Saturday, June 19, 2010

Taking Indian Cricket Forward - Part 5

‘A’ Tours

Jaidev Unadkat, 18 years old, made his first class debut last week against WI ‘A’. He represents India ‘A’ after he was picked to tour England. And he made rapid strides there, picking up 13 wickets! Not a bad return for a debutant! What does this show? Unadkat would not have dreamt in his wildest dreams that he will play his first-class debut in England. What a start! He can now go from strength to strength and hopefully develop into a good fast bowler.

All this is the result of BCCI’s decision to send an ‘A’ team to England. So well done! Make it more frequent so that you can develop players. That will give them more International experience and improve their knowledge towards attaining the peak.

As told in Part 1 of the series, players playing domestic cricket most often tend to develop a false sense of security. Performing in MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai is completely different from Trentbridge, Nottingham or WACA, Perth. A player who scores a double hundred in flat Chennai track will find that he is in Jupiter when he plays in Nottingham where the ball swings always!

All these can be found only when a player tours the country early on in his cricketing career! He should make it into the ‘A’ team and get valuable experience. Then he can shine at any level without any fear.

Virat Kohli averages close to 50 in ODIs which is a magnificent stat. How did he make it to the Indian team? Kohli who made his first-class debut for Delhi when he was 17-18 was a consistent performer for his state. That didn’t take him into limelight. It was the Australian tour where he was outstanding in the EMERGING players’ tournament. He was terrific in Melbourne, Sydney etc. against the ‘A’ teams of Australia, SA and NZ. In India’s tour of SL later that year, Kohli was onboard. This is just one such example. There are many, including India’s captain cool MS Dhoni.

It was a tri-series in Kenya which made MS Dhoni famous. India ‘A’ played against Kenya and Pak ‘A’ and MS Dhoni came up with outstanding knocks against Pak ‘A’. He hasn’t looked back since. From being a modest boy in Ranchi playing Ranji for Bihar,(which later separated), he has become the poster boy of Indian Cricket and he hardly plays for Jharkhand now!

Importance of ‘A’ tours doesn’t stop just there! A player will never say again that he is new to swinging or seaming conditions if he had been part of the touring ‘A’ side. Young Kevin Pietersen dominated when he toured India as a part of the visiting ‘A’ team then. Look where KP is now! He excels in all the situations, regardless of the conditions prevailing in the touring country.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly all played together ever since they were 16-17 years. For India U-17, U-19, India ‘A’ and later the national team! They formed the best Indian middle order ever. All these were due to the base of playing more ‘A’ tours!

Sadly, of late we don’t see that many ‘A’ tours. Atleast now we have seen Unadkat performing in England even before performing for Saurashtra. This will make him only stronger and Wasim Akram’s words that he will do big shall come true if he carries on!

It’s high time there are more tours of this kind. One thing that came out of the Zim tri series is the debutants’ knowledge gaining. Dinda, Vinay, Umesh and Ashwin would have all learnt a lot by playing against a reasonable SL and an International Zim side. They’ll all have a different mindset when they approach their game. Thanks to the seniors’ decision to rest, it happened. It can also happen if there are more foreign List A tours without the decision of the seniors.

It will be always appreciable if BCCI begs for more such tours with CA, CSA and ECB rather than pleading them to agree to a different schedule. What do you say?

Friday, June 18, 2010

Taking Indian Cricket Forward - Part 4

CALENDER

Indian Cricket never follows a fixed International calendar. They decide 2 months before, who they are going to play. This is never a good sign for anyone. There has to be a fixed calendar in which teams should be accommodated every year.

SA was scheduled to play 7 ODIs in February this year. India became No.1 last year and the only way they can retain the spot was to play more tests. What the BCCI did? Promptly asked the CSA to make it 2 tests and 3 ODIs! In these days, you cannot survive in the cricketing world if you oppose BCCI. So CSA consented and we saw the first ever double century in ODIs by the so called “God”. And India retained test No.1 as well.

But why make such a fuss? Why can’t there be a fixed calendar? It might be told by me for hundred times, but bear with me once again. Look at the Australian calendar. Have you ever seen Australia requesting Cricket SL to reduce a 5 test series into 3 tests and 3 ODIs? Oh my “Sachin Tendulkar” (OMG), think of the BCCI’s begging and you can’t resist your outrage. Shameful!

There will be a 3 test series followed by 5 match ODIs between Australia and one country. It will be followed by another 5 match ODIs and 3 tests with another country. This completes the Australian summer. Four years, 8 countries. Every country visits Australia once in 4 years. Nice and simple! This includes the Mother of all battles “The Ashes”.

