2012 - The Year Of Goodbyes

Ricky Ponting Announces Retirement - And, From This Moment On, There Will Be Only Nice Things Said About Ponting .Thats the only best thing about retirement !!

Herschelle Gibbs ‏

What a player,entertainer of note and an all time great ricky ponting! Always loved his approach to batting... legend

Sanjay Manjrekar ‏

Ricky Ponting came out of that very typical Australian mould of batsmen. He was the quintessential Aussie batsman in style & approach.

Ricky Ponting - a great driver & a great puller ! Thats one thing that really stood out for me. Enriched the game by his feats.

Michael Vaughan

The best batsman I had the privilege to play against ... Ricky Ponting... #Punter Australia cricket will not be the same without him...

Matthew Hayden ‏

Punter, congratulations on a fantastic career. Your departure will be a massive hole in the Australian Cricket team #RickyPonting #Legend

Ajinkya Rahane

A legend announced retirement . The cricket world will miss Ricky Ponting on the field.

Tom Moody ‏

Congratulations Punter on an astonishing career been a privilege to play alongside you & watch from afar, you are truly a great Australian.

Virat Kohli ‏

Ricky ponting what an absolute legend. I am glad I had the honour of playing against him. Take a bow legend respect

Kevin Pietersen ‏

Ricky Ponting RETIRES.... ONE OF THE GREATS! I always got excited playing AUS, so I could watch him bat up close. Well done Punter! Legend

Scott Styris ‏

The best batsman I played against has decided he has had enough. I'm sure there will be some happy bowlers around!

The year 2012 seems to be the year of goodbyes ,first Dravid, then Laxman and now Ponting ,all three carry numbers next to their names ,which eventually are not enough to define the class of these players.

As per expectations Ricky Ponting who has second highest ( 27,471) runs in all international cricket announced his retirement .A aggressive captain , a perfect number three batsman , a great fielder   under whose captaincy Australia touched new heights and dominated the world cricket .Ponting's retirement has signalled another movement in the slow descending of the curtains on an era of batting giants ,as now only Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallies remain the last two of a VANISHING TRIBE of monumental runs and awe-inspiring career longevity !!!!

Sachin Tendulkar had  38 Matches, 55 innings, 2483 (ave 51.72), 8 100s in his belt before Ponting's debut on 8 Dec 1995 ,and since than the debate of who is the better among them is going on . If we consider stats as the parameter than Ponting is ranked after Sachin in maximum records but their are many records which are unique to him. Ricky Ponting is the only man to have participated in more than 100 Test Match victories for his side  , Ponting has hit the winning run in a Test nine times ,which is more than anyone else in Test history.'This is where it started, and will finish'- yes Perth it is , had started his career on that ground and will end it on the same ,seems like a perfect script for a motivational story !

Well , the reason for the retirements of these legends was that they were not getting runs under their belt, in fact ,to be very precise they were actually missing the ball and getting bowled consistently ,which is so unlikely their way .The cricket fans have always praised the growing number of runs of these players but have always criticized the increase of number in their ages for their failure !

The irony is that the man who is playing before the debut of all these players is still playing at the age of 39 and with every retirement , and with his every failure , the question is raised that when is Sachin Tendulkar retiring .The reason for such questions is the expectations and their past performances .They have created so many historic events that people want a long inning from them in every match . I don’t know how Sachin deal with such question ,but i am expecting he will not hang his boot in a bad patch !   

Australia Vs South Africa – Matches Of Unique Records

Johannesburg March 2006 , Australia post down the highest total (434) of one day internationals  and  the chokers of international cricket successfully chased down the target with one ball to spare and made a record total of 438 ,record made and broken on the same day.

Cape Town November 2011 , Australia were struggling at 21-9 that too in a Test match and hits its 109 years low total with 47 all out .

These are some fascinating yet contradicting records which we can expect when two best sides in the world plays with each other .And continuing the recent year trends we have another  match going on at Adelaide which had created many records on the day one of the Test match . Australia inched closed to their highest one day score of 494 after 102 years and finished with 482-5 on day one . Apart from that their were series of records on first day which happened for the first time in international cricket viz Australia became the first team with three individual 100 plus scores on the opening day of the Test match , Michael Clarke became the first player to score four Test double centuries in a calendar year ,Clarke also became the first number 5 batsman to score a double century on day one of a Test . It was also Michael Clarke 21st Test 100 in 140 innings (at 31years-234days) unlike the other heroic performance a few days back by another captain Alastair Cook who also made his 21st Test 100 in 148 innings (at 27years-229days)  and they both had made their debut in India ! Coincidence !Well we have another batsman to complete his 100 tests on 23rd November ,the marauding opener of Indian team Virender Sehwag , record every where !

Well such records are made whenever pitch behave different from its usual nature .But watching someone to bat with Clarke’s dominance is a rarity , dealing quality fast bowlers with utter disdain and at the same time also considered as the one of the best players of spin , has to be special .

Still four days left in the test match with  South Africa still to bat we can expect many more records in the coming days with match swinging in either way or one way as both teams are full of world class top ranked bowlers and batsmen. Oh so much of unpredictability and still we say Test cricket is not interesting !

If You Fail To Prepare, Be Prepared To Fail

The continuous failure of world champions India after 2011 world cup triumph whether its eight straight overseas defeat ,or their early exit from major tournaments like Asia cup , world T20 or the recent exit of top IPL teams like Chennai Super Kings , Mumbai Indians and the winners of this years IPL Kolkata Knight Riders from he Champions League T20 ,the one factor which is common for their such inconsistent performance is lack of match preparation.

