Hail the Master!- Sachin Tendulkar

India vs Australia Test Series 2008 :

The second test match between India and Australia is over and India has taken a comprehensive 1-0 lead in the 4 match series.

Lots of things have happened even before the series started and I will start by discussing that. Australia landed in India with a team that many thought was the weakest Australian team. Australia always take playing in India as a challenge and this was the first time that this team was in a major series, in India, without their stalwarts. The retirement of McGrath, Warne and Gilchrist will definitely weaken any team no matter how good the reserves are. It also did not help that a few of their players were injured, and with MacGill and Hogg gone, the spin department is virtually zero specially when touring a country like India. Also a major setback was an incident, which also in a way highlights the way the Australian cricket and its board functions - not considering Andrew Symonds- one man who could have influenced the series! That was a major decision no matter which way you look at it.

Sachin Tendulkar also stated before the series that India-Australia rivalry is now bigger than even India-Pakistan rivalry. This is absolutely true and I can’t see anyone disagreeing with this statement. In fact I would say that India Australia rivalry is the biggest right now in world Cricket perhaps even greater than the Ashes!

Honestly with the focus now shifting to Twenty over games and people questioning this original, longer version of the game, if people are going to watch a test match, it will be this- India vs Australia.

I am a great admirer of Harsha Bhogle, a very intellectual person and an excellent commentator, reader and avid follower of the game. I am mentioning him because I remember years ago when India had toured Australia, the matches used to start around 5 in the morning- India time and once while signing off after the first day’s play, he just suggested people in India waking up at 5, lying down in front of the Tv set with a blanket on (Winter was on at that time) and I really liked this idea and that is what I did precisely. And I remember the excitement of watching an India vs Australia battle. Now perhaps very few people can imagine someone doing this- waking up at 5 on a cold winter day out of the warm blankets etc, getting up just to watch a test match! I doubt if people would do that even for a World Cup match! But I think it speaks volume, both of me as a Cricket fan as well as the quality of an India vs Australia contest.

Before this series started, I did feel that India had an upper hand, playing on home ground, with many senior players who might be playing their last series against Australia and specially the fact that the bowlers were in excellent form. This is a major factor and I can’t remember the last time when anyone talked about India’s bowlers! Specially, test matches was all about Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh doing all the damage that too on the 4th and 5th day track and people hardly talked about the fast bowlers. However, this is changing since the tours to England and Australia and now India boasts of a formidable and amongst the best pool of fast bowlers!

I knew that this war would be decided on the basis of who won the smaller battle of- Australian batsman vs Indian bowlers, because the batting department of both sides is quite strong. And as of now, it is Indian bowlers who have clearly dominated and the result is that India is 1 up in the series! Also I was very interested to see how the Australians would play when they had a target of 516 runs in the second test match. Zaheer had mentioned after the first test that this was the most defensive Australian team he had ever seen. So the ball was completely in Australia’s court and no matter what they did, they were going to lose. They couldn’t possible have survived so long while playing for a draw, nor could they have got the target but I am glad that the Australians played the way they always have and came out attacking. I would praise them for doing it. They did not meekly surrender but decided to go down fighting which is admirable.

One important announcement that was made before the series was that Sourav Ganguly would retire from Cricket after this series. I did feel and even do now that it was an excellent move by the shrewd Sourav Ganguly. Not that it was just a tactic of his; he was in fact under tremendous pressure constantly, but the reason I feel that he made a very good, tactical move is because before the series I thought that looking at the current form, India would go in for 5 bowlers including Munaf Patel which means Sourav would have to sit out. But after this announcement of his, no selector has the guts to exclude him for the 4 tests. It virtually confirms his place in the playing eleven. But he has come good and clearly wants to leave on a high. So finally this has turned out to be the best for Indian cricket because now there will be no more questions on Sourav Ganguly, he will not have to constantly answer questions from everyone and be under pressure and it will also free up a place in the team for any talented youngster. And I feel that his place might be taken by either Yuvraj Singh or Rohit Sharma if they play 4 bowlers.

In the two matches that have gone by, there was some really exciting old fashioned Test match action. Test matches clearly have something that the other forms don’t. The long spells and the contest between bat and the ball, the test of patience, the charm of watching a bowler weave a web and finally get the batsman out. If you can see that, you will definitely enjoy it. Some of the battles have been pretty amazing. Zaheer Khan is bowling unbelievably well and what can we say about the progress of Ishant Sharma. One can’t help but be impressed by this 20 year old. His battle with Ponting is definitely worth watching and he has triumphed over Ponting. Also the battle of Harbhajan Singh with Hayden and Ponting too is worth watching. Australia do have bowlers with good pace but Lee hasn’t been at his best in terms of number of wickets mainly because he isn’t getting much support.

