Series Down Under

The Boxing day will be witnessing one of the greatest cricketing battles ever. Tickets are increasing at geometric progression at the MCG. All Indians would love to see that 195 figure repeated by Viru again. Quite interestingly, Australia are a much transformed side, very different from the last time India played them in 2008. They will have a different skipper in Michael Clarke. There would be no
Haydens,Langers,Gillys,McGraths,Warnes. The Clarkes,Husseys,Pattinsons,Siddles would be jumping all along the lush green outfield. Clarke will find himself in the same position that Border used to, 26 years back. Clarke is outgoing,aggressive and wants to be a leader. Border was defiant,steely and had to grow into the job. Border did not have to sit in judgement over a Greg Chappel as Clarke might just have to go with Ponting. All eyes would be on the great Punter who is struggling with his willow at the moment. He should feel lucky enough to find a place in the book of selectors. ACB is always impartial and defiant when it came to selection policies.

    On the other hand, India should not find themselves in a worrying position as the squad looks young,energetic,balanced and competitive. If they can beat Oz,then it might well lead to the conclusion that this Indian team will be dominating the world of cricket for atleast the next decade. It will,probably,be the last outing to Australia for the big 3 i.e.Sachin,Dravid,Laxman.They would probably be playing Ponting and Hussey for the last time in their backyard.Ishant Sharma would be raring to have a go at Ponting. If he succeedes in repeating his 2008 heroics, then Ponting might well bid an adieu to the cricketing world. A bit of bounce with movement would do the trick for him. Umesh Yadav will want to be what Ishant was here 4 years ago.

Mine playing 11 for India would be Gambhir,Sehwag,Dravid,Sachin,VVS,Kohli,Dhoni,Ashwin,Zaheer,Ishant,Yadav and for AUS it would be Warner,Cowan,Ponting,Clarke,Hussey,Marsh,Haddin,Pattinson,Siddle,Starc,Hilfenhaus.

This year India are trying to come back from the hammering in England. These wounds take longer to heal, but an Austalian summer is not a bad place to start with.

Uruguay does it for a record 15th time.

   How many nations have won a major international tournament 15 times?To maintain those stats is the hallmark of a formidable confident side with a sublime history and strong administration to back it up.

   The Copa America came to an end a few days back and it was Uruguay again walking away with the Winners trophy for the 15th time,defeating lacklustre and hapless Paraguay in the final. Luiz Suarez carved his name in the history by becoming the man of the tournament. Diego Forlan was the happiest of the lot as he followed his father and grandfather"s heroics into the record books as Copa American winner. He grabbed 2 goals to take his international tally to 31. So, 3 generations have won it ensuring the name of Forlan stays in history. Uruguay had their heydays in the 1930s when they won the first 2 World Cups and were a force to reckon with,after which they started declining gradually.With their 2011 Copa America triumph, Uruguay are now South America’s most successful team at the continental level. They have won a record 15 titles. Argentina follow behind with a title less whereas third-placed Brazil still have a long way to go with 8 Copa America trophies in their room of honors.

 
   Personally, I want to see 2 things back in sports,especially in cricket and football. The return of Caribbean flavour in Cricket and Brazilian flavour in Football to their acme will be quite heartening to see. Its quite surprising to see the decline of South American giants Brazil and Argentina. Mano Menezes has its task cut out for the 2014 WC in Brazil. The likes of Pele,Ronaldo,Ronaldinho,Rivaldo have disappeared and Brazil is in a rebuilding stage. The only incentive for Brazil would be the home support but as we all know in a tournament like the WC, it hardly matters as every side is rejuvenated to represent his country in the world stage.For Argentina, gone are the days of Maradona and Batistuta and they are struggling to find a new Maradona in Messi,who unfortunately hasnt delivered in World stage as he has in the club matches.

  So barring the lacklustre Brazil and resurgent Spain, every team has to go beyond leaps and bounds to qualify for the WC finals at Rio de Janeiro.

An exciting series ahead....

