The tale of two tests

The first couple of matches of the India-England series might remind shrewd observers of elections in R Ashwin's home state of Tamil Nadu. The resemblance is striking. To people who have not been observing Tamil Nadu politics since the beginning of time, I'll explain. Not that I'm an expert but the general principle is fairly straightforward - the AIADMK wins by an absolute landslide margin and as soon as the government finishes it's 5-year term, the opposition party, the DMK, win by an equally mind-boggling majority. Curious onlookers find this behavior extremely perplexing. Future historians might point to the first two test matches of the ongoing India-England series in a similar way: a 9-wicket loss for the visiting team followed by an equally crushing 10-wicket victory. The jury is still out. 

The first morning of the first test match was an interesting sight. Started off being a typical slow, low Indian wicket that Sehwag and co have practically grown up on. A fired up Anderson really put his back behind the first ball and it got up to Sehwag's knees. Barely. Anderson looked broken. Cook might have looked up to the dressing room to see if he could sneak Panesar on to the field and hope that no one would notice. The distance between Lords and the Sardar Patel ground in Ahmedabad is over 4500 miles. At that point, it must have seemed even farther. Finn might have been forgiven for uttering a slight prayer of thanks for his injury. If Freddie Flintoff was watching, he might have thought of his new career as a pugilist as less soul-crushing. I think you get the point by now. 

Pujara reaffirmed his status as one of the best young players to have come out of India off late. Sure, his truer tests will come when he eventually tours on bouncier pitches but he's been up to whatever challenge he's faced thus far. His current average of 71.10 places him firmly between Tendulkar and Bradman (leaning slightly on the Tendulkar side of course, but let's not hold that against him). To quote a Ravi Shastri cliche, he definitely "puts a price tag on his wicket" and at least in the first test, the price was too high for the English attack. When Swann finally got him stumped in the first innings of the second test, his wicket was already worth about 380 runs at that point. He had to wait an eternity to break into the team despite scoring mountains of runs in domestic cricket. When you score a triple century and Ravindra Jadeja shows up and scores a triple on the same pitch, your triple does lose it's sheen a little bit. Most people would've been disheartened but not Pujara. He scored another triple, a few doubles along the way and big hundreds on his off days. Now that he's finally here, he'll make sure he makes it count. Here's hoping the other big scorer in domestic cricket, Ajinkya Rahane, gets his chance soon. 

You can't write a piece of England in any form of cricket without mention of Pietersen. Whether he's acting clueless against spin to lose his middle stump and then goes one step further in the second innings to get bowled behind his legs to a left arm spinner when the ball barely pitches in line with leg stump, it is either extremely entertaining or mighty infuriating, depending on what side you are on. But after he scored a masterful 186 in the second test, almost toying with the attack on a more difficult pitch, you wondered if it was all part of his Grand Plan of luring the Indian spin attack into a false sense of complacency, getting them to play an extra spinner and then pulling off the ultimate hustle. And of course, there can be no mention of the England batting without mentioning their captain courageous Alistar Cook, who joins a long illustrious list of left-handed opening batsmen including the likes of Saeed Anwar, Hayden, Jayasuriya and Gary Kirsten who have been near impossible to dislodge and like villains in a movie who do their job splendidly, you end up hating them despite knowing that it isn't anything personal. 

While Hayden and Sanath would be the kind of villains who would tie you to a rusty iron pillar and badger you with a blunt instrument to get information out of you, Cook is more in the Gary Kirsten mould of baddies. They believe in the long, elaborate forms of torture. Cook is the sort of Bond villain who wears an impeccable tuxedo and does not believe in crude violence. He is more likely to torture you by making you watch The Matrix Revolutions one hundred times in a row. He has been an utter nightmare to bowl to so far. He has managed to dead-bat his way through spin, pace, Harbhajan and anything else India have thrown at him. Honorable mention must also go to Matt Prior. For these two, I have developed a mixture of fear, loathing and eventually grudging respect. I do believe that India's spinners, especially Ashwin, should bowl a lot fuller at Cook and do away with the absolutely senseless strategy of bowling short and keeping a deep point. He has scored a couple of hundreds already - that's a hint that whatever the master plan is, it isn't working. 

