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 !!!!!

The Level Playing XI

You’ve been a spectator

You’ve been a cheerleader

You’ve been a critic

You’ve been a commentator .Now..

Feel what it is to be an owner !!!

Yes,i have been all these and now I had also  experienced what it is to be an owner. The Level Playing XI was the team which I had owned in this IPL(obviously the virtual team) and it was indeed a new way of looking at the game. Selecting the playing eleven , making suitable changes –some risky ,some assured while keeping an eye on budget and the franchise and overseas limit so as to make a balanced team use to be my pre match activities .For the first time I had watched cricket from a different perspective of taking care of who is going to earn more points for me irrespective of the quality of their cricket. Analyzing players statistics and guessing game were part of my team making strategies. However the real fun use to be once the match get started .The entire process was just like you are having full course with you and you are sorting out the important topics which can come in exam and what marks they can fetch for you .Just like when paper get handed over to you in exam hall you first scan for question you have prepared ,I use to look for the players which I had selected in the team ,whether they are actually playing or not and yes we do have surprises as we use to have in actual papers some unexpected or some may call out of syllabus question .Well nothing can be done at run time and the best we can do is look for what marks we get in this paper after attempting , including the maximum marks for the question which we had written best .In my case this task use to be of power player i.e. the player which you think will perform best on that day from the two or four teams playing on that day.            

It was tough ,but I am happy that I had almost selected the right set of players on many occasions. But the difference between almost winning and actually winning is that the former doesn’t count . So that’s how my team campaign ended performed and played well but could not quite win the title just like all other eight teams in the actual IPL .

All in all that was a great way of knowing players and teams much better and a all new way of following and watching cricket for me but I doubt I will give a second chance to it because I actually enjoy the spectator , critic and commentator part more than getting stressed by owing a team.

IPL - The Juggernaut Of Entertainment

Ever heard of a stress –buster loaded with stress ? Of course  yes !! In fact you have been experiencing it for past five years. The Indian premier league has entered in its 6^th edition and for the next two months you will not have to look for movies to watch ,for rather you have to manage how to watch the three and a half hour show of complete entertainment  each day.

This holiday season of the year is meant for only entertainment by the bollywood flavored cricket .No matter how much cricket is being played round the year ,this form of cricket has  always been successful to catch the attention of whole cricket loving world .

9 teams ,  76 matches and 1 destination but this journey to destination is  packed with unpredictability and photo –finishes that are bound to keep you on the edges of you seats .From its first season itself the thought of watching the favorite stars of world cricket sharing the same team thrilled every one towards Indian premier league . There is something special about this T20 format that the winner in its tournaments donot have  experienced captain to lead say T20 world cup winners - India (2007 captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni ) ,Pakistan (2009 captain Shahid Afridi) , England (2010 captain Paul Collingwood ) , West Indies (2012 captain Darren Sammy) . IPl also share the same legacy as it has proven to be an event where assertive leaders set the tone in winning sides-from Shane Warne (Rajasthan Royals ) , Adam Gilchrist (Deccan Chargers) , Mahendra Singh Dhoni ( Chennai Super Kings) to Gautam Gambhir ( Kolkata Knight Riders ).

Although there is a lot of money involved in this tournament but it actually does not matter if you had flaunted the heavy purse to own a IPL franchise for ten years and always remain in news only for showing money power at player auctions than any spectacular team performance like the RIL owned Mumbai Indians. Every year IPL remain in news for some or the other reason and this year it seems that Delhi Daredevils is facing plenty of pre-tournament blues much before donning their newly designed blues. Of course lot more actions and twists are lined for you to keep you involved in the event.

So get ready to stop your clock on the juggernaut of entertainment !!

No More Tail-Enders

India whitewashed Australia 4-0  ,followed with which many interesting conclusion were drawn after digging numbers like- it was Australia’s 7th loss in a row in India and their worst performance in an away country , its India’s biggest Test series victory(4-0 beat Aus 2013, 3-0 beat Eng 1993, 3-0 beat SL 1994)  , MS Dhoni became first Test captain to win a Test series 4-0 despite losing all the tosses , it was only the 2nd time India beat Australia in three days in a Test . The only other instance was at Mumbai in Nov 2004 , only once before Australia has lost a Test series 4-0 (It was against Ali Bacher's South Africans in 1970) , , India's target at Chennai in 2001 against Australia was also 155 runs. India won by 2 wickets , Peter Siddle became first batsman in Test cricket to score 50+ in each innings at number nine !!!