I, at times in this second match did feel bad for the Australians. To be in a country like India, with the kind of heat and humidity there is and the tremendous home crowd support that India gets and further, if India is dominating then it can be really demotivating but the Australian fast bowlers were still putting in the efforts and in the field department too.

Well, other teams have suffered a lot at the hands of the Australians and it is only fair that they too once in a while get to face this!

To summarize both the teams, India right now truly have the best opening pair for both forms of the game and I see this pair opening the innings in both forms for years to come now. Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman still have it in them to keep on playing as long as they wish, Dhoni is currently the finest wicket keeper in the world, and specially as a Captain too he is just fantastic and the bowling department looks the best it has ever looked, with Zaheer and Ishant leading the way and the likes of Munaf, R.P.Singh, Pathan and Sreesanth waiting in the reserves. Also one thing is clear that unlike many other teams, India right now need not worry about the spin department and that the replacements are now ready for Anil Kumble as and when he retires with Mishra and Chawla and others, unlike Australia who has the biggest conundrum of replacing the spinners.

Australia still has a good batting line up, Hayden is still a force to reckon with and I would like Phil Jacques in with him. Katich is a gritty cricketer whom Steve Waugh called his successor but he hasn’t been able to fill in his shoes. Ponting’s woes in India continue and barring his century in the first game, he hasn’t clicked at all. Hussey and Clarke make a solid middle order and Symonds can make it more dynamic and balanced. Australia do need to think about their bowling department though and get the combination right and solve the problem of a quality spinner.

And finally, one of the great things that happened in the course of this series was that Sachin Tendulkar overtook Brian Lara and also crossed the 12,000 run mark in Tests and became the first person to do so. He now has the record for the most runs in both One day and tests and also the most centuries too in both forms of the game which is an unbelievable statistic. For a man to play on for 19 years the way he has, there can be no words to describe him. That is precisely the reason that my post was mainly about Sachin Tendulkar but when you really feel a lot for anything, you become speechless and that is pretty much it. I have admired this man for the past 18 years like anything and still do and that’s why I can’t write much on him because words will fail me!

A Test Match that will be remembered

India's Tour of Australia- Sydney Test Match

*The opinion expressed here is personal and should not be taken offensively by anyone as it is not with the intention to raise any controversy of any kind.
In just my previous post,after the First Test Match, having praised the Aussies quite profusely, a huge controversy has arisen after the second Test Match between India and Australia, where the attitude of the Australian players has been questioned. Well that’s how things usually turn out to be.


A lot of things have happened in the past few days in Cricket, with so many opinions from ex-players and many decisions being taken and everyone having their own version and interpretation and analysis of what has happened and why it has happened and what not. Even if I just cover all that has taken place, it would be a huge post by my standards too. But I am not going to do that. You must have already read all that in the newspapers and in the TV news channels who are always coming up with their opinion polls and everything. Cricket has definitely been in the limelight and not for the right reasons, with even Australia’s Tennis player - Hewitt saying he feels like the Indian cricketers, as in being done in by the poor umpiring!
But I only feel that what I had written about the Australian team in my previous post in fact is justified. It only proves that they are very aggressive. No one really knows what the exact truth is about the incidents and what had really happened. I even read a funny thing in the newspapers that if calling ‘monkey’ amounts to a racist comment then the Australians fondly call Michael Clarke as ‘pup’. And it said that, so going by the same logic, it would be racial too as there is not much difference between calling someone a monkey or a dog! It’s funny what people can come up with and going by logic it is justified too. And I have no idea how people came up with calling Andrew Symonds monkey. My father asked me what has calling him monkey got to do with his race or origin or being racial? I really did not know other than he had Caribbean parents. In fact going by the theory of Charles Darwin, our ancestors were in fact monkeys. So in a way it has got to do with the origins or race but that applies to everyone then. And also India is famous for its great ‘monkey god’ – Hanuman who is worshipped by many, but I feel this argument is not valid because I don’t think anyone in India would be happy to be called a monkey either. Perhaps if you remind him of Hanuman, he might try and be ok with it which I still doubt but that is just being clever by the abuser!

