Cricket: What will happen to One Day Internationals

ICC World 20-20
Indian Premier League
Champions League
Domestic 20-20 competitions
County 40-40 championships
The iconic Ashes Test series between England and Australia

The media has already proclaimed itself as the jury and announced its verdict. That this format has almost expired. Obituaries have been written in columns in papers and on web pages. One of the best in the game - Sachin Tendulkar - has led a group that proposes radical changes to the format. The question is very interesting:

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE ODIs?


Let's consider why this debate has come in. Here are some reasons in my opinion:

1. A completely mis-managed World Cup in 2007 in the West Indies. High ticket prices, long format, too many teams, went on for too long.
2. Players not too enthusiastic about the ODIs. They either want to milk the cash cow (T20) or take up the biggest challenge of Test cricket.
3. Long drawn bilateral one day series. e.g. Australia in England - 7 matches in September 2009. Australia in India - 7 matches in October - November 2009. Its just too much of the same thing between 2 teams.
4. Complete lack of innovation and initiatives by ICC.

Here are my comments on the issue. And a few ideas on what ICC and boards should do to take the ODIs forward:

1. ODIs will not be wiped out so easily. Reason - It gives TV advertisers 7 hours of duration during which they can catch the eyeballs during every over-break.
2. Twenty-20 cricket will actually make Fifty-over cricket more interesting. Batsmen will be more aggressive in intent. All rounders and good fielders will make hay. All these will attract more crowds and viewership.
3. At the same time, ICC and boards should take the following measures to make sure that the interest is alive and kicking in all 3 formats of the game.
4. Abandon the Future Tours Programme so that it will free up more productive time for other formats and competitions.
5. Introduce stricter rules to make captains improve the over rates.
6. Innovate a bit here, a bit there. E.g. the two 5-over power plays in the ODIs are almost fixed. Bowlers take it during 11-15 overs & batsmen after 40.
7. Use a revolving 12th person in some way.
8. Balance the BAT vs. BALL by allowing more bouncers per over. Or going back to the back foot line no-ball rule.
9. If it is required, reduce it to 40 overs a side. And experiment with it. Measure the response. Float a few new ideas. Be open to the fact that Change is the only thing Permanent.

I don't think that things have come to such a stage where something radical needs to be done. But if the ICC sits back and does nothing (which it has been doing for so many decades), then the things might come to that stage sometime soon.

Till that time, enjoy 50-50.

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

India Tonight by Karan Thapar on CNBC TV-18

Hi All. I am back to watching this TV show from Monday through Thursday 10.30 pm. It continues to be my favourite TV show amongst all news channels currently on air. In my opinion, most of the other programming on them, including News and other Talk shows are a waste. They are either showing only Breaking news. Or have too many people talking, which dilutes the discussion.

In this show, Karan interviews 1 to (at the most) 4 people. And hence the intensity is there throughout. Sometimes, the host tries to overpower the invitees. But not as frequently and forcefully like on the other channels/shows.

This week, the show focused on the following topics:

1. Monday - One on one with India's present National Security Adviser M K Narayanan - regarding the controversy about the results of India's Pokhran Nuclear tests in 1999.

2. Tuesday - Regarding how and why is Pakistan handling the Mumbai terror attacks case - the way it is. And is it correct as far as India and relations are concerned? The show also had a fairly strong invitee from Pakistan who was able to defend some points.

3. Wednesday - How the Wakf Boards in many states in India are deliberately misusing the land allocated for development purposes.

4. Thursday - A panel discussion on (again the same topic as #1 above) - how to handle the controversy regarding the questions being raised about the results of India's Nuclear tests, carried out the by the Atal Behari Vajpayee government at Pokhran in 1999.

It feels so good to be back watching the show daily. Kudos to the host, the prgramming team and the channel for keeping up the good work.

Cheers.

"And if you have been, then thanks for watching. Good Bye & Good Night"

India Vs. Sri Lanka Final one day international

IMO, India should test all their bench strength in this match. Which means each of the following players must be given a chance:

- Laxmipathi Balaji
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Rohit Sharma
- Irfan Pathan.

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

Revisiting the horror of Kosi river floods in Bihar - August 2008

What happened?

- 18th August: Breach in the Kosi embarkment near India - Nepal border.
- The extent of flooding can be visualized by considering that the record 25,000 m3/sec. flow could cover 2,160 square kilometers a meter deep in 24 hours, or that it would sustain a flow of water moving one meter per second (86 km in 24 hours), one meter deep and twenty-five kilometers wide.
- The Indian army and non-government organizations operated the biggest flood rescue operation in India in more than 50 years

Who was / How may were affected?
- More than 1,000 (One Thousand) people believed to be dead. Official number is one hundred in Bihar. Many bodies seen floating in water.
- Around 3.5 million people affected (Houses were washed away)
- The floods destroy more than 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of farmlands.
- People were unable to change clothes for 20-25 days.
- Many relief camps are over flooded. Children are born in camps, many women were pregnant.
- Acute shortage of food, clothing and medicines at the camps.
- Hungry me ran for kilometers together to chase the helicopters that were dropping food packets.

