The Surfer

Another is the schadenfreude some in the cricket world demonstrate towards England, which it sees as the once imperious power getting its comeuppance. This is unfair. Two wrongs do not make a right, let alone a system of governance. England is the only country to stand up to the rampant Indians on a point of principle that every other country purports to hold dear. Evidently, the rest are either dazzled or too afraid.

Kent County Cricket Club is well aware that Ryan McLaren, for all his honour, respect and commitment, will barely bowl or strike a single ball next season without thinking that he could, or should have been doing so with a Protea on his chest rather than the prancing horse of the county.

India showed the cricketing world what "brave cricket" really is. And it all started with their selection. They chose to rest their "fab four" (Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman) for the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa last year, handed the reigns to a new skipper, and returned to the sub-continent with the trophy.

With the slips vanishing quicker than the shine on the new ball, unorthodox placements became the new order over the five days. The Australians, in particular, regularly employed silly mid-off, silly-mid on, mid-on, short-mid-wicket, short square-leg, deep backward square-leg, even as their quicks steamed in. In fact, Ricky Ponting even had a sweeper out on the off side for most part, a ploy repeated by Anil Kumble as boundaries were at a premium and singles remained the source of survival.

“Actually, the new field setting takes a lot of toll on the batsman,” confesses a Team India player, on condition of anonymity. “Even though I didn’t score too many runs, I felt exhausted as I had to concentrate much more with this setting. First you had to pick the right delivery to hit, then you had to make sure the ball was placed in the right area as there weren’t many open spaces and finally, it was important to keep the ball down due to the number of catchers in front of the wicket. From a batsman’s perspective, we often tend to play shots with a set mindset of a Test field. Bangalore was different,” he says, adding that these kinds of fields were here to stay.

Being able to read the game and have a feel for it helps. Being able to anticipate play and having empathy for what the players are going through is very important to be a good match manager. You don't need to play at the highest level to be a good umpire, you just need to be a good student of the game and realise it's a players' game.

[Anil] Kumble was a member of the Indian team when Javagal Srinath was made to delay his international debut as the selectors were keen to let Kapil Dev break Richard Hadlee’s record. For three years Srinath was in the reserves. Surely, Kumble must have witnessed that turmoil of a fellow player, up-close. Would he want in-form leggie Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla to suffer the same fate?

Not that Tendulkar was thinking only about himself. The Australians were trying by all means to unsettle his perky partner, Gautam Gambhir. On several occasions Tendulkar walked down the pitch to support his beleaguered pal. Later he became engaged in lengthy discussions of unknown import with the visiting captain. He has always been an involved cricketer. That he was on edge was confirmed by his gesticulations as errant spectators wandered in front of sight screens at inconvenient moments. No distractions could be tolerated.

We need to separate politics and sport, it's unacceptable for the head of state to appoint the PCB Chairman. This ad hoc system needs to stop, we need a full time salaried head of the PCB who is selected solely on merit and not because of his connections. I mean it's not rocket science, it's the same system in place elsewhere.
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If you don't have discipline in the team then you would have the chaos that Pakistan cricket is going through right now. The reason Pakistan cricket has so many issues right now is because of their inconsistent discipline policy. If a player is performing well then he can get away with anything, he can break all of the rules without censure but if he's doing badly or on his way out then he gets punished.