Can you imagine a situation like this in India? Just answer this question. How many times have Sri Lanka and India played against each other in the last 2 years? You can count the number of hairs in your head faster than finding an answer for this. Absolutely ridiculous! To add to this, India is about to play a tri series in SL with NZ as the third team. Didn’t the same teams play last year? If I’m not wrong, it’s the COMPAQ Cup, the final in which the God scored one of his finest centuries.
Then India is scheduled to play another 3 test series followed by a 5 match ODI series in the Emerald Island. What is the limit? The value of the game is already lost and now after September it will be underground. Too much of something is good for nothing.

You see people opt out of series because they want REST. This thing will not happen if there is a fixed calendar. You suddenly arrange a series, ask the player to play when he is tired, aggravate his fatigue then lead him to isolation. Brilliant! When will these things change?

Now the BCCI has requested CA to agree to a changed schedule involving two tests. Tell me what do you get out of two tests? If a team wins the first test, everything is lost for the other. Had the Ashes of 2005, arguably the best series ever, been a two test contest would you have seen the fantastic foursome of England?

Play two teams every summer, tour a country every winter. Play a lot of domestic games, take adequate rest. You’ll have more fit cricketers then. Will this happen in India?

Last three questions before winding up. 1. What is the probability that India will play SL every day at some point in the future? 2. What is the probability that CA will agree to India’s request to include tests? 3. What is the probability that OMG will soon be OMST? The answer to all is the same.

PS: Please call him Sachin Tendulkar. He prefers it to God. I’ve used it to stress that. Not intentional.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Taking Indian Cricket Forward - Part 3

Pitch Quality

The recent ICC WT20 debacle in the WI showed clearly two things!

One, Indian batsmen are susceptible to quality fast bowling. Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson ran through India’s top order before Rohit Sharma’s rear guard action saved India from a damaging defeat. Two, clearly they can’t handle bounce! By bounce I mean the ball ‘rising and targeting the ribs’.

These two are complementary things. You cannot define ‘quality fast bowling’ if you don’t include ‘ability to bounce’ a batsman. Unfortunately India faced both during ICC WT20 2010 and 2009!

Are the Indian batsmen incapable of playing the rising delivery? Look at the names – Gautam Gambhir, Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni. These are real big names and not ‘once in a while’ performers like Chris Gayle or Brendon McCullum. They perform consistently all over and that’s why India is No.2 or 3 in ODIs.

So how did the big names falter twice? Was it because they didn’t have the technique to play bounce? No. It was the 22-yards that made all the difference. How could a team which hammered a good SA pace attack of Steyn & Co. falter against Nannes & Co.? The answer again is the 22-yards.

It was so unfortunate that the same thing happened twice. In England India were undone by Jerome Taylor & Co and here it was Kemar Roach. Action replay! Though after one year. Gautam Gambhir was at bay handling WI fast bowlers! It was very painful to watch!

The problem as it was said is the pitch and not the batsmen! The solution lies in preparing the pitch. Is there a better match India beating Australia at Perth? Can you get a pitch like that in India now? No. Is it possible? Yes. Very much so! The mindset needs to change. Indians have a feeling that Spin is Indian’s strength and so that’s how pitches should be in India. It’s not wrong. But they prepare flat tracks that produce tame draws! No flat tracks assist seam bowlers. And for everybody’s info, no flat tracks assist Spin till Day 3. Can you see a flaw in the plan? Evidently clear! Look at the Aussies. They have 6 international stadiums. Almost all produce results. Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Hobart and Adelaide are all terrific pitches.

What BCCI fails to understand is, though India may not win a test or two if they prepare pitch which assists seamers, it will help them to play better cricket overseas. India will not be bounced out like what we saw a couple of months back!
Coming back to the bounce factor, it’s because of the pitch that the rest don’t face as much trouble as Indians face. Having said that, no batsman in the world is efficient against bounce! It’s the degree of confidence you show that separates the good from the rest!

Sir Vivian Richards offered to coach India how to play bounce, after the WT20. The problem I stress again is not the batsmen. It’s where they play that poses problems! They play domestic cricket in pitches where the ball doesn’t rise above waist and when they play them they find it difficult!

So ability to play bounce confidently will come naturally once India prepares bouncy tracks. Hope this happens before Nostradamus’ predictions relating to 2012 happens! Which will happen first?

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Taking Indian Cricket Forward - Part 2

SYSTEM – Tournaments

The Ranji Trophy is India’s prime tournament and the traditional pride of India in relation to Cricket. It also is the 4-day league and the test of skills for youngsters as regards entry to TEST CRICKET is concerned.

Every domestic season shall with a curtain-raiser and so the Irani Trophy between the Ranji Champions and the Rest of India makes sense too. Australia for example has a T20 between ACA all-stars and the Australian Team as the curtain-raiser to the season.

You also have the Vijay Hazare Trophy which is the ODD tournament, a 50-over league tournament. This helps in finding talented limited over cricketers. Then you have the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy which tests the abilities in Cricket’s newest form i.e Twenty20 Cricket.

