Farewell Gambhir, Sehwag, Yuvraj & Friends

And so while India are being thumped by Australia (4-0 coming your way folks), they also announced their 30 man squad of World Cup 'probables'.

Hang on a minute, thirty probables!? There are eleven members in a cricket team plus a water carrier, add four or five reserves and we have a touring party. What is the point in naming a probables list double the size of the group that will actually show up?

Here's why, it's confirmation of who will not show up.

India's list of omissions is a strange one.  Sure I can understand the concept of 'out with the old and in with the new', but in Indian cricket? Not exactly spoiled with young riches are they?

Lets examine the miss list:

Zaheer Khan - Is very unlucky. This is the best fast bowler India has had since Kapil Dev, with the exception of maybe Srinath. He was a huge reason as to why they won the last world cup (more than Dhoni) and the other options are average other than maybe Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.  What was Zaheer's mistake? Not playing for the Chennai Super Kings?
Selection Credibility - 9/10

No love guys?

Yuvraj Singh - Another unlucky original from the famous 2003 campaign (and the famous 2003 world cup final flop). He is still a class batsman and experience counts especially in alien conditions. They could have easily brought him back for one last hurrah a la Craig McMillan (who at one point had given up cricket to become a salesman), but alas this is probably the end.
Selection Credibility - 8/10

Gautam Gambhir - Lets recount an actual water cooler conversation where someone remarked "Oh my god.... Dhoni's innings in that world cup was amazing, nobody in the world could have played like that".

While the crickets chirped, I dared not to say a word (already am infamous for Dhoni bashing), but sanity prevailed with a wiser one nearby "..... actually Gambhir's innings is what really turned the match, it was him in fact that won it for India".  Bang on! Although a pathetic Sri Lankan fielding effort helped too (did someone say match fixing?).

Gambhir is interesting, he was very good for a while and had a real future, but instead became pretty much worthless especially outside of India.  A 50/50 selection at the moment, not much to gain, not much to lose.
Selection Credibility - 5/10

Dinesh Karthik - Possibly the most underrated keeper-batsman in the game. He's good enough to bust into the Indian team in any format, but Wriddhiman Saha has obviously been chosen as the next in line after Dhoni. Nothing against Saha, but DK deserves a better career than this.
Selection Credibility - 6/10

Virender Sehwag - Once one of the truly great players of the game.  Despite his reputation of being a stand and slog merchant, his strength was his simplicity and his no-footwork style knew how to get runs regardless of conditions. But time and pies took their toll in the 2010s, and unlike Tendulkar there was no plan B.  A great career, but let him go in peace.
Selection Credibility - 2/10

Harbhajan Singh - Conversely Bhajji was lucky he even had a career that long. A pity because his presence meant someone like Murali Karthik had none. Riding on the wild success of 2001, he shouldn't have even been in the 2011 world cup team let alone this one.
Selection Credibility - 1/10

Sreesanth - Buried underneath this cricketing oddity crying in public, the lifetime ban, out-dancing Shah Rukh Khan in a Shah Rukh Khan show, and bowling like a garden sprinkler gone nuts... there was in fact a high class pace bowler. We're never going to see that again.
Selection Credibility - 0

I'm calling it early, India will not win the world cup or even make the final. Would the likes of Zaheer and Yuvraj pushed them there? Their bag of tricks would have come in mighty handy in a team not built to play out of India.

Farewell to an older generation, and thanks for the memories of better days in Indian cricket.

The Cricket World Cup 2011 Oscars

Its awards time at The Cricket Musings! This is an opportunity to commemorate the stand out performances of the 2011 world cup, be it good, bad or quirky. The judge and jury will be yours truly, however no physical awards will be handed out, as we believe cricketers are paid quite enough. Lets begin.

The Most Annoying Celebration Award
Winner - Harbhajan Singh
Removed Afridi in the semi-final with an off-stump full toss that deserved to be smashed over extra cover for six. We saw instead the token Afridi miscue, and Bhajji going off in a bizarre screaming, head twirling, seizure style celebration. Most of his wickets in the tournament came off average to rubbish deliveries.

Honorable Mention
The famous Afridi "bow before me" pose.


The Dodgy Hairstyle Award
Winner - Sreesanth
An horrid cross between Don King and Edward Scissorhands. After playing two games and getting tonked everywhere, this is the only accolades he will get.

Boo. © AFP

The Two-Face Award
Winner - Ross Taylor
The man who turned it all around for New Zealand. Should have been out twice, and looked woeful for most of his innings, before unleashing a hulk style assault on the hapless Pakistanis. Never before had I seen such a dramatic turn around in one mans innings.

