The 2011 cricket World Cup is less than four months away and the signs are that it could be one of the most closely fought tournaments since 1992 – the last occasion on which the tournament wasn’t dominated by a single country. Of course, Australia had to huff and puff to a win in 1999, but a purportedly held catch, a back-to-the-wall century and a lion-hearted performance by a champion bowler did enough to trigger such a revolution in Australian cricket that they have gone unbeaten since then. In the process, they have walloped all their opposition since.

However, it may not remain the case this time despite being ranked the number one in the ODIs. Not only have the Aussies lost their sheen that went by the names of Glen McGrath, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist but the other teams have also caught up with them rather well.

Fortunately for Australia, unlike their slide in the Test match cricket, their ODI cricket has shown much more resilience. What adds to the fact that the bookies are still offering Australia as joint-favourites to lift the trophy is their record in India – in 2007 and in 2009, Australia won seven-match one-dayers by identical 4-2 margins.

To give a context of how strong India has been at home, apart from these two series, India last lost a home ODI series in 2004-05. That is six years of not losing at home to any opposition but Australia. It is a different issue that India beat Australia in Australia the last time the two sides met in the ODIs down under.

There are three other main contenders apart from India and Australia in England, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka had won their only World Cup in 1996 when it was played at home and they surely have the team to grind the non-sub-continental oppositions to dust; their batsmen revel on tracks which are slow and do not bounce much while the Lankan surfaces also afford turn for their spin bowlers.

Where Sri Lanka need to toughen up is their batting which relies far too heavily on captain Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Guys like Chamara Kapugedera, Upul Tharanga and Thilina Kandamby have not yet filled as much inspiration as their counterparts in the 1996 World Cup had and that is a huge improvement area for the side.

On the other hand, South Africa’s case gets weirder with each passing World Cup. Every tournament they seem to find newer ways of getting knocked out of the World Cup and they seem to have seen it all. Strange rain-rules, freak performances, celebrating without holding onto catches, silly running between the wickets, uneducated captain on another set of rain-rules and capitulation against a stronger side – they seem to have their plates full. Unfortunately for them, the Indian conditions do not suit them as well as the likes of India, Australia and England and they will look to AB de Villiers to guide them through.

Graeme Smith’s lack of runs in recent times – or at least in the manner one knew him to – will be compensated by the selection of a run-machine that goes by the name of Hashim Amla. On the other hand, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn will be the other keys to the magic box that could contain the World Cup trophy.

England is almost a dark horse. Their last two series in India resulted in them losing ten of the 11 games they played in and the last time they won a series there was in 1984. Eons ago. What augurs well for the English is that they have won their last six ODI series since losing in the final of the Champions Trophy last year and their ODI form seems to be on the rise. Again, they had beaten Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka 3-2 in 2007 and with spinners Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy shaping up well, they look to have the arsenal to do better than their 1996 World Cup performance. The question is whether they have the batting to dictate terms in the sub-continent conditions.

This leaves us with India, which we will discuss in the next piece.

Continuing from the previous piece here:

Australian batsmen v English bowlers:

It must be said that this one is going to be an exciting battle and that is quite simply because the Australian batsmen have had a good time with the bat back home. Scores of more than 400 have been par for course and had it not been for a few early declarations, the Aussies would have got to more than 500 more frequently as well.

That said, whenever the opposition bowling attacks have been able to crank up a little, the Australian batsmen have struggled. Graeme Swann will hold the key given his ability to turn irrespective of the surface but what could be the deciding factor is the manner in which the pace bowlers bowl.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad average between 30 and 35 in Test matches but most importantly, their record in the recent past has translated into some of England’s best results in recent times. Whether they will be able to deliver the same quality on tracks where they haven’t spent the most of their times is a question that time will answer.

And yes, what could really tilt the balance in Australia’s favour is if Anderson does not recover sufficiently from the rib fracture that will have him fighting for fitness before the start of the first Test match.

The Pietersen factor:

This one could work either way. In a Jekyll and Hyde like fashion, when things are going for Kevin Pietersen, England have almost invariably dominated proceedings. However, when Pietersen struggles, it is not only the batting but the general outlook of the side that changes. All of a sudden, the vulnerabilities look more pronounced and the opposition has been able to sense the opportunity to go for the kill.

