Friday, July 28, 2006
Wasn't Manjrekar Right?
Mumbai or to be more precise Bombay, was known for the special cricket ambience. And it is against this background that the recent Manjrekar-Tendulkar controversy has assumed such a proportion. Sanjay Manjrekar made some comments about Sachin Tendulkar and stung to the bone, Tendulkar responded with unusual sharpness.
What were the points raised by Manjrekar that hurt the master so much? Manjrekar now, after his underachieving test career, is doing reasonably well as a commentator and cricket writer. He in one of his articles has raised two issues.
1) Tendulkar nowadays is so dogged in his defense that it would seem he is bent on preserving his wicket.
2) He has on some occasions showed the tendency to stay away from the crease which he loves so much on account of apprehensions about certain bowlers’ skill or pace.
The second argument sounds quite specious. Tendulkar who has handled every pace demon in his long career with comfort and often disdain does not deserve such a below the belt blow. Confidence might not have been at the same high level during each of those seventeen seasons. But it may not be fair on the part of a colleague at Ranji and test level, to interpret such a doubt as trepidation.
But the first point is just too true to be ignored. Tendulkar who conquered all that he came across, during the nineties, has become a different batsman during the last few seasons. I personally don’t think that his technical capability has deserted him. But more important than that is one’s confidence bordering on arrogance which takes a good player into the realm of greatness. Tendulkar was the undisputed ruler of the kingdom of confidence. But the last few years saw his mental swagger leaving him through the back door and other good batsmen starting to rub shoulders with him with irreverence. This has been happening of late and there is no purpose in sweeping it under the carpet.
Tendulkar is not the majestic willow-wielder that he was before. Now he fights hard not to lose his precious wicket. He pulls out of his armory all the weapons of defense. He is in a different corridor of uncertainty where he is forced to do unfamiliar things..
What sets a master apart from the journeymen? Attitude much more than technical brilliance. It is this quality that he has lost. What Manjrekar said is something people had been murmuring for the last few years. Perhaps it is the first time a person of Manjrekar’s stature ventured to state the obvious.
That doesn’t mean that Tendulkar is not good enough for India. In fact any body of selectors would give its hand for his services in its team. Yes, he is still a must-be- included player in the Indian batting lineup. But no body nowadays tears her hair at his dismissal. They now look at Dravid now to save the team, reserve their crazy emotional outbursts for men like Dhoni. He is now just an important member of the team. That itself is much more than several others would dream of!
What were the points raised by Manjrekar that hurt the master so much? Manjrekar now, after his underachieving test career, is doing reasonably well as a commentator and cricket writer. He in one of his articles has raised two issues.
1) Tendulkar nowadays is so dogged in his defense that it would seem he is bent on preserving his wicket.
2) He has on some occasions showed the tendency to stay away from the crease which he loves so much on account of apprehensions about certain bowlers’ skill or pace.
The second argument sounds quite specious. Tendulkar who has handled every pace demon in his long career with comfort and often disdain does not deserve such a below the belt blow. Confidence might not have been at the same high level during each of those seventeen seasons. But it may not be fair on the part of a colleague at Ranji and test level, to interpret such a doubt as trepidation.
But the first point is just too true to be ignored. Tendulkar who conquered all that he came across, during the nineties, has become a different batsman during the last few seasons. I personally don’t think that his technical capability has deserted him. But more important than that is one’s confidence bordering on arrogance which takes a good player into the realm of greatness. Tendulkar was the undisputed ruler of the kingdom of confidence. But the last few years saw his mental swagger leaving him through the back door and other good batsmen starting to rub shoulders with him with irreverence. This has been happening of late and there is no purpose in sweeping it under the carpet.
Tendulkar is not the majestic willow-wielder that he was before. Now he fights hard not to lose his precious wicket. He pulls out of his armory all the weapons of defense. He is in a different corridor of uncertainty where he is forced to do unfamiliar things..
