India Vs Pakistan: Enemy Vs Patriotism Vs Cricket!

What happened in Pahalgam on 22nd April, 2025 is beyond words that can condemn the terrorist act enough. It rages through your blood stream, it tortures your mind and infuriates you with helpless wrath. India mirrored that rage through Operation Sindoor, striking the terrorists' hubs inside Pakistan. The Government of India mentioned time and again that the Operation was aimed at destroying terror, and that it was not a strike against the country or its people. And the Indian Army did exactly that. 

The problem is that the terrorists there have always been proven to be actively in league with the Pak army and this unholy alliance controls and directs effectively the Government policy and political strategy. An elected government technically represents the people and therefore the people of Pakistan need not necessarily think about India any differently than their government, and this means that the Indian fury cannot get limited only against the terrorists. It encompasses the whole of Pakistan as an enemy state and normal relations are never maintained between enemy countries. Normal relations definitely have to include sports which includes cricket too. 

Therefore, although people to people relations or thoughts may not emit enmity of the highest order, as two neighboring but enemy states India and Pakistan cannot maintain cricket relations either. In fact, it has been India's strategy to stop all bilateral cricket matches since 2008 after the horrific Mumbai terror attack. The situation becomes complex in regard to international tournaments where there is no choice to choose your rivals--either you play per the schedule or don't participate at all. As a major cricketing nation of the world India cannot possibly stay away from the ICC tournaments: first, the competitive international ranking and position issues; the ardent fans of both the countries who constantly rue the fact that there haven't been many matches between the celebrated archrivals; and last but the most crucial is the big money involved in these sought-after encounters that the two cricket boards and the ICC too cannot afford to miss out on.

A solution to the issue was found through the concept of neutral venues where the two rivals can meet and the millions of fans can also enjoy on their TVs/Computers/mobiles and the cricket boards can rake in the dough. However, in the ICC World Cups the host nations, whoever that may be, must have all the teams playing there; and in fact, Pakistan came to India in 2023 and played all their matches including against India while India never went to Pakistan since 2008 which is due more to the security concerns there than the enmity between the two countries. Thanks to the same concerns the ICC had to shift Ind-Pak matches in the Champions Trophy-2025 to neutral venues even as the host nation Pakistan fretted and fumed. Our point here is that there'd always been a way out to hold the encounters between the archrivals. 

The Pahalgam carnage changed all that. Fury gave rise to a sense of poignant and almost a jingoistic patriotism that shows zero tolerance to any sort of relations with Pakistan including cricket, seemingly riding over their own cricket fandom. The patriotism got reflected in a cricket league recently where the Indian cricketers refused to play with the Pak players. 

And yet, the cash-powered Indian cricket board, BCCI, decided to go ahead with the India-Pakistan matches in the upcoming Asia Cup-2025 with the host nation India judiciously selecting UAE for the tournament. Accordingly, the media has taken up their usual practice of hyping up the matches with spicy promos and all that. In recent years we often came across ads/headlines describing Ind-Pak matches as 'War' or even cricket 'World War'. But at this delicate juncture the Indian fans are not at all reacting to this kindly or with spirit.

Opposition against the archrivals' matches has been rising to a crescendo among the public in India: the BCCI is being condemned and shamed; divisions being created across cricketers & veterans; and the Indian fans threatening to boycott the whole tournament. 

It is often felt that politics and sports should never be mixed up. However, as we argued earlier, the feelings in India are far from being any part of their country's politics. It's the hurt and the patriotic fervor that's been driving them to vehemently shun what they like most under tolerably normal circumstances. So, we feel the sentiments of the people should be respected, and the BCCI must act accordingly, looking away from the 'big-money' angle for once or the Indian Government must come into the act forcing the autonomous board to comply. We also hope Pakistan sees sense in moving away from terror permanently, thus paving the way for normal relations in the near future. 

And in case, the Asia Cup 2025 does unfold as scheduled, it'd be immensely interesting to observe if the patriotic fans do finally manage to go ahead with their boycott threat or fall prey to the high-voltage 'war' of cricket. As if the Trump Tariff madness were not enough! 

Does Sourav Ganguly Need A Rehabilitation Package?

It is a historical fact that cricketers from the Eastern and the North Eastern regions of the country rarely make it as big as Sourav Ganguly and get to represent Team India at the international level. We’re yet to have a cricketer from the states of North East India who’s made it to Team India. Therefore, when some player achieves this feat people of that particular state or region get ecstatic and their euphoria normally gets translated into a range of sentiments and emotions—positive most of the times, but can be darker at moments of adversity that, according to their perceptions, seem to affect their loved cricketer. I remember quite a few instances while I had been to Kolkata and happened to listen to the radio commentary of India’s test or one-day matches out on the streets. Invariably a person would come up to me and ask what the score was. I would reply India was batting and the score was this or that. On almost a reflex emotion the person would want to know, “Is Ganguly still batting?” If informed that Ganguly was out with a poor score s/he would grimace bitterly. Well, emotions or sentiments are produced among the most powerful people of the concerned state or region too, with the exception that most of such people of the political orientation would use those to score brownie points for their party or for self.

 

Now, Sourav Ganguly, one of the finest opening batsmen of world cricket and arguably the very first genuinely aggressive India captain, remains a living legend of Indian cricket irrespective of what the BCCI or anybody has done to him. What happened exactly? The BCCI had ‘denied’ him a second term as President of the Board. Why use ‘deny’? He had been the first cricketer to be appointed or elected as the BCCI President for a full three-year term and we all hailed his appointment as the most welcome step as far as the game of cricket was concerned. BCCI being the richest cricket box office of the world that jingles constantly politics had been a part and parcel of its elections with political bigwigs always craving positions therein and to have their followers in the important posts. In its eventful and often turbulent history over the decades the BCCI had never had a President for consecutive two terms. Therefore, it should be gracefully accepted by all that to be able to serve the BCCI for full three years is more than enough honor for any individual of any level of celebrity.

