'I care far more about being entertained today'

Reader:Jose Puliampatta
AN ODE TO THE 'WILD BATTER'

See the ball,
Hit the ball,
Can't make him play the ball,
By the old book of bat & ball.
Did he have the Techniques?
Yes. Techniques in Technicolor!
Did he play for the Spectator?
Yes; for the spectator & spectacular!

Ninety Nine? One Ninety Nine? Two Ninety Nine?
Who cares? See the Ball. Hit the Ball.
Daddys, Grand Daddys, Great Grand Daddys?
Who Cares?
See the ball. Hit the ball. Get them all!

But, Father of all Daddys,
Father Time. Called the time.
Didn't see the ball clearly,
Didn't hit the ball cleanly.
He still played the same way,
And said, 'I did it my way".

Now, he rode into the sunset.
Make many a mind upset.
But, we cherish your game.
In our minds' hall of fame.

Adios, Jose

Via Facebook:

Test Cricket will be history unless the game continues to innovate. It's absolutely bonkers having a spectator sport held during hours when almost everyone is at work or school. I'm a passionate test cricket fan and delighted to be heading to Adelaide to watch the first day night test, along with, I expect, a full house for 53,000 fans. I listened to an old radio interview recently of my Grandfather, the great cricket scorer David Sherwood, talking about day/night one day games. His dismissive talk about "pyjama cricket" and the history of the game sounds just like Ricky's talk now. I love reading about cricket history and the game of yesterday. However I care far more about being entertained today.

Reader:sarangsrk

Can't get enough of writing about this guy. Have watched Cricket for almost 25 years now and I am yet to see another one like Sehwag. Not just for his pure, clean hitting but more for simple, clean thinking. He was the best hitter of his time (Gilchrist and Gayle included). To match that hitting prowess and clarity of thoughts, he had supreme confidence in his batting. No other guy could say and not sound arrogant at the same time as he did by saying before WC 2011 "I am trying to hit first ball of every match for a boundary", "We will repay Bangladesh for beating us in 2007 WC". Saying and doing that takes a lot of self-confidence. However, the biggest compliment that all Indian fans might pay to Viru is that there was a time with Sachin, Dravid, Laxman in the team when everyone thought for India to prevail in tough games, Sehwag needs to fire. That is a big compliment for someone who was thought not test material. Sometimes he did fire, other times he didn't and that's just him.

Reader:Elrond
It may be useful to understand what the people's sentiments are with respect to preventing players from a particular country playing at a location. Just as one group may say that the general public do not want to have any truck with the politics behind such a prevention, there may be a significant number of others who believe that it is good given the socio-political (and not just political) climate. Referendum anyone? While fringe players in politics may not have the authority to decide, the government has every right to do what they think is in the best interest of the society. We are talking about rights here and not necessarily what is right.

Reader:Snick_To_Backward_Point
Perfectly rational article Ed. I've lost count and the will to live as a devotee of test cricket over the past 40 years at the utter inflexibility in-game to respond to prevailing conditions.

If the weather's been bad and overs have been lost we still set rigid lunch and tea times. Slow over rates are rarely punished on-field or at least given a roasting by the umpires - oh for more umpires like Steve Bucknor! We use the previous day's light as the 'benchmark' for the next.

We are incapable of starting earlier if the situation dictates.

We watch groundsmen milling around after a short shower and wait an hour to get play started again with the sun shining and the crowd booing. And so on.

No wonder true cricket - test cricket - is withering on the vine as as the powers that be with their own selfish interests and agendas watch on.

Geoffrey Boycott is on record as saying that he fears test cricket won't be around in a generation's time. I'm inclined to agree.

Reader: harshthakor
Let us never forget that we have witnessed the greatest of test matches on bad wickets. Over prepared wickets could kill the spirit of test cricket. Infact for test cricket to mantain its suspense and fluctuation of fortunes often we need under prepared or bad wickets at times. The 1981 Ashes Leeds test which England won after following on, the 1987 Bangalore test between India and Pakistan, the 1980-81 test at Melbourne which India own by 59 runs are the best examples. These games had the climaxes of Hollywood epics with a 360 degree change in plot and totally unexpected finish. Over preparing wickets will make the game less challenging for batsman or even less testing for bowlers.

Amongst the best pitches prepared for test cricket were for the 1981-82 Frank Worrell trophy Adelaide test, the 1982-83 Indo-Pak 2nd test at Karachi, at Brisbane for 1960-61 tied test, and at Melbourne for the 1977 centenary test.

Reader: bullring

Superb column Siddharth Vaidyanathan taking us down the memory lane. Talking about the ball which got Steve Waugh and as mentioned by Saurav Ganguly, the field was set for a short delivery and Dada had instructed him to do so but he foxed the great Tugga with a yorker. Actually had the privilege to see this magnificent bowler playing for Mumbai u 19 team against Baroda, and watching the match as some players from Baroda team had played with me at school and club level. Went there to cheer them up but what I actually saw was truly outstanding from a boy named Zaheer Khan. Thanks to the then chairman of selection committee Anshuman Gaekwad to bring him to Baroda and to play ranji trophy from Baroda. From there on he never looked back. Truly a master of his class.

Reader: Brahams

Excellent article!

My memories of Zaheer in a live test match lasted perhaps, 40 minutes. India was at Lords in 2011 as number 1 in tests, and I think England was ranked number 2. Full house. Lot of buzz in the air.

England wins the toss and elects to bat. Zaheer comes steaming in. Gets Cook's wicket, lbw, I think. Then digs in short with a fast one, and gets Strauss out hooking down to fine leg.

And now comes the anticlimax - Zaheer crutches his thigh and leaves the field to my utter dismay. Little I realized that the injury was so severe that he wouldn't bowl for several months. His figures for the test : 13.3-8-18-2

India's bowling went downhill; managed to lose the first test and that too in the last hour. Promptly, they went on to lose the next 4 without much ado. And Sehwag got his first King's pair.

Had Zaheer continued to play that day, would we have seen a different India? Given the Zaheer magic in SA a year before, I would have put money on India winning that series.