Economics and politics dominated an auction that left a pair of veterans counting their blessings

If you’re Mohammad Kaif, a lottery ticket would be a smart move, while Damien Martyn could do worse than contemplate the tables at Bellagio or Caesar’s Palace. Neither man has played international cricket for more than three years, and Kaif’s performances in the inaugural Indian Premier League – he didn’t even make the Rajasthan Royals squad for the second season in South Africa – were as ordinary as Martyn’s brief flirtation with the nearly forgotten Indian Cricket League.

The Royals, captained and coached by Shane Warne, bought out Kaif’s $675,000 (£412,000) contract before the auction to free up the space that they then filled with the classy 38-year-old batsman who was once Warne’s brother in baggy-green arms. If that raised eyebrows, there was bemusement when Kings XI Punjab, who have appointed Kumar Sangakkara as captain in place of Yuvraj Singh, splashed out $250,000 for Kaif, whose batting is usually conspicuously devoid of the power and pizzazz associated with Twenty20 cricket.

Many of the headlines in England on Wednesday will focus on the lack of interest in Graeme Swann, but the Twitter-friendly off-spinner’s IPL tale is far from over. The auction represents only the most high-profile route into the league. There are other ways. Both the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings have injured players that they can replace before the action begins on 12 March. In Mumbai’s case, they will have only the $100,000 that they spent on Kyle Mills last season, but Chennai have a whopping $1.55 million to draw on, having seen Andrew Flintoff go under the surgeon’s knife yet again. Don’t be surprised to see Swann or Doug Bollinger, another who attracted no interest, fielding a few calls from agents over the coming days.

With the auction taking place in Mumbai, a city subjected to the worst terror attacks ever seen in India, there was little doubt that the story of the day was the shunning of the 11 Pakistan players on the auction list. When Richard Madley, who usually helps sell antiques and Read more…

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Over four wonderful days in Mysore last week, Indian cricket reconnected with its romantic past. With every season, the past recedes further and the romance is strengthened by distance. We remember things that never happened, recall events through the filter of fantasy. Heroes of the past are larger than life; the triumphs they authored take on a hue that current successes will take a long time to match.

Yet, except for the detail that Karnataka failed to win the title, the Ranji Trophy final was probably the best the team was involved in. Especially since unlike in the past triumphs, the heroes were future stars rather than established players. But it was more than that. For one, there was more action, more excitement than in the entire one-day tournament that was being held around the same time in Bangladesh.

The final was at the other end of the scale from the IPL – it needed no gimmicks, no hype, no commentators paid to sing its praises. Spectators didn’t have to be enticed into the stadium with promises of heart-stopping action on field and off it. There were no cheer leaders, and yet fans clung on to trees, occupied nearby structures, hung on to every available space.

More importantly – a throwback to an earlier era – they cheered good cricket from both teams. After Ajit Agarkar’s final catch, there was a stunned silence where disappointment, relief (from tension), excitement were all nicely mixed. The faces said it all. And then there was spontaneous applause, as the visiting team were given a standing ovation.

It is tempting to say that the Ranji final transported us back into a more innocent time but that would be taking it too far. This was no innocent knock in the park; some of the player behaviour was appalling. The teams played hard, and sought to take every advantage in the modern fashion. Quick reaction from the umpires and the match referee might have kept the emotions of an Agarkar in check. There was too the terrible sight of a team lining up to hurl abuse at a dismissed batsman.

But when this match is recalled years from now, it will not be the player behaviour or the official weaknesses that will be recalled, but the quality of the batting and bowling, and Read more…

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Pace-bowling all-rounder Ganapathi Chandrasekar has improved with each match

“I want to be a hero for my State in pressure situations,” he declares. The words are as forthright as the man himself.

Ganapathi Chandrasekar has walked the talk this season. The transformation in the pace-bowling all-rounder as he journeyed from the fringes to the centre-stage has been remarkable.

The 28-year-old cricketer has grown in belief. The feisty cricketer has been all heart and commitment when it matters. “Ganapathi now thinks he can make a real difference to the side. This is important,” says State coach W.V. Raman.

Tamil Nadu was a dominant force in Group ‘A’ of the Ranji Trophy Super League, and Ganapathi put his hand up for the side in critical junctures.

