Cricket Shastra

From the onset, the only thing that disturbed me about the Bhajji saga was the fact that Mike Proctor had weighed Clarke’s , Ponting’s and Hayden’s words heavier against that of Sachin’s. You can say that I feel this way because we all hold Sachin in such high esteem, but I wonder if it would be any different if it was the Prime Minister of India. Was it only the numbers that mattered and nothing else. What happened to the dignity and the commanding respect of the person making the statement.
I will not make judgments about Aussie Players behaviors, but I will still repeat what I said in the last post – I am a person who believes in what he sees. The fact that they are aggressive would be an understatement. Ponting claims that the general behavior has improved since 2003, after multiple charges were leveled against them, and the team did some soul searching. I don’t know if any of the Aussie players (barring Gilchrist, Lee and Hussey) would make it to my list of the most honest cricketers ever. The general impression they give is that of bullies. The fact that they have won so many matches probably makes them think that they are invincible. But there is another facet to that fact, which is, that they are the most hated cricket team in the world. All teams in the world have a couple of loud mouths, or at least out sourced journalists, who do the same job. In the current Indian team, I can think of Sreesanth as one such person, who likes to get under the skin of his opponents by his not-so-gentlemanly manners. The Pakistanis have a couple such players too, Ditto for South Africa with Nel and for England with Matt Prior. But amongst Aussie players, point to me one player (again barring Gilchrist and Lee and Hussey) who generates respect. Ponting has a history of misbehavior related incidents, McGrath lost all my respect the day he decided that sledging at Sarwan was the only way to get his wicket (WI went on to chase the World record 418 in fourth Innings, in that test match) and Steve Waugh, for all his voluntary social service in India, is the father of the so called “mental disintegration” technique , others are best not even mentioned.
I think the only thing bothering Australian Players is the fact that they have again lost to one team that they were supposed to walk over, and fart in the face of , at Perth. No one told them that some where, some one changed the script of the match and that India would show them how to shake hands and show humility, even after winning a match at ,supposedly, the fastest pitch in the world. Humility, for Aussies, definitely does not come easy.
Anyway, it was time to let bygones be bygones. All was over, except one little matter of a pending appeal of racism charges against Harbhajan Singh. I still don’t understand on what basis was the decision made by Mike Proctor. Why are the Australians so pissed off at the fact that Indians had the balls to show solidarity to their team mate , by threatening to call off the tour. Won’t Aussies do the same for their own players. Oh Yes .. I am sorry .. they won’t, because somewhere deep within, they know that a skin related jibe is something that an Australian would resort to, to “get under the skin” of opponents.
To an Indian, being called a racist, would seem hilarious at first and then may be stupid. How can a colored person utter a racist remark against another one, and that too by calling him a monkey. We all came from monkeys .. didn’t we ?
I think Australians are just bad losers. The fact that they have lost to the same team at all the wrong times has not gone down well with them. The fact that Harbhajan has gotten Ponting out multiple times in the Test Series, and oh .. celebrated that by rolling on the ground , definitely hasn’t gone down well with them. The fact that Indians had defeated them at the one place that was supposed to be a walk over for the home team .. has rubbed salt into old wounds.
Apparently CA and BCCI had brokered a deal, to reduce the charges against Harbhajan, to make sure that the tour goes on. I don’t know if it was only financial constraints that decide such things. I would assume that the Aussie Cricket Bosses know their players best and know what all they would resort to , to go one-up on the field. Its all sugar coated as “Gamesmanship” and “mental disintegration” and “chit chat” .. but when someone gives one back, that is not acceptable to the Aussies.
Symonds, after the hearing ->
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I am telling you the truth. That’s what I always do.”
“I know what I heard. You know I am a team player.”
I find it hard to understand, if Aussies really understood what Bhajji said. As we mentioned some time back, the utterance, in all probability, was only “Teri Maa ki” .. the Aussie equivalent of “Bastard”. If we take the Indian connotation of the word, probably Brad Hogg too should have been suspended for 3 matches, if that is what Aussies claim should have happened for Bhajji. If Indians had the decency to drop such matters, shouldn’t the Aussies also show some signs of being sensible humans and drop such matters on the field.
Plus, what I definitely do not understand is, what has a team player (Refer to Symo’s lines above) got to do with being honest. I think Steve Waugh was a great team player, but can you really call him honest.
Australians allege that money was a major factor in deciding the fate of Harbhajan Singh during the hearing. Apparently there was a charted plane waiting for the Indian team had the verdict gone against them. The Indian team has vehemently denied any such thing, Aussies insist that this was indeed the case. That very much sums up the controversies in the series for me ..

