The Season of Shame - I

With England finally completing their tour of India & the Ranji season being a couple of days away from its end, it feels like the right time to look back on Indian cricket over the past season. Yes, the Aussies are yet to tour but I will come to it later. Also, this is the first of two parts as writing about the entire season in one post would've made it too lengthy for my liking. (Part 2)

India's home season started amidst a lot of turmoil. While Rahul Dravid had announced his retirement well in advance, VVS Laxman decided 5 days before the start of the first test against New Zealand that it was time for him to retire. There were reports that he had trained hard at the NCA and played club cricket to prepare for the test series but when he was given an ultimatum by one of the selectors he decided to walk away.

If these reports were indeed true, this was one among many cases of poor planning and co-ordination among the people running and representing Indian cricket. The selectors, the coaching staff, and the captain had months to figure out if they wanted Laxman in the side, whether they had a deadline in mind after which Laxman wouldn't be picked even if he were available. Yet, none of this happened and we were left with a major hole in the middle order.

The two-test series went by with Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli showing a lot of promise with the bat while Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha continuing to dominate batsmen who were ill-equipped to play spin.

There were, however, concerns about the opening pair as neither Gambhir nor Sehwag managed to score a hundred. Gambhir's run of innings without a hundred went back to January 2010 & spanned 40 innings while Sehwag hadn't scored a hundred in his last 30 innings going back to November 2010. Gambhir went so far as to pointing out their average as an opening pair was 53 and that people who talked about them not contributing should look at the stats. Equally worrying was the form of Sachin Tendulkar who hadn't scored a hundred in his last 24 innings - his longest run of scores without a hundred in his 23-year career.

None of this seemed to worry the new selection panel which picked an almost identical squad for the England series. The only changes were Yuvraj Singh replacing Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh replacing Piyush Chawla. Neither Yuvraj nor Harbhajan had put in a prolonged run of good performances in first class cricket. Harbhajan, infact, had struggled to take wickets for Essex in the second division of County cricket in the 2012 season.

Things were just as ridiculous off the field as BCCI officials claimed that the India and England would not be competing for the Nawab of Pataudi trophy, as the trophy was named after Anthony de Mello - One of the founders of the BCCI. Never in all these years had the board informed its fans about this, not even in 2008 when England toured India for the first time after the Nawab of Pataudi Trophy had been so named. Clearly, the babus took precedence over the cricketers when it came to being recognised.

The first test came & went as most people expected it to. India put up a big first innings total thanks to typical knocks from Sehwag and Pujara. It helped that England made the mistake of playing a third seamer in place of Monty Panesar. They appeared clueless in their first innings and although they put up a spirited fight in the second innings, India went on to win the match by 9 wickets. There was some bad news for India as Umesh Yadav was declared unfit for the second test. He had looked the most effective of the five seamers in Ahmedabad with his ability to reverse the ball at high pace and an unusual accuracy. There was no comment on how long he would be out, although anyone who has followed Indian cricket long enough would have known he would play no further part in the series.

The second test was played on a proper turning track. Both teams played an extra spinner. India seemed to have an advantage by winning the toss but threw it away with an awful start which saw them reduced to 119-5. They recovered to post a decent total of 327 but followed it up with some very average bowling from Ashwin and Harbhajan. Alastair Cook laid a rock-solid platform with his second hundred of the series, but Kevin Pietersen played the innings of the series to give England a lead of 86. India lost 7 wickets in a session and that was pretty much the end of their challenge as England won the test by 10 wickets.

Those who thought it couldn't get worse were proven wrong in the third test at Kolkata. Some incredibly terrible running from Gautam Gambhir cost the side Sehwag and Pujara in the first and second innings respectively. The two were the only ones to score a hundred in the series upto that point and seeing them get run out thanks to someone who has always been terrible between the wickets was all the more frustrating. To make matters worse, the musical chairs in the slip cordon saw Pujara in shin pads fielding at first slip when Alastair Cook nicked one on 17. The England captain went on to score 190. The incident epitomised the difference in the fielding of the two sides. The visitors took the series lead after another horrible session for hosts in which they lost 6 wickets.

The fourth test was one of the most snoozeworthy matches in recent memory as neither side was able to score freely or take wickets. It was baffling to see such a pitch when the home team was in desperate need of a win. England were more than happy to play out a draw and win their first series in India in 28 years. It was also India's first loss at home since 2004. Gambhir and Tendulkar extended their run of innings without a hundred by 7 innings while Ashwin proved that he had a long way to go before people consider him a top class test bowler.

