Good Start Is Half The Battle Won

India started its world cup campaign with arch rivals Pakistan and like they say history matters -have won against Pakistan like all previous six encounters in the world cup. Most importantly  India have won the match which matters  probably more than the  world cup and as the proverb says  ‘good start is half the battle won ‘  India have actually won half the battle already. Another team which is proving it right is New Zealand -the co-host of the ICC World Cup 2015 ,which unexpectedly became the first team to enter the super eight of world cup with three wins in a row. Home conditions matters !!!

Looking at the India’s performance in the past few months in Australia no one was expecting the world champions to perform well on foreign conditions. Probably the people have forgotten the fact that India is placed in a pool which donot have Australia and New Zealand and for all other teams these conditions are as much foreign as it is for India. India is playing like champion in its group and had qualified for the quarter finals with four consecutive wins, which means India would probably finish at top in its group, which further makes India;s path smooth in the next rounds.

This world cup is looking open in group stage and we won’t give it back is looking like a possibility from here. If Dhoni can do this for India then his records would probably become unbreakable in Indian cricket  history. But the matches after this would be the knock out ones and your performance on that particular day would matter. Cricket is a game of unpredictability, your can apply all possible if and else statement here.

And to test my analytical thinking, I am watching this world cup with a new perspective as I am  trying to become Nostradamus. Yes, I am predicting the winners and man of the match for every match and expectedly is predicting at least one thing right. Experience matters you know !!  

Lets hope team India and I keep their winning sting going till 29^th March and emerge as champions.  

Losing Is Dangerous In Cricket

“ There was a duck with two ducks behind it, a duck with 2 ducks ahead of it, and a duck with a duck ahead and a duck behind”..defines the Indian innings debacle in recent India Vs England test series.

So I was actually right when I mentioned after the retirement of test match specialists  Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman that ,if we had to measure what impact it will have on team India ,than just reduce two days in any test match featuring India.

And here  we are ,maximum test matches in which India plays ends in three days .Yes, India is not even able to play for the full quota of five days ,since the retirement of two greats , forget about the result. Two successive tours of England both away and home ,India faced humiliating defeat and straight away goes the radar on all the non performing players of India. Each defeat brings out the statistics of your failures which have a far bad impact than the ones which comes out when you perform well.

Whether it’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni -  India’s most successful captain who had won coveted titles for India through its unorthodox captaincy and was cynosure of every Indian or Virat Kohli - the emerging superstar of India who  had proved his mantle in all the formats of cricket through his consistence performance ,defeat in recent test series with England had put a question mark on their capabilities.

A defeat raises all the points which are being covered under the shadows of win and actually doesn’t matter as long as team is winning. But same points become critical issues or matters to look for if they are not working your way. Some people blame it on IPL ,some on lack of practice , some on lack of experience ,some on lack of skills ,some on lack of international exposure and they all can prove themselves right as long as you are losing.

Winning is a continuous process while losing is not. Its true that Indian team is like Rafael Nadal, Champion on clay, struggles on grass.The need of the hour for the world champions India is  to live their game and lift their team. Rather than playing the blaming game they should focus on what next ,and what they can do from here and can at least play to their potential on grass.

   

ICC World Cup 2015

Sunday 15^th February 2015 the decibel level at Adelaide Oval will be at its peak , the atmosphere on the ground will be electrifying and the whole cricket loving world is going to stick to their television sets and their will be no traffic jams for sure for at least for eight hours .The reason is the match for which cricket lovers wait throughout the tournament will we played first in this world cup .Yes , defending champion India will start its world cup campaign  against the arch rivals Pakistan .It further means that for the cricket world cup special audience rest of the matches of group stage will be of lesser importance. The reason why I am saying this is being the world champions the path way to Quarter-Finals looks easy for India ,provided we don’t get any surprises.

History suggest that India have never lost to Pakistan in their five meetings in world cups, Good ,its always nice to start a tournament with a win !! On a serious note team India will have another task in hand from the start of the tournament to make that tally 6-0 ,apart from defending the world champions title. Looks like I am already envisaging the future events and why not this is how we play cricket from off the field !! Despite knowing the fact that the event is going to take place after 18 months ,to be precise from Saturday 14^th February 2015 and their will be many other tournaments and posts to be written in between , we as a true cricket follower had to exaggerate the future event ,as we do by discussing the past events .