Lets just hope that once all the dust has settled on this matter, the Sydney Test would be remembered not for the glaring umpiring mistakes, or the stubbornness of Ponting in asking Ganguly to leave by signalling him out, or all the catches claimed that never really happened or all the catches not given, that actually did happen … but for the tight finish and the enthralling Centuries from Sachin and Laxman and the fact that a team had gone on to clinch its record 16th consecutive win in spite of being faced with heavy criticism and scrutiny.

Harsha Bhogle’s view on the whole issue in an Aussie news paper -> here
The last few lines are the best !!
More related news from Aussies’ media point of View -> here

So the 2007-08 India-Australia Test Series ended yesterday, with the Australians winning it 2-1; I would never say fair-and-square, a couple of decisions here and there, and the result could have been any of 1-1, or 1-2 in India’s favour. Let’s have a look back on the series.

Underprepared @ Melbourne
This is the only way I can summarize Indian Team’s performance at MCG. The bowlers did a commendable job of restricting Aussies to around 350 in both the innings. Zaheer Khan bowled the ball of the match to rattle Ponting’s stumps, and Kumble was exemplary. Although the batsmen let India down. Only SRT, VVS and SG were able to make decent contributions, rest of the batsmen were just giving bowling and fielding practice to the Australians. RD lost many of his fans with the atrociously slow batting – he scored a sum-total of 21 runs after facing 257 balls.

Umpiring Chaos @ Sydney
The Cricket lost focus in Sydney, and the Umpires were in the full glare of the international media. India put up a valiant fight while playing against the 11 Aussies, and the three umpires. The Lady Luck had long deserted India in this match, and Australia emerged winners. This test-match was one which turned on a single decision. SRT, VVS, SG again did well, RD redeemed himself a bit and the lower order Indian batsmen could have given proper batting lessons to MSD and YS. Kumble was again the standout bowler, RP too reaped rewards. Ishant Sharma replaced the injured Zaheer, and was unlucky not to have wickets against his name. And then there was the Bhajji Saga.

Trial by Pace @ Perth
It was supposed to be an already won match for the Aussies. Shaun Tait was supposed to run through the Indian batting lineup. What happened was that the Indian pacers understood the pitch better – they bowled up, let the bouncy pitch do its wonders, and to finish off they swung the ball late: it was trial by pace for the Aussies. The result – a comprehensive Indian victory. Ishant Sharma was the standout bowler, and he would be always be remembered for that spell to Ponting. RD, SRT, VVS were yet again the batting pillars, and believe it or not the other major contributors were RP and Pathan. Sehwag made a comeback at the expense of YS and did not disappoint, but his best was yet to come. It was a complete all-round display from the Indian team, and one of the sweetest victories ever.

Flat Pitch and Flat Match @ Adelaide
India batted hard – scored 500+, Australia batted harder – scored 550+, India batted again – the story ends. A pitch that was expected to crack 3rd day onwards was still a batting paradise on the 5th day. SRT was the batting mainstay in first innings, VS & VVS helped themselves to fifties and Kumble and Bhajji rubbed salt into the Aussie wounds by putting together a century partnership. No bowler – apart from a brief spell from Ishant – was penetrative on a flat pitch. Sehwag showed why he is valued so highly by the players by getting a huge century in the second innings that eliminated any chances of an Aussie win. This was one of the best Sehwag innings I have ever seen, just for the amount of control he was in.

