Why do I love Test Cricket?

We are in the age where even the time measured in nanoseconds can be made more accurate. We are in the age of changing technology, where everything is getting faster than ever. Communication, travel and in fact everything now is much faster. In this fast age, there still exists a sport, which lasts for 5 days. And, at the end of 5 days, it is not guaranteed that we have a result to the game. And I must be crazy to be in love with this sport - Test Match Cricket. It is an irony that I might get frustrated if my pizza takes more than 30 minutes to come, but Test Cricket still intrigues me and still keeps on the edge of my seat.

The first tied Test Match

I have often pondered, what is so charismatic about Test Matches that makes me watch it with so much intrigue and interest. The reason I love test cricket so much is maybe due to the fact that it is probably a very unique sport. It is indeed true that at the outset it may seem as a boring dull sport. 11 men standing on the field for  7 hours a day over a period of five days might seem a boring prospect when you hear about the game for the first time. The more one starts knowing the game, opinions are sure to change. Once you understand the game fully, it is very unlikely that you do not fall in love with the game. As an avid follower of Test Match cricket, I can say that is one of the most beautiful games and it still finds a place in this fast moving world.

Test Cricket is probably the only sport where in between the game you get time to think and plan for next day. It allows time to regather your thoughts and change plans and come up with new strategies.  It almost stimulates a war, you play in the day and come back at dusk. In cricket, though, everyone is alive to play the next day. So many times a team has a torrid day on the field. Test Cricket gives you a chance to learn from your mistake and come back the next day with a completely different strategy and hope to win the day. In the same day, it incorporates breaks after sessions, which again may be really important to plan the game out.  It is a sport, which allows the players to think and re-think their strategies. It is a sport which always allows you to come back. It is a sport where strategies and skill converge. Both are essential entities of the game.

Test Cricket at West Indies

Test Cricket also stimulates life as such. One bad day on the field doesn't mean you lose the game. Like life, Test Cricket always gives the team a lot of time to think and crawl their way back into the game and probably even win the game. It allows time to learn from the mistakes made and tests whether one can rectify them. A great day on the field does not mean you can win the game. The same intensity has to be maintained for five consecutive days. Courage is one the most important elements of test match cricket. There are moments in the game when it is not the most skilful but the one who is most courageous who prevails. They say life is a marathon, not a sprint. So is test match cricket. It is not won or lost in a session.

Test Cricket is not won or lost in a session as Laxman as Dravid showed in the famous Kolkata Test

It is also a unique sport where weather conditions affect the game to a great extent. The captain has to change is plans with the changing weather. A cloudy day would call for the quicker bowlers to bowl. If the sun is out and he sees the pitch wearing he could get the spinners on. Or he could still persist with the seamers hoping for the ball to reverse. Overnight rain effects the run-scoring rate as the outfield might be wet. Like life, there are so many things which are way beyond control that effect the game. Teams need to fight all this to win a game. There are moments in the game, where one could be intimidated by sledging or by mind games and thus can be lured into playing the way he may not usually do. It tests the courage, the determination and the concentration levels to the highest degree.

It is only in test matches that we can get some beautiful moments in between the game. Say a day ends with both the teams having an even chance on the final day. Or a young batsman stranded on 99 at the end of the days play waiting to score his maiden hundred. The jitters one gets the night before, those sleepless nights filled with excitement and anticipation in between the game is the beauty which test matches provide. In no other sport can one get the moments like this while the game is in progress.

It is a sport which includes so much of variety. Playing on a turning track is entirely different from playing on a bouncy surface or a seaming track. Each country has its unique brand of the game. A game played in England is so different from one played in India.  If it is the swing in England it is the spin in India. If it the bounce in Australia, it is the spungy turn in Sri Lanka. In the West Indies, they have quick wickets in Barbados and batting paradise in Antigua. Pakistan is the paradise for Batsman while South Africa is bowler's paradise. There are so many facets to the same sport. The same sport looks so different when it is played in different parts of the world.  For instance, the Indians are invincible when they play at home, but when they play the same sport in England or Australia they look a completely different unit! In which other sport can one find so much of variety.