Honorable Mentions

Umar Gul - From demon to deck scrubber in no time at all. Picked the worst game to do it as well.

Kamran Akmal - Also made the quick switch from iron gloves to good keeper, no surprises to see two Pakistani's nominated for this one.

The Houdini Award
Winner - Ireland
Ireland were fighting hard chasing a huge total, but never looked like winning at the halfway stage, with the odds 400-1 for an Irish win. Enter big burly Kevin O'Brien, who unleashed an onslaught so unbelievable it became the grandstand for the biggest upset of the world cup.

Honorable Mention
New Zealand - Didn't deserve to even get close against a South Africa side that appeared to be cruising along. Enter some brilliant catching, fielding and sledging, and the gritty Kiwi's sent the highly fancied team packing.

The Anticlimax Award
Winner - Pakistan
For their failure to turn up in what should have been the match of the tournament. Thank you for ruining the match with atrocious fielding and shot selection, and also for robbing Shoaib Akhtar of a final hurrah. I have massive doubts over the legitimacy of all this, but that can of worms can be opened another day. Special mention also to Razzaq, who disappointingly didn't produce any batting miracle we know he can give us.


The Irony Award
Winner - Saeed Ajmal and Harbhajan Singh
For delivering a perfect doosra to the very man who endorsed it. Poetic really.


The Umpire Howler Award
Winner - Amiesh Saheba
For denying Nathan McCullum what was a clean catch, and costing New Zealand crucial momentum in that match. Disgraceful.

Honorable Mention - Bruce Oxenford
The Gary Wilson situation, where the batsman was deemed to have not been playing a shot and given LBW, though he clearly was. Don't blame the technology, blame the moron behind it. Secondly, why not just do away with this stupid rule, if the ball will hit the stumps, it will hit the stumps. Period.


Best Quote
Winner - Waqar Younis
When asked the difference between Kamran Akmal and Michael Jackson, i.e. they both wear gloves for no reason, the reply was "The difference is one is dead". Brilliant, albeit not very politically correct.

Honorable Mention - Darren Sammy
Putting Graeme Swann's typical English whining in it's place, "... if there is dew, just get a towel and wipe the ball, simple".

The Sammy Swagger never made it on the field though. © Getty Images

Best Piece Of Fielding
Winner - Chris Mpofu
For a stunning throw from the boundary that crashed into the stumps and sent a comfortable Ponting on his way. Inadvertently led to a poor LCD TV feeling Punters wrath.

Honorable Mentions
Nathan McCullum - For that aforementioned catch that was wrongly denied.
Jesse Ryder - For a stunning diving catch that sent the dangerous Upul Tharanga on his way. Big man or not, he can move all right.
Jacob Oram - The catch that turned the match. Removing Kallis in the quarter final was one of the huge blows for South Africa. Notice how there are three kiwi's on this list?


Best Bowling Performance
Winner - Dale Steyn 5 wickets for 50 runs vs India
Blew away the hapless Indian lower order to bring back South Africa from what should have been a slaughtering. He is a brilliant fast bowler wasted on dead tracks.

Honorable Mentions
Tim Bresnan 5 for 48 vs India  - Similar situation to Steyn, crucially held it together to ensure that the Indian onslaught did not end up at 400.
Ravi Rampaul 5 for 51 vs India - Awesome performance for a man who was initially left out, it should have been a match winning one too.
Shahid Afridi 4 for 34 vs Sri Lanka - This performance in Sri Lanka's back yard was a towering pillar on the night, amazing how it all just disappears when it counts the most.


Best Individual Innings
Winner - Kevin O'Brien 113 vs England
Incredible stuff from the big man against the old enemy. World records aside, what made this knock special was the underdog context behind it.

Honorable Mentions
Mahela Jayawardene 103 vs India - Beautifully crafted this innings with only silken, delightful stroke-play and deserved to be a winning masterpiece.
Ross Taylor 134 vs Pakistan - As mentioned earlier, this incredible innings seemed to restore the hunger and self belief that drove New Zealand to the semi finals.
Virender Sehwag 175 Bangladesh - The warning to the world. Sehwag got the revenge he desired by bullying a capable Bangladeshi attack on their home turf.
Andrew Strauss 158 vs India - A classy, correct innings that got the world to notice England, too bad he got reduced to a bumbling mess in their quarter final exit.

Best Utility
Winner - Yuvraj Singh 
Put away all the flashy stuff and eased himself to controlled, match winning half centuries. Also had the golden arm in the tournament, putting Bhajji to shame by bowling tight, getting turn and picking up timely wickets. Even his fielding was back to his younger days (almost).

