11:52 AM : I fall for the temptation. Let's check the score on cricinfo.com. But while the page is loading (cue for cricinfo - stop those interstitial ads, they are irritating), I have a bet myself - what will the score be? I say 30 for 2; the inner me says 30 for 3. I win - it is 39 for 2.

  • I have read a few articles by noted columnists, former cricketers, some backed with data, some with hunches, some sponsored by big corporate clients. While I'm flummoxed by the Indian team's response, there are some observations that I have been trying to piece together for some time now. I'll point them out and someone can do the dirty job of putting together the analysis -
  • India's no. 1 Test ranking was a manufactured one with (multiple) series against SL, New Zealand,Bangladesh and home series against Australia, England. The only away series where India was faced with resistance was South Africa in 2010. It was not a great series for India and in spite of Steyn, Morkel, Kallis, this SA team is a well-disciplined team, not an Australia with McGrath, Warne, Ponting, Glichrist etc.
  • The period of 2008-2010 also saw a decline in most teams except for England with lot of retirements and general lowering of standards and consistency of performance (and so, results). So when India won series after series (mind it, series and not Test after Test), it looked good.
  • India came back in a few Tests - against New Zealand, against South Africa - this was similar to a Mohali Test long ago when New Zealand bowled out India on the first day for 80-odd, yet, India batted well in the second innings to force a draw. It was responsive wicket (not a hostile one); bowling was benign but incisive by Indian standards. What is my point? The comebacks seemed bigger than what they were because of the way we struggled early on. if there was steel, it should have been displayed by the lower order in the first innings itself - that's what great teams used to do in their heyday. How many times would teams get the top 4 or top 5 for 50 odd against Australia only to still stare at a total of 300+ in the early 2000's? Not just because of Gilchrist but because everyone chipped in.
  • This Indian side is one of the best ODI teams around - of all time. I'm not talking of 1 set of 11 players but a side over the last 10 years now. Forget the 2007 World Cup - it was a one-off. The ODI team has been up there right from the ICC Knockout tournament in 2000. When you play 5-10 Tests and 25-30 ODIs and your ODI team is so good, will you prefer to ride the wave in ODIs or work on weaknesses in Tests?
  • IIRC, the Test series in 2009 and 2010 were manufactured after it was pointed out to the BCCI that India was all set to lose the no. 1 Test ranking immediately after attaining it because India was not going to play many Tests in that year.
  • India has always followed this cycle of 2 years of too much cricket at home followed by 2 years of too much cricket abroad. I'm sure someone at BCCI (Srinivasan?) is thinking like a politician - "Let's ride out this series and then we are set for 2 more years of playing at home. No more Press conferences till then."
India will do well against SL and Australia in the ODI series; if they don't it will be blamed on hangover of the Test defeat; come back to India,IPL,better ratings, money keeps coming in. Anyone wants to compare this situation with the fortunes of the team managed by Capello? Would anyone other than Rooney from the English side manage to get on the bench of the Spanish or the Brazilian side? Yet, a Lampard, a Terry, a Ferdinand, a Carrick, (for God's sakes) even a Jones and an Owen are superstars that a World Cup organizing country cannot afford to not have playing till as late in the tournament as possible.

So, am I saying -
  • Stop IPL? No. To use the cliche, it was an idea whose time had come.
  • Drop the Seniors? Not at all. You do that and you'll start losing in 4 sessions.
  • Have a balanced spread of the tours ? Yes but only if you want to build a side which is good in all formats on different kinds of wickets. But would you compromise your financial targets from ODIs/T20 cricket to do that? I doubt it.
  • Have grassy wickets in India? Again, only a few spectators like an even contest between bat and ball. Match gets over in 75 overs, fewer commercial breaks, fewer ads, lesser money; no-go.

