Deep Point: Australian aura ... going... going... gone

B D Narayankar

Imagine. Last over India needs eight runs to win the World Cup and likes of Nathan Bracken are ready to bowl to Sachin Tendulkar or Yuvraj Singh. Will they match Bret Lee's intimidating bowling to restrict these batsmen? The answer is no. Look at the Aussies' bowling fiasco in the recently-concluded Chappel-Hadlee one-day series against New Zealand. The Kiwis tore to shreds the lackluster Aussie bowling which failed to defend 300-plus total twice. It will not be a surprise if they concede over 300 runs on the slower and spin-friendly wickets in West Indies too.

They honestly were good during the power plays, but looked pretty ordinary after that. And even worse in the death overs. Glen MacGrath's presence in the team might boost the Aussies', but it is certainly not enough unless he fires all cylinders up. With all due respect to the great bowler, he has lost his zip. Perhaps it is due to Shane Warne's absence. The leggie was a perfect foil to him who kept the pressure on the other end constantly. It should not surprise cricket enthusiasts that they share over 1,000 wickets between them.

Shaun Tait, Nathan Bracken, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and Brad Hogg surely are good replacements and have skills to perform. But they lack experience to handle pressure. They awfully lost both Commonwealth Bank and Chappell-Hadlee one-day series to Kiwis.

It is true cricket is a game of skills, but more than that it is a mind game and teams which can handle pressure can grab the World Cup. What is worrying the Aussies more is in what fashion their bowlers caved in to New Zealand.

The Aussies were decimated 3-0. In the first game of the series, Australia lost by 10 wickets for the first time in their cricketing history. In the next two games, Australia lost in spite of scoring mammoth 330-plus scores while batting first. In fact, they have on four occasions in the past 14 months failed to defend a total of 330-plus. This just goes to show that the Australian bowling attack has lost much of its bite.

With 14 days to go for the cricket World Cup, the champions no longer look invincible. They have lost five matches on the trot, including a rare whitewash in a one-day series. The last time the Aussies lost more than four matches in a row was back in 1997.

Ponting might have come up with a solution to cope up with the lackluster Aussie bowling -- bat second. For that, Ponting has to win the toss every time he goes out to twirl the coin.

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Deep Point: Chappell’s stick or a magical wand?

B D Narayankar

Those who had blamed Greg Chappell for India’s poor display in South Africa should shed shame and give credit to him for the magnificent one-day series wins against West Indies and Sri Lanka. If they don’t, they should stop sabotaging his image any further. Anyway, blaming a coach is not the right thing in cricket. It is the team and the captain that has to be blamed for debacles.

There was hardly any cry for Zaheer Khan when Chappell dropped him from the side for the 2005 Zimbabwe tour and asked him to get his basics right at county and domestic cricket. But all hell broke loose when Sourav Ganguly was axed from captaincy and then dusted out from the squad for his poor batting performance over two seasons.

Chappell, however, knew Ganguly’s modest innings were draining him out which was neither helping him nor the team. So, he dropped … err gave Ganguly a mind space to work on his batting renaissance.

And what happened to Ganguly? He made a solid return – he won man-of-the-series against Sri Lanka in the just-concluded one-day series. The last two months had been fantastic for him. He finished the three-Test series in South Africa as the highest run-getter for India. Against Windies, he registered two fifties in three ODIs.

Just when media was ruing over the omission of Irfan Pathan, when he became the first Indian player to be sent back home on an overseas series, it ignored the return of Zaheer after being dropped by Chappell in 2005. Like Ganguly, he has returned with a bang. Suddenly, Rahul has started looking upto him to give him early breakthroughs. What a turn around! Yet Chappell has been booed – what a tragedy.

What about Virendra Sehwag! He almost selected himself into the Indian squad for the one-day series against West Indies when he made a swasbuckling century against Haryana. The 47-run innings against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatnam one-dayer must have done a world of good to him. In fact, he never looked out-of-form, but was failing to convert 20s into 50s and 100s.

What does all this say? Chappell means business and will not take things lying down. Unlike Indians, who believe in sugarcoating diplomacy, he bluntly tells the truth to the dislike of our parliamentarians and stars like Ganguly, Sehwag and Zaheer including his blue-eyed boy Pathan. He analyses the problems within teams.