And Pietersen’s form has been the talk of the town already. He was dropped from the ODI squad in a bid to allow him to regain touch after an abysmal series against Pakistan and has not scored a 100 in 19 months now. With not too much domestic cricket to be played – if any – between now and the start of the Ashes, things could get tough for Pietersen with Ponting having already sounded out the nerves that he would feel in the first Test.

Home, sweet home:

In the last 11 Test matches that have been played in Australia, the hosts have won eight games, drawn one, lost only two of them. The wins had come against the weaker oppositions like West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand – all of whom are struggling at international level – but it must be said that in a pressure series like the Ashes, every ounce of the advantage needs to be taken.

Let’s put it this way, to win the series, England will not only need to beat the Aussies at home but also overcome history – it has been 23 years since they won a Test series in Australia. This could make for an even contest for starters.

With the Test series against the Indians out of their way, the countdown clock to the Ashes would have started ticking in both, the Australian and English captains’ minds. Most importantly, the fans around the world would have marked dates on the calendar, booked their tickets for the Ashes if they are in Australia or intending to get there or even booked new television sets for the match-up.

The piece previews what could lie in store for the fans in the upcoming Ashes 2010 that begins from November 25.

End of the road or a new beginning?

Evidently, Ricky Ponting has come under much pressure from the critics and the recent Twitter outburst from Shane Warne (and despite his subsequent clarification) was just one of the cases in point. Unfortunately for the Australian captain, much of the criticism that has come his way is not without basis. Ponting has lost Test series to South Africa, India (twice), England and drawn with Pakistan as opposed to the clean record that he had before the Aussie greats bade goodbye.

Ponting, in the process, had become the first Australian captain since the early 1930s to lose the Ashes twice – a record that he would like to erase by getting the better of the opposition by a similar margin that he had in the previous Ashes in Australia.

A loss to the English captain will not go down too well to the selectors, fans and critics alike and he could just be on his way out. A win, on the other hand, may not allow too much leeway beyond the 2011 World Cup but will provide him some breathing space to get his act together. Ponting would know that it is an almost no-win scenario.

English batsmen v Australian bowlers:

The Aussie captain, Ponting, had recently pointed out that the English batsmen would be nervous going into the series given that some of them have been without too many runs. Alastair Cook did have his issues with falling over facing up to the ball that left him while Kevin Pietersen’s presence and the lack of runs was defined as divisive by former Australian coach, John Buchanan.

Things may get a tad easier for the English batsmen in one sense though. The Australian tracks are usually not too famous for their ability to assist the bowlers in swing and seam – apart from, say, the Gabba at Brisbane. Besides, Pietersen’s issues were more associated with the manner in which the left-arm spinners got the better of him – something that shouldn’t affect him too much given the lack of spin options in the Aussie ranks.

What the English batsmen will need to be wary of is the bounce on the tracks. Apart from playing in South Africa late last year, the English batsmen haven’t had too much experience in the last three years or so playing on the hard and bouncy pitches. How they adjust will be an interesting proposition.

Continued in Part II of this piece…

India crushed Australia in the second Test match at Bangalore and Australian skipper Ricky Ponting came under a lot of fire for his unimaginative captaincy. Will the Aussies have a good chance at winning back the Ashes?

Shane Warne raised a pertinent point on his Twitter when he questioned the field settings afforded to the Australian off-spinner Nathan Hauritz were horribly wrong given the context of the game and the confidence of the bowler. An irate Ponting slammed back at his former team-mate by saying that the fields had been set by the bowler himself and he had had no tactical input in the same. Warne is said to have then texted, kissed and made up. As has always been his wont.

And yet, one cannot seem to agree with Ponting’s statement that the Hauritz had had the final say in the placement of the fielders. Under normal circumstances, where the bowler has been dictating terms to the opposition, it does make sense for the captain to allow him to make those minor adjustments. Getting an extra slip or moving the fine-leg fielder slightly squarer or even getting a couple of them in slightly more defensive areas could all be a bowler’s prerogative if he had earned it through bowling well enough.

