Monthly Archives: February 2007

Interview with Dilip Vengsarkar

Posted on 26 February 2007 by | 3 Comments

Dilip Vengsarkar continues to impress me with his straight-talk. This latest interview is in The Hindu.

In response to a question on whether or not he was intending ot spend some time with captain and coach before the team’ departure to the West Indies, Vengsarkar straight-talks:

No. The team has enormous experience. Dravid and Sachin (Tendulkar) have played over 300 matches, Sourav (Ganguly) has played close to 300 matches.

All have been on the international scene for more than 10 years. Greg Chappell was a great cricketer. So they all know how to go about it.

Awesome…

– Mohan

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Blue Billion (Pepsi Advert)…

Posted on 26 February 2007 by | 3 Comments

Talking of adverts, here is a Pepsi ad that features Sourav Ganguly. The ad is a few months old — taken when Sourav Ganguly was still out of the team.

[Youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFkJNlvtqYs"]

– Mohan

Ps: I have no connection with Pepsi. We have merely pasted adverts here that have a cricketing theme.

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New Advertisement (Nike)

Posted on 26 February 2007 by | 1 Comment

Check out the new Nike advert:

– Mohan

Ps: I have no connection with Nike. We have merely pasted adverts here that have a cricketing theme.

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Ganguly wants to coach Indian team!

Posted on 25 February 2007 by | 9 Comments

I saw the above news scroll on NDTV today! Couldn’t he atleast wait for the WC to get over before announcing his new career? A few good knocks and now Ganguly — Dada — seems back to his old self! C’mon Dada, concentrate on the job at hand first. Things like a coaching job or a commentary job, or a cricket academy in Kokata can all wait. Don’t worry you might even make it as an ICC match referee. First things first please!

Sanjay

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Kumble’s last World Cup!

Posted on 25 February 2007 by | 2 Comments

Anil Kumble, India’s champion spinner will be playing his last World Cup as per this report. I was just taking a look at Kumble’s past WC performances and there are some very interesting stats.

kumblejoy_seven.jpg

His World Cup (WC) record is very impressive. He has an average of 23.92 and an economy rate of 4.08. Also look at the break down by World Cup edition.

The figures are fairly similar regarding the economy rates, but in 1999 he had a higher average. In 2002-03 the 3 matches he played were against New Zealand, Australia and Pakistan. So the stats are not exactly skewed in his favor as they may have been had he played against some of the weaker teams! In 1999, he had bad games against Australia and New Zealand — in the matches that India lost. Again in 1995-96 in that crucial match against SL he had a bad game. My point is that in a tournament of this nature with a lot of matches to be played Kumble could be a vital cog in the bowling attack.

He should be played against teams like South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, West Indies and England. Whereas if the team has place for only one spinner then Harbhajan Singh should be played against the sub continental teams like Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Of coruce everything depends on current form, fitness and match conditions. But Kumble is in good form and will be important in the final scheme of things. Kumble has served India admirably well and for long. At crucial moments his temporary loss of form went against him especially when he could have been an India captain.

		Mat    	O      	R   	W   	BB1    BB2   Ave  	Econ    SR 	4w 5w

ODI           	270 	2406.5 	10374 	334  	6/12   5/33   31.05  	4.31  	43.2  	8  2
World Cup       17  	164     670  	28  	4/32   3/28   23.92  	4.08  	35.1  	1  0
1995-96		7   	69.4   	281  	15  	3/28   3/35   18.73  	4.03  	27.8  	0  0
1999		7   	67.2   	282   	8  	2/30   2/41   35.25  	4.18  	50.5  	0  0
2002-03		3   	27     	107   	5  	4/32   1/24   21.40  	3.96  	32.4  	1  0

Sanjay

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Irrelevance of Batting Orders

Posted on 25 February 2007 by | 1 Comment

Increasingly, the relevance of batting orders has come to question across all international teams in the one day format. While it may be a worthy exercise to analyze this trend across the different teams, it certainly is worthwhile looking at it from India’s point of view.

In ODIs, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar shared over a hundred opening partnerships. To be precise, they had 117 opening stands in ODI cricket for a total of 5621 runs at an average of 48.88 per outing, including 15 partnerships (12.82%) of 100+ runs.

After Virender Sehwag’s emergence, the Ganguly-Sehwag combine opened in 42 games. They had 42 opening stands in ODI cricket for a total of 1705 runs at an average of 40.60 per outing, including 5 partnerships (11.90%) of 100+ runs.

The Tendulkar-Sehwag opening partnership combined extremely well too. They had 57 opening stands in ODI cricket for a total of 2459 runs at an average of 43.14 per outing, including 9 partnerships (15.79%) of 100+ runs.