We need such a coach to overcome complacency, which could not have been done by someone else like John Wright, Madan Lal or Kapil Dev.

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Don’t take the credit away from Indian seamers

By B D Narayankar

It is always the batsmen who hog the limelight, particularly in a one-day game. Bowlers, on the flipside, get ignored. It happened in the India-Sri Lanka one-day-series decider at Visakhapatnam on Saturday.

More than the batsmen, the real winners of the match were the Indian bowlers. They could achieve what Sri Lankan bowlers failed to achieve. There was a purpose in their efforts to invite the Sri Lankan batsmen to go after the pitched-up balls around their off-stump. This was evident the way Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakarra and Mahela Jaywardene got out playing extravagant shots.

At one stage, Jayasuriya and Marvan Attapattu tonked Indian seamers mercilessly and it looked the visitors would set a target of 300 runs. But credit should go to Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan and S Sreeshanth for keeping their cool and bowling to a plan.

Even Saurav Ganguly bowled a steady line and picked up an all-important wicket of Tilakratne Dilshan who built a partnership of 68 runs along with Chamara Silva at a time when Sri Lanka was struggling at 56 for four.

Sri Lankan seamers failed to take a leaf out of Indian bowlers. They were seen bowling all over the place and conceding wides and no-balls regularly in the initial stages of Indian innings. The very first over from Fervez Maharoof was a disaster conceding far too many extras.

They bowled short and gave enough room for the likes of Robin Uthappa and Virendra Sehwag, who murdered the Sri Lankan bowlers. Robin was delightful with his front-footed whacks on either side of the wicket treating Sri Lankan pacers like spinners – it was fantastic.

Not far behind were Punjab-da-puttar Yuvaraj Singh and Prince of Kolkata, who made merry out of Sri Lankan attack. Yuvaraj smashed a masterful 95 not out of 83 balls and Ganguly 58, who put on an unbroken 145-runs partnership to steer India to a seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka clinching the series 2-1.

It was a great sight to see Yuvaraj returning to form after his three-month absence with a knee injury. He batted like God. Such was his dominance that he smashed 22 runs, including four boundaries and a six, in Farvez Maharoof's last over to finish the match. Altogether he walloped 11 boundaries and three sixes in his sensational rip-roaring innings.

Last, but not the least, a word on Chamara Silva. It was purely because of his 107-run knock, the match wouldn’t have been that interesting. He came in the middle when Sri Lanka were reeling at 56 for four. Chamara showed signs of a great batsman, who applied his mind soberly and built not only his innings, but also crucial partnerships with Dilshan, Maharoof, Russel Arnold and Malinga Bandara, posting Sri Lanka to a decent 259 runs.

Chamara is a good thing to happen to the world of cricket, especially when it lost an illustrious cricketer Aravinda de Silva. His mannerisms -- the bow-legged stance, flamboyant cover drives and sweeps – speaks volumes of how close he resembles to Aravinda while batting.


India vs Sri Lanka, February 17, 2007, 4th ODI

Venue: Visakhapatnam

Toss: India elected to field

India won by 7 wkts and series 2-1

Man of the match: C Silva

Man of the series: S Ganguly

SCOREBOARD

Sri Lanka 259-7 (47) Runs Balls 4s 6s SR
M Atapattu b Sreesanth 19 37 2 0 51.35
S Jayasuriya c Ganguly b Agarkar 22 19 3 1 115.79
*M Jayawardene c Uthappa b Agarkar 7 8 1 0 87.50
K Sangakkara c Uthappa b Khan 1 2 0 0 50.00
C Silva not out 107 107 12 1 100.00
T Dilshan c Uthappa b Ganguly 28 44 3 0 63.64
R Arnold c Sreesanth b Sehwag 22 34 0 1 64.71
F Maharoof c Karthik b Khan 28 28 2 1 100.00
M Bandara not out 5 6 0 0 83.33
L Malinga
D Fernando
Extras: 20 ( b:0 lb:3 nb:3 w:14)
Total: 259-7 (47) Curr. RR: 5.51

