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Javed Miandad against Terrorism affecting India-Pakistan Cricket!

Last week a few great Pakistan cricketers have expressed their concerns about the impact of worsening political ties between India and Pakistan affecting cricket! Zaheer Abbas, Wasim Akram and Javed Miandad were the notable voices amongst them.

Miandad, the newly appointed, Director General of PCB felt that ‘Both India and Pakistan are victims of terrorism and cricket will bridge the gap between the two nations’.

I personally feel that the series should go ahead despite sentimental reasons and terrorism. Pakistan has lost control over its terrorist and fanatic outfits and hence there’s no point in cricket getting affected due to this. For that matter, even internal politics and terrorism is found in abundance in India as well.

My only point is that – Miandad – who was infamous for his on and off-field misbehavior as a player and otherwise may not be the ideal person to talk about terrorism and good politics. A couple of years ago, Miandad’s son got married to the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s daughter and Mr. Miandad had clicked snaps with all possible criminals that caused the serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993. It feels funny when those who party with underworld dons and gang leaders talk about good side of politics and cricket!

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Test Cricket Round Up This Week & Forthcoming Series

This week witnessed a couple of one-sided test series deciders – Australia v/s New Zealand and South Africa v/s Bangladesh – and an one-sided ODI series between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

Australia got a chance to come out of their blemishes in India and won the test series against New Zealand 2-0. Even in the batsman friendly Adelaide Oval, the Kiwis could not do much due to the ‘Lee’thal bowling by the Aussies! The paceman seems to be back on track, for the time being. Australia’s bowling performance was very good overall, with Johnson doing a good job again. I particularly liked the balance that Nathan Hauritz brings to the team.

South Africa trashed a clueless Bangladesh by an innings in both test matches. South Africa’s flat pitch bullies and permanent-centurions-against-Bangladesh, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and Neil McKenzie did extremely well as usual (I count Ashwell Prince in a different league). To make things worse for Bangladeshis, their key spinner, Abdur Razzak (though he didn’t play the test series) has been banned from international cricket due to a wrong action! As I mentioned sometime ago, I still wonder whether Bangladesh deserves to play test cricket!

As for the one-dayers, Sri Lanka white washed Zimbabwe 5-0 while all matches were low scoring – some due to cut-short matches. Not a single match, even when Sri Lanka batted first, did not last for 50 overs and there was not a single score above 200!. This ODI series overall was pathetic, even for the Lankans.

Despite the huge loss in the ODI series, Zimbabwe cricket board seems to be putting a lot of weight around them as they declined Kenya’s plea for an alerady announced bilateral series citing ‘busy schedule’. That was the biggest joke ever as Zimbabwe’s cricket calendar is almost empty for the next two-three months!

ICC Test Rankings

India’s temporary rise to the second spot was short-lived as South Africa, retained that position again. New Zealand fell to a pathetic 8th spot and looks like their newly appointed coach has got a lot to do in the forth coming West Indies tour.

Upcoming Series

The most exciting thing that is awaiting test cricket lovers is not exactly the India-England Series. South Africa is touring Australia this Christmas and I am sure that we will receive a great Christmas and New Year feast this time! Though, Australia is not going through the best of their forms, I expect the Kangaroos to win the series 2-0 or 2-1.

Hail Test Cricket!

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Cricket and Politics: A Rebel ICC Cannot be Ruled Out!

Ijaz Butt, the PCB Chairman has issued a warning against the countries that are not willing to tour the sub-continent. He says that ‘No touring to those countries, if they don’t play here’.

We all can understand his sentiments as Pakistan has not hosted any international cricket teams of late due to the political turbulence there. More over, the Champions Trophy got postponed as nobody was willing to play there. To make things worse, the Indian tour to Pakistan early next year, in all probabilities will not go through due to the alleged Pakistan links in last week’s terror attack in Mumbai.

India would have liked to laugh at PCB’s plight but unfortunately they are not sitting pretty either. Since the bomb blast last week, things have changed for bad, for India as a whole and not just for BCCI. At the moment, India (like Pakistan earlier) doesn’t seem to be one of the safest places to be in and this can harm not only cricket but more importantly investments in India and India’s long term relationships with other countries. So it is not a BCCI thing alone for a change!

Possible Impacts due to the Current Situation

(1) It is almost clear that India wouldn’t tour Pakistan further due to the changing political situation and the Parliament elections due in another four months. The politicians will play their situational politics very well and these two wonderful cricket playing nations, who resumed bilateral series in 2004 after a gap of long 14 years, may go to no-talking mode again!

(2) In every probability the test series against England will not go through and hence any major teams visiting India in the next few months is pretty grim.

(3) The worst thing: People are even talking about the World Cup 2011 not happening in the sub-continent, which is a possibility! More importantly with the current political set up anyway, India and Pakistan (even Bangladesh, may be) teams may not play in each other’s land.

(4) Even if India and Pakistan play it down for the time being and are willing to negotiate, the Australian, England, New Zealand and even South African teams may not be traveling here… This ultimately can result in a split whereby the sub-continent teams can really form a rebel league and the others stay with ICC.

I only hope that common sense will prevail and people somehow delink politics and sports though it is easily said than done!

Off Topic: I personally feel that out of the four sub-continent teams, only Sri Lanka is really fighting the terrorism within where as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh politicians are playing with the sentiments of people.

