The Series that India just won…
The game was never looking like a contest in the second half despite the fact that India had lost its valuable openers in Sehwag and Sachin.. the only time that Sri Lanka probably had some thing to smile about..
These days with so much of improvement in the batting skills.. so much working out the strategies to garner a win from almost a defeat.. that can not take away any credits from the kind of batting display that the Delhi duo put up in the middle of the cricket Mecca of India.. Eden Gardens has always been special.. Eden Gardens will always remain special.. Eden Gardens tonight witnessed the highest score by the team batting first but only too easily defeatable score..
I would like to put to rest the speculations that the day night cricket brings along with it.. the teams that get to chase have double folded advantage so to say.. first the bowlers especially the slower ones find that grip is missing.. the second factor that goes against the side batting second is the slippery ground conditions which make fielding around a bit uneasy if not outright difficult.. so in cases where two teams are more or less equal in their batting and bowling resources… I would say that team batting second has a distinct advantage..
Not much can be done about to quell such factors that are natural and leave little scope for adjustments.. yet would say that having restricted Lankans to 315 runs was a great battle won in the first half itself.. if one could just leave the third game aside where despite fluent start Lankans failed to cross 250 mark the other three games proved that cricket has far more bend in favour of batters than bowlers.. and what can one really do to avoid that.. batsman have been aided by the technological advancements in video training and finding out better stamina and strategy to extend their stay at the wickets and if one of the batsman has to be of the kind of Sehwag or Dilshan a couple of dropped chances turn the whole complexion of the game..
Of late fielding world wide has come to a stage of stagnation.. the batsman have found it easier with known blocks improvised shot playing and better understanding of bowlers.. the game had never ever been so much so favourable to batsman not even in the days when Bradman or Richards were crafting their innings to perfection.. that batsman like Miandad, Gavaskar and Aravinda or a Border or Gower or even modern times Sachin and Dravid.. all had to build their innings in sensible rather than with the ruthlessness of Sehwag, Afridi or Jayasuriya and not to forget Dilshan in this particular year that was 2009.. they have all collectively changed the way the batsman score runs.. only old timer who played his cricket in this manner successfully could be Adam Gilchrist.. and if it is credit to the game it has to go to Twenty20.. you like it or not the day is not very far when teams would not only make 400 runs but like Lankans almost showed at Rajkot those runs wiould be chased down too..
There is far too little to pick up from which team is best.. I don’t believe in ranking.. especially not in a ranking system that has much less vision to incorporate margin of victory as a criteria.. if a team looses narrowly it can not be same as team loosing by huge margin of wickets, runs or balls to spare.. I know India had been loosing by huge margins in the ld days..but just look at the statistics barring one or two exceptional games they have been doing fairly well.. they did so well against Australia just a few months ago and still lost the series should not go to pull their ranking barometer terribly down.. they might have lost but they were almost there to win two games that they had lost.. Australia of late is not the same force as it used to be a couple of years back.. for whatever reasons yet Australians dominated the first two editions of IPL like none other..
The time has come that if we want all the three formats of the game to survive we have to have parallel cricket taking place.. I mean teams like India, Pakistan and Australia and South Africa for that matter could have parallel teams for Tests and limited over versions..
I being an Indian can easily pick 30 players who could be assigned the jobs of representing my country in international cricket comprising of five days Test cricket and Limited overs cricket.. in fact I can compose three teams if the ICC allows a three way participation of India in cricket at different formats..
Let us first talk of Test team –
1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Manish Pandey
3. Dravid
4. Laxman
5. Rohit Sharma
6. Dinesh Karthik
7. Harbhajan Singh
8. Zaheer Khan
9. Ishant Sharma
10. Munaf Patel
11. Iqbal Abdulla
12. Piyush Chawla
13. Balaji
14. Ajnkya Rahane
I think the team looks quite balance and could possibly be led by either Dravid or Laxman in case Sachin does not want to lead India. It has good batting as well as bowling options that are more suited to Test cricket.
Coming next to Limited Overs team –
1. Virender Sehwag
2. Gautam Gambhir
3. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Suresh Raina
6. Virat Kohli
7. Irfan Pathan
8. Ravindra Jadeja
9. Praveen Kumar
10. R.P. Singh
11. Ashish Nehra
12. Pragyan Ojha
13. Yusuf Pathan
14. Abhishek Nayar
15. Pradeep Sangwan
16. R. Ashwin
If there are people who want to play both the form of the games I would not mind the top four batsman of Limited over games could choose to switch their roles with their equivalent counterparts and some specialist bowlers from Test could also be allowed to play a few games in the limited version.
The players which could shuffle are well known to all.. the experienced batsman in limited version and bowlers with rich Test experience could switch sides to maintain the balance.. In case of people like Sachin, Sehwag, Dhoni and Harbahajan could be allowed the freedom to choose one team from the other.. the other rotations could well depend upon the kind of opposition teams the test and Limited version teams are likely t be playing at the same time.
