Australia won the series, India won respect

January 11, 2015

Austrial wins

Jan 11: They huffed, they puffed, they tried all they knew. They created enough genuine chances – and some half-chances, some quarter-, some one-eighth-, some mirages for crazed optimists – but the Australian bowling attack was eventually held at bay by a worthy opponent. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood bowled well enough to fill local hearts with hope for years to come, but fulfilment will have to wait for another day. Through skill, application and the character they have shown throughout, India's batsmen saved a draw that reflected the balance between the teams. Australia won the series, India won respect.

Before taking the field and during their breaks, the Australians were doubtless talking about "creating chances". It's the kind of process-based talk that dominates sport. Rather than focus on winning, football teams talk about their structures, golfers talk about birdie chances (instead of actual birdies), swimmers talk about maintaining form. To concentrate on the end result is seen, with some justification, as placing too much of the wrong kind of pressure on the participant.

What it also does is introduce a kind of fatalism into the game, as if the creation of a certain number of chances will inevitably lead to conversion. But there is no such law. Adam Scott creates as many chances as Jack Nicklaus ever did, perhaps more. But Nicklaus did not concentrate his efforts on getting the ball on the green and letting probabilities take over; he focused on the numbers he needed to beat the other guy.

On day five, the Australian cricketers did create their chances; but they had done this in the first innings here, and in Melbourne too, while lacking the polish to convert them. Staunch batting from India also played a part. When creating chances does not lead to wickets, confidence begins to waver. The belief in that mystical equation – X chances equal Y wickets – is shaken.

By my count, Australia created seven chances of varying feasibility before the tea break on Saturday, of which they converted two. It took 10 overs for the first, when Murali Vijay outside-edged Nathan Lyon over a leaping Shane Watson, via Brad Haddin's thigh. Three overs later, K.L. Rahul advanced to smother Lyon and gloved a catch down the leg-side.

For the best part of two hours, as Vijay and Rohit Sharma dug in, only one more near-chance materialised, Sharma's glove bobbing a ball from Lyon wide of a wrong-footed Joe Burns at bat-pad. While no wickets came, this period produced some of the best cricket of the series. Hazlewood gave up a solitary single in his first five-over spell. Ryan Harris and Starc were similarly accurate, and Lyon teased. The Australian close fieldsmen kept up a steady flow of conversation with the batsmen, leading to the intervention of umpires whose faces could not have looked more helpless if they were the ones being gossiped about.

After 35 overs of Waiting for Watto, the all-rounder came on from the Randwick end and, as so often, brought about the subtle but telling change in the mood of the game. Shane Watson immediately induced false strokes from Sharma, and in the next over, Harris broke Vijay's concentration, a loose drive flying to Shaun Marsh at short cover. Marsh put down the chance, tough but graspable. Was it going to be that sort of day again, when faith in the creative process would only go part of the way to the desired output?

Next over, the Australian captain took the matter into his own hand. Watson got a ball to jump at Sharma, whose intention to guide the ball stylishly to the third man boundary became a horror-stricken edge into a gap closed by the acrobatic Steve Smith. Spidercam hovered at a safe distance as Smith provided the inspiring moment, the difference between chance and dismissal.

Virat Kohli and Vijay then batted from the 39th over to the 61st. They fought to reintroduce another idea of inevitability: the supremacy of bat over ball. No chances came from them, save for one edge from Kohli off Watson that not even Smith's telescoping right arm could reach, and an lbw appeal against Vijay to which Richard Kettleborough gave a rare poor decision.

But when the chances did come after tea, they cascaded. Seven in two sessions became nine in an hour. More importantly for Australia, the conversion rate followed the US dollar. After accelerating from 50 to 80, Vijay, perhaps entertaining his first thought of going for the win, edged Hazlewood. In the next ten minutes, the previously flawless Kohli popped a near-caught and bowled to Lyon, skewed a drive past gully, and finally edged Starc to be sharply caught by Watson at first slip. The hegemony of the bat left the field with the Indian master, and now, not only did chances come, they came with thud after thud like a monster down a staircase: Starc into Suresh Raina's pads, Lyon into Wriddhiman Saha's, Hazlewood into Ravi Ashwin's. Getting behind the line, for the Indian batsmen, now seemed not safe technique but the riskiest.

In the end, fine Indian batting had the last word, a fitting coda to a series flooded with run-scoring. This has been a summer for talented batsmen to fill their resumes with real, meaty scores. Bowlers have had to survive on the thinner stuff of chance and hope.

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Agencies
March 10,2020

Mumbai, Mar 10: The addition of two new members, including the chairman, in the national selection committee, has not changed the panel's stance on M S Dhoni, who will "have to perform" in the upcoming IPL to be considered for T20 World Cup selection, a top BCCI official told PTI.