Honorable Mentions
The New Zealand Team - They are the definition of utility players. A failure with the bat or ball doesn't mean the end of their day, and when the whole machine fits together, they are only a Crowe or a Hadlee short of a champion team.
Trent Johnson - Was his usual old self, tonking useful runs, taking sharp catches and snapping up crucial wickets. Records will never show how valuable this guy is.


Best Fielding Unit
Winner - New Zealand
By a country mile. Their catching and ground fielding was absolutely peerless, and South Africa more than anyone know the reward what brilliant fielding can bring. The difference between being a crashed out quarter finalist, and a respected semi-finalist.


Best Match
Winner - England vs Ireland
*That* match again, enough has been said about it already.

Honorable Mentions
India vs England - But for the underdog status of the Irish, this would have been the match of the tournament. 
India vs South Africa - Another frantic match that ebbed and flowed more than the stock markets. A real lesson on how to stop a batting juggernaut.
South Africa vs England - The choke that got them worried.
South Africa vs New Zealand - The choke that sent them home.


Best Overall Bowler
Winner - Zaheer Khan
By a country mile. He is no more the fiery quick of 2003 or the one who got manhandled by Tamim Iqbal in 2007. He has developed a Vaas-like guile and control to his bowling, and without him, India would not have won the world cup. Make no mistake about that.

Dishonorable Mention
Afridi may have equalled the wicket tally with Zaheer, but ripping through Canada and Kenya doesn't count, thank you very much.


Best Overall Batsman
Winner - Sachin Tendulkar
This choice was surprisingly easy. Dilshan may have more runs, but look at the context of the performances. Given the collapses that followed, the centuries against England and South Africa were invaluable. His half century against Australia was of the highest order, and as ugly as his Pakistan knock was, it was the difference between 260 and 160. Much like Zaheer, his presence was a big reason why India came out victorious.

The image that will be etched in the memories of 2011. © AFP

This tournament truly was a festival of cricket, providing the full array of skills and plenty of thrilling moments. Well done to the participants, for providing a fantastic and memorable world cup, be it through mighty ability, or moments of ineptitude. Farewell also to Muralitharan, who was one match shy of the grand exit he richly deserved.

World Cup 2011 - The Dream Semi-Final Preview

With the quarter finals dusted, for a fleeting moment, all other things in cricket will be insignificant. History won't matter, the other teams won't matter, the looming grand finale won't matter. Nothing matters but this moment, the two biggest rivals in international cricket, the biggest of all grudge matches, the one that promises to be the greatest semi final clash of all time. That moment, bearing down upon us, is India vs Pakistan.

Who will be left standing? © AFP 

The Last Meeting
They last met nearly a year ago in Sri Lanka in an Asia Cup match, with Harbhajan smashing a six off the penultimate delivery to clinch a tight thriller. The second last encounter was half a year before that, with Pakistan throwing India out of the Champions Trophy thanks to a Shoaib Malik century. Curiously neither Malik or India's best batsman on the day, Rahul Dravid, are in this world cup. These two have not been playing frequently, and like caged panthers are eager to get at each other.


The Last World Cup Meeting
Believe it or it, it was eight years ago when Sachin Tendulkar tore apart an attack that read Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib, Razzaq and Afridi. That game too was after a massive gap between the teams, and it was one of the most memorable world cup thrashings anyone can remember. India went on to race to the final while a strong Pakistan outfit were sent crashing home.


The Last World Cup Meeting In India
Track back to 1996, in another spectacular match in Bangalore. India for once played as a team (did somebody say corruption?), and set Pakistan a decent total. Aamir Sohail and Saeed Anwar began carving the Indian bowling in such a brutal manner that the Chinnaswamy was rendered laughingly mute. Until this happened.

The mother of all brain explosions, and the rest as they say is history (of course, until this happened not long after).


Where Does India Stand?
India continue to deceive. Sachin Tendulkar has been saving their batting from blushes, with the likes of Sehwag and Gambhir relying on the slog-out-of-trouble, and the lower order in pure unadulterated IPL mode, barring the steady Yuvraj Singh. Zaheer meanwhile is rescuing their bowling, disguising how woefully inept Munaf, Harbhajan and most of their fielding is. Don't let the Indian commentators fool you, this is a team running on three players. Much of India's success came down to opposition failures.

Where Does Pakistan Stand?
I never thought I would call this side balanced, but they are bowling beautifully, with a varied and classy bowling attack. Notice how they actually turn the ball (take note Sanjay Manjrekar, and stop kidding yourself with Bhajji). They field adequately, but only an inch ahead of India, and the batting has been just enough, albeit nothing impressive. One must never forget though that this is a team containing Afridi, Razzaq and Umar Akmal, if even one of them has a good day, India do not have the bowlers to do anything about it. Afridi to open maybe?