Administrative Lapse

SOS fax messages were sent by the engineers at Kosi dam but they were not attended to by the relevant official as he was on leave. No other officer was deputed to act on the fax messages and they had piled upon the bureaucrat's desk. Nitish Mishra, Bihar's disaster management minister acknowledged this and said action would be taken once all this is over.

A good blog on the rescue and relief operations by an NGO.

Fashion Movie review - The coming of age of Madhur Bhandarkar - Director

More about my opinion on Madhur Bhandarkar's earlier films here. But in come Fashion, and all that has changed.

Fashion is a story of a few models in the tinsel town of Mumbai. It is about a young and aspiring model who becomes a super star. And while becoming so successful, allows the success to go to her head. She stops respecting others, valuing relationships and starts engaging in smoking, drugs, affairs and arrogance. Once these poisons start creeping in her head, she falls down from the riches to the rags in a matter of a few days.

Its a drug episode that makes her realize that she is blowing her life away. She goes back to her grass roots, wins back some of her old & lost relations and values. And then starts another journey to rise in the Fashion world. Here she is helped and supported by the very same friends who she had be-friended once she was on the top. But now, she regrets her acts in front of all of them, and they all accept her sincere apologies. While doing so, she helps an ex-competitor revive her own wavering life and that's how - she gains a whole lot of the forgotten confidence.

Overall, I loved the acting of Mugdha Godse, Kangana Ranaut, Samir Soni, Ashwin Mushran, Arjan Baweja, Priyanka Chopra. The characters are mapped excellently to the actors. The story is the other strength of the movie - even though, it has been stretched a bit at the end. I thought the background scores were average but could have been better. And the music is almost forgettable. The screenplay, editing and cinematography are quite amazing. The Fashion Shows - which account for almost 5-10% of the movie timing, are very well shot and a treat to watch. Kangana Ranaut is simply perfect in the supermodel role - her steps on the ramp being quite remarkable. And Mugdha Godse is the surprise package - she has acted wonderfully well on debut.

Most importantly, the movie is not an over the top like other Madhur Bhandarkar films. It has a believable story. And very important messages - that you cannot let success go to your head. And that if you have the will power, you can come back from the pits to rise to your older heights. And the values of friends and relatives.

I guess the movie will be a bigger hit than all the previous films of this director. And I hope that he makes more such movies in the future. Suddenly, there is one more director to watch out for - a welcome addition to my favourites-list :-) Way to go Madhur, your talent has acquired a newer dimension.

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

My opinion of Madhur Bhandarkar's films before Fashion

Chandni Bar, Page 3, Corporate and Traffic Signal. These are some of the most talked movies of the last decades. And for a reason. They are all directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. In all his films, the director has been taking up relatively new, bold and un-comfortable issues in our society. There is no doubt that this guy had creativity and talent. And the courage to speak on such rare topics. And he must be appreciated for that.

However, I (and many others) thought that there was a same-ness to all his movies so far. That some of the things that he portrayed were blown out of proportion. And sometimes, they were too sadist. Those movies somehow made an impression in my mind that this fellow is trying to project a wrong story by showing too many characters doing far too many wrongs. For example - after Page 3, one got a feeling that almost everybody involved in journalism/bollywood had some or the other dark side to him/her. And in Traffic Signal, it was portrayed as if every homeless at the signal was harrassed and every signal was manipulated by the system, At times, I would call him guilty of trying to showcase too many issues - homesexuality, polygamy, pedophiles, drugs and so on.

However the effect that this had on youth was immense. A lot of people that I used to speak to, had comments like: "Dude, you have got to see the movie Traffic Signal, he has shown the REAL story of the poor!". Somehow, this guy made almost the entire youth believe his stories although they were mostly over-exaggerated. It was almost as if he used all the odd topics only to create cheap publicity and add spice to the story. So that it could sell more. And so did he succeed in doing. This was the main reason why I did not like any of his movies so far.

But in come Fashion, and all that has changed. More in the next write-up.

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

News from the India versus Australia test series 2008 - Border Gavaskar Trophey

Australia are in India to play the 4 match test series. The first test match was a draw. Although, in my opinion, had there been no rain, and had the teams achieved higher over rates, then Australia could have had a chance for victory. As it happened, both the teams were defensive. Just trying to read each others' games at the start of a very high-stake series. The slow pitch at Bangalore also played its part in the tame draw.

