Cricket World Cup 2007

The Great Indian Dream Over

Image Courtsey: cricinfo.com

So that’s it then. India is out of the world cup after being defeated by Sri Lanka for 69 runs. It would be a time of reflection and introspection. The team needs to be rebuilt and Indian cricket in general has a lot of rebuilding to do. And please let’s not go and vandalize their homes and engage in petty public posturing, although it would be wise for the Indian team not to come back to the country straight away. There is a chance that India could still go through if a miracle occurs (read Bermuda beating Bangladesh), but the saddest truth of it all is that we were not good enough to deserve going to the next round.

Was this unexpected? If the Indian fans were to answer honestly they would say no. And it would seem from their body language that the Indian team did not believe in itself. Even though the team was able to cover up its inadequacies with some good performances at home, they had always struggled in the last one year. It was very clear to see that the Indians were yet to recover from their defeat against Bangladesh. There was a very palpable sense of fear in the way the Indians approached this match. Much as Sri Lanka, my favorite to win the cup, played brilliantly Indian batting was equally pathetic.

This is where the coach’s role needs to be questioned. Agreed the coach doesn’t have a direct hand to play in the events on field. But definitely it is the coach’s job to make the players believe in themselves. This was not the case. It is the coach’s job to make the fitness if not the fielding better. This was also not the case and it was never expected to. I have always believed that most of the criticisms against Chappell were unwarranted. But when a coach who took over with the sole purpose of doing well at the world cup, and whose various experiments were indulged with in the hope that it would help the team do well at the competition, only to see them dumped out of it in the first round itself… well criticism is inevitable.

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Dravid’s captaincy has been disappointing to say the least. He seemed to be following a set pattern and incapable of adapting to the situation. The much celebrated batting line up too should share bulk of the burden. Tough decisions need to be taken. Places in the side should be based on merit and not on past performances. If the great players feel that they are being given a raw deal then let them prove their worth in domestic cricket and come back. Dravid was not able to motivate the players. He has not able to galvanize the team into a single unit. And he along with the coach has to take responsibility for that.

But keep in mind the trinity of Sachin, Sourav and Dravid are not getting younger. It is for them to decide the timing of their retirement from the game. It has to happen sooner or later. And the sooner we start grooming the youngsters the better. If we don’t have enough talent out there then at least instill in them some fighting spirit. Matches are not won by talent alone. Bangladesh and the Australian team of 1987 are testament to that.

Another big concern to me right now is Sachin Tendulkar. I have always been a huge fan of Tendulkar. I have always stuck up to people asking him to be sacked. This is why it was disappointing to see him play the way he did in this world cup. He just doesn’t seem to be there mentally. He has to sit down and assess if he still has the hunger in him. If not retirement at least take a break from the game and start from scratch. There is no disgrace in taking a step backward to reassess one’s strengths. But it is belittling his own achievements and reputation if he continues to play this way.

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The BCCI too is responsible for this debacle. This is a result of the board’s lack of vision in developing the game at the grass roots. It is all fine that the board makes money, but the focus shouldn’t just be on balance sheets. The money gained from the sport should be spent in improving the infrastructure and ability of the players. The Ranji league needs to be revamped and the number of competing teams reduced thereby reducing the number of matches. Only then will we have quality players playing each other regularly. The pitches need to have more variety so that they have the technique to counter any condition. Right now our batting line up is too full of blind bashers who come up copper when playing on a pitch that offers even the slightest of assistance to the bowler.

There couldn’t have been a bigger blow to this world cup commercially than the exit of India and Pakistan. But then again for a World Cup reeling under an avalanche of controversies and scandals this would seem like just another thing that went horribly wrong.

Indian cricket is facing a crisis and it would be better if all involved gets up and smell the coffee before its too late.

Bob Woolmer Murdered?

Cricket takes a back seat at its showpiece event

Image Courtesy: yahoo.com

This World Cup has been mired in more controversies than any of the previous ones. What with controversies and scandals erupting almost daily now, the world cup is more in the news for off the field events than on it. It will be some time before we forget this world cup, that’s for sure.

The controversies were kick started by Sunil Gavaskar and Ricky Ponting going at each other over the Australia’s alleged bad behavior on the field. Things took a nasty turn when Gavaskar dragged the let David Hookes’s name into the whole affair. This further fuelled the controversy and Gavaskar was forced to apologize subsequently for doing it. Boy if we thought that was the end of the controversies at this world cup then were we wrong!!!