At the mention of spinners, it's heartening that Ojha has probably been the pick of the bowlers so far across both tests. Swann hasn't been far behind, but that was expected of him. Ojha would've been more threatening in the second test had here been more pressure from the other end - something that Ashwin failed to create. Messrs Dhoni and Fletcher really need to work out their plans else the series could slip away from them faster than you can say 'Mudhsuden Singh Panesar'. What can you say about that guy? That he took to the Wankhede pitch like a fish would take to water is an understatement. He took to it like a particularly showboating dolphin would take to a water-themed amusement park. The ball left his fingers at the perfect pace, had the perfect dip and bounce and spin and it left the so-called great players of spin clueless. After watching him bowl this well in a country where Shane Warne and Murali have been made to look ordinary, you wonder whether Monty was actually part of a lab experiment by England who have been working on a perfect weapon for the last 30 years with a view to unleashing him on an unsuspecting India in the Mumbai test. You may think I'm smoking something but YouTube his wickets from Wankhede and it won't sound like crazy talk anymore.

So where does this leave us for the rest of the series? Firstly, Dhoni needs to learn his lesson and stop hiding behind the pitch excuse every single time. The bottom line is this: regardless of what kind of pitch you play on, you need to bowl and bat well. Also, displaying any sort of competence with the bat and gloves by the Indian captain would be immensely helpful. England still look shaky against spin barring Cook, Prior and the Wankhede Pietersen (I believe the KP on show in the first test was a different person). If India get their tactics right and bowl the right lengths to England, they should still go ahead and win the series. Gambhir has shown promise in the second test and hopefully Pujara can carry his form through the remaining tests. Kohli is bound to produce at least one good innings, but Yuvraj still leaves me unconvinced. There is a giant Sachin Tendulkar sized hole in the middle order at the moment that Sachin Tendulkar seems unable to fill. How he does in the next couple of matches might force him to evaluate his future. 

I'm going to stick my neck out and predict an Indian series win - 3-1 is possible but 2-1 is more likely. However, something that India would do well to observe is the grit that England have shown in the first 2 tests. They have shown more fight than India showed in all 4 tests of the England series. Only Pujara has been able to grind out steady, if unspectacular, runs when the going has been tough. India only need to look at Cook and learn some lessons that will help them, not just in this series, but in many series to come. 

Notes from India-NZ

India’s first assignment in whites after getting washed in the same colour in the previous two series that they played couldn't have come at a better place, or against better opposition. After being bullied and outmuscled by two taller and stronger kids in their own backyard, there is nothing quite so refreshing as the sight of a scrawny kid at least a foot shorter than you challenging you to a fight in your backyard with one hand in a cast. India dealt with New Zealand the way they were expected to, which was refreshing. Before the series began, MS Dhoni’s team might have had some misgivings playing a team that had given them a fair amount of trouble the last time they visited and the Indians had to rely on a couple of centuries from none other than Harbhajan Singh to bail them out of a few pickles they found themselves in.

The series continued the way their last one in India had ended – with fairly comprehensive wins for India with R Ashwin continuing to do no wrong. With Ojha providing admirable foil, he ripped through kiwi batsmen who were about as clueless when it came to playing spin as the English teams of the 1990’s. They were so far outplayed in the first test that they had to be content in taking  positives about putting India under some pressure in the second. Although their bowlers tried their best and the relatively inexperienced Boult and Bracewell looked really good in patches, the batsmen had generally dug themselves into a hole deep enough that an army of sherpas couldn’t have dug them out in time.