 

Did Ganguly deserve a second term on merit by way of his outstanding achievements in the preceding three years? There’s not enough clinching evidence here. Of course, he had taken a lot initiatives in promoting the domestic cricket arena and started the first ever day-n-night Pink Tests in India in 2019; he’d brought in legendary veterans, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, into active cricket roles; and he’d clinched the never-before business deal for the IPL recently. On the dubious side, if we can call it so, the huge Virat-captaincy controversy could’ve been handled much better, and in our view, he allowed the endless policy of experimentation in Team India cum mindless changes in the Indian batting order go on under the very nose of Rahul Dravid who was appointed Team India coach by him only. The pandemic did prove to be a big obstacle for Sourav no doubt, but the IPL promotion almost overshadowing international cricket that has been always the policy of the BCCI went on unhindered though and Ganguly just fell or had to fall in line.

 

As per media reports Sourav Ganguly did expect a second term and on being not given he looked irritated and discontented. However, it’d be puerile to think that Ganguly was not aware of the underbelly of politics in the BCCI elections, particularly in view of the fact that his own appointment in 2019 was a last-minute decision, and if it was not so he should’ve been proactive enough to fulfill the desires of the powers-that-be, particularly in the arena of West Bengal politics. Apparently, he lost the BCCI votes, but won the conscience vote which should’ve made him happy. Besides, he was offered the Chairman post of the IPL that he turned down as a demotion, again justifying his principles.  

 

As a natural outcome of the region-specific sentiments we mentioned earlier the ruling party of West Bengal, Trinamool Congress (TMC), has been raising a hue and cry over the underplay of politics in ‘denying’ Ganguly a second term. Now in recent days, TMC head and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee had appealed to none other than the Prime Minister of India to consider Ganguly for the post of the Chairman of the ICC which was also reportedly denied to Ganguly by the Board. This is hardly better than begging for alms and I think it’s pathetic considering the stature of this brilliant and upright ex-cricketer. If you ask for alms you should do so for scores of ex-sportspersons who are languishing across nooks and corners of the whole country and are in extreme penury due to the lack of means to earn a living. And anyway, what’s so sacrosanct about the ICC Chairman’s post because everybody knows that it’s the BCCI who calls the shots in international cricket nowadays?

 

As we mentioned earlier Sourav Ganguly remains a living legend of Indian cricket and there’s absolutely no dearth of options for him in what to do next. In fact, days after the ‘denial’ Ganguly said in Kolkata that he’d been lucky to have served cricket admins in West Bengal and in India, and that such roles could not go on for eternity. It was reported recently that he was considering contesting the elections of Cricket Board of Bengal (CAB) again. Over the years Sourav Ganguly has been actively engaged in every possible sphere of activity in West Bengal or in India, both commercial and otherwise, and it’d be only matter of time before he decides what best to do next. Meanwhile, we must welcome the appointment of Roger Binny, another genuine cricketing gem and part of the 1983 World Cup winning Team India squad, as the President of the BCCI for the next three years and wish him all the luck for good work irrespective of the political pulls and triggers that just cannot be wished away.

T20 Cricket: Why Should Team India Need Batsmen?

Well, as far as the three batting stalwarts of Indian Cricket—Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul—are concerned they’re needed all the time irrespective of the relentless experimentation process with promising youngsters and whatever frame of mind or form they’ve been in recently. They can come anytime anywhere and for all key white-ball world tournaments they are a must, and they’re always justified in displacing batsmen like Deepak Hooda, Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan and even seasoned campaigners like Shreyas Iyer and Shikhar Dhawan. However, it stops just at that point. After they do or don’t do their bit in their batting the all-rounders take over. No doubt, all-rounders like Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya have been doing great in recent times. But putting in them all the responsibility to bowl, to bat and to win the matches cannot be a long-term strategy. Besides, as has been witnessed in recent months, the in-form and specialized batsmen like Suryakumar Yadav and Dinesh Karthik are demoted down the order to facilitate the all-rounders and the hapless Karthik is even asked to bat after Axar Patel if that all-rounder figures in any of the Team India franchises.

 

Again beyond doubt, the new ‘batting’ order has been delivering in terms of wins. In the second match of the Asia Cup-2022 hosted by Sri Lanka in UAE against the archrivals Pakistan Team India Rohit Franchise managed to win in the last over thanks mainly to the all-rounders, Jadeja and Pandya. But as we’ve said this cannot be long-term strategy, because the presence of Shaheen Afridi in the Pakistan team could’ve altered the course of the game and in that eventuality the demoted batsmen couldn’t have offered suitable resistance to win the game. This is very obvious that putting bowling all-rounders ahead of the established batsmen would inevitably affect their confidence and performance adversely. On the Australian pitches in the upcoming ICC World Cup T20-2022 this strategy is fraught with the gravest of dangers, if the previous T20 World Cup in UAE is any indication. The ICC has been doing everything to help the international teams prepare well for the event including that of converting the format of the Asia Cup-2022 into T20. But unfortunately, Team India with all its varied franchises, all-rounders and experiments is not able to reap the benefits in the desirable way.