What sets a master apart from the journeymen? Attitude much more than technical brilliance. It is this quality that he has lost. What Manjrekar said is something people had been murmuring for the last few years. Perhaps it is the first time a person of Manjrekar’s stature ventured to state the obvious.
That doesn’t mean that Tendulkar is not good enough for India. In fact any body of selectors would give its hand for his services in its team. Yes, he is still a must-be- included player in the Indian batting lineup. But no body nowadays tears her hair at his dismissal. They now look at Dravid now to save the team, reserve their crazy emotional outbursts for men like Dhoni. He is now just an important member of the team. That itself is much more than several others would dream of!
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Sri Lanka The Favorites?
After an unexpected setback in West Indies, India now gets ready to play a triangular one day tournament in Sri Lanka, South Africa being the third team. The Indian squad has been announced and as was the case for the last few occasions, there are no surprise inclusions or omissions. The only player outside the current data base, seems to be Dinesh Mongia. When Venugopala Rao and Uthappa were not considered, the selectors did not have much choice elsewhere. If they wanted to look beyond Mongia, Ganguly would have been the other candidate!
Tendulkar’s come back has pushed a junior out of the reckoning. A couple of youngsters have been traveling with the team without making use of the opportunities that came their way, Now they are back to their rightful places- the bench!
An omission, if it becomes an omission , is Kumble. But Kumble whenever given an opportunity in the one-dayers has not been very convincing. But with his basic sense of discipline he would have more miserly than some of the other bowlers.
Of the other two teams, Sri Lanka is flush with confidence after a tremendous series against England, however depleted the Ashes-winners were. And the tri-series is to be played at home too. The only team with problems is South Africa. Captain Smith and Kallis are out of the fray because of injuries. And Pollock has stayed back for personal reasons. The absence of these top players would certainly affect South Africa’s performance level. Especially the transition from the bouncy seaming tracks in S.A to the low and slow pitches where the ball refuses to come on to the bat, could be critically troublesome for the Springboks.
Tendulkar’s come back has pushed a junior out of the reckoning. A couple of youngsters have been traveling with the team without making use of the opportunities that came their way, Now they are back to their rightful places- the bench!
An omission, if it becomes an omission , is Kumble. But Kumble whenever given an opportunity in the one-dayers has not been very convincing. But with his basic sense of discipline he would have more miserly than some of the other bowlers.
Of the other two teams, Sri Lanka is flush with confidence after a tremendous series against England, however depleted the Ashes-winners were. And the tri-series is to be played at home too. The only team with problems is South Africa. Captain Smith and Kallis are out of the fray because of injuries. And Pollock has stayed back for personal reasons. The absence of these top players would certainly affect South Africa’s performance level. Especially the transition from the bouncy seaming tracks in S.A to the low and slow pitches where the ball refuses to come on to the bat, could be critically troublesome for the Springboks.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
What You Are Is What You Get
What the West Indian batsmen could not do, the weather could do for them in two of this four-test series. If Windies could scrape through by managing to keep their last wicket stand going to prevent India from winning the second test, West Indian guardian angel intervened quite blatantly in the St.Lucia test by snatching a full day and thus the test away from India’s rightful grip. But here at Jamaica on a pitch which did tricks with abandon, India showed superiority in all aspects of the game plus application and intelligent utilization of its resources.
The pitch at Sabina Park gave enough signs of potential to cause mischief and both teams were expected to restructure their approach to this game according to their interpretation of it and their strengths and weaknesses. While West Indies chose to stick to its all pace attack, India, by deciding to play an unchanged team, was making a clear statement of its strategy. Initially the presence of Kumble and Harbhajan puzzled everyone. Dravid and company obviously read the pitch as an under-prepared one and did not subscribe to the view that it was made with the intention to aid pace only. Naturally a pitch with enough moisture would make the ball do things until it gets dried up. Probably what Dravid thought was that this surface might start assisting the spinners as the game wore on because the absence of moisture on an under-prepared pitch would make the surface a bit dusty. And India would be ready for such a new face of the track.
