kind of independence it is? Its ridiculous to see so many fans were lathi-charged and our administrators didn’t utter a word. It was unfortunate that fans who waited for the ticket for hours were beaten brutally like animals.

Incident becomes even more shameful, knowing that Karnataka Cricket Association is headed by one of the legends of Indian cricket in Anil Kumble. It was not expected at least from Anil Kumble, whom cricket fans adored for so many years. It was disappointing to hear from our own Javagal Srinath, that they can’t handle people and can’t give tickets to everybody. Mr. Srinath understand one thing, cricket in this country is driven by fans and if you keep fans away from the cricket than this game will die soon.  Matter also becomes more serious because even after so many fans were beaten and hospitalized, Anil Kumble didn’t came out and expressed his apologies over the incident. Shame on you Mr. Anil Kumble, you were my hero till yesterday but now you are nothing to me.

Now coming to the core issue of non-availability of tickets for the matches. ICC already expressed its disappointment over ticket distribution. ICC wrote letter to its own President and questioned his ability to manage the ticket distribution in a fair manner. This is also very shameful for the country that one of tis cabinet minister who is holding high post in World’s highest cricket governing body is questioned by its own peers.  You can understand from the fact that in cricket crazy country, only 10% to 30% tickets are available for the general public and rest of the tickets are distributed as complimentary to the politicians, bureaucrats, sponsors  and affiliate members of the respective boards. So our so called administrators deprive the general public from watching the match in the stadium because they don’t have influence to get the tickets. Moreover pricing of the ticket is also so high that common-man can’t buy it. Moreover, people who wait outside the ticket-window for hours are treated shabbily and lathi-charged as they are criminals and committed some big crime.

Sharad Pawar

Understand one thing where Sharad Pawar exists, corruption and mis-management also exist. In fact, corruption and mis-management is synonym to Mr. Pawar. Mr. Sharad Pawar has done no good to the people of this country as a minister and also as a ICC President. He always looked after his own benefits and rake in moolahs for his relatives and for himself. Food prices rise consistently under Pawar's regime and common-man is also deprived from watching the cricket and still he exists as a authority.  I believe people like Pawars and Kalmias should be punished heavily instead of common people but that will not going to happen because  India is a one such country where if you have power you can do anything. There are only 4000 tickets available for the World Cup finals in Wankede Stadium, Mumbai. Capacity of Wankhede Stadium is 32000 and for common-people only 4000 tickets are available and those are also priced heavily. So this clearly indicates that watching cricket in a stadium is only for the VVIPs and billionaires and really this is big injustice to the  common-man.

Mis-management of the tournament organizing committee also reflects in their selection of the stadiums. In Mumbai there are 3 stadiums and among all of them DY Patil stadium is having maximum seating capacity of 55000 yet Wankhede Stadium was selected for the World Cup final just because Sharad Pawar led MCA owns it, though its sitting capacity is almost half of the DY Patil Stadium. The match for which lathi-charge massacre happens yesterday was originally scheduled to be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata which is having capacity of accommodating more than 100,000 spectators but because of BCCI’s internal politics match was awarded to the Chinnaswamy Stadium which is having sitting capacity of just 42000 and out of 42000 tickets only 8000 were available for the general public.

I believe whatever happened outside Chinnaswamy Stadium has left big blemish on the face of cricket administrators of this country and such incident was not expected atleast in the Kumble regime.