Now ,lets come to the present that we are still world champions and should enjoy its stature .And with this post I complete the half century of my blog posts !!!

The World Champions India

If this is what transition looks like ,India will take it every day  of this champions trophy .Starting from their outing in warm up matches (although India played like India in them) to the four wins in four games in ICC Champions trophy World CHAMPIONS India is actually playing like CHAMPIONS in this CHAMPIONS Trophy. Batsmen have scored without hassle , bowlers have provided a steady feed of wickets and arguably the best team of fielders has ever put out makes India favorite for winning this last edition of champions trophy.

Amidst the rain affected champions trophy all teams were able to perform according to their reputation. While Sri Lanka had a familiar tale of resurgence- from the pain of defeat ,contract wrangles and captaincy musical-chairs ,recovering from it and reaching to the business end ,the only way they know after the 1996 world cup triumph but flunk in the matches which matters . South Africa chocked as they were supposed to and could not quite end the final edition of champions trophy on winning note as they holds  the pleasure of winning the first edition of it .Pakistan knocked out of tournament unpredictably and expectedly West Indies ,New Zealand  knocked out of the tournament. Although looking at the recent controversies and  form of Australian team no one was expecting the former champions to win this ICC Champions Trophy but the two deserving sides which so looks like to win this edition made it to the finals .The home team England and World Champions India are all set to lock horn on Sunday which should be the match of the tournament .

It is also interesting to note that England - the team which  tend to avoid IPLs and India -the team whose all players were part of IPLs ,is going to play in finals. Looking at the current form of the current both senior and junior World Champions and keeping in mind the Dhoni factor we surly can pick them as winners in Sunday’s finals , but can expect a great game of cricket amidst the home like conditions actually for both the teams -both on and off field.

Throughout the tournament one thing which had made every Indian proud apart from Indian team performance is the crowd support and packed stadium singing the National Anthem with Team India .The proud feeling which only Indian team enjoys in which ever part of the world they travels.World Champions India is truly ruling the world of Cricket.         

Adieu ICC Champions Trophy

The only tournament apart from world cup in which top teams of the world use to clash after every two years raised its curtains for the seventh and final time on June 6th  2013.

Yes, The Champions Trophy which holds a curious ,mezzanine status: elevated from the rest , but designed to squat below the best is ready to say adieu . From a concept in 1998, through six chapters, the ‘Mini-World Cup’ has found its relevance many times-and now ,it turn out, answered .The World Test Championship is going to replace Champions Trophy in 2017.     

The Champions Trophy will not be mourned , but there will undeniably be nostalgic looks back at it . After all it has thrown up some enduring memories-

South Africa riding on a young Kallis's shoulders to its only worldwide triumph till date ; New Zealand ,similarly,capturing its only big trophy,West Indian tail-enders Ian Bradshaw and Courtney Browne ambushing England in the darkness; a callow left-hander called Yuvraj Singh flogging Australia speechless at the Nairobia Gymkhana and of course the year 2002 final in which the teams played 110 Overs, but there was no result which India won jointly with Sri Lanka under the captaincy of the great Sourav Ganguly .

Talking about India and the man with midas touch Mahendra Singh Dhoni who is often been reminded that his collection of titles as captain does not include the Champions Trophy ,now has a last chance to have this one as well under his captaincy for team India and complete the tally of trophies. Well he performs best when he is under pressure and have a point to prove so we surly can expect this silver wear as well from him ,as ICC Champions Trophy looks like an open tournament and probably it’s the current world champion  team India only which is lead by an experienced and successful captain .     

Lets hope MSD And Co. do it one more time for India and make it even more memorable !!!!!

Kai Po Che

India a nation where it is compulsion to watch cricket but it is prohibited to choose it as a career .Cricket is the first game which every child play in India but with time he realize that he cannot choose it as a career but in his heart of hearts he wants to be a cricketer .The reason for denial is understanding the fact that it demands a lot from you and the outcome is not guaranteed so they convince themselves by watching it ,keeping a close eye on every moment from which ever way possible (even at their work place) whether its television , internet or mobile and by providing expert comments on the play .But there are some who get carried away by their emotions and take a step forward to live their dream of becoming a cricketer .

