Beyond the Blues

There was never a question of ‘would they’ or ‘wouldn’t they’. Mumbai Indians just had to go pass the league stage. Right from the outset, they looked a unit with a mission. Those daunting 20 points on the rank table, tell a story that perhaps unfolded a few months ago. No, I am not hinting at the season’s biggest buy Kieron Pollard. Neither am I talking about the obviously in-form Sachin Tendulkar. I am talking about the inherent smart thinking that has assured them, if nothing bigger, a place in the semi-finals.

Interestingly, the four teams that found themselves languishing at the bottom of the chart were heard saying that they didn’t play good cricket at crucial junctures which cost them a place in the final 4. But the point isn’t just that.

The IPL, in its third season, has managed to see different teams gaining and losing ground every year. So, is it only about those few crucial overs that separate a win from a loss? Well, yes and no. The fact is that most teams did precious little in the last three seasons to strengthen their sides. One might argue that they bought good players in the auctions, and that they even scouted for talent from the domestic circuit. But is that enough? Isn’t that the easiest route to find players?

IPL 2010 may well be about the Mongoose, the inexplicably mammoth fines for slow over-rates, Yuvraj Singh’s incessant form-woes, Sreesanth’s daft flare-up, and other peripherals that have the tendency to become talking points. Yet, there is something about this particular season that reassures me, there is still much cricket left.

Remember that stupendous catch David Hussey took on the boundary line to dismiss Paul Collingwood? Or the one that Doug Bollinger grasped to get rid of the dangerous Yusuf Pathan? And many more such moments of brilliance that strike when you least expect them to. Yes, I am talking about fielding, the one aspect of the game that has been beyond belief during this IPL.

Both these catches were exceptional, involving presence of mind to keep the ball in play, immense core strength to come back into the field of play after stepping out, and above all a lot of practice. While some may dismiss them as flukes, I choose to give credit to the amount of practice involved. Yes, players do practice taking such catches and several other fielding moves in this day and age. While saving runs and taking catches are important in all formats, it is at times, the deciding factor in Twenty20 where the difference between a win and loss is only a few runs.

Yuvraj Singh’s form, or the lack of it, has been the talk of the town for since the beginning of IPL 2010. The Twenty20 pros Dilshan and Jayasuriya have also already lost their places in their respective sides. And there are others like Kumar Sangakarra, and AB de Villiers who are getting a lot of flak too.

Ever wondered why more than half a dozen good players are struggling to excel in this format? Well, Twenty20 is a ruthless format. It not only magnifies your weakness but also refuses the time to rectify them. So, if you happen to walk into this format without form and confidence or if you happen to hit a rough patch in the middle of the tournament, you’re most likely doomed.

The golden rule of scoring runs is to spend time in the middle. Ideally instead of looking for runs, one should not be averse to paying a few dot balls in the beginning. Then take a few singles and twos before going for boundary shots. In a fifty-over game, you can always make up for the dot balls later but Twenty20 doesn’t give you that luxury.

Matthew Hayden allowed his Mongoose bat to run a riot against Delhi Daredevils at the Ferozshah Kotla. Whenever he hit the bat, it stayed hit. But haven’t we already seen Hayden doing exactly the same thing with a regular bat? So what is really the difference between a regular and a Mongoose bat? For starters the blade is remarkably shorter than the regular bat, in fact, 33% shorter to be precise. But it weighs exactly as much as the regular bat. The weight which is taken away from the top is redistributed in the remaining half. It bears a striking resemblance to the bat we use during fielding drills. That bat is a lot lighter than the regular bat which is perhaps one of the reasons for using it. Hitting hundreds of balls during fielding drills takes a toll on the arm and that’s why most people prefer using a smaller bat. Also, since you mostly have to hit a stationary ball, the lack of blade isn’t a concern. A competitive match doesn’t give you such luxuries.

My first look at the Mongoose bat made me believe that the bowlers would easily get through under the bat. Bowling yorkers would prove to be an easy way to get rid of the dangerous man. Perhaps, even the Delhi bowlers thought along similar lines and bowled yorkers. But Hayden had it all planned.