Of course, I recognise that one other metric that we haven’t considered in all of this is the partnership strike rate.

However, with injuries to Tendulkar and with Ganguly being in and out of the side, the opening stands have changed hands periodically. At various times, Irfan Pathan, Dinesh Mongia, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rahul Dravid and others have quite often accepted the opening role. With Rahul Dravid, Mohammed Kaif, and Yuvraj Singh being regulars in the side, the middle order seemed fairly consistent and intact for quite a while.

The Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell team has completely changed the philosophy behind batting orders and I think for the right reasons. Factors including but not limited to, types of pitches, bowling standards, powerplay rules and fielding standards have essentially required batsmen to adapt fairly quickly in various conditions to produce results.

Imagine a situation that we have seen before: Irfan Pathan would have three wickets in a couple of overs at the start of the game and you have the number 5 playing pretty much as an opener. Or imagine another situation wherein Dravid walks in in the 45th over as a number five and has to obviously get quick runs if batting first. These are not rare occurrences as we have to come observe. The rationale adopted by Chappell and Dravid seems fairly obvious, the top seven in the batting order should be in a position to bat at any position and at point during the game. Tendulkar’s injuries and his own evolution as a batsman, leader and guide/mentor (a topic for a separate discussion that I will work on) have played a role in the team. Dhoni’s transformation from a slam-bang type of player to a responsible bat (another topic for a separate discussion) has also contributed. The forced transformation on Sehwag further seems to validate the point. And what about Dinesh Karthik!

It is quite amazing actually. India’s top seven batsmen (they can pretty much be any seven batters in the fifteen) are flexible enough to play anywhere, anytime.

This is an enviable position to be in. In fact, it almost seems to set a precedent for any new/emerging/re-emerging players trying to get into the team. The remaining four could, in these circumstances, be specialist bowlers with atleast two in the top seven in a position to complete a 10 over quota. I believe that this unique strength of the Indian team gives Team India an advantage over teams like Sri Lanka or New Zealand who try and fill their teams with all rounders and three or less specialist bowlers.

Srikanth

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Raina injured…

Posted on 25 February 2007 by | 1 Comment

In case Pathan is not declared match-fit and if the selectors were looking at Suresh Raina as an alternative, they may have to think again. The young lad, who has been in good form — along with other recent discard, captain Mohammed Kaif — is out of two Deodhar Trophy games with an injured knee.

– Mohan

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Pathan under the scanner…

Posted on 24 February 2007 by | 12 Comments

Dilip Vengsarkar has asked Irfan Pathan to prove his fitness in a Deodhar Trophy game ahead of the the Indian teams’ departure to the West Indies. The team departs for the World Cup on February 28th. Pathan has been asked to play a Deodhar Trohpy game for West Zone against Central Zone on Sunday 25th February.

Pathan played only one game of a possible max of five games against West Indies and Sri Lanka. Pathan made his comeback for game-3 against the Windies. After playing that one game, he was benched for the remaining games due to a stiff-shoulder that captain Rahul Dravid did not want to aggravate further. Pathan’s injury occurred on Jan 31st. Pathan himself tried to downplay the extent of the injury. However, the Board wasn’t happy with the explanation and wanted to match-test him prior to commiting his presence on the World Cup team.

Good thinking in my view — especially given the circumstances. Munaf Patel, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag — the other comeback-men in the team — have been played into some sort of form. Moreover, Munaf Patel and Yuvraj Singh — both making post-injury comebacks — have acquired sufficient match-time under their belts. Irfan Pathan seemed to have escaped the scanner. Until now that is…

Dilip Vengsarkar and the Board have insisted that Pathan plays the Deodhar trophy game. Vengsarkar has even suggested that the Board would be willing to drop Pathan in case he doesn’t pull up effectively in that game. Three of the selection committee members — Dilip Vengsarkar, Bhupinder Singh, Ranjib Biswal — are slated to be present at the game on Sunday!

In the game itself, Amol Mazumdar, the West Zone captain, may feel forced — by this intense scrutiny — to use and stress-test Pathan. However, if Mazumdar feels that there hands on the wheel of the bus other than his own, then, the selectors already have their solution! They’d then need to find an alternative! Clearly, if Pathan is not good enough for West Zone, he can’t be good enough for India!

While Dilip Vengsarkar maintains that the selection team do not have an alternative in mind, I’d be quite surprised if they did not have a few players to chose from.

– Mohan

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Ranji and Duleep Trophies to be revamped

Posted on 23 February 2007 by | Leave a comment

Some time back I had suggested that the domestic competition in India needed an overhaul.