Ashwin is similar to Kumble in some ways – he is tall, relies on bounce for a lot of his wickets, does the same jump and clap celebration that Jumbo trademarked and amazingly enough, displays the same dive-over-the-ball technique that Kumble also made his own (Ganguly and Siddhu may contest that claim, but this is not an argument that can be ended very quickly). Fielding aside, however, he seems to be a great package at number 8. Finally, we may have stumbled upon a lower order batsman the sight of who does not have boundary fielders placing orders for cucumber sandwiches in anticipation of an early snack and shower. He promised to fill the Anil Kumble shaped hole that Harbhajan could not fill. It may be too early, but he has shown potential. Let’s not count his struggles in Australia and England against him since it took even the great Kumble a few years to come up with a good plan while bowling overseas. In any event, India will rely on the faster men to do more damage overseas and it while we have some distance to go before solving the fast-bowling puzzle, Umesh Yadav again showed encouraging signs. Baby steps, as they say.

Talking about human sized holes, there was a Laxman-sized hole that had formed just before the series began in addition to the already large Dravid-sized one in the ceiling. That was the one area which had everyone fairly nervous. Kohli had already calmed a few nerves with his exceptional batting against Australia en route to claiming one middle order spot. Pujara rose to the challenge and displayed the necessary technique and temperament to indicate that he may be the long term replacement for Dravid at #3. Gambhir and Sehwag were a touch too flamboyant and while they might get away with it in Indian conditions, it makes the role of the #3 critical, especially outside the subcontinent and that’s what makes Pujara an extremely vital cog because he is the link between the top order and the stroke-filled middle order.

The Great Indian Middle Order is already a think in the past and you can possible see a giant ‘Work in progress’ sign around it at the moment. As long as Sachin occupies the #4 spot, Sehwag will continue to open. I personally think it’s time for Sachin to make way so Sehwag can take up the middle order spot he’s wanted for a while. Although there have been clandestine whispers in certain circles about mentioning the R-word in relation to Sachin, there have been others in the media who have likened such talk to nothing short of treason. While there is no taking away the great man’s genius, it’s better for India in the long term to build a team with an eye on the future. Discussions about his age and his technique are irrelevant – he is gifted enough that he will continue to be an above average international batsman – but he isn’t as flawless as he once was and he’d be the first to admit it. Irrespective of the Sachin issue, it’s time the selectors decided once and for all that Raina is probably not going to cut it as a test player. He is extremely valuable in the shorter formats and it would be worthwhile for him to focus on making himself the best player he can be in those formats and letting someone else more technically equipped to test match batting take a turn.

While there are still some questions unanswered and sterner tests await, this series was definitely a step in the right direction. Hopefully, the series against England will help answer a few more of those questions. That series is especially significant considering the walloping that India took there last summer. With the Pietersen saga unfolding in the British isles at the moment, this is a good opportunity for India to seek another R-word that the media is sure to bring up at some point. Hint: Quentin Tarantino thinks it’s best served cold. Personally, I prefer it a la mode. I’m licking my lips already. 

The Pakistan Question

As the Indian cricket team resumes business in relatively familiar conditions against ever-so-familiar opposition in a fairly meaningless bi-lateral one-day series, the real question to ponder  is not a cricketing one. It isn’t about India’s wafer-thin bowling reserves or about finding viable middle-order replacements once Sachin decides to ride off into the sunset. The mind can’t help overlook the current Sri Lankan jaunt, the home test series against the Kiwis or even the impending T20 World cup.

I, for one, find it hard to stop thinking about the decision to revive cricketing ties against Pakistan towards the end of the year. It is extraordinary that I, for once, find myself on the same side of any issue as Sunil Gavaskar, who recently spoke against the decision to host Pakistan when the probe into the 26/11 terror attacks drags on. Any mention of the India-Pakistan series makes the mind wander back to that ghastly evening when a group of militants opened fire on Mumbai. It was the act of extreme cowardice by a few individuals so brainwashed by hatred that it’s hard to think of them as human beings. No matter how much they try to deny it, all links point back to the higher echelons of power in Islamabad.

Every few months, the guiltless face of one Kasab keeps doing the rounds on social media as a constant reminder of the incompetence of India’s judiciary system. The television and press in India are always happy to play the instigators, doling out one senseless story after another in a bid to milk the unholy cow to its full extent. However, the fact of the matter remains that we are closing in on four years of the incident and are nowhere close to getting to the bottom of the matter. The cricket romantic in me yearns to see Sehwag take strike against Umar Gul, but to play a game of cricket while the investigation continues seems insensitive not only to the people who lost dear ones during that dark day, but to the entire nation as a whole.

