John Howard

I normally blog only about on-field events. The John Howard story though has evoked such passionate reactions that I felt I must comment. It is a sad situation because this was so preventable. The ICC is proud about the fact they are a democratic organization - as they should be. The ICC's constitution allows boards to vote against a candidate they deem unworthy. However, a democratic, transparent system which is what they claim to have - should ensure that the public is kept informed as to the reasons for the rejection of Howard. I'm no fan of John Howard - but he certainly deserves to know the reasoning behind his exclusion.

Most Australian commentators have come out and blamed the BCCI for Howard's nomination being rejected. The BCCI are anything but saints but I truly believe that off late the BCCI seem to be blamed for everything that goes wrong in cricket. In this case it's even stranger because the BCCI were actually one of the few bodies that did not have a problem with Howard's nomination. It voted against him only because boards that normally support the BCCI had a problem with him.

This brings us to the question of the so called Asian bloc and how they gang up against the rest. I find this quite ironic because this is precisely what the white nations do themselves. Any contentious issue and you will generally find the white nations (Australia, England, New Zealand) lining up on one side and the non-white nations on the other. Whilst this is certainly unfortunate and quite obviously not the best way to go about solving issues, it is something that is unlikely to change. It would have been foolish of the BCCI to go against nations that normally support every stance they take (rightly or wrongly).

I also find it difficult to understand why John Howard was nominated in the first place. Cricket Australia should have known that his nomination was going to create a furore. Five mins on Wikipedia will tell you that Howard has been accused of being anti-aborigine, anti-immigrant and he apparently also called Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Now I have no idea whether these accusations are true. Nevertheless, mud sticks. You could argue that these issues have nothing whatsoever to do with cricket and you will be right. But the romantic notion that sport and politics cannot mix remains just that - a romantic notion.

What can be proved, however, is that John Howard called Muthiah Muralitharan a chucker. Everybody is entitled to an opinion. But when you are in a position of power it is important to exercise that right with a degree of caution. Murali is a Sri Lankan icon. Sri Lankans are passionate about their cricket and many feel Howard insulted Sri Lanka as a nation when he criticized Murali. You may think this is far fetched - so let's flip the coin - will Australia embrace an ICC head from Sri Lanka who has gone public with negative remarks directed at Sir Donald Bradman? Don't count on it!

SL Test selection (contd..)

For those of you wondering what the Squad actually is, here it is

1. Viru
2. Gambhir
3. The Wall
4. God
5. VVS
6. Raina ?
7. MSD
8. Bhajji
9. Ojha
10. Ishanth
11. Zaheer
12. Mishra
13. Appam C***** (Sreesanth)
14. W Saha
15. M Vijay
16. Yuvraj

Well I have also included my playing 11 and yes- I deliberately put Yuvraj at no.16

Some of them are extremely obvious choices and lets not waste time looking at their performances.

There are only two places that are in contention, No. 6 batsman and our second spinner.( I aint happy with Bhajji either in the recent past, but lets leave that there for now)

Raina and Yuvi are in the team and I definitely think Raina should be in the Playing 11 and not Yuvraj.

Yuvraj has simply got far too many chances in tests and hasnt made a huge impact YET. I cant remember one great innings. ( Infact the only good innings I remember is the partnership with Sachin to seal the win against England at Chennai after being battered by Viru)

Also, it gives us a nice ground to TEST raina out. All thats being said about his deficiency in technique and how he cant be a good Test batsman.

I think the slow-low pitches in SL would be the best place for him to start. If he cant do it here, I will start believing that theory, else we can put him through more 'tests'.

Raina I think has amazing temperament and FEEL he will make it big. Raina must get a game !!

Now, feelings aside... Lets look at some numbers.

http://stats.cricinfo.com/indiandomestic2009/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?class=4;host=6;id=2009%2F10;type=season

People we must be looking at

M Pandey 956 @ 59.75 in 16 innings

A Rahane 887 @ 63.35 in 17 innings ( 3 n.o including a 265*)

P Patel 813 @ 58.65 in 13 innings

S Badri 800 @ 57.14 in 14 innings

D Karthik 776 @ 77.6 in 10 innings

R Sharma 718 @ 79..1 in 10 innings ( 309* of 718 came in 1 innings )

Manish Pandey, Boy ! I love him. He was great in IPL 2009, has been great in the Ranji. Great prospect, scores quick. He s young, he can wait.

Rahane and Sharma's figures are massively skewed by their n.o scores, but Rahane has been performing well over a couple of seasons. He doesnt look tight in his technique though, atleast to me.

Badri, Patel and Kartik have been scoring tons of runs in the past few seasons. Very sad for Patel and Kartik that they have MSD in the team. Kartik especially has shown enough to be played as a batsman alone.