Indian captain MS Dhoni has almost appointed Zaheer Khan as the bowling captain and he is allowed to set not only his own fields but also for the other bowlers. But such relationship between the bowler and the captain is rare and an extreme case of trust in the bowler’s abilities. In case of Ponting, allowing Hauritz to get some weird combinations going in the field was more an instance of the captain putting his hands in surrender and allowing the game to take its own course. And unfortunately for him, the Indians sensed the fear and went for the kill – 22 came off those two overs from Hauritz and they never looked back after that.

The point one is trying to make here is that the buck stops at the captain – allowing or disallowing the bowler to set his own field is a tactical decision by itself. In this case, Hauritz’s confidence had been slammed down by the Indian batsmen in the previous three innings of the game and the last thing he probably needed was for the captain to put more on his plate by having him set the fields as well.

Instead, Ponting could have taken the initiative and either asked Hauritz to bowl a containing line or an aggressive one – and accordingly set the fields.

This brings me to the issue of Australia’s captaincy and one cannot help but feel that Australia could have got more out of Ponting, the batsman, had the captaincy been passed over to his deputy when the Ashes was lost last year. Ponting’s form as a batsman in on a downward spiral and it would have made sense to allow him to get those big centuries. In turn, it would have also allowed Michael Clarke to get himself ready for the Ashes 2010. It is too late in the day to change things around given that a change in guard at this stage would allow the English to go for the kill and the selectors cannot be blamed enough for this one.

Australia will go into the Ashes with only one advantage over the English; the home advantage. There is not much to choose from in the batting, the pace bowling is also similar while England are miles ahead when it boils down to spin. So, it boils down to Australia, with their home advantage and England with their spin; and my gut feel is that this could just be the first time ever an Australian captain has lost three Ashes.

India’s two Test match series against Australia points to the fact that the Test match cricket is far from dead. A lot of it has to do with the quality of cricketers on either side, but some of the credit needs to be given to the manner in which the pitches have behaved in the series as well.

I write this even as Australia try hard to level the Test match series at Bangalore on the fourth day of the game. For the umpteenth time in these nine days, I cannot help but think what it might have been had the series been a four-Test match series. To say the least, an exciting one.

On paper, India would have gone into the series as favourites, but the danger of a two-Test match series is that it barely allows the teams to make comebacks and disallows the match-ups to flower out into meaningful contests – as has been the case here.

And yet, one look at the manner in which the games have progressed, there could not have been a better billboard for Test match cricket. Give it the rightful pitches and conditions and the games could still get exciting and meaningful. Yes, that, to me is the catchphrase – meaningful.

In this day and age of the administrators not having enough cricket, the quality of play and spectator interest seems to be going in opposite directions and adversely affecting the sport in general. And during such times, if a game like the one at Mohali and even to an extent, the ongoing one at Bangalore can be cloned across series, it could just provide an injection or two to the flailing format.

This brings me to the reason behind the manner in which the matches have been fought so closely. For one, there cannot be too much denying that although India is a better team given all the factors, the difference in the quality between the two sides is hardly monumental. However, most importantly, the reason behind the interesting contests is the manner in which the pitches have played in both the games.

At Mohali, two innings had been completed in the first three days and the remaining two were played in the next couple of days to make it interesting. Bangalore seems to be going the same way. If one were to include the fact that both the teams do not possess bowling line-ups which can be described as the best in the world – thanks to retirements and injuries – it will be easy to conclude that Mohali and Bangalore could well be role-models for the manner in which surfaces around the world should behave.

What has been heartening to watch is that the administrators world over have been waking up to the need to produce pitches that assist both, the batsmen and the bowlers, and in turn ensure that results are obtained on the fifth day. In a worst case scenario, exciting draws could make the audiences not leave their seats before the result has been declared.

Even in Pakistan’s tour of England, there were six Test matches played and all of them had results – probably due to a combination of various factors. But the best comes from Sri Lanka, where high-scoring drawn games have usually been the bane of the game. In the recent times, the Tests at Sri Lanka have seen more incidents of results, including the 1-1 drawn series against India.