The reason why I have written such a great philosophical opening paragraph is that today I have watched the movie “Kai Po Che” and the first paragraph is the after effect of that .Well I am not going to discuss the story of movie here but in simple words it is a movie about three friends , in fact a short life span of their life and most importantly it revolve around the second most popular topic of our film industry i.e cricket which is the only thing which most people have enjoyed in this movie without having any contradictory views over it .Most importantly it covered that historic India Vs Australia test match at Kolkata when India dominated the world cricket and beaten Australians in their way. ‘Kai Po Che’ I think this is what is being done to the talent of this country those who want to play cricket and the movie had depicted it clearly .

There are some common element behind any successful coach - a desire , immense talent , some unfulfilled dreams which he fulfills by recognizing the talent in his students and making them realize  what their  innate abilities are and  gets happiness by making them living their dreams .The movie had beautifully captured all the aspect of game that they teaches us a lot (as I always say) about how to be in a team , how to take decisions and how to actually live life and how important it is to have a good mentor in our life .

Many times our film industry had tried to show different aspects of cricket and I am sure many new dimensions will get revealed in future which actually are known to everyone but still we enjoys them as after all our first religion is cricket and we love following it .     

Sometimes Winning Is Not Enough

Victories of all shades ranging from the diffident to the emphatic  ,interspersed by a shattering loss against Australia and than a tricky exit from the tournament ,that’s what defines the India’s journey in the ICC world Twenty 20 . And as usual in the process of doing postmortem of India’s defeat like a true Indian cricket team fan we came to some very logical conclusions like - Australia conspired to lose to put India and South Africa out , South Africa has spoiled the Indian party ,they should have lost it under 121(because we so hate it when other countries don't play according to India's needs).

In a format which equalizes both sides sometimes only winning is not enough . If we talk about this world T20 in particular where the four teams of semi finals are not decided until the last match is been played we should learn a important fact that the difference between almost winning and actually winning a match is that the former doesn’t count . So if we now accept the reality and analyze what actually went wrong than we will find India itself is responsible for their such unfortunate exit .Starting from the India Vs England match where both team have already qualified for the super eights and considering the fact that spin has always been a problem for Poms we should not have played with three spinners against Australia .Playing five bowlers is so unlikely Dhoni’s way ,that huge loss against Australia have actually made the India’s task tougher ,considering the group in which India is playing . How can you expect a team to win a match against team like Australia without playing with their regular opener , if Sehwag was injured or what ever may be the reason for not including him in the side than India should have a back up opener .Blaming  rain of just five minutes is not the way to justify your lose when you actually have not putted enough runs on the board .

Many are satisfied with the Indian performance because India have won the match which actually mattered i.e. the one against arch rival Pakistan . Winning in that match with eighteen balls left instead of the required nineteen to have a better run rate than Pakistan have only complicated the equation. The next match became must win for every team, and the situation was very much in Pakistan favor .History says that Pakistan plays exceptionally well when they are in a do or die situation ,than how can you expect them to flunk when the situation is so much in their strength zone .At least I was pretty assured that Pakistan was going to win that match .

With that Pakistan win ,South Africa had nothing to lose but India have many things to achieve .The things started getting wrong from the Toss itself , as Indian have to bat first they have to put a big total on the board and that extra pressure have left India short of fifteen to twenty runs and eventually India could only post a modest target of 153 which Dhoni is so good at defending .But India had to win it by 32 and since we had digged the  hole ourselves, we need to find a way to claw out of it .India started off brilliantly but since the result was not in our favor Dhoni’s decision to save his best bowlers and delaying Ashwin’s spell cost India the semi final berth .

India has been in such situation many times under Dhoni’s captaincy and nothing less than win is expected from our  team ,but as only two teams from a group can advance to the semi finals we have accept the truth  and to take positives from it and must admit that Indian bowlers, contrary to the expectations, did exceptionally well , but it’s the batting which let the team down.

Start Of A New Era In Indian Cricket

So  Pujara is 'Dravid', Kohli is 'Laxman' and Raina is 'Ganguly'. But what joy that Tendulkar is still 'Tendulkar' !! The maestro is  the only statesmen left from those  fab four and is getting younger with each passing year so we actually donot need any youngster to take his position !!!!

