The cookie is crumbling for Kumble

By John Cheeran
So relief all around in the Indian dressing room as Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman ensured that the first Test ended in draw.
But the all round patchy show, especially from batsmen, does not give Indian cricket much hope.
The inconsistent show from stalwarts such as Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman should make Chairman Krishnamachari Srikkanth and his co-selectors think hard. And as for Sourav Ganguly (47 and 26), the denouement has been already spelt out.
Of course as skipper, Anil Kumble must be a worried man by the ineffectual show of his batsmen. But honestly, can Kumble now command a place in the side purely on his wicket-taking abilities?
This is not the first time Kumble has gone wicket-less in a Test, but at this juncture, India’s senior pro, should justify his presence being useful to the side.
How much more should we invest in this fading stock? It is true that Kumble was hampered by injury, and that was evident from the low key role, he played in Australia’s second innings, coming in as the fifth bowler and restricting himself to eight overs. This is a long and hard series against cricket world’s fiercest rivals; and captain should lead by example to inspire his teammates.
If Ganguly could be given VRS by the Board of Control fro Cricket in India, why not others?
But changing your captain during the middle of a home series, for reasons other than injury, would be a hard blow for Indian cricket to take in. Mohali, Delhi and Nagpur are waiting and this slow burn should not be allowed to continue any longer.

123...for Ponting and Australia in Bangalore

By John Cheeran
Australia has put aside bravado for the time being. Skipper Ricky Ponting first called 123 at the toss on Thursday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore and a few minutes later walked in to compile a polished 123 to thwart India’s designs of winning the first Test of the three Test Border-Gavaskar series.
On Thursday, everyone was disappointed at the guarded approach of Australians. 256 for four in a day is, not what you have come to expect from the Aussies. But Greg Chappell or Nielsen, Ponting has understood the meaning of playing well in the early hours of a series and the importance of playing the first innings big and proper, especially after winning the toss.
It is true that India’s aging spinners, skipper Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, did not have the best conditions to confound the Aussie batsmen. It would be largely incredulous to expect these two lead the likes of Ponting and Simon Katich astray.
You cannot deny that India had begun well in the series when Zaheer Khan sent back opener Matthew Hayden without a run on the board. And what a deceiving moment that turned out to be. Only in the final few minutes of the day India could salvage some pride by taking the wickets of centurion Ponting and Michael Clarke.
But by then Australia had achieved their basic objective. They had some runs, and denied the first use of batting crease to hosts, and there by, managed to pile the pressure on the home side.
Aussies could not go wrong much from this stage, unless India produce some very, very special efforts in the remains of the Test.

Playing in India, not playing for India, matters for Ganguly

By John Cheeran
Sourav Ganguly is out of the Rest of India squad, and vast sections of India are discussing the injustice done against the Bengali icon and one of India’s prominent batsmen since 1996.
Australians are coming.
So an omission from the Rest of India squad could be interpreted as an end of the road signal. The omission would not have mattered much if not for Ganguly’s exasperating form during the Sri Lankan Test tour. Always considered as a good one-day batsman, Ganguly was left out of the Indian one-day team that defeated Sri Lanka immediately after the follies of Tests. That should have rung alarm bells for worshippers of Ganguly.
Any discussion about Ganguly will not be complete without pointing towards former Indian captain Rahul Dravid.
The selection committee, led by former Test cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar, had cast aside Dravid long ago from the one-day excursions.
Dravid, the quintessential Test batsman, survives the axe mainly thanks to a few gritty innings that he played on the Sri Lankan tour. Willingness to fight it out in the middle was there in quite contrast to the belligerent escapism that Ganguly brought to the batting crease. Now it may be ironic that Ganguly has been told to pack his bags after his most successful season as a Test batsman (does anyone remember the double century he scored against an harried Pakistan) in international cricket.
Reports say that coach Gary Kirsten and Test team skipper Anil Kumble did not bat for Ganguly when selectors sat together to finalise the squad.
How they could have?
Dravid, despite his low key performance in recent times, has been performing a crucial role for India batting at the critical slot of No.3. In terms of sheer utility value Ganguly is no match for Dravid. And Ganguly never cared for his fielding.
Ganguly knows by experience that silence is golden.
Why react when others are dusting up his obituary.
What if the Rest of India falters against the Australian attack? That will open the doors of Indian team to him again. Just sit at the boundary.
And even of you are not playing for India does it matter any more in the age of Indian Premier League?
Playing in India is what matters now you have Kolkata Knight Riders to dream of. IPL must be figuring prominently in Ganguly’s thoughts and that must be delaying an official declaration of the end.

India's Test series loss in Sri Lanka: Looking for reasons

By John Cheeran
It is very difficult to get excited over a Test series against Sri Lanka, though they are former world champions much like us.
Sri Lanka is one of the strongest cricket sides and with the introduction of freak spin bowler Ajantha Mendis, the island nation has strengthened its bowling.
Still none had foreseen India’s plight in Lanka. India lost the Test series 1-2 and reason for the defeat is quite apparent this time. Indian middle order batting collapsed against quality spin attack of Mendis and Muttaih Muralitharan.
Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly have served Indian cricket with distinction but the reality is that they are struggling to live up to their past glory. Even VVS Laxman follows a similar trajectory, though a shade better.
Indians are traditionally known to tackle spin better. But Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly fell cheaply without fully comprehending the bewildering variety of balls sent down by Mendis.
While agreeing with skipper Anil Kumble that middle order’s failure to play long innings was the reason for Test series loss, it has to be said that any nation aspiring for greatness and dominance should constantly able to throw up young talent. How come the BCCI not able to dig out gems such as a Mendis? What happened to our own big hope Piyush Chawla?
It must be pointed out that Indian cricket never sheds its enigmatic ways. For long Indian team’s bane was poor start at the top of their innings. It was said that Indian middle order always had to struggle to resuscitate the innings as the openers go so early. In Sri Lanka, openers – Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir – gave the side roaring starts but, alas, the middle was shell shocked by a Lankan army boy.

