Will Harbhajan's career take a rebirth?

July 4, 2012

harbhajansingh

Harbhajan Singh is the enfant terrible of Indian cricket, someone who polarizes opinions of seismic proportions. For his ardent fans, he's a feisty and spirited cricketer of implacable resolve and unmatched flair with prodigious talent to back. For his detractors, he’s an over-rated player who thrives on dash and petulance rather than guile, flight and loop - the adornments of an offspinner.

Despite claiming more than 400 Test and over 250 ODI wickets, why Harbhajan's name doesn't figure in the pantheon of greats is an enigma hard to untangle. He made his ODI and Test debut in 1998 but it took him three years to gain eminence. When Australia arrived in India in 2001, they were riding high on 15 consecutive Test victories. They demolished India in the first Test of the series in Mumbai and looked set to continue their untrammeled rampage.

But then their dream run came to a screeching halt in the second Test in Kolkata. Though VVS Laxman, rightfully, walked away with kudos for his Houdini act, Harbhajan's contribution was no less as he picked up 13 wickets in match, in the process becoming the first Indian bowler to notch up a Test hat-trick. Another 15 wickets in the thrilling finale in Chennai gave Harbhajan 32 victims for the series, and India a remarkable 2-1 win.

Harbhajan received unstinted support and encouragement from then captain Sourav Ganguly and became a regular member of the Indian team. He won a string of Test matches for India on home soil but his performance outside India remained largely mediocre. His ODI record - 259 wickets in 229 matches - is fair, without being spectacular, but his economy rate of 4.30 in an era where batsmen reign supreme suggests that he contributed quite a bit to the team even in the shorter format.

But Harbhajan's reluctance to flight the ball and often bowling flat to contain batsmen rather than trying to get them out has received scathing flak from purists and connoisseurs. He's a rhythm bowler whose strength is the extra bounce which he extracts on pitches conducive to his style of bowling. Despite criticism, he remained India's No. 1 offspinner for almost a decade and was sometimes preferred over his legspin counterpart Anil Kumble.

About a year and half ago, things started to go wrong for Harbhajan. The wickets dried up, his attitude was increasingly questioned, and the arrival of Ravichandran Ashwin, coupled with shoddy form, saw him relegated to the background. His fitness too didn't stand him in good stead. In the 2011 World Cup, Harbhajan managed nine wickets in nine matches at an unflattering average of 43.33 and in the next ODI series in the Caribbean he didn't do anything of note.

He was worse in Test cricket. During the disastrous England tour last year, Harbhajan strained his abdominal muscle during the second Test at Trent Bridge and was ruled out for the rest of the series. He played two Tests in England and managed just two wickets. The Trent Bridge Test was the last international match played by Harbhajan. Even after he recovered from the injury, he found himself out of contention and was snubbed for the Test and ODI series against West Indies at home. He was not considered for the Australian tour, which prompted Harbhajan to express surprise over his relentless exclusion from the Indian squad.

He played the Vijay Hazare Trophy, India's domestic one-day tournament, last season in a bid to impress selectors but couldn't put up remarkable show. Seven wickets in eight matches - he went wicketless in three matches - is hardly a performance he can boast of.

His litany of woes continued in IPL 5. In fact, he didn't bowl his quota of four overs in most of the matches and in some crucial matches, including Mumbai's preliminary final match against Chennai Super Kings. Barring a couple of matches, Harbhajan was taken to the cleaners and looked a pale shadow of his former self. To exacerbate the matters, his on-field conduct as captain of Mumbai was severely censured. A lot of people saw his outburst against the umpire in the match against Deccan Chargers as a result of his pent-up frustration.

Besides the form and rhythm, Harbhajan has ran out of luck and steam of late. With Ashwin snapping at the heels and form (also age, to some extent) not on his side, making a comeback into the Indian side is going to be a Herculean task for the offspinner who's celebrating his 32nd birthday today. The Indian selectors will pick the team for the ODI series in Sri Lanka tomorrow and Harbhajan wouldn't mind having even the icing, if not the entire cake, as a birthday present.

