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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This is the silly season of cricket, so being to the point (literally) and maybe even inane, is quite in. So here’s my take on why the Champions League T20 isn’t justifying the pre-event hype… as yet.

1. T20s… just too blah
Whatever anyone says about the death of Tests or ODIs, perhaps people are finally waking up to the fact that one T20 game is pretty much like the other. Yawn…

2. Where are our He-Men?
We Indians like our desi big brands. Other than a few good men, Dravid and Kumble in Bangalore, or Gambhir and Sehwag (and to a lesser extent Nehra and Karthik) in the Daredevils, there’s not much for Indians to get starry-eyed about. (Except in that cool boat ad). No Sachin, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Bhajji, Ganguly, Zaheer or even poor Ishant.

3. Phoren teams? So what?
When we don’t care about our own domestic cricket (am sure Neo isn’t even asking for the ratings of this year’s Challenger Series) what chance of our caring about cricket or cricketers from clubs most of India has never even heard of?

4. Howzatt! You mean, ‘Who’s that’?
We Indians also like our designer foreign brands. And they’re not around. No Smith, Ponting, Hayden, Flintoff, Pietersen, Warne, Vettori, AB… and no melodramatic Pakistanis! Okay, so we have Gilchrist holding the Deccan flag aloft and Gibbs disappearing before he can say hello for the Cobras. Then there’s Brendon McCullum (traitor!) on for Otago, that quiet Kallis, and a subdued, shorn Kallis. Not enough, mate.

5. Big-ticket event doesn’t equal big crowds
Basically, despite the tournament being cricket’s richest prize, the BCCI-IPL is treating the event just like they treat domestic cricket in India — with disdain. Outside of the corporate Read more…

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Congratulations, Pakistan! Younis Khan's men deserved to win as much as MS Dhoni's boys deserved to lose in the Champion's Trophy game on Saturday. Pakistan weren't just the better team on paper; they were superior on the pitch too. They outdid India in every aspect of the game, including delivering no-balls.
 
We lost because we played mediocre cricket. And that's because without Zaheer, Sehwag and Yuvraj, we ARE a mediocre team. None of our bowlers is good enough to play for Pakistan. Most of their bowlers can walk into our side. The real problem is that we seem to be satisfied with mediocrity. It requires very little for players like Ishant Sharma or RP Singh to find a place in the playing XI.
 
Sharma seems more interested in restricting runs than taking wickets. Just recall how frequently he gets wickets in his first spell. It has been long since he effectively moved the ball. And he seems to lack the fire to bowl fast. His figures 8-2-39-2 will never reflect how ineffective he was.
 
It is the same story with RP Singh. Without pace and movement, he looks like a lamb to the slaughter. Relatively speaking, Praveen Kumar offers a better package: he is a better batsman, a better fielder and certainly has more craft and variation. But, for some reason, Singh seems to be regularly preferred.
 
And one shouldn't dismiss Harbhajan's 1 for 71 (the wicket came of his last ball) as 'one of those bad days'. Like Sharma, he too prefers to restrict a batsman than attack him. I am aware that he has over 200 ODI wickets and that he grabbed 5 wickets in the Colombo final earlier this month. But how consistently does he make effective bowling contributions? Just look at his bowling record in the last 10 games. Apart from the final, he has seven wickets in the other 9 games. One slow bowler who has really impressed in recent times - with his art as well as Read more...

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Remember Mario? Yes, the famous video game character. Once you start playing it, you don’t feel like leaving it till you have gulped every coin, earned several lives or popped out those hidden powers. It’s mesmerizing, isn’t it? And what is more exciting about it is that I can restart, control or may be discard it whenever I want - seems quite familiar with BCCI’s attitude towards most of the cricketing activities by the ICC.

The on-going BCCI vs WADA tussle ruled the news bulletins for obvious reasons. Top Indian cricketers – MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh - took a stand against the ‘whereabouts’ clause in the latest code by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and BCCI, expectedly, backed it. In an emergency meeting, the cricket body, rejected the clause that required it players to reveal their location one hour each day for three months in advance for out of competition tests. The reasons it cited were that the clause was unreasonable, it invaded players’ privacy and violated the Constitution of Indian.

So, what’s the big deal about it? Well…BCCI is the only sports body to do so out of 571 sporting organizations ranging from International Olympics Committee, International Paralympic Committee, International Sports Federation and the code has been approved by UNESCO.

Take this. They say it’s an invasion of privacy. Yes it is, but then why would a world organization change a clause for a country’s cricket body, not even the sports ministry, if I may say so. Considering the fact that the revised Anti-Doping Code came into being on January 1 this year and July 31 was the deadline to sign the code, why did BCCI and players wake up late Read more…

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After the disastrous T20 World Cup, MS Dhoni and company have shown a welcome return to form in winning the ODI series against West Indies 2-1.

The victory may be inconsequential but this is not a trivial triumph. India has won only one ODI series in the Caribbean before. Rain or no rain, clinching an away series is never easy.

This victory illustrates a certain fighting spirit in the team. Team India had justifiably been savaged for its poor showing in the T20 World Cup. That it has clinched this series, despite fatigue and the absence of key players such as Sehwag, Sachin and Zaheer, shows a certain commitment towards excellence. That’s commendable.

Nonetheless, watching the games, certain questions kept troubling me:

1. Why was this series organised in the first place?: Only the BCCI could have come up with the inane idea of sending a team to the other side of the world to play a mere four ODIs. That too immediately after the gruelling IPL2 and the T20 World Cup. Read more...

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My recent post about Queensland replacing Western Australia as the production line for fast bowlers, got me thinking about why such patterns emerge and what factors may trigger change. Why has the West Indies’ factory come to such a shuddering halt for example? There was a time when some of the guys who could not make their first XI would have been snapped up by any other international team. Chaps like Sylvester Clarke, Wayne Daniel and Ezra Moseley were genuinely scary but couldn’t regularly crack the top team.

As much as Australia and South Africa continue to churn out good quicks, why is it now the case that some of the best fast bowling talent is emerging from the subcontinent? It’s a much a cultural shift as anything else – fast bowlers are no longer viewed as the quick entrée before the main meal. Is it down to coaching, nutrition, equipment or even a change in the physique of the Asian male?

To get some answers from someone who has recent experience of the art of fast bowling in Australia and India, I hunted down Joey Dawes, former Queensland and Middlesex fast bowler and the current fast bowling coach of the Queensland Bulls. Just in case there was any doubt about his commitment to the ‘club’, Joey also runs a specialist business which converts ‘joggers’ into fast bowling shoes by spiking them according to the individual’s running style, heel pattern, bowling action etc. It’s a pretty scientific operation, in consultation with podiatrists and other health professionals. Read more…

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