FOW: S Jayasuriya (42-1, 7.4), *M Jayawardene (50-2, 9.1), K Sangakkara (52-3, 10.1), M Atapattu (56-4, 12.1), T Dilshan (124-5, 26.2), R Arnold (165-6, 36.2), F Maharoof (229-7, 44.2)

India O M R W Nb Wd RPO
Z Khan 10 2 54 2 1 1 5.40
A Agarkar 10 1 52 2 0 3 5.20
S Sreesanth 8 1 46 1 2 0 5.75
Harbhajan Singh 9 0 48 0 0 2 5.33
S Ganguly 6 0 29 1 0 1 4.83
V Sehwag 4 0 27 1 0 3 6.75

India team: Z Khan, A Agarkar, S Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, S Ganguly, V Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, R Uthappa, *R Dravid, D Karthik, M Dhoni,

Powerplay 1: 1-10 ovs, 2: 11-15 ovs, 3: 16 - 20 overs


India 263-3 (41) Runs Balls 4s 6s SR
V Sehwag run out (Sangakkara) 46 44 7 0 104.55
S Ganguly not out 58 74 3 3 78.38
R Uthappa c Jayasuriya b Maharoof 52 37 9 1 140.54
D Karthik c and b Fernando 1 9 0 0 11.11
Yuvraj Singh not out 95 83 11 3 114.46
*R Dravid
M Dhoni
A Agarkar
Harbhajan Singh
S Sreesanth
Z Khan
Extras: 11 ( b:0 lb:2 nb:1 w:8)
Total: 263-3 (41) Curr. RR: 6.41

FOW: R Uthappa (92-1, 12), D Karthik (106-2, 14.1), V Sehwag (118-3, 17.1)

Sri Lanka O M R W Nb Wd RPO
F Maharoof 6 0 60 1 1 5 10.00
L Malinga 9 1 54 0 0 2 6.00
D Fernando 9 1 56 1 0 0 6.22
M Bandara 4 0 37 0 0 0 9.25
T Dilshan 9 0 34 0 0 1 3.78
S Jayasuriya 2 0 10 0 0 0 5.00
R Arnold 2 0 10 0 0 0 5.00

Sri Lanka team: F Maharoof, L Malinga, D Fernando , M Bandara, T Dilshan, S Jayasuriya, R Arnold, C Silva, *M Jayawardene, M Atapattu, K Sangakkara,

Powerplay 1: 1-10 ovs, 2: 11-15 ovs, 3: 16-20 ovs

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Deep Point: Will Rahul repeat Devil's feat?

B D Narayankar

The final World Cup squad is out and there are many cricket-frenzy fans cribbing over the omission of their favourite players. They certainly have the right to express their disappointment, but that’s how it is -- only 15 can board the flight to West Indies.

Credit should go to captain Rahul Dravid and chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar for picking up players who have the potential to win the World Cup. It is beyond doubt the present Indian players are far more accomplished, but they certainly lack the passion of 1983 World Cup players who thought they could win every match. They, in fact, won the World Cup without a fluke.

Dravid is right in saying ``Which players are selected. What combination the team employs. These are the things which does not count. What really matters is how well your six or seven players consistently perform in the World Cup.’’ This exactly was done by the Gavaskars, the Srikanths, the Yashpals, the Devs, the Amarnaths, the Patils, the Madan Lals and the Binnys consistently in the 1983 World Cup with their bat, ball or fielding. Such was their passion to win that they thrashed the then reigning world champions West Indies not once in the final, but in one of the league matches too.

Ask Imran Khan what is required to win the World Cup. He says: ‘’Self-belief to win each and every game you play.’’ And, he did win the 1992 World Cup captaining a new-look Pakistan side comprising of unknown talents like Aamir Sohail, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Iqbal Sikander and Waseem Haider, after receiving a huge blow in the form of Saeed Anwar, Ata-ur-Rehman and Waqar Younis, who fell unfit.

There always has been complaints that the BCCI does not gets its priorities right to make players feel comfortable on an overseas tour by giving them enough practice matches for acclimatisation. This time, though, they will have all that in the West Indies before the big games.