 

Now to Dinesh Karthik of whose peculiar position in the team we’d mentioned in an earlier post too. It’s being said that in that crunch match against Pakistan he was preferred over the inimitable Rishabh Pant due to his ‘experience’. If that is so, then his ‘experience’ as a batsman who can dramatically change the course of a game with his furious shots must have weighed more than his ‘experience’ as a wicketkeeper. And if that is so, then why he was sent after all the bowling all-rounders to face just five balls when India needed seven runs of that. But for Pandya’s six in the fourth ball of the last over the match could’ve ended in any direction. The Indian bowlers did a great job to get the Pakistan side all out to a total less than 150 and with Team India’s batting strength it should’ve been an easy chase. But for the ‘superseding’ experimentation you know…!  Anyway, a lot has to be been seen yet in this tournament. An upbeat Afghanistan routed a crisis-laden Sri Lanka in the first match of the tournament and has emerged as a strong contender for the Super-4 stage from Group-A with Bangladesh being the third team. India is set to face Hong Kong next before proceeding to the Super-4 and we can expect one more encounter of the rarest variety, India Vs Pakistan, at that stage, and a possible third one if both teams make it to the Final.

IPL Looming over India’s International Cricket?

No doubt, we cannot question the fundamental rights of people, particularly the ebullient young generation, of loving short and sweet but highly entertaining cricket games like movies. Add to it the digital revolution taking place all over the world as well as in India, even penetrating the rural areas thanks to the initiatives of the government. Now everyone, young or older, wants to enjoy whatever they love on their mobiles or tabs or laptops from wherever they happen to be. For what do you think the streaming platforms are becoming so popular? The digital experience is always unique, as it is very personal, independent and not location-dependent as we’ve already mentioned. In such a scenario what the Indian Premiere League (IPL) has achieved in its 3-day e-auction for TV and Digital broadcasting rights is mindboggling indeed, but not entirely unexpected. The four packages of media rights, A, B, C and D, fetched the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) a record-breaking figure of $6.2 Billion or INR 48, 390 Crore for TV rights, Digital rights and Digital rights on zonal basis across the globe for the IPL seasons during 2023-2027 with around 410 matches to be played. It means an incredible $13.4 Million cost for the broadcasters or BCCI revenue per IPL match.

 

These eye-popping figures are not only several times higher than all of the previous IPL media rights auctions, but these figures mean that the IPL is now only second to the US  National Football League (NFL) in terms of revenues per match. NFL is the highest revenue-grossing sports brand with around $17 Million per game, and now the IPL has become the second highest sports brand in the world, beating the MLB (Major League Baseball) and the EPL (English Premiere League) with $11 million each per game respectively.

 

The BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and other office-bearers, though perhaps a little apologetic as the IPL has always been called a money-spinning glamour tournament, have hailed this as the inevitable outcome of the modern age and more importantly that it’s not just for earning money, but to improve the cricket infra in the country, discovering more and more talents and also a women’s IPL tournament on the anvil from 2023 onward. Well, it’s true that such kind of money could be used very productively indeed, but the ‘commerce’ part of cricket has come into the IPL more obtusely now, and it’s already manifested the effects or it’d go on doing now like a dictator in international cricket.   

 

Let’s just take a look at the T20I Series between India and South Africa going on at the moment which is supposed to an official ICC bilateral series, more important in view of the upcoming ICC CricketT20 World Cup later this year. Quite a few of the South African stalwarts have gained immensely from the IPL-2022 and have put in their efforts in the bilateral series, winning the first two matches hands down. Not to take away the due credit we have to look at the Team India: it’s not even a second-string national team with a stand-in on a stand-in skipper and most of the other players being rookies, giving the team an IPL franchise appearance rather than that of a national team; with most of the Indian stalwarts who’ve also gained a lot from the same tournament are either being rested or injured. With the commerce-crazy Indian cricket the difference between ‘rested’ and ‘injured’ is always highly deceptive.

 

Now, the BCCI is set to increase the total matches to be played in an IPL season gradually over the next five years, 10 franchises being there, you know. Therefore, one season could take around two and half months instead of two at present, and combining this with the ‘must-rest’ star cricketers all international cricket matches are going to feature only IPL rookies and winning an international series thus could be reduced to a secondary consideration. With the richest cricket Board of the world getting richer still the BCCI can easily convince the ICC to include the IPL in their annual official cricket calendar.  Coming back to the current series, even by IPL standards Hardik Pandya should’ve been appointed the stand-in captain as he was spectacular in the IPL-2022, becoming a captain for the first time and leading a newbie franchise to a huge title win. But Rishabh Pant is the crux of that inevitable ‘commerce’ and he cannot be ignored at any cost in any format of the game.

 

However, the justification for a second or third string team against South Africa is of ‘resting’ the key players for the leftover test match against England in Edgbaston, staring 1^st July 2022. And of course, Pandya is appointed to lead India against Ireland for T20I games. In the third match played on 14^thJune the Indian bowlers somehow overhauled themselves to the required line and length to beat South Africa by 48 runs to keep India alive in the 5-match series, with South Africa leading 2-1 and the next match to be played tomorrow.

 

Well, I’m only expressing a fear that international cricket for India could just become formal experimental exercises and the great brand of the IPL is set to be looming over everything there’s to be concerned about international cricket. I was amazed to read a news report somewhere that in the India-SA series India is actually not looking to win it, but only trying to test its bench strength in terms of, surely, the IPL rookies. We’d seen many times earlier how this kind of endless ‘experiments’ spelled India’s doom in ICC tournaments. Therefore, IPL would indeed find more and more talented players making many of them richer too; but it’s doubtful if it’s going to make the glorious game of cricket richer in terms of not money, but in terms of glory and pride.

IPL-2022: Mumbai Creates IPL History Of The Wrong Kind!

Mumbai Indians (MI) becomes the first ever franchise in Indian Premiere League (IPL) since its first edition in 2008 to have lost eight games on the trot at any stage of the tournament. After losing a last-ball cliffhanger against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) that MI should’ve won the franchise succumbed to its 8^thloss against the newbie Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) last night at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. The appalling factor about the match was the total listlessness and the utter lack of a will to win on the part of MI. This reflects very badly on its captain and India captain Rohit Sharma that he should fail to regroup his eleven after loss after loss and after loss…! Ironically, as we said in our earlier pieces, all its matches have been played on its ‘home’ grounds and the performances have angered the fans and also cricket lovers, righteously.

