Mumbai cricket.. where art thou ??

40 odd Ranji titles, 16 in a row from 1958 to 1973, a team who could jolly well make up an Indian side and give any world side a run for its money, a team whose mere presence on the field intimidated the opponents (called 'dadas' of the domestic circuit).. that used to be how Mumbai was defined !!.. Yes, the operative word is 'used to'... though Mumbai has still won the Ranji Trophy 4 out of the last 7 seasons, the aura about it is long gone.. and today, as Karnataka beat Mumbai outright for the first time in history (and that to me, is an awesome statistic, given how strong the Karnataka team has been over the years - Vishy, Brijesh Patel, Prasanna etc to name a few), it is time to introspect and ask, Mumbai cricket - where art thou ?

 

Now before one says that today's Mumbai side was hardly their first choice side (Abhishek Nayar and Dhawal Kulkarni are injured) and that after a long time, Mumbai boasts of three members in the Indian side (Rohit, Rahane and Zaheer), the fact remains that the assembly line on which young Mumbai cricketers burst on the Ranji scene, has been running dry for long. Sample this: in the last game, Mumbai gave a debut to 42-year old Pravin Tambe. While this was celebrated in the media mainly because of Tambe's IPL exploits, no one looked at hard reality: what message does it send to the world when you give a debut to a 42- year old, no matter how good he might be ? Similarly, in the game against Karnataka, near 30-year old D Subramaniam made his debut. All this does not bode well for the future of Mumbai cricket. While the junior cricket in Mumbai continues to make news (Arman Jaffer and Sarfraz Khan are already well-known names, and of course, someone by the name of Arjun Tendulkar is beginning his long journey), the graduation from school cricket to Ranji cricket is not happening.

 

In my opinion, the sudden retirement of Ajit Agarkar at the start of this season was the biggest blow. Sachin was expected to retire anyways, and Rohit, Rahane and Zaheer were expected to be part of the Indian team. In their absence, Agarkar was to be the guiding light of the team, along with the warhorse Wasim Jaffer. Now, in Ajit's absence, Jaffer has to burden the responsibility as the senior-most member of the team. And his getting out cheaply, as today, can mean a batting order collapse. And now, Mumbai find themselves at 3rd position in the table, and fighting for a quarter-final birth with one game (against second-placed Gujarat) to go. Missing the knockouts is going to be a very bitter pill to swallow.

 

But there is cause for hope. Last year, Mumbai won (if memory serves me right) 3 out of 4 domestic title across various age groups. So the junior cricket itself is doing pretty well. And the senior side hopefully is a squad in transit. Guys like Siddhesh Lad (21), Suryakumar Yadav (23), Javed Khan (23), Iqbal Abdullah (24) and Kaustubh Pawar (23) still have a long way to go and should hopefully have long careers with Mumbai. And once Nayar and Dhawal return (and Rahane available while India plays ODIs), this will be a stronger side. And if Arman Jaffer, Sarfraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw (he of the 546-run innings in the Harris shield) can make a successful transition to the senior side, there is no doubt that Mumbai can look to regain their lost glory. But till that time, Mumbaikars like me will have to contend with many days and games of pain and eminent people like Ramchandra Guha expressing unbridled joy on twitter over his (Karnataka) team's defeat of the erstwhile domestic 'dadas'.

 

Picture abhi baaki hai mere doston !!

 

Cheers

Amit

 

 

What the IPL means to me...

It is a sense of deja vu all over again. Another IPL season, another rotten scandal to have hit the carnival. But this time though, the spot fixing crisis threatens to strike at the very existence of the IPL itself. One team's future is now in question, and there is no way of knowing who else will get engulfed in this tide (which hopefully, will wash away much of the muck associated with IPL and Indian cricket). But if a section of the media and some former players are to be believed, then the best solution is to scrap the IPL together. This view, of course, is not new. The IPL has for long been the one-stop punching bag for everything that is wrong with Indian cricket. India lose 0-4 in England and Australia ? Blame the IPL. Youngsters looking to take the easy way to success and compromising their values ? Of course, the IPL is responsible. So I thought I would just pen down some thoughts as to what the IPL means for me.