That was the direction the pitch was taking too. While West Indies depended on its quickies, India’s pace and spin complemented each other to telling effect. After Sreesanth and Patel ripped open the top, Harbhajan just ran through the rival line up as if he was bowling to a local school eleven. In the second innings also, it was the repetition of the first innings but with a difference. Instead of Harbhajan it was Kumble who bowled with venom and finished the task in style.
It was a brilliant come back for India after the disappointing one day set back. India, reasonably well equipped in the one day format, fumbled inexplicably and surrendered the series to the hosts, inspiring Brian Lara to put on the mind doctor’s garb and try to psyche India into lack of self-respect. Since such tactics are useful only if the beneficiary is good enough to exploit it, Lara got unstuck with his hard-to-rationalize positions and the adequate Indian initiatives unhinged the cohesion of his arguments.
Usually, great batsmen slip up a little when burdened with captaincy but Dravid, is seems gets some extra inspiration from the crown of thorns. It goads him on to greater efforts and consistency. Things happen to him with more ease when he dons the arm band of a skipper. He of course has made debatable decisions on several occasions like sticking to over aggression etc but the learning curve does not leave any scars on his confidence.
India has done reasonably well as a batting side. Perhaps more credit should be given to Wasim Jaffer than even to Dravid for imparting the solidity to the team’s batting. He was like a wall with more mobility. It was his more than useful scores which gave increased bite to Dravid’s and Laxman’s efforts. Yuvraj and Kaif could not contribute to the team’s cause with equal effectiveness but they too had their moments under the sun.
India was able to adapt with more panache to the conditions described as un-Caribbean by many. What Taylor and Collymore did for the hosts, Sreesanth and Patel could do for India. But since India had tremendous back up strength their wicket haul might not have been as good as their counterparts.. When the great Indian spinners did enough damage to West Indies, the hosts promptly dropped their only spinner Dave Mohammad who posed enough problems to batsmen of the caliber of Dravid, Yuvraj and Sehwag. What little variety they could have commanded was not available to them as Mohammad sat out the last two tests.
This is a result expected and thus causes no surprise. It could easily have been 3-0 for India. Only factors outside India’s control make the final score line look respectable for the hosts.Remember, even the uncharacteristic rearguard action by Lara can stake any claim for saving the St.Kitts test.
Of course it does not mean India did a great job of this tour. There was an undesirable dependence on Dravid through out the series. There were significant contributions from others especially from Laxman but you may say with conviction that India did well in this series only because the skipper was in awesome form with the willow. It was his technical brilliance and mental toughness which ensured that India was not swept off its feet. Especially on the Jamaica pitch which made batting a ball-to-ball journey.
The poor form shown by Pathan was perhaps the another issue which worried India. India had become used to his initial breakthroughs for so long that Pathan,s failure to remove the openers almost stunned many. He seems to have lost his guile to bend the ball in to the right-handers and more than that he seems to have lost his ability to hurtle the cherry past the 125 kmh. His role was hijacked by the inexperienced Sreesanth and Patel with some success thus assuring all that Indian pace department was not a one man army. While Patel bowled with control and with a good idea where the stumps were pitched, Sreesanth made the ball bend away with an artist’s touch and obtained disconcerting bounce off the track to pose problems to even batsmen like Lara.
India certainly has a settled look, in both the test and one-day versions. What happened in the one-day series must be treated as an aberration. Lessons have to be learnt from it but to give it any more importance might be reading too much into it.