We all were very concerned about the replacement of Dravid , Laxman and Ganguly ,here is the first set of probable replacement for them . Actually we should not call them as replacement because it will be a stupidity if any one even try to attempt to do that because they were experts in their work and their each heroic has a statutory warning that –“These stunts are performed by an expert, Dont try them yourself “..!! The youngsters should try to play to their potential and try to give their best in the roles assigned to them .

With the bowling department already going through same phase ,with only  Zaheer Khan left as an experienced campaigner ,these two match test series with New Zealand is the real test of all the youngsters because it just doesn’t get better to prove your potential  against a considerably inexperienced team that too at the home soil . The presence of Tendulkar and Zaheer is certainly a moral booster for youngsters as they just can not get any o ne better to guide them and work with their weak points . The real test of these youngsters will be against England and Australia later this season which will surly give them confidence to perform well in the overseas series . Well, we have no options left and its good t hat youngsters have enough time to get some test experience that too on home grounds by playing against both weaker and  stronger teams .

    

India Is A Land Of Spinners

No doubt  the Indian  turf is considered as batting paradise , so what should the bowlers do on such wickets ,just wait for the 50 overs to get finished ! Of course not . It is also true that apart from batsmen friendly the Indian soil have produced greatest spinners of game .In fact the lists of  both batsmen and spinners  highest run scorer and wicket taker are crowded with sub continent  batsmen and spinners , but the modern day cricketers seems to be strong believers of the fact that cricket is a game of batsmen .

Gone were the days when the Indian team use to have a specialist spinner over which the teams strategy revolved .With the advent of T-20 and busy cricket schedule the cricketers likes to live in crowded numbers ,and spinners especially donot actually put enough effort to adapt themselves with the changing batting technique. It is because of this negligence the spin department looks tamed these days .If we talk about the spin department in Indian team it was believed that Harbhajan Singh will fill the space created by Anil Kumble but rather than adapting his spin skills to the changing batting style he started to focus on not to give runs to the batsmen than focusing on taking wickets.

Spinners are still considered the wicket taking option in all three formats of the game ,if not the regular ones the part timers have been asked to do the job for the team .Its high time that players start taking it seriously and take it as a field of specialization .India had produced many great spinners whose experience should actually be used to enhance the skills of his present spinners, after all it’s the bowlers who wins a match for a team by taking all 20 wickets .No body actually wants to watch only 6’s,every one wants to see a good contest between bat and ball ,and for that cricket has to rise itself in all department ,than how could the spin department loose its pace .

The performance of the Yuvraj Singh in world cup is the recent example of how the spin skills of a player can be enhanced with the help of our retired masters of spin. If the game is changing with the batting style, the spin department is the next such area which can bring the next change in the game.

The Stolen Time

The role of a coach is not only to train players but also to teach them how to behave in a team and it is his duty to take care of the f act that the dressing room controversies should not be made public either by him or by any other players. But what if coach himself is the reason of all the controversies .Their was a time in Indian cricket when coach was responsible for the controversies and a world cup 2003 runners up who were considered biggest threat to Australia were degraded to such level that it  got eliminated in the next edition of world cup. So what actually went wrong .

India’s most successful captain Sourav Ganguly  has taken a stronger move by opting for an Australian coach just for the betterment of his team Greg Chappell was the chosen one but similar forces repel each other and that repulsion started within few days after he joined .For the first time coach became more important than players and most importantly it was because of controversies the team was in headlines rather than play .Seniors were  clearly the target of him which include the likes of  Sachin Tendulkar , Rahul Dravid , VVS Laxman , Harbhajan Singh , Zaheer Khan , Virender Sehwag and of course Sourav Ganguly or in other way we can say the key players of 2003 world cupsquad .The downfall of this players started from there  only and it was after  his resignation that these players have made a comeback with a bang .  

The period itself have many unanswered questions but one fact that Greg Chappell should accept that team was actually against him and he should stop giving his analysis even after so many years that it was players who were wrong .

