Spin-o-phobia

Lately, any discussion about test cricket, anywhere around the globe invariably leads to a debate about the pitch and what is a good test cricket pitch. Especially in light of the current India vs South Africa series, pitch has garnered as much attention as the cricket played on the pitch itself. Should an ideal pitch be turning, should it be seaming, how much of an assistance should there be for the bowlers, how many first innings runs vindicate the curator and several other questions are on everyone’s mind. I would like to present an alternative viewpoint that may invalidate the premise of a few.

                                                                                                                           

How important is the pitch?

Cricket is primarily a contest between bat and bowl. When two school kids play cricket in their backyard, they don't discuss pitch conditions. All they care is if one can get the other one out or if the other can score as many runs possible. Growing up, playing backyard cricket, if the batsman didn’t get out, it was time to invent new rules to get him out. Harder the rules, quicker the interchanges, more fun it was. I think it is time to reflect upon the focus of our attention. Cricket should be not held hostage to references of previous matches or statistical averages. Neither should the quality of a test match be dictated by them. Quality of a test match should be determined by the balance between bat and bowl and the contest between two sides. A good pitch is one where each run is earned, not scored; a pitch where each run is an achievement and not a God given right of the batsman. That means, that only two kinds of pitches should in fact raise genuine concern – one that is unplayable and dangerous for batting and second which is flat and so placid that Muralitharan with a baseball bat can score a century on it. (I have nothing against Murali, but have you seen him bat? Its like he is battling an army of flies with a swatter.)

My point being, a good test match does not depend on type of pitch as much as it depends on how close the contest is. As long as the pitch is same for both the teams, it is a fair contest. By that logic, the Mohali and Nagpur test matches were fantastic with ball spitting, bouncing, turning and batsman struggling to survive. It was a relief to see a bowlers dominate a cricketing contest for once. I think the curator should be applauded for making a result oriented pitch. It was the kind of pitch that can differentiate a good batsmen from a great one unlike the Perth pitch (Australia vs New Zealand) where almost every batsman scored century. How do you tell who is a great batsman if every batsman in the top order scores century?

I say all pitches that are challenging and result producing are good pitches. The joys of cricket are as much in spin, seam, swing, bounce as in a nicely timed cover drive. Let us not debate pitches, let us discuss how well each team adapts to the conditions. It gets hard for a cricket lover like me to defend test cricket where it ends up being a draw after 5 days while whining about 3 hour long goal-less soccer matches.

What about batting averages?

When a batsman faces a deadly fast bowler or a guileful spinner at the pinnacle of his ability, all the batting averages of the world mean as much to him as a comb to a bald man – something he can display in a cabinet but cannot use if his life depended on it. Cricket is over obsessed with averages and statistics. How about if we agree to keep T20’s as a batsmen's game and aspire for test matches to be bowler friendly? 

Did India exploit home advantage?

Indians took home advantage, exploit would be a rather strong word indicating they did something they were not authorized under the rules. They chose to play cricket on pitches more suited to their skills, which every home team does. Anyone disagreeing must watch India’s last tour to South Africa where SA prepared green tracks and Dale Steyn was swinging the ball like it was a boomerang. Sachin was the only batsman who was able to withstand those conditions, but not without having played and missed a million balls. So no, India did not exploit home advantage, so all Indians, please purge yourself of the guilt. I read somewhere Hashim Amla mentioning importance of scoring an honorable win. The pitch was equally challenging for both the teams, India bowled better, India batted better, so yes, Kohli and co. scored a very honorable win. A not so honorable win might have been if pitch conditions had changed drastically over the course of a match rendering major advantage to one of the teams but that has not happened in this series so far.

Should away tests be that hard to win?

Yes, traditionally, in test cricket, an away win is considered like a battle won in enemy territory, it is worth its weight in gold. However, I believe that home advantage is considerable advantage. To negate this advantage, toss should be eliminated and choice of batting or bowling first should be made prerogative of visiting captain. Also, ample time must be given to teams travelling abroad for preparation and skill adaptation, so they can pose a genuine challenge to the home side.

Should India just keep preparing spinning tracks?

For the sake of cricket, probably not. All batsmen should be tested against different pitch conditions, there should be variety which would make test cricket a lot more interesting. Each pitch should be different and offer something unique, no matter how subtle the difference might be. Yes, tracks in subcontinent would predominantly be spinning but variety can be introduced in extent of spin and bounce. Still, having a result oriented track is still better than flat ones. Only a comatose person would have found this test series uninteresting, that for obvious reasons.

What should South Africa do?