Those in favor of the cricket talk about a separation of cricket and politics – certainly a noble ideal and one that’s worth striving for, but impractical in the real world. In that sort of world, we’d have a clear divide between the metaphorical Church and State and civilians would be kept out of battles between nations. However, we do not live in that world and it would be nothing but extreme naïveté to believe otherwise. The minute those terrorists crossed the Rubicon into a decidedly civilian world and committed those atrocities, those lines have been blurred forever.

I too have read Rahul Bhattacharya’s heartwarming memoirs from India’s 2003 tour to Pakistan and would very much like to see real peace in the truest sense of the term prevail between the embattled nations in my lifetime, and there are enough people on both sides of the border who share this sentiment. However, a pattern has emerged over the last few decades where an incident sparks fury, resentment and continued hostilities until both sides, in an act of selective amnesia dawdle into an uncomfortable peace, only for this entire cycle to repeat itself. You thought it was going to be different this time. The last incident provoked so much strong emotion all over the world that there was genuine hope that something real would be done about it but as the fourth anniversary of the tragedy beckons, we find ourselves back at square one.

I certainly don’t have the Silver Bullet solution to this problem (and the solution must not involve bullets of any sort), but the act of falling back into the familiar pattern of peace-war-peace hardly seems ideal. The first step towards solving any problem, small or big, is the acceptance that one exists. Resuming cricket or cultural ties of any sort would be turning a blind eye to the problem and pretending that it will go away on its own. Refusing the Pakistan cricket board in its current state of debt and turmoil would serve not only as a firm political stance, but also as a form of economic sanction. However, Indian cricket officials have time and again shown themselves to be greedy, short-sighted and opportunistic and expecting any action that would deny them a chance to fill up their coffers (and their pockets) would be delusional.

I’ll try and end this on a happier note. This could be the defining season for Virat Kohli who seems determined to carve out a path for himself in Indian cricket. Here’s also wishing Yuvraj Singh a happy and speedy way back to playing the sport he loves. May the season begin!

The IPL 5 so far ...

As a quick disclaimer, I haven't really been watching a lot of the IPL on TV - mostly due to it showing at around the time when I have to dust myself off and start the Slow Long Walk to work. However, I've been following the matches when I can and watching as much as I can. Here are some random musings so far:

Wotstheirname v Wotstheirface: So really, how many of us can be true to our conscience and say that we know exactly who has been playing who and who features in that team? No really. One day, you see Robin Uthappa keeping wickets for Bangalore and the next day you see him in Pune. And if memory serves me right, he has also played for Mumbai Indians before eventually being traded to Bangalore in the first place. All this in the space of 4 seasons. I wouldn't blame the players for not knowing whether to give a fellow IPL-player an exaggerated high-five (there are rumors the players have High-Five Camps before the tournament starts because that's all they have time for) or whether to sledge him until he gets all red in the face. If quizzed about it, Dhoni will probably give you a "Well, of course, it's part of the modern day cricketer's life" straight-bat reply. The rigors they have to go through!

The Mumbai Indians mess: The Mumbai Indians seem to have it all - the richest man in India financing them, Indian cricket's poster boy playing for them and on paper, they may seem to have a team that should be a shoo-in for a playoff spot at the very least. However, they are a case study in mismanagement. In as good a player as Sachin Tendulkar may be, it's fair to say that where leadership skills are concerned, he really isn't in the Sun Tzu class. The first few seasons of the IPL were littered with such master-strokes as picking only 3 international players, persisting with R Sathish and playing him as a specialist fielder, and completely under-utilizing Dwayne Bravo's talent. However, they have one-upped themselves this year by picking a replacement captain who is even worse! The Sardar from Jalandar may be many things, but a captain and leader of men he certainly isn't and that explains MI's floundering captain despite their aforementioned strength on paper. On a side-note, a part of me wishes Sanath Jayasuriya was still around to open the batting with Sachin Tendulkar. That way, MI would've had 2 politicians opening the batting for them. How many cricket teams can boast of that?

