Art on Clay ….

Its tennis season. Things go kind of crazy. Earlier this month somebody spent 19 days (and $1.63 m) to prepare a court which was half grass-half clay. And then matched Federer and Nadal in an exhibition game on it. Nadal won.
Now though, for the real thing. Yesterday, through a bit of rain we started off [...]

The Wright Way To Coach …

If anyone hasn’t read John Wright’s indian summers, please get it NOW. Its got sincerity in every word.
Anyway, here’s a passage from the book. This is just after his appointment and ahead of his first Test for India.
I made a point of talking to the former Indian all-rounder Ravi Shastri, who was part of the [...]

Steve Waugh – And judging captains ..

In the big picture, history will judge every captain by what his team achieved. Thats all it comes down to. Results . Wins. Losses. Stats. And how the players under him progressed.
In terms of pure results, Steve Waugh’s numbers are pretty straightforward.
Captained Australia in 57 Tests. Won 41. Lost 10. Drew 6. Thats a 71.92 [...]

Bangladesh 2007

Lets just get this out of the way.
 We went there with our cricket at a pretty low point. Knocked out of the World Cup before the Super 8s, talk of rifts within the team , a coach who we could find nothing right with and Sachin and Saurav “rested” for the ODIs meant we were left to [...]

Still not good enough … Bring back yesterday.

Sachin Tendulkar. 254 runs. 127 avg. 2 centuries.
Yes, its against a weak bowling attack and its on batting surfaces but its still the highest in his team.
But over at Cricinfo, Sidhartha Monga combines with Stats editor S Rajesh to ask this. Whither Tendulkar ?
Sorry ?
Maybe its because there’s a lot of cricket being [...]

Driving home a point ….

So here’s a case of a gamble paying off. Handsomely. Had spoken in this post about how India’s team selection for the second Test was a huge vote of confidence and hence, a part of the battle won before a shot was fired – or a coin tossed.
India have now gone on to [...]

Not Too Shabby ….

326-0 after being put in on day one.
There’s Dravid on an “effortlessly brilliant” (Cricinfo’s words) 88 and Sachin at the crease. And yes, thats 3 and 4 batting with the team at “no loss” cos the openers retired hurt from heat exhaustion basically.
The weather forecast (at least at the moment of writing is [...]

Chink ? Think Again …

In a move which oozes confidence and sneers at short sighted doubters like this one here, Rahul Dravid has announced the 12 for the game starting tomorrow morning at Mirpur.
And no, there is no sign of any pressure of having missed chances or the risk of going home 0-0. What there is , is a [...]

Right man, wrong job …

India’s looking for a coach. They say Dav Whatmore’s a frontrunner and I have thoughts on that. I like Sandeep Patil too. And I have thoughts on why he could be the one as well. But thats not what this post is about. Hopefully its not even about an Indian coach.
A few days ago, I [...]

A Chink in The Wall ….

Sun Tzu said ………………..that if you see ground or position to be gained but do not act, you are weak.
I’m a huge Dravid fan. But no matter how I cut it, Day 4 and 5 of the Chittagong Test were not the perfect antidote to a skipper doubtless on the low end of [...]

A Day At The Office …?

I’ve often wondered if a sportsperson going out to perform at the big arena is actually just treating it like another day at work. Surely they are not. Surely the pressure is immense. Surely the chances of success are more limited. Surely the price of failure is higher.
So, if it isn’t a day at work, [...]

Look Ma, No Hands .. (nor feet of clay)

Roger Federer won his first Grand Slam under Peter Lundgren’s guidance. Wimbledon 2003. Six months later, they parted ways.
In Feb 2004, without a coach, Federer became World no 1. He also won 3 more Grand Slams. All except the French Open.
In 2005, he signed up with Tony Roche. Who’d until then worked Ivan Lendl [...]

Thinking out of the box – and recognising it !

A few days ago , I wrote here of John Buchanan’s wonderful plans of having ambidextrous cricketers. Somewhere in there was a Roebuck article that spoke similar.
Cricket’s changing. And its changing fast.
Maybe, sometimes too fast.
Take a look at this post by Karthikeya.
Its a brilliant example of a sharp observation by a keen student of the game. [...]