And it will be a matter of time for the Indians to acclimatise themselves to the conditions in West Indies as it is quite similar to India's, except for a couple of venues. Under the circumstance, it will be not long enough for the Nawab of Najafgarh (Virendra Sehwag) to bounce back to form. It, however, remains to be seen how Irfan Pathan copes up on West Indies pitches. So far, he had played only one international match against West Indies and under-performed. Another hotly-debated player Munaf Patel has done enough to satisfy the selectors with his bowling against Sri Lanka in the Rajkot one-dayer where he showed signs of returning back to the form.

There has been unnecessary concern raised on the issue of Indian fielding and it has been blown-out-of-proportion by media. After all how many quick-footed fielders do we require? Only two – one in the point and the other in the covers. We have Yuvraj, Robin and Karthick for that. The slow-footed Anil Kumble, Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan can protect the boundaries and seniors like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virendra Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly can be close-in fielders.

There also has been a lot of media-created confusion over whether Sehwag will open the innings. For the first few matches, surely the team management wants the Delhi dasher to play in the middle order and strengthen it in the august company of Sachin, Yuvraj and Dravid. If Uthappa and Ganguly fail to impress as openers, the team has the option of Sachin, Sehwag or Karthick. Experts in the cricketing world are firm in their opinion that openers make good middle-order batsmen, but not vice-versa. It is good India has five openers at its disposal.

The fact that the 1983 team could win the World Cup was that it in all had seven players who were bowling-allrounders and batting-allrounders. In comparison, the present Indian team boasts of six batting-allrounders and bowling-allrounders. They have done well in chipping in with their extra skills to won many matches for India in the past.

Key batsmen for India in the World Cup will be Ganguly, Dravid, Sachin, Sehwag and Yuvraj. And bowlers Zaheer, Pathan and Kumble, as they are expected to play in almost all the games if fit. One good thing happening to India right now is the comeback of Sachin to form. Ganguly also is on a song and Zaheer is back with his old habit of taking wickets. It is up to other players to pick the gauntlet up and raise their standards of the game for a man (Dravid) who had backed even the inclusion of now-hated Sehwag, Munaf and Pathan in the squad.

The great rishis of India had said that the world exists on Vishwas (faith) and let us all Indians have Vishwas on Gavaskar's uncanny prediction of India winning the World Cup when he recently told Gulf News in Dubai ''Dravid will do what another January-born captain did for India in the 1983 World Cup.''

Kapil was born on January 5 and Rahul on January 11.

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Uthappa may fly to WI

Feb 9, 2007

B D Narayankar

Bangalore: Though Robin Uthappa has been humble about his chances for being picked up in the Indian squad for the World Cup, the national selection committee has almost reached at a consensus to include him in the side.

Uthappa’s chances became better when he exhibited the rare talent of pounding mericilessly the West Indies fast bowlers to all over the park and scripting a swashbuckling 70 runs in 41 balls at Chepuak. Though the Karnataka dasher failed to get a big one under his belt in Vadodara, his short and sweet innings of 28 runs showed him in good stead and looked confident.

Apart from these two confident-looking innings, the failure of Gautam Gambhir to score runs in the last two one-day matches against West Indies has increased Robin’s prospects for cementing a place in the national squad for the World Cup, a national selector told this blogger.

Gambhir spilled his chances by not utilizing the opportunity, though getting a magnificent half-century in the first one-day match at Nagpur. ‘’If the dashing left-hander had some decent scores under his belt, he would have given a tough comptetition to Uthappa,’’ he said.

The selector also indicated that the squad would comprise six batsmen, two wicket-keepers, two specialist spinners and five pacemen, including the beleaguered Irfan Pathan.

Among the batsmen, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh pick themselves. There was uncertainty over the last spot. Sehwag’s record and match-winning ability make him the front-runner over Suresh Raina.

The composition could change if a player is injured, or found unfit. If Munaf Patel is unfit, he could be replaced by a paceman or off-spinner Ramesh Powar.

Dream Team

Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Rahul Dravid (capt), Sachin Tendulkar (vc), Virendra Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan.

Benchers

Dinesh Karthick (wk), Munaf Patel, Ajit Agarkar and S Sreeshanth.

