Who killed Bob Woolmer?

Harsha Bhogle once made the following statement about Pakistan cricketers; “Pakistanis are fighters. They are always fighting someone, usually themselves!” Time and again, Pakistani cricketers have taken great pains and have gone to great lengths to prove Harsha right. They accused each other as a matter of routine; they engaged in fist fights in full public view and abused drugs as if they were the mint candies. Now, as cricket’s darkest world cup gets even murkier with the mysterious death of Bob Woolmer and premature retirement of Inzamam Ul Haq, Pakistan cricket is getting sucked into a turmoil from which it may never recover.

The Jamaican police have at last confirmed our worst fears. Bob Woolmer was indeed murdered. He was strangulated in his hotel room by at least two persons. Now, it stands to logic that these two persons are those he knew and commanded the authority to get into Woolmer’s room without being stopped by the security. If you look into the matter carefully, it cannot be the people who were involved in match fixing simply because it would have been very difficult for them to gain an entry into Woolmer’s room. It cannot be even an enraged fan as some sources in the media are suggesting. Because fans would never get to enter Woolmer’s room and Woolmer would never entertain two strangers into his room just after his team suffered one of the worst defeats in the history of the game.

So, who did it?

We might have to wait for a long time to get the answer, or we may never get it. Bob Woolmer’s death may have buried many of the dark secrets associated with Pakistan cricket with him. Probably that was the cause of his death!

We wouldn’t want to jump to conclusions as yet. It’s not my intention to suggest that someone from Pakistan team murdered Bob Woolmer. But as a cricketing nation, Pakistan has had a troubled past which contained unexplained mysteries. The Pakistan cricket board is simply not able to curb its wayward players and highhanded officials. Maybe it was the listlessness of Pakistani cricket, maybe it was the autocratic way the cricket was run, or may be it was the dark underbelly of match fixing mafia. Whatever was the reason of Woolmer’s death, cricket has lost a wonderful coach and a marvelous analyst of the game.

This is just not cricket.

Cool down, Sunny Bhai!!!

For some days now, some of the most respected names in the cricket, both past and the present, have been involved in a sledge fest that is sadly becoming more stimulating than the ongoing world cup. On the one side is Sunil Gavaskar, who is busy calling Australians names and on the other side, we have the present and the former Australian players who are acting as if they are determined to prove every accusations Sunny made against them!

Sunil Gavaskar is known to make such comments. Few years ago, he made comments about England team being boring which instigated then captain of England Nasser Hussein and Coach Duncan Fletcher to come up with perfectly boring replies. He then called for action against a former South African batsman and current commentator for having allegedly made racist remarks against India. If you look at Sunny’s glorious cricketing career, you will find instances where he has fought oppressions and bullying by the foreign players and the media. Sunil Manohar Gavaskar always speaks his mind.

Is he paying a price for that?

I don’t think so. While in the past I always appreciated Gavaskar’s open mindedness and honesty, his remarks on the late Australian cricketer David Hookes was totally uncalled for. While his remarks on the Australian behavior was spot on, dragging the name of a deceased cricketer into the controversy and hinting that he almost deserved his death due to his bad behavior does not suit the stature of Gavaskar.

Probably in the course of all these accusations and counter-accusations, Sunny took it personally and started reacting emotionally to the whole issue. In the process, he proved that Indians, with the honorable exception of Saurav Ganguly, can never be a match for Australians when it comes sledging. For Aussies, sledging is another weapon to disarm the opponent, just like inswingers and bouncers! But for players like Sunny bhai, this is emotional. Remember how Saurav handled the Aussie sledging when Steve Waugh and co, toured India? When Waugh complained about Saurav coming to the toss late, Saurav’s reply was, “why is he behaving like a school kid?” Complaints stopped immediately and even today. Steve Waugh considers Saurav to be one of the finest Indian captains ever.

That’s how you react to sledging. When the opposition ridicules you, you return the favor and forget the whole issue. Do not take it personally, it doesn’t work that way.

As Sunny Bhai is finding out now.

The Sehwag Dilemma

Indian captain Rahul Dravid is called “The Wall” for more reasons one can think of. Like a wall, he is solid in his defense, like a wall, he pokes the same face at the media for all occasions, and like a wall, he backs his players to the point of stupidity.

In a recently concluded press conference, Rahul Dravid affirmed that Sehwag is a great player and he can bounce back any moment. But he didn’t bother to clarify when Sehwag will bounce back. If Sehwag chooses to bounce back after India has been bounced out of the world cup, will Dravid still defend his player? Will Sehwag, who promised not to let his captain down and played an atrocious shot in the match against West Indies, right after he made that promise, will ever learn from his mistakes? If Rahul Dravid keeps selecting Sehwag no matter how he plays, we might have seen the end of Sehwag.

It’s not because I hate Sehwag, in fact I almost adore his fearless approach to the game and his breathtaking shots. Before Dhoni entered the Indian cricket and after Sachin went into his shell, Sehwag was the only entertainer in the Indian team. He was the man who played the game without the fear of failure. He was the man who brought a fresh air to a game which was becoming too stereotyped. For me, Sehwag remains one of my all time favorite players and I desperately wish his speedy return to the form.

But at what cost?

Sehwag may be a special player. But giving him unlimited chances in the hope that one day, he will play an innings that will win us matches is pure stupidity. It dents the morale of other deserving players who are not selected, it dents the morale of the team and most importantly, it dents the confidence of Sehwag himself. By pushing a player who is already under tremendous pressure to perform into world cup, Rahul Dravid is unwittingly making sure that Sehwag slips further deep into his own trap.