Dew Essence …

Unlike all the gibberish that I put on this site , this is what my wife does.
 
She designs all this stuff herself and then runs this site.
 
Dew Essence

Ind v B’desh – 1st Test – & the I.V.Y. league

End of day 2 and we’re 384-6 – its been 97 overs of play when there should have been about twice as many. We’ve got them at about 4 an over. The “rest” seems to have done Sachin and Ganguly some good with both getting centuries. One gets 100, the other gets 101. And they [...]

Note to self …

this is a cricket blog ..
posts on other sports and other sportsmen – for example this and that may not be bad views but they’re not the best conversation generators …

First, Trust Yourself …

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times.
He’d earlier won against cancer in 1996.
Lance Armstrong knew about winning. This, though, is a bit about his first year while defending what he’d won. Its not the same thing. Like he said “I started the 2000 tour with a bull’s eye on my back. [...]

Vigaro ….

I know the title of this post sounds ominously like a blue pill – and will divert the wrong kind of people from search engines.
But this is whats going on.
This is a photograph of a variation of cricket – involving a tennis racket and six stumps . Its being played on Radlett Heath, July 1906.
And [...]

Steve Waugh … (episode 1)

This may surprise a few of my friends. (Its possible to have opinions and friends).But Steve Waugh is amongst my favourite cricketers. To the point of being amongst my favourite men.
It doesn’t matter that his brother was by far the more graceful bat. To the point that there were jokes about Afghanistan. (yeah, “the forgotten [...]

So, Today I have a dumb question …

For everybody with reshaping domestic league and academy ideas ….
 If the English Premiership with its fantastic viewership worldwide and the Spanish La Liga are amongst the two best in the world, attracting and showcasing the best soccer and inspiring generation after generation of talent, then why are England and Spain ranked 8th and 9th worldwide [...]

Its all about coaches today ..

First it turns out that Tom Moody’s going back to Western Australia. Then it seems that an Indian family had something to do with that decision. Well, at least in some part. Or thats the way we like to paint it.
Meanwhile , seems like rain’s gonna play a big role in the rest of the [...]

My Spider Sense is Tingling ….

Even if one ignores all the events of the past few years, and just looks at the past few weeks and the frenzy thats been whipped up, its hard not to get the feeling that there’s a strong possibility of a chapter in cricket history books about to be changed somewhere.
I’ll tell you where I’m [...]

Wonder who they came to see …

A day at work starts for Sir Don …
Headingley. August, 1938.
Photographer unknown.

Won 2, lost the one that mattered …

Yeah yeah .. One shouldn’t cry over spilt milk.
But as we sealed the series with a win in the second game today, one was still left wondering about wtf ( I still love “whiskey tango foxtrot” – and thats basically cos I cant dance to save my life) we were going through mentally with [...]

Like a Rolling Stone …

Mick Jagger returns to his seat.
The rest of the crowd looks for satisfaction elsewhere.
The Final Australia vs England Test of the 1972 series .
The Oval.
Photographer Unknown

Roger Federer …

I think the reason that I look at Cricket the way I do is because it symbolised a lot. And so a lot of excellence that one sees, one likes to equate with cricket. And so, even tho I might say this is a cricket blog, I’ll pretty shamelessly write here, (probably increasingly) about anything [...]

Points to Prove …

When you think about it, its just like it is for most of us. Its a day at the office. But it isn’t really, is it ?
 First game today between India and Bangladesh kicks off in about a half hour’s time. (They’re not showing it here in Singapore say the looters at Starhub.)
There’s the background [...]

Just nod if you can hear me ….

Since people visiting here seem to come from somewhat of a similar bandwidth as moi often (sorry for the morning jibe !) , and since popular search words to get to the site include “Rohit Brijnath” (and err ..rambha), and since Homer talking about Brijnath in 1993 reminded me , and since I have always [...]

A 100 Sledges …?

This is the great Sir Don Bradman on sledging.
“I played under Alan Kippax in New South Wales for some time, I played under Jack Ryder in the Test series in 28-29, I played under Bill Woodfull in 1930 until he retired, and I captained the side until I retired. And in the whole of [...]

