Tale of two useless captains : Bhajji and Laxman

IPL T20 is under way but the most useless captain award is already shared by Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman without a contest.

Laxman does not know what to do with the price catches in his team, and he tries to put a "solid foundation" to the innings with Venugopal Rao at the other end when Symonds and Afridi are yet to come. May be he was too keen to prove that he is as good a twenty-twenty blaster as Symonds (or better). Let us wish him luck.

Bhajji is one step ahead. He tried eight bowlers in a match without luck, but insists he won't give the ball to Jayasurya. He cracks down under pressure, loses his cool often.. one wonders how the captain's cap went to him ahead of Jayasurya and Pollock.

It isn't surprising to see petty personal interests ruling IPL. And it is refreshing to see that teams that have less of personal rivalries to deal with (like Rajasthan and Delhi) are doing good despite having teams that are not so strong on paper.

The only other captain to give some comnpetition to these two was Rahul Dravid. (I was pleasantly surprised to see Ganguly not trying too hard too tie down other batsmen in his team.)

happy easter (and a nostalgic Bangla win)

Wish you a happy easter!

Watching yesterday's World Cup cricket match between Bangladesh and South Africa was like watching cricket fifteen years back.

When I had only started watching cricket, and was able to sit in front of the TV for an entire match (I can't even imagine that now, how much stress it would have been on my eyes).

When the openers just made sure they didn't lose wickets in the first few overs,
when the matches never went into the three hundreds,
when an individual hundred was an exception, and an 80 was a big score..

I watched only the Bangla innings, and it really took me back in time. Seeing Mohammed Ashraful cut loose after his fifty completed the feeling of deja vu. (Needless to say, I was happy to know they won the match).

And I realize how much the game has changed over years. It is not about one of them being better than the other. It is like getting to watch a newsreel on Darwin's theory. Where you get a close look of the contrast.

The World Cup is not over, boss!

The World Cup Madness in our media seems to have ended. That is a relief. Thanks to the Bangladesh and Sri Lankan teams who showed us where our "Blue Army" belongs.

The ads with our "heroes" are off air, there's no more "Ooh Aah India" (sounds like some porn scene) and all that crap. Yes, there's still some post-mortem going on to find out who are the real culprits (like this one), who all will lose job, who will be new captain, who will be new coach and all that. And there is a Bob Woolmer mystery for the Poirot fans. [He gave his life to Cricket - cricket world pays tribute]

All that is fine, but would that mean we stop covering the world cup matches?

Do our newspaper biggies feel that we are only supposed to follow the world cup only as long as Indian team stayed in the race?

Don't know if this lack of enthusiasm has anything to do with the loss of advertising revenues on ads that featured Indian players. Whatever the reason be, we have stopped getting updates about the previous day's scores. (I get The Telegraph at home, a city edition). One has to be content with two days old match reports and score cards. And of course, the coach-captain-senior players drama.

Is all the fizz over at this world cup? It's far from it. Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa are all playing good cricket. England is also very much in the race. To see how they tackle in-form Sri Lankans in today's match would be interesting. Even the West Indies is not out of the World Cup yet.

May be we will get a better coverage as the super eight stage nears an end. Thats all we can hope for now!

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Low class cricketer

Dhoni-dom is not quite the stardom that we are used to in Indian cricket.

I am not refering only to the guy's cricketing skills here. MSD is a class apart, literally. He belongs to the lower class.

You'd know what I mean if you've seen the ads that feature him.

We have seen stars drink Pepsi or Coke (or Boost!), ride Santro, wear Mayur or Siyaram suitings, show off their Rbk (and RSS, of late), be part of the Samsung team, eat Chyavanprash.. Whereas Dhoni's larger-than-life figure is all over in the interiors of the country in billboards that target the labour and farmer class.

So unlike our "master"s, "Maharaja"s and "Wall"s, Dhoni comes out as the "common man" of Indian cricket.

(One does not forget an under-19 captain who brought home the world cup and later became part of the senior team, he had the common man appeal in him but he never became a sellable star on his own. Sehvag was another person who came close).

Coming from Bihar Ranji team (and later Jharkhand), MSD has a way of his own. In everything. (Ever heard of anyone from a Bihar team making it to the Indian team before?) And with his game, he makes sure he can't be ignored by anyone for long.

The Telegraph carries an opinion page article on Feb 15:

"What stood out from the beginning was Dhoni's confident poise, the fact that he played from the start like an adult.. Dhoni never looked the young debutant, he never seemed tentative. He seemed to know what his business was and went about it with a calm self-possession that contrasted nicely with the violence of his methods.."

The article tries to find the reason:

"This might have had something to do with his apprenticeship in first-class cricket, which was a relatively long one. He had played five years of first-class cricket when he was selected to represent India.."

One of the earliest articles I could find on the man says: "I am sure M.S.Dhoni would get his turn to play for India and if he can produce atleast 60% of what he had played against Pakistan A and Kenya, then my word is that this guy would be a resounding success in the near future.."

He lived up to those words. In style.

In a game that is dominated by the "whites" of this country.

Coming back to the Telegraph article, that calls him "part Bheem, part Ekalavya":

"Indian teams are organized around codes of deference: "junior" players behave a certain way around "senior" players.. Dhoni, like Sehwag, doesn't fit into that mould.."

Let us hope he stays -- as a dependable player, as a star, and as a common man.