His figures this season during the league phase are impressive. Ganapathi has 18 wickets in seven matches at 21.16. He has also notched up 502 runs at 83.66 with two centuries; only S. Badrinath has scored more runs than Ganapathi in the league for the State this season.

The statistics stand out, but do not tell the complete story. They do not quite reflect the fact that Ganapathi delivered under great duress.

Tamil Nadu had conceded the first innings lead to Himachal Pradesh at Dharamshala. Then, with little hope of forcing a win, the side set Himachal a target of 247 in a maximum of 60 overs.

Enter Ganapathi. He sliced through the Himachal top and middle-order with the new ball and then L. Balaji blew away the tail. The host were bundled out for just 155 in 47.4 overs.

“The mood in the dressing room was electric. There was great joy and relief. I was happy to have played a part. I love challenges,” says Ganapathi.

He relished the sniff of a combat with the willow as well. Tamil Nadu was reeling at 50 for five on day one against Mumbai in Mumbai. Ganapathi joined S. Badrinath in the middle and Read more…

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Many records were broken in the recent run feast in India. One record went unnoticed. Sri Lanka became the first Test squad to contain as many as 4 wicketkeepers - Prasanna Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, TM Dilshan and Kaushal Silva.

Actually, there was a 5th wicketkeeper. At 47, the manager Brendon Kuruppu is still trim. As the oldest member of the army of wicketkeepers, Kuruppu must have been disappointed that he was not called up.

Ironically, the first choice Prasanna Jayawardene kept poorly. He either dropped catches or obstructed the slips. Virender Sehwag, who is second only to Viv Richards as a merciless hitter, made merry.

In Kanpur and Mumbai, maiden overs were rare. Even dot balls were hard to come by.

In the ODIs, Sangakkara has been even worse than Jayawardene. On Friday, two easy chances were put down off the rampant Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the same over. Luckily, Dilshan’s assault and Matthews calmness took Sri Lanka across the line.

Sanga has often relied on his exceptional batting and speaking to cover up his faults on the field. He will be remembered as the finest speaker among the world’s top batsmen. The media has been carried away by his well-spoken manner. Cricketers should be judged on their performance on the pitch not on the mike.

Sanga cannot combine the responsibility of captaincy, wicketkeeper and the leading batsmen in any form of the game. One of the three must be discarded. He has lost the first virtue of any gloveman. He does not watch the ball on to his gloves. Instead, he grabs it.

Dhoni’s fortune as a captain and keeper cannot be the benchmark for Sangakkara. Dhoni does not bat in the top order. The Indian captain is not the sword of his team’s batting. He is just a bit player in a batting powerhouse. Instead of Sanga, Dilshan or Prasanna should Read more…

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Sandeep Dwivedi pieces together the diverse stories of 15 young cricketers who have come together to represent India in the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand in January

At the Bandra-Kurla Complex, the Ranji Trophy match between Mumbai and Tamil Nadu had been reduced to another mundane race for the first-innings lead, and the mood around the stadium reflectedthe predictability of the looming draw.

Providing a stark contrast to that, on the sidelines, were a bunch of chatty boys wearing India colours. These 15 had been picked from among several budding talents spread across this one-sport country to represent India and the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand next month. The starry-eyed optimism was evident as well as infectious, and a welcome distraction from the action on the field.

In the past, the junior World Cup has regularly proven to be an elevator capable of taking players right up to the big league, and these child actors were aware of the opportunity that could make them superstars.

Different strokes

That Indian cricket has moved out of the cities and into smaller corners is no secret anymore; even so, the cricketing journeys of some of these players are as remarkable as they are diverse. If it wasn’t for cricket, most of them wouldn’t have crossed each others’ paths, forget being constant companions on what is likely to be an exciting journey.

Skipper Ashok Meenaria, for example, is one of the first people from Udaipur’s community of temple priests to take up sport as a career, while the team’s premier spinner — left-armer Harmeet Singh — is the son of a Mumbai-based property dealer and an exception in his own family for his choice of vocation.