For now, Happy Birthday, Harbhajan. Hope your career gets a ‘doosra’ life.



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Agencies
March 25,2020

Lausanne, Mar 25: The World Archery has hailed as a 'brave decision' the International Olympic Committee (IOC) move to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics until next year due to coronavirus pandemic.

"We commend the conscientious and brave decision taken by Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee to delay this summer's Games in the face of an unprecedented challenge to humanity," Ugur Erdener, the World Archery president, said in an official statement.

The decision to postpone the Summer Olympics was confirmed by the IOC, on Tuesday, after the organising body for the event and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to reschedule the quadrennial event in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is not an easy situation, especially for the athletes who had been training hard for Tokyo 2020. I hope that everyone understands why this decision has been made and I urge archers around the world to retain hope and reset for this new timetable," he added.

The IOC has, however, said that the original name of Tokyo 2020 will remain intact irrespective of the fact that it will take place next year.

The Tokyo Olympic Games were slated to be held from July 24 to August 9.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: The finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 will be played on November 20, the sources within the BCCI confirmed on Sunday.

The IPL's governing council met earlier today, and it has also been decided that the evening matches will start at 7:30 pm, half an hour earlier than usual.

Jay Shah, the secretary of BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and Arun Dhumal, treasurer of BCCI did not attend the IPL's governing council meeting.

"The tournament will run for 51 days, usually the IPL should go on for 49 days as per the constitution, however in the meeting it has been decided that we will go to Supreme Court for conducting the IPL in 51 days," sources within the BCCI said.

"As the tournament is running for 51 days, we will get the chance to play fewer doubleheaders, there would be just 10 double headers, evening matches will start at 7:30 and the afternoon matches will start at 3:30. 

The matches will be played across three venues at Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah as travelling here by road is easier and bio-secure environment can be maintained," he added.

The IPL's governing council also confirmed that Women's IPL will also go on and four teams would be participating in it.

"When it comes to women's IPL, there would be four teams and the matches would be played at the time of playoffs for men's IPL," the source said.

The source within the BCCI also said that the governing council would be meeting again to discuss the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all the franchises that need to be followed in the IPL.

The governing council meeting discussed the quarantine measures along with the standard operating procedures (SOP), bio bubble training facilities, stay and travel of the players.

Issues related to the broadcaster, shifting, and scheduling of the tournament, and DXB app to be downloaded for players and other officials were also discussed as well.

A few days earlier, the IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel had confirmed that the 13th edition of the mega event will commence on September 19 in the UAE.

This year's IPL was slated to commence from March 29 but the tournament was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) had also confirmed receiving the official Letter of Intent from the BCCI to host the 2020 edition of the IPL.

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News Network
February 10,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 10: India's under-19 cricket team manager Anil Patel says the ICC has taken a serious view of the aggressive celebrations by Bangladesh players after their World Cup triumph and will be reviewing the footage of the final game's "last few minutes".

Some Bangladeshi players got carried away while celebrating their historic three-wicket win over India in the final on Sunday. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the "unfortunate incident", his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg said their reaction was "dirty".

"We don't know what actually happened," Patel told 'ESPNCricinfo' on Sunday.

"Everybody was in a shock, absolutely, but we don't know what happened exactly. The ICC officials are going to watch the footage of the last few minutes and they are going to let us know," he said.

Even when the match was on, the Bangladesh players were overly aggressive while fielding and their lead pacer Shoriful Islam sledged the Indian batsmen after every delivery.

As soon as the match ended, it became tense with Bangladeshi players rushing to the ground and displaying aggressive body language. The two teams nearly came to blows before the situation was defused by the coaching staff and on-field officials.

Patel claimed that match referee Graeme Labrooy met him and expressed regret at what transpired on the field.

"The referee came to me. He was sorry about the incident. He clarified the ICC is going to take very seriously what has happened during the match and the last session. They are going to witness the footage and they will tell us in the morning (Monday)."

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