To put things into perspective, the team that beat India in 2004 had Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, and Michael Clarke making his debut. Even they needed a rained out final day in Chennai, a green top in Nagpur & a half-fit Tendulkar who missed the first two tests to conquer their final frontier. Siddharth Monga captured the decline of India's test side with a collection quotes from various people over the past few months. You know things are bad when everyone right from top board officials to players still making a mark in test cricket refuse to accept the reality of India's decline into an average test side.

Shut Up and Bowl

I'm going to come straight to the point before getting into the details. Harbhajan Singh has got to go. Not permanently, as every cricketer deserves to come back if he shows that he's improved, but atleast for the time being.

I haven't read anything from the men who matter about Harbhajan's prolonged run of poor bowling.  Maybe they're unaware of it. Maybe they don't have enough faith in the alternate options. Afterall, neither Ojha nor Mishra has performed much better than Harbhajan. What's more, they don't make Ravi Shastri make outrageous claims about them being allrounders.

But how is it that no one has picked up on Harbhajan blaming everyone but himself everytime he doesn't perform? A few years ago he had a problem with the Kookaburra ball. He made no secret of the fact that he didn't like the ball as its seam wasn't as prominent as that of the SG ball and that it went flat very quickly. It was never a problem for Murali or Warne. Even Vettori seemed to do okay with that ball and he played his home games on pitches that weren't necessarily suited to his bowling.

One could give Harbhajan the benefit of doubt here as he was still new to test cricket and didn't get to practise with the Kookaburra enough as more often than not Kumble was India's pick for the lone spinner in away tests since his brilliant performance Down Under in 2003-04. Over the years though, Harbhajan has played tests in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Australia and the West Indies. He has also played a lot of limited overs cricket around the world so one would think he would have learnt to use the Kookaburra better. If he has he's surely done a great job of hiding it, for his test record in these countries is very mediocre.

He's done well in New Zealand and the West Indies but struggled elsewhere. It's hard to say he's suffered because of the ball or that he's adjusted to it.

So what about his performances at home with the SG ball that he seemed to like so much? They're nothing to write home about either. An average of over 35 with a strike rate of 76.5 would be unacceptable for the lead spinner of an attack that has thrived on spin in Indian conditions.

It is all the more disappointing considering he averaged a little less than 24 and had a strike rate of just 55 until the end of 2005. The last 5 years should have been a period in which he graduated to the status of a world class spinner who took wickets in all conditions. Instead, he's been reduced to making excuses for his performance by blaming the groundsman. It's interesting that while he says critics think he bowls well only when he takes wickets, his opinion of the pitch itself changed based on the number of wickets he took on it, as just 5 days before his criticism of the pitch he was quite happy about it after taking 4 wickets on that day. And I'm not even getting into the fact that he took the last 4 wickets to fall in the New Zealand innings after Zaheer Khan had struck the telling blows by getting 4 of their top 6 (Oh wait, I just did).

Daniel Vettori, on the other hand, has 11 wickets in the series and has had to bowl at the stronger batting lineup than the one Harbhajan has bowled to. He also has to lead his side unlike Harbhajan who is utterly incapable of even leading his team's bowling attack. Vettori has quietly gone about strangling the Indian batsmen even when the pitch hasn't offered much turn or uneven bounce. He's kept Sehwag quiet by the batsman's free scoring standards and really tested Tendulkar in the first test by conceding just 7 runs off the 65 deliveries he bowled to him. It might have had a role to play in Tendulkar stepping out to him and losing his wicket on Day 3 of the second test as Kartikeya suggests. Unlike Harbhajan, Vettori has used his experience to his advantage instead of being stuck on the condition of the pitch.


The team management has stuck by Harbhajan through his worst times as a cricketer when he was accused of racially abusing Andrew Symonds. A lot of people, some credible and some not so much, backed him as they believed his version of the story. They have also backed him despite 5 years of performances ranging from average to downright pathetic. Yet, he's shown no sign of even admitting that he needs to improve. It's about time Dhoni or Tendulkar told him to Just Shut Up and Bowl.

A Little Bit of Respect

For the Black Caps wouldn't be uncalled for. I had the misfortune of catching some of the coverage on the news channels and it would be an understatement to say that it was patronising toward the Black Caps. This is a team that hasn't lost more than a test in a series against India since 1988. Granted the two teams haven't played each other all that often and not in a series with more than 3 tests, but it still says something about the spirit of the Black Caps.