What about the game itself? I feel it is time to sunset Tests, ODIs and teams representing countries. Why? Just because India is not doing well? No.
  • The sport just doesn't have the critical mass to be called a world sport.
  • Tests take too long to be completed.
  • What it takes to have a good Test match - good wicket, technically correct players, patience, wily captains, knowledgeable crowds - are all in short supply and things are only going to get worse.
  • T-20 is more easily acceptable, understandable across countries, markets, customer segments.
  • If India doesn't do well in Tests (and I see no reason why India will do better in the next 4-5 years unless England, Australia and South Africa all lose 7-8 players each because of injuries), there is no commercial standing for Tests to continue. Indians are not cricket crazy - they are Indian-team-winning crazy.
  • Clubs all over can continue to play IPL like tournaments where players will still be able to exhibit how best to play a particular shot, a Warne can still show how a ripping leg-spinner can be bowled. The league which attracts the best talent gets the maximum revenue and thrives. The minute you involve countries, some not-so-logical things creep in - like having to play 11 Indians instead of having Chris Gayle open the batting (as he volunteered to do, against Australia in the current series).

Radical solution
Play Tests for an only-TV audience. This can be staged at your local maidan anywhere in the world. No staging costs; the players who still want it and these will be the players who really love it, play it; the match gets shown only when there is a critical mass of paying viewers. What this means is -
Test match played at Kaanta stadium in an Ordnance Factory Varangaon estate between two teams involving players like Dravid, Bangar, Ashish Chopra, Tendulkar, Ponting, Clarke. Only when there are more than 10,000 viewers who have agreed to pay $1 per day to view the match on youtube will it be streamed. The revenue goes into paying for the recording and hosting infrastructure; the players are anyways doint it for the love of it! Will it work?

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Testing embedding of Perisqope quizzes

I'm writing this while on vacation...taking time off while waiting for the cab to come in and take me to the Dharmashala cricket stadium. So the love for the game has not been lost yet but....(apologies for the rambling tone and some lack of structure to the whole post)

I have always maintained T-20 is a great format. In fact, Max Cricket (Crowe's invention) is better.
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In the next 3 days, we will start hearing about the laments of how a billion people can produce fewer than 10 Olympic medals. The outrage will last for a week; some companies/ people will (hopefully) donate some money to the Olympic Gold Quest and assume their responsibility is over. The media will move on (has it already moved on?) and we will revisit this in 2016; of course there will be the odd clamour when we will qualify in some sport, get walloped in others.
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While I couldn’t read the book, I did the next best thing – I checked out Sheena Iyengar’s TED talk on the art of choosing. I was surprised at how she drew such perceptive inferences from the experiments she had conducted. It would have been dull, drab data for her. How did she choose to ignore the dullness of the data and opt to, instead, get fascinated by the beauty of it? I was impressed.

The TED Talks present the same challenge that she talks about – information choice overload.
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Is it the rest? Is it the exercise? Is it the nice heavy breakfast? Is it peace of mind? Is it getting rid of the below-par, irritating co-workers? Is it refusing to watch the news shows? Is it the conscious attempt to stop getting into a self-righteous mode? Is it the watering of plants every morning?

These last few days I have been relatively more productive – definitely more than what I was in the last year.
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11:52 AM : I fall for the temptation. Let's check the score on cricinfo.com. But while the page is loading (cue for cricinfo - stop those interstitial ads, they are irritating), I have a bet myself - what will the score be? I say 30 for 2; the inner me says 30 for 3. I win - it is 39 for 2.

I have read a few articles by noted columnists, former cricketers, some backed with data, some with hunches, some sponsored by big corporate clients.
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I'm sure everyone who reads this blog knows about Ramanand and knows what a great guy he is. Still, I thought the increase in my fandom levels should be made public - JR has been hosting a daily question blog called Infinite Zounds.
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The next time someone tries to pitch Amway or Oriflame or any other Multi level marketing scheme to you, this is what your response should be :

This is great. I'll sign up with you. But you will have to do me a favour in return.

You must have heard that Watson, the computer built by IBM has defeated a team of Humans at Jeopardy. The age of Skynet (like how envisioned in Hollywood films like Terminator and Matrix) is not too far away.
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