 

Well, the IPL has always been more of a business extravaganza than cricket that does still allow us to have glimpses of excellent cricket and fierce competitive spirit as the tournament unfolds every year. Therefore, every participating team has to give a fight in every game while given the fact that victories and defeats are part of the game, and thus justifying the ‘business’ part of their owners and the ‘cricket’ part for the spectators. MI has failed on both these counts, miserably. Rohit has blamed his batsmen in the middle order calling their shots ‘irresponsible’. However, throughout the matches we had seen the team’s overdependence on the middle order in terms of Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma while the top order including the captain and the lower middle order including Pollard prominently failed to deliverer consistently. Not to speak of the dropped catches and the spineless bowling.

 

At least in this crucial match Rohit, after winning the toss, should’ve shown his win-resolve by opting to bat first on a pitch that he himself called batting-friendly and try to build up a mammoth total putting the combined might of his team. But no, he had decided to follow the ‘traditions’ as religiously as possible. It is now futile to go on speculating the chances of MI to make to the play-offs, because they are virtually or practically or realistically are indeed thrown out of IPL-2022. Again, why at all to repeat the fact that the same franchise has registered the maximum number of 5 Championship wins in IPL history.

 

On the other hand, the LSG captain KL Rahul has been on a roll proving to be a nemesis for MI hitting back-to-back centuries (interestingly, 103 not out both times) and becomes the first IPL batsman to score three tons against a single opponent. He has surpassed Virat Kohli as the fastest IPL batsman to score 6000 runs in 179 matches, and in terms of total tons scored in IPL history by a batsman he, with a total of 4 tons, only has Chris Gayle (6) and Virat Kohli (5) ahead while equaling the records of Shane Watson and David Warner with 4 each. In IPL-2022 Jos Buttler (RR) has so far scored the maximum number of 3 tons, closing in on Kohli who has scored the maximum of 4 in one IPL season, followed by Rahul’s two. Despite Rahul’s century last night LSG has managed to set only a moderate target of 169 runs for MI, but his bowlers, prominently the three spinners capable of suffocating the batsmen, have strongly defended the total and won by a huge margin of 36 runs.

 

As for Saturday’s double-header the two matches were studies in contrast. The first match between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) was an extremely one-sided affair with the fiery bursts of pacers Marco Jansen and T Natarajan, capturing 3 scalps each, skittled out RCB for just 68, one of the ten lowest totals of IPL by any team. SRH won the match in just 8 overs and by 9 wickets, thus registering their 5^th win on the trot under the able leadership of Kane Williamson. SRH now occupies the second position in the points table with 10 points and a healthy net run-rate of +0.69 and 7 games still to go.

 

In the second match on Saturday Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), chasing a modest target of 157 runs set by Gujarat Titans (GT), faltered badly with top and middle order batting collapse. Of course, the unpredictable Andrew Russel did last till the last over when the team needed 18 runs to win. Russel hit the first ball to a huge six reducing the required runs to 12 in 5 ball, a real chance to seal the match; however, in the next ball he got out thanks to an outstanding catch by Logie Ferguson; and the match was over as GT won by 8 runs. 

In another thriller on 22^nd April, Rajasthan Royals (RR), put into bat by Delhi Capital (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant, raced royally to a mammoth target of 223 runs losing only two wickets and the 3^rd century by Buttler of 116 glorious runs in 65 balls. Although in fits and starts the DC has indeed managed to turn the match into a thriller by putting up 207 runs in 20 over thanks to quick cameos by Pant and Lalit Yadav. But at the end the effective pace of Prasidh Krishna and spin bowling of R Ashwin and Yazuvendra Chahal helped their team capture 8 wickets and win by 15 runs.

 

The most exciting newbie franchise GT sits pretty on the top with 12 points winning 6 out of 7 matches so far. Captain Hardik Pandya is leading well and shining effectively with the bat almost every time. We must mention here their hyperactive coach and former India pacer Ashish Nehra who rather reminds us of a typical football coach, coming to the boundary line again and again and giving emotive instructions. His efforts seem to be paying off for his team. As for the other positions Rajasthan, Lucknow and Bangalore, in respective order, are locked with 10 points each while Delhi, Kolkata and Punjab, in the 6^th to 8^thspots, are locked with 6 points each, KKR, after a good start, has been doing badly losing more often in recent days having their non-performers to blame only. The stakes seem to very high for DC, KKR and PBKS to make it to the play-offs at the moment.

 

In the meantime, the BCCI has announced that the Qualifier-1 and the Eliminator will be played at the Eden Gardens Kolkata on 24^th and 25^th May respectively while the Qualifier-2 and the Final are to be played in the Narendra Modi stadium Ahmedabad on 27^th and 29^th May respectively. Good news for the cricket lovers is that in all these play-off games and the Final full-capacity crowds will be allowed.

(Note: In our IPL-2022 Reports the photos are being utilized from the IPL Official Website )

South Africa Clean Up A Hapless India 3-0 To Win ODI Series Overcoming A Chahar Charge!

South Africa beat India by just 4 runs in the third and final one-day international (ODI) at Newlands in Cape Town today that went down the wire thanks to at least one Indian batsman fighting for a win, clean sweeping the 3-match ODI Series 3-0, dishing out to India its fifth consecutive defeat in this South Africa tour including the two Tests and three ODIs. Led this time by wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock with a brilliant century (124) building a 144-run partnership with Dussen (52) South Africa put up an imposing total of 287 (exactly the total put up by India in the second ODI that SA chased easily) despite India’s change of strategy to bowl first after KL Rahul won the toss for the second time. For a change the Indian bowlers got the Proteas all out in the penultimate ball this time thanks mainly to Prasidh Krishna's 3 wickets; however, the hosts did overcome a mini collapse in the middle to put up a total that finally proved to be enough. In light of the fast-paced track the hosts brought in Pretorius replacing spinner Shamsi.  