But all these things are just in the hind sight kind of trying to mildly justify what has happened or trying to find out why all this fuss in the first place. But all this is of no use. What is important is not what was said but the intention behind it is what matters more because Allan Border had said that it is just a difference of culture between the sides as he said calling someone a ‘lucky bastard’ in Australia wouldn’t bother anyone, referring to the charge against Hogg; well so would be the case in India too because it is not with the word as much as it has to do with the intention. The lucky word before it completely changes the meaning and intention because we would use that when someone has done well, whereas Hogg used it in a completely different sense.
In the case of Steve Bucknor, (who incidentally shares his birth day with me) it is really enigmatic. It is quite obvious that he does seem to have ‘bad umpiring days’ especially against India. I really don’t know how or why that happens. But he has clearly been making too many incorrect decisions to be in the ICC’s Elite Panel. Only because ICC is in a bit of a crunch as there aren’t too many umpires around otherwise going by his standard of umpiring, he would have been out by now, but his previous reputation and experience and seniority would have mattered too and could have come in the way but really it is time for him to retire now. Even the best in the world Simon Taufel can have a bad day but definitely not such shockers as Bucknor. I feel that if the Indians had appealed against him a long time ago and if he wasn't here, much of the problem of this match wouldn't have arisen in the first place. And this issue of technology does keeping raising its hood ever so often as soon as there as some doubtful decisions. And then things again settle for some time. But the truth is no one really has a solution to it and opinions are clearly divided even among the greats of the game.
Sunil Gavaskar is not someone who is particularly fond of the Aussies- if not their game, than their other aspects and he questioned the Australians and their captain Ponting taking the case to the referee when they talk about keeping all that has happened in the field, there itself. Some have said that they are not Cricketers but a ‘pack of wild dogs’ who would do anything to win and others have questioned their attitude and suggesting that they need a little counseling.
While watching the game, I was obviously saddened and angered by what was happening in the game but at the same time, I watched the last session with a lot of interest. What I was interested in was the way the Aussies would approach the last session. Almost everyone would have said that the Aussies had left the declaration far too late and they might just miss out on a win and there were a lot of speculations the day before about the target they would set for India whether it would be a carrot dangling. But I was pretty sure that they wouldn't set a target which India would feel they can achieve. That's the way they play. Infact Hayden said before the last day that India had no chance of winning. I noticed that at no time was the body language of the Australian players down. They weren't getting irritated or frustrated when Kumble was doing well with Harbhajan and others. Though we know what Hogg said to Kumble. Even Lee and Hogg were ineffective and so Ponting just tossed the ball to Clarke and he did it with ease. This was the most amazing part for me. I don't think other teams could have won even from the point when Kumble and Harbhajan were batting. Australians just went about perfectly and their interview afterwards was even amazing to hear. Clarke said that they did not think they would win when he came on to bowl! Now the players can be diplomatic and we can never be sure that what they say in the interview is what they really feel but still it is amazing to hear them.
Now about the incidents, no one can really say what is wrong or right and who should have done what but the fact is a lot has already happened and we and Cricket in general would do well to learn from it and be ready and prepared for such future instances.

All this just makes me wonder how much the game has changed since it came into being. From being called the Gentleman’s game, it has changed a lot as money has come in and it definitely is a money-spinner. It has become a ‘sport’ from a ‘game’ where results matter more than just the enjoyment of playing. All games originate for enjoyment and gradually turn into a sport when money comes in and results matter so much more. I guess that is what happens to every game eventually when it becomes a sport!

De-Mystifying Australia

Having just witnessed the recently concluded First Test Match between India and Australia, which Australia won quite convincingly, Australia have clearly stamped their authority and have shown that they are keen to win every match in this series. They are clearly on a roll having won 15 in a row now. They would need no reminding that the last time they were on such a winning spree, 16 matches in a row, it was, they were halted in their tracks by India. The Australians at present have that aura of invincibility as they have had for quite some time now.

Having closely followed this Australian team just out of sheer interest and curiosity as to how they manage to play so well and win so many games, here I am attempting to demystify this great team.