One hopes that the trend continues and the tracks around the world continue to assist in providing some entertaining cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar won the Sir Garfield Sobers ICC Player of the Year award at the awards function in Bangalore last evening. He pipped the challenge from Graeme Swann, Virender Sehwag and Haashim Amla to bag the coveted award for the first time since 2004.

In another month, Sachin Tendulkar would have played international cricket for 21 years. And yet, the fire burns in his belly like never before; he is fitter, leaner and much meaner to the opposition bowling. And the result of the same is the ICC Player of the Year 2009-10.

Most cricketers go through ups and downs in their careers. In fact this is something that can be said about every sportsman. Roger Federer and Pete Sampras had their time under the sun before they begun to face problems. Sampras never won the French Open while Federer has won it once, but has struggled otherwise. Michael Schumacher’s comeback has been jarring, mostly thanks to the car, but one can also say that he was included in the pantheon of greats due to the machine. Tiger Woods’ fall from the grace was more to do with his off the field activities, but it has clearly affected his on-field play in recent times.

Tendulkar has not been no different from the aforementioned greats. There have been ups and there have been those few downs; the injuries, the lack of runs, the poor runs as a captain, the criticism at having ‘unnecessarily’ extended his career amongst others. And yet, Tendulkar has come out unscathed each time, stronger and with a larger appetite to perform.

Till about one year back, Tendulkar’s form had been decent, but not extraordinarily great. His ambition to play in 2011 World Cup hinged a lot on how he would manage to keep himself fit. Irrespective of his form leading up to the tournament, one always knew that the Indian selectors would not drop him, but in the ensuing year Tendulkar has earned the right to be there.

What remains to be seen now is whether Tendulkar can maintain this red-hot form into the World Cup as well and whether that changes things around from the perspective of his retirement. Tendulkar has never caught the bait and revealed his intentions or retirement plans, which could only mean that the end of the World Cup campaign for India next year will be watched with baited breath by most Indian fans.

It is difficult not to visualise of cricket without Tendulkar and in more ways than one it is a hard proposition to take. Right from the fans to those commercially associated with the game – like the BCCI, the broadcasters, website owners and media guys, his retirement will definitely have an effect on the bottomline. How quickly will the Indians resume following the game as religiously as during times of his peak will remain to be seen.

India should have probably never won the first Test match against Australia at Mohali, but the greatness of VVS Laxman can hardly be underestimated. Especially when the opposition is Australia. Laxman hit a most valuable half century to guide his side to a 1-0 lead over the Aussies at Mohali.

Words can only do so much justice to what VVS Laxman did today. Countless attempts can be made to describe the knock but the entities like the non-striker, the commentators at the ground or even the fans at the stadium would probably speak of the pictures speaking louder than words. And in this instance, much louder.

As a business management student, I had often heard of the 80-20 rule; in case of Laxman, his innings could be apportioned into two such halves. For 80% of his knock, he was like a sage who only batted for penance and batted really long. Nothing could faze him, nobody could move him and almost conversely to Humpty Dumpty, none of the King’s horses and Ponting’s men could dislodge him.

Then came the next 20% of his innings. This was the portion of the innings where Pragyan Ojha endeavoured to remain at the crease. And to get out. He sent the palpitations of even the sage into overdrive and by the time it was over, Laxman was counting his remaining hair. And the nails under his gloves. So were we.

However, amidst all of this, one will have to use the oft-repeated words to describe the innings that he played today. One that saw him see Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh give their wickets away like the mere mortals they were, one that saw the fans see him take many of those deliveries from outside the off-stump and deposit between the deep square-leg and deep mid-wicket, one that had him play his second successive match-winning knock in as many games. It was a half-century that could act as a brand ambassador for this format of the game. Especially after the battering it has taken in recent times from awful tracks, silly off-springs by the name of T20 cricket and feeble bowling (again, brought about the first two factors)

Let’s face it, the Australian bowling was not at its best. Mitchell Johnson has shown glimpses of good form over the years but his alter-ego has reared his ugly head every now and again. Ben Hilfenhaus has often swung the ball but with the old ball, things have not always been right for him while Doug Bollinger was injured for most part of the first and the second session of the day. Lesser said the better about ‘spinner’ Nathan Hauritz.