The obvious choice for the squad however was S Badrinath. He s a veteran. Has always been knocking the doors, but never got above the Tall Indian Middle Order. But now that it is coming to an end, must be part of the team.

He also played Mendis very well ( while no-one else could) in the ODIs just after the mystery man knocked our top guns in the test series just before in 2009.

Yuvraj VS Mendis on SL Pitches ? I like Yuvraj, I really do - I dont want him to be a national embarassment !!

Raina hasnt played much scoring 292 @ 41.71 in 7 innings with no hundreds and 3 fifties. H.S 98 ( Not very impressive )

Yuvraj has got 158 in 3 innings in the domestic circuit and 195 in 5 innings in Test matches against Bangladesh and SL

The bottomline here is I think the selectors have got it terribly wrong. Neither Raina nor Yuvraj must be in the team on the basis of performance.

However, now that they have been picked, it must be Raina who must play simply because he has been superb for us in the other formats. We might as well give him a try in Tests.

Now on to the spinners, slow low pitches are slow left arm bowlers' paradise. I really hope they play Ojha.

19 wkts @ 29.31 in 8 innings S.R. 65 ( 13 wickets in 3 matches @ 29 in Tests )

Mishra has got 20 @ 37.5 S.R 86 !! (12 wickets in 4 matches @ 54 with a S.R of 105 balls per wicket ) He has really lost it !

Piyush, on the other hand has 36 @ 29.41 in S.R 53 last season

Bhajji - 23 @ 25.7 in S.R 72 ( Thats in Tests, he hasnt played a single domestic game)

Its quite clear here about who needs to play. However,India's top spinners arent just good enough. (Wow an idea for the next post, watchout)

I also assume that Sreesanth is in the team just for entertaining the team and the crowd with his antics. Fair !

SL Test selection

Consistency in selection is what everybody looks for, and that is where I think this selection panel has failed. Yuvraj Singh was dropped from the ODI squad for the Asia cup and the decision was justified given Yuvraj's appaling recent fitness. Even so there was a lot of understandable skepticism, given Yuvraj's track record as a match winner in the shorter formats of the game. Nevertheless, no player is above the game and the message to Yuvraj Singh should be shape up or get ready to be shipped out.

That is why his selection to the test team less than a fortnight after he was overlooked for the Asia cup is baffling. Yuvraj, as I've said before is a fantastic limited overs batsman. He's singlehandedly swung many a game in India's favor and should, fitness permitting, still be an important member of the ODI squad. Test cricket though is a different ball game. Yuvraj even in his ODI hay days has struggled to make an impact in the test arena. Yet the selectors seem to have decided that he is a permanent fixture in the Indian middle order.

The last time India played a test series, Yuvraj missed out because of fitness problems. Badrinath and Rohit Sharma were then named in the squad. Badrinath played 2 tests (3 innings) scored a fighting half century in his debut innings and then failed in the remaining two outings. It was certainly not a performance that set the stage on fire, but it certainly should have merited another opportunity. Its only fair that he be given a chance to state a case for himself. Despite Yuvraj's numerous failures he seems to be given a free pass every time.

Rohit Sharma who was selected for that test series is now dropped without even being given an opportunity to stake his claim. Raina who was not part of that squad has now suddenly overtaken both Sharma & Badrinath as the reserve batsman. With the senior batsman surely coming to the end of their illustrious careers, India needs a selection panel that is consistent and has the ability to make brave decisions that will ensure that the inevitable transition that will occur is a relatively smooth one.

The case for Irfan Pathan

Who should be India's all rounder? India have invested a lot of time in Jadeja. Jadeja has come in for a fair bit of criticism in the recent past, some of it a tad harsh. He's done well with ball. He's economical, gets the odd wicket and generally bowls his full quota of 10 overs. Most of his matches have come in the batting paradises on offer in the subcontinent. So he does deserve some credit for that. The problem is his batting. Jadeja strikes me as the kind of player, who on a good day can pick up the singles and twos and hit the occasional boundary. He does not seem to be able to change gear though and at no 7, which is where he is going to bat, you need a player who can play the big shots.

Yusuf Pathan is another option. He's been found out in recent times largely due to poor technique especially against the short ball. Teams are going to keep bouncing him and unless he can overcome this particular weakness, he is likely to struggle. Yusuf is also not as a good a bowler as Jadeja is.

The only other option is Irfan Pathan. Pathan is quite obviously not the bowler he was in the early noughties. It's disappointing to see a natural swinger of the ball, resorting to the cutters and slower balls that he seems to bowl all the time at the moment. What we need to remember though is that Pathan, if selected, will be India's 5th bowler. He is not required to lead the attack. He can be used once the field is spread out and batsman are looking more at rotating the strike.