"Sadly the success of the team was not universally enjoyed within the team. Some individuals felt threatened by the new world order and appeared to work against Rahul , had he been given the same wholehearted support in the role that he had given others, I think the recent history of Indian cricket may have been very different and he could have gone on to become the most successful Indian captain ever" Chappell has written in his book 'Rahul Dravid - Timeless Steel' –is the latest controversy which he has ignited .Well ,all I can say is it was  Dravid’s bad luck that he was captaining India during that time and  second to Sourav Ganguly’s reaction to this that “ Chappell ‘s remarks do not bother any one “.However he might be right because the reason for Dravid’s resignation from captaincy is still a mystery but its better if such things are answered by the concerned person . The controversies which he creates are the unsupported ones and its better for him to learn from the other successful coaches like John Wright and Gery Kristen who commands respect in India.

Greg Chappell  just cant appreciate Indian’s with clear words even in his articles which are published in ‘The Hindu’ and his piece in the Timeless Steel is one in the series.    

ICC Cricket World Cup Completes 37 Years

On 7 th June 1975 the first ever ICC Cricket World Cup got underway and from their on it became the most important tournament in International cricket . Getting selected in national team and winning the world cup are the ultimate dreams  of every cricketer.

Many interesting stats depicts this short history of world cup and India has marked its presence right from the first edition .The 1975 world cup is also remembered for the 174 ball 36 (not out ) stand of Sunil Gavaskar apart from the fact that West Indies have won it predictably. Next was the year 1983  which was written permanently in the Indian history when the least favorite India done the biggest upset  of the tournament by beating the dominating West Indian in the world cup final and winning the ultimate glory which the generation next of Indian cricket kept on chasing for 28 years .

In 1989 when the maestro made his international debut the  speculations of winning the world cup for India became high . From its first world cup in 1992 to the 2012 world cup the impact of Sachin Tendulkar and India in world cup is open to the every one  . Sachin Tendulkar has always kept his best for this big event ,and that’s why he is the highest run scorer in the World cup . It seems that he perfectly depicts the story of any cricketer right  from dreaming of playing from the national team and accomplishing it at the age of 16 and then chasing the dream of winning the world cup for 22 years and finally winning it at the age of 38 in the year 2012. Well the pathway of winning the world cup itself carry a lot of records for India . From the 1996 world cup match winning innings from Sourav Ganguly to his superb captaincy taking the Indians to the world cup finals in the 2003 world cup in which  Sachin Tendulkar was in magical form , than the 2007 first round exit of Indians which every Indian wants to forget and of course the 2011 world cup which India have won as top favorite.

After the introduction of world cup many teams have dominated the world cricket from West Indies to Australia but India and other Asian countries have always given tough competition to them and produced many legends in the world cricket .A bitter truth associated with the world cup is that England from where cricket came in existence have never won the ICC world cup . South Africa which can be considered as a perfect team have got a chokers tag because of their loosing streak in world cup matches at crucial times  even after playing good cricket throughout the tournament.

The next world cup is in year 2015 which is to be hosted by Australia and New Zealand , it will be interesting to see whether India will be able to retain its title or we  will have new world champions but surly India is going to have an impact on that world cup too from a former champions point of view .

The Middle Order Wobble

India’s strength is batting no doubt about that .Indian batting legends were once best described as “FAB Four” which  Sachin Tendulkar ,Rahul Dravid ,Sourav Ganguly , VVS Laxman- well its difficult to replace any one of them , as they are a definitions in themselves ,they  are defined by many facts and are part of many historic moments of cricket which no one can take away from them .

I am not going to take the credit away from anyone and also not going to compare any batsman , they all are playing for their country and are selected because of their talent but if we look at the current Indian batting talent which are emerging, we have some very good options for opening slot but their continues to be a wobble in middle order specially at number 6.With so much stiff competition among player as opener these youngsters has not yet been able to prove themselves at no.6 chances .The image gets clear in the real longer version of game .Enough chances are given to Kohli, Raina and Yuvraj Singh but non of them are able to perform at this position constantly and the fab three of our team has covered this position with there performance so far ,but now as the great wall of India has retired it would be more interesting to see who is going to take his position well Virat Kohli seems to be a idle choice but at no.6 there is still a question mark .Raina and Rohit Sharma seems to be strong contender for this position but they still have to prove themselves  at this format and even Dhoni have to prove himself in this format .