Indians were having a task in hand before the ICC cricket world cup 2011 and after completion of the task normally teams get carried away in celebrations and often donot have a future strategy , thats why except Australia none of the country had not only repeated their performances in world cups but also dominated in the cricket .But Indians have not got time to get carried away in celebrations also , the only thing which is keeping them away to perform their best is the busy international schedule.

The modern day cricket demands players to switch between formats  and perform continuously . It is really appreciable the way players have  adapted themselves to this changing demand. But with so much back to back cricket going on ,the technical term “form “ of the players is being replaced by the “day” of the players. With the advent of most uncertain format ,the players performance also became uncertain. They don’t get  enough time to improvise and over come their mistakes  and hence the players who is currently not making any mistakes is said to be in good  touch on the other hand  the one who is not in his best of touch continues to perform  below par .The recent exit of India in the major tournaments is not because it is a bad team it’s the fact that they have many  players who are not having best of their days in the middle and actually have not got enough  time to work on that .No matter whether the team is a world champion or an average team if  you donot prepare well ,you just cannot expect a favorable result .

Maximum players of England and Australia keep themselves away from the IPL so as to prepare themselves for the upcoming series for their nation and the recent performance of these teams proves that they are actually doing it right .On the contrary India plays with almost same team through out the year in all the formats ,and all players compulsorily play in IPL . Proper planning need to be done urgently looking at the terrible failure of Indian team in recent times whether its opting for three different captains and keeping different teams for all the three formats or players keeping themselves  away from the IPLs .However the later doesn’t seem to be fit in the Indian context looking at the competition among players  for each position ,the only possibility is if board itself take decision for the betterment of Indian team .

Sri Lanka Is Winning ICC World T20 2012

In a hall ,located on the first floor of the Sinhalese Sports Club Stadium in the heart of Colombo , a cup gleams alone under the light .It is the biggest affirmation of Sri Lanka’s cricketing prowess and it is not just another cup it is the world cup that they won in 1996 .Since than Sri Lanka has never looked back and its hence the second best dossier reads : Runner-up in the 2007 and 2011 World Cups , Losing finalist in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20  are some silver ware which defines their so-near-and yet-so- far tale .As now once again Sri Lanka has entered into the world T20 final the script doesn’t get any better for them to add another glittering trophy and emerge as a Champion from just being the eternal bridesmaid in ICC tournaments.

With the other favorites have already taken their flights back to home with India beating all the defending champions England ,former champions Pakistan and the current ranked no. 1 in ICC T20 South Africa but lost the one which mattered against Australia -who has past inept rivals before getting hypnotised by the Pakistani spinners and than lost to West Indies the way you have never seen them before have actually justified their ranking in the ICC T20 and their exit from the tournament .With Pakistan as usual seemed to suffer from the  self destructive itch against Sri Lanka and the world no. 1 actually standing  last in the group and the members of Group 2( group of death ) are all dead now.

Before the tournament West Indies has been hyped as one of the strong contenders of winning this world T20 edition , probably that’s what have acted as catalyst behind their strong performance against Australia ,lets not talk about how they made it to the Semi’s .Now they are going to face Sri Lanka and beating them at their home is considered even more difficult than beating India or Australia in their home turf.

The stage is all set to have a new champion this time and we have two highly motivated teams as a finalist in the world T20 ,who will not let any stone unturned to prove themselves and regain some dominance in the world cricket .For me , Sri Lanka is surly going to make it this time with having both home advantage and electrifying home support in their  favor and of course by playing the good cricket and taking all precautionary measures to deal with Gayle Storm as there is already a warning from him..!!  

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.

The Stats Says It All

Sky Is The Limit

ICC World Champions

ICC T20 Champions

India (2011 and 2012) became the second team after Australia (1987 and 1988) to hold  both the senior and world cups at the same time !!! Now we want the T20 WC also the next month..!! Not a tall ask ! At all..!!

On Sunday August 26 ,2012 India (200,2008,2012) U19 team became the only team after Australia(1988,2002,2010) to win the world cups three times and that to in style by beating Australia in Australia and hence letting the Aussies to have a first lose in finals ever of U19 WC history. The two most deserving side made it to the final but unfortunately we can have only one winner .

2011 World cup -India Won by chasing in which Mahendra Singh Dhoni played a Captain’s Knock , 2012 U19 World Cup -we won by chasing where their captain Unmukt Chand played a  very responsible inning , 2010 U19 World cup Virat Kohli played the same watch winning knock and made his way to the Indian team ,so the doors are now open for you Unmukt Chand !! The young man has showed enough maturity to handle the pressure and in building his inning ,with the prefect combination of singles and calculative risks. As I say it often that holding their nerves and finishing things off is the one area where India has improved tremendously ,thats why a situation where ideally any one will take single we do it by hitting four or a six !!...you can thank to T20 cricket for that .  

2007 inaugural T20 WC , Two World Cups(1983 ,2011) , Three U19 World Cups (2000,2008,2012) champions first showed the world that Australian are beatable and now have truly dislodged them from the top position and looks all set to dominate the world .Well the pathway was of course not easy and how can we forget the man behind this change ,the one and only India's greatest captain ever Sourav Ganguly ,whose good work was further carried over by Mahendra Singh Dhoni ,captain really play big role !

India’s have far better record at home than Australia or England , it takes a lot for any team to beat India on its own turf ,it’s the other countries who have not improved their play according to the Sub- Continent conditions .India’s performance overseas has also improved over the past years , the Test No. Ranking , and Winning World Cup Overseas says it all . With such performance India’s future seems to be in safe hands.

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 .