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Lalit Modi lambasted by the British media

Lalit Modi shot into international fame not because he is on the board of the multi billion Modi Enterprises or Godfrey Philips but because he was the father of IPL. The IPL success has made him a celebrity that has even started appearing on TV commercials of late!

Unfortunately the shrewd businessman, who almost always think of money alone, put behind the human values and spirit of cricket when he expected the English team to continue the test part of the on going tour in India amidst terrorist attack. First of all conducting the Champions League Twenty20 in India amidst tight international schedule itself was a bad idea. Especially on the same year when we already got to see too many Twenty20 encounters in ICL, IPL and more. Our man must have been thoroughly frustrated when the terrorist attacks hit Mumbai this week not because of the number of people died but because of the money lost due to cancellation of the Champions League. As a last try, he wanted the English team to come back in less than two weeks to complete the test series.

The British media already frustrated with the way the India-England one-day series went, picked on him instantly and lambasted! I thought they are right! The BCCI and its money minded monkeys seem to be interested only in playing as many matches in India as possible, regardless of the political and security conditions. This is a good lesson to the Indian cricket authorities that the power and money that they enjoy may be short lived in case of unexpected events like this spurt out.

Tail Piece: Lalit Modi may be the father of IPL. But I thought Kapil Dev and his team are the ones who brought in the concept though they didn’t have this kind of money and franchise model to monetize and market the same the way Modi did. Of course, Kapil is not as shrewd as Mr.Modi. And in this cricket-crazy nation, probably father of IPL is bigger than father of the nation?

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Team Australia in problem solving mode

After their debacle in India hardly a couple of weeks ago, the Team Australia probably already figured what has been missing in them. The following have been the real issues for Australia.

  • Their experienced batsmen like Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting did not fire at the top of the order

  • The bowling department lacked versatality with no quality spinners around. Stuart Clark, who is almost in the McGrawth pedigree, was injured

  • The mood swings of extremely talented all rounders like Andrew Symonds is costing the team a lot and the team composition and morale suddenly changed

Australia is searching for and in need of a new combination

There is no doubt that Shane Warne or Glen McGrawth cannot be easily replaced. However, what they could do is to get the team composition right and build the team around that principle. At the same time too much of experiments can cost them a lot as well. For example, there is no explanation why Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh need to wait forever to have a fixed slot for themselves. With Matthew Hayden hopelessly out of form and getting no younger, can’t they fix the opening slot first?

The spinner slot seems to be the biggest issue for Australia at the moment. The experimentation is continuing here with even mediocre spinners getting recall – Nathan Hauritz being the latest, who is back to the squad after a break of seven years or so. I really can’t see a quality spinner coming out of the current probables – once Warne and McGill were gone, it was a big void there!

Brett Lee, who has been fighting some personal issues, is still not anywhere near his best. Fortunately, Mitchel Johnson and Stuart Clark are doing a decent job to cover that up. But outside Australia all of them may suffer.

What is going good?

One good thing that has happened to Australia, of late, is the comeback (again) boy Simon Katich‘s form. When you are in and out of the team (think of VVS) it’s very hard to come back motivated but Katich is an altogether new person now who is matured and who really want the baggy green cap. Hope Cricket Australia appreciates his effort at least now. Another good thing is the Captain-next, Michael Clarke‘s form as well as energy levels. I guess, he may get into Ponting’s shoes earlier than we all thought.

Good luck to Australia’s future plans! A few things are getting better with the ongoing home test series against New Zealand. One needs to wait and watch whether the same will be the case against quality test sides.

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Champions League Twenty20 & England – India Test Series under Terror threat

The worst has happend again and last night’s terror attack in multiple locations in Mumbai has raised concerns on whether it is safe to conduct the Champions League Twenty20 matches and continue even the ongoing England’s tour of India. Mumbai has been identified as one of the key venues for the first edition of the colorful Twenty20 event that was to start next week. The second test between India and England was also scheduled for this venue. Now in the wake of the terror attacks, I doubt if it is even safe to continue with these schedules. Moreover, the visiting teams have a real reason to stay away from their plans due to two main reasons:

1. As of the situation this morning, 6 foreign nationals were killed in the terror attack last night and a few others have been held hostages.

2. For the first time, the attacks have taken place in laxury hotels, where majority of the cricketers will be usually put up for such events .

Ponting talks about it and England board reviews situation

The Punter has pounced on the opportunity to immediately declare that it may not be safe to continue with the Champions League T20 in this situation. He even went ahead and said that probably another country should host the event now (which means that the event could be postponed). Two Australian clubs – Western Australia and Victoria – were to be part of the Twenty20 event along with two teams from India, South Africa and one team from Pakistan and England respectively.

Double standards?

Ponting (like the Pakistani board earlier this year) has every reason to shout because, time and again, when it comes to terror attacks in India, many cricket boards have shown their back to the players by putting their life at risk. When similar things happen in Pakistan or Sri Lanka, they are much stricter. Like I mentioned in the last post, money is everything and BCCI can set the rules as they are the richest! Not sure if that can work this time as the value of human life should be considered equal anywhere on the earth!

Though, terror attacks in India are mostly said to be originating from Pakistan, when it comes to a sports event, I guess the governance should be impartial. Pakistan even lost the Champions Trophy opportunity due to terror scare, political situation etc. Even if I am an Indian, I must say that, this time around, the Champions League should be postponed and give more importance to human lives than cricket and money!