A man called Sourav: You can't keep that man away from the spotlight. But this is the kind of spotlight you don't really want. Everyone has had that one moment of panic when you are up on stage for a school play or some such endeavor to have this sneaking suspicion that your pants have split right at the seam. I imagine that's the kind of feeling Ganguly goes through every time he goes out to bat these days. After his heroics in the game against Delhi where he got a couple of key wickets, including KP, and ran faster than he bowled, in celebration, he was brought down to earth in the game against MI where his team messed up a chase of 121, where he himself struggled to a 24 ball 16. But his Waterloo came against the Rajasthan Royals when facing up to Shaun Tait. It's like putting a fiesty, but old poodle in a cage match against a pitbull. There can only be one victor there. After struggling along and barely being able to put bat on ball for the first few overs, his misery finally ended off a lame pull shot that was gleefully accepted at square leg. Between that and the defeat at his old den at the Eden gardens, the clamor for him to be consigned to non-playing duties has grown louder. Luckily, a word exists for a role like that - it's called a coach. I can only hope someone tells Ganguly and unless he finally gets the message, the proud shirt-twirling-at-the-Lords-balcony memory of him might be replaced by a caricature of himself.

Rahul and I: Might be the name of Rahane's experience at the IPL 5. In between the swipes and slogs and cheerleaders' pelvic thrusts and the other ugliness you come to expect with the IPL, there is the pleasing sight of Dravid and Rahane opening the batting for the Royals. It may be the best thing to come out of this year's tournament. Rahane may not be able to hold on to the orange cap, but anyone with any feeling for the game must be happy to see him score some runs. With Dravid and Rahane batting and Morne Morkel bowling, you might be lulled for a second into believing that there is a Test match in progress, but then shortly afterwards the camera pans to someone in a garish uniform fielding while having a chat with the commentators and you realize this is the IPL, after all. But showing that T20 batting isn't just about ugly slogs is something those two have managed to do all season long. Their team may not have the big budget players to drag them all the way, but I find a part of me cheering for Rajasthan this season.

The Others: Meanwhile, Deccan Chargers have been strengthening their reputation as reliable losers. After a freak second season when they managed to surprise everyone, including themselves, by winning the whole thing, they are back to where they are the most comfortable - the bottom of the table. Despite several strategy and personnel changes, they have failed to realize that breeding an army of right-arm-medium trundlers will only get you so far even if you have a Dale Steyn in your squad. Especially if you drop 3 catches for every one you hold. Delhi are back to the top of the table despite being robbed by Bangalore of all of their best players. Bangalore (who should really be called the New Delhi) are riding atop Gayle's broad shoulders, much as they did for most of the previous campaign. Gambhir has been doing his best Dada impression to lead KKR to the top of the table, while Punjab have had a predictably underwhelming campaign since no one has done a Valthaty this year (including Valthaty himself). Which leaves us with ... CSK. The winners of last year's IPL have found life to be a bit tougher this time around without Hayden, Hussey or Raina blazing away at the top of the order as they are used to. They are managing one middling performance after another despite being the most stable team across the 5 tournaments in terms of their players as well as their yellower-than-yellow kits.

Despite it being shoved down our throats, despite the number of matches getting unbearably high, despite the viewership numbers and the quality of domestic Indian talent taking a dip, the one thing that's pretty clear is that it's hard to ignore the IPL much like it's hard to ignore someone screaming into your ear from 2 feet away. That's money talking (or screaming) for you. 

The Camp Nou - a tourist's experience

As you browse through the tourist guidebooks of “must-see” things in Barcelona, apart from the Gaudi works and the Olympic village and the Las Ramblas and the flamenco shows, they mention this museum that’s the most visited in the city. No, I’m not talking about the Pablo Picasso museum although that attracts a fair share of visitors too. I’m talking about the museum at the football club of Barcelona – FCB. Now given that I really enjoy watching the team play and try to follow pretty much every game, such a sort of thing really makes you wince a little bit, but I guess the marketing types need to make a living after all. From the famous Mes que un club motto to the merchandise at the many FCB stores littered all across Barcelona (including the airport, of course), they have taken the football club and made it into a sellable commodity. Pretty much every other kid in the city wears a Messi jersey.