Yesterday’s Times of India had reports indicating that, starting next season, both the Ranji Trophy as well as the Duleep Trophy would be overhauled!

But I believe the proposals, while along the right lines (in terms of rationale and objectives) is a bit flawed.

Ranji Trophy:

The technical committee of the BCCI, chaired by Sunil Gavaskar, considered the current Ranji format. Currently we have 27 teams in the competition with 15 in the Elite Division and 12 in the Plate Division. The suggestion on the table is to split this into three groups (Group A, Group B and Group C). I am sure they will come up with some catchy names for these groupings — such as Plate, Cup and Saucer! However, each group will consist of 9 teams that will play each other once only — and that is problem number 1 with this proposal. The top-two from each group will qualify for the next round — and here is problem number 2. The six qualifiers will split into two groups of three each and play a round robin league. The top-two from each group will make the semi-finals with the winners playing in the finals.

Firstly, I think nine teams playing a league is about 3 too many. The strength of the Australian Pura Cup competition is that 6 strong teams play each other home-and-away. This is a tough competition in which the nations’ best play off against each other to produce stronger players. I think they should have collapsed 3 of the teams and streamlined the competition into having 4 leagues of 6 teams each.

Second, and more importantly, I don’t get the point of having the top two teams from each league play off in a round-robin tournament before which the semi-finals and finals would be decided. For example, what’s the point of having Mumbai, Bengal, Saurashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Orissa play off? You’d want Mumbai, Bengal, Karnataka, Baroda, Delhi and Punjab (say) play off in the top six.

A better re-structure of the same plan would be:
- Have three groups of 9 teams each: Group A, Group B and Group C.
- Play the league phase where each team plays the other once in each Group.
- Create 3 Super-Groups, Super Group A, B and C of 4 teams each.
- Super Group A consists of the top 4 teams of Group A
- Super Group B constsis of the bottom 2 teams of Group A and the top 2 teams from B.
- Super Group C constsis of the bottom 2 teams of Group B and the top 2 teams from C.
- Each of the teams in Super Groups A, B and C play each other home-and-away.
- The winner of Super Group A wins the Ranji Trophy.
- The top two teams from Super Group B advance to Group A for the next season.
- The remaining two teams get demoted to Group B.
- The top two teams from Super Group C advance to Group B for the next season.
- The remaining two teams get demoted to Group C.

This is a slightly better option than the one suggested. Of course, an alternative is to increase the size of the Super Groups to include 6 teams and not just 4.

Gavaskar’s suggested modification may work if the Groups A, B and C are seeded (and I am not sure if that is on the cards), but then there could be quite a scrap regarding the allocation of the seedings and the random allocation of teams to Groups.

A ladder-system (as in the English soccer league) is a much better alternative.

Having said this, it is certainly a step in the right direction.

Duleep Trophy:

The Duleep Trophy is also set to undergo an overhaul. And I think this is a good step. The regional basis for selection of teams is set to be thrown out. And that is a terrific move. Hopefully, with this, zone-based selectors will also go?

Anyway, from 2008, the Duleep Trophy will do away with zone-based teams. The trophy will feature 4 teams (instead of the current 6). Currently, the championship features 5 zonal teams and an overseas team. In 2006-07, Sri Lanka A made the Duleep Trophy Finals! In 2007-08, West Indies A will visit.

The three teams that will take part in the Duleep Trophy will be selected from amongst the best players in each Group — nine teams — of the Ranji Trophy games (Group A, B and C).

This is, in my view, a good move. The Deodhar Trophy will also be restructured along similar lines.

– Mohan

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Adieu Sujith Somasunder

Posted on 22 February 2007 by | Leave a comment

The former Karnataka opener decided to call it quits in a function at the KSCA attended by Rahul Dravid, Venkatesh Prasad and other Karnataka team-mates. Dravid called it a “bitter sweet moment” in any cricketers’ life. He said, “You remember the good events in your career and Sujith, I am sure, will look back at his 15-year long career with immense satisfaction.” Dravid played with and alongside Sujith Somasundar through his school and representative cricket career.

Sujith Somasunder was yet another “domestic bully” who never quite cut the cloth in the international circuit. He was initially not an opener, but on Anil Kumble’s advice, took to opening (I think). He was touted as the next big thing after Gavaskar in those days when India was desperately chasing that right elusive opener. It was also during those halcyon days of Karnataka supremacy when Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi, Dodda Ganesh, David Johnson, et al, were entrenched in or hovering around the Indian team make up. Enter Sujith Somasunder. Exit Sujith Somasunder after representing India in only 2 ODIs (one each against South Africa and Australia).

– Mohan

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