And yet, it was the fact that it was Australia and not Bangladesh that the Indians were playing against and chasing a more-than-moderate target on a wearing pitch that makes the knock special. So does the fact that Laxman was batting with spasms in the back, with a runner to add to the confusion and had had to endure being indirectly responsible for the run-out of his captain, Dhoni. None of it ever fazed the man. Nothing did. Nada. At least till his fellow Hyderabadi number eleven came to the crease.

What I wonder, though, is the fact whether his innings would have got as much air-time in the media and amongst the experts had India lost the game, say, by three runs because of the ineptitude of Ojha. And if the answer to this question is no, then one would have to give a huge amount of credit to Ishant Sharma for being able to get India in that situation.

One must remember that Ishant had had a ragged Test match. The 15 no-balls that he bowled in the game is feat that can probably be paralleled only if Henry Olonga makes his comeback to Test match cricket or if Ranadeb Bose decided to commit cricketing suicide. Then there was that knee injury which had pushed him out reckoning for the second Test match. The pressure was squarely on him and one has to doff one’s hat to him for showing the mettle.

Thankfully for the Indians, they will go into the second Test match without the pressure that is usually associated with losing the first one – something that they have been notoriously well versed with this year.

The one song that could be playing from the Chennai Super Kings dressing room – apart from their catchy anthem – would be, “We are the Champions” and double-champions at that. Three months after capturing the Indian Premier League back in India, the Super Kings ran home victors in the Champions League T20 by beating the home team, Warriors.

After an exciting set of group stage games, the final between arguably two of the three best teams in the competition failed to live up to the expectations. The Wanderers in Johannesburg is usually a high-scoring ground and a place where 180 can be chased in a T20 game. In a pressure final, it would have been difficult to get there, but 160 would have been par for the course.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, the over-dependence on their captain, Davy Jacobs and a lack of batting options down the order exposed them woefully. To be fair to them, the manner in which the Super Kings spinners bowled, it would have been difficult even for the best of the middle-orders.

It would also be fair to say that two of the best captains and in all probability, the fairest of them all had entered the final. This is why, it was even more disheartening to watch the Warriors being rolled over in the manner that they did on Sunday.

However, the Warriors had their chances. Not only in the final, but also in the last league game, when a win over the same opponent would have meant that Chennai wouldn’t have qualified through to the semi-finals. Sadly, a defensive mindset saw the Warriors going after the sub-target – the runs they needed to make it through to the knock-outs – and the Super Kings were able to go through.

Usually, the captain of the Super Kings, MS Dhoni is at the helm of things; he gets the runs, he keeps wickets with aplomb and his form of leadership is always there for everyone to see. This time around, he had started off slowly, thanks to the viral infection that he had at the start of the tournament. Dhoni did play in all the games despite the travails and that put him in another endearing light for his players.

And like in most champion teams, there weren’t too many who did not play their part in the tournament. Murali Vijay top-scored to win the Golden Bat, Michael Hussey slammed a couple of fifties, Suresh Raina won a couple of man-of-the-match awards, S Badrinath and S Anirudha got off the side to a winning start against the Stags, while the bowlers got the opposition all-out in almost every game.

On the other hand, it was not as if the Warriors did not deserve to win. They started off with three straight wins including one against the pre-tournament favourites, Victoria. Then, in the semi-finals, they took out South Australia – a team which had trumped their opposition in all the four games before that – and got to the final.

However, Warriors’ most glaring of issues through the entire duration of the tournament – the lack of solidity in the middle-order – came back to haunt them against which can be defined as the most powerful bowling side in the tournament.

England announced their squad for the Ashes yesterday, a good two months before the first ball will be bowled in the first Test match at the Gabba in Brisbane. Australian coach Tim Nielsen, on the other hand, spoke about how Aussie preparations for the series were a “one step ahead of where we are at the moment.” With the series against India beginning in exactly a week’s time from now, will it give any signals towards Australia’s preparedness for the Ashes?

There may be a small matter of a couple of Test matches against India, and despite trying to make all the right noises about it, one senses that it is only going to act like a sidekick to the Ashes. The slow and low pitches, the rather raucous atmosphere, the heat and the pollution and the dust and the sheer length of the series makes it very different from what the Aussies can expect from the English back home.