 

For India opener Shikhar Dhawan (61) who was selected after a long ambiguous break gave his team a good start again and built up a 98-run partnership with Virat Kohli (65) , but the India batting failed again as has been consistent throughout the tour. However, Deepak Chahar who was given a place in the final eleven only in the last encounter had different idea. He attacked all SA bowlers all around the park and brought India to a winning position at 278/7, needing just 10 runs in 18 balls. Tragically for his great innings of 54 runs in just 34 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes Deepak got an adrenaline charge trying to hit a six and got out at that stage. His frustration sitting back at the pavilion was really heartbreaking. South Africa bowlers never gave up and kept on taking wickets till the end, Ngidi and Phehlukwayo taking 3 each, Pretorius 2 and Magala and Maharaj 1 wicket each. After the match skipper Bavuma was humble enough to say that a sense of complacency must have come into the winning team for this near loss.

 

In the first ODI in Paarl opting to bat first the Proteas put up a huge but attainable total of 296 thanks to two great centuries by skipper Temba Bavuma (110) and Rassie van der Dussen (129 not out) building a 204-run partnership between them and India batsmen faltered in the chase. The second ODI at the same venue India batsmen faltered again opting to bat first managing 287 runs when they looked set to cross the 300 mark and the South Africa batsmen made mockery of the India bowlers winning by 7 wickets. While there were 3 SA centuries and many partnerships up to 204 run India do not have a single century and not a single 100-run partnership.

 

The greatest irony of the near-destroyed Team India has been the consistent failure of their famed spinners on the rather slow pitch of Paarl whereas the SA spinning trio of Keshav Maharaj, Shamsi and Markram restricted India effectively claiming 4 wickets between them on each occasion. The inclusion of the out-of-form Yazuvendra Chahal was an absolute disaster while Ashwin could not go beyond a solitary wicket. With nothing to lose in the third ODI India tried to make amends and more irony: they dropped Ashwin instead of Chahal, and included Jayant Yadav who too failed to impress.

 

They also brought in Deepak Chahar and Prasidh Krishna replacing Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur, and a clueless Venkatesh Iyer by Suryakumar Yadav. Why Yadav was not preferred in the first two ODIs and why a rusty Kumar was played remain mysteries which is natural only to a team playing without a soul. Besides, why this persistent Pant-obsession that seems to run through the bloodstream of the BCCI sending him ahead of Shreyas Iyer and even before Yadav in this match. A crunch-hitter like Pant had better be used as a finisher like MS Dhoni did.

 

This kind of all-round failure in all the departments of the game has not been seen often since the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni and of course, Virat Kohli. Even in losing matches Team India used to show a great fightback spirit. Whatever be the reasons, the cricket board killing its own team or Virat totally demoralized by the sack or the absence of Rohit, Jadeja and Pandya or Rahul not having the ability to win, a national teal cannot afford to play so tamely in all the matches in a format where India’s authority has been huge over the years. Batting collapses of the visitors have been displayed throughout the Test and the ODI Series; but in the ODI series things were further confounded by India bowlers neither able to restrict the hosts or to defend a fairly good total. Talking of the bench strength is futile as long as there is proper selection or batting line-up. The head coach Rahul Dravid must do something immediately to prevent his team’s downhill journey before it is too late.

 

The India Tour of South Africa-2021-22 finally concludes today which had a rollicking start on the Boxing Day Test in Centurion, but after that had a prolonged and agonizing end as far as Indian cricket lovers are concerned, the only thing to remember is the Chahar innings today. It’s not about losing matches, win and loss being the part of any game; it’s about giving a tough fight for every contest they play for the nation. Abject surrender is not what Team India has been known for.

Indian Cricket: Who Would Be Or Ought To Be The Test Captain?

The sudden stepping down, somewhat inevitable, of Virat Kohli from test captaincy has started a raging speculation in India about who would be or ought to be the new Test captain. Earlier in the year 2021 we had suggested a split-captaincy regime, particularly after the stand-in Test captain Ajinkya Rahane led India to an incredible Series victory over Australia in Australia overcoming the 36-all out syndrome and the departure of Virat for home. Rahane had been the test vice-captain for quite some time and therefore, there should’ve been no hassles to make him the regular captain, relieving Kohli the burden of captaining all three formats. In hindsight, we can say that had that decision been taken Kohli would’ve continued to be the white-ball captain thus the confrontations and ego-plays between BCCI and Kohli could’ve been avoided. However, that was not done, and during the last one year Rahane has been in very poor form and perhaps he had played the last innings of his test career three days back in Cape Town. So, Rahane is out of any contention for test captaincy. For similar reasons, Cheteshwar Pujara cannot be considered either.

 

KL Rahul has been an ideal test player, but thanks to reasons unknown he was mostly left out of the test playing eleven except for the latest South Africa series. In this series he captained the second test in Johannesburg without much to be noticed about his leadership and that is the only experience of test captaincy for him. Although he has been captaining an IPL franchise, this cannot be taken as a justification to appoint him as a national test captain. Instead, he should always be in the test playing eleven as a no.3 batsman rather than trying out all means to play him as an opener. He is rock solid, dependable and a fluent batsman at no.3 positiion which is applicable to all three formats.