It would be difficult to compare the West Indies team of yesteryears that dominated everyone, and this Australian team. Although West Indies have lost that status, it remains to be seen what happens with this Australian team and I suspect that it will keep on going for some years at least. Australia has always been a good team over the years. You can just check their performances in all the World Cups; having won the most number of World Cup titles and even of reaching the Finals. But it has only been in the last decade or so that they have gone a few notches above the rest. They have done well in all conditions and in every country. They really are a complete team in every sense. With legends like Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne along with Justin Langer and others retiring, it was expected that Australia would surely miss them and wouldn’t be as strong a team. Sure enough, you can’t replace these legends but Australia seems to have done well even without them. Brett Lee stepped up and took on the role as the spearhead gleefully and Stuart Clark already branded as the next McGrath has shown the ability to fill his shoes, as has Phil Jaques, in the role of Justin Langer. After Ian Healy, it was difficult to imagine someone taking his place but Adam Gilchrist has not only done that but taken it to the next level. You can imagine the kind of players Australia must have in their reserves when Michael Hussey comes in so late into the Australian team and Brad Hogg now 37, has just been in the Test team. Strangely this Senior -Junior controversy that India faces does not seem to bother Australia whose players go on playing well above 35!

So what is it with this team that makes it special? Do they have better players? No. India has equally or perhaps more talented players. Do they have some winning formula? Do they use technology better? Do they use battle of words to gain advantage? Do they just try and intimidate opponents to put them off? Strangely, the answer according to me would be no.

Having read the autobiography of the Great Steve Waugh, it gave me some insights into the team but no solid conclusions. This team does not have any secret or any short-cut. Believe it or not, it is just plain hard work. The kind of situations they go through in their domestic level are such that only those who are really good enough to excel in the International level make it. And by the time they are in the team, they are really well prepared for it. Compare this with sub-continent teams when players as young as 15 and 16 come into the team only to later find out that they were not quite ready. Sachin Tendulkar has been one rare exception and he has proved that his entry was at the right time. But of course such players are just once in a generation.

Ours is a fixation with individuals. Whenever someone does well, we shower accolades on him and term him a superstar only to later demand his head after a few failures. With such short-sightedness, wanting everything instant, no wonder we seem to do well in Twenty-Twenty!

The Australians are meticulous in their preparation, place equal importance on fielding and fitness which we always seem to neglect. They have their plans and strategies in place and they love to play their game aggressively as that is the way they have done and as is the way at their domestic level. They play with pride and enjoy playing well. There was a time when after having won the series, they would lose the last matches; the ones you call dead-rubber. But they have addressed that and are keen on improving all the time. Being complacent is something they consciously avoid because otherwise, they would have already slipped by now. Despite having won almost every match they play, defeat still hurts them and every win is special and not just a routine. Steve Waugh enforced in the minds of everyone that the baggy green cap is something special and has to be earned. This team enjoys playing in each other’s company and celebrates the success of everyone. Technology has no greater part in their success than it has in other teams. Gilchrist using the ball in his gloves while batting just shows that they have people who can give them effective advice and not just technical advice which every player at this level already possesses. They don’t believe in shortcuts which might not seem significant or a new fact but is very important to emphasize. The war of words is not necessarily planned but it comes naturally to them because that is the aggressive brand of Cricket that they play.

You just have to listen to their players being interviewed and I have always been amazed listening to the players. They are nowhere near arrogant as is the general perception. It is just pride misinterpreted. They are honest players which is why they are better. They might have the better of some good player, still if they get him out; it is a matter of celebration. It is not taken for granted. Recently I heard Michael Clarke saying that he got a call and was told that he would be the vice-captain and his first thought at receiving the call was that he might have been dropped from the team! They don’t take their places for granted in the team either, no matter who they are.

Subcontinent teams have star players and some others have better ‘teams’ who play well as a team but Australia have both. Each player is well known and feared but they play great as a team too and that is where their strength lies. They believe in themselves which again comes from the confidence they have got coming from their highly competitive domestic level and that is precisely the reason why they seem to win all the close games even from difficult situations (Remember the Semi-Final against SA and many more) when other teams are more nervous, they in fact seem to raise their level when needed.

They do not even have a planned strategy in the sense that each player has the freedom to play as he feels right because they know that each player has team interest ahead of himself. Just take the recent case where Australia had said that they will not allow Murlitharan to overtake Warne in Australia. This was not arrogance but perhaps giving responsibility to their players as if to do something for their former great player, like giving him something back for serving Australian Cricket so well. And they did it! Imagine the joy they would have got out of it and even Warne was thankful to them. Such things only strengthen the team spirit further. And they had said that each batsman tackled Murlitharan in his own way. Each individual made his own plans and that’s the way they play. Each individual does his homework.

But having said all this, Australia isn’t invincible. Still it can lose against Bangladesh and India can defeat it in Twenty-Twenty too. Nor are all their players always at the top of their game, their batsman too get out for ducks and sometimes even their bowlers are clobbered but it’s the overall big picture that counts where they get the things right. They might lose some battles but they win the final war; which is what counts.