People who have played test cricket hail it the biggest test for a cricketer. Once you contemplate, you realise that winning a test match requires an entire package. It is definitely one of the most unique sports which brings to test way beyond the skill part.Once you have understood the game, there is no doubt you will fall in love with this great sport which reflects all the vicissitudes life. It is not a sport that will entertain you all the time, but a sport which will make you think at almost every moment. There is a small caveat, though, the game should be played between two really competitive teams. Otherwise, it will turn into nothing but a dull boring one sided game with no meaning.

Bravo, Bangladesh!

For the last one week cricket has been exciting. A week back, I had written a post where I had said that, this edition of Asia Cup will have no meaning unless Bangladesh do something special. Bangladesh have indeed brought life and meaning to this edition of Asia Cup. I hope history will remember the 2012 Asia Cup as the tournament that gave birth to a competitive Bangladesh. I hope the entire Bangladesh will celebrate this edition of Asia Cup as their first real step into becoming a proper cricket playing nation. People of Bangladesh who saw this tournament should tell stories to their grand chidren of a hero called Mushiqur Rahim, who shed tears on loosing a famous final. Years from now, they should talk about Sakib al Hasan whose journey into becoming the greatest ODI all-rounder began in Asia Cup 2012.

Bangladesh have always been a side, which look to threaten the opposition for a while and then they revert back to their normal self of being the minnows. A great opening start would be followed a staggering middle order collapse. They only used to give a scare to the oppositions which lasted for a very short period of time. They did win a few games, but each victory was followed by a dry spell. Whether it was Pakistan in 1999 or Australia at Cardiff or India in the home series and the 2007 WC, each of these victories did not follow up with any significant performance.

Probably after NZ whitewash this tournament is the biggest Bangladesh have achieved. They have competed at the same level in 4 different games against 3 different teams and won two of those games. At no point in the tournament they looked like a side that could be written off. Every time, they could like some other team coming in disguise as Bangladesh.

So, have Bangladesh risen to the peak we all had always hoped for? Or is it yet another spark which they have shown but is likely to go away. I do feel their home performance has been really good in the past one year. They did pull off a win against England at WC and have had really memorable Asia Cup.

Where does Bangladesh go from here? They are yet to be tested when they bat first. We still do not know if their batsman can set totals and whether the bowlers can defend them. They are yet to compete abroad. There is still a long way to go for them to become a very good cricketing nation. But, these baby steps taken by Bangladesh are very encouraging and I am pretty sure, there would be any eye-balls closely   following Bangladeshi cricket.

Relief, the 100th is out of the way!

Ah! Finally, the moment arrived. 368 days is what it took. But finally, Sachin Tendulkar has completed a century of centuries. Yes, it came at Mirpur against Bangladesh in a losing cause. It may not be the best possible setting for such an achievement like this, but nevertheless, history will remember this one of the greatest sporting achievements ever. This achievement is so monumental that I cannot even imagine how one feels after achieving this feat. I would like to imagine that Tendulkar would have felt, nothing more than relief after the hundred. Sachin himself had admitted that this hundred was getting too much into his head. Everywhere he went, people were asking about the hundredth hundred. This particular hundred became a national obsession. Every time he went passes the 30s, it was almost like the countdown had begun.

Apart from Sir Don, probably no other cricketer in the history has ever been as venerated as Sachin Tendulkar. For many, he has been the very reason to watch the game. Probably, no other player has ever been loved more than Sachin.  In an era where the Indian team even failed to give a fight, Sachin was annihilating opposition bowlers. Sachin was the sole harbinger of a smile for almost the entire cricket loving community of India for more than a decade. Naturally, India fell in love with Sachin. People flocked into stadiums not watch India win, but to see Sachin bat. Sachin's success was celebrated by the fans as their own personal success and they mourned when he failed. For instance, in 1999 at Eden Gardens, when India played a Test Match against Pakistan, Tendulkar was adjudged run-out in a controversial manner. The Eden crowd went berserk. Things went so much out of control that Sachin himself had to come back from the dressing room, to calm the delirious crowd and ensure that the game could resume. Whatever may be the situation of the game, if Sachin batted it meant that crowd would keep watching the game. Once he got out, a great section would leave the stadiums or switch off the television sets.