Suhas has been painting it black on his blog and has done a good recap of the last 3 times the Kiwis toured India. A lot of fans have been advocating a multi-tier test league with the Kiwis being relegated to the second tier. The popular opinion is they are no match for the Indian team and the big sides should be allowed to play among themselves because money is the overriding factor in the sport and playing weaker sides affects the bottom line. It's a very convenient "solution" as it assumes the status quo won't change anytime soon.

At a time when other sports are doing their best to make themselves as global as possible, the cricketing elite seem to be leaning the other way. I really don't agree with it and those who know me know this well enough. Inclusiveness is the very essence of sport. For years the West Indies sent their best players to the subcontinent even though the Aussies saved themselves for better conditions. Those Caribbean Gods were the hottest ticket in whatever town they were in and didn't not show up just because a town wasn't fun enough for them.

While the Kiwis have never achieved that sort of acclaim, no side has competed the way New Zealand have despite their limitations. They were the last side to beat the Windies before they embarked on a 15-year run of not losing a test series. They have also won a series in Australia, something none of the subcontinent sides have managed in their history. Since 1995 they have also registered series wins in the West Indies and England, something neither Pakistan nor Sri Lanka have managed during that period.

None of this has a bearing on the series that starts in a little less than 7 hours. But it does point to a side that has the ability to compete and the record to show for it. Undermining them is not the same as calling Bangladesh an ordinary test side, and Virender Sehwag copped a lot more flak for saying something that was proven right in the series - Bangladesh did fail to take 20 wickets in either test that series. The Kiwis might be coming off a whitewash in Bangladesh but let's not forget it was a different format. Let's also not forget that India recently lost both its ODIs to Zimbabwe but it didn't affect their performance in the test series in Sri Lanka.


As an Indian, I am obviously hoping we win all 3 tests. But then I hope for it every series. However, and it seems highly unlikely, it won't be the worst thing if the Kiwis win a test as long as it's not the first test: I'm going for that game and I don't want to see us lose when I'm at the game :)

Why Don't You Show You Belong?

Let me start off by saying my opinion on whether Bangladesh should be playing test cricket doesn't count. The ICC has made the decision for whatever reason and that's that.

But it's getting tiresome to read about Bangladeshi players trying to prove a point to those who think they don't deserve to be playing test cricket. A few months ago unnamed media personnel took pleasure in Bangladesh getting the better of India for one day of a test match after Virender Sehwag had called them ordinary and that they couldn't beat India because they can't take 20 wickets - Bangladesh have taken 20 wickets in only 4 of their 67 tests. The match predictably ended in a comfortable win for India with Bangladesh vindicating Sehwag by not being able to dismiss his side twice. Ofcourse the narrative after the game was that of the Bangladeshi side running India close.

Bangladesh have now played 67 tests, a reasonably big number to take stock of where they stand. I looked at how they compare to the 9 other test playing nations over their respective 67 tests from the time they started playing test cricket.

Team	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win%	W/L Ratio	Bat Avg	Bowl Avg	Avg Diff
England	67	35	22	10	52.24	1.591	24.4	20.77	3.63
Australia	67	26	28	13	38.81	0.929	22.51	24.26	-1.75
RSA	67	12	37	18	17.91	0.324	23.12	30.7	-7.58
WI	67	18	26	23	26.87	0.692	31.15	33.2	-2.05
NZ	67	3	32	32	4.48	0.094	22.67	37.77	-15.1
India	67	6	29	32	8.96	0.207	26.7	37.23	-10.53
Pakistan	67	11	21	35	16.42	0.524	28.19	33.97	-5.78
SL	67	8	31	28	11.94	0.258	27.22	39.15	-11.93
Zimbabwe	67	7	37	23	10.45	0.189	27.16	37.9	-10.74
Bangladesh	67	3	58	6	4.48	0.052	21.75	50.29	-28.54

It doesn't matter what category you look at, Bangladesh are dead last. New Zealand match them in terms of their Win % over their first 67 tests but have a much better Win-Loss ratio as well as a much lower difference between their batting and bowling average. It's not even that teams that started playing test cricket later have necessarily inferior records. West Indies started playing almost 30 years after South Africa but have a considerably better record. Pakistan started playing test cricket in the early fifties and they have a better record than New Zealand and India, and pretty much at par with South Africa. It's interesting to note that even Zimbabwe started off just as well as India.

It's about time Shakib and his teammates realised they need to stop behaving like they're entitled to something just because they have test status and start winning some tests, or atleast drawing them. They need to realise the odd good performance by one of their players isn't going to get them there and it's the whole team that needs to put in a more disciplined and consistent effort if they want to be respected by the cricketing community.