 

Cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar has strongly favored batsman-wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant for the post while talking to a private news channel. But we feel that at 24, Pant is too young and too inexperienced to take charge of a very important position. Again, captaining an IPL franchise is not justification enough for the appointment. He is also a headstrong and an impulsive cricketer often going for very adventurous shots, be it tests or the shorter formats, and making hay only on his day. Further, in the just-concluded Test Series against South Africa his scores had been indifferent but for a 100 in the last innings of the tour, that too for a losing cause. Rishabh first has to cement his place in the test team with dependable and consistent batting. If youngsters are to be considered for a long-term plan then Shreyas Iyer would be a better option, because he is almost sure to make it to the test team after the consistent batting failures displayed by the older batsmen in South Arica. However, in all such cases of experimenting with youngsters they have first to be groomed under an experienced skipper like Virat had gained so much from MS Dhoni.

 

There is another option of considering a bowler for the job. In this scenario the name of Ravichandran Ashwin comes to the fore, because he is very experienced and successful, possibly the best India spinner at the moment, both at home and away, and very handy too as a batsman with two centuries. In fact, Virat Kohli came under a lot of criticism for leaving him out of the playing eleven in most matches in the last two years, particularly in Tests. It’s been a long time since a bowler was given the captain’s job in Indian cricket.

 

Therefore, at least for the time being, the natural choice seems to be Rohit Sharma who is already the regular white-ball captain and would definitely lead Team India into the ICC Men’s World Cup-2023 to be played at home during October-November. Apart from the emerging fact that Rohit too has become too big a superstar for the comfort of the BCCI and has often been in and out of the team due to injuries or ‘personal reasons’ which makes it rather tricky to give him the charge to lead in all three formats, he continues to be the ideal choice at least till 2023. During this time youngsters like Rishabh or Shreyas and also the regular vice-captain KL Rahul can be groomed for the job in the long term. Whatever be the decision it ought to serve Indian cricket in the best possible interests for its future in international cricket. All is not well in Team India at the moment, fans like it or not.  

And Then Virat Kohli Quits As Test Captain: Climax Of The Split-Captaincy Saga?

It was not entirely unexpected even though millions of his fans are just thunderstruck today by his sudden announcement to step down from Test captaincy, just the day after losing the Cape Town Test; because what had been happening in the last few months over the split-captaincy controversy definitely left its mark on the mind of the most successful captain of Indian Test cricket, Virat Kohli, with 40 Test victories out of 68 tests, including both home and away ones, under his leadership during in the last seven years. However, a 1-2 series loss to South Africa is not such a huge tragedy that should make the captain take the responsibility and step down. There are other factors leading to his decision apart from the split-captaincy issue to which we’ll come a bit later:

·       Virat has not been amongst the runs in the last two years without being able to score a single century, and his batting abilities were being questioned repeatedly.

·       Virat not being able to win the World Test Championship Final against New Zealand in England.

·       Virat suddenly announcing his decision to quit as the T20 captain after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 when the important tournament was nearly two months away. This decision came as a shocker to all including the cricket board, and many experts commented that this decision should ideally have come after the tournament as it leaves a negative impression on the team facing a tough international challenge.

·       India’s forgettable performance in that World Cup with some very obvious tactical errors by Virat in terms of selection of players and the batting line-up.

·       Personal issues coming up again and again making him leave the Australia Series midway and then sitting out of the second test against South Africa.

·       Virat’s suggestion in his pre-departure press conference that Sourav Ganguly, the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was probably lying.

·       Lastly, the truly heart-breaking loss to South Africa when everybody was expecting India to win easily enough after going 1-0 up and that the failure was entirely due to batting of which Virat is the mainstay.

 

Now to the split-captaincy controversy. On December 9, 2021 the BCCI Selectors announced the squads for the India Tour South Africa, naming Rohit Sharma as the regular white-ball captain that means both for ODI and T20 matches while retaining Kohli as the Test captain. This came as a shock to the most successful India captain as he made it clear that he was available for ODI captaincy while announcing his decision to quit T20 captaincy. Later, he announced that he would not be playing the ODI Series due to ‘personal reasons’ to which the BCCI countered that Kohli had not applied for leave during that period. The conflict between BCCI and Virat Kohli was just growing up then.

 

Finally, at his press conference on 15^th December, 2021 before leaving for South Africa the next day, Virat Kohli dropped a bombshell about Ganguly that we mentioned above. However, he confirmed that he would be playing in the ODI Series even as he clearly expressed his hurt on being informed about the sacking just one hour before the announcement. The BCCI President kept his silence over the ‘lie’ controversy just saying that the matter would be sorted out in due course. That the BCCI had been handling the delicate issue rather insensitively became clear when the Chief Selector chose the date of 1^st January 2022 to react to Virat’s hurt by saying that the decision in regard to one white-ball captain had been unanimous, just after India’s glorious Centurion victory. This must have aggravated Virat’s feelings, perhaps leading to his opting out of the crucial second Test in Johannesburg.

 

Having said all that it is an unfortunate fact that in India any influential person or group gradually becomes a power centre and in case of Virat it is basically a conflict between two power circles—the BCCI or Ganguly Vs Kohli. We had seen it in the case of MS Dhoni too when his stupendous success as captain made him almost a dictator getting whatever he wanted. The same thing happened in case of Virat too; combined with the then coach Ravi Shastri he got everything done as per his wish, even getting rid of the newly appointed head coach Anil Kumble just because he did not prefer him. After the Supreme Court of India brought the richest cricket board of the world to its knees in 2014 following the IPL spot-fixing scandal, the BCCI under Sourav Ganguly has been trying to rebuild its supremacy—not allowing any player to become too big as had always been the case in the past decades. Only Indian cricket suffered, and in the present scenario there is not concrete transition plan for future in appointing a long-term Test captain. Perhaps, as per Ganguly’s ‘sorting out in due course’ would’ve amounted to sacking Virat as Test captain on the team’s arrival back home, and in this regard Virat must have preempted the inevitable.