India defeat Sri Lanka by 170 runs to regain lost pride

By John Cheeran
India hit back in style at Galle on Sunday as spinner Harbhajan Singh combined with Ishant Sharma and Anil Kumble to turn the tide in tourists’ favour and defeat Sri Lanka in the second Test by 170 runs.
One is tempted to think what a crucial role toss plays in Test match cricket. Sri Lankan captain won the first Test at Colombo with the toss as his side put up a huge score and two Ms, Muralitharan and Mendis, dragged Indian batsmen to their death to inflict a humiliating innings defeat.
Now India has returned the favour. Anil Kumble won the toss at Galle, batted first, put up a decent score thanks to a defiant innings from Virender Sehwag. Then, Harbhajan made amends for the patchy show in the first Test by snaring the magnificent Sri Lankan batters at their home ground.
Yes, it was not toss alone. Sehwag showed the way for the rest of the Indian batsmen with his sure-footed, aggressive run making and Harbhajan’s haul of ten wickets put the seemingly invincible Sri Lankans in trouble. They wilted.
Again without a meaty knock from Sachin Tendulkar, India has fashioned an overseas Test win. The significance should not be lost with the win.
Skipper Anil Kumble deserves some praise for keeping faith in the side that lost without putting up a fight in Colombo and going into the second Test. Not that the victory cleanses the side of its sins and blemishes. Zaheer Khan is pathetic as a fast bowler though he is the senior most pacer. Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly are not in hot form. Dinesh Karthick needs a break, especially when one thinks of the circus with his spelling.
But for the moment, the force, or is it the toss, is with India.

Kumble's googly clean bowls Vengsarkar

By John Cheeran
Anil Kumble, India’s Test captain, has invited the ire of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for letting the ‘classified information’ regarding a selection committee meeting.
The man upset by Kumble interview is Dilip Vengsarkar. For Kumble vetoed Vengsarkar’s idea of burdening Rahul Dravid with the role of second wicketkeeper during the forthcoming tour to Sri Lanka.
It is pretty much evident that Vengsarkar has an axe to grind with Dravid. Chairman of national selectors finds Dravid not good enough for one-dayers, but at the same time, he thinks Dravid should be burdened with wicket keeping duties, a legacy of the self serving interests of former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.
But Kumble is no Ganguly. Kumble and Dravid, of course, are friends. They are from Bangalore. But that’s not the point. Kumble knows how to stand up for someone who has served Indian cricket with dignity and unmatched integrity.
I’m quite happy that not only did Kumble outsmart Vengsarkar in the selection committee meeting, but the Indian captain let the world know what sorts of manipulative forces are in action in Indian cricket by giving an interview to a Mumbai-based tabloid.
Anil’s Googly had Colonel clean bowled.
Here are Kumble’s comments to Mumbai Mirror that exposed Vengsarkar.
“I insisted on the second wicketkeeper because there was a view among some of the selectors that we could do with one specialist.

As captain I am aware that there could be problems if the specialist were to pull a muscle or have a runny stomach on the morning of a Test. There was a suggestion that Rahul (Dravid) be the second wicketkeeper, but I persuaded the committee to view things from Indian cricket’s point of view and advantage.

I contended there was nothing wrong in taking the additional specialist wicketkeeper. I know Rahul would not like to be saddled with such a responsibility.

He has enough as a batsman and does not want a repeat of his wicketkeeping experiences in ODIs. On Dhoni’s withdrawal I have nothing to say as it is a personal decision. He knows his mind and body.”

India humble Aussies in Perth Test

By John Cheeran
David defeated Goliath not because how well David fought, but how well he believed he could defeat his enemy.
Just the same is true in the case of Anil-Kumble inspired India’s historic 72-run win over world champions Australia.
Yes, India played well. But after two morally and physically draining defeats at Melbourne and Sydney, to believe that they could outclass those arrogant Aussies at their strongest turf, you needed to believe as well as David.
And it has more than trivia value that Sourav Ganguly had little role to play in this refulgent win.
India’s victory was the result of a team effort. Still Rahul Dravid’s (first innings) and VVS Laxman’s (second innings) batting contributions bring back the memories of that celebrated win at the Eden Gardens against Steve Waugh’s Aussies.
Why is it that Ganguly, and to a certain extent, Tendulkar were pushed into the background by those mysterious powers sweeping through the pitch at Perth for the last four days?
Nobody knows. Or everyone knows.
May be those selfish giants were put to sleep by an unknown raga.
It was certainly a victory for Harbhajan. It was a victory that proved being gentle is not exactly as being feckless.
Here again, India has snapped Australia’s 16-Test winning streak. This win is all the more sweeter, considering the bitter and sordid experiences that the team went through thanks to the stupid umpiring of Steve Bucknor and Benson.
The way the young and inexperienced seam attack – RP Singh, Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan – hammered those nails into the coffins of Ricky Ponting and cohorts, augurs well for the future of Indian cricket.
Play on, India.