The pitch at Sabina Park gave enough signs of potential to cause mischief and both teams were expected to restructure their approach to this game according to their interpretation of it and their strengths and weaknesses. While West Indies chose to stick to its all pace attack, India, by deciding to play an unchanged team, was making a clear statement of its strategy. Initially the presence of Kumble and Harbhajan puzzled everyone. Dravid and company obviously read the pitch as an under-prepared one and did not subscribe to the view that it was made with the intention to aid pace only. Naturally a pitch with enough moisture would make the ball do things until it gets dried up. Probably what Dravid thought was that this surface might start assisting the spinners as the game wore on because the absence of moisture on an under-prepared pitch would make the surface a bit dusty. And India would be ready for such a new face of the track.
That was the direction the pitch was taking too. While West Indies depended on its quickies, India’s pace and spin complemented each other to telling effect. After Sreesanth and Patel ripped open the top, Harbhajan just ran through the rival line up as if he was bowling to a local school eleven. In the second innings also, it was the repetition of the first innings but with a difference. Instead of Harbhajan it was Kumble who bowled with venom and finished the task in style.
It was a brilliant come back for India after the disappointing one day set back. India, reasonably well equipped in the one day format, fumbled inexplicably and surrendered the series to the hosts, inspiring Brian Lara to put on the mind doctor’s garb and try to psyche India into lack of self-respect. Since such tactics are useful only if the beneficiary is good enough to exploit it, Lara got unstuck with his hard-to-rationalize positions and the adequate Indian initiatives unhinged the cohesion of his arguments.
Usually, great batsmen slip up a little when burdened with captaincy but Dravid, is seems gets some extra inspiration from the crown of thorns. It goads him on to greater efforts and consistency. Things happen to him with more ease when he dons the arm band of a skipper. He of course has made debatable decisions on several occasions like sticking to over aggression etc but the learning curve does not leave any scars on his confidence.
India has done reasonably well as a batting side. Perhaps more credit should be given to Wasim Jaffer than even to Dravid for imparting the solidity to the team’s batting. He was like a wall with more mobility. It was his more than useful scores which gave increased bite to Dravid’s and Laxman’s efforts. Yuvraj and Kaif could not contribute to the team’s cause with equal effectiveness but they too had their moments under the sun.
India was able to adapt with more panache to the conditions described as un-Caribbean by many. What Taylor and Collymore did for the hosts, Sreesanth and Patel could do for India. But since India had tremendous back up strength their wicket haul might not have been as good as their counterparts.. When the great Indian spinners did enough damage to West Indies, the hosts promptly dropped their only spinner Dave Mohammad who posed enough problems to batsmen of the caliber of Dravid, Yuvraj and Sehwag. What little variety they could have commanded was not available to them as Mohammad sat out the last two tests.
This is a result expected and thus causes no surprise. It could easily have been 3-0 for India. Only factors outside India’s control make the final score line look respectable for the hosts.Remember, even the uncharacteristic rearguard action by Lara can stake any claim for saving the St.Kitts test.
Of course it does not mean India did a great job of this tour. There was an undesirable dependence on Dravid through out the series. There were significant contributions from others especially from Laxman but you may say with conviction that India did well in this series only because the skipper was in awesome form with the willow. It was his technical brilliance and mental toughness which ensured that India was not swept off its feet. Especially on the Jamaica pitch which made batting a ball-to-ball journey.
The poor form shown by Pathan was perhaps the another issue which worried India. India had become used to his initial breakthroughs for so long that Pathan,s failure to remove the openers almost stunned many. He seems to have lost his guile to bend the ball in to the right-handers and more than that he seems to have lost his ability to hurtle the cherry past the 125 kmh. His role was hijacked by the inexperienced Sreesanth and Patel with some success thus assuring all that Indian pace department was not a one man army. While Patel bowled with control and with a good idea where the stumps were pitched, Sreesanth made the ball bend away with an artist’s touch and obtained disconcerting bounce off the track to pose problems to even batsmen like Lara.
India certainly has a settled look, in both the test and one-day versions. What happened in the one-day series must be treated as an aberration. Lessons have to be learnt from it but to give it any more importance might be reading too much into it.