 

Virat Kohli has been a terrific player of all times and such happenings should not be allowed to impact his batting as he has still several years to play, and it is sure that he’d soon be amongst the runs once rid of all captaincy hassles. The two living legends, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, were leading the team only briefly, and that had no impact on their game. Or even Kapil Dev, the incredible winner of the 1983 World Cup. Kohli has all the time in his hands to go past the legends or join ranks with them. We wish him all the luck.

India Vs South Africa 2nd Test: Virat-Less India Totter In Johannesburg!

 

It came as shocker just before the start of the 2^nd Test between India and South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg that India captain Viral Kohli was not playing due to back pain and that KL Rahul would lead India as the stand-in test captain for the first time. Rahul won the toss and confirmed the news about Virat and that Hanuma Vihari was the replacement. Only a day back head coach Rahul Dravid lauded Virat’s performances ‘despite the noise’ and that the team would keep up the intensity to win. Something was just not right simply due to the reason as to why should a leading team lose its intensity, considering the fact that India had never lost at this venue before and registered two of the three victories over the Proteas so far here. Whatever be the actual reasons for whatever is happening in the dressing rooms it is bad news for Indian cricket. Out-of-form Pujara gets another chance and Vihari gets a berth in place of the captain himself. India elected to bat and what followed was a near collapse by the Indian batsmen.

 

India were off to a relatively good start thanks to Mayank Agarwal getting 26 runs in 37 balls before falling to a charged-up Marco Jansen caught behind; except him most other batsmen of the top order got into a shell and only KL Rahul stood guard getting his half-century in 133 balls. On the bouncy Wanderers pitch Duanne Olivier who was finally fit and coming back into the team replacing Mulder struck two vital blows—first he captured Pujara’s wicket and the next ball sent back Rahane for a first-ball duck—was on a hat-trick streak. The out-of-form Pujara who had a special responsibility in the absence of Kohli struggled pitifully for his 3 runs in 33 balls. Rahane who seemed to be coming back to form in the Centurion Test also failed. It was thanks to a rearguard action by R Ashwin (46 valuable runs) and vice-captain Bumrah (14 not out) that India could cross the 200-run mark. Jansen went on to capture 4 wickets while Olivier and Rabada got three each. India were all out for just 202 runs.

 

The way the Indian pacers have been performing in recent times the reply by South Africa was therefor far from easy. They lost Aiden Markram early on to Mohammed Shami at the team score of 14. Skipper Dean Elgar and Keegan Peterson saw the team through the day with unbeaten 11 and 14 runs respectively with the team score at 35/1 at stumps on day-1 in 18 overs. Tomorrow is going to be a crucial day for both teams. If South Africa go past 300 runs India would be in lot of trouble and if India can contain the Proteas around 250 runs the match would be set up perfectly for an absorbing finish. India’s failing middle order has continued to torment the team and if they entertain any chance of winning this match both the top and middle order must fire. They just cannot go on depending on the bowlers to boost the batting effort almost every time.

India Vs South Africa ODI Series: Rohit To Be Missed, Selection Of Shikhar Good Decision!

 

On the very first assignment as the regular One-Day International (ODI) captain for the India’s South Africa Tour-2021-22 and in the aftermath of the Virat split-captaincy controversy Rohit Sharma was finally ruled out of the full tour. This comes as a huge setback for Team India who has been doing well to take a 1-0 lead in the Test Series with the 3-match ODI Series to start from 19^th January 2022. Rohit had been suffering from a hamstring injury and was earlier ruled out for the Test Series which led to a lot of speculation about test captain Virat not playing the ODIs under the leadership of Rohit. As we wrote about Virat Kohli deciding to play the ODIs in his pre-tour press conference where he dropped a bombshell involving the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly and it was not made clear till now who was probably lying with Ganguly saying the matter would to be sorted out as and when appropriate and the latter going down with COVID infection subsequently. The Chief Selector Chetan Sarma had given a response that the white-ball captaincy decision was that of the Selectors’ and that the BCCI was quite shocked when Virat declared his decision to give up the T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup.

 

Now, it is clear that neither Virat nor Rohit is going to play under each other’s leadership for whatever reasons be and the Test vice-captain KL Rahul is the automatic choice as the stand-in captain for the ODI Series. Although the services of Rohit Sharma will be missed sorely by India the return of Shikhar Dhawan is a positive development and a good decision by the selectors. He has been a successful opener for India in the shorter format for the past several years and his injury in the 2019 World Cup cost India dearly. Yet, he has been continually sidetracked by the selectors in the recent tournaments even after his good performances in the IPLs while several rookies like Rituraj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer, Ishan Kishan and Prasidh Krishna have been included in the India squad based on their IPL performances. Anyway, the opening pair of in-form KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan is expected to deliver the goods, and else the two openers, Gaikwad and Ishan, are available as possible options. The full squad is as below with Jasprit Bumrah appointed Rahul’s deputy.

India ODI Squad: KL Rahul (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rituraj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan (opener cum wk), Y Chahal, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj. 

 

The comebacks of R Ashwin, Washington Sundar and Yazuvendra Chahal are sure to make more bowling options available for India. While Mohammed Shami has been rested Ravidra Jadeja and Axar Patel are yet to be declared fit. Hardik Pandya and Rahul Chahar have not been selected.

 

Meanwhile, Quinton de-Kock had done a Dhoni by retiring from Test cricket suddenly in the middle of a crucial Test Series when his team is trailing and needs his services as an experienced wicketkeeper cum batsman the most. He is only 29 and has a long career ahead of him while Dhoni was around 34 when he dramatically retired in 2014 in the middle of an away Test series against Australia. Quinton’s decision has shocked all cricketers in South Africa and elsewhere. It was reported that he was granted paternity leave by the South Africa cricket board, but his decision to announce retirement from test cricket was totally unexpected. He has, of course, made himself available for the white-ball formats. His likely replacements, namely Kyle Verreynne and Ryan Rickelton, have very little experience in test cricket. The services of the injured strike pacer Nortje are also in doubt. It seems both teams have suffered setbacks and how the ODI Series goes is to be only to be seen later this month.  