Meenaria’s coach, Manoj Chaudhary, says his ward hasn’t missed a single day of practice since he first came to him as a nine-year-old, and adds that the way in which he turned a docile Read more…

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If Murali Vijay has not yet sent Gautam Gambhir’s sister a thank you card, he should do so now, for it was her wedding and Gambhir’s insistence on attending it that gave the Tamil Nadu opener a chance to cement a place in the Indian team. He didn’t make a century that was his for the asking, and in the blinding light of Virender Sehwag’s effort, all supporting acts were relegated to the shadows anyway. But more than the runs he made, it was the manner of making them that suggested – dare we say it? – he might be the Rahul Dravid of the next generation.

With Sehwag and Gambhir established as the opening combination for some time, Vijay will have to drop down the order in the national team, a journey in the reverse direction from the one usually taken by Indian openers.

Till the arrival of Sunil Gavaskar in 1971, opening batsmen in Indian cricket were seen as sacrificial lambs. Even the best – Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali, Pankaj Roy – began as middle order batsmen who were forced to become openers. Often it was enlightened self-interest that led to the decision, many seeing in the move a chance to keep a regular place in the side by bravely offering to open.

Murali Vijay played the medium pacers comfortably, getting out of the way of the short-pitched deliveries both easily and elegantly, and when Muttiah Muralidaran came on, drove him past cover with the minimum of effort. He brought up his fifty with a six, and at no point in the 200-plus partnership with Sehwag did he look like a man playing in only his second Test. It was a confident, professional innings that was aesthetically pleasing as well, and that is a combination of virtues few young Indian batsmen bring to their efforts.

India are on the verge of a generational change in their batting line-up. Sourav Ganguly has retired, and it is possible that the Tendulkar-Dravid-Laxman combination has played its last Test at home. Gambhir himself has been a worthy replacement, and if Vijay lives up to the promise he has shown so far, then the blow at the rapid retirements will be considerably reduced. India, spoilt by the exploits by their fabulous middle order, will settle for nothing less than high Read more…

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Rejoice. After 77 years of trying, we are finally No 1 in the ICC Test cricket rankings.  A 2-0 victory over Sri Lanka in a three Test series makes you feel real good.

Here's a review of the series:

Like Sehwag, MS Dhoni often doesn't get much credit for what he does for the team and the country. I agree that the Indian captain's batting style is pretty ungainly. But can anyone doubt its efficacy? Both his centuries were crucial to the team's cause - the 110 in Ahmedabad took India to a position of relative safety; his 100 in Mumbai ensured that Murali wouldn't be able to take a second shot at us. Why complain about methods when it gives you the right results?

The best thing about Dhoni is his level-headedness. At the post-match interview, he told Ravi Shastri that maintaining the No 1 position would be the real challenge. That's a leader with a vision. I would reiterate, make him the captain till the 2011 World Cup.

I was also surprised that Shastri got Tendulkar for the interview immediately after the match. It was good listening to the world's highest run scorer. But I was expecting someone like Dravid.

Dravid's contribution in the series was second to none.  His 177 saved us in the first Test. Otherwise, we might have had a totally different end to the contest.  He had another ton in the second Test and scored 70 plus again in the third.  We saw a new Dravid this time - he was ready to be more aggressive, more adventurous.  One would have liked to know what really brought about the change in his attitude. So why not him? Why does he have to be in the shadows every time?

Two factors clearly went in our favour in this series. Our catching, as Dhoni too pointed out, was pretty good.  Unlike the Lankans who were surprisingly butterfingered, we snapped up nearly everything.

The umpiring decisions, especially in the third Test, also went much in our favour. I would say, it made a difference to the outcome. Dilshan got two rank bad decisions in Mumbai. If something like that had happened to one of our top batters, we would have had a national debate. Besides, Dravid and Tendulkar and others also got decisions to their advantage. That surely Read more...

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As Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid prepare to leave the stage, the young pretenders are waiting in the wings

Sachin Tendulkar was 17 when he lit up the Summer of Graham (Gooch) with a match-saving 119 not out at Old Trafford. It was his first Test century, in his ninth match. Nearly two-and-a-half years later, the 23-year-old Brian Charles Lara had the old-timers harking back to Sir Garfield Sobers as he stroked a magnificent 277 at the SCG. It was his fifth Test in the maroon cap. Half a decade later, Ricky Ponting was a year younger when he played his sixth Test. His maiden Test hundred (127) and a 268-run partnership with Matthew Elliott were pivotal in deciding the destination of the little urn.