There will be feeling of nerves when India take on England at the Mecca of Cricket"The Lord"s" which will mark the 2000th & the 100th test between both the sides. What excites me the most is to see how the Indians get acclimatised to the English conditions and hence perform to their best. Indians are a bit fortunate in the sense that they are touring England in the hot summer rather than the early English summer when the ball swings a lot both ways,challenging and thus bringing out the best from the players. As the trend goes, players especially from the sub-continent find it difficult to cope up with the early English summer as was evident from the recently concluded n-Power series between the Poms and Sri Lankans where most of the time,the weather used to decide the result. The ball swinging,seaming and bouncing made life tough for the Lankan batsmen. Thanks to Kumar Sangakkara for playing a gem of an innings by scoring a ton at Rose Bowl on a wicket which was too seam friendly. That was a perfect quintessence as to how quality batsmen will shine immaterial of the nature of the pitch. If the heavens open up at Trent Bridge and Kennington Oval, it can prove to be a real nightmare for the Indian batsmen.

    There will be some interesting battles and war of words to watch out for. It will be quite interesting to see how a Gambhir tackles a Swann who has proved to be extremely dicey to the left-handers of late. Chris Tremlett has asked the curators to prepare lively wickets which will assist pace and bounce and hence, will be raring to go. It will be a real test for him when he bowls to the Indian top order despite the conditions. The preparation of a lively bouncy pitch for India has backfired the opposition of late.IND got thrashed by the Proteas at Centurion in the 1st test. After that their skipper Graeme Smith asked for a more bouncy wicket at Durban(2nd most bounciest wicket only next to Perth) which backfired and ultimately India won. Indians will be mainly wary of the Anderson threat who is extremely baleful with his late swing.Another thing to watch out for is Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott. Personally, I have been very impressed with Trott"s temperament. He is a tough man with a never die attitude and seems to be of Rahul Dravid"s temperament. Trott is the only batsman in the world cricket now to average more than 50 both in ODIs and Tests. The partnership of Cook-Trott can really hurt the Indians if they keep going. It will be quite interesting to see what combination of bowlers does MSD adopt for. A Zak,Ishant,Sreesanth combo followed by a spinner in Bhajji looks fine,solid and decent. Uncertainty still remains over Sehwag"s return and if he is back and bats for a day,then India will be close to a win. It will be good to see the likes of Harsha Bhogle,Ravi Shastri and Nasser Hussain in the commentary panel.

     The moment all of us are eagerly waiting for is Sachin getting his 100th ton in the home of cricket"The Lord"s". What an achievement that will be!A 100 at Lord"s is always special.

     So who will claim the no.1 spot in tests? According to ICC,if Eng beat Ind by 2-0 or 3-1,then they will move to the top of the table. It will be clear by 22nd Aug,2011.
    So wait for the 2000th test,100th encounter between ENG and IND and the 100th ton from Sachin at Lord"s. Keeping fingers crossed.

Spirit of Cricket

   The recent Colin Cowdery lecture by Kumar Sangakkara at Lord"s has fired a bullet in the right direction. The speech has touched a chord among many and has left the whole world talking,thus becoming a hot news today.From a british woman who knows her cricket,it simply said" Sangakkara is making me cry". It galvanised millions of people across the globe ans has put brakes on the acceleration of Politics.

   Can Sports bodies remain aloof from Politics? The answer to this is a sublime "YES". Recently, the ICC has taken a firm stance on depoloticising all Cricket boards else the boards have to face dire consequences,thus prompting ICC to dissolve it. That means cricket boards from Pakistan,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have to conduct elections instead of running an interim committee appointed by the Sports Ministry. That implies the Government has to abdicate the boards from its authority barring the security.

    Recent doping scandals have shocked the Indian Athletic Association and ultimately to the whole of India.To add to the woes,the response from the cardinals and coaches have been truly atrocious. Thanks to Ajay Maken,the Sports Minister of India ,for taking effective steps which will decide the fate of Indian Athletics in due course of time.Sports bodies do need urgent reforms.

    Its not the administration or the players but the cricket loving public that sustain the game. If they loose the interest, the game will surely be in a major crisis.Games need to be protected from narrow self interest and thus root out corruption. We have to aspire to a better administration which will adopt the values of integrity,transparency,committment and discipline, as rightly pointed out by Kumar Sangakkara.