These players are performing well in the shorter version of the game and excelling to all batting positions but are constantly failing in the Test cricket  ,well probably that’s the point which  experts want to make by  not favoring the T-20 and IPLs a they consider it as the major cause of lack of quality and temperament in young cricketers .Well this India team has proven itself in all format but it is also true that they are not playing like champions ,every time they play with an uncertainty not sure of what their strengths are .The excess of cricket might be the problem ,but no option they have to deal with that .

Talking about the experience and senior players well India exactly know the importance of that ,that’s why they played with their best batting and experienced bowling combination in the the world cup .It’s a team in making for sure and it will take time but how much and can we get some reliable ,consistent player ..??probably not..with the tough competition for the positions it has now became very  difficult to have  any player in “Fab” category now. 

Captain Cooooooooool

World Cup Winning Shot

A perfect captain ,a great finisher and a very cool personality who do not express his feeling – whether his team lose or win ,for other it may be a matter of joy or sorrow but for him every match is just a another day in business .

If you are successful then every thing you do is considered right and  Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one such successful man who take unorthodox decisions and then try to prove it right !!! Yes he takes a decision and backs it either by the players performance or by his own performance .A willing, desire ,and  belief in himself is what takes out best from him .His track record in every format of game is superb ,he has taken India to the top ranking in test cricket ,India became world champions after 28 years under his captaincy  ,he converted two successive IPL title for his team Chennai Super Kings and also made it to grab the Champions League T-20 title .From cricketing point of view one would surly doesn’t recommends anyone to follow his technique but the success rate is very lucrative .He has the capability to bring out the best from any given bunch of players by sheer belief .”Belief” that’s the golden rule with which team India enter into ground and are ready to face any pressure situation and in fact that’s what making a great impact because handling the pressure situation is one area where this team has shown tremendous improvement and the belief always acts as catalyst for players to give their best.

No doubt Sourav Ganguly has given new heights to India cricket ,in fact he is the perfect one to be recommended to look for .His leadership skills ,aggression ,confidence ,team spirit are ideal for any leader .He has given new heights to Indian team and started off with scratch  for the team and made India’ s presence counted .

Well India surly enjoys the history of two successful captains who has given new heights to the team  but both different in technique ,different in approach and it is very difficult to pick the best .Both are effective and both are successful but for now enjoy the super cool one for some more years..!!!!

     

Cricket Is The Game Of Unpredictability

Last few weeks has turned out to be very dramatic for Indians and it’s the same team Sri Lanka which has given the anti climax to the two important tournament for India's Point of view .

After not so good overseas test series with Australia the world champions showed some glimpse of their form in ODI but got to a do or die situation match ,Indian superhero on the Australian tour Virat Kohli came to the rescue and had a date with history , India  chased down 321 in less than 40 overs ,one good team performance and the team has got his form and all negatives are shadowed but hang on it’s the Sri Lankans who have to give the culmination to the series ,they rightly do so..well played Sri Lanka.

Back home now the world champions and the Asian champions have to play on their turf and also have to defend their Asia cup title . In the first match encounter both the world cup finalist revisited and the result was the same . Now came the historic moment Friday 16^th March when the maestro made the most wanted 100^th 100 which every one wants badly more than him ,well with all altruist  the maestro have created the edifice century of centuries hats off to him ,but their was a interesting twist at the other part of the interval ,incredibly Bangladesh has successfully chased down a massive target of 290 runs .Now Asia cup is an open tournament from here on and India was again at the same situation as was in CB series.

Sunday 18^th March the two arch rivals in world cricket India and Pakistan was on the battle field with grit and their warriors always ready for a dicey situation with not to succumb attitude with some heft performances .Well now again  India have to chase down a massive target of 330,after the initial breakdown once again the gutsy , voracious Virat Kohli proved to be protagonist in the run chase and wit h his audacity and strive he had orchestrate Indians to a historic victory with his carrier best 183.But was it too late ! we can say here two teams Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have decided Indian fate and left every one disappointed who were expecting a encoring  India Vs Pakistan Asia Cup Final on Thursday 22^nd March .

“Cricket the game of unpredictability “- it seems that all four Asian  teams strongly believes so ,they all played well and the two most unpredictable teams will now play the Asia cup finals now.