Virat Kohli To Play The ODIs In South Africa Under Rohit’s Leadership, Ends The Rift Speculation!

A bombshell dropped by a tweet of the former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin that indicated a possible rift between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma over the issue of split-captaincy which was lapped up fondly by a juicily speculative news and social media, aiming inevitably for a crescendoing climax at the most eagerly looked for press conference by the India Test captain Virat Kohli today in Mumbai finally ended with a cool and composed Kohli answering the questions candidly and bravely. To my knowledge he is the first captain of the Indian cricket team to have publicly questioned the functioning style of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by implying clearly a lack of communication between the board and him or other players.

 

Virat said that the Chief Selector contacted him only one and half hours before informing him about their decision to sack him as the ODI (50-over one day international) captain in favor of Rohit Sharma to which Virat, as he had disclosed, responded positively and informed about his availability for selection for the shorter format. This apparently declared war with the board did not end there as Virat denied that he was ever requested by the President of BCCI, Sourav Ganguly to not give up the T20I captaincy prior to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021. Recently, Ganguly said to the media that he had personally requested Virat for the same. Is this going to be the start of a war between the most aggressive captains ever—former captain Ganguly Vs present Test captain Kohli? In any case, his feelings raise important questions about the rather opaque functioning of the BCCI which is further corroborated by the fact the board preferred to remain silent amid one of the most speculative debates about cricket for over a day ahead of a very important tour.

 

The India Test captain went on to say that he was tired of answering the question of a ‘proverbial rift’ with Rohit Sharma, and confirmed that there was never any rift with the most experienced cricketer of the team, further saying that he would miss Rohit as an opener in the Test Series coming up in South Africa later this month. The most positive news for millions of Indian fans is that Virat is ready to play the ODI Series under the newly appointed captain Rohit Sharma. Virat also denied having requested the BCCI about taking rest from the ODI Series in South Africa in the beginning of this year. About giving up his T20I captaincy Virat said that he informed the board about his decision that was received positively by the board, and that he made it clear that he’d be available for selection as Test and ODI captain if the BCCI and selectors thought in similar lines. Asked about the possible reasons for his ‘sacking’ he answered candidly that possibly the reasons could be his inability to win an ICC cup. He added that the change of leadership would not affect his role as a batsman in the team.

 

The seeds of the proverbial rift between Virat and Rohit were sown during the ICC Men’s World Cup-2019 when Rohit allegedly violated the regulations by allowing his family stay with him for more than the mandated 15 days which was followed by an alleged social media action by Rohit. After that the issue of the rift has been coming again and again in the cricket grapevine despite the on-field demonstrations by the duo about their long-lasting friendship.  It was again reported during the India Tour of Australia-2020-21 when Rohit Sharma was not included in the squad due to a hamstring injury or for personal reasons leading Kohli to wonder aloud about the whereabouts of Rohit. Rohit’s ‘hamstring pull’ injury has been very frequent in the recent two years and rather mysterious too.

 

In the middle of the year 2020 Rohit was reportedly suffering from that injury; however, he became fit during the IPL-2020 in UAE leading his Mumbai Indians team and winning the Championship title. But after that he was again in the ‘injury’ list, coming to Australia only in the second of the Test Series when Virat left the team for domestic reasons. Now, ahead of the South Africa tour and him being made the captain in the shorter format, Rohit again suffered a hamstring pull during practice session in Mumbai and was ruled out of the Test Series, advising a rest for about a month. The coincidence was so delicious, Virat Test captain with Rohit not playing and Rohit ODI captain with Virat not playing, that there was no stopping the speculative games. Rohit Sharma should be more careful and must have a ‘national pride first’ perspective if the selectors and the Board had really believed in his experience (rather than choosing a captain younger than Kohli) to lead Team India into the T20I World Cup in 2022 and the ODI World Cup in 2023.  

 

There must have been some behind-the-scene ‘damage control’ activities by the Board and other cricket mandarins leading to Virat’s presser. And also, the fact that the union Sports minister spoke to the media saying that ‘no individual player is bigger than the national team’. However, irrespective of whatever must have happened we must congratulate Virat Kohli for his wonderful candidness and straightforwardness. No doubt, he, the most successful Indian captain in all formats, must have felt a little let down by the last-minute decision conveyed to him over phone; but as per his strong mental frame he’d definitely overcome everything and perform as wonderfully as all his life as a batsman to help his team conquer the last frontier with Series wins. His press conference today was not just for clarifications, but this has been a customary practice by India captains a day ahead of the team’s departure. Team India is leaving for South Africa tomorrow morning instead of 12^th December as scheduled earlier and we wish them all the luck.

 

In conclusion, I need to mention one point again: we, the lovers and fans of the game, make excellent cricketers into ‘superstars’ which is also apparent in the film world, and these superstars are always hyped to the sky by the media. In the aftermath, obviously, such superstars develop egos, mannerisms and dictatorial attitudes which is inimical to the spirit of the game. Virat Kohli is a superhero as he has the best of both worlds of cricket and cinema having one of the top heroines of Bollywood as his wife. But his fans must understand that playing in all formats, performing in all formats and having the burden of leadership in all formats really makes one tired, superhero or normal cricketer. Virat must be the only three-format captain with the exception of Kane Williamson who has also been seen to take rest often in the present-day world cricket. Not to speak of the bio-bubble fatigue of nearly two years now. Therefore, everyone must accept the reality and act accordingly.