I can still name few of the reserve players for either team:
Test: Mohammad Kaif, and Parthiv Patel, Vriddhiman Saha
Limited Version: Manoj Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan, Mahesh Rawat and Venugopal Rao
The connoisseur of cricket would say I have been more tilted in favour of Limited version. That is not true. I do foresee a mixing up of players from one team to another from time to time so that Sachin if he plays five Test matches in a year also gets to play atleast 6 to 7 Limited version games as well. Similarily if Sehwag plays 20 Limited version games he also gets to play atleast 3-4 tests in a calendar year. I have just choosen these two senior players as an example.. the numbers here are only exemplary than being exact. I would love that some of the players are always engaged in the playing eleven of one or the other team – i.e Gambhir, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Dhoni, Harbhajan and Praveen Kumar.
I would also love the limited version team to play more number of Twenty20 games. Say one could play equal number of ODIs and T20 games. With so much mileage available for having two teams India could easily take part in 7 to 10 Test matches and as many as 20-20 games each of ODI and Twenty20 in a particular season. This would also allow them to take breaks as an when they want or to apply to play cricket in teams from other countries.
The board could allow 10 days leave to senior cricketers (Five players at a time) to play in some premier leagues of other countries (During the times when they are part of one of the above two teams). The non-member players i.e. the cricketers who have not been considered for playing in one of the teams could simply apply to be allowed to play in International Premier leagues ( something similar to IPL).
The senior players should however also make a commitment to participate in the domestic cricket tournaments where they must play in atleast any of the 5 games, if selected, and not playing for one of the above two teams. However, the 5 games need not compulsorily be of Ranji Level. Playing in national IPL league could be counted as one of the games. I had talked earlier about national and international versions of Premier leagues.
I think the issue of captaincy could rest with only few people and preferably I would love Sehwag, Gambhir or Dhoni to lead the Limited version teams when some of them are not playing in the side. In Test cricket the choices could rest between Dravid or Lakshman if one of the Sehwag, Gambhir or Dhoni are not into the Test side. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina could be their understudies.
I wish India also sends promotional teams ( comprising of the other available talent) into countries which want to participate and progress in cricket in future say the upcoming teams like Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, UAE, Kenya, Bermuda, Scotland et al. and help organize atleast 3 International games in countries which offer to support cricket and host the games featuring the top world teams or even top IPL teams. Developed countries like US, China, Germany, France, Japan may thus be allowed atleast to have a couple of T20 International games.
If the BCCI and ICC pay heed to such suggestions I think cricket could definitely be far more widespread than its presence base of just 9 Test cricket playing countries. Let us hope then that sooner or later the game of T20 finds its way into Olympics. India would have a chance to win Gold with so much of talent available at their disposal.
The game was never looking like a contest in the second half despite the fact that India had lost its valuable openers in Sehwag and Sachin.. the only time that Sri Lanka probably had some thing to smile about..
These days with so much of improvement in the batting skills.. so much working out the strategies to garner a win from almost a defeat.. that can not take away any credits from the kind of batting display that the Delhi duo put up in the middle of the cricket Mecca of India.. Eden Gardens has always been special.. Eden Gardens will always remain special.. Eden Gardens tonight witnessed the highest score by the team batting first but only too easily defeatable score..
I would like to put to rest the speculations that the day night cricket brings along with it.. the teams that get to chase have double folded advantage so to say.. first the bowlers especially the slower ones find that grip is missing.. the second factor that goes against the side batting second is the slippery ground conditions which make fielding around a bit uneasy if not outright difficult.. so in cases where two teams are more or less equal in their batting and bowling resources… I would say that team batting second has a distinct advantage..
Not much can be done about to quell such factors that are natural and leave little scope for adjustments.. yet would say that having restricted Lankans to 315 runs was a great battle won in the first half itself.. if one could just leave the third game aside where despite fluent start Lankans failed to cross 250 mark the other three games proved that cricket has far more bend in favour of batters than bowlers.. and what can one really do to avoid that.. batsman have been aided by the technological advancements in video training and finding out better stamina and strategy to extend their stay at the wickets and if one of the batsman has to be of the kind of Sehwag or Dilshan a couple of dropped chances turn the whole complexion of the game..
Of late fielding world wide has come to a stage of stagnation.. the batsman have found it easier with known blocks improvised shot playing and better understanding of bowlers.. the game had never ever been so much so favourable to batsman not even in the days when Bradman or Richards were crafting their innings to perfection.. that batsman like Miandad, Gavaskar and Aravinda or a Border or Gower or even modern times Sachin and Dravid.. all had to build their innings in sensible rather than with the ruthlessness of Sehwag, Afridi or Jayasuriya and not to forget Dilshan in this particular year that was 2009.. they have all collectively changed the way the batsman score runs.. only old timer who played his cricket in this manner successfully could be Adam Gilchrist.. and if it is credit to the game it has to go to Twenty20.. you like it or not the day is not very far when teams would not only make 400 runs but like Lankans almost showed at Rajkot those runs wiould be chased down too..