Spin is easy to play if and only if your instincts are acute. There are only two ways to play spin – you either go forward if you can reach to the pitch of the ball or you stay back and allow the ball to spin. This however assumes that you have read the ball of the bowlers hand correctly, to a certain extent, . Even then, whether to go forward or back can be a judgement call if the bowler pitches it in that nagging in-between spot. This ability to judge differentiates a good player of spin from a not so good one. When under pressure with 6 fielders around the batsmen ready to pounce on any small/big edge from the bat, this judgement needs to come instinctively. Instincts come with heaps of practice, day in and day out. When Australia was to tour India for a three test match series in 1997-98, it is common knowledge that Tendulkar practiced his defence for days against spin bowling on uneven tracks to hone his skills so he could counter Warne. How many batsman these days practice defense, let alone practicing playing against spin?

To now answer the question above, there is no easy way for SA. Their batters need more practice, clear mind, confident head on their shoulders and trust in their defense. Indecisiveness in going forward or staying back is causing their downfall. In the book of spin, it seems attack is not the best form of defense, only solid defense is the best form of defense.

What should India do?

India have only fared marginally better than South Africa in this series. If you are going to prepare spin friendly tracks, then maybe you should ensure that spin is still your strength. Luckily, it’s the quality of spin bowlers in Indian side that have saved them the blushes. What should they do – be prepared to spend time on the crease and rotate strike. South African’s spinners are still not of age, so there will be loose balls – capitalize on them and anyone who loses wicket to an aggressive shot should be made to listen Saeed Ajmal speaking English for hours. If that does not scare them, I don’t know what would.

What should Delhi pitch be like?

This question, really? After all the discussion about cricket and not pitches.

I honestly don’t care as long as it leads to exciting contest and that is what cricket is all about.

Bihar - The Agony, The Irony

As the dust settles from Bihar Assembly elections, PM Modi and BJP top leadership face an uphill task. BJP must have been counting on this election to get them required strength in the upper house of Indian parliament. Many reforms need to be passed and bills (including GST bill) need to become laws to help economy but it seems, despite having cleared them in lower house where BJP has majority, it would be a while till something gets done.

Critics of BJP attribute the loss to the argument that PM Modi and his government have not done enough after coming to power about a year and a half ago. There is a feeling of discontent among general public as the miracles they expected from him did not materialize. What we fail to realize is that things take time to mature, especially in a complex country like India. Our forefathers have written the constitution in a way that it is immune to tectonic changes and establishes decentralization of power. It has its benefit, prevents us from being like Pakistan where government is relatively easy to usurp. But at the same time, it makes it a herculean task even to shift the momentum of development from decline towards growth. Quick wins are not permitted, any change has to go though both houses and majority must vote in favor of it. The writers of constitution were perhaps under assumption that elected member shall by and large judge each bill on its merit, individually. The current political scenario suggests contrary – elected members subscribe to the directions from the party they belong to and a few party leaders make decisions. Independent thinking is discouraged; an example would be senior party leader Shashi Tharoor being rebuked by Congress for genuinely praising PM Modi. Further troublesome is the fact that these party decisions are generally not based on merit but based on politics of opportunism. Opposition is quick to support populist schemes no matter how detrimental they might prove for the country in the long run. They tend to oppose for the sake of opposing.

PM Modi seems to be trying to do the right thing, projecting India as a prospective manufacturing hub on a global scale and focusing on development. For a country where government officials generally work on kickbacks and politicians are generally opportunistic, manipulative and exploiters, establishing pro-developmental mentality cannot be an easy task. Indian politics is a quicksand which pulls back anyone trying to do the right thing. Bihar proves this again.

In this election, Bihar again demonstrated that its people are still unwilling to look beyond caste. This election was again won on the same basis. Anyone believing that Grand Alliance got votes on the basis of good governance image projected by Nitish’s must be overlooking the regrettable fact that Lalu Yadav's party has won more seats than Nitish Kumar's JDU. For Bihari votes, it seems having someone from their own caste in power matter above having good governance, therein lies the tragedy of Bihar – the 3rd poorest and populous state of India with maximum unemployment.

Another factor behind Nitish-Lalu victory is their ability to convince that BJP is a threat to India’s secularism. They were able to unite all small faction which were not part of mainstream, against common enemy - BJP. India is secular and there is no threat to it. Generally, it is the so-called-seculars that create differences in a society. In the name of secularism, vote banks are targeted and people are manipulated. Common man must be able to see this that every time someone screams secularism, it is not without an undertone of some personal agenda.

National Stock Exchange of India fell as much as 2.3 percent after Bihar results, the lowest since Sep 29 this year. It shows that Bihar verdict is seen as impediment to the economy and growth by trade pundits. I find it hard to imagine how voters in Bihar have ignored this basic indicator.