Getting tickets is a far from simple matter because the club works on a complicated system wherein members need to release tickets for them to be available. We managed to get fairly decent seats to watch Barca take on Athletic Bilbao in a La Liga match. Although Bilbao may not be doing too well in the league this season, they made a lot of people sit up and take notice with their annihilation of United in a Europa cup tie. I was fairly confident that Barca would see them off easily at home, especially since they had played a Europa match against Shalke only 2 nights back, but then you never know. Barcelona had also drawn 2-2 away at the San Mames earlier in the season so this was no sure-shot. Oh well, that’s what makes it all fun.

As we walked through the Gothic quarter on the morning of the match, we saw a bunch of Bilbao supporters standing around a bar singing something in Basque (I guess it must’ve been the team song) pointing in the direction of a few local kids decked up in their Barca kits. The needle! The city was getting ready for the match.

After overcoming some linguistic barriers, we were able to pick up our tickets at the pick-up center near Plaza Catalunya and figured out the best way to get to the stadium was to take so-and-so train in so-and-so direction. So we step on to the train in our Barca gear and as expected – the train is mostly full of people heading to the game. It’s funny how supporters of a team are not very different in that regard, irrespective of the sport or the country. Whether you take the line 3 to Les Corts or the Churchgate local to watch a cricket match at the Wankhede, or you take the 4 to the Bronx to watch the Yankees play, the general atmosphere is pretty much the same. You have your supporters wearing imitation T-shirts, some looking fairly sillier than they do on a regular workday, all chatting about in good humor and anticipation of getting a favorable result. It’s something non sport fans will never get. The energy. The anticipation. We did notice a few stares in our direction – not sure if it was because seeing a couple of Indians heading over to the game is unusual or they were patronizing “oh these tourists” looks, but we did notice a few. Spain is similar to India in that sense – people will stare at you quite openly. More on that later.

As we went closer to the Camp Nou, there was the usual throng of supporters patiently waiting outside the gates hoping to catch a glimpse of the team bus and maybe get a picture of the back of Messi’s head or Cesc’s elbow. We headed over to the hot-dog stands outside and I helped myself to a can of Estrella – fairly unremarkable beer, but any trip to a sporting mecca is incomplete without a taste of the local hooch. We headed inside to catch our first glimpse of the imposing stadium that is the Camp Nou. You expect a stadium that can hold almost 100,000 people to be fairly huge but of course, you can’t really taste the atmosphere until you stand there and hear the said 100,000. I checked later that approximately 85,000 people showed up that night, which proves that an empty seat here and an empty seat there can really add up.

As the players came out and started to warm up, I looked behind to see a bunch of Japanese tourists (at least I assumed them to be Japanese) taking in the action as well and I felt myself turn fairly patronizing myself about how they were here just for the tourist experience. That’s where the stares on the train came back to me. They were propagating a stereotype for me, just as I was for those on the train. That was my one big epiphany of the night. Oh well, back to the pitch. The teams were still going through their pre-game drills prompting a bunch of camera flashes going off around the stadium in the midst of the usual cheering and whistling (I had to tell my wife that the whistles are a form of jeering in Spain – very different from the appreciative whistles they let fly from the cheap seats in India).

And then it began. Kick-off was preceded by an 85,000+ strong rendition of the Barca club anthem and the unfurling of the flag. As the match kicked off, Barcelona settled into their rhythmic passing game. Now at this point, it’s worth mentioning that the crowd could stay perfectly silent during the game when something potentially significant was unfolding and that’s a sure sign of a knowledgeable public. Cesc and Xavi hadn’t started so Thiago and Iniesta were playing in the midfield along with Busquets and Messi was leading the line with Tello and Alexis in tow. The midfield tiki-taka was just as mind boggling to watch live as it always is on TV. There were the usual patient buildups, the give and goes and some amazing runs from Messi. The ball did hit the back of the net fairly early, but the whistle had blown and that tempered the Camp Nou that was ready to erupt.

