Onions looks like a proper number eleven.

Before him there was Monty Panesar, he saved a test too. But he didn’t play the next one. Fat lot of good saving a test with the bat does for a bowler; good for Onions, he pocketed a four for, and two not outs. Trouble is, the not out won’t do much for him – he is not a batsman, at best, he could become a night watchman, or say, the second night watchman. That is, if Anderson falls before stumps, in you go Onions. Is that any good?

Of course, it will give Onions satisfaction. He will stay awake in bed, replaying his moment of glory. I would if I was Onions – maybe I would cry too, Dad, what kinda name is this?

It is newsworthy, prone to puns, but will they ever take him seriously? I often worry for the workhorses; look what they did to Hoggard, where are you now Mathew?

When Onions first appeared on the scene, I didn’t expect him to last long. 6 tests, 4 ODIs @27, not very promising for a quick bowler – stopgap at best, and when the next blonde fast bowling sensation comes, you’ll be benched.

It’s tough when your good is never good enough. Ask all the quicks that continue to sit out when the selectors feel like calling Ishant Sharma back.

Onions, how will you fight youth, flair and glamour – hope you do, cricket needs some hard work, why not start with the cricketers.


On Bored: Play the last session first

Wanted: Animation in one-day cricket.

Before & Beyond India’s one-day win versus Australia in Melbourne (9th - 12th February, 2008)

Test cricket appears healthy albeit in a sick sort of way. Twenty20 appears sick but will guarantee the future health of cricket. One-day cricket is caught in the middle, running out of tricks.

It comes down to that oft-repeated question: and chances are, when marooned on a desert island, fewer respondents should choose one-day cricket as the ideal companion compared to test cricket or Twenty20.

And why won’t they? Test cricket, once the learned father of all forms cricket, is now arguably the big daddy of cricket. If this was ever in doubt, the India-Australia test series has squashed it. Years from now, the reverberations of Sydney and Perth will still be heard – and 2007-08 will be the year that some divine force threw test cricket the life jacket, though not without that eye-opening near death experience when one’s entire cricketing life flashes past. Oh right, so that’s what Douglas Jardine said to Harold Larwood! Hmmm…

Whereas Twenty20 is the babe on the threshold of an exciting new world – and a chance for everyone, even the old-timers, to revisit their youth. Though like some sick, perverted pleasure they will not admit to it openly – yet, like even the mighty warrior, Beowulf who gave into the monster’s yummy mummy, they will be hapless against the guiles of T20. And there is no shame in that.

But what about one-day cricket – it’s frankly too old to rock ‘n’ roll but too young to die. It’s much too simplistic to pin the blame on the very fabric of one-day cricket – that its very trappings were, a trap! Reducing the game from a laborious 60 to fifty overs was more of a quick fix solution. And hoping for rain, for the occasional truncated twenty over game is just living on a prayer. Or maybe that’s where T20 came from- the skies, with the rain!

If these cricket incarnates were three siblings, then clearly one-day cricket is the neglected middle one – crying for attention, game after game. First, it’s essential to grasp the problem, understand the symptoms. Else we’ll continue to toss power plays and super subs around, only to appease the likes of Courtney Walsh or a Glenn McGrath along with other reluctant batsmen. But that is not the solution.

The solution could be something drastic. Like borrowing from both test cricket and T20 – creating four innings of 25 overs each. More intervals. More action. What’s better than one T20 game – two T20 games rolled into one?

Or maybe the solution could be something simple. Reduce the number of games being played in a year. From the mindless seven match series, reduce the games to three. Increase the break between games – from one-two days to three or even four days. Going by the gargantuan sums of money involved, a few more days at the hotel won’t break the BCCI’s bank.

Do not be surprised if the quality of cricket increases manifold. Maybe teams won’t beat Australia overnight, but they will for starters, compete. And that is a big deal – today, every team aspires to beat Australia. Hopefully, they will look to accomplish this on a cricket field, and not the courthouse.

Games will stop being played to fill broadcasters and cricket Boards’ pockets. Somewhere the intensity of a test may sneak into one-day cricket again. Somehow our hearts may follow suit. Like the first time: in 1983.

After India’s win at MCG and beyond

India finally beat Australia at Melbourne in a one-day game. The last time this happened Dilip Vengsarkar was man-of-the-match. Now, he selects men for matches. Some might argue that he selects boys for matches. But that’s beside the point, or is it?

It’s no secret that this team has come under severe scrutiny from all quarters – often for not what it has, but what it doesn’t – Messer’s Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman. No surprise some skeptics even miss Kumble in this one-day squad.

And while potshot after potshot is taken at India’s young, new ODI team (now even more like its T20 avatar) – it’s worth reflecting: that a sport’s team, like good old Rome, is not built in a day. Yet sometimes, teams need to be undone in a day, in the blink of an eye – only at such times, the blink theory (the power of thinking without thinking) is not too encouraging – especially when writing off new talent.

And before you know it, the same critics will line up to applaud Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma and their ilk. Blinking idiots or what?
But then that’s what Indian cricket makes us all look like. Come Canberra, and India went down to Sri Lanka. And before you can dig out this defeat, there will be another victory to cherish. And then another defeat! Just around the corner. Go slow. Accident prone area. That’s one-day cricket for you!