Where he really scores over the other two is his batting. Unlike his brother Yusuf, Irfan's game is built on a solid platform. He does the basics well. He does not have as big a problem with the short ball. He's got all the shots and has played some crucial innings' for India in the past. Irfan also has the ability to play the big shots that are needed lower down the order.

With not too much time to go before the WC starts, India certainly need to give Irfan a few games and see how he goes. If he can strike some form going into the tournament, he still has the potential to be an asset to the side.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh's approach during the game against Pakistan was astonishing. Whenever anyone has questioned Bangladesh's right to be playing cricket at this level, we have had angry responses from passionate Bangladeshi supporters. Whilst I appreciate the passion, the fact is Bangladesh are not yet ready for international cricket, nor do they look like beating any half decent team consistently in the foreseeable future. Occasional victories are going to happen - a team that plays 35 matches in a year are bound to win 1 or 2. But I really can't see them achieving anything beyond that.

Today's match or mismatch was a case in point. It reminded me of Sunny Gavaskar's infamous innings against England in this match http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65035.html. If Bangladesh do not have the desire to compete, they should not be playing, it's as simple as that. Yes they were most likely going to lose no matter how they approached it. But the fact that they did not even try is embarrassing to both cricket and Bangladesh as a team.

Yusuf Pathan

I've been mildly surprised to see the reaction the Yusuf Pathan dropping seems to have evoked. Whilst the majority, myself included, feel that the dropping is justified, there is a lobby that has reacted with surprise to his axing from the national team. The argument put forward is that he was batting lower down the order where chances to get big runs do not come about very often. This is probably true to a certain extent but is still no reason to continue with him.

Look at the statistics - 37 matches, average of 22 & 2 fifties. For starters in those 37 matches there must have been at least the few odd occasions where he got to bat with overs to spare. He has obviously failed to take those chances. The other problem is that Yusuf was selected as lower order biffer. He is not good enough to bat any higher. For those of you who still think its unfair, then who would you pull down the order to accommodate Yusuf?

It is also fairly obvious that teams have caught on to his absolute inability to deal with the short ball. Yusuf's average statistics seem even poorer when you take into consideration that the bulk of his ODI's have been played in the more favorable environments that are on offer in the subcontinent. He is yet to play a single ODI in Australia, England or South Africa. If he is unable to successfully combat the short stuff in India, what chances does he have on the bouncier surfaces abroad?

I'm no apologist for Srikkanth or his selection panel. But this time folks, I think he's got it right!

IPL & Pakistan

The exclusion of Pakistani players from the IPL has divided opinions like few other issues. Like most issues involving India and Pakistan, opinions have been mixed. Was the IPL right in keeping the Pakistani players out?

It is immediately obvious that the reasons for their exclusion are non-cricketing ones. Apart from the fact that Pakistan are world champions in this format, they have also easily been the most consistent team in T-20 cricket. Afridi, Asif, Aamer, Gul and maybe even Imran Nazir, Saeed Ajmal and youngsters like Umar Akmal would have certainly found bidders had they been from any other cricketing nation.

Pakistani journalists have lashed out at the IPL for ignoring their players. They have also claimed that there is a larger conspiracy here – namely to insult Pakistan and its cricketers. Some of the Pakistani cricketers have echoed these sentiments. The IPL for its part has said that the selection of players are the prerogative of the various franchises and that it had no say over who gets selected.

The franchise owners have invested a lot of money in the IPL. Like all business people their priority is to get a reasonable return on their investment. Given the fragile relationship that India shares with Pakistan at this point, it is only natural that the franchises were reluctant. The recession may have shown signs of receding, but the after effects are still being felt. Another bomb blast or terrorist attack in the near future and the participation of the Pakistanis would again be in doubt. The franchises were not prepared to take a risk and there is nothing wrong with that.

What could have been avoided though was the way the whole thing was conducted. The horrendous attacks in Mumbai happened well over a year ago and this situation is nothing new. If the franchises were reluctant to sign Pakistani players, then what was the point on going through the meaningless charade of asking them to apply? It would have been much easier to have just informed the players before-hand that they need not apply as the franchises were not interested.

Lastly for those claiming that India should have played the role of big brother and encouraged the Pakistanis to compete are missing the point completely. The IPL is a private owned league. The owners have not invested money to spread the cricketing gospel or for any other such noble cause. Their objective has been to make as much money out of possible from the new ‘craze’ that has engulfed world cricket. Given this it is hardly surprising that they have gone for players who they know would be available to them for as long as possible.