Test Cricket: Gambhir Dropped From Team India Against Australia!

The opening pair of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag will not be in action in years for the coming two cricket Tests against Australia to be played in India. Since 2004 this pair has achieved the fifth all-time highest opening partnership average of 52.69 and the third highest of nearly 60 at home conditions. But taking into account only the overseas records the pair fails to even figure in the world list of highest opening partnership averages speaking volumes for India’s batting frailty in greener wickets abroad and recently at home too.

Star opening batsman for India Gambhir finally gets the sack for the first two Tests of the 4-match India-Australia Test Series 2013 staring in Chennai from February 22. The chief national selector Sandeep Patil deliberated for over two hours at the Mumbai headquarters of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) yesterday to select Team India for the first two Tests against Australia and decided to drop Gambhir for his indifferent performances and the recent home Test series loss against England. Gambhir who could not score a century in three years is likely to be replaced by either Shikhar Dhawan or Murli Vijay—these two players being given a chance for their good performances in the domestic circuit. Virender Sehwag who too suffered from non-performance like his erstwhile partner has been retained in a rather surprise move. Maybe his glorious unpredictability and home conditions were the considerations. One-day star Suresh Raina has also been ignored.

With his good, tough and competitive record against Australia off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has been given the nod after being dropped in the Test Series against England in 2012. Playing his 100^th Test the experienced campaigner would very much like to add to his tally of 408 Test scalps. Fast bowler Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who performed impressively in the ODI Series against England has been selected with Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and Umesh Yadav still nursing injuries.

Sachin Tendulkar joins the Test team coming fresh from some good knocks in the domestic circuit. Virat Kohli would definitely like to put behind his disappointment of 2012 and to start afresh in a tough series that matters a lot. Cheteshwar Pujara who showed a lot of promise against England must be hungry for more success with Ajinkya Rahane definitely not wanting to lag behind.

Australia have already arrived in India and are fast acclimatizing to the conditions. They having always dreamt of conquering the last frontier in recent years must have smelt blood this time since England did just that in 2012. Skipper Michael Clarke would sure take heart from England’s showing and marshal his fast bowlers to disturb the suspect Indian batting despite the spinning prospects thanks to MS Dhoni. Australia would also want to contain their traditional rival Sachin Tendulkar at any cost. In all, this Series is set to be engrossing if India can match up to the aggressive Australians.

The Australia Tour of India 2013 will have four Tests with the first Test in Chennai from 22^ndFebruary and it will conclude on 26^th March. There will be no one-day international series, because the spicy cricket bonanza called IPL in its sixth avatar starts from 3^rd April and is set to put everything called cricket too on hold till the end of May, 2013.

Team India:MS Dhoni (c), Virender Sehwag, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Ishant Sharma.

Politics Of Terror: And Then Afzal Guru Was Hanged!

In another masterful and top secret operation, the second in three months, the Government of India executed the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist Afzal Guru in the national capital’s Tihar Jail at 8 am yesterday.  Justice was delivered after long eleven years. On the fateful day of 13^thDecember 2001 a stunning attack was carried out on the Indian Parliament in session and within 48 hours of the attack Afzal Guru was hauled up by the police. He was held responsible for plotting and planning this daring attack right on India’s sovereignty. Afzal Guru was sentenced to death and the Supreme Court of India confirmed it in 2005. Guru’s wife appealed for clemency with the President of India and the death penalty had been pending since then. The terrorist had been lodged in a high security isolated cell in Tihar Jail since 2001 and yesterday, the 9^th of February 2013, he was hanged just a few meters away. The jail authorities informed about his burial inside the jail premises later.

Why the great delay? Politics? Yes, say the opposition political leaders in view of the 2014 General Elections and the alleged non-performance of the coalition government. The Government of India said it was done in due process of law and any politicization of the issue would be unfortunate. At the same time Congress leaders in Maharashtra reportedly introspected on the possibility of early elections. The main opposition party BJP had to welcome the execution, but said the delay was immensely political. The BJP had been using the delay in Afzal Guru Execution issue as a major political plank and while questioned on its possible loss now of an election campaign for 2014 the party countered by saying that the Government had to do it thanks to the BJP’s intense public opinion drive. Politics of words and of taking credit?