Consider this. Because of the nature of competition and the quality of opposition which will only improve as India makes progress in the world cup, it’s unlikely that Sehwag will have an easy day in the office. More failure in World Cup will mean more pressure on Sehwag and eventually, he may reach a point of no return where his confidence is shattered and his form has deserted him forever.

Rahul, please! Stop this nonsense right now and give Sehwag and India a break!

West Indies - Against all odds!

West Indies - Against all odds!

Whatever home advantage West Indies has got is nullified by the combined effort of schedule makers and the curators. The first match they played was against Kenya. Kenya had beaten them earlier in the world cup itself. The fear was still there and Windies struggled to win that match. So the first match was a difficult one. In the second warm up match, they’ll be playing against India on 09-Mar-07. Because the curators have come up with the slow tracks which would aid the spinners, the Asian country India will be at the advantage. So the second warm up match also is promising to be difficult for West Indies. Their ill luck doesn’t stop here. Even in their league matches, the first match they’d be playing is against Pakistan, an Asian country. A tough start for the host. With all these odds against them, the home crowd will contribute more to the pressure than to the advantage!! It’s interesting to see how they’d fare in this world cup…

The Demise of Bouncy Tracks

“Kill him man”, the audience would yell, as the bowler got ready with a piece of red cherry in his hand. As the tall, intimidating figure of the bowler approached the stumps, the first instinct of the nervous batsman on the other end of the 22 yards battle yard was not to hit or even defend the ball; it was a primitive, natural desire to survive, to see another day, to meet his family back home and to experience all the beautiful things the life had to offer. But in West Indies, life was miserable for the batsman. The size of the bowlers and pace of the ball were a matter of concern and only the fittest survived. As the ball zoomed past the scantly protected heads, ribcages and chests, teams often forgot they had a match to play and survival was the only mantra.

That was the West Indies of 1970s.

With probably the best pace attack in the history of the game and bouncier pitches for assistance (it wasn’t required anyway!) the famed West Indian pace bowlers demolished teams and careers with equal aplomb. The Caribbean company consisting of Joel Garner, Malcom Marshall, Michael Holding and Andy Roberts were skillful and the pitches assisted them beautifully, creating a dangerous combination of lethal pace and unmatched skills.

As the pace bowlers retired and as West Indies failed to sustain the aura of invincibility, things started to change in Caribbean cricket. The pace bowlers who succeeded the famed quartet were neither skillful nor fast. With the honorable exception of bowlers like Walsh and Ambrose, West Indies fast bowling department was just a shadow of its glorious past, threatening to vanish at the slightest hint of aggressiveness from the opposition.

Unfortunately for West Indies, even the pitches deserted them when they needed it the most. The same pitches that made the ball rise up and made the batsmen dance on the pitch to save their skin now invited them to dance down the track and hit the ball out of the park. There was no pace in the pitch and there were no bowlers in West Indies who could justify the existence of a bouncy pitch.

And a legacy started to disappear.

Contrary to what teams like South Africa and Australia believe, slow and turning pitches are not bad for the game at all. They test the skill of the batsmen and keep that artistry called spin bowling alive. If all the pitches in the world were fast tracks, there would have been no Chandrashekhar, no Prasanna or no Shane Warne. But the state of the pitches in West Indies is not planned. They just happened over a period of time and West Indies does not have the skilled bowlers who can utilize that condition. If every cricket expert is banking on a sub continental team to win the cup, the reason for that is the state of the pitch. They turn, they offer uneven bounce and they suit India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka! So much so even a relatively weaker sub continental team like Bangladesh beat New Zealand who had defeated Australia in three successive matches not so long ago!

Even in other warm up matches, teams from the Sub Continent have been registering easy wins. If the state of the pitch remains the same, my personal favorite to win the cup would be Sri Lanka. They have just the right combination of slower bowlers, led by all powerful Murali, to succeed in these conditions. In spite of being the host, West Indies does not stand a very good chance of making it to the final.

Because for them, the best of the pitches and the men are gone.

BCCI Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hain?

Now it’s Vengsarkar’s turn to be on the BCCI’s gunpoint. BCCI is disturbed at his earlier press remarks over the inclusion of the man-in-form Veerendra Sehwag for the world cup squad. Some top brass of BCCI is unhappy with Dilip Vengsarkar. I wonder why this top brass or for that matter BCCI is not unhappy with Sehwag’s performance. Why BCCI always gets unhappy at the wrong things? BCCI is telling that it’s unhappy because Vengsarkar’s statements would invoke controversy before the world cup. But BCCI’s reactions are the ones which are creating the controversy. Why BCCI is so secretive about its selection procedure in the first place? The selection procedure has to be as transparent as possible. The best performing player should always get selected. Since the performance of the players is witnessed by the public, there is no need of secrecy in selection as long as the player’s performance is the only barometer for selection. It doesn’t seem to be so. BCCI knows deep in heart that its selection procedure is not straightforward. Everybody knows that Sehwag’s bad performance has become frighteningly consistent and he didn’t deserve a place in the team at all. And now BCCI is disturbed at Vengsarkar for acknowledging the public knowledge.

But I must appreciate Sehwag's ability at impressing the captains despite his poor performance. Even though he's not batting, he makes the captains bat for his selection. Rahul Dravid is a man for whom stroke playing or hard hitting is a mammoth task. So it is obvious that he gets immediately impressed at the people who can hit the ball hard, even though it is in the long past!!

-Chandru Kanakalmath