Having this kind of fan following is great. But there will always be the another side to it.  The same fan who buoys you up can also weigh you down. When expectations rocket sky high, it can get difficult for the player. Every time, Sachin went out to bat, he must have known that he getting out would mean breaking a million hearts. Coming out to bat in cognizance that so many have come to the stadium just to see you perform is one of the biggest burdens carried by Sachin. But for Sachin more often than not these expectations were a source of inspiration for him to do well. Sachin thrived under the pressure of expectations and has carved one masterpiece over the other.

For once, though, Sachin felt the weight of expectations. For once rather than buoying him up, the fans and the media weighed him down. 'It got very tough mentally' said Sachin. It was evident in the way he batted. The second half of the Australian tour saw a Tendulkar who had probably started to search for this hundred desperately. It seemed he did not want that question about the 100th hundred again.  He refused to see the media in Australia because he did not want to be asked about the hundredth hundred. The same fan and the media which had inspired him on so many occasions now had cluttered his mind with thoughts of the hundred. Probably, we fans and the media have to take some part of the blame for the way Sachin started batting and started playing for the special 100.

Now Tendulkar has got the hundredth 100 out of the way. Now, he can go back to the real - Tendulkar which the world knows. Let us not burden him with expectations of achieving landmarks. Let us let him enjoy the game, in the process we can bask in his greatness. It is important to remember that, we fell in love with Sachin- the Artist not Sachin the century machine.

It is Bangladesh's time to deliver!

Right from its inception, Asia Cup has failed gain any context. So much so that hardly people remember who the defending Asian Champions were. After having the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the so many tri-nation tournaments, the Asia Cup tends to loose its meaning. For Bangladesh though, this edition of Asia Cup would be very important. They need to prove that they can compete with the rest of the cricketing giants. They have always been the team which show a lot of promise. Unfortunately, they have failed to translate the promise into  anything substantial. They have been the team who show a a spark, but it dozes off rather quickly.

Bangladesh have produced some really talented individual performers over the years. Mohammad Ashraful is one of them. With his talent he should have been among the very best in world cricket. But on the contrary his record is quite ordinary to say the least. Tamim Iqbal is another real talent who has the potential to be a world class batsman. Sakib-al-Hasan is without doubt one of the most promising young all-rounders in world cricket. He is spinning all-rounder, which is a rare breed. Despite having these really talented bunch of guys the Bangladesh cricket team more often than not have been a disappointing unit. Sometimes, they make you feel they lack ability as team, on the other occasions they make you feel despite great ability it is the lack of temperament which has hindered their growth over the years.    

Ashraful, a great talent! But a real under-performer

Bangladesh, though is really important to world cricket- one of the reasons why they have so many well wishers. When they play at their best (which unfortunately is rather rare), it is very unique brand of fearless cricket they exhibit. They have their own style of playing the game which adds to the diversity in the cricket playing world. They are one of the best teams to watch when they play at their best. Bangladesh also bring back left arm-spin to cricket, a skill which is almost lost in the rest of the world (Barring Vettori). Bangladesh somehow keep producing these left-arm spinners. Unlike the left-arm tweakers all over the world whose main aim is to contain, the Bangladeshi left-armers have always been the prime weapon for their captain to take wickets.

Bangladesh Cricket: A delight to watch, when on song

The following and passion for the game in Bangladesh is refreshing. People in Bangladesh love their cricket. Celebrations on the streets after every win by their team is a reflection of the love for the game in the country. Despite the continuous losses, fans have always turned up in huge numbers to support their team. Environment when they play well is electrifying inside the stadiums. Surely the Bangladeshi fans deserve a much better team. Bangladesh has the potential to become one of the best places to play the game.
 