Come the second test match. Australia were outplayed from the first to the last session. In batting, bowling, fielding, sledging, offense and captaincy. This was one of their worst defeats in the last couple of decades. All their weaknesses were exposed as they fielded one of their weakest teams to visit India. Indian spinners were good, fast bowlers were superior and their captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was always one step ahead of the game. After the match, the Kangaroos mad a lot of noise about the reverse swing that the Indian duo of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma were able to generate. However, I think that Australia had lost the battle in their minds. They were too defensive, both while batting and bowling. And were one bowler short.

There is now a long break before the next test match starts in Delhi on the 29th of October. I feel this break is turning out to be in India's interest. As the Australians try to over analyze the reasons of their failure. Too much focus is on Brett Lee, who has been below par. The controversy around why he didn't bowl early on 4th day of 2nd match must be distracting him. The captain Ricky Ponting and the coach Tim Neilson gave two different versions of the reason. There have been calls for Andrew Symonds' return, but they have been silenced by the coach. Their real problem has been the top order. It will be very interesting to see how they face up to this intense pressure. In my opinion, if Australia manage to win/draw this series, they will undoubtedly retain and remain the best team on the planet by and far. But if they loose the series, then their invincibility will reduce.

India need to decide on whether or not to play Anil Kumble. I think it would be a wise decision not to change the winning combination. Even if he plays, I think he should hand over the captaincy to the champion Dhoni.

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

The tennis tournament - ATP Masters Series in Madrid

This is about the Mutua Madrileña ATP Masters Series, currently in progress at Madrid, Spain. This is a very interesting tournament. Mainly because, all the top ranked 12 ATP players (men) play here. This is a really rare event and not like the Grand Slams, where they have their own seeding which can be different than the world rankings.

Surprisingly though, I noticed that the official website of the tournament mentioned above is not good at all. Some of the links don't work. They don't maintain good news or columns. They do not provide good player rankings and schedules. And in comparison, I observed that the official ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) tour website gives a much better analysis of the Masters Series.

I will be personally looking for the Roger Federer vs. Rafel Nadal rivalry. I just hope that they both reach the finals and produce another one of those stunning, awesome display of contrasting tennis styles, that has made them a unique pair. Throughout the last 15 years, I have not observed any rivalry in professional sport that can be compared to Federer vs. Nadal in terms of their skills, Quality of their games, Difference in style and dominance over everyone else in their sport. What do you think?

Long live the champions.

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

World Chess Championship 2008 in Germany - Anand Vs. Kramnik

This is an interesting event to track and watch out for. The World Chess Championship is currently in progress in Germany from October 14 to November 2, 2008. Vladimir Kramnik from Russia will take on the world champion Vishwanathan Anand from India. It is being claimed that this is the most anticipated tournament in the history of world chess.

The official website of FIDE is here. This is the official website of the championship. It shows either live or recorded version of the last game played in this 12-game championship. The chessboard shown on this website is nice, it allows us to browse through the whole game from start to finish - any number of times. Its a good learning point for chess lovers.

I am looking for a good website that analyzes these games along with the positions of the game. That will be absolutely awesome.

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

Should Anil Kumble resign from the Indian Cricket Team?

In the 1st test match of the India Vs. Australia Border Gavaskar series, Kumble went wicket-less. Its the first time that this has happened in India. There is a clear cut case of Anil being in the playing 11 only because he is the captain and not because he belongs to the best 11 in the country right now.

On top of that - he carried an injury in this test match. Did not bowl when he was needed the most. And when he returned back to the field, he reversed Mahendra Singh Dhoni's aggressive field placements. All and all, a poor performance form the veteran. I think Saurav Ganguly has made a right decision in calling it quits. And Anil Kumble needs to take a clue. In the last test series for India Vs. Sri Lanka, Anil Kumble took 8 wickets in 3 matches at an average of 50 and a strike rate of 100! Prior to that, in the home series against South Africa, he took 4 wickets in 2 matches at an average of 60 and a strike rate of 150!!

At the start of this series, Anil announced that this would be his last test at Bangalore. However, at the end of the match, he made a shocking statement "One bad game doesn't make you a bad player". Maybe, his manager or someone else needs to remind him of the above statistics so that he can find out how many bad games he has had in the last year or so.

I am a firm believer of performance dictating selection, and on basis of both - current form, and captaincy skills - I would choose Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the skipper and Piyush Chawla as the leg spinner to play against the Australian team in the remainder of the series. It will be interesting to see what the Indian selectors say. Incidentally, the team for the last 2 test matches against Australia should be selected soon, so we will come to know what their opinion is.

Of course it goes without saying, that Anil Kumble has been India's only match-winning bowler on all wickets for the last decade or more. However, I think the age is taking its toll and he is near the end of his career.

Cheers,
- Ashutosh