Mahela: Kotla wasn't a fair wicket for one-day cricket

Mahela Jayawardene sounded very reasonable, it until he told Cricinfo that his team and the Indian team thought that the Kotla pitch was not a fair wicket to play one-day cricket.

I wonder what his opinion was about the Rajkot pitch where 820 runs were scored across 100 overs. Was that a "fair" wicket for one-day cricket? I'm totally on Jarrod Kimber's side when he writes "If these batsmen want to come out with two inches of unprotected space on their bodies, then they can take whatever comes at them".

The ICC's monitoring process is bound to kick in now since the assumption seems to be that all low-scoring pitches are sub-standard.

The Feroz Shah Kotla could be banned from hosting internationals for at least a year, although it is likely that the punishment could be more lenient considering this was the first adverse report by the ICC for a game played at the venue. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that previous ICC feedback implied that the ground conditions were poor.

Of course there was a risk of physical injury for batsmen yesterday. Of course that isn't fair to batsmen. But life isn't fair either, and I'm assuming all cricketers and cricket fans do agree that cricket mirrors life, to a large extent.

Don't bowlers risk physical injury and permanent mental scarring when they run in (some morons run in nearly 25 metres each ball) pointlessly, especially on hot sultry days? They put in their maximum effort, hoping that the batsman would defend the ball near his chest, only to see that it ended up at his knees and the ball ended up over mid-wicket.

So, who is responsible for the Kotla ODI being abandoned?
	BCCI
	DDCA (Delhi & District Cricket Association)
	ICC
	IPL
	Batsmen-friendly rules and committees

Labels: bcci, ddca, delhi, farce, icc, india, pitch, sri lanka

Thus spake Jagadish @ 5:10 pm | Sledge/Read 6 sledge(s)
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High farce in Antigua

The incompetence of the WICB and the ICC has been exposed as a result of the relocation of the 2nd test from the Viv Richards stadium to the Antigua Recreation Ground. The test, which will be the 3rd test in a series expanded from 4 to 5 tests, will restart on Sunday. For what it is worth, West Indies lead the series 1-0.

How on earth could the WICB have allowed a test match to commence on a ground where the bowlers' runups and the outfield were so sandy that all it took was a short spell of rain to make things so bad that the test had to be abandoned? Did the ECB put sufficient pressure on the WICB to get their act together? How on earth could the ICC, as the governing body of the game, have allowed the test to start with such playing conditions? The ICC had at least 4 representatives at the ground - the match referee, the 2 on-field umpires and the third umpire. How could all of them goof up bigtime?

What is it about a Caribbean ground and a bunch of ICC officials that causes them to totally lose it again and again?

Who is responsible for the 2nd test at the Viv Richards stadium (Antigua) being relocated?
	England & Wales Cricket Board
	Indian Premier League
	International Cricket Council
	West Indies Cricket Board

Labels: england, farce, icc, pitch, west indies

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:05 am | Sledge/Read 3 sledge(s)
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Circus or a red herring?

Just when everyone thought that Dav Whatmore was a shoo-in for the job of India's next coach, the BCCI dropped a couple of bombshells.

Yesterday, it clarified that Whatmore was out and that Graham Ford and an anonymous firang foreigner were the ones left standing. Today, the identity of the anonymous one was revealed - John Emburey.

Firstly, although it'd be useful to know the basis on which Whatmore was ruled out, it is surely too much to expect transparency from the BCCI. Secondly, now that John Emburey has been identified as a contender, it seems like he wasn't too successful when he coached Northamptonshire or Middlesex. It is interesting to note that India's last coach was not exactly too successful when he coached in domestic cricket.

If the BCCI (or the players, for that matter) has seen something in Embers that the ECB hasn't (I don't recollect him being anywhere in the reckoning after Duncan Fletcher quit), we sure would love to know what Emburey 'brings to the table'.

Labels: bcci, coach, emburey, farce, ford, india, whatmore

Thus spake Jagadish @ 5:32 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Full of farce

It's charitable to suggest that there was one period when farce reigned supreme at Cape Town today. Most of India's innings, especially after the dismissals of Ganguly and Dravid, could easily be categorized as high farce.

The first farcical act was when Sehwag walked out to open. He's had a terrible month or so. But he made some sort of an impact when he batted down the order earlier in the game. Yet, with a test match to be won, he opened. To no-one's surprise, he was out early.

The second farcical act was after Wasim Jaffer got out. We kept waiting to see if someone appeared from the dressing room and no-one did! The commentators began talking about a 'time out' dismissal, unprecedented in the history of test cricket. Then again, a forfeited test and a double-declaration were unprecedented before those events occured!

In my opinion, the umpires got it wrong - they should not have invoked any 'special situation' clause and should have declared that India's #4 batsman was timed out. India's response to that should have actually been to point out that Munaf Patel was about to walk in at #4. Everyone would have been happy, perhaps even Munaf. In street cricket, the concept of a 'baby over' prevails when a better bowler completes the over bowled by a fairly pathetic bowler, mostly halfway through the over, i.e. after three balls have been bowled. Munaf Patel's batting gave me the distinct impression that he was unwilling to even last a baby-ball, let alone a baby over.

Dinesh Karthik was batting superbly at the other end - eking out runs through various means. All that Sreesanth, Zaheer and Munaf needed to do was to take a single, sensibly enough so Dinesh Karthik got most of the strike. They failed, miserably. It is likely that India could have scored 10-15 runs more, perhaps these runs could prove to be priceless in the context of what unravels tomorrow.

In between Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik, there was a wonderful, gritty partnership between Ganguly and Dravid. After them, farcical proceedings resumed. Paul Harris wheeled away, conceding around 2 runs an over. Shaun Pollock conceded less than 2 an over. There wasn't even the slightest indication that the batsmen (Tendulkar and Dravid) wanted to score runs. There's a very high chance that you can't win a test match by batting out time - you need to put the runs on the board!

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a 'deja vu all over again' post, but around 10 months ago, England, batting in the third innings of the Wankhede test, scored ridiculously slowly. India's batting order was then forcibly altered after Sehwag wasn't allowed to open since he'd been off the field for a large part of the previous day!

Dravid has ended the series with 125 runs at an average of 20.8 and a strike rate of 37.6. Purely on a gut feel, I checked his numbers in series where he's averaged less than 40. I find that there's a pretty significant relationship between his batting average/runs scored and his strike rate. In eight out of the previous nine (or 10) seires that he's averaged < 40 (or just over 40, at most), his strike rate has been < 35 (or just around 35). What this does suggest to me is that the best way for Dravid to get back to form is to stop potting around. For example in the first innings in the Cape Town test, he smacked Paul Harris around, and then froze against Shaun Pollock. Singles, Rahul!

Labels: dravid, farce, ganguly, india, sehwag, south africa, tendulkar

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:51 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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