The BCCI has been overcautious in reacting to spot-fixing

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In the past couple of days I have found myself in the unusual position of defending the BCCI on national television. True, the board seems to be more keen on protecting their 'property', the IPL, than in serving the sport itself, and true too, that the leadership qualities that one expects in a crisis have been conspicuous by their absence.   Yet, to conclude that the rot of fixing has reached the highest echelons of the governing body and that everybody from the BCCI president to the office boy is in on it is both libellous and convenient. It is understandable though. For so long has the BCCI made a virtue of its opacity and lack of accountability that when the s-word hit the fan, it had nowhere to run.  And few friends to turn to. Many see it as the comeuppance for an arrogant board now forced to deal....

Foreign flavour is the boost domestic cricket needs

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The IPL has shown the positive effects of youngsters sharing a dressing room with world class performers from different countries. The impact of a Shane Warne on Rajasthan Royals, for example, was profound in the first year of the tournament. Not only did the team win the title, Warne gave periodic plugs to the promising youngsters, and was responsible for the 'rockstar' image bestowed on Ravindra Jadeja, currently an India regular. Bowling with Dale Steyn or batting with Michael Hussey can be an education, and many youngsters have benefited. Perhaps the time has come to extend the concept, and introduce foreign stars into the Ranji Trophy championship. The domestic first class game in India has been suffering for want of public interest, and if even a small percentage of the folks who turn up at the stadiums to watch a Chris Gayle or an AB de Villiers in action....

When Indian crowds heckle, the spectator loses

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The IPL aspires to be the EPL (English Premier League), so it is ironic that poor crowd behaviour - a feature of the EPL - should be a worry. After all, it is one more step in the 'right' direction. All we need now is racism and sexual innuendos hurled at the players, and then the IPL and EPL could be identical twins. But I am being facetious. RCB skipper Virat Kohli's outburst after the match in Mumbai was merely putting into words what spectators at cricket matches across the country have known for a long time. That there has been a 'Bushification' of fans at every ground - everything is down to us versus them, and in the words of the former American President, "if you are not for us, you are against us." When the middle ground has all but disappeared from the national discourse, why should....

The IPL is Chris Gayle's oyster

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The classic question - Who is the best batsman in the world? - comes these days with an asterisk which asks, basically, "Do you mean in Tests, one-dayers or T20?" In Tests, the choice is complicated since the standards differ. Average, aggregate, ability to play pace or spin, impact on team results - you might get a different batsman at the top in each of these categories (and there are many more). The question is most easily answered in T20, where all subtleties disappear under the one thing that matters: most runs in fewest deliveries. You could, of course bring in a non-cricketing element: the amount of money a team is willing to pay for your services. On both counts, there is only one batsman who qualifies as the best in the world in T20. If any further endorsement were needed, the batsman, Chris Gayle, himself provided it with....

Ponting and Tendulkar are a unique study in IPL razzmatazz

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In the midst of the usual (and expected) over-the-top comments that the IPL generates, Ricky Ponting's plain speak has come as relief. What he said was commonplace, almost banal - he merely pointed out that neither he nor Sachin Tendulkar, his opening partner at Mumbai Indians had been performing to par. "The two guys at the top of the order haven't done the job required of them by the team," he said at the end of the team's fifth match, against Rajasthan Royals. It was a simple statement of fact, but simple statements of fact are not what the IPL is known for. The accepted technique is to overstate the merely adequate, and ignore the bad. Had any of the television commentators, for example, been in Ponting's place, he would have raved about the two innings where the opening pair put on over 50 runs, and pretended that all....

Will the South Africa tour be Tendulkar's farewell?

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Somewhere in the enormous amount of words inspired by the IPL this year, there was a line from a report that has gone under the radar. According to it, Sachin Tendulkar told Allan Donald that he would tour South Africa later this year. It wasn't picked up for the usual national debate that follows any Tendulkar statement, which was surprising. Perhaps that wasn't quite what Tendulkar said. Perhaps there was a nuance that was missed by the reporter. But the question remains: Will Tendulkar decide to go to South Africa for one last tour? Some three decades ago, a popular topic of discussion was: Should Sunil Gavaskar go to the West Indies? Or more pertinently, should the player be allowed to decide on his own? Gavaskar was at his peak as a batsman and the biggest draw in the Indian team, especially in the West Indies where he had....

IPL's Sri Lankan pullout reflects BCCI president's conflict of interest

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Now that the IPL teams are not allowed to field Sri Lankan players in Chennai, and since the owners are more pusillanimous than the BCCI president who kowtows to politicians to the detriment of sport and self-respect, here's a way out. A way to level the playing field. Each team, when playing in Chennai should be allowed to decide who among the Chennai Super Kings players should not play. Three of the teams are captained by Sri Lankans, and in all there are 13 players spread across the franchises. Why should they lose out because a politician thinks this is a cute way to guarantee votes at election time? Thus Delhi Daredevils, led by Mahela Jayawardene, should be allowed to take out at least one CSK player. Royal Challengers Bangalore with two players, Muttiah Muralitharan and Tillakaratne Dilshan, will have the right to ask CSK to drop two of....

Post 4-0, what of Tendulkar and India's Test aspirations?

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When Ravi Shastri said on television that the recent Test series set up the IPL very nicely, it became obvious that in his mind he was clear about which came first, the chicken or the egg. You don't need to be an apologist for Test cricket or an exclusive fan of the IPL to understand how ridiculous that comment was. It was rather like saying that Daniel Day Lewis's Oscar-winning performance as Lincoln was good preparation for the lemon-and-spoon race at the next PTA meeting. You can't mix oranges and apples - except apparently in commentary boxes. Was Sachin Tendulkar bidding goodbye to the Feroz Shah Kotla or Delhi or India or cricket itself at the end of the match when India completed their 4-0 drubbing of Australia? This is the first time the word 'drubbing' is being used thus. India have been the drubbed often; now it is....

With Vijay and Dhawan, there is hope

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Murali Vijay turns 29 next month; his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan is 27. One is on the road to re-establishing himself in the national side. The other just made a flashy Test debut. About the only thing that can be said of this pair which put on 289 runs in the first innings of the Mohali Test and laid the foundation for India's win is that they will be playing the Delhi Test this week. Even then, there is an element of doubt because Dhawan injured himself fielding and did not bat in the second innings. But as things stand, he should play on his home ground. India's latest opening pair is a mirror image of its predecessors, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. Now the aggressive player is the left-hander Dhawan while the more solid is the right-hander Vijay. Neither Sehwag nor Gambhir is ruled out of the Indian....

Sehwag won't finish as a great, but easily could have

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Just before he turned 30, Cricinfo asked me to answer the question: Is Sehwag a great player? It was tempting to answer 'Yes', and move on. At that stage, his record of 60 Tests, average of 53 and 15 centuries had been bettered only by Sunil Gavaskar. Presumably the best was yet to come, and we should be able to better judge that only after the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, I suggested. "What happens thereafter will decide his place," I wrote. "Life must be lived forwards, but judgements can only be made in retrospect. Sehwag is climbing the last steps to the pantheon, but these are the toughest ones." In the end, Sehwag has disappointed, foregoing a chance to be remembered as a great for the creature comforts of the here and now. This might appear to be a harsh judgment, for Sehwag's two triple-centuries....