However, over years, Australia is known to use the blinkers rather well. The job on hand is the most important one for the team and for now, the series against India is the one to look out for them. It is not as if playing India does not come with its own incentives. One, the Aussies are ranked number four in the world – any lower and they may not be even considered a Test playing nation by their fans. Playing against India, the number one team, and beating them in the series will not only afford them the confidence to take on the Pommies in the Ashes, but also the ICC points to claw back to the top of the perch.

Secondly, it is a matter of playing the spinners in India. While the grounds in India have failed to remain as demonic for visiting teams – especially when it came to facing up to the spinners – batting against the likes of Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra will give the Aussies some valuable lessons on how to handle Graeme Swann. Not for nothing is Swann the best spinner in the world today and facing up to him, even in the Aussie conditions which stunt the growth of many a spinner, would be a challenge.

What may make things easier for the Aussies is two-fold again. India is generally a slow starter when it comes to Tests; in 2010 itself they have begun two Test series with a loss each before coming from behind to round off a drawn series. It is difficult to fathom the reason behind this but it is a trend that will not worry the Aussies too much. With the Indian team expected to get together for the Tests only after the completion of the Champions League T20, one can expect another slow start from them. It will be up to the Aussies to take advantage of the same.

Secondly, the main Indian bowlers are all returning from injuries. Or the two of them are doing so anyway. Harbhajan Singh had missed the previous Test series and so had Zaheer Khan, and both will take their time to get into the groove of bowling in a five-day match. Harbhajan, in particular, has not been in the form of his life and that could be music to the ears of Ricky Ponting’s ears – after having been the Aussie captain’s scourge for years now.

All in all, the series could be an interesting one from the Australian perspective, but the feeling of it ending before it had even begun could rankle the fans later.

The Champions League T20 is 13 games into the tournament, and looks to have got to an interesting juncture. One of the four semi-final spots have been booked ad with every passing result, the seats are fast filling for the final three. All the live streaming and highlights of the Champions League T20 can be seen here.

Saturday saw the first tied game of the tournament this year, when the Victorian Bushrangers blew away a rasping beginning to collapse and hand the game over to Chennai Super Kings at a canter. In turn, the Super Kings bowled without much discipline, on a wet pitch and moist outfield and handed the game back, resulting in a tie.

The game then went into the Super-Over – a tie-breaker – and there is where MS Dhoni made an inexplicable error of throwing the ball to R Ashwin to send down those six balls. In a line-up that consists of Doug Bollinger and Muthiah Muralitharan, this was a cardinal error. The obviously excited Victorians took full toll, slapped 23 off the over and ensured that the Super Kings would get to only 13 to pocket the game.

Watch the tied game between Chennai Super Kings and Victorian Bushrangers on Directv in the USA. If you are in India, you can watch the Chennai-Victoria game on Star Cricket.

Evidently, captain Dhoni has hardly looked the part in this tournament. The team has been well-oiled enough to win two of their three games, but Dhoni’s illness has had a lot to do with it. Chennai can still qualify for the semi-finals but for that, they will need to beat the Warriors in their last league game. Can hardly be easy given that Warriors have a 100% win record.

In the other group, the Mumbai Indians finally notched up a win against the Caribbean team of Guyana. Guyana’s performance so far tells me that winning a game in this tournament could be as easy as the eradication of match-fixing rumours emanating from Pakistan cricket. Almost impossible. They will need the opposition to play rather loosely to allow that to happen. (even as I write this, Guyana are in strife against the Lions. Guyana-Lions Scoreboard here)

Mumbai, on the other hand, have been surprisingly found wanting in the bowling department. On these South African tracks, the Indian teams were expected to do better with the ball than with the bat – given the difference in bounce that exists between the pitches in the two countries. It has worked the way around. Most Mumbai Indians batsmen have been able to adapt to the tracks, but the bowlers have had anything but a distinguished stay in South Africa so far.

Judging by the way the tournament has gone so far, if I were to stick my neck out and call a winner, my sense is that one of the South African teams could just go on and win it.

Let me know who you think can win the Champions League, T20 this year?