Flintoff and a few of his teammates then decided to provide some more spice to the world cup. They were caught by a few of the Britan’s notorious tabloids as having been involved in a late night party at a local bar in the Caribbean on a match day. Flintoff exacerbated the situation by choosing to go on a boating in the rough seas at night and in a completely drunken state. He had to be fished out of the water alter on when his boat capsized. He paid the price for this recklessness by sitting out the next match and more importantly by losing his vice-captaincy of the team.

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There was further shock, thankfully on the field this time, when Ireland and Bangladesh pulled off massive upsets to beat India and Pakistan respectively. The Indians fans reaction to the defeat was as predictably over the top as when they win. Cricketers’ homes were vandalized, effigies burned and generally branded as shameful to the nation. Egged on by a manipulative media and the outrage were at a fever pitch.

Then the biggest controversy exploded which overshadowed everything that has and will happen at this world cup. Barring a calamitous event occurring right on the day of the final, Bob Woolmer’s sudden demise would be the most shocking event cricket world would see for some time. The Pakistani coach was found in a pool of his own vomit. He was also bleeding from the nose and had died. It was generally believed that the stress of the defeat had taken a toll on the South African and that he had succumbed to either a heart attack or a hemorrhage arising out of the stress he was under.

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But speculation refused to die down after his death and now 3 days after his death the Jamaican police has announced that his death was suspicious under the circumstances. Right now it is difficult to differentiate the fact from the fiction, as unconfirmed news beamed 24 hours by the ever vigilant media is fuelling several conspiracy theories. There are reports, that claim to have come from sources with the Jamaican police, that Bob Woolmer was murdered. There are reports which suggest that there are marks around his neck. Some say that his body, when found, was blue in color suggesting that he was poisoned. Some reports claim that the police have found fingerprints in his room and traces of poison too. While others say he was poisoned in his food.

The motive too has been subject to serious speculation. Some claim that he could have been murdered because of a book he was writing, where it was widely believed he would throw more light into the match fixing scandal that had erupted during his tenure as coach of the South African team. They point to the fact that Hansi Cronje, then captain of South Africa and an accused in that case, had also died suddenly in an air crash just like Woolmer had died suddenly now. People like Sarfaras Nawas have publicly said on the day he died itself that the bookmakers are involved in the Woolmer’s death. There are even others who feel that he was killed by angry Pakistani fans upset over their team’s sudden exit from the competition.

Image Courtesy: bbc.com

What is known for a fact so far is that the autopsy has been inconclusive as to the cause of death. The police have announced that the reports of further tests like toxicology and histology are being awaited before any further concrete assumptions can be drawn. Till then all three possibilities are open; murder, suicide and drug overdose.

By this time tomorrow we might have a better idea on how Bob Woolmer passed away. Whatever it may be this could become the biggest thing to have shaken the cricketing world since the match fixing scandal broke out in the early part of this millennium. If Woolmer’s death turns out to be a murder it will be some time before the focus shifts back to the activities on the field.

Cricket World Cup 2007

World’s Most Ignored Sport Fans.

Image Courtsey : Wikipedia.org

There were a couple of matches going on at the world cup yesterday. Australia, the favorites for the tournament, was playing against minnows Scotland. In another match a war of the minnows were going on between Kenya and Canada. Both matches had predictable results. Both were a cure for those suffering from even the acutest insomnia. The case is the same for the matches scheduled for today. In fact barring one match in each of the 4 groups there are no matches in the group stage of this world cup which would make even the most ardent of cricket fans to lose his sleep over.

Personally, the author of this post was not interested in following the matches after a tough day at the office. I was looking for some entertainment which would take my mind off the hectic workload I was bombarded with for the day. Usually I would have followed a cricket match on any given day, but yesterday I couldn’t watch it even for 5 minutes. Watching the Australian toying around with the Scots was as exciting as a watching a match of chess between two unknowns. There was nothing to even stimulate the slightest of interest in the match. David and Goliath is one thing, but this was Goliath and a 90 year old. As for the other match it was a bit more evenly balanced. But even that match failed to generate even the slightest excitement.

My point is who is actually watching these matches? Is there anybody out there who might be watching these matches the full distance other than the guys who get paid for it? The media and the ex-cricketers need to write and discuss about these matches. So they might endure this torture. But what about the ordinary fan. The one person everybody including the ICC, the broadcasters and the advertisers all seem to have forgotten. What about his interests?