Takeaways from the Series

• You just cannot ignore the 1st generation Indian batsmen. 90% of the work was done by SRT, VVS, RD, SG. The 2nd generation players – YS, MSD, WJ still have to develop the technique to play in Australia.
• Fast bowlers must be singing, “We all fall down”. Before the series Sreesanth, Munaf were injured. Zaheer, RP joined the injured list during the series. But still the Indian fast bowlers walked away with accolades. Ishant is surely the find of the series, and Pathan has regained his swing and the pace.
• Kumble is still India’s best bowler. The last match where he was not fully fit (he had some shoulder problem), the Indian attack rarely looked menacing.
• MSD was unnoticed behind the stumps, which is good for a wicketkeeper, but I just hope he plays his shots while batting. It is never pretty seeing him trying to grind the opposition.
• SRT is GOD!

Sachin Tendulkar, as he has done a zillion times already in his career, proved once again that god does exist – in Him.

What we saw at Adelaide Oval was no mean achievement. Here was a guy – under pressure from the selectors, considering others younger than him were being dumped from the One Day Squad like heavy vessels from a sinking ship. And yet, he walked off at the end of the day with his head held high, having just reached a personal milestone – A Century at Don’s home ground. There will still be doubters, those who think that he is a burden to the cricket team and those who think that it’s only his stature that saves him from being dumped. But the present lot of selectors have shown scant regard for reputations, and quite rightly so. It would have been oh-so-easy for him to intimidate any bowler on earth,

make a stroke filled 50 and then depart having done enough to secure himself a berth for the next tour. But here is a man, who is now ready to take his rightful place amongst the cricketing greats, not just by bulldozing the opponents, but by grinding them to the ground. He had shown the temperament to stay in the middle in England where people said that he was too slow and he had shown the will to dominate the bowlers in Sydney and Melbourne. In Adelaide, it was more of a measured response to a tricky situation. At the moment when Sachin’s partnership with Laxman started, India were evenly poised. They had two recognized batsmen at the crease, but a wicket then could change things very quickly. It was even more important that these two stuck around, because in Perth, Indians had shown tendency to go back to the pavilion in pairs.

Laxman is no doubt the go-to man whenever India is in trouble. He is one man who has literally fished India out of trouble a zillion of times, but a lot of his efforts have been lost in the effervescence of those who could hit the ball over the boundary 6 times in an over. And make no mistake, Laxman is no Wall .. he isn’t the person who would block incessantly. He makes his presence felt through timely, silken strokes on the leg side but it is his off drives that don’t get the same attention they should. I am sure his off drives would feel like a neglected child in the presence of his leg side play, but the fact is .. that on the whole, Laxman offers the variety and stability in the lower middle order that most teams in the world would kill for.
But, lets not deviate our attention from the man of the moment. Laxman’s day would come, but its not this day .. the day belonged to Sachin Tendulkar.
I read here that Bradman had once said of his innings of 254 was his best because every shot went exactly where he wanted it to. Sachin echoed the same words and to do that against supposedly the best bowling attack in the world in their home ground must be something really really special, so what even if he is the best batsman in the world.
A Second innings failure at Adelaide would again see the doubters and critics emerging, like the worms come out in rainy seasons. But I still believe in what I see and when I see Sachin, I sense a calmness about his batting that says that in spite of all odds .. I will fight on. There is not an iota of doubt in my mind that the day Sachin chooses to retire, he will leave a huge void in Indian Cricket, one that will take a couple of generations to fill. People will come in and play the one day innings in the same slam-dunk style, that fans and admirers will look and admire and say “This is what Sachin played like”. There will be others who will be compared to him, and yet .. in spite of all these comparisons .. no one will reach close to the amount of faith and respect this one man has generated in Indian Cricket .. no one man will inspire more people to take up Cricket like Sachin has and most definitely no one man will stand up the same way for India and say “I am not done yet”.
Lets take our hats off and Bow .. To the new Don.