Whatever happened to Dravid!

You couldn’t have witnessed two more contrasting knocks from two batsmen under same conditions and against the same attack. It was hard to believe that Dravid was batting on the same ultra flat track (it was quite evident from the proceedings of the very first day of the 1st test vs South Africa 2008 that we are witnessing one of the most lifeless wickets of the season) that saw batsmen from both the sides accumulating runs at will. More so, as at the other end was a batsman who was not even considered worth a place in the side merely two test matches ago and he was treating every single bowler on the scene with utter disdain.

By the time this post is published, at the end of the third day’s play India had accumulated a mammoth 468/1 with Sehwag unbeaten on 309 and Dravid on 65. While much has been and is going to be talked about the brilliant knock of the irrepressible Sehwag, we need to have a look at Dravid as well. While Sehwag had taken 292 balls to score his 309 runs, Dravid had consumed as much as 181 deliveries for his 65. Just think about it, the unfinished partnership between the two is 255 runs out of 318 balls at a more than healthy strike rate of 4.81, meaning a near 81%. Dravid’s strike rate alone is a shocking 36%.

Hell! What was he trying to do out there? Was he rescuing a side which had lost all its recognized batsmen? Or was he trying to salvage a draw, buying time and playing out as many deliveries as possible? Does any premier batsman approach his innings in such manner when the opposition is pressed against the wall? Why give the opposition a feeling that they are still commanding some respect from the batting side even under such unforgiving conditions for bowlers? Ideally, all he had to do was, he should have tried to give as much strike as possible to Sehwag, who was on a roll. Nobody expects him or anybody for that matter to match the pyrotechnics of Sehwag. But at the same time he needs to realize that he has to bat in the greater interest of the team. The bearing of this particular knock in the match is yet to be known, and if all goes well and India is able to pull off a win, we may not even remember the damage that is caused by it, but in case of any different result, it is Dravid who should take the blame.

Not for the first time have we seen Dravid not being able to break the shackles. He has been doing it on a consistent basis for quite some time now. In Australia, every time he put in a similar kind of effort, Ian Chappell had ridiculed it.

The reason is hard to understand. May be, with younger players breathing down his neck, Dravid is trying his best to hang in there and get as many runs as possible. May be his reflexes have come down drastically over the past few years. Or it may have been one of those mental blocks he is not able to get rid off………that test cricket is played this way. We will have to wait and watch.

It is sad to see one of the most prolific run getters of India sweat it out such badly for every single run.

Meet the manager!

It had to be one of the biggest career-achievement for David. He had some how managed to convince Chandru, his manager, to have a chat with his team.

The meeting was underway after a lot of persuasion on David’s part to get Chandru across the table. One thing David had noticed here was that, if you want somebody to do a job here, catch him when he is least prepared. Following suit, he had managed to catch hold of Chandru on his way back from the rest room.

“Are all the resources available?” Chandru never considered employees as people or human beings. They were resources for him.

Within a few minutes, all the nine team members along with Chandru had managed to squeeze themselves into one of the tiniest conference rooms on the floor after a couple of unsuccessful attempt with some of the more spacious rooms which were already occupied.

“Spread around a little bit.” He urged the team, occupying half of the tiny room himself; he had hardly left any space for the rest of the ‘resources’ to move around.

"I kind of find myself alone if you stand like this.” He looked very pleased at his own joke. He had read somewhere long back; a meeting should be started with an unconventional light statement. That creates a good effect.

He straight away started with an apology.

“Team! My sincere apology to all of you for not being able to talk to you earlier. Not that I didn’t want to, but you know how difficult my job is. I have to manage so many processes at a time.” Chandru never failed to mention at the slightest opportunity, how great a job he was doing, managing such a large number of (highly unmanageable) resources.

“I will kick start this meeting today and going forward, we will hold this on a regular basis.” None of the team members were amused, they had heard this before. This statement simply meant, with this gathering, I am done with my job of meeting you, thank me. We should not see each other again unless I run out of any idea to avoid you guys.

He spent the next thirty minutes delivering a well rehearsed lecture about the company hierarchy, the rewards and recognition policy and the variable pay criteria, struggling through the occasional questions by mouthing irrelevant answers. At times, he even pretended to encourage the team to ask questions, knowing pretty well, none of them would be too keen on doing so. This, he had cleverly made sure in a previous discussion with David.

Once his speech was over he thanked the team and asked the resources to leave along with whom he was about to escape.