The ICC is of the opinion that subjecting the smaller teams to such slaughter at the hands of their more established opponents would help these teams get better. Ya Right!!! Get them better at running away from a cricket field, if they ever were to lay their eyes on one again. The ICC is being delusional if they honestly believe that anyone’s confidence gets better by getting battered black and blue by a bigger opponent. And confidence is the key to success in any sport. There are other better ways of developing the sport in new territories than subjecting these teams to utter humiliation every 4 years.

The broadcasters as well as the ICC believes that pumping in more matches equates to more viewers and hence more revenue by way of advertisements. They are all forgetting the basic rule of demand and supply here. Any time a surplus occur demand obviously goes down thereby devaluing the product. Both these parties need to realize that corporate guys would clamor over one another to advertise their product only if they believe that there is a significant number of people out there would receive their message. They will plug the moment they understand that nobody cares for the sport. So the most important person everybody should be caring about is the fan.

To keep the interest of a fan (the customer) the ICC (the producer) should provide the product that he wants. And the fans want to see good competitive matches. He wants excitement; he wants to see players with skills exhibiting their prowess on the field against equally tough opponents. But this is not how the ICC feels. They feel that they will make a substandard product and have deluded themselves into believing that the audience will lap it up. In an effort to attract new audiences, they are in fact alienating existing ones. I also don’t understand how anyone who watches cricket for the first time will be taken to it when they see Australia playing Scotland.

If there is someone out there who watches these matches just out of the love of the game then the ICC should find him out and get him some important position in the organization. But before doing that they might do well to check if his sanity. On second thought maybe that’s the exact profile the existing honchos of the ICC has.

Related Reads:

Can India bring the world cup home?
The Big Fat Caribbean World Cup
Dropped, Doped or Duped? – The drug scandal in cricket
World Cup Unforgettables – Australia v South Africa, 1999
World Cup Unforgettables – India v Pakistan 1996
The Caribbean Carnival Begins
West Indies wins on the back of good show by young guns

Shoaib Akhtar

Dropped, Doped or Duped? – The drug scandal in cricket

The drug scandal has hit yet another spot. After the perpetual doping cloud hovering over cycling and a whole gamut of other athletic and sporting events, it is now cricket’s turn to face this most scandalous of controversies. Needless to say, the failed drug test of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif is the biggest crisis the sport has faced after the match fixing scandals in the early part of the millennium.

To start off, the way the ICC has dealt with the whole issue is baffling. During the last world cup in 2003, Shane Warne had the dubious distinction of being the first player to be caught of doping. However the ICC gave him only a token punishment of just 1 year. It was in no way the right signal to send to would be offenders. The punishment was too lenient to be a deterrent to others.

But what was even most baffling is the claim by the ICC that drug test would be conducted only for its own premier events; like the world cup and the Champions Trophy. More than anything, this showed how ineffectual the ICC is in running the game. Is the ICC saying that a player is free to take drugs for other tournaments and series, but for some haloed reason the World Cup and such events need to be treated with utmost reverence? Or are they still naïve enough to believe that cricket is still a gentleman’s game and that they lose their honesty only during the World Cup and such event?

Coming back to the Akhtar and Asif saga, these two players were first found to be having high quantities of Nandrolone in their blood in an internal drug test conducted just prior to the Champions Trophy in India. They were subsequently pulled out of the Champions Trophy and were promptly suspended for two years. However they were let off by an appellate tribunal. The duo then went on to play for Pakistan in their recent tour of South Africa.

But there was no doubt that the shadow of doubt regarding their drug offence still persisted and it was no secret that they would be targeted for another round of testing at the World Cup. Probably realizing this, the PCB allegedly sent both these players to England in a futile attempt to flush the traces of Nandrolone from their body. They were even missing from the mandatory drug tests that all their players were subjected to. The excuse given was that the duo was undergoing treatment for their respective injuries.

The entire episode smelt strongly of a massive cover up. If Akhtar and Asif were genuinely injured, the secrecy and intrigue surrounding it defied logic. Both left for treatment on the same plane and went to the same country. But then the place or the kind of treatment they underwent is shrouded in mystery.

The PCB needs to explain to its stake holders the very purpose of their drug tests. Is it for finding drug offenders and punishing them suitably? Or is it for protecting their own players from getting a life ban? The PCB has put at risk its own credibility by choosing to take the later option. They need to make up their minds and convince the rest of the world that Akhtar and Asif were indeed injured and hence were dropped. Otherwise they should come out into the open and take proper action against the duo, thereby admitting to their guilt. But right now the PCB has opted for the stupidest and easiest option. They are trying to dupe the whole world. Only problem is that the world is not as full of fools as they thought