Goodbye Sweet Prince

People better than I will write paens and create magic with words to describe the life and times of Saurav Chandidas Ganguly and the impact he had on India’s cricket.

For me, a gesture made at the end of an obscure tournament defines the man

There was one heartwarming moment at the very end. Ganguly was called to the dais, and the trophy presented to him. Rather than take it in his hand, he stood there, took the mike and said, “I’d like the boys up here please”. And he waved the entire team forward, had them lift the trophy while he stood by, underlining his little speech earlier about the way the team had played as a unit.

Go well, The Prince of Kolkotta, with the thanks of a grateful nation!

Karma

If Ganguly plays through the series, his swan song will be at Nagpur, where, four years ago, he drove the first nail into his own captaincy by citing injury and pulling out of the Test against Australia. India were thrashed on a green top in that match to go 2-0 behind in the series. Ganguly has one opportunity left to settle the score.

The 900lb gorilla in the room

had nothing to do with this..

The West Indies Cricket Board has lost its case with telecommunications company Digicel in London’s High Court and has been forced to withdraw its sanction for the Stanford 20/20 for 20 match on November 1.

The decision makes it possible that the game is called off or, if it does proceed, that the Stanford Superstars side will be greatly weakened. Sources close to the organisers were quick to insist that the match was still on.

The WICB entered into a contract with Stanford to make all their players available for the event, but it cannot now do so. If anything like a full-strength side takes the field against England Digicel could claim that it is a representative team in all but name, which would again put the WICB in breach of its contract with them.

Digicel’s case against the board claimed that if the Stanford match was officially recognised then, as official sponsor to the WICB, it had branding and other commercial rights associated with that deal.

However, the court ruled that the WICB had to remove its sanction for the game as not doing so would put it in breach of contract with Digicel. It is understood that costs running into hundreds of thousands of dollars were also awarded against the board, and it might also lose the US$3.5 million in fees it was in line for from the game itself. As this was an arbitration, there is no recourse for the WICB to appeal.

Dear Pricky,

“If we can make their fielding look as bad as it is by some good running between wickets and good hustling and good pressure then you know straight away all the old stuff about the old bodies and Ganguly can’t field and Dravid looks a bit slow, all of that stuff will come out.”

I am touched by your concern about the age of the Indian middle order

And your adroitness in exposing this particular weakness… brilliant!

But tell me this, and dont pull any punches while you are at it, where are you going to find 11 fit men to execute this rather brilliant plan of yours?

PS:- Micheal, remember that under the new ICC laws, there are no comfort breaks!

Not even close!

In the last week or so, in the build up to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, I have read enough opinion pieces ( on websites, newspapers and blogs) that seem to hedge their bets on who will win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The overwhelming consensus seems to be that it will be a close contest and that we should not be reading too much into Australia’s performance in the two practice games.

I beg to differ.

There is everything to be read in the performance of a team that, in the lead up to the Champions Trophy in India, had asked for a revised target from Mumbai so as to get more match practice. And on not reaching that revised target, had accepted the result as a defeat.

For a team that prides itself so much in its attention to detail in preparing for a game and plays the game with so much pride, I am surprised people think that the practice games will have no bearing on the Test series at hand.

Remember the huge reams of paper wasted of the impending “demise ” of the Fab 4 following their performances in Sri Lanka against a freak of nature and the highest wicket taker in the history of Test cricket?

Contrast that with the Australian first XI who muster 218 runs against an outfit that is not even the Rajasthan Ranji first XI, fall to 218/9 before narrowly avoiding the follow on against a scratch Board President’s XI outfit and eked out 127/2 in their second essay at a run rate of 3.34 rpo in a no pressure situation.

Australia come into the series on the back of a 3 match ODI set against Bangladesh at Darwin. The last test match played by them ended in early July.

