Chak De...simply brilliant...

Although this is a cricket blog, but I just could not stop myself from writing about this here. Watched Chak De India over the weekend. And only one word comes to my mind after watching it – Brilliant. Indian Cinema has never boasted of good sports movies, and this is one of those which might redefine the way sports movies are made in India. Shahrukh has acted very well, and people will definitely be reminded of his performance in Swades. The girls of the hockey team have also acted well, and some of the characters are just amazing. The movie may very well bring hockey to the forefront, and nothing may be better for Indian hockey before the 2008 Olympics.

The applause of the viewers was something to see. I think even actual hockey matches do not get such an overwhelming response, that the movie managed to get in some of the sequences. The way the team members start getting along each other is just fabulous, and the film also has a very logical flow. It is a story of how a will to achieve the unachievable can lead someone to actually achieve it. The best part is that it showcases how difficult it is to form a team with players all across India and how easy is it to criticize the lack of camaraderie in a team.

 

All in all, a brilliant effort, and a must watch for any sports fan, hockey or otherwise. After a long while I found something that I wish to watch again.

Champion Kumble...

As Ian Chappell very aptly put it, it was one of the most popular centuries of modern test cricket, not because it was a breath-taking collection of shots all around the ground, but because it came to one of the nicest known players in the modern era. Anil Kumble aka Jumbo is someone who will give more than 100% every time his captain asks for it. He is a competitor, and a fierce one, but never will you see him abusing the opponent, or showing his discontent to the umpire. The competition is limited to cricket and that is what earns him the respect in the cricketing world. A clear indication of this was the joy in the Indian team’s balcony when Kumble reached his 100. Even English players had to come and congratulate him. And the fact that he led the teams to the pavilion after the Indian innings folded, said it all. He has taken 17 long years and 118 tests to reach there, and he probably will never be known for his 100. Kumble has been one of India’s greatest players overshadowed by the dynamism of Sachin, Dravid and Sourav. Cricket is a sport where batsmen are always given due respect since they entertain, but bowlers somehow remain overshadowed. When this series began, everyone was focusing on this being the last tour of England for Sachin, Dravid, Sourav and Laxman. What we all ignored was that this probably is also the last time a champion bowler like Anil Kumble is playing there. We always forget that Kumble has probably won more test matches for India with his bowling than all of the other 4 put together have done with their batting. Sure he has taken bulk of his wickets in the subcontinent, but he made India such a champion team at home, that the Australians had to name India “the last frontier”. Over the years he has proven that he can bowl in South Africa, Australia, West Indies and England with equal panache that he can do in India. The misfortune of this great bowler has been that he never had enough runs on the board to be able to dominate the opposition away from home. Take a look at matches where India has scored heavily in the first innings abroad, and you will find that Kumble is as lethal as he is in the subcontinent. And he has been as instrumental in India’s solid overseas performances as he has been in India.

Most of the media had ignored that Kumble was playing for the last time against England in England, and it was fitting that he reminded us and everyone that he has been an integral part of this team over the past 15 years or so, and he reminded us the way we want to remember it. He hit a ton, which none of the fab 4 of India did in this series, and yet again showed that he is a fighter. Now that the Indians have 664 on board, I wish he finishes with a test match winning bowling performance, and reminds us yet again of the importance and the achievements of this unheralded hero of Indian cricket. That should be an appropriate finale to this series, where the Indian team seems to have redefined itself.

Nice read...

Beautiful article by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan!! Just sums up that it is consistent batting by the team and not really individual high scores that win you matches and series. India have not won the series yet, but they are well on course to do that. Nice read.

It takes two to Tango  

 

The Use of Technology in Cricket - III

This is the third post in this segment, and comes at an apt time, just as poor Sourav Ganguly has just been handed his second consecutive rough decision in the series. And rough is an understatement for this decision. It was such a big inside edge, that I spotted it on TV with naked eyes. The umpire missing it poses a few questions. I can understand Ian Howell (the umpire in question) missing the two sounds of bat and pad hitting the ball, but how an umpire of international standards can miss a 70-80 degree deviation in the trajectory of the ball, is beyond me. The only explanation that I can think of is that he wasn’t looking at the ball, at the time it was hitting the pad. And he looked at it after it hit the pad, and judged it based on where he saw it hitting. I can still accept this, since umpiring is a tough and thankless job, and it is easy for the umpire to miss 1 ball during the day when he has to concentrate for 540 deliveries. What is beyond me, is that once he has given the decision, and he has also seen on the big screen that it was incorrect, what is the harm in calling the batsman back? I think Simon Taufel did the same for Kevin Peterson in the first test of this series, so why not do it again. And Simon is also not absolved of the mistake he committed. The mistake was not that he gave a rough one against Sachin (I think Sachin deserved to be given out trying to play a bowler like Collingwood, with all due respect to Collingwood, with his pads and not his bat). The mistake was not calling Sachin back when he himself admitted that he realized it was a wrong decision once he saw the replay.

 

And amidst all this, what does the ICC think is the role of the third umpire. Why can’t he be used to solve all these issues? I mean he must surely have seen the big inside edge in the case of Sourav’s dismissal. Why cannot he communicate to the on field umpire that mate, you are wrong. What is with this entire ego issue about umpires being bosses? Sure, they are supposed to control the game and emotions in it, but they are not supposed to be a factor in the outcome of a match or a career. And then you fine a poor player if he is dissatisfied with a wrong decision. Excuse me, its his career and the match’s outcome on line. I do not find umpires getting penalized for the number of wrong decisions they give (with the exception of the World Cup final, which frankly was a fiasco, where the umpires deserved to be penalized).

 

I am not against umpires, but I want to re-iterate that it will only empower them if you give them the technology. There is nothing wrong in accepting your incorrect decision. Viewers and players will respect you for that. As for some amount of extra time that this process of the third umpire intervening will consume, I guess on average it would not amount to more than 10 reviews a day. Let us make that 20. On average the third umpire should take a minute to be absolutely sure whether the decision is wrong, and then he has to come out with the verdict. The player would be then have reached the end of the ground, but recalling him will not waste extra time, since the new player would anyway have to come out of the pavilion. So we can assume about 20 minutes at best being spend on this process. That amounts to 5 overs. Ask any player or viewer around the world, he would be willing to play 20 minutes more or 5 overs lesser if we can reduce the number of umpiring errors by that.

 

I also do not say that technology should replace umpires. A prime example of why this should not happen is Dinesh Karthik’s dismissal yesterday, when the snickometer did not show an edge, but the batsman accepted later that he had nicked it. Kudos to Ian Howell for getting this right. But this should not mean that technology is always fallible. Technology is fallible, but so are umpires, and more so. But together, both of them would make a strong force to reckon, or atleast a team that would be consistent in decision making in a match. And then the viewers and players can be assured that most often, it would be the performances that would swing the match.