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Howzaat! Pawar rejects Brijesh olive branch, won’t attend KSCA function

Jan 19, 2007

B D NARAYANKAR

Bangalore: The Karnataka State Cricket Association’s sudden move to felicitate five former greats of the game has run into trouble, with BCCI president Sharad Pawar reportedly expressing his reluctance to preside over the function.

KSCA’s decision to honour Erapalli Prasanna, G R Vishwanath, B S Chandrashekar, Syed Kirmani, and Roger Binny on January 28 was being seen as a masterstroke by beleaguered KSCA secretary Brijesh Patel.

Insiders said Patel, a former close confidant of Jagmohan Dalmiya, wanted to get into the good books of Pawar, now that Dalmiya has been expelled from BCCI for life. But Pawar has conveyed his unavailability to attend the programme in view of the municipal elections in Maharashtra.

Pawar, however, told over phone from New Delhi that he had not rejected Brijesh’s invitation, but conveyed his availability on a later date. “I am busy with the local bodies election in Maharashtra,’’ he said.

The controversial move to honour the five greats—two of whom, Vishwanath and Binny, are also members of two separate KSCA committees—was also being seen as a timely move on the eve of the KSCA elections due later this year.

Honouring the five with a Rs 5 lakh cheque was seen as Patel’s way of keeping them on his side. “He has been in power for eight years. Why did it take him this long to realise that these players deserved the honour?” asks a KSCA source. “Couldn’t he have honoured them when he honoured Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble?” With Pawar not coming, some executive committee members, owing allegiance to former Congress MP Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar who wants to contest against Patel, want the KSCA to go ahead with the function. The Wodeyar camp sees the felicitation as a move by Patel & Co to worm their way into the good books of Pawar & Co.

“Brijesh had enjoyed all the benefits in the cricketing world when Dalmiya was BCCI president, but he voted against Dalmiya who was expelled from BCCI. During Dalmiya’s period, Brijesh was made the manager of Indian cricket team for the World Cup in England, NCA director and chairman of selectors,” says a former Karnataka selector.

“The KSCA is a divided group and Brijesh has become wobbly and he pretty well knows he cannot continue in the present saddle without Pawar’s support. Therefore, he is trying to shift his allegiance to Pawar,’’ he adds.

Wodeyar followers are confident that Pawar will not accept the invitation for the simple reason that Brijesh has been vocal against him.

At one point of the time, he even called Pawar a “puppet” of N Srinivasan, BCCI treasurer and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association secretary. “Brijesh’s relations with Srinivasan have worsened, and Pawar doesn’t forgt that easily,” a source said.

When contacted, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah preferred to be tight-lipped. “Shah’s silence is a strategy of the Pawar group not to offend Brijesh for the time being, considering his vote against Dalmiya,’’ a source said.

Umpire A V Jayprakash preferred to remain silent. Brijesh Patel refused to admit that Pawar had rejected the invitation. “There is no truth in it. In fact, he will attend the function by the end of February or first week of March,” he told.

Asked why it took nearly eight years to felicitate the five Karnataka greats, Brijesh said: “Every event has its own time. The KSCA decided to felicitate Chandra and Prasanna after the board bestowed them lifetime achievement awards. We also wanted to felicitate Vishy, Roger and Kiri in the same function.’’

Deep Point: Sachin's vice-captaincy

Jan 23, 2007

Deep Point

Vice captaincy to Tendulkar a warning to Dravid

B D NARAYANKAR

‘The Col’ -- thats how chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar is known in the cricketing world. And he is called so for his forthrightness. When he says Sachin Tendulkar has been made vice-captain because those who had held the post earlier were not regulars in the team, it means that he has sent a clear message to Rahul Dravid to perform as a captain and a batsman, or else he will have to lose the leadership role after the World Cup.

The decision of national selectors to elevate Tendulkar to the vice-captain level is not an isolated development. The BCCI and Vengsarkar were upset with Dravid for fielding Virendra Sehwag and seamer Munaf Patel in the final Test at Cape Town losing the series to SA. Vengsarkar has been taking right decisions at the right time.