 

Firstly, I think I ought to clarify something about 'me'. I love my cricket and am aware (more than the average fan, I would like to think)  and proud of its history and heritage. I love five-day test cricket and unquestionably regard that as the purest form of the game and the ultimate test for any cricketer, with bat or ball. Now, to me, what is the IPL ? It is a form of the game (T20) that is, without a shadow of a doubt, overly commercialized for its own good. But still a part of the game of cricket at the end of the day.  Do I have a favorite team ? Yes, of course, I back the Mumbai Indians. But for the most part, that is because the name of that team has the name of my city in it (and I back whatever goes by my city's name). Besides that, there is nothing for me (except 2-3 guys who are part of the playing XI), as a Mumbaikar, to identify with Mukesh Ambani's team. I am sure the same would be the rationale for many of the supporters of other franchises as well. I have been to 3 IPL games at the ground now, and each time, it has been a wonderful experience, to match the experience that I have had of all the Tests and ODIs at the Wankhede over the years. The highlight for me, was the way the North stand and Tendulkar stand got behind Mitchell Johnson as he steamed in to deliver the hat-trick ball against CSK earlier this month. To see a stadium in Mumbai pumping up an Aussie paceman bowling to two Indians was something out of this world. And thanks to the melting pot that is IPL, this has become possible. The world-cup winning T20 captain from West Indies is now taking instructions from an Australian who is not even a regular in his own national squad (and a Sri Lankan before that !!), while two of the very best T20 batsmen in the world (Gayle and ABD) are playing under a young, and often brash, Indian star. And of course, two fine players that were part of the Sydney drama a few years back now share a dressing room together. We would do well to acknowledge this spectacle that leagues like the IPL give us.

 

But more importantly, I watch cricket (and by extension, the IPL) for... errr... the cricket ! That is to say, a contest between the bat and ball. And from the time Brett Lee bowled that lovely outswinger at pace to castle young Unmukt Chand on April 3rd, the cricket has been undeniably of a high order (except a few instances where towels have been used for signal something fishy to the outside world). And it is the skill on display that makes me happy watching the IPL. Remember, it takes skill for a Kieron Pollard to exactly time his jump at long-on and hold on to the catch off Shaun Marsh. It takes even greater skill (and courage) for a Dishant Yagnik to stand virtually besides the stump and convert a Malinga toe-crusher into a half-volley (imagine how silly he would have looked had he been bowled !!). There have been several other moments that have made your jaw drop in awe just thinking 'how does this guy manage to do this ?'. And as to what the players think about the IPL, one can only look at the example of a 41-year old who turned down financially lucrative commentary assignments to train hard and prepare his team for this season (and look at the rewards he has reaped !!). It is the commitment that players like Rahul Dravid show to this tournament that makes me happy watching the IPL. There is, of course, that odd moment of apprehension when you suddenly sense that the goings-on are just not right (as when Pollard drops three in a row). But for me, the joys of watching the top players in the world parade their skills have far outweighed these negative moments. And that is good enough for me as a lover of the game of cricket. If a few money-minded individuals have disgraced the game of cricket by their sorry acts, I say bring them to book as soon as possible and get on with the game.

 

The issue with the IPL is not with the game itself, it is with the way it is run. Far from perfect.  For starters, it is about a couple of weeks too long. The blatantly opaque rules have ensured that a group of haves and have-nots has been created amongst the franchises. And the famous conflict-of-interest position that one of the franchise owners occupies was always going to be exposed one day (especially since his franchise happens to be the most successful). It is surely time to clean up the way IPL is conducted, and freeing it from the clutches of the BCCI is probably the right way to go about it. Maybe the Government should step in and hand over the management of the IPL to a new listed corporate entity, complete with a player-CEO and a governing Board of Directors drawn from the very best of Indian industry. This will ensure accountability of the people running the show. It will not, of course, stop betting and spot-fixing. These will remain as long as greed remains a part of the human psyche, but, as fans, if I am assured from within that what I am seeing is devoid of any large-scale wrong-doing and the people in charge are of near-impeccable integrity, then the actions of a Sreesanth or a Meiyappan would hardly bother me. It is time that the millions of cricket fans all over the world are given that assurance. Hopefully, the current crises takes us some what closer to that nirvana.

 

To try and sum up a long post in one sentence: If the IPL were to die, as some people want it to be, I would not grieve its demise, but would certainly miss it and remember it as a good product gone horribly wrong.

 

Regards

Amit