“Chandru! One moment please.” Stunned by David’s voice, he turned back to see him along with three of his senior team mates waiting for him. “Shit”. This was the last thing he wanted.

The day I saw her........

It was yet another indifferent day at office, a near tiring one. I was still settling down at my new work place. The changeover from an audit and advisory services kind of profile to a full time corporate one had not been an easy one. The person, who I was replacing, would be there for a couple of weeks more, and within that short time-frame, I was expected to acquire the whole skill set from him, which he had accumulated over a couple of years or so.

But of course I was nervous. More so because I would not let anybody point a finger at me commenting on my skills. Deep down, I knew I would be in control in due course. Nevertheless I was under pressure. The nervousness coupled with my anxiety to make a solid first impression was only adding to the feeling of my insecurity.

The afternoon was gloomy, perhaps it was drizzling. I left my desk and slowly started walking towards the window. As I looked at the sky, I could see the last valiant effort of the sun to break through the dark patch of cloud cover before it succumbed. Slowly though, the triumphant clouds were starting to look ominous.

The drizzle was getting stronger. And it was making me calmer with a soft soothing effect on my turbulent mind. I was lost somewhere in the darkness of the clouds, losing my sense of insecurity, inadequacy. I was beginning to get back the feeling of freshness of the morning.

Suddenly I turned back, surprised to hear a soft voice, the voice of a lady. Hearing a lady’s voice at my workplace was as rare as the May rain. She was standing at a distance far enough to be clearly audible, but I could tell that she had got an awesome voice. It was commanding enough without being arrogant, soft enough without being unsure. The sound of the raindrops on the window pane was providing the perfect harmony to her honey dipped voice. I tried moving closer, carefully, avoiding her attention. She was deeply engrossed in speaking to a colleague. When I was close enough, I looked at her face. It was calm, emotionless and firm. Her eyes were razor sharp. She certainly means business, I thought. I saw a striking simplicity within her, which to me was her most prominent feature that I picked from the first meeting. She finished her discussion and left in a few minutes, but the room was filled with the intoxicating fragrance of her perfume for the rest of the day.

I was now back at my desk, trying to force my mind back to the task I had left unfinished. Soon I found it futile, and decided to close for the day. As I made my way out of my office building, I saw the relentless rain hitting the drive way with its full vigor. I was stranded there with quite a few people, and I was hoping to see her again. No way could she have left, I thought. I kept looking around until the rain stopped, every now and then clarifying my colleagues that I was looking for that “Other colleague”. But I never saw her again that day.

Years passed by. Now we were friends. Well, at least I believed so. Trust me, it was a great feeling. She was always formal in her interactions, without sounding mechanical. She always gave me a feeling of holding back a lot to herself, but that was natural. Our interactions were almost always at a formal level, arising more out of our respective professions. I was smart enough to realize that and this very fact had kind of drawn an invisible line in my mind every time I spoke to her.

I liked her, but there was nothing unusual about it, a lot of people liked her. Barring those few cheap comments, that was so omnipresent, she always invoked positive reaction.

Black and White is a decent watch!

I had taken the risk of watching Black & White for two reasons. Firstly, I had read a couple of rave reviews about the movie and secondly and more importantly I had nothing else to do that afternoon. Like many others, I was also convinced that Subhash Ghai by now had hopelessly lost his touch for quite sometime. Otherwise, films like Yaadein and Kisna can’t be made by the same director who had earlier given us Meri Jung, Karma and Saudagar. So, to say the least, my expectations from Black & White were quite ordinary. And this very fact seemed to have worked in my favor. I did find the movie a decent one, only just though.

It’s a movie about a fidayeen suicide bomber, entering India with false identity to bombard the Lal Quila during the Independence Day celebrations. As the story unfolds, you see the protagonist eventually taking shelter at a professor’s house in order to use his political connections to earn an entry into the VIP area on the D-day to execute his plan. How events turn out later on so that he is forced to change his heart is captured in the movie.

Now, haven’t we seen something similar earlier in Mission Kashmir, Rosa and Dilse? Of course we have. Hence the plot is not exactly refreshingly new. But why still you feel the movie to be a decent one is purely because of the restrain shown by Ghai in handling his scenes. The narration maintains the curiosity level of the audience and thus a grip over them to some extent.

Anurag Sinha has made a powerful debut which needs to be appreciated. He had limited lines to deliver, but when he does, he does it with stunning effect. The ever dependable Anil Kapoor comes out with yet another solid performance. Shefali Shah is good, and theatre veteran Habib Tanvir is superb.