Having said that, BJP is also guilty of communalizing the election campaign. The divisive cow-based politics inciting Hindu vote bank deviated them from their agenda of development. Not only such politics is morally wrong, it was also a huge gamble which might have worked in Uttar Pradesh but not in Bihar. Bihar is divided more by caste than by religion. They say in Bihar, even a 10-year-old child can clearly state the differences between his caste and that of his friend. Regardless, I believe a simple and clean promise of growth and development would have produced better result than what BJP achieved.

In all of this, Bihar has the most to lose. An inherent handicap for democracy is that 51 fools can control 49 wise. Foolishness as Albert Einstein describes is repeating the same activity expecting different results. I don’t know what makes Bihar think that Lalu in power this time would be any different from Lalu of the last time when his governance was compared to ‘jungle raj’. For the sake of Bihar, I hope Nitish is able to pursue ‘Vikas’ without RJD holding his hands tight.

Modern India has to look beyond caste, religion and other differences and be united in sole perspective of inclusive growth. It has to discourage divisive politics and hold leaders accountable on their promises. They say, in democracy, people get the leader they deserve. If it is true, it is about time we raise the consciousness, awareness of the country and set aside personal gains. Because if we won’t, our leaders will never.

Happy Gandhi Jayanti

Happy Gandhi Jayanti to everyone who aspires for a peaceful and tolerant world.

This is the third time I starting this blog all over again. There is just so much I want to share with you, I seem unable to decide where to start with. Each topic I want to discuss is worth a book. What to focus in this blog, what to leave.. hard choice.. Should I discuss all of them? If I do, I risk sounding like a disappointed father seemingly unable to decide what to rebuke his drunk violent unstable child for - drinking, violence and being deluded?

Should I discuss how reprehensible was the brutal murder of 50 year old Mohammad Ikhlaq in Dadri, Greater Noida by a lynch mob on suspicion that he consumed beef? Should I talk about how some people are spreading poison in the name of religion throughout the globe? 

Should I talk about lack of empathy shown to the Syrian refugees by rest of the world especially by their Muslim brethren? Should I talk about the brutality and terrorism bred in the form of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko-Harem and likes of their kind? Or may be should I point out the fact that the arms and ammunition used by these organisations are created in factories that keep our economy running? Should I even begin on the greed of people and nations that has created this credit-based flimsy world economy that seems to run on promises but no substance? 

I really don't know what to talk about. Probably, in the hearts of your hearts, you all know what is right and wrong in what is happening around us. I know one thing for sure, if you were humanity, your father would have been pretty damn upset with you as you have turned out one psychopath of person and that is to put it politely.

We cannot fix everything in a day. Hell, I don't know if we can even fix it someday. But we can at least try improving our thought process. 

Firstly, it would be a great start if we can agree that no-one dies in the name of religion anymore. Religion is not above sanctity of human life, or laws of the land. Instead of tolerating corrupt practices, deceitful leaders, unclean surroundings, pitiful infrastructure, poverty and hypocrisies, we should tolerate each - other and respect everyone's right to live life happily. God does not exist in statues, monuments, stones, trees, cow or in any other material object you perceive to be holy. God exists in faith, so lay your faith carefully. Lay your faith in humanity, in love, in truth, in peace and in tolerance. Being tolerant does not mean being weak, it means knowing what to fight against, who to fight against. Fight against tobacco, alcohol, bribe, corruption, dowry and poverty. Pardon me in stealing these words of a lead protagonist of a popular TV show Mr Robot - "We live in a world built on fantasy. Synthetic emotions in the form of pills. Psychological warfare in the form of advertising. Mind-altering chemicals in the form of... food! Brainwashing seminars in the form of media. Controlled isolated bubbles in the form of social networks." Get real people, find your sensitivities, find your human connection. World will be a better place if you and I become even an iota of a better human being. Having a clean conscious is price-less. Be real and honest to your soul.

Secondly, if we can be less greedy, less materialistic, we would find more human in us. Life for most of us has become chasing ambitions and dreams, running after paychecks after paychecks. We buy luxuries of today with promises to pay for those luxuries tomorrow. Then when we reach tomorrow, we need more luxuries and we still haven't completely paid off yesterday's luxuries, so we borrow more with more promises. And at some stage, it builds up to impossible number of promises to keep and our world comes crumbling down. This is exactly what has happened to Greece and Chinese economies and rest of the world is not far behind. If entire American debt is divided by number of its taxpayers, each American owes roughly $65,000 to the world. Staggering fact!  There are plenty of economists sitting to discuss how to fix federal budgets of nations, I am just gonna pass on a simple advice on individual front - learn to live with less. Why is it important to remind you today, because today we pay respect to father of the nation who was a prophet of peace and tolerance and in his words one should have "Simple living, high thinking" and "There is enough in the world for need, not enough for greed."

- Shivank Kaul