Unfortunately, one must say that Bangladesh have not done justice to all the support they have received. They cannot remain a team which gives other established cricket playing nations a scare every 10 games (and the scare comes only when they play at home). From a minnow status, it is very good stage to reach. But Bangladesh have stayed there for far too long. Though, they have developed a good difference between themselves and other minnows, but now it is about time they start competing in actual terms in all the other nations. The truth though is even today, any recognized team that plays Bangladesh would still start as favorites and a Bangladesh win still an upset. That is quite sad for Bangladesh cricket. 

Next step for them is to be a team, which are favorites at home and should compete with even terms abroad. I envision Bangladesh winning the World Cup 2019. That should be the aim with which they should work now. They cannot afford to consider themselves underdogs who are their to just give good fight. Now, they should be above that - a team that is here to win.  

Dravid: The Inspiration

Okay, this my second consecutive post glorifying Rahul Dravid. Yes, I am a die-hard Dravid fan. I cannot tolerate anything being said against him in anyway. I can't bear to see him fail either. I am Rajasthan Royals supporter in IPL only because Rahul Dravid plays for them.

But none of the above is a reason that urges me write another post about Dravid.  The reason is very simple. He has been the architect  of his own success. He was not born with the "Tendulkar-Talent" nor did have the "freakish-Laxman" in him. No part of his game made you say, 'How the hell did he pull out that shot'. That is the reason it is easy to relate to his success. His batting makes you believe that even you can do it, if you put in that effort. Thus, his success rather in leaving you in awe, inspires you to do well. He has built a road map for everyone to attain great heights.   


You need not be the most gifted to achieve heights
 

Nothing came to him easily. There was a

Not a naturally gifted ODI player, but he did not do too badly! 10,000 runs!

time when he was    deemed as a Test specialist. People thought he was not good enough to play ODIs. It seemed true at that time. When Dravid started his career, he was not a very impressive ODI player. But he ended up being one of the finest the game has seen. People had criticized his scoring rate. Dravid worked on his wicket-keeping which allowed him to be in the team. Simultaneously he his scoring rate improved dramatically. In fact, at the end of his career a strike of 71.2, considering his  ordinary start to One Dayers, it is very good number. That defines Dravid. He just showed that despite being not naturally gifted, one can eventually become pretty good at it. He never said, 'ODIs are not my cup of tea, let me be a great Test Batsman.' He chose the harder path. He may not have become the best ODI player, but he did become a very fine player. Over10,000 ODI runs! He did not do too badly!


Giving up is not allowed in the blood

One of my favorite Dravid centuries is the one which he scored against New Zealand recently when New Zealand toured India last time around. It is one of those hundreds which people would have forgotten.  In fact, it was one of dirtiest 100s scored by Rahul Dravid. He was struggling to time the ball initially, he was not able find the gaps. He just could not move the scorecard in the initial part of the innings. By the time had face 100 deliveries his score was still under 10. But none of this frustrated Dravid into giving his wicket way. He kept battling his poor form and eventually emerged victorious. That innings showed what laid behind the monumental success story he had constructed. In the toughest of times, even in the worst of his forms he just hung in there. His wicket had to be earned. That is the kind of grit which lays foundation for any success story. 'Give up' is something Dravid has never heard of.


Play the game for right reasons

 As a Rahul Dravid fan, I had always wanted see Dravid having an emotional retirement, playing a last home test and leave with standing ovation. Dravid in some corner of his heart may have thought of fairy-tale farewell. When asked about this, Dravid simply said if he extended his career for one last test, then he would be playing the  game for the wrong reasons. Every moment Dravid had spent on the cricket field, it was to make sure that the team looked good. Rest all was secondary. Dravid's career taught that one should never forget the bigger picture. In sport the big picture is the team looking good (not necessarily winning).

Dravid career just tells that, more than the "skill" part, it is "will" part of you that will decide where you finally end up. It just tells that one need not be born with a silver spoon (in terms of talent) to end up being rich ( in terms of achievement). Thus, Dravid becomes the perfect role model for any success aspirant. 

Good Bye, Rahul!

As Rahul Dravid hangs his boots, it brings an era to a close. He is probably the last in the lineage of the traditional Test Batsman. Dravid's retirement will close one the most beautiful chapters of batting at no.3. This chapter encompassed, the perfect convolution the of traditional batting with the contemporary.  