One gets a feeling that the editing could have been a little crisper to increase the feel of the sense of urgency. A few scenes like Anurag getting away from the VIP area effortlessly don’t seem logical, considering the fact that it took quite some planning on his part to get into it amidst water tight security. The change of heart again looked a little half-baked.

Over all, I would suggest the same as I did, go for it if you have nothing else to do and you will not be disappointed.

Cinema……..of a different kind!

Slowly, but surely bollywood is showing definite signs of maturity. The generation next film-makers are daring to dream…..daring to live their dreams on celluloid. What was viewed as a certain suicidal step only a couple of years back, is now being lauded as intellectual movie making. Earlier what one would have dismissed as parallel or off-bit cinema (saying that it’s meant only for the classes) is now the flavor of the season. Not that all such movies have set the cash register ringing at the box-office, but the niche segment of public watching these kind of movies have swelled considerably. And the success of movies like Dor, Bheja Fry, Khosla ka Ghosla and Cheenikum has certainly opened up this particular segment tremendously. The distance between both kinds of cinema is begining to narrow down. The introduction of multiplexes has also helped the cause.

Not so long back, people dreaded to spoil their week ends watching a Govind Nihalani, Prakash Jha or an Aparna Sen movie. They would rather get their money’s worth watching a David Dhawan brand movie (even if you are urged to leave your mind behind at home in order to enjoy such movies). Now the scenario has changed for the better. The public doesn’t mind watching a Namesake on a Sunday evening anymore. In fact they are looking forward to such type of movies.

It all started with a third type of cinema though, which was a blend between the art and commercial cinema. Yes, I am referring to the cross-over cinema, as it is popularly called. Movies like Jhankar Beats sans the routine bollywood megastars surprised every body by doing well only on the strength of their strong story line, sensible screen play and earnest performances of the cast. These movies tried to weave in humor as an entertaining factor while not compromising the underlying message of the script. They consciously underplayed the preaching element of parallel cinema without moving away from the central idea. After the success of a few, others followed suit.

Directors like Nagesh Kukonoor, Saket Choudhary, Sagar Ballary and Dibakar Banerjee have dared to venture into risky territory and tasted success. This will only encourage more such movies in days to come. And if such trend is anything to go by, we are in for an enriching movie feast.

And I do believe, the makers of real parallel cinema have a lesson or two to learn from this young brigade of directors.

Let’s talk cricket!

“That’s a very very good shot…….That is a very very good shot. I’ll tell you what, for me this is the shot of the day.” Says Harsha Bhogle. “There is no better sight in a cricket field than watching a batsman caressing the ball straight back past the bowler.”

“Wow……wow is all I can say for this shot. Sachin just transferred his weight on to his back foot, opened the face of his bat to pick the gap behind point. The little master does this with such pin-point accuracy every single time! Amazing!” Shouts Mike Slater at the top of his voice.

“He is got to read the ball out of the hand of Hogg, what he is doing at this moment is trying to read it off the pitch. That’s where he is struggling to play his shots.” Ian Chappell opines on another occasion.

So folks, isn’t it a fact that cricket commentators manage to alleviate our interest in the proceedings, every time you watch a match on television? I’m sure they do. Not just for the sake of entertainment, for those who take keen interest in the game, these are the people who enhance our knowledge and understanding of the situation, the rules, the strategy and a whole lot of information. These commentators tell us what kind of a score we should expect by seeing the surface; they help us understand what the captain should opt for in case he wins the toss, and not only that we come to know from them what is a good toss to lose and when!

I must admit that I have understood the finer technicalities of the game a lot more in front of television than on the cricket field. Now whenever a new batsman takes guard, I know where he should mark it, where he should stand to negate the early movement of the new ball, how he should roll his wrists to keep the ball down, how he should slide his bat in while completing a run and what strategy a captain should adopt at what point of the game to wrest the initiative from the opposition. I am sure the feeling is similar for most of you.

True, cricket commentary, in modern world has become one of the most lucrative and attractive professions (if you may call it a profession in today’s world). As expected, retired cricketers like Geoffrey Boycott, Tony Grieg, Ian Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, and Michel Slater with good narrating skills have become the leaders in the field. But these are only to name a few. There are many others who have taken to the profession as a natural progression at the end of their cricketing career. When such people, known as experts of the game share their knowledge in analyzing the game on television, it makes the experience of watching cricket both entertaining and informative in many ways.