Their opening pair is a scratch pair, with neither Hayden or Katich partnering each other at the top of the order. Hayden comes in to the first test on the back of an Achilles heel injury that made him hors de combat for the West Indian tour. And not too many runs in the three innings played in the warm up game.

The Prick has had a wrist injury in the lead up to the India series and an average of 12.8 in India. And his IPL performance (39 runs in 4 innings, avg 9.75) has not been too flash either.

And while much has been made of his 50 against the BP XI in the second essay, the fact remains that he barely played Piyush Chawla in the course of that innings.

Australia dont have Damien Martyn. And there is no Andrew Symonds either.

If India’s batting is vulnerable ( as everyone seems to point out), what about Australia?

In the bowling department,India is miles ahead in the spin department. And even if South Africa proved that spin may not necessarily be the way forward in India, the Indian pace department is no push over either.

Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel hit their straps in both the Md Nissar Trophy and the Irani Trophy. And all three exhibited far more rhythm than the 4 Australian pace bowlers on display in the Board President’s game.

Pace, bounce and swing – in all three departments the two bowling sides are evenly matched.

Much has also been made of the previous visit by the Australian’s to India ( in 2004-05). And of the tactics used. And how we are going to see more of the same.

And it is a valid argument.

But here is what is not mentioned when that particular argument is made

1. Indians are notoriously slow starters. And India was coming into the Border Gavaskar series after a 3 month hiatus with very little domestic cricket in the lead up and a batting lineup devoid of any form.

Which is not the case this time around.

2.India did not have a settled opening pair for the entirety of the series. Yuvraj Singh, Akash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir partnered Virender Sehwag at the top of the order.

Which is not the case this time around.

3. Injuries to key players ( Sachin for the first 2 tests, Saurav for the remaining 2) did not help the cause.

Which is not the case this time around.

4. Remember this? Odds are, we wont have a deja vu.

5. The Australian bowling line up in 2004 consisted of players who had previous experience of playing in India – Glenn Mcgrath (1996, 2001), Jason Gillespie (1996, 1998, 2001), Michael Kasprowicz (1998, 2001) and Shane Warne (1998, 2001). The less said about the current crop’s experience, the better.

And despite all this, the score line in 2004 read Australia 2 India 1 with a what-if-the-rains-had-not-intervened match at Chennai.

It is nobodies argument that the Border Gavaskar Trophy wont be a contest – the nature of the game and the temperament of the two sides and past history all point to it.

But, a close contest?

Uh Oh!

So at the risk of sounding a fraction deranged, it’s time to send the SOS: forget the poker tournaments Warney, your country needs you in India.

The third spinner

35-12-81-6

Is it silly season already?

The pace of Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison will be England’s biggest weapon, because the senior batsmen should all be vulnerable early on to quality fast bowling. OK, the pitches won’t give you much, so you have to be precise and accurate. But the way England have been playing since Pietersen became captain, they’ve got to think positive and believe that they can bowl India out.
—

India’s grandees had a terrible time against Sri Lanka in July and August, mustering just three half-centuries between them from 12 attempts. Yet no-one is quite sure who should be replacing them. Yuvraj Singh has failed to establish himself as a Test player and other young talents such as Mohammad Kaif have also become stranded in the “promising” category. Rohit Sharma and 19-year-old Virat Kohli, who each scored 105 for the IBP’s XI this morning, are not in the squad.

All of this adds up to good news for Kevin Pietersen. England should be sensing an opportunity here, for their next two major series are against India and Australia.

–

Recalled fast bowler Ryan Sidebottom has claimed England under Kevin Pietersen can win their two-match Test series in India this winter.

–

What a beautiful sight!

(forward fast to 5:10)

Nice going BP XI

Whether planned or not, the Board President’s XI have managed to tick just about all the boxes. 455 all out means that the Australians will have to score 306 to avoid the follow on. And getting bundled out 20 minutes before lunch means the Australians will have an uncomfortable 10 minutes to see through before restarting the innings all over again.