As Rahul Dravid bids adieu to cricket, it also takes another legend out of the famous Indian batting line up. Dravid would remain the least flamboyant of the "fab-4". Dravid was no Tendulkar. He was not as charismatic as Saurav Ganguly. He never flicked a leg-spinner from outside the off-stump to the square leg boundary like Laxman did. Of the quartet, he was the most traditional and perhaps the most old-fashioned.  Dravid had built his success story not with swashbuckling innings' or with a few spectacular strokes, but with sweat and pain on the pitch. It is this very sweat, which he shed laid the foundation for his success story.

The greatest contribution of Dravid to Indian cricket has been the fact that he played so many match winning knocks in the toughest of times. In testing conditions, Dravid prevailed.  Whether it was Headlingly or Adelaide, Dravid dug it out and deftly weaved famous wins. Surviving good balls and making the bowlers bowl to his strengths was the mantra Dravid followed. Concentration and Patience were probably the greatest gifts Dravid had got. The ability to keep surviving all the wicket taking balls and finally hit the loose ball for a boundary was the biggest strength Rahul Dravid possessed.

Dravid may not have been a crowd puller or an entertainer. He may have rarely kept the spectators on the edge of their seats. Probably because it is much harder to appreciate one surviving a great ball than appreciate a beautiful boundary of an ordinary ball. But he was the architect of so many Indian successes. He was prepared to look bad so that team could look good. He was prepared to carry the image of a boring cricketer but was never prepared to let the team down.

Post-2000 era Dravid made his own. He was involved in almost every famous Indian win. He carved one success story over the other and was instrumental changing the face of Indian team from a team that just turned up on overseas tours to the one which was a force to reckon with. He donned various roles in these great wins. Sometimes he was the forgotten hero as in the famous Kolkata test. In other occasions, he was the glorified hero like in Adelaide and Headingley.   Some other times he was the sacrificer as in 2003 WC when he agreed to keep the stumps so that India could afford an extra batsman. In an era where India was struggling with their opening pair, Dravid was invariably the virtual opener in many occasions and had taken up the task of weathering the new ball. He took up the role of taking the shine off the new ball and thereby setting up the stage on which the rest of the middle order could reveal. It was Dravid's exploits in this era that gave a new face to Indian cricket which had the courage and skill to play outside the sub-continent.

Dravid has been one of the most selfless cricketers ever. As Navjyoth Singh Sidhu puts it, he would be ready to walk on broken glass if his team wanted him to do so. The fact that he agreed to be the wicket-keeper for the World Cup (2003) is a testimony for Sidhu's statement. On so many occasions Dravid agreed to move himself out his comfort zone of no. 3 and open the batting when the team required him to do so.

As Dravid calls it a day, curtains fall upon the career of probably one of the nicest gentleman to play the game. Without doubt, Rahul Dravid would be amongst one the greatest and the nicest batsman the game has ever seen. Dravid, one the greatest ambassadors of the game will remain an inspiration for all those who aspire to success in any walk of life.



Dravid's Career in pictures:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/current/gallery/556655.html

You may also read: http://cricketadithya.blogspot.in/2012/03/dravid-inspiration.html  

Preserving Test Cricket: Just reduce the number of games

Future of cricket is one of the hot topics being discussed in almost all cricketing forums. People are wondering if Test Cricket will survive, will ODIs be the scrape goat, will city versus city be the order of the day in the future. Gaurav Kalra, CNN IBN sports editor had come to Amrita University for a TEDx talk. He believes that ODI cricket would eventually die leaving only two formats of the game: one the limited overs and the other unlimited overs. He also favored bringing in various innovations to spice up the longer version of the game. 

All the cricket purists and the lovers of the game are really concerned about preserving Test Match cricket. There has been a lot of talk by various experts including Gaurav Kalra in his TEDx talk about getting night cricket, cricket with pink balls, tweaking with the format etc. to draw crowds. I will make bold statement here. I believe that all these innovations would play a very small role in increasing the following of the game. It may result in a sudden rise in viewership, but soon games with these innovations would become a routine and the viewership would be back to square one.

