TheWhatElseCanYouDoWorldCupSelection.

If I was fixated on picking Yusuf over Rohit for the World Cup squad, then I would have played him in the first two ODIs instead of Rohit. And in spite of any failures, I would have still picked him in that hallowed squad. That is, if I was convinced in the first place that he should be in the squad of 15.

For me, not playing Yusuf is shielding him in South Africa, ensuring an easy and somewhat noncontroversial selection. Just imagine, Yusuf looking silly against the short ball, with another first ball duck. Not so good for the World Cup resume is it?

He will play in the next three games (instead of Rohit) and even three first ball ducks will not reverse the selector’s decision.

For Rohit, two games that didn’t really come off. Let’s say, like Yusuf, he too played a match turning knock, then what – pick him as well? That’s right, on the basis of one international performance, we would have picked Rohit in addition to Yusuf and Munaf.

Still better than picking Chawla, who last played a one-dayer in his teens. Who again, like Yusuf has not played in either game. But who like Yusuf, could quite conveniently play in the next three.

What swayed it for Piyush, more than his bowling, is his perceived added qualification: can bat - bats better than Ojha.

And that’s what kept Rohit in contention so long: can bowl; and if not for Virat Kohli’s run-making binge, Rohit would have pipped him to the fifteen. Notes: Bowling more useful than Kohli.

That’s what works for Yuvi and Raina too.

So when it gets down to pick that final eleven for the World Cup, after Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, MSD, Bhajji, Zaheer, the names inked will be the guys who will add up to MSD’s ten overs – Yuvraj, Raina, Yusuf. And then the second and third seamers.

Regardless of the batting form of these three, they will play most games. If Yusuf doesn’t come off, or worse still, embarrasses himself, it’ll be Chawla for Yusuf. And of the two, I still don’t know who the better batsman or bowler is.

On Bored: Why was Piyush Chawla picked?

By the way

It’s taken me the best of two days to pin down who Rohit Sharma reminds me of: Ijaz Ahmed, the neighbourhood butcher. Ijaz was bad news for India, and Rohit, until the twin hundreds struck his fancy was no different. But more than those lame comparisons, I think it’s the languid, heavy way of the players. And then of course, those eyebrows, and though I’ve not looked into either Ijaz’s or Rohit’s eyes, there is something there.

But what is it they say, that lazy elegance, in the case of Ijaz it was lazy-antithesis of elegance, and with Rohit I still can’t say.

On Bored: Nohit Sharma

You can count on Suresh Raina after you drop him twice.

Raina is keen. And MSD’s done well to back him, (even ahead of Nohit Sharma, imagine). The kid brings a simple cricketing intensity, there’s no side to him, no nakharas. He plays some hard cricket, loves his midwicket shots so much he forgets to play offside, loves his fielding, and doesn’t return favours, dropping catches.

When he bowls, holding back the delivery till he gauges the batsman’s movement till the last instant, you sense the masti Raina gets out of his cricket. When was the last time you saw that in an Indian cricketer – no tension, happy bowling, fielding, catching, batting.

Now you know why the twosome collectively spilled him, why Zaks dropped him. Raina is a lappa – when he’s not hitting the ball far, he’s hitting it high – it’s like aiming at a bird, a plane, superman, and marking them as the boundary.

Raina is the endearing little bully from the neighbourhood park – everybody knows he’s better than them, including him.

The IPL can be almost too easy for a player like Raina or Nohit or Yusuf – their abridged focus, some yaari-walli bowling, it’s tonk-tonk time.

While it’ll be great to see them go nuts in the T20 World Cup, these guys gotta extend their think-span overseas, and then who knows, a longer format. How ‘bout one-dayers to begin with?

On Bored: The Great Bored Scandal

Over to Afridi

Left to himself, Afridi would like to play just the super over. And the IPL is one big Boom Boom super over, put him on a polygraph and the truth will out itself – “I’m confident, gimme the T20 or 20 balls and I will go Boom Boom – No thinking, just hitting, no thinking…”

Afridi is not alone, if you put others to the test, their love for T20 will come shining through, honestly. There is Rohit Sharma, who is forced to play Ranji, and then score a triple – can you imagine the torture – in the same time he could have played a few IPLs.

But Afridi is special. Today he plays yet another one day game, the fifth – string them together and five one day games make a test (and more) – no wonder he’s had a rough series. All along he’s been thinking, “I’m not confident, why are you giving me test when I want T20”

This is wrong: First you make MoYo captain, then Younis, ex-captain returns – and pressure too. Why have expectations when you have Afridi. Just let him play, but he can’t play as a follower, taking orders – if only there was the super sub rule, and he came and smashed the ball around for a few overs.

Now seeing as this is a post on Afridi It’s already way too long. 16 overs to go, kaptaan Shahid Bhai! Shahid Bhai! on next – life is a T20 again.


On Bored: Razzaqed (an attempt to unite India and Pakistan over cricket, again)

For Murali Vijay.

This will be the first test that Murali Vijay will play with Gautam Gambhir. The two tests before this, Vijay played thanks to Gambhir’s elbow and sister. Also, those two tests Vijay opened the batting with Sehwag. This time, Vijay will bat in the middle order, unless of course Gambhir does him another favour.

Usually there’s this slotting of players – opener will only open, and if a middle order slot is vacant (as with VVS’ finger going AWOL) then a middle order player takes over – here it could’ve meant either Rohit Sharma or Dinesh Karthik being given a shot. Thankfully not so.

Vijay, now here’s what you do: If you make it to 87, as you did last month in Mumbai, try not to play across, go straight for that 100.


On Bored: Look (M Vijay again)

Has Rahul Dravid returned for Sachin Tendulkar?

Sachin intends to play the 2011 World Cup. He will, in spite of form or fitness. He will, because that is his destiny, it has been written by him, endorsed by the BCCI.

Part of that vision is Sachin lifting the World Cup together with MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Rahul Dravid.

Each one of these players is key to Sachin’s plans. While MS is captain, and should still be in 2011,Yuvi and Bhajji are Sachin’s core group. They are his comfort zone. Together they are the collective face of Indian cricket.

Then what about Rahul Dravid? Dravid is a strong reminder that the 90’s master class is far superior to today’s flash of youth. He’s a flashback to both his and Sachin’s glory days. His return, more than even Sachin’s, states unequivocally that the young guns are not a patch on the fab four.

It does not matter how many of the fab four remain, what matters is the latest battle between then and now has been won yet again by India’s fab four.

The resting of the so-called next Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma is a case in point. Rohit, the brightest of the next generation swagger has fallen. Raina, Yusuf, Karthik are not indicative of now as Rohit is.

Just as Dravid and Sachin are indicative of then. Look back beyond Sharma’s scattered scoring, look at his scattered positions in the batting order. Was this all meant to be?

Yet again, Sachin and Rahul will take the field in blue together. How well it wears on him is not important, that he has returned is what’s crucial. More so to co-author Sachin Tendulkar’s legacy.


Here's another take on Rahul Dravid at Bored Cricket Crazy Indians: Living in the past?

Who wants to be on a trip to New Zealand.

What am I doing on the flight to New Zealand?

What am I doing on the team bus?

What am I doing in the team?

What am I?

I am very lucky to be playing.

But I’m also very unlucky to be playing.

Each game I play makes it easier

for them to drop me

and not pick me again

for god knows how long.

The best they could’ve done for me

was just leave me out of the team.

Anyway, who the fuck wants to be on a trip to New Zealand.

Ganguly video on team selection

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!