Overall, it was the kind of performance that is starting to be taken for granted from this Barcelona side. Iniesta displayed some fantastic ball-control and along with Messi was running the Athletic defense ragged. There were some marauding runs forward by Pique and some excellent fire-fighting by Mascherano who is starting to look more and more like a center-back with every passing match. Alves spent a lot of his time in the attacking half of the pitch, as is his wont, and even Adriano went forward more than Abidal generally would’ve and it all made for some attacking football. Thiago was fairly disappointing through the game because his first touches were often too heavy and I remembered him giving the ball away cheaply on more than one occasion. After a period of domination in the first half, the first goal duly arrived from a precise Messi pass and with some excellent finishing from Iniesta. We went into the half-time break feeling fairly confident that we won’t be witness to a rare home loss. It was more of the same in the second half and Tello, who had been fairly anonymous up to that point, sped into the box and won a penalty for a shove by the highly rated Javi Martinez. Messi tucked away the penalty without a fuss and around this point, any lingering anxieties went away. Pique had to make a clearance off the line but by-and-large the defense was untroubled by Bilbao’s attack.

Xavi came on towards the end of the second half for Iniesta and that prompted huge cheers from the crowd, but the loudest cheers of all were reserved for their adopted son, Messi. Watching the crowd dote on Messi reminds you a bit of the Wankhede crowd’s unconditional love for Sachin. It’s like a grandparent looking on their prodigal grandson who, in their eyes, can do no wrong. The place erupted as it had threatened to all night when Messi scored the goal. 2-0. Game over.

In the end, it wasn’t the most exciting match ever, but it felt great to be part of the experience. It’s hard to not take a bit of a philosophical angle on the whole thing and realize that behind what we are able to watch, there are thousands and thousands of hours of training that we didn’t. And to understand that it’s this whole Catalan sub-culture that manifests itself on the pitch every time Barca step on. Critics point to the high horse that the club and its followers sit on, but the reasons for the unabashed display of Catalan nationalism that goes hand-in-hand with the club have their roots in the Civil war and are deep enough that anyone who has not lived there can’t even begin to understand. It’s something that I don’t even pretend to do. Maybe the locals don’t object to putting the club’s museum on the list of Barcelona to-do’s. One can only guess. Not knowing Spanish - leave alone Catalan - leaves me culturally poorer and in a position where I will only always be merely scratching the surface. All that aside, I was fortunate enough to watch what may be the best football team of all time. Visca Barca!

It's tough at the top

To all students of Indian cricket, we start of with a multiple choice quiz: 


Q: During the last two away-series against in non-subcontinental conditions, as the test team was obliterated 8-0 by an Anglo-Australian combo, what do you think was the biggest factor?
a. Lack of support for Zaheer Khan in Australia. 
b. Lack of Zaheer Khan for support in England.
c. The famous Indian Middle Order playing as though they were featuring in a retirement benefit, despite quashing all talk of retirement. 
d. The IPL (which is also responsible for world hunger and global warming). 


To the curious onlooker and pedant alike, any of those might seem to be attractive options. However, I would like to propose an extra option to add to the following that, after extensive analysis (read 20 mins of fiddling with Cricinfo's statsguru, complaining about how terrible the interface is and then stumbling upon the stat), there is a 5th choice that I would like to add to this list - and that might end up being the correct answer. And I don't mean an 'All of the above' option, which is always right. 


Let's look at some stats, shall we? Let's consider the period between Jan 1, 2003 and Dec 31, 2010, i.e. from that golden summer in Australia when India started being competitive abroad up until before the horror show last year. As the criteria, let's look at the first wicket partnerships for India everywhere but Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. This is what shows up: 


From 2003-2010 inclusive, India used 8 openers and over the course of 48 innings, they scored 2231 runs at an average of 48.50. Compare that to last year and the difference could not be more stark. 5 openers have managed a mere 382 runs in 24 innings over the last year, with a paltry average of 15.91. Because tables and statistics can get prohibitive to read and spit too much unnecessary data anyway, let's try and analyze what all of this means. 