The Sunil Joshi-led selection panel met for the first time in Ahmedabad on Sunday to pick a rather "straightforward" squad for the three ODIs against South Africa beginning in Dharamsala on March 12.

Fit-again Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shikhar Dhawan made their way back into the side.

Joshi's predecessor MSK Prasad had made it clear that the team has moved on from Dhoni and he has to first play to be considered for selection.

Dhoni, who has not played since the World Cup semi-final loss to New Zealand in July, will be making his highly-awaited comeback in the IPL beginning March 29.

"It was a pretty straightforward selection meeting and since Dhoni was obviously not in the reckoning this time (for South Africa series), there was no formal talk about his future," a BCCI source told PTI.

"He will be back in the reckoning only if he has a good IPL. And why only him, there are so many senior and young players who will play in the IPL. If they do well, they are ought to be considered too. So, you could see some surprise inclusions," he said.

The T20 World Cup will be played in Australia in October-November and the games India play after the IPL leading up to the mega event will also be a factor in the final squad selection.

"But the performance in the IPL could be the clincher," the source added.

Head coach Ravi Shastri too has hinted that Dhoni could be back after a good IPL but his future remains a subject of intense speculation as he has not played a game in more than seven months.

With his heir apparent Rishabh Pant not setting the world on fire and K L Rahul being groomed into a full-time wicketkeeper-batsman, Dhoni's comeback cannot be ruled out.

His countless fans will finally get to see him in action when he leads Chennai Super Kings against defending champions Mumbai Indians in the IPL opener at Wankhede Stadium on March 29.

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News Network
June 2,2020

Jun 2: Former West Indies captain Daren Sammy has spoken strongly against the killing if George Floyd in USA, and has now urged the ICC & all the other boards in the world to come together and fight the evil.

In a series of tweets Sammy wrote how the blacks have been suffering for a long time.

“For too long black people have suffered. I’m all the way in St Lucia and I’m frustrated If you see me as a teammate then you see #GeorgeFloyd Can you be part of the change by showing your support. #BlackLivesMatter,” Sammy wrote.

He also wrote, “@ICC and all the other boards are you guys not seeing what’s happening to ppl like me? Are you not gonna speak against the social injustice against my kind. This is not only about America. This happens everyday #BlackLivesMatter now is not the time to be silent. I wanna hear u.”

“Right now if the cricket world not standing against the injustice against people of color after seeing that last video of that foot down the next of my brother you are also part of the problem.”

Earlier, West Indies star batsman Chris Gayle has said racism exists in cricket too, saying he gets the 'end of the stick' even within teams.

"Black lives matter just like any other life. Black people matter, p***k all racist people, stop taking black people for fools, even our own black people wise the p***k up and stop bringing down your own! I have travelled the globe and experience racial remarks towards me because I am black, believe me, the list goes on," Gayle wrote in his Instagram story.

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News Network
June 9,2020

Jun 9: Former West Indies skipper Darren Sammy has released a video, alleging racism within the SunRisers Hyderabad camp. Last week, Sammy had lost his cool after learning the meaning of the word "Kalu", which he alleged was directed at him during his Indian Premier League (IPL) stint with the SunRisers Hyderabad. The T20 World Cup-winning Windies skipper had said that he along with Sri Lanka player Thisara Perera were sometimes called that word when they played for SunRisers Hyderabad. However, Sammy did not specify as to who directed these slurs at him, but now the player has released a video, saying he will message all those who called him that word.

"I have played all over the world and I have been loved by many people, I have embraced all dressing rooms where I have played, so I was listening to Hasan Minhaj as to how some of the people in his culture describe black people," Sammy said in a video posted on his Instagram account.

"This does not apply to all people, so after I found out a meaning of a certain word, I had said I was angry on finding out the meaning and it was degrading, instantly I remembered when I played for SunRisers Hyderabad, I was being called exactly the same word which is degrading to us black people," he added.

Sammy said that at the time when he was being called with the word, he didn''t know the meaning, and his team-mates used to laugh every time after calling him by that name.

"I will be messaging those people, you guys know who you are, I must admit at that time when I was being called as that word I thought the word meant strong stallion or whatever it is, I did not know what it meant, every time I was called with that word, there was laughter at that moment, I thought teammates are laughing so it must be something funny," Sammy said.

"Now, I realise it was degrading, I will be texting you guys and I will ask you as to when you called me with that name, did you all mean it in any bad way or form? I have had great memories in all my dressing rooms, so all those who used to you call me with that word, think about it, let's have a conversation, if it was in a bad way then I would be really disappointed," he added.

The former Windies skipper has been a vocal supporter of the protests that are currently going on in the United States over the death of an African-American man named George Floyd.

Sammy had also made an appeal to the ICC and other cricket boards to support the fight against social injustice and racism.

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