Last week, two 19-year-olds from opposite sides of the world made brilliant debut hundreds on either side of the Tasman Sea. Adrian Barath’s effort was one of the few bright spots in an another depressing West Indian performance away from home, while Umar Akmal’s technique and poise couldn’t quite save Pakistan in a fascinating Test at Dunedin.

Both have been talked about for a while. Barath was considered special by no less than Lara himself, and those who watched the Champions League Twenty20 in October quickly discovered what the fuss was about. Even in a form of the game where the ugly mow over midwicket is the default option, it was noticeable how much time he had to play his strokes and how beautifully he executed them. The Hyderabad crowds that grew up watching stylists such as ML Jaisimha and Mohammad Azharuddin took to him in a big way, just as they did to the rest of the Trinidad & Tobago side.

Umar had also been cherry-picked from the Under-19 side. Long before he made his debut, those that followed domestic cricket in Pakistan were talking of how he was even better than Kamran, his older brother who also keeps wicket. Lest it be forgotten, Kamran made one of the great centuries of our age, taking Pakistan from 0 for 3 and 39 for 6 to victory against India Read more…

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Indian pitches are difficult to predict. Even Gods refrain from doing so simply because you never know how they will behave on D-day. Analysts and observers have made their points about the centre wicket at the historical Brabourne Stadium, but no one knows what the 22-yard strip — for the third and last Test between India and Sri Lanka beginning here on Wednesday — actually has on offer.

As usual, the curators promised ’sporting tracks’ for the first and second Tests at Ahmedabad and Kanpur respectively. The phrase has been used and abused to no end and well, neither of the wickets was even close to ’sporting’.

For the third Test match, experts have come out with different opinions. Some predict that it is going to be ’sporting’ (again!) wicket, some say it will be unpredictable and a few believe it is going to favour the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan and Harbhajan Singh.

Test cricket has returned to the picturesque venue after more than three decades and hence, it won’t be easy to predict the nature of a pitch which has been rarely used. The local or domestic matches here are played on the side pitches. During the 2006 Champions Trophy, the wickets here faced a lot of wrath for their slowness.

However, Milind Rege, CCI’s cricket-in charge, promises a sporting track calling it a “true Test wicket.”

“There will be bounce and pace at the start and as the game progresses, the spinners will get some help. Batsmen will also enjoy batting here as it is a true wicket,” the former Mumbai skipper added.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had nothing extraordinary to say on match-eve. “It looks like a normal Mumbai track with the same soil, of course. There will be a bit of bounce for the fast bowlers and as the game progresses, you will see the spinners coming into action. They Read more…

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Set along the many jewels of the Queen’s Necklace in south Mumbai, the Brabourne Stadium has a grand, old-worldly charm. Everything about the place, veiled under the calm white façade, speaks of the times long gone. But it’s not a neglected, ageing wonder. The 72-year-old institution is about to begin its second innings when Test cricket comes calling again on Wednesday.

International cricket made a re-entry onto this turf in 2006, under harsh floodlights. The venue even witnessed the phenomenon of Twenty20 cricket. It’s now time for the real thing. In danger from the younger, faster versions, Test cricket will return to the Brabourne after 36 years when India take on Sri Lanka in the third and final match of the series.

With the Wankhede Stadium, which was born due a dispute between the Mumbai Cricket Association and Brabourne’s caretakers-the Cricket Club of India-over seating capacity, under renovation for the 2011 World Cup, Brabourne will host the Test.

The teams, India and Sri Lanka, had the taste of it as they had their first practice session on Monday. India, with a huge win in the second Test at Kanpur, lead the series 1-0.

The last time India played at the Brabourne, against England in 1973, they were just about asserting their presence on the world stage. The series followed their stupendous wins on West Indian and English soils.

Once again, they return to the venue in search of supremacy. If India win, they will end the year as the number one Test team in the world.

“I am delighted that Test cricket is back at the Brabourne,” said a nostalgic Ajit Wadekar, captain of the India team when they last played here. “We have some great memories here. There are few grounds which have that special atmosphere.”

Guessing on how the pitch would play out over five days is a risky exercise. For the record, 11 out of the 17 Test matches here have ended in a draw and, historically, it has been a happy hunting ground for the batsmen. The last Test here produced 1239 runs, but that was almost Read more…

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