It means that between 2003 and 2010, every time India played outside the subcontinent, they could be expected to score about 48 runs without losing a wicket. This number dropped to 16 during the last year. To compare with the numbers before 2002, when india were routinely trashed abroad and whitewashes never resulted in analyses of this nature, India still did better than last year. Twice as well, as a matter of fact. Between 1932 and 2002, India's first wicket put on an approximately 29 runs for the first wicket (29.33 to be exact, for those who like that sort of thing). 


Now I'll go about arguing why this stat is more significant than any other reason. While the Indian bowling attack was not penetrating in either England or Australia, the fact remains that they never really had a lot of runs to play with. Yes, a team needs 20 wickets to win test matches, but if the batsmen are not going to put on runs on the scoreboard, there is never any pressure on the opposition batsmen. A case in point is the Perth test during the last Indian tour of Australia. The attack was mostly makeshift, but the batsmen stuck it out and made the Aussie bowlers work hard to get them out. As a result, the bowlers were able to generate sufficient pressure to make the batting wilt. 


As for the great middle order, they have always done well only when they've had a reasonable platform. The same middle order (plus Ganguly) could not prevent India from losing 3-0 to Australia in 1999. Traditionally, India have had a problem with good, solid test openers with the notable exception of a certain Sunil Gavaskar. It isn't overstating it that the success that the middle order had outside the subcontinent had a lot to do with the starts that Virender Sehwag provided. Gambhir has mostly been a failure in England and Australia and Sehwag's stand-and-deliver technique is being found out in seaming conditions now that his reflexes aren't as good as they were a few years back. 


To be able to compete outside the subcontinent, India do need a new, improved and solid middle order (including Sehwag, maybe), a competent seam attack and a half-decent spinner. However, before everything else, what the team need are a good, old-fashioned opening pair that will try and stick around for the first hour and shield the middle order from the new ball. And possibly even score some runs in the process. That is the first and foremost thing that needs to happen if the period between 2003 and 2010 is going to be remembered as anything but a slight aberration. 


Or, we can go about blaming the IPL. 

The ballad of Vinay Kumar

The Indian team went down under
with what was their best chance
for Sachin to dominate a young attack
and Laxman to rekindly his Aussie-romance.
Vinay Kumar was the extra seamer
who no one thought would play a Test. 


The team started off well in Melbourne, 
but could not deliver the killer blow. 
Then after a pounding from pup, 
they headed to Perth down two-O. 
They sized up the pitch at Perth and said, 
"Let's play Vinay Kumar in this Test." 


On a juicy first-day pitch 
the Indian batting collapsed in a heap. 
Warner had already got a start when 
Vinay arrived at the bowling crease. 
And thus began the story 
of Vinay Kumar playing his first Test.


In the first over of his debut 
he met the flashing blade of Warner,
who duly deposited a good length ball
to the WACA's furthest corner. 
No, this was not the IPL, 
Vinay Kumar was playing a Test. 


He tried to rely on swing and seam 
while bowling steadily at 120, 
but to the Aussies it was canon fodder 
and he disappeared for plenty. 
Was it a wise decision, after all 
to play Vinay Kumar in this Test? 


On a frentic second morning 
he picked up a wicket, 
As a shortish ball was chopped to gully 
and he had the scalp of Mr. Cricket. 
Was there a redemption story in the making 
for Vinay Kumar in his first Test? 


Although there was a hint of a fight 
the Aussies won their third in a row. 
And 11 runs and an expensive wicket 
were all Vinay had to show. 
It did not make a difference 
playing Vinay Kumar in this Test. 


He was dropped for the last match 
as the Indians lost again. 
And you couldn't help but feel 
that he would never get another game.
And thus ended the sad story, 
of Vinay Kumar and his lone Test.


The batsmen could not bat 
and the bowlers could not bowl. 
The fielders had butter fingers 
and Dhoni lost control. 
Yet, the lowest point of the tour 
was that Vinay Kumar played a Test.