He does not want to promote someone as a vice-captain who is young and inexperienced. A player of Tendulkars calibre is the best bet to take over the reins from Dravid if he is injured during the World Cup. Moreover, the master batsman has played enough cricket in the West Indies and is aware of the playing conditions there more than anybody else.

But there would be some in the cricketing world who would not accept Tendulkars captaincy as they had seen him failing twice in the past. It will be wrong to judge a captain who iswas leading a weak side. It is very difficult to percieve Clive Lylod winning series-after-series with the present Brian Lara-led West Indies team. The Big Cat was the most successful captain of his era as he had the finest batsmen -- Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Hynes, Vivian Richards, Larry Gomes and Richie Richardson -- and dreaded bowlers like Malcolm Marshal, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Collin Croft and Patrick Paterson, who came good seriesafter-series.

Tendulkar made a bright start as captain by defeating Australia in the one-off Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi in 1996 and then winning the home series against South Africa 2-1. But lost his way being a victim of the overseas syndrome, which had proved to be the Waterloo of many Indian skippers, including Mohammad Azharuddin, who was otherwise Indias most successful captain. To be fair to Tendulkar, with the limited resources under his command, he has had to lead India on some very difficult campaigns abroad the tour of South Africa and the Caribbean in 1997 and the trip to Australia in 1998.

The Australian tour only exposed the long-term shortcomings in the Indian side - the inability of the specialist batsmen, with the exception of Tendulkar, to handle the extra bounce and the lateral movement; the lack of sting in the bowling, with strike bowler Anil Kumble losing much of his effectiveness on foreign territory; and mediocre fielding in an era of super athleticism. To make matters worse, Rahul Dravid, from whom much was expected, seemed consumed by self-doubts for most part of the series. The normally solid Sourav Ganguly was unable to produce a big innings in the Tests. VVS Laxman, despite his blistering century in Sydney, was too inconsistent for an opening batsman.

Vengsarkar, a Mumbiakar like Tendulkar, certainly has big plans for the master blaster and realises the importance of using his experience. There is nothing wrong in doing it, if someone has put up his hands to accept the onus.

When England could give the responsibility to Mike Brearly, the most successful captain ever in the history of cricket with hopeless batting record, why shouldnt India give it to Tendulkar, even if he is not delivering with his bat?

Thappad to Chappell

Jan 23, 2007

Oriya Rap: Chappell gets thappad

B D NARAYANKAR

Bangalore: Even as the Orissa police was trying to cover up the alleged slapping of India’s cricket coach Greg Chappell on Monday by a protester at the Biju Patnaik airport at Bhubaneshwar fearing media backlash, the BCCI confirmed the incident.

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah told that “Biranchi Mehraj, a political activist belonging to Kalinga Sena, broke through a group of journalists and cricket fans at the airport and slapped Chappell for not including a player from Orissa in the India squad. Chappell complained to me about the incident, but does not want to persue the matter,’’ Shah said.

Asked as to who was responsible for the security lapse, without naming the Orissa police, Shah said the BCCI has taken necessary steps to avoid recurrence such an incident in the future. “Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has assured to provide security to the Indian and West Indian players. I have also instructed the Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) to beef up security in the stadium,’’ he said.

Speaking to this Correspondent from Bhubaneshwar, Inspector General of Police & DIG, Bhubaneshwar range, V B Khurania denied that Chappell had been slapped. “An attempt was made to hit Chappell, but Mehraj fell over the security cordon. He is now in police custody,’’ he said.

Asked whether the BCCI and Chappell had lodged a complaint, Khurania replied in the negative. “But Mehraj has already tendered an apology to Chappell,’’ he added.

Khurania admitted there was a breach in security. Khurdha SP Amitabh Thakur has already tendered an apology to Chappell for the incident. “There was no vested interest in the attempted assault, but the person sought to gain cheap publicity,’’ he said.

Unlucky Joginder

Jan 26, 2007

Axe on Joginder totally uncalled for

B D NARAYANKAR

BBaan nggaal loor re e: : Haryana all-rounder Joginder Sharma, who was inducted in the Indian squad for his superb performance in the Ranji Trophy matches this season, has been a victim of the whims and fancies of the national cricket selectors. He has been shown the door after getting just one chance in the Cuttack game against the West Indies.