But all is not well in this field as well. As there is no set qualifying standard here before one can go live in front of public, mediocre commentators from India are sneaking into the scene thanks to their efficient PRO. These kinds of people with their lack of knowledge misguide the viewers with their sub-standard analysis and irresponsible statements. And worse, while sharing the stage with more knowledgeable commentators, they even argue with them over facts just for the sake of arguing. This creates a very bad listening.

To cite a few examples, in international cricket we have Arun Lal, Saba Karim, Atul Wasan, Maninder Singh, Nikhil Chopra etc. Even Harsha Bhogle, who is otherwise very good as a presenter and anchor, at times comes a cropper at live commentary.

In a particular match when Sachin Tendulkar was nearing his hundred, he slowed down a little bit in his 90s, to which, Mr. Arun Lal comments,” I just don’t understand why people slow down in the 90s, while approaching a century. I fail to understand why there should be different feeling when you are on say 97 or 98 compared to when you are in the 80s”. Mr. Lal, how are you supposed to understand the feeling, when you have the highest test score of 93 and highest one-day score of 51? All experienced cricketers opine that its all together a different feeling scoring a hundred in an international match as opposed to a domestic one. You yourself have scored numerous centuries in the domestic circuit, why is it that you could never replicate it in international cricket? You know the answer, why make such foolish statements? A better way of putting your opinion across would be just to state that cricketers are expected to put teams’ interests ahead of their personal records and hence should not waste too many deliveries in 90s.

On numerous occasions you would hear Arun Lal on pitch reports, “Since it is a good surface, a high total of around 240 is always on cards.” And invariably the side batting first would end up scoring over 280 or 290 on such wickets. So much so that, he has been recently found commenting, sides should bat out the first 7-8 overs even in 20-20 matches to have a feel of the condition before going for their shots! Now, what kind of statement are these, when we are in an age of 300s and even 400s as 50 over targets? The facet of limited over cricket has changed for quite some time now. Lal would be better off updating himself.

The case is tricky for Harsha Bhogle. He is a very renowned anchor, presenter and commentator in the cricketing world, which is a tremendous achievement considering the fact that he is not a cricketer himself. What he should be careful about is that not to pass any technical judgment for the simple reason that there are better people around him who can immediately catch him doing so. This was quite evident in the recently concluded India-Australia series. He was found issuing statements to which Ian Chappell and Wasim Akram have reacted in a not so kind manner, telling him where he was going wrong. To make matters worse Harsha started arguing with them which made his lack of expertise in the game even more evident.

Take the first statement of this article, where Ian Chappell corrected Harsha pointing out to him even cover drives, hooks and pulls look very good. To say that straight drive is the most beautiful can’t be a conclusive statement. On another occasion, Harsha was trying to find out how many sixes Jayasurya has hit over point, to which Ian again reacted saying we should not waste time on such kind of useless statistics. On a third occasion, when Akram pointed out the fact that Pathan was being so predictable in his bowling that even from the commentary box he could tell what ball was coming up next, and that Pathan had to improve there, Harsha started arguing, mentioning that the batsman facing Pathan at that moment was James Hopes and not Akram. Such kind of childish statements are not expected from any commentator and by doing so Harsha is exposing his lack of knowledge, time and again. Repeated incidents like this make one feel that Harsha should rather concentrate on presenting and anchoring shows leaving the live commentary to experts.

With cricket being the flavor of the season, every single activity attached to the game is under microscopic scrutiny of media, fans and public. This demands greater discipline from people at responsible positions. No longer can they get away with even slip of tongues any more. They have to be more prepared and more informed than ever before to avoid embarrassment in public.

Indian Test Squad for the South Africa Series

The team selection for the upcoming three test series against South Africa has been a mixed bag. Included in the list are some obvious ones, a couple of surprises and a few names which could have been avoided. The selectors had the opportunity to build on the momentum of the one day series win and the decent performances in the last two tests in the recently concluded series against Australia. But as it turned out to be, looks like they have chosen to refer to the last home series against Pakistan while announcing the squad.

While Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman pick themselves, the selectors have given another run to the consistently inconsistent opener Wasim Jaffer ahead of the in form Delhi opening pair of Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra. This is hard to explain. The only logic that can be attached to it is that Jaffer had scored a double century against Pakistan. Other wise, after dropping him from the squad for the last two tests against Australia following his failure to score against quality bowling, there is no reason of picking him again. Quite similar is the case of Yuvraj Singh. He too was not part of the playing eleven in the last two tests against Australia, but had scored a century against Pakistan at home. But at least one can argue that Yuvraj has to be given a few more chances to prove himself in test, given his talent, whereas, Jaffer had been given enough opportunities over the last couple of years. I would have preferred to see Gambhir in the squad in his place. The lad is high on confidence after his roaring success down under and he must have been keen on extending that good run into the test arena. Vengsarkar and co have certainly missed a trick here.