Slip Sliding Away ….

And so there we have it .
Another sting operation on TV by Aaj Tak And Headlines Today. As of the moment of this post, the only reports I can find are the ones on Cricinfo and Indiatimes .

The “revelations”  spoke to four national selectors – Ranjib Biswal, Bhupinder Singh Sr, Venkatapathy Raju and Sanjay Jagdale, [...]

A smoke before the Ashes ..

One of my favourite photographs.
They’d written him off. Stripped him off his captaincy. The rest is history.
This is Ian Botham reflecting on his match changing innings for England against Australia in the Third test at Headingly, July 1981.
Adrian Murrell / AllSport

Squashing Sportsmanship …

I didn’t want to post on the whole topic of Gilly having a squash ball in his glove. Because the innings was brilliant. And to produce genius on a big stage is special. Its as simple as that.
As far as the whole saga and the technicalities go, I don’t think there are clear cut answers [...]

Who’s wearing the bowler’s hat ?

This is a list of bowlers with 200 or more wickets in Test Cricket. The ones still playing are highlighted in bold.
Warne – 708 ; Murali – 674 ; Mcgrath – 563 ;
Kumble – 547 ; Walsh – 519 ; Kapil Dev – 434 ;
RJ Hadlee – 431 ; Shaun Pollock – 416 ;
Wasim Akram [...]

“What do they know of cricket who only cricket know” .. (2)

For so long he hadn’t needed any of it; not the support of the fans, not the presence of family,not the on-court histrionics.Pete Sampras did not scream, “That’s what I’m talking about!” after winning a set in his prime,half a decade ago, and he didn’t take motivation from words lovingly scribbled on a piece of [...]

Australia’s winning habit

Peter Roebuck yet again …. and its a small piece but they all count.Here.
Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting says its the proudest moment in his cricketing career in this article here.
Increasingly get the feeling that Michael Clarke is the next man to take Australia forward if Hussey slips up.
We shall see.

And before you know it …

This is how it started. I read somewhere that John Buchanan wanted to develop ambidextrous cricketers. Seriously. Look here and here.
And sometimes you come across something so incredibly out of the ordinary that you wonder if its actually just something you hadn’t thought hard enough about. So i read up cursorily about it.
And as with [...]

The Aussies Arrive … !!

No, I didn’t get my links mixed up.
This is a 1926 photograph of the Australian tourists train from Paddington to Liverpool.
(photographer unknown – from Cricket – the golden age – extraordinary images from 1859 to 1999    )

Huh ?

I mean seriously ! Don’t numbers count for anything anymore?
So I went to the Cricket Australia site this morning. And somewhere in the middle of the homepage is this User Poll.
“Which Team are you most looking forward to seeing in Australia next summer”

Sri Lanka

India

New Zealand

And I’m thinking, these Aussies love their cricket. And [...]

Captain and Coach.

I know I shouldn’t go there again. But its a perspective I want to share.
For those that haven’t read Steve Waugh’s 800 odd page opus “Out of My Comfort Zone”, please do. Its an amazing study into the mind of a cricketer and human being that stretches his boundaries to optimise his potential and live [...]

Pictures Tell Stories.

This is Harold Larwood.
In 1933, he played in Australia during Bodyline. For England.
In 1956, 23 years later, he was delivering for Pepsi. In Sydney.
Times Change. Life Goes On.
(pic by Dennis Rowe from Cricket – the golden age – extraordinary images from 1859 to 1999)

Oh Captain, My Captain ..

This is going to be a long post. With lots of stories and lots of links. And thats basically because it confounds me that people doubt the integrity of the guy. I can understand that they sometimes consider him baggage in the fast evolving version of the one day game. But a saboteur? Rahul Dravid [...]

Pardon the noise, Mr Kalam.

Or Mr Murthy … Or whoever..
And sorry but this isn’t cricket either – but am a huge fan of the sport and even if this is  a figment of someone’s imagination, its good enough for me .. a F1 race on Rajpath !.
Flag it off !!

John Buchanan …

on the prospects of a job in India and other things here.

The Woolmer Story

As of the moment, the only video link I can see of  Woolmer and BBC Panorama Story..
here