Statistics hardly matters in cricket so are your past performances , what matters is how you  perform on that particular day .The top-order may have been brittle and the middle-order ready to collapse, but the sting of this Australian team was firmly in the tail .In all the eight innings Australia has managed to stitch together inspiring partnerships for eight , ninth and tenth wicket. The inability of the Indian bowlers to mop up the tail has been as startling as its newly discovered confidence to deal with the cream of this Australian batting line-up.

At different points of time , different teams have done this and if they do it pretty well , you have to give respect to them and not say they are tail-enders .There are players who come after number seven-the  traditional threshold of being considered as a batsman and still averages over 30 , you cant call them tail-enders.  In fact there are no more tail-enders in international cricket who come in , slog and get out , the players now believes in putting a price on their wicket. The modern day cricket demand bowlers who can contribute through bat as well .Thats why we are having more cliffhangers now a days which goes down to the wire hence making the game more unpredictable .

Indeed Cricket is a batsman’s game !!!

   

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 .     

Team India Thrashes Australia

He keeps that unorthodox element in his batting as well ,bat -speed combined with strong wrists as the sphere was sent rocketing to distant corners was the ‘power play ‘ by  Mahendra Singh Dhoni at MA Chidambaram Stadium ,Chennai. Many batsman might also thinks to do the same but there is difference between only thinking and actually implementing it , he takes care of later part too ,probably that’s why he is termed as great finisher of modern days and a captain who leads from front . 

Many players were under radar before the start of Border- Gavaskar trophy and eventually maximum of them have performed in the first test match .After the retirement of Dravid and Laxman ,Sachin Tendulkar had superbly played the role of sheet anchor after not so good start from openers and soaked the pressure and made the things look simple again with his experience in willow wielding craft .He guided young Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli in consolidating their innings  ,before getting dismissed by an off-spin that turned sharply from the edge of the rough just beyond the good length area (bowled again !!! ).

The Australian close-in cordon was in and the host was under stress. But Dhoni had disrupted Lyon’s length by getting forward and clouting the spinner to leg without allowing the ball to spin or jump .Then comes the adventurous final session which was the replica of shorter formats of the game where Mahendra Singh Dhoni always fell short of partners but he always keeps his cool and respond to the pressure .Dhoni showed no mercy to the bowlers as he smashed 109 runs in the final sessions and completes his first double century in test cricket.

Both Indian bowlers and batsmen performed in the way they were expected . Ravichandran Ashwin took two 5 wicket hauls , Mahendra Singh Dhoni hits double ton , Virat Kohli scored a ton and Sachin Tendulkar scored valuable  81 , but slight concern still remain about the openers which was compensated though by Tendulkar's message to Lyon by hitting two sixes of the first two balls he has faced in his second innings !! However we should not get carried away by this as England was also smashed in their first test match but came back ! Panesar was not rated much by anyone and he surprised a few , but India seems to be aware of this factor as they were a bit surprised as Xavier Doherty was not included in the team as second spinner for the first test.

The best part is team India won the test match and this time they were not tired and have actually prepared for this important series .The pitch responded the way it was meant to be and ball turned for Indian spinners and favored Indian batsmen more than the visiting players. Hopefully pitch respond in the same way at other venues as well and  India continue to perform well throughout the series.

India Team Lacked Specialist Openers

You might wonder that I am going to discuss the present scenario of Indian team ,than my answer would be a no rather than a expected yes .

Opening position is the only slot with which India had experimented much and the truth is that team India had never found a specialist opener till date. The recent experiment at this position by the India’s most luckiest captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is with Rohit Sharma who is known to  get far more chances than what a player with a history of failures usually deserves got a chance to open as well but the experiment has only complicated the problem .

The point which should be  noted here is that ,in a country with 27 first-class teams with at least two specialist openers in each squad , the  national team is made to experiment middle order batsmen turning out to open the innings .Sachin Tendulkar , Sourav Ganguly , Rahul Dravid ,VVS Laxman , Virender Sehwag and more recently Virat Kohli ,who staked their claims as middle-order batsmen ,have all opened for the country in one format or the other. It is indeed  surprising why a country , with such a settled domestic structure , struggles to find a specialists to do a specialized jobs. Some of the better teams in the world , except India , are looking for specialist in every format of the game. How can you expect team to excel if they don’t have openers , it actually affect the performance of other players .

Team India usually experiments to achieve short-term goals and the team is usually bound to suffer in long term . Dhoni’s trial and error method need not bring in the desirable results with consistency. However looking at his recent tactics , it looks like India is strengthening its bench strength in bowling for 2015 world cup , as I am pretty much sure that our experienced pace attack is going to take charge for team .But how can we don’t have ‘horses for courses’ in batting department when it’s the batting for which Indian team is known for !!