For the other opening slot Sehwag has been selected, which is logical given his success against Australia. Coming to the wicket-keeping slot, Dhoni could have been given a break. Dinesh Karthick, in such a case should have got the nod, where we could have got the flexibility of another opener in the side. After such a busy and demanding tour of Australia, Dhoni deserved a break to recharge again. Given that he is the captain of the one day side and such a key player for us we need to use him sparingly in test cricket amidst such heavily crowded fixtures.

Apart from the above there was not much choice for the selection committee to fill up the other slots, for which, they have done a decent job. One notable omission being Ishant Sharma, who has not fully recovered, and in any case needed a few more days of rest.

My side (playing eleven to be precise) for the series would have been as follows:

Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
V.V.S. Laxman
Sourav Ganguly
Dinesh Karthick
Irfan Pathan
Anil Kumble
Harbhajan Singh
R.P.Singh

If need be, a fifth bowler could have been played in place of Gambhir, in which case Dinesh could have opened.

Victory Downunder........Are we reading too much into it?

The euphoria in the air after India’s historic win over Australia is yet to settle down. The media is still going overboard in celebration and immortalizing our cricketers who have achieved the unachievable, done the undoable. Switch on any television news channel, and you will see team India being covered wherever they go, what ever they do. The media is all over them, showing what they had for dinner, where they went for a holiday, what kind of girl each of them would like to marry and what not. Most of them just out of their teens and new to this kind of attention are actually enjoying it, and so are their parents and family members. I suspect, each of their family has a dedicated room or at least an outhouse for the media crew. Thanks to them, the whole country now knows where the refrigerator is placed in Praveen Kumar’s kitchen, where Gautam Gambhir takes bath, where Ishant Sharma’s father reads morning newspaper, you can just go on.

The other day, I was shocked to see a news channel unilaterally consulting a doctor to prescribe some kind of diet and medicines for Ishant Sharma, which will make him stronger and bowl faster! The doctor, trying to capitalize on the limelight, went on analyzing the shoulders, arms and muscles of the young fast bowler in front of the camera and prescribing remedial actions what Ishant should adhere to, in order to have a long and rewarding career. I wonder, if she would have ever seen Ishant in flesh and blood. Or has technology improved so much in our country that doctors can treat people just by watching their pictures? The story is similar for each member of Team India.

Coming back to cricket, our ex-cricketers, who now consider themselves as consultants and experts of the game; too have played their part in adding to the hype and hoopla. A handful of them have gone on to the extent of putting this victory only next to the 1983 World cup win and a few others consider it third after the World cup 1983 and the World Series cup in 1985. This apart, the welcome that the team was handed with on its return home, the cash prize that the BCCI has awarded each of them, not to forget about the astronomical auction money from IPL, every body has just gone crazy over them.

What is alarming is, there seems to be no respite for the young team. The whole atmosphere created by the fans, the media and the officials, can easily sweep them off their feet. Just when Team India has started to show some kind of fighting sprit and mental toughness on the field, the unnecessary off-field atmosphere is going to test their character even more. Let’s face it, not everybody has the attitude of a Sachin Tendulkar, who has managed to keep his head right on his shoulder throughout his illustrious career amidst unbelievable adulation and fan followings.

If that happens, the ultimate loser will be Indian cricket. One must not forget, the same media is going to crucify each of them at every single reversal, without even considering that they need moral support to overcome difficult circumstances.

I do realize that all this is part and parcel of a cricketer’s life in India. But then having said that, one can not stop worrying, for the simple reason that we don’t want to disturb the re-building process of Team India. Some tough decisions have been taken. The results have just started to show. Still there is a lot of scope of improvement. To do a quick reality check, what we have achieved after all is, just a series win in a tri-angular tournament, where the third team was Srilanka which is going through an identity crisis at this moment. The old war horses are retiring and the new ones don’t seem to be ready to take over the mantle yet. The Aussies too are going through a rare bad patch. So while credit should be given to Team India for their good performances, too much should not be read into it. We need our youngsters to back it up with more of such results. We need consistency in winning.

Only then can we call it a truly great side.