The Clashes
Forget Sam Worthington, in the battlefield of cricket we have the following titanic match ups to savour:

Gul vs Tendulkar/Sehwag
How will India's big guns at the top respond to controlled and quality pace bowling? If Shoaib gets a crack at them too, it will be a great opening gambit.


Afridi vs Yuvraj, and Yuvraj vs Afridi
A unique contest, the bowler who pretends to bat versus the batsman who pretends to bowl. Who is the bigger pretender? We also have the Bollywood Superstar (BS) Award, with Afridi the hot favorite.


Kamran Akmal vs His Hands
What a crucial battle this is! Will Kamran's hands be made of cast iron? Will he rattle up the local heroes with his sharp tongue? Will we see 'The Face'?

© Getty Images

Razzaq vs Everyone
And in the background, quietly minding his own business, the Silent Assassin looms. The stage is certainly ripe for the ninja to strike.


Who Will Win?
Forget the form books. Given that this is an India-Pakistan match, each of the players will find an extra 10% from somewhere. It will be unpredictable, it will be intense, it will be turbo charged. The Pakistani PM will be there, along with the token slew of Bollywood actors, some on the field. I don't know who will win, and to be honest, does it even matter?












Forgetting Something?
Fine fine, Sri Lanka to beat New Zealand in a 2007 semi final rematch.

World Cup 2011 - On Pebbles, Chickens And More

This past week has been a real oddball one. Chokes aside, here are some memos to certain individuals.

To Mr. Haroon Lorgat
Ah Haroon Lorgat, you must be living on a cloud. After the West Indies and Bangladesh team buses got stoned, you quoted "security was not an issue" and "It was a few individuals who threw pebbles at the bus, and they were pebbles". 

I'd hate to see what your idea of boulders are. © Cricinfo.com

A good leader would calm the situation down with the usual clichéd, "we recognize the problem" and "we will take the appropriate measures". To be in complete denial is ludicrous. I am in agreement with the rightfully annoyed WI coach Otis Gibson, as our ICC chief executive, you are a bit of a goose.

To Mr. Harbhajan Singh

What are you doing in this team when Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan can get more purchase off the pitch than you can? Where is Murali Karthik, a real spinner who had the Aussies clueless a few years back?

To Mr. Trent Johnson
You are an inspiration. What you  may lack in raw talent you make up for with presence and sheer guts. It was you who took a glorious catch and biffed the winning six in 2007. It was you who got rid of Sehwag this time. Keep the Irish spirit pumping and do your thing.

Even if it is The Chicken. © Getty Images

To Mr. Michael Yardy
Take a lesson from Angelo Matthews or Steve Smith about what it means to be a true utility cricketer, or maybe watch some old Chris Harris footage. Just to give you a quick heads up, it involves being able to tie down a batsman when bowling, maybe consider actually turning the ball. It means being able to play a rearguard innings or contribute a few slogs depending on the situation. At the very least, it's being dynamite in the field and having an energetic presence. Right now you are a ghost.


To The Rain Gods
Why oh why did you pull a premature end to the Sri Lanka vs Australia game? There are only 12 'top team' games in the 42 pool matches, at least let us savor those. Wash out Kenya vs Canada instead.


To Batting Powerplays
You are causing more batting harm than good. Go away.

World Cup 2011 - The Awful Television Ads

We Indians are a flamboyant bunch, it often shows with our exuberance, over-indulgence and color. Bollywood cinema is a prime example of this, unapologetically mindless, but great fun. It does not stop there, the passion is in full flow in our advertising, some of the best commercials I have seen come from India. Some of the most abysmal too.  I thought it would be amusing to look up some of the ads for the world cup. Presented from best to worst:

Pakistani Cricket Team in Airport - Pepsi

Sanity Score - 8/10

This is quite a good one. Nice and simple without laying on the cheese.

Sachin Tendulkar

Sanity Score - 7/10
Cute. Taking hero worship a little far though.

Harbhajan Singh - Pepsi

Sanity Score - 6/10

Amusing idea, taking particular cricketing skills, in this case the doosra (aka googly, wrong'un) and giving it a bit of a twist (no pun intended). Silly but I like it.

Keven Pietersen - Pepsi

Sanity Score - 4/10

The concept is not just exclusive to the Indian players either, Pietersen showing off his 'switch hit'. Notice how both the previous and this ad featured confused New Zealanders? I'm not a fan of overseas players and dodgy hindi though.

Billy Bowden - Pepsi

Sanity Score - 2/10

Ok, this is getting stupid now.

Dhoni and Friends - Pepsi
Sanity Score - 0/10
Oh. Dear. GOD.

If thats the first time you saw that, I apologize for ruining your life.