Now what is the need for tournaments like Duleep Trophy (Zonal 4/5-day games) and Deodhar Trophy (Zonal ODD games). The problem is not easy as it seems. One it is not well attended. Nobody watches it with Interest (even the selectors sometimes). Two it is not televised. Rarely people know what these are all about.

Comedies galore in India’s domestic system! Except the Ranji Trophy (where too many teams play) the rest are zonal leagues. It means that if you want to play for India in ODIs all a Tamil Nadu Cricketer wants to do is to thrash Karnataka, Kerela, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad and Goa.(Vijay Hazare) If you are lucky enough then you have to play just two more games (semi final and final) against a similar qualifier from another Zone. (say Punjab or Mumbai or Bengal)

Is this enough for someone to be labeled as a top domestic ODI player? Yes you play the best in the semis and in the finals. But where is the equality? What the BCCI has done is to introduce a zonal ODD tournament (Deodhar) where there are only 4 games. A quarter final, two semifinals and a final!! What a compromise!

Now in case of a Zonal team say South, it is very difficult to leave out many! But you have to pick only 15! Tamil Nadu is one team which has been in top form in the last 3-4 seasons. But only 5-6 players play for South Zone. All 15 from Tamil Nadu can beat any zonal team on any given day. So where are the rest 9 players? Why can’t the BCCI extend the Vijay Hazare tournament by making sure 10 best teams (mentioned in the last blog) play others twice? Looks much better instead of playing against weaker teams once and in zones!

And make sure enough people watch it! Televise it! It’s well known how much BCCI collects from Neo Cricket as the price for telecasting International games! It will definitely be at least 5 times higher than what CA charges Channel -9 and ECB charges Sky Sports! So take measures to televise as many games as possible instead of just 2/3 games.

Another thing when it comes to telecasting is the use of separate channels. CA has Channel-9 for International games and FOX Sports for Domestic games. Aren’t there more than two Sports channels in India? There will be a clash between International games and domestic games calendar and domestic games are ignored. All this is because of having the same broadcaster for International and domestic cricket. I’m not saying that’s wrong. If such a situation happens then make sure it has a back up channel like Neo has Neo Sports to telecast domestic games! I know that’s what they are doing now but is that adequate?

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Taking Indian Cricket Forward - Part 1

Domestic Setup

India’s domestic cricket setup is a bit tough to understand. You have 15 teams playing in the Ranji Super League. You have 12 more playing in the plate league. That makes it 27 teams.
England is the only other team that has so many teams playing domestic competition.

My point here is not to criticize having 27 teams! But to find out talents you have to make the number small. What will happen if that indeed matures?

Assume that the teams are narrowed to 10 maximum. That will make sure only the best play in the domestic league! Naturally they will hone their skills against the best. Why? Because, you will have only 10*15 = 150 playing in the domestic circuit. This will mean, players always play those who are competent to make the domestic squad.

So what happens to the rest is a serious question. Not without answers though. The point is to have only 10 domestic first teams. Every domestic team can have their second, third and fourth XI and an academy squad to develop players and make progress in every stage they play.

It’s like every state association having players who excel in their state leagues. You just cannot enter into a state team without performing in the local leagues. That is correct and there should be a refined form which should be implemented in the highest level also.

This could be a very unimaginable or a small issue. But the implications of this are more. Consider this. Abhimanyu Mithun, who made tremendous strides in the Ranji Super League made his ODI debut for India and was hammered to all parts by SA. Umesh Yadav, Ashoke Dinda and R Vinay Kumar were all treated like kids by Masakadza and Brendon Taylor.

Compare this with Ryan Harris who returned to International Cricket and took FIVE-FORs in his first two matches against Pakistan. Why is there a difference? It’s this reason mentioned above. Harris who played for South Australia (ONE OF THE ONLY SIX DOMESTIC TEAMS) and later shifted to Queensland, played against the top 90 players in the domestic and understood the game. Compare that with Mithun who bowled to many virtually raw players in the domestic and went into a false sense of security. On the International stage he floundered.

My point is not to point fingers at Mithun. He has done impressively and that’s why he is waiting to come in to the Indian side. But if you think bowling to AB de Villiers is the same as bowling to Pinal Shah, you are in for a shock.

Why can’t India break the defenses of Zimbabwe twice? Yes the bowlers are new but are they incapable? So what does their domestic form point to?
That’s the essence of this blog. Play the best. Come out on top. Get in to Team India, make India proud. Bowl more at MS Dhoni, not in the nets but in domestic league. Get his wicket often, your future is bright.

So how can it be done? Reduce the number of teams. Allow the best to play for the limited number of teams. The rest shall come up from the divisions. India will prosper. Or rather Indian Cricket will.