There is far too little to pick up from which team is best.. I don’t believe in ranking.. especially not in a ranking system that has much less vision to incorporate margin of victory as a criteria.. if a team looses narrowly it can not be same as team loosing by huge margin of wickets, runs or balls to spare.. I know India had been loosing by huge margins in the ld days..but just look at the statistics barring one or two exceptional games they have been doing fairly well.. they did so well against Australia just a few months ago and still lost the series should not go to pull their ranking barometer terribly down.. they might have lost but they were almost there to win two games that they had lost.. Australia of late is not the same force as it used to be a couple of years back.. for whatever reasons yet Australians dominated the first two editions of IPL like none other..
The time has come that if we want all the three formats of the game to survive we have to have parallel cricket taking place.. I mean teams like India, Pakistan and Australia and South Africa for that matter could have parallel teams for Tests and limited over versions..
I being an Indian can easily pick 30 players who could be assigned the jobs of representing my country in international cricket comprising of five days Test cricket and Limited overs cricket.. in fact I can compose three teams if the ICC allows a three way participation of India in cricket at different formats..
Let us first talk of Test team –
1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Manish Pandey
3. Dravid
4. Laxman
5. Rohit Sharma
6. Dinesh Karthik
7. Harbhajan Singh
8. Zaheer Khan
9. Ishant Sharma
10. Munaf Patel
11. Iqbal Abdulla
12. Piyush Chawla
13. Balaji
14. Ajnkya Rahane
I think the team looks quite balance and could possibly be led by either Dravid or Laxman in case Sachin does not want to lead India. It has good batting as well as bowling options that are more suited to Test cricket.
Coming next to Limited Overs team –
1. Virender Sehwag
2. Gautam Gambhir
3. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Suresh Raina
6. Virat Kohli
7. Irfan Pathan
8. Ravindra Jadeja
9. Praveen Kumar
10. R.P. Singh
11. Ashish Nehra
12. Pragyan Ojha
13. Yusuf Pathan
14. Abhishek Nayar
15. Pradeep Sangwan
16. R. Ashwin
If there are people who want to play both the form of the games I would not mind the top four batsman of Limited over games could choose to switch their roles with their equivalent counterparts and some specialist bowlers from Test could also be allowed to play a few games in the limited version.
The players which could shuffle are well known to all.. the experienced batsman in limited version and bowlers with rich Test experience could switch sides to maintain the balance.. In case of people like Sachin, Sehwag, Dhoni and Harbahajan could be allowed the freedom to choose one team from the other.. the other rotations could well depend upon the kind of opposition teams the test and Limited version teams are likely t be playing at the same time.
I can still name few of the reserve players for either team:
Test: Mohammad Kaif, and Parthiv Patel, Vriddhiman Saha
Limited Version: Manoj Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan, Mahesh Rawat and Venugopal Rao
The connoisseur of cricket would say I have been more tilted in favour of Limited version. That is not true. I do foresee a mixing up of players from one team to another from time to time so that Sachin if he plays five Test matches in a year also gets to play atleast 6 to 7 Limited version games as well. Similarily if Sehwag plays 20 Limited version games he also gets to play atleast 3-4 tests in a calendar year. I have just choosen these two senior players as an example.. the numbers here are only exemplary than being exact. I would love that some of the players are always engaged in the playing eleven of one or the other team – i.e Gambhir, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Dhoni, Harbhajan and Praveen Kumar.
I would also love the limited version team to play more number of Twenty20 games. Say one could play equal number of ODIs and T20 games. With so much mileage available for having two teams India could easily take part in 7 to 10 Test matches and as many as 20-20 games each of ODI and Twenty20 in a particular season. This would also allow them to take breaks as an when they want or to apply to play cricket in teams from other countries.
The board could allow 10 days leave to senior cricketers (Five players at a time) to play in some premier leagues of other countries (During the times when they are part of one of the above two teams). The non-member players i.e. the cricketers who have not been considered for playing in one of the teams could simply apply to be allowed to play in International Premier leagues ( something similar to IPL).
The senior players should however also make a commitment to participate in the domestic cricket tournaments where they must play in atleast any of the 5 games, if selected, and not playing for one of the above two teams. However, the 5 games need not compulsorily be of Ranji Level. Playing in national IPL league could be counted as one of the games. I had talked earlier about national and international versions of Premier leagues.
I think the issue of captaincy could rest with only few people and preferably I would love Sehwag, Gambhir or Dhoni to lead the Limited version teams when some of them are not playing in the side. In Test cricket the choices could rest between Dravid or Lakshman if one of the Sehwag, Gambhir or Dhoni are not into the Test side. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina could be their understudies.
I wish India also sends promotional teams ( comprising of the other available talent) into countries which want to participate and progress in cricket in future say the upcoming teams like Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, UAE, Kenya, Bermuda, Scotland et al. and help organize atleast 3 International games in countries which offer to support cricket and host the games featuring the top world teams or even top IPL teams. Developed countries like US, China, Germany, France, Japan may thus be allowed atleast to have a couple of T20 International games.
If the BCCI and ICC pay heed to such suggestions I think cricket could definitely be far more widespread than its presence base of just 9 Test cricket playing countries. Let us hope then that sooner or later the game of T20 finds its way into Olympics. India would have a chance to win Gold with so much of talent available at their disposal.
Abhaya Sharma
Mumbai 25th December 2009 1.50 AM IST
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