Getting a ticket for a match at the Eden Gardens was a prestige issue

Eden with empty seats was unheard of. Signs of spectator-burnout 

I am a firm believer that cricket viewership (at least in India) has gone down recently not because, the fan now finds the game boring or finds less spice in the game. I am also convinced that modern day test cricket has all the required spice to pull crowds.  The viewership has gone down for the simple reason that the fan now has had just too much of cricket. I have been an avid cricket follower for the past 12-14 years. Let me rewind my cricket viewing days to around 5 to 10 years back. Despite the fact that it was still a busy cricketing schedule, there were relatively long breaks in between the series. When an ardent follower of the game picked up the itinerary, one could see that there would have been a 2 to 3 month game before India played their next test or ODI. Since nations did not play each other as often as they do now, it created an excitement and the wait for the series. There used to be a long build up to the tournament. There would be pre-tournament air flowing. The devoted fans would be discussing the squad and playing XI weeks before the first ball was bowled. As the moment arrived every ardent follower switched on his/her TV sets with excitement to view the game. Since there was so much talk about the game before it was played getting a match ticket was a prestige. Thus, almost every game was played in front of a full house. 

Now things have changed dramatically. We get cricket almost everyday. Let me just go through the year 2011. India had an extra-ordinary World Cup.The fact that India had actually won the WC had barely sunk in that the IPL began. This IPL thus was not an event which the Indian fan had waited for. There were no discussions even among the devoted fans about this event. There was no time for all that to happen. Fans were still busy savoring the World Cup success that they were dumped in with the IPL.  So, the IPL just came and went. It met with a cold response. India then flew to West Indies for a low-key series and right after that we went to England. We got battered in England and as we came back, England came to India to play a 5 day ODI tournament. Then West Indies came to India to play 3 tests and 5 ODIs. Just as this tournament concluded, India flew to Australia and they are still there.That is how jam-packed the schedule is. None of these tournaments had a build up which could transform into a better viewership. Everything happened so fast that the fan barely remembers what happened in a series 2 months back.

There were concerns raised when the Eden Gardens was not even half full for an India West Indies test match. It really did not surprise me. It was the second time India were playing a series against West Indies in the same year. How could this excite anyone to turn up. There were concerns about low crowds in the India England ODIs. In India, ODIs were always a sell-out. Again empty stands this time around did not surprise me. Why would a fan invest his time to see India play again right after he has seen them play against the same opponents for 2 months.

The ongoing India-Australia games have had good following and viewership. Despite the schedule being packed, this was a marquee series and everyone was waiting for it. The hype of the Boxing-Day test match and the fact that this was being considered one chance for India to win down under (Though it is ironical that India were thrashed). If cricket was not played that often, every series would have had a similar hype. Every series and game would have a meaning and a context associated with it. It is essential in the interest of the game that tournaments which do not have much context like the West-Indies tour of India or the India-England ODI tournament are weeded out.

There is a deluge of cricket matches and so much so that, one could almost loose a track of which tournament is currently going on. After watching 100 matches in a year it is really hard for the fan to get excited about the 101st match. When there is so much cricket going on the stakes associated with each game go also down considerably, which contributes to the poor following of the game. Spectators want to watch a game which has a high value associated with it. They want to view a series where the stakes are high. When the game comes everyday fans simply looses interest in it.

I remember the wait that always preceded these big tours like that of Australia or England a few years back. It was this wait for the tournaments to begin that made them special. But, now we do not have any time to wait.  The entire year is so packed with cricket matches that the fan is never starved for the game. Fans need to be starved for cricket before they actually fed with it. That is will make the game special so that he can savor it. As it is with great cuisines, if they are eaten everyday they loose their charm. No matter what innovations you bring in, if you keep having the same thing it eventually becomes boring. What we need is giving a long breaks between tournaments. There needs to be a dry spell with no cricket at all. The fatigue concerns not just the players but the spectators as well and if the trend continues it may well result in a spectator burn-out. 

Any opinions, disagreements, comments etc. are welcome.