Beyond the Blues

Dear all,

Wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year.

For the last couple of years we have had the privilege of being at home on New Year's Eve but it hasn't always been like this. On the contrary we have almost always been away playing for our state teams at this time of the year.

If you've been following my blog you might remember that I'd written about the horrid time we had en route to Vijaywada. Incidentally we were in the same city for New Year's Eve as well. There was a small party organised in one of the posh hotels which was obviously not the hotel we were staying in. We paid our way to the party and found that it was a family affair with comedians, poets, singers taking the stage. There was some kind of a live band playing too but it was more of a sit-down function. It wasn't the ideal way to celebrate New Year's Eve but we made do with what we had.

Dear all,

Umpires with a ball gauge in one hand inspecting the state, or to be precise the shape, of the ball was a fairly common sight during the quarter final game between Tamil Nadu and Bengal. Well, I was not at all surprised to see that happen as that's routine in first-class cricket. Once the ball goes out of shape it ceases to travel with the seam, which means without the seam getting wobbled in the air, and hence puts the bowlers at a disadvantage. And let me assure you that it happens at least twice or thrice during an innings. Hence the requests are valid and the change of ball mandatory. But that brings another question to the fore. Why do balls go out of shape so often? These are the same balls also used for the Test matches and it doesn't go out of shape so regularly in Test cricket. The make of the ball (SG) and the grade (TEST) is the same but obviously there's some difference which is not visible to the naked eye that makes the ball lose its shape. I doubt the mystery behind this phenomenon would ever be known to us and so I won't even try to solve that riddle. But I will tell you about all that transpires on the field of play.

As an opener you want to bide your time till the ball gets a little old both in terms of shine and hardness. If you survive that long, batting becomes relatively easier. But in domestic cricket the ball often goes out of shape in 15 to 20 overs and then the ball is promptly changed. Umpires select a ball from the spares, which are supposed to be in a similar condition to the one they want to change, and this is determined by the number of overs bowled. These spares balls are marked indicating the number of overs bowled with them.

Dear readers

I'm back home, and having my first home-cooked meal in the last fortnight made me realise what I had been missing out on. We have been on the road for two back-to-back matches, the first one in Rajkot, followed by another in Jaipur. Cricket has made all of us adventurous when it comes to experimenting with food, and also very accommodating about it - half of the time we don't have any choice anyway. And it goes without saying that nothing can beat home-cooked food.

If you haven't already guessed it, the topic of today's blog is the food we get while travelling to play cricket within the country. Travelling gives us an opportunity to get acquainted with the local flavours and develop a liking for their food in due course. So we look forward to visiting these places again. For example idli, dosa and rassam from the south, poha in central India, and batata vada and khakra in the west.

Dear readers

A few years ago the BCCI started giving out contracts to the top players in the country. It was a great way of providing players with some security for a year, and also rewarding them for their performances in the season gone by. The contract system works on the principle of reviewing the performances of the contracted players during the period of the contract, which is from the 1st of October to the 30th of September. On the basis of the performances in that period, either a player's contract is renewed or dropped from the list altogether. There is also the grade system that ensures the more deserving players get just rewards, and the renewal of contract could also come with promotions or demotions to other grades.

Initially, the list of contracted players was limited to the top players in the country, and it had no more than 25 players spread over three grades. But last year the BCCI went a step further, and included the players who were doing really well in the domestic circuit. It was a great gesture from the BCCI, and it rewarded a lot of players for their performances. Well, everyone can't be playing for the country at the same time, and hence getting a contract was a huge encouragement. Once you have the contract, contrary to popular belief, not only does it bring the money and security, but it also adds to the motivation to do well, knowing that you're in the loop and would be rewarded again if you do well.

Dear readers,

Day before yesterday we left our houses at 11am to catch the 1pm flight to Mumbai en route to Rajkot for the sixth round of the Ranji Trophy. As it often happens these days, both our flights got delayed somewhat and it was nearly 8pm by the time we reached our hotel rooms in Rajkot. It amazes me that it can take so much time to reach anywhere within the country by air. But we're seasoned travellers and nothing surprises us any more.

There's always a different set of memories attached with every destination, especially when we frequent these places regularly. We have come to Rajkot often in the recent past and they have brought with them a few pleasant and a few not-so-pleasant memories. I vividly remember our journey to Rajkot to play in the Irani Trophy game against Mumbai at the start of last season.

Dear readers,

As I'd mentioned in my earlier post, we have been closely following the events in Mumbai and were deeply concerned and disturbed. As of now (the time of my writing this blog), the operation against the terror attack has come to an end but I'm still glued to the news channels to know as much as I can about it.

Dear readers

We have just finished a game against Gujarat in Valsad. So far it has been a disappointing season for Delhi. We've been so close and yet so far. This match, too, followed the familiar script: we field first, the opposition score in the vicinity of 350, we get extremely close, and fail to cross the hurdle. And then they bat till the match is called off before the mandatory overs are bowled. This is the first time in my 11 years in first-class cricket that I have been involved in four consecutive games that have followed much the same pattern. I am not complaining, just contemplating.

Dear readers

Please accept my apologies for not having written anything for a while. It's just that I am struggling to keep up with writing regularly because of the grueling schedule this year. I'm glad that I didn't plan to write my book this season: I wouldn’t have been able to complete it.

Hello

Whenever an overseas team tours India we get to hear of how they spend time in getting to know the country, how they learn the different facets of a different culture, and how that helps them go back as better individuals. We also do the same when we travel overseas.

The first round of the Ranji Trophy threw up only a few outright results. Most of the games petered out into dull draws, and the teams that got the first-innings lead were happy with the outcome of their opening match.

A lot of teams choose to be more conservative in their first few games just to get their bearings right. And it reflects in the way they prepare the track for the game, their approach, and intent especially while batting. We have seen, in the ongoing India-Australia series, that the pitch plays an important role in deciding the outcome even if the bowling attacks have enough quality to take 20 wickets. The batting has been of high quality, but the pitches have played their role in the draws.

That is never the case in domestic cricket. Each side has only about a couple of genuine wicket-taking bowlers. It takes more than two such bowlers to take 20 wickets, including help from the track.