The BJP also alleged that the execution was carried out just to balance the repercussions caused by the statement made by the Indian Home Minister on right-wing terrorism recently.  This brings us deeper into the Indian terror politicking scenario.

In this country terrorists are known more for their statehood or religion or any related parameter and less for the cowardly acts they commit to annihilate innocents. Terror gets classified as per such parameters and every class is blatantly and stoutly defended by its loyal supporters. The Kashmir valley had been put under indefinite curfew and stray incidents of violence were reported since yesterday. Why? Because terrorist Afzal Guru was a Kashmiri and his state and religious supporters including his family considered him innocent. Just the same way fiendish terrorists belonging to other state or religion garner blind support for themselves. Parameters stretching up to language, castes and colors continue to be the cross currents of the Indian politicking that often causes interference, hindrance and intolerance. Politics of diversity?

To take this murky point a little further people always against the death penalty expressed the sentiments that no person should be hanged in a civilized society. Now, they consider the society ‘civilized’ only when brutal terrorists or criminals or rapists face capital punishment, and not when innocents get killed, murdered and raped anytime day or night, anywhere and almost every day. Politics of ‘human’ rights? Anyway, as we have said earlier, ours not to reason why…!

Politics or not, a terrorist gets his deserving punishment that at least makes the kin of the victims happy. A strong message also goes out for terrorists, criminals and rapists. Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru dealt with in three months. Justice finally gets delivered, better late than never.

Movie Race 2: Abbas-Mustan Losing The Race This Time!

Honestly speaking, there is no need of writing a review for a listless movie called Race 2, still I decided upon writing one, definitely not as review of the movie but as a lament on Abbas-Mustan, the most exciting director duo of Bollywood, for their ‘twisted’ attempt of crafting another suspense thriller, a genre where they proved their mastery beyond doubt for over two decades.

Known for the landmark Bollywood films like Khiladi (1992), Baazigar (1993),  Daraar (1996),  Soldier (1998), Baadshah (1999) and Ajnabee (2001) which were also major successes at the box office, the director duo always remained truthful to the popular formula format of drama-comedy-action-music-dance and yet dished out convincingly genuine entertainers in the suspense-action genre. The slick and breathless moments of suspense taken forward with enlivening pace has made all major Abbas-Mustanmovies really memorable. The other technical details like photography, sound track, editing and music too have always been masterfully done to support the total product. Personally speaking, I always relished the Abbas-Mustan moments and waited for their movies every time. This is despite the fact that almost all of their blockbusters were influenced by Hollywood flicks. In India nobody minds copying as long as they do it expertly and convincingly.

Unfortunately, the magic somewhat had gone downhill since the early years of the new millennium. The expert duo checked and prevented this trend in Race (2008) which became the fourth biggest grosser of the year. The ‘twisted’ tale of Abbas-Mustan had also begun with this movie as they seemed to depend on twists more than on the overall script. Though full of twists, Race was a convincing flick thanks to the intensity of the relationships shown, a well woven plot, spectacular chase and action scenes and the usual Abbas-Mustan doses. But things got worse since 2008 and the pulsating duo was on the verge of being forgotten, even by me. They seemed to be running out of ideas and maybe because of that they thought of making a sequel to very successful Race. That decision also garnered renewed expectations and anticipation among their loyal fans and serious movie lovers.

Race 2 that released on January 25 all over has, sadly, nothing to offer but twists and more twists. The movie does have the Abbas-Mustan moments, but these fall flat due to the lack of a script and characterization and music-to name only a few. Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapur—the only remnants of the original—do look intense or jocular, but their performances add up to nothing really. John Abraham oddly paired with ‘sister’ Deepika Padukone does precious little to ‘race’ up the movie. More ominously, the director duo is also found to be depending more than usual on body exposure and double meaning dialogues this time. Loyal viewers are also smart as they get to believe nothing that happens in the film, because they get used to expecting twists and more twists. The predictability of twists becomes hilarious at times. Such an unflinching treat of twists! 

Sad though, Abbas-Mustan still has their dexterity and craftsmanship. What they desperately need at the moment is a good script. Hope the director duo would not fall to the trap of making Race 3 as being reportedly gossiped and look for fresh subjects. That Race 2 has still been able to do good business at the Box Office is proof enough of their popularity and acceptance.

Give them a good script and they will get back to making wonders.