Sharma, who had shown lot of promise this season, is now at the crossroads of his career. He does not know whether he should be playing domestic cricket or wait for yet another call to play for India.

The selectors have certainly given him a raw deal and they need to explain why Sharma, in the first place, was picked in the squad? Was he used to ‘protect’ and later include the blue-eyed boy Irfan Pathan into Team India? Will Karnataka opener Robin Uthappa also face the same fate if the selectors are planning to recall Delhi dasher Virender Sehwag? These are some of the questions bothering cricket experts, including batting legend Sunil Gavaskar.

Nevertheless, the selectors have their own reasons to select Pathan, who was sent back from the tour of South Africa. He also became the first player in the history of Indian cricket get such a kind of a rap.

It just took a couple of domestic matches for the selectors to recall Pathan into the national squad. His seven-wicket haul in the Ranji trophy semifinal against Mumbai convinced chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar of his bowling form.

The Vadodra pacer certainly fills the vital allrounder’s slot and adds balance to the team. Even captain Rahul Dravid loves to have a cricketer like him in the side.

If this has happened to Pathan it is only a matter of time before ‘The Nawab of Najafgarh’ is back in the Indian team for the World Cup. Sehwag had almost laid his claim for selection when he notched up a swashbuckling century against Haryana just a day before the selectors announced the squad for the first two one-dayers against West Indies at Rajkot.

Interestingly, Vengsarkar had not been harsh against Sehwag, Pathan and Munaf Patel while announcing the team for the first two matches against West Indies at Rajkot on January 12. The ‘Col’ had said: ‘’They are great players and capable of making a comeback. They are low in confidence and we felt they need a break from the international scene and get back to their basics playing domestic cricket.’’

DEEP POINT: DD's Dadagiri

B D Narayankar

MILLIONS of cricket fans in India must be excited by the compromise brokered by the Delhi High Court allowing Doordarshan (DD) to telecast with a seven-minute delay the remaining ODI matches between India and West Indies and the first one between India and Sri Lanka.
But they certainly do not know whether they will be able to watch the last three one-dayers of the Sri Lanka series. The matter is scheduled to be heard again in the court to resolve the deadlock between Nimbus and DD on February 8.

This was not the first time that a private broadcaster and DD have temporarily resolved the issue of sharing the live feed in the courts.

In the last few days, there has been a lot of dust raised over the sharing of the live cricket feed between Nimbus and DD. There were tons of words written in the media about the deliberate reluctance of the DD and Nimbus to resolve the deadlock before the India-West Indies series began.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) must remember it is making money through guaranteed viewership and it will be a crime to deprive the millions of rural audience who cannot afford to get cable connections in their homes. Are they not Indians and enjoy the right of a live coverage? Being the supreme cricketing body the BCCI has the moral responsibility to find a way to resolve the deadlock between the right-holders and DD for good, considering its chief Sharad Pawar is an important and powerful personality in the UPA government at the Centre.

At the heart of the dispute is not the public interest which the central government claims, but it is all about making huge money through ads. Nimbus has paid a hefty $612 million for the rights till 2011, but DD believes in bullying Nimbus to share its cleanfeed without even spending a single pie for bagging the rights.

Nimbus is right to lay the condition that DD to encrypt its live feed to ensure that it isn’t freely available for redistribution and DD’s argument that encryption is beyond its technical expertise just cannot be digested. It is obliged to get its act together as soon as possible.

One of the solutions to end the problem is to align the interests of both the right-holders and Prasar Bharati. This can be done by DD telecasting the same feed by Neo Sports, without changing a single advertisement. Once Neo Sports and advertisers know in advance that their feed would be carried by DD, and reach DTH homes as well, Neo Sports would be able to fix advertising rates that take into account the combined reach of the public broadcaster and the private channel.

DD would be entitled to a share of the additional advertising revenue as legitimate carriage fees, after all, without their network carrying the telecast signal, the ads’ reach would be severely limited, and the ad rates proportionately lower. This sharing formula can be determined by mutual agreement, the broadcast regulator or the courts.