Obviously we didn’t take into account the length of the handle which is remarkably longer to make up for the shorter blade. Looks can be deceiving and that small-looking thing in the hands of someone as huge as Hayden deceived everyone.

While the entire nation immersed itself in a predictably swanky opening ceremony of the third edition of the IPL, another Twenty20 national championship kicked off the same day, minus the glitz, glamour and the hoopla. I’m talking about the prestigious Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy - the national Twenty20 tournament which is already bearing the brunt of being the IPL’s poor cousin.

While the first round of this tournament took place just before the start of the season, the knockouts are currently being played alongside the IPL. Even as all seems good in the IPL camp, the qualifying teams of the national Twenty20 tournament have trouble in the making. The domestic teams have to now make do with the not-so-prominent players as the regulars have flipped sides to cash in on the IPL for obvious reasons.

So we already have a situation there with the players having chosen their franchise/club over their state. Ironically though, the choice wasn’t entirely theirs. The question of them missing a few IPL games didn’t arise as states happily fielded a second-string team. Delhi is one of the worst hit with as many as 13 players from the regular playing XI missing. While this gives others the opportunity of representing the state side, it somewhat devalues the importance of both the state cap and the tournament.

For a cricket-crazy nation, there is perhaps nothing that can qualify as ‘too much cricket’. A game of cricket keeps everyone happy, right from the organisers, the media to the spectators. The players too get a fair deal of exposure with some good money flowing in anyway. No wonder then that it’s raining cricket all the way - a story best told by the current domestic calendar with over seven trophies squashed in a meager six months.

Good sense prevailed, when the BCCI decided to temporarily dump the Deodhar Trophy, owing to lack of time. The right wing then stood up to defend the honor of this prestigious tournament. ‘How could one of the oldest and the most exalted tournaments be scrapped?’ Well, it didn’t. The Deodhar Trophy is currently being rushed up in four flat days as opposed to its regular two-week long schedule.

Sample this – the IPL ends on April 25, while the ICC World Twenty20 starts five days later. This roster may have well managed to save a clash between the two events; it has unfortunately taken a toll on the domestic tournaments, the Deodhar Trophy being the worst hit. Now with only a total of nine days left between the finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the beginning of the IPL, the only way out for Deodhar was to convert a hitherto league based tournament into a knockout.

Only the God of cricket could have made a daunting 200 look so effortless. The game of numbers isn’t one for Sachin; he has gone well past that. That evening on the 25th February, Tendulkar didn’t just break an overwhelming record, he narrated cricket’s lost story. The double ton, perhaps, brought back, the passé ‘technique’ into the game. My admiration of Tendulkar’s masterclass didn’t just stop at the record, but the manner in which he pulled it off.

You would assume that a certain amount of slogging is almost mandatory to score a double century in fifty overs. But Sachin proved that it can be done by playing good cricket and knocking some skillful cricketing shots. The reason why Sachin doesn’t need to slog his way to big runs is his impeccable technique.

Ironically though, talking technique has almost become blasphemous in modern day cricket. No longer is it only about the number of runs you score, the strike-rate at which those runs are scored is equally important if not more, especially in the shorter formats. Perhaps, there is seemingly nothing wrong about thinking in terms of strike-rate because that makes for entertaining cricket. Innovation is not an aberration anymore but a norm.

A couple of years ago, Wasim Akram, when asked about Indian domestic structure, remarked - “To improve the standard of cricket, India must reduce the number of teams playing in the Ranji Trophy."

He went on to observe that India "were sacrificing quality for quantity". Well, I beg to differ with him on this. While I acknowledge that it is imperative to have a strong domestic set-up, one also needs to understand the dynamics of this country. We are a nation of a billion people with cricket as our religion. Obviously then we need a bigger platform to accommodate its students.

Wasim’s comments perhaps stem from his appreciation for the strong Australian and South African domestic models with only six teams apiece. While the set-up has proved to be a success in these countries, in India it might well filter out talent from the heap rather than identifying and nurturing it. Let’s face it, a total of 27 teams in the Ranji Trophy amounts to just about 297 playing members from a pool of thousands across the length and breadth of the country. Trimming these figures down would well mean snatching away of crucial opportunities.